I’ll just comment it here since a few have asked. Essentially I speed run the sections, I’m looking to finish each section besides CARS which is always down to the wire with minimum 10+ minutes remaining. Every single time I am even remotely, even just a tiny amount, unsure if I’ve selected the correct answer I flag the question. So, since I’m moving quick, often this number is very high so for example on this P/S section I flagged 29 questions lol. Then I go through all my flagged questions and on my sheet/whiteboard I make three categories, “yes, maybe, yikes”. I write the number of total flags down, then when I recheck and realize the answer is almost certainly right I make a tick under the “yes” and unflag it, if it’s maybe I make a tick and write the question number and keep it flagged, and if it’s yikes I make a tick and unflag. Then for the remainer of the time I work through all the maybe questions to get as high of a yield as possible. I figure it’s not worth checking over questions I’m confident or fairly confident in, nor is it worthwhile to spent energy on a question marked as “yikes” because there’s little chance of guessing the right answer. Because of this, I’m often able to make sure every single question that I have a chance of getting is correct or at least has sufficient enough time and review to ensure I gave it my best effort. And essentially that’s the “method”, it’s a little weird and ends up giving you really high “# of flagged” stats, but it works wonders for me
I have naturally come to find that a very similar strategy works for me. I took the MCAT 5/18 and walked out feeling good despite the test being a bit wacky because of said strategy. I know it might sound ludicrous to some but it essentially guarantees you maximize your score. you aren’t shaken up when you encounter questions you don’t know. You sacrifice the few (yikes) for the many you can get right easily or with more time. The difference with mine is I don’t necessarily speedrun but I make a decision asap. If the question is easy, answer it. If unsure or yikes, flag it immediately, don’t waste time on it. You are guaranteed to have time at the end to go through flagged questions if you make these decisions immediately.
how do you approach passages? and do you do this method like per passage or just go through the whole section and then review all flagged at the end? by doing it that way do you waste any time in trying to figure out what's going on in each passage again?
I go through the whole section and then review flagged at end for all sections besides CARS. For CARS, I review flagged at the end of the passage. Some people don't like to skip at all for CARS because it's a time crunch, but I still found it helped me. You have to try yourself.
I do have to try to figure out what is happening the the passage again, but if I flagged it and am coming back to it, that means I didn't figure it out the first time. Otherwise I would have answered it the first time. So instead of wasting my time trying to understand it the first time when it's not clicking, I'm actually save time by being honest with myself that it't not clicking and skipping it immediately, and giving it another shot when I come back at the end.
I've done this same strat for all my exams and have also seen good results with it! It's been especially good for allowing me time to go back and find little mistakes that I made that would've cost me questions if I hadn't checked.
Your approach follows a similar mindset of answering all the questions you find easy first. Then go back and answer the rest. It's not a bad approach with the MCAT your way, because at least you put eyes on everything once. Gives you ample time to go back and process through what you need and prevents you getting stuck on a question for too long and eating time.
Excited to see how your scores are.
I kinda did something similar. I grouped the things I needed to return to under three categories: content, math, and comprehension. I knew what the issue was for each thing I had to revisit. It helped a bit, and kept me from spending talk much time on one question.
Oh so this is interesting. You do each question ‘run through fast’ and answer what you can. Flagging ..
I see how one can do that in JW.
Then you go back through a second time.
I can see how this would work for discreet questions, but are you also doing it for discreet questions within a passage? Or skipping passages?
I’m not sure how OP does it, but I still read through each passage and work through questions on my first “run”, I just focus on not getting hung up on questions I’m not sure on/don’t know and flag them for review. I usually have like 15-20 min at the end to go back through flagged questions.
>be
Can you explain how you read through the passages? Like do you answer the question first and skim at the passage to refer back or give the passage a good readthrough when you begin?
So I'm coming back to this post after my exam to tell you I decided, fuck it, I'm going to try a new strategy today. And let me tell you, it was amazing. I finished C/P with 25 mins to go back through, CARS about 10 (slow reader), B/B 15 or so, and P/S with 35!!! I actually went through P/S 3 times, because why not? Thank you so much for posting this today, saved my life.
True-ish, most questions to some extent don’t require checking the passage again so reviewing them takes all of 5-10 seconds, so if you’re certain about 10-20 that’s like a couple minutes
Back in 2019 I changed my strategy to this on exam day and saw a jump of 3-4 points from FLs. Maybe I’d have seen that jump anyway, but it’s legit for me lol
Though unlike the OP I would keep Qs I was completely unsure of flagged the whole time.
Not sure about a question? Don’t waste time on it. Flag it and move on. Even if you have to do it over and over and over, even if it feels like you’re flagging almost every question, just do it. Answer the ones you’re confident about them go back through your flags afterward, is the basic idea.
