The Official 04/28/2012 MCAT

[HoltMD]

I figured I should start this thread/support system. Good luck studying!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pfaction]

I absolutely love these threads. The paranoid posts are amazing. 3/4 of the people in this thread will probably score higher then they realize. The real curve is probably overall even better then the one for aamc 11.

It seems people's predictions usually are spot on with the tests though.

 

[brandonh4]

Usually I think PS is the hardest section, but VR was pretty hard this go around. The passages themselves were easy to understand, but the questions were very challenging.

 

[kryptonian]

I'm wondering whether DO accepts a VR score of 3 ?

 

[411309]

People almost always score within their practice test range. AAMC has a system and it works. The unprepared get weeded out. Ill bet a 10 on bio translates to around 33-34 right on the real thing, btw. Not even trolling this time.

 

[Caitlin0206]

Did anyone else actually feel sort of relaxed while taking it? When I took it I forced myself to be extremely focused and work at a nice pace, but I wasn't filled with anxiety like normal, it almost didn't feel real while I was taking it. After each break I'd just go outside, grab my water and chat with the receptionist for 6 or 7 minutes and joke around. It really helped to keep me calm through the whole ordeal. However...during the BS section was when my heart started racing and that knot in my stomach came about...my head got all cloudy and I was finding myself reading questions four or five times to understand wtf they were asking about. Usually I feel like a kid in a candy store (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration) while taking the bio section, today was NOT like that for bio...

and @ mr neuro..LOL @ your prediction. You're such a drama queen I'm predicting 12/11/12 for you.

I was really calm this time around too. I takes to the receptionisjt about the red sox during my breaks. It was a really different experience this time for me which may be why I'm freaking so bad and I hope that's what it is. Last time I went in crying this time and I was calm as hell this time. I was still rushing for time and bio was really crazy but i was very calm this time compared to last time. I think that's why Im so shocked now. I went in calm and feel like I got my ass kicked. I think I thought I was more prepared than I was or maybe I did okay/ we'll see

 

[davcro]

Usually I think PS is the hardest section, but VR was pretty hard this go around. The passages themselves were easy to understand, but the questions were very challenging.

Agreed. The passages were easy to read, but the questions felt hard.

Also VR passages appeared to be the same length as practice tests. Timing was the same for me.

 

[411309]

Also VR passages appeared to be the same length as practice tests. Timing was the same for me.

When I had mine I thought the exact same thing. I dunno why people are saying it's so much longer on the real deal, it def felt about the same for me when I took it a year or so ago.

 

[pfaction]

Agreed. The passages were easy to read, but the questions felt hard.

Also VR passages appeared to be the same length as practice tests. Timing was the same for me.

No. Not at all. They were much longer.

 

[typicalindian]

No. Not at all. They were much longer.

Nah dude vr was the same as AAMC 10 and 11 in terms of length. My timing was spot on.

 

[davcro]

So glad to be done. I feel very uneasy about verbal. Just wasn't flowing like it usually does. The test writers got in my head, made me second guess like crazy, killed my confidence. Well played AAMC, well played.

My old scores and my prediction:

#10 12PS 11VR 15BS = 38
#11 13PS 12VR 14BS = 39

prediction, worst case: 11PS 9VR 14BS = 34

All sections felt normal compared to practice exams. After hearing horror stories from the previous exams, I was expecting insanely long passages in both PS and BS. This was not the case. I was able to solve a couple of the PS passages without reading them. The ones that did require reading just need a quick skim. The number of calculations felt normal. Many could be solved conceptually. No surprises in PS.

VR was tough, see above.

BS was cruiser. I expected: crazy long passages, questions and passages about nothing we've learned before. Not true. 5 of the passages were solvable by quick skimming. 2 of them were time consuming, but this wasn't surprising. The Ebola and Mouse passage on #11 were time consuming also. Felt the same as #11

 

[pfaction]

Well, you guys are predicting really high, I'm maintaining my raelistic score. Which is, no admission into any school. See ya guys in a few weeks.

 

[natorx]

Only section I felt good about was VR...

After a horrendous PS, I took my 10minute break knowing I needed to chill out and make up points in the following sections. I wish mcat was like pcat where it just spit out your score.

