Bit early, but post here if you're writing on this date. For me, it's looking to be third time's the charm hopefully.
I've been lurking on this thread since the day before the exam andddd I think it's time I chime in. I studied for a solid 3 months, one month on my own and 2 with Kaplan. I've been having a lovely mental breakdown since I left the testing center. Here is how my test day went:
-I went to check out the center a few days beforehand, easy drive, found the testing room and bathrooms without a problem.
-The day of, I actually slept for a decent amount and got to the center early, which is a surprise considering I'm always late to everything. I was nervous but not as nervous as I thought I would be.
-So come check in time, the lady did my finger prints and then her computer was starting to have problems. I ended up sitting there for over 30 mins for them to restart their computer and restart the computer I was going to be testing at THREE times and it took 3 people to do it. So after they finally solved their computer problem, they went to go take a picture of me with a regular camera because their computer camera broke and guess what.... right when they went to push the button to take the picture, the camera battery died. They ended up not taking my picture until after the exam.
After over an hour of waiting I am finally in the room! I ended up having a severe panic attack during PS and spent 5 minutes trying to keep it together while marking C for an entire passage and contemplating leaving and voiding my test. Luckily I calmed down and actually read that passage and changed my C's to actual answers. I'm convinced I skipped a passage or something because I finished on time and I NEVER finished PS on time on any practice test. Verbal was well... verbal. Nothing unusually difficult. BS was ridiculous and I ended up running out of time and leaving a question or 2 blank
The worst part is that I think I may have accidentally voided my exam. I could have sworn I clicked the "score" button but at the end, but the trial section that I opted to take never opened!!!! I am planning on calling aamc tomorrow to see if they know whether or not I voided. I really hope that it was issue with the computer :/
I knew I shouldn't have chosen locker # 13 ....
Do you all think there might be a mega curve on this one?
awww man. You're gonna be okay Bud.. just remember in 10+ years from now well be looking back at this and thinking ... Sept. 6th what a bitter sweet memory. I am positive you will hear good news from AAMC and your score will reflect all the studying you did!
A question: How many questions do you recall getting wrong, and then how would you qualify your performance based on that vibe? How did that compare to your experience after practice exams?
FU*&*&*&*&*&*&#&%&#*#((@*#**$&&&$&&$&$&$
anyone who's done the MCAT before when you receive your scores do they tell you what you got wrong or how many you got wrong at least?
Also that the answer to one question was in another..
Is it ever wise to retake before knowing your score? I feel like the only + would be that you're still retaining all that info, whereas waiting a few months would mean forgetting material during the month before score release.
Hoping and praying that I won't have to retake though. It just threw me off because I felt like only a small percentage of everything I studied could actually be applied to the exam, whereas some of the questions (a certain BS one.....) I felt like I didn't know how to tackle- just had to make an educated guess.
And what if you score less? I whole heatedly think you should NEVER write again until you get your score.I was wondering the same thing. But what if you ended up scoring both of them and doing nearly the same on both?
Is it ever wise to retake before knowing your score? I feel like the only + would be that you're still retaining all that info, whereas waiting a few months would mean forgetting material during the month before score release.
Hoping and praying that I won't have to retake though. It just threw me off because I felt like only a small percentage of everything I studied could actually be applied to the exam, whereas some of the questions (a certain BS one.....) I felt like I didn't know how to tackle- just had to make an educated guess.
I guess I am the unconventional lurker on sdn, most people who post on this site get 30s and over and I am a member of the 30 and below family who do not really have anything to brag about. But I need some advice.
Thoughts on the Sept. 6th exam:
PS- the easiest out of the three which surprised me because I hate physics with a passion but I still managed to complete this section right on time. So I am expecting 10-12 on it.
VR- this is the only section I have no idea on how I did because the first time I took the MCAT (june 13th) I thought I rocked this section and ended up with a 5!!!I felt the passages on this one were long and tedious. I had to guess on 3 questions of the last passage. I am just praying for anything better than a 5 (I mean really how low can I get).
BS- I felt like this section back stabbed me in the back, I always rely on this section to lift up my overall score and this time IT LET ME DOWN I am still expecting a 9-11).
I am so close to sign up for it again on September 18th before I get my score, is that bad? I know it is too soon but I still have all the material in my head and waiting will only make it harder. Most of the MD schools I am applying to have a sept 18 MCAT deadline. This will be my third and last try before the MCAT changes next year. So should I sign up for the 18th or wait to get my score?
I guess I am the unconventional lurker on sdn, most people who post on this site get 30s and over and I am a member of the 30 and below family who do not really have anything to brag about. But I need some advice.
Thoughts on the Sept. 6th exam:
PS- the easiest out of the three which surprised me because I hate physics with a passion but I still managed to complete this section right on time. So I am expecting 10-12 on it.
