The Official August 22, 2013 MCAT Thread

[Person0715]

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Hey everyone! With just a little less than 2 months to go, I am wondering why this thread hasn't been made yet.

Is anyone else here signed up for the 8/22 MCAT?

I'm following the SN2ed schedule and I can't wait to be done with content review. I'm excited to finally take an AAMC to see if I've been studying correctly these last 2 months.

 

[SB14]

Was on suicide watch with the AA/UMPD yesterday. Have slept <15 hours so far this week. Stay strong everyone. Regardless of the number on your AMCAS in the meower column, you will make it if you have what it takes in your heart. We are the fortunate ones; you all realize that. Let's go. Time to shine.
Couldn't sleep last night and cried multiple times, but I'm okay. Life is so beautiful.

Thanks for the encouragement! Make sure you leave some for yourself too! You're gonna be okay

 

[equang]

Yeah. You aren't doing this for yourself. You are doing this for all of the people who believe in you.
Or the PI who once doubted your knowledge in adaptive immunity or iPS cells or something or other.

 

[Austorior]

I have access to the SAP via Kaplan and it lets you take it as many times as you want. So I guessed randomly on the whole thing so that I can look at that as an answer key as I do the SAP for real. I don't if that is the case if you gain access to the SAP via AAMC bc I've heard the AAMC only allows you to take it once.

I see, I figured that would be the only way. Thanks!


alkjdflajf about to take FL 11, wish me luck guys... i'm making myself as nervous as I can so whatever I feel on test date would not be as bad as today. Let's go!

 

[Person0715]

I see, I figured that would be the only way. Thanks!


alkjdflajf about to take FL 11, wish me luck guys... i'm making myself as nervous as I can so whatever I feel on test date would not be as bad as today. Let's go!

Good luck! Just 6 more days. We can do it!

 

[shrey93]

AAMC 10 completed. I got a 13-10-14, somehow did better in BS than PS which never happens for me. Do people say the 10 BS is actually representative? I felt like it was significantly easier than previous ones, I am liking the more experimental style a lot, but I felt discrete's were too easy to be representative based on what recent takers are saying.

Verbal is still an ongoing struggle, made some excruciatingly stupid detail mistakes today.

Damn only one more practice FL to go, very weird feeling.

 

[Austorior]

Just finished AAMC 11, got a 34 (11, 11, 12)

I was so nervous in the beginning that I made so many careless mistakes in PS. At least 5 questions in PS lost to nervousness and probably not warming up.

Lesson of the day, warm up with some flash cards before the MCAT, and don't be nervous...

Could have gotten a 14,11,12 without those 5 errors...

 

[tuhtles]

AAMC 8:

PS: 13
BS: 14
VR: let's just say embarrassing low lol..

Just finished AAMC 11:
Composite: 36
PS: 12 (usually finish with extra time but srsly had time crunch in this one) .. all 5 of these missed were calculation errors/mis reading ..probably due to time crunch towards the end :|
VR: 9 (mehh still need to break double digits!)
BS: 15 😱 speechless lol..

6 days.. let's do this!! GLTA!

I was so nervous in the beginning that I made so many careless mistakes in PS. At least 5 questions in PS lost to nervousness and probably not warming up.

I totally get you! I'm always slightly nervous during the beginning (even on practice tests..) but once I ease into things and see that it's manageable I chill out haha.
Keep calm and carry on~ Because honestly, well at least for me, being shaky and nervous will no way shape or form help me out on the real deal.. so just gotta keep anxiety levels low and cruise through

 

[sunflower18]

Did okay on AAMC 9. Not what I was hoping for, that's for sure. I'm trying to make myself okay with the idea of scoring 31-33 on the real deal.... Hard to come to terms with though.

Nice scores, all of you. I'm definitely envious.

 

[Zod]

Just took AAMC 9, pretty disappointed with my score of 31. 11/9/11. Still far away from my goal.
VR was pretty hard, passages were hard to understand. There were some weird questions in PS and BS here and there, and I'm guessing that's what I missed points on, I'll see.

