*The Official January 2016 MCAT*

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

Medaholic Dr

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Hello guys,
I don't see any thread made for January 2016 MCAT test date, so I thought to create one. I'll be graduating by the end of this year and will be giving my MCAT on January 2016. I had my test date set for September of this year, but something came up and I won't be able to dedicate myself to studying for the MCAT fully. So, let us make this thread rich with all the discussions about the MCAT. Let us support each other and make taking MCAT a pleasurable experience, so I think. Let's go.......
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Did anyone else feel blindsided by this exam after taking Kaplan and AAMC full lengths?
 
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Two_Hands said:
That would suck if you spent time on the questions that don't count and skipped the questions that do.
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I feel like that isn't fair if you prepared for those and did well and they don't count... I'm sure AAMC has a way to buffer this
 
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Cheeni17 said:
Yeah the AAMC practice exams were a joke compared to this. These were more like section bank difficulty. I assumed the test would be almost identical to the scored exam. But todays mcat was at least an inch wider and didn't use lube
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Thank you for making my night. I needed a good laugh.
 
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ghiblijiang said:
Is the feb 3rd exam scored and curved along with Jan 22/23rd exams?
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Yes, we actually took the same exams as them. I'm not going to say specifics but I read somebodies comments on reddit from the Jan 22nd exam and they mentioned something about one of their CARS passages, and I had the same passage today.
 
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CHoge25 said:
Yes, we actually took the same exams as them. I'm not going to say specifics but I read somebodies comments on reddit from the Jan 22nd exam and they mentioned something about one of their CARS passages, and I had the same passage today.
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Well that sucks. theyre well prepared after seeing the reaction threads :(
 
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If I have to take the MCAT another time, I will be sad. but will be more ready than ever.
sighhh.. i just want my scores
 
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CHoge25 said:
Yes, we actually took the same exams as them. I'm not going to say specifics but I read somebodies comments on reddit from the Jan 22nd exam and they mentioned something about one of their CARS passages, and I had the same passage today.
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Yeah...I saw a question on the P/S section that resembled what someone said here. No comment, though.
 
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That's a bit unsettling if the Feb. 3rd people got the same passages as the Jan. 22/23 did... Wouldn't that be bad news for us Jan. people? :/
 
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Snoopy528 said:
That's a bit unsettling if the Feb. 3rd people got the same passages as the Jan. 22/23 did... Wouldn't that be bad news for us Jan. people? :/
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From what I read, it seems like a lot of the "reactions" from some people have similar responses as I felt during the Jan exam. I'm pretty sure a lot of passages overlapped to some extent. Now the real Q is whether the AAMC will account for this.. :xf::xf::xf:
 
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But anyhow, KUDOS to all you Feb 3rd takers!! I'm sure postponing the exam brought a lot of stress but it's all over now guys :)
 
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At this point, it's like Schrodinger's cat.
We took the test and can think we did good or bad, but won't know exactly until we see the score when released.
 
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ghiblijiang said:
I feel like they violated us Jan test takers :( I'm so sad.. WHY THEY SCORE FEB PPL AGAINST US
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Honestly, I feel like it's going to be hard for the AAMC to separate out Jan and Feb takers. Since most of the Feb takers are on the east coast which traditionally has a higher average overall on the MCAT anyways, it will be impossible for them to distinguish if the increased scores (if there is an increase) is due to the normal trend for the east coast or due to some external factors such as having an extra two weeks to study.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321500/data/factstablea19.pdf

For a lot of Feb takers (like myself) having the extra two weeks was actually a lot worse since I'm starting to have midterms in some of my classes and I had pushed deadlines until after Jan 23 that were due at the end of January so a lot of my "extra" week was spent working on applications. I'm sure I'm not the only one and I'm sure some other people really benefitted from the extra time. But it's just not a generalization we or the AAMC can make: they had extra time so they're better prepared. I have a feeling a lot of people have had to work around deadlines or cram their schedules to make this new date if they didn't want to go all the way to April.

With respect to having the same exams as January test takers, I think it is also possible we just had some recycled passages, which the AAMC tends to do quite often. Anyways, when I read through the responses to the Jan exams I actually made a list of topics NOT to focus on since I expected to get a completely different exam that would emphasize other topics... so that's the other side of the coin...
 
