The Official November 7, 2014 MCAT Thread

[M.D.orbust]

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Hey all! I am signed up for this date. 8:00 a.m. Yikes!!! I am aiming hard to make 40+ my reality so hence me making this thread so early. A former lab- mate and current medical student had a ton of MCAT prep stuff she gave to me. So I have the Examcrackers set, Hyperlearning set, regular Princeton Review, audio osmosis, and practice MCAT tests from a variety of sources I also do the MCAT questions a day through email and on my phone (to help with super quick recall). I am officially studying legitimately now. Currently starting with Examcrackers. I'd love to hear from you all doing the same. Let's do this!!!

 

[lazyindy]

@lazyindy
When you divide the chapter into 3 parts, how many passages does each third end up having? (soz not familiar with SN2ed divisions of TBR)
I'm done with both TBR Phys books and their passages, still have GChem I/II books but should be finished by those this weekend.

depends on how many passages there are at the end of the chapter. For example if a chapter has 13 passages at the end. Then I do every 1/3rd: So passages I, IV, VII, X, XIII. roughly 5 passages. I also give myself about 6 and half minutes for each passage but I do them all in one timed session. So for 5 passages I time myself to 32 mins and 30 seconds.

And to address your other question I've primarily used TBR so far with a few EK 1001 problems here and there. I will be starting self assessments hopefully this week so I can get to the practice exams.

 

[lazyindy]

How do you all post game? I feel like that should be an obvious answer, but I honestly don't feel like I'm doing enough half the time.

At first I used to go over every answer choice and write down my thought process as to what I was thinking when I was answering the question and how I felt about the other answer choices. Over time I developed an intuition that allowed me to get into the mind of the test writer. You start to get a feel of how they're going to ask the questions and in what way (style). This did not occur rapidly for me, mind you. Took a good 2 months but deliberate practice made all the difference in my case.

I'd suggest writing out your entire thought process as to why you answered a question incorrectly. Try it and let me know if it helps.

 

[Janus_Kinase]

Questions for those who have taken aamc FLs: Is there a time limit for which the test will stay open? Or do I have to time it myself? I know SAs there is no time limit so you can spend extra time on some problems. I am just worried that if I have to time myself, I may not be as strict.

 

[ciestar]

Questions for those who have taken aamc FLs: Is there a time limit for which the test will stay open? Or do I have to time it myself? I know SAs there is no time limit so you can spend extra time on some problems. I am just worried that if I have to time myself, I may not be as strict.

You have the option to add the timer. (There's actually a "simulate test conditions" option)

 

[ciestar]

At first I used to go over every answer choice and write down my thought process as to what I was thinking when I was answering the question and how I felt about the other answer choices. Over time I developed an intuition that allowed me to get into the mind of the test writer. You start to get a feel of how they're going to ask the questions and in what way (style). This did not occur rapidly for me, mind you. Took a good 2 months but deliberate practice made all the difference in my case.

I'd suggest writing out your entire thought process as to why you answered a question incorrectly. Try it and let me know if it helps.

I keep noticing my mistakes are stupid ones. Like, moles. Who forget to multiply by 2 over and over again? Me.

 

[Janus_Kinase]

Cool thanks bud! @ciestar

 

[swtseselala]

I feel like everyone here has great practice FL scores!!!!! But as for me.....

I am signed up for the Nov 7 MCAT (first time taking it). But I'm not doing too well just took the AAMC 3 and got a 20 then took AAMC 5 and got a 19. 🙁... Started hardcore studying two months ago... (definitely my fault) My goal is actually above 25 for DO/DPM school. Do you think I can gain 5-6 more points by Nov 7? Im kind of freaking out ccause that is in a month... basically. If not, then I'm gonna have to take either that Dec date or even January (if anything ever opens up... ) What do you think? Thanks!

 

[baxt1412]

You have the option to add the timer. (There's actually a "simulate test conditions" option)

was just going to ask this today because I am getting off of work early afternoon and so I was gonna go home and start a full length, but I knew I wouldn't have time to finish the entire thing most likely. so I am thinking I will just leave it up and running without a timer while I'm gone, otherwise if there is an option to pause and resume later i'll just do that with the timer. I know it won't be super accurate since there will be a large break, but i'll probably do some practice questions before I come back to warm back up.

thanks

I feel like everyone here has great practice FL scores!!!!! But as for me.....

