*The Official May 6th, 2016 MCAT Thread*

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DannySCR

DannySCR

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Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to see who's with me in fighting this beast on May 6th. This could be a great place to help each other out, be it through study tips, mnemonics, or simply relieving stress. Nice to meet you all!
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Just to make sure, the May 20th exam isn't too late for this cycle right? Are you guys planning on applying without knowing your MCAT scores and then just getting your results automatically updated onto your app, which should actually be verified after the scores are even released? Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks!
 
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Sloppy Toppy said:
Just to make sure, the May 20th exam isn't too late for this cycle right? Are you guys planning on applying without knowing your MCAT scores and then just getting your results automatically updated onto your app, which should actually be verified after the scores are even released? Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks!
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If you aren't sure how you'll do, pick just one school to designate on your application so it gets in for processing. Then add on the rest of the schools once you know your score.
 
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BeMD13 said:
If you aren't sure how you'll do, pick just one school to designate on your application so it gets in for processing. Then add on the rest of the schools once you know your score.
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Thanks. And I have no idea why I wrote this in this thread. I meant to type it in the May 20th thread. Sorry about that, but definitely appreciate the help.
 
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how do y'all deal with weekend laziness? i'm done with school and not working at the moment. During the week i push myself because it feels like going to school but on saturday i just cantttttttt. I end up just starring at my book cover the whole weekend.
 
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souvenir94 said:
how do y'all deal with weekend laziness? i'm done with school and not working at the moment. During the week i push myself because it feels like going to school but on saturday i just cantttttttt. I end up just starring at my book cover the whole weekend.
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Think of failing. 3 months of sacrifice beats 1 second of failure.
 
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Does anyone know if simple pendulum and Hooke's law(spring constant and all) are on the new MCAT?


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Just took my second full length. I actually repeated the first TPR exam since I ended up guessing A LOT of the passages on my first run due to not having any test endurance. I felt much more mentally prepared this time and actually sat through the whole 7.5 hours composed. Ended up scoring 5 points higher. (this is without checking any of the answers the 1st run). I have 2 months now to improve this score by atleast 15+. This is going to be a grind.
 
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SikhWitIT said:
Just took my second full length. I actually repeated the first TPR exam since I ended up guessing A LOT of the passages on my first run due to not having any test endurance. I felt much more mentally prepared this time and actually sat through the whole 7.5 hours composed. Ended up scoring 5 points higher. (this is without checking any of the answers the 1st run). I have 2 months now to improve this score by atleast 15+. This is going to be a grind.
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Are you using TPR for content ?
 
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SikhWitIT said:
Just took my second full length. I actually repeated the first TPR exam since I ended up guessing A LOT of the passages on my first run due to not having any test endurance. I felt much more mentally prepared this time and actually sat through the whole 7.5 hours composed. Ended up scoring 5 points higher. (this is without checking any of the answers the 1st run). I have 2 months now to improve this score by atleast 15+. This is going to be a grind.
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You can do it! :clap::biglove: I felt the exact same way after my first FL... I'm pretty sure my brain hurt after the first two sections LOL. I'm still trying to increase my endurance so I have the ability to go back and check some of my answers after I complete each section. After my most recent FL about a month ago, I have 7+ points I want to improve my score by before May 6!
 
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Dr.Burns said:
Are you using TPR for content ?
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I just started a TPR course but I finished my content review before hand using EK for biology, and Kaplan for the remaining subjects except psych. For that I used Khan academy solely. I am now just going to keep up with the TPR readings to do the necessary hw to have content fresh in my head. Overall my strategy now is to do inhumane amounts of practice.
enchantediris said:
You can do it! :clap::biglove: I felt the exact same way after my first FL... I'm pretty sure my brain hurt after the first two sections LOL. I'm still trying to increase my endurance so I have the ability to go back and check some of my answers after I complete each section. After my most recent FL about a month ago, I have 7+ points I want to improve my score by before May 6!
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Sounds good bro. Lets do this!
 
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SikhWitIT said:
I just started a TPR course but I finished my content review before hand using EK for biology, and Kaplan for the remaining subjects except psych. For that I used Khan academy solely. I am now just going to keep up with the TPR readings to do the necessary hw to have content fresh in my head. Overall my strategy now is to do inhumane amounts of practice.

Sounds good bro. Lets do this!
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How long did it take you to finish content? How many hours a day?
 
