So i freak out during practice tests...

[Ari1584]

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i am re-taking my mcat, and last time i studied, i would freak out during practice tests many times, and as soon as i saw i was running out of time, i would stop the section and leave the test and then start over again a few hours later. I thought i would be over this by now considering my last test was in sept, and today i just took another full length and did the SAME thing. I dont know how to stop! I feel like i am mentally psyching myself out and for one problem, i stared at it for like 1.5 minutes and finally realized i added my exponents wrong. Did anyone have this issue while practice test taking...and what can i do to fix it???

 

[sina_yn]

i thinkl urt psyching urself out.....
in my opinion take 2 or 3 practice test and dont time them at all just go through the test with a reasonalbe past and FINISH all the sections, verbal phys writin and bio.

next i would take another practice test and just time urself to see how much you went over again not really timing urself, just estimating if that past is waaay too slow or a bit slower

then start timing urself. i think pt of takin practice test is to also get a feel for the whole 6hrz sitting and takin the test, plus u dont have the luxury to get up in the real thing and come back to it

soonce u start timing urself try to def finish, i would even take 5 minout of my time to relax before goin back to the test all freaked out.... plus first time urself for each section instead of 8 min per passage kinda thing, after a while go back to see if u can improve by timing passages

hope that helps
gl

 

[BlueElmo]

Concentrate on the test and think about nothing else. Keep moving on and try not to obsessivley look at that little clock on the bottom. Don't get stuck on one problem, and you should be fine.

 

[0Complications]

I have had some timing issues in the past, so I can relate to how frustrating that can be. But the first thing you need to do is realize that closing down the exam is NOT going to help you. Just finish it out. Who cares if you finish or not. Think about it this way, are you really that much worse for the ware after your last real MCAT? Probably not. You didn't get cattle prodded for not finishing on time or not getting the score you wanted. Noone made fun of you or ridiculed you for not getting what you wanted. All that happened is you got a score that wasn't what you wanted so now you're going to take the exam again, already more prepared than you were last time because you've already sat for the real deal!

With that in mind, relax. You're taking this exam for yourself, noone else. So treat it that way. Don't freak out if you're not where you want to be timing wise, just FINISH the exam and try to devise a plan that will allow you to finish CLOSER to the time you want the next time. Improvement doesn't happen overnight, so don't be too hard on yourself when you aren't having an immediate improvement. Compare your progress weely or biweekly rather than daily. This way you'll be able to see the improvements being made.

Some suggestions for you:

1) Relax, take a deep breath.
2) Think about what you are doing that is causing your timing to be out of sinc with what you want (eg. Spending a minute and a half on basic math)
3) Make a timeline - I do this now with every practice exam and it's effects were immediate. I break the exam into thirds and only check the clock at those times to see if I'm close (if not I speed up, if I'm ahead of schedule I just keep up my pace). For example, in the PS section I'll want to be on Q #20 by 25 mins, 40 by 50 mins, then for the last 12 q's and review of marked questions I have 20 mins left. It's helped out immensely. For Verbal I was always having problems finishing the last passage, so I break verbal up by passages 1-3, 4-6, and 7 with at least 8 mins left.
4) Don't linger on answers. You might not know everything you're asked and if you don't know something or it's not coming to you in the first fifteen to twenty seconds, take a guess, mark it and move on. This feels aweful when you first start doing it, but then you realize you have more time for questions you DO know the answers to and you don't miss any easy ones. This will allow you to have time to go back to the questions you marked and give them a sporting effort.

Finally, relax. You'll be fine. Just finish the exams and keep improving, which you will if you keep finishing.

Also, with the amount of stress it sounds like you're putting on yourself, you should really try to get into some type of exercise routine. If you are already exercising, you should maybe get into some type of Yoga or work out a little harder when you're at the gym (This should be STRESS FREE YOU TIME). This stress you're experiencing is going to carry over into multiple aspects of your life and affect them all adversely if you don't figure out a way to manage it now (but don't stress about managing it🙂, just learn what works for you).

