thank you so much for your your advice.
to answer your questions-
i'm a fourth year majoring in microbiology. my early years in college werent that great but i have a increasing gpa trend. ive been getting 4.0 for last 2 semesters. since im not planning to grad this year i'll probably be in school for the 5th year. by the time i graduate im confident that i can raise my gpa to 3.6 and likely 3.5 science gpa. ive already taken all the basic science courses as well as advance, as you could probably tell.
i basically crammed for the mcat this past summer while doing research... research work was about 30 hrs a week. i only studied for the mcat about 2 months.
i currently have examkracker set, nova physics, princeton review (this mcat cbt book), and kaplan premiere program. not sure which to stick to but TPR seems simple and nice for science content. i looked over all of these but not thoroughly.
i've taken aamc exams 3-8. i saved 9 and 10 because i felt that i was wasting these exams when i didnt see my score improve.
i'm contemplating right now whether to take the kaplan course... it's expensive but im willing to pay for it if it's worth it. i'm willing to put time in it.
in terms of my sats... i dont remember the score, but i was at about average... this isn't telling you much but my reading comprehension wasnt high or anything.
Here's how I approached the MCAT both times (my scores expired so I had to retake). I'm a fairly good test taker, so keep in mind that my way might not be relevant to you. The first time around I went through ~3 old AAMC tests, the last time around I didn't do any of them. I only used the EK total review and the EK 101 verbal passages. Both times around, I thought these were great materials and the questions were very representative of the real test.
For the sciences, here's what I did. Start with the EK section and read through it briefly just to get the big picture. For things like physics, I'd write up a few practice problems and try to challenge myself. For things like bio, I'd draw diagrams and try to understand what was happening and _why_ at each point (e.g. follow the flow through a nephron and explain why the concentration gradient changed at each point and what the implications of that were, etc).
After briefly going through a chapter, I'd start reading up on things that I didn't feel completely comfortable with. A lot of this was through wikipedia, but I'd also watch YT videos on some of the more physiological subjects. Before taking each mini-test, I'd try to get to the point where I was extremely comfortable with the material - e.g., to the point where I could explain it to someone with a relevant background.
Then, I'd take the test. Standard multiple choice strategy here - read the article calmly, trying to get a feel for the big picture. For each question, start by crossing off the obviously (or likely) wrong answers. I usually have about 3 different marks for this - no way in hell it's right, unlikely right, possibly right (but doesn't seem like the best answer).
After scoring each of these mini tests, I'd figure out which questions I was missing. Often it was one detail of something that I had missed but that was confounding my understanding of a whole area. Find these things and fix them. Repeat this until you feel you can teach the subject and know you're right about it.
For verbal, lots and lots of practice tests. The VR section has a lot of reading between the lines, so you need to get comfortable with the tone of the passages. I always imagined what it would be like to have a conversation with the author - would we agree on things? Disagree? How come?
I think the EK series is also a pretty good score indicator, and I could never say the same thing for the kaplan courses. On the last test, I scored within 1 point of my averages on each section according to EK.
Since you were able to get average SAT scores, my guess is that it isn't some general problem with standardized tests that you have. You can do this, you'll just have to work your ass off for it. Three hours a day for several months should get you close, but don't take it again until you feel completely ready. You probably have one more shot at this - if you take it twice and get one low score and one high, the high score is going to start looking like the outlier.