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CHoge25 said:
Yes, we actually took the same exams as them. I'm not going to say specifics but I read somebodies comments on reddit from the Jan 22nd exam and they mentioned something about one of their CARS passages, and I had the same passage today.
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Uhh. Am I the only one who has a huge problem with this as a Jan 22/23 test taker? Especially if the Feb exam is normalized along with ours?
 
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This new exam is entirely too long. Unless you are doped up on Adderall or John Nash, I can't imagine how most can maintain the same attention span in the last part of the exam as in the early going. I know I can't. Why not split it up? Two sections on a given day. Open up more slots. Not to mention, we aren't going to be sitting at a computer screen for 6 hrs as physicians. Chart, give results to a couple patients, suture a lac, put an ET tube on an unresponsive patient, return to chart more, and repeat.
 
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And I actually felt like the Feb 3rd date was a disadvantage for a lot of us. I had two tests and a paper in between while also having to start working again since I took the week off before. I ran out of practice materials so was just reviewing notes and I hate not actively studying, feel like I lost some ground. I did read people's reviews about the test who were surprised by the difficulty but I honestly was not surprised by anything given to me on test day. If this was a product of expecting it to be extremely difficult because of these reactions or not I am not quite sure.
 
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^agreed.
But let's just all pray together that the AAMC curve leniently for everyone taking the MCAT this round and not hate on each other based on artificially created divisions. All Jan/Feb takers thought the exam was hard, everyone suffered and shall wait in agony together til the 23rd. Let's not make this another version of Robber's Cave...
If I flunk P/S, at least I learned a lot of really cool stuff ;)
 
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On a side note I have one terribly hard class this semester and my midterm is on the 23rd... The exam is in the evening and I'm trying to decide if I should check scores before/after..... I'm thinking after just in case they aren't good so I don't mess up my mojo on my exam, but the wait is going to kill me
 
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Sthpawslugger said:
This new exam is entirely too long. Unless you are doped up on Adderall or John Nash, I can't imagine how most can maintain the same attention span in the last part of the exam as in the early going. I know I can't. Why not split it up? Two sections on a given day. Open up more slots. Not to mention, we aren't going to be sitting at a computer screen for 6 hrs as physicians. Chart, give results to a couple patients, suture a lac, put an ET tube on an unresponsive patient, return to chart more, and repeat.
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We will be taking exams that take a full day in med school though.
 
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Someone link me the reddit page where it talked about the passages. I need to know if the jan and feb exam dates had the same passages!!! Also does anyone know if this has happened before with aamc, like where they had to push the exam back. Also, what was the deal where not all the passages count towards your score?
 
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rsrs3739 said:
We will be taking exams that take a full day in med school though.
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Are they all computer based? Aside from boards of course.

And I doubt our exams will test us on our knowledge of 18th century British authors' works and their connection to the economics of South America
 
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Sthpawslugger said:
This new exam is entirely too long. Unless you are doped up on Adderall or John Nash, I can't imagine how most can maintain the same attention span in the last part of the exam as in the early going. I know I can't. Why not split it up? Two sections on a given day. Open up more slots. Not to mention, we aren't going to be sitting at a computer screen for 6 hrs as physicians. Chart, give results to a couple patients, suture a lac, put an ET tube on an unresponsive patient, return to chart more, and repeat.
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I agree the exam is way too long but its very doable. I took 17 practice exams (at 7am) and the week of my exam I went to bed at 9 and woke up at 6. on the Jan exam I saw alot of kids taking naps during their 10 mins breaks. What people have to understand is that you have to mentally and physically prepare for this test and NOT study the day before. the day before my exam I played basketball for 2 hours straight and watched a movie and knocked out by 8pm with melatonin.
 
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Seems like everyone agreed (23 date) that the c/p section was hard. But i honestly thought it was my easiest section... Lol. That's either a good thing or bad thing. But i suck at cars so that sucks haha. But yeah i was pissed no genetics cuz i love genetics. And psych/soc was a lot of *except* questions which was annoying.
 