 

[misseskwee]

Alright my loves, I'm back from "celebrating" with friends that I got the MCAT over with....

But there is really nothing to celebrate about...

So here's my take on the exam.
PS: WTF! WTF! Felt like it was Physics heavy (my weakest section) AND calculation heavy too! Omg no friggin' plug-n-chug ****, more like, use whatever formulas you know to get the values you can use for the actual formula you need to answer the question. First passage seemed easy, and the next passage a little harder, and I felt like it just kept getting more difficult.. Wtf man! Barely finished, guess on at least 3 calculation questions bc I ran outta time. F my life.......

VR: Topics were alright, some were interesting and easy to read, one was blah for me.. Questions were indeed challenging and some, I had no freaking idea what they wanted from my life.

WR: Felt like the prompts were easy. Made me feel better. Then again, nobody cares. So it doesn't matter.

BS: Felt like it was similar to AAMCs, ok, not as heart breaking as PS, but definitely some DISCRETES threw me off and I was like "I've never heard of this crap in my life!!

I wasn't even nervous taking the exam at all, but the PS made me really upset. I remained calm, but man, on my way home a tear fell down my cheek.. sigh...

 

[BigBangFan]

I know what you're all going through. I took the 3/24 test and thought I had flunked it miserably. I had also thought that the real test was MUCH harder than the AAMC tests. (I do think that AAMC purposely posts deceptively easy tests.) I even registered for a July test just in case I would have to retake it. I actually got a 34T, which is better than I thought I got. For those of you who thought you flunked physics, that was the section on which I thought I had scored the lowest, but I actually got a 13. So don't lose hope. I bet most of you did much better than you think!

So congrats on finishing the test today! Let yourselves celebrate. You deserve it.

 

[Razgriz47]

Eh, I just realized I did a problem wrong on PS. damnit..

It didn't help either that my gf was joking around last night and said "1 in 5 people fail their MCAT"

Totally screwed with my mentality when I came across the first problem I didn't know how to solve in PS.

 

[natorx]

I'm predicting 26-29... I suck at life

 

[typicalindian]

Ok guys I think we all need to just get this test out of our heads. If you're done with school, go out and have some fun before starting on applications. If you have finals, get to work! You at least want your term to end with a 4.0 Good luck everyone, lets all come back when our scores come out to cry together

 

[MrNeuro]

I guessed on wayyyy too many questions and already know I missed 4 questions on bio. Anyone that one annoying discrete in bio? Lol

 

[davcro]

No, not THAT much harder, just so mad about missing the last three PS.

Oh man, I feel your pain. On a practice exam I missed two questions because I didn't scroll all the way down. I was pissed. It is so easy to skip questions in the heat of the exam.

PSA: If you have time left over at the end, I highly recommend checking for incomplete questions before anything else.

 

[folktale]

I'm wondering whether DO accepts a VR score of 3 ?

This is what I'm feeling right now. That VR section was definitely longer than the AAMC FLs, I actually ran out of time and had to guess on the majority of the last passage.


The PS and BS were pretty alright I guess, but there were seriously questions that I go "HUH?!?!?! NEVER HEARD OF THIS BEFORE"

BS was not orgo heavy, but the bio passages are definitely out of this world.

 

[folktale]

To MrNeuro and Kryptonian: Duuuudes, I was going to yell out "Who's MRNEURO and KRYPTONIAN HERE??!?!?! SDN FRIENDS???" HAHAHA

Did you guys see a guy wearing glasses, basketball shorts, and striped black and grey sweater? That was me lol.

 

[metall17]

.

 

[kryptonian]

To MrNeuro and Kryptonian: Duuuudes, I was going to yell out "Who's MRNEURO and KRYPTONIAN HERE??!?!?! SDN FRIENDS???" HAHAHA

Did you guys see a guy wearing glasses, basketball shorts, and striped black and grey sweater? That was me lol.

lol, so you're a guy. I always thought Folktale was a girl, and I was actually looking around for a Filipina girl this afternoon ! I think I did sit nearby a guy with basketball shorts and grey sweater once, but I can't remember the face. That may be you haha. But yeah same with me, I thought I would call out you guys "who are MrNeuro and Folktale, raise your hand !" I was the Asian guy who also wore glasses, with jeans and black shirt and a face that looked extremely nervous and serious lol

 

[folktale]

All this time you thought I was a girl? haha oh man one of us should've had the guts to ask. We probably saw each other, but we were too stressed. I talked to a guy during one of the breaks after verbal that was wearing a red shirt about how verbal killed me, and I thought that was MrNeuro. Probably not, maybe.

