The Official August 16, 2013 MCAT Thread

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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gettheleadout

gettheleadout

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Welcome everyone! For those following the SN2ed or a similar 3-month study schedule, prep should begin in the next few weeks.

Hope to see some ambitious and optimistic people here with me, and shout out to the 3/23'ers from before I bailed on that test date.

Let's go!
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Hey! That would be me as well. I didn't realize this was GTLO's date too, guess some friendly competition would be nice and it's also nice that this thread will be lively, I'm on SDN nearly everyday and probably more often during the summer with no school.

My last exam's on April 30th so I'm thinking of heading into the 3-month plan starting a few days after that.

Planning to only apply to one school in September since I'm finishing up my 2nd year now. Problem is they only look at the VR score and it's probably my weakness so going to need a lot of preparation.

I'm a double major in physics and physiology so I'm hoping that'll help me out quite a bit when it comes to review.

Score goal: 14 PS/ 12 VR/ 13 BS. Amibitious? Yes. Attainable? I hope so, but realistically, a point lower in each section wouldn't be too bad, I just really don't want my VR score to drop below 11.
 
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gettheleadout said:
Welcome everyone! For those following the SN2ed or a similar 3-month study schedule, prep should begin in the next few weeks.

Hope to see some ambitious and optimistic people here with me, and shout out to the 3/23'ers from before I bailed on that test date.

Let's go!
Click to expand...

Have fun. Don't hurt yourself :)
 
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I think I'm going to register for this date, or 8/15. The 4/26 test had its way with me, so hopefully after a summer of intense studying I can do better. Good luck peeps
 
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Goodluck guys. I was supposed to take it 4/26 but postponed due to a variety of personal reasons, hopefully we can all pull through.
 
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So what's everyones study schedule/strategy this time around? (I imagine most of us taking it this late are re-takers)

My first attempt involved the TPR online course to supplement my own SN2ed type schedule using the TPR material for everything. I loved the course and their material is solid, but taking classes while studying for the MCAT is a bad idea. Long story short I didn't get to review content as thoroughly as possible, so I need to start over from square 1.

I know its not very original, but this time around I plan on following the SN2ed schedule as closely as possible, while using TPRH SW to supplement EK 1001 and for additional bio passages. I started last week due to needing a few days for finals this week, but I should be picking back up with Bio chapter 1 day on tuesday.

Good luck everyone!
 
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This is actually my first time taking it since our MCAT date doesn't matter in Canada other than the fact that I'm indicating my intention to apply a few days before our score comes out.

I think I'll probably follow SN2ed pretty closely but I've got EK1001 for bio as a method of content review since my memory for bio isn't amazing. I've also got 2 Kaplan tests in a book along with 2 online ones that came with it that I'll factor into my schedule. If time permits, the AAMC self-assessment also looks like a good idea.

My E&M final is on the 30th and I think I'll spend the 1st relaxing and setting up a proper schedule before diving into the first chapter of bio on the 2nd.

I'm also a statistics junkie so probably going to have all my scores throughout practice carefully organized somewhere.

Looking forward to a "fun" MCAT-filled summer with you guys!
 
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Finally finished my 2nd year at 11 am this morning, glad to be half done undergrad.

I'm actually going to be out of the house on Friday and Saturday so I think I'm going to try and get through the first chapter of orgo tomorrow. It's definitely my weakest section but I'll see how it goes when I've got more time to study.

Oddly excited to start on this 3.5 month MCAT journey.
 
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Got a nasty shock after trying the EK101 verbal warm-up. Screwed up what I thought was the easiest passage, really badly and did quite well on the two other ones. The good thing is I understood what I was doing wrong.

3 months means plenty of time to improve and maybe 11/12 is still in reach.
 
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Looks like no one else has really started prep. Finished chapter 1 of physics today, figured it would be better to post scores in the BR thread instead of spamming here.


Was quite pleased with my results though and a nice start is always good. :D
 
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Sarvish said:
Looks like no one else has really started prep. Finished chapter 1 of physics today, figured it would be better to post scores in the BR thread instead of spamming here.


Was quite pleased with my results though and a nice start is always good. :D
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Nice job man! :thumbup: I only scored a measly 79% on chapter 1 :(
 
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Hey guys, I may be a potential august test taker. Currently registered for June 20th but depending on how I feel in terms of preparedness I might postpone. Will any of you guys be applying with the august score and what is you take on using a such late score to apply?
 
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nightowl0721 said:
Hey guys, I may be a potential august test taker. Currently registered for June 20th but depending on how I feel in terms of preparedness I might postpone. Will any of you guys be applying with the august score and what is you take on using a such late score to apply?
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You will definitely be considered a "late applicant" but decent stats and ECs will get you in somewhere.
 
