The Official June 21, 2012 MCAT thread

[Adele358]

I see alot of people make this thread for their MCAT date. I was unable to find one for this date so I took the liberty to make one. Please share what you have found works or does not work for you?

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[breeniee]

Lol, I went through it took me three days! Bio..I need to do genetics coz I still feel weak in it also need to do some more physics..

Haha yeah I took 3 days to go through it too! I think when you were posting stuff about the spectroscopy stuff, I was reading that chapter at the same time! I was gonna finish last night but I got bored and thought I'd do the last 5 pages today, lol.

I can't seem to organize the next 6 days.... I don't know where to begin!

I get Bonding questions wrong. Who gets bonding questions wrong? Like SERIOUSLY????
I'm so dumb....

Don't be scared! You're doing awesome! =)

 

[shootingstr]

Honestly, I'm still working on it. When I start VR, I try my best to get the other sections out of my head and reeeaaally try to focus on the passage even if it's not that interesting (though they have been kinda interesting lately, at least in my opinion). Tell yourself: "Self," (or say your name lol), "you better focus on this crap or else you're going to have to go through this grueling process all over again and you don't want that now, do you?" Or, you know, whatever less crazy-sounding thing you wanna tell yourself. If I do get distracted anyway and feel like I'm starting to miss the main idea, I quickly read a sentence or two back to make sure I haven't completely lost track of the author's or the paragraph's main point.

Not sure there's a magic process for VR, but keep practicing just like for the other sections and more likely than not, you'll see an improvement. <-- I love these high-fiving little dudes haha.

Haha yeah I'll deff keep practicing. Thank you so much for the pointers! And yes the dudes are awesome!

 

[dnovikov]

Haha yeah I took 3 days to go through it too! I think when you were posting stuff about the spectroscopy stuff, I was reading that chapter at the same time! I was gonna finish last night but I got bored and thought I'd do the last 5 pages today, lol.

I can't seem to organize the next 6 days.... I don't know where to begin!

I get Bonding questions wrong. Who gets bonding questions wrong? Like SERIOUSLY????
I'm so dumb....

Don't be scared! You're doing awesome! =)

I got a bonding question wrong today in AAMC 7 lol, felt soooo smart after reviewing it hahah :eyebrow

 

[rorogena88]

I hate solubility and stoichiometric stuff.. Annoyingggggg grrrr

what don't you understand about it?

 

[rorogena88]

Honestly, I'm still working on it. When I start VR, I try my best to get the other sections out of my head and reeeaaally try to focus on the passage even if it's not that interesting (though they have been kinda interesting lately, at least in my opinion). Tell yourself: "Self," (or say your name lol), "you better focus on this crap or else you're going to have to go through this grueling process all over again and you don't want that now, do you?" Or, you know, whatever less crazy-sounding thing you wanna tell yourself. If I do get distracted anyway and feel like I'm starting to miss the main idea, I quickly read a sentence or two back to make sure I haven't completely lost track of the author's or the paragraph's main point.

Not sure there's a magic process for VR, but keep practicing just like for the other sections and more likely than not, you'll see an improvement. <-- I love these high-fiving little dudes haha.

I like the part where you talk to yourself and I think I will try it especially that I easily become aware of the fact that I am not processing the information anymore when I do..so I guess when I feel myself dozing off, I will try to remind myself to focus again ............usually, I keep reading and hope the next paragraph gets me back on track

 

[TheShaker]

Wow, I just got royally owned by AAMC9 VR. That was the hardest VR section I've ever had.

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

@ Luvahgilahsa: Aww i'm sure you'll do fine and even if you go down a point to two, don't worry. It's just one test =)



I really need to raise my BS and PS by at least 2 points. I'm not sure if that's possible in just 7 days =(

Any pointers guys? I'm running out of steam....

Thank you! I think for PS, improving is easier than other sections. Just memorize the equations!! Memorize, memorize!!!

I think this test was scaled nicer cuz it was so hard. I didn't think I'll get 12 for missing a whole section (completely bs-ed, didn't understand the concept at all)

VERBAL IS STILL KILLING ME
I don't know what to do at this point anymore

I haven't missed this much on PS and BS in a while. Downward slope?????

