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- Jan 22, 2013
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This happens to fall on my birthday...don't know if that's a good thing or bad. Starting sn2d's 3 month program on Monday! I'm scared.
Wow, that's interesting. I thought only a few of you were pulling some weird conversations; I guess I didn't expect SDN to celebrate April Fools. What's on everybody's agenda with 10 days left?
On a side note, a friend of mine was convinced his buddy won a $250k lottery ticket. That was pretty funny.
Wow, that's interesting. I thought only a few of you were pulling some weird conversations; I guess I didn't expect SDN to celebrate April Fools. What's on everybody's agenda with 10 days left?
On a side note, a friend of mine was convinced his buddy won a $250k lottery ticket. That was pretty funny.
I'm taking a practice exam every other day, reviewing what I got wrong the following day, and watching chad's videos for Orgo, Gen chem, and Physics one more time before test day.
Are you finding chad's videos helpful? Was planning on getting Ochem one? Thanks.
Are you finding chad's videos helpful? Was planning on getting Ochem one? Thanks.
He is great at explaining things as well as keeping you interested. I don't know about you, but after studying for 4+ months I find it absolutely impossible to look at a Kaplan book. I would definitely invest in his O Chem.
You buy his videos? Anywhere i can watch them free lol? I have GS videos... And Kaplan class reruns always an option too
Yea im pretty sure its like 40 dollars for one month which is totally worth it, if anything just buy the Organic chemistry lectures, he really explains organic soo well, I had no idea how Mass spectrometry worked until he explained it.
Need some advice, my plan was to take my final FL today but I never had time to post phrase the one I took Wednesday. Should I post phrase first or just go ahead with the exam and post phrase them both together?
Hey you guys... totally not super important, but I thought I would point out that what you mean to say is post-phase. Not phrase.
Sorry, just a quibble, but I know that I like to be corrected when I am wrong so I thought maybe you would as well. Anyway stay focused everyone! We're almost there
Hi All, I'd like to take one more full length before the test (really working on section tests and last minute content review) and have AAMC 10 or 11 to choose from. If you were to take one of the two, which would you lean toward?
I too am taking the Chad approach on o-chem. O-Chem was always a nightmare for me. I only got through Day 1 of his o-chem so far and it's alright (will be working the quizzes for Day 1 short). He does teach a few things very differently from how I learned them (ex. he ranks acids by looking at conjugate base stability, a method I don't recall learning).
What makes you think that? Everywhere I've ever read it, including a lengthy post on SDN a few years ago outlining the process, it has been referred to as "post-phrase." In fact, an orthopedic surgeon I talked with this past summer cited "post-phrasing" as his method for obtaining a nearly perfect score when he took the MCAT in the early 1980's
What makes you think that? Everywhere I've ever read it, including a lengthy post on SDN a few years ago outlining the process, it has been referred to as "post-phrase." In fact, an orthopedic surgeon I talked with this past summer cited "post-phrasing" as his method for obtaining a nearly perfect score when he took the MCAT in the early 1980's
I took 10 Wednesday and 11 this morning, I felt that 10 was a bit easier but I got a similar score on both. If you're well prepared it shouldn't matter which test you take. Just to help you make your decision, I wound up doing more calculations for 10 than 11
This is from the last page, but I'm gonna chime in that if you're trying to use Kaplan's FL's you're better off doing them untimed and not taking them to heart. Their verbal section is poorly worded and most of the questions are very similar in structure. The PS is ambiguous and requires way too much tedious calculation. The way Kaplan words their questions are completely off the mark and reading their explanations is pretty frustrating. It didn't feel anything like what you would see on AAMC tests so don't let the scores bring you down. If you want more practice go for it, but even then I'd argue there are better materials to use.
Good luck to everyone on Apr. 11th.
Are you saying they are easier or harder? Or they are just useless and not representative at all?
Everyone is different. Personally I perform better under stress. Also, I think if you are already scoring in your target range then taking a FL 3 days before the test isn't going to somehow be detrimental to your confidence on test day even if it isn't your highest score. I know a lot of people advise to be stress free the day before the test, but I'll be damned if I'm not at least skimming all my notes one last time on the day before the test. To me at least, not brushing up on your material the day before the test would be like an athlete that doesn't at least warm up his muscles before a 100 meter sprint. Or like a boxer that isn't getting his heart pumped up before a match. It just doesn't make sense to me to go into lazy mode the day before the main event. To each their own though, I hope your method works very well for you
hey guys.
Just took AAMC 10. over all 37 (14, 11, 12)
its an one point improvement in my overall. Im at that point where doing better in verbal could make a world of difference, but also this late in the game what are the chances of that?
Im using this as a pretty good indicator of where im at because I never took this AAMC before. So glad to know that there hasn't been any inflation. Still finished with 20-25 minutes left on science sections. Tho for ppl who also finish early on full lengths and are first time test takers,, DONT rely on this for test day.
How u guys doing? any last minute improvements?
hey guys.
Just took AAMC 10. over all 37 (14, 11, 12)
its an one point improvement in my overall. Im at that point where doing better in verbal could make a world of difference, but also this late in the game what are the chances of that?
Im using this as a pretty good indicator of where im at because I never took this AAMC before. So glad to know that there hasn't been any inflation. Still finished with 20-25 minutes left on science sections. Tho for ppl who also finish early on full lengths and are first time test takers,, DONT rely on this for test day.
