*The Official January 2016 MCAT*

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Medaholic Dr

Medaholic Dr

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Hello guys,
I don't see any thread made for January 2016 MCAT test date, so I thought to create one. I'll be graduating by the end of this year and will be giving my MCAT on January 2016. I had my test date set for September of this year, but something came up and I won't be able to dedicate myself to studying for the MCAT fully. So, let us make this thread rich with all the discussions about the MCAT. Let us support each other and make taking MCAT a pleasurable experience, so I think. Let's go.......
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chm9332 said:
do you want to hear an unbalanced score? because you can't beat me in this.
I got 130/123/129/131
....and I also have 3.94 GPA from a top 20. I'm just gonna apply with this. I'm very very disappointed in my CARS score, but I saw it coming as I was super sick and didn't get any sleep the night before the exam. So I decided to accept it as I've spoken with many of my friend in medical school and they've ensured me that there are plenty of current medical students who had the exact same problem and yet still made it. But I do realize how annoying this situation is. one section shadowing the 3 other great scores. But we will be ok!!
Best of luck to you.
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I feel your pain; it's the most annoying thing in the world! I was in a similar situation in August when my 514 breakdown was a 131/122/130/131. (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/unbalanced-mcat-2015-514-very-low-cars.1160574/). My CARS score killed me, but I knew that my low score was more due to stress and timing issues than it was my actual CARS skills.

I would have applied with my score as well but I was too late for last year's cycle so I decided to retake in January since I had time for this upcoming cycle. I ended up getting a 517 with a 130/128/130/129 breakdown. Now I'm not saying you have to retake, but if you honestly feel like you can maintain your awesome science scores and kill it in CARS, I would say to think about it. I am in a much better position now than I was in August. You will be fine either way and I wish you all the best!
 
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does anyone understand the purpose of the confidence band? So lets say a score of 515 has a confidence band of 513-517, does that mean your final score might change within that band based on how other tests go?
 
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mikeross530 said:
I feel your pain; it's the most annoying thing in the world! I was in a similar situation in August when my 514 breakdown was a 131/122/130/131. (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/unbalanced-mcat-2015-514-very-low-cars.1160574/). My CARS score killed me, but I knew that my low score was more due to stress and timing issues than it was my actual CARS skills.

I would have applied with my score as well but I was too late for last year's cycle so I decided to retake in January since I had time for this upcoming cycle. I ended up getting a 517 with a 130/128/130/129 breakdown. Now I'm not saying you have to retake, but if you honestly feel like you can maintain your awesome science scores and kill it in CARS, I would say to think about it. I am in a much better position now than I was in August. You will be fine either way and I wish you all the best!
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Wow, congratulations! I'm very happy it worked out for you. Yeah, I considered retaking it, but I'm on a such a heavy course load so I don't think I can invest enough time in MCAT to be able to maintain my "awesome" science scores haha. Thanks for the advice though and best of luck to you!
 
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Medman1324 said:
does anyone understand the purpose of the confidence band? So lets say a score of 515 has a confidence band of 513-517, does that mean your final score might change within that band based on how other tests go?
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It means that were you to retake you are likely to score within that range. In other words, both 513, 517 and all of the scores in between don't differ significantly from yours
 
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Gutsy said:
Congrats!! I was wondering what you did second time around to make such great improvement?!
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The first time around I used a class (kaplan) and followed their plan....and honestly it did not help at all. I am not saying that they are a bad prep company but what I realized is that I learn at a pace that I can set for myself, so that is what I did. I used EK 9th edition and supplemented with Khan Academy for all subjects except CARS. For full lengths I used EK and AAMC ( also took a next step and Kaplan half test 1/3 into studying and got a 491 and 494 respectively). I also used all the AAMC prep materials. Focus most of your time on practice passages and full lengths.
 
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Scored Practice: 510

Actual MCAT: 515

I HIT MY TARGET SCORE!!!! It's been a long hell of a journey. Congrats to everyone who has finished!!! And goodluck to those who are going to part 2 this journey, don't feel discouraged, just keep grindin'. No room for emotion in this game. 🙂
 
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DingDongD said:
What did you guys think of EK CARS FL to the real MCAT? Was it on par?
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It was ok. I used it because it had a great break down of every answer choice. However I personally found the AAMC CARS pack most helpful (basically the verbal section from all the old tests--easy to find on the internet). I think all CARS practice is good practice, but I found that EK and Kaplan's CARS were more about tricky wording.
 