VR- this is the only section I have no idea on how I did because the first time I took the MCAT (june 13th) I thought I rocked this section and ended up with a 5!!!I felt the passages on this one were long and tedious. I had to guess on 3 questions of the last passage. I am just praying for anything better than a 5 (I mean really how low can I get).
BS- I felt like this section back stabbed me in the back, I always rely on this section to lift up my overall score and this time IT LET ME DOWN I am still expecting a 9-11).
I am so close to sign up for it again on September 18th before I get my score, is that bad? I know it is too soon but I still have all the material in my head and waiting will only make it harder. Most of the MD schools I am applying to have a sept 18 MCAT deadline. This will be my third and last try before the MCAT changes next year. So should I sign up for the 18th or wait to get my score?
I used Kaplan and in my opinion the topical tests were very difficult and test material in ridiculous detail. Same with their subject tests. I did like using them as an addition study resource. I did all of the section tests and I thought those were good practice. PS was wayyyyyy more difficult on Kaplan than AAMC and the actual test. Verbal was verbal, but again I felt like Kaplan verbal was more difficult because they asked very convoluted questions as opposed to AAMC being more straightforward. BS was similar and was good practice, but none actually prepared me for the bio on 9/6.anyone use kaplan from this test day and found it similar to the real deal (in terms of using the topical and sectional tests?)
I think a large curve is the only thing that would get me a satisfactory score to be honest.
I think I know what passage you are talking about... Thankfully, I shadowed a physician of that particular specialty over summer. Otherwise, I would have been completely lost on that passage.What was so hard about the biological sciences section?
There was one passage with only like 4 or 5 questions early on that was tricky because, unless you studied it randomly somehow, it required a lot of figuring out.
But then I thought the discretes were all very fair... nothing was really that oddball or random about them.
And then the other passages were pretty okay in terms of analyzing experimental results.
The orgo stuff was a little bit more than usual but it wasn't horrible.
What exactly made it so hard for you guys?
I think I know what passage you are talking about... Thankfully, I shadowed a physician of that particular specialty over summer. Otherwise, I would have been completely lost on that passage.
What was so hard about the biological sciences section?
There was one passage with only like 4 or 5 questions early on that was tricky because, unless you studied it randomly somehow, it required a lot of figuring out.
But then I thought the discretes were all very fair... nothing was really that oddball or random about them.
And then the other passages were pretty okay in terms of analyzing experimental results.
The orgo stuff was a little bit more than usual but it wasn't horrible.
What exactly made it so hard for you guys?
Quick context, I'm freaking out a little bit for this test, so if I come off brusque please dismiss it.
Here's why I think it was very hard.
1) Quantity and difficulty of the Orgo: I am saying this for several reasons? There was nothing in any AAMC that was even remotely like this exam's orgo content. I think that is as close as one can get to an objective fact coming from an MCAT opinion. I would like to challenge any reader of this post to reference material in the AAMCs that was even remotely like the Orgo we encountered on 09/06. Obviously leave out any specific content references. I did fairly well in my Orgo classes (A-'s both semesters, Honestly, 1st semester would have been an A except for lab grade. 93 test average). Organic chemistry can get quite difficult very quickly. It's easier to get an answer wrong when you think you knew it. So I think a lot of us feel insecure about this area.
2) The "pure" bio passages were very long. Really not that much to deal with, but it takes a little more time to read through it. Also, more terms get defined, so it was more difficult for me to keep variables straight in my head and then identify the consequences of manipulating variables or understand how those variables may be represented graphically. Hopefully this makes sense.
3) It was unrelenting: I would say this about all three sections, but particularly for the verbal and bio sections. Thinking back on it, the one genuinely effed up thing about PS was the lack of diversity in topics tested. I'm pretty good with waves and EM stuff, but if I wasn't I think I would be justifiably upset with AAMC. And I don't know, the one passage I recall that seemed like pure Gen Chem, was weird. But PS is hard for me.
Back to BS and its unrelenting nature. A couple of other posters have commented that it was heavily experimental. I would qualify that. It was, but it was more graphical/data for me (think of the physiology passage). Why is this problematic? Well, in the practice exams and passages, I was fairly confident when I knew or didn't know content/processes questions. But when experiments, graphs, and data get in the mix, I was much more likely to make mistakes without realizing it. This is what is concerning for me. Maybe it's true with other individuals as well.
4) This dovetails a little bit off of 3. When I don't "know" a question, I usually (50-80%) can get it down to two reasonable answer choices. On many questions I was trying to guess between three of the answer choices. I would say this is another that I feel very uncomfortable with the exam.
DAMMNNNN!!! I wrote a lot. Hopefully, somebody finds this post helpful, and like I said in the beginning, please keep this post in context. Plus, I'm super hammered right now.
Ah okay that makes sense and I agree with your points.
