The Official August 21, 2014 MCAT Thread

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

LLawliet

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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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TulaneUnderdog said:
I seriously need to consider staying logged out of SDN, every time I see notifications to this thread I relive the trauma.
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I can't even imagine what it would be like if SDN were like College Confidential and all of the exam questions were discussed. I think I'd have a heart attack
 
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So I'm drunk and I'm not really sure what to make of everyone's post-exam feelings. Did we have an easier test, and should thus expect a particularly unforgiving curve, or could the fact that we seemed to have much higher AAMC averages than the other official threads be resulting in a slanted representation of today's test? It seems that the handful who weren't previously participating in the thread, and the ones with lower AAMCs, expressed that they felt the exam was significantly more difficult than the practices. I will admit that the exam was somewhat more challenging than the practices, but not unreasonably so (Except for verbal. That was just awful. I wouldn't wish that verbal section on my worst enemy.)

I don't know. I know the general consensus is to not trust your post exam feelings, but I feel like an idiot for spending so much time on that ridiculous gen chem passage and having to guess on the last two discreets because I didn't have enough time. (BTW, was the velocity 5 and the voltage 2? Please tell me they were 5 and 2 because that's what I picked lol)
 
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JAH360 said:
So I'm drunk and I'm not really sure what to make of everyone's post-exam feelings. Did we have an easier test, and should thus expect a particularly unforgiving curve, or could the fact that we seemed to have much higher AAMC averages than the other official threads be resulting in a slanted representation of today's test? It seems that the handful who weren't previously participating in the thread, and the ones with lower AAMCs, expressed that they felt the exam was significantly more difficult than the practices. I will admit that the exam was somewhat more challenging than the practices, but not unreasonably so (Except for verbal. That was just awful. I wouldn't wish that verbal section on my worst enemy.)

I don't know. I know the general consensus is to not trust your post exam feelings, but I feel like an idiot for spending so much time on that ridiculous gen chem passage and having to guess on the last two discreets because I didn't have enough time. (BTW, was the velocity 5 and the voltage 2? Please tell me they were 5 and 2 because that's what I picked lol)
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Now I'm curious if I left questions on PS incomplete cuz I haven no idea what you are talking about.
 
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JAH360 said:
So I'm drunk and I'm not really sure what to make of everyone's post-exam feelings. Did we have an easier test, and should thus expect a particularly unforgiving curve, or could the fact that we seemed to have much higher AAMC averages than the other official threads be resulting in a slanted representation of today's test? It seems that the handful who weren't previously participating in the thread, and the ones with lower AAMCs, expressed that they felt the exam was significantly more difficult than the practices. I will admit that the exam was somewhat more challenging than the practices, but not unreasonably so (Except for verbal. That was just awful. I wouldn't wish that verbal section on my worst enemy.)

I don't know. I know the general consensus is to not trust your post exam feelings, but I feel like an idiot for spending so much time on that ridiculous gen chem passage and having to guess on the last two discreets because I didn't have enough time. (BTW, was the velocity 5 and the voltage 2? Please tell me they were 5 and 2 because that's what I picked lol)
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No exam specifics!!! lol
 
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BTW, our scores are being released on September 23rd, and I have no idea what I'm suppose to do with myself until then. Should I continue studying in case I need to retake? Should I just focus on my classes? Should I give up on the whole medical school plan altogether? Why must AAMC torture us so, in the age of computers when we all know our scores have already been calculated?
 
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they don't make mcats easy. each one is as hard as any other. so if you guys felt it wasn't bad, that probably means you're pretty smart and that you're probably all gonna do well.
 
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JAH360 said:
BTW, our scores are being released on September 23rd, and I have no idea what I'm suppose to do with myself until then. Should I continue studying in case I need to retake? Should I just focus on my classes? Should I give up on the whole medical school plan altogether? Why must AAMC torture us so, in the age of computers when we all know our scores have already been calculated?
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I'm def not trying to study this crap anymore. Worst case scenario I get a bum score and sign up for a January exam. But I'm certainly not looking at this material again unless my score necessitates it. I'd just focus on classes, maintaining gpa, doing ECs and whatever else u like.
 
