SN2ed Study Plan Passage Timing Help

[WhiteCoatSyndrome]

So I started the SN2ed study plan about a week ago (I just finished day 9) and have a couple of concerns with my timing when doing the BR practice passages. I have found thus far I have averaged about 70% on all of the practice passages I have completed, but, depending on the topic, I sometimes overshoot the recommended 7 min mark by less than a minute (maybe 7:30min). I find that I am pushing myself to complete the passages as quickly as possible, but it seems that there are just some topics in which I find myself having to go over a little to complete all of the questions.

Am I on track, and if not does anyone have any tips for how to improve my timing? Is this something that just comes with time? I know I'm early in the schedule, but I want to start to improve now.

Thanks

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[altitude]

So I started the SN2ed study plan about a week ago (I just finished day 9) and have a couple of concerns with my timing when doing the BR practice passages. I have found thus far I have averaged about 70% on all of the practice passages I have completed, but, depending on the topic, I sometimes overshoot the recommended 7 min mark by less than a minute (maybe 7:30min). I find that I am pushing myself to complete the passages as quickly as possible, but it seems that there are just some topics in which I find myself having to go over a little to complete all of the questions.

Am I on track, and if not does anyone have any tips for how to improve my timing? Is this something that just comes with time? I know I'm early in the schedule, but I want to start to improve now.

Thanks

Since you are still at the beginning of your studying, my advice would be to start by giving yourself 7.5 min per passage. Once you begin to comfortably finish passages within that time, decrease the time to 7 min. Once you become comfortable with that, you could go down to 6 min 45 sec, for example. And so on. You don't need to start at your "goal time" right away- you could work towards it. Many people even start TBR passages at over 8 min/passage because they take some time getting used to.

 

[Skizzard]

You should be able to finish General Chemistry/Physics TBR passages in 6.5min or less fairly easily if you have read the chapter. Probably the same for organic chemistry. TBR Biology is a different story, those passages are a killer.

 

[TwinsFan]

Don't start too fast on the passages or you'll never give yourself a chance to think through the material and learn the problem solving technique the first time. Once you learn these "pathways" a bit speed up you timing and push yourself.

I think 10 to 9 to 8.5 to 8 to 7.5 to 7 min is a great strategy to give yourself an opportunity to learn this. Spend about a week at each speed and by 1.5 months (halfway through a 3 month plan) you'll be ready timing wise. Another point of consideration is most practice passages are 7 questions, while the actual MCAT averages just under 6 questions per passage. If you can average 7 minutes per 7 question passage and 1 minute per discrete you'll be completing FL science sections in under 60 minutes with a bit of endurance practice.

 

[V5RED]

Berkeley passages are, on average, 7 questions long. On the real MCAT you will have over 9 minutes to complete a passage of that length. I don't see the point in trying to rush through them as quickly as the S2N plan suggests.

 

[ttothemac]

Berkeley passages are, on average, 7 questions long. On the real MCAT you will have over 9 minutes to complete a passage of that length. I don't see the point in trying to rush through them as quickly as the S2N plan suggests.

Building a fast pace helps a lot.

OP: 7.5 minutes isn't bad for TBR Bio. I was doing the same, and I seem to finish Bio AAMC practice tests with around 20 minutes left over.

 

[Spindrift11B4]

I have it backwards from everyone else it seems. I usually finish TBR Bio passages in 5-6 minutes but the physics and sometimes genchem passages take me 7-8 minutes or more. I think I am just slow with math...