on the real MCAT, do you guys scan over the section before starting?

[supertrooper66]

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the title is pretty self-explanatory.

when i took mine in april, i would just take each section in order without flipping ahead to see how many passages, NPQs, etc. there were. i was so used to AAMC tests that i thought it'd be the same. well, on AAMC ones the last 5-6 ?s were always NPQs. on my real PS, the last 6 were 3 questions=another passage and the last 3=NPQs. this screwed me on time and did bad haha.

i also was thrown off with the timing because the real clock counts down, not up like the AAMCs. i was used to timing myself based on going up. i was used to saying "okay, finish at 7:00, passage 2 done by 14:00, etc" but at the test site I had to adapt to "okay, finish #1 by 63:00, #2 by 56:00, etc." it really threw me off.

timing is a big deal for me and can easily give me 3+ pts if i fix it for July.

so what do you guys suggest? what do you do? do you "next" through the entire test first to see what you're looking at before you begin?

my only concern with this was at my testing center the comps were really slow. it'd waste 10-15 seconds to just move onto the next page. so it'd probably waste 1-2 minutes of my time hitting "next" before i begin, but i think overall it'd still be beneficial. i'm taking my retake at a different testing center in hopes their comps won't be slow!

 

[SN2ed]

I don't, I think it's a waste of time. I focus on the passage in front of me. Not the one I just did or the one coming up, the one in front. What good does knowing the topic of the passages do anyway? You're still going to have to do all them. Plus, you can't gauge passage difficulty by briefly looking at a passage. Another problem is that if you saw a passage that worried you, it could break your focus on the passage you're doing.

 

[RySerr21]

every AAMC test i took counted down just like the real test. weird.

 

[LikeClockWork]

I did the NPQs first since I could usually run through them faster. They were the easiest for me to get points on so I didn't want to do them in a time crunch if I could avoid it.

I also saved the passages I thought looked really hard (acid/base, galvanic cell) for the end, since I was most likely to miss questions on those passages regardless of how much time I had to work with.

 

[polarizer]

I don't ever preview it. The reason being, say when you prescan the section and you find a passage that is on area you know you are weak at (say optics in my case). You will freak out and you will not be able focus (as well) on the 'easier' sections, likely compromising your score.

 

[PsxDcSquall]

Yes, I'm a product of Kaplan though and that was just how I was taught to take the test.

I always go for the discretes first and then attempt to do the passages based on if I feel comfortable with the material. I honestly don't know if it really helps but I'm just comfortable with it and am not about to change my strategy this late in the game!

 

[unsung]

the title is pretty self-explanatory.

when i took mine in april, i would just take each section in order without flipping ahead to see how many passages, NPQs, etc. there were. i was so used to AAMC tests that i thought it'd be the same. well, on AAMC ones the last 5-6 ?s were always NPQs. on my real PS, the last 6 were 3 questions=another passage and the last 3=NPQs. this screwed me on time and did bad haha.

i also was thrown off with the timing because the real clock counts down, not up like the AAMCs. i was used to timing myself based on going up. i was used to saying "okay, finish at 7:00, passage 2 done by 14:00, etc" but at the test site I had to adapt to "okay, finish #1 by 63:00, #2 by 56:00, etc." it really threw me off.

timing is a big deal for me and can easily give me 3+ pts if i fix it for July.

so what do you guys suggest? what do you do? do you "next" through the entire test first to see what you're looking at before you begin?

my only concern with this was at my testing center the comps were really slow. it'd waste 10-15 seconds to just move onto the next page. so it'd probably waste 1-2 minutes of my time hitting "next" before i begin, but i think overall it'd still be beneficial. i'm taking my retake at a different testing center in hopes their comps won't be slow!

I think scanning would be a waste of time. Try focusing on your timing *per* passage, instead of mapping out all the time beforehand. How I've been practicing is 5 min/passage with a timer. Sure, some are longer, some are shorter, etc. but I think it's a good speed to have, and get used to.

 

[Vihsadas]

I just attack it and don't look back. 😛

 

[phospho]

the title is pretty self-explanatory.

when i took mine in april, i would just take each section in order without flipping ahead to see how many passages, NPQs, etc. there were. i was so used to AAMC tests that i thought it'd be the same. well, on AAMC ones the last 5-6 ?s were always NPQs. on my real PS, the last 6 were 3 questions=another passage and the last 3=NPQs. this screwed me on time and did bad haha.

i also was thrown off with the timing because the real clock counts down, not up like the AAMCs. i was used to timing myself based on going up. i was used to saying "okay, finish at 7:00, passage 2 done by 14:00, etc" but at the test site I had to adapt to "okay, finish #1 by 63:00, #2 by 56:00, etc." it really threw me off.

timing is a big deal for me and can easily give me 3+ pts if i fix it for July.

so what do you guys suggest? what do you do? do you "next" through the entire test first to see what you're looking at before you begin?

my only concern with this was at my testing center the comps were really slow. it'd waste 10-15 seconds to just move onto the next page. so it'd probably waste 1-2 minutes of my time hitting "next" before i begin, but i think overall it'd still be beneficial. i'm taking my retake at a different testing center in hopes their comps won't be slow!

Personally speaking, I (generally) nail almost every discrete question. How do I exploit that?

When I reach the last passage, I skip to the last page and make sure I finish the discrete ones there, and then I continue with the rest of the test. What's my reasoning behind this?

Whether it's BS or PS, almost every time I took a practice test, I would have 4-5 minutes left on the last page. I would rather have that 4-5 minutes left on a passage, than on the discrete questions.

Best of luck! 🙂

 

[Vihsadas]

Personally speaking, I (generally) nail almost every discrete question. How do I exploit that?

When I reach the last passage, I skip to the last page and make sure I finish the discrete ones there, and then I continue with the rest of the test. What's my reasoning behind this?

Whether it's BS or PS, almost every time I took a practice test, I would have 4-5 minutes left on the last page. I would rather have that 4-5 minutes left on a passage, than on the discrete questions.

Best of luck! 🙂

This is exactly my timing strategy too. I always, always skipped past the last passage and finished the discretes first. Let's say you only have 10 mins left and 1 passage and a set of discretes. That passage might take you the entire ten minutes, but the discretes will (probably) only take you 4-5mins! Do them first, get the easy points, then guess/do what you are able to on that last passage.