August 15 MCAT Club

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Cumberland_Doc

Cumberland_Doc

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August is coming fast. For those of you August 15th MCAT folks, post your thoughts, preparation, and questions here.
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are people really getting there at 7? I live ~55 min away from mine so that would mean finishing breakfast by...6am?
 
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i just went to my test center to make sure i knew where it was and asked the woman what was the earliest time i could get there to start and she said you're not allowed into the room until 1:30 (for the 2pm test) but i could get there around 1 to sign in and stuff. it might vary from center to center tho.
 
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Good luck everyone! I'm a 7/18/08 waiting on the score still, but wanted to encourage you all!

I got to my testing site an hour early (my administration was at 8), and was one of the first people there, and I got to start early (around 7:30). It may vary from site to site, but I'd recommend getting there early so that you can check-in sooner, calm your nerves and bit AND get a seat that's not too close to the door so you don't have to deal with everyone moving all the time since everyone's working at his or her own pace.

Just walk in there like you're going to own the test, because you are. Don't let your nerves get the best of you because you're only beating yourself at that point. It is about you and the test and you can do it. Be confident! It will help your testing experience SO much.

The night before my test, I got up in bed early (again, early test at 8) and sat quietly with a mug of warm milk, honey and cinnamon. I'd suggest doing the same.

Best of luck! You're almost done!
 
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haha. started to do some review today too. oh im such a bad student.
 
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Is anyone feeling last minute jitters? I don't know why, I usually perform quite well on standardized tests, but I guess I've never had to take a standardized test that was a such a limiting factor. If I messed up on the GRE or SAT, I could still go to college or graduate school, it just wouldn't be as highly ranked, but if I screw up on the MCAT then I simply can't go to medical school. I need to go for a walk and get some fresh air. Good luck everyone.
 
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I just wanted to say good luck to everyone taking it tomorrow. I hope you all get great scores!

Sleep well and try not to stress.

Best Wishes!

-Bamish
 
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Ahh i can't sleep gonna redo my PS practice sections once again!

GL TOMORROW EVERYONE!
 
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Crap...! I have an ear infection and a fever the night before my MCAT. Great.....
 
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GOOD LUCK GUYS! I had to go into surgery 48 hrs ago for accute appendicitis and im still gonna take this beast. Stay strong, and report back here when done! CYA ON THE OTHER SIDE!
 
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Good luck to all of you! Remember do not freak out over the convoluted passages; the questions are not that difficult to answer. If you guys are solid on the basics, you should be just fine.

Slay the beast!

P.S. Mcat after a surgery must be hard Pullandbear. I wish you the very best tomorrow.
 
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Almost ready to leave the house. *sigh* Everyone, you're gonna do great, just sit tight, pretend like you're having fun (especially during verbal, hahaha), and we'll be back here in about seven hours, talking about it. But it will be over, woohoo! Bye guys, seeya in a few. :)
 
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Good luck to all you 8amers! I go to battle at 2pm and I'm ready to slay this mofo
 
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ouch, that was crazy. haha, i wish the geometry question that i got was easier like the ones in the practice aamc's.

i also bombed that passage with the sweat and the sheep. wtf? lol
 
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pullandbear said:
GOOD LUCK GUYS! I had to go into surgery 48 hrs ago for accute appendicitis and im still gonna take this beast. Stay strong, and report back here when done! CYA ON THE OTHER SIDE!
Click to expand...

Awww hope both the test and the surgery go well for ya.
 
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So what do you guys?

I'll be the first say that it was definitely harder than the AAMC practice tests. Not terribly harder, but definitely a step up. The thing that got me were some ambiguous questions. I answered all the questions and had time to spare, but there were several times, in all 3 sections, where I was split between two or even three answer choice.

I don't know, I don't feel too great about how I did. My only solace is that during my practice exams, whenever I thought I did good, I did worse than expected, and when I thought I did poorly I scored high thirties.
 
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Well, after looking up some of the answers to some of the questions I wasn't too sure about, I do feel a bit better.
 
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fauscharvard said:
Hey pitt, anything in particular that stood out as hard? I take it at 2!!!!
Click to expand...

