The MCAT Twitter Thread (AKA MCAT-oholics)

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ridethecliche

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Alright, so many of us are in the same boat, right?

We all have to take this exam, and lets be honest, it sucks. It's a roadblock and it's annoying. But we HAVE to do it, so we might as well enjoy it.

At the same time, I think having a 'support group' would be helpful. So why not post about MCAT trials/tribulations here?

Did you have an awesome study session? Grasp concept that you were having trouble with? Beast that practice test?

If so, post!

Did you have a crappy study session? Are you failing miserably at figuring out something seemingly simple? Just get frustrated at that practice exam you just took?

If so, post!

MCAT-oholics unite!

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Haha I know it is long, but I'm trying to do everything and anything to prevent mistakes and be able to post in the 30+ thread.
 
I skimmed it and agree with what they said.

My low score right now is what my high score was last go around...

I credit that to following some strategies like the ones mentioned.

The most important one that I can think of is to restate the pertinent passage info in your own words before attempting to answer questions. I honestly think that reading the questions before the passage is important.

There are some things in the passage that are just not tested at all. Why bother with them? Also why bother with convoluted answer choices when you can make up a better one and apply it yourself.

I just have to get better at doing that when time is more critical. I did a piss poor job with that for aamc 11.
 
Did you get bogged down on certain questions and spend too much time on them? Or too much time spent trying to analyze the passages?
 
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Did you get bogged down on certain questions and spend too much time on them? Or too much time spent trying to analyze the passages?

I honestly went totally braindead on PS. I thought I had 2 passages left when I had three.

I made some stupid second guess mistakes, which I've been better about lately. I.e. going with my gut instead of letting the answer choices persuade me.

In BS, I just couldn't make any sense of one of the graphs. I remember the same thing happening when I took it last year. The information was just displayed in a manner where the passage didn't quite seem to explain it. I moved to answering the questions before I fully 'got' what was going on.

In another instance, I didn't read enough of the answers, and in yet another I picked the opposite when I wasn't paying attention.

My score was still a 33, which I would be proud of come test day, but realistically it would have felt better to defeat this test.

Honestly, I think I was just burnt out and had too much other stuff in my mind. I didn't feel like taking the test and grudged myself to go do it. I'm less fatigued now, thankfully.

I think it's weird, but I think I knew more BS last year than this year. I'm doing about as well if not better because I test better. I'm going to do a bunch of TBR Bio practice to fix that.
 
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I'm just hoping for familiar concepts/passages on the real deal. I've taken 3 semesters of biochem now so anything related to that would be a boon. I tend to mess up on bacteria/immune system stuff but I've gotten better at it. I think I would actually prefer a more passage-based BS because I feel like I mix up bio knowledge often.

Not sure what else to do in these final weeks, I'm just gonna do a final content check, section tests, aamcs, and some subject tests. I'm gonna try and push myself these next two weeks and then taper off for the final week and a half. But I'm at the point where I've studied so much and I'm finishing finals, where I'm not sure if I can really put in 5 hours a day.
 
Final weeks were the busiest for me (except for the first 2 weeks).

Monday, for example == FL + TBR
Tuesday == Review + TBR
Wednesday == break + more TBR.

!
 
Haha, hilarious. You have to be pumped for a while, think of it as a game. I'm starting to wear down, but I've been at it for 6+ months. Which I don't recommend.
 
I remember how excited I was for my TBR books to arrive. I am now happy I won't have to look in them again.
 
I remember how excited I was for my TBR books to arrive. I am now happy I won't have to look in them again.

Haha I was excited for about a month-2 months, then I got more over it. Practice tests made me excited again though, but because I'm not scoring as well as I like I'm sad. I actually wish I could postpone my test :/ That way I could practice more and fine tune verbal more.
 
Haha I was excited for about a month-2 months, then I got more over it. Practice tests made me excited again though, but because I'm not scoring as well as I like I'm sad. I actually wish I could postpone my test :/ That way I could practice more and fine tune verbal more.

I know how you feel. When I realized my practice tests scores were basically locking me in at around a 34 I really wanted to postpone, but it just wasn't possible with my work schedule. I used up all of my vacation time to have 2 weeks off to take a bunch of practice tests up until test day.

