Unusual timing issues??

[creativekat]

Yay my first post (of many to come?)

I always consistently finish with a ton of time to spare. Have done this for all tests since as long as I can remember (SATs, midterms...) Should I be concerned?

I tried slowing down but I still had a lot of time to spare on AAMC 4 which I just took tonight; 17min in PS, 12min VR, 25min BS to spare . I don't check my work because I always end up changing from right to wrong. I did pretty well considering I've only been moderately studying for 2 weeks 11/6/12...haha at verbal, haven't looked at it much yet...Oops.

Anyway, I'm taking it in Jan...wondering if I should try to slow down or I should keep doing what I'm doing. I know I'm going to really slow down on verbal since I'm not understanding what I'm reading, but my other errors are almost always not knowing the material as opposed to stupid mistakes.

Sorry for the long post but thanks!!

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[DrMattOglesby]

sounds like you might have the opposite problem of many people who first start out in their MCAT preparation.
Finishing with extra time is considered pretty normal for many people in this forum, and they just use it to go back and double check their responses.
Interesting scenario with your VR though because I haven't heard of too many others finishing with a time in excess of 10 minutes to spare. I don't know what to comment quite yet, I guess I would have to see your scores.
All in all, remember the test won't be a speed race, although you might intimidate some of your fellow test takers on test day, the only thing that is really going to matter are the results.
you have a lot of time to improve (being that you keep finishing so darn early...AND being that your test is in January). So use your time wisely and perfect and hone your skills =]

PS: Remember that the MCAT likes to lay a lot of 'tricks' (if you will) so you have to be sure you read carefully! If a question seems TOO easy on the MCAT, make sure you read the problem entirely, then attack it again. If it still TOO easy--then congratulations, you're on your way to a high score =]

 

[creativekat]

Thanks a lot!! At least now I don't feel weird for finishing extremely early.

I guess I try to reason my way through common sense so most of the questions sound really, really basic and obvious to me, but too bad that technique doesn't work on verbal! I guess I'll be buying EK 101 and praying for miracles in my reasoning abilities and learning some of the content better.

 

[elementals]

I was doing the practice tests with about your times too. I'll say a few things:

1. You should go back and review. If you're anything like me, you'll make a few dumb errors (clicking wrong button, etc) that you can catch on a passthrough. For me, dumb errors usually a few points' difference. After review, you'll probably only have 10-15 min left over in any given section. Which is good, because...

2. I always had between 10-20 min left over in any section on the practices, after review. In the actual MCAT, I barely finished reviewing PS, only had 5 min after VR review, and about 10 min in BS. So you'll be glad of that buffer, esp in PS.

3. Last thing, the AAMCs seem to get harder as they go along. 3 and 4 and pretty easy; 8 was killer. 9 and 10, thankfully, were manageable. Keep working on it, keep reviewing, and keep your times as low as you can.

Good luck in Jan!

 

[minhaj]

many people pray to have your "problem". I always had 18mins left after PS, 15 mins left after Verbal and about 30 min after BS. On the real thing, I had 15 mins left on PS, 8 mins on Verbal and 21 minutes on BS. I made sure and reviewed every question. Turned out okay. So as long as you review the test you should be fine.

 

[creativekat]

All right, I'll try and review my answers. I've always end up changing right to wrong though and the difficult parts is always keeping up the focus even though I'm done. Thanks guys!

 

[elementals]

I have that problem too. I just try my best to only check for foolish errors, but not to second-guess myself. You've still got lots of time to practice though -- keep at it and you'll rock the real thing. Hope that helps!