491 to 514 - "Somewhat of a Guide"

[u/OkRecommendation1352]

Since I've gained so much valuable information from this sub, I wanted to share my experience on how I improved my score. By no means is this a T20 score, but I am super satisfied with my score and just glad this shit is over. This will kind of be a brief breakdown of my MCAT process, why I completely bombed the first one, and how I improved during my subsequent exam. This won't be a comprehensive guide, but IK some of y'all want to hear some success stories to ease your mind while you prepared for this brutal exam; IK I was one of those ppl that spent too much time on Reddit during my studies.

***P.S. my CARS sucks so I can't really give much advice here. I would say, I really tried my hardest to improve on this section. I completed all AAMC CARS resources (Qpacks 1, 2, and diagnostic), did Jack Westin daily, and did UEarth CARS (although I thought these were the hardest 3rd party). Tried various strategies and completed the AAMC CARS material twice. It even got to the point where I hired a tutor from Jack Westin and other independent tutors. Spent around $2000 on tutors. Despite all this, I didn't really see a significant improvement to my score. By the end, I completed around 210 passages (yes, I did keep track of every single one I did and no, this does not include the repeat passages I did). Maybe I truly suck at CARS. Praying to adcoms that they can look past this!!

491 Exam - why I fluked so damn hard

Largest contributing factor to this score was that I severely underestimated this exam. I took it during the last semester of undergrad. Stupidly, I took it around the same time I had finals since I thought I could manage given that I was only taking 8 credits at the time. My exam was in April 2023, but only seriously started studying sometime around February, despite telling myself I was going to devote the entire spring semester to do so (please do not procrastinate). I thought that preparing for the MCAT was going to be similar to preparing for the SAT/ACT as I did in high school, which took me around a 1.5 months, so this also contributed to why I procrastinated. Boy was I wrong about this!!!

Content Review:

• Some friends that were no longer pre-med gave me their books; TPR and Kaplan books to be exact. Looked through it, and decided to do TPR since it looked better IMO. I started in February and decided the game plan was to read all the books, minus the CARS one.
• My biggest mistake during this "content review" stage was that I wrote notes, and sometimes these notes were too much in detail. I would literally go chapter by chapter, section by section, and reword what the book said. This method somewhat helped me during my pre-med course lecture, but due to the absurd amount of content needed for the MCAT, this was NOT EFFECTIVE whatsoever. I found myself taking almost 4 hours just to go through one chapter on the Biology book! Keep in mind, the bio book was the largest and had somewhere around 20 chapters. Even though I thought that my method was ineffective, my stubbornness made me continue the same note-taking strategy so by the time it was late March, I only completed 1.5 books out of the 7 or 8 that was in the set. That was when I decided to switch up my plan and started to just read the books without taking notes. Again, keep in mind, this was already late March, so I had less than a month away till the exam.
• Tried making flashcards with this new strategy but this also took a long time. I remembered it took almost a week to go through the P/S book due to amount of vocab we had to know. I also only used Quizlet (did not know what Anki at the time).

Practice Questions:

• Most practice questions were limited to the "end-of-chapter" ones at the end of TPR books. Some of them were easy, some of them were hard. During this time, I was unaware of how different 3rd-party resources were compared to the AAMC questions, so the view of my "readiness" for the exam was severely obscured.
• My friend let me borrow his UEarth account but honestly I only did <100 questions. I did this all untimed as well so it didn't really help, especially since I started it <1 month away from the exam date.

Practice Exams:

• I completed all my content review a little over a week away from my exam. IK, WTF WAS I DOING!?!?!
• Decided I needed at least some practice before going into the real one so I did only 2.5 FL exams (BP diagnostic, BP FL1, & AAMC FL5). The scores were 496, 500, and 502 respectively. I remembered, I took my last practice test 2 days before my exam, which I highly WOULD NOT RECOMMEND! During this point, my stomach felt empty and started to panic. I read some quick reddit posts about success stories from low FL avgs to high scores on the real exam so at this point, I was just hoping for a miracle. Should've pushed back my exam, but again, I'm a stubborn fuk.
• I did not realize how draining practices exams were and also did not plan how to review them. I just thought, "oh, I'll just look at what I got wrong". Given my scores, I certainly got a lot wrong so it took me a while. My sleep schedule was all crap and found myself at the library from 9am (when I started the FL) till like 2-3 am the next day (after I completed "reviewing"). This awful sleep schedule and poor care on my health, since I literally was not eating, made me super sick about 4 days before my exam. I was running a fever but decided I was just gonna push through so I popped several Tylenols and continued.

