From Anxious To Confident (516) On His MCAT Retake

Show Notes

At the start of his exam experience, Jake found himself very stressed out when it came to studying for the MCAT (especially with the CARS section). After scoring a 498 on his first practice exam, he knew he needed to increase his workload, but he sacrificed a lot of sleep and relaxation in the process. All of this stress and anxiety culminated in him led to him scoring a 509 on his first real exam day and although he knew that others might consider the score to be good, he knew that he could do even better if he was able to get adequate sleep and take care of himself better before the exam. So– on his second time around, with only 3 months to study, Jake made sure to prioritize his mental and physical well-being to reduce some of the stress that had been plaguing him on his first attempt. By creating a study schedule, working hard to increase his CARS score, and even more that we’ll cover today, he was eventually able to feel calm and confident about the exam, and on his test day, he ended up scoring a 516 (an 18 point increase from his original starting place)! In this interview, we’re going to launch into exactly how Jake was able to increase his score as a retaker, how he studied overall, how he scheduled his prep,  what strategies he used for each section, and so much more… He also credits a lot of his success in CARS to taking an MCAT Mastery course. Here's what he says about MCAT Mastery: "Their CARS dissection videos are a must-watch! They are what caused me to get out of my plateau. The other tips in the CARS course helped me in my other sections as well. Would definitely recommend!”

What is MCAT Mastery?

From plateauing MCAT scores, and having to retake, to breaking down days before exam day, all 70+ MedLife Mastery Mentors suffered the frustrations and disappointments that come with MCAT prep. Yet we ALL ended up getting 90+ percentile MCAT scores and are on our way to (or already in) med-school! Now we want to help you do the same!

If you're struggling with the MCAT, need some extra motivation, want to know how top scorers before you studied and learn their best strategies, this show is for you. You have what it takes to beat this exam. We’re here to make sure of that!

Hi everyone, I'm Monica and welcome back to another MCAT Master interview. As you all probably know by now in this series, we just sit down with MCAT top scorers and ask them about their experiences to give you guys windows into their process so that you can also raise your score like they did. We know the MCAT can be challenging, but that's why we're all here. We want to help you and we want to show you that you can ultimately be a top scorer one day too. So with that today, I'd like to introduce you all to Jake Reed, who we have on the podcast. Jake, thanks so much for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. We're really excited to hear from you. But before we get started, we just like to give our listeners a little background information about you and your general experience before we get into the specifics. And so at the start of his exam experience, Jake found himself very stressed out when it came to studying for the MCAT, especially the cars section, which is very understandable. And after scoring a 498 on his first practice exam, he knew that he needed to increase his workload. But he sacrificed a lot of sleep and relaxation in the process, as many people do. And so all of this stress and anxiety culminated in him scoring a 509 on his actual first exam day. And although the score is good, relatively, he knew that he could do even better if he got adequate sleep and, you know, took care of himself before the exam. So on his second time around, with only about three months to study, he made sure to prioritize his mental and physical well-being to reduce some of the stress that had been plaguing him on his first attempt. And by creating a study schedule, working hard to increase his car score, and even more that we'll cover today, he was eventually able to feel calm and confident about the exam. And on his second test day, he ended up scoring a 516, which is an 18-point increase from that initial 498 starting place, which is just a huge increase. So in this interview, we're basically just going to launch into understanding exactly how he was able to increase this much, especially as a retaker, how he studied overall, how he scheduled his prep, what strategies he used for each specific section, and so much more that will inevitably come up. So with all of that, I'm going to stop talking and we'll get started with Jake. So, Jake, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into the MCAT? Yeah, so I'm a senior right now. I'm in my last semester in open enrollment university. I am currently working as a scribe in a neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery clinic, and I absolutely love it. It is so fun just being able to work with the surgeons. Like yesterday, I was able to even just go and spend some time with them in the operating room and watch some cool surgeries, which was fun. And in my free time, I love just being outside and doing anything I can do outside. So like skiing, mountain biking, fishing, just being able to go outside. And yeah, I've wanted to be a doctor since high school. So I just have loved this journey. The ups and downs that come from it and everything. Wow. That's a long time you've been having this goal and you're right. There are a lot of ups and downs. So yeah, it's really admirable that you were able to like keep on this path. What made you want to be a doctor in high school? Yeah. So in high school, it was my anatomy and physiology class that really did it for me. I just thought that was my first