I'm so honored to be able to post here...I've always wanted to, and now, even though I just barely made this thread, hopefully some of the information I put on here can be useful to someone else in conquering the beast. Note that I will actually be going in depth as to what I did wrong the first time and combine it with what I did right the second time.
1) Your individual scores and composite score
3/22/14: 23 (9/7/7)
6/21/14: 30 (11/9/10). A SEVEN POINT INCREASE WOO
2) The study method used for each section
Okay so here's what I wanted to do: write down all of the systems I believe that may have caused me problems during the first round, and then following that up with what I believe I did right the next round.
PS: So, actually when I first took this test, I hadn't finished physics 2 yet. When I started studying lightly, I hadn't even really gotten into physics 1 yet. Here is the first bit of advice I can give you. BE SURE YOU ARE DONE WITH ALL OF YOUR PREREQS BEFORE TAKING THE MCAT!!! Even if you have AP or IB credit for such classes, I would recommend taking the courses at university level, since most likely they are more challenging and, probably more applicable. Besides, there is nothing wrong with refreshing yourself. Now, you will see on these forums people claiming to get 30+ and not take all of the prereqs. I would strongly advise against this. They could have done well for a couple of reasons. Maybe they just had a good test day. Maybe their self-study tricks worked for them. Or, maybe they are just amazing test takers/are just incredibly smart. For the majority of the test takers, I wouldn't recommend doing this. I remember being very agitated when I took the first test and realizing that I hadn't gotten to some of the stuff on the AAMC guidelines. Optics and and the later parts of physics 2 are not the type of material to try to teach yourself. Of course now, having been taught by several different professors and peers, it seems a lot easier, but that's after a long time of practice. I tried to use the Kaplan quicksheets and the Kaplan big general book to learn the later part of physics 2, and it didn't work for me. Before I go into what study material I used for PS, I would like to offer another disclaimer. Be careful about AAMC PS scores. In the last year, AAMC has upped their game and made PS sections that have been, on average, much more difficult than the given PS sections. I actually was hitting consistent 11's on the AAMC's the last two weeks before I took the test, thought I did well, and got a 9. But, the passage difficulty/language was much higher on my 3/22 test than on the AAMC practices. So, be weary of that. It is incredibly important. I am a firm believer (especially after these two tests) in underestimation rather than overestimation of your score. Okay, now I can get into what I used the first time versus the second time. For PS the first time, I used Kaplan's in class course, physics notes from my university course, and mcat-review.org. Now, the only thing that I changed from my first to my second time as far as study material was concerned (if we aren't talking testing material yet), is that I focused more on my class notes in conjunction with the AAMC guidelines, and didn't focus as much on mcat-review.org or the Kaplan notes. I bought the EK1001 Physics book. Don't use it, it is repetitive and not really in an MCAT question style, in my opinion. For me, it was a waste of time. It was useful to use my class notes/homework to study for the MCAT Physics section because 1) I had very recently taken physics at the university and 2) my physics class was generally much tougher than the MCAT physics on PS. If these two don't readily apply to you, especially number 2, maybe you should look elsewhere for Physics refreshers. So the testing strategy for physics the first time consisted of some of the Kaplan material (like quizzes and stuff) and AAMC tests. That was a huge mistake for me. First of all, I felt like the quizzes didn't really line up with the MCAT format on the PS section. Secondly, the AAMC PS is misleading when it comes to score/difficulty. So, the second time around I used GS. Yeah, I know, on the 6/21 thread people heard me testify to GS's effectiveness as if I had been told personally by the head of AAMC to use GS for PS. But, I found them incredibly helpful. Now, don't get me wrong, GS PS is a little different in format compared to AAMC PS, as in maybe they would have 8 passages and two sets of discretes, rather than 7 passages and 3 sets of discretes. But the passage difficulty/language was on par with the real MCAT. I was comparing the PS that I took on 3/22. And, surely enough, I scored the exact same score (9) on my first GS PS test about 3 weeks after my real MCAT. GS PS gets insanely hard and you might feel discouraged with point values at first, but it will increase, and you will notice an increase in your AAMC PS once you do enough GS PS. Surely enough, I was hitting consistent 10s and 11s on GS PS, and got an 11 on PS on 6/21. In fact, when I saw the 6/21 PS, I was happy because I was reminded of the GS PS format. Now, there is a disclaimer to the testimonial above. GS PS gets insanely difficult around GS 8-10. I would recommend trying to take either 8, 9, or 10 (choose 1) as a real test, but then using the other two just as an exercise. It will help from feeling burned out or incredibly frustrated at lower PS scores on the 8-10 GS PS.
