The Official April 5th, 2014 MCAT Thread!

[BeachBlondie]

139 days!

You know, for a couple of weeks I thought I would just not subscribe to any particular SDN MCAT thread. Figured it wasn't necessary. But, frankly, knowing that there are other people out there--pissed about not remembering values for logs, and trying to sort out where epinephrine is secreted from ("Was that the adrenal cortex... or adrenal medulla?")--makes this slog towards test date bearable

Best of luck, fellow lost souls!

(P.S...... it's from the medulla )

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[Bbqchickenman]

Nope nope, a brotha. And if that crush thing is the case, I'd be pretttttty self-indulgent and narcissistic--and motivated, seeing as how that photo would have required a tripod. Side note: I work at the CDC and get HORRIBLE looks for longboarding in the parking deck; for some reason, most scientists really hate it. Kinda makes it more fun.

But as for the April 5 beast, I really respect all of you for scoring. I know part of the MCAT testing is, quite realistically, to break you and see who can make it through to the other side. I knew at the end of that test that my ego would have been the only reason to click "score," because I know what my performance on the aamcs has been and that didn't feel like the best I could do. But that being said, again, I hope the best for all of you, despite you being my competition (hence my desire to go to a pass-fail med-school--comradery over cut-throat competition is more my style).

They have pass fail med schools?

 

[Upward&Onward]

They do indeed. A lot of the bigger ones are actually converting soon / have converted because the thinking is that it fosters teamwork rather than stepping on heads to get to the top--the exact opposite point of being a doctor. Even Harvard Med is pass/fail now, about which a description reads: "HMS students study for two years before beginning clinicals, and there are no traditional letter grades awarded in the first two years. Instead, students are evaluated by a Pass/Fail scale."
I agree with the philosophy that teamwork makes for better doctors wholeheartedly, and I encourage you all who are not familiar with the growing popularity of P/F among med schools to check them out. I have a friend enrolled in her second year now, and she swears she would be miserable by comparison in a standard, oldschool grading curriculum. Who wouldn't want to help others and receive help rather than making frienemies?

 

[Upward&Onward]

Stanford Med is P/F is too, by the way. And you can do more extensive research, but this is a simple Google pull: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21848714

 

[BeachBlondie]

Nope nope, a brotha. And if that crush thing is the case, I'd be pretttttty self-indulgent and narcissistic--and motivated, seeing as how that photo would have required a tripod. Side note: I work at the CDC and get HORRIBLE looks for longboarding in the parking deck; for some reason, most scientists really hate it. Kinda makes it more fun.

But as for the April 5 beast, I really respect all of you for scoring. I know part of the MCAT testing is, quite realistically, to break you and see who can make it through to the other side. I knew at the end of that test that my ego would have been the only reason to click "score," because I know what my performance on the aamcs has been and that didn't feel like the best I could do. But that being said, again, I hope the best for all of you, despite you being my competition (hence my desire to go to a pass-fail med-school--comradery over cut-throat competition is more my style).

Stay strong. I fully intend to slide until I die.

...and you best believe that I'll be longboarding around my future campus. Skaters gonna skate.

 

[bisonboy]

What random things are you guys doing to not think about the score?

I keep checking the aamc website hoping they screw up and accidentally post the scores earlier than usual lol

I've also been planning my life if I completely blow this test. On the other hand, I keep dreaming about my life if I got a really high score...

Ultimately I'm not getting any schoolwork done

 

[Bbqchickenman]

What random things are you guys doing to not think about the score?

I keep checking the aamc website hoping they screw up and accidentally post the scores earlier than usual lol

I've also been planning my life if I completely blow this test. On the other hand, I keep dreaming about my life if I got a really high score...

Ultimately I'm not getting any schoolwork done

Lol i think it's time to get that Personal Statement / Letters of Rec ready

 

[bisonboy]

Lol i think it's time to get that Personal Statement / Letters of Rec ready

Oh I have lol I'm a little over ready to apply in the summer!

 

[BeachBlondie]

What random things are you guys doing to not think about the score?

I keep checking the aamc website hoping they screw up and accidentally post the scores earlier than usual lol

I've also been planning my life if I completely blow this test. On the other hand, I keep dreaming about my life if I got a really high score...

Ultimately I'm not getting any schoolwork done

Besides work? I was able to spend more than 30 minutes at the gym today (glorious!); I've been longboarding with my dogs; I just picked up The Little Book of String Theory, The Blind Watchmaker, and Tao Te Ching. I can't seem to adequately express my delight at being able to open a book and not see any footers with The Berkeley Review scrawled across the page.