 

[Zod]

Haha sunflower, looks like we literally finished AAMC 9 at the same time.

 

[DocCox]

Just finished AAMC 10. Crazy how I got more questions right on this test than AAMC 9 and still got a lower score. Hoping for a favorable scale come test day.

 

[sunflower18]

Just took AAMC 9, pretty disappointed with my score of 31. 11/9/11. Still far away from my goal.
VR was pretty hard, passages were hard to understand. There were some weird questions in PS and BS here and there, and I'm guessing that's what I missed points on, I'll see.

Haha sunflower, looks like we literally finished AAMC 9 at the same time.

Hahaha that's awesome! And we got almost the same score!!

I got PS 10, VR 11, BS 11. I thought PS was really easy and was expecting an 11, I thought VR was pretty easy and was expecting a 12-13, and I thought BS was hard and was expecting a 10. I was wrong on all of them!

I'm upset and angry that I'm far from my goal as well. What are your study plans for the next few days to try and raise your score?

 

[Zod]

Hahaha that's awesome! And we got almost the same score!!

I got PS 10, VR 11, BS 11. I thought PS was really easy and was expecting an 11, I thought VR was pretty easy and was expecting a 12-13, and I thought BS was hard and was expecting a 10. I was wrong on all of them!

I'm upset and angry that I'm far from my goal as well. What are your study plans for the next few days to try and raise your score?

Ah yeah, I was 1 question away from a 12 on both PS and BS. My VR is suffering though because my avg seems to be around 9-10... I'm hoping on the real thing I can avoid careless mistakes to raise my score.

I'm probably going to do TBR passages on my weaknesses, especially Orgo. Maybe a few Bio and definitely some Physics/Chem ones. Planning to finish up with AAMC 10 and 11 of course. I still also have to do the Orgo and Chem SAP, hopefully those are worth my time!
Hbu?

 

[sunflower18]

Ah yeah, I was 1 question away from a 12 on both PS and BS. My VR is suffering though because my avg seems to be around 9-10... I'm hoping on the real thing I can avoid careless mistakes to raise my score.

I'm probably going to do TBR passages on my weaknesses, especially Orgo. Maybe a few Bio and definitely some Physics/Chem ones. Planning to finish up with AAMC 10 and 11 of course. I still also have to do the Orgo and Chem SAP, hopefully those are worth my time!
Hbu?

I was one question away from a point on all of my subsections too. And I made some really dumb mistakes... It's just frustrating.

That's a good plan. I'm going to do TBR hardcore on chemistry and physics, and ochem if I have the time. I'm thinking 30-50 passages a day today, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. That'll be 120-200 more passages before the test.... Hopefully that'll do some damage!!

Edit: woooo 1000 posts! haha

 

[doy]

AH! Can't believe 8/22 is approaching so fast. Seems like yesterday I stumbled on the SN2 schedule and decided to take a shot at it....

AAMC #9:
15/9/11: 35

Uh so, I was killing verbal (what felt like it) had two passages left with 20 minutes. Then I really don't remember what happened...but I didn't even answer 3! Got a total wrong of 7 on the last two. I'm hoping if I didn't F up that hard I would have gotten a 10-11 on verbal.

Then on BS I didn't review it cus I was so fed up with the test. So Hoping that It too would have been higher.

Taking these MCATs is so draining. PS is really not my strongest I though, but it's the first section so I'm excited to do it. After Verbal I'm so drained I have no energy for BS.

good luck in the last 5 days ya'll!

 

[Austorior]

AAMC 8:

PS: 13
BS: 14
VR: let's just say embarrassing low lol..

Just finished AAMC 11:
Composite: 36
PS: 12 (usually finish with extra time but srsly had time crunch in this one) .. all 5 of these missed were calculation errors/mis reading ..probably due to time crunch towards the end :|
VR: 9 (mehh still need to break double digits!)
BS: 15 😱 speechless lol..

6 days.. let's do this!! GLTA!