AAMC 8 was so hard, I hope our MCAT wouldn't be this hard. Would it?

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

Wow, I just got royally owned by AAMC9 VR. That was the hardest VR section I've ever had.

seriously? It just gets harder and harder?

wow, I got owned by AAMC7, 8, and now 9 too???

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

Did you finish reviewing TPR Orgo yet? I finished going thru it today! YAY!
I don't know how to tackle reviewing Biology... =(

do you think reading biology concepts actually help?
I didn't review biology at all cuz i thought it would be more beneficial to review topics which I can memorize equations for instead of concepts. I left my TPR biology book at school

can you tell me if it's useful? If it is i'll go borrow one from someone...

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

so i was looking over my answers, I realized for AAMC 8, the questions are so vague!!!
I have no idea what they were asking...

can someone explain to me what they mean by consistent with the incorrect conclusion???
Are we supposed to say what they concluded was true? what was untrue but they concluded as true anyways? Which of the followings are true but are incorrect conclusion? I'm so confused....

what kind of answers are we looking for anyways? I spent about 5 minutes on this questions, and I still couldn't grasp what they wanted to ask so I just picked a random one.

How are we supposed to do these when we don't even know what they're asking? really frustrating.

 

[TheShaker]

seriously? It just gets harder and harder?

wow, I got owned by AAMC7, 8, and now 9 too???

Well, maybe it's just me, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. The questions on AAMC9 look a bit simpler but the passages were just so strangely written that it made it kind of difficult to even understand the passage at all. It's kind of hard to answer questions when you don't know what the heck the passage is even about...

 

[blueshockey]

so i was looking over my answers, I realized for AAMC 8, the questions are so vague!!!
I have no idea what they were asking...

can someone explain to me what they mean by consistent with the incorrect conclusion???
Are we supposed to say what they concluded was true? what was untrue but they concluded as true anyways? Which of the followings are true but are incorrect conclusion? I'm so confused....

what kind of answers are we looking for anyways? I spent about 5 minutes on this questions, and I still couldn't grasp what they wanted to ask so I just picked a random one.

How are we supposed to do these when we don't even know what they're asking? really frustrating.

It's asking which of the answers would be consistent due to the (hypothetical) conclusion that HCl is an ionic compound. Therefore, you are looking for which of the answers would represent that of an ionic compound. An ionic compound conducts electricity, therefore, C is the correct answer

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

It's asking which of the answers would be consistent due to the (hypothetical) conclusion that HCl is an ionic compound. Therefore, you are looking for which of the answers would represent that of an ionic compound. An ionic compound conducts electricity, therefore, C is the correct answer

I thought what they asked was that which of the following shows that the conclusion of HCl is an ionic compound is false. Therefore, we're looking at why Hcl is not an ionic compound... lol
I don't know how to interpret these questions... I'm screwed.

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

Well, maybe it's just me, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. The questions on AAMC9 look a bit simpler but the passages were just so strangely written that it made it kind of difficult to even understand the passage at all. It's kind of hard to answer questions when you don't know what the heck the passage is even about...

oh gawd... I can't read those weird passages....
On aamc 8 there was a passage about behavioralism... I got 5/5 questions wrong on it... I can't read weird passages... at all...I guess I'll save that test for later... I'm in self denial. I only have 9 and 11 left anyways. I think i'm gonna take them on tuesday and wednesday next week so I get into the testing mood.

 

[blueshockey]

I thought what they asked was that which of the following shows that the conclusion of HCl is an ionic compound is false. Therefore, we're looking at why Hcl is not an ionic compound... lol
I don't know how to interpret these questions... I'm screwed.

Well I'd be happy to help! So the question asks, "which of these is consistent with the incorrect conclusion that HCl is an ionic compound". So basically, ignore the "incorrect" portion of this sentence. The word incorrect is superfluous in this case, it doesn't provide any information, and it isn't meant to

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

Well I'd be happy to help! So the question asks, "which of these is consistent with the incorrect conclusion that HCl is an ionic compound". So basically, ignore the "incorrect" portion of this sentence. The word incorrect is superfluous in this case, it doesn't provide any information, and it isn't meant to

ohhhhhh! That makes much more sense. I think the put stuff there to make people like me confused!!

