How much did your MCAT score improve from your first practice test to your real exam? How much did you study?

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
D

deleted937918

I just took my first official AAMC practice MCAT. I scored a 493, which places me at the 25th percentile. That sounds super discouraging and everything to me, but I haven't taken orgo 1 or 2 or biochemistry. I'm also in physics 2 right now. I also did the exam in half the time that was alloted, so I know that my score will be higher. I was mainly just trying to get a feel for the style of questions to help me see how I need to study.

I know that I can't really use my 493 to predict a future score, but I am curious to see what your first practice score was like and what you ended up with on the real exam. I just want to know how much studying I will need to put in to get a competitive score.
Members don't see this ad.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Your question about “how much studying you’ll need to do” can’t be answered because that 493 isn’t realistic. You can’t take that score seriously (or try and speculate what your “real score” would have been).

I understand that you’re eager to know how you’re doing, but it’s an awful idea to waste the AAMC FLs by taking them in ‘half the allotted time’ and before you’ve finished the prerequisites (especially biochemistry - which is probably the single most important subject).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0 Downvote
daleAZ said:
I just took my first official AAMC practice MCAT. I scored a 493, which places me at the 25th percentile. That sounds super discouraging and everything to me, but I haven't taken orgo 1 or 2 or biochemistry. I'm also in physics 2 right now. I also did the exam in half the time that was alloted, so I know that my score will be higher. I was mainly just trying to get a feel for the style of questions to help me see how I need to study.

I know that I can't really use my 493 to predict a future score, but I am curious to see what your first practice score was like and what you ended up with on the real exam.
Click to expand...

This answer really depends on when you take your first practice test. I took a half-length diagnostic before any mcat study and scored decent, but this score jumped ~15 points by the time I sat for the exam. My first full length was after finishing content review and was only 3 or 4 points under my final MCAT score. You tend to get diminishing returns the higher your score gets, as content gaps are the easiest thing to address.

Can you give more info on your situation? Have you studied at all? Are you going to be taking your missing prereqs before studying for the MCAT or self-teaching everything? If you haven't even touched orgo, biochem, or physics then you're basically missing half the exam material and a 493 is kind of expected regardless of the fact that you did it in half the time (which was not at all helpful for you BTW).

daleAZ said:
I just want to know how much studying I will need to put in to get a competitive score.
Click to expand...
The short answer is a lot, but as Kardio stated, you didn't give yourself a very good diagnostic.

Sent from my LG-H918 using SDN mobile
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
i think the highest i ever got on a practice full length was 504, and on the real thing a couple days later i got 512
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
Biochemistry is the most important topic on the MCAT. If you haven't taken it, then there's no way you'll be able to answer a good chunk of the questions in B/B and C/P. Don't worry too much about this 493. You'll see very quick improvement once you learn more of the MCAT content.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0 Downvote
After about 3 months of studying I got a 512 on the first AAMC full length (highest) then got a 517 on the real deal only about a month later :shrug:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi guys! Just took the first free sample FL from AAMC and scored a 517. My goal range is in the 520s and I test in exactly a month. Do you guys think a score increase is possible? I plan on reviewing the entire FL and completing all the other FLs as well. Also going to redo all wrong UWorld questions and redo wrong AAMC questions leading up to my test date
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
med400 said:
Hi guys! Just took the first free sample FL from AAMC and scored a 517. My goal range is in the 520s and I test in exactly a month. Do you guys think a score increase is possible? I plan on reviewing the entire FL and completing all the other FLs as well. Also going to redo all wrong UWorld questions and redo wrong AAMC questions leading up to my test date
Click to expand...
It's possible; I was scoring FLs around your range and hit 522 on the actual.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

M
How to improve my MCAT score :'(
Replies
9
Views
3K
redpanda15
redpanda15
P
How much time for each?
Replies
1
Views
5K
GoldMold
GoldMold
D
Lower score on actual MCAT than first FL diagnostic?
Replies
2
Views
704
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight
D
  • Question
How much did your score improve from your first full-length practice test to your actual exam?
Replies
2
Views
832
Cornfed101
Cornfed101
A
How can I improve my performance on UWorld?
Replies
5
Views
1K
ClashRoyaleKing
ClashRoyaleKing
Top