The Official January 13, 2015 MCAT Thread

[kinipela]

Who will be joining me on this day?

112 days left!

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[CardioEnthusio15]

Alright guys. Good luck tomorrow! Remember to approach the test with confidence. Stay calm and don't let the pressure get to you. I'll be back tomorrow with my review of the test.

 

[Zaba]

Done! And literally want to cry...that PS section was unreal!! Worse than Aamc11....
A lot of integrative physical science questions kind of throw me off from the way the aamc tests were. Anyways those are my 2 cents on that.
Verbal was okay...felt a lot longer than practice...probably didn't do good on it from the shock of PS...I felt defeated....
Bio was a little more experimental than most Aamc exams....1 passage in particular made my head spin. Ouch!
1 hard orgo 1 medium orgo and a couple of discreets....more than I cared for.
I guess a 30 or even a 27 seem out of reach.

 

[pb34]

Haven't participated in this thread till now but I took it this morning as well.

Physics took me forever for some reason...never ran out of time during any of my practices and somehow managed to not be able to answer the last three today. Other than that the content seemed reasonable.

I agree verbal felt a bit longer than practice.

Bio did seem a bit more experimental. One of those passages made my head spin as well..probably the same one.

Anyway, good luck to all who took it today as well and hopefully we all do as well as we hope!

 

[formerphoenix]

Feels good to be done! Felt like Bio was rough. Ps was tough too but felt like bio was he hardest. I sat on that score page for a min lol. SCORED was the first bubble right?..Lol

 

[formerphoenix]

Now I'm actually being neurotic. Someone please tell me I'm right that scored was the first bubble lol

 

[BobaBoba]

Now I'm actually being neurotic. Someone please tell me I'm right that scored was the first bubble lol

Yes. First bubble.

 

[formerphoenix]

Yes. First bubble.

Lol thank you!! Now I can stop being neurotic.. For now

 

[agoron]

PS really was not that great for me, the other 2 were fine so I'm hoping for a generous curve on PS and that I did some educated guessing!

 

[rolliespring]

Think I got a little too nervous at the beginning of PS however I still finished both PS and BS with about ~20min to check for each section. VR was ok and I think I even retained more information from the passages due to my hyped up nerves.
I do agree PS was a lot different than what I was expecting. Usually I was able to check almost all of my questions except this time I only checked my marked ones and some were really 50/50 guesses. I can tell some questions were definitely experimental. BS was harder than AAMC IMO but nothing too unexpected except for 2 questions.

 

[Zaba]

Haven't participated in this thread till now but I took it this morning as well.

Physics took me forever for some reason...never ran out of time during any of my practices and somehow managed to not be able to answer the last three today. Other than that the content seemed reasonable.

I agree verbal felt a bit longer than practice.

Bio did seem a bit more experimental. One of those passages made my head spin as well..probably the same one.

Anyway, good luck to all who took it today as well and hopefully we all do as well as we hope!

You didn't finish 3 passages on PS?

 

[pb34]

No, I didn't answer 3 discrete questions.

 

[beachlobsterswimsurf]

BS was hard

 

[raepal1]

The General exam overview was intermediate.
PS>>> 5 Passages were fine and two were hard
VB>>> The first 6 were fine but the last one I couldn't understand a thing (maybe because I lost energy toward the end)
BS>>> 5 Passages were fine and two were hard

Overall, I was at a disadvantage since I haven't taken physics, orgo and biology II yet.

 

[Buzzin]

I took this morning too, 100 miles from home on 1.5 hrs sleep and I end up VOIDING, geez. The PS took me for a loop and I couldn't recover. It's always my best subject but on no sleep, I was lost. There weren't many "gimmes" in that section either, I was debating a LOT of answers, very uncomfortable. I was familiar with the topics of the passages too but I still couldn't get a grip on some of those questions. Oh well, it was my first take anyway so I'll have to retry. This was GREAT practice bc NO AAMC came CLOSE to preparing me for that thing. I'm going to start by taking Biochem and Physiology this semester.

 

[Mavs88]

^raepal1 , I would advise editing post to take out specific info about the tests...would not want you to get into trouble.

PS - That was ****ing hard. Harder than any AAMC I can recall. I was also screwed on time unlike any of my FLs. I hope the scale is helpful...if not, I think I got a 8. I marked like 20 questions, had to outright guess on a few. I made mostly anywhere from 8-10 on PS in my AAMC FL, so expecting the lower end there.

VR - Actually felt good. Great after that PS. Thought passages were interesting and had 7 minutes to spare to go back. Expecting my average of a 10.

BS - Surprised at how difficult the Ochem stuff was. Everything else seemed doable, but there were some that threw me off. Also think a 10 here.

Overall my guess is 8/10/10....pessimisticly would say 8/10/9...super debbie downer would say 8/10/8. I'm 100% happy going DO, so if I actually get that low, I'll be content cause my retakes-GPA is good.

at least it's over, right? Tentatively, our scores come out February 18th. SO damn long.

 

[Zaba]

The physical sciences section was just.... I can't

I don't know if I didn't practice enough or what I did wrong exactly? I did the whole Berkeley review for physics and gen Chen and was getting 12's and 13's in the AAMC FL but this test stumped me. I don't know if il even get a 7

I guessed randomly at 10 questions minimum and had marked at least 60% of them. It really through me off. There was just more pain in every question.

Verbal was a little longer than usual maybe because of the science-y passages. I had practiced a lot of the social science passages. When I was looking at momentum and time period of the moon and wingspans of planes I was like, wait what?

And only the one in the BS on the three genes kinda drove me a little crazy.

Sigh. I was contemplating voiding it but I waited too long :/

I felt the same I guessed on 2 physics passages which I never had to do. Sigh.
Ha- those verbals passages u mentioned I left until the end bc it was taking too long..had to guess on one.
I feel defeated.

 

[azor ahai]

was this exam easier than expected?

 

[Rolling_with_the_punches]

hmm. Judging by what people are saying, sounds like you got something similar to the Aug 15 test...
Thats terrible because that's the test I took and Im about to retake, it would have been awful to take the same test lol.
Good luck guys!

 

[pb34]

was this exam easier than expected?

No

 

[turquoisegem]

PS was brutal for me. I didn't pay attention to my timing because I was so deep into figuring out a prior one that I completely missed a passage. Didn't even have time to guess on them ugh. That's 6 questions I couldn't answer.. But PS has historically been my weakest section, the physics specifically.

VR wasn't so bad. The passages def seemed longer, but the topics were interesting. I felt kinda sluggish towards the end.

BS... Idk I have mixed feelings for this one. I got to everything but with a lot less time than usual. I generally have 10 mins to spare but this time around I had about 30 seconds ...I hate Orgo.

Hoping for the best. Was so tempted to void but want to know my score too much. Hoping my PS didn't do too much damage

 

[azor ahai]

No

everyone feels bad after taking it.

 

[rolliespring]

I took this morning too, 100 miles from home on 1.5 hrs sleep and I end up VOIDING, geez. The PS took me for a loop and I couldn't recover. It's always my best subject but on no sleep, I was lost. There weren't many "gimmes" in that section either, I was debating a LOT of answers, very uncomfortable. I was familiar with the topics of the passages too but I still couldn't get a grip on some of those questions. Oh well, it was my first take anyway so I'll have to retry. This was GREAT practice bc NO AAMC came CLOSE to preparing me for that thing. I'm going to start by taking Biochem and Physiology this semester.

Were you at a test center that was not ideal?

 

[pb34]

everyone feels bad after taking it.

True..I don't think many people walk out saying it was easier than expected.

 

[Buzzin]

Were you at a test center that was not ideal?

Of course, it was 100 miles from home and I needed to take 3 trains to get there so I had to leave at like 4am. But even had I slept all night I would have struggled, I was rushing a little bc I just finished Physics 2 in December and haven't yet taken biochem or physiology, just bio 1 and 2. But honestly, on such little sleep, there was no way I was able to retain, extrapolate and make tediously logical choices on convoluted passages. I came into the test half expecting to void unless my PS was near flawless and that obviously wasn't the case. But what I DO HAVE is a GREAT BASE for the 2015 MCAT, still have a year on my bachelor's so I'm not too concerned. Really going to have to step my game up though over the next 6 months.

 

[Mavs88]

Does anyone know for sure if they make the scale before or after the exam is given?

I hope it's like the GS-1 scale which had like a 24/52 for PS and BS as a 9 lol

 

[girlonfire101]

They make it before

 

[Mavs88]

They make it before

Well then....



what's the point of making us wait 4-5 weeks?

 

[raepal1]

The weird thing about this exam is the fact that I had a dream last night that I was taking the Physical science portion and saw most of passages on the PS in the order they showed up on the actual exam. I was in the shock when the real exam matched the dream...