No, not really. My only advice would be not to second guess yourself, within reason. Several times I quickly answered an "easy" question, only to be like "well maybe that was too easy," so I went back and wasted more time on the problem, without ever changing an answer.

If you can do a problem quickly, do it, and be confident.
 
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everyone please agree with me:
the physics section was way harder than any aamc i've ever seen,
the rest really wasn't too bad.
comment.
ok...go
 
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Just got out of the 8am test over in Tampa @ Prometric on Hoover

Honestly, it was tough, I don't think anyone walks out of that test with smiles.

But....I do feel a whole hell of a lot better than last time. My MCAT last year I took in Orlando and literally cried the whole way home to tampa. This time, I feel much better. I reviewed early in the day before, relaxed for the later part of the day and went to bed early (around 9pm)

I've been waking up at 5am for the past month or so and this morning was no different. Woke up at 5am, cold shower and breakfast, and was at the test center at 5:45am lol

Reviewed in my car all the formulas I didnt know and started writing them down until they were memorized enough for plug and chug during first 10 mins. Another funny thing was everyone walking in were all freaked out and shaking while me and a group of friends were laughing and joking around outside the center. always RELAX and don't be like them, cause most of them were outside crying after the test.

Got stuck on a physics passage and was pissed because I couldn't look at the last couple of answers so I just filled them in quick before time ran out. It was a tough test, but I think I did pretty well. Much better than my first mcat score (I don't say grades, but I didn't even break a 20 last time)

Goodluck everyone starting now!!
 
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ILikeFood said:
how much ochem was on it? physics vs gen chem?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the split between in the Physical Sciences section. I didn't really feel like one subject was weighed heavily over another. Perhaps others can chime in.

As far as organic goes, I believe there were one or... maybe two passages on it.
 
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Took the 8AM this morning in Metairie, LA.
Really hadn't been doing too well in practice tests before this but I think it went ok.
Thought the PS had a lot more calculations than normal but enjoyed the seemingly 50-50 phys-chem ratio and lack of acid-base and solubility.
Verbal was... verbal.
Found a couple of bio passages hard (I'm not good at kidney) and some stand-alones, but was happy with the only 2 organic passages and only 1 organic stand-alone
Definitely not the beast I thought it was but I don't know, whenever I feel that way about a test it seems to not end well.
Hoping for the best...
 
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I was also retaking: 7/8 went badly for me, mostly due to the PS, which was truly horrible. (Lot of very difficult probs., including many on torque, which was barely tested at all on previous MCATs.) Today seemed much better; although I still didn't finish all the questions on PS, I got a lot more done. (Last time, because of nerves and the difficulty of the test, I must have left 8-9 questions blank at the end, which just KILLED my score--I got only a 7. But this time, I think it was more like 4 blank questions, and I think my hit rate on the ones I did do was higher as well.)

The VR and BS seemed about the same as 7/8, maybe a little easier. Overall, I'm pretty convinced my score improved, but I'm just not sure how much.

It really does bother me how wildly the difficulty of the MCAT seems to very from test to test nowadays. They can say what they want about the curve balancing out the difficulty, but IMO that's not really true; when you take a test that's extremely hard, I think it has a really negative psychological effect. I think it saps your self-confidence and lowers your performance even on a curved basis.

Why can't the AAMC compose tests that are roughly the same difficulty for everyone? That would be a lot fairer as far as I'm concerned.
 
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secants said:
What did you guys think of the Verbal? For Bio, was it more genetics/Cell Bio or was there Physiology as well.
Click to expand...

Verbal was LONG!!! Every passage. But questions were not supper hard except for the normal two or three. A little genetics on Bio, a little Cell most of it was physiology...sheep and sweat glands...what?

Physical was a pain...it seemed really long...I just had to guess on 5...nothing really hard, a lot of it was actually over one specific concept but still it took a long time...
 
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This was my first time taking the MCAT, and was hoping it woulda been my last (as i was scoring 32-35 prior to the exam.) I have been studying for a heck of a long time (approx. since early february), completing the Kaplan course, MCAT GOLD, and EK, and whatever else I managed to get my sticky paws on.