How u guys doing? any last minute improvements?
34 on AAMC 10 (12,11,11)
I'm also finishing with a lot of time left on my FLs but that's just how I take tests in general. I'm finishing PS with ~20 mins on average, VR with ~10, and BS with ~30 (Sometimes more). On test day, however, I plan on using every minute of each section, even if it means going through the whole thing twice. On AAMC 10 I found a few questions that I'm confident I would've gotten right if I went through the again and a few more that I feel I could've reasoned through, which would've left me with a 36 at least. It's frustrating that I didn't simply get those questions right in the first place but I have a hard time focusing 100% on practice tests.
Nice score! Congrats!
I have mixed feelings on AAMC 10. I thought passage 7 in the physical sciences section was way out there. I did not understand the experiment, but I got super lucky with some educated guesses. I just hate that uncomfortable feeling of not fully understanding something. On the other hand, I finished the biological sciences section with 13 minutes left over and didn't get any incorrect, so I was pretty stoked on that. I think I'm going to hone in on my understanding of that topic in passage 7 of AAMC 10 Physical sciences. I have a feeling something like that will come back to bite my ass if I don't.
I'm doing my last TBR passages today, all the questions from the official AAMC guide tomorrow, review Monday, then on Tuesday I'm going to take AAMC 11, then I'm just going to do review for the remaining 2 days.
Almost there! I can't wait to get this debacle over with.
Finishing VR early is un heard of for me lol. That's awesome tho. And I totally get what u mean about not being able to focus.
anyone else feeling like they don't know what else to do?
not really sure what kind of studying would give me any more score pay off right now
I'm going over all of the self-assessments and practice FL's today. Mostly skimming them and focusing on questions that gave me trouble. Then after that I'm skimming all my notes real quick (~1 hour), then sleep, then AAMC 11 tomorrow. I pushed my AAMC 11 back one day from today because I did all the questions in the Official AAMC guide book yesterday and didn't want to do so many questions on consecutive days. Then 2 days of light content review until the test on D-Day!
Anyone else do all the Official guide questions? I found the biological sciences to be somewhat different from what I've encountered with the AAMC FL's 3-10 so far. If this is what people mean when they talk about the current biological sciences, then I don't think it should be too bad. Most of the difficult question are only difficult because of convoluted and poorly-worded questions in my opinion. If you are quick enough on the other easier questions, I can imagine that spending extra time on these types of questions can make them relatively simple to figure out.
anyone else feeling like they don't know what else to do?
not really sure what kind of studying would give me any more score pay off right now
I plan on going through all my notes today, tomorrow, and Wednesday and once I'm done with that each day I'm going to go over the questions I got wrong on FLs and make sure I know where I went wrong. Other than that I plan on going for easy runs every day, going to sleep/waking up early, and eating solid meals. At the very least I'm going to keep busy to drive the thoughts of "Oh ****, what if I get a 20 on this exam" and every other scenario of what could go wrong out of my head.
Is the official guide a pdf? Where can I get my hands on that?
I agree with you ZymurgySurfer. I spent today reviewing my notes/TPRH passages/equations and listening to Audio Osmosis. After taking AAMC 11 tomorrow, I'll review that exam and the other AAMCs. There is not much that will be learned from now until the exam. Best thing to do is remember the traps you fall into on practice exams to avoid them on test day. Few more days until freedom!
If anyone else is reviewing the official list of topics then this website basically gives key bullet points summarizing each topic. http://mcat-review.org/
Im experiencing the same thing where my mistakes are from being either careless, lazy to read the passage, or tired. so I feel like my best bet is being well rested. Simulating the real thing with AAMC 11 tomorrow morning.
Im experiencing the same thing where my mistakes are from being either careless, lazy to read the passage, or tired. so I feel like my best bet is being well rested. Simulating the real thing with AAMC 11 tomorrow morning.
Sooo.... im so lame because my plan to simulate test day was a total fail... whatever. as long as I make it to the real thing on time. this kind of stuff is where the type B aspect of my personality shines.
Just finished PS of AAMC 11 I can see why you guys feel that way about it. Its definitely different from the other AAMCs.... So I marked 5 that I guessed on... AKA don't really know the answer to. So lets see how that actually turns out score wise. I finished pretty much exactly on time for this one. None of that 20 minutes early nonsense so seems like a good comparison to the real deal.
time to go finish this test...
Sooo.... im so lame because my plan to simulate test day was a total fail... whatever. as long as I make it to the real thing on time. this kind of stuff is where the type B aspect of my personality shines.
Just finished PS of AAMC 11 I can see why you guys feel that way about it. Its definitely different from the other AAMCs.... So I marked 5 that I guessed on... AKA don't really know the answer to. So lets see how that actually turns out score wise. I finished pretty much exactly on time for this one. None of that 20 minutes early nonsense so seems like a good comparison to the real deal.
time to go finish this test...
Can you elaborate on that? PS is the bane of my existence.. what's the most similar practice material to the PS on 11?
Ok so just got my score and PS was def a dooozy on this one. My worst section on this test and its usually my best. I would say its harder because these later AAMC tests force you to apply knowledge rather than just straight up using a formula.
Yoo what was your breakdown?