How Your Beliefs About The MCAT Are Keeping Your Score Low
As you know, we love talking about the unconventional concepts; those ideas that other MCAT prep companies never address.
We know that these are also essential pieces of the puzzle that will lead to your MCAT success, that must not be ignored.
In this article, we want to talk to you about the beliefs of top MCAT scorers.
A Powerful 15 Minute MCAT Study Hack 510+ Scorers Use
One of the biggest failures we see in those who are studying for the MCAT, is that they don't invest time and energy into maximizing their mental and physical performance abilities during this critical phase of their lives...
A phase on which the fate of their medical future rests.
MCAT Retake Success: How She Retook The MCAT and Scored 510
Hey Future Doctor,
If you're retaking the MCAT, this post was written for you. In fact, even if you aren't retaking the MCAT and this is your first time writing, you're going to get some great insights from a real 510 scorer!
Let's begin...
Some students feel like retaking the MCAT is harder than taking it the first time because the pressure to succeed becomes greater...
However we'd argue it's easier.
If you can get beyond the disappointment and the negative emotions, and take the time to reflect, you can learn a lot about yourself from the 'first-time' experience.
The insights you get from reflection, can lead to a much more strategic MCAT prep study plan to make sure you dominate your next MCAT exam.
In this article, we'd like to introduce you to someone who retook the MCAT and scored a 510 the second time around...
Her name is Oleksandra Kaskun and here's her inspiring MCAT success story...
From 489 To 509: How Miriam Improved Her MCAT Score By 20 Points
Have you ever wondered how some students increase their MCAT score in such huge jumps?
We're talking 20 point score increases! We're talking 20 point score increases WHILE managing full course loads and a job!
Well in today's case study, you're about to hear from someone who did just that...
We'd like to introduce you to Miriam Alghothani, a 509 scorer:
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Her Motivational MCAT Success Story: From 499 To 511 In 3 Weeks?!
It's easy to get overwhelmed when studying for the MCAT. In fact, overwhelm can be one of your biggest hurdles on this journey...
Especially when there is so much to learn and remember. Especially if you keep getting lower scores than you want on your practice exams.
In this MCAT success story, you'll hear how a fellow MCAT Mastery Community member dealt with and overcame many of these challenges.
At the end of it all, she achieved an impressive, balanced MCAT score that is sure to open doors to some of her top picks in med-school...
We'd like to introduce you to Jenny Paul, a 511 scorer:
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Why Your Fear Is Keeping Your MCAT Score Low
Most students feel like the MCAT and fear go hand in hand. If you're writing the MCAT, you may have just accepted fear as part of your daily life, dealing with it until test day is over.
That's an unfortunate but common situation; premeds are spending months chasing a higher MCAT score, but struggle to reach it because of one thing that they refuse to let go of... fear.
MCAT Study Plan of 515+ Scorers: How To Schedule Your MCAT Prep
When you’re just beginning to prep for the MCAT and creating an MCAT study plan, a lot of feelings show up...
On the one hand, it’s kind of exciting to get the only remaining barrier to med-school out of the way. It’s just one exam – and you’ve written many exams before!
On the other hand, it's also kind of scary! There’s a lot riding on this one exam. It holds A LOT of power in whether or not you get called for an interview.
Plus, it’s extremely comprehensive of the sciences, with subjects like CARS and Psych/Soc thrown in there. Not to mention it’s a whopping 7 ½ hours long…
So we can understand why so many students come to us feeling stressed, worried, frustrated, confused and lacking in confidence, when it comes to preparing for the MCAT.
If you’re feeling any of these things, don’t worry, it’s normal and you’re in the right place...
By the time you’ve reached the end of this article, you'll know how to create the most optimal MCAT study plan, plus you’ll have everything you need to approach this beast of an exam from a place of calm, confidence, and clarity 🙂
Don't worry, we gotchu!