I totally get you! I'm always slightly nervous during the beginning (even on practice tests..) but once I ease into things and see that it's manageable I chill out haha.
Keep calm and carry on~ Because honestly, well at least for me, being shaky and nervous will no way shape or form help me out on the real deal.. so just gotta keep anxiety levels low and cruise through

Yep, I usually am calm when starting tests, but today I was like omg AAMC 11, this special test, I have to do well and not screw up... and yeah...

I literally finished PS with 20 minutes left... Which led to all those careless errors...

Jealous of your BS, any tips on how to increase scores? I know the majority of the concepts, just forgot about the trans/cis vs axial/equatorial relationship. I tend to miss a lot of the comprehension/passage reasoning types of questions rather than general knowledge.

 

[Austorior]

I was one question away from a point on all of my subsections too. And I made some really dumb mistakes... It's just frustrating.

That's a good plan. I'm going to do TBR hardcore on chemistry and physics, and ochem if I have the time. I'm thinking 30-50 passages a day today, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. That'll be 120-200 more passages before the test.... Hopefully that'll do some damage!!

Edit: woooo 1000 posts! haha

30-50 passage?! I CANNOT function after 20 passages on the same subject...

 

[sunflower18]

30-50 passage?! I CANNOT function after 20 passages on the same subject...

Here's to hoping I can!!! 🙂 cause I need the practice to raise my score three points, ha.

 

[Austorior]

Here's to hoping I can!!! 🙂 cause I need the practice to raise my score three points, ha.

Good luck! I'm just hoping I can stabilize my score and hopefully not always mess up one section every test...

PS is always about careless mistakes, VR is... I dont' even know, BS is always about the comprehension. Oh MCAT...

 

[Zod]

Lol I'll try to do what you are as well, Sunflower haha.

 

[sd227]

Wow I couldn't even imagine doing 30-50 passages a day, I struggle to do 10 now. Does anyone plan on taking it easy lol. I feel like all I can do now is just take aamc 11 and review weaknesses. Not sure if I am being lazy or starting to burn out.

 

[Person0715]

Here's to hoping I can!!! 🙂 cause I need the practice to raise my score three points, ha.

Same here. When think about it, 3 points might only be 3 questions...assuming I don't f*ck anything else up

 

[sunflower18]

Same here. When think about it, 3 points might only be 3 questions...assuming I don't f*ck anything else up

It's ridiculous that three questions can make such a huuuuge difference.

 

[Zod]

Did you end up taking any TBR exams, sunflower?

 

[sunflower18]

Did you end up taking any TBR exams, sunflower?

I did. I hated it. I got a 31 I think, but it was sooo nonrepresentative of AAMC. Have you?

 

[Zod]

Meh I have all 7 now but idk haha. Maybe I'll squeeze one in and see.

 

[sunflower18]

Meh I have all 7 now but idk haha. Maybe I'll squeeze one in and see.

Yeah, I have all 7 too. They're expired now though, because my test was originally supposed to be yesterday!

 

[neurotroph]

AAMC #8: 11/13/11

BS was a...disappointment.

For all of my tests I've missed exactly 4 questions in VR, so hopefully the curve is nice for the real deal. And I made so many stupid mistakes for both PS and BS.

 

[hawkeye3211]

Do you have any specific strategy for VR, or does it just come naturally?

 

[sunflower18]

Guys, I'm having a really tough time. I feel discouraged and like I'm watching all of my hopes, dreams, and hard work start to crumble around me. That sounds so dramatic, haha, but it really feels awful. I can't even focus because I'm just so upset at the flailing trajectory of my scores. I'm sure that it's not a good idea to take the MCAT while devastated and insecure, so I need to figure out some way to boost my confidence before next week. Do you have any suggestions on how I can dust off my shoulders and man up?

I know that my average (32ish) isn't terrible by any means, and that I might be able to get into an allopathic med school with that score if I have a good application in other respects. But it's not the score I want to get, nor the one I thought I'd be capable of. It's just endlessly frustrating to work so hard with such little payoff.

