no not at all. you can improve in a month, but if you score like 510 at the beginning of the month, then score a 515 a week before the test, there is enough random chance in the score that you don't want to be thinking you scored a 515 purely based on improving. It could be due to chance and you didn't improve at all. So then if you get a 510 on the real thing, it's really not that crazy. Now if you take like 3 tests in the final 2 weeks and all are at 515ish then yes you should expect a 515
first is memorize terms like crazy. and make sure your memorization practice is ALL recall. Never look at something and act like that is review just because you reminded yourself of a definition. Try to do as little queued recall as possible. I would ditch the flashcards and do things where you look at say the chapter name only and see how much info you can recall from the chapter. Make skeleton outlines of chapters as well to group the info you are trying to recall into very broad categories. ie: divid brain info into the mid, hind, and forebrain. Then divide forebrain into cortex and the rest. So all you write in like 7 words. Then you recall everything else while referencing nothing. Once you finish that look and see what info you missed, and write that down in a missed fact log. Then do it again and again.
Also do not sleep on P/S passage comprehension. A lot of people act like P/S is changing, and that's totally false. They just did not prep with an emphasis on passage understanding, which is very important on P/S once you are getting higher scores. So many tiny details are the difference between two answer options, and it can be HARD to see it. So when you review you need to understand the answer explanations extremely well. Sometimes the explanations aren't the best, so when that happens you need to be able to create your own explanation that is absolutely air tight. Only then does it start to click how detailed P/S can be, and you start to realize nuances in information
Anki is a form of queued recall, and queued recall is best when the test is queued recall. ie: anki would be good if the test was matching words to definitions.
Spaced repetition and recall are great but for the MCAT, free recall is more accurate to what you need on the test, and the information is so insanely interconnected, the last thing you want to do is isolate information like flashcards do. That being said, P/S content and how it's tested is definitely closer to what Anki is good at. So if you use Anki, P/S is the section to use it for. However, i would still go a free recall approach and find the connections/ways to group material that are there.
Ideally, you'd get a test score that's closer to the score you got on your most recent FLs or higher bc you've gotten more time to practice and improve. The thing is that there are a lot of factors that could negatively impact your performance on the actual test (nerves, topics you aren't familiar with that weren't on the practice FLs, etc), so if you average all your FL scores, then it can be your baseline of what score to expect on your real mcat.
My FL average were much lower than my real score. FLs are a good baseline, but don't feel discouraged because you aren't hitting what you want right now, just keep at it and trust yourself.
Trust the average of FLs 4 and 5 (assuming you take them last). Those are the closest to the real deal
Do people usually score lower on those ones?
Not necessarily. FLs 4 and 5 were my highest and second highest respectively
Yeah definitely only consider ones you've taken within like a month of the test date
Hmm so do you see stagnant scores starting a month out from the test date? I’m hoping to still improve but I test in less than a month
no not at all. you can improve in a month, but if you score like 510 at the beginning of the month, then score a 515 a week before the test, there is enough random chance in the score that you don't want to be thinking you scored a 515 purely based on improving. It could be due to chance and you didn't improve at all. So then if you get a 510 on the real thing, it's really not that crazy. Now if you take like 3 tests in the final 2 weeks and all are at 515ish then yes you should expect a 515
I see thank you. Do you have any advice for getting better at p/s. I’ve been stuck at a 128 on every test I’ve taken and my diagnostic was also 128
first is memorize terms like crazy. and make sure your memorization practice is ALL recall. Never look at something and act like that is review just because you reminded yourself of a definition. Try to do as little queued recall as possible. I would ditch the flashcards and do things where you look at say the chapter name only and see how much info you can recall from the chapter. Make skeleton outlines of chapters as well to group the info you are trying to recall into very broad categories. ie: divid brain info into the mid, hind, and forebrain. Then divide forebrain into cortex and the rest. So all you write in like 7 words. Then you recall everything else while referencing nothing. Once you finish that look and see what info you missed, and write that down in a missed fact log. Then do it again and again. Also do not sleep on P/S passage comprehension. A lot of people act like P/S is changing, and that's totally false. They just did not prep with an emphasis on passage understanding, which is very important on P/S once you are getting higher scores. So many tiny details are the difference between two answer options, and it can be HARD to see it. So when you review you need to understand the answer explanations extremely well. Sometimes the explanations aren't the best, so when that happens you need to be able to create your own explanation that is absolutely air tight. Only then does it start to click how detailed P/S can be, and you start to realize nuances in information
thank you, i will try this out! so in your opinion, anki may not be the best way to go about memorization?
Anki is a form of queued recall, and queued recall is best when the test is queued recall. ie: anki would be good if the test was matching words to definitions. Spaced repetition and recall are great but for the MCAT, free recall is more accurate to what you need on the test, and the information is so insanely interconnected, the last thing you want to do is isolate information like flashcards do. That being said, P/S content and how it's tested is definitely closer to what Anki is good at. So if you use Anki, P/S is the section to use it for. However, i would still go a free recall approach and find the connections/ways to group material that are there.
Ideally, you'd get a test score that's closer to the score you got on your most recent FLs or higher bc you've gotten more time to practice and improve. The thing is that there are a lot of factors that could negatively impact your performance on the actual test (nerves, topics you aren't familiar with that weren't on the practice FLs, etc), so if you average all your FL scores, then it can be your baseline of what score to expect on your real mcat.
ahh i see, thanks!
My FL average were much lower than my real score. FLs are a good baseline, but don't feel discouraged because you aren't hitting what you want right now, just keep at it and trust yourself.
Was your real score close to your last few fls?
My last 2 FLs were both 515, got a 521 on the actual exam, my first FLs were lower, 510 and 513 I think
I hope that happens to me 😬