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Like so many others, Abbi Shrontz found herself overwhelmed by the MCAT. When she began her prep, she was juggling 2 jobs and was a full-time student. And although she did thoroughly review content, her scores plateaued around the low 500s.
In this episode, Abbi shares how she turned that around into a success story - in 30 days, she went from the 63rd to a 92nd percentile score! π
As you know, Abbi worked 1:1 with an MCAT Mastery Mentor and used the strategies that are now available in our self-paced courses!
Here's what she had to say about her experience with us:
"MCAT Mastery was honestly the best resource I found for studying for the test. Lots of companies have content resources, but MCAT Mastery's guides helped me so much with strategy and my overall mindset! I also really appreciate how affordable the tools are! I bought a few guides from the company, and then ultimately decided I would benefit from the one on one tutoring. My tutor was so helpful! He helped me with my weekly study schedules and helped me solidify my strategies for each section. What I really appreciate about this company is that they provide so much help for students outside of content review. They also make sure to let students know that there is no single way to take the test that is better than another. They encourage students to find a strategy that works for them, but provide so many helpful tips and ideas. I have recommended this company to all of my pre-med friends and will continue to do so!"
Abbi decided on tutoring a month before her test day. Does that mean you should wait that long too, before you invest in getting help from previous top scorers before you?
Not at all! The sooner you start studying the right way with the right strategies, the higher your score will be on test day π
You can sign up to work with one of us here: https://mcatmastery.net/mcat-tutors/ π€
You can enroll in our MCAT Strategy Courses here: https://mcatmastery.net/mcat-strategy-courses/ π©βπ»
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. Weβre here to make sure of that!
Everyone, I'm Monica and welcome back to another MCAT Master Interview. In this series, we basically just sit down with MCAT top scores so we can find out what strategies are helping them the most on their journeys and kind of pass those rhythms and tips on to you so that you can make it through your own. So many students struggle with the MCAT, but that doesn't mean they can't find a way to achieve their dream score, so we want to show you how top scores are doing it so that you can do it too. And with that, I'd like to introduce you all to Abby Schrontz. Abby, welcome to the series and thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Yeah, of course. We're literally so excited to hear your journey and everything. But before we get started, we also just wanted to give our listeners a little bit more information about your background and everything. So basically, as Abby went through her prep, she found herself overwhelmed by the exam and by the prospect of raising her score to a competitive level. Like so many of us, she found herself struggling with simple mistakes and approach to questions. And although she did thoroughly review content, her scores plateaued around the low five hundreds, which is a common place for students to level off. And she knew she needed to turn her focus to practice and strategy instead. At that point, with only a month left before her exam, she reached out to us for help and with her tutor's help and her own perseverance and hard work, she was able to raise her score to a five sixteen by her test state. That was even one point higher than her five fifteen score goal, which must have been so rewarding. So overall, in just under 30 days, Abigail was able to raise her score by thirteen points from the sixty third percentile score to a ninety second percentile score, which is amazing. So basically in this interview, we're just going to launch into understanding exactly how she achieved this, focusing on how she studied what she did to increase her score so quickly, how she scheduled her prep and what strategy she used for each section and so much more as well. So with all of that, I'm going to stop talking now. Abby, why don't you start off just by telling our listeners a little bit more about you before we get into the end cap. OK, great. So I am a junior at the University of Georgia and my major is exercise and sports science. I've always planned on being pre-med. I started out as a biochemistry major and then switched over to exercise and sports science just because it was a little bit more of a hands-on learning environment for me. So not the typical pre-med major, but I've been loving it so far. And I also work two jobs while I'm at school. So full-time student working two jobs. And then I was studying for the end cap, too. Wow, that's a lot to balance. Even just one job on top of the end cap is a lot. So I can imagine that must have been really stressful. Are your jobs related to exercise science? Are they working with the sports teams or something? No, not at all. Oh, sorry. No, no, you're so fine. I basically just picked whatever jobs would help me pay my tuition the quickest. So I wait tables and I'm a bartender at a restaurant. And then my favorite job is I'm a tour guide at the University of Georgia. So that's definitely the more fun job. And I love it. So I'm kind of a representative of the university in that sense. So that's been great. And just waiting tables to pay tuition. No, honestly, you got to pay the tuition somehow. So and all those jobs sound really social and really rewarding at the same time. So that's really cool. You kind of mentioned this already, but, you know, you're on the pre-med path, so what made you want to become a doctor in the first place? Honestly, there's no specific reasoning. Ever since I was a kid, I was completely set on being a doctor. And it really shocked my family because no one in my family is a doctor. My grandma was a nurse, but had retired by the time I was born. So there's really no reason for me being so interested in the medical field. But I was just really drawn to it from a young age. I originally thought I wanted to be a dentist, but I think around the age of six, I was like, no, I'll be a doctor. And I've stuck with becoming a doctor all the way up until now. My ideas for specialty have kind of changed a little bit, but I've always always wanted to be a doctor. