science section improvement?????

[sotired]

i seem to be stagnating on the science sections...can't seem to pull above an 11 (low range) - and that was once. i seem to hover from about 20-15 wrong, and i'm wondering how to bring it up. i have been going over my mistakes carefully and most of the other questions, and i'm not sure what else to do.

a lot of people on here seem to be sitting comfortable around 11-13 range in both ps and bs..

any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

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[bkpa2med]

Be happy with an 11.

 

[sotired]

Be happy with an 11.

it only happened once, and i'm skeptical if i can do it again

 

[4s4]

Yes, exact same problem, and 11 happened only once in PS, and my BS score has never gotten above 10. I'm really worried about BS at this point; somehow I don't feel that it's the studying since I've taken most courses pertinent to the material. Anyone have some hints? Thanks!

 

[87138]

Yes, exact same problem, and 11 happened only once in PS, and my BS score has never gotten above 10. I'm really worried about BS at this point; somehow I don't feel that it's the studying since I've taken most courses pertinent to the material. Anyone have some hints? Thanks!

I haven't taken the real thing, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

Learn to use the passages to your advantage. You should be able to quickly recognize a question that's asking something that requires information within the passage, and a question that's really just a free-standing question related to the passage's topic (and can be answered without reading the passage at all, if you have the fundamental knowledge/concepts of that topic down).

There have been too many times where I'll score practice exams and realize the correct answer to a question was practically taken verbatim (or at least fairly obvious) from the passage. In my rush to get through everything, I failed to actually realize this and tried to reason my way through it with only my prior knowledge, which usually led to a flustered guess.

 

[sotired]

do you think the problem might be details? i heard that reviewing flashcards and reminding yourself of the small details (that i may have been overlooking while trying to get my test taking strategy down) might help bump up your score and get the additional points i need.


any thoughts on this?

 

[4s4]

Thanks for the help guys! That might be it, though I just get so bored when I'm looking at Kaplan's stupid flashcards (which I really don't find helpful). I guess I should make my own, though I've never actually done it for school before. I'll marking my BS Kaplan 11 today, so I'll see if there's any improvement. I did try to pay attention more this time =P

 

[doyourealize1]

Know the concepts really well. There's only so much they can ask you, but they ask you to apply them to different situations. For physical sciences, just memorize the equations and be able to recognize very well when certain variables change and what a change in that variable does for the whole system. The AAMC will never throw a passage at you for no random reason...just try to identify the major concepts they're testing and hone in on those concepts when you're answering the questions.

 

[sotired]

Know the concepts really well. There's only so much they can ask you, but they ask you to apply them to different situations. For physical sciences, just memorize the equations and be able to recognize very well when certain variables change and what a change in that variable does for the whole system. The AAMC will never throw a passage at you for no random reason...just try to identify the major concepts they're testing and hone in on those concepts when you're answering the questions.

thanks! i'll put that advice to good use