AAMC IV

so, I took AAMC IV today as a practice exam - I couldn't leave the house and really simulate MCAT conditions as I had to babysit the month-end process for work from home - so I was a little more relaxed and though the test timings were strict, the break times were more lenient due to work intruding. It was my first MCAT-like test - I never got around to taking a pre-review to set a baseline.
all in all, I did pretty well for where I am in studying: I'd be happy with these scores on the real thing, happier if they were just a few pts higher though.
evaluating my misses, quite a few were in areas I have not yet covered in review so that's OK.
anyone else practicing this weekend ?
Lisa

Sounds good Lisa. I took the MCAT last year. I found AAMC IV to be quite indicative of my real score.
Good luck!

I want to maximize the mileage I get from these practice exams - I’ve reviewed the questions I missed against the solutions, as well as the ones I got right but noted with a “g” for “guessed” to see if I guessed for the right reasoning - should I check the explanations for all the ones I got clearly right too - or is that overkill?
Lisa

When you have a test that is complete with the answers…the most productive manner in which to study from it is, at least in my opinion, to not only know why you got what you got right…but to also know why the wrong answers were indeed wrong AND what verbage would be necessary to change within the statement to make it correct. Also, as many MCAT & Board questions are written such that a simplistic change in the question might yeild a different choice being correct, you might wish to think of your questions from that angle as well.
Having a keyed exam can be a gold mine, if you maximize the angles from which you analyze things. Do not simply memorize why the correct choice was correct. By doing only that, you are truly selling yourself short on a valuable asset.

Thanks for posting this Lisa - even though I am actually preparing for August I have tried doing old questions and my biggest indecision was whether to “guess” questions as then if I got them right I tend not to review them…putting a “g” next to them sounds like the perfect solution…so simple I am embarassed it never occured to me - thanks!
Alex

if I've been vascillating between 2 choices I put a diagonal line thru my 2nd choice- then when I'm scoring I can see that it was one-of-the-two and study the question more in depth.