Serious Help Needed - how do you avoid careless mistakes?

[supertrooper66]

that is my main problem holding me back on my MCAT. I am retaking it July 10th, so I have like 3.5 weeks left. I've reviewed all the material (minus organic but that'll be reviewed over next few days, no prob) and am just taking practice tests now. i just took the TBR CBT#1 and my mistakes on BS are careless. i don't look at the answers close enough and miss vital things to get the correct answer. so basically, i keep getting tricked.

if I had unlimited time, I'm sure many of these mistakes would be reduced. I have a serious problem as a slow test-taker, though, so to make sure I finish I time each science passage at 6 min/passage. this was vital to do because the reason I got an 8 on PS on my 4/5 test was because I ran out of time and had to guess on like 7 of the last questions *sigghh*. with my new timing strategy, I have at least 5 min left over in both PS and BS. even before when I ran out of time, i would still make careless mistakes. sooo, I don't know.

the obvious answer is to watch out for tricks more closely and be more meticulous with analyzing each question. i have 3.5 weeks just for practice, so that's enough time to work on this. i just need some good advice on how to train myself to be more meticulous. i just don't know any good methods to fix my problem.

please don't say "you don't know your content, that's why." i would maybe buy that argument for my first MCAT since i only reviewed physics twice and general chem once while i didn't touch any bio or organic (thought my bio major would cover me). at this point for the retake, I reviewed all the physics again, gen. chem twice, all the bio once, and just started on the ochem. the ochem won't take very long, though, i just need a refresher. besides, there's only gonna be 1 ochem passage on my test anyway. i know the material well enough, i just need a way to pay more attention to the answers and avoid getting tricked!

help? thanks

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[Cumberland_Doc]

Are you skimming too fast? How quickly are you done with passages and moving onto questions?

 

[supertrooper66]

Are you skimming too fast? How quickly are you done with passages and moving onto questions?

i haven't timed how long i'm reading passages. i just try to finish an entire passage + the questions associated with it in 6 minutes.

 

[Cumberland_Doc]

There's 7 passages overall in bio, right? So, slow your tempo down just a hair. I'd take 7-7.5 minutes, giving an extra minute to reading a little slower and more detailed. Try timing it to get used to it. Between passages take a 5 second pause.

 

[ChemGrad08]

Have you tried caffiene? or some other form of focus-aid (nicotine, addirol (I'm not really recommending anything illegal)). When I started drinking a cup of coffee before my exams my practice score went up about 5-6 pnts just because I stopped making errors in focus. I also think it's important to recreate the testing environment effectively make sure you're sitting at a desk, in regular clothes and those sorts of things. Those would be my thoughts.

 

[cateyezz]

i spent ten min on each passage max....and i didnt let the nasty ones bother me...i used to move on and come back to those that i didnt like...it gave me time to do the ones that i new how to do...i wud when u are answering...dont look at the answer choices...answer the question first, then look for the answer that matches urs...however, look at ALL the options...if there is an option that does seem rite...dont disregard it....think about why it COULD be right or wrong....go back to the passage and look for clues....they will tell u in some way that they want u thinking on a certain track...look for that pattern in ur passages....it carries over in the question and helps u eliminate the wrong ones

 

[engineeredout]

I feel for you, I have the same problem when going through practice problems. The overwhelming majority of questions that I get wrong are not due to a lack of knowledge but just due to missing something in the question stem or the passage and blowing the question.

Damn mcat.

 

[ldnk]

Save one or two exams for a few days before the actual MCAT.

After you finish an exam. Go back over it as if you had endless time to answer each question. You already know what the questions are, and most likely what the answer will be, but focus on looking at the relevant material in each question.

If there is a corresponding passage. Read through the passage, and after each sentence, ask yourself whether the information was relevant or not. I think what you will find about most of the passage material, is that the key points tend to pop out in the end. You can save a lot of trouble and time by just getting good at reading the short information passages.

When it comes to the actual questions, make the decision on whether not answering the last 3-4 questions will be better than rushing through and making a mistake or two. If you are losing 6-7 marks because you mess up too many questions, then concede that you wont get perfect on a section and prioritize to make sure you don't make stupid mistakes within each section.

The MCAT is general science knowledge, but that doesn't mean that you are supposed to get them all right even if you do know it anyway. The average marks end up around 26 for a reason.

 

[JRIAT16]

I had the same problem as you. I could NOT stop making stupid errors. For me, what helped the most was to focus on not doing it. Every question I finished, I asked myself if that was a reasonable answer. I asked myself if I had read the question and answer choices correctly. If you are conscious of it the whole time, it will help eliminate those errors. Dont just cruise through and assume that it will fix itself. Focus on not making such mistakes on every question. good luck.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

Have you tried caffiene? or some other form of focus-aid (nicotine, addirol (I'm not really recommending anything illegal)). When I started drinking a cup of coffee before my exams my practice score went up about 5-6 pnts just because I stopped making errors in focus. I also think it's important to recreate the testing environment effectively make sure you're sitting at a desk, in regular clothes and those sorts of things. Those would be my thoughts.

I've found this similar, for one practice AAMC test when my focus was "off" (I wasn't psyched enough) my score was 2 points lower than the test I took before or after.

Caffeine may work, I kind of get myself into the zone by closing my eyes, shutting everything else out, focusing for maybe 5 seconds, and just trying to be 100% "there". If my mind wanders, I'll look away or shut my eyes & refocus before coming back to the section or questions.

In my experience, there's insufficient time to review anything, so the answer's got to be right 1st time. I do also eyeball the other "wrong" answers to try to check my logic, and review all answers on the AAMC practice tests to make sure I understand why some of my answers were wrong.

 

[SN2ed]

The only way I can think of to help eliminate careless mistakes would occur in the analysis of your practice material. Every question you miss because of a careless mistake, find out EXACTLY why you made that mistake. What was going through your head? Where you rushing? Did the author try to pull any tricks? What strategy were you implementing? Find out the cause and you can slowly get rid of dumb errors that you should have caught.

 

[engineeredout]

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but when I'm stuck between two answer choices I ALWAYS seem to choose the WRONG choice. I should probably just go against my instincts and pick the opposite answer.

 

[prudvi]

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but when I'm stuck between two answer choices I ALWAYS seem to choose the WRONG choice. I should probably just go against my instincts and pick the opposite answer.

I feel the same way. I am going to pick one (of the two) that I fell is wrong. May be that will help me.