Even if this happened to be on the high end of what you are currently capable of, there’s almost no way you guessed your way to +26 of a 482 lol. You honestly probably should’ve expected something higher than a 482 if you’ve been through a round of content review already. Keep in mind that Kaplan FLs are also deflated and you might’ve done even better on an AAMC FL. Certainly don’t sit on this contently and do nothing if your goal is a higher score, but don’t discount your own abilities either
Thanks for the reply! Definitely went over a ton of acid/base stuff and reviewed it. Overall, my section breakdown is LOW in c/p like 122-123, CARS is 125-127, B/B ~ 125-127, P/S is 130+. I think my main concern is C/P so just gotta grind that more effectively
If you’re not entirely comfortable with scientific notion math, units, and whatnot that would be good to practice too since that always comes up especially on C/P
Try reading a chapter and taking notes only on stuff you didn’t know beforehand, then doing the corresponding discretes in the book and then uwood questions to make sure you really remember and understand the material
Practice passages every day. I can't remember what site it was, maybe JW, but I've seen a lot of people talk about it improving their CARS scores. BP has a few course modules on CARS reading strategies that I think are helpful. I averaged 130 on CARS in practice on AAMC, but I was lucky enough to get two really gnarly passages on test day and I spent too much time on them which tanked my score because I ran out of time. So possibly helpful side note, maybe considering skipping very dense or weird CARS passages and come back to them at the end. I wish I would have done this.
Went from 490 to 499 after 3 weeks of studying. Granted, I have only done psych/soc, biology, and chem. I still have organic chemistry, biochemistry and phys/math to do.
The Pearson vue guy watching the cameras probably thought I was having a stroke trying to use up the blue cones in my left eye an inch away from the blue bar while keeping my right eye closed as a control
I actually think FL5 is a good one to take. It’s definitely more representative than early FLs and if you haven’t taken it yet it’ll be good for you to be confident that what you get isn’t possibly the result of remembering anything
They are alphabetical in the order they came and essentially the more recent the definition, the more generalized it is, going from just H+ and OH- to protons to electrons
IMO it’s probably too early to be doing Uwood. With <500 you probably need to fill in at least some of the major concepts before doing problems or else problems won’t be a productive use of time since they test concepts in more specific ways.
Something I do that seems to help is taking 10 seconds to reset between passages. Gives me the chance to not just be going for an entire section nonstop and to clear my head of the last passage before moving on to the next one
Going through the KA videos at 2x speed is probably a bit too fast to retain content well. Even when going through at 1x speed, if I watched a ton of videos in a row I still wouldn’t retain a lot of it. Might be better off focusing on the stuff that’s highlighted red and blue on the 86 page P/S doc if you have limited time
Thanks! Do you think the 86 pg doc is enough to score in the 130+ range? I know there’s also the 300 pg doc so I’m tryna figure out which makes sense to use
I personally think it is. Especially with < a month left before your test date, I don’t think it’d be worth it for you to go through the 300 page doc
I had a 127/127/126/128 on BP FL1, got a 127/127/127/127 on BP FL2, then 127/131/126/128 on sample, 129/130/127/128 on AAMC FL1, and 128/130/128/128 on AAMC FL2
The section bank problems are likely harder than your actual MCAT will be so it’s not unusual to do poorly on it. I personally think that it was a good wake up call for me to practice how to approach dense, difficult passages
Make sure you take Orgo before first grade too so adcoms will know you’ve been consistently excelling since elementary school
Even if this happened to be on the high end of what you are currently capable of, there’s almost no way you guessed your way to +26 of a 482 lol. You honestly probably should’ve expected something higher than a 482 if you’ve been through a round of content review already. Keep in mind that Kaplan FLs are also deflated and you might’ve done even better on an AAMC FL. Certainly don’t sit on this contently and do nothing if your goal is a higher score, but don’t discount your own abilities either
Get good at equilibrium and acids and bases. They’re probably two of the highest yield Chem concepts
Thanks for the reply! Definitely went over a ton of acid/base stuff and reviewed it. Overall, my section breakdown is LOW in c/p like 122-123, CARS is 125-127, B/B ~ 125-127, P/S is 130+. I think my main concern is C/P so just gotta grind that more effectively
If you’re not entirely comfortable with scientific notion math, units, and whatnot that would be good to practice too since that always comes up especially on C/P
Try reading a chapter and taking notes only on stuff you didn’t know beforehand, then doing the corresponding discretes in the book and then uwood questions to make sure you really remember and understand the material
I had a hoodie that I took off and left in the room and no one had a problem with it
Take a day off, it’ll be more helpful than trying to grind through more questions based off what you’re saying
Practice passages every day. I can't remember what site it was, maybe JW, but I've seen a lot of people talk about it improving their CARS scores. BP has a few course modules on CARS reading strategies that I think are helpful. I averaged 130 on CARS in practice on AAMC, but I was lucky enough to get two really gnarly passages on test day and I spent too much time on them which tanked my score because I ran out of time. So possibly helpful side note, maybe considering skipping very dense or weird CARS passages and come back to them at the end. I wish I would have done this.