Now, Gen Chem. So, I took Gen Chem's back in 2012, so I didn't really remember so much gen chem at first. However, when I first started to refresh myself, it all started to come back to me, like riding a bike. But, that might also be because I had a difficult set of Gen chem 1/Gen Chem 2 classes here that really made me study very hardcore back in 2012, so that might be why it was so easy to draw from long-term memory. This is another supporting detail to my belief to draw from class notes if the class was harder than AAMC tests. Such was the case for me, so I used my old notes. Also, I remembered from my class year in gen chem that I had weaknesses in gases, solubility, titration curves, and ICE tables. So, I spent a good chunk of my review of gen chem reviewing those 4 subjects. Okay, so for gen chem the first time, I used my old class notes, Kaplan, and mcat-review.org. Actually, I didn't have much of a problem with gen-chem the first test, it was more of a problem on physics. But, again, I did change my methods in gen chem and saw a legitimate increase in my scores afterwards. I focused on those 4 weaknesses and drilled them into my head for hours and hours and hours. So the second time around I was using mainly mcat-review.org, notes from GS PS (this applies for physics as well), and my old class notes, as well as AAMC guidelines.
Overall, my test/review cycle for PS went like this: I took two months to study for my retake, so I had a method that at first eased me into GS and AAMC's then went at a much faster pace. At the beginning, I would do 2 days of content review for PS, then take a section test of GS. Since there were 10 GS PS sections to take, this worked while working it in with GS BS and AAMC BS as well as VR stuff to account for the two months. But, as I got closer to the testing time, I had to speed it up. So, towards the end I was doing 1 GS PS test one day, review the next day, then another GS PS test the 3rd or 4th day, working in conjunction with BS and VR, which I will get into in a second. Conclusively, if I have key pieces of advice for PS it would be this: Teaching yourself physics or chemistry isn't the easiest thing in my opinion, so use supplements, such as mcat-review.org for some things, your old class notes for other things, and perhaps youtube for others. Now youtube seemed more applicable to me in the BS section, but we will go in depth with that later. Another piece of advice for PS is: you don't know if you will get a calculation heavy test. This section was actually my biggest problem with timing when I got in my rhythms for the 6/21 MCAT. I actually almost forgot about passage 1 on my 6/21 MCAT since I skipped it because it looked intimidating. And, with most of my GS PS, I would feel like I would run low on time. So, in my opinion, you should practice as if the test will be calculation heavy and/or lengthy, however you define that.
Okay, sorry for such a long PS rant, now I can get into VR. Verbal is actually a weird transition for me. At first, verbal was amazingly tough for me, like I couldn't see a way people got above an 8 on VR sections. The biggest piece of advice for VR I have is: make a system that works for you that has you finish with a little time to spare on average. 8 minutes on each passage is good. Now, where I ran into problems my first time was passage-mapping. Now, I am not trying to flame Kaplan's methods, they worked for some of my other colleagues, but for me, passage mapping took too much time and I would get bogged down in minute details and taking the notes took WAY too long. I almost always ran out of time. So, I switched to simply reading and comprehension. What I mean by that is reading once through for comprehension, and answering the questions. Yeah, I know that seems like, the most intuitive thing in the world, but it actually takes practice. What I did personally was pretend in my head that I was giving a speech about whatever subject was in front of me, so I had to be the most excited and attentive person in the world for this specific passage, and it really helped. I saw my verbal scores shoot up almost instantly from 7s to 9s. I would consistently score 9s on my practices and got a 9 on the real one 6/21. For Verbal the first time, I used mostly AAMC verbals. The second time around, I used GS at first, until I realized that GS Verbal is very different than AAMC, so I went back to mostly AAMC verbal. My material didn't really change, it was mostly the method. Trust your AAMC verbal averages, because even on harder days, the MCAT verbals won't deviate too much from the AAMC general layout. Also, I would like to maybe suggest that, at this point I was really only doing the verbals on AAMC's when I took full AAMC tests, not section tests. I didn't want to over test verbal, since I felt like I could improve the most on BS and PS with content review/ change of methodology.
Now time for BS: So let me start this section with a disclaimer: I had some real problems with biology at first. That's because my foundation at my university was awful, due to insanely difficult teachers and lack of a high school foundation. I probably have the most useful information with how to get a solid (not amazing/stellar for 11+, but a solid, 9/10 BS) score. So, the first time around, I relied way too much on EK1001. That was a huge mistake. Also, Kaplan BS for me didn't work for content review for whatever reason. The second time around, I changed my strategy to approaching BS. Before, I would use Kaplan BS, EK1001, and AAMC BS post test notes to approach it. Bad choice for me. The second time around, I focused more on mending the broken subjects, like genetics, biological molecules, molecular genetics, musculoskeletal, and immunology. I saw an almost instant score increase when I used this method in conjunction with GS BS, even though GS BS has a slightly different format than AAMC BS. GS BS was a very helpful tool for me, it prompted me to think more critically and analytically, even if their difficulty was only slightly above or at the same level as AAMC. So, second time around, I used GS BS, mcat-review.org guidelines (wrote out EVERY one in detail), AAMC BS post-test notes, and even some youtube videos (like some great ones on musculoskeletal, immunology, and molecular genetics!) My review method for BS was a lot more time consuming than PS or VR combined. What I would do is study content for 2 days, then take a GS BS section test, review those notes, repeat until I got to AAMC BS sections. I would review my weaknesses until my eyes bled, test myself, even try to teach others, it seemed like it helped me solidify my core concepts. BS I never had a problem with timing so much, but there are a couple of warnings I need to give for BS on the real deal: 1. Don't freak out when you see the AAMC11 type of experimental passage on your MCAT. Sorry to say, but most BS's that I have heard people recently take say that there is at least one, maybe more of these passages on the real deal. Another thing to do, is LEARN ORGO! Seriously! Like, I was a bonehead the first time and thought that there wasn't going to be a lot of orgo on the test, and on my first one there wasn't. However, on my retake, there was a crap ton of orgo. Point is, be prepared for lots of orgo. Yeah, I know you have heard "Oh, there won't be a lot of orgo on my test, and if it will be, it will be simple SN1, SN2..." STOP THAT THINKING! Because my retake had a lot of orgo on it, and it was TOUGH. Moral of the story: be prepared to be tested on orgo, regardless of how "little" you may think there is, because you never know. That's a mistake I made...