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you just know, and there's no specific event that kind of triggered that. And I think it's really cool that there's no one in your family either. Like you'd be the first person to take that path, which can be really difficult sometimes. So it's really awesome that you persevered through all of that and stuck with it and still determined to do this path. And you're almost to the application part, which is the fun part. Moving on to the MCAT itself, kind of talking about this journey. The MCAT can be a really big obstacle for a lot of people. So at the beginning of your MCAT journey, like, how were you feeling about the exam going into it? And just like, where were you in your life at the time? So I started studying the day after I finished up my fall finals. So I finished my finals in mid December. And then the next day, I just dove right into studying. And I was honestly pretty excited to start studying not because I was excited for the MCAT, but just because I was really determined and just excited to see like what I knew already and what else I had to learn. That excitement wore away pretty quickly, but at least I went into it really excited. And then from there, it was obviously my Christmas break, but I was spending 12 to 14 hours each day just doing content review. I was trying to finish it all up before I went back to school in January. And I got a good chunk of it done, but I went back to school and I was going back to my two jobs. And obviously I was about to start a new semester. And I was a full time student during the semester, but it was a lot lighter than any of the other semesters I'd had before. I'd set it up that way because I knew I would be studying for the MCAT. So I had three academic classes with a couple of labs. And then I was also doing research during this time. So full time student, but lighter schedule. And then I decided a couple of weeks into my studying that I was going to take time off from one of my jobs. So I moved down to just working one job and then studying for the MCAT. And then starting up my classes in January. Right. Yeah, that's still a lot to balance, even though it is like less than normal. But some people dedicate full time studying like they're not doing anything else. So, you know, having other things going on, it can be difficult to balance sometimes. So that being said, when you began studying as well, did you have like a certain score goal in mind that you were kind of working towards? If so, what made you come up with that score in particular? Yeah, so when I was first starting out this process, I honestly did not know much about it at all. I practically knew nothing about the test itself. And I just heard that, you know, around a five oh nine is what I should be shooting for. I heard that that was the average for a student that was accepted into medical school. So I was just shooting for around 10 mark. But then as I started studying a little bit more and looking into the schools I wanted to apply to, I realized that five oh nine was a little bit low. Even five 10 was a little bit low, especially for the schools I was looking at. I plan to go out of state. So I knew that a five 10 wasn't going to be quite high enough. So I jumped my go up to five 15. And then actually listening to one of these interviews, someone recommended set your goal higher than you would even imagine when you're studying. So I kind of bumped my goal up back to five 20 again. I don't really think this was realistic per se, but I wanted to aim high. And you know, if I didn't get five 20, not the end of the world, but definitely baseline score, I was really hoping for above the five 15. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I think Amy, Amy high is good. And if you aim high, that means that you are being ambitious and determined rather than expecting yourself to score lower than you actually want. So yeah, I say go for it. So with that score, go on mind. How did you go about starting to plan your study schedule? Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't really know much about the MCAT. I didn't really have any friends that had taken it. So I spent pretty much all of November in my free time just watching YouTube videos of people talking about their MCAT studying experience and so from I kind of took how I study best as a student and kind of tried to make my schedule in that sense. So when I first set it up, my first month was supposed to be all content review, reading the Kaplan textbooks, taking notes off of them. And then my second month was going to be reviewing some of the Anki decks that you can find online. I bought the You World question pack. So I was going to go through some of those or I was going to try and go through all of those questions and then also work on some third party tests during that second month. And so basically I had it set up. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I would do all of this Anki review and then practice questions on You World. And then on Friday afternoon, I would take a full practice test because my test was supposed to start at three o'clock on Friday. And then I would spend Saturday reviewing that test. And then I plan for a day off on Sunday. My day off on Sunday usually did not happen. I usually didn't end up finishing all of my test review on that Saturday because I was going to the test so thoroughly. So it would usually get pushed into Sunday as well. And then I would end up doing some sort of schoolwork on that Sunday as well for my classes. So I really didn't get a day off. So that month was a little rough and then for the third party test that I took during that month, I took three Kaplan tests and then one blueprint test. And then I took the first full length double AMC test during that month as well. And then I plan for my third month to be all of the rest of the AMC material. And I ended up pushing back my test. I was supposed to take it March 26th and then I started to stress out a few weeks before that and pushed it back until April 10th. So it was really only an extra two weeks, but that really helped me. It gave me an extra two weeks to work on the AMC material. So it was really like a month and a half with AMC material. And that was my schedule. Obviously it got shifted a lot. Life happens and I had to learn to be flexible, which was not that fun for me. But, you know, I got through stuff. But yeah, my schedule definitely changed a lot. But going into it, that is what I had planned out. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like it was really smart of you to look into those YouTube videos beforehand as well, because I feel like some students just kind of start and then they're already halfway through and they're like, oh, no, I'm looking at these YouTube videos now and I've already lost half my time and I'm going to try and backtrack. So, you know, if you're starting your journey, like doing research beforehand can never hurt you. So I think that's really cool. And it sounds like you also have this transition as well from content into practice, which is something that we hear a lot from top scores in these interviews is how they balance like that content and practice those two different pieces of MCAT prep and, you know, where you go from there. So I feel like that was also just like a really cool way to balance your prep as well. Though it does sound like that first month was really tough without the breaks. Building off of that, what did you do to like keep yourself from burning out during that period, because you weren't getting like that many breaks and that can be really tough for some students. So I'm just like wondering about that. Yeah. So I've always been someone that will just study for 12 hours a day. And that's been the normal for me throughout all of undergrad. And honestly, I would do it in high school too. All day on the weekends, I would be doing, you know, 10 plus hours of homework. So I was very used to that level of studying, I guess. But for me, the burnout came more towards the later end of my studying. And it wasn't a motivational burnout per se, but my brain just got tired. And so I was still putting in all of this time and I was spending the time studying, but I just found myself making so many mistakes. And I was just having a really hard time focusing. And I just wasn't studying efficiently because I was so burnt out, but I was so motivated to keep studying. But my brain just did not get the memo, I guess. And so that was really frustrating for me because I was like, I'm putting in all of this time and I'm missing these questions that I should never miss, like very, very basic concepts. And I just found myself in the moment getting lost in passages. So that was very frustrating for me because I felt like I was putting the work in and my scores were getting worse. So that was very frustrating. So I learned during that peak burnout time, that's when I really started to work on mindfulness and also just giving myself a break. I really put my life on hold for the MCAT. I dropped everything. I'd never hung out with my friends. I even stopped working out and I literally just lived and breathed the MCAT. So to kind of fight the burnout, I tried to get my life back to normal, even just a little bit. So I was trying to work out again. I'd go walk on the treadmill in my apartment and like go through Quizlet decks. If I was really feeling stressed out, but like trying to give myself time to breathe outside of the MCAT, just because it was so consuming in my life. So I was trying to give myself some space from it, but I really struggled with any sort of guilt. I hated wasting time. So even if I was just taking an hour or two for myself in the back of my head the whole time, I felt guilty about it. So it was really a process for me to tell myself that I need this break. It's good for me. This will actually help my score. And you know, telling myself that I did not need to be studying 12 hours a day, 60 to 70 hours a week for this test. So it was more of just a mindset shift for me. Yeah, definitely. And I feel like in those periods where you're like, I just need to be studying for the MCAT right now. And I'm stressed if I do literally anything else. I totally relate to that. And I think, you know, when you do then sit down to study for the MCAT. You're just kind of there and you're counting not a study time and you don't feel guilty, but it's like, is this actually quality studying at the same time too? Because you're so burnt out and like isolated and all this stuff. So maybe that studying isn't even that quality anymore either. So I think all of those like taking time for yourself, working out, all of that just seems so important and can make a huge difference to what you're studying habits in some cases, too. So yeah, thanks for expanding on all of that. Burnout is like a huge thing. So I always like to hear about it. So kind of off of that, I'm not sure if that burnout was like your biggest struggle, but was there anything else that you kind of felt was a huge challenge during your MCAT prep and how did you overcome it as a challenge? It was really hard for me because I do have a high GPA. So I felt a lot of pressure for my MCAT score to be as high as my GPA in the sense of competitiveness for applications because I didn't want to have, you know, super high GPA and then a lower MCAT score. I didn't want to give the schools any reason for concern with me. So I felt a lot of pressure in that sense. So I guess the biggest problem for me was just a lack of confidence going throughout. I really like the pressure get to me and it's really hard not to lose your confidence throughout this process. I found myself reading stories on Reddit of people who every single practice test they scored a five, 24 above and that was really frustrating for me. I was like, how is that even possible? Honestly, I've worked so hard in my undergrad classes and my GPA is high. So I should be able to, you know, keep up with this MCAT stuff. I should be scoring that high, but just like giving myself the space to breathe and giving myself grace throughout the process and also just working on my confidence telling myself, you know, you've put in the time like you have all the resources available to you. You have everything you need to be successful in this test. You just have to do it basically. So that was hard for me to get my mindset right about the test. And instead of seeing it as like a hurdle to get through, I started to see it as a way to prove myself to these schools and to show these schools that I would make a great doctor as opposed to like, oh, my God, I have to get through the MCAT, like I have to do well. I viewed it as a chance for me to show them that I would be a good doctor. Yeah, that's such a powerful journey to go on. I feel like at the beginning of this process, pre-med students are the ones primarily going through this process. And pre-med students are some of the most stressed out, pressured students that there are. And they put like, you know, I can say this from experience, so can you. As these students, you put so much worth and confidence in all of this stuff into academics and performance. And then you get to the MCAT and you have to fail before you can do well kind of thing. Like you're getting horrors and it's really hard to reconcile that, I think, for a lot of students. And then once you lose that confidence, you also start, you keep performing well then. It's like a cycle almost. Yeah, getting out of that is probably the point of the whole thing, to be honest. But also it's really tough. So it's super awesome that you were able to do that. And like, able to talk about it now, like recognizing that that happened and why it was important is so awesome as well. But eventually at some point for tutoring with us, which is also like kind of the point of our tutoring is kind of along the same lines. Like we focus a lot on mindset, we focus a lot on strategies and helping students become more confident and get a hold of this journey that's kind of throwing them for a loop, you know, kind of things. So what made you want to pursue tutoring and how was it as a journey of tutoring with us? Yeah, so I basically found you guys late in the process. And so I found all this information online and then I saw that you guys also did tutoring and it took me a few days to think about it. And I was like, do I need tutoring? I don't know. But then I thought about it and I'm like, I really only want to take this test one time. You know, what can it hurt? Like having