 

[folktale]

And I stayed at the Best Western hotel just a couple blocks away from the center. I couldn't sleep last night because there were so much sirens and the upper floor people were like walking with heavy steps upstairs. I keep waking up every hour during the night, and really felt sleepy heading to the prometric center. But during the test, I guess the adrenaline woke me up.

 

[kryptonian]

All this time you thought I was a girl? haha oh man one of us should've had the guts to ask. We probably saw each other, but we were too stressed. I talked to a guy during one of the breaks after verbal that was wearing a red shirt about how verbal killed me, and I thought that was MrNeuro. Probably not, maybe.

Oh yeah, is that the tall guy who looked like he was in 30's with some sort of beards ?

 

[kryptonian]

I'm still quite thrilled and amazed by the fact that 3 frequent posters in this thread (you, me, MrNeuro) ended up taking the test at the same center out of hundreds of centers across the country haha

 

[folktale]

I'm still quite thrilled and amazed by the fact that 3 frequent posters in this thread (you, me, MrNeuro) ended up taking the test at the same center out of hundreds of centers across the country haha

Yeah. Did you also notice the prometric center was next to a cemetery. That freaked me out

 

[folktale]

Oh yeah, is that the tall guy who looked like he was in 30's with some sort of beards ?

Nah, he was like mid-20s. But yeah, there were a bunch of asians there.

 

[kryptonian]

Yeah. Did you also notice the prometric center was next to a cemetery. That freaked me out

lol it added more bleakness and depression to the whole scene which was already depressing. Actually this afternoon the complex looked better than Thursday afternoon when I drove there to take a look. The complex was quite scary and bleak with only a few cars and few people walking around.

 

[fas376]

f.ucking ****. i'm done with the exam but i keep coming back here. it's like 2nd nature now

 

[kryptonian]

This is what I'm feeling right now. That VR section was definitely longer than the AAMC FLs, I actually ran out of time and had to guess on the majority of the last passage.

I bombed the entire section. There were only 10 minutes left and I still had 2 passages untouched. One of them was easier, so I spend 8 minutes on that one and randomly marked on the last. I'm toast for sure. Not sure if a 3 or 4 on VR is too low for DO as well.

 

[folktale]

f.ucking ****. i'm done with the exam but i keep coming back here. it's like 2nd nature now

we're family now

lol it added more bleakness and depression to the whole scene which was already depressing. Actually this afternoon the complex looked better than Thursday afternoon when I drove there to take a look. The complex was quite scary and bleak with only a few cars and few people walking around.

I ended up visiting the night before, around 11pm. I thought people were taking tests, and I thought the whole thing was prometric. Ended up old people were playing bingo the night before. And then I found prometric was just a very small part of that whole complex. That made me feel better.

I also liked the proctors. They made the experience much more easier. They made me feel better telling me everything is going to be okay. There were three rooms in there. Which one were you assigned to? There were two rooms side by side, and then the third one was down the hallway past the lockers. I was assigned to side by side room, the room that's closest to the wall on the left when you entered the center.

 

[folktale]

I bombed the entire section. There were only 10 minutes left and I still had 2 passages untouched. One of them was easier, so I spend 8 minutes on that one and randomly marked on the last. I'm toast for sure. Not sure if a 3 or 4 on VR is too low for DO as well.

Dude I was so mad at that section. The fourth section, I thought twice in skipping, but ended up not skipping it. Ended up that was the hard passage, and for the last passage that I had 5 minutes to do, it was one of the easier science passages ones!

 

[kryptonian]

f.ucking ****. i'm done with the exam but i keep coming back here. it's like 2nd nature now

This thread is like a home to me man. This is where I got to know a lot of friends on SDN

 

[kryptonian]

we're family now

That's correct. This thread has become the hangout place for 4/28 homeys now

I also liked the proctors. They made the experience much more easier. They made me feel better telling me everything is going to be okay. There were three rooms in there. Which one were you assigned to? There were two rooms side by side, and then the third one was down the hallway past the lockers. I was assigned to side by side room, the room that's closest to the wall on the left when you entered the center.