experience really learning about the human body. And I fell in love with it. I thought it was just so cool. Just all the ins and outs, how everything just worked together. I thought that was so cool. And even just like between the little animal dissections we would do in that anatomy class, I thought it was awesome. So I'm like, OK, I think I think this is what I want to do. But really what solidified my decision to be a doctor was it was my first winter in college. I got in a skiing crash and I had to have surgery from it. But I just remember that I was like so miserable and I was in so much pain and just being at the mercy of the surgeon to be able to be the one to relieve all my pain and just seeing can just be able to give me my life back. That's what solidified the decision for me to become a doctor. Wow. Wow. That's real life experience. And I'm sure, yeah, that's going to like inform a lot of what you do going forward in medical school and stuff. So that's really cool. Obviously not called the accident, but a very personal experience that you have. You knew you wanted to be a doctor and one of the biggest obstacles to getting there for a lot of people is this MCAT exam. So where were you in your life when you first started prepping for the first time? Yeah, so I was just finished my junior year. So the last semester of my junior year, I was taking ochem and biochem in the same semester. And so normally like the plan to try to then take the MCAT at the same time and get all my application ready by summer, the reasonable time to apply. That just it wasn't going to work for me because I knew, OK, I outside of OK and biochem same semester, I'm going to have no time. And so I decided then I would apply the next year. And so at the end of that semester, I was fortunate enough to be able to take the whole summer off of work. My wife, she worked a lot of extra shifts and did an amazing job. So we would financially be OK for that in which I recognize is a very fortunate situation I was in. So I took the whole summer off and for the first time and will, as you mentioned, a little at the beginning, when we'll get into some of those other struggles and the lessons I learned of what not to do a little later on in the podcast. So then that was during the whole summer. I got my score back in September and then I decided I needed to retake it. And so luckily that fall semester was a pretty easy semester for me. It was pretty light. And so that gave me the opportunity then to be able to study again for the MCAT moving forward. And I also started my job as a scribe in the August time frame. And so that also gave me just another reason why I just wanted to take a break just before I started studying again, because I was just so burnt out from everything in the summer, putting over a thousand hours in. And I just needed a break. I need to get adjusted to the new job, the new semester before I started studying the second time. So yeah, the second time, definitely a lot better than the first time. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You had some like experience going in, knew more of what to expect maybe. So did you have like a score goal that you wanted to reach going in? Because you did get a 509 and you knew you wanted higher than that. So what were you kind of looking for? Yeah, so I started off before I started prepping. I just looked at all the schools that I was interested in. And just what their average was, what their range of students scoring were at that school and with my demographics, I just saw that I made the goal that I wanted to get a 515. And I knew if I got a 515, I'd be able to be competitive to these schools that I wanted to go to. That's why the 509, that's why I ended up retaking that. Because I knew that was not me. I knew I was capable of doing more and I knew I needed to get a better score in order to be a competitive applicant to schools that I was interested in. Yeah, absolutely. And it's different for everyone. Like some people maybe would have seen that 509 and been like, yes, that's good enough for me. Like they wanted like a 510. But for your personal goal, it was a 515. So it's really awesome that you were able to say, you know, I think I can do better and like went for it because that's hard to do because BAMCAT can be, you know, a lot to plan for. And so, yeah, now let's get into like your study plan and all of that. I guess starting with the first attempt, what was your study plan like? So, yeah, the first attempt, my study plan was as much as possible. It was I started off, I watched a ton of videos from YouTubers who scored top like 520 pluses about their whole study schedule. And that's what I sort of based my plan around. I just compiled what I thought the best things were from everyone videos and I just made my plans. Like I started off, like I said, I had the whole summer off. And so I just did 10 hour days in the library, six days a week. And it got so extreme to the point where like if I had to take like a 10 minute phone call, I would then tack on 10 minutes at the end of the day. And if I took 10 minutes for a lunch, I'd tack on 10 minutes at the end of the day. Like I just was a monster. I really let the MCAT just take over my life in the summer. And so how I kind of did it, though, I started off just just doing a quick review of all the content that I did that was covered on the MCAT just by reading the books, the Kaplan books. And then after that, I just focused on just doing as much practice problems as I could. And then during those practice problems, if I saw that there was like a weakness that I had, I would go back to the books and relearn the content. And then I took a ton of practice exams also just to help with the timing and to build my stamina with that