 

[makinglists]

I like the part where you talk to yourself and I think I will try it especially that I easily become aware of the fact that I am not processing the information anymore when I do..so I guess when I feel myself dozing off, I will try to remind myself to focus again ............usually, I keep reading and hope the next paragraph gets me back on track

Yeah, I think snapping back into it by telling yourself to focus more works. I've caught myself doing that a couple of times. If I don't feel completely lost then I just keep reading. I only go back a sentence or two if I didn't even notice that my mind wandered and I get halfway through the paragraph not knowing what I just read (the "glazing over" mistake we're supposed to avoid).

seriously? It just gets harder and harder?

wow, I got owned by AAMC7, 8, and now 9 too???

I think it just depends on each person and how you're feeling when you take it. I got a 9 on AAMC 8, too, but got 11 on both AAMC 9 and 10, and I knew I wasn't gonna do well on AAMC 8 because my focus was just not in it that day. Don't go into an AAMC test thinking how others felt about it because it will just mess with you. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses; what might not work for others might work for you and vice-versa. (Speaking of your strengths, I would love your PS and BS scores!) So just be confident in your abilities! (These guys might just be my favorite. I can't help but use them lol.)

Then I hope we can all feel like this when we get our scores back:

 

[breeniee]

do you think reading biology concepts actually help?
I didn't review biology at all cuz i thought it would be more beneficial to review topics which I can memorize equations for instead of concepts. I left my TPR biology book at school

can you tell me if it's useful? If it is i'll go borrow one from someone...

First of all, you did great on AAMC 8! Don't worry too much about the scores right now. Think about how to improve your weaknesses and that's all.

As for reviewing Biology... I kind of didn't study for it at all until last week where I quickly skimmed through TBR Book 1 and the TPR chapter on evolution and genetics. I'm not sure if it helped me because my score is the same pre-review and post-review. So I decided to start reading TBR Book 2 which coincidentally goes over the stuff I've been getting wrong. Someone told me that it's probably the most useful because it does deal with a lot of the most recently tested Biology material.

But I mean... the questions you are getting wrong... are they concepts or just details or wording? If it's tricky wording then maybe you should just stick with practice passages.

You are doing amazingly though! I'm so jealous!

 

[SamyLSF]

Woot! June 21st'ers. Less than a week away.. I made an awesome diagram that shows what is tested on the MCAT lol. I am too lazy to post link so just click my blog in my sig.

Good luck in all your studying!

ALSO, what are you guys going to do the day before?

I'm thinking about spending the day at the beach to R&R.

 

[TheShaker]

Yeah, don't worry about my verbal woes on AAMC9. It just targeted subjects that I wasn't really comfortable with.

AAMC9: 12PS/9VR/12BS

VR, why do you hate me so?

 

[Procyon]

^That's still a pretty good score, I'm sure you'll bring up your VR no prob.

I got zilch done tonight. Intense gym sesh after work =

 

[makinglists]

Woot! June 21st'ers. Less than a week away.. I made an awesome diagram that shows what is tested on the MCAT lol. I am too lazy to post link so just click my blog in my sig.

Good luck in all your studying!

ALSO, what are you guys going to do the day before?

I'm thinking about spending the day at the beach to R&R.

Haha I've seen a diagram like that before. Pretty funny.

I'm taking my little sister to the wild animal park (woo, living social deal!) since I haven't spent much time with her--or anyone for that matter, but drinks with friends the weekend after will take care of that. I'm hoping the time out in the sun and walking around will get me tired enough to fall asleep without much trouble. I'll probably also look at my notebook that I take notes in for post-gaming. Other than that, just relaaaxing and pumping myself up to be done (and hopefully kick MCAT butt)!

 

[acciouno]

Getting excited!!! I am gonna nail this test.

