The Official 5/12/2012 MCAT Thread

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merde

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Hello fellow May 12ers! I didn't see a thread for our test day and considering we are 5 weeks away, I decided to make one! I hope everyone's preparation is going well!

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I second that... You might as well go in and see how it goes. You might go in and really rock a section and say what the hell, let's grade it. At this point canceling is like buying an AAMC practice exam and never using it. Best practice exam you can get is the real deal and you have literally nothing to lose except money... which you're losing either way :p Hell, going in knowing your going to void may take enough nerves off to give you an advatage

Good luck!!!
yes but voiding shows on the application
i heard stories that getting a bad grade is better than voiding
is that true??
 
yes but voiding shows on the application
i heard stories that getting a bad grade is better than voiding
is that true??

There is just no way ADCOMS can look down on voiding. What if you get violently sick during the exam? People void for legitimate reasons all the time....

In my opinion your doing yourself a disservice by not going in and getting what you paid for. If (and this is a big if) the adcoms ask you about a voided exam you can just tell them you were sick all week and didn't want to waste the money. It's honest and how could they look down on you for going in and doing your best.
 
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Never going to the exam in that mentality man..
If i open that exam iam going to score it... I really worked hard and I know my stuff but iam sick of score surprises..
Iam hoping that what ever decision i take ( whether to take it this saturday or not) will turn out to be the right one..
 
MzAires, your scores are great! Please don't let one test get to you too much and definitely don't feel bad for crying about it! If it makes you feel any better, I've had so many MCAT induced meltdowns this month that my mom keeps asking if I'm about to start my period. Probably didn't need to share that. In all honesty though, its just a test. And I feel like a hypocrite for saying it like that but it is so easy to get caught up in feeling like your entire future medical career hangs on it. If you've done everything you possibly could to prepare for it, then you're ready! We all just need to stay calm, use our brains and not get caught up in the whole "omg this is it" mentality. Thats when you begin to doubt yourself and make stupid mistakes. At least this is what I'm telling myself to get me through these next few days!
Thanks so much for your kind words! Yes, you are right, I will try to look at it as a one off. Hope we all perform at our best this saturday and get what we deserve for all our hard work!
 
I hope we all get 11's across the board...

Anyone else feel like they have nothing really to do and kinda just want to take it? I feel like I'm becoming less sharp by the minute! Legit finished every BR passage so kinda don't know what to do but read and do FL verbal practice?

I know what you mean. I feel like at this point there isn't really anymore I can do but forget stuff. I'm ready to take it and just be done. Gotta start that med school app after too.
 
so as I spend the next few days freaking out and stressing

what does it mean when I get 1-2 wrong, but then have passages where I TOTALLY screw up on and get like 2-3 correct:scared:
 
Just took #10. 33 - 12/9/12. My best science composite yet! I'm honestly stoked right now. Disappointed with verbal in that I got a 9 .......... couldn't focus with these passages either ... First time I felt good with PS section too. Except for Passage VII, which came out of nowhere .... hahaha

But yeah ... seeing that I've gotten 12's on every section at least once gives me hope. Hopefully I won't be destroyed by #11 on Wednesday and hopefully I knocked the real one out of the park. :D

Edit: Also ... It's crazy how only missing 4 gets you a 12 .......... High standards, AAMC. High standards .....
 
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Hello there, first time posting on sdn. I have taken all but one of the exams. My average is a solid 32. Should I take 11 or not?

Btw who else is learning a ton from all these verbal sections. I found the price per barrel of oil question funny the other day.
 
Has anyone been doing the writing section on their FLs? I'm doing a writing section for the first time today, and I'll do one on Thursday.
 
Has anyone been doing the writing section on their FLs? I'm doing a writing section for the first time today, and I'll do one on Thursday.

Oh man... you've been missing out :D

The writing section actually makes me calm. Right after verbal I feel I can go have a snack in the hallway and if I'm late my 3 minutes it's not a big deal. Then I get to sit on the computer and write something that doesn't matter A LOT with respect my future. It's the perfect break.

Any good bio score I have had can be attributed to chilling out during writing and getting my act back together :laugh:
 
i distinctly remember reading somebody's experience during an interview and the interviewer jokingly said "what writing score?"

haven't practiced. will not practice.
 
Hello there, first time posting on sdn. I have taken all but one of the exams. My average is a solid 32. Should I take 11 or not?

Btw who else is learning a ton from all these verbal sections. I found the price per barrel of oil question funny the other day.


One gorgeous attitude....
 
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How are our 6,7,8 verbal fellows doing? I am in the same boat, angry, paid $85 for the test and am aware I do have the void option if I need to use it. Absolutely ridiculous how my scores have not gone up....
 
did anyone else get annihilated by aamc 10 VR?

