Official August 2, 2014 MCAT Thread

[Paul Darlington]

I know, I know it is too early but is anyone else taking it on this date?

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[K1NG]

Judging from how silent this thread is, I guess most of the sdn 30+ students will not be taking it this day meaning we wouldn't do so great and the curve will be more lenient.

I'm hoping for this also haha postive thinking

 

[pchitsaz]

Good luck everyone! Try to just picture this as another practice test, don't trust post-test feelings, and see you on the other side!

 

[HinduHammer]

I have officially started freaking out. Frantically running through flash cards, doing kaplan online tests and passages, looking up things on mcat review. Reading so fast I'm not absorbing anything. Sigh.

 

[CarEnthusiast]

Just relax! I'm not doing anything today. Actually I'm baking bread right now haha. Good luck everyone!

 

[K1NG]

I have officially started freaking out. Frantically running through flash cards, doing kaplan online tests and passages, looking up things on mcat review. Reading so fast I'm not absorbing anything. Sigh.

Relax bro! Anything that's going to help you tomorrow is a relaxed and fresh mind. Don't stress yourself out now. I would take the rest of the day off and wind down.

 

[HinduHammer]

Thanks guys...yeah it won't do me any good to look up anomers and a b glycosidic linkages anymore...I just watched 300: Rise of an Empire. Now I think I'll watch Robocop (2014) before bed. And then tomorrow before the test imma be all like THIS IS SPPARRTTTAAA

 

[HinduHammer]

Ok, I'll not be checking SDN until after the test tomorrow, folks. Probably the best decision I've made all week lol.

Good Luck tomorrow everyone!!!!!

 

[Dreamstoo]

Hey, checking in. Taking the MCAT in September but I would like to wish all of you guys the best of luck!

 

[FM FTW]

CRAM TIME!!!

 

[BigEinstein]

Goood luck to us tomorrow!!!!! I spent all day playing basketball. Am walking in with fresh mind and put my all in it like its the end of my life.

 

[K1NG]

Good luck everyone, ya'll got this

 

[Doctoblast]

July 24 taker here. Good luck everyone! Remember to try to stay calm during the test because you WILL see at least a couple passages that look like they're written in another language. Just don't let it affect other parts of the test and trust the curve

 

[TheAnonymous]

Good luck you all got this!

 

[BigEinstein]

PS- Hard
Verbal- Only understood 2 passages
BS- Was kind of easy
How did I response? Insulted who ever made this exam in my head and voided.

 

[MolonLabe16]

Congrats everyone!!!! We've done it!!!!

Time to become a vegetable for a week.....

 

[justbananas]

Whew...
PS: manageable. Pretty similar to the aamc exams.
VR: tough. I pretty much got 10-11 on every aamc exam, but I'd be okay with a 9 today.
BS: pretty straightforward. Had one tricky passage

Overall impressions? Could have been worse

 

[waywin22]

Whew...
PS: manageable. Pretty similar to the aamc exams.
VR: tough. I pretty much got 10-11 on every aamc exam, but I'd be okay with a 9 today.
BS: pretty straightforward. Had one tricky passage

Overall impressions? Could have been worse

I guess the scaling would be harsh then sadly.

 

[BeLikeBueller]

PS: Not bad
VR: I can never tell how I do on these, because the questions make less sense than the passages, but seemed about like other practice tests
BS: - most of it wasn't bad, but there was one passage that I just didn't get - saved it for the end and had to guess on several (please tell me I wasn't the only one! - I'm kind of freaking out about this!)

 

[SaltedWaterRecipe]

PS: Some iffies but for the most part a normal test.
VS: Going with Bueller... felt like every other AAMCAS verbal.
BS: Felt okay... except that one passage... my guess is its the same passage everyone above was mentioning. Talking about out of left field.

