The Official August 7, 2014 MCAT Thread

[Thoroughbred_Med]

107 days out! Who all is signed up to obliterate the MCAT August 7th?

I know it's a bit early but I searched and could not find another August 7th, 2014 MCAT thread! I am hoping that we can keep each other motivated this summer while studying...

I am starting a slightly modified SN2ed schedule May 7th.... slightly modified due to my incredible weakness with physics. I am not taking physics 2 before the MCAT and therefore will be self-teaching it.

Looking forward to hearing from some of y'all!

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[futuredoc2389]

Where did you get that score conversion for the Self assesment into MCAT score?

Im guessing he just scaled the percentage to the AAMC scale. Thats what I usually do.

 

[futuredoc2389]

@nvas
SA's are a bitch! Do not do them all in one sitting. You will just die.

 

[futuredoc2389]

Anki is the best! Been using it every day since I started studying, my MCAT deck has over 1200 flashcards now. I made flashcards as I did content review and have continued to add flashcards based on FLs I've taken. Whenever I miss a question on a FL I try to distill it down to a concept/fact that fits nicely on a flashcard and add it to my deck.

Oh wow! Never heard of this thing! I use stuydblue. Its the same concept pretty much. You can organize it so the notecards are available on all your mobile platforms so I have them on my cell, iPad and laptop. You can also organize the decks in order of most difficult, least studied etc... Yea I have a crap ton too. Do you ever ask yourself, when am I gonna study all this?!?

 

[jenniferrae]

My score is so lop-sided. Doing very well in the sciences but verbal is killer. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I have a very hard time staying focused for such a long period of time, especially reading dense material. I noticed a general trend. I tend to do well initially, but my comprehension drops off towards the last few passages.

This might be dumb, but what I do to stay entertained is I get a sense of who the author is and then picture him/her as a person I know... like someone in my family, a friend, someone at school who annoys me, a TV character from one of my favourite shows, etc. Not only does that up the entertainment factor, but it helps me keep in mind the author's opinion on the main topic. For example, if the passage is talking about how, say, technology is causing negative societal changes, I think of my grandma who refuses to own a computer and I picture her as being the author of the passage.

I hope that makes sense/helps

 

[jenniferrae]

THANK YOU to those who encouraged me not to lose confidence after my last dumb verbal score! I went back, did a total post-game analysis of all my AAMC tests thus far, took AAMC 9 this morning, and got a 12 in verbal!

My AAMC scores thus far:

AAMC #3: 32 (10 PS, 12 VR, 10 BS) <- baseline score, before any review
AAMC #4: 35 (10 PS, 11 VR, 14 BS) <- after reviewing BS only
AAMC #5: 38 (13 PS, 12 VR, 13 BS) <- finished content review
AAMC #7: 39 (12 PS, 14 VR, 13 BS)
AAMC #8: 35 (13 PS, 9 VR, 13 BS)
AAMC #9: 40!!!! (15 PS, 12 VR, 13 BS)

Today is a good day.

 

[Shipley231]

THANK YOU to those who encouraged me not to lose confidence after my last dumb verbal score! I went back, did a total post-game analysis of all my AAMC tests thus far, took AAMC 9 this morning, and got a 12 in verbal!

My AAMC scores thus far:

AAMC #3: 32 (10 PS, 12 VR, 10 BS) <- baseline score, before any review
AAMC #4: 35 (10 PS, 11 VR, 14 BS) <- after reviewing BS only
AAMC #5: 38 (13 PS, 12 VR, 13 BS) <- finished content review
AAMC #7: 39 (12 PS, 14 VR, 13 BS)
AAMC #8: 35 (13 PS, 9 VR, 13 BS)
AAMC #9: 40!!!! (15 PS, 12 VR, 13 BS)

Today is a good day.

Oh man your baseline score makes me feel inadequate =p and all of your following scores.

 

[jenniferrae]

Oh man your baseline score makes me feel inadequate =p and all of your following scores.

Please don't!! It's a bit skewed because I took most of the required pre-reqs this past year (I'm a non-trad applicant) so everything was still pretty fresh.

This past week I've been eating, sleeping, breathing verbal trying to get some sort of strategy

 

[Dr.TonySoprano]

for the aamc chemistry self assessment, it's telling me that there are two right answers for question 83. can someone pm me or write it here what the answer is to that question? thanks.

edit: never mind

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

THANK YOU to those who encouraged me not to lose confidence after my last dumb verbal score! I went back, did a total post-game analysis of all my AAMC tests thus far, took AAMC 9 this morning, and got a 12 in verbal!