I am signed up for the Nov 7 MCAT (first time taking it). But I'm not doing too well just took the AAMC 3 and got a 20 then took AAMC 5 and got a 19. 🙁... Started hardcore studying two months ago... (definitely my fault) My goal is actually above 25 for DO/DPM school. Do you think I can gain 5-6 more points by Nov 7? Im kind of freaking out ccause that is in a month... basically. If not, then I'm gonna have to take either that Dec date or even January (if anything ever opens up... ) What do you think? Thanks!

depends. most people see the biggest improvement once they start taking tests which is typically 2-4 weeks before their date. are you done with content review? if so, I think you definitely have the potential to go up that many points.. It just depends honestly. hard to tell. if you're not doing up to where you want to be (I'd suggest an average 0-3+ points higher than what you want on the real thing), then you can always delay the test. definitely do not take it unless you are feeling the most ready. it's tough to come back from a low score. it kind of drains your mental prowess and your morale.

 

[Janus_Kinase]

I feel like everyone here has great practice FL scores!!!!! But as for me.....

I am signed up for the Nov 7 MCAT (first time taking it). But I'm not doing too well just took the AAMC 3 and got a 20 then took AAMC 5 and got a 19. 🙁... Started hardcore studying two months ago... (definitely my fault) My goal is actually above 25 for DO/DPM school. Do you think I can gain 5-6 more points by Nov 7? Im kind of freaking out ccause that is in a month... basically. If not, then I'm gonna have to take either that Dec date or even January (if anything ever opens up... ) What do you think? Thanks!

With enough practice and the proper mindset I think that is definitely possible! That being said, it depends on how much time you can dedicate solely to studying. I would prepare as if you will be writing it Nov7th because I wouldn't count on them opening up more seats (even though aamc said they would )

 

[Janus_Kinase]

So I did not get to fully finish my SA reviews but need to take a FL. Kinda nervous. Best of luck @baxt1412 on yours! Anyone else taking one today?



Well. See you all on the other side.

 

[popopopop]

I'm really considering taking the December 6th test IF I there is very little chance of retaking in January. The rationale is that if I get one shot, I might as well give myself an extra month to take in Dec. I don't feel solid on a few biology topics, but I'm not scared of the actual test.

 

[texan2414]

So I did not get to fully finish my SA reviews but need to take a FL. Kinda nervous. Best of luck @baxt1412 on yours! Anyone else taking one today?



Well. See you all on the other side.

I will be taking AAMC 4 tomorrow.

 

[baxt1412]

I'm really considering taking the December 6th test IF I there is very little chance of retaking in January. The rationale is that if I get one shot, I might as well give myself an extra month to take in Dec. I don't feel solid on a few biology topics, but I'm not scared of the actual test.

Pre-Caribbean? ¿Porqué????

Anyway, I wish I could put it off another month, but my number 1 pick will not accept an MCAT past Nov 7 and I don't really want another year off if I don't have to so yeah.... good luck!

 

[popopopop]

^It's just a joke poking fun at all of the "DO/MD Class of 20XX" in signatures. I'll decide very soon.

 

[Carbon090]

I'm doing AAMC #7 tomorrow at 8 am. Completely changing up my mindset for this. Today is light. Doing verbal practice, finishing up the Verbal SA. Then focusing on re-post-analysis on my previous FL's and SA's. I feel I'm not going heavy or deep enough in evaluating what and why I got certain problems wrong.

Also reviewing the AAMC content outlines that they provide and reviewing any subjects that I feel I'm lacking in. This way to give my mind a little rest and a little buff before the exam tomorrow morning.

 

[getfat]

As someone who has now pushed my date three times, I disagree with this entirely.

I am continually pushing my date out of a) fear b) school. The longer you push it, the scarier it gets. I pushed it this time because I'm sick as hell and have three midterms in the next two weeks that aren't going to allow me to go MCAT ham before the Oct 25 exam I had scheduled to see gains, but I think the amount of gains you see before your test is not correlated to the "amount of time" you have but the amount of work you put in. I went from a 27 on AAMC 7 to a 30 on AAMC 8 within a week. It took me a month to go from a 22 on AAMC 3 to a 27 on AAMC 7. It's all relative and subjective as hell and has way more to do with CONFIDENCE than anything else. Test taking confidence and confidence in the material. How long it takes you to build that is entirely individual dependent and entirely explains why some people beat their AAMC average come test day and why some people don't even come close. It also explains why someone can study for this test in two weeks and hit 40 and why someone (like me) can study for 4+ months and barely hit 30.

