The Official August 21, 2014 MCAT Thread

[LLawliet]

Welcome
For those of you who plan on using the SN2ed study schedule, you should be finishing up on gathering prep materials and getting ready to start around mid May.
Who else is with me?

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[iforget2]

August 15th survivor here. Good luck tomorrow everyone! You might see some complicated and long problems but the question they're really asking is actually quite simple. Take a deep breath and don't freak out if you see a long block of text. Y'all will do great!

 

[sharkbyte]

August 15th survivor here. Good luck tomorrow everyone! You might see some complicated and long problems but the question they're really asking is actually quite simple. Take a deep breath and don't freak out if you see a long block of text. Y'all will do great!

If you were to remove the contributing stress/anxiety of the real MCAT and just view your MCAT objectively, did it still feel harder than the AAMCs? Or was it mostly just different?

 

[TulaneUnderdog]

If you were to remove the contributing stress/anxiety of the real MCAT and just view your MCAT objectively, did it still feel harder than the AAMCs? Or was it mostly just different?

Edited to suppress our nerves. Good night guys.

 

[iforget2]

If you were to remove the contributing stress/anxiety of the real MCAT and just view your MCAT objectively, did it still feel harder than the AAMCs? Or was it mostly just different?

It was definitely harder and a lot wordier. I was really only nervous for the first 20 minutes during the PS section but those were actually manageable. It actually wasn't until a bit later when I had calmed down that passages came up that I hadn't seen before in my studying. I normally finish a section with 5-7 minutes left, and finished the PS with about 2 minutes left and BS with 1 minute left.

 

[Kakaonkaka]

good luck everyone, get some sleep

 

[pshah677]

Good luck guys!

 

[WastedTime]

I hope we all surpass the scores we are aiming for! Hope for the best for us all!

 

[ineedsleep93]

Good luck guys!

 

[alfredo24pr]

Best of luck to everyone!

 

[TheMightyTexan]

Good luck fellas!

 

[sharkbyte]

Good luck everyone!!

 

[Rhino1000]

Good luck, all!

 

[Juxxtaposition]

Good luck everyone!

 

[TulaneUnderdog]

For you guys with insomnia, just have pleasant thoughts like how relieved you will be for the rest of days after this test.

 

[knower214]

Good luck everyone!

 

[t0ny]

Best of luck guys/gals. Rooting for all
Of you!

 

[neoneurohocuspocus]

Good luck!

 

[asw98]

Good luck everyone!! To keep my sanity, I probably won't be posting again until scores are up. See everyone in a month or so!!

 

[jagster92]

Good luck everyone! I feel like I'm in the calm of the storm right now...

 

[DocKingh]

Good Luck everybody!

 

[texan2414]

GL all!!!! Anxious to know how everyone's exams went.

 

[TheAnonymous]

Anyone done?

 

[alfredo24pr]

Im done
BS was pretty easy, but was a bit nervous for the beggining of the PS.

 

[Styrene]

Feel like I got crushed by the VR! BS easier than AAMC 11. PS was fine except one crazy passage. Trial section was wtf.

 

[Styrene]

Definitely not much different from anything else. I will confirm that TBR and GS FLs were 100x harder.

 

[orangetea]

omg I wanted this test.

 

[joebloggs]

does the difficulty of one test depend on the difficulty of the previous test? like would the 8/15 administrations difficulty determine at least partly how difficult this one was?

 

[Styrene]

omg I wanted this test.

It all balances out in the end. At least, we hope so.

 

[Styrene]

does the difficulty of one test depend on the difficulty of the previous test? like would the 8/15 administrations difficulty determine at least partly how difficult this one was?

No, not directly.

 

[orangetea]

does the difficulty of one test depend on the difficulty of the previous test? like would the 8/15 administrations difficulty determine at least partly how difficult this one was?

but you know whats really weird is that last year I took Aug. 22 and my general reaction was exactly like what some people here posted.... i might be going MCAT crazy but i feel like aamc likes to be nice around this date for whatever reason..

i also have absolutely NO evidence of this whatsoever

 

[TBRBiosadist]

I feel good for you guys, but god dammit I wish Ihad your test

 

[alfredo24pr]

Feel like I got crushed by the VR! BS easier than AAMC 11. PS was fine except one crazy passage. Trial section was wtf.

I always feel crushed by verbal
That PS passage was a complete mess. That probably would lower my score by at least a point

 

[jagster92]

And now the longest 30-35 days of my life commences

 

[kevojy]

I always feel crushed by verbal
That PS passage was a complete mess. That probably would lower my score by at least a point

I thought the verbal went decent. That PS passage was ridiculous, like WTF. BS was harder than I'm used to. I'm a biochem major, and I thought the trial was really out there... Overall I found it harder than most practice tests (for reference, I was scoring well on GS and AAMCs... go figure).

Also, I forgot my postal code when I was signing in. Not a good sign, haha.

 

[JAH360]

I just got out and am literally sitting in the parking lot of the testing center to share my thoughts before I go get completely hammered.

Overall, it wasn't the monster everyone on SDN made it out to be.

PS wasn't bad except for that one passage that I just sort of dumbly stared at for 7 minutes pretending I knew what was happening. And then I only had a minute left after finishing the last passage, so I was able to determine the correct answer for one of the discretes, but had to literally select random answers for the other two discretes because I had 7 seconds left. So that scares me.

Verbal was awful. The first two passages were written in a different language I think, which completely screwed me for time for the rest of the section. I pretty much blindly guessed half of the answers for the first two passages because I knew I couldn't spend anymore time dissecting them. I felt unsure about almost all of my verbal answers, but what else is new? I'm most worried about my verbal score. Like, really worried. Please tell me yall thought verbal was rough, too, so I can at least have hope that there will be a generous curve... Lol

BS was meh. There were some really specific discretes that I had to 50/50 guess on. Some of the organic passages were a little tricky. I felt like the last passage should have been in the PS section.