My AAMC scores thus far:

AAMC #3: 32 (10 PS, 12 VR, 10 BS) <- baseline score, before any review
AAMC #4: 35 (10 PS, 11 VR, 14 BS) <- after reviewing BS only
AAMC #5: 38 (13 PS, 12 VR, 13 BS) <- finished content review
AAMC #7: 39 (12 PS, 14 VR, 13 BS)
AAMC #8: 35 (13 PS, 9 VR, 13 BS)
AAMC #9: 40!!!! (15 PS, 12 VR, 13 BS)

Today is a good day.

Those scores are phenomenal! I wish I could say I wasn't jealous, but that'd be a ginormous lie.

Keep it up

 

[Relz.]

Hey y'all! Just joining now...which is super late I know but I was just browsing (since I write on August 1st but there doesn't appear to be a thread for it) and found it to be really helpful in terms of knowing where I stand, possible improvement wise. I've been super worried about my score (highest is 28 so far) and I write in two weeks! So i'd like to say thanks for showing me that if I put in the work, I still have time to improve my score. And yes I realize that sounds cheesy...but ohwell.

 

[futuredoc2389]

Hey y'all! Just joining now...which is super late I know but I was just browsing (since I write on August 1st but there doesn't appear to be a thread for it) and found it to be really helpful in terms of knowing where I stand, possible improvement wise. I've been super worried about my score (highest is 28 so far) and I write in two weeks! So i'd like to say thanks for showing me that if I put in the work, I still have time to improve my score. And yes I realize that sounds cheesy...but ohwell.

I will say this much, the more content you are exposed to in the next 3 weeks before your exam, you will likely remember it! I always thought that those students who had ample time to study for the MCAT were at a disadvantage! If you have a month to study, chances are you're gonna grind it out and know everything for that month! The following month you will just dump it but who cares? You got a 40.

 

[ciestar]

I was studying today on the beach and a rogue wave came up out of nowhere and destroyed my organic chemistry book.

 

[evooo8]

I'm getting frustrated with how long my practice tests are! I have the old AAMC tests in PDF version that are 77 questions long! Usually to the end of each section I am mentally exhausted and my thinking goes down the drain. Usually pretty solid at the beginning and then end up missing majority of the points at the end! I really need to slow down, my PS score for AAMC 7 was a 9, but when I review my answers I missed so many EASY points at the end from just being drained, I would have gotten an 11!!! PLUS my AAMC tests have like 4-5 organic passages each since they are 77 questions per section! haha Sadly all my tests are the long version except 10 and 11. so hopefully my mental endurance increases so I can expect a nice score increase with the last two AAMC tests.

 

[evooo8]

I was studying today on the beach and a rogue wave came up out of nowhere and destroyed my organic chemistry book.

hahaha I would love to throw my organic book in the ocean but must memorize everything!!!

 

[anaxx]

Anyone applying this cycle besides me? lol

 

[clairephillips]

Anyone applying this cycle besides me? lol

Yep. And as a nontrad with 90 classes worth of information to input and having worked at least part time since 2003, I take about an hour a day just working on my primary.

 

[jenniferrae]

Yep. And as a nontrad with 90 classes worth of information to input and having worked at least part time since 2003, I take about an hour a day just working on my primary.

I feel ya! Still haven't decided if being non-trad is going to be a good thing or a liability...

 

[goft20]

I was studying today on the beach and a rogue wave came up out of nowhere and destroyed my organic chemistry book.

Wth are you studying on the beach? Enjoy the ocean.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ciestar]

Wth are you studying on the beach? Enjoy the ocean.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Trying to study on the beach. Ive gotten nowhere and now the ocean took my book hahaha

 

[Shipley231]

Score update! Just took AAMC #8.
7/3/2014 AAMC 3: 10/10/7 - 27
7/9/2014 AAMC 4: 11/10/9 - 30
7/13/2014 AAMC 5: 10/11/9 - 30
7/16/2014 AAMC 7: 10/11/11 - 32
7/20/2014 AAMC 8: 11/10/9 - 30

Eh.... I didn't feel good about anything but physics. Glanced over my mistakes for a couple of minutes and saw that on a verbal passage I missed 6/7 . I even went over my allotted 8 mins/passage on that one and had to skip to the next and return back to it. It shook my confidence a bit but my performance on the rest of the passages seemed unaffected.
A certain organic passage had me going so that didn't help on bio. I felt like the questions for this one were a good bit different than the previous tests, I can't quite pinpoint why though. Curious to review them tomorrow.