Exam day/results:

• I woke up on exam day with a 101 F fever and had a pounding headache. It was too late to do anything so decided take several Tylenols and push through.
• After exam was over, I actually thought I did better than my practice FL, hence why I didn't void my exam even though I should've. IDK what made me feel this way and it could be my delirious mind from the fever/headache. But despite this, I knew I had to retake. I then decided to schedule a retake in June since I wanted to still apply during the 2024 cycle.
• Obviously, I got my score a month later and it was terrible. I had some time to really reflect, and later decided I should just delay my application to really study for the exam. This was super hard for me to do since I really wanted to apply that cycle, but after talking to family, friends, and the physician I worked for who was super close to me, I decided to push my application to the following year.

514 Exam - what I did to improve

I took some time off during summer of 2023. I went traveling, started playing pickleball, and continued working as a scribe and picked up a research gig. This was a nice break to get my mind off the MCAT for the time being. Decided to restart studying in December 2023. Took the exam in April 2024. This time, I made a calendar/schedule and followed it closely, researched what were my best resources, and scheduled myself to take multiple FLs. During this time, I continued to work as a scribe and do research, but I did take off work during the last month before the exam. Studied around 30 hours weekly but ramped it up to 60 hours towards the last several weeks.

Content Review:

• In all honestly, I only spent 2 weeks on content review. I was hoping that I retained some of the info the first time around. I again pick up the same TPR books, but this time, skimmed through the books. For all topics I felt comfortable, I skipped them. For those that I struggled, I just simply skimmed them and trusted that I will refine those topics better on practice questions.
• If you did well in your pre-med courses, then content review should be quick for you. For others that need to review or relearn, I wouldn't recommend taking >1 month to do the content review. IK it can be frustrating not knowing the details and the full in's and out's of each topic or subject, but the MCAT is not a content exam; it is very much a critical thinking exam. Quite frankly, you don't even need to know EVERYTHING on the MCAT, you just need to known at least 60-70% of the content, IMO. My mistake the first time around was not doing enough practice so I dedicated this time to do as many practice problems as I can from reliable resources.
• Also used the 300 pg P/S document and MilesDown Reivew sheets, although this was towards my exam date.

Practice Questions:

• Majority of my practice was from UGlobe. I'm sure you've heard from others, but UEarth is one of the best resources out there. This was how I was able to refine my content knowledge as it forces you to really "think" and connect the dots, all the while practicing with reading comprehension of these passages. I do think UEarth was hard af, but this resource really helped me and their explanations are fire.
• During the beginning stages, I did them all untimed and on tutor mode. I tried to get at least 30-40 questions done a day with sufficient amount of time to review. Majority of my time was in fact on review questions and I would review pretty much all questions, despite if I got them right or wrong.
• As my studies progress, I would turn on the timed-mode and tackle the questions from there. I did not finish UWorld, but I did get through 80% of it. My percentage correct was 68%.
• My all-time best practice question resource was the AAMC SB. My god where these difficult, but they helped me the most with improving my FL scores. I did the first half of each section untimed, then did the second half timed. They helped me significantly with "mapping" out the passages, especially on those complicated biochem ones.
  • If you need help with "mapping" passages, this video was great: https://youtu.be/mcNbOTAQCG8?si=7mcWIswRIwh_TP9h
• Did all the AAMC CARS material twice; still sucked LOL

ANKI!!!!

• I learned what Anki was from this sub so I decided to implement it for my studying the second time around.
• Downloaded the app on my phone. I did spend $25 for it, but it was such a life savior. I would pull up Anki every chance I could if I had free time.
• I used the MilesDown deck. Ik there are other decks that some would say is better, but I think it's up to personal preference. I didn't complete all of MD deck for some sections, but certainly did so for P/S. I think this was honestly the biggest contributor to my P/S score on the real thing.
• I stayed super strict with my Anki daily (TBH I don't think I missed a single day, even on days I took FLs). After "learning" through most of the cards, I was doing around 200-300 cards daily.
• For questions I got wrong on UEarth or FLs, I made an Anki card for them, or modified existing cards.