Here's my schedule:

June 14th &#8211; fluids, electric currents, electrostatics, momentum, optics/kinematics
June 15th &#8211; finish all of Biology
June 16th &#8211; finish all of Organic chemistry
June 17th &#8211; AAMC 10; electrochemistry; titrations; radioactivity
June 18th &#8211; formula sheet; gases; Thermochemistry; phase changes
June 19th &#8211; AAMC 11; review all of Physical Sciences
June 20th &#8211; formula sheet

Here's my sched:

June 15 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 16 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 17 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 18 - AAMC 10
June 19 - AAMC 11
June 20 - Study sheets!!!

Hopefully, I can stick with my plan.

 

[breeniee]

Here's my sched:

June 15 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 16 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 17 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 18 - AAMC 10
June 19 - AAMC 11
June 20 - Study sheets!!!

Hopefully, I can stick with my plan.

Are those TPR MCAT elites going to be FL's? Good luck if it is! Hope you don't burn out!

My schedule is completely disorganized, haha:

June 15: VS and BS of AAMC 8 + review test and weaknesses
June 16: AAMC 10
June 17: review test + reread notes
June 18: AAMC 11
June 19: review test + reread ALL notes
June 20: rest/formula sheets


I really hope I reach a 30 in the next few AAMC's. I think if I don't in AAMC 8 and/or 10, I will cry....

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

Here's my sched:

June 15 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 16 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 17 - TPR MCAT Elite
June 18 - AAMC 10
June 19 - AAMC 11
June 20 - Study sheets!!!

Hopefully, I can stick with my plan.

Hi I have the TPR MCAT Elite book too. But how do we access the online content? I'm very confused....

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

I think it just depends on each person and how you're feeling when you take it. I got a 9 on AAMC 8, too, but got 11 on both AAMC 9 and 10, and I knew I wasn't gonna do well on AAMC 8 because my focus was just not in it that day. Don't go into an AAMC test thinking how others felt about it because it will just mess with you. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses; what might not work for others might work for you and vice-versa. (Speaking of your strengths, I would love your PS and BS scores!) So just be confident in your abilities! (These guys might just be my favorite. I can't help but use them lol.)

Then I hope we can all feel like this when we get our scores back:

haha those are some cute emoticons you're using!
I hope I'll do better on my reading, I don't know why my reading has been decreasing ever since I started studying for other subjects. It has been consistently 10-11 before summer vacation started -___-
Sighhh
I guess I'll just have to have more practice.

 

[shootingstr]

I need some tips guys!
I'm in that 10-11 zone for BS and PS right now. I've been stuck there. I feel like I know all the concepts, but I keep making really stupid mistakes in terms of not reading the question right or just not applying what I know. Does anyone wanna share how they got over such a hump? It's killing me!!

Thanks guys

 

[acciouno]

Hi I have the TPR MCAT Elite book too. But how do we access the online content? I'm very confused....

Make a profile in princetonreview.com and I'll send you the code.

 

[acciouno]

I need some tips guys!
I'm in that 10-11 zone for BS and PS right now. I've been stuck there. I feel like I know all the concepts, but I keep making really stupid mistakes in terms of not reading the question right or just not applying what I know. Does anyone wanna share how they got over such a hump? It's killing me!!

Thanks guys

Me too! I guess we just have to be extra extra careful come the test day. Good luck to both of us!

 

[breeniee]

Just did PS from AAMC 9 weirddddd! I need to review Physics VR in a few! Hope I do better on that!lol
EDIT: HOLY HELL THAT VERBAL KILLED ME I KNOW IT! I GUESSED a lot on the last two passages.. Was running out of time
Now on to BS..
PS:13
VR: 6!! Holy ****, feeling really ****ty right now..
BS: 10 ughhh lost my confidence after the verbal..

Hey don't worry about the verbal on that one.... It was super rough....
You're killing the sciences though! Nice!

 

[Luvahgilahsa]

Make a profile in princetonreview.com and I'll send you the code.

I have a profile already but where do we go to enter the code?

 

[MDschoolorbust]

Woot! June 21st'ers. Less than a week away.. I made an awesome diagram that shows what is tested on the MCAT lol. I am too lazy to post link so just click my blog in my sig.

