The Official October 25th, 2014 MCAT Thread

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

Violagirl

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Hey all! Just thought I'd get a thread out there for those of us taking the MCAT on October 25th! Feel free to post how you plan to study, any study tips/tricks you might have or other resources you found helpful that might benefit others. I originally planned on taking the MCAT on July 12th but ended up having to reschedule with the hassle of job hunting. Now that I have a new job lined up, I ended up rescheduling to take it in October instead in getting back on track with studying. Best of luck to everyone taking it!
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docindev said:
Did anyone else not have the trial section at the end? I was so fatigued at the end of it that I'm not sure if I clicked on void or score mainly because the trial section never appeared. I really hope that was the case for everyone.
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There is no trial section anymore.
 
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stitchattack said:
There is no trial section anymore.
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Oh, is that so? I swear I read and agreed to taking the trial section but then the exam just ended. It also mentioned that in the tutorial in the beginning I think. But thanks for sharing, that relieves a lot of tension because I thought I might have accidentally voided.
 
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I shouldn't have bit the bullet, there was a Dec 6th date in Mississippi this morning at 0500, but I just didn't want to go to Hattiesburg. I'll keep checking. Seems like a lot of people want to retest. Does everyone pretty much think that this test was similar to the AAMC practice tests? I honestly didn't look at those while studying. Maybe I should this go round??
 
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the first option is scored right? I just wanted to make sure. is there any way to contact AAMC and make sure? just wanted to see that my exam wasn't voided. thanks
 
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To chime in with my impression of the exam:

PS: It was difficult, and I did not feel like all my preparation helped at all. However, I wrote down formulas that I thought I might find useful, and I got to use one of them, so that was nice. I had to leave one question unanswered because I ran out of time.

VR: On the whole, I thought it was straightforward. Definitely more tricky than AAMC 10, and I have to say that I dislike AAMC's ideology. Ha ha.

BS: I know I missed two questions already. But at least I didn't run out of time.

I came back home and wrote down what I expect to get on the exam, and I'm just hoping it's not too optimistic. I also now find it difficult to just stop obsessing about this test. 25 November cannot get here soon enough!
 
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My first ever MCAT experience was.....hmm I don't remember a thing! All I remember is that it was like none of the practice exams I took. I do think the PS section was a little bit like Kaplan's rather than the AAMC practice test. Of of the three sections, PS is my strength....the one I am most anxious about is BS. I do not expect much change in my VR scores.
The whole test experience has been wiped clean, which seems to be a good thing. If I score around the average of all my practice tests (AAMC and Kaplan) , I will be happy.
In retrospect, I should've taken all the AAMCs, but I don't think they would've helped much with the way the real one went. Kaplan seems to have inflated. My real intention was to take it in Jan, but someone rightly pointed out that if I only gave myself one shot and by chance I fell sick or something that day, it would be the end...
I booked for a redux in Guam!! in Jan (%$#@) just in case. I hope something closer to home opens up in December.
 
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Are most of the kids that take the MCAT very wealthy? Flights to Guam are EXPENSIVE haha
 
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John Q said:
Are most of the kids that take the MCAT very wealthy? Flights to Guam are EXPENSIVE haha
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Well, having a bunch of flyer miles (and a job that makes you do so) helps! No way I am paying for that out of pocket....
But this is just to make sure I have a seat... in all likely I will find something close to home (fingers crossed!). If not, it is a nice vacation away from home during peak winter!
 
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I'm curious to see when spots will open up/if they will.

AAMC should realistically have at least 2 dates in Nov and Dec. the test format Change is a monumental shift in the application process.
 
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John Q said:
I'm curious to see when spots will open up/if they will.

AAMC should realistically have at least 2 dates in Nov and Dec. the test format Change is a monumental shift in the application process.
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They keep saying in ~2 weeks they will add more seats to the current dates. I wonder how the shift to the current mcat was for the people back in the day. Right now it seems the new mcat only has one practice test out. Even the for the current mcat they don't release many practice tests...like aamc 11 is at least several years old.
 
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AmICrazy said:
My first ever MCAT experience was.....hmm I don't remember a thing! All I remember is that it was like none of the practice exams I took. I do think the PS section was a little bit like Kaplan's rather than the AAMC practice test. Of of the three sections, PS is my strength....the one I am most anxious about is BS. I do not expect much change in my VR scores.
The whole test experience has been wiped clean, which seems to be a good thing. If I score around the average of all my practice tests (AAMC and Kaplan which was 33) , I will be happy, but I hope that my recent performance is more indicative. My practice test results have been a mixed bag...