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user12 said:
they don't make mcats easy. each one is as hard as any other. so if you guys felt it wasn't bad, that probably means you're pretty smart and that you're probably all gonna do well.
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One of the girls at my testing center left crying. I took a lot of comfort in this. Does this make me a terrible person?
 
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Juxxtaposition said:
For the chemistry passage everyone is talking about, it's the one with the weird picture, right?
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Gen chem. Indecipherable. Picture. So molecule. Much big. Very wtf. Hopefully experimental. (I hope this is lacking enough in specificity)
 
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JAH360 said:
One of the girls at my testing center left crying. I took a lot of comfort in this. Does this make me a terrible person?
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Maybe a little haha. Some kid in the waiting area before the test started was saying something about a biological system (I won't say which in case he/she is reading) that was completely false and I'm hoping he was just trying to mess with everyone's head, cuz otherwise I would hate to see how his BS went.
 
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It's 2:00AM and instead of enjoying my post-MCAT free time I'm scouring the internet for forums on today's exam.
PS-Same as everyone else. I blocked out most of this in preparation for verbal. I wish I remembered the crazy chemistry passage...
Verbal-super tricky. I usually get 12-3. I will be happy with anything over 10 at this point.
BS-ridiculous. The discretes were super detailed! 50/50 for many of them. Passages were okay.

School starts the 25th for me. I'm going to be spending a lot of time wondering if I should sign up for the January test preemptively or give up on this med school dream. Here goes the countdown for 32 days.
 
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JAH360 said:
No, it wasn't the monster everyone made it out to be. I had to guess on questions in the practice tests, too, and averaged a 38. I felt the practice exams were very representative of the real test, and thus I expect to score around my average.

Thanks for playing.
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tumblr_inline_na9ybhHRLt1qbcgmr.jpg
 
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JAH360 said:
No, it wasn't the monster everyone made it out to be. I had to guess on questions in the practice tests, too, and averaged a 38. I felt the practice exams were very representative of the real test, and thus I expect to score around my average.

Thanks for playing.
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As a re-taker I can confirm that this exam was not that bad compared to the first one I took. If this had been my first time, I would be saying the same thing you are. The PS section of my first exam was absolutely horrible.
 
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4-cyclohexene said:
Can someone explain how the curve works for the MCAT? I've heard it's predetermined and has nothing to do with how the examinees do on sections. Is that true? If so, what are y'all thinking for VR? Curve or no?
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Honestly, I thought this verbal was pretty straight forward. Either way, verbal is scored harshly.
 
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Thrill-house said:
I feel like my brain is fried, cause I honestly can't remember this crazy chem passage that everyone is talking about

PS was definitely the killer for me.

VR was challenging, but reasonable...a couple of those passages got wordy, but they were all interesting which definitely helps.

BS again, was challenging, but I didn't feel it was too bad. Definitely more orgo than I was expecting, but it was a nice surprise. Interesting to see that one cross-disciplinary passage too...I suppose there hasn't been any official information released about this, but I have a feeling that they were trying to test some 2015 MCAT stuff on us.
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I didnt get the crazy chem passage either...but I know what passage it is because I had it on the first MCAT I took.....everyone on SDN called it the Darth Vadar passage.
 
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Because it was hard falling asleep yesterday, I mapped out (or tried to map out) my exam in my head:

From the questions I remember / looked up:
PS | Unsure about 8. 3 of which were outright guesses (didn't have time). The rest were 50/50 type questions. What are the chances of me getting above a 10?
BS| Unsure about 3, and def got 3 incorrect, so potentially 6 wrong already. 5 of these were on OChem--I really overthought OChem... What are the chances of me getting above a 10?
VR| Ok so I feel like I am in the minority, but I felt pretty ok on this VR (watch this be the first time I get an 8 on VR) but I was actually able to finish with 10 mins left and spend those 10 mins on the first two passages and felt like I definitely caught 3 of my mistakes.
 