THIS IS NOT A TROLL....I AM TALKING SERIOUSLY

 

[Best Sejuani NA]

The weird thing about this exam is the fact that I had a dream last night that I was taking the Physical science portion and saw most of passages on the PS in the order they showed up on the actual exam. I was in the shock when the real exam matched the dream...

THIS IS NOT A TROLL....I AM TALKING SERIOUSLY

Hey....you wanna come spend the night at my place tonight?

 

[Silence in ER]

My thoughts. FInished the chem stuff in ps section. ok. not bad.
did the ps section. holy sitthe physics portion was compltely unreal in terms of difficulty, ended up guess on maybe 6 or 5 questions, praying for experimentals.

verbal- eh, not bad.


bio- passages were easy, except orgo chem which was pretty damn awful. missed some really easy discretes and I hated that. :/

Hopefully questions I missed were experimentals.

Also hope I did not accidentally void my score. the end was all a blur to me.

My post exam prediction: 8/11/10.

But I sincerely hope it's better than that.

 

[Mavs88]

The weird thing about this exam is the fact that I had a dream last night that I was taking the Physical science portion and saw most of passages on the PS in the order they showed up on the actual exam. I was in the shock when the real exam matched the dream...

THIS IS NOT A TROLL....I AM TALKING SERIOUSLY

Now that the exam is over, I guess you've started smoking some crazy **** again.

 

[azor ahai]

True..I don't think many people walk out saying it was easier than expected.

it's strange, i felt like i had seen a lot of the passages before. i might as well give my two cents.

PS - this is characteristically my weakest section, so i spent the last few days doing purely PS - particularly TBR and Kaplan which I found much more difficult than any of the AAMC's. i also realized that i stubbornly spend too much time doing a calculations and end up not finishing in time. once i was able to let that go, i began to see dramatic rises in my PS score. in fact, i don't remember much calculation at all on today's exam, which makes it mostly a matter of algebraic manipulation and checking for units. in fact, i didn't even use much of my scrap sheet. i finished about 5m early, and used that time to review my marked questions. i wish i remember more about problems I was unsure of, but i don't.

VR - i generally score really well in this section without needing prep, usually finishing reading passages in ~2m and finishing ~6m early. i was more cautious this time and spent more time on the questions. again, drawing a complete blank as to what the passages were and any question i was unsure of.

BS - i definitely remember some passages here, and was unsure on a decent amount of questions. i checked two answers right after on my phone and got them right. the experiment-based passages were the most difficult as expected, but i wouldn't say they were any more difficult than what I've seen. I generally spend the most time on these types of passages because it takes me a while to understand the graphs (bio graphs are terrible). certainly more guesses in this section with at least 2-3 complete guesses (where i wasn't able to eliminate any choices).

oh and they started construction drilling when i was right in the middle of a difficult BS section. not even constant drilling, but intermediate. that was annoying.

Overall - i did a lot of old practice tests (the ones with 77q's), and did several a day so the actual exam seemed relatively easy. i didn't think any passage stood out as being exceptionally difficult or convoluted, so i don't think there will be a curve in our favor. based on my distaste for averages, and the fact that i don't remember much of what was on it, i finished with a pretty good feeling.

also we should be careful discussing the passage details.

 

[neuroresearchguy23]

Oh boy this exam. I don't know what to say other than wow.

I agree with all of you. For ps I had to guess on 1.5 passages because of lack of time. It was a bad. But other than that.... Yea no it still sucked.

Verbal... I never know how I do. But I always end up getting around an 8-10 so hopefully it was in that upper level

Bio... Was definitely challenging. I felt that some questions were so easy and I got some confidence and then the exam was like HAHAHAA sike... Here's the hardest thing ever.

Overall... I would love if the curve gave me a 30+. Hopefully we all do very well. Oh well I signed up for an mcat prep course through my school incase this doesn't work out and I have to take the new one.

 

[turquoisegem]

Bio... Was definitely challenging. I felt that some questions were so easy and I got some confidence and then the exam was like HAHAHAA sike... Here's the hardest thing ever.

I FELT THE EXACT SAME WAY!!!

The entire section was "hey I got this" to a "wtf is this" back to a "hey I got this"

Thanks aamc.

 

[Jlopez]

PS- WTF there was one passage that I failed to see how it was relevant to physics or chemistry just some common sense and formula manipulation? Anyway, I thought this section was pretty hard. Some solo questions were okay but some of the passages and questions with it were so time consuming! I had no time to go back and check my answers. I guessed on 4 questions for sure.