I was assigned to the room down the hall way. Darn dude. I arrived at the center around 12:10 and I thought I was early. Turned out I was one of the last people going in the room.

Dude I was so mad at that section. The fourth section, I thought twice in skipping, but ended up not skipping it. Ended up that was the hard passage, and for the last passage that I had 5 minutes to do, it was one of the easier science passages ones!

My hard passage was the third one and that ate up 11 minutes of mine. I should have just skipped it and done it in the end

 

[folktale]

That's correct. This thread has become the hangout place for 4/28 homeys now


I was assigned to the room down the hall way. Darn dude. I arrived at the center around 12:10 and I thought I was early. Turned out I was one of the last people going in the room.



My hard passage was the third one and that ate up 11 minutes of mine. I should have just skipped it and done it in the end

I was averaging 10 mins per passage throughout the whole VR :/

And I actually arrived around that time as well and there were already a bunch of people signed in. But luckily, I was one of the first ones assigned to a room. It was pretty chill. Comfortable environment, and I didn't had the urge to urinate during any of the sections.

 

[kryptonian]

I was averaging 10 mins per passage throughout the whole VR :/

And I actually arrived around that time as well and there were already a bunch of people signed in. But luckily, I was one of the first ones assigned to a room. It was pretty chill. Comfortable environment, and I didn't had the urge to urinate during any of the sections.

Are you planning to re-take ? Are you going to register for another date now or are you going to wait until the score is out and then register ?

How about the others ? Are you all going to wait until the score comes out before registering for a new test date ?

 

[misseskwee]

Folktale you're a guy? Oops I always imagined you a girl and kept thinking, sweet another filipina like moi. Lolol

 

[misseskwee]

How about the others ? Are you all going to wait until the score comes out before registering for a new test date ?

Waiting. No point ruining my month of May by studying again if there's still a possibility of doing alright! Just enjoy this month man.

 

[mfata27]

My intentions in taking this test were for a 30, so for those that are shooting for what I am this feedback may or may not help.

How I felt after each test section

PS: Feelings during the beginning were, "holy f%$& I'm actually taking the MCAT," and then once those feelings settled it honestly wasn't too bad minus one or two passages.

VR: HOLY @#$%^&* MOTHER *&^%$#$%^&*(&^%$#$%^&*
(translation: verbal sucked but then again every AAMC verbal i've ever taken was miserable and I managed the 8 or 9 i was hoping for at least)

WS: Ehhh BSing an essay has always been a strong point of mine so I always considered the writing sample as an hour long break. This was no different.

BS: Felt SOOOO confident about this one after it ended. It was nitpicky like everyone said but then again I almost expected it based on the general trend of how BS passages were being portrayed as of late so there weren't any surprises at all.

Overall: I felt confident after I finished. My predicted (and hopeful) score is 10/8/12

 

[folktale]

Are you planning to re-take ? Are you going to register for another date now or are you going to wait until the score is out and then register ?

How about the others ? Are you all going to wait until the score comes out before registering for a new test date ?

I'm gonna play the waiting game. Not going to register for a new one right now. If I have to retake, I might just retake it with my bro taking it September. But that's kind of too late for applications this cycle. So I'm not really sure what I would do if I do have to retake. I'm just going to enjoy tomorrow first.

Folktale you're a guy? Oops I always imagined you a girl and kept thinking, sweet another filipina like moi. Lolol

Yea I'm a guy. What made you guys think I was a girl? Maybe it was my avatar? xD

 

[misseskwee]

Yea I'm a guy. What made you guys think I was a girl? Maybe it was my avatar? xD

Definitely because of your avator dude
Btw where in the phils u from?

 

[folktale]

Definitely because of your avator dude
Btw where in the phils u from?

Camarines Sur. Bicol region. It's in Luzon.

What about you?

 

[misseskwee]

Camarines Sur. Bicol region. It's in Luzon.

What about you?