You can't keep taking what worked for someone as a magical formula as what your experience will be. That's the biggest mistake you can make with this test.

(#things @sillyjoe taughtme)

If you have taken practice tests multiple times and you are fluctuating around your target score, then i agree 100%. Personally, if you haven't hit your target score at least 2x then its insanity to think test day will be any different.
As far as I remember the OP to my reply had only taken 2 tests, so ya i think SN2ed suggestion was warranted for that person's specific instance.

 

[Janus_Kinase]

On break between VR and BS. Omg VR was way tougher than I expected 🙁 the last 3 questions I just clicked random answers cause I ran out of time. And throughout the last 3 passages I felt like I ended guessing a lot cause I kept looking at my timer and saw time was running out. I do not like this feeling coming out of verbal. 🙁

 

[ciestar]

was just going to ask this today because I am getting off of work early afternoon and so I was gonna go home and start a full length, but I knew I wouldn't have time to finish the entire thing most likely. so I am thinking I will just leave it up and running without a timer while I'm gone, otherwise if there is an option to pause and resume later i'll just do that with the timer. I know it won't be super accurate since there will be a large break, but i'll probably do some practice questions before I come back to warm back up.

thanks



depends. most people see the biggest improvement once they start taking tests which is typically 2-4 weeks before their date. are you done with content review? if so, I think you definitely have the potential to go up that many points.. It just depends honestly. hard to tell. if you're not doing up to where you want to be (I'd suggest an average 0-3+ points higher than what you want on the real thing), then you can always delay the test. definitely do not take it unless you are feeling the most ready. it's tough to come back from a low score. it kind of drains your mental prowess and your morale.

There is a pause option 🙂

 

[baxt1412]

On break between VR and BS. Omg VR was way tougher than I expected 🙁 the last 3 questions I just clicked random answers cause I ran out of time. And throughout the last 3 passages I felt like I ended guessing a lot cause I kept looking at my timer and saw time was running out. I do not like this feeling coming out of verbal. 🙁

I always find which passages I like the most and do those first so that 1) if I run out of time, it is on passages that would have already been difficult and 2) I get a confidence boost from good passages in the beginning

 

[ciestar]

Oddly enough, verbal is the only thing I ever feel good about....and my scores show it.

Anyway. Gotta finish reviewing my kaplan fl (I actually did the passages that screwed up my score the first time, got an 11. I tried pausing without closing out the exam and the timer kept going..). Might start on those SAs today. I still want to completely finish my content review but idk if that's gonna actually happen.

 

[ciestar]

I always find which passages I like the most and do those first so that 1) if I run out of time, it is on passages that would have already been difficult and 2) I get a confidence boost from good passages in the beginning

I also rank passages and I find it really helps my scores. It uses up like 30-60 seconds tops.

 

[Janus_Kinase]

Well, didn't do as well as I hoped but room to improve. Absolutely frustrated with PS. FL AAMC#3- 29 (8PS/9VR/12BS)

PS: I honestly put the most time into this. I spent all Monday + Tuesday going over Physics SA & Wednesday over Gchem SA. Granted, many of my mistakes were made because I failed to see an important detail in the passage and time constraints. I feel like I understand PS well but I can't seem to score high which is why it is so frustrating for me.

VR: Boy I got to work on timing!!!!! And some of the later passages were pretty confusing. I missed 6 questions in the first 5 passages and then 6 in the last two. Unfortunately, none of the last 3 questions where I just clicked answers were right lol. I think I will try ranking them next time @baxt1412 I like the idea of confidence

BS: The only section where I had time to review, a little over 10 mins. Missed a couple orgo stuff and some genetic questions that are so convoluted and dense, I get a headache just reading them.


I just want to see improvement in PS 🙁 haven't thoroughly post-gamed yet but will review it for the next couple days. Next FL is scheduled for Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a productive Friday!!

 

[ciestar]

Well, didn't do as well as I hoped but room to improve. Absolutely frustrated with PS. FL AAMC#3- 29 (8PS/9VR/12BS)

PS: I honestly put the most time into this. I spent all Monday + Tuesday going over Physics SA & Wednesday over Gchem SA. Granted, many of my mistakes were made because I failed to see an important detail in the passage and time constraints. I feel like I understand PS well but I can't seem to score high which is why it is so frustrating for me.

