Retake Advice

[sharkbyte]

I would appreciate some guidance on retaking. Averaged 38-39 on the AAMCs and crapped the bed with a 30 on the 08/21 test. No idea how that happened because I came out of the exam thinking it went well.

I signed up for a Jan 10 retake. I used the TBR books for physics/gen chem and I also took a TPR classroom course, so I have all TPR materials. I went through pretty much every TBR passage (except for some of the 3rd 1/3s) and I went through a lot of the TPR SW. There are still quite a few passages left in the TPRSW for each subject, but I'm disheartened that I did pretty well on TBR and exhausted the TPR books and still missed my average by 8 points.

What strategies do some of you have that can help me out? Another issue is that I'm taking some difficult science classes this semester so I don't know how I'm going to fit in studying. I already know I'm going to study all-out during winter break but I'm not sure how to study during the semester and what materials to use.

Thanks for any input.

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[Jumb0]

I do not understand how this happens to people. I am currently averaging 33 on the AAMC's, and this just makes me feel terrible. I have heard so many stories like this, where a person averages high thirties on practice exams and then gets low thirties or worse on the real deal. It makes me feel like my average of 33 means I'm gonna get a 27 ...

Please explain what exactly happened? You don't just go from 99% percentile to ~70% without some sort of identifiable issue having happened. Did you freak out during the exam or something? Got overcome by anxiety? Were you sick?
If it really is as you said, and you felt like you did really well and truly have no idea what happened, that is quite odd and alarming.

If you don't mind, would you share your sub-score break down with us? Also, can you say what your sub-score averages were during AAMC practice?

 

[sharkbyte]

The weirdest part is that nothing strange happened. I wasn't sick. I didn't panic at all during the exam. Now, I did feel unsure about more questions than usual on the PS section and I did come out of the exam knowing I got 3-4 wrong on BS. But I didn't think I would drop this much from my FLs. I got 11 on PS, 10 on VR, and 9 on BS. I never got below 12 in either section and I usually hit 14 on AAMC PS and around 13 on AAMC BS.

I actually thought about submitting a rescore request but the chances of that working are almost 0

 

[TBRBiosadist]

42 avg--------->35
felt good about the test, was confidant with over 90% of it.

Loki can be a bitch.

no other explanation

 

[TheDarkNeuron]

I scored 7 points lower than my average on the 8/21 test as well

 

[TheDarkNeuron]

I would appreciate some guidance on retaking. Averaged 38-39 on the AAMCs and crapped the bed with a 30 on the 08/21 test. No idea how that happened because I came out of the exam thinking it went well.

I signed up for a Jan 10 retake. I used the TBR books for physics/gen chem and I also took a TPR classroom course, so I have all TPR materials. I went through pretty much every TBR passage (except for some of the 3rd 1/3s) and I went through a lot of the TPR SW. There are still quite a few passages left in the TPRSW for each subject, but I'm disheartened that I did pretty well on TBR and exhausted the TPR books and still missed my average by 8 points.

What strategies do some of you have that can help me out? Another issue is that I'm taking some difficult science classes this semester so I don't know how I'm going to fit in studying. I already know I'm going to study all-out during winter break but I'm not sure how to study during the semester and what materials to use.

Thanks for any input.

are you taking courses this semester on top of studying? thinking about taking the jan 10 test as well, I just dont know about studying while taking a full course load as well.

 

[sharkbyte]

Yeah I'm taking classes. Two of my classes are neurobiology and anatomy which are hard and require a lot of time. So I feel like I'll only be able to fit in MCAT studying sporadically, like right after midterms are done or something. I'm not sure of what plan to come up with.

 

[TheDarkNeuron]

I'm taking neruobio too I feel your pain, yeah i'm in the same boat - are you planning on applying this cycle or next cycle? im debating on taking the 2015 mcat sonetime in april b/c i will be finished with classes in december

 

[sharkbyte]

I'm applying next cycle. I just don't feel comfortable taking the new MCAT because I have no foundation in psych/soc and I really don't want to take a longer test. If I had taken those classes then I think I might have.