How to Review a Full-Length Practice Exam

Written and edited by the MCAT Self Prep Tutoring Team

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Taking a full-length exam is exhausting! After taking a practice exam, the last thing I felt like doing was going through the questions again. However, going through practice exams is one of the greatest tools in your MCAT prep arsenal. In this blog post, I will share how I go through practice exams with my students to maximize their learning.

Review Each Question

Be sure to go through each question carefully. I highly recommend following the steps outlined in the Create-Your-Own Study Plan Course. These steps are also included in this flow chart:

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Appreciate Your Mistakes

Making mistakes is inevitable, especially on the MCAT! It’s natural to feel discouraged after going through dozens of incorrect answers, but a change in mindset can be incredibly helpful. Rather than assessing your mistakes as failures, view them as an opportunity to maximize your learning. Reviewing your missed questions allows you to identify your weaknesses and practice the AAMC mindset. Remember that mistakes are a natural part of the learning process!

Don’t Rush!

It can be easy to rush through reviewing your exam, but I highly recommend taking your time. This process is one of the most important parts of MCAT preparation, and investing time in getting to know the exam now will pay off in the long run.

If you’re feeling frustrated or bored, feel free to take a break from reviewing. Take a walk, watch a couple of episodes on Netflix, or do something else that makes you feel rejuvenated. I strongly believe that taking more time to thoroughly review the exam is more beneficial than flying through it and missing valuable information. However, don’t let reviewing your exams stand in the way of progress in your MCAT studying. Reviewing your exam should take 2-7 hours max.

Use Strategy Courses to Maximize Improvement

The CARS Strategy Course and Science Strategy Course are designed to take your MCAT preparation to the next level. Each course contains ten modules that focus on a specific reading strategy, including a walk-through lesson, practice assignments, and recommended assignments to work through with a tutor or study buddy.

The Science Strategy Course also comes with exclusive access to the Science Passage Mistake Analyzer, which allows you to categorize your missed questions and track your progress over time.

I personally used both of the Strategy Courses in my MCAT preparation, and I cannot recommend them enough! Before I started these courses, I got lost in the practice exam passages despite my confidence in the material. My mini-exam scores skyrocketed after implementing these courses into my study plan!

I hope that helped! Feel free to check out our FREE ecourse or schedule a FREE 10-minute consultation with any of our tutors for more personalized feedback.

Warm regards,

Jess Hack

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