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Arsenalfcfan1 said:
I heard only EK 3 and 4 are the best have you heard anything about this?


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It varies whom you ask. TPR and EK seem the hardest. I would focus on the section banks. What are you using for content and how are you preparing ?
 
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From what Ive seen, TPR1 was really brutal for CARS. I Found biochem to be pretty doable or maybe its my strong suit. Im taking my second test this friday, so I will keep yall updated on the difficulty. I plan on mixing in other exams as well, I have 3 kaplans left and deciding on altius or NS.
 
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Dr.Burns said:
It varies whom you ask. TPR and EK seem the hardest. I would focus on the section banks. What are you using for content and how are you preparing ?
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Kaplan for bio and bioc, TPR for psych and TBR for Chem and physics. I also intend to do the section pack once I'm done with content review this week


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Hey Everyone! please tell me if this is a great idea: I am planning on finishing content review by 03/15 then do FLs every 3 days. Would that be enough practice until May 6th?
 
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RockMcat520 said:
Hey Everyone! please tell me if this is a great idea: I am planning on finishing content review by 03/15 then do FLs every 3 days. Would that be enough practice until May 6th?
Click to expand...
What are you using for content ?
 
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Dr.Burns said:
What are you using for content ?
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Khan academy passages mixed with review, then AAMC packet mixed with review, then FLs every few days. My review includes the old BR books, and I got the new Psychology BR book I hope to cover. I'm not sure where to get my FLs from though. I have PR from a book, but considering NS because I can get them in a packet. Any suggestions where to get FLs without signing up for a full course?
 
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tokenOPM said:
Khan academy passages mixed with review, then AAMC packet mixed with review, then FLs every few days. My review includes the old BR books, and I got the new Psychology BR book I hope to cover. I'm not sure where to get my FLs from though. I have PR from a book, but considering NS because I can get them in a packet. Any suggestions where to get FLs without signing up for a full course?
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How long have you been doing review ? Let me know how the BR psych is. I would suggest the EK exams but they are a bit pricey however they are the most representative of the real exam. Others would include TPR if you buy one of their books, I believe you get access to 3 exams. And I highly recommended the new section banks from AAMC.
 
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are you guys working on your fl yet?
For those retaking the exam, did you go over all the books? people keep advising me to just read the topics i dont really understand. but im afraid getting into practice feeling empty headed will make me score poorly and discourage me.
 
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souvenir94 said:
are you guys working on your fl yet?
For those retaking the exam, did you go over all the books? people keep advising me to just read the topics i dont really understand. but im afraid getting into practice feeling empty headed will make me score poorly and discourage me.
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That's exactly my feeling. I keep pushing my FL because I am afraid I will be discouraged. I am hoping to take it by tomorrow though.
I have been studying since January and I even pushed my exam date from April 23rd to May 6th. I have been really overwhelmed with the amount of content I have to review :/
 
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Dr. NoName said:
That's exactly my feeling. I keep pushing my FL because I am afraid I will be discouraged. I am hoping to take it by tomorrow though.
I have been studying since January and I even pushed my exam date from April 23rd to May 6th. I have been really overwhelmed with the amount of content I have to review :/
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exactly how i feel at this point. But cheer up! do a light review of your notes and take your FL. Worst case scenario it will tell you what topic to focus your attention on. Goodluck
 
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souvenir94 said:
exactly how i feel at this point. But cheer up! do a light review of your notes and take your FL. Worst case scenario it will tell you what topic to focus your attention on. Goodluck
Click to expand...

Need a lot of that luck. Thank you!

apuri3 said:
Just took my first Kaplan Full length. 497 LOL
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Oh :/ I am taking mine tomorrow and I am more terrified now lol
How did you do on the diagnostics? and how bad were the questions on FL?
 
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I will say that TPR and Kaplan's practice FLs are meant to be harder than the real deal--at least that is the implicit objective by both. I have been told this by a couple of my TPR instructors, but it also just makes sense for TPR and Kaplan to give you hard FLs in order to continually motivate and identify areas where improvement is possible.

To those who are hesitant about taking your first one--just do it! The first FL should not be necessarily an indicator of scoring as much as an indicator of endurance. I took it just to get a feel for it. I scored a 499, but I didn't really care at all as I am about only 1/2 through content review. Btw, I took a Kaplan diagnostic back in the beginning of Jan--scored a 489, so improvement is both possible and likely (diagnostics are pretty poor indicators anywho).
 
