The Official September 4, 2014 MCAT Thread

[Asiandoodle]

Anyone taking on september 4th?

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[Thoracic Bean]

November and December dates added !!!!

 

[silverturtle]

redacted

 

[MadisonG]

Test Date: 09/04/14
Time: 8:00 am
FL AAMC Average: 34
AAMC 10-11 Avg.: 33
Post-test expected score: 30-32
Actual Score (PS/V/BS): 13/12/10 = 35
I'm a little shocked with my PS score tbh, highest I ever scored during FLs was 11. Same for BS, highest FL score was 15 but ended up with a 10. Can't complain though! ALSO to anyone who didn't do as well as they hoped, DO NOT GIVE UP. When I wrote in 2013 I got a 25! It CAN be done so keep trying!

 

[Thoracic Bean]

So I bombed it as in sub 30. should I keep checking for january dates or just give up and take the new MCAT?

Keep checking! I was so distraught last night and then when I checked this am they had November and December dates. I also randomly saw January openings but they got taken quick. I suggest an intimate relationship with the refresh button.

 

[Thoracic Bean]

Test Date: 09/06/14
Time: 1pm
FL AAMC Average: 27.25 (26-31)
Kaplan Average: 28 (25-32)
AAMC 10-11 Average: 26
Post Test Expectations: Something not good, but hoping for a miracle
Actual Score: 8/6/10 (24)

I posted this in the 9/6 thread, thought I would post here as well. Very very upsetting, but it is what it is. Hopefully things go better in December. Any retake suggestions are welcome. I kind of don't even know where to start. My main problem is timing. I read very slow and have trouble finishing most sections. I would have to blatantly guess on 1-2 passages on VR and PS. I studied for 3 months total, 6-10 hours a day. Took kaplan class for prep, and made a notebook to go over every questions I missed. I also did aamc 6-11 and kaplan 1-7, along with 14 additional verbal sections, and 7 each of PS and BS so now idk what to even use as practice since the earlier aamc's are outdated and kaplan's test after 7 are not good for the actual test.

Oh and my diagnostic was a 21 (6/7/8) so idk how this happened as it was the lowest score I have gotten. Grrrr

 

[lcm2020]

Test Date: 09/06/14
Time: 1pm
FL AAMC Average: 27.25 (26-31)
Kaplan Average: 28 (25-32)
AAMC 10-11 Average: 26
Post Test Expectations: Something not good, but hoping for a miracle
Actual Score: 8/6/10 (24)

I posted this in the 9/6 thread, thought I would post here as well. Very very upsetting, but it is what it is. Hopefully things go better in December. Any retake suggestions are welcome. I kind of don't even know where to start. My main problem is timing. I read very slow and have trouble finishing most sections. I would have to blatantly guess on 1-2 passages on VR and PS. I studied for 3 months total, 6-10 hours a day. Took kaplan class for prep, and made a notebook to go over every questions I missed. I also did aamc 6-11 and kaplan 1-7, along with 14 additional verbal sections, and 7 each of PS and BS so now idk what to even use as practice since the earlier aamc's are outdated and kaplan's test after 7 are not good for the actual test.

Oh and my diagnostic was a 21 (6/7/8) so idk how this happened as it was the lowest score I have gotten. Grrrr

You clearly have a problem with the timing. How long does it take you to read a passage on average?

 

[HappiSquirrel]

EDIT: Deleted

 

[HappiSquirrel]

Test Date: 09/06/14
Time: 1pm
FL AAMC Average: 27.25 (26-31)
Kaplan Average: 28 (25-32)
AAMC 10-11 Average: 26
Post Test Expectations: Something not good, but hoping for a miracle
Actual Score: 8/6/10 (24)

I posted this in the 9/6 thread, thought I would post here as well. Very very upsetting, but it is what it is. Hopefully things go better in December. Any retake suggestions are welcome. I kind of don't even know where to start. My main problem is timing. I read very slow and have trouble finishing most sections. I would have to blatantly guess on 1-2 passages on VR and PS. I studied for 3 months total, 6-10 hours a day. Took kaplan class for prep, and made a notebook to go over every questions I missed. I also did aamc 6-11 and kaplan 1-7, along with 14 additional verbal sections, and 7 each of PS and BS so now idk what to even use as practice since the earlier aamc's are outdated and kaplan's test after 7 are not good for the actual test.