the first time. And so, yeah, the first time, obviously, there is a lot of errors in that thinking about just how hard I was going. And so then the second time, it was kind of nice studying for the second time because I already had that content down from just going through it the whole summer and just all those practice problems in from doing the content review. So the second time, I just saw how many days is it between now when I take the actual MCAT, how many AMC practice problems are there? And I just divided it by how many days. So I'm like, OK, I just need to do this many a day. And it was like, it's pretty chill. And I made sure I did it like a low. I wanted a low amount of questions because the first time, like I mentioned, I was so focused on quantity over quality of study. Like I didn't care about what I was getting done. I just had to hit my 10 hours a day, at least someday that would hit more. But the second time, by doing less problems each day and studying, I was really able to do more. I was able to really look at where my weaknesses were, identify my weaknesses, kind of look at the AMC's logic behind certain questions. Which I wasn't able to do the first time because I was so focused on doing as much as I possibly could. I didn't even have time to look at where where I was going wrong the first time. That's how I plan my schedule. That was kind of my thinking behind that plan. And I like what you said about quality over quantity. The other one, because yeah, I think a lot of people can kind of get into the trap of like seeing things that other top scores say where they're like, I did like this X amount of practice problems. And if you only have two months left, you can't do all of those. And like that amount of time, like the quantity is not what gets you there. It's how you review them and reflect on them and stuff. So yeah, that's basically what you're saying. And I think that's showed through your scores as well. So glad the second time was less stressful, of course. So you kind of mentioned some of the resources that you use. So like I heard Kaplan, which materials and resources would you recommend? What do you think helped you the most? Yeah, like I mentioned, yeah, the Kaplan books, I thought were awesome for the content review. I saw some other books from other companies. And I feel like they went a little too in depth with things. Even some of the Kaplan books I felt like went a little too in depth. But overall, I feel like they provided a really good review of all the material that was covered. So I really liked those. And then the next one, I think the AMC material is a definitely must have just buying all their material, their practice problems, their practice exams. That was my best study resource. They're the real deal. That's what it's going to be like. You don't have to worry about the no third party or anything because that's them. But one of the things I did find the best I recommend everyone do is watch the MCAT mastery cars dissection videos, because that is what did it for me in my car section because like the first time I was going below average in my car section and I didn't want to be below average in a section. And so by watching the cars dissection videos, the second time around was when I found that resource and I wish I would have found it earlier. But then I was able to see how a top score goes through the car section. And then I was able to do an AMC car section and then I would watch the video and then I would do a car's passage and then I've watched the video passage, watch the video and I like just doing it like that, just going slow and really just watching a top score go through the same section I just did and look at how they thought through it. That helped so much for me. Just get over my plateaus on the cars section, which I know my score was still on the real thing of 125, but man, that was the hardest cars section I've ever had was on the real MCAT. So I know it would have been way lower if it wasn't for the MCAT mastery cars dissection. So I think that's a great resource. Other than that, I think the U world, I used that my first time. I thought if you just want more practice problems, I thought they were a great resource because yeah, you got so many practice problems and a great, great explanation for why the problem was right. And then even more importantly, why certain answer choices were long. And so I was able to learn a lot from them. And then just another resource that I used, it was this book that I found at Barnes and Noble, it's called like the bedside book of philosophy. It just was like 125 little passages about philosophy. I would take that book sometimes and I would just like read it and just one passage at a time, try to pick out the main idea and try to think of questions that could be asked from these passages. So I used that when I wasn't studying or when I wasn't able to have access to study for the car section or do a real practice. I would just read that book in the meantime. Yeah, it was a philosophy book. And so it just helped me with those sections. Absolutely. Thanks for like all the specifics. I know a lot of students have questions about like what works and what doesn't, especially with cars too, because it can be hard to like pick a strategy and pick materials for that. So yeah, walkthroughs are definitely a good way to kind of see strategies in practice. I'm glad that you like spoke to that a little bit. And we've kind of been like dancing around this a little bit, but what do you think were your biggest challenges or struggles with the MCAT? And how did you overcome those to increase your score? Yeah, like you said, we're dancing around it 100 percent. I think one of my biggest challenges the first time around was focusing