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Who's in? I just rescheduled from June 21st. I've been studying off and on since late march, but really started to kick it in about three weeks ago. Applying DO this cycle.
5/24 retaker here. 28Q... One month of practice.
Need a 33+ to be competitive. In other words, I need a miracle.
Going to make a brief schedule I intend to adhere to to finish my content review.
Today: Finish Thermochemistry
Friday: Electromagnetism
Saturday: Kinetics and Cardiovascular
Sunday: Circuits
Monday: Electrochemistry and Muscle/Bone/Skin
Tuesday: Light and Optics
Wednesday: AAMC 3!
Anybody else work? Man, I've been working 30+ hours per week this entire time. I don't get home until like 7pm, and man I don't feel like cracking a book then. Tomorrow I work 10a-7p, and I have a feeling Electromagnetism is going to molest me. /complaint
Looks like we are on very similar schedules dude. I am taking AAMC 3 on Thursday. I will still have some chapters of Orgo to do but I will fit those in the first 2 weeks of July. I will be taking a practice exam (TBR 1-3 and all AAMC's) every couple of days until August 1st.
Those applying this cycle. How are your other stats? Kinda freaking out with average stats and a 'late' app. Oh well, I delayed because I only want to take this thing 1 time!
So I've neglected my friends pretty hard over the past two months or so, and they understand for the most part. Last night, however, the drug me out of my house and took me downtown.
....And proceeded to get me absolutely trashed. So I've been sleeping that off today, and have effectively fallen behind my schedule. Damn it.
Well, tomorrow I finish my content review for the most part. I'm going to devote some time to organic and finish up bio, but AAMC 3 is Wednesday. I really hope I do ok on it. I've done pretty poorly in the past with Kaplan, but apparently AAMC's curve is way harder.
We'll see...
I just finished AAMC 3 as well. How much does scores go up by in the last month for most people do you know?
Welp, the verdict is in.
6/7/7 - 20 composite.
As horrible as this looks, I'm not too worried. My biggest struggle with this was ENDURANCE.
I was totally burnt out by the 2nd verbal reasoning passage. I couldn't even see my laptop clearly after that. I finished the BS section with 35 minutes to spare, and wasn't even about to go back and check.
I'm not trying to make excuses here, just general feelings. Going to review the hell out of it, and hope I feel better next time. I got two passages in PS that are my extreme weak areas. I essentially gave up 1/2 way through BS.
Time to fix the mistakes, I guess. Chin is up, and I'm going to get after it. This score isn't at all a good indicator of my knowledge base, in my opinion.
Mind posting up your score? I won't be embarrassed that you beat mine horribly.
I think it really depends. I've seen some people jump 3 points just after their first test. Since I feel my score wasn't reflective of knowledge issues as much as exhaustion, I hope that my score jumps. Going to spend a week reviewing and working on endurance and will take AAMC 4.
Sound, which always seems to elude me, netted 4/5 right on that practice.
I though the VR passages were much different than examkrackers. I felt myself thinking and inferring much less and referring to the passage for exact verbage much more. Will have to work on this, I guess.
I just finished AAMC 3 as well. How much do scores go up by in the last month for most people do you know?
Aw dude, I think yeah endurance is a HUGE part of the exam. But by the end of it you will feel so happy you practiced. I recommend picking up the 1001 series if you haven't and practicing your weak sections for physics/chem.
Keep chugging and doing passages for bio/verbal and it should really help.
I got a 10/10/8. I will review tomorrow but I randomly guessed on the last 4 discrete questions on PS because I ran out of time. And I found myself losing concentration during Bio, I think I made a bunch of careless errors.
Thanks man. I actually already have the 1001 series except for Bio. This is going to be a huge week for me. I'm taking Friday off, but the rest of the time will be spent reviewing and getting my endurance up.
Awesome score man. I hear you on the concentration thing.
One month to go folks.
I'm nervous for this last month, good luck to us all.
Does anyone know of a better prep class to take than Kaplan? I've read some good things about TPR, just wondering what anyone else thinks.
Do you try and follow the EK advice precisely? I've read EK VR book, but not any Kaplan stuff yet, but I've heard its fairly different.
Does anyone know of a better prep class to take than Kaplan? I've read some good things about TPR, just wondering what anyone else thinks.
I mapped out everything I got wrong (sans VR) today.
It appears I'm definitely not using the passage to my advantage in BS. It seemed that if I didn't immediately know an answer I guessed without referring to the passage. I will admit that I was pretty burnt out and finished with like 35 minutes left.