Oh and my diagnostic was a 21 (6/7/8) so idk how this happened as it was the lowest score I have gotten. Grrrr

When i first started on verbal, i was getting 6's. for verbal, i feel like you really need to develop your own strategy (i.e. what works for others might not work for you) I took the PR prep, but the verbal strategy they gave me was garbage, so instead, i did lots of practices. Everytime you finish practicing, write down what you need to improve (e.g. speed, accuracy.) what i found out was when i do the passages in a certain order, i always get 10+.

 

[markymark71990]

happisquirrel is right. There are a million strategies out there for verbal but you must find what works for you. I improved my verbal in 8 weeks 3 points. I didn't even practice verbal that much. Honestly I learned to read each passage for interest and obtain the main idea and try my best to answer all questions without looking back to the passage. The MCAT writers have a devious way of designing 'feel good' questions that seem correct when freshly reading a section of the passage. Also, don't be shy to use the highlighting tool to help grasp the main idea. I used it only the second time but really used it to my advantage and think it helped a lot.

Also, timing is very important. EK strategy worked well for me, leaving approx. 25 mins left after completion of the 4th passage and no more than 2 mins left after the 7th. I think i ended up finishing with about 20 secs left. By finishing early, you run the risk of becoming too relaxed and inadvertently going back and erroneously changing right answers due to a less 'acute' judgement. since were all future doctors, we can appreciate the importance of remaining in that 'fight or flight' mode for keenness and clarity in our decision-making ability.

Hope this has helped. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I understand how you may feel right now.

 

[Thoracic Bean]

You clearly have a problem with the timing. How long does it take you to read a passage on average?

When I first started studying I did a passage out of my Kaplan book untimed and with the questions it took me 24 minutes to complete I knew that I had a problem with reading speed all of my life, but I didn't know exactly how severe it was until I started studying for the MCAT. I don't read books for leisure, just textbooks for school. On my practice tests, almost the entire time I would resort to sacrificing a passage, sometimes even 2 but I was scoring 8's and occasional 7's. The 2 times I finished a VR section (out of like 24+ practice sections) I got 11's. I think this issue if affecting all of the sections for me not just VR. BS I almost always finished on time, sometimes even with time to spare. Ran out of time on the actual thing and left a few bio questions blanked and guessed randomly on another few.

 

[Thoracic Bean]

happisquirrel is right. There are a million strategies out there for verbal but you must find what works for you. I improved my verbal in 8 weeks 3 points. I didn't even practice verbal that much. Honestly I learned to read each passage for interest and obtain the main idea and try my best to answer all questions without looking back to the passage. The MCAT writers have a devious way of designing 'feel good' questions that seem correct when freshly reading a section of the passage. Also, don't be shy to use the highlighting tool to help grasp the main idea. I used it only the second time but really used it to my advantage and think it helped a lot.

Also, timing is very important. EK strategy worked well for me, leaving approx. 25 mins left after completion of the 4th passage and no more than 2 mins left after the 7th. I think i ended up finishing with about 20 secs left. By finishing early, you run the risk of becoming too relaxed and inadvertently going back and erroneously changing right answers due to a less 'acute' judgement. since were all future doctors, we can appreciate the importance of remaining in that 'fight or flight' mode for keenness and clarity in our decision-making ability.

Hope this has helped. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I understand how you may feel right now.

Thank you! I am going to buy the EK verbal book tomorrow and I have a reading intensive econ class this term so hopefully the extra boring econ reading will also help.

 

[Mentallyblonde]

Test Date: 09/04/14
Time: 8 am PST
FL AAMC Average: 32 Gold Standard Average: 34
Post Test Expectations: Felt ****ty- thought I'd gotten a 29
Actual Score: 14/12/12 (38)

 

[kiwininja]

Hi everyone! I'm selling all of my prep materials (took the September 18th & just got my score back yesterday) if you need to retake - PM me for details or check out my post!