 

[bisonboy]

Besides work? I was able to spend more than 30 minutes at the gym today (glorious!); I've been longboarding with my dogs; I just picked up The Little Book of String Theory, The Blind Watchmaker, and Tao Te Ching. I can't seem to adequately express my delight at being able to open a book and not see any footers with The Berkeley Review scrawled across the page.

I feel you on that. Its a relief that's it's over with. What happens, happens I guess. Maybe I should find some good books or something lol

 

[BeachBlondie]

I feel you on that. Its a relief that's it's over with. What happens, happens I guess. Maybe I should find some good books or something lol

You should! I was under the impression that most of the old booksellers had closed their doors. Luckily, I found a tucked away Barnes & Noble (busy as ever!). I tell ya, walking in and smelling all them books... something awesome about that. I have yet to jump aboard the whole Kindle thing.

Whatever you choose to do, just ensure that it has NOTHING to do with medical school

 

[roxor88]

My impression was that on any given test day, there are many different test versions administered so discussing which section was hard or whatnot would be a moot point, no?

Just curious because I thought bio was the easiest section...

 

[sps27]

You should! I was under the impression that most of the old booksellers had closed their doors. Luckily, I found a tucked away Barnes & Noble (busy as ever!). I tell ya, walking in and smelling all them books... something awesome about that. I have yet to jump aboard the whole Kindle thing.

Whatever you choose to do, just ensure that it has NOTHING to do with medical school

What you need is a sky-diving jump......trust me, you'll forget everything.......

 

[BeachBlondie]

What you need is a sky-diving jump......trust me, you'll forget everything.......

Great idea! It would be my third

 

[bloodymary35]

so i log on to MSAR's 2015 admission requirements today for the first time today (have only been using 2014) and see that the mcat national median has jumped from a 32 to a 33. WTF????????? are all these people getting this median 33 taking the same kind of test we took, cause that thing was brutal. unless there were many experimentals on our exam idk how even someone who aced all the aamcs could get a 33 (The median) on our exam. don't mean to stress everyone out, just want to vent….

 

[tpha5256]

so i log on to MSAR's 2015 admission requirements today for the first time today (have only been using 2014) and see that the mcat national median has jumped from a 32 to a 33. WTF????????? are all these people getting this median 33 taking the same kind of test we took, cause that thing was brutal. unless there were many experimentals on our exam idk how even someone who aced all the aamcs could get a 33 (The median) on our exam. don't mean to stress everyone out, just want to vent….

I completely agree... the April 5th MCAT made the practice AAMCs feel like a joke, especially the ochem in the bio section. I really want to believe a lot of those questions were experimental because I've never had to drop so many "educated' guesses before. This post-MCAT period is more painful/stressful than I expected because problems that I missed keep appearing in my thoughts throughout the day. On the bright side, there seem to be many stories on SDN of people doing WAYYY better than they expected, despite knowing they missed a number of questions and having horrible post-MCAT feelings. Perhaps all our fears will elevate our feelings of seeing good scores on May 6! 3 weeks and 6 days to go!

 

[TheAnonymous]

I completely agree... the April 5th MCAT made the practice AAMCs feel like a joke, especially the ochem in the bio section. I really want to believe a lot of those questions were experimental because I've never had to drop so many "educated' guesses before. This post-MCAT period is more painful/stressful than I expected because problems that I missed keep appearing in my thoughts throughout the day. On the bright side, there seem to be many stories on SDN of people doing WAYYY better than they expected, despite knowing they missed a number of questions and having horrible post-MCAT feelings. Perhaps all our fears will elevate our feelings of seeing good scores on May 6! 3 weeks and 6 days to go!

Hope you guys all did much much much better than what you think.

 

[ZapadniyRus]

I completely agree... the April 5th MCAT made the practice AAMCs feel like a joke, especially the ochem in the bio section. I really want to believe a lot of those questions were experimental because I've never had to drop so many "educated' guesses before. This post-MCAT period is more painful/stressful than I expected because problems that I missed keep appearing in my thoughts throughout the day. On the bright side, there seem to be many stories on SDN of people doing WAYYY better than they expected, despite knowing they missed a number of questions and having horrible post-MCAT feelings. Perhaps all our fears will elevate our feelings of seeing good scores on May 6! 3 weeks and 6 days to go!

I've spent the past couple days reading about people on sdn feeling terrible about the exam and then doing well lol

I'm really hoping one of the passages on bio was experimental!

 

[Bbqchickenman]

Question: seems that Orgo was the killer on apr 5

Would memorizing a lot of the common reactions have helped most? Or would knowing the reaction types have helped most (nucleophilic acyl subs, electrophilic addition)?

