My 8/19 exam experience! I did a quick search on reddit and saw that there were a few different versions of the test offered and even one really similar to mine except with a different CARS section. It seems like you can expect 2 sections to be tough, and 2 to be more reasonable. For me, I was preferring a more reasonable first-half and I feel that's what I got.
Being nervous is normal so I think it's good to embrace the nerves as much as you can. I did some basic arm swings and rotations like at the gym before check-in to get my blood flowing and ease the tension a bit. I'm not a morning person so I waited in my car for a few people to check-in before me. I personally wanted to start my test a bit after 8 as opposed to 7:30. I would advise waking up early during the week leading up to the exam and also chill out a few days before. I still lightly studied even the day before my exam, but also had much lighter days than usual. I never understood why people would say to do this until recently- it's because a majority of the questions on the exam come from reading and reasoning. So stressing over a formula a day before isn't going to help much. It's better to be fresh and ready to reason through stuff. I also think it helps to psych yourself out and expect for all sections to be tough. During practice I tended to always start slow on my sections by being a bit timid in the beginning and then speeding through the later half. My personality is more on a the careful to neurotic side vs. impulsive, but on the exam you want to make sure you get through every question. So if there's a question you know, confidently pick it and continue
As for the exam!
C/P had a little bit of everything without too much emphasis on calculations. I don't think I really number crunched anything crazier than a manipulation of a formula, especially to the annoying scientific notation level of the C/P section bank. I would say this felt more like the unscored / scored with a bit of SB sprinkled in.
CARS: It didn't feel that bad but this section is always hard to gauge. I was happy that it didn't seem overwhelming though. I was a bit ahead on time, got back on my pace after slowing down near the end on a boring music and then writing passage, and ended it feeling okay. I can't really judge verbal well so it's hard to give feedback! I would say that before your exam you need to be able to get through the scored CARS in a timely manner and read each passage in about 3-3.5 min. The passages might have been longer by a paragraph or so. But if you're pacing at 3-3.5 min per passage (reading) then an extra paragraph should take about 20 sec or so and won't throw your time.
B/B: This section was harder than C/P, but still fair. It felt more like the SB with a mix of unscored / scored. If you don't let the graphs throw you off it's manageable. Especially if there's a passage with like 3+ graphs, but it's only 4 questions. 2 of the questions are probably discretes in disguise, and 1 or 2 may come from the graphs. So don't let them bog you down!
P/S: This section was also tough. A lot of touchy / feeling / ambiguous passage based questions, but some gimmie definition types were sprinkled in. It's more about applying knowledge. I think it was tough but I had been reading about crazy P/S sections so I was mentally prepared for a tougher section here. The previous exam scores were probably getting too high on this section since they used to be more definition based so this section is becoming tougher.
Overall I think my test was tough! I won't know how well my feelings correlate to the actual thing until I get my score, but I would mainly recommend focusing on timing and pace. Letting one question bog you down isn't worth the entire section, especially if you're having to speed through a few passages just to get one thing right. And the worst case would be if you waste time and don't even figure out that question. Try to get through everything and be rested and ready to read and analyze through 39 passages + discretes. They have to do a check-in procedure every time you enter and exit the room so time your breaks accordingly by giving yourself 3+ minutes to get back to your station. My testing center was also super cold so I would wear layers. This guy next to me was freezing by 8 a.m. in a t-shirt and shorts. I wore 3 layers the entire time and I was still kind of cold.
I'll be on here starting to offer free tutoring for biochem materials and high-yield stuff on the section banks so PM if you're interested
I'll be reaching out to those that had previously PMed me before.
. With that, I'll just wait for my score next month. My friends told me that I should check my score after my BJJ practice, not before practice. lol. Good luck to everyone else taking the MCAT the rest of this month!
