My first full-length mcat exam ever--->bad

[PreMedHopeful]

So, I thought the MCAT was a breeze and not that bad...but nope today I realized after taking my first full exam...it's pretty damn hard!!!

I went to the free Kaplan Free Event and failed the MCAT for sure--->I got an 11....at least I can improve greatly and I am taking the actual exam next spring/summer...but as you can see I have a lot of work to do...I got a 5 in Physical sciences, 4 in biological sciences, and 2 in verbal...I got a 2 because I ran out of time and put A for the last 15 questions...is that the best strategy??

anyways, any advice on where to attack this insane test....I first have to review the test, then REVIEW CONTENT, then a prep course next spring, take more practice tests, and hopefully I can reach my goal of 32 lol

OH MY GOD...Lord help me

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[SN2ed]

Check out my sig on diagnostics. This ESPECIALLY holds true for Kaplan's diagnostic test.

 

[1complication]

Diagnostics are weak predictors of success. They are more about money grubbing than actual ability.

Study. Buy Berkeley review and you'll be fine.

 

[TurkSurg]

search the forum on the best books or best ways to prepare for mcat

 

[PreMedHopeful]

oh yeah and by the way I forgot to mention I havent taken physics or organic chemistry at all yet lol.....I wanted to see how I would do on verbal on the test and that turned out the worst for me and it wasn't like it was hard...it was the TIME factor, the Kaplan lady didn't have a timer so I had to use my cell phone and I put 50 minutes but thought I had an hour so I left 15 guesses and didnt use my time wisely....I'm going to check the threads now...I have much to do in one year...

IN ONE YEAR, CAN SOMEONE GO FROM AN 11 (didn't take Organic 1/2, physics 1/2, and took AP Bio credit, the only thing useful from college was Gen chem 1/2 and anatomy and physiology)....SO CAN ANYONE GO FROM AN 11 ON A KAPLAN FREE DIAGNOSTIC EVENT MCAT TO A 26 FOR DO SCHOOLS OR 32 FOR MD SCHOOOLS?

I'm so embarassed to tell my parents about my score, that I told them Kaplan will email me the score...but I cant tell them what I got because they HAVE BEEN TELLING ME ALL SUMMER TO STUDY...AND I HAVENT BECAUSE FRANKLY I THINK ITS SUMMER AND I SHOULD HAVE FUN BECAUSE I WORKED HARD IN COLLEGE....omg omg omg

so I'm freaking about 4 little letters=mcat........AHHHHHHHH

 

[plsletmein]

oh yeah and by the way I forgot to mention I havent taken physics or organic chemistry at all yet lol

...

(didn't take Organic 1/2, physics 1/2, and took AP Bio credit, the only thing useful from college was Gen chem 1/2 and anatomy and physiology)

...

omg omg omg

so I'm freaking about 4 little letters=mcat........AHHHHHHHH

 

[PreMedHopeful]

11 to 24 to 32....this is my goal...can it happen?



I will post updates and if one year from now exactly of my score...man it's like a SDN One Year MCAT Challenge or SDN MCAT TIME CAPSULE!!!

lol so exciting

 

[SN2ed]

You should finish your pre-reqs before studying for the MCAT.

 

[Compass]

11 to 24 to 32....this is my goal...can it happen?



I will post updates and if one year from now exactly of my score...man it's like a SDN One Year MCAT Challenge or SDN MCAT TIME CAPSULE!!!

lol so exciting

"Pshaw, good luck with that, dude, do you have a preorder?"

A baseline using Kaplan's test is like setting your heart rate baseline at 0. It certainly is your minimum, but it isn't telling you very much... That test was killer for me as well.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

you got a 20!!! I got an 11 but I havent taken physics or orgo but my verbal I got a 2?!!!! lol seriously I need to study, review content, and practice more....man I hate this sooo much is it really worth it? Can't they just invent a pill or robot to learn for you and then you magically become a doctor? Is all the useless mumbo jumbo or knowledge necessary?

 

[capn jazz]

A 2 on the MCAT is statistically the same as guessing on every answer without reading anything. I'd skip the advanced bio classes you're concerned about and work on basic reading comprehension. A 2 requires an incredible amount of work. Start now.

 

[movax]

I suspect a correlation between no formal instruction in topical areas covering roughly 50% of the MCAT and a poor score on a full-length (the fact that it was a diagnostic is just icing on the cake).

Call it a hunch.

 

[LostInStudy]

I suspect a correlation between no formal instruction in topical areas covering roughly 50% of the MCAT and a poor score on a full-length (the fact that it was a diagnostic is just icing on the cake).

Call it a hunch.

This post made me laugh. Agreed.