But nothing prepared me for what I was administered to today with regards to Physical sciences. Where was soln chemistry?? acid bases?? Molarities?? FP/BP? electrochemical cells??

On top of the difficulty I also felt unlike previous exams I had taken alot of answers weren't as black and white as one might expect, did anyone else feel the same way?

The biological had a couple odd passages..especially the sheep and sweating one. Was it just me or do people feel like this MCAT was definitely wholesomely harder than all practice AAMCs.
I think they may want to update their practice tests with ones that will give the student a better idea of what to hone in on. The physical sciences threw me under a bridge as I used every second of my ten minute break to recouperate. Hopefully all the praying I have done results in a miracle, but as of right now
 
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Himself15 said:
This was my first time taking the MCAT, and was hoping it woulda been my last (as i was scoring 32-35 prior to the exam.) I have been studying for a heck of a long time (approx. since early february), completing the Kaplan course, MCAT GOLD, and EK, and whatever else I managed to get my sticky paws on.

But nothing prepared me for what I was administered to today with regards to Physical sciences. Where was soln chemistry?? acid bases?? Molarities?? FP/BP? electrochemical cells??

On top of the difficulty I also felt unlike previous exams I had taken alot of answers weren't as black and white as one might expect, did anyone else feel the same way?

The biological had a couple odd passages..especially the sheep and sweating one. Was it just me or do people feel like this MCAT was definitely wholesomely harder than all practice AAMCs.
I think they may want to update their practice tests with ones that will give the student a better idea of what to hone in on. The physical sciences threw me under a bridge as I used every second of my ten minute break to recouperate. Hopefully all the praying I have done results in a miracle, but as of right now
Click to expand...

I have to echo your statements, especially the part bolded. However, that doesn't necessarily mean we did poorly. I don't know about you, but I looked up several of the questions I was stumped on, and it seems like I answered correctly, which has made me feel better about being unsure.
 
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tejas- i would find myself reading the passage, thinking it was abotu done and realize i still had anothe two paragraphs...quite long from what i was accustomed to, yet it didnt seem to be extremely difficult, they were just trying to lose us in the wordiness....tooo bad for them i have gotten quite proficient at disregarding the incessant BS that aamc loves adding to distract you, best of luck on your score...

by the way can anyone explain to me what the actually deal is on the "curving" process if there is such a thing
 
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Well, personally, I'm just glad it's over although I am still quite shaky about the whole thing. I can't believe we have to wait a month for scores - the only saving grace is that I go back to school in one week, where there will be plenty of distractions. :p

So, in the middle of my PS section, the 35 minute thing popped up and I clicked it. I had just finished #27, which was a discrete, and I pressed Next to go to the next page. Nothing happened. Pressed it again. Nothing. I was freaking out, I raised my hand immediately and my proctor came over to fix it. I had to go sit outside in the waiting area while she fixed it. I actually started crying, I thought I was going to have to void my test, and after all of that studying and misery this past month, that just seemed unthinkable. Time seemed to be going by so slowly, but she fixed it relatively quickly and I got back to my test having only lost about two minutes. It did take me some time to really get back into it though, and I just finished that section with a minute to spare, which really sucked. I'm used to having 5-10 minutes at the end, so I had no time to check anything...did anyone else think that window problem (it was a discrete) was really strange? Didn't like that whole experiment thing with heptanal and ether, or whatever, either. Bleh.

Verbal actually went pretty well, for me at least. The passages didn't seem much longer than the practice tests, and I found them all at least vaguely interesting, which helped. Or at least, I pretended they were all vaguely interesting, hahaha.

BS was... :( I dunno, usually, it's the section I feel most confident about, especially all of the biology stuff. But today, I found the organic chemistry to be the easiest, not that there was much of it, and the actual biology to be harder. I agree with other people said, a lot of questions were really strangely phrased and I found myself caught between two, sometimes, three answers on quite a few. Not good. I even finished with 20 minutes to check over things, and I still feel extremely nervous. Didn't like that question about the blood flow/pulmonary arteries thing, that one about the vector not being a toxin, or much of the aldosterone stuff. I got confused about primary and secondary effects, and I'm not really sure I got that right... *sigh* I'm really really nervous about bio actually, but I have a feeling people found it pretty easy, and the curve is going to screw me over. Great.
 