I've been in the 8-10 range for verbal and had plenty of time on previous exams even, the old-sit-your-ass-in-a-chair-for-8-hours exam. I practically didnt get to answer questions of one whole passage.

I got a :( 11/7/11 = 29

good news though is that i've improved on PS by 4 points (though i think this physics section was much much easier)
 
did anyone else get annihilated by aamc 10 VR?

I've been in the 8-10 range for verbal and had plenty of time on previous exams even, the old-sit-your-ass-in-a-chair-for-8-hours exam. I practically didnt get to answer questions of one whole passage.

I got a :( 11/7/11 = 29

good news though is that i've improved on PS by 4 points (though i think this physics section was much much easier)
I'm taking #10 either tomorrow or thursday so I will let you know. I've been worsening in the VR section since aamc #8 with a 9 in both #8 and #9 and an 8(=o) in #11. Before that I was getting 10s with one 11. I have no idea what caused the drop...

HOWEVER (I have to share this cause I'm quite happy right now) I just took aamc #6R today on paper and got a 12 on VR, 1 pt away from 13, my highest score so far!!! I really really really hope that this is not a fluke and I actually improved. I did spend yesterday redoing the verbal section of #11 (before reviewing) and improved from an 8 to a 10. However, I know I benefited from having read the passages a second time since I finished with some left, which I did not the first time or during any other verbal. Then I also took a verbal test from TPRH. I'm hoping that with some more practice and preparation I will get at least a 10 on test day!! Fingers crossed!!!
 
Think I'm going to do a full length tomorrow just to keep fresh. Anyone suggest a test that isn't an AAMC?

Or is AAMC 6 a decent test to do? I feel like my brain is rotting, kinda feel like I'm losing stuff :(
 
Think I'm going to do a full length tomorrow just to keep fresh. Anyone suggest a test that isn't an AAMC?

Or is AAMC 6 a decent test to do? I feel like my brain is rotting, kinda feel like I'm losing stuff :(
AAMC 6 is the hardest PS for me so far (haven't taken 10 yet). Though my score was lower for 11, after reviewing it, I saw that I made a lot of really stupid mistakes. But for 6, having glanced at the solution manual real quick I think most of the ones I got wrong was legit and not accidental. I'd say taking another aamc FL that you haven't taken yet beats out taking other prep company's FL!
 
Sounds good... not to mention I need to see if MCAT physics can throw something my way that I can't handle. Did you just download one from a google search cause I don't think aamc sells it?
 
I think AAMC 9 has the hardest verbal section yet. Renaissance art, philosophy, art-philosophers :eek:, and feminism. Kill me
 
Just to let everyone know, I have thought about it yesterday and today
and I choose to remain in this train
5/12 MCAT here i come
PS: i have programmed my seat at the pro metric center to self deploy and the computer to blow up once i get a certain number of questions wrong on the test
 
Just to let everyone know, I have thought about it yesterday and today
and I choose to remain in this train
5/12 MCAT here i come
PS: i have programmed my seat at the pro metric center to self deploy and the computer to blow up once i get a certain number of questions wrong on the test

I'd pay extra for that... and I know prometric wouldn't mind the spare change.
 
AAMC 6 is the hardest PS for me so far (haven't taken 10 yet). Though my score was lower for 11, after reviewing it, I saw that I made a lot of really stupid mistakes. But for 6, having glanced at the solution manual real quick I think most of the ones I got wrong was legit and not accidental. I'd say taking another aamc FL that you haven't taken yet beats out taking other prep company's FL!

Didn't they retire AAMC 6??
 
I'd pay extra for that... and I know prometric wouldn't mind the spare change.
Engineer I need some of your insights.. iam in upper 12 range and i feel like iam really close to perfection on PS.. I know you are an expert give me some advice
On each exam i only encounter a couple of questions (2-3) that i don't know or didn't understand the question, whereas the other mistakes are silly mistakes that i could have avoided if i double checked my answer
plus i noticed that most of my mistakes are in the last 30 questions in the exam when i start rushing myself . I finish my on time usually , and sometimes i would have about 5 minutes to review.
 
I've decided my next full length will be Saturday! I did sort of a dry run today, woke up early, had my test day breakfast and actually started AAMC 5 at around 8am. I saved it for last and it was like a major breath of fresh air after 11! I also scored a 36 (12/11/13) which is my best ever and I doubt I'll be able to top it so, I'm done! After going over it I'll probably just brush up on things I haven't seen in a while, take VR section tests everyday and try to stay relaxed.
 
