Not finishing PS in time... help?

[breeniee]

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I keep running out of time in PS sections for the practice AAMC's. I have done about half of TBR passages over the course of the past 4 months and all of them have been done timed and I never had a problem with finishing.

I feel like I have a okay grasp of content but unfortunately, I wind up losing time really quickly then freaking out halfway through and messing up my accuracy for the remainder of the test and/or not finishing. My scores have gone down a lot on my most recent aamc =(

Kaplan FL 1 PS = 9 (before content review completion - also was running short on time)
AAMC 3 PS = 10 (finished on time - some mistakes that required a quick brush-up on content)
AAMC 7 PS = 9 (took 22 min on discretes then realized I took too long and rushed the rest and couldn't read the last passage which required full reading - t'was the earthquake passage)
AAMC 4 PS = 8 (took 20 minutes for discretes, then decided to try to answer the questions without reading the passages to save time but it was quite calculation heavy and I missed a lot of information that were in the passage that could've been point-makers.)

What should I do? Should I take the test linearly instead? Any tips?
My test is in June 21. I have AAMC 5-6, 8-11 left. I was going to take 8-11 every other day starting on Monday. I was originally going to skip out on aamc 5 and 6 but should I take the PS section for them today to see what the problem is on timing for me? I checked forums and heard that taking it in sections is advised against but I don't know what else to do.

 

[EvilSpawn]

This almost happened to me on the real test. The best advice I can give is don't be afraid to mark questions that you're having trouble with and come back to them later. If you do that, you can get some easy ones out of the way which will help build your confidence back up. Then when you finish the section, go back and review the ones you marked. When it happened to me, I was able to figure most of the questions out when I looked at them the second time. Just make sure that when you mark it you pick a random answer just for the hell of it. That way, if you do run out of time, you at least have a chance at getting credit for some of them.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

I find it weird that you can finish TBR without problem but are having trouble on AAMC tests. Are you doing the TBR passages in sets of multiple passages, or are you doing them one passage at a time?

Anyway, from what you said it sounds like you aren't keeping track of time very well. You need to constantly be checking that timer at the bottom of the screen and ensure that you're going through problems at a reasonable pace. If you get stuck on a problem for too long you need to just say "**** it", put your best guess down, mark the question to come back to later if you have time, and move on.

That said, if you're spending 20+ minutes on discretes on multiple tests, it sounds like your knowledge base may also be weak in some areas which would obviously cause you to take a long time on questions.

 

[breeniee]

This almost happened to me on the real test. The best advice I can give is don't be afraid to mark questions that you're having trouble with and come back to them later. If you do that, you can get some easy ones out of the way which will help build your confidence back up. Then when you finish the section, go back and review the ones you marked. When it happened to me, I was able to figure most of the questions out when I looked at them the second time. Just make sure that when you mark it you pick a random answer just for the hell of it. That way, if you do run out of time, you at least have a chance at getting credit for some of them.

Yeah, I haven't really been allowing myself to skip. I feel like I have to get it then and there which is a really bad habit because then I do fall behind because of course there'll be some questions that I'll probably not be 100% focused on but if I come back to it, I guess I'd be able to shed some light in it later?

I find it weird that you can finish TBR without problem but are having trouble on AAMC tests. Are you doing the TBR passages in sets of multiple passages, or are you doing them one passage at a time?

Anyway, from what you said it sounds like you aren't keeping track of time very well. You need to constantly be checking that timer at the bottom of the screen and ensure that you're going through problems at a reasonable pace. If you get stuck on a problem for too long you need to just say "**** it", put your best guess down, mark the question to come back to later if you have time, and move on.

That said, if you're spending 20+ minutes on discretes on multiple tests, it sounds like your knowledge base may also be weak in some areas which would obviously cause you to take a long time on questions.

For TBR I've done them a passage at a time for 6-7 minutes each. Maybe that's my problem? Oh and I did EK 1001 Q's too but I didn't time myself for those. Maybe I shouldn't have since it's the discretes that are giving me the most difficulty. It's not that I don't remember content, it's that the math really sucks the life out of me. I even caught myself writing down what 4 times 6 is! Idk why I do it.... =( I never did it during practice but on these FL's I keep going back to my old bad habits.

Thanks for the advice, however. =)

 

[catzzz88]

Ive said this a million times: don't read the passages. I saw a 3 point jump in my score when I didn't read the passages. If leaves you more time to figure everything out and you will be soso sosososososooooo shocked how little the questions actually have to do with the passage.