Ugh. Sorry for whining/venting. I can't really talk about this stuff to anyone I know because a) they will just say, "oh, i'm sure you'll do great!" which isn't true; or b) they will be disappointed in me. You all have no vested interest in my feelings, which makes you the perfect sounding board 🙂

 

[neurotroph]

Do you have any specific strategy for VR, or does it just come naturally?

It just comes naturally, luckily. For all of my life I've done really well on the reading sections of standardized tests.

Guys, I'm having a really tough time. I feel discouraged and like I'm watching all of my hopes, dreams, and hard work start to crumble around me. That sounds so dramatic, haha, but it really feels awful. I can't even focus because I'm just so upset at the flailing trajectory of my scores. I'm sure that it's not a good idea to take the MCAT while devastated and insecure, so I need to figure out some way to boost my confidence before next week. Do you have any suggestions on how I can dust off my shoulders and man up?

I know that my average (32ish) isn't terrible by any means, and that I might be able to get into an allopathic med school with that score if I have a good application in other respects. But it's not the score I want to get, nor the one I thought I'd be capable of. It's just endlessly frustrating to work so hard with such little payoff.

Ugh. Sorry for whining/venting. I can't really talk about this stuff to anyone I know because a) they will just say, "oh, i'm sure you'll do great!" which isn't true; or b) they will be disappointed in me. You all have no vested interest in my feelings, which makes you the perfect sounding board 🙂

Just know that it's impossible to truly recreate the testing environment with these practice tests. Only during the actual test will you have in the back of your mind "THIS IS THE REAL DEAL!" And that thought will either help you if you're confident or break you if you're not. Just have faith that during the real test you'll be able to put forth your best effort because your subconscious will allow you to.

 

[shrey93]

Guys, I'm having a really tough time. I feel discouraged and like I'm watching all of my hopes, dreams, and hard work start to crumble around me. That sounds so dramatic, haha, but it really feels awful. I can't even focus because I'm just so upset at the flailing trajectory of my scores. I'm sure that it's not a good idea to take the MCAT while devastated and insecure, so I need to figure out some way to boost my confidence before next week. Do you have any suggestions on how I can dust off my shoulders and man up?

I know that my average (32ish) isn't terrible by any means, and that I might be able to get into an allopathic med school with that score if I have a good application in other respects. But it's not the score I want to get, nor the one I thought I'd be capable of. It's just endlessly frustrating to work so hard with such little payoff.

Ugh. Sorry for whining/venting. I can't really talk about this stuff to anyone I know because a) they will just say, "oh, i'm sure you'll do great!" which isn't true; or b) they will be disappointed in me. You all have no vested interest in my feelings, which makes you the perfect sounding board 🙂

The last thing you want to do with a week left is get discouraged. From what I recall you are a great verbal test taker, be happy about that and be confident. You're doing really well in a section many people find impossible to improve. With confidence on the test day with adrenaline this score can only go up, because you know you are naturally inclined to doing well.

As far as the sciences, I see no reason to panic. Have faith in all the hard work you are putting in. Really go back to your practice tests that you've taken and try and analyze your mistakes, see where and why you are making these mistakes. With little time left, you might have a better chance of trying to address content issues, practice passages are useful but you can only practice what you know. Make sure you know how to do the questions. Maybe even take some time and rework through all the questions you got wrong in the science sections of your FLs, if you are getting any wrong you are not reviewing properly.

Last tip, if you're good at verbal you should really try and hone in on your verbal strategy, POE skills throughout the sections. Many questions can be answered by eliminating glaringly wrong answers, and there are many more that you can get simply by reading the passage carefully and slowly. Just relax and take the test calmly, we all wasted our summers for this test, make it count.

Also, make sure you don't burn yourself out 30-50 passages a day sounds like a brutal workload, quality is sometimes greater than quantity at least for me.

 

[sunflower18]

just know that it's impossible to truly recreate the testing environment with these practice tests. Only during the actual test will you have in the back of your mind "THIS IS THE REAL DEAL!" And that thought will either help you if you're confident or break you if you're not. Just have faith that during the real test you'll be able to put forth your best effort because your subconscious will allow you to.

yeah, very true. i tend to do better with adrenaline and nerves, so hopefully that will be advantageous for me. thanks 🙂 i appreciate it!