Overall a little disappointed that my score fell back down, I really was enjoying the upward trend. Glad to see my PS back at 11, because I know that I can get it to 12 if I eliminate more careless mistakes. I knew bio would drop from 11, and I'm glad it didn't fall further than 9. Hoping to get that to a 10 by test day. Pretty content with VR being in the 10-11 range.

Hope everyone is working hard and seeing progress!

 

[jenniferrae]

Score update! Just took AAMC #8.
7/3/2014 AAMC 3: 10/10/7 - 27
7/9/2014 AAMC 4: 11/10/9 - 30
7/13/2014 AAMC 5: 10/11/9 - 30
7/16/2014 AAMC 7: 10/11/11 - 32
7/20/2014 AAMC 8: 11/10/9 - 30

Eh.... I didn't feel good about anything but physics. Glanced over my mistakes for a couple of minutes and saw that on a verbal passage I missed 6/7 . I even went over my allotted 8 mins/passage on that one and had to skip to the next and return back to it. It shook my confidence a bit but my performance on the rest of the passages seemed unaffected.
A certain organic passage had me going so that didn't help on bio. I felt like the questions for this one were a good bit different than the previous tests, I can't quite pinpoint why though. Curious to review them tomorrow.

Overall a little disappointed that my score fell back down, I really was enjoying the upward trend. Glad to see my PS back at 11, because I know that I can get it to 12 if I eliminate more careless mistakes. I knew bio would drop from 11, and I'm glad it didn't fall further than 9. Hoping to get that to a 10 by test day. Pretty content with VR being in the 10-11 range.

Hope everyone is working hard and seeing progress!

Nice! For missing 6/7 on a passage, that's an incredible verbal score. Must have done great on the rest of the passages.

 

[dumadr.]

Hey everyone! Checking in for the first time. I've taken three practice tests so far (3,4,5) and am planning on taking #8 Tuesday. I'm terrified of it based on what I've heard about it on sdn so far... any advice? I need it!

 

[roziii68]

I'm getting frustrated with how long my practice tests are! I have the old AAMC tests in PDF version that are 77 questions long! Usually to the end of each section I am mentally exhausted and my thinking goes down the drain. Usually pretty solid at the beginning and then end up missing majority of the points at the end! I really need to slow down, my PS score for AAMC 7 was a 9, but when I review my answers I missed so many EASY points at the end from just being drained, I would have gotten an 11!!! PLUS my AAMC tests have like 4-5 organic passages each since they are 77 questions per section! haha Sadly all my tests are the long version except 10 and 11. so hopefully my mental endurance increases so I can expect a nice score increase with the last two AAMC tests.

I had the old versions too and it was so frustrating that I ended up purchasing the new ones!

 

[yantwannn]

What do you guys to review your verbal sections(post-FL)? I get a lot out of reviewing my PS and BS sections but verbal is a different monster and I feel like I'm not reviewing it the right way.

 

[evooo8]

Anyone applying this cycle besides me? lol

Me too! Good luck!

 

[Shipley231]

Hey everyone! Checking in for the first time. I've taken three practice tests so far (3,4,5) and am planning on taking #8 Tuesday. I'm terrified of it based on what I've heard about it on sdn so far... any advice? I need it!

I just took it this morning. The main advice I can give without giving spoilers is to try not to let it shake your confidence. There were a couple of passages that really hit me hard and I started to lose focus after that.... "what if I can't do this... what if all of my previous scores are just flukes and I'm actually really dumb". Try not to let that happen. Do your best on those harder passages and try to make up for it on the rest. Good luck bud!

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

Score update! Just took AAMC #8.
7/3/2014 AAMC 3: 10/10/7 - 27
7/9/2014 AAMC 4: 11/10/9 - 30
7/13/2014 AAMC 5: 10/11/9 - 30
7/16/2014 AAMC 7: 10/11/11 - 32
7/20/2014 AAMC 8: 11/10/9 - 30

Eh.... I didn't feel good about anything but physics. Glanced over my mistakes for a couple of minutes and saw that on a verbal passage I missed 6/7 . I even went over my allotted 8 mins/passage on that one and had to skip to the next and return back to it. It shook my confidence a bit but my performance on the rest of the passages seemed unaffected.
A certain organic passage had me going so that didn't help on bio. I felt like the questions for this one were a good bit different than the previous tests, I can't quite pinpoint why though. Curious to review them tomorrow.

Overall a little disappointed that my score fell back down, I really was enjoying the upward trend. Glad to see my PS back at 11, because I know that I can get it to 12 if I eliminate more careless mistakes. I knew bio would drop from 11, and I'm glad it didn't fall further than 9. Hoping to get that to a 10 by test day. Pretty content with VR being in the 10-11 range.

