Would a 21 be considered a decent starting point on the MCAT for a freshman?

[Poe350]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello, I've been lurking these forums for about a month or so, and finally decided to get an account!

So anyway, I had the privilege to take a free practice MCAT by Kaplan this past weekend. I'm a freshman and made a 21. I went in completely blind, not having any clue what to expect. Is this a good base? Also, I only missed 7 out of 45 on the VR part, but that put me at an 8. Are the questions really that weighted?

Thank you,

Michael

 

[Handy388]

that's what I got when I first took the practice, with all the pre-reqs

I ended with 35+

 

[fastboyslim]

Have you had any AP science classes yet? Because frankly if you haven't had the basic sciences courses yet, your MCAT score doesn't really gauge anything at this point.

It's like taking a final for a class you are taking next semester and asking whether 20/100 is a good starting point.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Without O-chem it is hard to gauge what good would mean.

What is your verbal score? That will be the hardest one to improve, though I am sure that years of analytical reading (part of college) will help improve that. I would say 21 is a good score, simply because you have taken most of the pre-reqs recently (assuming you did them in high school) and what is left is O-chem and practice.

 

[yangxx2]

Hello, I've been lurking these forums for about a month or so, and finally decided to get an account!

So anyway, I had the privilege to take a free practice MCAT by Kaplan this past weekend. I'm a freshman and made a 21. I went in completely blind, not having any clue what to expect. Is this a good base? Also, I only missed 7 out of 45 on the VR part, but that put me at an 8. Are the questions really that weighted?

Thank you,

Michael

Be careful...Kaplan doesn't always score correctly (they make it lower so neurotic premeds freak out and sign up for their classes)

Just a heads up. So you may have gotten even higher! 👍

 

[NSDQ]

I scored 15 points higher on my MCAT than I did on my first practice test 2.5 months earlier.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Be careful...Kaplan doesn't always score correctly (they make it lower so neurotic premeds freak out and sign up for their classes)

Just a heads up. So you may have gotten even higher! 👍

I personally didn't experience this. My free practice test was actually a lot higher than my diagnostic.


And yes the verbal is VERY highly curved. That being said, an 8 for seven wrong does seem to be a bit extreme.

 

[Cirrus83]

Don't worry about it too much if you're a freshman. But if you bombed the verbal (in this case I mean less than a 9), I'd start reading the hardest magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. By hardest I don't mean the most boring. And it doesn't have to be ridiculously over the top.

If you like science something like Scientific American would be good. Other stuff like The Atlantic, The Economist, even the Wall Street Journal (that's what Kaplan gives everyone when you take their MCAT classes) is good if you voraciously read them.

Since the MCAT verbal is basically testing you on how much you got out of a short article-like passage, reading long novels isn't really quite as useful as reading periodicals.

I did well (really well) in my verbal without studying for it, because it's such a long term thing that if you've been reading harder periodicals for a long time there's no much point to cramming other than taking a few practices to make sure you're doing well. You can't really cram reading abilities-there's test strategies you can use to speed up your reading, but improving your actual underlying reading ability takes a long time. And mostly it was because I've read way too many magazines, newspapers, and journals over the years (used to take the subway and bus for an hour and a half every day so I had plenty of time).

The other stuff like the Physical Sciences and the Biological Sciences is going to largely come from the coursework you'll do, and quite frankly mostly from the cramming you'll do in the months before the MCAT. So don't worry about that now other than doing well in your coursework.

 

[cbrons]

I scored 15 points higher on my MCAT than I did on my first practice test 2.5 months earlier.

I hope I can replicate that, I take the exam in 2.5 months and my first practice test was a 24. Of course since then Ive been studying non-stop

 

[bad virus]

I hope I can replicate that, I take the exam in 2.5 months and my first practice test was a 24. Of course since then Ive been studying non-stop

The best way to study is to have all the aamc practice tests saved up for that last two or three weeks of studying. You have 8 practice exams, take one the first day, study what you got right and wrong the next two and do that till the day of the MCAT. Make sure you take one the day or two before and you will be rocking it come test day. Don't worry about the kaplan stuff as honestly, they were pretty different from the real thing, where as the real aamc practice tests look and feel identical to the real thing.

Now in regards to the op, my best advice is pay your darn best in the basic science classes. I mean eat it up. Then get a job at your tutoring center and you will be flying high come test day. The above posters gave some good info about the verbal though.

 

[Law2Doc]

Have you had any AP science classes yet? Because frankly if you haven't had the basic sciences courses yet, your MCAT score doesn't really gauge anything at this point....

Agreed. If you haven't taken any of the sciences, the diagnostic really just gauges how well you guess, which is often going to be as random as a coin flip. I wouldn't put any value in it. Take the test when you have taken most of the subjects and at that point it actually becomes diagnostic.

 

[binko]

Don't worry about it too much if you're a freshman. But if you bombed the verbal (in this case I mean less than a 9), I'd start reading the hardest magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. By hardest I don't mean the most boring. And it doesn't have to be ridiculously over the top.

If you like science something like Scientific American would be good. Other stuff like The Atlantic, The Economist, even the Wall Street Journal (that's what Kaplan gives everyone when you take their MCAT classes) is good if you voraciously read them.

I don't agree that reading a lot will help you, unless you do it religiously for about 10 years prior to taking the MCAT. It's more about test-taking strategies than about knowing how to read. I have a lot of trouble with verbal and I was a humanities major. Do yourself a favor and order a book from ExamKrackers or something. Also get their mini-MCATs book and do a verbal one every week. Practice actually taking the test, not just reading stuff, is important. A lot of the passages they select for the MCAT are godawful writing and you need to be able to parse those as well.

