MCAT Test Strategies

[vinny11]

For those who have taken the MCAT previously, what are some helpful "secret" hints or strategies that you used to help boost your score. I have already studied very hard and taken some practice tests, but I am looking for any off-the-wall strategy or advice that could help add a point or two to my scores. Anything at all would be helpful.

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[kutastha]

Here are some tips:

The Night Of?

 

[jcd311]

I took the Kaplan course, and they told us that reading the newspaper would help with the verbal section. Read quickly and gain a broad understanding of the subject. Another thing that we were told to do was underline what we thought we key ideas in all of the passages. Also writing the main idea each paragraph will help. Doing this will prevent you from having to reread an entire passage to remember an equation or something of importance that the question is asking about or referring to.

Good Luck!

 

[vinny11]

I heard one story about the VR section: skip the hardest section and take your time on the easier ones and with about 5 min. left, go back and work quickly through the tougest sections. Has anyone else tried this method or anything else like it? If so, did it help?

 

[kris]

Hi Vinny,
Here are links to some nice threads on this:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000681

and
http://www.studentdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=004170

You can use the search function to find others. Good luck!

--kris

 

[dtreese]

Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions Practice questions

And when you're done with those, try practice questions. Seriously, this is the best thing. As far as the verbal, it seemed to me that the AAMC practice items contained some passages that covered the same topics covered in my April MCAT. NOT the same passages, but being familiar with the topic does give you a leg up in reading the passage.

 

[punkin2]

You may already know these, but:

* Read something light (like the paper or a novel) the morning of the test. This will start your brain so you won't be hitting the verbal reasoning cold.

* This may be kind of stupid, but during practice tests, I experimented with the best way to bubble, bubble each answer as I go, bubble each section as I go, bubble the whole test as I go. I found that bubbling each section was fastest with fewest transfer errors. See for yourself. Also, by circling the answers on your test book, you can easily check the entire thing if you have a few minutes left at the end.

* If you are down to the wire time-wise, bubble in any answer (c?) for the remaining questions. Then as you really answer them in the last seconds, change the answer on your sheet. This way if time is called you have a reply for each question regardless.

Good luck!

 

[kspillman]

For verbal you can go to the local bookstore and pick up a magazine with editorials, New Yorker for instance. Read about 3, they are short, and put the magazine down. Walk around or busy yourself for 5 minutes. Then go back to your seat and see if you can write down something about each article you read. Sounds easy, but it's not. Sounds cooky, but it works. It worked for me! Kaplan helped me a lot also.

 

[Jonny-5]

Before Test:
1)practice questions
2)read the newspaper, magazines
3)RELAX

Morning Of:
1)Listen to your walkman (drown out pre-test chatter).
2)Do 2 verbal passages timed (DO NOT GRADE!)
3)RELAX

There you go, my own secret recipe (works too).

Good Luck.