Score increased by 10 points in a month?

[Calizboosted76]

Hey everyone, so I have been studying to take this beast of a test for a couple months while taking super heavy course loads. Before beginning to study I took a TPR diagnostic got a 484 (Yikes). I started to do content review and took another TPR practice and got a 484 (disappointing as hell). Continued doing content review and started practice passages and scored a 489 on TPR. I started to become very discouraged. I began reading different strategies on here and doing Qbanks and AAMC material. I took my unscored practice full length yesterday and using the reddit converter scaled my score to a 496 (122, 127,123,124) (lacking in knowledge on my amino acids). Still super discouraged. My testing area was not ideal due to being home with my 6 week old daughter. I finished going over my practice test today and seen a bunch of questions that I have no idea how I missed them because I knew the answers.
My questions are
1. Does anyone have any test taking tips? (Yes one would be to take the test in a quiet environment away from my daughter LOL)
2. Is it feasible to think I can raise my score by at least 10 points or more in a month?

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[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Hey @Calizboosted76 thanks for your question! It's definitely difficult when you are working hard and your scores don't improve as much as expected, but try your best not to let it get you down! The scores on the practice exams aren't as important as learning from them. For example, you realized from your recent practice exam that you don't know amino acids as well as you need to. You want to glean that type of information from every question you miss. If you missed a question because you didn't know the background knowledge necessary to answer it, then note that concept down and go back to your content source and review the topic. Try and reinforce this material with discrete questions to make sure you understand after reading a second time.

I wouldn't say it's impossible to raise your score 10 points in a month, but I don't think that should be the expectation. I would say keep working as hard as you can and then you'll increase your score regardless. The key is now to not only take the practice exams, but to review them extremely thoroughly to see why you're making mistakes and how to correct those mistakes so you ensure you get that type of question correct if you see it on the actual MCAT. Obviously content type questions are easier to review for since you just have to go and restudy the material. However, it's also important to note if you missed questions because you didn't make the right conclusions based off of the passage itself. Sometimes this is faulty understanding of the experiment, or misreading of a figure. For these, make sure to go back and understand how they found the information from the passage to answer the question, or how to properly interpret the specific figures. The more you go back and make sure you understand these things during the review, the better you will get at figuring out the logic behind answering passage based questions.

I hope that is helpful and if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out!! Good luck with studying and I wish you all of the best

 

[Calizboosted76]

Thank you so much for the reply!

 

[Dr.Gains]

Thank you so much for the reply!

With subsection scores <125 it may seem that you might have holes in your content. If I were you I would revisit the content to make sure I have a good grasp on everything and then retackle the AAMC material. Make sure you are using ANKI. A single strong score (510+) is much better than multiple scores. Buckle down, try your best and destroy it the first time. Best of luck to you.

 

[Calizboosted76]

With subsection scores <125 it may seem that you might have holes in your content. If I were you I would revisit the content to make sure I have a good grasp on everything and then retackle the AAMC material. Make sure you are using ANKI. A single strong score (510+) is much better than multiple scores. Buckle down, try your best and destroy it the first time. Best of luck to you.

I appreciate that!