Section Bank Q's are so hard?

[Magyarzorag]

I have about 6 weeks out until my MCAT, and I'm doing section banks now, and they are soo difficult. I know they are supposed to be hard, but what "percentage" is considered good for a 128? I got 68% in P/S despite going over and doing Anki for the 300 pg KA doc. Bio is worse. I got a 52%. I started off really well, getting the first 10 questions right, but then there are some passages where I get every single question wrong (0/6), and many more sections where I get below random guessing (25%). I would say about 65+% of questions I get wrong are not cause of content, but not being able to logically reason out the answer (my IQ is like average).

Are those scores good? Some have said 70% on section banks is equivalent to 130, while others have said the MCAT is similar in difficulty to the SBs

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[907914]

I have about 6 weeks out until my MCAT, and I'm doing section banks now, and they are soo difficult. I know they are supposed to be hard, but what "percentage" is considered good for a 128? I got 68% in P/S despite going over and doing Anki for the 300 pg KA doc. Bio is worse. I got a 52%. I started off really well, getting the first 10 questions right, but then there are some passages where I get every single question wrong (0/6), and many more sections where I get below random guessing (25%). I would say about 65+% of questions I get wrong are not cause of content, but not being able to logically reason out the answer (my IQ is like average).

Are those scores good? Some have said 70% on section banks is equivalent to 130, while others have said the MCAT is similar in difficulty to the SBs

There is no “equivalent” type stuff you can do. If it helps, my first go through on the S bank was 66% in C/P, 71% in P/S, and 64% in BB and I ended up with 131, 129, 131, respectively.

When doing review questions, don’t psych yourself out with the percentages. It isn’t about how many you get right or wrong. It is about what you learn from your mistakes.

 

[MyOdyssey]

There is no “equivalent” type stuff you can do. If it helps, my first go through on the S bank was 66% in C/P, 71% in P/S, and 64% in BB and I ended up with 131, 129, 131, respectively.

When doing review questions, don’t psych yourself out with the percentages. It isn’t about how many you get right or wrong. It is about what you learn from your mistakes.

How many section bank questions did you go through to arrive at those percentages?

Where did you end up percentage wise on the section banks as you neared the actual exam date?

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

The section banks are probably the most difficult material you'll study for the MCAT. The reason why is because probably the thing most of us are weakest at is passage analysis since it's a skill we never really had to learn throughout school. The section banks are very heavy on passage analysis and for that reason, they are an amazing study tool. This will be the best practice you'll get for passage analysis and for that reason you should review it very thoroughly. The scores on them are fairly irrelevant and don't necessarily correlate to a specific score in that section of the MCAT. However, if you thoroughly review them and learn from your mistakes and apply the new information you learn to your AAMC practice exams, then that is the goal. Don't worry about the scores! The key is to learn from it and tweak your strategy to correct your mistakes.

I hope that helps and if you have any questions at all please feel free to ask!

 

[MyOdyssey]

The section banks are probably the most difficult material you'll study for the MCAT. The reason why is because probably the thing most of us are weakest at is passage analysis since it's a skill we never really had to learn throughout school. The section banks are very heavy on passage analysis and for that reason, they are an amazing study tool. This will be the best practice you'll get for passage analysis and for that reason you should review it very thoroughly. The scores on them are fairly irrelevant and don't necessarily correlate to a specific score in that section of the MCAT. However, if you thoroughly review them and learn from your mistakes and apply the new information you learn to your AAMC practice exams, then that is the goal. Don't worry about the scores! The key is to learn from it and tweak your strategy to correct your mistakes.

I hope that helps and if you have any questions at all please feel free to ask!

Is it best to take them under timed or untimed conditions?

Did the AAMC pick out the hardest questions to put into the section banks?

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Is it best to take them under timed or untimed conditions?

Did the AAMC pick out the hardest questions to put into the section banks?

I preferred and suggest doing the first half of each section bank untimed and then the second half timed. The key is to learn how to do the passages and iron out your strategy and then work on the timing secondarily. There is no point in being able to do everything in the right amount of time if you can't get the answers right. However, if I had to pick one way I would do the whole thing untimed and then work on timing on the practice exams.

So the questions themselves aren't necessarily extremely hard, but what I think makes it hard is that it's very heavy on passage analysis, which is a skill most of us just aren't very good at since we didn't really have to practice it in undergrad.

 

[TwoHighways]

I'm feeling your pain. Did 25 from each section this morning (other than CARS, I'm comfortable with where I've scored on two AAMC FL's) and its sobering and really deflating. Honestly, makes me want to step away for the rest of the day to forget about it and regroup and look at it tomorrow, but I really should be using the time I have to study. I know I'm still lacking some content (physics mainly), but 40% on the first 25 chem/phys questions doesn't bode well, even compared to what I had scored on two previous FL's (125).

 

[chemdoctor]

Which section banks? Where?

 

[MyOdyssey]

Which section banks? Where?

AAMC section banks that you can purchase from the AAMC/AMCAS. These contain a sample of the hardest "passage" questions from past MCAT administrations. They are a separate purchase from the question packs and full length exams - both of which also reflect past MCAT questions - that the AAMC also sells.