on quantity over quality of my study. So I didn't mention this, but I would do like during my first time, I do nine cars passes a day and I would just breeze through and try to get it done just to check that a box and knock it off. Then at the end, when I was reviewing them, I would just see I got this question wrong and half the time I would look back and go, I don't think I agree with that. I'm still like, I don't know about that. And then or I would say I got it on just like, oh, OK. And I would just move on like I didn't take the time to like really learn why I was missing these questions. And so that was one that I thought was just so big in that section. Well, then the second time around where I would only do like one to two cars passages a day, but doing just one to two a day, watching the top score passage walk through after with you guys. And then just really just looking back on my own time, trying to figure out why I got these wrong, what the A and C's logic was behind it, trying to figure it out. I think that helped a lot with that. And then the biggest thing also was just the taking care of my mental health on the first time, like, yeah, it was clear that I was just so crazy, way too hardcore during the summer, the first time. And yeah, it was really hard because the week of the MCAT, I was so stressed. I was getting like two to four hours of sleep at night. Like I was not sleeping. And so when I sat down to take the actual test, my first attempt, I just felt like 10 minutes in this like fog just came over me. And I think it was just a whole week of not sleeping just piled up at once. And I just had like really no idea what was going on. The rest of the test, I just could tell my brain was not clear. It was not thinking right. It was just rough. And the second time around, though, I really made it a priority to take care of my mental and physical health. I made sure to get getting eight plus hours of sleep at night. I made sure to be doing some activities that I enjoy. And that just made a huge difference for me. I was able to think so clearly on the actual exam. I was able to know what was going on. I felt alert and awake. And that was honestly the best I've ever felt during any of my practice exams was on the actual MCAT my second time. And I think it's because I was getting so much sleep before. And I made sure the night before I got like nine hours of sleep. And I was just feeling amazing that day. And I contribute that largely to my success on the second time. Yeah, absolutely. Sleep is so important. And I feel like it's the first thing people sacrifice. Like they're like, I need to keep studying. I'm going to stay up later or get up earlier. And it's like, OK, yes. But also like being calm, being confident, being a little bit healthier as well, that's all going to help you a lot, which is kind of part of the reason you're saying that you were able to like walk into the exam and just feel better going into it and less stressed. In addition to all the other mental aspects that people just like don't like prioritize, I think, because they're not concrete things that help you all the time, I guess. So I'm glad that we're kind of getting into that as well, because it's a huge part of the exam that kind of can go under the radar. And so the fact that you have this concrete example of 509 when stressed and then 516 later, you know, and there was studying as well that went into that. But also it's just it's a really inspiring story. So those are things that you did that kind of helped you to get a better score. Was there anything that you did that I guess you wish you hadn't done other than sacrificed sleep and all the other things? No, yeah, the first time that's really the biggest thing was is I was not taking care of myself. I realized I overdid it on that first time. And so that's probably my biggest regret, because obviously I would have loved to only take it one time and I would have loved to be able to do other things that summer besides sit in the library for 60 hours each week just studying. So that's a big one. I wish I would have looked out more to other resources for cars earlier in my studying. Like I said, it wasn't till my second time around. I found the MCAT Mastery cars course. But I if I would have looked out earlier, my first attempt, I think that could have helped me a lot as well. But yeah, other than that, I don't think there's any other regrets. I just think those are my two biggest ones from it. Absolutely, you know, and yeah, that's good advice for other people who might be in the midst of studying right now. So kind of getting now into the specific sections because I think that helps a lot of students who might be struggling, you know, with one specific section. Your highest score was a 131 in bio bio. So a lot of students struggle in this area because both both the science is honestly. So how did you study for that section specifically? And what advice would you have for students who may be struggling? Yeah, so in this one, I saw early on, just by doing so many practice questions, how many questions are on amino acids and how many questions are on like enzymes and the pathways and everything. So the first thing I did was I just got flashcards. I drew the sidechains for every single amino acid along with their one and three letter abbreviations and whether they were poor, non-polar, acidic or basic. And I made sure I memorized those as soon as possible. And then I would just redraw just frequently and write those down because I feel like as soon as you figure out all the amino acids and if they're poor, non-polar, acidic or basic, and also by knowing the abbreviations, any time an amino acid question came up, I feel like you'll get 95 percent of them right just by knowing