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'm probably going to submit to one school on or around the 5th, this will get my stuff verified, then when my scores come in I'll start applying to other schools accordingly.
 
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I feel like this week has lasted a month. Doesn't it annoy anyone else that all of our scores are sitting on some computer somewhere?
 
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EnginrTheFuture said:
Yeah, I think I had that orgo question and am still searching for the answer. It was numerical right? Ended up guessing on it.
Click to expand...

YES i know EXACTLY what youre talking about ( I think). My eyeballs kept scrolling for another clue..but nope.... it was numerical... SOMEHOW.
 
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cinamin said:
I'm not quite sure how it works either to make it fair to everyone... on the AAMC website, they state that each section of the test has a few 'experimental items' and doesn't go on to explain if these are a couple of questions or if it's an entire passage. Some people like to think it's an entire passage. That would mean the raw score isn't out of 52 but a much lower number like 46 or something - which you are right is a lot to take out of what counts towards the raw score. I guess we'll never really know... I do know that I got 2 easy BS questions wrong just because my brain was f'ed up and it's wishful thinking those 2 were experimental but I'm sure they weren't. :( There is 1 question I want to challenge to AAMC. It was too ambiguous and more than one answer is actually correct.
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I agree there was one question that was ambiguous, Was it in BS? How do you challenge it?
 
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EnginrTheFuture said:
I'm probably going to submit to one school on or around the 5th, this will get my stuff verified, then when my scores come in I'll start applying to other schools accordingly.
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This is my plan exactly. I will submit to Harvard or something similar on the 5th - they say to submit to one that doesn't matter just to get verified while you're waiting for scores.
 
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At least our test wasn't as bad as the 5/19 it seems...?

On another note, that thread keeps saying the curve will make up for the difficulty of their exam. Does this mean our curve won't be as generous? I thought it was preset for the year, not each individual exam?

Getting worried now that the curve will suck, even if our test wasn't that bad... bahhhh
 
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The curve is on a test to test basis, just like practice exams. One test you may be able to get 15 wrong on a section and pull a 10, sometimes you can only get 8 wrong for a 10. All depends on the test difficulty.

Putting a "yearly curve" would be absurdly biased towards easier exams, this accounts for that.
 
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I just realized I mixed up two major historical events on one of my essays. I don't think the error changes my argument at all but it is sort of a big stupid mistake that I should have caught. Other than making me look like an idiot to the graders, can they technically take off points for inaccurate information? I mean, my example still works with the prompt, it's just factually wrong. Sorry I'm trying to keep it vague. I've spent the last 2hrs watching Scrubs on netflix and all of a sudden this hit me out of nowhere. Oh well at least its just the writing section.
 
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L1BS: It's fine. You can lie all you want and if it makes sense within the context of the essay, the graders USUALLY won't care. But of course, this is all subjective because who knows what kind of grader you'll get.
 
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No need to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Have faith that all will go as intended. I mean no need to be nervous about something none of us can change. It's probably sunny where you are (hopefully :) ) I'm going out!
 
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God ****ing dammit, slowest month ever. I really wish I could take a vacation from work and do something fun for a few days.
 
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Getting really worried now, my AAMC range was 25-28, and that stayed pretty consistent. This was mostly due to poor performances in verbal, I would consistently hit 10-11's in the physical and bio sections. This may sound insane, but I'm praying for a 30, although I know it isn't likely. I will be satisfied with a 28, and a 26 means I will most likely be retaking.
 
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EnginrTheFuture said:
That is 1/3rd of the way believe it or not! 10 days sounds small but the wait is 30... so it's fairly significant! Plus... this means there's only 21 days until we all get 40s! :laugh:
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I like your way of thinking. Although as we get closer to the release date, our perception of time will feel like a 2nd order decay ... lol
 
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I had my first post-MCAT nightmare yesterday... opened my scores and bam! 33! Woohoo, I can live with that. Then looked at the breakdown and it only totaled 28... showed another person, in case I was losing my mind, and that time it totaled 24. The score got lower every time I looked until I ended up with a 16.

Good times...
 
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Hopeful02 said:
I had my first post-MCAT nightmare yesterday... opened my scores and bam! 33! Woohoo, I can live with that. Then looked at the breakdown and it only totaled 28... showed another person, in case I was losing my mind, and that time it totaled 24. The score got lower every time I looked until I ended up with a 16.

