Reviewing full length practice tests

[MyInitialsAreJC]

Hi - new here. Thanks to everyone for all your help.

So it seems the thing to do is after taking a Full Length AAMC, to go through and review it. To study everything you got right and everything you got wrong.

This seems like a really good idea - but wouldnt it take forever? If it takes ~5 hours to take the practice test under timed conditions, wouldnt i ttake way too long to comb through it? Anyone have any experience on speeding this up?

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[estairella]

The idea behind going through everything is that you will also catch questions where you got the answer right from guessing (or incorrect logic).

The consensus is that you should do it, and I think you can reasonably go through it all in 2-3 hours. So if you have the time and inclination, do it - it can't do anything but help you.

Having said that, I personally don't do it for two reasons:
- I am planning on taking many practice tests; I figure if I do enough, any questions where I use incorrect logic/knowledge, I will eventually screw up on and get a wrong answer
- On the answer sheet, I mark questions I don't follow understand or make a guess on (except rarely for VR, because I'm guessing 50% of the time for it). When I look back at the answers, I check those in addition to any questions I got wrong.

 

[Phillyborn]

On the answer sheet, I mark questions I don't follow understand or make a guess on (except rarely for VR, because I'm guessing 50% of the time for it). When I look back at the answers, I check those in addition to any questions I got wrong.

This is what I did too. Cuts the time of reviewing the answers a lot, plus it keeps you from getting to the Bio and just glancing over things because you want to be done after 3 hours.

 

[mychelle774]

Hey guys, I took the April MCAT and did TPR.

My advice is that you really should take the time to go through every question. I know it's a pain and it will take longer than the actual test but that's how you pinpoint your weaknesses, not just that you didn't know the definition of a word used in the question. If you can get your hands on some annotated answers for the practice tests, read them so you know where you went wrong and how you can get it right next time for questions you missed, and to check that your reasoning was along the lines the answer guide came up with (i.e. you're thinking like the test-makers) for questions you got right/weren't sure of. It's a game of logic mostly, not a test of content.

As far as speeding it up, I couldn't find a way, but I did break up the time it took to go over tests. For example sometimes I did a section at a time, or sometimes I looked at all my completely wrong ones, then my guesses, etc. It kept me busy, but I wasn't begrudging every moment.

 

[EBI831]

I think you just need to go over what you missed and what you guessed on. while taking it put a question mark next to what you guessed on. and as long as you don't miss the whole test(which is a whole other issue), then it shouldn't really takeyou that long and it is super helpful. i've found that it takes and hour max.