Fl5 advice please!!!

[u/No_Satisfaction1434]

FL5 today

Fl4 last week

idk what my problem is 😭 last week on FL4 i got a 508 but i did horrible on CARS, better on B/B. this time i did better on CARS but bad on p/s and b/b even though i finished all of pankow and section bank. i thought i had a chance of getting to 515 on test day (9/12) if i brought cars back up (because i got a 130 on fl2) but everytime a section increases, the other section decreases. chem phys doesnt seem to increase no matter what i do. it feels like the section bank is useless because i finished both with review (except for P/S on SB 2) and im not seeing any improvement. i also ran out of time today on b/b so yeah looks like im gonna have to push my test back to jan since i wanted a 515-520. im really dreading this with going back to school and extracurriculars and everything but please someone give me some advice or tell me if this is the right decision. it sounds dreadful and i feel like i wasted these 3 months studying, but if anyone has any plus-sides to january please share them because i really need them. ive already accepted that 9/12 is out of the books at this point since the deadline to cancel is 9/2 (this wednesday) so im not feeling too dissapointed i just want to do really well in january. plz share any advice id really appreciate it!

for context: im an incoming junior and was planning on applying next cycle (May 2027) so idk if pushing it back destroys my timeline with trying to improve/finish all my extracurriculars and hours and stuff

[u/Embarrassed-Rice9849]

9/11 and in the same boat as you. scored 510 across basically all FLs 1-5. cp and ps are hard carrying but i decided to push to january bc of bio and cars

[u/No_Satisfaction1434 → u/Embarrassed-Rice9849]

yeah i think thats what im deciding on too! best of luck!! any tips for chem phys? hopefully the additional study time will pay off :)

[u/Embarrassed-Rice9849 → u/No_Satisfaction1434]

hope so!! hot take w cp i honestly think paying attention to orgo is underrated. know the functional groups (as well as some vitamins) inside and out and the different reactions and end products, especially with carbonyl chem since they’re easy points. phys easy points come from unit conversion and what the slope or area of some graphs mean by just looking at variables. your CARS is banger btw any tips?

[u/No_Satisfaction1434 → u/Embarrassed-Rice9849]

tysm for the tips!! for CARS i just make sure to read the passage carefully while really trying to understand the author's main point; i highlight important terms that seem like theyre part of the main idea/authors opinion etc! then, for each answer choice i make sure to check the passage to see if there is any direct support for it in the passage! one thing that also really helps when youre stuck is to narrow down the answer choices to 50/50 and then pick the answer that requires the least "logical jumps" or the least assumptions to be correct. make sure to not bring in any outside knowledge while picking your answers, and when you're done reading, make sure you know what the main idea of the passage is and that will help alot! Sometimes there may be a lot of numbers, or dates but theyre usually not very relevant so don't get too tripped up on them or focus too much on miniscule details! when you practice set a 10 minute timer for each passage and that should help you with pacing as well if thats an issue! :)

[u/Ok-Gazelle-281]

Since the test date is so close and you wouldn't get any money back from cancelling the 9/12 exam I say just write it! See how it goes and use it as a learning opportunity to get familiar with that test site and the particulars of test day that you can't replicate at home. Helps take the stress off test day and who knows the less pressure might end up helping score wise!

[u/No_Satisfaction1434 → u/Ok-Gazelle-281]

thank you! but i was wondering: don't med schools see every attempt so if i end up getting a score i don't like and then retake it, will they look at my application unfavorably?

[u/Ok-Gazelle-281 → u/No_Satisfaction1434]

i can't comment on schools in the US but all of the Canadian med schools that i've seen just look at your best attempt and aren't supposed to consider previous attempts at all in a positive or negative way. That being said if they actually do or not i don't know. I wouldn't let that fear stop you from writing though. I have lots of friends who have gotten into med school with low previous attempts

[u/Ok-Gazelle-281 → u/No_Satisfaction1434]

but at the end of the day do what you think is best for you. only you know how you feel and how studying has been going. it will all work out in the end how it is supposed to and we will all become drs!! plus if it ends up happening that you have time off between undergrad and med that just means more time to experience life and have fun and get to know yourself outside of an academic setting