Turning 126/127s into 129/130s

[Dr. Stalker]

I've been studying quite diligently for the new MCAT for a solid 2 years now. I took it in August 2016 and unfortunately received a less than competitive score (505, 127 p/c, 126s on all the rest of the sections). It was my first time taking it and I didn't really know what to expect.

I've been studying hardcore for the past few months from scratch. I've read the NS content review series as well as the kaplan series. I've taken:
NS 1 - 5, Altius 2, and Altius 4. I've roughly received 505s-507s on all of these exams. Roughly speaking:
45/59 on all the science sections is a 126 or 127 based on that particular exam's curve. Upon reviewing the questions, I find that of the 14 incorrect approximately 6 or so are simple mistakes (calculation error, I said A binds to T in RNA, misread something directly from a graph). Of the remaining 8, really 4 are not super difficult (maybe a trend I missed, I fact I forgot), and 4 are completely out there.

How can I minimize my mistakes and really push these 126s to that 128/129 level? Everytime I take a FL I take it timed in a quiet area, and treat it like the real thing. After, I review it thoroughly taking notes on what I got wrong and right, and I do daily review of topics too. Thanks!

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[Altius Premier Tutor]

First, you are on the right track by breaking down your performance in the way you have. I always get improvement out of my students by looking at every single question missed and working that question together, with the student giving their reasoning out loud. We then categorize everything and look for trends. As for the simple mistakes, be sure to sub-categorize those. Is it often a math error? What kind of math error? Could double-checking each calculation using estimation help?

I have a lot of success working with my students to help them be more skeptical of themselves and the exam; which helps them prevent errors and make fewer mistakes. Instead of feeling like a student, I train them to think of themselves as a professor or exam editor critiquing the exam they are taking. They also work on "mistake awareness." By this I mean that they first recognize that human nature causes you to make silly errors. Therefore, you are aware of this fact and you are asking yourself follow-up questions on almost every item to prevent errors: "Okay, so I'm about to choose C, because it makes sense to me that TNFa would be a protein, and probably an enzyme...Is there anything else in the passage that could verify that it's a protein before I move on? What else do I know about this subject? What do enzymes do? They catalyze reactions, lower Ea, etc... Does the passage say anything about that? ....Oh, it does mention that TNFa is a cytokine...I'm pretty sure those are cell-signalling proteins, not enzymes, so maybe I shouldn't choose enzyme..."

We call this the Socratic Method. It is all about asking yourself lots of questions to spur the right kind of critical thinking and analysis in your own head. Ironically, about 90/100 times my students have all of the information they need to answer a question they have missed. They get it wrong only because they could not make the connections. I can prove this to them because I ONLY help them with a missed question by asking them a few Socratic questions about things I know they already know. My line of questioning guides their THINKING, but doesn't actually give them any new info.

By asking yourself more CRITICAL questions, almost like you are critiquing the exam authors, you can replicate this Socratic process yourself during the exam. By being incredibly cognizant of the fact that silly errors are VERY easy for everyone to make, and using that awareness to critique/double-check most of your initial answer selections, you can reduce errors significantly.

If you were to get 4-5 of those 6 "silly errors" right on each section, your score would JUMP significantly. Since you already have them, take Altius 1 and 3 next, then PM me with questions about what you missed and I'll be happy to help.

 

[pms_testosterone]

Wow, 2 years! Congratulations on the persistence.

What if you try to make it through the questions slightly faster so you can go back and review everything at least once? I always catch 2-3 stupid mistakes if I leave enough time to review a section. Maybe you've tried this though.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Wow, 2 years! Congratulations on the persistence.

What if you try to make it through the questions slightly faster so you can go back and review everything at least once? I always catch 2-3 stupid mistakes if I leave enough time to review a section. Maybe you've tried this though.

That's good advice, I actually have NOT been doing that. About half the practice exams I took if I finished early I'd just move to the next section. The last two practice exams I wanted to complete as thoroughly as possible, so I finished them just as the timer hit zero.

I'll aim to complete all 59 questions in about, idk, 1 hr 10 minutes? Give myself 25 minutes to review?

 

[pms_testosterone]

I usually have 35+ minutes left for review, except in C/P, where I'm unfortunately still struggling to finish on time.

 

[NextStepTutor_3]

Some great advice here! I just wanted to mention that moving through the exam quickly to have extra time to review does NOT work well for all students - even if it's feasible given your own timing patterns. The thing about mistakes is that most of them do tend to look like simple/small errors when reviewing, because most MCAT questions aren't enormously complex if you know the content. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll catch them if you have time left to review!

On the contrary, I usually tell my own students to try and finish the exam exactly on time (like you mentioned doing) or with no more than 5-10 minutes left to check marked questions only. Finishing with even 25 minutes remaining and trying to page through the entire exam means you're devoting less than 30 seconds to each question. This is enough for some students to catch some obvious minor mistakes, but it's only very rarely enough time to (for example) catch an issue with misreading from a graph. Unfortunately, <30 s per question IS enough to quickly second-guess answers that you chose previously and change your answer - and changing an answer on a whim is very rarely a good idea. You can certainly try this technique out anyway! But I definitely recommend telling yourself that you will only change an answer if you can prove that you had the answer wrong originally. And definitely keep a close eye on whether this helps you feel more confident in your final answers, or whether you made more mistakes by moving through the exam more rapidly originally.

But as far as actual suggestions go, consider keeping a separate record of just the "easy"/simple questions you miss. (This is, in essence, a "stupid mistake" log.) You mentioned that you take careful notes on what questions you got right and wrong, but it can be easy for this information to get overwhelming if you keep it all in one place. This also inevitably leads to spending tons of time analyzing the hardest questions you missed - when you could see a much larger score improvement just by getting those "easy points" reliably down. Consider keeping a separate notebook where you describe any easy/simple/content-based errors you make, and include absolutely any pertinent information (were you short on time, did you fall for any particular trick, etc.). Even simple conclusions like "I tend to misread questions involving DNA or RNA" or "I usually don't pay enough attention to unit conversions when I'm short on time" can help enormously if you then make small modifications to your testing habits in response. (For example, consciously slow down for an extra 10 seconds whenever you see a nucleic acid question and double-checking whether you are dealing with DNA vs RNA.) This is generally preferable rather than trying to catch every possible simple mistake that you could potentially make. Knowing yourself is incredibly valuable!

Best of luck 🙂

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Any other tips? I study roughly 6-7 hours per day, and I'm still not seeing quite the improvement I'd like to. any and all advice is appreciated!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I agree with both @NextStepTutor_3 and @Altius Premier Tutor . I think rushing through the exam to give yourself extra time at the end is a bad idea, because there's no way you can thoroughly complete a review of all 59 questions even with 30 minutes left. What I find that helps me a lot is to follow the technique the Altius tutor mentioned. Before I pick an answer choice, particularly when I'm stuck between 2, I pause and just ask myself why I am picking the answer and make sure it makes sense and actually answers the question. I would recommend doing this-- spending a few extra seconds per question to ask yourself these questions -- rather than leaving a chunk of time left at the end.