Have to be careful here and not violate my agreements, but I think I can come up with my impressions of the exam and suggestions for study without doing so. Haven't received my test scores yet (next week), but I have a reasonably good idea where it'll land.
I had always planned to retake in 2016, since I was so late taking the exam that I've plenty of time to prepare. I did a dry run on the old MCAT, but it was before I'd taken organic chemistry and biochemistry, and I never did intend to score it. However, it gives me some thoughts on the changes in the exam between pre-2015 and post-2015.
Overall:
Maybe a bit easier than I expected. Biological sciences and psych/socio sections were quite difficult I thought, although that was due to gaps in my preparation and my unusual background.
Biochemistry was easier than I thought, although I was well prepared in that area. Experimental passages caught me off guard .... I didn't prepare sufficiently for those.
CAR was basically as it has always been, perhaps a bit tougher, although the section is very long and mentally fatiguing when dealing with additional difficult passages.
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems:
As I remember another SDN post stated "Hello, biochemistry!". Biochem wound its way through most of the exam, and may be the single most important topic in the new MCAT (which makes sense since it underlies everything). Passages were of moderate difficulty, with only one I found pretty nasty. As others have pointed out, you'd damn well better know your amino acids (including properties, classifications, and both one- and three-letter acronyms. Know them like the back of your hand.
Also as others have noted, it is very important to understand common biochemical and biological experimental techniques and how to use/interpret them. This was a problem for me as an older non-trad, since I've had to rush my pre-med prep, and haven't had time for full lab classes due to my career as an engineer. It also wasn't covered particularly well either in my biochem class, and certainly not in the Kaplan MCAT prep material. The organic chemistry was germane as well - know the basic types of reactions that form the basis for biochemistry (e.g. condensations, redox).
I found it surprising that there wasn't more metabolism type of passages/questions, although it quite possibly was just an anomalous exam. For metabolism, I spent a huge amount of time in the weeds going through details, but apparently not enough looking at the big picture (how the cycles are all interconnected, by what compounds, and how are the pieces regulated. I was impressed that the test aimed more at an understanding of the concepts, rather than just memorizing the hell out of everything.
There were a couple of extremely difficult passages that I really struggled with. When scientists write up extraordinarily awful papers on experiments, they seem to end up on the MCAT.
Chemical and Physical Foundations:
Again, I was impressed with the changes in the exam. No more stupid blocks sliding down planes or orbital mechanics. Physics was de-emphasized, and what was left was much more biologically applied than before. The usually high yield topics (E&M, basic mechanics/forces, gas laws, optics, circuits) still apply (for obvious reasons - they matter a lot).
Chemistry was more or less the same as before. Same high yield topics (solutions, electrochem, acids/bases, reaction dynamics, periodic table behavior, redox reactions, experimental techniques).
Critical Analysis and Reasoning:
Much the same as before. But the additional length means an additional nasty, boring, horribly written passage on humanities. Not to mention the mental fatigue of the additional length and required intense concentration, and the fact it was (at least for me) the third section - I didn't get to it for three hours or more).
Like with disastrously written biology technical papers, I wonder if they pay somebody to write insipid, disorganized, and obtuse essays in self-congratulatory, turgid prose, regarding topics nobody cares about (including the author). All so they can end up on the MCAT.
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations:
I'd read a lot of opinions that this section tended to be quite difficult, and it was. I was not prepared sufficiently for this section, and I don't anticipate a good score (unless y'all botched it as bad as I did).
Unfortunately, it was the one section that I found profoundly disappointing in terms of the MCAT committee. If I'd just memorized all the obsolescent/historical schools and their founder's names in most major sub-areas of psych/socio (e.g emotion, cognitive development, etc), I'd have been well prepared. It seemed to be a test of whether you knew the slang and history more than anything else. An opportunity lost by the MCAT people, because it is important, and things have changed a lot since the 19th century people first came up with explanations. They test you on theories that nobody in those fields has paid any attention to in a half a century.
The preparation material (I used Kaplan MCAT prep) was horrible in psych/socio, and even completely missed some important areas (notably experimental design). As others have noted, read Myers or some other standard intro psych/socio book to prepare, then dump names/schools/theories into Anki and memorize, memorize, memorize. Don't forget how experimental studies are set up, conducted, and assessed. That topic is even frequently omitted in major psych/socio textbooks.
