Taking 2 FLs within 2 days of each other?

[deleted803410]

MCAT date: June 17
Last full length taken: May 20; I scored a 508 (I've taken probably 4 before that but some were really spaced out)

I am considering taking one FL tomorrow morning then another FL on Saturday. After that, I am considering doing 1 FL every 3-4 days.

I want to improve my stamina for the exam more; I've been reading that that's one of the best ways to prepare for this exam. Comparing my stamina to 1st FL vs last Saturday, it's drastically improved, but with less than a month left till my exam, I am trying to think of the best things to do. Last time I took my FL, I was able to study MCAT afterwards, unusual considering that before, after the exam I wouldn't want to do a single thing.

I would like to do 2 FLs within one day of one another, but part of me is wondering if my precious time that's evaporating quickly is best used doing content review/passage based practice or doing FLs...

Has anyone ever done this? What is your advice?

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[FaustK]

To be honest, I think May 20 and June 17 are too close.
I personally can't think anyway for myself to improve substantially in such a short amount of time.
On the other side, If you don't improve very much, I think it's not really meaningful to take it a second time.
The score might even hurt you instead of helping.

The reason I'm saying this is because, I personally don't believe doing 1 FL every 3-4 days will help me.
Personally speaking, each time after I did 1 FL, I feel exhausted, I need several days to review and digest that.
3-4 days are not enough to me. (Well, I had study and work, and I'm lazy maybe that's why.)
Nevertheless, I also think it takes time for skill to be developed in your body and mind.
That's why I think it must take time. You can just not crave to improve substantially in short amount of time.
The major issue is, no matter how much you practice, you will meet same questions on the actual exam.
Skills and some degree of knowledge is more important, than simply doing practicing.

Just doing practice will not improve your grade --------- plz remember this.
I only did 4 FL (3 Kaplan and 1 AMCAS), I end up a greatly satisfied score.
What an irony. I'm not going to take it second time, but I still have lots of question banks and practice tests remaining.
So plz remember rushing doesn't necessarily help you.

At some point, you can even completely abandon MCAT several days before your actual exam.
This sounds crazy, but plz remember DO NOT LET YOU BURN OUT DURING THE EXAM DAY.

 

[deleted803410]

To be honest, I think May 20 and June 17 are too close.
I personally can't think anyway for myself to improve substantially in such a short amount of time.
On the other side, If you don't improve very much, I think it's not really meaningful to take it a second time.
The score might even hurt you instead of helping.

The reason I'm saying this is because, I personally don't believe doing 1 FL every 3-4 days will help me.
Personally speaking, each time after I did 1 FL, I feel exhausted, I need several days to review and digest that.
3-4 days are not enough to me. (Well, I had study and work, and I'm lazy maybe that's why.)
Nevertheless, I also think it takes time for skill to be developed in your body and mind.
That's why I think it must take time. You can just not crave to improve substantially in short amount of time.
The major issue is, no matter how much you practice, you will meet same questions on the actual exam.
Skills and some degree of knowledge is more important, than simply doing practicing.

Just doing practice will not improve your grade --------- plz remember this.
I only did 4 FL (3 Kaplan and 1 AMCAS), I end up a greatly satisfied score.
What an irony. I'm not going to take it second time, but I still have lots of question banks and practice tests remaining.
So plz remember rushing doesn't necessarily help you.

At some point, you can even completely abandon MCAT several days before your actual exam.
This sounds crazy, but plz remember DO NOT LET YOU BURN OUT DURING THE EXAM DAY.

I've been studying for a while now, ever since January. However it was spaced out due to school etc.. but when school was out i got over a full month to intensely prepare. No work, no ECs, noooothing. I've been Reviewing all the content I can while practicing as much as possible. And I can tell you that I used to score in the 490s on FLs during the semester. I get a ton more questions right now.

What I changed: review more content AND practice more. I actually think practicing helped me a ton. The MCAT has a logic to it and you learn it as you practice. You also get to practice what you learn during content review.

In the end everyone is different. You didn't seem to need practice but personally it's one of the biggest reasons my scores have improved. You also need to recover for a few days after a FL while I am fine and I can review the rest afterward, if I'm given a few hours to rest and 2 or so days to look at it. In the end everyone does their own thing.

Btw I decided against doing it every other day since I made that post. I agree that it's counterproductive. I decided I'm better off studying and... practicing joking. I'll just do one every Saturday.

 

[UBLI-EINSTEIN]

I've been studying for a while now, ever since January. However it was spaced out due to school etc.. but when school was out i got over a full month to intensely prepare. No work, no ECs, noooothing. I've been Reviewing all the content I can while practicing as much as possible. And I can tell you that I used to score in the 490s on FLs during the semester. I get a ton more questions right now.

What I changed: review more content AND practice more. I actually think practicing helped me a ton. The MCAT has a logic to it and you learn it as you practice. You also get to practice what you learn during content review.

In the end everyone is different. You didn't seem to need practice but personally it's one of the biggest reasons my scores have improved. You also need to recover for a few days after a FL while I am fine and I can review the rest afterward, if I'm given a few hours to rest and 2 or so days to look at it. In the end everyone does their own thing.

Btw I decided against doing it every other day since I made that post. I agree that it's counterproductive. I decided I'm better off studying and... practicing joking. I'll just do one every Saturday.

Oh man, I totally agree with you. Indeed, everyone has their own way of doing.
But if you always said so, it would be meaningless to discuss and share experience.
The dude before said chunks of "personally", I think he foresaw what you might respond.

Anyway, wish to try your best. And please realize it's not good if the improvement doesn't seems too obvious.
I think there are threads somewhere talking about in what kind of condition you need to retake MCAT.
No matter what, since you've already decided, good luck man.

 

[deleted803410]

Oh man, I totally agree with you. Indeed, everyone has their own way of doing.
But if you always said so, it would be meaningless to discuss and share experience.
The dude before said chunks of "personally", I think he foresaw what you might respond.

Anyway, wish to try your best. And please realize it's not good if the improvement doesn't seems too obvious.
I think there are threads somewhere talking about in what kind of condition you need to retake MCAT.
No matter what, since you've already decided, good luck man.

Indeed, if we were to just say "we are all different", then it would be hard for any advice or experiences we share to be taken seriously. I was just telling him that not practicing doesn't work for me very well. I had a phase where I was doing just content review and not much practice and predictably my scores were very poor.

However, I am not really a retaker in that I sat for the MCAT and got a bad score. I originally sat for it April 22, but I got sick due to 2 hours of sleep and traveling on a plane the day before and all the extreme stress of that right before the exam, and so I voided it, because I just knew that this score wasn't gonna be representative of me. Needless to say, I am testing in my own state this time and I will absolutely not be doing anything stressful the previous day of my exam.