Hope everyone is working hard and seeing progress!

Don't sweat it man.

You've got 20 days and 3 more AAMC FLs left until game time. Note whatever you got wrong in BS... I'd still kill for that 11 in PS

 

[Shipley231]

Don't sweat it man.

You've got 20 days and 3 more AAMC FLs left until game time. Note whatever you got wrong in BS... I'd still kill for that 11 in PS

Appreciate it man! How have your tests been going?

 

[futuredoc2389]

Score update! Just took AAMC #8.
7/3/2014 AAMC 3: 10/10/7 - 27
7/9/2014 AAMC 4: 11/10/9 - 30
7/13/2014 AAMC 5: 10/11/9 - 30
7/16/2014 AAMC 7: 10/11/11 - 32
7/20/2014 AAMC 8: 11/10/9 - 30

Eh.... I didn't feel good about anything but physics. Glanced over my mistakes for a couple of minutes and saw that on a verbal passage I missed 6/7 . I even went over my allotted 8 mins/passage on that one and had to skip to the next and return back to it. It shook my confidence a bit but my performance on the rest of the passages seemed unaffected.
A certain organic passage had me going so that didn't help on bio. I felt like the questions for this one were a good bit different than the previous tests, I can't quite pinpoint why though. Curious to review them tomorrow.

Overall a little disappointed that my score fell back down, I really was enjoying the upward trend. Glad to see my PS back at 11, because I know that I can get it to 12 if I eliminate more careless mistakes. I knew bio would drop from 11, and I'm glad it didn't fall further than 9. Hoping to get that to a 10 by test day. Pretty content with VR being in the 10-11 range.

Hope everyone is working hard and seeing progress!

From my experience, the longer I take on a passage the worse I do!!! I decided a while ago that if I start taking too long I will just guess on the remaining and move on. Not worth screwing up the time on all the remaining passages! :/

 

[futuredoc2389]

You all have been amazing at keeping me sane! I am mentally drained and honestly so doped up on caffeine that I really question how I can squeeze any coherence out of my prefrontal cortex. After being on here and talking to all of you I am glad that I am not the only one struggling with this brain drain!

 

[sg808]

18 more days till freedom!! I cannot wait to be over with this test.

 

[dumadr.]

Trend so far:

6/16 AAMC #3: 7/9/9- 25
7/12 AAMC #4: 10/9/11- 30
7/19 AAMC #5: 10/10/11- 31

Hoping to get above a 30, but I think I make too many stupid mistakes. Can't believe it's less than three weeks away. PANIC MODE!!

 

[Shipley231]

Trend so far:

6/16 AAMC #3: 7/9/9- 25
7/12 AAMC #4: 10/9/11- 30
7/19 AAMC #5: 10/10/11- 31

Hoping to get above a 30, but I think I make too many stupid mistakes. Can't believe it's less than three weeks away. PANIC MODE!!

So far so good! Keep it up and you'll get it.

 

[Shipley231]

On August 10th, I'm heading out to Cancun for 5 days with my family and girlfriend, literally can't wait for that day. Test on the seventh and the beach a couple days later, it's keeping me going.

Ahhh it's not that far away.

 

[HeyWilly]

Hey guys, I had a couple general questions. I'm re-reviewing the things I'm still weak on the in these last couple of weeks leading to this exam, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Specifically:

1. Right now I'm set to do all 1001 EK Biology questions. I'm not sure if this is worth it though. Would it be better to just read and re-read the lectures from EK instead to cement all of the material?

2. Is there any place where I can find several questions on a given topic to enhance my understanding of the material? EK 1001 is too much of a burnout, but I want a good review, maybe with 50 or so questions related to a given MCAT topic. In other words, I need some good general content review practice questions for general chemistry/orgo/physics, but I feel inundated by EK 1001 and the PR science workbook. Where should I go instead?

 

[sg808]

Hey guys, I had a couple general questions. I'm re-reviewing the things I'm still weak on the in these last couple of weeks leading to this exam, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Specifically:

1. Right now I'm set to do all 1001 EK Biology questions. I'm not sure if this is worth it though. Would it be better to just read and re-read the lectures from EK instead to cement all of the material?

2. Is there any place where I can find several questions on a given topic to enhance my understanding of the material? EK 1001 is too much of a burnout, but I want a good review, maybe with 50 or so questions related to a given MCAT topic. In other words, I need some good general content review practice questions for general chemistry/orgo/physics, but I feel inundated by EK 1001 and the PR science workbook. Where should I go instead?