How Kayla Scored 131 In Psych/Soc on the MCAT (MCAT Case Study)
This top scorer MCAT case study is jam packed with a lot of valuable information, so we highly suggest you read it all the way through to the end.
You'll very likely pick up on one or two golden nuggets of information that will help you in your MCAT prep.
With that said, in this article we'd like to introduce you to Kayla S., a 511 scorer...
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How To Deal With MCAT Struggles, Disappointments, and Failures
Throughout MCAT prep, you’re likely going to come across several disappointments. How do we know? Because everyone does. We’ve seen it over the years. Even those who end up scoring 520+...
Maybe you’ll write a practice test and won’t see your score increase. Maybe you’ll see it decrease! Maybe you just can’t seem to get your score up in a certain section. Maybe you forget key pieces of information during the exam, that you remember easily when not writing the test. Maybe you wrote the MCAT, and scored way lower than you expected. The list of MCAT failures and disappointments are endless…
But here’s the key: the way you deal with these struggles, plays a critical role in you eventually scoring 510+ on the MCAT, and eventually getting into med-school. So how do you deal with them? How do top scorers deal with them?
The way a scientist would.
How She Improved Her MCAT Score From 498 To 511 While Working Full Time
We've come across a lot of MCAT test takers who struggle to know for sure if they can achieve a competitive MCAT score while maintaining a part time or full time job during their MCAT prep...
Some people quit their jobs and don't want to risk it. Others don't have a choice and have to keep their jobs.
In this MCAT success case study article, you'll hear from a top scorer who not only worked for an average of 30 hours a week during her MCAT prep, but also managed to increase her MCAT score by 12 points...
All in the same amount of prep time that it generally takes the average student studying full time for the MCAT!
With that, we'd like to introduce you to Morgan Saiko, a 511 scorer...
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Her Secret To Scoring 131 On CARS and 511 on the MCAT
As we continue to research and interview 90+ percentile MCAT scorers, in order to bring you the best and the most proven MCAT prep strategies in the world, here's one of the biggest insights we've had...
When 510+ scorers first take the MCAT and get a disappointing score, there are two main benefits that they usually gain from it...
Perspective and motivation.
This MCAT success story will show you how a 510+ scorer we interviewed, leveraged those two benefits to transform her MCAT prep mindset and strategy, to gain a 12 point score increase in just 6 weeks.
In this article, we'd like to introduce you to Taylor Evangelisti, a 511 scorer:
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How To Improve Your Timing On The MCAT
Recently, one of our MCAT Mastery Community members wrote in to us and expressed their biggest frustration with the MCAT...
My biggest challenge is timing. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get it down and that is when my anxiety kicks in, and it all goes downhill from there. My biggest fear is that this will be the one obstacle that will keep me from going to medical school. I am hoping to increase by around 25 points.
Someone else wrote in and said...
I am a slow test taker so timing on the exam is what really stresses me. I have a very competitive GPA and resume but I fear that my MCAT score will hold me back in the admissions process. I need about a 10 point score increase.
Timing is one of the biggest frustrations of students writing the MCAT and we completely get it.
Nothing can be worse than not being able to finish passages or having to guess on answer choices that you intuitively know you can answer correctly.
After years of researching the MCAT prep strategies of top MCAT scorers, we've discovered the solutions to the 'MCAT timing' problem.
It takes a little practice, but you can get to the point where you finish the MCAT with extra time left over to double check all your flagged answers.
So let's begin...
MCAT Retake Success Story: How She Scored Over 510 The Second Time
One of the most common, most painful experiences for MCAT test-takers everywhere is taking the MCAT and receiving a disappointing MCAT score...
Knowing you'll have re-test.
It can be discouraging and we hope this MCAT success story inspires you.
We want this to be the last time you ever write the MCAT.
We hope these MCAT success stories give you the confidence you need to know that you CAN get a significant increase in your MCAT score that makes you competitive for med-school.
We also hope you use these case studies to not only use the top scorer tips recommended, but also to learn from their mistakes so you don't make similar ones.