3) What materials you used for each section(Kaplan, TPR, Examkrackers, AAMC, etc)
For PS: Old class notes, GS/ AAMC post test notes, mcat-review.org, AAMC guidelines.
For VR: Mostly AAMC.
For BS: AAMC guidelines, AAMC post-test notes, GS post-test notes, mcat-review.org
4) Which practice tests did you use?
PS: Gold Standard/ AAMC
VR: AAMC
BS: Gold Standard/AAMC
The second time around, my averages were (including both AAMC and GS)
PS: 10.5
VR: 9.4
BS: 10
5) What was your undergraduate major?
Psychology with Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience.
6) Any other tips you may have for those of us who still have this test lurking over us?
Yes. Several.
1. Know your abilities. This has to be one of the most important tips I can give you. Remember, it is better to underestimate than overestimate. Again, might seem like common sense, but I had a real problem with this one. I felt like "OK! I got a 12 on this AAMC PS, I'm good for PS right? Right?!" Don't do that. Be critical, and be thorough. It is better to be disappointed in a low score that motivates you to study harder and get higher (and most often results in such a change happening) than a false sense of security.
2. Don't be afraid to postpone. My first test was too soon, and I felt it in my gut too. Don't say like "Oh I won't be able to apply this cycle, blah blah blah" I get that, I really do, but think of this as an investment. If you rush yourself or trick yourself into thinking you are ready, you most likely won't do well, then you have to pay AGAIN and go through this grueling study/repeat process AGAIN, and believe me, it takes it out of you.
3. Don't burn out. Captain obvious strikes again, right? Well, yeah it seems like something so intuitive, but hear me out. I know we are all very dedicated, studious people. We want to get that score, no matter what, right? I get that to a degree, but it is not, repeat, NOT worth your mental stability. This is actually probably my most important tip. I took this stuff way too seriously and it almost cost me big time. It is just a test at the end of the day, and I have heard of people taking the MCAT 3+ times, so don't mega-stress yourself out. I had a panic attack a week before my 1st MCAT because of my practice test score. I felt the anxiety rip me apart, and I was depressed for a long time. In conjunction with 1 and 2, try to find days that you can relax or take it a little more lightly. No test is worth your mental health, and that's the truth.
4. Work on your weaknesses. Seriously, one of the biggest issues for me is that, first time around, I worked on my strengths. WRONG! DONT DO THIS! Of course, you can refresh yourself on said strengths just to make sure you don't get rusty, but you need to study your weaknesses until you can't conceivably find them. In fact, go as far to even say that your old weaknesses need to become stronger than your current strengths. Seriously. I know it feels awful to have to review stuff that you don't want to, but I'm sure that you won't want to do other medical tasks as a doctor either, but you will have to. Just keep your head up and do it.
5. This next one is incredibly important too. Don't take anyone's one advice as gospel. You are the only one who knows how you test. Take bits and pieces from everywhere, as it is clear that I did from my reviews above. And on another note, don't listen to people that say that "The MCAT is like AAMC 10 and 11, so therefore if you tank AAMC 11, you don't stand as good of a chance..." Guys, I got a 26 on AAMC 11, and got a 30 on the real deal. Don't put too much emphasis on any one test. On that note, don't freak out when you get a bad test score. I hadn't scored below a 27 since I started my retake studying, and the last test I took before my MCAT, AAMC 11, I got a 26. At first, I kind of freaked, but then calmed myself and remembered that bad tests happen. Rely on your averages, it provides a helpful guideline.
6. Maintain a social life to a degree, and keep up with stress-relieving activities. Agrees with a couple of points above, don't really need to go into why.
7) How long did you study for the MCAT?
2 months. I had 2 months from the time I got my first score to my retake on 6/21. Pretty much studied every day, with several break days dispersed at random.
But, I also had all of the time that I studied for my first test as well. But, if I had to recalculate that into the time well-spent in total, I'd say about 2.5-3 months in total.