Score Not Improving :(

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letaps

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Hey,

My physical sciences scores has been staying around 10, my verbals scores around 7/8 and my biological sciences around 7/8.

I was wondering what you guys would suggest I do to get all my scores a lot higher (PS and BS around 13 and VR around 11). I am taking the exam on Sept. 13.

Thanks
 
Look at old tests and see EXACTLY what you are missing and why. If on every test, you get equilibrium problems wrong but kinematics right, study equilibrium not kinematics! Chances are, you just don't know everything yet. From my experience, someone able to answer all the flashcards and has a good verbal technique is ready to pull off a 27. Working problems and applying what you know is what will get you to 30+.

And for verbal, try a few things and see why you are getting questions wrong. I have made a huge improvement by anally looking at mistakes I make. I was able to find out that I tend to get creative on questions and try to make wrong answers fit the wrong way. I was able to see that Kaplan's mapping strategy kills me and that high lighting works for me. Verbal prep out there is so hard to apply meaningfully to the MCAT. I worked with a verbal tutor that taught me a lot. My advice though: experiment like you are a scientist by holding things constant and varying one component of a good VR method. Change timing on the passage, change timing on doing answers, Try reading and covering the passage to see if you are falling into traps, try eliminating wrong answers on the sole basis of them being stupid, extreme WITHOUT looking at the passage first. I promise you can almost always eliminate two wrong answers. You and a friend read a passage, spend 5 minutes discussing it, then answer questions.

You should be very excited when one of these approaches gets you more questions right. Now just figure out what component of this got you the right answer like different time distribution, actively thinking about the passage more than usual, going with you gut etc and learn how to apply it to 7 passages in 60 minutes.
 
It can be done. I dunno why exactly he is not getting 13's but there's no reason that he could be getting 5 more points per test if he could master, say, kinematic equations, or a handful from figuring out X. Things like this add up. I would just mix up basic content and practice tests. Just don't make the mistake of only looking at content from here on, always feeling like you don't know something. It's one thing to know the definition of a lewis acid, it's another to get a question right on the MCAT that indirectly requires you to identify one. Mistakes turn into lessons learned when you take tests.
 
Mistakes turn into lessons learned when you take tests.
Agreed. Plus, once you take full lengths it is easy to identify weak spots, learn the relevant content, and remember the material thereafter. For example when I missed a question for not knowing the Doppler Equation, I learned it and haven't forgotten it since 🙂
 
I am in a similar situation. I took the Kaplan Advantage class two times.
I read all of the Kaplan books and took notes on them. Then I took ALL of the AAMC tests and scored between 26 and 29. I took the MCAT in March and scored a 23 =(

Then, I retook the Kaplan class and did full length Kaplan practice tests. These are my Kaplan scores:

29 (PS 10 VB 8 BS 11)
27 (PS 10 VB 8 BS 9)
26 (PS 10 VB 6 BS 10)
28 (PS 11 VB 6 BS 11)
27 (PS 8 VB 9 BS 10)
33 (PS 9 VB 11 BS 13)
27 (PS 9 VB 8 BS10)
30 (PS 11 VB 10 PS 11)
26 (PS 9 VB 7 PS 9)

AAMC# 3 : 27 (PS 9 VB 8 BS 10)

I am taking the MCAT on July 2nd. 🙁

PLEASE give me some advice! I have been studying my butt off and I am not really improving. My goal is a 30.
 
I am in a similar situation. I took the Kaplan Advantage class two times.
I read all of the Kaplan books and took notes on them. Then I took ALL of the AAMC tests and scored between 26 and 29. I took the MCAT in March and scored a 23 =(

Then, I retook the Kaplan class and did full length Kaplan practice tests. These are my Kaplan scores:

29 (PS 10 VB 8 BS 11)
27 (PS 10 VB 8 BS 9)
26 (PS 10 VB 6 BS 10)
28 (PS 11 VB 6 BS 11)
27 (PS 8 VB 9 BS 10)
33 (PS 9 VB 11 BS 13)
27 (PS 9 VB 8 BS10)
30 (PS 11 VB 10 PS 11)
26 (PS 9 VB 7 PS 9)

AAMC# 3 : 27 (PS 9 VB 8 BS 10)

I am taking the MCAT on July 2nd. 🙁

PLEASE give me some advice! I have been studying my butt off and I am not really improving. My goal is a 30.

10-12 for the sciences is good enough for most schools, your verbal is killing you. Do some strategic strikes in sciences, if you suck at lenses get lenses down cold, if you suck at the EM spectrum problems, that's worth probably at least 2 questions on the exam, get that down cold. But I would spend most of my time working on verbal, you are doing something wrong on verbal. Figure out why you thought the way you did on the ones you missed, look at the correct answer, read the explanation and try to think like they want you to think.
 
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