The Official May 8, 2014 MCAT thread

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southpawcannon

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Yep, that just happened. And no, I'm not studying tonight. Are you cray cray? Just watching college football and opening my box from Berkeley Review that finally arrived. Prep commences tomorrow!
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Thanks for the summary of your MCAT plan and your last score is pretty good. Are u shooting for 35/36 this time?

I'm using EK for content review and TBR for passages, hopefully they'll help me get through this beast.
My weakest section verbal and I'm doing far worse than you. I have been using EK but I can't seem to score above a 6. I'm completely shattered and don't know how or what to do to improve this section.
 
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Finished content review today. Gonna go over verbal techniques tmrw, make flashcards on Saturday, and take AAMC 3 on Sunday
 
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Will be joining this thread :) I will be finishing gen chem content review today! When do you guys plan to take FLs?
 
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hojjung33 said:
Will be joining this thread :) I will be finishing gen chem content review today! When do you guys plan to take FLs?
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I finished bio review Thursday and have a few pages left of gen chem and will be done with it today as well! I feel slightly accomplished! I will be doin a few problems from YouTube videos for the rest of the day and then tomorrow pick up where I left off with orgo and physics. I'm still a long way from FL's but I will take aamc 3 once I'm done with orgo and physics so I'm estimating it will take me another week or 2. I'm goin to go back over content again while incorporating passages and little mini quizzes and then a FL every 2 or 3 days. I have lots of material from Kaplan, BR, and EK so I'm going to exhaust it all lol. And even though Kaplan's FL's are confidence breakers they are giving out free ones this whole month so I will take advantage of those as well. It's been quite a journey but we still have a ways to go. Let's keep grinding and stay focused so we can come back and post these 30+'s!!!!
 
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Soooooo I plan on finishing content by the end of this month. Then taking about several full lengths till test day. Bad idea???


Thanks!!
 
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Has anybody taken any FL's yet? I just finished my third (all three are Kaplan FL's), and my spread has been 33, 34, 34. Im going to take Kaplan 4-8 or 9, and then switch to the AAMC FL's and assessments. How is everyone else doing?! I'm struggling to get motivated today. I've been in this study room for like 5 hours and only done a little bit of post-phrasing from my most recent FL haha.
 
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Dr.Wink said:
Has anybody taken any FL's yet? I just finished my third (all three are Kaplan FL's), and my spread has been 33, 34, 34. Im going to take Kaplan 4-8 or 9, and then switch to the AAMC FL's and assessments. How is everyone else doing?! I'm struggling to get motivated today. I've been in this study room for like 5 hours and only done a little bit of post-phrasing from my most recent FL haha.
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Wow,your scores are amazing!I am not doing well,I took AAMC practice test 4 and scored an 8 in PS,7 in BS,and 6 in VR.
I need more practice and should be able to raise my score a lot better by the test day!
 
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Took AAMC 4 Physics and Bio and got 10s on both...definitely need to actually open up some bio review lol
 
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Orgo and physics will not let me be great:( I am seriously struggling with BR Orgo. To me it seems like the info is taught in ways more confusing than how I was taught. This is supposed to be my last week and a half with content but these 2 subjects have me stalled.:shrug:
 
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I would suggest using EK for organic. TBR makes it way more in depth than needed IMO. Use TBR as an additive if anything
 
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Urgh this content review is taking forever. When are you all planning on starting to do only passages/FL?
 
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t0ny said:
And the TBR bio is taking me forever :'(
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I was planning to start mines by the beginning of April. As the days pass on, its seems that this is only wishful thinking. To be honest Im bout to switch over to EK for content, it is SOOOOOO much faster, and use TBR for passage.
 
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SamirMD2019 said:
I was planning to start mines by the beginning of April. As the days pass on, its seems that this is only wishful thinking. To be honest Im bout to switch over to EK for content, it is SOOOOOO much faster, and use TBR for passage.
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This is my second time taking and I used EK for bio the first time. It's very good for general stuff but I kind of like TBR better for bio even though it's more in depth. Although some things they seem to forget, such as all of the hormones, where they are secreted from and what do they affect.
 
