Please read....need advice ASAP

[xbowers003]

Hey everyone,

I just took AAMC 10 and scored a 23. I am completely devestated. I took AAMC 7 approximately 2 months ago as a diagnostic and scored 21. For the two months inbetween, I did content review and practice. But it honestly has helped only minimally apparently.

My Mcat is on July 24th, which is less than 3 weeks away. I worked so hard over the two months. I studied for 10+ hours a day most days. I have no idea what to do, or where I went wrong. I feel like if I reschedule my MCAT until August, my application will be so late it wont even matter for all the schools I applied to.

Did I obviously not do enough practice? Any thoughts on what to do?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deleted480308]

reschedule....if you studied 2 months of 10hr days and have a 23 you have some issues you need to work out. Either you are studying innefficiently or you aren't learning the format of the test

I don't know how to fix it, but you dont' want a 21

what's your gpa?

 

[Alucard6]

Reschedule, at this pace you will not get around a 28+, which is what you need AT LEAST, but of course you want 30+.

Less than a 10 in PS and BS means lack of content. So with 10+ hours studying, it seems like you are not absorbing the information like you should be. I was in your boat, I studied hard and get a 24 and thought there must be something wrong. I did a complete 180 and took my studying more seriously. I might not have spent as much time, but I actually went out of my way and tried to learn the topics as thoroughly as possible.

For example when I did not understand electrochemistry, here is what I did: I read the TBR chapter, watched Khan Academy, followed by Chad's videos and then did 5 passages on it. I spent almost half a day just on one topic, but because I tried so hard and learned it from many perspectives, I was very comfortable with the information.

What you have to do now is take a step back and do something different, since what you did the past 2 months is not working well.

 

[deleted480308]

+1 to khan academy....not only good mcat prep, but saved me in physics

 

[xbowers003]

Thanks guys for the reply.

My science GPA is 3.81, and overall I have a 3.91. I applied very broadly to both MD and DO programs. But yes I am (of course) aiming for 28+, ideally more than that.

I think at this point there is no reason why I should not reschedule. I would agree that I am not absorbing the content as much as I should now that I think about it. I was too worried about getting through everything as opposed to really bogging down on understanding each concept individually in detail.

Also, would you guys suggest against studying that long each day? Going forward now I may just focus on one topic per day in detail like Alucard said. But I have to admit my brain is fried from studying that much each day. I also have been studying just about everyday, with no breaks. I think thats part of my problem also. I would use days I would work as break days; but I work in the ER and its anything but a relaxing there.

 

[orangetea]

What's your score breakdown?

Anything from 7-10 is really about content review. 10+ is more so your test taking skills and anything below 7 is just "good guessing".

As others have said your best bet is to do content review and just work really hard if you don't want to reschedule.

 

[xbowers003]

For AAMC 10 it was PS7 VR 7 and BS9. It has been a while since I have had any GC or Bio. And I loathe physics. But I think I am going to need to spend more time per topic.

 

[Tradewinds]

Does your studying include timed practice passages?

 

[xbowers003]

Does your studying include timed practice passages?

It does. The timing wasnt an issue for me. My timing was actually just about perfect for each section (except for BS, which I had 5 extra minutes, but I also scored highest in that section).

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

...I did a complete 180 and took my studying more seriously. I might not have spent as much time, but I actually went out of my way and tried to learn the topics as thoroughly as possible.

For example when I did not understand electrochemistry, here is what I did: I read the TBR chapter, watched Khan Academy, followed by Chad's videos and then did 5 passages on it. I spent almost half a day just on one topic, but because I tried so hard and learned it from many perspectives, I was very comfortable with the information.

What you have to do now is take a step back and do something different, since what you did the past 2 months is not working well.

This is BRILLIANT advice. Thoroughly absorb a topic and then master it with passages and a thorough review of the questions and explanations after you are done. Learn material, apply it to questions, master the concepts, and hone you test-taking method. Do this for everything that causes you trouble and take the exam only after you have done this for everything they test.