What exactly would you have done before the exam if you knew?

 

[TheAnonymous]

Question: seems that Orgo was the killer on apr 5

Would memorizing a lot of the common reactions have helped most? Or would knowing the reaction types have helped most (nucleophilic acyl subs, electrophilic addition)?

What exactly would you have done before the exam if you knew?

Would like to know too thanks

 

[tpha5256]

Question: seems that Orgo was the killer on apr 5

Would memorizing a lot of the common reactions have helped most? Or would knowing the reaction types have helped most (nucleophilic acyl subs, electrophilic addition)?

What exactly would you have done before the exam if you knew?

It's hard to say because the MCAT rarely drops a common reaction and expects you to know the product. Even the practice AAMCs contain more questions where you can deduce the answer from the passage.

With the real deal, you can probably expect an obscure reaction with compounds you've never seen in a dense experimental passage. If I could go back in time, I would have practiced reading more experimental passages to get a better feel for relevant info and the types of questions that could be asked. Also, if I had known that some questions on a test didn't count towards the score, I would have invested less time into WTF-type questions and more time into ones I knew I could have gotten.

 

[Bbqchickenman]

It's hard to say because the MCAT rarely drops a common reaction and expects you to know the product. Even the practice AAMCs contain more questions where you can deduce the answer from the passage.

With the real deal, you can probably expect an obscure reaction with compounds you've never seen in a dense experimental passage. If I could go back in time, I would have practiced reading more experimental passages to get a better feel for relevant info and the types of questions that could be asked. Also, if I had known that some questions on a test didn't count towards the score, I would have invested less time into WTF-type questions and more time into ones I knew I could have gotten.

Thanks for the quick response.

Which practice experimental passages are you referring to?

 

[BeachBlondie]

so i log on to MSAR's 2015 admission requirements today for the first time today (have only been using 2014) and see that the mcat national median has jumped from a 32 to a 33. WTF????????? are all these people getting this median 33 taking the same kind of test we took, cause that thing was brutal. unless there were many experimentals on our exam idk how even someone who aced all the aamcs could get a 33 (The median) on our exam. don't mean to stress everyone out, just want to vent….

Well, that represents the average for ACCEPTED students. The average for ALL test takers (over 96,000) in 2013 was a 25.

 

[Nogo]

What you need is a sky-diving jump......trust me, you'll forget everything.......

Dude, I'm gonna start on my skydiving license within the next month! I'm so excited!!

Question: seems that Orgo was the killer on apr 5

Would memorizing a lot of the common reactions have helped most? Or would knowing the reaction types have helped most (nucleophilic acyl subs, electrophilic addition)?

What exactly would you have done before the exam if you knew?

I memorized all of the common reactions, but that didn't help me on this test. I practically guessed on the entire OChem passage. However, I am glad I only had one OChem passage though.

 

[nctw]

Dude, I'm gonna start on my skydiving license within the next month! I'm so excited!!



I memorized all of the common reactions, but that didn't help me on this test. I practically guessed on the entire OChem passage. However, I am glad I only had one OChem passage though.

Which Orgo materials did you prep with?

 

[bloodymary35]

Well, that represents the average for ACCEPTED students. The average for ALL test takers (over 96,000) in 2013 was a 25.

AS IF THIS MAKES ME FEEL ANY BETTER, obviously the reason i am concerned is because i want to gain ACCEPTANCE. lololol

 

[bloodymary35]

orgo on the aamc practice tests: how many chiral centers does compound a have? is it considered cis or trans? where do alcohols show a broad IR peak (3300 duhhh)?

orgo on april 5: below is a very complicated reaction that was performed via the following experimental procedure. question 1: how many toes does the person who wrote this exam have? keep in mind the possibility that they may have webbed fingers.

 

[inasensegone]

AS IF THIS MAKES ME FEEL ANY BETTER, obviously the reason i am concerned is because i want to gain ACCEPTANCE. lololol

orgo on the aamc practice tests: how many chiral centers does compound a have? is it considered cis or trans? where do alcohols show a broad IR peak (3300 duhhh)?

orgo on april 5: below is a very complicated reaction that was performed via the following experimental procedure. question 1: how many toes does the person who wrote this exam have? keep in mind the possibility that they may have webbed fingers.

LOL at both of these.

 

[bloodymary35]

cannot focus on any schoolwork. cannot do anything until i get my score. ughhhhhh i feel FROZEN.

