Advice from 11/07, 12/06, 01/08, 01/10 test takers

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erythrocyte666

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It's clear that these last of the old MCATs are pretty different from what we have encountered on AAMCs. So all those who have recently taken the exam, can you please share your experiences pertaining to the following questions? This might possibly be helpful for the 2015 takers as well.

1. In the hardest science passages, were they hard because they were: hard to understand, long, about alien concepts, or what?

2. Were the questions: pertaining to things deeply buried within the passage, difficult to understand/rephrase, required extremely specific content knowledge, or what? Especially the content aspect: was it specific stuff you needed to know/understand or did it require straightforward knowledge?

3. Were these hardest passages MOST representative of: TBR sciences, Kaplan sciences, TPR sciences, AAMCs?

4. Lastly, upon looking back, what is a good strategy in your opinion for breaking apart these tough passages: Kaplan-type mapping (which includes studying the figures, summarizing each paragraph, identifying purpose of experiment), just skim it, not read at all, or what?

5. (edit) Also, is it worth it to read the abstract/intro and graphs/figures of bio journal articles? Is that recommended for PS as well?

Thanks for the input.

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I cannot say yesterday's PS was hard, I even think some passages are my middle/high school level. I guess most ppl are concerned with BS.
I have a graduate degree with several pubs so my opinion maybe biased. Not my 3 month review process, but my years of struggle in the lab helped me to answer most of the tough questions yesterday. New techniques, complex signaling pathways are difficult and you rarely see these things in your practices materials (even AAMC). It's not surprising b/c most AAMC are more than a decade old. And the techniques you see on AAMC maybe 20+ years old.

I do not know if a good reader can do well in BS. But POE is useful in all MCAT sections. I can't say there is a shortcut.
But I think if you do well in all your practices tests (I mean consistently 11+), you should be fine.
 
I cannot say yesterday's PS was hard, I even think some passages are my middle/high school level. I guess most ppl are concerned with BS.
I have a graduate degree with several pubs so my opinion maybe biased. Not my 3 month review process, but my years of struggle in the lab helped me to answer most of the tough questions yesterday. New techniques, complex signaling pathways are difficult and you rarely see these things in your practices materials (even AAMC). It's not surprising b/c most AAMC are more than a decade old. And the techniques you see on AAMC maybe 20+ years old.

I do not know if a good reader can do well in BS. But POE is useful in all MCAT sections. I can't say there is a shortcut.
But I think if you do well in all your practices tests (I mean consistently 11+), you should be fine.

An 11-12 is a fine score, but it should still be possible and feasible for us undergrads to hit a 13-15, no? I'm just wondering what mindset and what last-minute practice to go in with to at least maximize the possibility of hitting that range. I like the POE for BS idea; it's helped me in the past. Also, do you think it's worth it to read the abstract/intro and figures/graphs of some research articles?
 
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An 11-12 is a fine score, but it should still be possible and feasible for us undergrads to hit a 13-15, no? I'm just wondering what mindset and what last-minute practice to go in with to at least maximize the possibility of hitting that range. I like the POE for BS idea; it's helped me in the past. Also, do you think it's worth it to read the abstract/intro and figures/graphs of some research articles?

I think it'll be about as worth it as reading the New Yorker for verbal. Good, but there are always better things you could be doing to improve your score. At least if you still have problem areas and have material that still needs another look-over.

With that said, if I had to characterize the types of questions I get wrong in BS it is usually laboratory experiment based stuff. It's very easy to get a string of questions wrong if you don't understand what inhibits what and where.

Good thread, OP. I'm very interested in what recent test takers have to say about your questions.
 
I cannot say yesterday's PS was hard, I even think some passages are my middle/high school level.

I'm glad you stated right after that you have a graduate degree with multiple pubs, because you can't be serious when you liken MCAT PS passages to middle school stuff
 
Going to preface this by saying you cannot use the tests of any of these dates to be representative of what might be seen on later January tests. That's just the nature of the beast. But I hope some 11/7ers can chime in with some advice along with me!