The last thing you want to do with a week left is get discouraged. From what I recall you are a great verbal test taker, be happy about that and be confident. You're doing really well in a section many people find impossible to improve. With confidence on the test day with adrenaline this score can only go up, because you know you are naturally inclined to doing well.

As far as the sciences, I see no reason to panic. Have faith in all the hard work you are putting in. Really go back to your practice tests that you've taken and try and analyze your mistakes, see where and why you are making these mistakes. With little time left, you might have a better chance of trying to address content issues, practice passages are useful but you can only practice what you know. Make sure you know how to do the questions. Maybe even take some time and rework through all the questions you got wrong in the science sections of your FLs, if you are getting any wrong you are not reviewing properly.

Last tip, if you're good at verbal you should really try and hone in on your verbal strategy, POE skills throughout the sections. Many questions can be answered by eliminating glaringly wrong answers, and there are many more that you can get simply by reading the passage carefully and slowly. Just relax and take the test calmly, we all wasted our summers for this test, make it count.

Also, make sure you don't burn yourself out 30-50 passages a day sounds like a brutal workload, quality is sometimes greater than quantity at least for me.

i'm usually good at verbal, but i haven't been doing so hot lately because i think i'm just overthinking and trying to put pressure on myself to do extra well. good idea about focusing more on strategies -- maybe i'll try some verbal passages tomorrow and focus on honing my strategies to see if that improves outcomes.

that's a good idea about the sciences too. i went through the test i took today and seriously all of the questions i missed were really easy and make total sense now. i shouldn't have missed them at all in the first place. i just have to keep myself from making more mistakes on the real test! haha. or at least very very few.

thanks so much for the calm and rational advice, i appreciate it 👍 hopefully this will help me get me back on track!

 

[inycepoo]

Guys, I'm having a really tough time. I feel discouraged and like I'm watching all of my hopes, dreams, and hard work start to crumble around me. That sounds so dramatic, haha, but it really feels awful. I can't even focus because I'm just so upset at the flailing trajectory of my scores. I'm sure that it's not a good idea to take the MCAT while devastated and insecure, so I need to figure out some way to boost my confidence before next week. Do you have any suggestions on how I can dust off my shoulders and man up?

I know that my average (32ish) isn't terrible by any means, and that I might be able to get into an allopathic med school with that score if I have a good application in other respects. But it's not the score I want to get, nor the one I thought I'd be capable of. It's just endlessly frustrating to work so hard with such little payoff.

Here's how I see it after my 8/9 test: you're good at VR. That's becoming more and more important for all the sections now. I'm too lazy to check if you've done AAMC 10/11 yet, but comprehension of even the science passages is of utmost importance. The PS sections aren't like the old AAMCs where you can answer a question about oxidation states without ever reading the passage at all. BS is even more like this with the experiments. Discretes aside, hard fact memory recall testing is declining.

This becomes even more important when there is extraneous information in the science passages. You need a sharp eye to catch what's needed and what's not. I've found that the best way to do this is to go from the questions. If they don't ask about it, you don't need to understand why set-up A with components Y, H, and F work the way they do in the passage. Kaplan's online content did a good job of driving this into my brain. Your VR skills help with this.

Do you need to know your science stuff? Of course. But it needs to be in context and fit into the big picture.

Basically, you gotta do all the sections like you do VR, which we all know you're good at. I think your strengths play more to what the MCAT is like now than before. Don't get discouraged!!

 

[SB14]

Guys, I'm having a really tough time. I feel discouraged and like I'm watching all of my hopes, dreams, and hard work start to crumble around me. That sounds so dramatic, haha, but it really feels awful. I can't even focus because I'm just so upset at the flailing trajectory of my scores. I'm sure that it's not a good idea to take the MCAT while devastated and insecure, so I need to figure out some way to boost my confidence before next week. Do you have any suggestions on how I can dust off my shoulders and man up?