 

[hey12]

PS: Not bad
VR: I can never tell how I do on these, because the questions make less sense than the passages, but seemed about like other practice tests
BS: - most of it wasn't bad, but there was one passage that I just didn't get - saved it for the end and had to guess on several (please tell me I wasn't the only one! - I'm kind of freaking out about this!)

you definitely were not the only one

 

[MolonLabe16]

Overall impressions of the test:

PS - Not bad, seemed like other AAMC exams, I was bracing myself for many calculation, but in the end I feel like there weren't too many.
VR - Feel like I did okay, never my strongest section, a couple passages were hard. Didn't have to guess on any though.
BS - Right with you guys, I hope I understood that one passage correctly... A couple of discrete questions were head-scratchers too.

 

[HinduHammer]

Will perhaps respond in more depth later, but overall impressions having just left the test center and heading to the nearest Starbucks....

The curve will not be forgiving.

PS: Surprisingly not that bad. That being said I had to rush and finish 2 passages in the last 10 minutes and as a result guessed on pretty much the entirety of one passage - which didn't even seem that hard. Prediction: 10-12. Best guess/low-ball prediction: 10
VR: About average for AAMC, first passage was the worst IMO. Should have saved it for last, had about 10 minutes for the last 2 passages, but was able to look at and give somewhat of an educated guess to every question. Prediction: 10-12. Best guess/low-ball: 10.
BS: Not terrible, except for that one passage from hell that seemed to make up for the easiness of the rest of it with all hell coming from it. Literally most of the test I was thinking "wow, this entire exam has been very manageable. I'll be on track to finish bio with 15 min left." Then that passage hit, I spent tons of time trying to map it out, and lost so much time. Ended up having to guess on 2-3 anyway. Last 10 minutes had to do 2 passages. This section really depends on good I guessed on several questions. Prediction: 9-13, Best guess/low-ball prediction: 10.

Overall impressions: Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Probably easier than AAMC 11, with BS being pretty comparable. I feel like the curve will be unforgiving. At least, I don't THINK I'll have to retake...unless I get less than a 31, I really doubt I'll retake. No time and not worth the stress.

Predicted Range: 29-36.

Best guess: 32 (I'll be happy with it). Now time to go spend money on tax-free weekend. Gonna buy me a a new apple laptop w00t w00t.

 

[mock94]

I took the MCAT just to take it, studied exam crackers bio book and half of the chemistry book and never took a practice exam. So I'm not on your level. But this is how I felt, rated out of ten in terms of the difficulty level I felt:

PS-- 7/10. Not bad at all. Manageable and actually easy compared to what I've heard about other exams. There were two or so questions that I did not know at all because I forgot an equation.
VR-- 8/10. Seemed average. Not too bad, except for one passage.
Bio-- 6.5/10. I was very happy that there was not too much orgo. Not too difficult. I've heard of everything on there before (but I just found out I made a really stupid mistake on a freestanding question, oh well).

 

[FM FTW]

I'm not going to be like everyone else because my bio background is non-existent

PS: Thought it would calculation heavy but it wasn't. Some concepts weren't easy but overall, I felt extremely happy out of this section.
VR: I'm usually great at natural science passages but found these very tough, the rest weren't good either.
BS: As I disclosed before, clearly not good. 3 or 4 passages were tough for me but I never learned (or bothered to intensely study) the material that was on the tougher passages. I'm sure everyone can agree that there were some obvious trends in what they wanted to test us on today from similar verbal passages and similar concepts throughout bio.

Overall I'm predicting 11/8/7 i hate my stupidity and lack of motivation in life

 

[Consuela]

Kind of want to throw up a little...

-Felt like a BAMF after PS... (nervous about a hard curve for that one)
-Timing was off for VR and had <5 min left for last passage. Interesting passages but head-scratchers of questions/answers that took too long. Didn't feel like I had enough time to really think about them
-BS was pretty annoying... super random discrete knowledge and 1-2 REALLY hard passages. Usually I have 10ish minutes at the end to check over the questions I marked but definitely not today!

Overall: I really don't know... kicking myself for a couple of BS random knowledge ones that I got wrong. Cheers to the next 4-6 weeks of nervous waiting!

 

[johnnypizza]

Were there others out there that thought the verbal was terrible? I normally finish on time but this time I had to guess on the whole first passage, which I left for last. I had trouble understanding probably half of the passages and the questions were confusing. Does anyone agree with this assessment? I'm really hoping the scaled score is forgiving for this section...