I also agree with Capn jazz that the 2 is pretty bad. Most people without any verbal skills start out in the 5-8 range and improve from there. Start reading the NYtimes, WSJ, and all the other articles that are mentioned starting first thing tomorrow morning and last thing before you go to sleep. By the time you take another test you might be at a 8. Work on compresion and overall point of the article. Some people say it helps to just pick one without looking at the title and read the article and look at the title after you've formulated a main point. Someone else can probably advise you about that though since I didn't do/haven't done that.

Hope this helped,

-LIS

 

[Timaeus]

Although I'd agree that you should complete all of your pre-reqs prior to studying for the MCAT, I'd be more concerned about that verbal score.

Out of curiosity, how old you are?

 

[PreMedHopeful]

okay I am 20 years old...and the deal with verbal is this: The Kaplan lady did not have a timer so I had to use my cell phone to time the exam...I know already ridiculous conditions and then I thought for verbal it was ONE HOUR, but it's ONLY 50 MIN, so I was taking my time in the end thinking I have 15 more minutes when I had 5 minutes and then realized 2 minutes left that its ACTUALLY 50 minutes...so I put A down for the last 15-18 questions on verbal...to be honest I think verbal is easiest except the time factor...I got only 1 right from the last 18 I guessed...

I started reading NYTimes articles, but I should read it and ask myself questions aka active reading and stuff but yeah...physical sciences was the hardest since I'm bad in chem and didn't take physics yet...The bio/anatomy was decent but organic I was lost since I haven't taken it....

Basically the 11 I got means NOTHING whatsoever without taking organic and physics....I was seeing how to attack verbal and I messed up terribly: I took my time reading passages as fast as I could then did questions and in the end I HAD NO TIME LEFT-GO FIGURE...so 2 questions:

1. WHATS THE BEST VERBAL STRATEGY TO SCORE WELL AND FINISH ON TIME?

2. HOW CAN I IMPROVE THE 11 TO AT LEAST A 24 BY NEXT SUMMER???

-any more tips like the NYTIMES.com/Wall Street Journal??
-start reviewing Bio/Chem content??


All help, advice, and suggestions are welcome and I hope I clarified what happened with my FIRST MCAT I'm terribly embarrassed thank God SDN doesn't know who I am...

 

[doopdidoop]

okay I am 20 years old...and the deal with verbal is this: The Kaplan lady did not have a timer so I had to use my cell phone to time the exam...I know already ridiculous conditions and then I thought for verbal it was ONE HOUR, but it's ONLY 50 MIN, so I was taking my time in the end thinking I have 15 more minutes when I had 5 minutes and then realized 2 minutes left that its ACTUALLY 50 minutes...so I put A down for the last 15-18 questions on verbal...to be honest I think verbal is easiest except the time factor...I got only 1 right from the last 18 I guessed...

I started reading NYTimes articles, but I should read it and ask myself questions aka active reading and stuff but yeah...physical sciences was the hardest since I'm bad in chem and didn't take physics yet...The bio/anatomy was decent but organic I was lost since I haven't taken it....

Basically the 11 I got means NOTHING whatsoever without taking organic and physics....I was seeing how to attack verbal and I messed up terribly: I took my time reading passages as fast as I could then did questions and in the end I HAD NO TIME LEFT-GO FIGURE...so 2 questions:

1. WHATS THE BEST VERBAL STRATEGY TO SCORE WELL AND FINISH ON TIME?

2. HOW CAN I IMPROVE THE 11 TO AT LEAST A 24 BY NEXT SUMMER???

-any more tips like the NYTIMES.com/Wall Street Journal??
-start reviewing Bio/Chem content??


All help, advice, and suggestions are welcome and I hope I clarified what happened with my FIRST MCAT I'm terribly embarrassed thank God SDN doesn't know who I am...

verbal is an hour long! maybe that explains the 2 a little more? i dunno

 

[LostInStudy]

okay I am 20 years old...and the deal with verbal is this: The Kaplan lady did not have a timer so I had to use my cell phone to time the exam...I know already ridiculous conditions and then I thought for verbal it was ONE HOUR, but it's ONLY 50 MIN, so I was taking my time in the end thinking I have 15 more minutes when I had 5 minutes and then realized 2 minutes left that its ACTUALLY 50 minutes...so I put A down for the last 15-18 questions on verbal...to be honest I think verbal is easiest except the time factor...I got only 1 right from the last 18 I guessed...

I started reading NYTimes articles, but I should read it and ask myself questions aka active reading and stuff but yeah...physical sciences was the hardest since I'm bad in chem and didn't take physics yet...The bio/anatomy was decent but organic I was lost since I haven't taken it....