I had always planned to retake in 2016, since I was so late taking the exam that I've plenty of time to prepare. I did a dry run on the old MCAT, but it was before I'd taken organic chemistry and biochemistry, and I never did intend to score it. However, it gives me some thoughts on the changes in the exam between pre-2015 and post-2015.
Overall:
Maybe a bit easier than I expected. Biological sciences and psych/socio sections were quite difficult I thought, although that was due to gaps in my preparation and my unusual background.
Biochemistry was easier than I thought, although I was well prepared in that area. Experimental passages caught me off guard .... I didn't prepare sufficiently for those.
CAR was basically as it has always been, perhaps a bit tougher, although the section is very long and mentally fatiguing when dealing with additional difficult passages.
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems:
As I remember another SDN post stated "Hello, biochemistry!". Biochem wound its way through most of the exam, and may be the single most important topic in the new MCAT (which makes sense since it underlies everything). Passages were of moderate difficulty, with only one I found pretty nasty. As others have pointed out, you'd damn well better know your amino acids (including properties, classifications, and both one- and three-letter acronyms. Know them like the back of your hand.
Also as others have noted, it is very important to understand common biochemical and biological experimental techniques and how to use/interpret them. This was a problem for me as an older non-trad, since I've had to rush my pre-med prep, and haven't had time for full lab classes due to my career as an engineer. It also wasn't covered particularly well either in my biochem class, and certainly not in the Kaplan MCAT prep material. The organic chemistry was germane as well - know the basic types of reactions that form the basis for biochemistry (e.g. condensations, redox).
I found it surprising that there wasn't more metabolism type of passages/questions, although it quite possibly was just an anomalous exam. For metabolism, I spent a huge amount of time in the weeds going through details, but apparently not enough looking at the big picture (how the cycles are all interconnected, by what compounds, and how are the pieces regulated. I was impressed that the test aimed more at an understanding of the concepts, rather than just memorizing the hell out of everything.
There were a couple of extremely difficult passages that I really struggled with. When scientists write up extraordinarily awful papers on experiments, they seem to end up on the MCAT.
Chemical and Physical Foundations:
Again, I was impressed with the changes in the exam. No more stupid blocks sliding down planes or orbital mechanics. Physics was de-emphasized, and what was left was much more biologically applied than before. The usually high yield topics (E&M, basic mechanics/forces, gas laws, optics, circuits) still apply (for obvious reasons - they matter a lot).
Chemistry was more or less the same as before. Same high yield topics (solutions, electrochem, acids/bases, reaction dynamics, periodic table behavior, redox reactions, experimental techniques).
Critical Analysis and Reasoning:
Much the same as before. But the additional length means an additional nasty, boring, horribly written passage on humanities. Not to mention the mental fatigue of the additional length and required intense concentration, and the fact it was (at least for me) the third section - I didn't get to it for three hours or more).
Like with disastrously written biology technical papers, I wonder if they pay somebody to write insipid, disorganized, and obtuse essays in self-congratulatory, turgid prose, regarding topics nobody cares about (including the author). All so they can end up on the MCAT.
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations:
I'd read a lot of opinions that this section tended to be quite difficult, and it was. I was not prepared sufficiently for this section, and I don't anticipate a good score (unless y'all botched it as bad as I did).
Unfortunately, it was the one section that I found profoundly disappointing in terms of the MCAT committee. If I'd just memorized all the obsolescent/historical schools and their founder's names in most major sub-areas of psych/socio (e.g emotion, cognitive development, etc), I'd have been well prepared. It seemed to be a test of whether you knew the slang and history more than anything else. An opportunity lost by the MCAT people, because it is important, and things have changed a lot since the 19th century people first came up with explanations. They test you on theories that nobody in those fields has paid any attention to in a half a century.
The preparation material (I used Kaplan MCAT prep) was horrible in psych/socio, and even completely missed some important areas (notably experimental design). As others have noted, read Myers or some other standard intro psych/socio book to prepare, then dump names/schools/theories into Anki and memorize, memorize, memorize. Don't forget how experimental studies are set up, conducted, and assessed. That topic is even frequently omitted in major psych/socio textbooks.
