Postpone Test Date?

[mangotango27]

Hi all,

I'm retaking the MCAT on the July 9th test date but am seriously considering postponing. I took Practice Test 1 at the beginning of the week and scored a 499 (63%,66%,66%,68%). Then I took the NS 1 FL and scored a 504 (67%,58%,67%,75%). Today I took the NS 2 FL and scored a 504 again (67%,81%,67%,55%). I originally scored a 496 on July 18th of last year.

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do in regards to postponing? Or how to bring up the % correct in each section considering I keep getting the same number of questions wrong I didn't want to wait until the end of August to have my entire application submitted, and that will be the case if I postpone. But, I'm not feeling confident about getting up that test score considering I need a MINIMUM of 506 with my GPA. I'm not the best test-taker and am very hit or miss depending on my nerves for the day. Thank you in advance for any help or advice!

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[DocPanda]

I haven't taken the scored, but have done NS 1-4. It seems that the general consensus is that you usually do better on the AAMC scored than the NS. I don't think getting 504 on NS is bad at all. I found NS 2 and 3 to be pretty difficult. You still have 2 weeks to improve. I think at this point, quality over quantity is what's important. By that, I mean taking a FL every day is probably not going to help as much as you thoroughly reviewing and targeting your weak areas. This is what I am doing. I think doing the section bank will be very helpful to get the AAMC style down. Test companies try their best to mimic the AAMC style but it still won't be the same so section banks are probably your best resource. Official guidebook also has 30 questions for each section. I have read that NS scoring is more lenient or maybe on par with AAMC..not sure. I scored similar to your NS scores so after I take the scored FL, I can probably confirm if I did better than NS or not.

 

[beastfromtheeast]

Yeah I agree the section banks seem to be the best resource...

 

[Dolly96]

I'm sort of in your same position. I got a 498 last summer and want nothing below a 505 this time. However, my last NS score was only a 503 (it was NS 3 & my lowest CARS yet). I am taking NS 4 next week and if I don't score at least a 504 on it then I'll postpone. I think it's better to wait a couple weeks or however long you think you need to get up to your goal score. BUT you're right there... I think with these 2 weeks left it's definitely doable. I would base final decision on the AAMC scored.

 

[DocPanda]

I'm sort of in your same position. I got a 498 last summer and want nothing below a 505 this time. However, my last NS score was only a 503 (it was NS 3 & my lowest CARS yet). I am taking NS 4 next week and if I don't score at least a 504 on it then I'll postpone. I think it's better to wait a couple weeks or however long you think you need to get up to your goal score. BUT you're right there... I think with these 2 weeks left it's definitely doable. I would base final decision on the AAMC scored.

When you took your test last summer, what were you scoring on your practice FLs? I'm wondering if a certain percentage right equates to a certain score..I think for P/S it's usually 70% that's around 127.

 

[Dolly96]

When you took your test last summer, what were you scoring on your practice FLs? I'm wondering if a certain percentage right equates to a certain score..I think for P/S it's usually 70% that's around 127.

I only took Kaplan tests last time and I was a little upset after taking the real thing because I had become so used to Kaplan's testing style. The amount of experimental analysis I had on the real thing on BB was seriously so shocking and just felt new to me. My last Kaplan test scores were a 495, 498, 497, and 500.
My AAMC unscored last summer was 53%-83%-71%-71% for CP-CARS-BB-PS.
On the real thing I ended up with 125-124-123-126

What's really been scaring me is how similar my AAMC unscored was this time around: 56%-81%-75%-85%. Ugh. I didn't remember a single question from the first time I took it. It MIGHT be due to taking it after not reviewing major concepts for about 2-3 weeks and reviewing is a big deal for me because I forget everything so easily so I have to constantly be refreshed. I don't know.. maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better haha

 

[DocPanda]

I only took Kaplan tests last time and I was a little upset after taking the real thing because I had become so used to Kaplan's testing style. The amount of experimental analysis I had on the real thing on BB was seriously so shocking and just felt new to me. My last Kaplan test scores were a 495, 498, 497, and 500.
My AAMC unscored last summer was 53%-83%-71%-71% for CP-CARS-BB-PS.
On the real thing I ended up with 125-124-123-126

What's really been scaring me is how similar my AAMC unscored was this time around: 56%-81%-75%-85%. Ugh. I didn't remember a single question from the first time I took it. It MIGHT be due to taking it after not reviewing major concepts for about 2-3 weeks and reviewing is a big deal for me because I forget everything so easily so I have to constantly be refreshed. I don't know.. maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better haha

When are you taking your test? I took the unscored test before I started studying and I took it again after content review..my score went up for everything except B/B so I think you might be missing something for P/C. I don't think the unscored CARS is representative of the difficulty that you will see on the real thing because I felt it was easy and I'm not very good with CARS. What's scaring me now is how you did >70% for B/B and got a 123 on the real thing. I'm afraid that might happen to me since it's my weakest section. You should try NS this time around..I find their P/C to be difficult and after doing Kaplan and NS, NS has more of AAMC feel. It looks like you have the content down for pretty much all the sections so it might benefit to review as you do practice questions. This is what I'm doing right now and it's a great way to review.

 

[Dolly96]

When are you taking your test? I took the unscored test before I started studying and I took it again after content review..my score went up for everything except B/B so I think you might be missing something for P/C. I don't think the unscored CARS is representative of the difficulty that you will see on the real thing because I felt it was easy and I'm not very good with CARS. What's scaring me now is how you did >70% for B/B and got a 123 on the real thing. I'm afraid that might happen to me since it's my weakest section. You should try NS this time around..I find their P/C to be difficult and after doing Kaplan and NS, NS has more of AAMC feel. It looks like you have the content down for pretty much all the sections so it might benefit to review as you do practice questions. This is what I'm doing right now and it's a great way to review.

I'm planning for July 9th depending on how I do on NS-4 next week.
I've already done NS1-3:
NS1 126-125-125-126 (502)
NS2 124-126-125-125 (500)
NS3 126-123-126-128 (503)

Honestly, I took it after only barely breaking a 500 on Kaplan last time because I looked so much into these score predictors... I was certain I'd break a 500 on the real thing. Well, it turned out to be so wrong and it crushed me. I expected BB to be my highest (or at least 2nd) score but it turned out to be my lowest. I wish I knew why.

Try your best not to depend or worry TOO much on predicting your scores. All we can really do is try out best and hope it translates into what we want on test day.

 

[DocPanda]

I'm planning for July 9th depending on how I do on NS-4 next week.
I've already done NS1-3:
NS1 126-125-125-126 (502)
NS2 124-126-125-125 (500)
NS3 126-123-126-128 (503)

Honestly, I took it after only barely breaking a 500 on Kaplan last time because I looked so much into these score predictors... I was certain I'd break a 500 on the real thing. Well, it turned out to be so wrong and it crushed me. I expected BB to be my highest (or at least 2nd) score but it turned out to be my lowest. I wish I knew why.

Try your best not to depend or worry TOO much on predicting your scores. All we can really do is try out best and hope it translates into what we want on test day.

You have an upward trend on your NS so I think you'll be just fine (NS 2 felt really hard for me too..I dropped 5 points from NS1). Not sure if you took your scored test already, but don't forget about that one. I don't have any way to predict my score so I'm just going by scoring a certain percent correct consistently as a good sign. Going to take the scored test sometime this week and hope for the best.