what they are. I feel like that's just a huge part of those questions is they just want you to know what they are. And like half the time, if it's like a substitution for one for another, OK, you already know what they all look like, what their properties are. So that's why that's a huge thing. That's a must for that section is to memorize the amino acids. Also, I would draw out just the basics of the main metabolic pathways, like glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, gluconeogenesis and the pentose phosphate shunt and I think like fatty acid synthesis. I'll just draw those off out, like all intertwined with each other. So I knew how the certain products would react with other pathways and everything. And so then I would draw that out like every single Sunday just so I knew and it would take me 40 minutes just to re-draw it out. And most of the time I was looking at the paper I drew the week before until the end and I finally like had it just about memorized. But then I was familiar enough with the enzymes that was able to help. And that actually paid off because I had a lot of questions regarding metaphase on the actual MCAT night that helped a lot with that. And another one that I would recommend for the bio and bio chem section is to do all of the AMC bio and bio chem practice questions, do all of them and do them all on time. Because why I say this at the beginning, I was like, why am I scoring so low and like bio and bio? I feel like I'm a good student. Why can I not get the score up? But then I realized so many of the answers are hidden in the passage for that section. And so like whenever there's something that pops up, you're like, I have no idea what this could be. I've never heard this before. Chances are the question, the answer is hidden in the passage. And so I would just really make sure I went slow, went back through the passage, found out the answer, what it was talking about. And then it made my answer choice obvious on there. And also I know a lot of times I would get so lost at the beginning, like when it gives a protein named like, I don't know, Y2AA1 or something. And then like some weird letter named enzyme. And so how I did that when I faced it during my practice and during the exam, I would just draw out the pathways. I would just write out this protein's name to an arrow to what it does or to what other protein it affects when this enzyme is being used. I would just draw that out and map it out because it was for me, it was so confusing trying to read it in the passage. But then once I got it just straight, word arrow, word arrow, like it made so much sense on paper. And then when that question came up regarding that, like, oh, if you affect this enzyme, what would happen downstream? I was just able to look at that drawing that I just made. And it made so much more sense. And yeah, that'd be my advice for the bio and bio chem section. Just really go slow on your practice sections and do them all untimed while practicing because look at the passage because that's where the answers are. And then if it's a confusing one with so many proteins and enzymes, write those down, what they do, draw arrows and everything. And then, of course, everyone should memorize all the amino acids. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And the amino acids, I'm glad that you brought that up because just knowing those, that'll get you some simple questions that you can just get down and that'll build confidence, too. So that, in particular, I think is a really good tip among the other larger strategies, which are going to benefit students as well. So kind of on the same vein for the chem and fizz section, you scored a 130 there, which is great. So were the strategies for studying for that similar to bio, bio or different? How did you study there? Yeah, these ones are pretty different. For chemistry and physics, I would just write down, I went through the books and I wrote down like all the main equations and from all the like practice questions that I did, I just wrote down all the main equations that were used. And like I mentioned earlier, I feel like sometimes the Kaplan books went a little too in depth and some of the third party materials, like they also go a little too in depth. I feel like with certain things, but the AMC materials, like every equation that I need to know where that was in there, I wrote it all down and then I would just review those every Sunday along with the metabolic pathways. I mentioned earlier, I would just write those down on a piece of paper and grouped into like sections like, oh, these are the four equations for linear motion, so they were kind of like tied together in my mind. Or oh, these are all the optics equations or the sound equations. And so then I would just write those down every Sunday to try to just get all those equations memorized. Also, another thing that I really like for the chemistry and physics is going through the sections. If I found something I didn't understand, I would then, like I said, go back and review that. But a great resource that I found also is on YouTube. It's the Chad's Prep channel. I think he does one of the best jobs at explaining chemistry and physics. And so I would watch his videos, but instead of just like passively watching, I would pause it and I would do the problem that he was working on ahead of time and then I would watch it to like check how my work was. So that was kind of my main way for studying that. And then during the actual test, I know so many students struggle with timing on this and I do. I did as well. But I noticed that this section, the chemistry and physics section, most like you have the it relies least on the passages out of all the other sections. And so with like, like I might