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Registration opens up sometime today so I thought I'd go ahead and make this thread. Anyone else taking it in August?
The one I've taken as well as the half-length seemed comprehensive enough.How do you feel about the NS FLs? I'm debating between them and the EK exams.
The NS is my first.What were you scoring on other FLs?
What all have you been doing? I started out just reading the EK lectures, then I decided to start taking notes on each one. It's tedious, but I think just reading the chapters without taking notes is dangerous. Easier to go back and look when I need a piece of info. But it's burn-out fuel.
What's inefficient about watching Khan videos? I've thought about hair doing those + questions for the rest of my content review.To begin with I spent way too much time planning my attack on this MCAT beast. Then I got frustrated with EK Physics questions and decided I was going to watch Khan videos instead, until I realized their inefficiency and went back to taking notes from EK. I did all of the content review for Psych from Khan, however.
I've also been following the outline, which is probably another huge waste of time since EK seems to cover all concepts anyway but in a more logical order (except for Psych of course).
I'm just so confused on how to study now too since I'm done with content review. I don't feel as motivated, ugh.
What's inefficient about watching Khan videos? I've thought about hair doing those + questions for the rest of my content review.
I lose motivation every day too. But I have this really simple process I go through to get myself ready.
I start by drinking 12 cups of coffee (or the equivalent in caffeine pills/energy drinks), slapping myself across the face, and watching this:
Then I run 4 miles in 10min. Drink 2gals H2O. Eat a mango. Pace the floor for 8hrs thinking. Sit down and read some Dostoevsky/Hemingway. Watch like 20 episodes of House MD. By this time it is 2am, and here's the weird part: I find that only when I have done all of the previous steps, time stops for me. I can somehow read and understand at a level that surpasses all human comprehension. Consequently, all my FLs thus far have been in the 600s - I received this score after carefully consulting with prep companies when their inferior scoring scale failed to accurately represent my superior performance. But the point is, once I do all of that, I can read all prep books and fully retain all info within 1hr. I go to bed 3:30am, wake up 4am, and repeat.
I will be releasing my study schedule soon, complete with pretty pictures and highlighting. Be on the lookout for that. Future sticky material.
TL;DR/"say something relevant": @Dreamstoo Haven't you done well on your FLs so far? I wouldn't be too worried either, if I were you. Reeelaaaaax, man/girl/thing. Other than Kaplan, have you taken AAMC yet? Or are you still waiting on that?
You're honestly good, if you want a comparison these have been my scores so far (Kaplan and TPR). I've been barely breaking 500's on Kaplan, but on TPR I'm scoring a couple points higher. Btw I'm extremely jealous of that CARS score. I've only managed to score it once on Kaplan, but I think TPR CARS is definitely harder...Any tips?Hey all! I wanted to join the thread after lurking for a while. Taking the exam on Aug. 6 (40 days).
I've been studying low-key since the end of May, real content review/some scattered passages since the beginning of June. My content review has been making a giant OneNote notebook of the content outline and filling it in using the Kaplan books and supplementing with Khan videos. I still have to memorize the physics formulas and get in some good practice, and learn all of psych/soc. Haven't really touched orgo either (my big weakness) so I'll have to figure that out too.
I took my first practice exam today, TPR 1. 125/128/128/126 = 507. Feeling okay but not great about it, especially at that CARS. And I missed all the C/P reading comprehension questions, lol. Anyway, just gotta keep working harder and harder! Plan until D-Day: wrap up content review, do the AAMC FL, do passages from Khan/TPR Science WB, do TPR/TBR FLs.
Hope you all are making your desired progress! 😉
Edit: Anyone know how realistic TPR scores are? Apparently a lot of people getting low 500s on the Kaplan FLs ended >90th percentile on the real thing, but I don't have any Kaplan tests to take...
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You're honestly good, if you want a comparison these have been my scores so far (Kaplan and TPR). I've been barely breaking 500's on Kaplan, but on TPR I'm scoring a couple points higher. Btw I'm extremely jealous of that CARS score. I've only managed to score it once on Kaplan, but I think TPR CARS is definitely harder...Any tips?
Kaplan Diagnostic 127 125 126 125 503
Kaplan FL 1 123 123 125 126 497
TPR Course Test 1 127 124 126 124 501
Kaplan FL 2 126 125 126 122 499
Kaplan FL 8 125 125 124 125 499
TPR Course Test 2 128 124 127 127 506
Kaplan FL 3 125 128 125 124 502
TPR Course Test 3 124 125 127 126 502
Kaplan FL 5 125 123 126 127 501
Thanks so much for your help! This gives me a good idea of "conversion factor", looks like Kaplan is noticeably tougher. It looks like your average is heading up, congratulations! You've certainly done a lot of tests. In case you or anyone else hasn't seen this yet, there's a master spreadsheet that people are filling out with their official score vs. practice scores.