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I'm really not sure if the school is rolling or non rolling. I asked one of the people that got in this cycle and she said its an yes and no. No because they never said that it was and they review the applicants randomly in batches and yes because technically when the spots fill up you have a lesser chance. So I am really not sure. I really hope they will at least look at my application at that time.
 
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I also intend to take on this date! I spent most of my time hanging out with the 6/20 people because there weren't any threads for this date when I began my prep, which was very early. My prep is based off an extremly modified version of SN2ed. I have other obligations so I have given myself a lot of time to complete all the practice and reading I find to be necesary.

Let's support each other as we embark on this journey to cross this bridge that connects us to the other side. Good Luck Everyone!
 
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Hey everyone I'm signed up for this date too! I just found out about these forums but I'm loving all the useful information! Anyone else strangely excited to study? I have a couple finals left this week and then probably starting to study the following Monday! I'm gonna be working this summer as well so I'm kind of scared I won't have enough time to study. Kinda debating push off the exam until next spring because my course load is pretty easy this upcoming year. What do you guys think?
 
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hello, everyone! i will also be joining you guys on that day! this is my first time taking the MCAT and i ll be starting tmr on monday~ :)
 
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MMendoza14 said:
Hey everyone I'm signed up for this date too! I just found out about these forums but I'm loving all the useful information! Anyone else strangely excited to study? I have a couple finals left this week and then probably starting to study the following Monday! I'm gonna be working this summer as well so I'm kind of scared I won't have enough time to study. Kinda debating push off the exam until next spring because my course load is pretty easy this upcoming year. What do you guys think?
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I felt excited to study at first, but getting bent over by TBR passages a few times quickly takes the fun out of it, when all your studying doesn't seem to pay off.

Depending on how much you're working, IMO its easier to study for the MCAT while working rather than taking classes, but that comes down to your preference.
 
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O Grady said:
I felt excited to study at first, but getting bent over by TBR passages a few times quickly takes the fun out of it, when all your studying doesn't seem to pay off.

Depending on how much you're working, IMO its easier to study for the MCAT while working rather than taking classes, but that comes down to your preference.
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Taking classes = you sometimes have to study for them all day long till you go to bed = no time for MCAT AT ALL

Working = you can have a few hours to study for MCAT before going to bed everyday
 
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Are you guys all applying this cycle or next? I'm currently trying to decide--I know that a late mcat score will obviously hurt my application to an extent--but I still am very hesitant to commit myself to taking 2 full years off before med school. I feel like I'm a pretty competitive applicant but obviously it's hard to tell how schools will view me.

If you are applying this cycle, are you planning on sending primaries in without your mcat score and just hoping for the best?

Also say I was to apply this cycle--and it goes badly and I am forced to just apply the next cycle around--how bad is it to be a 're-applicant'--will taking the risk and applying this cycle hurt me a lot if i have to apply next cycle around?
 
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redear said:
Are you guys all applying this cycle or next? I'm currently trying to decide--I know that a late mcat score will obviously hurt my application to an extent--but I still am very hesitant to commit myself to taking 2 full years off before med school. I feel like I'm a pretty competitive applicant but obviously it's hard to tell how schools will view me.

If you are applying this cycle, are you planning on sending primaries in without your mcat score and just hoping for the best?

Also say I was to apply this cycle--and it goes badly and I am forced to just apply the next cycle around--how bad is it to be a 're-applicant'--will taking the risk and applying this cycle hurt me a lot if i have to apply next cycle around?
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That's why you add only one school bf your MCAT scores are released.
If you did bad on the MCAT, then apply only to that school.
 
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So after a few days of verbal, I've found that I'm doing consistently better on TPRH passages than I am on EK101 (about 15% better). I know each one picks on different things so I'm clearly struggling with what EK101 picks on.

Any suggestions on how I can fix this? I find that I'm thoroughly confused by some of the EK answer explanations but I've heard it's a lot closer to AAMC than TPRH is.
 
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Sarvish said:
So after a few days of verbal, I've found that I'm doing consistently better on TPRH passages than I am on EK101 (about 15% better). I know each one picks on different things so I'm clearly struggling with what EK101 picks on.

Any suggestions on how I can fix this? I find that I'm thoroughly confused by some of the EK answer explanations but I've heard it's a lot closer to AAMC than TPRH is.
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If you look enough you can find people that say it both ways. I say just do your best on both until you get to the AAMC Self-Assessments, FL's, or the passages in the Official Guide and then decide for yourself which style is more similar.
 
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gettheleadout said:
If you look enough you can find people that say it both ways. I say just do your best on both until you get to the AAMC Self-Assessments, FL's, or the passages in the Official Guide and then decide for yourself which style is more similar.
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That makes sense. I was hoping I could know earlier but there's really no point, might as well try and learn from each.

