adventures in MCATing (aka the world's most boring blog entry)
Some thoughts so far as my MCAT looms ever closer. Like an asteroid about to hit the earth. In this situation I am hoping to be Liv Tyler safely on Earth and not Bruce Willis being blown up. Also, if you haven't seen the movie... SURPRISE! Anyway, the point of this exercise is to condense into one entry the things I need to work on for next Thursday.
- So reading comprehension is coming along. I only got 3 wrong out of 40 questions this time which still only amounted to a 13/15 score. I bet getting only one wrong would still be a 14. You probably have to get a perfect score to get a 15. If this were a regular test that would make sense but generally on a standardized test one question wrong in the entire section warrants a full score. You'd think. Anyway, I'm sort of relying on my reading comprehension to pad my overall score because the other two sections do rely on skills other than, "I can read words."
- There is a method to the reading comp section but at this point I'm either getting them wrong or not. Normally after I take a practice test I go over all the questions and assess what I got wrong and why I got things right. For reading it's sort of one of those, "Well. Yeah. Because that's the answer" type things. If I get something wrong its either because I read wrong or remembered the passage wrong. Unfortunately with time constraints its impossible to linger too long on any one question or else you run the risk of running out of time at the end. So basically I just need to read better. Which is kind of "duh."
- Some passages are definitely more difficult than others, especially the ones written in purposely obtuse and convoluted language. It's like the MCAT goes out of its way to select the most confusing syntactically complicated essays in existence.
- The physical sciences section is my problem area. My level of accuracy is quite high when I have as much time as I need to do the questions but now that I'm practicing with the timer I'm getting decimated. I go into a bit of a panic mode near the latter half when I feel like I'm running out of time which results in careless mistakes and sloppy reading. I am also still taking too long on difficult questions. I need to remind myself to just move on and come back to it later.
- Another issue with the Physical Science section which I do not have with the Biological Science section is the math. Writing down numbers and calculating them takes time. Biology is almost like the reading comp section in that I just need to read the passage and then answer the questions. I think once I get used to the timer my math agility should go up. It's mostly training my brain to do things faster after it got used to lolly gagging.
- Writing is coming along as well. The first time I went a round with the timer I didn't finish one of the essays in time. Right now I'm running the risk of either sounding too verbose or too simplistic. A medium needs to be struck. The best essays are the ones that have deep overarching themes except that's hard to come by when you only have 30 minutes with a prompt. I also find that I'll have great ideas but not enough facts to back them up. I spend too long trying to remember those facts and then I run out of time to write. My prep book recommends having some stock examples and responses ready. I'll probably do that this weekend because doing it too early and I'll forget.
- I have the timing for my biological sciences down now but it's come at the expense of accuracy. But now that I have the "finish on time" part down I can focus on getting my attention and focus back up. A lot of the stuff I'm getting wrong is stuff I blanked on because I was panicking about time. Also some of those more jargony passages get super confusing when you've been taking one test for 3.5 hours.
- Which is another issue. By the time I get to the Biological Sciences section I'm fatigued and ready to finish. But taking full length tests in one sitting should remedy that.
The test is next Thursday and right now the plan is to take 4 more practice tests in the mean time. One is from Princeton Review and the other three are from the AAMC website. I've been trying to figure out how I can squeeze working out in there while still being able to take the tests in one sitting but I might just have to sacrifice fitness these two weeks and make up for it after. I don't want to be tired before I even start the test.
Exercising with me is sort of 50/50. I either get a huge energy boast from it or I just want to veg out and not think forever. Saturday they're doing a "hero WOD" at the gym. It's a "Workout of the Day" Designed to commemorate fallen veterans. The one we're doing is Murph and it sounds monstrous. I want to do it but it would probably take me an hour (at least) to complete. Add to that the time it takes to get to and from the gym, showering, and eating, and half the day is gone. So yeah. I should probably just not.
