Need a sympathetic pat on the back, or a kick in the pants

[ImNotBritish]

Hey guys-

Add me to the pile of retakers who are losing hope. I took the MCAT last August and got a score in the mid-20s. Got an interview, and am on the waitlist. I'm signed up to retake on July 2 (5 weeks). Last time around, I really didn't exactly study (read: maybe 30 hours total). That was obviously a mistake, so I'm trying to improve that for this time around. I've done content review for the last 6 weeks or so, but have been much more dedicated the last 2-3 weeks (4-5 hours/day, 4 days a week). I took my first FL practice test today, and scored 3 points lower than my score from last August. I'm incredibly frustrated. I know that physics and o-chem are my greatest weaknesses, but I still don't really feel like I'm getting a decent grasp on the other sciences, either. (I do okay on VR, so I don't study it per se, just in FLs.) I obviously had hoped that the hours I've put in this time should start showing up in my scores, but no such luck.

So the question is, do I do more reading/highlighting content review, or do I put the books aside and focus more on practice problems and reviewing their solutions?

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[kwokkit]

You gotta let us know exactly which FL practice test you did. Kaplan? TPR? AAMC? What were your score distributions? Are your sciences up but VR falling or what? If your verbal score is under 9 which it seems like it is, you can, and must study for it - I would recommend EK verbal strategy/tactics and EK 101. Even though your content base does not seem to be solid, I recommend doing more passage-based practice problems like EK 1001 Bio because that way you will be learning some content but also doing problems, which you have to do in your last few weeks. Also do FLs, timed, and analyze them thoroughly.

 

[IndianVercetti]

I'm also the kind of person who needs to put in a lot of hours into anything endeavor in order to see improvement. For me, it seems that it's often the desire to improve my scores that causes me to over think, and not really focus on the question at hand. So, if anything, you might want to try to somehow focus your mind before you start doing practice exams (closing eyes, clearing mind, etc)

 

[Bernoull]

Hey guys-

Add me to the pile of retakers who are losing hope. I took the MCAT last August and got a score in the mid-20s. Got an interview, and am on the waitlist. I'm signed up to retake on July 2 (5 weeks). Last time around, I really didn't exactly study (read: maybe 30 hours total). That was obviously a mistake, so I'm trying to improve that for this time around. I've done content review for the last 6 weeks or so, but have been much more dedicated the last 2-3 weeks (4-5 hours/day, 4 days a week). I took my first FL practice test today, and scored 3 points lower than my score from last August. I'm incredibly frustrated. I know that physics and o-chem are my greatest weaknesses, but I still don't really feel like I'm getting a decent grasp on the other sciences, either. (I do okay on VR, so I don't study it per se, just in FLs.) I obviously had hoped that the hours I've put in this time should start showing up in my scores, but no such luck.

So the question is, do I do more reading/highlighting content review, or do I put the books aside and focus more on practice problems and reviewing their solutions?

Most importantly DON"T BE DISCOURAGED!! I had a similar experience, after content review (wit weakness in chem n orgo) i took TPR CBT1 n had a 24, I was shell-shocked, I rescheduled my testdate, focused on weak spots, took AAMC 9 n had 33, I've taken couple more AAMC n averaged at 32, but the point it twofold: If the FL u took wasn't AAMC don't worry too much about it, apparently some companies just make their FLs much harder than AAMCs, more importantly, ID ur weak areas and focus on 1-2 concepts/day and become proficient in them, ur likely to see biggest gains when u improve ur weakest areas bcos that's where u have the most room to improve.

Get a few different books (tpr, kaplan, ek etc) n try reviewing concepts u don't get from multiple sources u'll see that u understand company's X explanation much better than Y..

Once again, the most important thing is to keep ur head up, be positive and don't get discouraged!!!

Good luck

 

[dundunham]

I agree with the above post,

calm and collected with an active mind set.

 

[ImNotBritish]

Thanks for the input, everybody! The practice I took was Gold Standard, so I'll try to just dust myself off and move on. I'm still deathly afraid I wont' be able to pull of what I need to in 5 weeks, but I suppose that my posting whining rants about crappy scores isn't going to make them any better! Thanks for the support, it really helped kick me back into gear.