Physical science was similar. A lot of times I thought it was a "wtf" kind of question, when in reality the answer was hiding in the passage the whole time. I'm going to try a new philosophy in P.S. for my next full length: "If you've never heard of it, it's probably in the passage somewhere."
Although my score is in the toilet, my raw number improved from the last full length I took. I think I scored at least 4 more correct in each section except for VR.
Tomorrow is my day off, then on Saturday I'm going to begin going through every wrong/guessed question from yesterday's test and jotting it down to work through it until I 100% understand it, as well as starting to finish tbr last 1/3. Going to pound some weak spots as well.
I see some long days in my future.
I just got pwned by TBR CBT 1
I recently took 7/6 exam. I didn't finish verbal and because I knew going in that I wasn't doing well in that section, I voided. Just signed up for this test date last night, and am trying to work on VR while continuing passages in PS/BS. Good luck everyone!
Good luck studying VR. Verbal is actually my strong suit while the Sciences need some definite polishing.
Any advice to someone who hasn't sat for the official test yet? Like, PS is calculation heavy, BS passages were crazy long etc.
real tests are like full lengths
Being the same author, I figured as such.
I was looking for a bit more detail, like "Reminded me of 11" etc.
Im taking the exam on this day as well. Starting to freak out, don't feel ready...
i have already taken the real deal once, and there really isnt a difference between practice tests and the real thing, except maybe your feelings change cause it actually counts. i walked in thinking that it would be pretty much exactly like the practice tests, and it was (except, you know, they have to ask different questions). i walked out saying to everyone that it was exactly as i suspected (minus the bio with questions that made you think a little bit more, but thats because i wasnt as familiar with that material as i was with say the physical stuff).
Good luck studying VR. Verbal is actually my strong suit while the Sciences need some definite polishing.
Any advice to someone who hasn't sat for the official test yet? Like, PS is calculation heavy, BS passages were crazy long etc.
My PS section wasn't calculations heavy. More manipulate the equation to get the correct units. They did sneak an pseudo-orgo passage in the PS section, which was weird but it wasn't bad. Also, one of the questions didn't seem like they had the answer in the choices. I didn't think it was bad at all, but we may have been lucky. BS had 4 experimental passages where if you understood it, then you could get all the answers correct. It wasn't as hard as AAMC 10. They hit us with 2 orgo passages at the end. The first was doable and the 2nd was doable with more time, but they expected us to take too many steps to get the product. Instead of giving us structures they gave us names, so I used my best educated guesses on that passage.
I didn't take AAMC 11, so I can't compare. Also, studying for BS content didn't seem very useful considering most of the passages were experimental.
Any tips for VR? I'm really struggle. I have tried EK, Kaplan and TPRH strategies.
Alot of people have been saying the real thing is similar to AAMC 11... does that mean there is less orgo on 11 and more biochem/genetics on 11?
DocFelt, you may need a couple days break to refresh. EK 101 didn't help me at all. I have been using TPRH VR and miss 1-2/passage but when I take the AAMCs I get a 5. Playing with strategies. I may start back reading novels. I had stopped reading to study, but heck VR is annoying the hell out of me. You can get the sciences up too. I find myself losing focus in VR and those darn humanities passages...I did well in my lit courses as far as literary analysis and reading comprehension, but this MCAT VR is a beast. I don't know what to think. Makes me feel as if I can't read or something. LOL
I'm in quite a dilemma now.
Just finished aamc 4 - 7/7/5.
I've taken like 5 full lengths in the past year and never scored worse than a 7 in the biology section. This is bad folks. Real bad.
My focus and stamina was seemingly better. I felt relatively lost during the bio section, though. I'm royally pissed about VR. I can crack a 11 or 12 in EK with minutes to spare, and have been doing so consistently. I'm starting to feel that I can't recommend EK VR 101, as the passages seem MUCH more concise and easy to follow.
I'm exploring some options at this point. I'm thinking about taking and voiding, or canceling and writing the test in January. Either of these options are going to be severely disappointing if I have to go that route, as I've been working extremely hard. Also, it will be a lot harder to find study time between August and January as opposed to now. I was also planning on applying this cycle - that won't happen with a January test.
Here's my short term plans: Study my ass off over the course of this next week. Capitalize on my weaknesses, and address all of them. It appears I have a serious content problem.
I'm going to take aamc 5 next week, and if I don't make a significant gain, that's it for now. I'm not going to waste any more aamc materials.
Sorry to be a downer. I truly feel that the BS section was a fluke this time. I feel confident that eventually I can get my VR score in the 11 range. I'm starting to seriously doubt if I can pull the sciences up to near 10 in three weeks though.
Can anybody pose some insight?