Sep 24, Kaplan6 11-9-9=29 (PS-VR-BS = total score)
Sep 28, Kaplan1 10-10-9=29
Sep 29, AAMC8 11-9-11=31
Oct 5, AAMC9 11-7-9=27
Oct 6, Kaplan2 13-9-9=31
Oct 9, Kaplan3 12-9-11=32
Oct 12, AAMC11 8-8-9=25 (Completely bombed this one...)
Oct 13, Kaplan4 14-11-10=35
Oct 17, Kaplan5 11-9-12=32
Oct 18, AAMC10 14-9-11=34
Oct 24, Kaplan7 14-11-12=37
In retrospect, I should've taken all the AAMCs, but I don't think they would've helped much with the way the real one went. Kaplan seems to have inflated scores.
Yes I prepared for a month and only about 2-3 hours a day because I work full time... My real intention was to take it in Jan, but someone rightly pointed out that if I only gave myself one shot and by chance I fell sick or something that day, it would be the end...
I booked for a redux in Guam!! in Jan (%$#@) just in case. I hope something closer to home opens up in December.
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I was scoring similar to you in VR for the AAMC FLs (mostly 8s and 9s). What did you think of VR on the actual test? For some reason, I feel like I completely failed it. Passages weren't hard to read, but the questions were tricky, at least for me.
 
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Schadenfreude said:
I was scoring similar to you in VR for the AAMC FLs (mostly 8s and 9s). What did you think of VR on the actual test? For some reason, I feel like I completely failed it. Passages weren't hard to read, but the questions were tricky, at least for me.
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I felt like I was in a trance state throughout the test because I seriously cannot recall anything about the test. I can't even remember if I was struggling to answer the questions. I just remember the last passage was a big wth for me and I had little time to actually do it.
 
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Schadenfreude said:
I was scoring similar to you in VR for the AAMC FLs (mostly 8s and 9s). What did you think of VR on the actual test? For some reason, I feel like I completely failed it. Passages weren't hard to read, but the questions were tricky, at least for me.
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I felt all sections were very different from any practice test I took. I did not run out of time on Verbal (which was a relief), but as far as I can remember, there was hesitation on my part a few times, because many questions seemed to have a trap answer that was very close to another (and I am sure one of those two was the correct one).
 
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Chickenmaster said:
So guys...

I remembered one of the verbal passages and decided to look it up. It's interesting to see the entire article they took the subsection out of...but I must say, it was kind of terrifying reliving my verbal experience so I had to stop reading the article.

And for all of you suffering and feeling like crap (as I am), check out this article. It doesn't make anything. better and I still feel like ****, but it just resonated with me - because, everything does suck right now.

If everything sucks for you right now
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I also found 2 of the articles online from which they took verbal passages. The passages weren't bad. The questions were tricky and without questions I found no reason to read it :/
 
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"~2 weeks" is inexcusable.

They have a date and they won't tell us. I have a problem with that, because I know that an institution as distinguishable as the AAMC will not schedule dates 2 days before they post it.
 
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Chickenmaster said:
I remember most of the passages and a lot of questions. It's a curse -________________-
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You and me both pal. With the exception of one passage in PS, I can recall all the passages (or at least their respective topics) from the entire test. It's absolute torture. On top of that, we can't reveal/discuss them, so they have to stay cooped up in my head :inpain:.

I seriously envy those of you who can forget about the details of the test.
 
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John Q said:
"~2 weeks" is inexcusable.

They have a date and they won't tell us. I have a problem with that, because I know that an institution as distinguishable as the AAMC will not schedule dates 2 days before they post it.
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Dude honestly AAMC is pretty evil. I just imagine everyone that works there as a five headed monster that breathes fire. Some guy on the Oct 21 said it brilliantly...is it fun to torture people who want to go to medical school and help people?

I get they need to make the MCAT difficult, but I think it's a little unnecessary that some people put everything into this test, study their ass off, put their lives on hold, only to find that there's nothing they could've done to prepare given the ridiculousness of those questions.
 
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Schadenfreude said:
You and me both pal. With the exception of one passage in PS, I can recall all the passages (or at least their respective topics) from the entire test. It's absolute torture. On top of that, we can't reveal/discuss them, so they have to stay cooped up in my head :inpain:.

I seriously envy those of you who can forget about the details of the test.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's been fun frantically looking for the answers online.
 
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John Q said:
"~2 weeks" is inexcusable.

They have a date and they won't tell us. I have a problem with that, because I know that an institution as distinguishable as the AAMC will not schedule dates 2 days before they post it.
Click to expand...

It's for Jan seats btw. I think they already added dec seats which are now all full again.
 
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Schadenfreude said:
You and me both pal. With the exception of one passage in PS, I can recall all the passages (or at least their respective topics) from the entire test. It's absolute torture. On top of that, we can't reveal/discuss them, so they have to stay cooped up in my head :inpain:.