someone who has been through this test recently and has obviously done well. Like what could it hurt hearing about their experience and having them help me? So I signed up for it. And at that point, there was nothing I was specifically struggling with. It was more just like general strategy issues. And I was getting really, really caught up in all of the little details. So Eli helped me a lot with seeing big picture things to like specifically during the chem and physics section. I was going through each passage, reading every single sentence. And if I didn't understand one thing that was going on, I would get really stressed out and I'm like, I don't know. Am I missing something? Should I be understanding every single one of these passages in such a deep level? And Eli was like, OK, Abby, take a deep breath, read through the passage and then look at the questions because chances are you don't need to know every single thing in the passage to be able to answer these questions. He's like, most of these questions are coming from background knowledge in combination with like this single sentence in the passage. He's like, you don't have to understand everything. Just understand it enough to answer the questions. So that was a really big mindset shift for me instead of trying to understand every single thing, just being able to understand enough to answer the questions. So he really helped me see that. He helped me come up with strategies for just attacking these passages. I said earlier, I got really overwhelmed by all the little details. So he really helped me take a step back from that. And he helped me a lot with my mindset in general. He was like, how are you doing? Like, actually, how is this process going for you? And he helped me a lot with my testing anxiety. I'm not someone that has testing anxiety by any means in my undergrad experience. And I really feeling any until like the middle of March. So at that point, I was two or three weeks out from my original March testing date. And I was like, Eli, I'm like, I'm missing questions. I shouldn't be I'm tired. I'm getting stressed out. But what should I do? And he really helped me make the decision to push my test back. And I did not plan on pushing my test back when I had originally started studying. So I felt a little guilty about that. And he's like, Abby, no, like, it's fine. Take a deep breath. You're still taking it with plenty of time before you apply. So he really encouraged me in that sense. And then once we decided to push my test back, he helps me a lot with getting my mind right. And I had a few extra weeks. He's like, let's spend that time. Like, let's help you get refreshed in the sense. Like, let's take a breather and then we'll go back through the things that you're struggling with. And he also was really helpful in making a schedule. I am a big schedule girl. I had everything planned out. But as it got closer to my test, I was like, OK, well, what should I actually be doing? None of my studying had really been efficient or super helpful at that point. So he really helped me, you know, with what time I had left. He's like, how can we make the most of this? So he really helped me make a schedule that I thought was way more efficient than anything I had made for myself earlier. He gave me a lot of advice from his studying experience and what he did, you know, in the last month before his test in the last two weeks in the last week before his test. So that was really helpful. And honestly, just to have someone to bounce ideas off of and like, OK, well, should I try this new strategy? Should I not? Should I do more practice in this area? Should I not? So for me, Eli was more of just a sounding board than anything else really in this experience, and that's just what I needed. I wasn't necessarily struggling with the content review, but I just needed someone to help me with my mindset and figuring out strategies and figuring out how to make the most of the time I had left before my test. Yeah. And those are all really difficult things to do. So, yeah, like you said, even just having somebody to talk to about it, who understands and who has done it and been successful in it is just a really powerful thing. So all of that stuff. And like you said, a lot of it's not related to content. It's related to these other things that maybe like a lot of students don't think about at the beginning of their prep. And then once you start seeing where you're at, you're kind of like, maybe I should consider some of these other things. So, yeah, that's really, really awesome. Eli is great. He also has one of these interviews that's really fun. So definitely check that out if you haven't. But yeah, he's great. And we're glad that you had such a good experience with him. So going back to more generally of your prep. So we've already talked about things that you've done that you thought were good. And was there anything that you did that you kind of wish you hadn't done during your prep? Yeah, honestly, I think about this all the time. I'm like, I wish I could go back and restudy for the end, Kat, knowing what I know now. That's how I think about it in my head. But then I'm like, oh, my God, I do not want to do this again. But there's just been so many things that I've learned and things that I would change. The biggest thing would be my first month of testing. I did not study efficiently. I mentioned earlier that I was reading the Kaplan textbooks for 12 to 14 hours a day and taking super, super thorough notes. And, you know, that was that was not great at the time. I was exhausted and it really didn't help me that much with content. And I was just so overwhelmed by all the little details. And I missed out on a lot of big topic issues. So that was not good for me. And I was scrolling through TikTok a few weeks after after I finished reading all these Kaplan books. And of course, I was on MCAT TikTok and this guy came on there. He was like, OK, here's what you need to do for content. He's like skim through a Kaplan chapter and then pull up the Anki Deck online and figure out which chapter correlates with the note cards and then look through these note cards and figure out what the main two are in that chapter. Figure out what you should memorize from that chapter. And that would have saved me literally so much time. Would have saved me a huge headache because I found myself missing the details that were important and spending so much time trying to memorize things that absolutely were not important at all. So if I could go back, I would have just, you know, skimmed a chapter then looked at the Anki Deck. And then from there, you already have this Anki Deck available to you. So it's super easy to go back and review this content instead of just reading these notes that you've spent hours and hours writing for yourself. It's so much easier just to work through the Anki Decks. And they basically have all the information you could need from these textbooks. So I was just spending too much time on reading these textbooks when