I know that my average (32ish) isn't terrible by any means, and that I might be able to get into an allopathic med school with that score if I have a good application in other respects. But it's not the score I want to get, nor the one I thought I'd be capable of. It's just endlessly frustrating to work so hard with such little payoff.

Ugh. Sorry for whining/venting. I can't really talk about this stuff to anyone I know because a) they will just say, "oh, i'm sure you'll do great!" which isn't true; or b) they will be disappointed in me. You all have no vested interest in my feelings, which makes you the perfect sounding board 🙂

I feel pretty much the same way. I started off with a couple of 36s and a 37 but my last three tests have been 31, 33, 33. Honestly the scale is a bitch when you get up to those levels so keep on focusing on cutting out those silly mistakes in the sciences. It seems like you're rocking out on the verbal so just do enough to stabilize that. Personally I feel like you can score highly on the sciences more consistently than the verbal because there will always be those 2 or 3 questions that you can interpret differently for verbal. But at the higher end in PS and BS, it's all about cutting out the silly mistakes and thinking clearly and confidently during your test. Go on the aamc test break down page and see how many of your marked questions you got wrong. That will tell you if your mistakes are coming from questions that you felt uneasy about during the test itself or silly mistakes in questions you were confident in and didn't have to mark. If its the latter, work on proving every choice wrong before you pick an answer! If it's the former, do passages that will let you grasp the content you misunderstood more intuitively.

Good luck!

 

[Austorior]

Wow I couldn't even imagine doing 30-50 passages a day, I struggle to do 10 now. Does anyone plan on taking it easy lol. I feel like all I can do now is just take aamc 11 and review weaknesses. Not sure if I am being lazy or starting to burn out.

Definitely taking it rather easy until test date. The last thing I want now is to deviate from my practice average because of burn out.

I'm also getting so tired of this repetitive test. I've been getting tired at night so easily recently. I've been going to bed before midnight for the first time since high school... I blame the stress and boredom of MCAT. 😡

I am just going to be going over flash cards and the formula sheets that Kaplan gave me, finishing up with a FL on Monday. I am pretty confident in my content knowledge, at least for the high yield topics. Doing passage after passage of MCAT will probably just tire me out. Maybe a couple of BS passages each day along with a couple of verbal passages at night.

 

[sunflower18]

Here's how I see it after my 8/9 test: you're good at VR. That's becoming more and more important for all the sections now. I'm too lazy to check if you've done AAMC 10/11 yet, but comprehension of even the science passages is of utmost importance. The PS sections aren't like the old AAMCs where you can answer a question about oxidation states without ever reading the passage at all. BS is even more like this with the experiments. Discretes aside, hard fact memory recall testing is declining.

This becomes even more important when there is extraneous information in the science passages. You need a sharp eye to catch what's needed and what's not. I've found that the best way to do this is to go from the questions. If they don't ask about it, you don't need to understand why set-up A with components Y, H, and F work the way they do in the passage. Kaplan's online content did a good job of driving this into my brain. Your VR skills help with this.

Do you need to know your science stuff? Of course. But it needs to be in context and fit into the big picture.

Basically, you gotta do all the sections like you do VR, which we all know you're good at. I think your strengths play more to what the MCAT is like now than before. Don't get discouraged!!

That's really reassuring to hear. I've done 10, and I got a 34, which is my highest practice test score thus far. Still not great, but better than 32!

Thanks so much for the encouragement!! I think that that is a good way to look at it, and definitely makes me feel more confident 👍👍

I feel pretty much the same way. I started off with a couple of 36s and a 37 but my last three tests have been 31, 33, 33. Honestly the scale is a bitch when you get up to those levels so keep on focusing on cutting out those silly mistakes in the sciences. It seems like you're rocking out on the verbal so just do enough to stabilize that. Personally I feel like you can score highly on the sciences more consistently than the verbal because there will always be those 2 or 3 questions that you can interpret differently for verbal. But at the higher end in PS and BS, it's all about cutting out the silly mistakes and thinking clearly and confidently during your test. Go on the aamc test break down page and see how many of your marked questions you got wrong. That will tell you if your mistakes are coming from questions that you felt uneasy about during the test itself or silly mistakes in questions you were confident in and didn't have to mark. If its the latter, work on proving every choice wrong before you pick an answer! If it's the former, do passages that will let you grasp the content you misunderstood more intuitively.