VR: Boy I got to work on timing!!!!! And some of the later passages were pretty confusing. I missed 6 questions in the first 5 passages and then 6 in the last two. Unfortunately, none of the last 3 questions where I just clicked answers were right lol. I think I will try ranking them next time @baxt1412 I like the idea of confidence

BS: The only section where I had time to review, a little over 10 mins. Missed a couple orgo stuff and some genetic questions that are so convoluted and dense, I get a headache just reading them.


I just want to see improvement in PS 🙁 haven't thoroughly post-gamed yet but will review it for the next couple days. Next FL is scheduled for Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a productive Friday!!

I got the exact same PS/VR scores a few weeks ago. That one harmonic motion passage did me in! (I attribute that to me not finishing my content review though). Looking good on BS though, so keep going! 🙂

 

[Carbon090]

@Janus_Kinase that's a great score for your first FL man. I got a 29 on AAMC #3 as well (10/10/9).

I have to say guys I'm feeling major burnout right now. Just finished going over post-analysis for AAMC #4, mind is feeling heavy. Got 73% for the AAMC verbal self-assessment. I might post-pone my AAMC #7 I was gonna take tomorrow morning for Tuesday morning. I don't want to take it when I'm feeling like this, but I'll see how I feel taking it in the morning. Some variables I've found interesting though:

1) It seems VERY easy to make silly mistakes on this exam. Instances where you misread the question or due to lack of attention to answer choices. I can see why doing practice problems and exams is so important. This way you become more aware of instances like these.

2) It seems no matter how much content you know, if you can't apply it or critically involve your mind in terms of certain questions, you will get questions wrong. It's interesting. It seems in a way content review has "diminishing returns" as opposed to learning where you make mistakes and being aware of these instances when taking the exam (of course, discretes are a different matter).

3) I always used to quickly skim passages to answer questions more carefully: I've found this doesn't work for me. I end up either a) missing important information (however subtle) and b) end up spending more time on questions because I see myself desperately searching the passage for the relevant information. Sometimes, in terms of PS, they will give you a relationship (such as A in inversely proportional to B) in the passage stated in text but NOT in terms of an equation (making it even more important to read through the passage).

4) In terms of the answers, it seems, almost often, that after crossing out 2 answer choices, you will see two choices that seem right (this I find happens more often in verbal or bio). Eradicating the one answer is something I feel I have difficulty in, but realizing that the elimination of one choice can become easier when you think "does this answer, no matter how right it sounds, answer the question?" or "is this answer assuming something that is not present or relevant to the information in the passage?"; thus, it becomes a little more easier to pic the correct choice.

In conclusion, practice I'm finding is essential, but practice does NOT make perfect if one does not come in terms of his/her weaknesses. So it seems that, in order to do well on an exam such as this; paying attention, having a clear mind, having a decent background in content, and positivity is essential at doing well.

Sorry for the long post/rant 😡

 

[Janus_Kinase]

I got the exact same PS/VR scores a few weeks ago. That one harmonic motion passage did me in! (I attribute that to me not finishing my content review though). Looking good on BS though, so keep going! 🙂

Seriously! I totally interpreted the graphs incorrectly which messed me up on the whole passage. Yeah thanks bud I gotta keep bio up.


@Carbon090 Thanks man and I totally agree with the points you made. Content is important but without proper interpretation and analyzation it is pretty much useless. If you are burnt out I think you should push your next FL; if you can. Taking an FL while burnt out could potentially skew your scores and lose its value. But if you feel good tomorrow then go for it!

 

[texan2414]

Does anybody know the difficulty level of Kaplan Section tests? I am literally getting my ass handed to me on PS section tests..............

 

[popopopop]

Yes to the above about critically analyzing. I try to think of everything through Bloom's Taxonomy.

 

[anon5759]

could use some support :/ retaker here... my FL scores have drastically increased since last year (10 + points). Got a 34 on AAMC 5 last weekend. And been getting 30+ on every TBR test. But still so so so nervous :/

 

[lostnconfused]

Joining you guys from 10/21! Decided I was not close enough to where I want to be so shooting for 11/7 now! 🙂

How is everyone doing? I've been hitting 9s and having trouble getting past 10s. Done with content review and have been doing lots of practice passages - but having a little trouble narrowing down my weaknesses.

