First practice exam score

[fldoctorgirl]

So I just took my first practice exam!!

I used TPR for content review. I went through the entire book for Gen Chem, Physics/Math, Biochem, & Psych. I did select chapters out of the Bio book because I felt comfortable with the material. I skipped CARS and orgo entirely as I wanted to begin doing practice exams.

I took a Next Step exam and scored 503. This is without any intense studying/memorization. When I read TPR, I took notes on paper and am in the process of converting them to flashcards to memorize.

Also, this is the first form of questions I'm looking at. I didn't do any practice questions while content reviewing.

So I guess my question is...how should I feel about this score considering I haven't hammered the material yet? Is it promising for 510+ for an exam date of May 18th? I have just finished the semester so will be spending the weeks until the test doing nothing but studying.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

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[Hospitalized]

Considering you are a <1 month from your exam, you should be focusing on AAMC style material exclusively. Spend 3-4 days on each SB, do all the Qpacks (take special note of CARS, if you don't get 65%+, reschedule your exam.) Do the sample AAMC exam ASAP (CARS is easy on this, aim for 80%+). It may be possible to get 510+ but it's hard to tell where you are at right now with only one non-AAMC test score.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Considering you are a <1 month from your exam, you should be focusing on AAMC style material exclusively. Spend 3-4 days on each SB, do all the Qpacks (take special note of CARS, if you don't get 65%+, reschedule your exam.) Do the sample AAMC exam ASAP (CARS is easy on this, aim for 80%+). It may be possible to get 510+ but it's hard to tell where you are at right now with only one non-AAMC test score.

I started with an NS exam because I wanted to get an idea of how I was scoring since I've done zero practice and literally had no idea how I would do-- if I would've scored super low, I wouldn't have wanted to waste an official AAMC test. I know <1 month seems like not much time, but I literally have nothing to do until my exam date besides study all day every day. Now that I did decent on NS, I am planning on taking AAMC FL 1 in the next few days, and of course am planning on incorporating the section banks in as well. Thank you for your suggestions on score minima to meet, I will definitely keep those in mind when I do more practice.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Which NS did you take? I plan to buy their 4 exams and will probably take one either tomorrow or Monday! A 503 is a decent 1st FL score and with the addition of AAMC materials, your score will only improve.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Which NS did you take? I plan to buy their 4 exams and will probably take one either tomorrow or Monday! A 503 is a decent 1st FL score and with the addition of AAMC materials, your score will only improve.

I took NS 1! I didn't buy it, I just signed up for an account and they give you FL 1 and a diagnostic for free.

 

[DameJulie]

Has the Anki flashcards been helpful to you? I am making some of them but haven't been systematically using them yet.
I think you got some room of improvement if you scored a 503+ w/o any intense studying...if the FL you took is one of those pre-course "diagnostic" exam, then you should get a few more points on the real MCAT, cuz the diagnostic test are usually designed to be a bit harder than the real MCAT.

 

[_NM_]

Has the Anki flashcards been helpful to you? I am making some of them but haven't been systematically using them yet.
I think you got some room of improvement if you scored a 503+ w/o any intense studying...if the FL you took is one of those pre-course "diagnostic" exam, then you should get a few more points on the real MCAT, cuz the diagnostic test are usually designed to be a bit harder than the real MCAT.

Hey! I used Anki to study for the MCAT and I thought it was really useful. I took the exam yesterday and I distinctly remember being so happy that I used Anki during the exam. I studied while working full time for about 6 months and would just do the cards during my commute or in line at the grocery store, etc.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Has the Anki flashcards been helpful to you? I am making some of them but haven't been systematically using them yet.
I think you got some room of improvement if you scored a 503+ w/o any intense studying...if the FL you took is one of those pre-course "diagnostic" exam, then you should get a few more points on the real MCAT, cuz the diagnostic test are usually designed to be a bit harder than the real MCAT.

I haven't begun too much intense review of them but I really like the process of making my own flashcards cause I feel that doing that alone helps! Like @_NM_ mentioned, many people think Anki was highly beneficial to their studying, so I definitely recommend it based on that!

 

[Aspiring4MD]

So I just took my first practice exam!!

I used TPR for content review. I went through the entire book for Gen Chem, Physics/Math, Biochem, & Psych. I did select chapters out of the Bio book because I felt comfortable with the material. I skipped CARS and orgo entirely as I wanted to begin doing practice exams.

I took a Next Step exam and scored 503. This is without any intense studying/memorization. When I read TPR, I took notes on paper and am in the process of converting them to flashcards to memorize.

Also, this is the first form of questions I'm looking at. I didn't do any practice questions while content reviewing.

So I guess my question is...how should I feel about this score considering I haven't hammered the material yet? Is it promising for 510+ for an exam date of May 18th? I have just finished the semester so will be spending the weeks until the test doing nothing but studying.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

so I am in no position to give good feedback considering the fact that I'm also in your boat, but my exam is in June. I just want to mention that I took AAMC #1 before studying any content, and did terrible as I expected. Then I studied the first 4 chapters from all of my content books, and took the same free NS #1 you took, and I improved 12 points! from 490 to 502... I'm not sure if NS is super easy compared to AAMC, but I was expecting around 496 or so, so I'm a little skeptical about my NS score.
My point is, I think you should take an AAMC exam to get a more accurate base score before banking on the NS.