Really disappointed after FL5 score drop — testing 8/21, should I push to 9/3 or later? Please help
I just finished FL5 today and honestly I’m pretty disappointed and unsettled. My exam is 8/21, so I have to decide basically now whether to keep it or push to 9/3. Would really appreciate advice, especially from people who have taken FL5/FL6 or the real exam recently.
My AAMC FLs:
FL2: 514 — 130/127/130/127
FL3: 512 — 129/125/128/130
FL4: 515 — 131/127/130/127
FL5: 512 — 128/126/129/129
I know a 512 is a good score for many people and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but based on my goals I really need 516+ and am aiming for ~518, so seeing another 512 this close to my exam really hurt.
The weirdest part is the skill breakdown.
C/P Skill 2 (Scientific Reasoning):
96% → 85% → 92% → 71% on FL5
B/B Skill 2:
92% → 85% → 92% → 73% on FL5
So I had been around ~90% on science reasoning across FL2–4 and then both sections suddenly tanked on FL5. C/P did feel much more time pressured/calculation heavy to me, but I’m confused about why the drop was that dramatic.
CARS is also strange:
Reasoning Beyond the Text: 68% → 70% → 82% → 86%
Reasoning Within the Text: 93% → 71% → 67% → 63%
On FL5 I somehow got 24/26 social science questions right but only 17/27 humanities. I actually felt like I understood AAMC logic better while taking it, which makes the 126 pretty discouraging.
The one encouraging thing is P/S. I’ve been specifically working on content/term recall, and my Skill 1 went from 70% on FL4 → 86% on FL5, while Skill 2 was 88%, so at least that seems to be improving.
I guess what I’m trying to figure out is:
Did anyone else have a weird Skill 2/science drop specifically on FL5? Did FL6 or your real exam rebound?
For recent testers, do FL5/FL6 feel meaningfully different from FL1–4, especially in C/P and B/B reasoning?
And most importantly, if you were me and 516+ was really important, would you keep 8/21 or take the extra ~2 weeks and move to 9/3?
I’m pretty stressed because I’ve put a ton of work into this and really thought I was starting to understand AAMC better. If anyone had a similar FL5 drop this close to their exam and then improved on FL6/the real thing, please tell me what happened and what you changed.