Not good Practice tests... :(

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FentanylMC

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So I just finished a kaplan course and have taken my second FL. I scored a 20. PS: 6 VR: 5 BS: 9. I take the MCAT September 3 and I am starting to freak out quite a bit. I know bio very well, but i havent had orgo II (taking it right now) yet which is definitely inhibiting my BS score to the best it could be, however my verbal and PS are awful.

I already voided my 6/17 MCAT because my content review wasn't complete and i did not feel ready. However, now i feel my content is fairly good and I cant seem to do well "thinking critically."

I am already AMCAS/AACOMAS verified and this is the final piece to the puzzle. It just isn't coming easy to me. I dont know what to do
 
So I just finished a kaplan course and have taken my second FL. I scored a 20. PS: 6 VR: 5 BS: 9. I take the MCAT September 3 and I am starting to freak out quite a bit. I know bio very well, but i havent had orgo II (taking it right now) yet which is definitely inhibiting my BS score to the best it could be, however my verbal and PS are awful.

I already voided my 6/17 MCAT because my content review wasn't complete and i did not feel ready. However, now i feel my content is fairly good and I cant seem to do well "thinking critically."

I am already AMCAS/AACOMAS verified and this is the final piece to the puzzle. It just isn't coming easy to me. I dont know what to do

The best prediction for your MCAT score is probably taking one of the AAMC FLs (7-10). If you know your target score is still not met, I'm sure you will be able to figure out what to do. IMO, it just seems wasteful to take the MCAT without being well prepared and submit AAMC application. :luck:
 
So I just finished a kaplan course and have taken my second FL. I scored a 20. PS: 6 VR: 5 BS: 9. I take the MCAT September 3 and I am starting to freak out quite a bit. I know bio very well, but i havent had orgo II (taking it right now) yet which is definitely inhibiting my BS score to the best it could be, however my verbal and PS are awful.

I already voided my 6/17 MCAT because my content review wasn't complete and i did not feel ready. However, now i feel my content is fairly good and I cant seem to do well "thinking critically."

I am already AMCAS/AACOMAS verified and this is the final piece to the puzzle. It just isn't coming easy to me. I dont know what to do

Don't you take a bunch of practice tests during the Kaplan course?? How come you've only just finished your second.. I suppose I didn't take the Kaplan course (or any course for that matter) so I may be wrong here.

In either case, you should have been taking more practice tests along the way to, at the very least, check your progress. You have waited until the end to do a status check and that was a huge risk that didn't pan out for you.. I would normally recommend pushing your test back, but I suppose you just have to go through with it now.

You need to do at least 5 (more) AAMC exams before your test date. Make sure you review well and brush up on all topics you get wrong.

On test day, I would not recommend voiding unless you have to randomly guess on many questions and/or run out of time on just about every section. Again, this is not standard advice, but since you have already thrown money at AMCAS & AACOMAS I think you need to at least see if you can pull off a miracle. Good luck
 
our course was 6 weeks long, and it has us doing 4 practice tests in a row this coming monday-thursday, which is a week before the test. Im going to devote ample time over the next 14 days studying as much as i possibly can, and doing as much verbal and PS passages as I can.

What I noticed on verbal is that I always choose the "opposite" answer and I don't know why. My biggest problem is understanding what the passage is even about. I always seem to misconstrue it somehow. any tips??
 
our course was 6 weeks long, and it has us doing 4 practice tests in a row this coming monday-thursday, which is a week before the test. Im going to devote ample time over the next 14 days studying as much as i possibly can, and doing as much verbal and PS passages as I can.

What I noticed on verbal is that I always choose the "opposite" answer and I don't know why. My biggest problem is understanding what the passage is even about. I always seem to misconstrue it somehow. any tips??

