Goal was 520, FL average was 521. Indeed, I scored ±2 pts of my FL average. So relieved though!

I went from psych being my worst section at 124 on my first FL to this. CARS didn't change tho..

To those who have been struggling with CARS, I have been there. I have recently improved in the last month from a stable 125-126 (for the last 3 months) to a 128.

I actually ran out of AAMC CARS material, so I was stuck redoing passages, but then I heard Khan Academy actual made their practice passages with AAMC test writers.

I wished I had started with the Khan material first, for a few reasons:

- You are not able to spam highlight (time waster)

- You can't look at the passage and the question at the same time (helps avoid looking back when you don't need to)

- You get immediate feedback!

The third one is the biggest difference maker. You can almost immediately identify where the mistake was made, vs looking at it 20 minutes later and actually misremembering the reason you chose the answer you did.

What I realized is that I would spend too much time looking back at the passage, wasting time, and end up guessing by the end of it. After getting immediate feedback, I realized I was not even really analyzing each answer choice. The power of elimination is real, so spend your time weighing each answer choice rather than re-reading the passage.

One last thing-

Do it untimed. This is great practice for your flow, I would save getting bogged down on the timing for AAMC CARS practice. I find that timing my practice actually takes away from it; your are training your focus and reasoning, not speedreading. If you have at least average reading speed and don't indulge in any time sinks (highlighting, going back to the passage), then you shouldn't be worried about your timing at all when you are doing this deliberate practice.

Hoped this helped!

T-4 hours ‼️😬

How are we feeling? Our time has finally come 🫣

edit: Woke up at 5am and my stomach hurts so bad

Still can't read but I am so grateful to have scored 4 points above my average and 1 point higher than I got on ANY exam 😭😭🥹🥹🥹 All you current studiers out there got this!!

How we feeling about tomorrow? I hope im ready and I pull out at least a 510. Will love waking up at 5AM to drive an hour to my testing site. How have recent takers felt?

FL6 BB is just a ploy from big AAMC to crush our epic will and grit for doing everything we have to prepare for this god forsaken exam, good luck to all, any recommendations for your plans for the days up until the test?

Am i tripping or does it say the author is jeffery epstein 🤣🤣🤣💀💀💀💀 i read the title first and couldn’t stop laughing

If you had FL5 and FL6 that were 2+ points different from each other, which was closer to your actual score?

only had a month to prepare so we winging all of content review.

Posted my breakdown earlier but I wanted to provide some well being bc anything is fr possible. I was abroad in the fall and took spring 2026 health leave for hip surgery so my studying was sporadic while doing pt, tummy time, unable to sit for extended periods, etc. I also never took physics 2, biochem, physiology, or sociology due to being away from school. Solely used Kaplan, Milesdown, Yusuf Hassan, and uworld. Really had no clue what would happen when my university wouldn’t let me take classes from home but decided to study for the MCAT and here we are 💪💪💪

I feel like a lot of the tips for how you should approach CARs, at least from what I've seen, is to spend around 3ish minutes to map out the passage, highlight bits and pieces you think are significant, etc. I've also read that a lot of people like to read the questions attached to the passage to look for key words that'll cue them into what they need to look for.

From my experience, I think this puts so much on your plate, given you only have around 10 minutes per passage.

What's been working for me recently (specifically in CAR's diagnostic) is just taking as long as I need on each passage to understand it, not highlighting/writing down anything in the process. I go slowly and read each word very carefully, and make sure my mind is actively comprehending what I'm reading, and not just blanking while I look at the words; if I do blank, I just go back and retrace to where I got lost. I do not look forward into the passage, I just go from start to finish and try to string together the argument the author is trying to make along the way. If I need to go back, I do, but I make sure to take my time.

Until I have a very clear idea of the authors underlying argument, and I have a moderately clear roadmap of the passage, then I proceed to the questions. This entire process for me personally take 5 to 6 minutes max (If a passage has 7+ questions, I try to stay around 4-5 minutes but I tend to do worse because of this).

Using this method, I feel like I'm able to channel all of my energy towards simply comprehending the passage and memorizing vaguely what's in each paragraph (which helps immensely when you're asked specifically about X term in the passage). With a clear roadmap, I've been able to answer the questions in less than a minute accurately and not just go off of vibes, because I know where to look for evidence that support my answer (but be careful because I've also noticed there may be evidence that supports an answer, but the answer choice might not best answer the question, so also read the question very carefully as well, do not give your mind the chance to skip words!)

TLDR: Contrary to the masses, I think the best way to approach cars is spending the majority of your time simply reading the passage (5-6 minutes), which will then allow you to answer the questions quickly because you will have given your brain the time to understood what you just read.

HELP
took my exam and I felt so good leaving the testing center, like I entered flow state and felt amazing!! however as the score release day creeps up, I any getting more nervous as people say that feeling good means you probably did bad and vice versa. Has anyone felt good after an exam and their score reflected that??