 

[bisonboy]

orgo on the aamc practice tests: how many chiral centers does compound a have? is it considered cis or trans? where do alcohols show a broad IR peak (3300 duhhh)?

orgo on april 5: below is a very complicated reaction that was performed via the following experimental procedure. question 1: how many toes does the person who wrote this exam have? keep in mind the possibility that they may have webbed fingers.

Yes to everything you just said.

 

[deleted380953]

Question: seems that Orgo was the killer on apr 5

Would memorizing a lot of the common reactions have helped most? Or would knowing the reaction types have helped most (nucleophilic acyl subs, electrophilic addition)?

What exactly would you have done before the exam if you knew?

Ehh, I think memorizing specific reactions would've gotten me diminished returns. Although without my score, who am I to judge...

 

[kouentou13]

I'm not sure what I would study differently if I could go back a week or 2 before the test knowing what I know now. It just has a different feel that I can't quite pin down. More conceptual, yes and no. There were still questions that asked for factual knowledge. Though a lot of questions seemed like they wanted you to distill information from convoluted or otherwise complicated passages.

However, a bit of advice, that I didn't take before, is to get faster. Not only time yourself, but when you start to get better at the AAMC practice tests, take off 5 minutes from each science section and then do it (I know you won't want to, but do it!). This obviously won't directly help you with the material on the test, but it'll hopefully "give" you more time that you'll need to address it's differences.

 

[BeachBlondie]

orgo on april 5: below is a very complicated reaction that was performed via the following experimental procedure. question 1: how many toes does the person who wrote this exam have? keep in mind the possibility that they may have webbed fingers.

Be careful with this -- you're not supposed to be divulging the ACTUAL questions!! .....except that you forgot the last part, "...you can ignore air resistance."

 

[BeachBlondie]

I'm not sure what I would study differently if I could go back a week or 2 before the test knowing what I know now.

This. I'm terrified to see the score for fear of a necessary retake and having no where to go from there.

 

[kjw1024]

I completely agree with BeachBlondie's comment above.

The reaction of the April 11th test takers seems vastly different from all of ours. It makes me a bit nervous about the intensity of our reactions to the bs section. Hopefully we all do significantly better than our feelings seem to indicate.

 

[AKMCAT]

Just noticed some of your comments. Don't worry too much until you get your score!! Don't forget April 5 test takers a hard exam= hopefully a nice curve

 

[BeachBlondie]

Just noticed some of your comments. Don't worry too much until you get your score!! Don't forget April 5 test takers a hard exam= hopefully a nice curve

I'm hoping so. I think their interpretation of "straight forward" and our interpretation of "straight forward" are in different dimensions. For instance? Some kid posted that his physical sciences section was as expected; he had 20 minutes to spare. I thought that OURS was "as expected" but still only had 5 minutes left!

...you'd probably be hard-pressed to find ANYONE in here who had greater than 5-ish minutes left on any of the sections we took. But, of course, I am speaking in broad generalizations.

 

[kouentou13]

^ Truth

 

[AKMCAT]

I'm hoping so. I think their interpretation of "straight forward" and our interpretation of "straight forward" are in different dimensions. For instance? Some kid posted that his physical sciences section was as expected; he had 20 minutes to spare. I thought that OURS was "as expected" but still only had 5 minutes left!

...you'd probably be hard-pressed to find ANYONE in here who had greater than 5-ish minutes left on any of the sections we took. But, of course, I am speaking in broad generalizations.

I agree ! Well, everyone is different. But I'm surprised that someone had 20 minutes left! I'm not sure how that happens; I guess some people are amazing test takers!


Anyways, hope you did great on your MCAT! Mine is on the 24th, hoping for the best!

 

[Slave to the Game]

I'm hoping so. I think their interpretation of "straight forward" and our interpretation of "straight forward" are in different dimensions. For instance? Some kid posted that his physical sciences section was as expected; he had 20 minutes to spare. I thought that OURS was "as expected" but still only had 5 minutes left!

...you'd probably be hard-pressed to find ANYONE in here who had greater than 5-ish minutes left on any of the sections we took. But, of course, I am speaking in broad generalizations.

Well I've read through some comments and it seems like quite a few say that it was straightforward and had no complaints, but their expected scores were 10-12.

May 6th can't come fast enough.

 

[BeachBlondie]

Well I've read through some comments and it seems like quite a few say that it was straightforward and had no complaints, but their expected scores were 10-12.

May 6th can't come fast enough.

Hey! One week down, guys! This time is flying by, right?! ...........................................g-guys? Right....?