Engineer I need some of your insights.. iam in upper 12 range and i feel like iam really close to perfection on PS.. I know you are an expert give me some advice
On each exam i only encounter a couple of questions (2-3) that i don't know or didn't understand the question, whereas the other mistakes are silly mistakes that i could have avoided if i double checked my answer
plus i noticed that most of my mistakes are in the last 30 questions in the exam when i start rushing myself . I finish my on time usually , and sometimes i would have about 5 minutes to review.

Honestly for me it has been a combination of apparently decent physical intuition and using my timing chart effectively (the one I mentioned way back).

We will probably get the same PS score come saturday, the difference between a 12 and 14 is 1 part focus, 2 parts confidence and 7 parts luck.
 
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yeah but it's available for download online: http://chrismcatstuff.tripod.com/

FUUUUUUUU I could've used this website a few weeks ago*

*edit: for totally legal reasons

Well ... now my $150+ seems useless .....................

Anyways, since everybody is probably high strung and stressed (or hopefully cool as a cucumber :thumbup:), here's a little picture to relax everyone of our future when we're done with med school and become interns ...

4103817_460s.jpg
 
wow did not know this existed http://chrismcatstuff.tripod.com/
hea it's a little late to go thru all of kaplans. don't know what to do, still have a AAMC II full length, i was was wanting to do AAMC 10 tom but I don't know It seems like theres plenty of other option with this site. Thanks. Bring it on sat!
 
All I want is to feel okay coming out of this thing. Why we have to wait a month is already frustrating me. AAMC's have spoiled me.
 
Honestly for me it has been a combination of apparently decent physical intuition and using my timing chart effectively (the one I mentioned way back).

I took 3 years of gen chem in high school, retook it first year of college then took two advanced chem classes last semester... I also majored in nuclear engineering so physics/gen chem has become a part of my circulatory system :D I feel that has gone the furthest for me just like I am sure many of you feel about majoring in bio has helped you in bio.

We will probably get the same PS score come saturday, the difference between a 12 and 14 is 1 part focus, 2 parts confidence and 7 parts luck.
Bro your awesome , Iam a fan already !!
 
So... I'm to the point of wanting to punch something small and innocent... haha. I just can't wrap my head around the big picture of the PS and so I over-analyze every question and spend the rest of the test disappointed and stressed out. I can see the driving force of chemistry and biology is stability and how that dictates the behavior of everything... is there such a thing in physics? I just see formulas and abstract lens ideas that I can't remember under pressure. It's killing me. *temper tantrum*
 
Sooooooo.... AAMC 6..... WOOOOOOOWWWWW

If you're looking far a pre-game confidence boost, I recommend you stay REAL far away from AAMC 6. Hands down the hardest exam of all AAMCs, it's not even close. Although, a lot of my troubles came from the timing switch and the sheer length of this beast (PS/BS:1hr 40min each, Writing: 1hr, Verbal: 1hr 25min). Yes PS and BS were 100 minutes EACH. I am forever grateful that we don't have to do that saturday because it's a totally new ball game mentally.

PS: Tough, but at least finished on time (barely, had like 4 minutes of 100 left). 100 minute sections are LOOONNGG, especially at 8AM. Holy god. The first time I have ever gotten to questions on PS and actually had no idea what the answer was, especially for gen chem.

VR: Found the reading interesting. Generally about the same as usual but had to pay extra close attention to timing because there were extra passages and about 6-7 ?s per passage. I've been doing 1-2 FL verbals every day this week and have started to pick up into the 10+ range. No, I do not know how :D

Writing: Even the writing was tough. WTH?

BS: WOW. WOW. WOW. That was hard. That is exactly how I envision saturday, however. Long passages, stuff you've never seen before galore and not very straight forward question stems. After the 7th passage I had to stop to eat something because my stomach was eating itself. Came back and got slammed with crazy stuff. Had to guess for an entire passage and had no clue what was going on for another. Luckily I destroyed the first half of the exam somehow? The back nine, wasn't the best day at the tee if you know what I mean.



Overall, with the complete guessing in BS:

AAMC #6 13,12,12 (PS,VR,BS) 37

But hot damn was that a reality check. Def gunna have to take a break before going through this.

For what it's worth, I felt this exam matched most closely to what people have been describing the real thing as. I have no idea why 6 would, but it is definitely the way I feel.
 
Sooooooo.... AAMC 6..... WOOOOOOOWWWWW

If you're looking far a pre-game confidence boost, I recommend you stay REAL far away from AAMC 6. Hands down the hardest exam of all AAMCs, it's not even close. Although, a lot of my troubles came from the timing switch and the sheer length of this beast (PS/BS:1hr 40min each, Writing: 1hr, Verbal: 1hr 25min). Yes PS and BS were 100 minutes EACH. I am forever grateful that we don't have to do that saturday because it's a totally new ball game mentally.