 

[The quiet one.]

i took the MCAT before on May 31st. Directly after the test I thought the physical science portion was extremely difficult and I ended up with an 11... I thought the biological section was extremely easy and I ended up with an 11 on that section as well ... and finally i thought the verbal was relatively easier than the AAMC practice tests ended up with a 6 (I was averaging 10s)...

So just finishing my retake today i have to say that the Physical science section was much easier than May 31st, the verbal i felt was a little harder then may 31st and the biological section was much harder. I felt i burned out a little towards the end and ran out of gas which added to the difficulty of the biological section. A couple of the passages took up too much of my time and I had to guess on those passages.

Predicted:

PS: 11-13 VR: 8-10 BS : 7-10

 

[pchitsaz]

Hey guys!

My impressions:

PS: I personally found it a little hard but not too bad. Felt like I did more 50-50 guessing than usual.

VR: Felt the same as always. I usually feel i do very poor in this section but end up with 10s pretty consistently on AAMCs. I heard feeling you did well on VR is the kiss of death.

BS: i thought it was the easiest section. Orgo was very manageable. There was one passage that was very "WTF"-ish. Few weird discretes.

I was averaging about 33 on AAMCs (min 30, max 36) and scored 32 on AAMC 11 two days ago. I dont feel i did HORRIBLE but I definitely don't feel i did very good compared to AAMCs. Spent an hour reading random threads about "post test feelings" so I am a little at ease now. I mainly feel numb LOL.

Prediction: 30
Hoping: 33+

Best of luck everyone!!!

 

[justbananas]

Yeah...I felt like some of the arguments weren't articulated clearly, which obviously made it a little difficult to follow.

Were there others out there that thought the verbal was terrible? I normally finish on time but this time I had to guess on the whole first passage, which I left for last. I had trouble understanding probably half of the passages and the questions were confusing. Does anyone agree with this assessment? I'm really hoping the scaled score is forgiving for this section...

 

[DrReady]

Took the 6/21 exam. Went in with an AAMC average of 38. The passages were ridiculously long, unlike anything I ever saw on any AAMC so my timing was screwed. Ended up with a 27....

Today was a totally different story. Finished every section with at least 7 minutes to spare.

PS: Relatively easy. A few tricky questions. Physics isn't my strong point so I am iffy about the plank passage. Overall, slightly easier than AAMC. 11-13

VR: Always been a really strong point for me. Every passage was cake for me so I'm not worried at all. 13-15

BS: Kind of a toss up. About the same difficulty as AAMC exams, organic was a joke. Only issue was the long gene passage and a few general knowledge questions that were a toss up for me so this section is a broad prediction for me. 10-13

Total: 33-41

Gonna be a loooooooong month guys!

 

[CarEnthusiast]

yep bio had a tough passage. VR who can tell. PS hopefully ok? Good luck everyone!

 

[BigEinstein]

Took the 6/21 exam. Went in with an AAMC average of 38. The passages were ridiculously long, unlike anything I ever saw on any AAMC so my timing was screwed. Ended up with a 27....

Today was a totally different story. Finished every section with at least 7 minutes to spare.

PS: Relatively easy. A few tricky questions. Physics isn't my strong point so I am iffy about the plank passage. Overall, slightly easier than AAMC. 11-13

VR: Always been a really strong point for me. Every passage was cake for me so I'm not worried at all. 13-15

BS: Kind of a toss up. About the same difficulty as AAMC exams, organic was a joke. Only issue was the long gene passage and a few general knowledge questions that were a toss up for me so this section is a broad prediction for me. 10-13

Total: 33-41

Gonna be a loooooooong month guys!

Be careful of some specifics, you will probably get a message from sdn moderators with a one week ban soon

 

[FM FTW]

plank and long gene? DrReady, i'm telling on you!

