So this past Thursday, I took my MCAT.
I feel like my Kaplan class helped a great deal, specially with test anxiety. The practice tests were helpful because the real MCAT seemed so much simpler than the Kaplan practice tests.
My score before Kaplan was 21. The first Kaplan full length practice test was a 25 (PHY 8, VR 9, BIO 8) with both essays scored a 5. I was very excited my score went up four whole points!! But then my second full practice test was also a 25 but the section scores were shuffled (PHY 10, VR 7, BIO 8) with essays scores of a 4 and a 2. I was incredibly surprised by the physical sciences section, considering after I finished that section I felt awful about it!!! The third full length was a joke. It froze and then completely skipped the verbal section and I couldn't go back and redo it! So I did not get an accurate score; with only two sections, it was a 16 (PHY 7, BIO 9). Kaplan reset the practice test so I could retake it and my essays were lost as well. I did not have times in my study schedule to retake it, so I just pretended FL3 never happened. The fourth test was a disaster. My score went down. Yes, it went DOWN to a 22 (PHY 8, VR 7, BIO 7) with a 3 and a 4 on the essays. I was heartbroken. The week before my test day and my score wet down. I was terrified that I was psyching myself out and it was taking a toll on my score. The fifth practice test was nerve-racking. Days before my test day, I was exhausted and sick of studying. Mix in the fear of my score dropping even more and I was a train wreck. It was a 24 (PHY 9, VR 7, BIO 8) with a 5 and a 1 (it was horrible!) on the essays. So my score did improve from FL4, but overall it was not improving and still not where it needs to be. I was aiming for a 30 and my score seemed to creep downward the more I studied. At that point, I was losing hope and considering other possible career paths in the back of my head.
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| This is how I felt the week before my MCAT. |
I was studying one Kaplan lesson a day, starting May 2 and ending a
couple days before my test day. Waking up at 9am each day (even on
weekends), I would start reading the review notes, which usually was at least 4 chapters and take notes on them as well. Then I took the chapter quizzes. After that, I watched each lesson on demand, taking notes of course, and took all the topical tests and subject tests. I was consistently staying up until 1am or later to finish it all, but still getting up at 9am and literally studying constantly all day.
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| This has been my life for the past month. All day, every day. |
I do think my Kaplan class helped SO much. But it was crazy expensive. You get a million resources and all these great books, but I do not think it's worth the boatload we paid for it.
On test day, I felt ready. Partly because I studied so much and partly because my head felt like it might explode if I try to study anymore. I wasn't nervous until I was waiting in a room full of people waiting to be allowed to check in and get started. That was the worst. One guy there said, "It should be illegal to have this many tense people in one room." Interesting. I didn't feel tense or scared. Just a little uneasy about it all would work and afraid I would do something wrong and get in trouble. It felt like jail. Cameras everywhere, metal detectors, and they took my picture and fingerprint scans. Serious business. As if you're not stressed enough already for the test, the security measures alone are enough to scare you and elevate your blood pressure. They gave me a small locker to leave my stuff in. I didn't like the computers we used; the mouse was difficult to click and hard to adjust to. The keyboard keys clicked really loud - so glad I had earplugs!
The physical sciences section seemed somewhat easy..I was surprised. And suspicious so I was questioning myself alot more than usual. I paced myself very well on the verbal section and the passages weren't terribly too long; I even had time to spare at the end. The essays topics were manageable. I was happy that they weren't too abstract/difficult/challenging. The biological sciences section didn't go as smoothly.
I will know my scores at the end of June. I'm scared. I actually felt
pretty good about the test while taking it. But from my experiences with
practice tests, I learned quickly not to trust my gut feeling. We'll see it turns out!
| This is how I felt after my MCAT. Words could not express the relief |
