Practice Tests

Princeton provides a bunch of practice tests for you online. AAMC now offers two, and I would take those closer to your test date because those are most like the real MCAT. In all I took 8 tests, but personally I feel like I would have been fine with 6. Practice tests are 7.5 hours long and exhausting and you definitely don't want to burn yourself out.

• You don't have to follow the Princeton recommended practice test schedule. Theres really no point in taking a practice test 2 weeks into studying because you're just going to get a bad score. Start taking them when you feel comfortable, space it out, create your own schedule for taking tests.
• I scheduled it to take my first test halfway through my course. After that I took about 1 per week, and then after my course ended I took 2 per week, so about 8 tests total. Definitely don't take more than 2 tests per week because you need 2 days to review the test and any material you needed to cover again. I definitely would wait to start taking tests because you need to have the basic background studying done first before you really get a representative score. 
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  MCAT Test	Date Taken	Score
  Princeton Course Test 1	7/19/2015	506
  Princeton Course Test 2	7/30/2015	500
  Princeton Course Test 3	8/1/2015	N/A
  Princeton Course Test 4	8/8/2015	507
  Princeton Course Test 5	8/14/2015	507
  MCAT Complete Test 1	8/17/2015	506
  MCAT Complete Test 2	8/21/2015	508
  MCAT Complete Test 3	8/24/2015	505
  AAMC Practice Test	8/29/2015	~506

• So these were my practice tests and the days I took them. My score never really went up in practice, it just naturally fluctuated up and down. For test 2, I really didn't try that hard and that was a BIG mistake. Because then for test 3, I was so anxious that I got 1 hour through the test and had to leave the library because I thought I was going to start hyperventilating. After that, I got my stuff back together and kept getting the same score. Something to note is that at least last year, Princeton graded you really HARD. For myself and some other people who took the test with me, they got their highest score if not higher on the real thing. I was concerned with my practice scores, but my score jumped up a ton on the real thing. So don't be super discouraged with the practice scores you get. 

• Take the tests as if you were taking the real thing! That means waking up early, packing lunch the night before, taking it on a desktop computer, getting to Powell or wherever as soon as it opens, and taking the test seriously. The second test I took I really didn't try hard at all and got a way lower score. Even though I knew this wasn't representative of my abilities, it still messed with my psyche and lowered my self esteem SO MUCH. Because of that I lost so much confidence in myself and it impacted my following scores. Take it seriously.
• The MOST important part of practice tests are corrections. I would spend the 2 days following the tests going back through ALL the problems and putting them on a google doc along with what I needed to improve in. Its really important to go through even the questions you got right because a lot of times you just guess. Below I posted a sample of my correction sheet and how I formatted it.
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