The Official April MCAT 2015 Takers Thread

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emulsifier

emulsifier

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Hey guys,

I've seen some old threads (from 2012, or early 2014) on the MCAT2015.

I am wondering if we can bring resources together here, discussions for those who are planning on taking the new one in or after April.

Has anyone gotten their hands on the new prep material for 2015, and the chance to compare the different companies? I scoured the internet, obviously not much at the moment. But I know someone out there has started, just need to get this info out!

Edit:
Resources mentioned in this thread or elsewhere:

  • Free mini-test: AAMC MCAT 2015 12 sample questions and answer (3 x 4 sections)
  • Next Step guide here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-mcat-2015-100-days-to-mcat-success.1101251/
  • TPR 2015 books: They seem to be the same as their previous books. Their bio book has a chapter on biochem.
  • Kaplan 2015 books: removed content that is not tested. Physics section is 400 pages (may be too much for the new MCAT). Very little practice. Whole book on biochem.
  • EK 9th edition books: reformatted the whole book. SDNer reviewer has said that even parts with same illustrations have whole new contents. Got rid of topics that won't be tested. May be too condensed though.
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Thank you to all the brave souls who have taken/will be taking the MCAT this weekend and may the percentiles be ever in your favor! Also, appreciate the tips you can give to us taking the test in later dates! We're rooting for y'all! :bow::clap::claps::highfive::corny:
 
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xyphr said:
Hey man,

I would absolutely make the investment and purchase the Kaplan BC book. The Princeton book simply does not go into enough detail for biochem; the entire biochem portion of Princeton is just one measly little chapter. Kaplans BC is much, much more thorough, sometimes to the point of reading like a textbook because it goes so in depth. While this level of depth may be off putting to some people, I can attribute a lot of my (hopefully) success today to the things I learned from Kaplans BC book. Cheers!
Click to expand...

PM if you want it, I have a brand new, unused copy for sale.....http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...w-book-online-2015-edition-brand-new.1130284/
 
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Thanks for the feedback, its greatly appreciated! Once again, wish y'all nothing but success.
As for those taking the exam today, good luck as well!
 
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xyphr said:
Very difficult. I was killing this section on all of my practice tests yet there were still a ton of terms I had never heard in my life.
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I agree. I majored in psych and didn't recognize some of those words. Also, the application of concepts was present whereas the practice AAMC it was just more like memorization.

To anyone taking it in May, anytime in the future, and for myself in case I don't do well, I think one of the best ways to prepare is to read peer-reviewed published articles. Its not a bad habit to get into anyway, considering the evolving field of medicine. I will probably start making a habit of reading a one+ article a day in every topic, including psych/soc, especially around sensitive areas - gender inequality, race, socioeconomic status. Read the whole article, understand it all- especially the methods and results sections.

Tough test yesterday. Not sure how to predict. In order of more confident to less confident: verbal>bio>p/c>p/s

The first part was tough for me and I had to guess on like 4 or 5 questions I was running out of time. Maybe its just that I'm not that awake in the a.m. but I don't want to make excuses for myself.

I AM super proud of myself for finishing it. I almost broke down in the last section, but glad I held it together. That test was very long. Way way way harder than the Jan13th I took. I'm glad I took it, tried my best, and walked out of there without voiding.
 
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allantois said:
Absolutely not. No single textbook in Psych is written with the purpose of covering all MCAT topics. Reading textbooks has never been recommended as a prep for MCAT.
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I concur. The most recall I had was from Khan videos. Watch them, made notecards of them. I did not complete all of them, but probably the best review. Psych/soc seems to be treated like the other sciences - application of material.
 
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nolookpass said:
Thanks.

Wow though. So the only Pysch/Soc passages you did were from that one AAMC exam. What about biochem?