Sounds like you need to slow down and read the passage. VR is about understanding. Picking the opposite answer should tell you something about your comprehension of the passage -- such as that you are completely missing the pt of the passage. Read for concepts, not details. The details can be inferred from the main idea + question in many/most cases (sometimes, you need to use some POE and/or just plain old intuition as well). Maybe you need to start reading intermediate to advanced nonscience literature (fiction and nonfiction) and ask yourself the same kinds of questions -- and then prove your answers.
 
Sounds like you need to slow down and read the passage. VR is about understanding. Picking the opposite answer should tell you something about your comprehension of the passage -- such as that you are completely missing the pt of the passage. Read for concepts, not details. The details can be inferred from the main idea + question in many/most cases (sometimes, you need to use some POE and/or just plain old intuition as well). Maybe you need to start reading intermediate to advanced nonscience literature (fiction and nonfiction) and ask yourself the same kinds of questions -- and then prove your answers.

On this last FL I did run out of time with 1.5 passages remaining which I guessed at. And surprisingly, the ones I guessed at where about 40% correct.

I do get confused while reading the passages and I try to read them slow to understand. Now that I think about it, I am reading for too much detail (especially on the science verbal passages) and worry about highlighting too much, which starts to ruin me.

Would it help to skim the questions first, before reading the passage? That way I have kind of know what to look for?

The kaplan strategy does not help me bc taking time to map each paragraph throws me out of my focus and "flow" while reading....

Any other suggestions?
 
On this last FL I did run out of time with 1.5 passages remaining which I guessed at. And surprisingly, the ones I guessed at where about 40% correct.

I do get confused while reading the passages and I try to read them slow to understand. Now that I think about it, I am reading for too much detail (especially on the science verbal passages) and worry about highlighting too much, which starts to ruin me.

Would it help to skim the questions first, before reading the passage? That way I have kind of know what to look for?

The kaplan strategy does not help me bc taking time to map each paragraph throws me out of my focus and "flow" while reading....

Any other suggestions?

Unfortunately, there is no shortcut for improving VR score, unless one is naturally good at reading comprehension and reasoning. However, with enough practice, your score will certainly improve but it might be very slow and painful.

I, too, had this problem when I began reading VR passages; I would simply zone out while reading a passage and didn't even have any clue what the passage was talking about. But after a while (1.5 - 2 months of solid practice), I was better able to concentrate, read between the lines, catch common tricks, etc. The most fundamental thing to remember is to read for the main idea and author's opinion. I also pay more attention whenever I see a sentence that starts with things like, "However", "I must...", "By the way" "For example", etc. But all these come very slowly after much practice.

Lastly, I would strongly suggest not to practice VR when you're tired and keep yourself in best mental and physical shape prior to any practice session. VR practice has been very painful but if you study hard, it will come. :luck:
 
Some advice for you on VR that will be very simple changes...

1) Don't highlight. This is a big mistake. You don't need to go back to the passage, and if you do, you have no idea what you'll have to go back to look at when you haven't even read the question. Highlighting takes away from the free flow of reading and you forget a lot by taking frequent short breaks to highlight. It also completely breaks your concentration at many points while reading, because you think "should I highlight this??" all the time. It probably makes you feel comforted while taking the test, highlighting things like a college textbook. However, this trick will definitely sink you if you pull it out on test day (at least for VR). You need to stop highlighting, today.

2) If you are picking the opposite answer frequently, you are falling for the MCAT tricks. We all do it but when taking the tests (AAMC's, at least), you need to get a feel for the typical wrong answer. The most used trick in the book is the "practically direct quote from the passage" answer. The question often asks something like "the author implies that", and the test-taker often still chooses an answer that is mostly a direct quote. If the question asks you to use your own judgment, you will not find the answer in the passage (unless you read the whole thing again). Another common trick is the "most correct but out of scope" answer. When you nail it down to two answers, you need to figure out which one is best supported by passage information, and which one answers the question best. Using these criteria you can often come up with the correct answer. Understand that even the best VR performers of all time never feel completely confident about most of their answers. You must therefore use your judgment, instead of spending too much time going back to the passage. This is why you can't finish in time.