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Snoopy528 said:
501 last May to a 507 this time around! Very happy with my score. I scored a 509 on the scored AAMC full-length.

Just to settle everyone's crazy nerves: even with my 501, I was able to interview at several schools (with a strong GPA and experiences).
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I got a 502 on the test, and have a 3.8 GPA. As a non-traditional student, and extensive experience in trauma - an admissions member at UWSOM seems to think I could still get in. Although, I am highly disappointed in my score I know that the conditions I was studying under were absolutely not ideal. Did you end up with any acceptances?
 
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Hey guys, I'm up for mid May this year. I've took a Kaplan live online course and have been studying for the MCAT about 2 to 3 hours a day (who knows how efficiently though!). I'm a bit concerned since my full length scores have been dropping. My diagnostic was 505, FL 1: 506, FL2: 509, FL3: 513, Fl4:511, Fl5: 509. I finished the fifth today. I only got a 125 on CARS, my lowest ever. I feel like an idiot. I hate seeing this drop and was wondering what you veterans think of it.
 
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Panteleimon said:
Hey guys, I'm up for mid May this year. I've took a Kaplan live online course and have been studying for the MCAT about 2 to 3 hours a day (who knows how efficiently though!). I'm a bit concerned since my full length scores have been dropping. My diagnostic was 505, FL 1: 506, FL2: 509, FL3: 513, Fl4:511, Fl5: 509. I finished the fifth today. I only got a 125 on CARS, my lowest ever. I feel like an idiot. I hate seeing this drop and was wondering what you veterans think of it.
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On this note: I think there was one version with an EXTREMELY long cars section and it seems like everyone who was so unlucky to get that one has very low CARS scores. Kind of sucks, mine was similar.
 
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soundslikefire said:
It was ok. I used it because it had a great break down of every answer choice. However I personally found the AAMC CARS pack most helpful (basically the verbal section from all the old tests--easy to find on the internet). I think all CARS practice is good practice, but I found that EK and Kaplan's CARS were more about tricky wording.
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How is the cars pack set up? Do you choose a certain number of questions or you have to do the whole thing at once?
 
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MekM said:
How is the cars pack set up? Do you choose a certain number of questions or you have to do the whole thing at once?
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From what I remember, you do all 150Q at once but you can take a break, sign out, and sign back in whenever you feel like it. You get 20 starts. If you're simply continuing from when you last signed out, it does not use up a restart.
 
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soundslikefire said:
From what I remember, you do all 150Q at once but you can take a break, sign out, and sign back in whenever you feel like it. You get 20 starts. If you're simply continuing from when you last signed out, it does not use up a restart.
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I dont like how they are not timed!!!
 
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How did you guys review your full length exams? I have done a few kaplan tests, however, I actually do not review some sections due to a lack of time (maybe laziness too). I am trying to do one FL a week until May and with school and other MCAT studying I have found I am not reviewing properly. So for the most recent exam I took, I am writing down important information from right answers and also the wrong answers + the concept behind that. If you guys could possibly let me know how you went about reviewing each exam and also how you drilled the concepts you missed. Thanks!
 