Good luck. If you have any additional questions about time management on the exam feel free to let me know, because I've tried a lot of techniques. 🙂

 

[Ari1584]

thank you so much for some feedback! i will definitely take everyone's advice into consideration. Now ANOTHER problem i have is that i talk myself out of EASY answers...answers that i KNOW are right but for some reason come up with a way to pick a diff one. For example, there was a question about what happens to a person's weight when he moves 3 times further away from earth's center. Easy, right? Yes. Of course we all know it decreases by 9...but for SOME reason, i convinced myself that G stays the same because its the "universal gravitational constant" and is the same for the universe. I totally confused it at the last second with a passage i had in TBR that asked about G and not about weight. That was an EASY EASY point that i got wrong. How do i stop these stupid mistakes!!??🙁

 

[tiedyeddog]

I have had some timing issues in the past, so I can relate to how frustrating that can be. But the first thing you need to do is realize that closing down the exam is NOT going to help you. Just finish it out. Who cares if you finish or not. Think about it this way, are you really that much worse for the ware after your last real MCAT? Probably not. You didn't get cattle prodded for not finishing on time or not getting the score you wanted. Noone made fun of you or ridiculed you for not getting what you wanted. All that happened is you got a score that wasn't what you wanted so now you're going to take the exam again, already more prepared than you were last time because you've already sat for the real deal!

With that in mind, relax. You're taking this exam for yourself, noone else. So treat it that way. Don't freak out if you're not where you want to be timing wise, just FINISH the exam and try to devise a plan that will allow you to finish CLOSER to the time you want the next time. Improvement doesn't happen overnight, so don't be too hard on yourself when you aren't having an immediate improvement. Compare your progress weely or biweekly rather than daily. This way you'll be able to see the improvements being made.

Some suggestions for you:

1) Relax, take a deep breath.
2) Think about what you are doing that is causing your timing to be out of sinc with what you want (eg. Spending a minute and a half on basic math)
3) Make a timeline - I do this now with every practice exam and it's effects were immediate. I break the exam into thirds and only check the clock at those times to see if I'm close (if not I speed up, if I'm ahead of schedule I just keep up my pace). For example, in the PS section I'll want to be on Q #20 by 25 mins, 40 by 50 mins, then for the last 12 q's and review of marked questions I have 20 mins left. It's helped out immensely. For Verbal I was always having problems finishing the last passage, so I break verbal up by passages 1-3, 4-6, and 7 with at least 8 mins left.
4) Don't linger on answers. You might not know everything you're asked and if you don't know something or it's not coming to you in the first fifteen to twenty seconds, take a guess, mark it and move on. This feels aweful when you first start doing it, but then you realize you have more time for questions you DO know the answers to and you don't miss any easy ones. This will allow you to have time to go back to the questions you marked and give them a sporting effort.

Finally, relax. You'll be fine. Just finish the exams and keep improving, which you will if you keep finishing.

Also, with the amount of stress it sounds like you're putting on yourself, you should really try to get into some type of exercise routine. If you are already exercising, you should maybe get into some type of Yoga or work out a little harder when you're at the gym (This should be STRESS FREE YOU TIME). This stress you're experiencing is going to carry over into multiple aspects of your life and affect them all adversely if you don't figure out a way to manage it now (but don't stress about managing it🙂, just learn what works for you).

Good luck. If you have any additional questions about time management on the exam feel free to let me know, because I've tried a lot of techniques. 🙂

This is awesome advice! 🙂

 

[drwham]

This is awesome advice! 🙂

i agree, that is excellent advice

 

[JJMrK]

If you don't know something after thinking about it for a few seconds, skip it and move on. When I have problems like this they happen in PS when there are multiple equations that need to be manipulated to solve a problem, and I need to figure out how they fit together first. I usually skip problems like this and come back to them at the end. If you feel like a problem is going to take you 5 minutes to do, definitely skip it.

 

[physics junkie]

Well, remind yourself that all you can do is study as much as you can and hope for the best.

