pace of doing passages on real mcat?

[Bumbl3b33]

I'm finishing the PS section way too close for comfort...so my question, for those of you with 15 mins left, when you start the section, does your brain go into overdrive mode and not stop until you're done with the 52 questions? by overdrive i mean like, do you just try to get through everything really quickly and mark on the way and then come back at the end of your 15 mins to check the ones you marked? I find that I kinda go slower in the beginning to stop myself from giving into that frantic start and instead of trying to get through the whole test as fast as possible I just go over every question and stay on pace..but being on pace can leave you with no extra time at the end...thank you for your insight!

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[coyotelime]

I think it depends on personal preference. My friend whom I've been studying with all summer told me on AAMC 10-11 he started triple checking his PS/BS(we usually have 20 mins left over at the end) and finished right on time. I tried this for PS in AAMC 11 for the first half of the exam and it didn't help me at all. I was also strapped for time in the second half(but ironically I missed 4-5 questions from the first half that I double/triple checked on and did great on the latter half).

Maybe try both methods and use the one that you prefer? Good luck!

Oh and I don't know what overdrive mode is but my brain is usually "active" when I'm doing passages but on the questions that are a bit tricky I do look back at my answers

 

[paul411]

so my question, for those of you with 15 mins left, when you start the section, does your brain go into overdrive mode and not stop until you're done with the 52 questions? by overdrive i mean like, do you just try to get through everything really quickly and mark on the way and then come back at the end of your 15 mins to check the ones you marked?

Pretty much. Once your content knowledge is strong enough, you can go through a lot of questions fairly quickly. The few that are left, require more critical thinking. I usually mark those and start working on them. If I feel it's taking too long, I skip it and save it for later. You want to go "overdrive" on those easy questions you know for sure and save the harder ones for the end. Luckily, the MCAT's "Review" feature is nice for finding marked and incomplete questions. Get used to it real well on the AAMC practice tests.

 

[Bumbl3b33]

Pretty much. Once your content knowledge is strong enough, you can go through a lot of questions fairly quickly. The few that are left, require more critical thinking. I usually mark those and start working on them. If I feel it's taking too long, I skip it and save it for later. You want to go "overdrive" on those easy questions you know for sure and save the harder ones for the end. Luckily, the MCAT's "Review" feature is nice for finding marked and incomplete questions. Get used to it real well on the AAMC practice tests.

I'm a little curious about your method. I get that you can go through the stand-alone's quickly. But for passages, how do you fly through them, aren't there times where you don't understand the set up or the information you need is inside of the passage to answer the question? Everytime I'm in a passage, I feel like I have to go back and look at/read the passage to make sure I a) understand the scenario correctly and b) make sure that there's no component from the passage that needs to be integrated in answering the question. How do you combat/deal with those scenarios?

 

[mitchlucker]

I'm a little curious about your method. I get that you can go through the stand-alone's quickly. But for passages, how do you fly through them, aren't there times where you don't understand the set up or the information you need is inside of the passage to answer the question? Everytime I'm in a passage, I feel like I have to go back and look at/read the passage to make sure I a) understand the scenario correctly and b) make sure that there's no component from the passage that needs to be integrated in answering the question. How do you combat/deal with those scenarios?

I know you're not talking to me, but...

a) I read the questions first on the science sections. Usually you'll have at least 1 or 2 "discrete" questions per passage. Answer these right away.

Then go through and read the passage. By now, you'll have read the questions and know the "buzz words" the AAMC is looking for. Once you see these words you'll naturally start paying more attention.

b) Once you have your answer, know why it's right. What I did for my MCAT last Friday was to go through choices ABCD for every question. If A is wrong, cross it out. If B is wrong, cross it out. If C is correct, then select it and move on without even looking at D. Only 1 answer can be correct. This will save you time. Just make sure you're reading the question and the choices carefully.

Don't spend time on the question if you don't know the answer, or can't deduce how to do it within 10 seconds. This is why you study. Put your best guess on and move forward. Usually these are the ones you'll get wrong anyways.

My PS practices I was finishing right on time. Usually with 1 or 2 minutes to go. For test day, I finished with 5 minutes to go. You will never know until you take the test.

