494 Diagnostic --> 517 Real thing in 2.5 months
Here is my obligatory post-MCAT score release post, never thought I'd be posting one but I'm pretty happy with my score jump so here it goes. (Apologies in advance for the super long post)
I bought the Kaplan self-paced course but it was honestly a waste of money. The most useful things were the 7 subject books and the qbank.
\- Kaplan diagnostic taken 10w out without any studying: 494 (122/123/124/125)
I then read and took notes on all the Kaplan books (minus the CARS) cover to cover. I did this while in school and working part-time so this took around 6 weeks to get through, I'd do about three hours a day. I was doing some CARS qbank from Kaplan here and there throughout this period, but I was really just doing pure content review at this point.
\- Around 5 weeks out, I took Kaplan FL 1: 494 (122/127/122/123)
I was happy with my CARS score increase but everything else really stayed the same. This is when I began to freak out and think that I had wasted all my time on content review and should've been cranking out more FLs. In hindsight, while I do think I could have been doing more practice problems throughout my content review, I do still value the content review I did. It was nice to have all my notes handwritten by me in a way that I could understand all in one place (I bought a huge fancy notebook to compile all the notes). While I was disappointed that my score hadn't increased at all, it was nice knowing I had all the notes there at my disposal.
The next week I just read my giant notebook cover to cover a few times. Again, this is where I really valued having handwritten notes organized in a way that I understood.
\- Four weeks out Kaplan FL2: 503 (125/126/126126)
Kinda happy with the score jump, knew that Kaplan is deflated. So I reviewed my FL in detail.
\-Two days later, Kaplan FL3: 499 (124/126/124125)
I took this while sick and really distracted, so I didn't think much about it. Again, reviewed in detail.
\-Two days later, Kaplan FL4: 505 (125/125/128/127)
I was starting to freak out a little because I was a little over three weeks out and my score was still sub 510 (my goal was 515+) and I hadn't even touched the AAMC material yet. So around 3.5 weeks out, I abandoned everything else and jumped into the AAMC bundle.
\-SB: CP (72%), BB (64%), PS (64%)
\-AAMC Sample: CP (40/59), CARS (50/53), BB (41/59), PS (47/59)
I didn't really know what these scores meant, but I knew they weren't that great so again I was freaking out a little. About two weeks out at this point.
\-AAMC FL1: 512 (127/128/128/129)
\-AAMC FL2: 512 (130/128/127/127)
\-AAMC FL3 (four days out): 516 (129/127/128/132)
After each FL, I would review in detail every question, not just the ones I got wrong. I sprinkled in the qpacks here and there which I didn't think were that helpful (except the CARS and physics because I sucked at physics)
\-Real thing (1/24/19) - 517 (130/128/128/131)
I walked out of the test feeling pretty average. The testing adrenaline hit and I was more glad to be done than anything, I could barely remember what was on there. We got hit hard with some conceptual physics and electromagnetism which I literally don't understand at all so I was nervous about my C/P. Majority of people complained about our CARS section but I didn't think it was awful, but I had never broken 128 on CARS before. Not sure how BB became my weakest area (I'm a bio major) but possibly because my C/P was so weak I really spent a lot of time on this.
I know it's a little hypocritical for me to say this as I'm offering my advice, but really take everything out there with a grain of salt. While reddit is great and so helpful, it can also make you feel like shit. I had super high scorers and friends telling me during my content review that content review was BS and to just jump straight to FLs. However, I know how I study best which is to have a solid foundation and good notes before starting practice problems, so I stuck with it. My one piece of cliche advice is that everyone learns differently and don't let peer pressure deter you from what's always worked for you.
Anyways, this test really took a toll on my mental health and I'm so glad to be done. Happy to be on the other side and help answer questions/give advice/offer support. Let me know if you have any questions :)