1. In the hardest science passages, were they hard because they were: hard to understand, long, about alien concepts, or what?
11/7's test had a lot of convoluted **** in my opinion that had nothing to do with what they were asking you. The 11/7 PS section wanted you to cut through the crap and look at the basic science concepts that were being tested. Chances are if you come across a question you have no idea how to answer, you're either missing pertinent info from the passage, or you've misinterpreted the question to be far more difficult than it is. Of course, there are always a few exceptions to this rule, but most of the time on the 11/7 MCAT and even in my studying, I found that the hardest questions were "aha" moments for me once I figured them out. Figure out what concept the question is testing, and if you've studied hard enough, you WILL know the answer. The hard part is, I think, figuring out what they're testing because they will mask it with some really convoluted stuff to trip you up and see if you know your stuff. I did decently well on AAMC 11 BS and I found that the ebola passage required minute knowledge of the passage. I noticed this on the 11/7 BS as well. Get the main idea of the passage if it's even NECESSARY, and run with it. A lot of 11/7 PS didn't even require a lot of the passage, outside of one weird passage, in my opinion.

2. Were the questions: pertaining to things deeply buried within the passage, difficult to understand/rephrase, required extremely specific content knowledge, or what? Especially the content aspect: was it specific stuff you needed to know/understand or did it require straightforward knowledge?
This is where I have beef with Berkeley Review. They prep you for the one crazy discrete you may or may not get that's very specific. I found that all of my MCAT required decently basic information for PS, at least. For BS I struggled with discretes because it was biochemistry knowledge (at the level of general bio, though) and my BS content knowledge in general was weaker than others. Really though, go to mcat-review and print out the topic outlines for all of the sections. If you know those you'll be fine. No need to memorize random crazy equations (although I had one question on PS with one that was rather specific...but it's ONE question). Your time is much better spent learning the basic sciences and knowing how they could be manipulated. Good practice for this is other test sources. The subjects I knew extremely well, I felt comfortable answering questions on in whatever form they were given. Subjects I did not feel this comfortable with, I struggled with, and ultimately I know I missed those questions, not because they were convoluted, but because I was missing basic understanding of basic concepts.

3. Were these hardest passages MOST representative of: TBR sciences, Kaplan sciences, TPR sciences, AAMCs?
Not TBR.
AAMCs are good source material for the way questions with be phrased.
Kaplan is good source material for content as well as convoluted passages.
TPRSW is good practice for drilling content.

4. Lastly, upon looking back, what is a good strategy in your opinion for breaking apart these tough passages: Kaplan-type mapping (which includes studying the figures, summarizing each paragraph, identifying purpose of experiment), just skim it, not read at all, or what?
PS: Look at the questions, see if they look like they require a passage. I also follow the Kaplan method of mapping out each section of my test to see if it's physics heavy or whatever. But understanding if a PS passage is more verbal-ey and conceptual will save you time in terms of trying to do the questions without a passage, and if you notice you have a PS section that literally is asking you straightforward math questions, you can save your time mapping the passage and simply skim.
VR: I would love to see someone do VR without reading the passage
BS: Same as PS, but ALWAYS LOOK AT THE GRAPHS. Always understand the graphs. Even if you don't get the passage, understand the graph.

5. (edit) Also, is it worth it to read the abstract/intro and graphs/figures of bio journal articles? Is that recommended for PS as well?
I wouldn't say this applies as much for PS, but BS will generally introduce some sort of concept that is being tested in the experiment, and you can probably gauge an idea of how the experiment will turn out depending on your knowledge of the biological sciences in general. Then decipher the graph. Ask yourself wtf the graph is saying. If you can get that, you are golden for passage-based BS questions.

I overall struggled with BS content (discretes), and the vast amount of knowledge you are required to understand for PS. Overall, just know the concept outlines like the back of your hand. Map the physiological systems for BS, understand basic biochemistry principles (cellular respiration), etc. There's no weird specific ****. They really aren't trying to trick you. They are trying to figure out whether you can apply basic science concepts in unusual situations, which frankly is a key component of being a physician so I can see the point of convoluted passages. If you view the MCAT as a friend that you have the knowledge to conquer, rather than a foe, despite how fluffy that sounds, I guarantee your experience will be better.