 

[TheAnonymous]

Be careful of some specifics, you will probably get a message from sdn moderators with a one week ban soon

And you shouldn't quote his post

 

[orangetea]

 

[DrReady]

Be careful of some specifics, you will probably get a message from sdn moderators with a one week ban soon

I'm shaking.....seriously, considering some of the things I see people get away with on here without bans I'm not too worried about it. And I couldn't really care less anyway so there's that....

 

[AspiringDoc2015]

Be careful of some specifics, you will probably get a message from sdn moderators with a one week ban soon

Lol

 

[healthyfitmom]

I was in SHOCK when I walked out of the testing center. Given I have SEVERE test anxiety today was just beyond what I could handle! And I did EVERYTHING I could to help stay calm but nothing was working. It took me 20 minutes from when I started the test to not feel like I was panicking. I had taken 6 practice exams in the past and felt like today's was a little different than what I was used to. The PS section was heavy with calculations. VR had two passages on there of the type I hate. The BS section was good and heavy on the subject I know most of so I was okay there. I just wish it didn't take so dang long to get scores back, they're trying to torture us! I'm still in shock and finished about 4.5 hours ago. It's gonna be a long 30 days.

 

[FM FTW]

I was in SHOCK when I walked out of the testing center. Given I have SEVERE test anxiety today was just beyond what I could handle! And I did EVERYTHING I could to help stay calm but nothing was working. It took me 20 minutes from when I started the test to not feel like I was panicking. I had taken 6 practice exams in the past and felt like today's was a little different than what I was used to. The PS section was heavy with calculations. VR had two passages on there of the type I hate. The BS section was good and heavy on the subject I know most of so I was okay there. I just wish it didn't take so dang long to get scores back, they're trying to torture us! I'm still in shock and finished about 4.5 hours ago. It's gonna be a long 30 days.

From past mcat experience, this was far from PS being calculation heavy...trust me! And we are definitely opposites for the BS section

 

[shh-pthway]

Hey guys!

My impressions:

PS: I personally found it a little hard but not too bad. Felt like I did more 50-50 guessing than usual.

VR: Felt the same as always. I usually feel i do very poor in this section but end up with 10s pretty consistently on AAMCs. I heard feeling you did well on VR is the kiss of death.

BS: i thought it was the easiest section. Orgo was very manageable. There was one passage that was very "WTF"-ish. Few weird discretes.

I was averaging about 33 on AAMCs (min 30, max 36) and scored 32 on AAMC 11 two days ago. I dont feel i did HORRIBLE but I definitely don't feel i did very good compared to AAMCs. Spent an hour reading random threads about "post test feelings" so I am a little at ease now. I mainly feel numb LOL.

Prediction: 30
Hoping: 33+

Best of luck everyone!!!

Not necessarily kiss of death- those w 12+ prob feel good coming out of exam. The problems is that sometimes students read the passages and feel good but still get tricked by the questions an end up with score lower than expectation.

 

[MolonLabe16]

So what is everyone doing with their new-found time?

I keep feeling like I need to be studying something #postMCATstressdisorder

 

[Thermophilus]

Wrote this with you guys today, averaged 34 on 8 AAMC fl's with very little deviation, so I'm hoping that remains robust. Strangely, there was another person in the test with the exact same name as me, which was funny enough to really take the edge off heading into the room. The staff was having a good time with jokes and getting the right one of me to the right computer. The one passage in Bio that everyone's talking about was odd enough to be off putting, but I hope I meandered through it alright. Guess we'll see on September 2nd.

 

[HinduHammer]

Wrote this with you guys today, averaged 34 on 8 AAMC fl's with very little deviation, so I'm hoping that remains robust. Strangely, there was another person in the test with the exact same name as me, which was funny enough to really take the edge off heading into the room. The staff was having a good time with jokes and getting the right one of me to the right computer. The one passage in Bio that everyone's talking about was odd enough to be off putting, but I hope I meandered through it alright. Guess we'll see on September 2nd.

Yeah that passage was crazy weird. As I replay it in my head, I feel like I got all the questions right..but then I'm like, "no, self, no you didn't, go **** yourself." I feel like I spent 12 minutes or so on that passage, which I did, but that I may have gotten all the q's right..? Problem with that is that I rushed the last several passages to make up for it. Sucks b/c I feel like if my gut was right, I couldve gotten like a 13, but if I messed up 2-3 on that one passage and a few others, I could be at like 9. Damn you September 2nd! Come sooner!

