Taking it tomorrow, just started practice tests. One question: Timing.

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azor ahai

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AAMC FL 3
32
PS: 10 V: 12 BS: 10

AAMC FL 7
32
PS: 11 V: 10 BS: 11

AAMC FL 8
30
PS: 9 V: 11 BS: 10

I have a serious issue with timing. The AAMC FL3 was the first practice test I took. In the PS, I didn't even get to see the last two passages and set of discretes. V I finished ~6m early and got 7x. BS, same as PS I didn't get to the last two and set of discretes.

Took the AAMC FL7 earlier today, and same problem with PS. V I finished on time, but was surprised to see I got 14x. That section seems like a crapshoot. Being mindful of time, I managed to finish BS on time.

AAMC FL8 just a few hours ago, and it was the same disaster with PS.

Physics and Chem are my strong suit. I loathed how content-driven Bio was (content review took forever). But now that I've gotten through the material, BS feels like such a breeze because it's a lot of recognition. I get nervous starting a PS section because I know how long it takes me.

I mark the half way point so I can have an idea of my pace, but I feel rushed and make a lot of stupid mathematical errors.

What I'm doing is clearly not working. I am thinking of other tactics to implement. I realized I can answer a lot of questions without reading the passage, but still feel guilty doing so. Does this work?

I am open to suggestions for timing (in general), and specifically with the PS section. I was always able to deduce things and derive formulas on physics, but it's obvious now that I need to internalize it and get quicker with my calculations. Suggestions?

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I write this timetable down to pace myself.

#13 - 54 min remaining
#26 - 38 min
#39 - 21 min
#52 - 5 min
 
For PS, I think a lot of us tend to fall in to these traps where we over-complicate things--I know I did at first. It sounds like you know your formulas for PS, you just need to improve your calculation skills. Are you comfortable with exponents? Dividing, multiplying, and adding them? Dividing some number by another that has a negative exponent? When you do the math, are you rounding? For example, instead of something like 6.37 x 7.15, you could just do ~6.5x7. Usually, there will be enough separation between answer choices to accommodate estimation. Are you wasting time on questions where the answer should be zero by doing a ton of math for it? (e.g. what force does an electron feel when moving parallel to a magnetic field?) If I got hung up on any one question, I would just mark it and come back to it later. Wasting an excessive amount of time on a handful of questions is going to harm your score significantly if it means you have to rush through 2 whole passages at the end.
 
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Not sure...just practice I guess. It has worked well for me on all of the AAMC CBTs I took so I'm hoping it will work on the actual :p
 
For PS, I think a lot of us tend to fall in to these traps where we over-complicate things--I know I did at first. It sounds like you know your formulas for PS, you just need to improve your calculation skills. Are you comfortable with exponents? Dividing, multiplying, and adding them? Dividing some number by another that has a negative exponent? When you do the math, are you rounding? For example, instead of something like 6.37 x 7.15, you could just do ~6.5x7. Usually, there will be enough separation between answer choices to accommodate estimation. Are you wasting time on questions where the answer should be zero by doing a ton of math for it? (e.g. what force does an electron feel when moving parallel to a magnetic field?) If I got hung up on any one question, I would just mark it and come back to it later. Wasting an excessive amount of time on a handful of questions is going to harm your score significantly if it means you have to rush through 2 whole passages at the end.

I know the basic formulas. Literally like 8. I always banked on them including it in the passage. Until I spent like 15m trying to relate cross sectional area to velocity which was given as being equal to V (voltage)/B (mag. field) d. I was only asked to find the velocity of blood within that cross sectional area and because they didn't offer it it didn't even occur to me until review that it was just Q (flow rate) = A1V1. I didn't remember that. I also get a bit worried when I see a SHM equation (the one with omega and Amplitude), or some type of 1/2pi * rad(mg/L) or something. I always dismissed it as not needing to memorize. I still have to be comfortable with how any unit other than (molal) relates to colligative properties. I just know that one of the only times I ever use molal is for that, but I see it as moles of volume as well. I didn't do much review for physics because I tutor it and thought I would be fine, but I always ask my students for specific formulas and atomic masses. That's another thing I don't remember that much in detail. I know the d orbital causes annoying anomalies in periodic trends.