^ especially dense, confusing passages near the beginning
Went from 490 to 499 after 3 weeks of studying. Granted, I have only done psych/soc, biology, and chem. I still have organic chemistry, biochemistry and phys/math to do.
Kaplan FLs are not easier than AAMC FLs for the vast majority of people. Third party exams in general are deflated
Biochem is very high yield
More blasting gas, I’m nervous
You get 9 pages
I'm glad I wasn't the only one staring at the blue on my screen trying to figure that out lmao
The Pearson vue guy watching the cameras probably thought I was having a stroke trying to use up the blue cones in my left eye an inch away from the blue bar while keeping my right eye closed as a control
If your test date is 1/23 then you’re past the 10 day limit to reschedule at this point so you’ll either have to take your score or void
I actually think FL5 is a good one to take. It’s definitely more representative than early FLs and if you haven’t taken it yet it’ll be good for you to be confident that what you get isn’t possibly the result of remembering anything
They are alphabetical in the order they came and essentially the more recent the definition, the more generalized it is, going from just H+ and OH- to protons to electrons
With regards to the score drop, part of it might be due to the fact that FL1 and Sample have easier CARS unfortunately
Adrenal medulla: from ectoderm, 2nd messengers like epinephrine for flight/fight
For the adrenal cortex, salt (mineralcorticoids) sugar (glucocorticoids) and sex (androgens) and it gets sweeter the deeper you get
Toilet paper my a** to remember the order of the valves: tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral, aortic
IMO it’s probably too early to be doing Uwood. With <500 you probably need to fill in at least some of the major concepts before doing problems or else problems won’t be a productive use of time since they test concepts in more specific ways.
For diagnostics I’d say the blueprint or Altius free half length diagnostic exams would be best
3 connections + lone pair = tetrahedral
3 connections + one lone pair is trigonal pyramidal
Something I do that seems to help is taking 10 seconds to reset between passages. Gives me the chance to not just be going for an entire section nonstop and to clear my head of the last passage before moving on to the next one
Amino acids are about 110 Da on average. I’ve had this come up a few times and if you don’t know it you can’t really reason out the answer
Going through the KA videos at 2x speed is probably a bit too fast to retain content well. Even when going through at 1x speed, if I watched a ton of videos in a row I still wouldn’t retain a lot of it. Might be better off focusing on the stuff that’s highlighted red and blue on the 86 page P/S doc if you have limited time
Thanks! Do you think the 86 pg doc is enough to score in the 130+ range? I know there’s also the 300 pg doc so I’m tryna figure out which makes sense to use
I personally think it is. Especially with < a month left before your test date, I don’t think it’d be worth it for you to go through the 300 page doc
I had a 127/127/126/128 on BP FL1, got a 127/127/127/127 on BP FL2, then 127/131/126/128 on sample, 129/130/127/128 on AAMC FL1, and 128/130/128/128 on AAMC FL2
Ah kk I had the same PS score on BP FL 1, so I'm hoping I score similar or better on the same exams!
Ideally you would decide to devote time to study P/S and not get basically the same P/S score for 5 tests straight like me lol
The section bank problems are likely harder than your actual MCAT will be so it’s not unusual to do poorly on it. I personally think that it was a good wake up call for me to practice how to approach dense, difficult passages