I just took AAMC #4 and I got a 8/6/4- composite 18. I followed s2ned 3 month plan but just did the content review; literally just content. I didn't bother doing any practice passages because I felt prepared by just reading the chapters. I have exactly 3 weeks til my exam on the 25th. I can either postpone it til march/april or I can spend 12hrs a day doing practice passages, giving me 8 days to complete them all (1 day for each TBR book) and 14 for FL's while going over my weak sections. I need to score in the 30+ range, atleast a 34.
Took AAMC #4
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postpone
The BS score is troublesome and shows you haven't mastered or understood content. I found the BS in that test slightly easier than the rest I've took so I would think that your BS content is lacking in terms of content knowledge for sure.
The BS score is troublesome and shows you haven't mastered or understood content. I found the BS in that test slightly easier than the rest I've took so I would think that your BS content is lacking in terms of content knowledge for sure.
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In general, you shouldn't over-analyze one practice score. The MCAT covers such a broad variety of topics but only tests a specific subset.. so it's tough to say whether your poor performance on a test is because you hit a rough subset for you or because you are weak overall. As in, you could take another test and score similarly (weak overall) or do much better (rough subset).
However, I think a score of 4 in BS indicates you are weak overall in BS. If you were scoring 7-9 and shooting for 10+, I'd say stick with it... but a 4 is too low. I'd suggest really focusing on the thought process behind questions you get right. You need to work more on thinking like the test maker wants you to and evolving those critical thinking skills. Content is likely an issue as well.
Don't cram all that in, you won't get much value from it. Reviewing practice passages is arguably more important than actually taking them. As you said, you erred in only doing content review without practice passages to help develop critical thinking skills + solidify content.. so correct that.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...he-mcat-study-plan-picking-resources.1045943/
give that first section "how to create a study plan" a read.. it should give you some nice ideas in how to best utilize practice passages. Feel free to PM if you have any follow-up questions!
However, I think a score of 4 in BS indicates you are weak overall in BS. If you were scoring 7-9 and shooting for 10+, I'd say stick with it... but a 4 is too low. I'd suggest really focusing on the thought process behind questions you get right. You need to work more on thinking like the test maker wants you to and evolving those critical thinking skills. Content is likely an issue as well.
Don't cram all that in, you won't get much value from it. Reviewing practice passages is arguably more important than actually taking them. As you said, you erred in only doing content review without practice passages to help develop critical thinking skills + solidify content.. so correct that.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...he-mcat-study-plan-picking-resources.1045943/
give that first section "how to create a study plan" a read.. it should give you some nice ideas in how to best utilize practice passages. Feel free to PM if you have any follow-up questions!
I know my BS is too low but I've read the EK bio book twice already. I just have a hard time grasping the material when it comes to bio. Maybe I'm not approaching it correctly but bio is all dull material which is giving me the toughest time.
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If you were in the 7-8s then it would be a sign that it may be critical thinking skills that are lacking but a 4 simply too low to suggest that it is all critical thinking that is lacking. You are definitely lacking in content knowledge and that should be the first thing to brush up upon to get yourself in the 7-8 range. Critical thinking comes with practice too so you must drill passages as much as you can while reading up on content directly from the AAMC guide.
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Face -> Palm.
You need to reschedule. Passages are honestly the only thing that matters in MCAT studying. If you took the prereqs, you have enough knowledge to get a 30+. Passages are what improve your score.
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Seriously...
I've reviewed the biology passages in AAMC #4 and have no idea what half the questions are even referring to. I am going to start using the TPR biology book for the content review. Overall, I want to get in the 11-12 range on all sections. For PR, its not going to be a problem since this is my strongest section but for bio and verbal, I will need to work hard. I'm thinking of postponing the mcat to the April 5th date (or should I push it back to April 25th). Would it be possible to get to my expected score range in ~3 months? I have to work from 8-4 everyday. Besides that, I don't have much going on.
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literally impossible to tell you that as no-one knows you, how you study, how well you can learn the material, etc. If you want, use the AAMC scales for AAMC #4 and figure out how many questions in each section you would need to get right to get your target score. Then, go back through the test and figure out where those correct answers could/need to come from.
I think you should set your goals at a more attainable 10 in each section because a 33+ is very tough to achieve for anyone (approaching 90% percentile) and you aren't exactly starting from the greatest background, it seems. Throw on limited study time and you're going to really need to buckle down. I'd go the latest test date you can.
I really would take a step back if I were you and not worry about how I'm scoring or what I want to score right now. You aren't in that position yet.