Basically the 11 I got means NOTHING whatsoever without taking organic and physics....I was seeing how to attack verbal and I messed up terribly: I took my time reading passages as fast as I could then did questions and in the end I HAD NO TIME LEFT-GO FIGURE...so 2 questions:

1. WHATS THE BEST VERBAL STRATEGY TO SCORE WELL AND FINISH ON TIME?

2. HOW CAN I IMPROVE THE 11 TO AT LEAST A 24 BY NEXT SUMMER???

-any more tips like the NYTIMES.com/Wall Street Journal??
-start reviewing Bio/Chem content??


All help, advice, and suggestions are welcome and I hope I clarified what happened with my FIRST MCAT I'm terribly embarrassed thank God SDN doesn't know who I am...

Absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. You haven't taken your pre-reqs yet, I wouldn't expect anything better. However I think that you will be higher than a 24 next summer if you finish your pre-reqs in the next year and really work hard to understand and master the material while you're taking the class. There is too much advice to give so I'm going to let someone else do it but I would like to say that there are many Strategies for verbal and I would suggest looking at BloodySurgeons Official MCAT guide sticky and trying them all out. I personally think that the best one is a combination of EK verbal and Vihsadas'.

Hope this helped,

-LIS

 

[PreMedHopeful]

I'm so confused about verbal, I think I only gave myself 50 minutes? either way, I was going too slow reading it and answering questions that I had 2-3 passages left and left 15 questions BLANK...in the end that was why I got a 2 in verbal...to be honest, the questions weren't bad and I really enjoyed the passages

LIS, what do you mean, where is that sticky??

Yeah, I shouldn't be embarassed but I'm still not going to tell my parents what I got because they were questioning and I said Kaplan will email me in a week...bought some time...they will then go crazy if I tell them since they have been telling me all summer to study for MCAT and I personally think I can study in December onwards to take it in May or July and get a 24 or 30??? is that possible?

 

[QuackaDO]

Sorry, but I have to say this.... you took a diagnostic MCAT and expected to do WELL with little to no studying and having not taken many of the courses that teach you what's on the MCAT!? What is the deal here?? I mean seriously, do you think that ALL the people here on SDN must be ******ed and thats the reason why they study for 2-4 months (on average) before taking that test and not becuase it's hard?? Did you really think that you were that much smarter than everyone else that you should do well without the background knowledge and studying? I don't know... considering you don't have the basics to work with and didn't study I'd say an 11 is not bad but man, the fact that you seem to have expected to do better just blows my mind. Sorry if this sounds rude but it just amazes me...

I think you're getting WAAAAYYYYY to far ahead of yourself here. You are 20 years old, taking diagnostic tests (that are generally recognized as killers) on concepts that you haven't even taken the classes for yet. It would be like taking a master mechanics test without ever taking any mechanics courses because you know how to change your own oil. Slow down... you're WAY to far ahead of yourself here. As someone stated above, take ALL of your prereqs and learn the concepts, then review, then take the MCAT. All you are doing now is torturing yourself thinking you should have done better when, in all honesty and not being mean, you know little to nothing about the concepts being tested. Take a break, enjoy the rest of your summer and get after it hard and finish out the classes that cover what's being tested and take another crack at this once you have an idea what you're doing... I think you'll be surprised by your improvement just in that.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

haha seriously, my parents forced me to take a practice test and I wanted to see where I was in verbal reasoning because you don't need classes for that...and in the end the whole experiences was an eye-opener because I learned you need to study A LOT, take the classes/prepare like crazy with practice tests/reviewing content....in the end I learned a lot about the MCAT and just the formatting and I'm sure I'll get my goal score of 32?

 

[rockaction]

Dude, you need to calm. the. ****. down. Your PARENTS are gunning for you to take a practice MCAT and you haven't even had physics or ochem? Gimme a break. Of course you're going to do terrible. And testing companies ALWAYS make verbal insane on diagnostic tests. By the way, verbal is not innate. It requires just as much practice as the science sections. Even though you got a very discouraging score, it's not impossible to bring that up.

Take the freaking classes, and then you'll have some idea of how you'll do. You're really wasting your life away if you're worrying about the MCAT a year in advance. You have no legitimate reason to have stress about this right now.

You want a 32? Then take your physics and ochem classes and make As. That's the best advice anyone can give you.The MCAT really works out if you have a solid foundation in your pre-reqs.

And you might really want to analyze if this is something you want to do or if this is something your parents want you to do. Believe me, the former is the one that comes out with better results.

 

[QuackaDO]

You want a 32? Then take your physics and ochem classes and make As. That's the best advice anyone can give you.The MCAT really works out if you have a solid foundation in your pre-reqs.

