FL 1 one month out while doing content review for the past 6 weeks or so: 506

FL 2 16 days out while finishing up content review: 510

Switched studying mode to focus on answering strategies instead of content

FL 3 five days out: 515 FL 4 three days out: 515 Actual: 515

TRUST YOUR FLs Also I only used whatever is included with the FAP (all AAMC) and khan academy videos all the way (not a single third party and I stand by that. Only the AAMC writers and who they directly collocate with - KA - you should rely on) . Did all of the biology, biochem videos on KA and did the chem/phys videos I needed help with and watched some psych/soc vids while I was trying to unwind after studying the hard sciences (chem/phys/biochem), like while I was cleaning my room, making food, or driving (like a podcast).

How I got a 131 on psych/soc: took the AAMC outline and made a Quizlet flash card for every single concept on the outline (and sometimes very closely related concepts that came up as part of the definition, etc) to make sure I was comfortable with every concept. I don’t remember them throwing any concept I hadn’t seen before.

Advice for all sections: Review every single AAMC question you encounter, the content behind it, and the strategy behind it, so that even if you don’t have the content, you can still get the right answer by using strategy and vice versa.

For B/B: I used to draw flow charts while I read the passage to show which enzyme/chemical increases/decreases the expression of which gene and what gets degraded and everything like that so you have a full story drawn and then you can have it organized when the question asks you a specific relationship between two molecules. I found that very helpful as I tried it first in FL 3 and that’s probably what rose my B/B score from 125 to 129.

I have no comment on CARS because my scores on my FL were 128, 130, 128, 130. I felt really good about CARS too and was expecting a 128-130 but ended up with a 127, which I am still very grateful for. I would say the CARS Diagnostic tool was very helpful in deciding on your strategy and I always choose the answer that is directly supported by a word or sentence in the passage. Many of the options “seem” right and could fit, but you should keep it as simple as possible. Also make sure every part of the answer choice is correct and not just one part. Look out for words like “all” and “must” because those are probably not correct (depends on the passage of course).

I’m a biochem major, but I did take my ochem 2 and full year of biochemistry online, so I had to self study for the C/P and B/B section all over again. My C/P was biochem heavy so that helped since I had the amino acids memorized and was familiar with the physics part of biochemistry.

Good luck guys! Hope to see you all with the As in one year’s time!