I can't guess my score because I literally have no idea. I will guess that my verbal is probably an 8. And if this is the case, I will retake, even if I got like 14s in both BS and PS. But I probably won't get a 14 in PS because I had to randomly guess answers to two easy calculation questions because I ran out of time... Agghhhh.

Oh, and I thought I'd feel relief after leaving the testing center and knowing I no longer have this looming over my head, but I'm actually more anxious at the fact that I have to wait a whole freaking month to get my score back...

 

[jagster92]

I thought the verbal went decent. That PS passage was ridiculous, like WTF. BS was harder than I'm used to. I'm a biochem major, and I thought the trial was really out there... Overall I found it harder than most practice tests (for reference, I was scoring well on GS and AAMCs... go figure).

Also, I forgot my postal code when I was signing in. Not a good sign, haha.

Omg that trial. And I thought I paid attention in that class haha. Guess not enough.

 

[kalat]

Definitely harder than any of the AAMC practice tests I took. Verbal was easy besides one passage that was needlessly convoluted and out of context. Biology was reasonable but had a lot more organic 2 than I was used to. Physics and general chemistry seemed a little ridiculous, but it is also my worst section. Hoping everyone gets the scores they want. The trial section revolved way too much around having memorized a bunch of names of theories, and I love the material covered on there.

 

[kevojy]

Omg that trial. And I thought I paid attention in that class haha. Guess not enough.

I know right? I was thinking, "I've seen all of these terms before, but I don't understand a word of this..." I'm now even more anxious for my score, because I never want to take the 2015 MCAT!

 

[kalat]

I know right? I was thinking, "I've seen all of these terms before, but I don't understand a word of this..." I'm now even more anxious for my score, because I never want to take the 2015 MCAT!

My question is where are they gonna stick that material? It doesn't fit neatly into anything...

 

[nugang]

Overall i thought it was on par with aamc 11 in terms of bio and PS.

But verbal was hard. There were two passages that really took me for a ride and i was unsure on a bunch. But im always unsure so hopefully it'll be at least a 10.

Bio- wasnt too bad. Orgo tripped me up a little and some discretes were difficult but not 10x worse than aamc 11.

Didnt think PS was bad at all except for that one passage
Good luck!

 

[jagster92]

My question is where are they gonna stick that material? It doesn't fit neatly into anything...

I think gap years will become more common because of it.

 

[TheAnonymous]

Consensus seems to be that 1pm exams = hard verbal ?

 

[kevojy]

My question is where are they gonna stick that material? It doesn't fit neatly into anything...

To be honest and fair, it all reminded me of material from an intro biochem course. But much much harder, if you get what I'm saying. So it does fit under BS, but it's just not as fun as that physiology and cell bio that we all love..

 

[B002]

PS- I think we can all agree that one passage was wtf, but the rest was similar to the other exams.
Verbal- I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with the first two passages. I thought it was difficult, but hoping for the best.
BS- Wasn't as bad as what SDN made it out to be, but I did get thrown off by one passage.

I looked at the trial and was like nope.

 

[Styrene]

Verbal was awful. The first two passages were written in a different language I think, which completely screwed me for time for the rest of the section. I pretty much blindly guessed half of the answers for the first two passages because I knew I couldn't spend anymore time dissecting them. I felt unsure about almost all of my verbal answers, but what else is new? I'm most worried about my verbal score. Like, really worried. Please tell me yall thought verbal was rough, too, so I can at least have hope that there will be a generous curve... Lol

I will second your feelings about verbal. The curve better be forgiving, because, though I won't mention specifics, some of the questions were just stupid from my perspective. If they want to make it like that, we should get 80 minutes. I've been reading at least 50 books a year since I was 4 and have philosophy as one of my majors--still threw me for a loop. I had to resort to pure intuition and autopilot to get through the verbal.

 

[Styrene]

I definitely am super happy that I got correct two BS questions relating to material I definitely never covered or even thought about covering.

 

[jagster92]

I will second your feelings about verbal. The curve better be forgiving, because, though I won't mention specifics, some of the questions were just stupid from my perspective. If they want to make it like that, we should get 80 minutes. I've been reading at least 50 books a year since I was 4 and have philosophy as one of my majors--still threw me for a loop. I had to resort to pure intuition and autopilot to get through the verbal.

I only had time to look back at one verbal question I marked. Luckily I found the right answer and switched it in time, but can't imagine how many I similarly guessed wrong on and didn't have time to review.

 

[DocKingh]

DONE!!!!!!!!

PS: It wasn't too different from the other AAMCs. There was one passage that was a little weird, but overall the section was as expected.
VR: The first 2 passages were tough. There were many questions that I was unsure about. This section was on the difficult side for me.
BS: It wasn't too different from the other AAMCs. There were some nasty discretes. Also, one of the passages seemed to be more PS than BS. Anyways, it wasn't as bad as it could have been (but, tougher than PS I think).

OVERALL: It was OK. I mean, it could have been worse. I want a 35! However, idk how my VR score is going to be. I feel that section will be the one that brings me down. Regardless, I'm glad I'm done. Now the wait begins (30-35 days).

 

[DocKingh]

Oh and the Trial section = WTF!
Glad I decided to take the current test and not the new one

 

[Styrene]

I only had time to look back at one verbal question I marked. Luckily I found the right answer and switched it in time, but can't imagine how many I similarly guessed wrong on and didn't have time to review.

I didn't have time to review anything on the verbal. I do feel extremely confident about PS and BS, though. Could be a good or bad sign lol!