With that said, in this article, we'd like to introduce you to Suman Ali, a top scorer at MCAT Mastery.
When Suman first wrote the MCAT, she scored a 503:
How 130+ CARS Scorers Analyze Sentences To Increase Their CARS Score
Did you know that 130+ scorers actually know and label the different types of sentences they come across in a typical CARS passage?
They know that if they can identify which type of sentence they’re reading, they’ll be able to gain a much better understanding of the passage, and pinpoint more correct answer choices.
This strategy is especially helpful for breaking down and understanding the messaging of the most difficult CARS passages.
How To Study For The MCAT and Score 510+ Within 3 Months
Top MCAT scorers know a cold truth about the MCAT that most average scorers don’t (and they use this to their advantage)...
They know that the MCAT was designed, as it’s main purpose, to identify the most viable med-school candidates; those who are most likely to succeed in med-schools.
They want to identify the outliers – those who clearly stand out from the average applicants.
So how do they ensure that only the outliers reveal themselves?
130+ Scorer MCAT CARS Strategies: How To Approach Passages To Improve Your CARS Score
We know for a lot of premeds, CARS is one of the biggest hurdles in getting a BALANCED, competitive score.
It’s frustrating to have one section holding you back from seeing the score improvement you need to hit your target score goal.
We completely get it and that’s why we decided to put some extra focus on CARS by recently releasing more articles and resources showing you exactly how 130+ scorers increased their CARS score and ended up dominating this section.
Plus, a lot of CARS strategies are also transferrable to other sections of the MCAT as well…
Which is why many top scorers have found that once they get a handle on CARS, everything else becomes easier.
MCAT CARS Strategy: How 130+ Scorers Master CARS on the MCAT
We were surprised to find out how underrated and often ignored CARS strategy (and CARS overall) is by premeds studying for the MCAT.
130+ CARS scorers on the other hand, take this section very seriously (sometimes even more than other sections).
The problem is most premeds view it as having a familiar format of passages and questions, and assume it's going to be easy.
As you've probably seen during practice exams, it's not. In fact, AAMC themselves tell you how complex this section is on their website...
"Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills passages are relatively short, typically between 500 and 600 words, but they are complex, often thought-provoking pieces of writing with sophisticated vocabulary and at times, intricate writing styles." - AAMC
Our focus at MCAT Mastery is to help you dominate the MCAT using the only method that has been proven to work over and over again…
Using strategy. Proven top MCAT scorer strategies.
In this case, in order to help you dominate CARS, we're going to focus on proven strategies from 130+ CARS scorers.
MCAT Study Tips: How 510+ Scorers Master MCAT Concepts In Just 4 Steps
One of the biggest causes of disappointing MCAT scores is premeds not knowing how to deeply learn the vast amount of information the MCAT covers.
As we're sure you've already seen by now if you've started your MCAT prep, the MCAT covers a massive amount of information that you're expected to know.
This is information that you can't get away with just simply reading once or twice or simply just 'memorizing' either. You need to understand it all on an in-depth level.
How To Score 130+ On the CARS Section of the MCAT
Have you ever wondered how some premeds just simply ‘get’ the CARS section? How they easily master CARS with scores over 129?
Don't you wonder what they're doing differently than others who can’t stop scoring in the low 120s?
We wondered it too...
So we did some research on strictly 130+ CARS scorers (several 132 scorers). If they didn’t score 130 or more, we weren’t listening. We kept it exclusive.
We heard what these CARS Masters had to say and we discovered A LOT of powerful CARS strategies that most premeds don’t know about and aren’t applying.
And of course, we did this so we can share their secrets with you.
Retaking the MCAT? Here’s Everything You Need To Know
So you’ve decided to retake the MCAT…
We’re here to help you do this properly.
Perhaps you didn’t hit your target score the first time. Perhaps you’re worried your score isn’t good enough to get into your dream med school…
Regardless, you’ve made a bold decision and we’re here to support it.