As long as you're content with your scores, you'll be fine. A 12 is a 12 whether you finish with 20 minutes to go or 20 seconds.

 

[Bumbl3b33]

Oh, anyone's free to chime in, I'm just trying to get a hang of how to go about these passages. I was doing fine on TBR and stuff but kaplan and AAMc have been handing it to me because I keep missing things that are in the passage; i can't break 10/11 on PS/BS and it's super frustrating!

 

[Hotshy]

Stop stressing out. No one can change your pacing. It's a standardized test; if you have trouble with pacing others do too.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7FyO7-2t6s[/YOUTUBE]

 

[muhali3]

Knowing a subject and being fluent in that subject are different things. Just like how some people take Spanish classes and "know" Spanish, but aren't really fluent in it. They know the words, the rules, the grammar, the syntax, etc. but they don't know how to apply their knowledge in real-world situations because they haven't practiced it.

The topics on the MCAT are the same. You may know the formulas and the facts, but you need to be able to apply what you know. This is why you need to do as many practice passages and questions as possible. It builds your fluency in the topics tested on the MCAT. You become familiar with certain question types and automatically know what you have to do.

 

[Bumbl3b33]

Stop stressing out. No one can change your pacing. It's a standardized test; if you have trouble with pacing others do too.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7FyO7-2t6s[/YOUTUBE]

oh Hotshy, you cheeky SOB

Or as you would say, "i don't know why you have to be so rude and inconsiderate to me! :'( :'( :'("

 

[Hotshy]

oh Hotshy, you cheeky SOB

Or as you would say, "i don't know why you have to be so rude and inconsiderate to me! :'( :'( :'("

I'm glad were on the same page now haha.

But in all seriousness just continue to practice I had some trouble with pacing at first, like I would be rushing through the last 1 or 2 passages. I then made it my goal to finish each passage in 8-9 minutes, sometimes going under that amount or above. But by doing that I was able to finish the whole section without rushing through the last 1 or 2 passages.

 

[NickNaylor]

OP, do you spend a significant amount of time on difficult questions? If so, that's probably cutting into your time. The way that I approached the MCAT (and every test, really) is to do complete the test in three passes:

Pass 1 - read the passages completely and answer questions that aren't very difficult and can be answered with very little thinking/digging through passages
Pass 2 - skim passages (if necessary) and answer questions that I didn't get on the first pass but that aren't extremely difficult; this may include questions that require referencing the passages and/or a little problem solving
Pass 3 - answer or guess on the remaining questions

I found that using this method I had about 10-15 minutes after completing pass 1. Pass 2 usually went fairly quickly because I initially found the questions difficult only because I was reading something incorrectly and/or I didn't understand something the first time I went through it. Pass 3 usually took the remaining amount of my time. I would also do some quick double checking while doing pass 3 to make sure I didn't make any careless errors.

 

[Bumbl3b33]

I'm glad were on the same page now haha.

not gonna lie, i felt like **** after you posted that lol i was taking aamc 7 and throughout the ps i was like 'man, i can be a dick for little things!'

def. didn't try out any new timing things lol oh well! c'est la vie et karma

 

[Bumbl3b33]

OP, do you spend a significant amount of time on difficult questions? If so, that's probably cutting into your time. The way that I approached the MCAT (and every test, really) is to do complete the test in three passes:

Pass 1 - read the passages completely and answer questions that aren't very difficult and can be answered with very little thinking/digging through passages
Pass 2 - skim passages (if necessary) and answer questions that I didn't get on the first pass but that aren't extremely difficult; this may include questions that require referencing the passages and/or a little problem solving
Pass 3 - answer or guess on the remaining questions

I found that using this method I had about 10-15 minutes after completing pass 1. Pass 2 usually went fairly quickly because I initially found the questions difficult only because I was reading something incorrectly and/or I didn't understand something the first time I went through it. Pass 3 usually took the remaining amount of my time. I would also do some quick double checking while doing pass 3 to make sure I didn't make any careless errors.

Yea, I do. It's definitely a problem. It irritates me to know there's a question I can't answer. Next FL I take, I'm going to try your method, it seems to make sense from a #s standpoint...thanks!