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maydaymalone said:
How did you guys review your full length exams? I have done a few kaplan tests, however, I actually do not review some sections due to a lack of time (maybe laziness too). I am trying to do one FL a week until May and with school and other MCAT studying I have found I am not reviewing properly. So for the most recent exam I took, I am writing down important information from right answers and also the wrong answers + the concept behind that. If you guys could possibly let me know how you went about reviewing each exam and also how you drilled the concepts you missed. Thanks!
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I forced myself to go through every single question and read every single answer description, whether I was super confident in the answer or not. I had a notebook that I kept solely for practice test and practice problem review notes. I would write down new facts I'd learn from the answer descriptions for questions. I think it's important to put the material into your own words, especially for questions you've gotten wrong. As I reviewed, if I came to a problem that I got wrong/had no idea how to answer, I read the answer description and then googled the topic for other sources of information. Some websites, especially some with physics simulations, are really helpful and it's sometimes helpful to hear material from a source that isn't just for MCAT prep. I supplemented my review notes with the extra information I found online. Make sure you have good sources though, obviously. Also, I would sometimes rewrite problems in my notebook from another angle and change a few things about them just to make sure I fully understood them. I reviewed bits of the review notes I took every night before going to sleep. After getting through it, I just started from the beginning again and kept doing this until test day. For psych/soc terms, if I got a question wrong in practice tests, I would go to my prep books and make flashcards for the terms that I didn't know. At that time, I'd also read a little bit of the section that the term is from just to get some context. I reviewed those flashcards along with the notebook almost every night before going to bed. You don't have to get through all of them in a night, just keep pushing through them and at least you'll see the topics you struggle with more than once before you get to your test. Focusing on your weaknesses is so important!! It takes a long time to review these tests. I would take a full length and then take about double the time to review the concepts, so be prepared for that. Spending time on reviewing is definitely worth it as long as you're being honest with yourself with how seriously you're taking the review and not just rushing through it/not trying to fully understand problems. I also saw a tip that said while you're reviewing, try to answer questions you've gotten wrong without looking at the answer description first. Keep working on the problem and looking at it until you can get the answer or at least get closer to understanding the problem. This might take a long time though, so if you don't have the time, don't spend hours trying to solve a problem.

Also, if you want to speed it up a bit, setting a timer on your laptop (one that is big and that you can see while you're reviewing) helped me to stay focused! I would set it for about 90 minutes at a time and just try to keep reviewing throughout that whole time period.

That's a bit long-winded but hope it helps a little! 🙂 Keep at it!
 
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@US_backpacker7 thank you for the detailed response, that is basically what I am trying to get myself to do. I have to make sure that I am writing down each question I get wrong and as many of the correct ones that I feel are important. How long did you take to review each exam? how many exams did you take?
 
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mikeross530 said:
I feel your pain; it's the most annoying thing in the world! I was in a similar situation in August when my 514 breakdown was a 131/122/130/131. (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/unbalanced-mcat-2015-514-very-low-cars.1160574/). My CARS score killed me, but I knew that my low score was more due to stress and timing issues than it was my actual CARS skills.

I would have applied with my score as well but I was too late for last year's cycle so I decided to retake in January since I had time for this upcoming cycle. I ended up getting a 517 with a 130/128/130/129 breakdown. Now I'm not saying you have to retake, but if you honestly feel like you can maintain your awesome science scores and kill it in CARS, I would say to think about it. I am in a much better position now than I was in August. You will be fine either way and I wish you all the best!
Click to expand...

Congrats on the amazing cars improvement!!!! I took the mcat in August too and got a 121 in cars :/ would you mind sharing how you improved so much? Or what materials were most effective for you, I would really appreciate it! 🙂
 
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medbunny56 said:
Congrats on the amazing cars improvement!!!! I took the mcat in August too and got a 121 in cars :/ would you mind sharing how you improved so much? Or what materials were most effective for you, I would really appreciate it! 🙂
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Thanks! The first time I was preparing for the MCAT I kind of neglected studying for CARS. I assumed taking the CARS sections only during my full lengths was just enough. Also I never used to go over what I got wrong and right the first time around. That was a huge mistake. So the second time around I took CARS more seriously. I tried to do a few passages everyday 2 months before my MCAT, but 3 weeks before my MCAT I started doing a full CARS section every single day for the most part. This really helped with my timing and also getting used to the style of CARS questions. While reviewing CARS passages, I didn't focus too much on details, and was just trying to see which types of questions I was getting wrong the most (for me it was applying the authors argument to outside situations). Once I identified my weakness, every time I had a question of that nature, I would spend a little bit more time on it, and in my head disprove the other 3 answer choices with reasoning within the text to justify why I picked my answer. In terms of materials I used, I did the EK 101 verbal in the beginning, but I found the passages kind of interesting, which was not good for me because I wanted to practice with boring passages just in case on test day that happened. The most helpful resources were both of the AAMC CARS questions packs. They were hard, but very effective practice. The CARS section is killer, but with enough practice and some good passages on test day you can overcome it!
 
