What To Do To Improve MCAT SCORE

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ATM92

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I took the MCAT on the 23rd of September and got a terrible score after I though I had done okay. My overall score turned out to be 490 overall, unfortunately. It felt so debilitated and defeated after I saw my score and it literally left me in tears for two whole days. I'll be applying to DO schools only and I really want to do well when I retake the MCAT in January. For those of you who retook the MCAT and did significantly better on the second time, what did you do ti improve your score drastically? I studied over the summer and all I did was pretty much content review and 1 practice exam which I did multiple times.

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You need to do much more than 1 practice exam. Doing a practice exam more than once is useless since you'll probably remember some answers. It's smart to review your answers from the test, but not retake the same one. If you feel good with content review, your key to success is doing as many practice tests and passages as possible
 
I studied over the summer and all I did was pretty much content review and 1 practice exam which I did multiple times.

That's the worst thing you can do. Knowing will only help you so much. You need to practice the material you learned as opposed to just studying it. This should be done in timed settings, just like the real thing. Without this, you will probably perform the same. Create a study schedule, and stick too it. I got a 504 on the 23rd exam date and the biggest feedback I got was that the 4 FL I did too prepare was simply not enough.

Even more important, don't beat yourself so much. Take an honest look at how you studied, and learn from your mistakes and just do it. If you study an appropriate amount of time, and use your time well, you have to get better results. If you need motivation, check this guy's story. If he can do it, so can you, BELIEVE!

Rousey is completely right. That and his avatar is awesome :)

Edit: I hear Next Step is great for timed practice passages, but I'm still doing research before I pull the trigger and buy the set.

Also here is the link oops, he went from 30th percentile to 90th simply wow!
http://www.studentdoctor.net/2015/1...0th-percentile-explaining-my-mcat-study-plan/
 
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That's the worst thing you can do. Knowing will only help you so much. You need to practice the material you learned as opposed to just studying it. This should be done in timed settings, just like the real thing. Without this, you will probably perform the same. Create a study schedule, and stick too it. I got a 504 on the 23rd exam date and the biggest feedback I got was that the 4 FL I did too prepare was simply not enough.

Even more important, don't beat yourself so much. Take an honest look at how you studied, and learn from your mistakes and just do it. If you study an appropriate amount of time, and use your time well, you have to get better results. If you need motivation, check this guy's story. If he can do it, so can you, BELIEVE!

Rousey is completely right. That and his avatar is awesome :)

Edit: I hear Next Step is great for timed practice passages, but I'm still doing research before I pull the trigger and buy the set.

Also here is the link oops, he went from 30th percentile to 90th simply wow!
http://www.studentdoctor.net/2015/1...0th-percentile-explaining-my-mcat-study-plan/
I bought the NS set of exams and highly recommend them, they were very helpful!

Side note - both you and Rousey have sweet avatars and I have a suspicion Rousey is actually related to Ronda Rousey ;)
 
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I bought the NS set of exams and highly recommend them, they were very helpful!

Side note - both you and Rousey have sweet avatars and I have a suspicion Rousey is actually related to Ronda Rousey ;)
Haha I wish. Just a big fan!
 
Okay, so I just wanted to give an update about what's been going on recently. I took a Kaplan diagnostic today and I got the exact same score that I did on the real thing. After almost 40 days of not studying, I got the same score that I did on the actual thing which I took after three months of studying :/ Do you guys think that I should re-score? I thought that the diagnostic was much much harder than the actual thing, and I actually felt confident about bio and psych on the actual exam but ended up with the exact same score.
 
I bought the NS set of exams and highly recommend them, they were very helpful!

Side note - both you and Rousey have sweet avatars and I have a suspicion Rousey is actually related to Ronda Rousey ;)

You have an awesome avatar too! Pokemon is awesome haha. I'll bite the bullet and buy the NS books.

Okay, so I just wanted to give an update about what's been going on recently. I took a Kaplan diagnostic today and I got the exact same score that I did on the real thing. After almost 40 days of not studying, I got the same score that I did on the actual thing which I took after three months of studying :/ Do you guys think that I should re-score? I thought that the diagnostic was much much harder than the actual thing, and I actually felt confident about bio and psych on the actual exam but ended up with the exact same score.

Any diagnostic is going to be off. If anything, the Kaplan will probably underscore you just too ensure the whole "higher score" promise they make. Take the score you get on the diagnostic with a heavy grain of salt.
 
You have an awesome avatar too! Pokemon is awesome haha. I'll bite the bullet and buy the NS books.
Oh I didn't mean buy the books! Buy the exams. I bought the books but only really used the CARS one. The others I didn't really even touch and kind of wish I hadn't bought them haha

Okay, so I just wanted to give an update about what's been going on recently. I took a Kaplan diagnostic today and I got the exact same score that I did on the real thing. After almost 40 days of not studying, I got the same score that I did on the actual thing which I took after three months of studying :/ Do you guys think that I should re-score? I thought that the diagnostic was much much harder than the actual thing, and I actually felt confident about bio and psych on the actual exam but ended up with the exact same score.
Rescoring is always an option, but it's a computerized exam and they take things very seriously so your odds of getting a different result after a rescore are very slim to none. I thought I killed the CARS section of my exam (at least a 129) but ended up with a 126. Sometimes things just don't go our way.

I don't think it's fair to say that diagnostics are harder, but they definitely tend to be deflated. Pretty much all the practice material out right now is deflated actually. I think the biggest problem you had last time was only taking one exam over and over again. Sure exams can be expensive and it sucks to shell out more money, but it's totally worth it in the end when you're applying with a score you're happy with.
 
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