I might just do some shorter workouts to keep my heart rate up. Once this is over I can start on my training schedule to prepare for the Spartan Race. Mostly it involves working out at least once a day, 7 days a week. Because you know. There's no point in doing anything unless you go hard.
- So reading comprehension is coming along. I only got 3 wrong out of 40 questions this time which still only amounted to a 13/15 score. I bet getting only one wrong would still be a 14. You probably have to get a perfect score to get a 15. If this were a regular test that would make sense but generally on a standardized test one question wrong in the entire section warrants a full score. You'd think. Anyway, I'm sort of relying on my reading comprehension to pad my overall score because the other two sections do rely on skills other than, "I can read words."
- There is a method to the reading comp section but at this point I'm either getting them wrong or not. Normally after I take a practice test I go over all the questions and assess what I got wrong and why I got things right. For reading it's sort of one of those, "Well. Yeah. Because that's the answer" type things. If I get something wrong its either because I read wrong or remembered the passage wrong. Unfortunately with time constraints its impossible to linger too long on any one question or else you run the risk of running out of time at the end. So basically I just need to read better. Which is kind of "duh."
- Some passages are definitely more difficult than others, especially the ones written in purposely obtuse and convoluted language. It's like the MCAT goes out of its way to select the most confusing syntactically complicated essays in existence.
- The physical sciences section is my problem area. My level of accuracy is quite high when I have as much time as I need to do the questions but now that I'm practicing with the timer I'm getting decimated. I go into a bit of a panic mode near the latter half when I feel like I'm running out of time which results in careless mistakes and sloppy reading. I am also still taking too long on difficult questions. I need to remind myself to just move on and come back to it later.
- Another issue with the Physical Science section which I do not have with the Biological Science section is the math. Writing down numbers and calculating them takes time. Biology is almost like the reading comp section in that I just need to read the passage and then answer the questions. I think once I get used to the timer my math agility should go up. It's mostly training my brain to do things faster after it got used to lolly gagging.
- Writing is coming along as well. The first time I went a round with the timer I didn't finish one of the essays in time. Right now I'm running the risk of either sounding too verbose or too simplistic. A medium needs to be struck. The best essays are the ones that have deep overarching themes except that's hard to come by when you only have 30 minutes with a prompt. I also find that I'll have great ideas but not enough facts to back them up. I spend too long trying to remember those facts and then I run out of time to write. My prep book recommends having some stock examples and responses ready. I'll probably do that this weekend because doing it too early and I'll forget.
- I have the timing for my biological sciences down now but it's come at the expense of accuracy. But now that I have the "finish on time" part down I can focus on getting my attention and focus back up. A lot of the stuff I'm getting wrong is stuff I blanked on because I was panicking about time. Also some of those more jargony passages get super confusing when you've been taking one test for 3.5 hours.
- Which is another issue. By the time I get to the Biological Sciences section I'm fatigued and ready to finish. But taking full length tests in one sitting should remedy that.
The test is next Thursday and right now the plan is to take 4 more practice tests in the mean time. One is from Princeton Review and the other three are from the AAMC website. I've been trying to figure out how I can squeeze working out in there while still being able to take the tests in one sitting but I might just have to sacrifice fitness these two weeks and make up for it after. I don't want to be tired before I even start the test.
Exercising with me is sort of 50/50. I either get a huge energy boast from it or I just want to veg out and not think forever. Saturday they're doing a "hero WOD" at the gym. It's a "Workout of the Day" Designed to commemorate fallen veterans. The one we're doing is Murph and it sounds monstrous. I want to do it but it would probably take me an hour (at least) to complete. Add to that the time it takes to get to and from the gym, showering, and eating, and half the day is gone. So yeah. I should probably just not.
I might just do some shorter workouts to keep my heart rate up. Once this is over I can start on my training schedule to prepare for the Spartan Race. Mostly it involves working out at least once a day, 7 days a week. Because you know. There's no point in doing anything unless you go hard.