*Official September 10, 2016 MCAT Thread*

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

frosted_flake

waaahmbulance attendant
10+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2012
Messages
1,147
Reaction score
748
Taking the MCAT on September 10th, who else?

Lets form an awesome support system!

If this has already been created (I searched for a few minutes) someone let me know and I will delete it!

Members don't see this ad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
on another note, I was distracted by my proctor. Should I email AAMC and tell them they cannot have such beautiful women being proctors?!?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Members don't see this ad :)
Hi everyone,

I just took the mcat. I can't find any charts or conversions to estimate my raw score~actual score. Hoping to get help figuring out a ball park of what I got.

Every time I was unsure of a question I noted it. At the end of the test I went through and added up the ones I guesstimated on per section. I am fairly certain that whatever I guessed on right will be compensated by whatever other question I was sure of and got wrong.


P: 40/59
CARS: 48/53
B: 45/59
Psych: 50/59


I found somewhere on Reddit that an estimate was (118+(decimal of score x 14).
127, 130, 128, 129 = 514
 
Hi everyone,

I just took the mcat. I can't find any charts or conversions to estimate my raw score~actual score. Hoping to get help figuring out a ball park of what I got.

Every time I was unsure of a question I noted it. At the end of the test I went through and added up the ones I guesstimated on per section. I am fairly certain that whatever I guessed on right will be compensated by whatever other question I was sure of and got wrong.


P: 40/59
CARS: 48/53
B: 45/59
Psych: 50/59


I found somewhere on Reddit that an estimate was (118+(decimal of score x 14).
127, 130, 128, 129 = 514

I would love this conversion
 
Same :( I wish I had spent more time practicing/reviewing certain "easy" content that came up a LOT on my version! I knew how to do them but forgot, so I lost a lot of points there. also had to put in random answers for like 8 questions ahhhhh fml

That's the worst. We ace it on exams in college and then our minds go blank... Uhh what was the formula for water??? You get my point
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I think I wrecked the bio section. There was probably two or three questions that I wasn't 100% sure, but I enjoyed this section overall. What the heck is going on with the P/S section? I think the AAMC has no idea on how to present this section on a fair manner. I saw some terms in there that were foreign to my knowledge. Some easy questions and some close to impossible ones. The score remains to be seen. On the meantime, I will keep my knowledge fresh just in case.

P.S. Some kid in my testing center breezed through the exam.
 
Last edited:
Haha. Yeah they were nice. But AAMC on the other hand with those killer passages was not so much... I rememberd about 70 questions total. I can't seem to remember any more
 
I think I wrecked the bio section. There was probably two or three questions that I wasn't 100% sure, but I enjoyed this section overall. What the heck is going on with the P/S section? I think the AAMC has no idea on how to present this section on a fair manner. I saw some terms in there that were foreign to my knowledge. Some easy questions and some close to impossible ones. The score remains to be seen. On the meantime, I will keep my knowledge fresh just in case.

P.S. Some kid in my testing center breezed through the exam.

Bio/biochem or chem/phys? There was a lot of biochem on the chem/phys... Which was odd
 
C/P section for me was great, I love calculations.
B/B destroyed me, it's like AAMC knew all of my weaknesses before the test.
P/S I was always down to 2 answer choices, because they were usually so similar.
Cars ,never been great at it so we will see

All in all I think I'll be retaking
 
Thought I'd chime in:

AAMC Sample: 69%/62%/83%/88%
AAMC Scored: 511 (127/125/130/129)

Actual test:

C/P: I felt was very fair, but rushed on last 2-3 questions. Was never my strongest section so I am glad I don't feel completely terrible.
CARS: That felt like one of my best CARS tests...idk what that will translate to but I peaked at averaging ~126 on cars usually, hoping for a miracle here.
Bio: Felt like this was the curve-ball section of the test. Felt just like section bank, pretty brutal. Ran out of time on last 1 and half passages.
P/S: Finished early, checked my answers. Usually my easiest section but there were so many questions that I was down to 2...idk how to feel.