I'm glad you thought it was okay. I feel like if I only did the AAMC stuff I would feel unprepared, but once again as you said none of these companies know what the exam will be so it's best to just use the AAMC.
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Lol yeah well I really hate practicing with passages and questions from anything other the AAMC questions. I tried but they made me frustrated and stupid,, and as we all know half of this test is being able to take it with confidence. So if they make you feel like that, I truly wouldn't recommend you continue using them. My thinking on psych was ALWAYS go with the answer that sounds most rational in your head, and thats what I did. I guess we'll see how it worked out.

Biochem was intense, there was just SOOO much of it in both the physical and biological sections. But I like biochem personally, so I was totally fine with it. The passages on the exam were sometimes a bit difficult to read mostly because of the length and complexity of the terms. I thought it was comparable to the Sample Exam though, so look at that for passages I guess?
 
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Bookworm36 said:
The most recall I had was from Khan videos
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This is a relief! I've never taken psych and my soc classes were 8+ years ago, so I decided to follow the Khan videos and make notecards. I've also been reading a lot of academic articles... I'm so glad to hear I might be on the right path!!!

Glazedonutlove said:
Should I focus a lot on memorizing details about developement stages (can't memorize eriksons for the life of me)
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Erikson is not explicitly mentioned in the MCAT2015 guide but it falls under content category 8A. Khan Academy reviews it in the context of Self-Identity (link). So yeah, unfortunately it should be added to our list of stuff to memorize. :sorry:
 
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For people who have taken the test, is the Question Pack format the EXACT same format as the actual test? I see that the QP has the 1-question-at-a-time feature. I also noticed that I can't seem to cross-out answers and that you can highlight text in the question.
Is the periodic table button at the top or the bottom like the old MCAT format?
Thanks.
 
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We have received numerous reported posts from the AAMC regarding test violations in this thread and we will be locking this thread while we review these reports. As a reminder, discussing specifics regarding the MCAT is a violation of the non-disclosure agreement that you signed. SDN does not condone this behavior, and violations may lead to warnings, post-holds, and additional disciplinary action.
 
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BackpacksMadeByJanSport said:
Does anyone know if our projected percentile rank will be for each section, or will it be an overall percentile score?
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It should be all sections + overall. I can't see why they would withhold the overall percentile score when they already have all the information for the 4 sections. Someone else asked the same question in another thread, so I want to know why you think they wouldn't include an overall percentile score.

I mean, they wanted us to get the percentile score so that we can start making plans about potential schools list. How are we supposed to do that if we don't have an overall percentile?
 
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I don't know if I'd say that it wasn't well written, so much as I just felt generally unprepared and unsure of what to expect, despite all the prep books and textbooks.
 
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Holmwood said:
It should be all sections + overall. I can't see why they would withhold the overall percentile score when they already have all the information for the 4 sections. Someone else asked the same question in another thread, so I want to know why you think they wouldn't include an overall percentile score.

I mean, they wanted us to get the percentile score so that we can start making plans about potential schools list. How are we supposed to do that if we don't have an overall percentile?
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking they would just give us an overall score, and wasn't sure if they were going to give us a breakdown of each section. Do you have the link to the thread that discusses this?
 
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BackpacksMadeByJanSport said:
I was actually thinking they would just give us an overall score, and wasn't sure if they were going to give us a breakdown of each section. Do you have the link to the thread that discusses this?
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I don't remember where it was unfortunately. It might have been here or in reddit. From what I do remember, no one gave an answer. : O

They'll definitely give us a breakdown by section according to this: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/register/420874/mcat-april-2015.html
"You will receive estimated preliminary percentile rank ranges (these are the percentile ranges in which your scores on the new exam are likely to fall) approximately three weeks after you test. The ranges will show how you compare to others who took the exam and help you make decisions about whether to retest and about the schools to which you will apply."

Note the plural "ranges".
 
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I honestly have NO idea how I did on the exam and am nervous to see my results...And I don't want to come on here just to bitch for the sake of bitching...But I honestly felt I was left under-prepared by the prep materials I used to study for this exam (Kaplan, TBR, Khan & AAMC). IMO the AAMC left the first-timers completely hanging out to dry with their lack of official prep materials.