Good luck in all your studying!

ALSO, what are you guys going to do the day before?

I'm thinking about spending the day at the beach to R&R.

That diagram is actually 100% accurate.

 

[johnnydoesdat]

Anyone buying the official MCAT assessment package? I've used all AAMC resources except for AAMC 11, so I figure it could be a good source of practice passages leading up to the test.

 

[Alongs50]

Did anyone check out the other recent test day forums? Some of them were mentioning really abstract discretes. I was wondering if anyone else had looked at the "content outlines" released by AAMC, and if that'd be a good place to look for memorization material in the last few days.

I have like 2 or maybe 3 more tests I'm taking, and then just reviewing mistakes. How are you guys spending your last days??

Btw.. checked out my test site yesterday and couldn't find it for an hour, and the pro metric ppl were really rude when I asked them like 3 questions. I recommend deff checkin it out early so they don't mess up your attitude test day and make you nervous.

 

[Z16]

Whoever mentioned this previously was right. If you want some motivation, go look at people reporting their scores from May. Awesome!

 

[breeniee]

Finish verbal for AAMC 8. Kept a good pace and answered to the best of my ability but I'm beginning to really hate the way questions and answers are worded. I can get 9's just based on getting the main-idea but in order to get past 9's I guess I need to pay more attention to details? I just hate it when I answer a question and then the solution says that some random sentence in a huge convoluted paragraph said blah which means X is a better answer.

I should start the BS section but I'm too pissed off and demoralized....

 

[DB90]

Just finished AAMC 8. I really, really disliked this test. It felt like 3 sections of verbal. Out of all the AAMCs, I thought this one was the toughest and 11 the easiest.

 

[breeniee]

Just finished AAMC 8. I really, really disliked this test. It felt like 3 sections of verbal. Out of all the AAMCs, I thought this one was the toughest and 11 the easiest.

How was AAMC 11 easier for you? Just curious... I haven't taken it yet.

 

[TheShaker]

Just did PS from AAMC 9 weirddddd! I need to review Physics VR in a few! Hope I do better on that!lol
EDIT: HOLY HELL THAT VERBAL KILLED ME I KNOW IT! I GUESSED a lot on the last two passages.. Was running out of time
Now on to BS..
PS:13
VR: 6!! Holy ****, feeling really ****ty right now..
BS: 10 ughhh lost my confidence after the verbal..

Hah, that makes two of us. Don't sweat it, that verbal was just brutal. That's a nice PS score though, I thought that PS was harder than a lot of the other tests.

Me when I saw the first PS passage: :cry:

 

[DB90]

How was AAMC 11 easier for you? Just curious... I haven't taken it yet.

I felt like a lot of the questions in 11's PS were more basic and required less thinking. I spent a lot of time on AAMC 8 clueless and going back to the passage. In 11, I don't think I consulted the passages as much. Math related questions can be answered quickly if you memorized all your equations/formulas.

For BS, the questions were heavily based on the passage or data from experiments. Any background knowledge required was very basic. Take plenty of time to understand the passages/data and you'll fly through the questions. I was pretty much like this and after this section.

 

[rubisco88]

Anyone know what the best use of my time for improving biological sciences would be? I've been scoring 8/9 on practice tests and really want to hit the 10 mark. I don't know if it would be better just to do a mass content review of everything or just do more passages.

 

[disney04]

Hi. I was just wondering if the practice tests given by TPR are alot harder than the AAMCs? I keep getting a few points lower on tpr and mcat review series compared to aamc practice.

 

[breeniee]

I felt like a lot of the questions in 11's PS were more basic and required less thinking. I spent a lot of time on AAMC 8 clueless and going back to the passage. In 11, I don't think I consulted the passages as much. Math related questions can be answered quickly if you memorized all your equations/formulas.

For BS, the questions were heavily based on the passage or data from experiments. Any background knowledge required was very basic. Take plenty of time to understand the passages/data and you'll fly through the questions. I was pretty much like this and after this section.

That's interesting actually... I usually do better in PS sections where going back to the passages aren't required. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to more passage-based BS questions but we'll see?

