GGAAAAAH!@LKJ!@
Test is tomorrow. I should sleep early but I'm feeling sort of wired. Also, I don't usually go to bed until midnight so 10:45 is no where near my "I'm tired" region.
I think I'm about as ready as I can be at this point. If I had like 5 more practice tests to take I might be able to improve my error rate. Perhaps. But maybe not? My biggest problem at this point is my propensity for idiotic mistakes. Like marking the question wrong. WTF?! It's like my fingers are plotting against me. "Oh you want to mark D? Lemme just go ahead and select C then."
Mother fucker.
This only happened on two problems (one per section) but on the MCAT one problem could be the difference between a 12 and a 13. Or even a 14. Heaven forbid.
I think my brain is just tired. A good night's rest and a fresh clear head will help get me through this. My reading comp was my strongest section but I've hit a bit of a rut. I keep making reasoning errors or second guessing myself. I'm telling myself to focus so much I'm seeing answers where there aren't any and errors where I haven't made them.
Tomorrow I'm going to do some writing prompts because I've been skipping them on my practice tests. The writing is sort of my break period. The last ones I wrote were pretty much in line with the essays on the answer sheet so I think I'll be ok. Plus they mainly just want to see you can start an idea and finish it to a coherent and intelligent degree. It doesn't need to be Shakespeare. I do worry I might get TOO flowery with my prose though. I've noticed that when I'm in a hurry my style gets convoluted and my sentences super wordy. They like simplicity on the MCAT.
Mostly I'm just panicked that I'm going to choke or that the actual test will be super hard. All the practice tests I've been taking have been from the AAMC website so they should be pretty much what is on the actual test. Just different questions. Except in between that I've been taking practice stuff from Kaplan and they've been kicking my fucking ass. If the test is like THOSE ones then I'm fucked. There is the option to cancel your score before you even submit it though. If I feel THAT terrible about it I can just do that and then take it again.
I don't know if I'd do that though. If I don't do well this time there might be no point. Taking the MCAT too many times looks really bad on your application.
Good news though is that my timing is excellent now. I regularly have 7-10 minutes to spare for going back and checking problems. The PROBLEM is that I'm still not picking up on my mistakes. Which is - you know - what's the point of finishing early when I can't utilize it to increase my score? I think tomorrow I'm going to go over my old exams and try and see a pattern in my mistakes, formulate a better strategy to double-checking. As far as I can tell, my ability to predict which questions I get wrong (we can mark questions we're unsure about) is sort of 50/50.
That's also partly due to the fact that a lot of the stuff I get wrong is due to me blanking on some pretty obvious pieces of information.
Obviously not THAT obvious.
I just feel like I CAN get most of them right. I just keep missing SOMETHING.
Grrr.
I'm going to be so glad when this is over and I can have my life back again. Or at least a life where I can do OTHER things.
Next after this is Primary apps and looking into the GRE.
Also, I think I'll watch Downton Abbey with my mom and sister. It's the sort of thing she watches anyway, except in Korean and Chinese.
Oh. And there's a little thing called Blackout that I have been putting off. Sadly for you Casey, I might put it off until next weekend. Linda gave me all sorts of sad faces when I suggested reading it before her and I can't, on good conscience, allow her to go anywhere near that book while finals are afoot. So we'll probably read it together or something.
My other goals on the education of my teenage sister include getting through all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess.
I think I'm about as ready as I can be at this point. If I had like 5 more practice tests to take I might be able to improve my error rate. Perhaps. But maybe not? My biggest problem at this point is my propensity for idiotic mistakes. Like marking the question wrong. WTF?! It's like my fingers are plotting against me. "Oh you want to mark D? Lemme just go ahead and select C then."
Mother fucker.
This only happened on two problems (one per section) but on the MCAT one problem could be the difference between a 12 and a 13. Or even a 14. Heaven forbid.
I think my brain is just tired. A good night's rest and a fresh clear head will help get me through this. My reading comp was my strongest section but I've hit a bit of a rut. I keep making reasoning errors or second guessing myself. I'm telling myself to focus so much I'm seeing answers where there aren't any and errors where I haven't made them.
Tomorrow I'm going to do some writing prompts because I've been skipping them on my practice tests. The writing is sort of my break period. The last ones I wrote were pretty much in line with the essays on the answer sheet so I think I'll be ok. Plus they mainly just want to see you can start an idea and finish it to a coherent and intelligent degree. It doesn't need to be Shakespeare. I do worry I might get TOO flowery with my prose though. I've noticed that when I'm in a hurry my style gets convoluted and my sentences super wordy. They like simplicity on the MCAT.
Mostly I'm just panicked that I'm going to choke or that the actual test will be super hard. All the practice tests I've been taking have been from the AAMC website so they should be pretty much what is on the actual test. Just different questions. Except in between that I've been taking practice stuff from Kaplan and they've been kicking my fucking ass. If the test is like THOSE ones then I'm fucked. There is the option to cancel your score before you even submit it though. If I feel THAT terrible about it I can just do that and then take it again.
I don't know if I'd do that though. If I don't do well this time there might be no point. Taking the MCAT too many times looks really bad on your application.
Good news though is that my timing is excellent now. I regularly have 7-10 minutes to spare for going back and checking problems. The PROBLEM is that I'm still not picking up on my mistakes. Which is - you know - what's the point of finishing early when I can't utilize it to increase my score? I think tomorrow I'm going to go over my old exams and try and see a pattern in my mistakes, formulate a better strategy to double-checking. As far as I can tell, my ability to predict which questions I get wrong (we can mark questions we're unsure about) is sort of 50/50.
That's also partly due to the fact that a lot of the stuff I get wrong is due to me blanking on some pretty obvious pieces of information.
Obviously not THAT obvious.
I just feel like I CAN get most of them right. I just keep missing SOMETHING.
Grrr.
I'm going to be so glad when this is over and I can have my life back again. Or at least a life where I can do OTHER things.
Next after this is Primary apps and looking into the GRE.
Also, I think I'll watch Downton Abbey with my mom and sister. It's the sort of thing she watches anyway, except in Korean and Chinese.
Oh. And there's a little thing called Blackout that I have been putting off. Sadly for you Casey, I might put it off until next weekend. Linda gave me all sorts of sad faces when I suggested reading it before her and I can't, on good conscience, allow her to go anywhere near that book while finals are afoot. So we'll probably read it together or something.
My other goals on the education of my teenage sister include getting through all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess.