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I have my MCAT Study Hall Members fill out an exam review table after reviewing each full length. Take a step back once you understand what happened on EACH question. Keep a ‘big picture’ list as you review the individual questions. Yes, you want to review every single question to understand what you got wrong…įocusing on the individual questions is like holding a microscope over an intricate painting. Step 2- Getting the Most Out Of Your Exam Review By the time test day rolls around, a lot of this will feel routine and familiar (dare I say even comfortable?) putting you ahead of some other testers. “If this was the real thing and I tested today, how do I feel? How will I score?”Īnd while you may not be able to replicate the intensity test day nerves, your goal is to get everything else as close and realistic as possible. (The only exception is if you’ll be taking the official MCAT over 2 days under approved accommodations.
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Take your exam in ONE sitting, in ONE location.The MCAT provides a small laminated style notebook with wet erase markers. This means no calculator on your computer or external, and no ‘word search on screen’ help. This includes water/coffee and gum/mints. Take the exam timed, taking only the appropriately allotted breaks (review: full breakdown of MCAT timing ).Turn off all distractions especially your cell phone, not just for each section, but for the ENTIRE exam duration.Get dressed, eat breakfast, and go about your pre-testing routine (whether that is reading something motivational, writing affirmations, meditation, or yoga/stretching, etc).This means taking it under realistic testing conditions.Īre you starting your practice exams at 8am? Treat every practice exam as if it’s the real thing. Have you built up your endurance to handle the full 7.5 hour exam? How can you accurately see where you stand? How do you feel about the overall exam duration? How do you feel about the timing in each section? Set a target MCAT score and evaluate how close you are to reaching it with each practice exam.ĭo you know what to expect (overall) going in every section? Just the act of taking a full length practice MCAT under realistic testing conditions will give you very important feedback. Step 1: Evaluate where you stand with a Full Length
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Unfortunately, the average MCAT student hits 1.5 out of 3 of these steps.
#Full length mcat practice test how to
You can broaden your knowledge and improve your test-taking habits immensely if you know how to review full-length MCAT practice exams correctly.
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No matter how you did score-wise, it’s important to take full advantage of your post-test review. The students that follow an endless cycle of full length testing without improvement find themselves quickly burning out. Often misguided, and trying to do their best, to go full steam ahead, misuse time and resources. In working with hundreds of premeds every year, this is the step where I see many students breakdown. Instead, it’s an exam that tests your ability to endure, reason through difficult experiments, and make a correct decision under pressure! All those hard sciences, with literally seconds to decide answers.Īnd so, despite all the initial hours invested into content review (can’t skip this), the best way to prepare for this exam is by taking Full Length practice tests. Despite testing you on 3 years worth of undergraduate sciences, the MCAT is not an exam of mere content.
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