 

[rockafella12]

Finish verbal for AAMC 8. Kept a good pace and answered to the best of my ability but I'm beginning to really hate the way questions and answers are worded. I can get 9's just based on getting the main-idea but in order to get past 9's I guess I need to pay more attention to details? I just hate it when I answer a question and then the solution says that some random sentence in a huge convoluted paragraph said blah which means X is a better answer.

I should start the BS section but I'm too pissed off and demoralized....

I am definitely like that now... Most of the questions I missed were because I didn't use the question and answer choices to their full utility. But I also realized that I have to be less afraid of going back to the passage to dig out an answer...

How do you think you're going to get past the 9-10ish range? Does anyone else have any ideas?

 

[breeniee]

I am definitely like that now... Most of the questions I missed were because I didn't use the question and answer choices to their full utility. But I also realized that I have to be less afraid of going back to the passage to dig out an answer...

How do you think you're going to get past the 9-10ish range? Does anyone else have any ideas?

Blah no idea? I wound up with a 10 on AAMC 8. I'm actually kind of happy so far because in the past 2 AAMC's I got a 8 and then 7 due to the sheer nervousness. So now that I finally went back up - I'm gonna now focus on trying to move past the 9-10 hump.

AAMC 8 score: 10 PS / 9 VS / 10 BS = 29

I really need to figure out how to get past this otherwise I can kiss my dreams of 30+ goodbye.

If you find out how to improve, let me know pleaseeee

 

[blueshockey]

Blah no idea? I wound up with a 10 on AAMC 8. I'm actually kind of happy so far because in the past 2 AAMC's I got a 8 and then 7 due to the sheer nervousness. So now that I finally went back up - I'm gonna now focus on trying to move past the 9-10 hump.

AAMC 8 score: 10 PS / 9 VS / 10 BS = 29

I really need to figure out how to get past this otherwise I can kiss my dreams of 30+ goodbye.

If you find out how to improve, let me know pleaseeee

Congrats on the improvement!!

 

[breeniee]

Congrats on the improvement!!

Thanks! I'm feeling a lot better about this test but certainly not too confident. I hope I can improve a teeeny bit more in the next 6 days!

I'm kind of wondering how I should study now... I'm seriously lost... Any suggestions?

 

[Z16]

Thanks! I'm feeling a lot better about this test but certainly not too confident. I hope I can improve a teeeny bit more in the next 6 days!

I'm kind of wondering how I should study now... I'm seriously lost... Any suggestions?

What do you think you are weakest at? Is it content or execution?

 

[breeniee]

What do you think you are weakest at? Is it content or execution?

Aside from some random facts that I foolishly didn't commit the memory (like meso/ecto/endoerm or which are the fat-soluble vitamins) I think my problem is definitely execution at this point.

I'm reviewing over AAMC 8 and at this point I see that most of my errors are questions where I'm down to two choices but I pick the wrong one. Usually I fail to see something in the passage/data that may have supported one over the other or the wording in one of them should've constituted immediately eliminating it.

 

[Z16]

Aside from some random facts that I foolishly didn't commit the memory (like meso/ecto/endoerm or which are the fat-soluble vitamins) I think my problem is definitely execution at this point.

I'm reviewing over AAMC 8 and at this point I see that most of my errors are questions where I'm down to two choices but I pick the wrong one. Usually I fail to see something in the passage/data that may have supported one over the other or the wording in one of them should've constituted immediately eliminating it.

Yeah, first thing I always do in a question (unless of course it is a straight calculation question) is eliminate obviously wrong answers. Unless the passage tone/argument is 'extreme', you can almost always eliminate 'extreme' answers. Often, when deciding between two answers, I will go with the one that directly answers the question and doesn't just give some vague roundabout stab at it.

Also, work on taking a guess/marking questions that are bogging you down. One of the easiest ways to score low is not finishing on time. Therefore, if you find yourself still looking at a question a minute after reading it and you aren't any closer to determining an answer, skip it and come back. Getting that one question right in 5 minutes is not worth missing two others because of time constraints (and, questions that take exorbitant amounts of time often don't turn out correct anyways)