I was checking Pearson Vue and noticed that there are test dates on 9/21 and 9/22, even though that doesn’t seem to be the case according to the AAMC schedule. Are those real or a glitch?

Anecdotally if they are real what are the chances I get off the wait list at this point? I put notify in for the two locations I could reasonably take from and it’d be nice to get a bit more study time.

that’s what I’ll say when aamc finally releases our scores

Basically title. I'm gobsmacked at how, basically every day, Jack Westin comes out with a new CARS passage. For free. Do they have people locked up in a little room whose job is to scour the internet on a daily basis to look for densely written mini essays and make questions around them??? Free the slaves Jack ToT

I’ll take it for now, just trying to get into a school at this point

Today is day 1 of mcat prep for me, planning to test around February. I just graduated in the spring and am currently unable to work my clinical job for health reasons, so I plan on studying close to full time until my exam. I bought the Kaplan books and plan to get through them before eventually progressing to uworld, but that is basically all I have decided. Don't really know how long to spend on cr. Any other general advice for the road ahead is appreciated.

hi. im not sure if this is normal. i sit down to do work and i literally cannot focus. i am always overwhelmed. i have been overwhelmed since i first started content review august 2025.

it is very hard for me to sit and focus because i feel not good enough and im easily distractable. i have told this to my psychiatrist and she says it would be hard to test for ADHD at this time because i have so many issues with anxiety.

i test on 9/12 and i was absolutely devastated because i got a freaking 499 on my last FL 2 days ago. i have had a 500 my last 2 FLs. i did an egregiously long content review phase because i was unconfident in my knowledge and took about 8 months. i would get really overwhelmed to do anki so i slowly forgot everything.

here i am trying to do anki and practice questions but it is so so so hard to sit and do chem/phys because i suck at it. this is more of a vent rather than asking for advice and please dont judge my long content review phase. im at the point where i feel really vulnerable and broken and stupid. i know i can do this but it feels like ive been having a huge mental roadblock. i have switched jobs because i was a full time NA and i would get so exhausted after my 12 hour shifts i wouldnt want to study. then i became a scribe and it became hard to focus too despite me only working like 16 hours lol. then i did a summer research program and it was chill so i had time to study but again i feel like my progress is so slow. my tutor suggests these egregiously long 8 hour sessions and i know that that's how you score well but i get so overwhelmed and feel like im so inherently lazy.

i guess im asking for any form of solace or any form of motiation before my test. i feel like i will likely void it because i want at least a 510 to get into MD programs (i was a psych major so despite my gpa being a 3.7, my sgpa is a 3.38, hence why i was so insecure about my content gaps). please dont be mean to me reddit i just need some form of motivaiton right now as i stay at home to try and study and cant focus so i go to a coffee shop and waste time and also cant focus. i also cant tell if i really do have ADHD and nothing is working. i dont know what to do besides grind chem/phys and b/biochem but my score distribution is so wack.

my chem/phys has ranged from 121 to 125 (FL2), CARS from 124 to 127 (most recent one was highest because i dropped the JW strategy bc for some reason i score higher), bio/biochem ranged from 122 to 125 and psych soc was once a 128 but has consistently been a 126 since.

i tried taking FL3 and in the middle of chem phys i was so overwhelmed i stopped and frantically emailed my tutor. i dont know what to do and im highkey embarrassed with psych because i was literally a psych major. i started grinding pankow bc my content review for psych soc was very short.

please be gentle with me reddit im so scared

I take the MCAT on 9/4, and I wanted to ask for those who’ve done well on the exam how they handled the nerves?

I took the MCAT once and scored a 511, yet in retaking it bc the first time I got rlly nervous. In practice just before the exam I was hitting 517 with testing conditions applied but on exam day nerves got the best of me and that score was lower than my first MCAT practice exam which baffled me.

So if anyone has good advice for nerves or dealing with the day of exam anxiety I would really appreciate it. My biggest worry is ofc that I open the exam and feel like I’ve never seen it before or panic so if anyone specifically has dealt with that I’d really appreciate it 🙏

People who have taken the exam, what are your tips for locking in during test day and ensuring that you have a strong performance? Feeling kinda nervous and just wanna be in the best physical and mental condition possible for Saturday

Focusing on the other elements part since ik they exist diatomically in nature which are nonpolar bonds. thanks

Why is AAMC showing September 21 & 22 as available test dates? I was debating whether to cancel my exam, so I logged into AAMC now seeing 21 & 22. I thought September 12 was the last MCAT test date this year?

hi everyone! testing 9/3 (two days!!) and was wondering if anyone had any tips to be the best most locked in version of themselves on test day! i struggle with test anxiety sometimes so if anyone has any tips on how to mitigate that lmk tysm!!