 

[BeLikeBueller]

So I'm trying to figure out if I need to go ahead and sign up for a re-test.

On practices tests I had been scoring pretty consistent 11/12's on all sections.

I think I did in the 11-12 range on the ps and vr (just speculating) but i left that ridiculous passage on BS to the end and was short on time - ended up guessing on probably 4 questions on there and 1 or 2 discrete questions. I don't know if I just panicked when i first came across that one passage or what - just wasn't my day compared to the practice exams I took

Any thoughts on what that would likely translate out to? (It seems like some of you here are a lot more confident at predicting scores than me).

 

[HinduHammer]

So I'm trying to figure out if I need to go ahead and sign up for a re-test.

On practices tests I had been scoring pretty consistent 11/12's on all sections.

I think I did in the 11-12 range on the ps and vr (just speculating) but i left that ridiculous passage on BS to the end and was short on time - ended up guessing on probably 4 questions on there and 1 or 2 discrete questions. I don't know if I just panicked when i first came across that one passage or what - just wasn't my day compared to the practice exams I took

Any thoughts on what that would likely translate out to? (It seems like some of you here are a lot more confident at predicting scores than me).

Ha, predictions are iffy at best. I just hope I get over 30. FWIW, my highest in BS and PS have been 12s and lowest have been 9s, so I am "predicting" that I get between 9s and 12s on PS and BS. My Kaplan average is 31 and AAMC average is 31-32 so I'm "predicting" that I end up with a 32, b/c today's test was a bit easier.

As to your question, if you got all those that you guessed on wrong (~6), according to AAMC 10/11 curves, from what I remember, your at about a 11-12. If those are all you got wrong, you'd be golden! I'm not signing up for a retake until I need to..mostly because I need to finish and submit AMCAS!!! And starting work again Monday and new semester in 2 weeks...

 

[hyperion01]

I guess no one likes taking the MCAT over the long weekend (here in Canada)... I thought PS was hard, VR I was running short on time for the last two passages and BS easier than usual!

 

[emash124]

Here's my 2 cents:
-PS I did not think was very bad. I was extremely nervous however, this being the first section of the MCAT.... I can think of at least 5 I got wrong, and I guessed on about 5 others.. (Half 50/50) half straight up due to lack of time. So I'm not very happy about my performance in this section. I hope to get around a 9-10. My average on AAMC was 10-12, so I believe I underachieved here.
-VR I was surprisingly calm in, seeing as this is usually my worst section. This one is a toss-up however I believe I may have done okay. I'll give myself 9-11, AAMC average was 8-11. This was the only section I seemed to not have trouble with timing for some odd reason
-BS I thought was exceedingly difficult. At least 2 passages that gave me quite a bit of trouble, but I think I pulled out a decent score here as I think the curve is more forgiving. I know of 5 I missed and I 50/50 guessed on about 5 others. I'm hoping for 11-12 on this. My AAMC average was 10-13. I had trouble with a couple Orgo questions and missed an easy one that I'm still kicking myself for.
-overall I thought I underachieved, it's very disappointing because I know I'm better than that, I still feel quite bad about it... Does anybody else feel this way? I know of a couple stupid ones I missed and it makes me angry because I know I shouldn't have... I'm just afraid this won't reflect my level of knowledge in these subjects. It's not the number that is bothering me, just that I underachieved.

 

[BigEinstein]

And you shouldn't quote his post

All right I gotchu

 

[hey12]

Were there others out there that thought the verbal was terrible? I normally finish on time but this time I had to guess on the whole first passage, which I left for last. I had trouble understanding probably half of the passages and the questions were confusing. Does anyone agree with this assessment? I'm really hoping the scaled score is forgiving for this section...

totally agree- verbal was RIDICULOUSLY dense

 

[emash124]

Oh and btw,
Expected score: 26-29
Hoping for: 30+
I'm very well-rounded in content, it's just that damn time limit -_-