I basically don't know what I have to memorize and what I do not.

I actually am not comfortable with rounding. I read an EK book about it but it was only like two pages and there were only like 10 practice problems. This is something I have to habituate ASAP. I'll try to look for some resources.

Not sure...just practice I guess. It has worked well for me on all of the AAMC CBTs I took so I'm hoping it will work on the actual :p
Question about the AAMC CBT's. How different are they from the old 77q tests? Are they the same tests but shorter? Or do they include completely new subjects that will be tested.
 
I know the basic formulas. Literally like 8. I always banked on them including it in the passage. Until I spent like 15m trying to relate cross sectional area to velocity which was given as being equal to V (voltage)/B (mag. field) d. I was only asked to find the velocity of blood within that cross sectional area and because they didn't offer it it didn't even occur to me until review that it was just Q (flow rate) = A1V1. I didn't remember that. I also get a bit worried when I see a SHM equation (the one with omega and Amplitude), or some type of 1/2pi * rad(mg/L) or something. I always dismissed it as not needing to memorize. I still have to be comfortable with how any unit other than (molal) relates to colligative properties. I just know that one of the only times I ever use molal is for that, but I see it as moles of volume as well. I didn't do much review for physics because I tutor it and thought I would be fine, but I always ask my students for specific formulas and atomic masses. That's another thing I don't remember that much in detail. I know the d orbital causes annoying anomalies in periodic trends.

I basically don't know what I have to memorize and what I do not.

I actually am not comfortable with rounding. I read an EK book about it but it was only like two pages and there were only like 10 practice problems. This is something I have to habituate ASAP. I'll try to look for some resources.

They will provide some formulas in passages, but in my experience it's typically for complex topics where you have no business memorizing the formula or basic formulas. Everything else is fair game. See the MCAT content lists that AAMC publishes for reference. Also, keep in mind that physics is only a portion of the PS section. Make an equation sheet to help you memorize the equations. Not every equation known to man, but high yield ones.. e.g. kinematics, centripetal force, conservation of energy, Bernoulli's, Ohm's Law, etc.

I think rounding is essential to success, unless you're a math savant. You have to be able to approximate on the test. You're not given a calculator, but you will be given problems that are best solved by a calculator. The best solution is to approximate your values.

You don't need to know everything for the exams, but after taking a few tests you should have a better idea of what it is they test and more importantly, how they test. This should frame your studying.
 
This is something I have to habituate ASAP. I'll try to look for some resources.

There are literally hundreds of rounding questions buried the BR homework. Skim through the homework sections for each chapter and work any problem with numerical answers. In pretty every answer solution, you'll find some comment about a math technique, which often is advice on rounding or estimating.
 
What I wouldn't do to get a 10+ on verbal...
I'm not sure why people have trouble with verbal. The score conversion is a bitch though. I remember getting 2x on one of them and it gave me a 13. I had 16m to spare on that one.

Are you subvocalizing? Just read with your eyes. I finish reading a passage in like 3m. You should sit a little further back so you can see the whole passage at a glance, and don't bother taking notes or highlighting. The passages just look tough because you're a science student who's used to learning from textbooks. A chapter in a science textbook usually takes me ~5hrs to read. These passages are written by people who are just being contrarian to be contrarian. Be lax with the verbal.

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In other news, I took the exam today and ****ed up the timing still on the PS. Didn't get to even look at the last 3 passages. Voided it right then and there.

I suppose this should be expected considering I just finished content review this past Sunday and did 3 practice exams since. I am new to SDN but from what I've read everyone's prep is more intense by several orders of magnitude. I thought I was going hard putting a month into it, but it seems like most people put in 3? It's intimidating, I don't think I can do that. But I certainly need another month at least. I'll have to rethink my strategy.
 
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