Good times...
Click to expand...

lol, I'm right there with you. I'm on my third or fourth MCAT dream now and it's only been 4 days...
This is going to be a long, long month.
 
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pretty sure we all got 45's, anyway how is everyone doing on the application, I'm planning on submitting mine after the 12th. anyone think this will be to late? thanks
 
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DrRichand1 said:
pretty sure we all got 45's, anyway how is everyone doing on the application, I'm planning on submitting mine after the 12th. anyone think this will be to late? thanks
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- Have my transcripts on the way right now, sent out earlier this week by my school!
- Have 3 letters of rec in the mail right now and last 1 is being worked on, confirmed he'll have it to me soon just the other day.
- W/A section is complete except my shadowing... should be done by today
- Have a VERY rough draft of my PS written up but it is extremely long.

Essentially I just have to work on my personal statement for the next week or so and I should be ready to go.

Plan on submitting to 1 school on the 5th but can't decide if I should send it to a long shot school or one I'm definitely going to apply to no matter what my MCAT. The rest of the schools I'm going to apply to on the 13th.

By no means is 1 week after the application opening considered late. I have heard people describe mid july as early...
 
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Hey anyone want to revisit how they think the difficulty of the exam was? It seems as though 5/19 and 5/24 had a harder test?

Let's rate from 1 to 10 (10 being highest difficulty)! Ready set go!

PS: 7 (bc of all the mathy stuff and loss of time from it)
VR: 8? this is always hard for me.
WS: 2
BS: 6/7 i still don't know about this one... lots of my google searches amounted to nothing unfortunately.

OK someone else's turn!
 
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PS: 6 (my strongest section, was expecting a 15, but got 1 wrong already, tricky tiny traps here and there)

VR: 6 (my weakest section, but felt it was easier than average aamc ones)

BS: 9 (blew me off... I mean wtf! So many "low yield topics" so to speak. I don't mind long experiment passages, like the Ebola passage on aamc cuz I'm used to reading primary literature. But some of the discretes, wish they asked about more major physiology systems...)
 
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DrRichand1 said:
pretty sure we all got 45's, anyway how is everyone doing on the application, I'm planning on submitting mine after the 12th. anyone think this will be to late? thanks
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Nope. That's on the earlier side. It should take two to three weeks to get verified if you apply around the. (There's graph somewhere plotting submit date vs. verification time somewhere but too lazy to check on my iPad ...)

And that was my original plan too. But.... I don't think I'll be applying this cycle due to some reasons :/ .. so luckily you guys don't have to compete against my 45 :laugh: sucks that I had to study for and take this MCAT during the middle of the school year but oh well ... I guess that's life haha
 
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Just remember that if you apply this cycle, some schools have an open deferral policy where you can wait till the following year to matriculate. If you checked out those schools and applied to a couple, it may be worth a try. Also, if you have a good reason, many schools have a relatively painless deferral request process... especially for family reasons or mission trips abroad.

I don't know your situation so this may be out of the question but definitely want to make you aware of the option! Good luck and if you get a 45, I'll send you an edible arrangement... thats right an edible arrangement. I always wanted one of those.
 
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Well its not a 45 but I had a dream I got a 41 last night! Waking up and realizing I didn't sort of makes for a crappy morning.
 
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Can anyone explain why people only apply to one school on the 5th? It sounds counterintuitive. Wouldnt you want to apply to all the schools you want to get into on the first day to get the leg up on everyone else? So why not apply to all your 'I will apply no matter what' schools?
 
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People to do this so they can get the verification process started sans MCAT score. AMCAS won't submit the entire application to the school(s) without the MCAT score. So, if you get a leg up on the verification, the day you are verified with MCAT score on your application, is essentially the day all schools receive the app. A lot of us are waiting for the score to come out on June 12th. So we're planning to submit June 5th so at least our transcript/grades get verified first, then once we get the actual score, we can be further guided as to what schools would be a good fit numbers wise. Make sense?
 
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Because we are unsure of our MCATs, thus unsure where our apps are competitive. Apply to one school to get verified. Receive our scores 7 days later. Add MCAT appropriate schools to the list. You can always add schools and LOR after you're verified. Why wait the week till we get our scores and risk not being verified by June 29, the earliest date medical schools can actually see our apps?