PS: Tough, but at least finished on time (barely, had like 4 minutes of 100 left). 100 minute sections are LOOONNGG, especially at 8AM. Holy god. The first time I have ever gotten to questions on PS and actually had no idea what the answer was, especially for gen chem.

VR: Found the reading interesting. Generally about the same as usual but had to pay extra close attention to timing because there were extra passages and about 6-7 ?s per passage. I've been doing 1-2 FL verbals every day this week and have started to pick up into the 10+ range. No, I do not know how :D

Writing: Even the writing was tough. WTH?

BS: WOW. WOW. WOW. That was hard. That is exactly how I envision saturday, however. Long passages, stuff you've never seen before galore and not very straight forward question stems. After the 7th passage I had to stop to eat something because my stomach was eating itself. Came back and got slammed with crazy stuff. Had to guess for an entire passage and had no clue what was going on for another. Luckily I destroyed the first half of the exam somehow? The back nine, wasn't the best day at the tee if you know what I mean.



Overall, with the complete guessing in BS:

AAMC #6 13,12,12 (PS,VR,BS) 37

But hot damn was that a reality check. Def gunna have to take a break before going through this.

For what it's worth, I felt this exam matched most closely to what people have been describing the real thing as. I have no idea why 6 would, but it is definitely the way I feel.
I kind of agree with you too. You would think the later aamcs should match the real thing more but for me it's def this one. The PS and BS seemed more verbal like to me than aamc 11. For PS, for some reason I had no idea what ionization constant mean (meant Ka). I don't remember ever hearing it called anything but acid dissociation but I guess I should have been able to reason it out in any case. BS was totally verbal like. It was weird and you needed to know random terms like isogamy and parthenogenesis. It seems from the 4/28 takers that we will likely encounter random terms type of questions on the real thing...

Engine: since you're really good at PS would you mind explaining number 13 to me when you're finished reviewing? Still don't really get why the angle didn't have to be factored in. Also number 45 seemed a little too nitpicky to me. Options A and B seemed to me sounds like the same thing. Of course I picked the wrong one.
 
Just thinking, this is probably why 6 was retired and sold to prep companies, because prep companies felt that this is most representative of the latest mcats. I guess gone are the days when one should just skim PS and BS passages. In the aamc 6 solutions for BS, it actually said the way to get one question right was to stick to the "theme" of the passage since the question was too difficult to understand.
 
Well, after the MCAT--I'll have the time to get really active again. So that's a plus. And honestly, who has time for the MCAT? It's so time consuming and I've haven't even looked at AMCAS and my LORs are like in Timbuktu...so I need to track them down. All that takes time, so yeah, let's do this.

Good luck all, seems like this group is really friendly, so that's good--we'll need the support network. Tentative score release 6/12!
 
I kind of agree with you too. You would think the later aamcs should match the real thing more but for me it's def this one. The PS and BS seemed more verbal like to me than aamc 11. For PS, for some reason I had no idea what ionization constant mean (meant Ka). I don't remember ever hearing it called anything but acid dissociation but I guess I should have been able to reason it out in any case. BS was totally verbal like. It was weird and you needed to know random terms like isogamy and parthenogenesis. It seems from the 4/28 takers that we will likely encounter random terms type of questions on the real thing...

Engine: since you're really good at PS would you mind explaining number 13 to me when you're finished reviewing? Still don't really get why the angle didn't have to be factored in. Also number 45 seemed a little too nitpicky to me. Options A and B seemed to me sounds like the same thing. Of course I picked the wrong one.

On seemingly simple math plug and chugs I usually don't look at the answer choices first except for maybe units. It wanted distance traveled by a wave so I didn't even bother looking at the answers. I knew the speed it went, I knew the time it traveled... multiplied and got an answer. The thing that could have tripped me up (and made me take a double take when I did do this) was looking at the answer choices and seeing sin or cos(theta). That's when you second guess it being simple. Luckily I had already done the math and realized these answers were a trick rather than a lead... they didn't have the chance to lead me astray :D

Let's pretend I am at one corner of a football field (bottom left). If I throw a ball to the opposite corner (top right) at 10 m/s and it takes 11 seconds to get there, the distance from corner to corner is 110 meters. Just because I throw it 30 or whatever degrees to the right of vertical (the bottom left to top left direction) doesn't mean that angle is factored in. That just gives me a reference as to where I am throwing it, not how far, how long or how fast. It's distracting information trying to trap you.


