Practice/Diagnostic Test

[Sneaky Sloth]

Hi,

So I am a third-year Neuroscience major here at UCR and obviously, I plan to go to medical school. Basically, I am posting this here in an effort to gain some criticism/feedback about a recent diagnostic MCAT that I took by The Princeton Review.

In short, my score was 494. However, I have not completely finished the Physics series (2 more quarters), have not taken Psychology or Sociology, and I have not taken Biochemistry either. There is a part of me that is highly concerned with my score (roughly 35 percentile?), but there is also a part of me that realizes that I wasn't fully prepared for this exam. So essentially I am here to get your guys' input and see what my thought process should really be.

For reference, my overall GPA is a 3.88 and my science GPA is 3.92 and I am active in research and scribing. This test was definitely harder than I imagined and was a confidence check for sure. Hopefully, by the end of my studying, I will score a 512+ when I take the test in May.

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[BoneBroCO]

Did you do any kind of studying before taking the diagnostic? If not, then a 494 is nothing to be worried about.

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

Did you do any kind of studying before taking the diagnostic? If not, then a 494 is nothing to be worried about.

Hi,

No, I did not study at all. I have been out of school for a few months (quarter system) so I got bored and wanted to start preparing. I figured that taking a practice test was the start.

 

[BoneBroCO]

Hi,

No, I did not study at all. I have been out of school for a few months (quarter system) so I got bored and wanted to start preparing. I figured that taking a practice test was the start.

Okay yeah, then I don't think that you should be worried at all. I know plenty of people who score in the 480's on a diagnostic and end with a 510+. You still have to put the work in to get there, but it's definitely possible!

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Unlike SAT/ACT, taking MCAT diagnostic test before taking required classes is pointless as per SDN wisdom.

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

Okay yeah, then I don't think that you should be worried at all. I know plenty of people who score in the 480's on a diagnostic and end with a 510+. You still have to put the work in to get there, but it's definitely possible!

awesome that is fantastic news, takes the worry off to be honest

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

Unlike SAT/ACT, taking MCAT diagnostic test before taking required classes is pointless as per SDN wisdom.

can you elaborate on that?

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

can you elaborate on that?

MCAT is like SAT subject tests, without taking bio/chem/organic chem/bio chem etc.. or self studying them, there is no use of diagnostic tests.

 

[lull]

TPR and other 3rd party tend to score lower than aamc. The best diagnostic is the aamc practice material.

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

MCAT is like SAT subject tests, without taking bio/chem/organic chem/bio chem etc.. or self studying them, there is no use of diagnostic tests.

ah yes makes sense thank you

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

TPR and other 3rd party tend to score lower than aamc. The best diagnostic is the aamc practice material.

oh ya definitely, I bought the AAMC tests but I am just waiting til I started studying to take it

 

[BoneBroCO]

oh ya definitely, I bought the AAMC tests but I am just waiting til I started studying to take it

I would HIGHLY recommend not wasting AAMC material until the month before your test.

 

[TheBoranIdentity]

Also Kaplan and those companies have VERY specific questions that are sometimes supposed to be harder so that you buy their prep material. Not all of the questions, obviously, but just be aware of that!

 

[lull]

oh ya definitely, I bought the AAMC tests but I am just waiting til I started studying to take it

There’s a youtube channel called medbros where they go over how to use the aamc qbanks to make practice test that I recommend watching. Often times people will take all the q banks at once instead of splitting them up to make FL in addition to the ones they give you. Splitting them up will end up giving you enough aamc practice tests that you could take one every other day for a month. But yeah definitely save the official FLs for the end.

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

I would HIGHLY recommend not wasting AAMC material until the month before your test.

oh yes 100% i wont, i was going to make that mistake initially, then I realized that is a terrible idea

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

Also Kaplan and those companies have VERY specific questions that are sometimes supposed to be harder so that you buy their prep material. Not all of the questions, obviously, but just be aware of that!

thats good to hear, thank you. I already committed to TBR so I wont be buying any other materials right now

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

There’s a youtube channel called medbros where they go over how to use the aamc qbanks to make practice test that I recommend watching. Often times people will take all the q banks at once instead of splitting them up to make FL in addition to the ones they give you. Splitting them up will end up giving you enough aamc practice tests that you could take one every other day for a month. But yeah definitely save the official FLs for the end.

oooo thats smart, I will look into that. I bought the complete online module thing from the AAMC so I bet I can make many practice tests. Thank you so much!

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Take your scores from any tests that aren't official AAMC practice tests with a grain of salt. Because they have no real way to scale their exams, the scores don't mean very much. The best way to use those practice tests are as content review and a way to build mental endurance for the real thing.

Additionally, psychology, sociology, and biochemistry are three of the most heavily tested topics on the MCAT. Biochemistry takes up a big portion of the C/P section as well as the B/B, and psych/soc have a whole section to themselves. Don't worry about it- you just don't have the foundation yet.

 

[Sneaky Sloth]

Take your scores from any tests that aren't official AAMC practice tests with a grain of salt. Because they have no real way to scale their exams, the scores don't mean very much. The best way to use those practice tests are as content review and a way to build mental endurance for the real thing.

Additionally, psychology, sociology, and biochemistry are three of the most heavily tested topics on the MCAT. Biochemistry takes up a big portion of the C/P section as well as the B/B, and psych/soc have a whole section to themselves. Don't worry about it- you just don't have the foundation yet.

thank you so much!

 

[mvsrocks]

I think the first thing you should do before studying is to take the AAMC diagnostic test (Sample test) and use online score converters. From there, you can get a sense of your weaknesses and study accordingly. If you run out of practice exams, apparently UWorld makes very good ones.

Also, in my experience, Kaplan and TPR practice exams are quite a bit harder than the actual MCAT (with their score conversion), so I'd only trust scores from the official AAMC material.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Hey, thanks for your question! Nothing to be worried about! I had a student that scored a 486 on the diagnostic and ended up with a 516 on the real exam. The diagnostic is not meant to tell you where you will end up, but just where you are starting. Most people take it having done no mcat studying and as a result score lower than their expectations. I would just see it as a starting point to measure progress against as you study. The diagnostic has no bearing on what your final score could be as long as you study hard and follow a schedule to complete content review and do ample practice. No single exam is comprehensive enough to tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are anyway, so I would start studying from scratch regardless of what the diagnostic paints as your strengths and weaknesses.

Also, I would not recommend using any AAMC material early in your studying schedule. That is definitely the most representative material, and for that reason you don't want to use it early on when you're still working on learning baseline concepts for the MCAT.

I hope that helps and if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out!