The FL Review Tool: Leveraging Analytics to Yield Better Insights
- Shipachek
- Jun 18, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 21, 2021
Note: download available on bottom of page. File last updated June 21, 2021 @ 17:15 EST
Hello future physicians!
As you all know, reviewing your FLs is one of the highest-yielding forms of preparation; it allows you to align your content knowledge and test taking strategies with the MCAT mentality while also helping you determine focus areas and next steps to fine-tune your preparation. While preparing for another standardized test a few years back, I had access to a great spreadsheet that really helped my overall preparation. I looked around for something similar for the MCAT and found a Google sheet that was a little too barebones for my needs. That one also only focused on wrong answers, whereas reviewing the "MCAT reasoning" behind all answers (regardless of whether you got them correct) is a great form of practice (not to mention it accounts for flukes and/or questions with an easy trick on which you wasted time using brute force).
Ultimately, I decided to repurpose the previous spreadsheet for the MCAT and am quite happy with the result. With the first iteration, I posted some screenshots on r/MCAT to get some feedback. Since then, I've added some features and improved the usability and am ready to share it with you all.
As with the first version, you just need to enter the Foundational Concept and Topic tested for each question, mark whether you got it correct, and then select the question type. With that, you can also select the type of mistake you performed (irrespective of whether you got the question correctly. The photo below gives an overview of the CARS screen.
As you might have noticed, the graphs on top are a bit different from the previous post; I added a breakdown to better show which portion were correct vs. incorrect for various subcategories. You can see a bit more clearly below for the C/P section.
As for other additions, I added a few summary screens:
If this seems like something that might help you, please feel free to download it and take it for a spin:
Please don't hesitate to share your feedback!
All the best,
-Shipachek