I'll check out the other questions in a while, still relaxing. Totally agree with what you said though. Did you finish BS in time? I found it impossible to do that.
 
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Hey guys!
It's really coming close. How have you been preparing the last few days? Its been VERY difficult for me to really do substatial studying. So i have been lightly going over old exams. Writing down some topics etc.Been listning to an audio thing at night and just sort of winding myself down. Now that I see AAMC6 available should i give it a shot?
 
Hey guys!
It's really coming close. How have you been preparing the last few days? Its been VERY difficult for me to really do substatial studying. So i have been lightly going over old exams. Writing down some topics etc.Been listning to an audio thing at night and just sort of winding myself down. Now that I see AAMC6 available should i give it a shot?

NO!!!! :laugh:

In all seriousness, it would be good practice to do them as individual sets of passages. Maybe 2 passages at a time, but the exam was rough and if you don't want to risk your zen, I would take the simpler route. I could have bombed the exam and been scared as hell going into saturday because there's not much time to adjust. I don't want to see anybody going in without confidence, and in retrospect it was a risky decision on my part.
 
NO!!!! :laugh:

In all seriousness, it would be good practice to do them as individual sets of passages. Maybe 2 passages at a time, but the exam was rough and if you don't want to risk your zen, I would take the simpler route. I could have bombed the exam and been scared as hell going into saturday because there's not much time to adjust. I don't want to see anybody going in without confidence, and in retrospect it was a risky decision on my part.

Yes maybe thats not the best choice right now. ugh wish I knew about this last week. What is everyone else doing for the last few days? I am really taking it easy and sort of waiting for the time to go by. I really should be studying more but i am too nervous, i worry that I will freak out. :(
 
NO!!!! :laugh:

In all seriousness, it would be good practice to do them as individual sets of passages. Maybe 2 passages at a time. But the exam was rough and if you don't want to risk you zen, I would take that route. I could have bombed the exam and been scared as hell going into saturday and I don't want to see anybody going in without confidence!

I'm taking my test on the 19th.

I think I'm going to go over AAMC 6 over this weekend, atleast the PS and BS. I'll review and use that (and the other aamc's) to guide my practice going into my exam.

Funzies.
 
Yes maybe thats not the best choice right now. ugh wish I knew about this last week. What is everyone else doing for the last few days? I am really taking it easy and sort of waiting for the time to go by. I really should be studying more but i am too nervous, i worry that I will freak out. :(

I was having the same issue this week which is why I chose to do aamc 6... I was nervous I was losing my momentum and sharpness. Here's my advice since I was just in your shoes:

Whip out aamc 6. Break it up into chunks and do them with roughly the correct time (2 minutes/passage 1 minute per problem for sciences, 3 min/ passage + just under 60 seconds/question for verbal).

This should give you good practice with unfamiliar material,and it will feel more like TBR practice than a practice test that reflects a "score".
 
On seemingly simple math plug and chugs I usually don't look at the answer choices first except for maybe units. It wanted distance traveled by a wave so I didn't even bother looking at the answers. I knew the speed it went, I knew the time it traveled... multiplied and got an answer. The thing that could have tripped me up (and made me take a double take when I did do this) was looking at the answer choices and seeing sin or cos(theta). That's when you second guess it being simple. Luckily I had already done the math and realized these answers were a trick rather than a lead... they didn't have the chance to lead me astray :D

Let's pretend I am at one corner of a football field (bottom left). If I throw a ball to the opposite corner (top right) at 10 m/s and it takes 11 seconds to get there, the distance from corner to corner is 110 meters. Just because I throw it 30 or whatever degrees to the right of vertical (the bottom left to top left direction) doesn't mean that angle is factored in. That just gives me a reference as to where I am throwing it, not how far, how long or how fast. It's distracting information trying to trap you.


I'll check out the other questions in a while, still relaxing. Totally agree with what you said though. Did you finish BS in time? I found it impossible to do that.
Thanks! Okay, I think I know what you mean. I was thinking more on the lines of component velocity. Like light travels at 3x10^8 m/s but it was going toward earth at a 40 degree angle so it's component velocity would be less, vsinetheta. The difference between this situation and a situation where you would take into account the angle seems very similar. Tricky! Not sure if I can differentiate it if this kind of problem comes up again.

I didn't finish the BS on time. I think mainly because I took my time cause I didn't realize there was that last set of discretes since it printed on the back of the bubble sheet and I was using the bubble sheet. When I realized I had used up the 100 minutes. But it was very long and if I had to finish it in time I would've definitely had to rush and likely make more mistakes.
 
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