should i give up on chem/phys for the mcat and focus on other things?

[hopeful555]

I have been trying my hardest but no matter what, it seems chem/phys refuses to stop knocking me down. I have taken three practice tests and my scores in chem/phys have gone from 124-125. I am trying kaplans adaptive question bank and i do ten problems at a time. Out of those ten, I only manage to get three right at best. Should i just give up on the chem/phys and focus on other things? I really dont want to but im getting incredibly frustrated and upset about it.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[OchemOficionado]

Definitely don’t give up. Keep at it as well as focusing on the other sections. If it were easy the average MCAT score would be much higher.

 

[deleted915153]

Giving up really isn't an option if you want to get into medical school. What was your grade when you took your chem/physics classes? The material is similar, and if you aren't understanding concepts take advantage of resources. Use youtube/your professors to understand concepts, and THEN use the practice book/attempt questions.

 

[IdkwhatIshouldput]

You should on average get 2.5 right if you fill in random bubbles. So it seems like you are just guessing. I think reviewing would help you a lot more than just blindly taking practice tests.

 

[tditt21]

When are you taking the MCAT? about 3 months before I took it I was in your same situation. Go through the AAMC Official guide to the MCAT literally go through each bullet point. Write out definitions and formulas, the rewrite them, then do practice questions with the formulas written out, then start doing them without the formulas and definitions in front of you. You’ll get it, and then you’ll crush that section on the real exam!!

 

[hopeful555]

Giving up really isn't an option if you want to get into medical school. What was your grade when you took your chem/physics classes? The material is similar, and if you aren't understanding concepts take advantage of resources. Use youtube/your professors to understand concepts, and THEN use the practice book/attempt questions.

I got an A in all my chem and physics classes

 

[hopeful555]

You should on average get 2.5 right if you fill in random bubbles. So it seems like you are just guessing. I think reviewing would help you a lot more than just blindly taking practice tests.

i mean i am definitely not randomly guessing, i am trying my hardest. Some of the questions that Kaplan asks on their questions banks are random and really hard. my biggest issue is that i cannot seem to answer these question on practice exams in the context of a passage

 

[hopeful555]

i mean i am definitely not randomly guessing, i am trying my hardest. Some of the questions that Kaplan asks on their questions banks are random and really hard. my biggest issue is that i cannot seem to answer these question on practice exams in the context of a passage

plus i have to take practice tests now, my mcat is in a month and a half

 

[hopeful555]

When are you taking the MCAT? about 3 months before I took it I was in your same situation. Go through the AAMC Official guide to the MCAT literally go through each bullet point. Write out definitions and formulas, the rewrite them, then do practice questions with the formulas written out, then start doing them without the formulas and definitions in front of you. You’ll get it, and then you’ll crush that section on the real exam!!

my mcat is in a month and a half...i need to get a 509 to stay in a program i am in..would it be better to push my date back?

 

[Doctor Dream]

Have you tried any AAMC material yet? I took the MCAT in 2015 but I remember Kaplan practice tests were both tough and gave out pretty deflated scores. A lot of people ended up scoring way higher on the real (myself included) than they did on their practice Kaplan exams. It's easy to feel defeated if all you're using is Kaplan, let the AAMC material be your gauge if anything.

 

[hopeful555]

Have you tried any AAMC material yet? I took the MCAT in 2015 but I remember Kaplan practice tests were both tough and gave out pretty deflated scores. A lot of people ended up scoring way higher on the real (myself included) than they did on their practice Kaplan exams. It's easy to feel defeated if all you're using is Kaplan, let the AAMC material be your gauge if anything.

I haven't really looked at the AAMC as of yet. I hope to soon. So far I've gotten a 502,501 and a 504 on Kaplan practice tests but Idk how much of a difference there would even be with AAMC, since I seem to have zero reasoning skills. I feel like I know nothing/have done no content review

 

[ciestar]

You absolutely cannot give up if you want a good score. However, don’t neglect other stuff because of it.

My personal anecdote: i sucked at physics. I literally said at one point I quit and stopped studying for over a week because of it. Got an 11 on that section so I pushed through and did well!

 

[hopeful555]

You absolutely cannot give up if you want a good score. However, don’t neglect other stuff because of it.

My personal anecdote: i sucked at physics. I literally said at one point I quit and stopped studying for over a week because of it. Got an 11 on that section so I pushed through and did well!

How did u prepare for it??

 

[ciestar]

How did u prepare for it??

At lot of practice passages. Kaplan provided them then for specific subjects, I imagine they still do. The Berkeley Review for physics was even more helpful than kaplan was.