It's not that I won't be happy with a 34, but I wanted to be averaging a little higher so I knew that even if I had a bad day I would still have a good shot at 33-34.
 
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MedPR,

I dunno. I'm starting to burn out. I know it. This past weekend was awesome, so I'll probably be able to get stuff done this week.

Tomorrow's my last aamc. I'll review that tomorrow night.

I think I'm taking weds off. Do some work thursday. Off friday. I'll study during the day on the weekend, but go out on sat night.

Work mon tues weds of next week. Maybe go out weds night. Off from work thurs to study all day. I'll leave work early on friday to read notes a little, then go watch a movie, go home and go to bed.

Test on 19th.

This time around, 33 was my low. Avg is about 34.6 right now. I want to beast 10 tomorrow morning.

I just need to amp myself up for this exam so I can not lose any momentum. Maybe red bull is in order.

I'll take 10 tomorrow morning and do things the same way as I will on test day. Wake up at 5:30ish, go for a short run, get showered and ready. Breakfast and coffee and ready to test by 7. I'll probably start the test by 7:30 so I can get to work by 1ish (taking half day).
 
MedPR,

I dunno. I'm starting to burn out. I know it. This past weekend was awesome, so I'll probably be able to get stuff done this week.

Tomorrow's my last aamc. I'll review that tomorrow night.

I think I'm taking weds off. Do some work thursday. Off friday. I'll study during the day on the weekend, but go out on sat night.

Work mon tues weds of next week. Maybe go out weds night. Off from work thurs to study all day. I'll leave work early on friday to read notes a little, then go watch a movie, go home and go to bed.

Test on 19th.

This time around, 33 was my low. Avg is about 34.6 right now. I want to beast 10 tomorrow morning.

I just need to amp myself up for this exam so I can not lose any momentum. Maybe red bull is in order.

I'll take 10 tomorrow morning and do things the same way as I will on test day. Wake up at 5:30ish, go for a short run, get showered and ready. Breakfast and coffee and ready to test by 7. I'll probably start the test by 7:30 so I can get to work by 1ish (taking half day).

Yea I was burned out the day I took AAMC 10. Took it easy the next day and the day after AAMC 11. Feeling terrible on test day was my biggest fear.
 
Yea I was burned out the day I took AAMC 10. Took it easy the next day and the day after AAMC 11. Feeling terrible on test day was my biggest fear.

I was a little anxious about 11. I did poorly on it last year. It was the worst of my scores and the same is true for this time around. It just didn't test to my strengths and the style of questions threw me compared to others. Last year 10 was my best.

Hoping that it's true this time around too. Though honestly, I'm way more confident in my abilities this year.

There are a few bio things I need to brush up on, and I want to go through and do some review for physics and chem, maybe read some orgo, but I have my work cut out for me.

My main goal is to go into the exam recharged. I think that can be managed.
 
Good luck. It definitely helps to have some confidence going into the real thing.
 
Congratulations MedPR!! Did better than 9 out of 10 people :)

I'm kind of scared to take 11 now, seems like it will be different from the others.
 
Congratulations MedPR!! Did better than 9 out of 10 people :)

I'm kind of scared to take 11 now, seems like it will be different from the others.

Yea, but a 33 is about the median matriculant score isn't it?
 
MedPr, congrats!!! Wooo:banana:

Thanks :) The more I think about it the happier I am with the score. SDN makes it easy to forget that a 30+ is a solid score. I'm wondering if I have a shot at MD schools since I'm a URM.
 
Nothing like a really smart* woman to take your mind off of studying

*see Knocked Up for clarification
 
so paranoid that when the real deal rolls around, i'll get hit with a ton of concepts i never saw in practice exams. i'm so worried i'm memorizing AAMC practice material and not all of the material..
 
Not happy right now.

33 again on aamc 10. This one was supposed to be the confidence booster.

11/11/11

Missed the 12 on PS by 1 courtesy of 2 stupid errors. One was misapplying an exponent and the other was misreading something simple in the passage. I had to rush to finish again. The last passage just didn't make sense for a bit...

VR missed the 12 by 1. A 12 is 37 correct on aamc 10. That's insane!

BS missed the 12 by 2. I made 2 stupid passage misreading errors. And then one where I confused two things. That's not counting the answer switches from right to wrong.

I guess I can be happy with the fact that I'm right at the upper end of the 33 and my high score from last time is my low score this time. I just don't want to score below this...