3) Be confident. EK says "be arrogant when you read a VR passage". You have to read the passage as if you are critiquing the author's logic. You need to be confident to do this.

My PS advice for you would be to know and understand the physics formulas. If you google "MCAT physics formulas" you come up with a nice PDF file. You are severely deficient in PS knowledge if you get a 6 on a Kaplan test this late in the game, unfortunately there is little you can do to change that now. Know basic gen chem stuff, most importantly titrations, redox, balancing equations, electrochemical cells, radioactive decay, alpha/beta particles. You need this stuff to do well on almost any PS section for the MCAT.

You absolutely must study for a large chunk of every day for the next week and a half to even have a shot at this. All is not lost, but you need to make up for some lost ground right now.
 
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Some advice for you on VR that will be very simple changes...

1) Don't highlight. This is a big mistake. You don't need to go back to the passage, and if you do, you have no idea what you'll have to go back to look at when you haven't even read the question. Highlighting takes away from the free flow of reading and you forget a lot by taking frequent short breaks to highlight. It also completely breaks your concentration at many points while reading, because you think "should I highlight this??" all the time. It probably makes you feel comforted while taking the test, highlighting things like a college textbook. However, this trick will definitely sink you if you pull it out on test day (at least for VR). You need to stop highlighting, today.

2) If you are picking the opposite answer frequently, you are falling for the MCAT tricks. We all do it but when taking the tests (AAMC's, at least), you need to get a feel for the typical wrong answer. The most used trick in the book is the "practically direct quote from the passage" answer. The question often asks something like "the author implies that", and the test-taker often still chooses an answer that is mostly a direct quote. If the question asks you to use your own judgment, you will not find the answer in the passage (unless you read the whole thing again). Another common trick is the "most correct but out of scope" answer. When you nail it down to two answers, you need to figure out which one is best supported by passage information, and which one answers the question best. Using these criteria you can often come up with the correct answer. Understand that even the best VR performers of all time never feel completely confident about most of their answers. You must therefore use your judgment, instead of spending too much time going back to the passage. This is why you can't finish in time.

3) Be confident. EK says "be arrogant when you read a VR passage". You have to read the passage as if you are critiquing the author's logic. You need to be confident to do this.

My PS advice for you would be to know and understand the physics formulas. If you google "MCAT physics formulas" you come up with a nice PDF file. You are severely deficient in PS knowledge if you get a 6 on a Kaplan test this late in the game, unfortunately there is little you can do to change that now. Know basic gen chem stuff, most importantly titrations, redox, balancing equations, electrochemical cells, radioactive decay, alpha/beta particles. You need this stuff to do well on almost any PS section for the MCAT.

You absolutely must study for a large chunk of every day for the next week and a half to even have a shot at this. All is not lost, but you need to make up for some lost ground right now.

First off, wow, and THANKS! That is some great advice. I will probably never highlight on verbal ever again. It completely ruins me and didn't know why the heck i was even doing it in the first place. Also, thank you very much for the confidence boost!

I plan on taking AAMC #7 tomorrow morning so we will see how it goes. I will prob alternate a kaplan, and aamc 8-10 every other day up until the test. Is this the best thing to do?
 
Just finished AAMC#7. I didnt think it was all that bad to be honest.

Scored: PS: 7 VR: 6 BS: 7

My bio went down because there were 18 questions on organic, and only got 6 of them right!!! Stupid mistakes

PS: would have been better, but misread questions + running out of time to do a 5 question passage left me ~8-10 questions i know i would have gotten right. Its all coming together but not all at once! Time is still an issue, but my content is def there.

As far as verbal goes, i was 23/40. 1 dang question away from a 7! So at least i am improving.

On a side note: I like AAMC tests WAAAY better than kaplan. I think that is a good thing ha.
 
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