Haha, oh God... I'll probably say too much. I think the most important aspect of this exam is to be confident in your ability to reason and not over analyze things. Sometimes some of the answers are really as straightforward as looking at a table and understanding what it's telling you. I think people freak out when they see information presented this way, but for instance, if you see a positive coorelation with some characteristic and a disease, then it's highly likely that the disease is due to that characteristic. It's sorta common sense. There were a few answers I second guessed myself and I regret changing last minute because I was initially right. Sometimes the questions really are just that easy. Maybe they were a little generous with the biology section, but I didn't think it was all too bad. My orgo knowledge was largely self-taught (as in I read a textbook chapter by chapter). We had two organic passages on my exam and one of them was more biochem related. MCAT organic seems really straightforward and none of you should neglect it entirely. It's a really easy way to boost your score. Some of the questions are just gimmies. HOWEVER, I would not stress over it. The level of detail TBR goes in is way over the top and I personally think Chad's videos, EK, or even TPRH Organic is more than enough to do well on those passages. As for the biology content, it just seemed so weird to me because it didn't really seem like I was using anything I knew. There was barely any physiology and I agree with others that there is an increasing trend in genetics. But I definitely don't think it's necessary to take a class in genetics to do well. Most of the questions can be reasoned out by passage info. I'm not the best critical thinker but I was able to reason through some of them fairly easily - which kinda worries me a bit, lol. But anyways, again, know what's presented on AAMC outline, but don't strive for perfection because ultimately, most of what you did study unfortunately won't be tested. Verbal was hell. I was seated by the door so I had a very hard time focusing - not because of the noise (the headphones blocked it), but because I'd get so distracted by people walking by to the door. The first 3 passages I did were okay, but there rest were extremely convoluted to the point where I was entirely lost while reading. It was like they were throwing random bits of info at you with every paragraph and I had a very difficult time formulating a summary and main idea. I guessed on most of the questions, which worries me even more. Do not neglect verbal. I think critical reading is just part of it, but building up the stamina to read several passages back to back without feeling fatigue is just as important. For the physical sciences, I can't really say much but do realize they really can flip things around on ya. Without exposing the contests of the exam, they presented this one concept that we are all familiar with, except it was on another planet with a slight change and so you had to be able to reason out the answers using that new information. It seems scary, but again, it's all about being able to reason things out.
Sorry if this didn't help much, but basically what I'm trying to say is don't stress out over the content so much. I think if you all hit practice passages as much as possible (even if you don't know what the hell is going on), you could atleast do really well on the exam because you're practicing your ability to reason (what most questions are about these days). I agree there is a lot of material, so maybe this might help alleviate some concerns for those of you who feel it's necessary to know every bit of information. And once again, DO NOT NEGLECT VERBAL.