 

[Saxappeal1]

Hey 4/05 ers... so to make you guys feel better, remember that the 3/22 ers had the exact same wtf thoughts that you guys did...I think it is the 4/11 guys who had the outlier test

 

[BeachBlondie]

Hey 4/05 ers... so to make you guys feel better, remember that the 3/22 ers had the exact same wtf thoughts that you guys did...I think it is the 4/11 guys who had the outlier test

It's strange, I've heard from innumerable people that you actually WANT to get a challenging test because they come with cushy curves. My husband had an "easy" exam -- he was averaging 34s on his AAMCs; stepped out and thought he nailed it; score comes back as a 27.

Who really knows? I think there's certainly an amount of mystery that shrouds the grading process. I mean, sure they have a preset scale.... but maybe it gets tweaked based on aggregate performance?

 

[Saxappeal1]

I think we will benefit, remember the 1/22 and 1/23'ers? They thought they bombed and did well lol

 

[Bbqchickenman]

Anyone here not use up 1 of their TBR CBTs and wont be needing it? I'm curious to see the level of difficulty and whether I should bother with it before Apr 24. I only have aamc 10/11 left

 

[BeachBlondie]

Anyone here not use up 1 of their TBR CBTs and wont be needing it? I'm curious to see the level of difficulty and whether I should bother with it before Apr 24. I only have aamc 10/11 left

Your CBTs expire on your test day. Most likely, everyone here cannot even log into their account. They aren't immeasurably difficult, but they are more intense than the AAMCs. I recommend them.

 

[deleted380953]

I'm hoping so. I think their interpretation of "straight forward" and our interpretation of "straight forward" are in different dimensions. For instance? Some kid posted that his physical sciences section was as expected; he had 20 minutes to spare. I thought that OURS was "as expected" but still only had 5 minutes left!

...you'd probably be hard-pressed to find ANYONE in here who had greater than 5-ish minutes left on any of the sections we took. But, of course, I am speaking in broad generalizations.

I had ~10 min left on the 4/5 PS section. Now that you mention timing, I'm really hoping it's not a sign I was rushing

 

[tpha5256]

I'm hoping so. I think their interpretation of "straight forward" and our interpretation of "straight forward" are in different dimensions. For instance? Some kid posted that his physical sciences section was as expected; he had 20 minutes to spare. I thought that OURS was "as expected" but still only had 5 minutes left!

...you'd probably be hard-pressed to find ANYONE in here who had greater than 5-ish minutes left on any of the sections we took. But, of course, I am speaking in broad generalizations.

I had ~ 1 min left on the PS and marked down the answer for the last question just as time ended for the VR and BS sections. Having > 5 min left for any section for the 4/5 exam just sounds INSANE. Does anyone else here feel uncomfortable when they barely finish an exam on time? I'm definitely someone who likes to feel "certain" about my answers before turning in the exam, which would involve having the chance to double/triple check everything or knowing that I successfully recalled an answer from memory (instant gratification!). This MCAT was on a whole different level... the time pressure forced me to base my answers for hard questions off of elimination or gut feeling... just a little too much to put me out of my comfort zone.

 

[deleted380953]

I had ~ 1 min left on the PS and marked down the answer for the last question just as time ended for the VR and BS sections. Having > 5 min left for any section for the 4/5 exam just sounds INSANE. Does anyone else here feel uncomfortable when they barely finish an exam on time? I'm definitely someone who likes to feel "certain" about my answers before turning in the exam, which would involve having the chance to double/triple check everything or knowing that I successfully recalled an answer from memory (instant gratification!). This MCAT was on a whole different level... the time pressure forced me to base my answers for hard questions off of elimination or gut feeling... just a little too much to put me out of my comfort zone.

I always felt uncomfortable when I when I barely finished a passage set, so i tried to tighten my timing during my studies. On the actual thing, I tried to work fast, but marked any question that gave me the slightest doubt/involved calculations. Needless to say, I had time leftover. But I had marked so many problems, I wasn't able recheck all of them.

 

[magicmuffin2233]

I actually thought the PS was hard. I made at least 5 guesses, most of which I think I got wrong.

 

[kjw1024]

I always felt uncomfortable when I when I barely finished a passage set, so i tried to tighten my timing during my studies. On the actual thing, I tried to work fast, but marked any question that gave me the slightest doubt/involved calculations. Needless to say, I had time leftover. But I had marked so many problems, I wasn't able recheck all of them.

Yes, I did exactly what you're saying here and had the same issue with being unable to review every marked question. I also forgot to confirm that I completed every question at the end of VR and BS, so I'm concerned about that as well.

Are you guys signing up to re-take the exam as a backup? Will we even be able to if we plan on applying this cycle? I signed up for the June 5th exam, just in case, but I'm really not sure how to even tweak my study habits after the April 5th exam. It also seems a bit late in the cycle...