I’m using their study schedule and just took my first practice exam (real MCAT 6R)a day early (because I’m booked tomorrow). It’s a relief to have it out of the way. There’s a lot of science I’m fuzzy on, but I still managed an acceptable score. So tomorrow I’ll write the main ideas of the verbal passages and go over the answers to ask why I missed what I missed.
Let the madness begin!
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I’m using their study schedule and just took my first practice exam (real MCAT 6R)a day early (because I’m booked tomorrow). It’s a relief to have it out of the way. There’s a lot of science I’m fuzzy on, but I still managed an acceptable score. So tomorrow I’ll write the main ideas of the verbal passages and go over the answers to ask why I missed what I missed.
Let the madness begin!
Good job, Denise. Are you taking the April MCAT?
By the way, how does the scoring work? I had understood that the actual exam grades are adjusted according to the national results, so that it’s impossible to accurately predict one’s score.
Hey Denise,
I have also been using their home schedule for about 3-4 weeks now. Unfortunately, last week was a little tough on study time, so I really was set back, but I took 3R and got 7 and 8s which was OK with me because there was a lot of stuff I haven’t got to studying yet at all.
A couple thing I have noticed about EK:
1. They seems to really concentrate on the concepts, and simplify complex ones when necessary. I like that because when I studyed for it last year (and never took it), I feel absoloutely overwhelmed sometimes. EK does a good job of making sure you understand concepts and simplifies things as much as possible.
2. Their verbal method is taking some time to gel with me. I was able to get 9 and 10s last time practicing with the Kaplan method, but with this one I am consistently getting 7 and 8s.
3. One thing I noticed about myself is that if an answer is 50/50, I tend to pick the wrong one. It’s almost as if I should pick the answer I think it’s not 
.
4. Mini-MCATs I could do without, definitely not up to par with the rest of their material.
Anyway, guess I had some pent up thought on EK and MCAT studying, thanks for letting me vent!!
I’m not sure how the scoring works. I ordered the online MCAT access from AMCAS and you enter your answers and get a score back. I don’t know if they normalize to the scores when these old exams were originally administered or what. It’s probably not a perfect indicator, but it’s a good ballpark.
Yes, I’m taking the April MCAT.
On the verbal, I did find that most of the questions I missed were, in fact, ones where I lost sight of the main idea and got caught up in minutiae. Main idea, main idea, main idea. I’ll get there. But I had a 12 verbal so it’s not my weakest area.
Where ARE the mini-MCATs? Are they in the books somewhere? I haven’t dug for them yet; I don’t do the first one until Saturday. I noticed in the introduction that they said the in-class exams (or maybe it was the mini-MCATS) are not meant to be like the real MCATs. They’re supposed to be more like the hardest questions on the MCATs, to really nail down the sciences. They said they thought we could handle the easy questions on our own.
I like a prep book with a sense of humor, I really do.
I’m using Examkrackers to prepare for the April MCAT too. Do you know if all the practice questions are the hard questions, or is it just the practice tests in the back? I’m struggling with the Physical Sciences part right now. I keep scoring around 6-7 (on the AAMC tests, 3R and 4R), which kind of worries me. Anyone have any experience with practice test scores versus actual test scores? I’m trying not to psych myself out yet. 
I also got the MCAT Audio Osmosis. I like it, some of the humor is goofy, but hearing the concepts over and over seems to help me. Has anyone had problems with finishing the practice tests with too much time left over? I don’t know if I’m rushing or what, but I’m finishing the sections with 15-30 minutes left over. I still haven’t determined whether my going back to work on questions I guessed on is helping or hurting my score (I have a tendency to change from the right answer to the wrong answer). Good luck studying, everyone!
Gina
I don’t know which ones are the hard ones. What if you go to the EK Website and ask on the forums? Jordan has an “MCAT COACH” forum or something like that. He’s very helpful.
I’m learning that when you are picking the wrong answer out of 2, you may be falling for an “mcat trap”. these will have attractors in them–right term used in slightly wrong way, something familiar but not quite right. For me, a lot of these fall into the area of topics I’m familiar with–I tend to score worse on topics I like–because I’m misusing outside info.
My current mantra is: “if it intuitively right, but I can’t back it up with the passage–it’s probably wrong”
When I took last year, my testing on AMCAS exams (as opposed to test prep exams) was about right. I did score slightly better on the real mcat–but not on my weakest subject area. All others went up slightly, but as a former professor told me, you have to believe the AMCAS practice tests. AMCAS practice test 6 seems for me to be the hardest & the one that is the best indicator of real MCAT performance.
I think test-day adrenaline will help the tester in his/her strong areas, but could be neutral in weak areas.
I know people are already onto this, but it sure helped me a lot last year when OPMers repeated it for me: take those AAMC practice tests! Take as many as they are currently selling. They mean a lot more than any test prep practice exam. A trick that really worked for me was to do all the Kaplan practice tests and training items in their library first, then move on to the AAMC tests, and finally, to retake the AAMC tests. I know retaking a timed test sounds stupid, but I can’t tell you how much this helped me. (This was after I’d exhausted most of the other resources first.) The thing about seeing the same questions multiple times is that it reinforces the basic fact that the MCAT recycles from a medium-sized pool of scientific concepts, as opposed to from an ocean of such ideas that can never be sorted out. Also, being able to do the SAME stoichiometry or genetics problems faster (by doing them twice) somehow helped me speed up when I came across new problems on the real test.
The fact that it is only February and you guys are doing so many practice exams is good news! Good luck as you continue with your prep regimes!
I just discovered on Sunday that when I tediously and laboriously typed my study schedule into my personal calendar I SPLICED A WHOLE WEEK OUT! I’m about halfway caught up now.
(Dives back in!)
POOH! POOH! POOH! 