How is everyone else working on their weaknesses? I'm planning on taking a full length at least every other day - but in between kind of hard to decide what to work on. Obviously there's certain sections I know I am terrible at - i.e. genetics, orgo, reproduction, etc. But I'm struggling with bio particularly because most questions I miss are tiny little random details that I wouldn't have gotten anyways from reading or memorizing - i.e. plants can lack chloroplasts or fungi produces spores while bacteria produce endospores. 🙄

 

[lazyindy]

Joining you guys from 10/21! Decided I was not close enough to where I want to be so shooting for 11/7 now! 🙂

How is everyone doing? I've been hitting 9s and having trouble getting past 10s. Done with content review and have been doing lots of practice passages - but having a little trouble narrowing down my weaknesses.

How is everyone else working on their weaknesses? I'm planning on taking a full length at least every other day - but in between kind of hard to decide what to work on. Obviously there's certain sections I know I am terrible at - i.e. genetics, orgo, reproduction, etc. But I'm struggling with bio particularly because most questions I miss are tiny little random details that I wouldn't have gotten anyways from reading or memorizing - i.e. plants can lack chloroplasts or fungi produces spores while bacteria produce endospores. 🙄

welcome aboard 🙂

the others seem to have gotten started on their AAMC FL's. I still have to finish content review but I'll be starting on exams soon.

 

[ciestar]

welcome aboard 🙂

the others seem to have gotten started on their AAMC FL's. I still have to finish content review but I'll be starting on exams soon.

I haven't finished content review..still throwing in FLs. The last one I did was a Kaplan one though.
I did do AAMC 3 though. My 25 (8/9/8) is what made me push back from the 10/25 exam.

 

[baxt1412]

ugh of course I am having issues accessing AAMC 3 this morning... THANKS A LOT KAPLAN

 

[baxt1412]

So I had started FL 3 last night and had plans on completing it this morning (under no time constraints... just as practice first). But then the Kaplan access to AAMC FL was messed up so instead I took Kaplan FL 6 under timed conditions.

Mom came home during PS which was annoying as hell because she was making all sorts of noise. So I was really distracted, ran short on time, and had to guess on quite a few because I didn't feel I had the time to do the calculations.

Verbal felt pretty decent

Biology felt meh because my organic needs work for sure


Ended up with 8/12/8 for a 28!!!! I am feeling good about that test!!!!!!!

In general, is there a reliability factor for Kaplan FL 6? Is it easier or harder than other Kaplan tests and/or the real AAMC tests?









==edit==
WTF. found a conversion that is supposedly for Kaplan 6.... Apparently I got a 6/7/6? Why would Kaplan inflate so terribly? More importantly, wtf is going on with my score??

 

[ciestar]

From what everyone has said is don't really rely on kaplans scores :/

So I took the Bio SA and got a 76%. Idk how I really feel about this. Not bad though

 

[baxt1412]

idk how i could drop 5 points overall with the review i've been doing. i'm leaps and bounds better on my foundational understanding.

and a 9 point positive inflation overall? seems whacky, idk how accurate the table i referenced is.

 

[ciestar]

My friend got a 38 on Kaplan 2, but a 30 on AAMC 10.
I'd just worry about your foundation, don't worry about the conversion.

 

[deleted388502]

My friend got a 38 on Kaplan 2, but a 30 on AAMC 10.
I'd just worry about your foundation, don't worry about the conversion.

Kaplan is different from AAMC practice tests. How different it is from the real thing is what I wonder though, because friends who have taken it recently have told me that the bio section on Kaplan prepared them leaps and bounds better than AAMC. Especially the earlier AAMCs, I felt that those were either you know it or you don't and I struggled with those immensely. Whereas Kaplan and the later AAMCs, you can use more test-taking and it's more of an "MCAT" style. I have found with Kaplan that their answer choices are easier to eliminate than AAMC.

I also highly recommend their section tests. Don't use Kaplan verbal though. That **** brought my verbal score down hard. It's vastly different in style and not nearly as vague as AAMC.

 

[texan2414]

Kaplan is different from AAMC practice tests. How different it is from the real thing is what I wonder though, because friends who have taken it recently have told me that the bio section on Kaplan prepared them leaps and bounds better than AAMC. Especially the earlier AAMCs, I felt that those were either you know it or you don't and I struggled with those immensely. Whereas Kaplan and the later AAMCs, you can use more test-taking and it's more of an "MCAT" style. I have found with Kaplan that their answer choices are easier to eliminate than AAMC.