As for CARS, I haven't done anything for it...I believe the remnants of SAT verbal are carrying me through, haha. I don't passage map, but I am a vigorous highlighter: main points, transition phases ("however"), any special terms, people's names, even tough vocab. For maybe one or two really hard passages, I'll rewrite tricky parts in my own words to help them make sense. I think some part of doing well is practice, since you get to know the general structure of passages and you can predict where they are going. I am looking to improve my score, so if I don't see it go up naturally in two or three more tests, I'll start looking for some strategy.
Omg, watching the videos is so much better than reading lectures from my EK books all day. I've used KA pretty extensively for physics and chemistry and I seem to retain the info better in this format.Some topics are redundant (how about 30 min explanation of Punnet Squares), many times the videos go into extreme details, and it is not immediately clear what it is I need to take notes on. But most importantly, it seems that the videos were not specifically crafted for MCAT, but rather pieced together from their other video collections (for nursing NCLEX, science classes, etc). I do intend on doing the practice passages from them.
Their CARS pack was the first verbal practice I started with. For the rest of the packs, I have been working on timed passages (3 at a time with a set of discrete, I time myself) as I complete those topics in my content review. It reinforces my understanding and allows me to verify that I don't need to spend more time on that particular content. I thought that would be a better idea than wasting passages I haven't reviewed content for yet. The day before I want to work on them I'll just go through and press "check solution" to an individual question to see the topic and check if I have gone over that yet.When should I start the AAMC question packs?
Just a question. Why is everyone considering themselves behind on the material if they're just finishing content review? I expect to finish during the first week of August. There are barely any practice tests around, so I'll still have 1 week before the MCAT to do nothing.
I thought there were >36 practice exams.Just a question. Why is everyone considering themselves behind on the material if they're just finishing content review? I expect to finish during the first week of August. There are barely any practice tests around, so I'll still have 1 week before the MCAT to do nothing.
@Charri22 I hope so. I could feel myself slipping during the last section.
Took Kaplan FL 1 today. Got a 502 - 125, 125, 127, 125. Need to work on everything haha
Honestly, even in like the second half of bio I could start to feel my brain wandering significantly. I just majorly started using outside knowledge to answer the questions instead of the passages because I was getting so bored. I'm sure it'll get easier, right?.. Haha! And anyways, with the extra pressure of the real thing, we'll probably just be super-focused naturally. I'm not as worried about raising my other sections about 2 points before August 6th, I just need to figure out how to make my first section jump 4-5 points which will prove interesting!! I'm jealous of your 125 in that section, I would be much happier with a 125 in that section than a 123 for my first test!!
How many FL do you guys think should be taken at the minimum? and how much time/weeks should be set aside for taking them?
I'm behind on content review, and am not sure when to just stop and move on to full lengths if it ends up taking me much longer.
oh yeah......Anyone having real trouble with TPR passages? Seem oddly confusing...sometimes feel the same way with Khan passages
How's everyone doing? Test date is coming up, keep up the hard work guys!
Anyone also following MCAT jelly schedule (with TBR and Khan passages) and/or NS + GS practice tests?
Remember, our score is not sealed it. What we put it in this, comes out. This test is atleast a good chuck knowing things cold (even memorizing things so you have them down cold on quick recollection IMO is VERY useful although it's often understated)
Thta's wonderful. Do share your score breakdown.This is my first post on here.
Thanks for the encouragement/advice 🙂
I think freak out has finally started to hit me since it is July and we have a little over a month. Aug 5th test taker here. Not my first time through the MCAT but my first time on the new one. I minored in psych so that is going pretty well considering I am not done with content on that yet. CARS is killing me since I decided to try a new strategy - Kaplan Mapping but I am not really finishing on time which has me worried. I used to use the EK strategy but I scored lower on the real thing that I did in practice. Bio and Chem are consistently high. But I have only taking 2 full lengths so far, using all Next Step and then the real AAMC one.
Thta's wonderful. Do share your score breakdown.
What's your plan for the upcoming weeks?
NS Diagnostic - 128/124/126/125 (503)
NS Full Length 1 - 127/125/128/126 (506)
NS Full Length 2- 128/123/127/126 (504)
Did that last one today, I ran out of time on CARS and it stung. I know 126 is not stellar for psych but I am calling it pretty good as a start.
l.
You guys think I'd be at any disadvantage in this application cycle taking the MCAT on the 6th? I'm retaking a 29 from January and am backing myself to improve at least a couple of points worth. I'll have secondaries submitted before then.
Anyone going to be buying the TBR FLs? Debating between those and EK. I already have 10 from TPR, so I don't want to buy both TBR and EK...time is running short, eek!![]()
That's awesome. Solid scores, keep it up!!
When's your test again? 8/4?
What are you using for passages? tbr? tphr?
longtime lurker, aug 21 test date. Has anyone started taking the AAMC Question Packs yet? I just started and they seem weirdly easy, I'm wondering if that means I'm doing well with my prep or (more likely) they just aren't that representative of the real test. I've taken Bio 1 and Chem so far and scored about 90% both times. Anyone else have experience with them?