I think you should set your goals at a more attainable 10 in each section because a 33+ is very tough to achieve for anyone (approaching 90% percentile) and you aren't exactly starting from the greatest background, it seems. Throw on limited study time and you're going to really need to buckle down. I'd go the latest test date you can.
I really would take a step back if I were you and not worry about how I'm scoring or what I want to score right now. You aren't in that position yet.
I took AAMC #5 today and went from a 18 composite (8/6/4) to a 25 ( 11/7/7). I spent 18 hours a day studying for 3 days which included passages and reviewing. I think if I review this effectively for the next 2 weeks, I can reach the 33-34 range by the 25th. What do you think?
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No one knows for sure what score you can get in BS, but the BS section in the MCAT is different than the PS section... You can get 10+ in PS by just knowing the content. However, knowing the BS section content well can only get you a 7-8. To get a 9+ in BS, you have to be able to analyze graphs and read tables. You also have to be able to follow logical inferences like A--->B--->C<--->D, not B but A-- stuff like that. This is obviously my opinion about the BS section after taking the MCAT last year. It is good you are using TPR bio for content because it is the best bio content out there IMO. Do NOT neglect Organic because these questions can be (or are) freebies in the BS section. If you are weak in Organic, you should definite use TBR Organic book II.
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This is a hell of an improvement in 3 days! Good job... But I think banking on a 33+ in 2-3 weeks is unrealistic IMO.
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like I wrote in my original post on this thread, one test doesn't really tell you anything. You scored a 18, that doesn't mean you would score an 18 on the real thing. Likewise, just because you scored a 25, doesn't mean you will score a 25.
In all likelihood, the 3 days of studying surely helped but you would have scored better on AAMC 5 regardless because you just knew those topics better. It's tough to gauge predictive value out of one exam that tests only a small subsection of the total content. This is why people use their AAMC average as a prediction for the real thing.. because the idea is that 7-8 exams will cover enough of the material to be statistically significant (and even then, you can hit the jackpot in good or bad ways).
Right now, I'd wager you are in the low 20s score wise. If that's the 25th of January (as in, if you're saying 3 days got you 7 points and just extrapolating off that), honestly no shot. If that's the 25th of April, you will need to stop putting stock into scores and work hard. Stop worrying about whether its possible and just do it. Seriously, stop taking one score and making any broad generalizations (good or bad) based off it. It's not worth the time.
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The bigger problem to me is that it seems you are just taking practice tests to see how you score. You're not getting much (if any) use out of them, if that's the case.
You said you reviewed AAMC 4 and didn't have any clue about what half the questions were asking. Did you sit there and figure it all out? Did you go over each question until you figured out what was expected of you? This is where the gold is.. this is where you earn points.
pure content review does very little.
pure practice passages does fairly little.
analyzing and learning based on your practice passages is how you become successful on the MCAT.
Just taking test after test until you score where you want (as unlikely as that is to happen) is most likely just going to lead to a test day where you don't perform nearly as well because you won't get the same topics as that one test where you hit your goal score
You said you reviewed AAMC 4 and didn't have any clue about what half the questions were asking. Did you sit there and figure it all out? Did you go over each question until you figured out what was expected of you? This is where the gold is.. this is where you earn points.
pure content review does very little.
pure practice passages does fairly little.
analyzing and learning based on your practice passages is how you become successful on the MCAT.
Just taking test after test until you score where you want (as unlikely as that is to happen) is most likely just going to lead to a test day where you don't perform nearly as well because you won't get the same topics as that one test where you hit your goal score
Sorry to thread hi-jack, but what is your take on learning content through passages? Like doing a huge volume of practice passages+reviewing them until you've covered a lot of the concepts that actually get tested? I feel like this is the only way I can learn sometimes as when I'm reading a book I will forget the information easily or not absorb it at all. I too am scheduled for the 25th of Jan but I'm not aiming for a very high score (27+?). With such little time left is content review worth spending time on?
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I still recommend content review as both a way to refresh the material and organize your study schedule.. but reading a chapter a day without doing any practice passages is fairly useless.
Treat this like you would any class. You read a chapter, you do some practice problems. You read another chapter, you do some more practice problems. Every so often, you review the older material by doing a variety of practice problems.
For 3 weeks remaining, I wouldn't ignore content review if you haven't finished it yet but certainly begin to take some practice exams and increase the load of practice passages.
Treat this like you would any class. You read a chapter, you do some practice problems. You read another chapter, you do some more practice problems. Every so often, you review the older material by doing a variety of practice problems.
For 3 weeks remaining, I wouldn't ignore content review if you haven't finished it yet but certainly begin to take some practice exams and increase the load of practice passages.
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