I guess I need to start reading all the passages like I read for verbal. Highlighting etc.

I'm so embarrassed that I got a buffer question wrong. I have failed the TBR gods...

I guess my only solution for test day is to be a super attentive reader for the passages. Errors made by not seeing appropriate passage info is unforgivable.
 
so paranoid that when the real deal rolls around, i'll get hit with a ton of concepts i never saw in practice exams. i'm so worried i'm memorizing AAMC practice material and not all of the material..

Go over the topic list from the AAMC website, https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/85560/test_sections.html

and this website http://mcat-review.org/ has a pretty nice review that corresponds directly to the AAMC topic list.

The questions might be presented with novel information that you haven't seen before, but they will only be testing background knowledge from these topics. Everything else can be deduced from the passage or question stem.

I guess my only solution for test day is to be a super attentive reader for the passages. Errors made by not seeing appropriate passage info is unforgivable.

Really check out that link I posted earlier by AltiusPrep, I think that can really make a difference for people.

Read the question slowly, pausing even, to make sure you didn't miss anything.
RESTATE the question in your own words.
Evaluate ALL answer choices.
Restate the question + the answer choice together for verification.
Watch out for negative qualifiers; least, not, most weaken, etc.
Read the passage quickly but carefully, referring back to it whenever necessary.
Explain graphs and figures to yourself in your head, say what's going on in them.

I think this is mandatory to ensure no "stupid" mistakes happen. I'm going to employ this technique Saturday for AAMC11 and we'll see what happens, but I have a feeling I will completely eliminate all my stupid mistakes.
 
Go over the topic list from the AAMC website, https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/85560/test_sections.html

and this website http://mcat-review.org/ has a pretty nice review that corresponds directly to the AAMC topic list.

The questions might be presented with novel information that you haven't seen before, but they will only be testing background knowledge from these topics. Everything else can be deduced from the passage or question stem.



Really check out that link I posted earlier by AltiusPrep, I think that can really make a difference for people.

Read the question slowly, pausing even, to make sure you didn't miss anything.
RESTATE the question in your own words.
Evaluate ALL answer choices.
Restate the question + the answer choice together for verification.
Watch out for negative qualifiers; least, not, most weaken, etc.
Read the passage quickly but carefully, referring back to it whenever necessary.
Explain graphs and figures to yourself in your head, say what's going on in them.

I think this is mandatory to ensure no "stupid" mistakes happen. I'm going to employ this technique Saturday for AAMC11 and we'll see what happens, but I have a feeling I will completely eliminate all my stupid mistakes.
But how on earth would one have the time to take all these steps during the exam when you're already scrambling to figure out what's going on in the weird passages? I barely have enough time as it is to finish the sections...
 
It sounds like it takes a lot more time than it actually does. You are already basically doing this (hopefully) but just faster and not as deliberate. Taking 30 seconds to do this per question should make you feel more confident and comfortable with the questions and require less time to solve them. By consciously going through these steps you should be able to identify what the question is really asking for quickly and then only have to spend a few seconds, or if its a calculation 30 seconds, actually determining the correct answer.

Try it with a couple of practice passages and see how it goes, modify it to what works best for you, but definitely try to include most if not all of those aspects.
 
Really check out that link I posted earlier by AltiusPrep, I think that can really make a difference for people.

I think this is mandatory to ensure no "stupid" mistakes happen. I'm going to employ this technique Saturday for AAMC11 and we'll see what happens, but I have a feeling I will completely eliminate all my stupid mistakes.

I skimmed that actually.

I think my 35 and 36x2 performances on the earlier aamc's were a result of just super attentive reading. I'm going to approach the sciences the same way that I do verbal.

Read the questions.
Read the passage.
Highlight necessary info.
Go back to do the questions.
Then go back to the passage if there's something that was discussed in the passage and is not a psedo discrete.

That's my strategy now for PS/VR/BS.

Boom.
 
I have aamc 6. I wonder if I should break it down and do the PS/BS sections.

I really don't know what to do with myself for the next week and a half. Reviewing notes only goes so far.

I guess I'll do some more TBR passages for the sections that i'm anxious about.
 
30 for both AAMC10 & 11: It is what is is.
BS section is definitely more experimental-doesn't even require background knowledge as much as it requires critical thinking specific for experiments.