I had tools available to me that would have saved me a lot of time. So that was a big issue for me. And I think that kind of contributed to my burnout because I was spending so much time on it. And then my second month of studying was honestly not productive at all. If I could go back during that time, that's when I would have spent more time reviewing the Anki Decks. None of that material would have been new to me at that point. And I could have just reviewed that and that would have helped me review my content a lot more. And then I would have spent some more time working through the You World question bank. I ended up only doing about a hundred problems from the bank just because I ran out of time. I was spending a lot of time reviewing content that just wasn't beneficial to me during that second month. So I really didn't accomplish much other than taking these third party tests. And honestly, I took too many third party tests. What I would recommend is I took one Kaplan test and then I took one Blueprint test the next week. And I think those were great for me just to practice, you know, sitting down, taking a full test, getting in that mindset without, you know, going into the AMC material too much, but just being able to practice taking a test. And then after those two tests is when I took my first full length AMC test, which I think that was a good setup in my mind for me personally. But then after that first full length, I took two more Kaplan tests. And I think those two tests were a waste of my time because first of all, I spent two days taking those tests. But then I spent another two or maybe three or four days just reviewing those tests. So it took up a lot of time and it definitely was not the most efficient. But I definitely think that taking one Kaplan, taking one Blueprint was good for me just to practice to kind of see what the test would be like before moving into the more valuable AMC material. Right, definitely. Just like using time more efficiently in general, sounds like a big theme there, especially with content review in the beginning too. Because I do think a lot of students spend a lot of time doing similar things to what you were saying, like taking really, really, really, really detailed notes. And sometimes that's not the most efficient way, but it can be for some people. But just knowing how to use that time more effectively and with practice too, that was a good point. So thanks for expanding all of that. It sounds like you reflected a lot on that stuff, which is good. So on the opposite strand, you increased your score really quickly, which is super impressive. So if like a student was listening to this and they wanted to increase their score kind of like you did, what strategies do you think helped you the most to do that? If you haven't mentioned them already. Yeah, honestly, the biggest thing for me was staying calm. They really like to throw hard questions at you to see how you react. When I was going through and reviewing my tests, I could see a pattern of, you know, I would have four or five questions in a row that were just really tough and, you know, obviously I would struggle during those questions. And then after those questions for the rest of the test, you could just tell that I was flustered. And like, even during a few of my practices, I would start crying if I just felt like completely discouraged from a couple of passages in a row. So for me being able to stay calm during those times of like, OK, well, I honestly have no idea what this passage is even saying. And, you know, once the passage is over, let it be over, leave it in the past and don't carry that anxiety on with you. Because when I did, that's when I started making a lot of silly mistakes. I was too flustered to, you know, approach the passages with a good mindset. So being able to learn that there are hard questions on the MCAT and you're not going to know everything and that's OK. And if you don't know a question, just forget about it and move on. It took me a while to learn to move on from those kind of things. But once I did, that's when I really saw a big jump in my scores instead of, you know, stressing about every single question, just making the most out of the questions I did have left. That helped me a lot. Yeah, that's a great point. And I feel like that goes back to the whole confidence mental toughness thing, like being confident and like being able to just like move on and stay calm. They will put stuff on there to trip you up. It's just going to happen. It's the point of the exam pretty much. Yeah, yeah, I think that's great advice and super helpful for students. Yeah, so I guess now launching into each of the specific sections now. So your high score was a 130 in Kevin Fizz, and that's super impressive. A lot of students actually struggle with this section. Like when they're signing up for tutoring and stuff like that. So how did you go about studying for this section specifically? And do you have any advice, I guess, for students that are struggling? Yeah, so going into the MCAT studying, chemistry has just always been my strongest subject. And so I really wasn't that worried about this section specifically and throughout all of my practicing throughout all of my practice tests, the Kevin Fizz section was pretty consistently my highest score. Which I know is not typical for people taking the test. But the biggest thing that I learned and how I improved was once again, the staying calm. They definitely during this section, I hear a lot of my peers say that this is the section where they really try and stump you or they really try and make you feel discouraged before like moving on to the rest of the sections and that they make it really hard just to test, you know, your mental toughness. So for me, I just worked on staying calm, knowing that there are going to be really hard questions in the section that I just truthfully do not know how to answer, even though I feel really, really confident in chemistry. Physics I'm not as great with. But the biggest thing for me was just taking a deep breath and thinking logically and looking at the units for the different answers. That was a big thing for me because I had a really hard time memorizing all of the physics formulas and honestly, that was OK because I didn't need to know most of them as long as I could figure out the units. So I learned that pretty quickly into my studying. So I spent a lot of time just studying the units and learning how to think critically in a situation where you don't know how to approach the question right away, taking a deep breath and thinking about what you do know as opposed to what you don't and using that knowledge to try and figure out some way to analyze the question and find some answer that makes some sort of sense because they definitely try and get you on the little details. And if you can just think logically and think about some of the main topics, the main ideas, I guess, of chemistry, the main principles and then using that knowledge to try and find