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Doctor_Strange said:
I will say that TPR and Kaplan's practice FLs are meant to be harder than the real deal--at least that is the implicit objective by both. I have been told this by a couple of my TPR instructors, but it also just makes sense for TPR and Kaplan to give you hard FLs in order to continually motivate and identify areas where improvement is possible.

To those who are hesitant about taking your first one--just do it! The first FL should not be necessarily an indicator of scoring as much as an indicator of endurance. I took it just to get a feel for it. I scored a 499, but I didn't really care at all as I am about only 1/2 through content review. Btw, I took a Kaplan diagnostic back in the beginning of Jan--scored a 489, so improvement is both possible and likely (diagnostics are pretty poor indicators anywho).
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Thats a great improvement. I felt ****ty taking my first test as well. I suggest everyone do it just to get it out of the way and know where you stand. Its a great feeling afterwards to know where that exactly is. How many exams have you taken so far Dr. Strange? And how often? Im not sure if I should be taking them twice a week and review or less.
 
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Dr. NoName said:
Need a lot of that luck. Thank you!



Oh :/ I am taking mine tomorrow and I am more terrified now lol
How did you do on the diagnostics? and how bad were the questions on FL?
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I didn't do the diagnostic, this was my first test. Some of the FL passages were pretty difficult. I didn't go over any physics so I didn't remember how to do lenses/circuits, that would help a bit.
 
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Dr.Burns said:
Which one was it ?
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Full Length 1. I'm starting to review it now, pretty helpful to see where I went wrong. It looks like I didn't read a lot of the passages/questions as carefully as I should have, making a lot of simple mistakes.
 
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Dr.Burns said:
What are you using for content ?
Click to expand...
I am actually taking an online course with an instructor who is a third year medical student. Most of the content are from textbooks, and organized based on the AAMC content list. I was just wondering if its a great idea to take a FL every 3 days staring from 03/15 to 05/06?
 
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RockMcat520 said:
I am actually taking an online course with an instructor who is a third year medical student. Most of the content are from textbooks, and organized based on the AAMC content list. I was just wondering if its a great idea to take a FL every 3 days staring from 03/15 to 05/06?
Click to expand...
I would take 1 exam per week and spend 2 days reviewing it. Then 3 weeks out, you can pick it up and begin doing 2 a week. You learn more during review but practice is good for getting the feel and endurance down.
 
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Dr.Burns said:
How long have you been doing review ?
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Since about January, but more recently intensely. I'm working on getting my timing better for passages. Some of Khan biology ones were throwing me off.

For practice exams, I will have to try EK. There is also Gold Standard and Next Step. Does anyone have any idea what is best?
 
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tokenOPM said:
Since about January, but more recently intensely. I'm working on getting my timing better for passages. Some of Khan biology ones were throwing me off.

For practice exams, I will have to try EK. There is also Gold Standard and Next Step. Does anyone have any idea what is best?
Click to expand...

It seems like NS and EK are the best. I've heard about Another company which is good as well they are called Altius however 10 exams cost 300 bucks too expensive imo


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SikhWitIT said:
Thats a great improvement. I felt ****ty taking my first test as well. I suggest everyone do it just to get it out of the way and know where you stand. Its a great feeling afterwards to know where that exactly is. How many exams have you taken so far Dr. Strange? And how often? Im not sure if I should be taking them twice a week and review or less.
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Took the Kaplan diagnostic jan 2nd, took TPR FL 1 on jan 28th, and then took TPR FL 2 last friday (497). Although it was a slight decrease, I was sick throughout the 7 years and later had to go on antivirals. Suffice it to say, not a good idea to take a test while feeling sick but I was committed to my schedule! I will take another FL in two weeks. I wont start taking more than 2 a week until April rolls around.
 
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Doctor_Strange said:
Took the Kaplan diagnostic jan 2nd, took TPR FL 1 on jan 28th, and then took TPR FL 2 last friday (497). Although it was a slight decrease, I was sick throughout the 7 years and later had to go on antivirals. Suffice it to say, not a good idea to take a test while feeling sick but I was committed to my schedule! I will take another FL in two weeks. I wont start taking more than 2 a week until April rolls around.
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How do you feel about the TPR exams ? Recommend or nah?

I hope you haven't been sick for 7 years
 
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Dr.Burns said:
How do you feel about the TPR exams ? Recommend or nah?