I didn't read a single passage on the real MCAT and the strategy worked just fine (although I didn't get my score yet haha).

try it.

Good luck,
C

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Yeah, I haven't really been allowing myself to skip. I feel like I have to get it then and there which is a really bad habit because then I do fall behind because of course there'll be some questions that I'll probably not be 100% focused on but if I come back to it, I guess I'd be able to shed some light in it later?




For TBR I've done them a passage at a time for 6-7 minutes each. Maybe that's my problem? Oh and I did EK 1001 Q's too but I didn't time myself for those. Maybe I shouldn't have since it's the discretes that are giving me the most difficulty. It's not that I don't remember content, it's that the math really sucks the life out of me. I even caught myself writing down what 4 times 6 is! Idk why I do it.... =( I never did it during practice but on these FL's I keep going back to my old bad habits.

Thanks for the advice, however. =)

Yeah, that's your problem. Doing a single passage at a time makes it much easier to finish in time than doing a bunch of passages at once, since you're forced to stop the passage once your allotted time is up. When you do 5 passages in 35 minutes though there's nothing stopping you from spending 12 minutes on a single passage other than your awareness of how much time has elapsed. From now on you shouldn't do anymore single passages.

As for the math, stop using scratch paper. For most of my studying I haven't allowed myself to write down anything which I'm starting to change now, although it's extremely rare for me to encounter something that can't be done in my head. Also keep in mind that often you don't need to do much math at all since a rough estimate is enough to figure out which choice is the right answer.

 

[breeniee]

Thanks for all of your advice everyone!!!! I have gotten over the hump of not finishing PS in time!

AAMC 3: 10
AAMC 7: 9
AAMC 4: 8

two days of rest

AAMC 9: 10 <-- on time with 2 min to spare!
AAMC 8: 10 <-- on time with 6 min to spare!

The biggest help was taking 2 days off to relax. I did some light Organic chemistry review and some Bio review and browsed through some flashcards for Physics/Chem. Aside from passively going over the flashcards, I kept my mind off of spending time in anything extensively PS related. I also barely used my scratch paper except to jot down a few things here and there. I'm guessing nerves had a lot to do with my low performance. I had some personal problems that really affected my performance as a whole....

Also, catzzz88, I tried your advice and it definitely helped! I realized that reading the passages usually made me forget what I already knew and I got confused easily. If I just tackle the questions and lightly pick out information in the passage/tables then I'm good to go!

I don't feel like I have any alarming weaknesses but there are a few minor things that I constantly get wrong... and it's usually seriously the dumbest topics - like bonding. Really... who gets bonding questions wrong? I do!

So any tips on improving BS you guys? I haven't gotten higher than a 9 in the practice yet and I'm beginning to wonder how to improve that department....

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

So any tips on improving BS you guys? I haven't gotten higher than a 9 in the practice yet and I'm beginning to wonder how to improve that department....

What helped me was reading through TBR. When I did that my score on BS went from 9 on AAMC 3 to 13 on AAMC 4, although I've been stuck at 12 on AAMC 5 and 7.

 

[breeniee]

What helped me was reading through TBR. When I did that my score on BS went from 9 on AAMC 3 to 13 on AAMC 4, although I've been stuck at 12 on AAMC 5 and 7.

Sweet! That's an amazing improvement! I got a 9 in AAMC 3 pre-BS review and afterward read only Book 1 in TBR with TPR & EK for the other molecular biology stuff. Do you think I should read Book 2 as well?

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Sweet! That's an amazing improvement! I got a 9 in AAMC 3 pre-BS review and afterward read only Book 1 in TBR with TPR & EK for the other molecular biology stuff. Do you think I should read Book 2 as well?

Book 2 is probably the most useful of the 2 since it deals entirely with molecular biology, biochem, and genetics which the MCAT supposedly focuses on much more these days. So yeah, it's worth reading.

 

[breeniee]

Book 2 is probably the most useful of the 2 since it deals entirely with molecular biology, biochem, and genetics which the MCAT supposedly focuses on much more these days. So yeah, it's worth reading.

😱 AHHH! I feel like an idiot.... All the question's I've gotten wrong are stuff this book goes into!
Thanks a lot actually.... I heard a lot about how TBR Book 2 is a waste of time and blah blah blah so I thought I'd read TPR for these subjects instead but it's just not clicking enough. This should definitely help. Let's see how much on Sunday when I take another FL. Thanks!