Reviewing AAMC tests

[JSU]

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Hey everyone, im doing my last AAMC test today (#6) and tomorrow is my last day before the MCAT. I want to do some light review tom. so I was thinking about reviewing the science sections from all of the AAMC tests. Is it worth going over the passages or should I just look at the freestanding questions (as some say they are recycled)?

Thanks!

 

[NickNaylor]

I would look over all of them...

 

[Agent47]

sounds good...I'm actually going over my notes as a light review.. I actuallly have a lab exam tomorrow morning which I have to study now..sucks!! But after that I dont think i'm doing anything tomorrow before the exam! Will pray then cry then eat, sleep cry and pray and KILL THE MCAT!

 

[SN2ed]

General Guidelines for Reviewing:

- Go over EVERY question. Both the ones you got right and the ones you got wrong.
- Reviewing should take 2-3 times longer than taking the timed practice problems.
- If your tests are fluctuating, it is due to the different topics on the various tests. In other words, you have some glaring weaknesses that when targeted, nail you, badly. You have to find out what those weaknesses are because they are evident by your scores. Do NOT dismiss any wrong answer as a "stupid mistake." You made that error for a reason. Go over your tests again.
- You might want to consider making a log for all of your post test results where you work through the questions below. Doing so, you'll be able to easily notice trends.

Some things to go over when reviewing:

1. Why did you get the question wrong? Why did you get the question right?
2. What question and passage types get you?
3. How is your mindset when facing a particular passage?
4. Are you stressed for time?
5. Where are your mistakes happening the most? Are they front loaded? Are they at the end? All over?
6. What was your thought process for both the questions you got right and the ones you got wrong?
7. For verbal, what was the author's mindset and main idea?
8. Did you eliminate all of the answer choices you could from first glance?
ex. You know an answer should be a positive number so you cross out all of the negative number answer choices.
9. What content areas are you weak in?
10. How can you improve so you don't make the same mistake again?

 

[MCAT4life]

because of SN2ed's advice, I always go over and write on a piece of paper all the mistakes that I have made on all the AAMC tests. And I spent last week going over all these mistakes and making sure on the AAMC tests that I could glance at a question and mentally solve it pretty quick. Granted this is more beneficial for the Physical section since even most of the passage problems are more discrete based questions. For bio, i think you can just go through and read the answers and see if you understand the relationship behind it. More important for bio is the reasoning behind questions related to hypothesis testing experiments etc.. I don't have the best recommendation on verbal since I'm not that great on these. I think reading the answer choices would help on verbal, but full in depth verbal review could take a long time if you haven't seen the passages in a while.

 

[JSU]

General Guidelines for Reviewing:

- Go over EVERY question. Both the ones you got right and the ones you got wrong.
- Reviewing should take 2-3 times longer than taking the timed practice problems.
- If your tests are fluctuating, it is due to the different topics on the various tests. In other words, you have some glaring weaknesses that when targeted, nail you, badly. You have to find out what those weaknesses are because they are evident by your scores. Do NOT dismiss any wrong answer as a "stupid mistake." You made that error for a reason. Go over your tests again.
- You might want to consider making a log for all of your post test results where you work through the questions below. Doing so, you'll be able to easily notice trends.

Some things to go over when reviewing:

1. Why did you get the question wrong? Why did you get the question right?
2. What question and passage types get you?
3. How is your mindset when facing a particular passage?
4. Are you stressed for time?
5. Where are your mistakes happening the most? Are they front loaded? Are they at the end? All over?
6. What was your thought process for both the questions you got right and the ones you got wrong?
7. For verbal, what was the author's mindset and main idea?
8. Did you eliminate all of the answer choices you could from first glance?
ex. You know an answer should be a positive number so you cross out all of the negative number answer choices.
9. What content areas are you weak in?
10. How can you improve so you don't make the same mistake again?

Thanks for the advice! Though its probably a bit late to make a log as im taking the test on Thursday. Also, I have already reviewed the tests, this would just be a refresher. I guess ill start with free standings and then do the passages if I have time (as that seems to be the consensus).