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medschoolplease123 said:
Seems like everyone agreed (23 date) that the c/p section was hard. But i honestly thought it was my easiest section... Lol. That's either a good thing or bad thing. But i suck at cars so that sucks haha. But yeah i was pissed no genetics cuz i love genetics. And psych/soc was a lot of *except* questions which was annoying.
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There was multiple versions of the exam given on both dates! One of them probably had the hard C/P section
 
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I guess the real question apart from the Jan/Feb test discrepancy is the 2015 vs 2016 test takers. Based on the comments of previous test takers, since the exams seem to be so different, how will they scale the exams to be comparable between last year's test takers and this year?
 
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focusshots said:
I agree the exam is way too long but its very doable. I took 17 practice exams (at 7am) and the week of my exam I went to bed at 9 and woke up at 6. on the Jan exam I saw alot of kids taking naps during their 10 mins breaks. What people have to understand is that you have to mentally and physically prepare for this test and NOT study the day before. the day before my exam I played basketball for 2 hours straight and watched a movie and knocked out by 8pm with melatonin.
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Over how long did you take 17 practice tests, just curious?
 
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^yea I did about 20, not counting the question banks and section banks from October til Feb 3rd, as well as a few of the old exams. >.> burned out the last week before I was supposed to take the exam, which means I super burned out for three weeks before the Feb 3rd exam
 
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What are the max number of practice exams available from all companies ? If I have to retake I'm going to invest strictly in nothing but.
 
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CHoge25 said:
I did about 25 tests starting in November until Feb 3rd
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redraincoat13 said:
^yea I did about 20, not counting the question banks and section banks from October til Feb 3rd, as well as a few of the old exams. >.> burned out the last week before I was supposed to take the exam, which means I super burned out for three weeks before the Feb 3rd exam
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focusshots said:
beginning of October. Since I took it in august I decided to solely do practice test this time.
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you guys all took a ton of practice exams... based off your own experience, would you recommend spending a greater portion of time on practice tests during mcat prep (e.g. studying to take the mcat in 4 months, would you do 1 month of content review and 3 months of practice tests)? also, which tests did you guys take and how would you rank them from best to worst (i.e. which company did you find had the most representative practice tests)?
 
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zhonghang said:
you guys all took a ton of practice exams... based off your own experience, would you recommend spending a greater portion of time on practice tests during mcat prep (e.g. studying to take the mcat in 4 months, would you do 1 month of content review and 3 months of practice tests)? also, which tests did you guys take and how would you rank them from best to worst (i.e. which company did you find had the most representative practice tests)?
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Me personally I'd take 5 months if possible, (1 month content review/practice questions and 4 months worth of practice exams, practice questions and minimal content review) then again I work so you may require less time than I did unless you're working or taking classes. for me AAMC>EK>NSP>Kaplan. I did TPR but they only had 9 passages for each section and wasn't representative at all.
 
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Robinson22 said:
The exam was very tough way way tougher than I expected . You have to be exposed to gazillion scientific research articles to understand what the hell they're asking you . 30% content based the rest is deductive reasoning . I mean you can be naturally smart and all but certainly not that smart . I had A+ both in biochem 1 and biochem 2 and yet some of the passages were out of my element . Again exam is really not based on the stuff you learn in college it's more if really applying what you already know . Someone who has been exposed to scientific articles can do terrific on his test i certainly studied only the review and I feel like I should've studied differently
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I have to agree with this. I have done really really well in my science classes and I thought this exam was more of an apply basic knowledge on a new system. I have read lots of research papers, but I wish I would have read more and been more prepared come into a test that practically was analysis
 
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I cannot wait until the 23rd comes. Even if my score stinks, I just want to know so that I can plan out my next steps
 
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focusshots said:
Me personally I'd take 5 months if possible, (1 month content review/practice questions and 4 months worth of practice exams, practice questions and minimal content review) then again I work so you may require less time than I did unless you're working or taking classes. for me AAMC>EK>NSP>Kaplan. I did TPR but they only had 9 passages for each section and wasn't representative at all.
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100% agree with everything said above ^^ ...... I also took an Altius Test and I would put it in there equal to NS
 
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Two weeks left until scores guys, and I'm starting to feel like I bombed the test. Feeling like I got a 500 again.
 
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