My test was completely doable. I had hyped up the MCAT so hard in my head as *the test*, and in going over the questions after I took the test, I know exactly what I missed and it was either lack of content knowledge, second guessing myself due to weakness in content knowledge, or misinterpreting the passage. All of these things could have been easily fixed prior to test day, it's not as difficult as brain surgery or anything. That comes later in our careers :D It's really half mental. If you hit something convoluted, you have to keep a level head, because you WILL hit something on this test you don't know at first glance. The difference between beating your average and getting lower than your average is how you approach those questions. If you truly believe that you can figure out the answer based on your knowledge and what is given to you on the test, you can kill it, because you will be able to think through the tough questions with a level head rather than panic stricken "ohmygodIhavenoideawhatthisisaskingme."

That was the best advice given to me while studying; all the answers are there, you just have to find them.

Best of luck!
 
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My best piece of advice (Jan 8th taker here) would be to make sure to pace yourself. I did all 8 AAMC tests and never had a problem with timing for BS (in fact, usually had about 20 minutes extra) and to my unpleasant surprise, found myself rushing on the real thing.
 
You people are UNNECESSARILY worrying about the last of the MCAT exams!!! The Jan exams are the same as other 2013/2014 exams. This is a standardized test. People are way too carelessly psyching themselves out.

Prepare as much as you can and take the test to the best of your abilities.
 
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1. In the hardest science passages, were they hard because they were: hard to understand, long, about alien concepts, or what?

2. Were the questions: pertaining to things deeply buried within the passage, difficult to understand/rephrase, required extremely specific content knowledge, or what? Especially the content aspect: was it specific stuff you needed to know/understand or did it require straightforward knowledge?

3. Were these hardest passages MOST representative of: TBR sciences, Kaplan sciences, TPR sciences, AAMCs?

4. Lastly, upon looking back, what is a good strategy in your opinion for breaking apart these tough passages: Kaplan-type mapping (which includes studying the figures, summarizing each paragraph, identifying purpose of experiment), just skim it, not read at all, or what?

5. (edit) Also, is it worth it to read the abstract/intro and graphs/figures of bio journal articles? Is that recommended for PS as well?

1. Long, integrated topics, and less common topics.

2. A mix of everything. Content was relatively specific but passages don't directly guide you down the correct path.

3. Can't comment, did not take any others.

4. Can't comment - only read them.

5. This seems to be a common theme on recent exams and 1/10 exams. If you have no background with journals then it may help, but everything is basic.
 
1. Long, integrated topics, and less common topics.

2. A mix of everything. Content was relatively specific but passages don't directly guide you down the correct path.

3. Can't comment, did not take any others.

4. Can't comment - only read them.

5. This seems to be a common theme on recent exams and 1/10 exams. If you have no background with journals then it may help, but everything is basic.

For #3, I was referring to the TBR end-of-chapter passages.
 
For #3, I was referring to the TBR end-of-chapter passages.

The TBR passages are more difficult by far. I think that they were the best preparation though, even though the writing style is slightly different. I would say the passages were written like the AAMC exams, but preparing with TBR works well.
 
Honestly I didn't think my test (1/10) was anything out of this world compared to the practice exams. I think I made some dumb mistakes I wouldn't have on practice exams, but >90% of the questions would have fit right in on any AAMC practice test. I thought the proportion of hard/long questions was higher, but they were similar to the hard/long questions in AAMCs.
 
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Just walked out of the exam (1/13 taker here)
1. In the hardest science passages, were they hard because they were: hard to understand, long, about alien concepts, or what?
I don't feel like concepts were alien. You pretty much know what you need to know if you are getting 10+s on your AAMCs. I think it's based on your ability to extract important info from passages.

2. Were the questions: pertaining to things deeply buried within the passage, difficult to understand/rephrase, required extremely specific content knowledge, or what? Especially the content aspect: was it specific stuff you needed to know/understand or did it require straightforward knowledge?
Depends on the passage. But I think as long as you know what's listed on AAMC's content list you should be able to answer the majority of them. Some questions I felt like they were definitely experimental ones that might not count towards your score.

3. Were these hardest passages MOST representative of: TBR sciences, Kaplan sciences, TPR sciences, AAMCs?
AAMC 10 and AAMC 11 were definitely closer but I'm 100% sure you will see things unexpected on the actual exam.