Edit- Cinamin, you type faster than me. ::shakes fist::
 
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Thanks guys, that makes sense.
So the earliest med schools can see you've applied is June 29th. So there's no 'priority' before that date, so everyone is on the same playing field as long as you're verified and the school is listed by that date.
Awesome, I'll just apply to my one state school that I'd apply to even if I bombed my MCAT, then just hope for good news when the score comes back.
 
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I am getting more and more demoralized when I hear some people thought the PS was easy on this exam. It was my bess section by far on all the practice tests, regularly getting 13-14. On this one I am just hoping I can get a 11. I keep thinking what if I got x wrong? What if getting x wrong would've been the difference in my score being a point higher? What if those 1-2 points would be the difference between getting accepted to x school?

Ugh this exam is such a crapshoot. Can't believe we're only halfway to getting out scores
 
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JFK, I bet you did just fine. PS is probably one of the more consistent sections, so if you were getting 13-14, I'm assuming you'll get right around there.
Don't think too much.
 
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cinamin said:
People to do this so they can get the verification process started sans MCAT score. AMCAS won't submit the entire application to the school(s) without the MCAT score. So, if you get a leg up on the verification, the day you are verified with MCAT score on your application, is essentially the day all schools receive the app. A lot of us are waiting for the score to come out on June 12th. So we're planning to submit June 5th so at least our transcript/grades get verified first, then once we get the actual score, we can be further guided as to what schools would be a good fit numbers wise. Make sense?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. What if we are registered for another MCAT just in case this one didn't work out so well? If we apply to one school just to get verified, I assume we have to check "taking MCAT in the future" or whatever that option is. Would our application still be verified or would we have to wait?
 
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sakhiyat37 said:
Thanks for the clarification. What if we are registered for another MCAT just in case this one didn't work out so well? If we apply to one school just to get verified, I assume we have to check "taking MCAT in the future" or whatever that option is. Would our application still be verified or would we have to wait?
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So in that case, you will have to indicate on your application that you are 'taking an additional MCAT in the future with the intended date' - that way if you get your score from 5/12 and submit to schools, they will know to wait for that additional MCAT score. I suppose if you decide not to take it, you can just delete it from the app. Your application will still get verified; the schools will wait to review the application until they receive the additional MCAT score.
 
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EnginrTheFuture said:
Just remember that if you apply this cycle, some schools have an open deferral policy where you can wait till the following year to matriculate. If you checked out those schools and applied to a couple, it may be worth a try. Also, if you have a good reason, many schools have a relatively painless deferral request process... especially for family reasons or mission trips abroad.

I don't know your situation so this may be out of the question but definitely want to make you aware of the option! Good luck and if you get a 45, I'll send you an edible arrangement... thats right an edible arrangement. I always wanted one of those.
Click to expand...

It's visa issues, so I wouldn't be able to submit my app until like August or I could submit as an international student in June, which I prefer not to do .... :/

Oh well, I get a year to raise my GPA, gets some more letters, and do some more shadowing/research/volunteer~~~ Glass half-full!
 
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I still don't see why you wouldn't apply to every school even without MCAT score knowledge. Is it for monetary reasons? It's true you may not be competitive everywhere, but wouldn't you still want to give it a go anyways?
 
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2NiceNos said:
I still don't see why you wouldn't apply to every school even without MCAT score knowledge. Is it for monetary reasons? It's true you may not be competitive everywhere, but wouldn't you still want to give it a go anyways?
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I have the completely opposite thought. I don't understand why you would apply. I mean I guess if you have 235 dollars lying around and you're confident that you got 30+ you would apply to one school to process your app, but if youre unsure about your grades why not wait to make sure. If you end up landing a 20 you just wasted 235 dollars for nothing. I see the other side of it tho I guess...if uou ended up with 30+ then you're a week behind for no reason

I can't see why you would apply to more than 1 school without mcat scores. I would give up my kidney to get into Hopkins or something like that, but why spend the money to apply to every school I would want to go to if you dont know if youre even competitive. Plus, it's the processing of the app that takes the longest so once that app is in if you decide to add schools afterwards I can't imagine it would take that long to do so
 
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