I also highly recommend their section tests. Don't use Kaplan verbal though. That **** brought my verbal score down hard. It's vastly different in style and not nearly as vague as AAMC.

Hey avenlea,

I am also doing Section Tests atm lol. I have done 2 PS tests, 2 BS and 6 VR tests. PS section test 1 scored a 63% and PS section test 2 scored a 62%. I was pretty baffled by these scores lol.
But I think these section tests are AMAZING practice!!!!!!! There are a lot of passages that are verb-esque where you have to get the information from the passage to answer a question, which is accurate of real mcat as it is becoming more of passage deduction and critical thinking as opposed to plug and chug problems on PS.

That being said, I don't think the VR section tests are all bad. Yes, there are some instances where its painfully obvious that detail questions comprise nearly all of the passage questions, but there are a lot of inference, deduction questions that I found helpful for my VR practice. Imo, these supersede EK101 tests.

My AAMC 3 was 11/11/11 a week ago. Was going to take AAMC 4 today but decided on practicing a bit more with Kaplan material and do Kap FL before AAMC 4. Have Kap FL 1 scheduled for tomorrow @ 8:00 AM.

 

[texan2414]

Probably should also mention that the reason I was pretty shocked by PS percentage on kaplan section tests is because I have been through TBR and their practice passages. So I was really hoping I would score 75-80%.

 

[texan2414]

So I had started FL 3 last night and had plans on completing it this morning (under no time constraints... just as practice first). But then the Kaplan access to AAMC FL was messed up so instead I took Kaplan FL 6 under timed conditions.

Mom came home during PS which was annoying as hell because she was making all sorts of noise. So I was really distracted, ran short on time, and had to guess on quite a few because I didn't feel I had the time to do the calculations.

Verbal felt pretty decent

Biology felt meh because my organic needs work for sure


Ended up with 8/12/8 for a 28!!!! I am feeling good about that test!!!!!!!

In general, is there a reliability factor for Kaplan FL 6? Is it easier or harder than other Kaplan tests and/or the real AAMC tests?

==edit==
WTF. found a conversion that is supposedly for Kaplan 6.... Apparently I got a 6/7/6? Why would Kaplan inflate so terribly? More importantly, wtf is going on with my score??

What do you mean by 8/12/8 vs the 6/7/6 - after you finish the kaplan exam, it gives you a scaled score along with percentile numbers. How do you have 2 different scores for Kap FL6.

 

[baxt1412]

What do you mean by 8/12/8 vs the 6/7/6 - after you finish the kaplan exam, it gives you a scaled score along with percentile numbers. How do you have 2 different scores for Kap FL6.

Well it is a Kaplan test, technically, not an AAMC test, therefore I thought there might be a conversion to take a Kaplan score and convert it to an AAMC score. I took the percent right from my Kaplan test and tried to plug that into the raw score conversion figured from AAMC.

 

[texan2414]

Well it is a Kaplan test, technically, not an AAMC test, therefore I thought there might be a conversion to take a Kaplan score and convert it to an AAMC score. I took the percent right from my Kaplan test and tried to plug that into the raw score conversion figured from AAMC.

So the AAMC scale gave you a higher scaled score than the Kaplan conversion score?

 

[baxt1412]

So the AAMC scale gave you a higher scaled score than the Kaplan conversion score?

That is what I am guessing. Possibly an inflated score?

 

[texan2414]

That is what I am guessing. Possibly an inflated score?

Duly noted!! I'll be doing Kaplan FL1 tomorrow and will see what happens.
Also, have you done any Topicals/Section/Subject tests from Kaplan?

 

[ciestar]

Duly noted!! I'll be doing Kaplan FL1 tomorrow and will see what happens.
Also, have you done any Topicals/Section/Subject tests from Kaplan?

I've done maybe 75% of the topicals. Only one subject test though...
And kaplan 1. Got a 9/11/10.

 

[deleted388502]

Hey avenlea,

I am also doing Section Tests atm lol. I have done 2 PS tests, 2 BS and 6 VR tests. PS section test 1 scored a 63% and PS section test 2 scored a 62%. I was pretty baffled by these scores lol.
But I think these section tests are AMAZING practice!!!!!!! There are a lot of passages that are verb-esque where you have to get the information from the passage to answer a question, which is accurate of real mcat as it is becoming more of passage deduction and critical thinking as opposed to plug and chug problems on PS.