 

[Doctor Dream]

I haven't really looked at the AAMC as of yet. I hope to soon. So far I've gotten a 502,501 and a 504 on Kaplan practice tests but Idk how much of a difference there would even be with AAMC, since I seem to have zero reasoning skills. I feel like I know nothing/have done no content review

Those scores are right in line with what a lot of people on SDN were getting, at least a few years ago, and I'm guessing Kaplan still deflates their scores. It sounds like you're actually in a good place and just need a confidence boost. Try taking an AAMC full length in the near future and see what happens. Every company tries to mimic the real deal, but no one writes better prep material than the people that write the exam.

 

[Lucca]

Couple of thoughts:

1. Probably some major content deficits you might not be aware of. If you haven’t gone down to content checklist AAMC provides for the section, make sure you’ve at least reviewed all that content.

2. What’s your overall practice score? Consider pushing back if you know you’re not ready.

3. Practice, practice. The secret is to practice so much that you recognize the “type” of questions the test throws at you.

4. Reading comprehension. Are you getting the free-answer questions right but the passage questions wrong? Sounds like an issue with reading comprehension or data interpretation. You can work on that too by practicing and using the 7 Sage Blind Review method. During the step where you give yourself infinite time for each question, comb through the passage carefully and attempt to understand why you made a mistake. Familiarize yourself closely with the classical experiments: kinematics and trajectories, radio-labeled carbón chasing in synthesis, Lineweaver-Burke plots, recognizing different types of decay immediately, etc etc... so that when you see a type of graph or experiment you know exactly what you’re looking at

 

[lordolah]

Don’t skimp out on content review. Utilize AAMC resources. Always review why you missed a question and what you need to know/do to get it right next time.

 

[treatem-and-streetem]

Don't give up! Chem/Phys is the one section where they can only ask the same question in so many different variants. This means if you do enough practice exams and questions you will improve! I did tons of practice on chem/phys when it was my weakest section and it became one of my highest scores on the actual MCAT.

 

[IdkwhatIshouldput]

Oh, I didn't know you were using Kaplan. They are much harder than the actual MCAT... Like others said before AAMC is a much better gauge for the real MCAT.

 

[hopeful555]

Don’t skimp out on content review. Utilize AAMC resources. Always review why you missed a question and what you need to know/do to get it right next time.

yeah i always do that, and it really helps, since i rarely miss these types of questions again

 

[hopeful555]

Don't give up! Chem/Phys is the one section where they can only ask the same question in so many different variants. This means if you do enough practice exams and questions you will improve! I did tons of practice on chem/phys when it was my weakest section and it became one of my highest scores on the actual MCAT.

thank u! i do try to do as many practice question as possible when i can. I am struggling now to decide whether my test date should be moved.. i need a 509. my last practice was a 504 (hoeevr i had to take occasional one min pauses during some of the sections). either way, i have been studying during the school year since January. however i feel like i actually have not studied. i reead all the books, took a course, and yet it felt like when i read i am not absorbing much.. i review when i can yet i still have to maintain my gpa so idk if it is better to move this test back??

 

[freedoctor17]

thank u! i do try to do as many practice question as possible when i can. I am struggling now to decide whether my test date should be moved.. i need a 509. my last practice was a 504 (hoeevr i had to take occasional one min pauses during some of the sections). either way, i have been studying during the school year since January. however i feel like i actually have not studied. i reead all the books, took a course, and yet it felt like when i read i am not absorbing much.. i review when i can yet i still have to maintain my gpa so idk if it is better to move this test back??

After you take an AAMC exam if you score lower than what you're aiming for then maybe you should push it back. For now though keep working hard on more practice and review each question thoroughly. Kaplan is definitely much more deflated than AAMC. I took 3 kaplan exams and my scores on the AAMC ones were 5-10 points higher than any of my kaplan exams so keep that in mind.

 

[MedicalDoge]

I haven't really looked at the AAMC as of yet. I hope to soon. So far I've gotten a 502,501 and a 504 on Kaplan practice tests but Idk how much of a difference there would even be with AAMC, since I seem to have zero reasoning skills. I feel like I know nothing/have done no content review

Dude(tte), I am not saying this is 100% the reason for the low scores, but Kaplan deflated my scores DRAMATICALLY. Try an AAMC practice packet/test before you start to worry. My Kaplan scores were all in the low 500's, then I got a 511 on the first AAMC practice test. The Kaplan question packs are also ridiculously over-detailed. So try AAMC

 

[tditt21]

my mcat is in a month and a half...i need to get a 509 to stay in a program i am in..would it be better to push my date back?

No way don't push you date back! But you have to be confident that you'll do well. First review ALL the material that AAMC lists in the guide, then do the question banks and passage sets with the answers available so that you can check as you go and keep a notebook of what you don't know so that you can review later. Last, disregard any scores that kaplan gives you. If anything, their test are only good to practice test endurance but otherwise their tests are garbage and absolutely NOT representative of the real test in terms of format and difficulty. You'll have to put in the time, but you can get it!