ColoredSpectrum
Full Member
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2021
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 13
Hey all, I took my test in August 2021 and I’m more than happy with my scores! Seeing everyone’s breakdowns really helped me figure out how to go about studying so I wanted to share some info as well. Before any of that though, I wanted to give some words of encouragement: I graduated from undergrad in 2016 and really struggled with the transition back into studying again. I burnt out several times studying for this test, constantly questioned my capability, and had to re-schedule my exam twice. Make sure you take time for your mental health and surround yourself with people who love and uplift you! Don’t use your breaks as an excuse to beat yourself up for not doing more. I had to take a break from fb a month before my test because I started using other people’s scores as a way to get myself down.
Also, for anyone who struggles with massive test anxiety like me, work on daily breathing exercises to center yourself before you take individual tests and get accustomed to subjecting yourself to reading under pressure. I brought breath mints and foam earplugs to the actual exam and spent most of my tutorial/break working on controlling my breathing and repeating affirmations to myself.
Before my test I only took one full-length practice (Bootcamp's FL #10). Here’s my breakdown and what I thought of how the resources I used compared to one another:
Resources Used:
Timeline/Study Schedule:
[BIO 30]
[GC: 25 | OC: 27]
[PAT 21]
[RC 30]
[QR 30]
If you’ve made it to this point, thank you for reading through all of that - I’m happy to answer any questions you have!
Also, for anyone who struggles with massive test anxiety like me, work on daily breathing exercises to center yourself before you take individual tests and get accustomed to subjecting yourself to reading under pressure. I brought breath mints and foam earplugs to the actual exam and spent most of my tutorial/break working on controlling my breathing and repeating affirmations to myself.
Before my test I only took one full-length practice (Bootcamp's FL #10). Here’s my breakdown and what I thought of how the resources I used compared to one another:
Resources Used:
- Booster (main)
- Bootcamp (last 2 weeks before my exam)
- Chad’s videos through CourseSaver for my learning phase (GC/OC)
- Destroyer as a supplemental (Bio only)
Timeline/Study Schedule:
- I studied for ~3 months in total. I was off/on with lots of burnout phases for the first 2 months, which consisted of my learning phase. The last month I ramped up to 8 hours/day and 12 hours/day the last 2 weeks.
- I didn’t follow any set schedule for the first 2 months and kind of just did my own thing. I don’t recommend doing inconsistent learning like I did because most of the time I would learn new material, forget half of the old material I learned from not reviewing, get burnt out/take an extended break, and have to relearn everything. Continuous review is key! Both Booster and Ari’s schedules are great, but I also recommend using it to draft your own schedule suited to your strong/weak areas. The last month I made my own study schedule and solidified most of the content I had learned.
[BIO 30]
- Booster average (1st 2 months) = 18-21
- Bootcamp average (last 2 weeks) = 22
- Bootcamp FL #10 = 22
- I have a LOT to say about bio – it was the section I struggled studying with the most, was most discouraged by, and the one that all came together the last 2 weeks of my studying. The biggest piece of advice I have for bio is to not do what I did lol. If I could go back and change my studying pace, I would have made sure to review my previous bio notes every other day instead of trying to speed through all of the content. I retained maybe 30% of what I learned the first time around. Another thing I would have changed would be the mindset of not wanting to take a practice test before learning everything because I didn’t feel prepared enough. You should definitely save a few individual tests for the end, but overall, you’ll be better off learning as you make mistakes on tests, reading over the explanations, and doing as many practice problems as you can get your hands on.
- I started biology by reading/highlighting through Feralis-Booster notes and going through Booster’s question banks. This was off and on for 2 months and I didn’t retain much. By the time the last month rolled around, I started panicking because I didn’t see much improvement in my scores so I decided to physically make individual flashcards for all the material I didn’t know. This ended up massively backfiring on me because I ended up with 1000+ flashcards that I barely touched because I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to reviewing them. If you want to make flashcards, make them early on and continuously review them so you’re not overwhelmed like I was at how much you have to review. Anki’s great as well but definitely make your own deck instead of using other decks if you can!
- The last 2 weeks before my test I attribute 100% to what made my score go from a 22 to a 30. My friend gave me access to his Bootcamp account, and I went all out. I went through my previous highlighted Booster notes, cross referenced any missing material with Bootcamp’s full-length notes, and made a personalized review sheet (1-2 pages) for each chapter. The review sheet ended up being my saving grace and out of everything I did for bio, I think it helped the most! After every section, I would do the corresponding question banks and bio bites the next day to cement my knowledge. I also finished all the individual practice tests and Destroyer’s bio problems during this time.