This wait is torture...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
C/P section for me was great, I love calculations.
B/B destroyed me, it's like AAMC knew all of my weaknesses before the test.
P/S I was always down to 2 answer choices, because they were usually so similar.
Cars ,never been great at it so we will see

All in all I think I'll be retaking

I sat there for a minute after the test and contemplated voiding, since I only really felt good about 1 section. But then I thought about having to wait until January to retake and was like HELL NO! You never know how these things turn out, so many friends said they felt terrible about it afterwards and they ended up doing fine!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
I sat there for a minute after the test and contemplated voiding, since I only really felt good about 1 section. But then I thought about having to wait until January to retake and was like HELL NA! You never know how these things turn out, so many friends said they felt terrible about it afterwards and they ended up doing fine!
I thought about doing the same, but felt so good for the bio section that I want to see my score, even if I end up doing bad in P/S and CARS.

I will continue to study and learn even more, so if anyone out there wants to stay in shape in case of a retake, please let me know, maybe we can help each other out through Skype.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
You're lucky they didn't report you to the aamc for irregular testing conditions (forgot the official term) Seen it happen...

There was someone at my testing center that got kicked out for taking too long on the agreements at the beginning of the test! He was arguing with the staff and I was in the waiting room like wth, went in there and I was super quick on that section lol
 
Last edited:
There was someone at my testing center that got kicked out for taking too long on the agreements at the beginning of the test! He was arguing with the staff and I was in the waiting room like wth, went in there and I was like super quick on that section lol

Wtf?! Like maybe he was reading the stuff?
 
Agree with what everyone's been saying.

C/P: Some really hard/really easy questions, but passages were all weirdly confusing. Had about 8 minutes left to check my answers but didn't have enough time to go thru them all.
CARS: Some passages were just brutal to decipher and so dense. I had again about 10 minutes to check my answers but didn't have enough time to go thru them all.
B/B: Same difficulty level as other AAMC material albeit a few passages/questions that were confusing to interpret. Didn't get to check all my marked answers
Psych: Have always finished with 30 minutes to spare so I was able to check all the questions I marked. There were some terms I had never encountered before and some questions which were so weirdly asked.

Overall, didn't leave that exam feeling comfortable like I had with the AAMC unscored/scored. It was pretty bad but if we all thought it was hard, the curve will hopefully work in our favor! I hope you all get the score you want!!

I am quite relieved after reading this.

C/P: There were some really hard and easy questions, but the passages WERE confusing. I didn't have time and felt rushed.,

CARS: I didn't think CARS was bad for me. The passages were mostly easy.

B/B: I feel the same way as you

Psych: Felt easy, so I took my sweet time!

I was wondering, what did you get on the AAMC FL scored? :)
 
I feel like the only people in the world who can possibly understand how I feel today is this group of people right here. I woke up this morning feeling so lost, not knowing what to do with my time since I'm not studying anymore. Not pulling out my phone every spare second to do my mcat flashcard apps, or having notes and books surrounding me at the table while I eat.
I only had one month to study for this test, so my whole life for the past month has been studying (which is really hard to do with 4 kids including a newborn)
The wait for my score is going to be excruciating, but right now the overwhelming feeling I'm having is nearly 100% relief.

I noticed earlier in the thread, someone mentioned that it's "too late" to apply this cycle. I highly disagree, and it's the only reason I took the test yesterday rather than waiting for January and giving myself more than a month to study. I already have my primary AND secondary applications submitted; they're just waiting for my score.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
My testing experience yesterday was so much different than all the practice tests I took. I've taken the AAMC scored and unscored, along with the NS 1-4. My highest score was always CARS, falling in the 90th+ percentile. And I always had about 10 minutes left at the end of the section.
Yesterday during CARS, I wasn't watching time very close, because it's never been an issue. My big mistake was going back to the passage to check answers instead of trusting my memory. When I had 2 full passages left, I looked at the time ticker and had a heart attack when I saw I had 5 minutes left. I had to skim and guess the best I could. I was devastated because I have problems with C/P and Bio scores, and my CARS score always brought my total score up.

Normally I run out of time on C/P, but I actually finished yesterday with 10 minutes to spare. I finished Psych/Soc with 20 minutes to spare.
Physics is my weakest subject, but I focused my studying on other topics I thought would show up more often on the test because I had understood that there wasn't a lot of physics. But I got SO many questions that were straight up physics than I was ever expecting.
 