I seriously envy those of you who can forget about the details of the test.
Click to expand...

I forgot most of my experience because I got no sleep in this hotel I checked into the previous night after a long drive to the testing center (near a highway and noisy as hell!)...and I had caffeine right before the exam (I never drink any otherwise) just to make sure I did not doze away. My heart was pounding like crazy fast, but I was definitely awake hehe. I know what I should not do the next time around...but here's hoping I won't need to retake.
 
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To me, the PS was easy. There were 2 discrete and 1 or 2 passage-based questions that I was unsure about. Unless, everything went wrong, I think I got a 12-14 on this section, maybe a bit lower. The VR was pretty sketchy, I was scoring between 8 and 12 on my practice test VRs, with 15s on the EK 101 Passages. On AAMCs, my lowest score is a 6 and my highest is a 10. In the end, like a lot of other people, I narrowed many answer choices down to 2 and took my shot at what I thought was the best choice. I had to rush through the last passage. In BS, I thought most of it was very straight forward. There were 2 passages toward the end that gave me some trouble, but hopefully, they were not as bad as they seemed. All in all, I have felt this way before, after taking AAMC 9. I was very uncomfortable with my answers and with the test in general. But, I ended up with a 34 on it. Hopefully, this will be a similar story, or better.
 
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It sucks how the practice FL's are so much easier than the modern MCAT. Its crazy to think many of us could be doctors had we taken the test a few years back when it was easier.
 
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csx said:
It sucks how the practice FL's are so much easier than the modern MCAT. Its crazy to think many of us could be doctors had we taken the test a few years back when it was easier.
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There are others who took it then but are still taking the mcat now so I don't think it's any easier or harder. I think it's just some people are just bad test takers but sadly this is the only way they can measure everyone equally since GPA varies greatly depending on where you went to school.
 
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does AAMC look through this forum...e.g if someone where to talk about an exam question could they track you down?...not that i would talk about them i was just wondering...i also remember most of the questions lola
 
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PS-tough but doable
VR-straightforward
BS-holy hell LOL. I found this section to be the toughest. My strength has always been physical sciences so this may be it.

May the curve be ever in our favor ;)
 
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futurehousemd said:
does AAMC look through this forum...e.g if someone where to talk about an exam question could they track you down?...not that i would talk about them i was just wondering...i also remember most of the questions lola
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Yes, the AAMC monitors SDN. There was a big brouhaha a few years back where a user got into trouble with them for discussing test questions. I believe the current weekly ban that's now in force on SDN was instituted in the wake of that whole debacle.
 
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Anyone else have to pee really badly in the middle of a subsection? I had to pee really badly in the middle of bio, right when it started getting tough... It definitely hurt my focus. I feel like I could have absolutely aced BS if this didn't happen. Oh well...I hope I managed a 12.
 
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medicalCPA said:
Yes, the AAMC monitors SDN. There was a big brouhaha a few years back where a user got into trouble with them for discussing test questions. I believe the current weekly ban that's now in force on SDN was instituted in the wake of that whole debacle.
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That's actually kind of funny. Can you imagine getting that PM In your inbox/email from the AAMC? Lmaooooooooo. I would love to meet someone from AAMC to see what they're really like as people. Whats the weekly ban?
 
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Chickenmaster said:
Oh interesting, I never knew that
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Maybe it's my terminology that's confusing. I mean that there's a ban which lasts one week for people who discuss MCAT questions after a test. It says so in one of the sticky threads at the top of the MCAT discussions forum.
 
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Jumb0 said:
Anyone else have to pee really badly in the middle of a subsection? I had to pee really badly in the middle of bio, right when it started getting tough... It definitely hurt my focus. I feel like I could have absolutely aced BS if this didn't happen. Oh well...I hope I managed a 12.
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With 30 minutes left in the PS section, I began to have the urge to pee. With 15 minutes left my kidneys felt like mike tyson was throwing haymakers at them. I finished the section with 90 seconds left and said screw it and ended the section and destroyed that urinal afterwards. RIP urinal
 
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Jumb0 said:
Anyone else have to pee really badly in the middle of a subsection? I had to pee really badly in the middle of bio, right when it started getting tough... It definitely hurt my focus. I feel like I could have absolutely aced BS if this didn't happen. Oh well...I hope I managed a 12.
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This is why the moment I finished a section, i ran out to the restroom regardless of whether I had the need to :)
Sorry to hear that you lost focus!
 
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midway b/w the bio section I had urinate really bad. I know I didn't drink coffee so it wasn't aldosterone that was the culprit. I took plenty of sodium too to retain water in the body. but it deff ruined my focus especially when it was getting hard towwarsd the end
 
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