glance through the passage at first and then look at the questions because a lot of them just ask. They give you all the numbers in the question sometimes or like, oh, which functional group below is this or something. And so it was like, I didn't need the passage for all those questions. And so during the actual MCA, I would just, I looked at the questions first and that saved me. I didn't have to read one whole passage on the actual one, which gave me so much more time later on when I needed to do my calculations. I know that's risky and it might sound a little silly just skipping the whole passage, but it saved me so much time in the long run. And then if there was any like doubt I ever had, like even a sliver, like I need to go to the passage, I would just go and read the passage. But then by looking at the questions first, I knew what I was looking for in the passage so I could keep my like eyes alert for when I came across that. And then it just the answer was highlighted right there. Yeah. Yeah. This section can trip up a lot of students as well, in addition to like the bio bio section. And I think it's for different reasons, which you're alluding to. The math is a big thing that can like trip people up and make them lose confidence. And so, you know, strategies for that type of thing just to like help with the section is really helpful. So the next section then would be you also got a 130 in psych. So as well, which is awesome. So how did you study for that section? Yeah. So this section, I took a psychology class my first semester of college. And so it was like way long ago. So I had like no idea what was going on by the time I got to the end, Kat. So this is why I just mentioned earlier to just the importance of doing so many practice problems and tests and learning from them, not just doing them, but learning from them. So anytime in any of my practice exams or any of the questions, if there was ever a word I did not know the definition to, whether it was in the question stem, whether it was the right answer or even one of the wrong answers, I would write it down and write down the definition. And by the end, I had a pretty big list compiled, but I would go back each Sunday and I would just review those words that I missed that I didn't know. And I would then occasionally, if I had some extra time during the week, I would just go back and review them and just try to memorize them. But that I think is the biggest one for that section is I think you just got to just sit down and just memorize a lot of the words. And then also that will get you just by knowing like the definitions and the words that will be able to score a lot of points. But then also you, this is again, just why it's so important to practice because you need to practice because so many of the passages are talking about like experimental methods and everything. And so it's, again, important. This is an important section too where a lot of the questions are in the passage as well with this. But yeah, that my biggest thing for this section would just be write down literally every single word you don't know and just make sure you memorize that list and are reviewing it frequently. Yeah, I've heard like things like this before for psych. So it probably means that it is like a really good strategy for it. And yeah, so the last section then would be cars, which you struggled with a little bit, but eventually were able to get your score to a place that you were happy with. So how did you go about studying for cars and dealing with the struggles that you may have had with it? Yeah, so yeah, the first time I was awful with it. I couldn't get above average because like I mentioned earlier, I was just focused on quantity or quality. Second time around I utilized the I bought the cars practice course on in cat mastery I used. But the main thing I used was those like dissection walkthrough videos that you guys had about those were absolutely amazing. Just by doing a passage by myself and then I would watch how a top score would do it and just do that one or two times a day. I don't know how many passages I felt like doing, how much time I had. Not really help me be able to think differently with how I would approach these and then there's one other thing that I did on this section, which I don't know how true it is, but I noticed during my practice test, like the agency puts the hardest passages like right at the beginning. And so I would always like during my practice test, I got there and like I'm spending 18 minutes on the third passage of this section. And then I get so flustered out the rest of the exam. I just was like shaking. I couldn't think straight. I was like, oh my gosh. And I just was doing awful. And so I think that's also why I was doing so bad at the beginning. And so what I started doing then, because when I reviewed it, I noticed man, the last three and four passages are always so easy. Why am I missing like so many points on these? But then I realized that I got so flustered early on with the hard passages. They just really tripped me up. So I started at the back. So whenever that car section started, I clicked navigation and went to question 53. And I just started at passage nine and worked backwards to passage one. And my thinking behind that was I'm getting just my guaranteed easy points. I'm getting as many points as I can, just these guaranteed ones through these easy passages right off the start. So then once I get to passage three, which is really now my passage seven, I'm only going to get flustered for maybe two more passages. But then by doing these easy passages at the beginning, I'm going to save a lot of time and I'll have a lot of time built up where I know like, OK, I might be OK to spend 15 minutes on this hard