The Official August 9, 2013 MCAT Thread

Boost your MCAT score by 12 points or more.
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Just started studying today. Anyone else with me?
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Got my giftcard! I had the psych/behavioral section. I scored 69%; not too shabby considering last psych class I had was 5-6 years ago.
 
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Got the gift card! 56%. Looks like the new psych/sosh sections won't be that hard if I can score that without having ever taken any of those classes ever before lol.
 
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Yeah i got 50% and I skimmed the passages and barely even read the questions. Finished in just over 20 minutes if I remember correctly. Not hard at all, but I randomly guessed on very specific theories/peoples names. It was enough to get my gift card so I'm not complaining!
 
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inycepoo said:
Got the gift card! 56%. Looks like the new psych/sosh sections won't be that hard if I can score that without having ever taken any of those classes ever before lol.
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It seems like the MCAT will be more geared towards having questions based on information presented in the passage. I felt like I didn't remember most of what I had learned, so had to read in between the lines/make educated guesses. The tough questions were the straight recall of certain psychology theories (that I had never heard of or forgotten).
 
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julia900821 said:
Did anyone take the science trial section and got their gift card? I got only 50% question right. Sadness...:(
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Quit stressing. It doesn't mean anything. There is no correlation whatsoever to trial section scores and overall MCAT score. Go eat some ice cream!!
 
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Heday said:
It seems like the MCAT will be more geared towards having questions based on information presented in the passage. I felt like I didn't remember most of what I had learned, so had to read in between the lines/make educated guesses. The tough questions were the straight recall of certain psychology theories (that I had never heard of or forgotten).
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+1 that's what I meant by "easier," since less outside knowledge is required

Also research methods.
 
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Scored top quarter on the sciences section I got - definitely had some lucky guesses as there was quite a bit of unfamiliar material on there...
 
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78% top quarter on biochem

thats hilarious, all i did was read q's and look at graphs

the experimental type questions aren't that out there for me though, my program likes to feed us those every exam season
 
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inycepoo said:
Um...no? Just wait for it.
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I actually think this person should call, what if they accidentally voided? Or maybe they just didn't think they made a 'good faith effort'.

Scored in the top quarter for psych/socio...can I score in the top quarter for the MCAT too? Lol please?!
 
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kimicurtis said:
I actually think this person should call, what if they accidentally voided? Or maybe they just didn't think they made a 'good faith effort'.

Scored in the top quarter for psych/socio...can I score in the top quarter for the MCAT too? Lol please?!
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iirc they couldn't have accidentally voided if they were allowed to take the trial section.
 
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neurotroph said:
iirc they couldn't have accidentally voided if they were allowed to take the trial section.
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yep, can't write the trial if ya void. most likely aamc determined that your effort was not a good faith one (aka scored too low/not enough time spent/no highlighting or checking answers)
 
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65dos said:
yep, can't write the trial if ya void. most likely aamc determined that your effort was not a good faith one (aka scored too low/not enough time spent/no highlighting or checking answers)
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Or maybe mistakes are easily made when sending out thousands of emails to people on the same day. Wait it out.
 
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inycepoo said:
Or maybe mistakes are easily made when sending out thousands of emails to people on the same day. Wait it out.
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Eventhough the trial section does not determine your Mcat score,I have the feelings that my Mcat score is great after recieving the Amazon gift card,lol. Can anyone recommed a good medical book interview?
 
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Oh yeah. I forgot that you have to submit before doing the trial section.

I mean it could be a mistake, but I'm more so leaning towards they didn't think that Bwest gave a good faith effort. Oh well.
 
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Haha thanks for the input guys. I definitely think I am going to wait it out (at least for another day or so, then I might send an email just to check). It is very possible that they deemed my effort unworthy of $30. I have never taken sociology or psychology in my life and finished the section in around 20 minutes. I definitely know I got alot right based on passage inference but at the same time I guessed on more than half.
Oh well! hopefully my MCAT score will make up for it :luck: *fingers crossed*
 
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For those of you that got the gift cards, how much time did you have remaining? I had ~19 minutes left but didn't just randomly guess. Worried I won't get my gift card..

Anyone applied/applying to Harvard?
 
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Can't he just do what he wants? If he wants to call let him call, no skin off of anyone else's back lol.

I got 50% and guessed on everything lol. Yum $30.
 
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BruceWayne92 said:
How much time did you spend?
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Almost the full time. I knew part of the way that they measured "a good faith effort" would be by time so I just left the marker on each question for close to a minute and then guessed while I let my brain wander.
 
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Synapsis said:
Almost the full time. I knew part of the way that they measured "a good faith effort" would be by time so I just left the marker on each question for close to a minute and then guessed while I let my brain wander.
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Damn. I regret leaving early...
 
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I wouldn't sweat it. My friend took her MCAT and said her PS section was so far out of this world. She was completely convinced she had like a 6, but she ended up getting a 14. I honestly think we could expect a reasonable curve there.

Now verbal on the other hand...
 
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I truly put in a "good faith effort" and really didn't know much about what the trial was testing on and got a 38% correct and still got my gift card yesterday. I had about 20 minutes left on the trial section.
 
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Synapsis said:
I wouldn't sweat it. My friend took her MCAT and said her PS section was so far out of this world. She was completely convinced she had like a 6, but she ended up getting a 14. I honestly think we could expect a reasonable curve there.

Now verbal on the other hand...
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Well, was her PS average around 14?

Yeah that verbal...10 prob was 35/40 :p
 
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Synapsis said:
I wouldn't sweat it. My friend took her MCAT and said her PS section was so far out of this world. She was completely convinced she had like a 6, but she ended up getting a 14. I honestly think we could expect a reasonable curve there.

Now verbal on the other hand...
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As much as your story helps with the anxiety, I don't see a repeat performance here. I averaged a shy under 12 for PS, but right now I think a 10 would be godsend. Your friend thought she got a 6, which means she was not probably being objective (8 point spread). I think my performance was closer to an 8 or 9 (which isn't that far off my average).

Que sera sera. We just wait.
 
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bwest406 said:
Haha thanks for the input guys. I definitely think I am going to wait it out (at least for another day or so, then I might send an email just to check). It is very possible that they deemed my effort unworthy of $30. I have never taken sociology or psychology in my life and finished the section in around 20 minutes. I definitely know I got alot right based on passage inference but at the same time I guessed on more than half.
Oh well! hopefully my MCAT score will make up for it :luck: *fingers crossed*
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If you never took those classes, why did you mark it as having been taken? Because if you didn't, you shouldn't have had that trial section.
 
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TriagePreMed said:
If you never took those classes, why did you mark it as having been taken? Because if you didn't, you shouldn't have had that trial section.
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Untrue. They assign trial sections in a random fashion. I asked the AAMC via email and they said so. Think of those examinees without any info on the AMCAS because they're not applying yet (like me): how would they assign a section if they really looked at course history?
 
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inycepoo said:
Untrue. They assign trial sections in a random fashion. I asked the AAMC via email and they said so. Think of those examinees without any info on the AMCAS because they're not applying yet (like me): how would they assign a section if they really looked at course history?
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When you sign up for the MCAT, they ask you to check off courses you taken from a list (e.g. Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Statistics, etc.).
 
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kimicurtis said:
Well, was her PS average around 14?

Yeah that verbal...10 prob was 35/40 :p
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I'm not sure, but she did mention that she wasn't excellent at it. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that just because a lot of people have bad feelings about that section means that they should just drop them and expect 13+ haha. Just wanted to hopefully ease a little angst for people who were feeling especially bad.

It's funny because people come out of the test and feel bad but get 13+ in sections, then they say that you should ignore your post-test prediction because you likely did better. But we can't forget the tons of people who come out feeling horrible and actual score horribly. That's definitely very, and in some cases more possible lol.
 
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Heday said:
When you sign up for the MCAT, they ask you to check off courses you taken from a list (e.g. Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Statistics, etc.).
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Oh, right. Well I certainly didn't check psych or sociology, and that was my trial section.

It's still random. The AAMC told me so in its email. Idk what to say if you're not gonna believe that lol
 
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Synapsis said:
I'm not sure, but she did mention that she wasn't excellent at it. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that just because a lot of people have bad feelings about that section means that they should just drop them and expect 13+ haha. Just wanted to hopefully ease a little angst for people who were feeling especially bad.

It's funny because people come out of the test and feel bad but get 13+ in sections, then they say that you should ignore your post-test prediction because you likely did better. But we can't forget the tons of people who come out feeling horrible and actual score horribly. That's definitely very, and in some cases more possible lol.
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Hmm...what is her definition of not excellent '13 avg'? Lol. Yeah, I know people that were scoring okay but scored way below their average. I also know one guy at my school whose highest score was a 32 and ends up with a 36! I was like; huh?! And one girl got 27 once and got 29 on the real deal. But, really most people score their avg unless you have a panic attack or super surge of adrenaline.
 
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inycepoo said:
Oh, right. Well I certainly didn't check psych or sociology, and that was my trial section.

It's still random. The AAMC told me so in its email. Idk what to say if you're not gonna believe that lol
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haha, no i'll take your word for it. i was just answering your rhetorical question in the previous post.
 
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Hey guys... I have been following this thread for about two months now because I also wrote the exam on August 9..I thought that I should finally make an account to relieve some stress haha. 3 more days!!! I am kind of excited but yet not at the same time haha
 
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I am clearly not at your guys standards regarding mcat scores... I think my average was around a 28-29 when studying for like 2 months. I live in Canada and hope to attend MUN so the MCAT score is not really a huge component there and there is no cut-off. I just hope I can get my average:D
 
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Heday said:
haha, no i'll take your word for it. i was just answering your rhetorical question in the previous post.
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Yeah, I forgot about that. Pretty dumb. I really wanted to see some biochem questions poop.
 
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