Today's passages were from EK and I got 1/5, 5/5, 5/6... So one really bad passage but I got the hang of answering questions on the other two. I screwed up what I thought was the easiest one, all the questions felt like I was just regurgitating facts but clearly not.

ETA: Reading answer explanations now, I'm not entirely convinced of the answers that EK gives for a few of the ones I got wrong in that passage.
 
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Sarvish said:
That makes sense. I was hoping I could know earlier but there's really no point, might as well try and learn from each.

Today's passages were from EK and I got 1/5, 5/5, 5/6... So one really bad passage but I got the hang of answering questions on the other two. I screwed up what I thought was the easiest one, all the questions felt like I was just regurgitating facts but clearly not.

ETA: Reading answer explanations now, I'm not entirely convinced of the answers that EK gives for a few of the ones I got wrong in that passage.
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I've felt the same way about some of the EK answer explanations. Maybe show it to someone you would trust and see what they think (e.g. both my parents have doctorates and I trust their interpretation, so if they agree with me I would just ignore EK's point lol).
 
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Does anyone else feel like they understand the material fairly well, and just get destroyed by passages? I swear I feel like I have a pretty solid content base, but MCAT style questions always trick me or take me too long to figure out.
 
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Hey guys, I postponed an earlier mcat date and I will be joining you guys in the august mcat. I'm looking forward to studying :D Currently on day 5 of the 3 month schedule.
 
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Hey guys, im currently on day 3 of 3 month schedule, working on Ochem, trying to do passages in TBR. im wondering if you guys always time yourself for every passage (under 7 minutes)? bc for me, regardless of the subject, i feel like im always rushing and dont have time to finish in 7 minutes :( but if i do it slower, maybe 10minutes i think i can do them correctly. what to do? :(
 
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O Grady said:
Does anyone else feel like they understand the material fairly well, and just get destroyed by passages? I swear I feel like I have a pretty solid content base, but MCAT style questions always trick me or take me too long to figure out.
Click to expand...

It's definitely a different style of questions than I'm used to. The couple scores I've heard from you sound pretty good! I think as we get later in our prep and then come back to earlier chapters, we'll have a larger knowledge base that makes it easier.

TBR definitely tries to throw every possible trick at you in their passages, you'll get them wrong now but you'll never get them wrong again. Just wait until we're rocking those AAMC tests. :D

jjunior said:
Hey guys, im currently on day 3 of 3 month schedule, working on Ochem, trying to do passages in TBR. im wondering if you guys always time yourself for every passage (under 7 minutes)? bc for me, regardless of the subject, i feel like im always rushing and dont have time to finish in 7 minutes :( but if i do it slower, maybe 10minutes i think i can do them correctly. what to do? :(
Click to expand...

I've been timing myself and generally try and stay under but I won't freak if I go up to 7:30. The timing is helping me figure out when I should just trust my intuition on a question and when I should actually go through all the steps to figure it out.
 
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btw, which book are you guys using for biology? i know that they suggest EK bio for non-detailed approach, but i'm wondering if it'll be enough.
 
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Sarvish said:
It's definitely a different style of questions than I'm used to. The couple scores I've heard from you sound pretty good! I think as we get later in our prep and then come back to earlier chapters, we'll have a larger knowledge base that makes it easier.

TBR definitely tries to throw every possible trick at you in their passages, you'll get them wrong now but you'll never get them wrong again. Just wait until we're rocking those AAMC tests. :D

I've been timing myself and generally try and stay under but I won't freak if I go up to 7:30. The timing is helping me figure out when I should just trust my intuition on a question and when I should actually go through all the steps to figure it out.
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I freakin hope so man haha. I also can't finish passages that quickly, but why the rush? If we allot ourselves 8-9 minutes a passage with ~1 min per discrete that still gives us plenty of time, right? Unless the point is to give us enough time to look over parts of the test again, but I feel like its more advantageous to answer every question in order, if I don't know it, then guess and move on. The only ones I do mark on FLs are calculation heavy questions that I don't have enough time to work through.
 
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O Grady said:
I freakin hope so man haha. I also can't finish passages that quickly, but why the rush? If we allot ourselves 8-9 minutes a passage with ~1 min per discrete that still gives us plenty of time, right? Unless the point is to give us enough time to look over parts of the test again, but I feel like its more advantageous to answer every question in order, if I don't know it, then guess and move on. The only ones I do mark on FLs are calculation heavy questions that I don't have enough time to work through.
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Timing shouldn't be too bad, I've always been a really fast test writer. I personally like allocating 7 minutes per passage just because I always have anxiety problems on a test where I need to just stop and breathe and look at a question from a new perspective. Like I said, I wouldn't worry at all about going up to 8 or 9 minutes on a passage since there's always a couple that will take 4 or 5 minutes.
 
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