Well, today I tried the skim the passage technique, and the outcome, not good 
My lowest score in weeks, not too good for the confidence, but at least I learned that what Ive been doing has been working OK, and skimming is not for me. With more practice I can see how it could definitely help, but its not how Ive been working up to this point and its too late to really develop a new technique. 2 weeks to go, and I was definitely feeling better yesterday!
One more week of brushing up, one more practice test, then try to relax a bit before the real deal. Hope you all fared better on your practice today,
Tim
Don’t stress about subject tests, Gabe. They’re actually DAT practice tests, and they’re not at all like the way you’ll see organic presented on the MCAT.
This thread is kind of the oldpremed married men’s MCAT club, except for me. 
The day after the MCAT I am taking my wife to her favorite restaurant in Little Italy for her birthday.
Thanks Q, those tests are incredibly hard.
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Well, today I tried the skim the passage technique, and the outcome, not good
One more week of brushing up, one more practice test, then try to relax a bit before the real deal. Hope you all fared better on your practice today,
Tim
Full length #4 was brutal for me as well. I managed to get past my pacing problems and pretty much finished each section, but I had mega-mistakes, except for verbal. I suspect verbal is going to be the locomotive that pulls me through this, and I am hoping and praying that the MCAT’s organic questions are nowhere near as complicated as Kaplan’s. Yikes! Orgo’s the subject I’ve been taking for granted since I took the course twice.
I’m also hoping and praying that there are no optics questions on April 22–I just began learning this topic and it’s not quite “in the bones” yet. Maybe in 2 weeks, though.
Physical sciences on Kaplan Full Length 4 were hard! I tried your skimming technique and…I finished! That’s good! I didn’t have time to come back to the questions but I finished! But the test was really hard. There were so many topics that just aren’t my thing (electric cells, double slit interference + some other). I still managed to get 9. I know I should aim for at lest 10, but my physical sciences have been steady at 9 for few tests right now, and I’m not sure what to do to pull it up. Let’s look at electrochemistry for example. I do understand the material, but when on the MCAT I get few questions that require calculations of electric potententials there is no way that in 1 minute per question I’ll manage to calculate potentials for 4 different cells and decide which one is the lowest/ highest.
I improved in biology + dropped in verbal.
Anyway - the bottom line is that my physcial sciences stopped at 9, and my verbal and biology oscilate between 9 and 11. That changes everytime, but I never got over 27. yesterday I got even 9s on every section.
I’m trying to figure the best strategy to study for next two weeks. I was thinking about taking 3 more full lengths - broken down into section (not a whole thing at a time) + review all my mistakes and come back to the troublesome material in the review notes. But maybe I’d be better off by doing short subject tests (or maybe they are topical tests?) - I mean the short 20 - 30 minutes long MCAT format passages that we have in our online syllabus.
What do you think guyz?
Kasia
Kasia, dont forget about the Q bank questions, you can design your own practice sets, you pick the subjects you want to focus on.
Its funny,you guys both felt good about #3, which was my worst, and I had less trouble with #4, its such a crap shoot with so much material.
Which is better to do, the Kaplan Full lengths or the AAMC tests?
Everyone seems to be saying that if you want a better idea of how you will fare on the real MCAT, try AAMC 8 and 9. I talked to someone at my Kaplan center yesterday who was taking #9 and he said that there was considerably less calculations to do in the PS, the verbal seemed harder to him too, but then I didnt see him after so I dont know how he actually did. Basically he said that the latest AAMC tests seemed much more challenging than Kaplans stuff.
Do the five required Kaplan full lengths, because you need them to be eligible for HSG. But beyond that, try some of the later AAMC tests. We just got Test 9 in our center last week, so hopefully all of you have access to it now too. Definitely ask the staff at your center.
Formerartist,
I’m not sure I’ll even have time to use the Q-bank. I still didn’t go over all the sample tests kaplan provides…and I’m not sure if I want to take time to create my own tests at this point.
I did AAMC test 3R and 8. I’m saving test 9 for later this week. I also thought that physical sciences were easier, biology was about the same, and verbal was more difficult (especially on 3R)…or not necessary more difficult but different. I guess it’s definitely a good idea to do some AAMC verbal passages becasue they are different than Kaplan’s. I don’t see so much difference in Sciences though.
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Do the five required Kaplan full lengths, because you need them to be eligible for HSG. But beyond that, try some of the later AAMC tests. We just got Test 9 in our center last week, so hopefully all of you have access to it now too. Definitely ask the staff at your center.
Can you get it graded online by Kaplan and receive a realistic scaled score, or does it get graded by aamc?