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t0ny said:
This is my second time taking and I used EK for bio the first time. It's very good for general stuff but I kind of like TBR better for bio even though it's more in depth. Although some things they seem to forget, such as all of the hormones, where they are secreted from and what do they affect.
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I think it helps to have multiple sources. While they forgot the hormones and Kaplan didn't, while Kaplan neglected to go in depth about Viruses,Prokaryotes, Fungus reproduction and growth physiology. Kaplan also missed a lot on its evolution chapter, and also the skin system, which I had to supplement with EK. I also supplemented because most of the questions in a particular book is geared towards what the book teaches and not overall concepts.
 
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t0ny said:
Urgh this content review is taking forever. When are you all planning on starting to do only passages/FL?
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Right now I'm trying to finish up physics and Orgo content review. Got about 20 chapters left altogether and I plan on doing 1 from each a day so it should take me about 10 more days + or -. Learning a lot of stuff I never even heard of while learning physics in undergrad. And MCAT style orgo is more a pain in the ass than it was in college so it feels like I'm learning new stuff from that too. I plan on finishing my 1001 EK books first before I tackle BR passage problems. I feel as though it will be a lot of content reviewing once I start on the 1001's, but hopefully I will be solid by the time I start doing passages. AAMC 3 once I'm done with content. The rest of the FL's will start to be incorporated once I do a complete set of passages.
 
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Just finished AAMC 3 (6/9/9). I had a complete brain fart on PS and for some reason thought there were 44 questions. So I ran out of time guessed on the last 10 or so. Still, already better than my tests last year!
 
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Did my first FL yesterday.
(11/9/13) AAMC 3

I freaking hate VR. It will be the death of me.
 
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Yeah no matter what I try I consistently make 9-10 on VR.
How are you approaching the VR passages?
 
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VR was my problem also when I first took the MCAT in September. I was always scoring between 8-10 with no consistency.
 
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God I'm stressing out I feel like I'm behind for some reason. I still have 3 chapters of TBR bio and 4 chapters of TBR physics left before I start doing only passages
 
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t0ny said:
God I'm stressing out I feel like I'm behind for some reason. I still have 3 chapters of TBR bio and 4 chapters of TBR physics left before I start doing only passages
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I have 5 chapters left of orgo and physics each until I start doing my 1001's. As long as we're done before April we would still have a month of practicing passages and FL's. I'm hoping that's enough time.
 
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IMO a month of just doing FL's and reviewing is plenty of time. Just do 2 a week and review the questions you get wrong every time.
 
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for all you guys (and perhaps gals lol) struggling to get double digits in verbal, honestly just try "reading" the passages. don't get too caught up in the details and highlight/note everything. its a giant waste (speaking from personal experience). try to highlight the important things (i.e. authors stance on a certain topic such as pro/con or w.e).
just thought i'd share. anyone taking it in the philly area by any chance?
 
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So a lot of you are doing self study it seems and are done with content review. Is anyone doing like a prep course? Because I feel behind because we are still doing content review! But I'm using practice passages from almost all the companies while doing content review and when the course is done I will do nothing but practice tests...what do you guys think?
 
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I'm giving myself until next Thursday to finish all content review, then it's straight passages, memorizations and FL.

Just make sure you keep up with your verbal practice
 
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sashka1 said:
for all you guys (and perhaps gals lol) struggling to get double digits in verbal, honestly just try "reading" the passages. don't get too caught up in the details and highlight/note everything. its a giant waste (speaking from personal experience). try to highlight the important things (i.e. authors stance on a certain topic such as pro/con or w.e).
just thought i'd share. anyone taking it in the philly area by any chance?
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I neglected to use the highlights my first time taking the real thing and made a 5, took a Kaplan diagnostic using it and made a 8 and would of had atleast a 10 if I didn't change some of my correct answers. So for me it REALLY helped. I'm usually great with theme and topic questions, but the problem comes with the more detailed oriented questions. And for the most part everything I highlighted was useful for questions. I suppose it's not good when u abuse the highlighting lol
 
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sashka1 said:
for all you guys (and perhaps gals lol) struggling to get double digits in verbal, honestly just try "reading" the passages. don't get too caught up in the details and highlight/note everything. its a giant waste (speaking from personal experience). try to highlight the important things (i.e. authors stance on a certain topic such as pro/con or w.e).
just thought i'd share. anyone taking it in the philly area by any chance?
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing, I suck at VR so I need all the advice I can get :D
 
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hey I just saw this thread. I will be taking my MCAT on May 08 as well. I havent taken any practice test. but the plan is to finish reviewing everything by the end of this month and and take practice exams and look at my weakness next month. Anyone here has used Chad's videos as their primary source of studying? if yes how did it go? Or is it not enough for the MCAT studying?
 