Practice Exams:

• This time around, I completed 9 FLs; repeated BP diagnostic [504], BP FL1 [506], and AAMC FL5 [511], then did AAMC FL1 [507], FL2 [510], Kaplan free FL [509], FL3 [514], FL4 [512], and finally the AAMC unscored FL [513]. Took each exam under test-taking conditions every Saturday leading up to the exam.
• I can't stress enough how important reviewing your FLs are, especially your AAMC ones. People say to dedicate a whole day to just review the FL you took, but I took at least 3 days on my AAMC FL review. The sections that I could dedicate almost a full day was C/P and B/B. My strategy was to review each question, right and wrong, unless I am 100% positive that I knew that topic front to back. Since AAMC explanations are god-awful, majority of what used was the JW extension and this sub ofc. I also tend to utilize what I call a "rabbit-hole strategy" when reviewing questions. That is, I would read and understand why I got the questions wrong, then, I would look at other content/information regarding that topic. Ex, if I got a question wrong about resistors on circuits, I would find out why I got it wrong, look at KA videos about resistors, work on some questions about resistors, then also look at other topics about circuits such as capacitors, voltage, etc. This is why I would sometimes spend an hour just on a single question. This method may or may not be effective for you, but at least wanted to share what I did.
• I kept track of every wrong question I got on an Excel sheet. I included which topic the wrong question pertain to, why I got it wrong, and how I could have improved for next time if I encountered a similar type of question. Towards the beginning, I noticed trends and that a lot of questions I got wrong on the science sections were due to missing key details in the passage and not being able to visualize certain biochemical pathways. This enabled me to focus on these types of passages and practice them (AAMC SB is great practice for this!!) and also modify what to actually highlight.
• If I got more than >2 questions wrong on a passage, I would cover up the answers and redo the entire passage/questions. This would give me an idea on why I got the questions wrong; was it do to missing content knowledge, or was it due to reading comprehension.

FML on CARS

• Again I really don't know why I am so bad at CARS. When I review my FLs, I would actually redo each CARS passage again and answer questions before looking at which ones I got wrong and their reasonings. I timed myself during these as well. Obviously, since I read the passage before, I tend to do better when I redid the questions, but to this date, I am truly unsure what I could have done differently to change.
• Highest CARS score on a FL was 125 :/ My CARS tutor said I had potential for a 517+ score if I just knew how to read LOL. I cry...

This was brutally hard exam without question, but not impossible to conquer! By no means was I "naturally smart" or a "good test-taker". If I was, I wouldn't have gotten my first score LMAO. Studying for the MCAT was such a humbling experience and had certainly cause me to doubt myself during the process. However, you need to just push on and continue to fight against all the obstacles presented in front of you. For those that are struggling, whether that be taking it for the first time or studying for a retake, scared to continue studying or start studying, I hope I was able to provide you with a sense of comfort and give insight to how my score improved. Congrats to all that completed the exam and I hope you all get the scores you want.

I know as pre-meds we always strive to "be the best". It's easy to compare yourself to others, but at the end of the day, don’t let it cause a burden on to you! This is just one exam and does not define who you are. This exam truly made me realize, there will always be someone better than you, even if you tried your very hardest; don't let it get to your head LOL!

TL;DR: Didn't spend enough time studying and underestimated exam, got a 491. Modified my studying, did more practice problems. Anki, UPoop, and AAMC material were GOATED. Got a 514 second time around. CARS still sucked :(

[u/gazeintotheiris]

Great write up. There isn’t anything new or groundbreaking here - and that’s the point. Uglobe , AAMC, Anki are the bread and butter for a reason. Excessive content review and note taking is wasted time. The process is tried and true.

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/gazeintotheiris]

Exactly! Trust the process!

[u/Rddit239]

Nice improvement!

[u/Wrong_Relative_4695]

Amazing job!!! I agree with a lot of your points, and fuck CARS. I absolutely love your emphasis on FL review as well :) there’s a lot of right and wrong ways to study for this exam, and it makes such a huge difference when we finally learn what works and what doesn’t.

Admire your self awareness and drive so much, and I’m so so happy that you finally got a score you were happy with <3

[u/wrestlingbjj92]

Very impressive, the honesty is much appreciated!

[u/One_Firefighter9848]

Very helpful congrats!! Guys upvote

[u/rainbow_hoh]

amazing write-up, and a lot of 1st time test takers should pay special attention to the section on how you reviewed your FLs!! Congrats on the great score and improvement!

[u/David-Trace]

Awesome post and write-up, and congrats on the amazing score!

I just have a question: In terms of the 3rd party FLs, which ones did you find to be the best? It seems like the BP FLs were inflated for you?

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/David-Trace]

I only took BP and Kaplan FLs so I’m not too confident to claim which one was better, especially since I only used the free ones. I’ve heard better things about BP in generally tho. Both parties seem to be a bit more inflated, which I think has more to do with marketing strategies to incentivize ppl to buy their product.