Selling old MCAT questions is a real profit center apparently!

 

[basophilic]

About 2-3 passages in each science section were very similar in depth to what I saw on SB for the 06/28 exam. Some discretes too were just as detailed. But most real MCAT passages and questions are reflective of the AAMC FLs.

 

[MyOdyssey]

About 2-3 passages in each science section were very similar in depth to what I saw on SB for the 06/28 exam. Some discretes too were just as detailed. But most real MCAT passages and questions are reflective of the AAMC FLs.

What about P/S and CARS passages vis-à-vis the hardest AAMC practice materials?

 

[basophilic]

What about P/S and CARS passages vis-à-vis the hardest AAMC practice materials?

I felt the CARS passages weren't difficult to understand - fairly similar to the AAMC FL CARS. I consistently struggled on the AAMC CARS FLs but this was the one section that went better than I expected on the real deal. I definitely feel I underperformed on the sciences relative to my AAMC FLs.

 

[MyOdyssey]

I felt the CARS passages weren't difficult to understand - fairly similar to the AAMC FL CARS. I consistently struggled on the AAMC CARS FLs but this was the one section that went better than I expected on the real deal. I definitely feel I underperformed on the sciences relative to my AAMC FLs.

What did you use to study for B/B and C/P?

How did you feel about the P/S on the real MCAT?

 

[basophilic]

What did you use to study for B/B and C/P?

How did you feel about the P/S on the real MCAT?

Used TPR and AAMC materials for everything. A little bit of Khan videos for P/S topics I wasn't fully confident on.
Honestly, I feel not very confident on my performances in all 3 sciences, certainly less so than in the FLs. I was averaging about 131 for all 3 sciences in the AAMC FLs but felt <100% on more questions on the real thing than I usually did, especially in the P/S section (which probably had to do with exhaustion and wanting to get outta that place lol). Still, my pacing went properly (15 mins left on each section, just like in practice FLs - I made it a point not to be bogged down on a particular question), so definitely didn't need to random-guess anything and got to double-check my flagged questions.

 

[TwoHighways]

Just finished bio doing 25 questions at a time, broken up over a few days. Ended up at 44%

Discouraging to say the least. I'd say half of the stuff I flat out didn't know. All the lab technique related questions were a really, really sucked. Will review the whole thing again to see how many were stupid mistakes that I should have gotten right, how many I flat out didn't know, and how many were due to poor analysis of passage/charts.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Just finished bio doing 25 questions at a time, broken up over a few days. Ended up at 44%

Discouraging to say the least. I'd say half of the stuff I flat out didn't know. All the lab technique related questions were a really, really sucked. Will review the whole thing again to see how many were stupid mistakes that I should have gotten right, how many I flat out didn't know, and how many were due to poor analysis of passage/charts.

Sorry to hear that. The Section Bank questions represent the hardest questions you will see on the real MCAT. Not all the questions are that hard.

Quick questions: Did you do a lot of lab research as an undergrad? Did you have classes that assigned a lot of research articles and/or tested students on experimental design and technique?

 

[TwoHighways]

Sorry to hear that. The Section Bank questions represent the hardest questions you will see on the real MCAT. Not all the questions are that hard.

Quick questions: Did you do a lot of lab research as an undergrad? Did you have classes that assigned a lot of research articles and/or tested students on experimental design and technique?

Not at all. 52% on Chem/Phys. Sigh. It really feels like a lack of content knowledge than it does passage analysis, and there's simply not enough time between now and August 2nd for me to "get it". I do think that if I can get a good handle on enzyme kinetics/really learn how to manipulate the michaelis menten equation, that would be pretty high yield.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

The section banks are killer. What helped put it in perspective for me is that I was already used to doing questions and passages that were that hard. I went from scoring around 70% on my homework phases to scoring around 70% on my section banks, so there was no shock value. If you studied using materials that are too easy, then SBs are going to feel tougher. Just keep pounding away, it will pay off. Despite rarely getting anything above 80% on any homework phase or SB, I got a 132, 132, and 130 on the C/P, B/B, and P/S.

 

[TwoHighways]

I broke down the missed questions on the biology section bank today and could only attribute 16 incorrect responses to content analysis error vs 32 that I just flat out didn't know. Only seven I could attribute to dumb errors. So yeah, I'm deficient with content and I'm testing in approximately three weeks. Really sucks. I guess it's off to Khan to try to shore up some of these deficiencies. Lab technique stuff, and more in depth knowledge of metabolism are on the agenda.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

I broke down the missed questions on the biology section bank today and could only attribute 16 incorrect responses to content analysis error vs 32 that I just flat out didn't know. Only seven I could attribute to dumb errors. So yeah, I'm deficient with content and I'm testing in approximately three weeks. Really sucks. I guess it's off to Khan to try to shore up some of these deficiencies. Lab technique stuff, and more in depth knowledge of metabolism are on the agenda.

This is exactly what you need to do! It's definitely frustrating to miss problems, but the key is to go back and shore up those areas like you are. These same concepts will keep coming back up as well, so when you learn them well now, you'll get them correct when they show up again. Keep your head up and keep doing what you're doing!! It'll definitely pay off. Definitely reach out if you have any questions!!