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FemaleDoc said:
hey I just saw this thread. I will be taking my MCAT on May 08 as well. I havent taken any practice test. but the plan is to finish reviewing everything by the end of this month and and take practice exams and look at my weakness next month. Anyone here has used Chad's videos as their primary source of studying? if yes how did it go? Or is it not enough for the MCAT studying?
Click to expand...

its good for refreshing and picking up some major concepts but not ample enough to do well w/o practice!
 
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FemaleDoc said:
hey I just saw this thread. I will be taking my MCAT on May 08 as well. I havent taken any practice test. but the plan is to finish reviewing everything by the end of this month and and take practice exams and look at my weakness next month. Anyone here has used Chad's videos as their primary source of studying? if yes how did it go? Or is it not enough for the MCAT studying?
Click to expand...

Chad's awesome but do not rely on it as your only source !

Dr.Wink said:
has anybody done the AAMC self assessments?
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Not yet man, probably second week of April?
 
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I had no motivation today. Got nothing done. Back to the grind tomorrow. Hope you guys were more productive than me today.
 
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I was able to finish going through all of TBR bio content today FINALLY. Now I have 4 more chapters of physics and 4 of gen chem and I'm done content review. I gave myself until Wednesday to finish it all

Tomorrow is a big day for my studying. Gotta run through at least 2 physics chapters. I'm feeling a 12 hour day at the library coming
 
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t0ny said:
I was able to finish going through all of TBR bio content today FINALLY. Now I have 4 more chapters of physics and 4 of gen chem and I'm done content review. I gave myself until Wednesday to finish it all

Tomorrow is a big day for my studying. Gotta run through at least 2 physics chapters. I'm feeling a 12 hour day at the library coming
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Great! I know that Bio was making you frustrated. I feel like that with physics. I was supposed to be almost done by now but i have about 5 ch left. Will knock out the rest of orgo by sunday and will be done with everything by physics. Giving myself til wednesday as well. I want to take aamc 3 next week to kick of the passage practice. Took it last year and made a 21 so hopefully I can do better than that this time around. We'll see!
All ur orgo lovers out there, how are you organizing the reactions/reagents/products? Its impossible to try to memorize each reaction but conceptually, how are you organizing it?
 
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Hello everyone, a fellow May8-er here, just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to improve the PS section.

I'm getting more and more discouraged about the section due to my recent FL' s scores (got a 7 on both my TPRH and TBR FL's) ... it's really frustrating me because as much as I may review my weak areas, I still can't seem to apply the concepts/equations during the test... and for me, I'm more confident in GChem than Physics by miles but somehow I always get screwed on some obscure GChem passage T____T

Any help would be great really, I need all of it that I can get.
 
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JazD said:
Great! I know that Bio was making you frustrated. I feel like that with physics. I was supposed to be almost done by now but i have about 5 ch left. Will knock out the rest of orgo by sunday and will be done with everything by physics. Giving myself til wednesday as well. I want to take aamc 3 next week to kick of the passage practice. Took it last year and made a 21 so hopefully I can do better than that this time around. We'll see!
All ur orgo lovers out there, how are you organizing the reactions/reagents/products? Its impossible to try to memorize each reaction but conceptually, how are you organizing it?
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you probably already know this... but i JUST realized this on the AAMC site they have a list of topics for orgo....
Thats how im organizing my orgo stuff. I just go down the list and if I can know the reaction I'm fine..
Its actually helped organize me mentally for orgo cuz usually it seems like so much random reactions and info!
My orgo score went up alot after i did that (only got one wrong on AAMC FL 7)
 
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Alright guys time to crush E&M and Circuits today. And hopefully can get to optics but don't think that's possible. Let's go!
 
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