How 510+ Scorers Master MCAT Productivity, Focus & Information Retention
If your MCAT is coming up, you know that studying for the MCAT is really stressful. Personally, we all hate the stress. We hate the anxiety.
Once it's there, especially when it's regarding something important, it just sits there in the pit of the stomach. It's the same for everyone....
And what happens when we're feeling that stress? We try relieve it by doing the only thing that we think will help...
Studying more. Studying harder. Locking ourselves in our room or in the library for hours on end, thinking we're being productive.
It's like the anxiety forces us to keep studying. It puts our mind and our body into 'hyper-drive', releasing tons of cortisol, as we attempt to ease ourselves by (ironically) stressing ourselves more.
If you're writing the MCAT, you'll likely experience this as the date gets closer and closer...
In this article, we want to show you:
How To Conquer MCAT Stress and Anxiety So It Stops Holding Your Score Down
A lot of times, while studying or beginning to prepare for the MCAT, our mind gets bogged down with thoughts that make us feel anxious, nervous, or worried.
At MCAT Mastery, we know exactly what you’re going through because we’ve experienced it ourselves. There’s pressure from everywhere...
Time pressure especially!
So how do you stay calm in such stress-provoking times?
We'd like to share some guidance and insights that we leverage when we're getting incredibly stressed.
Skyrocket Your MCAT Score With This 510+ Scorer MCAT Study Technique
Here’s a simple and very common top MCAT scorer strategy that isn’t repeated enough and isn’t taken as seriously as it should be...
We suggest you take it seriously if you want to see some powerful improvements in your MCAT score:
MCAT Practice Test Strategies: How 515+ Scorers Tackle MCAT Practice Exams
Did you know at least two weeks before your MCAT test date, as you're constantly doing practice exams...
You need to be consistently scoring near or above your target score.
If you're achieving this, you can confidently walk into the MCAT knowing you have a high chance of hitting your score goal.
But what if you're not scoring in the range of your goal score during MCAT practice exams?
If this is the case for you, you may need to reschedule your test date, depending on how bad you want and need that score.
Or if your MCAT is still a while away, how do you make sure you're scoring in that range when there are only a few weeks left?
One major factor is in how you're approaching MCAT practice exams.
In this article, we're going to cover 515+ scorer recommendations on how to strategically take and review MCAT practice exams.
How To Get A High MCAT Score: 510+ Scorer Strategies To Decode MCAT Questions & Passages
Getting consistently low MCAT scores and feeling confused, frustrated, worried, and stressed during MCAT prep is the result of one simple but crucial failure on your part...
Your failure to use the correct MCAT study strategies.
If you know someone who scored high on the MCAT, they had a strategy.
Whether they actually know it or not, they were using techniques and shortcuts that most others weren't using, which led them to getting a competitive score.
At MCAT Mastery, we provide you with the secrets 510, 515, and even 520+ scorers used to master the MCAT.
In this article, you'll discover:
90+ Percentile MCAT Scorer Memorization Secrets: Keys To Studying Efficiently for the MCAT
Memory questions make up 25% of science questions on the MCAT.
But that's not a problem right? All those science heavy classes in your undergrad years have made you quite impressive at memorization...
At least that's what you thought before you came across the big fat monster of an exam that is the MCAT!
The sheer volume of rules, equations, and concepts that we need to memorize for the MCAT still blows my mind.
Not only do you have to memorize it all, but also apply it all to unfamiliar situations. Which means drilling it all into your mind and knowing everything like the back of your hand come exam day.
So it makes sense if you're feeling overwhelmed, fearful, or nervous as you're studying for the MCAT - I'd be too!
But worry not future doctor, we have your back!
If you're struggling with consistently getting the right answer and the scores you're aiming for, memorization might just be your main problem.
We wrote this detailed article with some of the best ways top-scorers force themselves to deeply understand and remember all they need to know...