Even better than that, get As and fully understand the concepts. Be able to recite why this happens and why that happens a month or two (or prefferably longer) after the class is over. Getting the A is good and important, but when it comes to the MCAT an A doesn't mean **** if you don't know the concepts, and yes, you can get an A and not know what the F is going on 2 months after you leave class... seriously. I mean if you get straight As in Chemistry and Physics and then walk in and take the MCAT and get a 6 on PS becuase you took the classes but really didn't learn the concepts then it's not going to mean **** and any excuse like "I don't know how that happened... I got As" isn't going to be worth the breath wasted on it. Seriously, the key to your whole success, boiled down and placed in a nice little package is to take the background course, do well and really learn the concepts, and then review like crazy before the MCAT... do that and come back in a year and you'll have a very positive story to tell.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

haha I wish, let's just say I'm not a good test-taker which is why I'm stressing right now, I'm not gifted and an awesome test-taker like some people on SDN....and I know in the end it only matters about me, but I'm working hard trying to be an awesome premed student with all aspects including activities, GPA, and then I feel really pathetic and sad if I fail the MCAT with a low score because then all my hard work will be screwed and I will feel like an ultimate loser since then I might have to go to Caribbean...I will ask myself why did I work so hard in college? When I could have partied every weekend and gone out every night and enjoyed life? Don't get me wrong...I do have fun in college, but studying>partying and I don't party that much and I'm in MIAMI!!! Plus, I don't have a car

In the end, I thought the MCAT was going to be a cake-walk and I would get like a 20 right off the bat without taking organic or physics, and I thought heck I'd get a 6 or 7 in verbal....but nope, it's pretty hard....

In the end, I like to blame fault on others, but I am the one who's to blame to take the exam...I was curious to see where I was and how much work I needed to do in one year...I learned I need to WORK a lot to get a 32 and improvement will happen drastically, then slowly, but it will happen eventually. I plan on taking those classes, enjoying the rest of summer, and then starting to studying in December with an eventual May 2010 mcat test date but I might take it later in July if I need more time based on practice tests....

I just feel like is it going to be worth it? Will I be happy in 10 years from now if I choose medicine, I mean I love the career/science/patient interaction/medicine, but if I'm still single and miserable at 30 will it be worth it??? I don't want to be a lonely career-oriented doctor who doesn't have a life besides his job...Maybe I'm being lazy and I just feel like next year will be hell but in the end, I always have doubts and question this path because there are a lot of struggles and obstacles and moments of depression, anxiety, happiness, and confusion.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

haha I wish, let's just say I'm not a good test-taker which is why I'm stressing right now, I'm not gifted and an awesome test-taker like some people on SDN....and I know in the end it only matters about me, but I'm working hard trying to be an awesome premed student with all aspects including activities, GPA, and then I feel really pathetic and sad if I fail the MCAT with a low score because then all my hard work will be screwed and I will feel like an ultimate loser since then I might have to go to Caribbean...I will ask myself why did I work so hard in college? When I could have partied every weekend and gone out every night and enjoyed life? Don't get me wrong...I do have fun in college, but studying>partying and I don't party that much and I'm in MIAMI!!! Plus, I don't have a car

In the end, I thought the MCAT was going to be a cake-walk and I would get like a 20 right off the bat without taking organic or physics, and I thought heck I'd get a 6 or 7 in verbal....but nope, it's pretty hard....

In the end, I like to blame fault on others, but I am the one who's to blame to take the exam...I was curious to see where I was and how much work I needed to do in one year...I learned I need to WORK a lot to get a 32 and improvement will happen drastically, then slowly, but it will happen eventually. I plan on taking those classes, enjoying the rest of summer, and then starting to studying in December with an eventual May 2010 mcat test date but I might take it later in July if I need more time based on practice tests....

I just feel like is it going to be worth it? Will I be happy in 10 years from now if I choose medicine, I mean I love the career/science/patient interaction/medicine, but if I'm still single and miserable at 30 will it be worth it??? I don't want to be a lonely career-oriented doctor who doesn't have a life besides his job...Maybe I'm being lazy and I just feel like next year will be hell but in the end, I always have doubts and question this path because there are a lot of struggles and obstacles and moments of depression, anxiety, happiness, and confusion.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

sorry for double posting, SDN was acting weird...

 

[mmmcdowe]

The reason why the VR section was only 50 minutes is probably because the diagnostic exams cut corners in terms of length of the exam and how long they give you.

 

[Compass]

18 on Kaplan to 34 Final Score. I'm not a magic test-taker. Granted, the 34 was mostly my work since Kaplan only got me to 30, but it is feasible.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

THANKS COMPASS, thats the advice and motivation I need at this time of my life!