That being said, I don't think the VR section tests are all bad. Yes, there are some instances where its painfully obvious that detail questions comprise nearly all of the passage questions, but there are a lot of inference, deduction questions that I found helpful for my VR practice. Imo, these supersede EK101 tests.

My AAMC 3 was 11/11/11 a week ago. Was going to take AAMC 4 today but decided on practicing a bit more with Kaplan material and do Kap FL before AAMC 4. Have Kap FL 1 scheduled for tomorrow @ 8:00 AM.

My friend who went through the Kaplan class has told me to not focus so much on Kaplan section test percentages and more on the topics. I was scoring around the same on Kaplan section tests as well, I think it's just a matter of luck of the draw. Use section tests to close your content gaps!! 🙂

Is anyone here using GS tests?? I'm a little baffled as to how to continue my studying because I have AAMC 9, 10, and 11 left. 12/7/11 on AAMC 8 and I felt like my sciences were really lucky because I hit my strong points, so I want to keep working content and also why I pushed my date. I don't know if I should continue with the Kaplan tests or use other sources? Anyone in the same boat? I've done Kaplan FL 1, 2, 3 and a decent amount of the section tests. I'm trying to do a verbal test/day...

 

[ciestar]

So all my bio SA told me was that I was weak in a few areas that I need to finish my content review for (EVOLUTION.).
I didn't do horribly though. I'm hoping my wrong answers were a result of careless mistakes rather than a gap in knowledge.

 

[texan2414]

My friend who went through the Kaplan class has told me to not focus so much on Kaplan section test percentages and more on the topics. I was scoring around the same on Kaplan section tests as well, I think it's just a matter of luck of the draw. Use section tests to close your content gaps!! 🙂

Is anyone here using GS tests?? I'm a little baffled as to how to continue my studying because I have AAMC 9, 10, and 11 left. 12/7/11 on AAMC 8 and I felt like my sciences were really lucky because I hit my strong points, so I want to keep working content and also why I pushed my date. I don't know if I should continue with the Kaplan tests or use other sources? Anyone in the same boat? I've done Kaplan FL 1, 2, 3 and a decent amount of the section tests. I'm trying to do a verbal test/day...

Congrats on that amazing score on AAMC 8!!!!
Don't think you got lucky lol - you wouldn't be saying the same if you hadn't known content. But yeah I do agree that the topics you see on the MCAT is a matter of luck of the draw lol.
I precisely went to section tests for assessing if I have glaring content gaps. I will do the requisite topicals to address those issues.

Try to do as many Kaplan ones you can. You may also try out the new 2015 Practice MCAT - I'm assuming the PS and VR sections would be similar and BS also to a certain degree without the rote biochem knowledge. Still good practice.

Have you also finished SAs? My goal this coming week is to get done with those while finishing a couple Kaplan FLs.

 

[lazyindy]

@avenlea are you taking the nov 7 test also? I got confused because I thought you were taking it in september from the sn2ed first day thread.

 

[bambam92]

Hey guys sorry I been MIA for a bit--I got the freaking flu!!🙁 FML. So today I finally took AAMC #4 (my first aamc) and got a not so hot 10 ps/9 vr (would've been a freaking 10 if I got one more ? correct) and a 9 on BS (orgo punished me) for a composite 28 I will review it tomorrow and then am gonna start hamming tons of passages. My goal is to get a 31 on the real thing, and we still have 4 weeks so I think I can get there (hopefully). Its just been tough for me cause I am doing an internship this semester in an ortho lab and it is 9-10 hours 5 days a week. Starting to think I would've just been better off taking classes--would've had more time to study for mcat I feel then what I am doing now. But I won't let this defeat me, and again I am not shooting for the stars on this thing like some of you 😎 My dream/target schools are temple and thomas jeff. I love philly and dad lives there. With my 3.9 gpa I think 31 will give me a solid shoot at those schools. Hope everyone is going well for you guys And don't get sick like me 😡 lol


and @lazyindy those TBR scores are insanity! INSANITY. You should be shooting for 37+ with those scores. Damnnn great job👍

edit: just realized if I got one more ? right in BS would've been a 10, and one more ? right in verbal would've been a 10--so two question away from getting that nice 30. SOO I am not there yet, but determined to get there by the time we take this thing!