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maydaymalone said:
@US_backpacker7 thank you for the detailed response, that is basically what I am trying to get myself to do. I have to make sure that I am writing down each question I get wrong and as many of the correct ones that I feel are important. How long did you take to review each exam? how many exams did you take?
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That sounds like a great plan. I took probably about 16 hours to review...might've been overkill but it really helped me. I sacrificed taking more practice tests to spend more time reviewing. I took 5 full-length practice exams (EK1,EK2,EK4, AAMC sample, AAMC scored), did all three section banks, did several KA P/S passages, and also did several BR passages for my weak areas. I also did 11 FL NS CARS passages (1/week) from the NS 108 passages book. While I was reviewing, I noticed some areas of the sciences that I needed extra work in, so I did more practice problems from my BR materials and reviewed them in the same way I reviewed FLs. I think that helped a lot and made up for doing fewer practice tests. FLs are important for endurance and identifying weaknesses, but they might test you more on topics that are easier for you than topics that are harder for you, so it's important to make sure you're identifying and working on the harder topics more (but also not neglecting the easier ones!).
 
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Has anyone posted on here or anywhere else a list or guide to ALL of the practice material out there?? I plan to test in May-June and would love to do as many exams as I possibly can =)
 
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What did you guys think of the scored exam vs the real test? Was your score similar, higher or lower? Thanks, ahead.
 
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I have the Kaplan 7 book set and was wondering what you guys who used it thought of it in terms of prep, especially for CARS and soc/psych? What is the best way to practice soc/psych? Not alot of practice in the Kaplan set. Just a TON of terms and meh explanations it seems like
 
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DingDongD said:
What did you guys think of the scored exam vs the real test? Was your score similar, higher or lower? Thanks, ahead.
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I scored exactly the same on the scored exam as I did on my actual exam. The non-scored FL by AAMC also equated to the same score I earned on the actual exam (using an excel converter that I found here). For me, the AAMC FLs were extremely accurate in predicting my actual score.
 
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exposedbrickcampaign said:
I have the Kaplan 7 book set and was wondering what you guys who used it thought of it in terms of prep, especially for CARS and soc/psych? What is the best way to practice soc/psych? Not alot of practice in the Kaplan set. Just a TON of terms and meh explanations it seems like
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I bought the Kaplan CARS book, and I think I used maybe 10 pages from it. I also had the EK 101 passages book, and I used about a half of it.
I think it was a strategy thread on this board, or the EK CARS book (not the 101 passages but the one that came with the EK set) that helped me on CARS the most. I scored 13x on the AAMC FLs, and on the actual exam for CARS. The strategy was something among the lines of:

1. After reading each paragraph, formulate what the key points were. Basically, summarize the paragraph into one sentence mentally.
2. As you read each subsequent paragraph, think about how it relates to the paragraphs preceding it.
3. Try to summarize the entire passage into one sentence before actually doing the questions.
4. Going back to the passage is a cardinal sin. Except, I usually finished the CARS section pretty quickly, so I had time to go through the passages for a second, or even third time to look for answers.
5. It's okay to not completely understand every sentence in the passage. Chances are, if you had trouble deciphering what the sentence exactly meant, then others did as well.
6. This helped me a lot though it might seem silly/useless. I believe I got this tip from MCAT osmosis. Before you start ANY passage, and not only for CARS but for all sections, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing for a few seconds. This helped my mental cache clear itself, so that I could focus on the present passage at hand without thinking about the previous passage related material.
7. Choose the least incorrect answer. Oftentimes for me at least, I could cross out at least 2 answer choices that seemed to directly contradict what the passage said, or did not actually answer the question.
8. When doing practice passages, make sure you figure out why you got it wrong/the frequency of the type of errors you made. For example, I often chose an answer choice that was true according to the passage, but did not actually answer the question.

Granted, I had taken the MCATs back in 2012, and I had done a fair amount of practice passages then (though my verbal score was a 10 on that exam).

If you have any questions, feel free to message me, and I'll be more than happy to help!
 