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Just browsing through this thread, as I have to take the MCAT next month ... was the exam similar to the practice exams AT ALL? I've taken AAMC 3 and 4 so far and I feel it's pretty easy for the PS and BS ... thoughts?
 
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echoyjeff222 said:
Just browsing through this thread, as I have to take the MCAT next month ... was the exam similar to the practice exams AT ALL? I've taken AAMC 3 and 4 so far and I feel it's pretty easy for the PS and BS ... thoughts?
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Take the later exams, much more representative of the real deal
 
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As in ... 3 and 4 are a TON easier? Lol. I felt 3 and 4 so far have very few calculations ... real thing = more calcs?
 
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echoyjeff222 said:
As in ... 3 and 4 are a TON easier? Lol. I felt 3 and 4 so far have very few calculations ... real thing = more calcs?
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3 and 4 rely on more background knowledge that you can study for rather than being presented with New information and interpreting it.
 
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I was wondering: people say that the later exams were representative of the mcat but are the SAs representative of the types of questions/passages were seeing now or are they easier?
 
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@Thisisthelife
Those who re-write the exam typically say that it was easier than the original one they wrote. It's not appropriate to attribute that to an easier test when you already have an upper edge in writing once and learning from your mistakes.
 
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Do you guys think that even easy questions could be experimentals? Or do you think only difficult questions are?
 
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jagster92 said:
No way man. I can't see that happening. What'd be the bottom line score you'd accept without retaking?
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35 with no more than a 5 or 6 point difference across sections. So I'd stick with something like 13/10/15 or even 13/10/13. I know I'll be good as long as I get at least a 10 in verbal.
 
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Styrene said:
35 with no more than a 5 or 6 point difference across sections. So I'd stick with something like 13/10/15 or even 13/10/13. I know I'll be good as long as I get at least a 10 in verbal.
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Just about same here. Single digit verbal would screen me out at places I'm looking at I'd presume and sub35 wouldn't keep me competitive.
 
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Styrene said:
35 with no more than a 5 or 6 point difference across sections. So I'd stick with something like 13/10/15 or even 13/10/13. I know I'll be good as long as I get at least a 10 in verbal.
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jagster92 said:
Just about same here. Single digit verbal would screen me out at places I'm looking at I'd presume and sub35 wouldn't keep me competitive.
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U planning on doing anything between now and when scores come out in case of a need to retake? I'm hoping my growing anxiety is just par for the course and that my score ends up being fine.
 
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jagster92 said:
U planning on doing anything between now and when scores come out in case of a need to retake? I'm hoping my growing anxiety is just par for the course and that my score ends up being fine.
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Nothing else I can do after 20+ FLs. I've come to the conclusion that if I didn't score where I wanted to, it has nothing to do with what I know or don't know but more to do with small factors during the test and being in a different environment.
 
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Hey all thought I might chime in on how the exam was from my perspective.

Overall: Much easier than the later AAMC's sort of felt like AAMC 4 for me with AAMC 7's Bio (a lot of orgo :D).

PS: Physical science, imo was pretty fair and not too crazy, my weakest area is the physics 2 stuff, but there was plenty of gen chem which I am pretty solid in always. OF course there was that one passage... Prediction 9-10, 8 if I simply had a terrible day lol

Verbal: IMO, which is contrary to most of the posters on here, was pretty easy. The passages I noticed were about 1-2 paragraphs longer on average which might have thrown off some people's timing but I thought the questions were not too difficult. I read very fast and verbal is typically my best section so this didn't really throw me off. I found them most similar in style to AAMC 8 which I got a 13 on. Prediction 12+

BS: What can I say? ORGO and a bunch of random discrete questions which for the most part were very easy except for maybe a few where I had to go 50/50. I love orgo and do very well consistently in orgo passages so of course I was very happy. The passages I felt were also pretty easy and most of the data wasn't too difficult to discern. Definitely much easier than the bio passages in the later AAMC's. Prediction 11+

Hopefully my predictions are correct and I end up with like a 31+ at worst. Wish the best for you all, and glad to see some of the things that tripped me up were also WTF moments for others lol best of luck guys and gals.
 