To destroy the MCAT once and for all.
Ready? Let's begin...
How To Conquer Your Fear of the MCAT
When we hear from you and all students in our community, that you're scared of the MCAT coming up, we completely get it.
You might be feeling like people around you, those who are closest to you, don't get you and your current fear that you're facing!
Truth is, they probably don't get it.
They don't know what it's like to work so hard at getting the grades, racking up the extra curriculars, competing for great research and clinical opportunities, while ALSO figuring out how to improve your MCAT score to your score goal mark.
They don't know what it's like to have the fate of your dreams rest on one standardized test that is known to be one of the hardest standardized tests out there.
So yeah - prepping for the MCAT can get scary. We get it. What’s scarier is that as you move forward in your medical career, this fear is going to show up more often...
It’ll show up when you’re going through interviews, filling out applications, waiting for acceptances, your first day of med-school, and so on.
In this article, we're going to show you how you can quickly alleviate these negative, mind-clouding emotions... not just for the MCAT, but throughout your entire doctor journey.
Consider this...
What if fear could become your own powerful weapon? What if you could use fear, as a tool to succeed?
In this post we're going to show you how you can use this 'negative' state as a way to boost your productivity and learning during MCAT prep.
How To Study for the MCAT to Score in the 90th Percentile
Are you unsure of how to start studying for the MCAT?
Are you overwhelmed, confused, or frustrated with the amount of information you need to cover?
Have you already been studying and not seeing scores improve as fast as they should?
We wrote this in-depth article on How To Study for the MCAT and Score in the 90the Percentile for you if you're determined to get a competitive MCAT score but aren't feeling the most confident right now.
We've done months and months of research and I can tell you with 100% certainty that those who destroy the MCAT, are approaching the MCAT from a different, more strategic angle than 90% of MCAT writers out there.
These 5 Common MCAT Testing Mistakes Are Killing Your MCAT Score
Remember that one person in your life told you “we all make mistakes”…
Stay away from them.
(At least until your MCAT is over!)
We as future doctors, can’t afford to be “okay” with mistakes!
Mistakes determine everything in our life and especially on the MCAT.
It’s not only the amount of right answers you get on the MCAT that contribute to your score, but it’s also the amount of mistakes you make that determine your score as well!
Making a mistake as a practicing medical professional can cost you everything!
However, as we’ll cover later in this post, mistakes (during the practice phase) can also be the REASON you succeed.
How? If you know how to use them to your advantage.
We’ll cover more about how to do use them to your advantage later in this post.
First, let’s talk about the stupid mistakes you keep making on the MCAT, or are bound to keep making eventually… (we all experience them!)
Get A Higher MCAT Score: The Mad Scientist Strategy Used By 510+ Scorers
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. - Jimmy Johnson
Doctors all over the world believed, for decades, that stomach ulcers and stomach cancers were the result of spicy foods, a lot of acid, and too much stress.
Barry Marshall however, had different beliefs. As an Australian physician, and microbiology researcher, he believed that ulcers were in fact, triggered by bacteria; Helicobacter Pylori.
To most, this idea seemed crazy.
But to Marshall and his lab partner, this was the truth.
Unfortunately for both of them, they had been unable to provide evidence for how bacteria and ulcers are linked. They had conducted numerous lab experiments on pigs and now, his grant money was almost finished.
Disheartened, Marshall gained his confidence when he saw that thousands of people were dying from stomach cancer every year.
The cure, he believed, was easily available: antibiotics. But mainstream gastroenterologists dismissed his conclusions, as they held on to the old beliefs that ulcers were caused by stress.
Not being able to make his case in studies with lab mice since H. pylori only affects primates, Marshall grew desperate.
To make matters worse, he was unable to experiment on people which was the only way he could prove what he already knew, and save thousands of lives.
It was July 1984, when Marshall did the unthinkable.
He experimented on the only human patient he could be allowed to experiment on...
Himself.