I hope you haven't been sick for 7 years
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LOL dang. I'll chalk that up to fatigue!

I don't know if I can offer a relative assessment of TPR exams, but I think they are good after 2 FLs. It is variable between the two I took. The CARS appear to be very very hard, but that my just be poor prep on my end. One FL1, I had a bunch of physics and orgo, and on my second FL I had honestly maybe two passages on physics. Very different. There was more biochem. So I think the diversity of problems helps. I've heard different stuff about TPR and Kaplan--honestly I don't think there is a significant difference, both of em will be hard lol.
 
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Dr.Burns said:
How do you feel about the TPR exams ? Recommend or nah?

I hope you haven't been sick for 7 years
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Hey there. I just finished TPR 1 and either the website or my computer had glitches because it marked me as not answering a few items even after I reviewed and made sure I had answered all. Maybe its my computer though. I have to say I need to build endurance because I was burnt out mid-bio section which lead me to not caring much about the last section. I will probably continue with the second TPR but then move on to another company.
 
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I just wanted to let you guys know there is a great app called FCS biology cellular respiration that visualizes everything from glycolysis to the ETC. Every step and enzyme are shown I recommend you guys download the app and use it every morning when you wake up or before bed at night. It's really good and they have mini questions as well.


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If we're talking about apps, I recommend Anki. It's the shizz, helping me a lot on psych and sociology. How much physics should we expect to see on this test?
 
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apuri3 said:
If we're talking about apps, I recommend Anki. It's the shizz, helping me a lot on psych and sociology. How much physics should we expect to see on this test?
Click to expand...

From reading past reactions, anywhere from barely any at all to heavy emphasis. It seems like the actual content focused on exams varies by test date, so I think it's safe to be over-prepared than unpleasantly surprised!

In other news, I finally finished biology review with 2200+ Anki cards. :soexcited: :hungover: I'm hoping to get all of Psych/Soc and half of Chem/Phys review done this week during spring break, and finish up content review by the end of March.
 
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apuri3 said:
If we're talking about apps, I recommend Anki. It's the shizz, helping me a lot on psych and sociology. How much physics should we expect to see on this test?
Click to expand...
15 questions in total. On the previous exam it was around 26 I believe. Honestly I'll take 15 questions with a heartbeat


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Feeling pretty discouraged.. Just took my first Kaplan full length and scored a 497 (40th percentile). Could've done a little better if my psych and soc wasn't in the 32nd percentile lol. Was surprised how relatively easy Chem/Phys was. RELATIVELY. Has anyone heard of a typical jump in scores that we should expect from test to test? I'll finish content review in a couple weeks but plan on incorporating more PBQ's and from there on out, it's 2 full lengths a week w/ meticulous review of said full lengths for 6 weeks. Could I still realistically manage a 507+ by May 6th? So many questions... So little time...
 
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Coltuna said:
Feeling pretty discouraged.. Just took my first Kaplan full length and scored a 497 (40th percentile). Could've done a little better if my psych and soc wasn't in the 32nd percentile lol. Was surprised how relatively easy Chem/Phys was. RELATIVELY. Has anyone heard of a typical jump in scores that we should expect from test to test? I'll finish content review in a couple weeks but plan on incorporating more PBQ's and from there on out, it's 2 full lengths a week w/ meticulous review of said full lengths for 6 weeks. Could I still realistically manage a 507+ by May 6th? So many questions... So little time...
Click to expand...

How much content review have you done so far? I scored around 500 for a couple of FLs and jumped up a lot higher after doing some heavy biology review (which was clearly needed!). I think I went from a 503 to a 508, with 4 of those points coming from the BS section (124 to 128). I think it's definitely possible! Another thing you can look out for when you review your FL is the type of question you got wrong (pure content/memory vs. reasoning) and focus on that in the upcoming weeks. We all have 59 days left, which is still a lot of time. :)
 
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tokenOPM said:
Hey there. I just finished TPR 1 and either the website or my computer had glitches because it marked me as not answering a few items even after I reviewed and made sure I had answered all. Maybe its my computer though. I have to say I need to build endurance because I was burnt out mid-bio section which lead me to not caring much about the last section. I will probably continue with the second TPR but then move on to another company.
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Same! I after I had finished my CARS, the program simply scored my test. I decided to do it again and skip the first two sections. It is certainly annoying.
 
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