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Himself15 said:
This was my first time taking the MCAT, and was hoping it woulda been my last (as i was scoring 32-35 prior to the exam.) I have been studying for a heck of a long time (approx. since early february), completing the Kaplan course, MCAT GOLD, and EK, and whatever else I managed to get my sticky paws on.

But nothing prepared me for what I was administered to today with regards to Physical sciences. Where was soln chemistry?? acid bases?? Molarities?? FP/BP? electrochemical cells??

On top of the difficulty I also felt unlike previous exams I had taken alot of answers weren't as black and white as one might expect, did anyone else feel the same way?

The biological had a couple odd passages..especially the sheep and sweating one. Was it just me or do people feel like this MCAT was definitely wholesomely harder than all practice AAMCs.
I think they may want to update their practice tests with ones that will give the student a better idea of what to hone in on. The physical sciences threw me under a bridge as I used every second of my ten minute break to recouperate. Hopefully all the praying I have done results in a miracle, but as of right now
Click to expand...

That is how I felt my first time. Now, that you have lost your MCAT virginity. If you do not get what you expect, take it again. It gets easier and better your second time!! :p
 
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Celestine said:
Well, personally, I'm just glad it's over although I am still quite shaky about the whole thing. I can't believe we have to wait a month for scores - the only saving grace is that I go back to school in one week, where there will be plenty of distractions. :p

So, in the middle of my PS section, the 35 minute thing popped up and I clicked it. I had just finished #27, which was a discrete, and I pressed Next to go to the next page. Nothing happened. Pressed it again. Nothing. I was freaking out, I raised my hand immediately and my proctor came over to fix it. I had to go sit outside in the waiting area while she fixed it. I actually started crying, I thought I was going to have to void my test, and after all of that studying and misery this past month, that just seemed unthinkable. Time seemed to be going by so slowly, but she fixed it relatively quickly and I got back to my test having only lost about two minutes. It did take me some time to really get back into it though, and I just finished that section with a minute to spare, which really sucked. I'm used to having 5-10 minutes at the end, so I had no time to check anything...did anyone else think that window problem (it was a discrete) was really strange? Didn't like that whole experiment thing with heptanal and ether, or whatever, either. Bleh.
Verbal actually went pretty well, for me at least. The passages didn't seem much longer than the practice tests, and I found them all at least vaguely interesting, which helped. Or at least, I pretended they were all vaguely interesting, hahaha.

BS was... :( I dunno, usually, it's the section I feel most confident about, especially all of the biology stuff. But today, I found the organic chemistry to be the easiest, not that there was much of it, and the actual biology to be harder. I agree with other people said, a lot of questions were really strangely phrased and I found myself caught between two, sometimes, three answers on quite a few. Not good. I even finished with 20 minutes to check over things, and I still feel extremely nervous. Didn't like that question about the blood flow/pulmonary arteries thing, that one about the vector not being a toxin, or much of the aldosterone stuff. I got confused about primary and secondary effects, and I'm not really sure I got that right... *sigh* I'm really really nervous about bio actually, but I have a feeling people found it pretty easy, and the curve is going to screw me over. Great.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I can't believe I forgot to mention it, but that happened to me too!

I was clicking either "next" or "previous" to change passages, and while the page was blank and presumably loading, the "5 minutes remaining" window came up, and then my computer froze. I was like, "jesus christ, if I have to do that whole thing over again... but wait, if I start from the beginning again, that could give me more time..." But I waved the lady outside in to the room and she just put me at a different computer, and it picked up from where I left off, at five minutes. Not a huge deal, but kind of sucked nonetheless.
 
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it was my understanding (kaplan information) that MOST people don't actually do better their second time taking it??? wrong? or is that just generally speaking?
 
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how does the verbal on the real deal compare to aamc 7-10 in terms of passage length, passage understandability, and question difficulty?
 
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