Very low first MCAT! Need Advice

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m3luckyb

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Hi hope everyone is doing well. I'm fairly new to SDN, but I've noticed that many people tend to troll and tell you the negative and downside of things and if you are someone that does that please don't bother replying to this thread because I need genuine advice that can lead me to my goal. I don't want to hear you're not Medical school worthy, you'll never pass USMLEs, or you'll never get you're score because I know I will!

I'm part of a program here in NY which is affiliated with NYCOM, so they require us to rush and take the MCAT since undergraduate is only three years. I have a high GPA at 3.7 and my science being around 3.59. I took my first MCAT in August 2017 and didn't horrible! I got a 489 with my breakdown at 123 - C/P 120 - Cars 123 - B/B 123-Psych. Yes I know my Cars is EXTREMELY LOW, but that's why I need advice from you all! My second exam that I'm registered to take is coming up in two weeks, but I most likely will void it because I'm scoring 494 range on AAMCs. Due to a lot of family difficulties this past semester I was unable to entirely focus on MCAT. I plan on retaking it in April/May, so I can apply for the following cycle and not go through the program since you need both a 3.5 GPA and a 504 MCAT to get admission with the binded program. If you don't get the MCAT you simply finish your credits as a Biology major (Or Life Sciences) and apply for the following cycle, the route I'll be taking! I just need advice from everyone here on how I can tackle this exam which books to use what strategies how to improve on each every section. If people with successful scores can provide me any information based on my current situation to improve all four of my scores I would greatly appreciate it. My target scores would be 126, 124, 126, 127 putting me at a 503 which is exactly around what they require since they are a DO school! Please provide a breakdown of each section and how to improve moving on forward. Also please respect the fact that I'm sharing such a devastating score with everyone here, so I really wouldn't appreciate all the negativity! Thank you!

P.S. My friend recommended going through Berkeley for the sciences! So I was planning on doing that. I need advice on Cars and Psych as well. How many passages should I practice a day. I know the test is 50% content 50% strategy, so all and any detailed advice would be appreciated.

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I understand your story, most importantly do not give up. I took the mcat 3 times (old one twice and new one once) and now i am a medical student. Its very possible to increase your score. Instead of voiding I would highly recommend to push it back instead to May. Do not use berkley review please do not waste your time with it. They are okay I personally do not like them but their books are wayy too dense and time consuming to get through. I highly recommend Kaplan books! I've used Kaplan and princeton for my first time taking the test and I did MUCH better using kaplan. I would also recommend to get Kaplan's online resources that is KEY to success. Not only do they give you all the AAMC products but they also give you TONS of practice questions.

Also, I would say at the minimum 1 month prior to your MCAT you should not do content review and should be doing mostly practice tests and practice questions. What is really important is to review the questions and practice exams so that this also serves as a sort of contact review in its own way. You should also take a minimum of TWO PRACTICE tests a week prior to your mcat and should spend the following day after your practice test to thoroughly review it. My trick for content review was to get through two chapters a day (any subject but I prefer doing two different subjects a day) every day mon-sat with sunday off. I really would recommend Kaplan books with their online material and if you do a lot of questions plus their practice exams and the AAMC practice exams I bet you will get higher than a 503. This goes the same for if you were to use TPR there are many people that swear by TPR but I just had a bad experience with them.
 
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For CARS, my trick was at the end of the day, I would do 3 CARS passages EVERY day no matter what subjects I did that day. The idea was that I would do CARS after I was tired from studying but I think its a good strategy because it helps to build your endurance. I had a very low CARS score my first mcat (when it was called verbal reasoning) but this strategy helped me improve. Also for psyche, it is mostly definitions and practice questions and less about review. For that Kaplan came in handy with their hundreds of practice questions online.
 
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