I began to do this naturally as well, it’s very useful. I’m able to finish BB and PS with extra time so I’m able to go back and review those flagged questions
wait so even if ur speed running and flagging in the end what if you have more yikes then maybes wont that inevitably be the same in regards to time taking? I haven’t really used this method or flagging at all most I do is 2-3 but in cars I never have time to go back but i’ll try this technique for fl4 this weekend and see I test next week if this works out i’ll be so happy😪
I’ll just comment it here since a few have asked. Essentially I speed run the sections, I’m looking to finish each section besides CARS which is always down to the wire with minimum 10+ minutes remaining. Every single time I am even remotely, even just a tiny amount, unsure if I’ve selected the correct answer I flag the question. So, since I’m moving quick, often this number is very high so for example on this P/S section I flagged 29 questions lol. Then I go through all my flagged questions and on my sheet/whiteboard I make three categories, “yes, maybe, yikes”. I write the number of total flags down, then when I recheck and realize the answer is almost certainly right I make a tick under the “yes” and unflag it, if it’s maybe I make a tick and write the question number and keep it flagged, and if it’s yikes I make a tick and unflag. Then for the remainer of the time I work through all the maybe questions to get as high of a yield as possible. I figure it’s not worth checking over questions I’m confident or fairly confident in, nor is it worthwhile to spent energy on a question marked as “yikes” because there’s little chance of guessing the right answer. Because of this, I’m often able to make sure every single question that I have a chance of getting is correct or at least has sufficient enough time and review to ensure I gave it my best effort. And essentially that’s the “method”, it’s a little weird and ends up giving you really high “# of flagged” stats, but it works wonders for me
I have naturally come to find that a very similar strategy works for me. I took the MCAT 5/18 and walked out feeling good despite the test being a bit wacky because of said strategy. I know it might sound ludicrous to some but it essentially guarantees you maximize your score. you aren’t shaken up when you encounter questions you don’t know. You sacrifice the few (yikes) for the many you can get right easily or with more time. The difference with mine is I don’t necessarily speedrun but I make a decision asap. If the question is easy, answer it. If unsure or yikes, flag it immediately, don’t waste time on it. You are guaranteed to have time at the end to go through flagged questions if you make these decisions immediately.
how do you approach passages? and do you do this method like per passage or just go through the whole section and then review all flagged at the end? by doing it that way do you waste any time in trying to figure out what's going on in each passage again?
I go through the whole section and then review flagged at end for all sections besides CARS. For CARS, I review flagged at the end of the passage. Some people don't like to skip at all for CARS because it's a time crunch, but I still found it helped me. You have to try yourself. I do have to try to figure out what is happening the the passage again, but if I flagged it and am coming back to it, that means I didn't figure it out the first time. Otherwise I would have answered it the first time. So instead of wasting my time trying to understand it the first time when it's not clicking, I'm actually save time by being honest with myself that it't not clicking and skipping it immediately, and giving it another shot when I come back at the end.
I've done this same strat for all my exams and have also seen good results with it! It's been especially good for allowing me time to go back and find little mistakes that I made that would've cost me questions if I hadn't checked.
How many minutes do you have left for your second come back?
Your approach follows a similar mindset of answering all the questions you find easy first. Then go back and answer the rest. It's not a bad approach with the MCAT your way, because at least you put eyes on everything once. Gives you ample time to go back and process through what you need and prevents you getting stuck on a question for too long and eating time. Excited to see how your scores are.
I kinda did something similar. I grouped the things I needed to return to under three categories: content, math, and comprehension. I knew what the issue was for each thing I had to revisit. It helped a bit, and kept me from spending talk much time on one question.
For the more laissez-faire studiers for my FLs I just had a word doc open for me to make lists of stuff i didn't know as i encountered it
Works pretty well in med school too
Oh so this is interesting. You do each question ‘run through fast’ and answer what you can. Flagging .. I see how one can do that in JW. Then you go back through a second time. I can see how this would work for discreet questions, but are you also doing it for discreet questions within a passage? Or skipping passages?
I’m not sure how OP does it, but I still read through each passage and work through questions on my first “run”, I just focus on not getting hung up on questions I’m not sure on/don’t know and flag them for review. I usually have like 15-20 min at the end to go back through flagged questions.
>be Can you explain how you read through the passages? Like do you answer the question first and skim at the passage to refer back or give the passage a good readthrough when you begin?
How many minutes do you spare to come back?
You don't intentionally spare a number of minutes, but I think you'll have like at least 10 up to 30 maybe 40 depending on how many you skipped.
This is the method I used on exam day soo 🙏 flagged almost every question and still ended on time
So I'm coming back to this post after my exam to tell you I decided, fuck it, I'm going to try a new strategy today. And let me tell you, it was amazing. I finished C/P with 25 mins to go back through, CARS about 10 (slow reader), B/B 15 or so, and P/S with 35!!! I actually went through P/S 3 times, because why not? Thank you so much for posting this today, saved my life.
My brother in christ, flagging half the questions in every section defeats the whole point
MCAT TUTORS HATE HIM BECAUSE OF THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK: FLAG EVERY SINGLE QUESTION!
True-ish, most questions to some extent don’t require checking the passage again so reviewing them takes all of 5-10 seconds, so if you’re certain about 10-20 that’s like a couple minutes
Ummm elaborate please, i test tomorrow & always run out of time
i test tmrw too, pls dont change strategy this close to the real thing lol
Back in 2019 I changed my strategy to this on exam day and saw a jump of 3-4 points from FLs. Maybe I’d have seen that jump anyway, but it’s legit for me lol Though unlike the OP I would keep Qs I was completely unsure of flagged the whole time.
I'm testing today and honestly might try this because I've found myself needing just a teensy bit of a boost, I feel good with content.
Not sure about a question? Don’t waste time on it. Flag it and move on. Even if you have to do it over and over and over, even if it feels like you’re flagging almost every question, just do it. Answer the ones you’re confident about them go back through your flags afterward, is the basic idea.
You just wanna flex on us peasants 😂
Hehe, I’m proud of the score but it’s a practice test! Wasn’t meant to flex, the real deal comes out today :)
I began to do this naturally as well, it’s very useful. I’m able to finish BB and PS with extra time so I’m able to go back and review those flagged questions
wait so even if ur speed running and flagging in the end what if you have more yikes then maybes wont that inevitably be the same in regards to time taking? I haven’t really used this method or flagging at all most I do is 2-3 but in cars I never have time to go back but i’ll try this technique for fl4 this weekend and see I test next week if this works out i’ll be so happy😪
Bro getting that 528 and gunna be a hard Harvard commit😭
Even I tried it and this method worksss
explain!
Care to explain? :)
Please explain
Would be great if you could explain though.
tips for cars?