passage. So I know like my car score wasn't as great as my other section, but I still know that that helped me a lot because I would always just get so flustered with those hard passages at the beginning. And then, yeah, like I said, the actual MCAT just had like back to back to back to back like four, just hard passages at the very end. And so which would be passages like one through four. But since I started backwards and I started passage nine, they were at the very end. And so when I got to those, though, I knew I was like running short of time. Like I have no idea. And so I would just be spending like too long on a question. So I'm like, I just need to move on. I'm not going to find that answer. And so I think that's a big thing, too, is just to realize that the cars passage is just about getting as many points as possible. And this is one of the things I've learned from the MCAT Mastery videos is you just want to get as many points as possible. And so if you're spending so much time on a hard question, chances are you're not going to get it right. And the more time you spend on that, that's the less time you get to spend on the easier questions. So that was kind of my thinking behind that car strategy. Yeah, I like that a lot. And I feel like I've heard this before that a lot of strategies for cars kind of translate to other parts of the exam, too, because cars is really strategy heavy, like there isn't a lot of content. So what you're saying about the fact that you don't have to be completely perfect on the exam to still get a good score, like you don't have to get every question correct, but you're just trying to get as many points as possible. I think some of those like mindset things and strategy things can also apply to other sections, which boost your other scores as well. And so I'm glad that cars was eventually able to become something that you felt like better about and more confident about. Because this section, most people struggle with it because it's just so strategy heavy, you have to like understand what they're asking and how they're asking and all that, which just talked about. So so that is it for the each of the specific sections. So the last thing that we'll kind of talk about is your test day experiences. Comparing your first and second times, I guess, how was your MCAT exam day between the two times? Oh, it was a rule of the difference. Like I could tell first thing in the morning, just waking up when I woke up on the second day, I was stoked. I was excited. I was ready to take it. I knew I was going to do good. I got a great night's sleep the night before. And it also helped also knowing that I've been to that testing center before. I know what to expect. I know what the process will be like. So that helped ease a lot of nerves as well, just knowing what to expect. But yeah, like I said, the first time I just had a fog over me, like 10 minutes in, but then the second time, I just felt great throughout the whole exam, like normally at the end too, when I'm taking my practice exams, like at the end of the psych session, I'm like trying to kick my feet up on a chair on the desk next to me or something. Like I'm like half asleep. I just been thinking, okay, in 15 minutes, I can take a nap or something like after like I was so tired. But during the actual exam, I just had so much energy. I felt great. And I mean, I didn't take anything or anything. I just was naturally just feeling good just from getting so much sleep. And so I just felt, I felt really good the whole test day. Yeah. Like I said, the last four cars passages were pretty tough. But then everything else I just felt really good with. Like it just felt a smooth, clean test. Yeah. And that's how you want to feel. You don't want to be like super anxious during it, which it's hard to get to that place, but I'm sure it like helped you when you were like going through everything as well. And so after the exam, so you walked out feeling good. How was it waiting for your score to come back? Awful. I get so nervous and especially it being a retake, like the thoughts keep coming to my mind like, oh my gosh, what if I get the same score? What if I scored lower? Like that will be some huge red flags. Like I was just scared if that was going to happen. Some days I would wake up and go through like every possibility and try to remember like as many questions as I could and try to look them up and then I'm like, oh my gosh, I think I bombed it. And then something the next day I would wake up like, no, I think I absolutely killed that test. It would just like bounce back and forth. So then after like a week, I was like, this has to stop. And so I just got so then focused on other things and I tried to forget it because I was just driving myself nuts that first week just waiting to get the score back. So yeah, I luckily I had my job. I was working a lot at learning there, school going on, volunteering and everything with research. So I stayed super busy and I think that's important because it can just eat at you every time I was just awake. If I had nothing to think about, most of my thoughts went towards what was my MCAT score? What do I think I got? And it would just stress me out so much. Yeah, luckily that then faded after like a week. And then I kind of forgot about it until then I'll sit when the score came out. Yeah, you got to distract yourself or you're going to go crazy, honestly. And so when your score came out, like what was your reaction? Yeah, so I remember I had a class, an eight a.m. class. And so I know the scores usually come out around nine. And so I just kept checking during class. I just kept refreshing the page and then finally that it was released. I'm like, OK, my classes literally ended like 30 seconds ago. Everyone was