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@queenoftheclouds , @Snoopy528 , @riverboat gambler
congrats guys on your great scores!
I have a question for you guys.
I just took my test last week and although I had been scoring where I wanted on the last few practice exams
aamc unscored ~78% (3 weeks b4) , aamc scored 510 (1 week before); took 8more fl with other prep comp (showed slow progression upwards as I was doing content review)

However, I went in the testing site feeling very nervous with 3 hrs of sleep and I couldn't focus well like I normally do for the practice tests.
I mean, who doesn't get nervous right?
But I think it affected my performance compared to practice exams...
I'm having really bad post mcat anxiety because of this.
I did finish the sections on time but felt like I couldn't grasp the question's intent on more questions than I normally would have.
(for ex, normally bio is one of my strongest section. but the exam had 2 killer passages that I would have understood 1 of them but couldn't pull myself together. so I had to guess majority of the questions on those 2 passages. normally i don't have any passages where I don't understand the experiment as a whole or maybe 1 at most... Since this is supposed to be my score raiser, i'm panicking. My only problematic section is the first section and I don't even remember how i did because of the nerves.)

How did you guys feel after your real exam, in comparison to after taking your practice fls?
Any advice?
Thanks for your time in advance!
 
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docinthefam said:
@queenoftheclouds , @Snoopy528 , @riverboat gambler
congrats guys on your great scores!
I have a question for you guys.
I just took my test last week and although I had been scoring where I wanted on the last few practice exams
aamc unscored ~78% (3 weeks b4) , aamc scored 510 (1 week before); took 8more fl with other prep comp (showed slow progression upwards as I was doing content review)

However, I went in the testing site feeling very nervous with 3 hrs of sleep and I couldn't focus well like I normally do for the practice tests.
I mean, who doesn't get nervous right?
But I think it affected my performance compared to practice exams...
I'm having really bad post mcat anxiety because of this.
I did finish the sections on time but felt like I couldn't grasp the question's intent on more questions than I normally would have.
(for ex, normally bio is one of my strongest section. but the exam had 2 killer passages that I would have understood 1 of them but couldn't pull myself together. so I had to guess majority of the questions on those 2 passages. normally i don't have any passages where I don't understand the experiment as a whole or maybe 1 at most... Since this is supposed to be my score raiser, i'm panicking. My only problematic section is the first section and I don't even remember how i did because of the nerves.)

How did you guys feel after your real exam, in comparison to after taking your practice fls?
Any advice?
Thanks for your time in advance!
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Hi, congrats on finishing your MCATs!!!

I actually felt really good after my exam, but take this with a grain of salt because many people don't and still end up doing well. Honestly post test nerves are a build up of expectations and relative comparison to how you've felt after your practice tests. Everytime I did a practice test, I felt awful, so my real test in comparison just felt much smoother for me. I slept 7-ish hours and felt like the adrenaline focused me on test day. If the bio section had 2 killer passages, then it must have been killer for everyone, so I wouldn't worry too much.

I think anyone will agree that post test nerves don't indicate anything with how you did. The only thing you should be able to tell right off the bat is if you bombed it entirely or not, which I assume you would have voided had that happened.

I thought I did worst on C/P and B/B and they ended up being my highest scores. On my practice exams, I always score highest on P/S but that ended up being my lowest. If a section is hard, there's more room for you to miss questions because there's a curve.
 
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@docinthefam I think you will be fine! I experienced a bit of food poisoning during my first section on test day, and I had to rush through the last 2 passages. Felt horrible about it, then after the short break, I felt better. Then, I experienced what I thought was one of the hardest Bio/Biochem sections I'd ever seen. That made me feel terrible about the test as a whole, but I still thought I should score it because I didn't think I totally bombed it. I ended up with the same score for every section except Psych, which was 1 point less than the others. I was very happy with the result, and I was very nervous about it because I felt not-so-great after the test.

My best advice would be to keep yourself busy over the next few weeks. It's not worth it to worry now because there is nothing you can do to change anything. Pick up a new TV series, indulge in one of your hobbies or start a new one, or spend a lot of time with friends. Then, take the result and decide what your next step is going to be. Good luck to you! 🙂
 
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@Snoopy528 Thank you for the input!
I am currently working on my PS and every now and then i have mini panic attacks from post mcat anxiety lol.
I'll take ur advice and try to chill!! thanks for your time again🙂
 
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Hi @fara2314 I'm in the same boat. Got an approximate 505 on the AAMC unscored and a 500 on the scored, have been having trouble with passages reasoning and analysis. I think going through the test to see why you missed answers is the best way to improve.
 
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