When you spend years creating a new test, having only ONE practice test to present for anyone taking it before the fall is absolutely ridiculous and baffling to me. The question pack was pretty worthless for the most part, and did not in the slightest get you prepared on HOW to go about answering the new types of questions they were asking.

This test requires such a different way of thinking compared to the old test, and I just feel nothing provided by the AAMC or the prep companies could be considered adequate after having sat through that exam.
 
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Did anyone use the EK 9th edition passages/ EK exams? What did you think? The most helpful compared to TBR/TPR/old EK/old AAMC/Kaplan/ next step?
 
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Levrone said:
Did anyone use the EK 9th edition passages/ EK exams? What did you think? The most helpful compared to TBR/TPR/old EK/old AAMC/Kaplan/ next step?
Click to expand...

I hear the EK exams are solid...$50 is insane for 1 test but its worth it if they help you prepare.
 
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Yay I'm glad this is open again! I was annoyed when all the anxious posts took over and closed it because I was looking forward to hearing from some of you that I've chatted with over the last few weeks as we've prepared, I hope it went well for you guys!

so overall I felt pretty good. I thought psych was easy. I thought bio was easier than I thought it would be, I guess maybe just because I know that even on the old exam this was always a tricky section for students so I expected to be tripped up but wasn't. CARS was predictably a little harder than the ridiculously easy sample test but really not by much, the only thing that threw me off was timing on this one---anyone else feel that way? Finally, the biggest discrepancy in my opinion was the chem/physics section...it felt like a mix of very straightforward and very what the hell is this if you know what I mean.. Haha.
 
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meant4med said:
Yay I'm glad this is open again! I was annoyed when all the anxious posts took over and closed it because I was looking forward to hearing from some of you that I've chatted with over the last few weeks as we've prepared, I hope it went well for you guys!

so overall I felt pretty good. I thought psych was easy. I thought bio was easier than I thought it would be, I guess maybe just because I know that even on the old exam this was always a tricky section for students so I expected to be tripped up but wasn't. CARS was predictably a little harder than the ridiculously easy sample test but really not by much, the only thing that threw me off was timing on this one---anyone else feel that way? Finally, the biggest discrepancy in my opinion was the chem/physics section...it felt like a mix of very straightforward and very what the hell is this if you know what I mean.. Haha.
Click to expand...

Spot on IMO. I think the AAMC FL practice test was very representative to the exam (only wish i hadn't waited til last week to take the practice test). CARS was a bit more difficult, got stuck on one passage and had to hurry in the end. Psych was okay, some concepts i had not heard of but you can eliminate 2 wrong answers pretty easily for a 50% guess. Other 2 science sections were like the practice test. Hard part will be waiting 2 months to get the results. At least we will get some amazon credit in the meantime. Definitely felt burnt out at the end of the 7 hours, glad psych was last (think it took the least focus out of all the sections). Took all the breaks, ate and used bathroom between all the sections 😛 Think its important to keep blood sugars constant for focus on task at hand.
 
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meant4med said:
Yay I'm glad this is open again! I was annoyed when all the anxious posts took over and closed it because I was looking forward to hearing from some of you that I've chatted with over the last few weeks as we've prepared, I hope it went well for you guys!

so overall I felt pretty good. I thought psych was easy. I thought bio was easier than I thought it would be, I guess maybe just because I know that even on the old exam this was always a tricky section for students so I expected to be tripped up but wasn't. CARS was predictably a little harder than the ridiculously easy sample test but really not by much, the only thing that threw me off was timing on this one---anyone else feel that way? Finally, the biggest discrepancy in my opinion was the chem/physics section...it felt like a mix of very straightforward and very what the hell is this if you know what I mean.. Haha.
Click to expand...
I actually felt that the time elapsed faster. Anyone felt that too? (I know Its ridiculous.)
 