still in the room. And so I just grabbed my laptop and walked out just to try to go to the classroom next door to try to open it just in a place where no one was because I knew I might celebrate or something. It depends on the score. I don't want to make a scene in front of everyone. And so I tried to go to this to the empty classroom next door, but there are people in there studying. So I'm like, where can I go? So I went into the stairwell then at the school and my wife. I FaceTimed her because she wanted to know what it was like. She was a big part on the journey as well. And so I FaceTimed her. I opened it up in the stairwell. And the first thing I saw was the 516 at the bottom. And I just started screaming like I was so excited. Like I was cheering so loud in the stairwell. I didn't even tell her what my score was for a few seconds. Like she just heard me just cheering and everything. She finally had to ask, what did you get? And so I told her and then I saw like I heard a few doors open in the stairwell for people like check like what is going on in there. But I was so excited, especially because like I said, I was so nervous. It was going to be the same or lower because of the retake. Like that caused a lot of stress for me. But I felt good about it. And then yeah, I was so excited. Like that was that was a good day when I got it back. Yeah, wow, that's so awesome. Yeah, the culmination of everything that you went through to get there, like I bet it was amazing. And did you do anything to celebrate after? Yeah, luckily my evening class got canceled that day. And so as soon as we were done with school around four, we went out to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate. Nice. That sounds amazing. Yeah, congratulations again on your score. Like that is an awesome journey that you went through to to get there and you got a great score. So now I guess what are your plans going forward? Are you going to be applying to medical school soon or? Yeah, so I actually just finished my personal statement. And so I'm just working on the rest of my extra curriculars for essays for the application. And I'll be applying this cycle. So I'll submit this summer of my application. And I'm excited to see where I'll end up going. Hopefully this first round. But I hope I can get in this first round. Yeah, yeah. Well, good luck with all of that. That process can be stressful, too. But now you got it because you know how to take care of yourself like we went through. So good luck with all of that. I'm sure it's going to go really well. Your MCAT score, obviously, is a huge anchor for your application. So that's awesome. So good luck with all of that. And thanks so much again for your time, like walking us through everything with your MCAT journey. Hopefully it was fun for you to kind of go through everything again. So yeah, thank you, everyone, for listening to this episode of our podcast. If you're studying for the MCAT right now, good luck with everything. We believe in you. And Jake, do you have any final nuggets of wisdom to give to students who might be studying and are struggling right now? Yeah, I would just say, just as a theme throughout the podcast today, just make sure you're taking care of yourself. This is an important test. It can be stressful, but it's more stressful if you're not taking care of yourself. And I know some people have to work more than others and everything during this. Everyone has different situations, but I would try to just schedule in something fun for you to do each week, just something to look forward to, something to keep your spirit as high, because this is a stressful test. It's awful. No one likes taking it. And I hope no one has to take it two times like I did before they get the score that they want. And also, I would say, don't ever sell yourself short or settle. If you know you're capable of doing more, go out and get it. Go out and do what you're capable of doing. If you're not hitting your goals, you can do it. You can hit your goals. There's so many resources out there for people who will help and everything. And there's so many people who want you to succeed. And so don't ever sell yourself short, because it might be a little bit of extra work. But make sure you're taking care of yourself and hitting all your goals and everything. Yeah, yeah. So good luck, everyone. Good luck studying. And thanks so much for listening. Everyone, this is Monica again. And before you go, I just want to remind you that if you're not receiving our daily free MCAT strategy and success story emails yet, definitely be sure to sign up for those at mcatmastery.net slash free course. In addition to that, if you feel like you might need personalized help with the exam, and would like to have an MCAT mentor, look at your situation and help you identify exactly what's holding your score back, you can look into that too at mcatmastery.net slash mentors. And lastly and most importantly, we just want you guys to know that you have what it takes to succeed on this exam. We know the MCAT is intimidating. And when you get a score that's lower than you expected on a practice or on the real thing, it's so easy to feel discouraged or frustrated or even hopeless about the exam. We get it. A lot of us have been there. So we want to give you the guidance that we wish we'd had when we were in your shoes. And that's what these interviews are for. That's what our emails are for. We want you guys to be able to feel confident again. And most importantly, be able to see that med school mission is possible and it's not out of your reach at all. So thanks again for listening. And remember that every top score, every med student and every doctor made it through this journey. So you can do it too. You guys got this.