So I like tanked my MCAT... and feeling discouraged

[dostudentdoc]

I took my MCAT in early April and just got my score back. I got a 491. I am really disappointed and shocked. For my AAMC FL 1,2,3 practice tests I was getting 505, 507, 510 respectively. I took these tests every week leading up to my test date. I also practiced with the section banks and qbank. Went over it thoroughly. So I felt ready for the test.

Yes, coming out of the MCAT, I felt like I didn't score as high as my practice FL test. But I didn't think I would score a WHOLE 19 points lower from my last practice test. I am starting a SMP in July where I need to get a minimum of 500 on MCAT to be given an interview/acceptance for their medical school after the master program.

I am enrolled for a July MCAT right now. But i'm not sure if I have enough time to study and if i'm preparing the right way. I am pretty discouraged right now considering how many points got lower compared to my practice exams. Can anyone give me advice on how I can approach this?

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[Shotapp]

I took my MCAT in early April and just got my score back. I got a 491. I am really disappointed and shocked. For my AAMC FL 1,2,3 practice tests I was getting 505, 507, 510 respectively. I took these tests every week leading up to my test date. I also practiced with the section banks and qbank. Went over it thoroughly. So I felt ready for the test.

Yes, coming out of the MCAT, I felt like I didn't score as high as my practice FL test. But I didn't think I would score a WHOLE 19 points lower from my last practice test. I am starting a SMP in July where I need to get a minimum of 500 on MCAT to be given an interview/acceptance for their medical school after the master program.

I am enrolled for a July MCAT right now. But i'm not sure if I have enough time to study and if i'm preparing the right way. I am pretty discouraged right now considering how many points got lower compared to my practice exams. Can anyone give me advice on how I can approach this?

Were you really nervous during your MCAT? How many FLs did you take? It doesn't make sense how you got such a low score.

 

[dostudentdoc]

Were you really nervous during your MCAT? How many FLs did you take? It doesn't make sense how you got such a low score.

I took about 12 FL's over the span of 10 weeks including AAMC and Princeton tests. By about the 5th test, my scores were pretty consistent ranging between (503-505) and my score jumped higher on my 2nd & 3rd AAMC test.

 

[Shotapp]

I took about 12 FL's over the span of 10 weeks including AAMC and Princeton tests. By about the 5th test, my scores were pretty consistent ranging between (503-505) and my score jumped higher on my 2nd & 3rd AAMC test.

Were you calm/confident or were you very nervous during your MCAT?

 

[dostudentdoc]

Were you calm/confident or were you very nervous during your MCAT?

I would say I was a pretty nervous. I remember during my test; there were glitches on my computer and an error happened where my screen went blank. I had to called the proctor and she had to resent and sign back in for me continue with the test. I think that also made me nervous.

 

[Shotapp]

I would say I was a pretty nervous. I remember during my test; there were glitches on my computer and an error happened where my screen went blank. I had to called the proctor and she had to resent and sign back in for me continue with the test. I think that also made me nervous.

Ok. Now it makes sense. The computer glitches, error/black screen, and the fact that you were nervous must have threw you off your game.

 

[soysizle]

I don’t know how common glitches are but maybe you should look into contacting the aamc, Maybe you can contest your score, tbh I’m not even sure if you can do that lol. Maybe you can get some sort of discount off the next one? Best of luck!

 

[dostudentdoc]

Do y’all think taking it in July is too short of a time to prepare?

 

[JustDoMed]

Do y’all think taking it in July is too short of a time to prepare?

I hope not, as I'm shooting to retake mine in June lol.
I was slightly studying on the side on the off chance that I get screwed though.

You should have a pretty good background from previously studying and in your case it looks like nerves got you.
So a little fine tuning and more practice and you should be fine.

But I'm curious to see what others will say.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Do y’all think taking it in July is too short of a time to prepare?

If you were consistently in 505+ on the AAMC exams and nerves took you down, then July is not too soon. But you will need to train for stress more than content over the next six or so weeks. You need to get to a robotic state by the time you take your test. Over the next few weeks, do passage after passage after passage.