Verbal- not bad. definitely longer, but I expected that (took first exam September 10th) passages were easier to read so that helped with answering the questions.

BS- okay so I agree with @turquoisegem! Definitely fluctuated between feelings of confidence and utter confusion and panic! ORGO on this test WAS BRUTAL!!!


Overall, this exam left little time to go over answers. Most of the questions were time consuming so I definitely felt rushed through it all. *sigh*

 

[Jlopez]

PS

During verbal I would have had extra time to spare had the person next to me not been smacking his mouse against the desk every 15 seconds!! I had to raise my hand and have someone walk over and give them a mouse pad!!! Ugh! So distract and time consuming!

 

[cdyryky]

To the guy comparing this to the Aug 15 exam, I took both and this was definitely more manageable.

PS - was harder than and more theoretical than the AAMC ones but much less theoretical than Aug 15. Overall, I guessed on less.
Very chemistry heavy. If I remember correctly, there was not a whole lot of chemistry on the Aug 15. And most of the others seemed much more related to physics than a couple of the passages on the Aug. 15th exam that were really out there (not related to anything).
AAMC average: 12.8
Aug 15th: 11
Best guess for today: 12

Verbal - felt similar. I never really know how I did on verbal until I score it. Kinda bounce around between 10's and 13's really randomly just depending on how well I guess.
AAMC average: 11.5
Aug 15th: 11
Best guess for today: 12

BS - was definitely easier for me but I feel like it's a bit subjective on this section because BS tests your knowledge more than critical thinking compared to the other sections. It was very, experimental but I didn't have a hard time understanding any of the passages. I felt like I did the best on this one, which is strange because it's normally my weakest, though it did seem to play to my strengths. For example, a few passages seemed quite biochem heavy.
Edit: I find it funny that people thought the organic was bad this time around. It's probably my weakest subject and I was only somewhat unsure of 2 or 3, one of which I just checked and I guessed correctly on.
AAMC average: 12.2
Aug 15th: 11
Best guess for today: 13

Composite -
AAMC Average: 36.8
Aug 15th: 33
Best guess for today: 37


Overall, I feel much better after this test than the Aug 15th one.

 

[azor ahai]

wait, when people say "experimental" do they mean experiment-based passages or that there are certain questions that aren't actually graded?

 

[Zaba]

was this exam easier than expected?

Not in the least!
The PS was nothing like practice the tests.

 

[Silence in ER]

Yeah, there are questions that are not actually graded:
In the official guide to the mcat for this year:
Each of the three scored multiple-choice sections includes some experimental items. Experimental
items, as well as questions contained in the Trial Section, do not count toward your score.

 

[Zaba]

wait, when people say "experimental" do they mean experiment-based passages or that there are certain questions that aren't actually graded?

Experiment based passages and one I particular was very difficult to grasp. Took me so long to figure it out...

 

[azor ahai]

Yeah, there are questions that are not actually graded:
In the official guide to the mcat for this year:
Each of the three scored multiple-choice sections includes some experimental items. Experimental
items, as well as questions contained in the Trial Section, do not count toward your score.

whoa!

i hope these end up being the ones i got wrong.

did not know this. thanks!

 

[ohkos1]

wait, when people say "experimental" do they mean experiment-based passages or that there are certain questions that aren't actually graded?

No, nobody knows which ones are experimental. People are probably talking about biology experimental passages, where they run 2-3 experiment descriptions with results/graphs, etc.

 

[Silence in ER]

I wish I knew how many experimental questions per section though.

 

[cdyryky]

We'll never know!

 

[rainieday]

PS: brutal. mainly because it was so conceptual which was not what i was expecting. i barely wrote on the scrap book.

Verbal: really not bad but i can never tell.

BS: I thought i was going to ACE this section... then some really obscure discretes happened... that one WTF orgo passage at the end happened.

AAMC avg: 36.
Too scared to predict anything.

 

[cdyryky]

I'm so confused about this orgo passage people are talking about. I only had a couple and thought they were fine. And I hardly know organic. Maybe this just means I didn't even know I was missing things ha.

 

[Zaba]

Are there experimental passages for both PS and BS?

 

[beachlobsterswimsurf]

I FELT THE EXACT SAME WAY!!!

The entire section was "hey I got this" to a "wtf is this" back to a "hey I got this"

Thanks aamc.

Hahaha funny

 

[Silence in ER]

I don't remember any biochem q's...