The Official June 2015 MCAT Thread

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Abraxas305

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So we can talk about all things MCAT 2015.
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Try not to repeat. I put a common experience in both, but in my PS I gave one anecdote from that experience, whereas in my 'most valuable' section I put how the experience overall pushed me to want to be a doctor, and how it was meaningful to me.

If you can spin it differently, try to do that!
+1
 
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I officially had my first nightmare about the percentile ranks. They gave me ranges like 2-99% for 3 of the sections and I was torn between applying this cycle and waiting til next year.

Why.
 
I had a weird nightmare that I got a F in a physics class that I took over a year ago in which I know I actually got an A in it. Really odd.
 
Just realized we've all been sharing our test taking experiences and I might not be using the information appropriately...

Are scaled scores in comparison to your test taking day? or the version of the test you took?
 
Just realized we've all been sharing our test taking experiences and I might not be using the information appropriately...

Are scaled scores in comparison to your test taking day? or the version of the test you took?

I would assume version of the test you took
 
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The more time that passes, the more I feel like I could've bombed it just as easily as I could've aced it. I'm gonna be so f-ing nervous to check my prelims.
 
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The more time that passes, the more I feel like I could've bombed it just as easily as I could've aced it. I'm gonna be so f-ing nervous to check my prelims.

+1 - I felt pretty good coming out of it, but the more I think about it, the more mistakes I feel like I could have made. I just want the waiting to be over with!
 
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I think I would rather be studying for the mcat than filling out work/activities on the application. For some reason I just have no idea what to write for experience descriptions/ what ad coms want to see
 
If I had a 3.7 at a community college before transferring to a four year school where I had a 3.09. Total gpa 3.2. science gpa 3.36. I worked 30-40 hours while at my four year school. I have decent extracurriculars. I am not URM. Do I have a chance at any schools MD or DO? I am still awaiting mcat test scores from June 20th...
 
seems a waste of time. you are better off knowing the groupings and how an aminoacid affects a protein

I see people saying that pKas are something you should know for the MCAT but i have yet to see any questions, from the practice or the test itself, that require you to know the pKas. You should certainly know which AAs are acidic and basic, but beyond that, i think trying to memorize pKas is not the best use of your time.
 
I see people saying that pKas are something you should know for the MCAT but i have yet to see any questions, from the practice or the test itself, that require you to know the pKas. You should certainly know which AAs are acidic and basic, but beyond that, i think trying to memorize pKas is not the best use of your time.
same here its pretty useless. just to know how they all affect.

since they toned down the math, then i dont know why PKas would help especially in biological section. more likely is knowing physiological neutral ph is 7.4.. anything basic is higher than that. anything acidic is lower.
 
The pKa's are extremely important. I don't see how you can skip out on such an essential part of the fundamentals of biochemistry. If you don't fully understand how amino acids function and how each one varies with pH and how their functional groups vary I don't see how you can understand how proteins and other biological life systems function.

It's just adding a number to the top of your notecard. Should take <10 minutes to memorize. Not that big of a deal.

Edit: this also applies for knowing small quirks about amino acids i.e. how disulfide bridges are formed, which ones can stabilize other ones, etc.
 
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The pKa's are extremely important. I don't see how you can skip out on such an essential part of the fundamentals of biochemistry. If you don't fully understand how amino acids function and how each one varies with pH and how their functional groups vary I don't see how you can understand how proteins and other biological life systems function.

It's just adding a number to the top of your notecard. Should take <10 minutes to memorize. Not that big of a deal.

Edit: this also applies for knowing small quirks about amino acids i.e. how disulfide bridges are formed, which ones can stabilize other ones, etc.

Would you say the information in Kaplan's biochem. book regarding this is sufficient?
 
Trying not to cross any lines here, if you know what I mean... but I highly agree with Caffein3 about knowing those pKa's regardless of whether they are around physiological pH
 
Doing wayyyyyyyy to much hypothetical math right now

Yep this is my life. It's like okay I know I missed two questions there...plus/minus three more then subtract the curve?? omg I failed <--- conclusion I come to every time
 
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So I know they said preliminary scores would come back by July 6, but realistically speaking, do you think there is any chance of getting them before- say on the 2nd/3rd-ish?

Logic tells me probably not, but I'm just so damned anxious.
 
So I know they said preliminary scores would come back by July 6, but realistically speaking, do you think there is any chance of getting them before- say on the 2nd/3rd-ish?

Logic tells me probably not, but I'm just so damned anxious.

Somebody on twitter asked this and they said July 6 is the target date, and if anything were to change with that they'd let us know. So it sounds like it's probably going to be the 6th.
 
fuuddddggggeeeee I think what's the worst is realizing you could have done better, like you knew the material for the mistakes made
 
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I agree, I keep having flashbacks to things I didn't know/did wrong/may have did wrong. I NEVER remember things I may have done right..... this test, lol
 
Honestly, the less questions I can remember from a test, the better I usually do. I assume this is because when the questions are easy enough, I don't have to think hard enough about them and thus they don't get burned into my explicit memory. Luckily I only remember about a dozen questions.....
 
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Honestly, the less questions I can remember from a test, the better I usually do. I assume this is because when the questions are easy enough, I don't have to think hard enough about them and thus they don't get burned into my explicit memory. Luckily I only remember about a dozen questions.....
You rocked psyc/soc bro
 
I'm definitely not worried about it! I mean there's nothing we can do now right?

Besides, it's just a test. I've taken plenty of those in my life. If it doesn't work out, guess what? Not a big deal, just more motivation to kill it more next time :)
 
I'm definitely not worried about it! I mean there's nothing we can do now right?

Besides, it's just a test. I've taken plenty of those in my life. If it doesn't work out, guess what? Not a big deal, just more motivation to kill it more next time :)

Exactly :)

Just wondering how many times has everyone here taken the mcat?

For me, this was my second time. I'm hoping I never have to take it again, but like Caffein3 said, it's not the end of the world at all.

How's everyone else doing? I've been trying to keep busy with other things and started prewriting secondaries. Just trying to not worry too much. What's done is done.
 
Exactly :)



For me, this was my second time. I'm hoping I never have to take it again, but like Caffein3 said, it's not the end of the world at all.

How's everyone else doing? I've been trying to keep busy with other things and started prewriting secondaries. Just trying to not worry too much. What's done is done.
I'm in the same boat as you, do you think taking the test a third time will look bad?
 
I'm not quite sure. I've heard different views. My MCAT teacher took it 5 times and got into the school of his choice. Basically everyone else said once is best, if you take it twice, it's perfectly fine. Anymore is iffy.

I should add that when my MCAT teacher took it 5 times, 2 of those times was because his score expired. But either way, he had 5 scores to his name.
 
I'm sorry, what? you took the exam three times in a month? how is that even possible
I took the exam in May but ran into technical problem. I was given a chance to retake so I voided the May exam, only to find that the retake was a nightmare. So I took it the third time.
 
I took the exam in May but ran into technical problem. I was given a chance to retake so I voided the May exam, only to find that the retake was a nightmare. So I took it the third time.
Holy ****. I'm sorry man that sucks, hopefully it worked out this time. This was my first and hopefully last
 
did any of you guys use TBR passages for review for the June MCAT? Were they on par with the difficulty of the test? Also, are there any practice tests, besides the AAMC one, that you guys would recommend as most like the real deal?
 
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