Usually a lurker, rarely on here, and never post and probably won't again except for a follow up, but wanted to give some thoughts on Thursday's 2pm exam if it helps anyone taking it in the near future.
Overall: It wasn't harder or easier than expected, just different. Like if I could put the difficulty rating of all the questions on a standard bell curve, I think the mean/median would stay the same, but it would have a higher standard deviation, i.e. the questions were more variable. There was one totally WTF question on each science section that I could only make my best educated guess. I've never encountered that much wtf on any practice exams. Of course there's always those questions that you either know it or you don't and you just have to make a best guess and hope you get lucky, but usually there is 4-5 on each science section, however I felt there was 6-7 this time, which was unnerving.
As for my practice exams:
AAMC range:
32-39 (in order taken starting about a month before the exam day)
5:
36 (12/11/13)
7:
32 (11/9/12)
11:
34 (11/11/12)
10:
34 (12/10/12)
9:
39 (15/10/14)
8:
37 (14/10/13)
Average:
35.3 (12.5/10.1/12.7)
Prediction:
Conservative: 33 (12/9/12)
Lucky: 37 (13/11/13)
AAMC 3 and 4, I took over a year ago for really no reason, which was a waste/stupid. Just wanted to see what the exam was like. For 3, I got a 28 (10/7/11) and for 4, I got a 30 (10/7/13). Idk why my PS jumped so high on AAMC 9 and 8. I think that's when I changed my strategy to go back and check my work since I usually have 10 minutes left in the sciences. Pretty stable for a 10 in verbal, which I was really happy about. Was shooting for a 9. I will die if I get an 11.
Test Day Breakdown:
PS: Not sure if it was either more conceptual or more calculations than the AAMC FLs as others mentioned, but I do remember by the end of the time, my scratch paper had more formulas/stuff written down than usual. idk if it was more calculations per se, but more testing the relationships of variables in formulas. I like to write the formulas down to visualize easier if a test question hints at a concept that uses a formula. I guess there was more questions involving formulas/relationships. PS section is just about as strong as my BS section. But I couldn't calm down/get my heart rate down for the first 30 minutes, which could have had a deleterious effect on thinking clearly. Breathing in for ~6 seconds, holding for 6, and out for 6 is a trick I'd do on my nervous system to slow my heart rate down. My brother went to military academy and taught me that trick to calm down. It works lol. But I was just waayyy too nervous at the start of the test.
VS: My weakest section. For the AAMC FLs, I always barely finished with enough time (like 30 seconds). But this time, I had 3 minutes to spare, which NEVER happens. I did not notice the word length was higher as other people mentioned. I'm pretty sure I had the same test as everyone else though, because all the questions/passages others hinted at, I definitely had. I usually do the passages in a different order. I skip to the passages where I read the first two or three sentences, understand the general topic, AND I think is interesting. Then I move onto the ones that are less interesting. And finally the last one or two passages I hold on for dear life. I write down #1-7 on the scratch paper and cross out the passage numbers I did to keep track. I also write down the time I should be at after every passage: 51, 42, 33, 24, 15, and 6 min (I allow 9 min per passage and leave 6 minutes for the hardest passage that I know I wouldn't do better on even if I had 15 minutes -- based on previous practice experience). I'm usually on time for every passage on every practice exam I took. However, for the actual exam, I varied and was at around 54, 45, 33, 25, 17, 10, and finished with 3 minutes to spare. This was weird because I'm usually invariable when it comes to timing, despite the fact it is my weakest section and I almost have a heart attack every time I come to the verbal section. Like every minute is a struggle and I feel like I'm being dragged by my feet against my will to take this horrible section, but it didn't feel that bad for the actual test. I thought the passages were interesting for the most part. So glad that there wasn't any of those philosophy passages (like with Confucius or Greek philosophy with weird Greek names that I can never remember where it is in the passage if a question refers to that person). I usually score around a 10 on practice exams which I'm fine with, but because the actual exam felt nothing like the practice exams, I have no friken clue what I'll get. I hope the fact that I had a lot of time to spare means I did well, but I know myself, and when things are off, it's not good, even if I felt good about it.
BS: Yeah, that one passage people mentioned, holy crap. Also, I felt like for one or two questions, if I didn't take biochem before, I would've been screwed. I seriously wouldn't have known the information off the top of my head without taking the class. So that was a curve-ball that I'm glad I hit. For PS and BS, I finished with 10-13 minutes to spare. So I go back and check my work. I'm glad I did because I found mistakes in each section. That probably saved me 2 whole points because I'm always on a borderline for the sciences. I never check my work for verbal because I don't have time and usually my gut is better at answering verbal questions.
As for preparing for the exam, I tried to follow the Sn2ed calendar. Never did, with work and summer classes (going into my fourth year undergrad now at UF). Had a friend that had all the Berkeley Review books, TPRH verbal workbook, and all EK 1001 for me to use. Tried to follow the 4 month calendar with all this nice material, but found it just did not suit my learning style I developed in undergrad. So I ended up reading all the BR chapters/EK bio chapters, making sure I understand thoroughly everything. All derivations of formulas, all concepts and connections, and all test taking strategies. Just tried to learn good, genuine, basic science concepts of everything. That helped me out the best. In hindsight, I think I really grew as a scientist/critical thinker through studying the MCAT.
I tried to do some of the BR passages, but didn't bother after a while becuase it was too much with work.. Tried to do the EK 1001, and got 20% through each book, but stopped. I found that just reviewing the BR chapters constantly and doing the AAMC FL exams helped me the most. It took me at first a whole day (or more) to get through reading one BR chapter, but eventually I got so efficient, I could go through a whole science in one day (10 chapters for chem, 10 for phys, 8 for orgo, 9 for EK bio). I probably went through reading the PS sciences 5 times and the BS sciences 3 times over. For the verbal, I tried to do 3 practice TPRH workbook passages per day, but that didn't work out. I like to do things in chunks and focus on one thing. So after reading the science passages twice, I felt it was time to focus on the TPRH workbook. I usually did groups of seven passages and timed myself for an hour. Was doing really badly and was expecting an 8, but averaged a solid 10 on the practice AAMC FL. So whatever. That's fine with me. I hope the way I studied pays off in the end. That's just my learning style. Didn't have time to go through the practice questions because of work and school commitments, but made sure I did all the AAMC FLs diligently and honestly. We'll see in a month D-:
Good Luck to anyone reading this who is taking it soon