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Hey, I have a question for anyone who has taken the new mcat? What was the social sciences section like? What was there are a lot of material that needed to be memorized that they tested on and do you have any recommendations for someone studying for this section? I'd really appreciate advice.
 
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bob1.gif
 
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Camou_Cat said:
I actually felt that the time elapsed faster. Anyone felt that too? (I know Its ridiculous.)
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What do you mean? You felt that the whole thing didn't feel as long or that you were running out of time? I meant that I barely finished the cars section---it wasn't hard but I feel like it was longer than guide/sample/packs!
 
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XxThaDoggxX said:
I honestly have NO idea how I did on the exam and am nervous to see my results...And I don't want to come on here just to bitch for the sake of bitching...But I honestly felt I was left under-prepared by the prep materials I used to study for this exam (Kaplan, TBR, Khan & AAMC). IMO the AAMC left the first-timers completely hanging out to dry with their lack of official prep materials.

When you spend years creating a new test, having only ONE practice test to present for anyone taking it before the fall is absolutely ridiculous and baffling to me. The question pack was pretty worthless for the most part, and did not in the slightest get you prepared on HOW to go about answering the new types of questions they were asking.

This test requires such a different way of thinking compared to the old test, and I just feel nothing provided by the AAMC or the prep companies could be considered adequate after having sat through that exam.
Click to expand...

I feel the exact same way. It had been a few years since I had taken any of the classes so I did a prep course along with Khan and the AAMC materials. I didn't feel as though new test was representative of any of the material they had put out. I did fine on their practice exam and the bundles, but the new test was nothing like those--the passages felt so much longer and I'm fairly certain I guessed on 50% of the questions. I'm also incredibly irritated that it takes so much longer than "normal" to get our scores (from the April test dates) and I don't want to drop another $300 before I know how I did. By the time the scores come out, it'll be one week before the May test date and already all of the seats are taken for the June dates in my current and home state. Taking in July or August means we're on the late side of getting our applications in to the schools. I understand there's a possibility of them opening up new seats but that's never a guarantee. The increase in price (I've heard others explain their reasoning why), lack of seats, and/or requiring people to travel out of state seems awfully prohibitive for anyone who is not bringing in a significant income (students, low income communities) to take the exam and apply to med school (even with the fee assistance).

Anyone else feel this uncertain and frustrated?
 
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WonderandWander said:
I feel the exact same way. It had been a few years since I had taken any of the classes so I did a prep course along with Khan and the AAMC materials. I didn't feel as though new test was representative of any of the material they had put out. I did fine on their practice exam and the bundles, but the new test was nothing like those--the passages felt so much longer and I'm fairly certain I guessed on 50% of the questions. I'm also incredibly irritated that it takes so much longer than "normal" to get our scores (from the April test dates) and I don't want to drop another $300 before I know how I did. By the time the scores come out, it'll be one week before the May test date and already all of the seats are taken for the June dates in my current and home state. Taking in July or August means we're on the late side of getting our applications in to the schools. I understand there's a possibility of them opening up new seats but that's never a guarantee. The increase in price (I've heard others explain their reasoning why), lack of seats, and/or requiring people to travel out of state seems awfully prohibitive for anyone who is not bringing in a significant income (students, low income communities) to take the exam and apply to med school (even with the fee assistance).