Ooh bicolano! Grew up there? Born and raised in Cebu

 

[folktale]

Ooh bicolano! Grew up there? Born and raised in Cebu

NICE! Yea I was born and raised there too. Moved to the US in 2000, when I was 12.

Aren't you going to the Philippines today? What you doing staying up lol.

 

[Vachata]

Ok. My turn:

PS: can be described by only one word: "WTF" A couple of calculation questions were of wtf level of difficulty. I had to guess on these in order to finish in time. I rushed at the end and had zero minutes to spare. After this freaking section, my brain was so frozen that I forgot which way to get back to the testing center from the bathroom (my center had the bathroom outside). I panicked for like 7 minutes before I could figure out the way back. This is to say how hard the freaking PS section was.

VR: my version was easier than the AAMC practice tests but I FREAKING BOMBED IT. The PS section screwed my brain so much that I could not understand the first few passages on VR and ran out of time, ending up guessing on the last passage. Though I know it was easier than AAMC practice tests, which means 2 things: the curve will be harsher and therefore I'm screwed !

WS: lol, but a lot of thanks to it. It gave me time to recover after PS and VR's synergic assault.

BS: harder than AAMC 11 with a couple of back-stabbing questions of wtf level of surprise.

Predicted: 10/3/11

Maybe I should start studying GRE to apply to grad schools




I think we may have same version or at least similar




Yes, same here man.

Thank God I'm not alone!!!!! I was doing PS and I was thinking, ah, it's not THAT bad... just heavy calc... then I look down at the time and about **** my pants. That one passage that didn't really need to be there for the questions, yeah that's where I was when I freaked out. Then that passage threw me off... I was thinking am I way off or is this passage just weird? The last question on that passage... um can someone discretely tell me the correct answer? PS was so time consuming (for me) that I can't even remember how many I had to guess on and I usually finish with plenty of spare time.

VR- not bad, but didn't have time to finish the entire last passage I thought the first one was the hardest

BS- IMO it was more difficult than the AAMC full-lengths. There is one specific question that is driving me crazy. I want to post the question and ask so bad, bc it dealt with a system that Kaplan and TPR said "you only need to know this one function" but that wasn't part of the answer. I met up with my friends afterwards who are med students/residents.... I gave them the question and they gave me the answer of "the only thing we had to know" they didn't believe me it wasn't an answer. One med student even teaches bio for TPR and when I gave him a couple questions he was surprised we were tested on it. There were 2 orgo passages and 2-3 discrete, right? Can't remember, I saved them for last

I don't know if I want to look at my test results. I contemplated voiding the test... then I said EF it I already know I'm retaking anyways. Instead of reading Kaplan or TPR bio books I might just start reading research articles... My advanced level phys courses and research helped me more than the prep course books. Figured as soon as I get my scores I'm calling up the med school deans I know and asking for their blunt opinion on whether or not I should wait until my retake scores are out to submit my app.

 

[MDPhDJourney]

PS: Was a little harder than the AAMCs but mostly because it felt really different; calculation-heavy and more conceptual "how-does-this-work" questions. On the AAMC practice exams I always felt like I knew how to solve/approach every problem and then would end up getting questions wrong due to stupid mistakes or calculation errors. But with today's PS section there were a couple of questions that had me scratching my head.

VR: I literally have no clue what my score will be. The passages were on the most part easy reads (no esoteric philosophy/humanities passages) but the questions were more difficult and it was sometimes difficult to narrow down 2 answer choices even if I felt like I knew the answer to the question. So yea...I feel like I could end up with a 1 or a 15. lol

WR: Whatever

BS: Close to AAMC 10/11 EXCEPT that the discrete questions seemed more difficult in that they required knowledge of very minute details. The 1st orgo passage I had was also pretty difficult, IMO. I THINK I did well on this section, but again...I really just don't know.

The next 30 days will be painful to live through.

Does every test have an experimental passage and is there an experimental passage in each section? What do you guys think the experimental passages were on our exam?

 

[MDPhDJourney]

Oh wait, just read the MCAT guidelines and apparently we're not suppose to speculate about which items were experimental.

Blargh.

 

[SeminoleVesicle]

Congrats on finishing everybody. Get ready for the longest month of your life.