some answer that makes sense. Process of elimination was also huge in this section. So yeah, that's my best advice on that section is just stay calm and try and think as logically as possible, even if you don't know the answer and have no idea how to answer the question, just take a deep breath and use your knowledge. Exactly. Exactly. That's all you can do, really. That was awesome advice. Chem and fizz can feel so complex sometimes. But yeah, staying calm, again, hugely important for all the sections, but especially that one. So your next high scores were 129s and both psychosocial and bio bio. So let's start with bio bio chem, because I feel like sometimes it's a little bit similar to chem and fizz. So how did you study for that section? And do you have any advice for struggling students again? Yeah, so this section for me was definitely the most. This is where I improved the most with strategy. After I had taken a few full length tests at the beginning, I was like, I have absolutely no idea what's going on in most of these passages still. I don't know how to answer these questions. I don't know, honestly, what's going on. So I had a friend recommend going on YouTube and watching someone walk through a full passage and then answer the questions. So that was really helpful for me just to watch someone break down what was going on in that experiment and what they were manipulating for me. I was getting really caught up in all the different independent variables that were being changed throughout the passage. So just being able to break it up in my mind in that sense was really helpful. And this is where Eli helped me a lot in my tutoring. The strategy I used was, you know, skim read the passage. I didn't have to read everything in super in super deep depth. But I was like, OK, read it and then look at each figure right down the title of it. Look at each axis and try and figure out, you know, how does this figure relate to the passage? What does it tell us without analyzing it so thoroughly? Just figuring out how it, like what information it gives us in general and then move on to the questions. I was spending a lot of time trying to figure out every single detail and wasting a lot of time on this section. So I was cutting it pretty close to finishing every single time. So switching from trying to understand every detail into just reading it and understanding enough to look at the questions. And then if I got to a question where it asks me about a figure specifically, then I could go back to it. You can always go back to the passage, but you can't get time back. And they honestly don't ask you questions on every single figure. So I was spending too much time trying to figure out every figure within the passage, and then they wouldn't even ask me a question on it. So shifting my approach to that section was definitely the biggest for me. And biochemistry is just my weakest subject in general. So it was a lot of content review for that for me. I struggled with biochem so much. So just knowing that that was one of my weaknesses and putting in the time to try and improve that. Yeah, definitely. Again, I feel like those issues are really common and they make a lot of sense because the experiments feel like something that you need to understand and parse out. And it's really hard to let go of that, you know, as the students we've been raised to be just wanting to understand everything. But again, yeah, it's all about efficiency and just getting through and only prioritizing what you need, I guess, which is basically what you already said. So that's awesome. So you also got a 129 and psych-soc as well. So for that section, how did you study there and what advice would you have there? Yeah, so honestly, this section was the hardest for me. And I have not anticipated that when I was originally starting out the process, obviously psych-soc is a lot more memorization than any of the other sections. So I honestly didn't take this section seriously enough in my studying. I was banking on just like last minute memorization of things. And I just ran out of time. I read the Kaplan books and took really thorough notes. But then forgot all of that information. And everyone always says, like, just read the Khan Academy document. And I pushed that off until the last minute. And I was like, oh, I can just read it last minute in the month before my test. Like I'll read it a couple of times in the month before my test. And honestly, walking into that test, I haven't even gone through 50 percent of the Khan Academy document. And my score fluctuated the most in that section throughout all of my study. And so I was really nervous. How I learned the most for that section was honestly just like I reviewed the questions that I did miss a lot. I made quizlets from every single question that I missed throughout my entire studying process, but for psych-soc, it was definitely the easiest to learn from my mistakes. So I learned in that sense, but I didn't have like a true content background for this subject. And that is something if I could go back, I'd redo it. I made it so much more difficult on myself by not just putting in the time early enough to read the Khan Academy document. And then from there, it should have been easier to, you know, learn from my mistakes and feel really confident in that section. I feel like I definitely could have had a higher score in the section if I had studied properly, but I just didn't take it seriously enough. And I banked on my memory to pull me through. So when I saw that I got a 129 on the section, I was honestly so relieved because in the practice test, I took the week before the test. I think I got, I either got a 125 or 126. So walking into this test, I was so nervous. I was like, if my psych-soc score is the only one that's like really low compared to my other ones, that's going to look really bad on me. So I was honestly super relieved that it was a 129 and kind of shocked. So take this section seriously. It's such a good chance to earn a higher score because it is so much memorization as opposed to a lot of the critical analysis of the other sections or the comprehension of the other sections. This is a chance to score really high in that section. And I just didn't, I didn't do that, but it turned out OK. So I'm relieved. But that section I would have studied for completely differently. Yeah, but it's good that you can see that now. I think a lot of people kind of feel the same way about the section. Like it can come back to bite you if you don't take it seriously in some cases. But it sounds like, you know, you've had, you've reflected a lot and you did really well on the section in general. So, you know, no harm done on the section. But that was still a lot of good advice because I do think a lot of students sometimes do just like kind of neglect the section a little bit, which is sad. But yeah. So lastly, moving on to cars. So you got a 128 there, which is also amazing. And again, kind of like Kevin Fizz, cars is another section that students kind