Anyone else feel this uncertain and frustrated?
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I know I do. I'm actually planning on continuing to review (reading articles, doing anki,etc) up until the 8th. Just in case. I hate the idea of dropping another $300 on this, but now I know what to expect, I feel like I have an advantage. 🙂
 
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WonderandWander said:
I feel the exact same way. It had been a few years since I had taken any of the classes so I did a prep course along with Khan and the AAMC materials. I didn't feel as though new test was representative of any of the material they had put out. I did fine on their practice exam and the bundles, but the new test was nothing like those--the passages felt so much longer and I'm fairly certain I guessed on 50% of the questions. I'm also incredibly irritated that it takes so much longer than "normal" to get our scores (from the April test dates) and I don't want to drop another $300 before I know how I did. By the time the scores come out, it'll be one week before the May test date and already all of the seats are taken for the June dates in my current and home state. Taking in July or August means we're on the late side of getting our applications in to the schools. I understand there's a possibility of them opening up new seats but that's never a guarantee. The increase in price (I've heard others explain their reasoning why), lack of seats, and/or requiring people to travel out of state seems awfully prohibitive for anyone who is not bringing in a significant income (students, low income communities) to take the exam and apply to med school (even with the fee assistance).

Anyone else feel this uncertain and frustrated?
Click to expand...
I feel the same. I did end up guessing more than I hoped. But I truly do hope that adcoms take these new scores in the big picture context. I expect that they may see a variety of scores from kids who believe they are worthy of attending a school, even though the kids may not have the same "36+" MCAT and the connotation that brings to their app. The bottom line is that there will be kids who did better than they expected because the new test plays to their strengths. There will also be kids who will do worse than they expected because the new test does not - and the lack of prep materials did them no help.
At the end of the day all you can do is hope you did well and hope adcoms will keep in mind the strange situation the new tests puts us in.
As a side note, unless by some rotten luck I absolutely bombed the test, I have no intention of taking it again. Whether the scores are average, slightly above or slightly below - as long as you have a good, well-rounded application, I think there will be at least one school out there that would bite. At least thats what I tell myself to sleep at night 😛
 
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DrHart said:
I feel the same. I did end up guessing more than I hoped. But I truly do hope that adcoms take these new scores in the big picture context. I expect that they may see a variety of scores from kids who believe they are worthy of attending a school, even though the kids may not have the same "36+" MCAT and the connotation that brings to their app. The bottom line is that there will be kids who did better than they expected because the new test plays to their strengths. There will also be kids who will do worse than they expected because the new test does not - and the lack of prep materials did them no help.
At the end of the day all you can do is hope you did well and hope adcoms will keep in mind the strange situation the new tests puts us in.
As a side note, unless by some rotten luck I absolutely bombed the test, I have no intention of taking it again. Whether the scores are average, slightly above or slightly below - as long as you have a good, well-rounded application, I think there will be at least one school out there that would bite. At least thats what I tell myself to sleep at night 😛
Click to expand...

Can I ask you if the verbal passages are longer than the old one or just about the same? I don't think this is an in-depth question but if u can't answer it without violating aamc guidelines, then don't.
 
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enter_and_escape said:
Can I ask you if the verbal passages are longer than the old one or just about the same? I don't think this is an in-depth question but if u can't answer it without violating aamc guidelines, then don't.
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Never took the old exam. The AAMC FL verbal passages were very representative of the passages I saw on test day. I don't know how much of verbal you would be able to change. I felt it was really just reading something and understanding it >.<
 
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enter_and_escape said:
Can I ask you if the verbal passages are longer than the old one or just about the same? I don't think this is an in-depth question but if u can't answer it without violating aamc guidelines, then don't.
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The old verbal had 40 questions while the new CARS had 53 questions as stated by AAMC. The CARS section apparently allows 20% more time per question relative to the old verbal is what I heard. But I still barely finished in time even with the 20% more time allotted. It may be because each question required more thinking, or there were less questions per passage + more passages (reading takes up the bulk of my time). Honestly I can't remember the specifics anymore.
 
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Yeah we are in a seriously bad predicament if we have to retake...I don't think I would even try and rush it and rather just take the entire year off to do some research as well and take the test in January or whenever new dates open...Absolute worst case scenario and I wanna blow my brains out even thinking of that...these next 3 weeks are gonna absolutely blow. I have no idea if I should even begin drafting my personal statement yet, MSAR, or any of that stuff yet or not.
 
