Tips for going from a good score to a great score?

[phunky]

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I've been reading a lot of the MCAT advice available online, and it seems to mostly be geared towards people trying to go from the 20s into the 30s. I recently took my first practice test and got a 34, which I'm happy with for a first try, but I'd like to add at least a few points to. My test is in january. I work full time and am planning on doing content review and stand alone passages during the week with a full length or two on the weekends. My weakest section is verbal (10) followed by bio (11). People who have gotten into the high 30s/40s, what strategies did you use to eek out those last couple points per section?

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

A good amount of people go in with the notion that knowing the general concept to every topic outlined will give them a score that satisfies them. I feel the best scoring persons who sit the MCAT have a combination of knowing as much as they can about every topic and then some, plus a good amount of luck and test taking skill.

 

[OneTwoThreeFour]

I've been reading a lot of the MCAT advice available online, and it seems to mostly be geared towards people trying to go from the 20s into the 30s. I recently took my first practice test and got a 34, which I'm happy with for a first try, but I'd like to add at least a few points to. My test is in january. I work full time and am planning on doing content review and stand alone passages during the week with a full length or two on the weekends. My weakest section is verbal (10) followed by bio (11). People who have gotten into the high 30s/40s, what strategies did you use to eek out those last couple points per section?

I was in your shoes when I first started studying (mid 30's practice tests, comparatively low bio). So there isn't much of a knowledge gap to make up. While you should definitely still read prep book chapters on old material (I used BR because I felt it was the most challenging & prepared me the most, though for bio I used examkracker's), I think the best thing is to just hammer out passage after passage. I did 3 verbal passages every single day for 4 months (excluding break days) along with 3-4 BR/EK/TPR passages. My last few practices were 37-39 and I hit a 40 on the real thing. Doing all the passages helped me to sort of predict the information that I should glean from each passage, as well as notice some of the common tricks they try to pull. Of course, I got lucky (could have easily just received a 36/37/38 just like the practice tests), but I think my preparation also helped me remain calm and perform well.
Good luck!

 

[RC4L]

That is an awesome score to start with! My first practice test score was 26 and I ended up with a final 38(12-14-12) on the real thing a month and a half later. If your first practice test was a 34 you shouldn't have much trouble adding a few points. I would do as much practice as possible and minimal content review. The TPR hyperlearning science book was a goldmine for me and helped me quite a bit to raise my score in PS and BS. I just did as many times passages as I could each day in the 3 weeks leading up to my test. Also, I did all of the gold standard full lengths and all of the aamc full lengths - test every other day and review my tests extensively in the days between. Although the gold standards weren't very realistic, they almost haze you into becoming fluent with mcat math and more in depth topics. I found that the improvements I made in mcat math after taking the gold standard exams played a key role in helping me finish the PS in time and figuring out some complicated genetics questions. For verbal all I did was 3-4 timed verbal passages every day followed by an extensive analysis where I would pinpoint everything/anything I was doing wrong in my approach and write it in a journal. The following day I would consult that journal before starting and make an effort to eliminate those errors I was making. After a while, a technique fell into place and my verbal scores became consistently high. I used the TPR hyperlearning verbal book, the EK 101 verbal, some scattered Kaplan, and of course the FL's. The trick to verbal is not just to do passages but to study your tests and actively try to fix whatever is leading you astray. You can learn more about verbal from studying yourself than reading other tester's strategies in my opinion. Starting out with a 10 is awesome though!

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

^ wow great score increase!. Was the 26 before or after content review?

 

[rfvbnmju]

In theory, you could get ~36 (12/12/12) with just knowing the material down cold. Anything above is all strategies and luck.

That being said, starting from where you are, I'd just do tons of practice problems under test taking conditions.
Since you have 2 months left, I'd work through all the AAMC FL tests and go through each question you got wrong, guessed on and wasn't 100% sure and figure out why you go it wrong. You'll start noticing some trends and patterns in the way questions and answers are written.