–Terry
Terry,
I think you can only grade them via AAMC if you actually bought the tests from them. I’m not sure.
Kaplan has the key to the tests so you can grade them yourself and see what the scaled score is. Or actually you can just enter the asnwers online via your sylabus (at additional tests) and Kaplan will generate the report for you.
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Terry,
I think you can only grade them via AAMC if you actually bought the tests from them. I’m not sure.
Kaplan has the key to the tests so you can grade them yourself and see what the scaled score is. Or actually you can just enter the asnwers online via your sylabus (at additional tests) and Kaplan will generate the report for you.
Right. I’m not sure if Kaplan has the explanations yet as well, but they definitely do have the answer key.
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Physical sciences on Kaplan Full Length 4 were hard! I tried your skimming technique and…I finished! That’s good! I didn’t have time to come back to the questions but I finished! But the test was really hard. There were so many topics that just aren’t my thing (electric cells, double slit interference + some other). I still managed to get 9. I know I should aim for at lest 10, but my physical sciences have been steady at 9 for few tests right now, and I’m not sure what to do to pull it up. Let’s look at electrochemistry for example. I do understand the material, but when on the MCAT I get few questions that require calculations of electric potententials there is no way that in 1 minute per question I’ll manage to calculate potentials for 4 different cells and decide which one is the lowest/ highest.
I improved in biology + dropped in verbal.
Anyway - the bottom line is that my physcial sciences stopped at 9, and my verbal and biology oscilate between 9 and 11. That changes everytime, but I never got over 27. yesterday I got even 9s on every section.
I’m trying to figure the best strategy to study for next two weeks. I was thinking about taking 3 more full lengths - broken down into section (not a whole thing at a time) + review all my mistakes and come back to the troublesome material in the review notes. But maybe I’d be better off by doing short subject tests (or maybe they are topical tests?) - I mean the short 20 - 30 minutes long MCAT format passages that we have in our online syllabus.
What do you think guyz?
Kasia
Kasia,
I there was an easy answer as to what to do for the next two weeks, but there’s probably no magic bullet, as I’m sure Q would agree. It’s whatever works for you. I have found that a review of my mistakes (and of some of my correct answers that were really just guesses) has been very useful, and afterwards I go and study the chapter to correct that weakness.
I seemed to have better pacing in FL4, but I also got more wrong answers, and I’m not sure whether it was a harder test or I was simply not devoting enough time to each question. However, my scaled score was the same as FL3’s and if the real test is at least equal to that then I’m happy. I have noticed that Kaplan’s orgo questions are getting harder and harder, whereas 3R, 4R, and 5R seemed to be more elementary. I hope Kaplan is giving us the “worst case scenario” for orgo.
I think it’s important to keep in mind that this is a test of reasoning ability, rather than simple knowledge, so it’s probably not a bad idea to keep practicing the passages.
Good luck!
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I there was an easy answer…
should have been: “I wish there was an easy answer…” The ubb software doesn’t allow edits after a certain time.
I also noticed another pathology at this last practice: chit chatting with friends. Kaplan specifically advises against this, and now I understand. At the breaks, several friends came over for socializing, discussing how the last section went, etc. This even though I had my phones on and was obviously in my own space reviewing flash cards.
Next time I’m going to smile, wave, and withdraw into my personal space and stay focused. I’m not there to socialize, tempting though it is.
I agree on that point, I usually take my breaks outside with headphones on, I try not to talk to anyone until its all over. If I can stay in my head and stay focused and positive, it really helps me to keep my effort steady.
I agree not to socialize too. There is just too much of a temptation for people to start trash-talking and/or comparing their answers, and this is bound to do nothing constructive…well, at least not unless getting yourself totally freaked out is something that you consider “constructive.” When I took the test, I was actually in the room with some of my MCAT students, which was kind of surreal. But I explicitly forbade them all beforehand to say even one word about the exam once we got out of the room for a break, and I think that kept us all a lot saner. 
The number of days remaining dropped to single digits! I just realized that when I posted today and saw my ticker!!!
I guess I’m starting being ready! I guess I’d love to use some more time to order stuff in my head, but at the same time I’m getting so tired that I’d love to be over with the thing!
Let’s go guyz! Only few more days 
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You guys are in the home stretch now…hope everyone has started tapering off; no more full lengths now so you can rest up before test day! How are you guys feeling?
I feel that I have to do 1-2 more full lengths though. I was having a hard time sitting still yesterday and had a massive headache. Probably because I did not have my coffee this morning and just filed my taxes and wound up owing 