I do want to offer my two cents, based on many years of doing this, that there is also the possibility that you had a sense of overconfidence given that you were scoring well above your 500 threshold. Whatever you did to prepare got you ready to do well on those practice exams, but perhaps it did not prepare you for the actual exam. You now have the advantage of knowing the exam day experience and what the real test is like, so try different source for practice passages this time around. Did you work through all of the AAMC materials already?

 

[dostudentdoc]

If you were consistently in 505+ on the AAMC exams and nerves took you down, then July is not too soon. But you will need to train for stress more than content over the next six or so weeks. You need to get to a robotic state by the time you take your test. Over the next few weeks, do passage after passage after passage.

I do want to offer my two cents, based on many years of doing this, that there is also the possibility that you had a sense of overconfidence given that you were scoring well above your 500 threshold. Whatever you did to prepare got you ready to do well on those practice exams, but perhaps it did not prepare you for the actual exam. You now have the advantage of knowing the exam day experience and what the real test is like, so try different source for practice passages this time around. Did you work through all of the AAMC materials already?

Thanks! I'll take that advice!
Yes, I did work through all of the AAMC materials already. But I will probably do it all over again a couple weeks before my test so it stays fresh. In the mean time, I was planning on working through passages from Khan Academy. I also have berkley review books from 2013. I'm not sure if those passages are too old and if it will help me prepare for the newer MCAT or not.

 

[CleverAdvisor]

Stress plays a big part with this exam. Since a lot of information is already provided in the passages and you mostly have to dissect it, focus quite a bit on how you approach the exam rather than putting a bunch of info in your brain.

 

[californiadreaming93]

I took my MCAT in early April and just got my score back. I got a 491. I am really disappointed and shocked. For my AAMC FL 1,2,3 practice tests I was getting 505, 507, 510 respectively. I took these tests every week leading up to my test date. I also practiced with the section banks and qbank. Went over it thoroughly. So I felt ready for the test.

Yes, coming out of the MCAT, I felt like I didn't score as high as my practice FL test. But I didn't think I would score a WHOLE 19 points lower from my last practice test. I am starting a SMP in July where I need to get a minimum of 500 on MCAT to be given an interview/acceptance for their medical school after the master program.

I am enrolled for a July MCAT right now. But i'm not sure if I have enough time to study and if i'm preparing the right way. I am pretty discouraged right now considering how many points got lower compared to my practice exams. Can anyone give me advice on how I can approach this?

Hey OP, I'm in the same boat. The lowest I'd scored on any FL was 502 and that was 7 weeks away from my actual exam. I was shocked at my actual MCAT score. Content is still fresh in my head and I'm retaking this summer. I've gone straight into passages and don't shy away from the harder topics. I also neglected the calculations in C/P and naively went into the exam thinking it was just going to be an extension of biochem.

 

[dostudentdoc]

Hey OP, I'm in the same boat. The lowest I'd scored on any FL was 502 and that was 7 weeks away from my actual exam. I was shocked at my actual MCAT score. Content is still fresh in my head and I'm retaking this summer. I've gone straight into passages and don't shy away from the harder topics. I also neglected the calculations in C/P and naively went into the exam thinking it was just going to be an extension of biochem.

Thanks for that. How are you on cars? Do you have any advice? I’ve been trying to improve that score so hard and I haven’t been able to.

 

[californiadreaming93]

Thanks for that. How are you on cars? Do you have any advice? I’ve been trying to improve that score so hard and I haven’t been able to.

Take notice of the trends in questions you're missing. Are you missing main q's or q's that refer directly to the passage? My issues during prep were timing and understanding the main idea. I've since backtracked and work through passages a lot slower now & untimed, asking myself why did the author include this paragraph, this piece of information. For the questions themselves, I've essentially resorted to the following strategy: If the question asks about an inference or main idea, then I can remove answer choices that are very specific and look at ones that are more general. If the questions refers to a specific line or paragraph, then I can narrow to more specific answer choices. If you can get to 50/50, then you're in a good place.