I don't know you personally so take this with a huge grain of salt but when you realize that its all on you to craft your future and other people's sympathy for your woes is worth nothing you start to shape up. It took me graduating with a fairly low GPA to figure out that having a my family or my girlfriend cheer me up after a bad test meant nothing. At the time I made empty promises to myself, felt better, and then continued with the same pattern. Only when I graduated and realized that I was pretty much ****ed did I realize that my life was my own and it was up to me carry myself from then on. Maybe if you realize this too then you can stop thinking about how to control yourself and just do it. Good luck.

 

[student1799]

You have to deal with your fear and timing issues NOW, before you take the next real MCAT, because they can really kill your score. I lived this: freaked out and ran out of time in PS on first MCAT, got a 7. Second time, didn't freak but still ran out of time, got a 7 again. Third time, stayed calm and paced properly, finished every question, got a 12.

And in my case, I NEVER freaked or even ran out of time on practice tests--only on the real thing. So if this is happeneing to you in practice, you need to get a handle on it right away.

It sounds like your problem is in PS, like mine was. I think the only solution is to stop taking full-length practice MCATs for now, and just drill yourself on PS problems until you're really confident that you can nail the section in the allotted time. Pace yourself to finish PS about 5 minutes early, so if you slow down under real test conditions (highly likely), you'll still finish on time.

I used BR to practice, but you can use any test prep company with challenging PS problems you haven't seen before.

Once you're confident in your PS drills, move on to full-length tests under REAL TEST CONDITIONS, or as close as you can make them. Don't stop during a section for any reason, and force yourself to finish the section even if you have to guess. You have to get a feel for the pace necessary to get yourself through the MCAT successfully, and the only way to do that is practice.

If by some chance you do have a problem on the real test and don't finish a section, void. That's much better than getting a bad score.

If you just practice your skills intensively before taking the MCAT again, you'll be much more confident and do better. Good luck.

 

[Will Hunting]

Well, remind yourself that all you can do is study as much as you can and hope for the best.

I don't know you personally so take this with a huge grain of salt but when you realize that its all on you to craft your future and other people's sympathy for your woes is worth nothing you start to shape up. It took me graduating with a fairly low GPA to figure out that having a my family or my girlfriend cheer me up after a bad test meant nothing. At the time I made empty promises to myself, felt better, and then continued with the same pattern. Only when I graduated and realized that I was pretty much ****ed did I realize that my life was my own and it was up to me carry myself from then on. Maybe if you realize this too then you can stop thinking about how to control yourself and just do it. Good luck.

Great F***ing post. I'm tired of posts like these. If you're going to become a great physician (which I think you can be) you have to quit freaking out. How are you going to react when you're a resident and someone codes? The same thing happened to me, I'm taking Stats right now because some schools require it. I was taking our first mid-term and had a panic attack. I thought, "If I fail this I'll get a C which would look bad." Then I said, quit being a pansy, and dominate. You know how to do this. I calmed myself and got an A. I know you're capable, but you're your own worst enemy.

Look at the MCAT as a challenge. Despite all the criticisms towards the exam, I like it. It's the only true way to measure yourself against other students. Plus, there has to be someone you dislike that you would love to smoke so use that. In every class I've been in, there's always some shmuck who thinks he owns the world. I always set a goal to beat him. So, there has to be a muse. Calm down.

In closing, no more practice tests. Although tests are important, they're worthless if your content sucks. Buy TBR physics and chem book, I'll accept your thank you in a few months🙂 Go through those, they will show you how to attack every MCAT problem. In addition, they'll show you how to reason to get the answer if you have no clue. They made me like problems I have no clue on, because by analyzing the answer choices, you can automatically eliminate 2; and with practice you'll get efficient at getting rid of the last one.

 

[physics junkie]

It is unfortunate that most people I know who did poorly on the MCAT/in college/in medical school let anxiety get in the way of performance. I have generally seen emotional weakness, as opposed to lack of ability, as the main reason pre-meds don't make it to medical school.

 

[TheBoondocks]

It is unfortunate that most people I know who did poorly on the MCAT/in college/in medical school let anxiety get in the way of performance. I have generally seen emotional weakness, as opposed to lack of ability, as the main reason pre-meds don't make it to medical school.

Yeah, this hasn't escaped my notice either.