I'm not even gonna sweat it. The past 5 months, I've tried my best and I surrender to His will. I'm def planning on posting my score up in a month, & I wish everyone the best!!
 
30 for both AAMC10 & 11: It is what is is.
BS section is definitely more experimental-doesn't even require background knowledge as much as it requires critical thinking specific for experiments.

I'm not even gonna sweat it. The past 5 months, I've tried my best and I surrender to His will. I'm def planning on posting my score up in a month, & I wish everyone the best!!

Good luck, SJ!
 
Such an unproductive week in terms of MCAT. At the point of diminishing returns though I think. I just want to finish the 28 passages of TPR verbal, Kaplan 45 book, and the last ~10 Kaplan science section tests I have left by May 31st. I wanted to finish all of the Kaplan online materials but it's a bit too much and they are not particularly helpful. Oh and of course AAMC 8,9,10,11.

Taking 11 Saturday to get a feel for a more realistic test a few weeks in advance. Going to try to read a science journal or two a day just to get my mind in critical science thinking mode. 45 seems possible if you happen to be in sync with all the passages and really get what's going on... and make good guesses... and don't get thrown by anything. Hoping to break 14 in PS and 13 in BS on this next AAMC.


Oh - AND NO STUPID MISTAKES ALLOWED EVER AGAIN. INCLUDING PASSAGE BASED ERRORS. So no errors allowed, unless it's some random content thing I didn't know. As someone said in that 35+ thread, it's time to stop being a human for a while and turn into an MCAT MACHINE.
 
I like that stupid mistake motto. I'll make it my religion for now.


I realized last night that the mistakes I had some things right last year that I got wrong on 10. Just a few of those would have brought me over the edge. That's what I get for not being psyched up and paying attention!
 
Yeah I feel like if you are really focused and attentive to every detail in the question stem, passage, and answers - you will be pretty exhausted after the test. I'll find out tomorrow when I turn into an MCAT robot for 4 hours to decimate AAMC 11.

I honestly feel like I know everything, excluding some possible obscure bits of info they expect us to know. Every mistake I made in AAMC 7 PS was from reading the question wrong or missing something from the passage. BS was a mix of reading questions wrong and a few o-chem things I didn't know / 1 bio thing.

Gonna review ochem hard next week but just hoping that the ochem on the real thing is more reasoning based than straight up rxn memorization.

Good luck to any 5/12ers and good luck to everyone else's practice tests and finals!
 
Ohhh boy AAMC 11 - definitely not checking scores till tomorrow. PS felt pretty easy with a few tricky questions and a few easy ones I feel like I mixed up. Verbal wasn't bad, a few tricky questions, literally one impossible question (to me) and one pretty difficult passage. Bio, haha f me. Well that ochem passage was easy, some hard discretes, and 2 extremely hard passages. The rest of the passages felt at least medium difficulty. Definitely the longest passages I've seen so far.

I don't think I misread any of the questions, but definitely gonna get some wrong for misinterpreting the passage or not understanding them. Checking and reviewing tomorrow, for now - party time.
 
I wish I had taken this two weeks ago. I just feel like all my knowledge is just leaving me.

Today I forgot that adding 10ml of .1M base to 20ml of .1M acid means that ph=pka.

Seriously. What the farking fark.

I haven't taken aamc 3 this year. I'll take it tomorrow morning. I would retake 4 too because I took that really early on, but mine expired, so whatever.

AAMC 3 in the morning. Some TBR PS in the PM.

EFF YOU MCAT. IMA COMIN FO YOU!
 
Ah ok yeah I thought you were referring to strong neutralization. Dasypus yes, I got freaked out today. I did much worse on AAMC 11 than the rest of my exams. Really shook me up earlier but I'm ok now. I honestly made more simple mistakes this time than any of my other exams. There were a few questions I legitimately did not understand, but I should have gotten most of them right.

I went too fast again through some stuff and didn't rephrase the questions in my head. Also some stupid high school kids came into the library and started taking pictures and laughing and I paused my test and just sat there angry for 5 minutes until they left.

But yeah wow, I don't know what happened, I made a few math errors, few reading errors, few passage errors. It just wasn't good. I let myself get freaked out by a couple of passages and questions and I don't know. I will just do better on the next one and never make those mistakes again. The big key for me I think is rephrasing the question, I got so many wrong answers because I was thinking of the question wrong. And reading graphs too quickly.