If you have access to any of the Kaplan resources, the Kaplan Q bank has a lot of questions (both passage and discreet) that's really good and you can make customized quizzes on a given topic. Also, the subject tests and section tests (these mimic actual sections the exam) are good as well. Also, if you have access to Chad's videos, his quizzes are good practice and they are divided by topic.

 

[HeyWilly]

I have access to some of Kaplan's resources, but I actually haven't looked into them yet because I had a bunch of other material. I'll have to get this question back now. Thanks for alerting me to this!

 

[Relz.]

Hey guys, I had a couple general questions. I'm re-reviewing the things I'm still weak on the in these last couple of weeks leading to this exam, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Specifically:

1. Right now I'm set to do all 1001 EK Biology questions. I'm not sure if this is worth it though. Would it be better to just read and re-read the lectures from EK instead to cement all of the material?

2. Is there any place where I can find several questions on a given topic to enhance my understanding of the material? EK 1001 is too much of a burnout, but I want a good review, maybe with 50 or so questions related to a given MCAT topic. In other words, I need some good general content review practice questions for general chemistry/orgo/physics, but I feel inundated by EK 1001 and the PR science workbook. Where should I go instead?

1. Having done the EK Biology 1001, I would say it really depends on what you hope to get out of it and how comfortable you are with biology now. The questions are fairly straightforward and good at just testing your memorization of the material. What I did, and am currently doing, is the EK Mini MCAT book. I don't know if you have that but I found it to be much more helpful than the 1001Biology. Also, going back through previous AAMC practice tests and just redoing the BS section is helping because I don't really remember the earlier tests I did.

2. I would say AAMC practice tests and the EK mini MCAT book, I also bought the Kaplan Mini MCAT book which comes with a code for two online practice FL MCATs. I haven't looked at other resources since I took a prep course.

Hope that helps!

 

[moop]

I love ebola.

(This will make sense very soon.)

 

[goft20]

Just took aamc 8

11/11/11

Did worse on both ps and bs...WTF...at least I did better on verbal lol

 

[Relz.]

Just took aamc 8

11/11/11

Did worse on both ps and bs...WTF...at least I did better on verbal lol

That's a pretty great VR score though! Quite a few people have been saying not to worry too much about the earlier AAMCs and the most representative are 10,11, and 12!

What are you guys using for physics practice? I've been using the AAMC practice exams, the EK physics textbook type thing, and EK 16 Mini MCATs. I've almost exhausted all of that but I find that I still need more questions to work on.

 

[Shipley231]

That's a pretty great VR score though! Quite a few people have been saying not to worry too much about the earlier AAMCs and the most representative are 10,11, and 12!

What are you guys using for physics practice? I've been using the AAMC practice exams, the EK physics textbook type thing, and EK 16 Mini MCATs. I've almost exhausted all of that but I find that I still need more questions to work on.

If you've got your hands on AAMC 12 you need to fork it over to the rest of us! =p

 

[dumadr.]

That's a pretty great VR score though! Quite a few people have been saying not to worry too much about the earlier AAMCs and the most representative are 10,11, and 12!

What are you guys using for physics practice? I've been using the AAMC practice exams, the EK physics textbook type thing, and EK 16 Mini MCATs. I've almost exhausted all of that but I find that I still need more questions to work on.

I'm using Berkley Review for specific areas I'm not great in based on my AAMC practice test breakdowns. I think of there is an area you can pinpoint as a weak spot you could review it in any physics textbook you can get your hands on (Lord knows they aren't all equal, however...).

 

[drrao88]

Have any of you been using Gold Standard? I took the 5/31 MCAT and I exhausted all of the AAMC's so I cant use them anymore besides for practice questions. The GS exams seem to be close to the real thing in terms of difficulty though, anyone else using these have any insight?

 

[Czarcasm]

I love ebola.

(This will make sense very soon.)

As much as I've seen this dropped on SDN, I already know that passage on AAMC #11 will be hell lol.

 

[Shipley231]

As much as I've seen this dropped on SDN, I already know that passage on AAMC #11 will be hell lol.

Is it bio or verbal?

 

[Czarcasm]

Is it bio or verbal?

AAMC #11 Bio.

 

[Relz.]

If you've got your hands on AAMC 12 you need to fork it over to the rest of us! =p

Haha oh gosh sorry! I mean 9, 10, and 11!! I got up quite early this morning, apparently it's affecting me more than I thought.

 

[futuredoc2389]

Ooo Ebola! Can't wait for that passage Got three more full lengths to go

 

[jenniferrae]

17 days until freedom!!! We can do this!!

Then, inspired by the fate of @ciestar's ochem book, I'm going to go to the beach, throw my VR book in the ocean, and drink my body weight in margaritas.