of struggle a lot on. So how did you study for this section and what advice would you have here? Yeah, so I let myself get intimidated by cars. I definitely spent way too much time on Kevin Fizz and then the bio biochem sections. And I really neglected psychosocial and then cars as well. I am a big reader. So I guess I was just kind of hoping that that would pull me through. But I did not practice enough on cars. Honestly, I didn't spend the time to come up with a strategy that worked for me. I was trying out a lot of new strategies in kind of the last minutes before the test and by last minutes, I mean, like the last few weeks. So walking into the test, I didn't really have a strategy that I had practiced a lot going into the test. And I was honestly just kind of winging it. So walking out of the test, I was like, I have no idea how cars went, honestly. Early on in my practice, I tried highlighting and that was fine. And then I tried no highlighting at all. And then just reading and answering the questions. And then later on, I was like, OK, well, maybe I'll try taking notes. And I think that strategy would have worked the best for me. I just really needed to practice it more. But the biggest thing for me that helped with cars was your guys's question path, the sections that was so helpful for me to go through and see. Read how someone else would have attacked this passage line by line, reading through it, figuring out what sentence is important in that paragraph and what's not or like I was struggling like if I couldn't understand a sentence or a couple sentences in the passage, I would just read it and read it again and hope like I was just trying to understand it. But after your guys's PDF, I was like, OK, it's really not that important. Like I don't have to understand that those couple of sentences to understand the main idea of the passage. So I was just getting caught up in that. But seeing how the top scores attacked these passages was really helpful for me and at the end of each paragraph. I tried to come up with a short little summary, which was how me to stay engaged throughout the passage, but then also taking the time at the end of the passage and just taking a little bit of time to reflect and try and figure out what's going on. What's the main idea of this passage? I'm a pretty quick reader, so timing wasn't necessarily a big deal for me, but I would read the passage really quick. And then I would struggle to understand what was the point of the passage? What are they trying to tell me? What's the author's tone? All those kind of things I was struggling with. So just taking the time after reading to try and understand it before going into the questions. But I just honestly didn't practice enough and I wish I would have. But I just let it I let it intimidate me earlier on in my studying when I should have been practicing and just facing it head on. Right. Yeah. I mean, the section is intimidating and it's unlike a lot of other things that I feel like a lot of pre-meds have come across just like in their time because we have a lot of science related things and like your major science related. So yeah, I think all of that is totally valid. And again, these are kind of almost mindset things that you can implement in a way that is kind of different than, you know, just sitting down and being like trying to confront this thing that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So yeah, I think all of that was super awesome. Thanks for expanding on all those sections. I know that was a lot to go through. But yeah, so like moving on now to your actual MCAT experience. So on your actual MCAT day, like when you were walking in, how did you feel going in and how was like the rest of the day in general? Yeah. So my test started at three o'clock in the afternoon, which was great for me. I am not a morning person by any means. So I got up that morning, had breakfast, I spent some time meditating, which was not typical for me before this MCAT process, but I found it to be a great way just to relax. So I spent some time doing that in the morning just trying to get my mindset right. But I honestly was just ready for this process to be done. I was more I was more so tired than I was anxious. And at that point, I just really try to tell myself the week before the test. I was like, OK, I've done everything I can do. There's nothing else I can do in this last week that's really going to help me that much. So like just be calm and know that like you've done what you can. And like now you just have to take the test and do it and be done with it. So I was just ready to be done with it more than being anxious. I mean, obviously I was nervous. I was I was sweating, but I was ready to be done. And just telling myself a big thing for me in the last month before the test was just telling myself that I could do it. And I would listen to affirmations like literally on Spotify. I just searched that like affirmations or sleep affirmations. So any free time I had in the month before the test, I would just put in my AirPods and listen to someone else tell me that I'm capable and I'm successful and I can do it. So I think hearing that in my head on constant repeat for a month really helped me before the test. So before I went into the test, I just sat in my car and I was like, OK, you know what, I'm smart. I'm going to make a great doctor. I just have to take this test and like that's it for me. Like I'm going to go into medical school. I'm going to score a five twenty eight on this test. All those kind of things were going through my head. So I'll need to stay calm and feel somewhat confident going into the test. But I was expecting to be a lot more nervous than I was. So I was kind of relieved about that. Yeah, yeah, confidence is not going to hurt you at all on this day. So, yeah, that's awesome that you're able to like foster that feeling of like rallying before your exam. That's awesome. So as you were walking out then, so you did your exam, you were done. How was it waiting for your score to come back? Yeah, so after I finished the test, I felt pretty confident in chem and physics and then the bio bio can just because, you know, I spent the most time on that section and that was the easiest for me to gauge how I really did. I'm not going to lie. I was nervous about cars and I was super nervous about psych and so. But I just kept telling myself, I'm like, OK, well, there's nothing I can do now. Honestly, like I've done what I can. But in the back of my head, I'm someone who likes to have a backup plan. And so I looked at future test dates and I was like, OK, so, you know, worst case scenario, my score comes back and I get a 480, I don't know. And so I was like, OK, so what what would be my next steps? So then I was like, OK, well, I could take a test in late July and still apply for the cycle. So just having a backup plan in my head helped me a lot, even though, you know, I didn't end up meeting the backup plan. But just to have that plan in the back of my mind brought me