Please help me with My MCAT prep- I am very Depressed.

[Jack-Kennedy35]

Hello Everyone,
I am currently registered for the 01/23 exam but I think I will have to postpone it to March. I could really use your advice... this is a very low point for me because I have already voided once before when I was a senior and hadn't fully finished content but it was too late to cancel. Im in the middle of my gap year and have been studying for the past 3 months or so and am using TBR for Physics, Gen Chem and Kaplan for BIO, Biochem, Ochem and TPR/ Khan Notes for P/S.

Thus far I have finished everything except 2 chapters in Biochem and I still have to do all of P/S. I am looking to finish everything by the end of next week and I am definitely understanding content well. I just need to review everything and I also want to take a practice Nextstep full length next week as well.

In terms of practice I did the phase 1 questions in TBR-G chem/physics (There are typically 3 phases) and am planning on getting UWORLD/AAMC Full package. I have also been doing CARS am usualyy miss 1 or 2 questions at most. So I still have my TBR passages, UWORLD and AAMC. Can someone help me with planning out what I should be doing each month until my MCAT day which is either 03/14 or 03/27 (Which would you suggest?)

Like everyone else here my aim is to score 515+, and am curious as to what differentiates a 510 from a 517, what/ how can I develop the skills necessary to score that high? Any advice and tips would be greatly appreciated. @BerkReviewTeach @MedSchoolTutors @Next Step Tutor

Thanks- I know its long

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[Lifeblood_20]

Have you done any full-lengths practice exams yet (NOT the AAMC ones)? If not, do one ASAP.

I scored 522 on the exam this summer, if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

 

[Cornfed101]

It's hard to know where you stand without a practice FL of some kind. AAMC FLs are the most accurate, but you do want to save those for your last few weeks of studying. In my experience content only got me to about a 507-508. Getting above that requires understanding the strategy used by the AAMC. You have to understand how to answer MCAT questions. This is only really accomplished by doing AAMC questions. It sounds like you don't have the AAMC bundle so I would recommend buying that ASAP. You should have been doing AAMC questions all along. My recommendation is to do every AAMC question at least once. The SB and CARS qpacks I did 2x and it was very helpful for me.

It is very difficult to know what you need to work on without knowing section scores from a practice FL. That will help you know where you need to focus your study next.

 

[Tobirama]

Like the former two have said, doing the FL will give you a better idea. I used TBR (full set), Kaplan (full set), and the 89 page Khan Academy P/S doc to do well on the MCAT. But what I've found is that knowing all of that content is the minimum. After you memorize all that, you need to do all of the FL exams and take notes on what your getting wrong, because content is part of the exam, while strategy is a whole other part of the exam.

After memorzing all the content, I utilized the last month and a half completing all the FL exams and AMCAS practice questions, while taking notes on how to improve my test taking strategies. You'll be able to fill in a lot holes not only in your test taking strategies, but some recurrent themes in content. The thing is, if you don't know your content, then you'll freak out when you take the exam because they'll throw a **** tone of content you've never seen before. If you know your content, you'll know that alot of the content on the MCAT is out of yourscope, and they're just throwing it at you cause they can. Knowing that, you'll be confident on actually understanding what you need to know, and won't get distracted by all the random **** they throw at you, some of which you are not expected to know anyway. You got this bro.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

What's your baseline scores? Would love to give some advice but I can give more individualized ideas with a better grip on how close you are and if you're subject scores are balanced.

David D MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[goodtime]

Take The AAMC Sample test instead of the NS and see how close to your goal of 515 you are. Then reschedule as appropriately and do more practice tests.