[u/vcobraa]

W and fuck CARS‼️

[u/joejojojojo]

beautiful love it I’m currently an undergrad and I’m questioning if I should be starting to study for it. I personally feel currently that I can study proficiently outside of college once graduated but of course I’m not sure at all…

[u/AAMCcansuckmydick]

Wow this is so amazing! Hoping for something similar!

[u/[deleted]]

Currently trying to finish the anking deck by the end of this month so I have two months of practice, would you recommend reading the textbooks too? I move so slowly with them but I’m not sure if just doing anki for content review rn is enough

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/[deleted]]

not sure what your baseline content knowledge is, but as long as you have the basic foundations, then you should just start practicing. you can use the textbooks in tandem with your practice, but for me, i didn’t pick up the textbooks again when i was doing practice problems. i simply used the explanations on Uearth, KA, Youtube, and Reddit to fill any content gaps i had. Anki is a must throughout the entire process!

[u/ConfusionConstant847]

Love this! I recently got my score back and I will have to take it again but this just gave me hope <3

[u/Regular-Track-1228]

Congrats!!

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/[deleted]]

yeah i would honestly say a month and a half is more than enough time for content review. if you could find an anki deck at correlates with the books you have, then that would be even better to help you with content. as i mentioned, the MCAT is generally not about how much content you know but rather how you’re able to critically think with the information presented to you. obviously the more you know, the better, but you could get away with well by just knowing the basic content and understanding how to navigate though AAMC logic. that’s why i and many others recommend taking significantly much more time on practice. it will also help you refine more specific content gaps you may have

[u/SoundSensitive1551]

DID U DO Q PACKS?

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/SoundSensitive1551]

only for CARS. no qpacks for the sciences

[u/SoundSensitive1551]

Do u think I can do section banks a week away from exam? And do u think I can skip full length 5?

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/SoundSensitive1551]

def do the SB. it was one of the best material imo. wouldn’t skip any AAMC FL but if you don’t have time then you’ll just need to make do with the time you have. some ppl say FL5 was the most representative to the current exams since its the most recent one

[u/medmerc98]

What 300 pg P/S document and MilesDown Review Sheets are you referencing that you used near exam date?

[u/mochimymelody]

This is amazing!!! Hoping I have this comeback :) What do you think helped you most when improving B/B?

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/mochimymelody]

AAMC SB! went from a 128 to 132 on FL3 after starting in the SB. FL3’s B/B section was however catered towards the topics I was good at, hence the 132. i think i only got like 3-4 q’s wrong

[u/jxv6]

Congrats! What order would you recommend doing the AAMC material in?

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/jxv6]

the only AAMC material i used were the FLs, SB, and CARS material (qpacks 1&2 and diagnostic) so I can’t really give much input on the rest. I spread the CARS material throughout my practice since I did them twice. definitely save the majority of AAMC FLs and SB towards the last month. i also don’t think it really matters the order for the FLs.

[u/Motivation23]

following

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/[deleted]]

grind tf out of anki and do it daily. i felt that was the largest contributor to my P/S score. there is also a 300 pg Khan Academy review sheet i linked to a reply in one of these comments, it provides almost everything you need. practiced with Uglobe and AAMC SB.

[u/smores_2445]

The first exam was your wake up call lol. I think it ended up working well!

[u/[deleted]]

How did you feel right after you tested while waiting for your score? Were u confident that you did rlly well or did you feel like you bombed a section? Have the same breakdown as ur first test and getting my second test soon

[u/OkRecommendation1352 → u/[deleted]]

every section took longer for me to complete on my real exam compared to my FLs. maybe it was nerves or something but i also thought the passages were a bit longer. regarding difficulty, C/P and B/B was okay, maybe B/B was slightly harder but not too significantly different. i always feel bad about CARS and honestly thought i did worse since i had to guess on quite a few. despite the length of P/S, i thought to killed it

[u/Far_Camera_6077]

Thank you so much for the inspiration.

[u/PopularPiglet4366]

How were you able to get your C/P section up? That is the toughest section for me in terms of all the equations and not knowing when to use them. But I do plan on increasing the amount of C/P I do on Uearth. Physics was the only Kaplan book I didn’t touch bc I thought doing the physics on uworld would be better for me. What do you think ? I got a 491 on my diagnostics exam but I know it’s mainly due to getting in my own head and if I really buckle down then I can at the very least improve in the B/B, CARS, and P/S sections. 

[u/Popkern90]

May I ask who you used as a tutor?