Good luck!

Yeah, definitely. It's crazy how just a few silly mistakes can add up to several points. Most of my errors are not from a lack of understanding, but from going too quickly or not looking at a piece of information that was in the passage or something -- things that should be fixable. Thanks so much for the help and encouragement! Good luck to you as well!!! If you got great scores at the beginning, you're totally still capable of those scores now 🙂



Thanks everybody for reassuring and encouraging me!! I really appreciate it and now I feel much better. I am ready to tackle this thing with you guys next week!! You all are awesome, and I hope everyone here does FANTASTIC 😍🙂

 

[Zod]

May the curve be ever in our favor. And may the force be with us. (Might as well throw these in) 😀

 

[equang]

Felt like I almost broke my nose yesterday while playing basketball. Took a shoulder to it. Advice: no more contact sports or injury risk sports (soccer,football,basketball). But still get your exercise in.

Any advice on cutting down on silly mistakes?

Worse performance on an AAMC (out of 7) today. Looking for advice also on what you all think would give the most effect from here on out. I guess relaxation would be good.

 

[starbucksjunkie]

😡😡😕😱🙁😡

 

[Austorior]

Hi guys,
I started scoring 33 to 34(AAMC) in the beginning, near the middle I kept on getting 33's and occasional 36's (AAMC) which is fine. The last two tests I took I got 29's (AAMC)
I am having mental breakdown, why is my score going down????????????????
I am reviewing everyday. Today I took AAMC 3 and got 29 AGAIN. I couldn't handle the score and decided to take the test immediately and scored 40.
My problems: I am making stupid careless mistakes even when I read questions and answers carefully. I am not struggling with content at all. I am super stressed out (weight gain, bite my tongue, grind my teeth..) This is my second time (voided my first because i was having a fever and had a kidney infection). I can't do this again, I can't go through another retake, my mental health will not be able to handle it.
1) how to manage my nerves?
2) how to stop making careless mistakes?
3)how to stop second guessing myself on each answer I chose and stick with my gut while not making stupid mistakes?
Help!!!!
BTW I just joined to SDM
P.S. here are the emoticons: 😡😡😕😱🙁😡

Did you happen to drink a lot of Starbucks beforehand? 😛
All jokes aside, I've found that caffein definitely makes me perform worse. I have a hard time concentrating, which leads to dumb mistakes.

Honestly by this time, your skills are very much set, and it's all about nerve management and taking the test calmly.

1) Deep breaths, MCAT isn't the most important. It's really not life or death. You even have twice the amount of experience as us and most others taking the exam on that day! Exercising lightly also helps reduce stress. I like to listen to some piano music to calm myself.

2) Take your time when answering questions. Generally, if you can answer a question in 10 seconds, re-do it. If you can't answer a question after 2 minutes, guess something and skip it.

3) When you're between two choices, stop for a second, calm yourself, and try to reason it out. You have plenty of time to do so, even 5 extra seconds feel like a LONG time. Decide "what's wrong with this answer choice" instead of "what's right".

You clearly have the ability to get a 40. Flukes happen all the time. You could also try warming up with flash cards and a couple of passages before attacking the actual test.

Good luck! We will all get this over with together!

 

[sunflower18]

How's everyone doing today?? I'm taking AAMC 11 tomorrow, and it's crazy that it's my last FL!!!

I've done quite a few physics discretes today, along with reading equations and hormones and reviewing past tests and such. I don't know. I feel like at this point, I'm too nervous to remember things that I'm trying to cram into my head at the last minute.. So I've been trying to relax and get confident and excited today. I'm just sooo ready to take this thing! There is always more to know, but I don't think I can get much readier in the next 4 days. I'm going to keep reviewing and studying and doing practice problems until Tuesday afternoon, though. Just because I'll feel guilty if I don't, I think. Haha.