My testing experience yesterday was so much different than all the practice tests I took. I've taken the AAMC scored and unscored, along with the NS 1-4. My highest score was always CARS, falling in the 90th+ percentile. And I always had about 10 minutes left at the end of the section.
Yesterday during CARS, I wasn't watching time very close, because it's never been an issue. My big mistake was going back to the passage to check answers instead of trusting my memory. When I had 2 full passages left, I looked at the time ticker and had a heart attack when I saw I had 5 minutes left. I had to skim and guess the best I could. I was devastated because I have problems with C/P and Bio scores, and my CARS score always brought my total score up.

Normally I run out of time on C/P, but I actually finished yesterday with 10 minutes to spare. I finished Psych/Soc with 20 minutes to spare.
Physics is my weakest subject, but I focused my studying on other topics I thought would show up more often on the test because I had understood that there wasn't a lot of physics. But I got SO many questions that were straight up physics than I was ever expecting.
There were so many SPECIFICS(that were BS I.M.O.) on the physics/chem section that were only briefly mentioned in the review books... and to kick me while I was down, AAMC thought it'd be fun to test those concepts again in other questions
 
I feel like the only people in the world who can possibly understand how I feel today is this group of people right here. I woke up this morning feeling so lost, not knowing what to do with my time since I'm not studying anymore. Not pulling out my phone every spare second to do my mcat flashcard apps, or having notes and books surrounding me at the table while I eat.
I only had one month to study for this test, so my whole life for the past month has been studying (which is really hard to do with 4 kids including a newborn)
The wait for my score is going to be excruciating, but right now the overwhelming feeling I'm having is nearly 100% relief.

I noticed earlier in the thread, someone mentioned that it's "too late" to apply this cycle. I highly disagree, and it's the only reason I took the test yesterday rather than waiting for January and giving myself more than a month to study. I already have my primary AND secondary applications submitted; they're just waiting for my score.

I can totally relate to the post-MCAT void...probably explains why I searched for something like this thread
 
Did anyone else struggle sleeping the night before the test? I must have gotten up 6 times and even though I didn't feel tired I am worried about how it may have influenced my performance
 
I've been having difficulty sleeping because during the last few minutes I changed my answers to my marked questions and looking back now without the stress and time pressure the one I had originally selected was correct. I can probably count like 11 were last minute incorrect changes. :(
 
I've been having difficulty sleeping because during the last few minutes I changed my answers to my marked questions and looking back now without the stress and time pressure the one I had originally selected was correct. I can probably count like 11 were last minute incorrect changes. :(

right there with you fam! PM me
 
Also, I feel like Psych and Soc have really increased in difficulty since the inception of the new MCAT. When I took it last year, it was basically all vocab words. Now its like another Bio/Biochem section. Anyone else feel this way?

I agree with you. It was mainly vocabulky when I took it.
 
Did anyone else struggle sleeping the night before the test? I must have gotten up 6 times and even though I didn't feel tired I am worried about how it may have influenced my performance

Yes!! I took melatonin before I went to sleep but I still woke up a few times in the night- definitely had some weird af dreams that night and woke up not feeling fresh at all :/ I think my C/P was definitely affected by my lack of sleep
 
Did anyone else struggle sleeping the night before the test? I must have gotten up 6 times and even though I didn't feel tired I am worried about how it may have influenced my performance

My testing center was far enough away I had to get a motel room. I'm currently on maternity leave and we are very low on cash so I had to get the cheapest room I could find, at a ghetto motel. This motel was right off of interstate and there was some music and other noise going on all night. I remember looking at my clock at 3:30am and freaking out that I had to wake up in two hours and still hadn't fallen asleep yet.
I definitely think it affected my performance.
 
can we all agree that B/B was complete BS??? also, was it just my testing center, or did anybody else's test log them out part way through B/B and give you a heart attack? definitely messed with my performance for the rest of the section.

CP - was ok, scarcely any physics; more biochem than chem imo...
CARS - lol i always suck at cars...
B/B - wtf
PS - okay, some terms were really confusing and answers weren't very clear; could be 2 choices or none

overall wtf???
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
I feel like the only people in the world who can possibly understand how I feel today is this group of people right here. I woke up this morning feeling so lost, not knowing what to do with my time since I'm not studying anymore. Not pulling out my phone every spare second to do my mcat flashcard apps, or having notes and books surrounding me at the table while I eat.
I only had one month to study for this test, so my whole life for the past month has been studying (which is really hard to do with 4 kids including a newborn)
The wait for my score is going to be excruciating, but right now the overwhelming feeling I'm having is nearly 100% relief.

