Must be doing something seriously wrong...

[Mzeep]

So, I have been taking TPR Hyperlearning class and have gone through most of the science workbook and felt pretty good with the content review (from what I have completed thus far, but I'm not entirely done with orgo and physics.

My problem is I took the 3 TPR exams. I didn't pay much attention to these scores since everyone says they're not indicative of the real thing, but I recently took AAMC #3 and Now I'm really worried because this is supposed to be an 'easier' exam. I looked it over and I noticed that I'm not understanding what they're asking me sometimes or I'm not reading the question carefully (especially for VR).


I was scheduled for April 10th, but I freaked out and rescheduled for June 17th, clearly I'm not ready to attack this monster yet.

Any advice on what to do? I have a feeling it's content review, but should I go over the TPR books again? I have EK and kaplan as well which I was going to start too to get a feel for them.

Oh and one last thing, does anyone here have trouble staring the screen for hours? I find myself having a hard time focusing when it comes to VR.

Anyway, sorry for the long post if anyone has advice I would love to hear it.

Thanks

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[frescoengano]

12 is really low (no offense)....ask ur teacher there. i was in TPR class and if you ask them they will teach you different types of questions and how to answer them, how to know which answers to cross out, etc..

 

[Mzeep]

Yeah I know..it's embarrassing

I did ask them and I'm going to try some new methods, my problem seems to be getting down to two answers and picking the wrong one and it's usually because I didn't read the question carefully enough. I guess I know what to work on now.

Thanks for the response

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I was scheduled for April 10th, but I freaked out and rescheduled for June 17th, clearly I'm not ready to attack this monster yet.

That was a wise choice. You should never take the MCAT unless you feel you'll get a score you could apply with. Now you can start from ground zero and get ready for an exam about three months away. Before opening another review book, your starting point needs to be evaluating why you are getting questions wrong. Are you (a) lacking the background information, (b) misreading the question, (c) jumping to an incorrrect conclusion prematurely, (d) getting your facts backwards, or any other reason for missing a question? Once you have determined what type of errors you are making, then you are ready to start preparing again.

Any advice on what to do? I have a feeling it's content review, but should I go over the TPR books again? I have EK and kaplan as well which I was going to start too to get a feel for them.

Whether you should start over with content review using different materials can only be decided by you. If most of your mistakes are because you don't know the material, then by all means go through the material again. Take thorough notes on the material and make question lists to bring to office hours for your instructors. Fill in the blanks one by one. I personally think that rather than reading more material, you should be at every MCAT office hour you can attend so that you can get live feedback when something doesn't make sense. My experience from the teaching end (different course, but the MCAT is the MCAT) has shown me that there are certain people that pick things up from discussion much, much better than they extract it from a book. If you are one of those types of learners, then plan your schedule that way. Maybe repeat lectures with a different instructor until you find one that matches what you need.

Once you have completed your content review, it comes down to doing plenty of passages and questions to learn how to apply it. I'd recommend that you use the materials from the lists posted by Boondocks and SN2ed.

 

[TFS]

whatever you end up doing, best of luck!

 

[Ghost22]

The TPR exams are very similar to the AAMC ones, just harder usually.

Did you prepare like you did for the TPR test? Good night's sleep, similar breakfast, were you distracted? Did you just work yourself up and freak out?

Frame of mind has a lot of power over you during the MCAT. The questions are never that hard, but the ability to calmly solve them can be.

 

[Mzeep]

I actually do all my exams at home but at home is also our family run daycare so I always have background noise (yelling, crying, ABCs etc) but I figured it was good to prepare this way so distractions don't get to me on test day.

Now this seems like poor judgment and I will probably start taking the exams in the library to see if it's better.

Thanks everyone for the replies, I really do appreciate it!

 

[Flapjacks]

What kind of distraction id ABCs? You got the alphabet boys on your back? FBI, DEA, CIA...

 

[Mzeep]

Hahaha I literally meant the ABC song because of the daycare at home. I hear that songs like that ad nauseam even while I'm taking my FLs. I've learned to zone them out though, but next week I'm going to give the library a shot

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Mzeep:

Are you able to make it to at least 10 office hours per week? It really is a great way to pick the material up, whether it's your questions or hearing someone elses. You should write down all of the weekly office hours that come with your course, pull out your weekly planner and try to schedule in such a way where you can make it to at least 25% of their office hours spreading your time across the different disciplines. Try to make one to two hours per week for each topic. Office hours are an environment where you can learn and review the material at a pace you can control. This might be a good alternative to trying to read material again.

 

[Mzeep]

Yes I am! My practice passages are going much better now too. I think I'm going to hold off on the rest of the AAMc's until I'm completely done with content review. I think going over content 2x is helping me loads, reviewing material once was def not working out well for me.

My tutors also told me that I'm not attacking questions the way I should and making too many assumptions when passages always seem to contradict something lol. Apparently I can't read

Thanks for your advice BerkRT!

 

[bigballer27]

hey Mzeep i took the TPR course too and i scored really low on my first practice test, and now im up to mid-30s (taking my test in a week YIKES!)

i don't want to give "advice" though, because im not like a pro or anything, but if u want my 2 cents, send me a private message