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Levrone said:
how'd you guys do on the 12Q mini test?
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Good (10/12) Questions were much simpler IMO...I honestly don't know about test day...I'm ashamed to say I think nerves got the best of me and that first section took me behind the woodshed
 
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wagonwheel23 said:
Any April test takers registering for another date this summer? Debating it now...
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They're going to send us the percentiles in the first week of May, and you can make the decision then.
When I registered for the April test, there was only one date in May. Now, it seems everyone abandoned their test in May for the June/July date. At least in my state, all possible testing sites for may are now open... I don't think that test in May is coveted at all, so I think you'd be able to register for that one when the time comes.
 
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Holmwood said:
They're going to send us the percentiles in the first week of May, and you can make the decision then.
When I registered for the April test, there was only one date in May. Now, it seems everyone abandoned their test in May for the June/July date. At least in my state, all possible testing sites for may are now open... I don't think that test in May is coveted at all, so I think you'd be able to register for that one when the time comes.
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Everyone saw how crappy the April testers felt and jumped ship :laugh:
 
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DrHart said:
I feel the same. I did end up guessing more than I hoped. But I truly do hope that adcoms take these new scores in the big picture context. I expect that they may see a variety of scores from kids who believe they are worthy of attending a school, even though the kids may not have the same "36+" MCAT and the connotation that brings to their app. The bottom line is that there will be kids who did better than they expected because the new test plays to their strengths. There will also be kids who will do worse than they expected because the new test does not - and the lack of prep materials did them no help.
At the end of the day all you can do is hope you did well and hope adcoms will keep in mind the strange situation the new tests puts us in.
As a side note, unless by some rotten luck I absolutely bombed the test, I have no intention of taking it again. Whether the scores are average, slightly above or slightly below - as long as you have a good, well-rounded application, I think there will be at least one school out there that would bite. At least thats what I tell myself to sleep at night 😛
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Same here, I would have to do wayyy worse than I am aiming in order to consider retesting! I even threw away my mcat books because even if I do end up having to retake, I know now they're useless and know what I'd focus on instead (biochem textbook and aggressively reading publications in top biochem journals). I kept the box of flashcards I made though. Here's to hoping that being the guinea pigs and working our butts off paid off!
 
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Holmwood said:
The old verbal had 40 questions while the new CARS had 53 questions as stated by AAMC. The CARS section apparently allows 20% more time per question relative to the old verbal is what I heard. But I still barely finished in time even with the 20% more time allotted. It may be because each question required more thinking, or there were less questions per passage + more passages (reading takes up the bulk of my time). Honestly I can't remember the specifics anymore.
Click to expand...
I agree, I don't want to say too much but yeah--I was killing cars before the test (everything above 90%), but BARELY finished, had to end up guessing on a whole passage by quickly skimming it for obvious answers before time ran up. That was my only concern, not difficulty--that was fairly similar I think.
 
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meant4med said:
Yay I'm glad this is open again! I was annoyed when all the anxious posts took over and closed it because I was looking forward to hearing from some of you that I've chatted with over the last few weeks as we've prepared, I hope it went well for you guys!

so overall I felt pretty good. I thought psych was easy. I thought bio was easier than I thought it would be, I guess maybe just because I know that even on the old exam this was always a tricky section for students so I expected to be tripped up but wasn't. CARS was predictably a little harder than the ridiculously easy sample test but really not by much, the only thing that threw me off was timing on this one---anyone else feel that way? Finally, the biggest discrepancy in my opinion was the chem/physics section...it felt like a mix of very straightforward and very what the hell is this if you know what I mean.. Haha.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you felt like you did well on the psych part! What did you use to study for it? Thank you!
 
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I am going to apply with my current mcat score whatever it is that comes in June 16th and have registered for August 21st one. For the schools I'm looking at I should be able to interview with most the schools even with a poor on on my first test and can later update that in August.
 
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