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tin0tin0tina

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so I hate this MCAT deal.. I am never improving and my score still in the teens.. I don't know wht is wrong... I am like completely worried and have no idea what to do.. I do tons of practice question.. get usually 1-2 questions wrong per passage and every few days i ll get a passage completely right.. but that incidence is completely rare.. I have finished reviewing G-chem and my PS score stinks.. i have been getting 5 & 6 in TPR exams in that section and I donno wht to do... I am frustrated i am taking TPR and every time i talk to my instructor she comes up with some new advice that is irrelevant to anything .. I am a chemistry major and this should be my strongest subject but what is going on with this.. serisouly

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so I hate this MCAT deal.. I am never improving and my score still in the teens.. I don't know wht is wrong... I am like completely worried and have no idea what to do.. I do tons of practice question.. get usually 1-2 questions wrong per passage and every few days i ll get a passage completely right.. but that incidence is completely rare.. I have finished reviewing G-chem and my PS score stinks.. i have been getting 5 & 6 in TPR exams in that section and I donno wht to do... I am frustrated i am taking TPR and every time i talk to my instructor she comes up with some new advice that is irrelevant to anything .. I am a chemistry major and this should be my strongest subject but what is going on with this.. serisouly


Maybe you're over-thinking the questions? I know when I first started taking practice exams, I would think, "that can't be the answer, it's too easy." But it usually was. Not that all the questions are easy, far from it. But the key is knowing how to answer the questions quickly and intuitively. If you're busting out a lot of formulas outside of the standard Kinematics, Power, energy conservation, etc. Then you're doing the problems wrong. They are concept questions. I was reviewing my practice exam today and I would say 90% of the ones I missed were questions I made more complex than they needed to be.

Use the K.I.S.S. method. Whenever you see something that looks rough or daunting, think to yourself, Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). That's what I'm trying to get myself to do and it seems to be working.

I've realized AAMC isn't trying to trick us, they just want to make sure that we know the basics. So know your basics, then learn how to THINK in the basics.

On another note, I've heard the TPR passages can be a little more difficult, so don't get discouraged. Just keep plugging away and LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!

Every time you miss a problem, don't think, "Damn, I suck at this," or "I blew another one, I can't do this..." Rather, think, "This is one more opportunity for me to learn something new."

Granted you should be reviewing every problem, right or wrong. The wrong ones show you without a doubt, that you didn't know what you were doing. Learn from that. Find out what you were thinking when you picked that answer. Why did you think it would be right? Why wasn't it right? Why is the correct answer correct? Where was the gap in knowledge? and finally, learn it! Then next time you come to that type of problem you'll get it right, otherwise if you're missing the same problems over and over again, you're not reviewing correctly.

Good luck, man. It takes time, but just know that every time you miss a question, you're going to learn something new. And on some days you just happen to learn more than others. ;)
 
Ya, I think Complications has a great point. Going over the tests is the best way to find out why you are doing poorly. Is it because you didn't know the material and haven't done the content review to back it up? Is it because you went too fast and didn't read the question right? Did you make it harder than it was? Did you need information from the passage that you thought was irrelevant? All of these are key questions to understanding and improving your score. Also, just doing chemistry content review b/c you are good at chemistry isn't going to be enough for the PS section... most of it is physics, and you'll need to review that, as well as bio and orgo to be successful.

Oh a bright note, I hear TPR is hella hard at the scores are really deflated. I heard of someone making in the low 20's on those and then took Kaplan/AAMC exams and scored significantly higher. Perhaps you should try taking another exam to help gauge your preformance that way. Good luck!! I know this blows, but we are all in the same boat. (unfortunately)
 
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