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jordansnfootbal said:
You guys are gonna end up like the July 12th exam if the exam was this standard....curve about to be harsh af
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What are you talking about? The general consensus is that the PS and VR were exceptionally difficult. I for one felt a lot worse on this exams than ANY of my practice exams
 
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TheDarkNeuron said:
What are you talking about? the general consensus is that the PS and VR sections were exceptionally difficult.
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Yeah seriously. Also, keep in mind that SDN represents a very small and skewed sample of post-test responses; there have been some very high scorers posting on this thread who probably found that the sections weren't that hard BECAUSE they are good at the stuff. I don't think the difficulty levels between exams vary much at all, if they even do in the first place.
 
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sharkbyte said:
Yeah seriously. Also, keep in mind that SDN represents a very small and skewed sample of post-test responses; there have been some very high scorers posting on this thread who probably found that the sections weren't that hard BECAUSE they are good at the stuff. I don't think the difficulty levels between exams vary much at all, if they even do in the first place.
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Yah but the darth vader chem passage + the one that followed it were absurdly difficult. Like I have never seen anything like that on ANY of the practice exams.
 
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Juxxtaposition said:
Yah but the darth vader chem passage + the one that followed it were absurdly difficult. Like I have never seen anything like that on ANY of the practice exams.
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I totally agree; I meant that the difference in difficulty among current MCATs (i.e. ours vs. one from June vs one from April) is probably insignificant. The real MCAT is definitely harder than the practice tests.
 
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Juxxtaposition said:
Yah but the darth vader chem passage + the one that followed it were absurdly difficult. Like I have never seen anything like that on ANY of the practice exams.
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Definitely, hahah the darth vader passage was absolutely ridiculous - seeing that image come up was so foreign looking on the screen too. I thought the gen chem calculations were also very tough on some of them and had to guess on a few of those. I personally felt like the verbal was my best section on that test, PS being the worst and BS somewhere in between (I really hated all the orgo on there) I also had 8 minutes to spare on the orgo and instead of going over anything, I just ended the test, not sure why i did that but I am kicking myself now over it. Overall, I am feeling pretty terrible about the test - does anyone know what is the norm for time to start studying again/rescheduling? Ugh now the dreaded waiting period begins
 
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sharkbyte said:
Yeah seriously. Also, keep in mind that SDN represents a very small and skewed sample of post-test responses; there have been some very high scorers posting on this thread who probably found that the sections weren't that hard BECAUSE they are good at the stuff. I don't think the difficulty levels between exams vary much at all, if they even do in the first place.
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True
 
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TheDarkNeuron said:
Definitely, hahah the darth vader passage was absolutely ridiculous - seeing that image come up was so foreign looking on the screen too. I thought the gen chem calculations were also very tough on some of them and had to guess on a few of those. I personally felt like the verbal was my best section on that test, PS being the worst and BS somewhere in between (I really hated all the orgo on there) I also had 8 minutes to spare on the orgo and instead of going over anything, I just ended the test, not sure why i did that but I am kicking myself now over it. Overall, I am feeling pretty terrible about the test - does anyone know what is the norm for time to start studying again/rescheduling? Ugh now the dreaded waiting period begins
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I think for me I was disappointed that one of the gen chem topics I feel uber confident in and was the topic of at least one passage in pretty much every AAMC wasn't even mentioned in the entire test except like one discrete.
 
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