4. Lastly, upon looking back, what is a good strategy in your opinion for breaking apart these tough passages: Kaplan-type mapping (which includes studying the figures, summarizing each paragraph, identifying purpose of experiment), just skim it, not read at all, or what?
Read the questions. You should be able to tell whether they need information from the passage or not.

5. (edit) Also, is it worth it to read the abstract/intro and graphs/figures of bio journal articles? Is that recommended for PS as well?
I think it definitely helps if you are familiar with them. Not sure about PS since I'ma bio major but I've read a lot of primary papers for class and for research so I wouldn't practice specifically on reading scientific journals just for the MCAT. If you have never been exposed to it I would say it's worth a look.
 
I took 10/25 so my opinion may not be as relevant, but I find it hard to believe that they'd revise the exam specifically for the last three months before their massive revamp in January.

General tip: always, always use the "Review Incomplete" function to look for any questions that may have been hiding at the bottom of the page! NEVER leave a question blank on the MCAT. Even if you're skipping it because you can't solve it, bubble in an answer: there's a 25% chance you'll get it right and it's higher if you can eliminate at least one blatantly incorrect answer.

PS: PS is harder than the AAMC tests. The questions are not more complex mathematically and do not require you to use more formulas. Instead, they require you to integrate more concepts and use more scientific intuition to solve them. I still scored my average on PS, but I felt more challenged by it. You will probably encounter at least one subject you didn't think would be covered in very much detail: I ran into several for mine. These passages WILL tilt you if you let them: the trick is getting past that psychological hurdle.

VR: VR has the same brutal curve that the AAMC tests do. The passages really don't seem much longer to me. I find the CBT interface to be kind of cumbersome for VR compared to the .pdf format you can also get the exams in. The real MCAT is always CBT, so use the CBT interface to acclimate yourself. AAMC 11 was very representative of the real thing. 10 seemed easier, though. I just did 10 pretty casually and got a 14, but 11 (and the real thing) were much more demanding.

BS: BS is very similar to AAMC 10 and 11. Expect the long, experiment-based passages you see on AAMC 11, but also organic chemistry passages that will test your memorization and understanding of key orgo concepts. I am a Ph.D candidate in biology so this section was pretty easy for me. There was more genetics than what I was expecting.
 
just took the 1/13 exam this morning.

1. In the hardest science passages, were they hard because they were: hard to understand, long, about alien concepts, or what?
the hardest science passages were imo, long and hard to understand. particularly BS experiment-based passages. these are less like discretes so you run the risk of getting many problems wrong if you didn't understand some important fact. the concepts weren't alien - there wasn't anything I hadn't seen before or that particularly novel.

2. Were the questions: pertaining to things deeply buried within the passage, difficult to understand/rephrase, required extremely specific content knowledge, or what? Especially the content aspect: was it specific stuff you needed to know/understand or did it require straightforward knowledge?

mostly pertaining to things within the passage. i didn't notice anything particularly content-specific. i thought it was relatively straightforward.

3. Were these hardest passages MOST representative of: TBR sciences, Kaplan sciences, TPR sciences, AAMCs?
AAMC's. with that said, prepping with Kaplan and TBR FL's which were significantly harder, may help.

4. Lastly, upon looking back, what is a good strategy in your opinion for breaking apart these tough passages: Kaplan-type mapping (which includes studying the figures, summarizing each paragraph, identifying purpose of experiment), just skim it, not read at all, or what?

I don't know what mapping really is and don't think anyone will have time to do it like that. i generally don't read the passages for PS unless I have to (if it's based on an experiment), but i did definitely read everything for the real thing just to be cautious. this is less helpful for me with some BS passages because the vocab is dense and I really only figure out what is happening as I answer the questions.

5. (edit) Also, is it worth it to read the abstract/intro and graphs/figures of bio journal articles? Is that recommended for PS as well?

I don't think this is a worthwhile way to spend your studying time. Yes, bio graphs are difficult to make sense of - it's downright stupid - but i would say to make sure you know your basics cold before you do peripheral things like go to bio journals. i think this is as helpful as reading the new yorker for VR - helps in the long term and through indirect means only.
 
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