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- Oct 21, 2015
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Hi All,
My overall question concerns the right steps for studying through a retake and obviously not doing the same things again. I know at this point I should take a course, or get a tutor, not sure about which one.
First, I am going to give background about my first try, hopefully it's not too long of a read.
Graduated in 15’ (Fall) with a BS in Bio. Spent a lot of time working in a research lab while I went through undergrad, about 30-40hrs/week. I then worked closer to 40hrs while I studied for the MCAT, which was 3 months.
I started studying for the May 6 MCAT in the beginning of February.
Schedule:
-I read roughly a chapter a day of the newer Examkrackers prep material. I then would take the 30min exam. Now I wasn’t 100% strict, sometimes I would be behind a day or try and do 2 chapters in one day.
-Every week I would try and take a Full Length (Combination of NextStep, GoldStandard, EK, and the AAMC). I would take these usually on a Sunday, but sometimes mid-week if I wanted to take a day off work or something. This also wasn’t completely strict; Some weeks I had a lot going on so it was hard to take a whole FL.
-The following day after I would review my exam. Now I know here I especially screwed up. I would mostly only review over material that I got wrong and not so much what I got right. I also struggled to spend time and go over sections like CARS or PSYCH/SOC. I would put things I got wrong or should review for C/P and B/B in an excel sheet.
-The day after reviewing would be a break day.
-The prep was roughly 2 months long.
-The last month I tried to take a FL twice in the week. I would also do Flashcards that I made during the previous months to look over prep like Biochem pathways etc.
-Overall, I took roughly 12 FL. I say roughly because once or twice I fell apart towards the end and pretty much gave up after B/B and didn’t start or finish P/S.
My scores generally stayed in the 504-509 ranges, although mostly closer to the 504 range. Other than C/P, which was usually lower than the other sections, my other sections were all similar around 125-126. I’m not mentioning the individual FLs or section break down because they never really increased… Which at the time I should have taken as an issue. Each exam I tended to do better based on particular content and not based on exam difficulty. So I would go 506, 504, 504, 509… it was all over the place.
As for the actual exam:
-I slept enough (6hrs seems like plenty for most on the night of an important exam) and felt decently rested. There were certainly issues at the exam center; they had to restart all the computers including my own a second time, and so I didn’t start the actual exam until 8:45ish, when I got there at like 7:30AM.
-I came out of the exam feeling like meh, which seems to be the usual consensus from test takers. I felt ridiculously good about B/B though, like anything below a 128 would be absurd. The CARS had more reading than any practice exam I ever had; like some would have over 6 full paragraphs of reading.
-Ended up with a 495 (124/123/124/124). Which is worse than I ever did in pretty much every section. Never had lower than a 125 in CARS, let alone a 123.
I was pretty lost after that result. Felt like I put everything into that. But I’ve decided that I’ve worked hard enough to get into Med School (MD or DO) that I want to try again. So I plan on taking it again, most likely in the late winter to give myself enough time.
I will take any and all advice, including if it’s feasible for me to boost my score to an acceptable amount, like 506+ which was my original goal. Should I take a course? Additionally, I have to work in order to pay for everything, including MCAT material or things like rent. Should I take time off specifically to study? How long should I study for this time around? Looking for any and all recourses.
Apologies for the long read, I just thought that background information for something as important as retaking the MCAT would be vital.
My overall question concerns the right steps for studying through a retake and obviously not doing the same things again. I know at this point I should take a course, or get a tutor, not sure about which one.
First, I am going to give background about my first try, hopefully it's not too long of a read.
Graduated in 15’ (Fall) with a BS in Bio. Spent a lot of time working in a research lab while I went through undergrad, about 30-40hrs/week. I then worked closer to 40hrs while I studied for the MCAT, which was 3 months.
I started studying for the May 6 MCAT in the beginning of February.
Schedule:
-I read roughly a chapter a day of the newer Examkrackers prep material. I then would take the 30min exam. Now I wasn’t 100% strict, sometimes I would be behind a day or try and do 2 chapters in one day.
-Every week I would try and take a Full Length (Combination of NextStep, GoldStandard, EK, and the AAMC). I would take these usually on a Sunday, but sometimes mid-week if I wanted to take a day off work or something. This also wasn’t completely strict; Some weeks I had a lot going on so it was hard to take a whole FL.
-The following day after I would review my exam. Now I know here I especially screwed up. I would mostly only review over material that I got wrong and not so much what I got right. I also struggled to spend time and go over sections like CARS or PSYCH/SOC. I would put things I got wrong or should review for C/P and B/B in an excel sheet.
-The day after reviewing would be a break day.
-The prep was roughly 2 months long.
-The last month I tried to take a FL twice in the week. I would also do Flashcards that I made during the previous months to look over prep like Biochem pathways etc.
-Overall, I took roughly 12 FL. I say roughly because once or twice I fell apart towards the end and pretty much gave up after B/B and didn’t start or finish P/S.
My scores generally stayed in the 504-509 ranges, although mostly closer to the 504 range. Other than C/P, which was usually lower than the other sections, my other sections were all similar around 125-126. I’m not mentioning the individual FLs or section break down because they never really increased… Which at the time I should have taken as an issue. Each exam I tended to do better based on particular content and not based on exam difficulty. So I would go 506, 504, 504, 509… it was all over the place.
As for the actual exam:
-I slept enough (6hrs seems like plenty for most on the night of an important exam) and felt decently rested. There were certainly issues at the exam center; they had to restart all the computers including my own a second time, and so I didn’t start the actual exam until 8:45ish, when I got there at like 7:30AM.
-I came out of the exam feeling like meh, which seems to be the usual consensus from test takers. I felt ridiculously good about B/B though, like anything below a 128 would be absurd. The CARS had more reading than any practice exam I ever had; like some would have over 6 full paragraphs of reading.
-Ended up with a 495 (124/123/124/124). Which is worse than I ever did in pretty much every section. Never had lower than a 125 in CARS, let alone a 123.
I was pretty lost after that result. Felt like I put everything into that. But I’ve decided that I’ve worked hard enough to get into Med School (MD or DO) that I want to try again. So I plan on taking it again, most likely in the late winter to give myself enough time.
I will take any and all advice, including if it’s feasible for me to boost my score to an acceptable amount, like 506+ which was my original goal. Should I take a course? Additionally, I have to work in order to pay for everything, including MCAT material or things like rent. Should I take time off specifically to study? How long should I study for this time around? Looking for any and all recourses.
Apologies for the long read, I just thought that background information for something as important as retaking the MCAT would be vital.