I noticed earlier in the thread, someone mentioned that it's "too late" to apply this cycle. I highly disagree, and it's the only reason I took the test yesterday rather than waiting for January and giving myself more than a month to study. I already have my primary AND secondary applications submitted; they're just waiting for my score.
Late applicants unite! I'm in the same boat honigbiene. Everything is complete from my end, just waiting for these MCAT scores to be sent. I do believe the whole "early application" sentiment is over exaggerated. I think this is especially true if you're applying MD/PhD. My school's Admission's Office assured me that October 12 is perfectly fine. I'm only applying MSTP so timing may not be as critical seeing as they only get 200-300 applications and interview through February.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
can we all agree that B/B was complete BS??? also, was it just my testing center, or did anybody else's test log them out part way through B/B and give you a heart attack? definitely messed with my performance for the rest of the section.

CP - was ok, scarcely any physics; more biochem than chem imo...
CARS - lol i always suck at cars...
B/B - wtf
PS - okay, some terms were really confusing and answers weren't very clear; could be 2 choices or none

overall wtf???
No and No. I'm guessing we had different exams. B/B was really straight forward on my version (PAGE blot with a 280 Kda band).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
It's been over 24 hours since my exam so I can't really talk about the specifics but here is my overall feelings.

C/P- so does the c and the p in c/p stand for biochem because i'm pretty sure that was the majority of what I saw on that section. Usually this is my best section however I ran out of time on the last passage. I was pretty upset about this because the last questions had some really easy plug and chug questions. I wish I would have spent less time toiling over those complicated pathways in the biochem passages and a little more time on those last few questions. would have been some easy points. Ultimately I don't know how to feel about this section. (AAMC scored I got a score of 128...we'll see).
CARS - I am an extremely slow reader. In all of the practice test I took (6 i believe) i never finished a CARS sections. I usually miss one or two per section maybe get a couple sections fully correct, however I always have had a passage that i just didn't have time to get to. Something completely out of the ordinary happened though...i finished the section. I felt like for the most part the passages were pretty easy as well as the questions. Nothing super philosophical or dense (except that object/society passage). I have hope for a decent score on this section (AAMC scored I got a 126).
B/B - for some reason I can't even remember this section. Ummmm....nope.nothing. i don't know if i'm experiencing dissociative amnesia or if the material was just that boring. I do remember getting through all the questions and having a few minutes to review. (AAMC predicted 127)
P/S - what was with this section?! I can relate to everyone out there who said that they narrowed most questions down to two answers but ultimately had to guess between them. I felt like I was making educated guesses on over 50% of the material. I did get one question on this section that came directly from the Section bank! And it was a question I had gotten wrong in my practice! I finished about 10 min early and went back through some of the questions i had marked as well as the first 3 passages. I've always felt like this section is very subjective. I like chemistry and physics because there is always a calculated answer (for the most part). psych and soc are too variable. (For some of the questions I feel like I have to put myself in the mindset of racist or a sexist in order to answer the questions lol this is completely of topic and just my opinion...the opinion of someone who isn't very good at predicting social behavior in real life or on paper). (AAMC scored i received a 127)

My AAMC scored total was 508. I have no idea if it will be a good predictor of how i did on Saturday. Hoping for a miracle though. I really don't want to retake this test. It is so demoralizing.

I am so relieved to have this over with. Shout out to the guy who says he didn't know what to do with himself today. Totally get that. I feel like i should be studying for something right now! Don't know how I'm going to wait for a month to get my score back. It's going to be brutal.
 
can we all agree that B/B was complete BS??? also, was it just my testing center, or did anybody else's test log them out part way through B/B and give you a heart attack? definitely messed with my performance for the rest of the section.

CP - was ok, scarcely any physics; more biochem than chem imo...
CARS - lol i always suck at cars...
B/B - wtf
PS - okay, some terms were really confusing and answers weren't very clear; could be 2 choices or none

overall wtf???
I feel the same about B/B
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Am I the only one who felt worse about CARS than the other three sections?

I think it went Bio > P/S > C/P >>>> CARS
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top