- Overall, I've heard a lot of people say Booster is more representative of the bio on the test but I think Bootcamp is on par. In terms of notes, I prefer the new Feralis-Booster notes over Bootcamp’s full-length notes. Bootcamp’s condensed notes is a great resource as well if you’re short on time. Bio bites are awesome but don’t focus on only them. Once you start knowing the answers from memory rather than actually learning the material, stop and switch to a different learning method.
[GC: 25 | OC: 27]
- GC Booster/Bootcamp average = 21-25
- OC Booster/Bootcamp average = 25-30
- Bootcamp FL #10: GC = 24 | OC = 27
- Chad is a godsend. It’s been 7 years since I last took a GC class so I had to essentially learn everything from scratch, but he made all the concepts easy to understand. Highly recommend him. I took good notes on his videos at the very start of my learning phase so even when I forgot things later on, it made it easy for me to re-learn. I also made flashcards for all the GC formulas that I pulled from the Bootcamp/Booster GC sheet.
- My GC exam was pretty on par with both resources, but my OC exam was actually slightly harder than both Bootcamp/Booster’s individual practice tests (there was a surprising number of mechanisms on it). Luckily, I have a strong foundation with OC from my recent courses so I took notes on Chad’s OC videos at the very beginning of my learning phase and didn’t touch them until a few weeks before my exam. I recommend flashcards for OC all the way! Take either the Booster or Bootcamp reaction sheet and make two sets of flashcards for every reaction – one with the reactant missing and one with the product missing. More than any subject, repetition is the most important for OC.
- The approach I took for GC/OC was opposite of bio. I didn’t find it helpful to start taking practice tests until I had the majority of GC concepts and formulas memorized. That might not apply to everyone but it worked well for me!
[PAT 21]
- Booster/Bootcamp average = 20-22
- Bootcamp FL #10 = 21
- If there was one thing I was consistent with throughout the entirety of these last 3 months, it was being continuously terrible at TFE and keyholes. No matter how much I practiced, I never saw improvement in them and never got more than half right on either section. Past a certain point, I just focused on getting 13-15s on the other 4 sections and left the rest up to fate haha. I can’t give any tips for TFE and keyholes but if anyone wants tips for the other sections, let me know! I usually finished the other 4 sections with 30-35 minutes left for TFE and keyholes.
- For anyone struggling with PAT, my advice is to always start with your strongest section. I started at 31 (angle ranking), went to the end, and backtracked to my two weakest sections afterwards. Watch your clock and at the 5-minute mark, no matter how confident you are at finishing, pick a consistent letter (D was my go-to haha) and choose it for all the questions you have left.
[RC 30]
- Booster/Bootcamp average = 22
- Bootcamp FL #10 = 23
- I didn’t focus much on reading even though it’s always been my weakest subject. I knew that no matter how much I tried to prepare for reading, the day of the test, my anxiety and nerves would be the biggest determining factor of my score. I worked mostly to prep my mental state with breathing exercises instead.
- I really enjoyed Booster’s 5 question reading passages. It was great for practicing RC without having to commit to the full hour and getting yourself accustomed to reading under pressure. I took maybe a total of 2 reading practice tests, not counting the Bootcamp FL, just to get a sense of what method I wanted to use. Search and destroy never worked for me because I’d always get frazzled from not being able to find a detail in time, which would increase my anxiety. I started with normal vanilla/highlighting but that took too much of my time so I switched to my own modified vanilla version later where I would skim the paragraph, highlight the central theme/any key details, and move on. If it was a paragraph that was all facts/statistics, I would note to myself what the topic was and immediately skip it. Those questions ended up being the easiest to find because I knew they were all grouped in one place.
[QR 30]
- Booster average = 18-21
- Bootcamp average = 21-23
- Bootcamp FL #10 = 21
- This score came as such a shock to me! Math was my strongest subject as a kid but I haven’t touched it in over 7 years and I’ve always had a tendency to make careless errors. My test was more difficult than Bootcamp but easier than Booster.
- Booster’s QR is unnecessarily hard and only served to discourage me. During the last week before my exam, I put everything except for bio and QR on the backburner. I went through all of Bootcamp’s QR videos, most of their question banks, and a few individual tests. I have Bootcamp to thank for my 30!
- Some general tips I have for QR that helped me deal with timing:
- Keep your scratch paper neat. I didn’t realize how important this was but it really helped me on questions I would have to go back to.
- Don’t spend more than 2 min on a question unless you’ve already completed all the easy ones and you’re going back to do the hard ones. Mark it, put an answer choice that could potentially be right, keep track of the work on your scratch paper, and come back to it later if you have time.
- Once you're more familiar with what you're areas you're weak/strong in, play to your strengths. Skim the question briefly. If it’s an area you’re weak in, mark it and skip it immediately.
If you’ve made it to this point, thank you for reading through all of that - I’m happy to answer any questions you have!
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