I really wanna go back in time and retake this test, but it's all practice right? The only thing that matters is the real one. Gotta get back on the grind and just push myself these last 18 days.



Edit - Re did the test, felt good just to see that high number :) but going to go through it again in a lot of detail, going through each wrong answer explanation.
 
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Ah ok yeah I thought you were referring to strong neutralization. Dasypus yes, I got freaked out today. I did much worse on AAMC 11 than the rest of my exams. Really shook me up earlier but I'm ok now. I honestly made more simple mistakes this time than any of my other exams. There were a few questions I legitimately did not understand, but I should have gotten most of them right.

I went too fast again through some stuff and didn't rephrase the questions in my head. Also some stupid high school kids came into the library and started taking pictures and laughing and I paused my test and just sat there angry for 5 minutes until they left.

But yeah wow, I don't know what happened, I made a few math errors, few reading errors, few passage errors. It just wasn't good. I let myself get freaked out by a couple of passages and questions and I don't know. I will just do better on the next one and never make those mistakes again. The big key for me I think is rephrasing the question, I got so many wrong answers because I was thinking of the question wrong. And reading graphs too quickly.

I really wanna go back in time and retake this test, but it's all practice right? The only thing that matters is the real one. Gotta get back on the grind and just push myself these last 18 days.



Edit - Re did the test, felt good just to see that high number :) but going to go through it again in a lot of detail, going through each wrong answer explanation.

Honestly, this is the big reason I'm starting to become a huge advocate of reading the questions first in all the sections.

You DONT have to understand the entire passage to get everything right. Trying to do so wastes valuable time.

Just get the necessary details and go from there.

I'm currently doing some physics phase 3, then aamc 6R bs. Tomorrow, ill do the ps and vr.
Review them all on weds and read notes. On thurs, ill finish reading all content notes.

Off on friday other than looking at some formulas and notes. Ill go watch the avengers or something.
Test Saturday.

Wow.

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Honestly, this is the big reason I'm starting to become a huge advocate of reading the questions first in all the sections.

You DONT have to understand the entire passage to get everything right. Trying to do so wastes valuable time.

Just get the necessary details and go from there.

I'm currently doing some physics phase 3, then aamc 6R bs. Tomorrow, ill do the ps and vr.
Review them all on weds and read notes. On thurs, ill finish reading all content notes.

Off on friday other than looking at some formulas and notes. Ill go watch the avengers or something.
Test Saturday.

Wow.

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Yeah I think I might do that. I'm really not that mad or worried about my score drop, it's just kind of like a little slap in the face. My average is still high from just 4 aamcs, but I don't know why I made these mistakes. I felt really confident before, but now I can't help but think I won't hit my goal on test day, like I'll continue to make these mistakes. Just need to crush this last week of practice material I have, than the last tests, and be ready for a very differently prepared actual test. But I feel like you need to take everything said on here with a grain of salt. My friend who isn't that smart took it in April and said it wasn't bad, similar to aamc, nothing too tricky.

Sounds like a plan for your last week though cliche. Good luck:thumbup:
 
Thanks duder.

I did AAMC 6R bio today. Squarely in the mid 12 range. Didn't do it totally timed since the timing is different, but that's a good feeling!

Gonna do the PS and VR tomorrow.

Taking half days tomorrow and weds, off thursday, and leaving early on fri.

Again, goals:

Tues: AAMC 6 PS/VR. Review sections taken
Weds: Finish reviewing test and review notes
Thurs: Review notes and maybe do another verbal test or some PS.
Friday: review formulas, then go watch a movie and chill the eff out.

Saturday. Prepare to be judged.
 
Honestly, I wish that I could write/draw on the questions/graphs on the exams. It makes it so much easier to do it that way than to keep it straight in your head. I guess I'm going to have to draw the graphs and label them that way?
 
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. Eff time is running out fast, gotta bump up my studying to 6-8 hours for these last few days I guess.
 
12 on aamc 6R PS.

Gotta review some stuff from the PS and BS for this test tonight. Did 2 passages of verbal today from it, will do the rest tomorrow. For now, gotta work on figuring out the sciences.
 
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