- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
- Messages
- 38
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Hey everyone,
Sorry this is a little long, but hopefully someone will be able to help me out. I spent all summer studying for the MCAT, which included taking the Kaplan prep course and using the Princeton Review Hyperlearning Science workbook. I then took the MCAT August 7th. Leading up to the test, I took 4 Kaplan practice tests, 1 Princeton Review test, and 6 AAMC tests. The last test I took was AAMC 11, and I was hitting my target score and felt comfortable with the test and material. The only weak spot I had was orgo, but after talking to a bunch of people who took the test within the last 2 months, I was told to not worry about orgo, because most of the orgo questions were being replaced with biochem, genetics, and molec (which are my strong points), and that there was barely any orgo on it. I walked into the test relatively confident, but I left feeling absolutely horrible, and totally unprepared. I felt like the passages, especially for the PS section, were way more experimental and analytical than anything I encountered in any of my practice tests. I knew the MCAT was going to be more analytical and heading in that direction, but the test I took was much harder than I anticipated. IMO, the concepts and the way they were asked were very difficult, and the Physics portion was completely dominated by one topic. On top of that, I must of had bad luck, because there were 2 orgo passages, a bunch of orgo discretes, and only 2 biochem questions, 1 genetic, and not one molec question. After all this, I'm 99% sure I'm going to have to retake the test, so what I want to find out is, are there any good resources or tips that would help with the experimental/analytical part of the test to better prepare for next time? I plan to go back and use my online Kaplan resources, but Kaplan seems to concentrate too much on math, which I got very little of on my real MCAT. I also want to finish the PR Science Workbook because I thought that was useful. But in the end, I believe that neither of those resources are reflective of the modern MCAT, so anyone who has advice or knows good resources, I would love to hear it. Thanks
Sorry this is a little long, but hopefully someone will be able to help me out. I spent all summer studying for the MCAT, which included taking the Kaplan prep course and using the Princeton Review Hyperlearning Science workbook. I then took the MCAT August 7th. Leading up to the test, I took 4 Kaplan practice tests, 1 Princeton Review test, and 6 AAMC tests. The last test I took was AAMC 11, and I was hitting my target score and felt comfortable with the test and material. The only weak spot I had was orgo, but after talking to a bunch of people who took the test within the last 2 months, I was told to not worry about orgo, because most of the orgo questions were being replaced with biochem, genetics, and molec (which are my strong points), and that there was barely any orgo on it. I walked into the test relatively confident, but I left feeling absolutely horrible, and totally unprepared. I felt like the passages, especially for the PS section, were way more experimental and analytical than anything I encountered in any of my practice tests. I knew the MCAT was going to be more analytical and heading in that direction, but the test I took was much harder than I anticipated. IMO, the concepts and the way they were asked were very difficult, and the Physics portion was completely dominated by one topic. On top of that, I must of had bad luck, because there were 2 orgo passages, a bunch of orgo discretes, and only 2 biochem questions, 1 genetic, and not one molec question. After all this, I'm 99% sure I'm going to have to retake the test, so what I want to find out is, are there any good resources or tips that would help with the experimental/analytical part of the test to better prepare for next time? I plan to go back and use my online Kaplan resources, but Kaplan seems to concentrate too much on math, which I got very little of on my real MCAT. I also want to finish the PR Science Workbook because I thought that was useful. But in the end, I believe that neither of those resources are reflective of the modern MCAT, so anyone who has advice or knows good resources, I would love to hear it. Thanks