Random question. Do you guys take the sections in order, or do you go through the whole thing once before starting? I go through and write down the passage number, the question number that starts the passage, what the topic is, and whether it is physics vs gen chem, or bio vs ochem. I do the discretes as I see them, though, and don't circle back to them. I was just wondering if anyone else did this. I kind of like doing it because that way I don't get to a passage and panic -- I'll already know what the topic is by the time I click. It also lets me arrange my strengths to come first. I dunno. It makes sense to me but I haven't heard anyone else mention a similar strategy.

 

[SB14]

How's everyone doing today?? I'm taking AAMC 11 tomorrow, and it's crazy that it's my last FL!!!

I've done quite a few physics discretes today, along with reading equations and hormones and reviewing past tests and such. I don't know. I feel like at this point, I'm too nervous to remember things that I'm trying to cram into my head at the last minute.. So I've been trying to relax and get confident and excited today. I'm just sooo ready to take this thing! There is always more to know, but I don't think I can get much readier in the next 4 days. I'm going to keep reviewing and studying and doing practice problems until Tuesday afternoon, though. Just because I'll feel guilty if I don't, I think. Haha.

Random question. Do you guys take the sections in order, or do you go through the whole thing once before starting? I go through and write down the passage number, the question number that starts the passage, what the topic is, and whether it is physics vs gen chem, or bio vs ochem. I do the discretes as I see them, though, and don't circle back to them. I was just wondering if anyone else did this. I kind of like doing it because that way I don't get to a passage and panic -- I'll already know what the topic is by the time I click. It also lets me arrange my strengths to come first. I dunno. It makes sense to me but I haven't heard anyone else mention a similar strategy.

I've never done it like that but if it works for you then don't change it! Also, do you know if we are allowed a pencil and paper during the test? I had a friend who said they gave him a small whiteboard and a marker!

 

[neurotroph]

AAMC #9: 10/11/13

Come onnnnnnn. Please let me hit my goal on 10 and 11. I'll use the fact that I was distracted by family during VR and had to keep pausing and restarting as my excuse for hitting an all time low in that section.

 

[inycepoo]

I've never done it like that but if it works for you then don't change it! Also, do you know if we are allowed a pencil and paper during the test? I had a friend who said they gave him a small whiteboard and a marker!

You should get scrap paper and pencils from the test center. Maybe your friend's center is either cheap or going green?

 

[sunflower18]

I've never done it like that but if it works for you then don't change it! Also, do you know if we are allowed a pencil and paper during the test? I had a friend who said they gave him a small whiteboard and a marker!

😱 I would be so upset if that happened at mine!! I write down a ton of equations during the tutorial and then cross off each passage on my scratch paper as I do it... Oh man. That'd kill my mojo.

 

[gettheleadout]

I've never done it like that but if it works for you then don't change it! Also, do you know if we are allowed a pencil and paper during the test? I had a friend who said they gave him a small whiteboard and a marker!

I would encourage everyone to call ahead to your test center and get answers to any concerns like this ahead of time. This would be totally unacceptable as it would break the standardization of the exam, and I'm sure the AAMC would be very unhappy to find out a test center is doing this.

 

[Austorior]

Yeah, I heard some test centers give out markers and whiteboards... That would be inconvenient, but I'm sure I can manage.

I do tend to write a lot on the sciences though...

I also have stopped using Kaplan's "mapping passage" methods. I don't know, I feel like it wastes too much of my time in verbal, and is just not very useful in the sciences.

 

[neurotroph]

So in the 30+ strategies thread, a lot of people scored higher on the real deal than the average of their full lengths. This gives me hope.

 

[SB14]

So in the 30+ strategies thread, a lot of people scored higher on the real deal than the average of their full lengths. This gives me hope.

haha thank you for that. I needed it after looking at the 8/15 and 8/16 tests where the vast majority of people felt like they got annihilated