MCAT woes...not much improvement

[basketballfan]

Hi everyone, hopefully someone can help me get out of this slum. I have been studying a few months now since January, but not as consistent because of school but tried to do some a night. I started intense studying since May, and my test is on June 20th. I have been taking practice tests (Kaplan, Princeton, and AAMC), I have been scoring from 22-28. My highest is 28 from Kaplan FL 2, just took AAMC 9 today and got 23.

Are there any suggestions that I could do to help me with improving my score? I'm aiming for 30+ but it's a bit disappointing when I got a 23 today after getting a 28 last week.

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[UCFMD]

What is your average breakdown? Is it an issue with the amount of content, or are you having issues extracting information from passages?

Several months of casual studying and two months of intense studying should be enough to do fairly well.

 

[basketballfan]

Thanks for the reply!

My average breakdown are:

PS: 8-10

Verbal: 5-8 (English isn't my first language and I think it might have showed?)

BS: 8-10

Anything I can do to raise my score?

 

[basketballfan]

And I also think I might have trouble extracting information and maybe a bit content because there are a few topics.I need to go over.

 

[radkat101]

What materials are you using to study?

 

[JuliusSeizure]

English is my third language and I did okay.

 

[basketballfan]

Primarily Princeton review along with their science workbook (seems to be doing fine with that)

Examkrackers as supplement with the 101 verbal (haven't done those yet), 1001 questions in bio, and 1001 in gen chem. I seem to do okay with the 1001 questions.

Also have BR but haven't used it yet...

 

[radkat101]

Doing all of the chem and physics in BR will likely give your score a major boost in the PS section so do it. I also found their FL's strikingly similar to the PS on my actual mcat (more than AAMC!) so do those too if you can.

For Bio EK is pretty good although being such a short book you really need to make sure you understand everything on every page in detail to have the content base necessary for the BS section. Also maybe going over some of the Ochem in BR and maybe some of the biochem will give you a boost in BS also. Besides that, BR bio is too dense to be of much use.

Verbal I really don't know what to say just do tons of passages. I found the Princeton ones most similar to aamc so the more of those you can do the better.

I started out about where you are now and doing these exact things got my scores into the 30's.

Just my opinion though.

 

[radkat101]

Oh, and do the self assessments if you haven't already!

 

[Clinicall]

.

 

[JuliusSeizure]

Serious. Learned English when I was 11.

 

[UCFMD]

Thanks for the reply!

My average breakdown are:

PS: 8-10

Verbal: 5-8 (English isn't my first language and I think it might have showed?)

BS: 8-10

Anything I can do to raise my score?

You're welcome!

VR seems to be the main issue here. Understanding the passages better in the science sections would undoubtedly help your score.

I'd use passage based materials as often as possible. If the actual content isn't your issue, you need to practice extracting material from passages, both science and non science. Books such as EK 101 Passages should help with Verbal, and passage-based review books should help with the sciences.

Also, heavily review your practice exams. Look over the questions you missed, and see what you overlooked in the passage. Sometimes the questions rely entirely on outside knowledge, but often times answers can be deciphered given cues in the passage, and I'd venture to say that may be your issue.

English is my third language and I did okay.

Thank you for this contribution.

 

[basketballfan]

Oh, and do the self assessments if you haven't already!

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Is the self-assessments at the AAMC website?

 

[JuliusSeizure]

It's in the e-MCAT website!

 

[radkat101]

Yeah it's basically 3 old mcats separated into sections testing the individual topics. Its useful for determining your primary weaknesses.

 

[UCFMD]

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Is the self-assessments at the AAMC website?

Yes, and it's free if you were accepted into the fee assistance program.

 

[basketballfan]

Also, heavily review your practice exams. Look over the questions you missed, and see what you overlooked in the passage. Sometimes the questions rely entirely on outside knowledge, but often times answers can be deciphered given cues in the passage, and I'd venture to say that may be your issue

This was exactly what I was going to bring up!

I have 20 days left until my actual test date and I'm getting a bit nervous because of the latest score...should I keep pushing through?

 

[basketballfan]

English is my third language and I did okay.

Same here. Came to the US at 9 but English is something, haha.

 

[survivordo]

If you have studied this long then chances are you have the content down, you are just having a hard time applying it. The way to master this is by doing practice questions. Over and Over and Over. You gotta find a way to get that info out of your head and apply it to the question.

Survivor DO