 

[BlueElmo]

I agree, reading a lot won't help you 3 months before the exam. But if you are a freshmen right now, and you read a lot from now on, I think it will help you. By the way, go out and have fun, you are still a freshmen. Don't even think about MCAT so early.

 

[Myuu]

Be careful...Kaplan doesn't always score correctly (they make it lower so neurotic premeds freak out and sign up for their classes)

Just a heads up. So you may have gotten even higher! 👍

It's more like ensuring that you can never take them up on that higher score guarantee offer.😳

 

[aznb0y129]

It's more like ensuring that you can never take them up on that higher score guarantee offer.😳

It's not like you even get your money back, they just let you take the class again. But yeah, I agree with Myuu.

 

[vin5cent0]

Already been send ad nausuam, but I'll throw in my two cents. Without taking the upper level classes (specifically, o-chem), a 21 doesn't really tell you much. I suppose you did pretty well for not having taken any of the classes, but the true test will be to see how you do AFTER you're supposed to have learned the material. Only then will the score tell you much.

 

[Poe350]

Alright thanks for all of the responses. I know taking it now isn't a true gauge of how I'll do on the MCAT, but I really just wanted to see what the format was like and stuff like that. But my Verbal score still really bothers me...the only thing I read is stuff like Scientific American and I always do very well on anything involving comprehension. I really do wonder if they deflate that score a some. I really think 38/45 should be higher than an 8. But anyway thanks again, and I think I'm going to hold off on MCAT stuff until after my Soph year.

 

[scrambizle]

Yeah, don't start studying for the MCAT until your Junior year (3-6 months before your test date). Studying for the sake of studying won't improve your score. Also, I recommend taking a class since it kinda organizes your studying habits.

As for the verbal, don't worry. You're a _freshman_ taking a free practice test. I'm sure you'll do better with 2+ years of college level humanities and the pressure of the real deal.

Finally, stop worrying about the MCAT as a freshman! Go outside and play frisbee! Go to a party! Get off SDN!

 

[245399]

Hello, I've been lurking these forums for about a month or so, and finally decided to get an account!

So anyway, I had the privilege to take a free practice MCAT by Kaplan this past weekend. I'm a freshman and made a 21. I went in completely blind, not having any clue what to expect. Is this a good base? Also, I only missed 7 out of 45 on the VR part, but that put me at an 8. Are the questions really that weighted?

Thank you,

Michael

The score doesn't mean anything.
Pay close attention in all your classes, actually learn the material.
Take genetics, systems phys, and biochem on top of the prereqs.
Stay active in your school and community.
Have a ton of fun in college and stay off of SDN until you are a junior.

 

[flaahless]

Dude, you're a freshman. A good score for you is a zero. Better yet, an undefined. Worry about the MCAT after you take Ochem. Until then, enjoy college, go talk to some girls and get your socializing game up. After that, go to your faculty office hours so you have some decent LORs come app time. The MCAT will come.

 

[Poe350]

Haha you guys are making me feel like a loser . But here's the deal: This site is one of my main motivations for doing good. When I feel like I'm about to give up on studying for a test or something, I come here, read some threads, and for some reason, it gives me a moral boost. I finished my first semester pretty weak (3.4) and this semester isn't looking much better (maybe a 3.5), but now I know what I have to do to get the grades I need/want so I'm hoping here-on-out will be better. It's just I burn out so quickly, though I'm trying to fix that right now! I guess coming to this site and realizing there are so many people that I can empathize with makes it seem more doable.

 

[45408]

Dude, you're a freshman. A good score for you is a zero. Better yet, an undefined. Worry about the MCAT after you take Ochem. Until then, enjoy college, go talk to some girls and get your socializing game up. After that, go to your faculty office hours so you have some decent LORs come app time. The MCAT will come.

You can't get a zero on the MCAT. 😉

 

[batman1983]

I got a 19 on my first practice exam and ended up with a 38 on the real thing. I think the distribution is what matters most since it is very easy to improve upon the science sections by studying and memorizing the formulas, whereas the verbal section is, at least in my opinion, very hard to prepare/improve upon.

 

[tennisball80]

Fine, I am taking the MCAT as my high school graduation exam. 😛

 

[SDN2013]

Hello, I've been lurking these forums for about a month or so, and finally decided to get an account!

So anyway, I had the privilege to take a free practice MCAT by Kaplan this past weekend. I'm a freshman and made a 21. I went in completely blind, not having any clue what to expect. Is this a good base? Also, I only missed 7 out of 45 on the VR part, but that put me at an 8. Are the questions really that weighted?

Thank you,

Michael

Freshman Fall: 26 (13 on PS, really crappy scores on VR and BS)

Junior Fall, prior to any review: 19 (really crappy scores on all 3 sections)

 

[ChubbyChaser]

why would you take a practice MCAT as a freshman anyways?

 

[Aladdin]

Without O-chem it is hard to gauge what good would mean.

What is your verbal score? That will be the hardest one to improve, though I am sure that years of analytical reading (part of college) will help improve that. I would say 21 is a good score, simply because you have taken most of the pre-reqs recently (assuming you did them in high school) and what is left is O-chem and practice.

O-chem has less and less to do with the MCAT each year. The amount has dwindled from 50% of BS to 25% to <25%. I had three O-chem questions on my entire BS section.

The MCAT has more to do with practice than anything else. There's only so much you can learn for it. You should practice as much as possible.

 

[SDN2013]

why would you take a practice MCAT as a freshman anyways?

kaplan offered it for free, and I had nothing to do on a saturday morning. There was also the incentive of entering a raffle for one of several 24pack cases of Rockstar. I drank alot of rockstar freshman year