a lot of peace in the month before my test came out. I honestly didn't think about the MCAT in that month. I rarely thought about my score and I really didn't even start to stress about my score until the day or two before my scores came out. But in the meantime, you know, I was finishing up my classes. I had finals to take. My life definitely was not on hold during that time. So I think that helped distract me a little bit. But I was a lot less anxious in that month than I had expected. And I really didn't even think about it until like the night before my scores came out. So I was pretty relieved. But I knew that I had done everything I possibly could in stressing during that month wasn't going to change my scores. So I just try to keep telling myself that. No, definitely. No, I completely agree. And I think having your mind on other things is a completely healthy way to cope. And like even that kind of pre thing where you were thinking, like it wouldn't be that bad if I did go about it again, but also at the same time, like you don't want to. But just like being OK with that is really an awesome thing to do as well while you're waiting. But all of that being said, eventually when you did get your score, what was that like seeing that you'd gotten a 516 on the exam? Yeah. So that morning I mentioned that I go to school at the University of Georgia, but I live on the West Coast. So I'm back home right now and I had finals to take online. And my final started at five a.m. that day. So I was taking finals from five a.m. until like noon this year. And so after I finished my finals, I didn't expect my scores to come out until five p.m. Eastern time. So I was like, oh, OK, I have a few hours to kill. I expected them to be released like right at five o'clock Eastern time. I have no clue what to expect. So I finished up my test. I went and got in the shower and I was like, you know, maybe they released them early, I don't know. So I just kind of showered and I was thinking, I'm like, yeah, maybe I'll just check. So I was sitting there in my bathroom in my towel. And I was like, yeah, whatever. I'll just log into my account on my phone and see. So I get on there and it says, you know, the April 10th score report like click on your scores. So I clicked on it and I was not expecting to see my scores at all. I was expecting it to be like, OK, we'll check back in a few hours or whatever. So then it popped up and it said 516. And I was like, hold on. It was just like, I don't it didn't set in for me. And honestly, it was pretty anticlimactic, like the whole thing. It just didn't really seem real. And it still doesn't really seem that real to me. Look, I'm super happy with my scores, but it really hasn't been as big of a deal as I expected it to be. I think my mom was more anxious and excited than I was. I was kind of just like, you know what? This test has had too much power over my life. Like I'm not going to let my score affect me that much. So that was kind of my mindset going into it. So I think, you know, when I did have a positive score, I didn't have as extreme as a reaction as I expected. I was happy, but I was just honestly glad that I didn't have to take the test again. And that was pretty much it. It was just a relief more so than like me being extremely happy. Right. No, I think that's completely valid, too, at the same time. And it's almost like awesome that you were kind of just like, yes, this is great. It's not this huge thing anymore, like it's in the past. But I am really happy that I've turned up to take it again. Because I do. I feel like that's a huge part of it is you're done now. Officially, which must be an awesome feeling. So going forward now, I guess now that you are done with the MCAT, what comes next? Are you planning to apply in this cycle or next cycle? So I am applying in this cycle. So I have about 10 days left to finish my personal statement, get my transcripts in order and work on everything that the application entails. And so I've honestly been just spending my time doing that. And also trying to figure out where I want to apply. That has been that's been a process for me. So I've just been working on that, but I do plan on applying this cycle. And I'm really hoping just to go straight into medical school after I graduate in the spring of 2022. So that's the goal. We'll see how that goes. But in the meantime, I've just been working on my applications. Yeah, that's so exciting. You're now into the like exciting part where you actually get to start transitioning into medical school after the MCAT. So that's super awesome. Good luck with all of your applications and everything, too. We know that can be like kind of stressful as well. But again, once you, you know, get through this portion or start doing this or whatever, then you get to go to medical school and then you're practicing. So getting really, really close to the goal. But yeah, I think that was all the questions that I had for you. But I guess before we end here, do you have any like final thoughts? I guess for students who might be listening to this and are feeling discouraged about their MCAT final negative advice for them? Yeah, the biggest thing is like, give yourself a break. If you feel like you need to take three or four days off of studying, that's OK. And those three or four days are not going to make a difference in your score per se. They're not going to hurt your score, but they could definitely help it. If those three or four days help you feel relaxed, help you feel more confident going into the test, or even if they just help clear your mind a little bit, those three or four days are not going to hurt your score at all. But going into the test with a positive mindset absolutely can help you. So don't get caught up in studying for 60, 70 hours a week like I did, but like actually take the time to take care of yourself as well, because that is honestly more important than studying any last minute content review. If you take care of yourself going into the test, you're going to feel a lot better. So that's the best advice I can give is be kind to yourself and know when you need a break. Yes, I could not agree more. Yeah, take a break. If you're listening to this, take a break. Yeah, be kind to yourself. That was awesome. Well, thank you so much, Abby, for like sitting down and walking us through your journey and good luck with everything going forward with your applications and just with medical school in general. It's also exciting. Thank you so much. Yeah. And finally, from Abby and I, good luck to all you guys that are studying out there again. Remember to take breaks, take care of yourself and good luck with your exams. Good luck. Hey, 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 MCAT Mastery dot 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 kind of look at your situation and help you identify exactly what's holding your score back, you can look into that too at MCAT Mastery dot net slash MCAT 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.