I'm particularly miffed that a lot of the stuff I studied for bio content wise wasn't even mentioned.
Thanks for the reply -- did you feel PS helped at all, even though it was more difficult?I used Kaplan and in my opinion the topical tests were very difficult and test material in ridiculous detail. Same with their subject tests. I did like using them as an addition study resource. I did all of the section tests and I thought those were good practice. PS was wayyyyyy more difficult on Kaplan than AAMC and the actual test. Verbal was verbal, but again I felt like Kaplan verbal was more difficult because they asked very convoluted questions as opposed to AAMC being more straightforward. BS was similar and was good practice, but none actually prepared me for the bio on 9/6.
Hope this helps!
I think I know what passage you are talking about... Thankfully, I shadowed a physician of that particular specialty over summer. Otherwise, I would have been completely lost on that passage.
So has anyone made any strides in "stop thinking about it"? I've been miserably failing and feeling worse and worse about it with each passing day. Starting to think I may have scored in the 20's -_-"
I can't stop thinking about it. I will replay my DUMB thought processes over and over in my head for two certain PS problems that I messed up on. I'm so annoyed because they were things I understood, but I think I was freaking out and not thinking straight on the exam. It makes me feel really really bad to know that I messed up on something I KNOW ((
I can't stop thinking about it. I will replay my DUMB thought processes over and over in my head for two certain PS problems that I messed up on. I'm so annoyed because they were things I understood, but I think I was freaking out and not thinking straight on the exam. It makes me feel really really bad to know that I messed up on something I KNOW ((
Square roots? Are you sure?YESSS so true. I walked out of the PS section feeling good, then right in the middle of VR I remembered that on a few problems I forgot take square roots, divided by 2, etc.
i'm a Sep. 12 taker here. so be prepared to wait forever is what you're saying? i will nervous poop all over their waiting room if they pull that on meI've been lurking on this thread since the day before the exam andddd I think it's time I chime in. I studied for a solid 3 months, one month on my own and 2 with Kaplan. I've been having a lovely mental breakdown since I left the testing center. Here is how my test day went:
-I went to check out the center a few days beforehand, easy drive, found the testing room and bathrooms without a problem.
-The day of, I actually slept for a decent amount and got to the center early, which is a surprise considering I'm always late to everything. I was nervous but not as nervous as I thought I would be.
-So come check in time, the lady did my finger prints and then her computer was starting to have problems. I ended up sitting there for over 30 mins for them to restart their computer and restart the computer I was going to be testing at THREE times and it took 3 people to do it. So after they finally solved their computer problem, they went to go take a picture of me with a regular camera because their computer camera broke and guess what.... right when they went to push the button to take the picture, the camera battery died. They ended up not taking my picture until after the exam.
After over an hour of waiting I am finally in the room! I ended up having a severe panic attack during PS and spent 5 minutes trying to keep it together while marking C for an entire passage and contemplating leaving and voiding my test. Luckily I calmed down and actually read that passage and changed my C's to actual answers. I'm convinced I skipped a passage or something because I finished on time and I NEVER finished PS on time on any practice test. Verbal was well... verbal. Nothing unusually difficult. BS was ridiculous and I ended up running out of time and leaving a question or 2 blank
The worst part is that I think I may have accidentally voided my exam. I could have sworn I clicked the "score" button but at the end, but the trial section that I opted to take never opened!!!! I am planning on calling aamc tomorrow to see if they know whether or not I voided. I really hope that it was issue with the computer :/
I knew I shouldn't have chosen locker # 13 ....
Square roots? Are you sure?
Square roots? Are you sure?
Lol I was having the same mini panic attack because I don't exactly remember taking a square root. Then I remembered that there was one question that was kinda like that, but you had to take the square root or else there were no other answers that matched.
Yeah I don't remember needing to take a square root to get to the right answer o_oThat's likely the one I was thinking about, but now that you bring that up I did get an answer that was amongst the answer choices so I probably didn't really forget. But who knows?
Yeah I don't remember needing to take a square root to get to the right answer o_o
So has anyone made any strides in "stop thinking about it"? I've been miserably failing and feeling worse and worse about it with each passing day. Starting to think I may have scored in the 20's -_-"
NOT EVEN CLOSE! I think that is evident by my posts hahaha. I thought being on SDN would make it worse, but it actually helped me to vent a little and get some perspective. I still think I pulled a sub-30, but now I feel better about it. Wait, that's not true. F***!
Honestly, I would say that none of them are very similar. There is a totally different feel to the actual exam. No gimme discrete questions and passages are way more dense. You will get material that you have not studied, and you will have to adjust accordingly.what AAMC FL would you guys say this was most like?
what AAMC FL would you guys say this was most like?
So uh...I'm browsing through the August MCAT threads that have had their scores posted---it's freaking me out even more to see their scores. I'm going to be a wreck in 30-ish days.