This was immensely helpful in avoiding trap answers.

Good luck!

 

[RC4L]

^ wow great score increase!. Was the 26 before or after content review?

Thanks! The 26 was after content review. Looking back I feel like I spent far too much time doing content review actually. I started at the beginning of the summer and took the real thing in august after only doing a handful of full lengths. I made a 30 on that exam. Content was were it needed to be but I was not prepared to properly apply it to the test and had a rough time that day(difficult time finishing and had to guess a lot). Walking in to that test I knew I wasn't ready and my practice fl's were not very consistent. I signed up for sept 11 a few days after the august exam and just started practicing as much as possible. In the 3 or so weeks before sept 11 I did not do one bit of mcat practice that wasn't timed. I did roughly 8-9 full lengths and covered most of the TPR hyperlearning book as well as the majority of the EK 1001 for physical sciences and bio. Everything clicked and I learned to apply my technique in a consistent manner every time. It makes a huge difference if you can for example be familiar enough to look at an acid/base titration problem and immediately answer the question accurately without having to go through the entire thought process of what's going on to come to the same conclusion. Maybe I am more slow than others but this was what made the difference between having to guess an entire last passage of PS vs finishing PS with time to go back and check my answers. Also, I am unlike many testers in that I had the easiest time with verbal and the hardest with PS which may have ultimately made it easier for me to raise my score. Quite a struggle for me in PS.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Did you incorporate a lot of passage practice while doing content and did you time it strictly? Or not so much? I am drilling a lot a passages wit strict time and saving most of the TPRH passages for the last two months, in which I will do about 5 passages a day while taking practice tests. How effective were the EK 1001 post--content? I usually do those+TBR passage after a chapter in content review. Btw, that's an impressive improvement in scoring. I also feel like I am spending too much time, but most of my time is spent on the passages at the end of the chapter and reviewing them takes 2x as long.

 

[RC4L]

I did but very little. My content review was mostly reading Princeton/Berkeley/EK and making concept sheets for each topic. I would do the end of chapter passage/questions and EK 1001 randomly if something was giving me a hard time but that is about it. I didn't actually practice until right before the august exam when I started doing full lengths and I did not have the right amount of time. Looking back I think I could have had better results if I spent about half the time going through content and used the extra 50 % to practice like I did before the final test. The EK 1001 was great for drilling concepts into place because I didn't find that the chapter questions prepared me to enforce my knowledge adequately. When a concept felt shaky or new, I would go to the 1001's and work out as many relative problems as I could. This always solidified my understanding of concepts and turned alot of weak areas into strengths. To be fair, I believe a big reason I scored much lower in August had to do with that particular day. I was super tired, overslept my alarms, and was still brain dead from studying too much. The second time I did everything I could to walk in there feeling fresh and alert. Made a huge difference in my confidence. The review really does take a long time but it is so critical! I learned so much from correcting my mistakes.

 

[Fedxup]

Although, you have not taken the actual MCAT statistics show that the high your score is (34+) the harder it is ti increase your score. But you haven't taken the real deal yet but you have a great score so you should be fine just doing lots of practice problems and def taking more practice tests.

 

[phunky]

Thought I'd update this thread. I've been focusing mostly on passages for BS and PS the last couple weeks per advice in this thread, reviewing content that I don't know when it comes up in passages (seems more time efficient given I only have a few hours a night to study after work). Trying to do at least 2 if not 3-4 verbal passages a day. Slowly improving in this area. Took two more practice tests and getting comfortable with the pacing definitely helps.

AAMC #4: 36
AAMC #5: 42

Verbal is the big variable for me. I've scored from 10 to 15 in this section. Need to practice more I guess. About to order TPR Hyperlearning for Verbal and up my daily passages. Getting a 40+ is very doubtful without at least a 12 in this section. PS is consistently 13-14. BS has ranged 11-13.