The Official September 6, 2014 MCAT Thread

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oxelhs

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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.

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Don't rush it! You wanna be confident going in. Give yourself as much time as you need. Rushing it is gonna put extra stress on you which will effect your performance.. :) good luck!

The problem is there aren't any available NY locations at all at the moment (there was one very good location last night that I missed by about 20 minutes, logged out and logged back in after studying a bit more and it was gone:( ). So I am hoping before their gold deadline for rescheduling which is August 19th, I can find a location that is appropriate for me.
But I also am keeping my September 6 plan, I reviewed it and found a way to do my AAMC 11 on Sept 1st. But my fear is the schedule that I have just adjusted may burn me out. So hopefully by Friday, I can find out if there is an open spot but for the time being I will follow my Sept 6th. schedule that I made.
 
10/10/11 on TPR FL 5. Can't seem to break a 31 in the tests recently but I will take this over a 7 in verbal any day.
 
Hey guys I postponed my MCAT till 9/18 mostly out of the fear I may burn myself out too much by 9/6. The schedule that I had for 9/6 was a little overwhelming for me (was possible to do but it may cause a burnout days before the real MCAT). Good luck to you guys!
 
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Orgo self assessment = 85%

once again not rly satisfied. Lets see how my 2nd FL goes tomorrow
 
Finished AAMC 6:
10/7/10 = 27

Disappointed in my lack of content. For passages where I was strong in content, I'd get 0 wrong and fly through them. When I reached areas where I had little to no content knowledge (dont ask how I'm at this point with unfamiliarity in content lol) I'd get 3-4 wrong. I got 5 discretes wrong in PS :l those are supposed to be automatic for the most part. Aiming for a 32 by September 6th, Id say thats an attainable goal. Gotta work on verbal :\
 
How is VR prep going for you guys? I have been practicing with Kaplan FL's, doing a few passages at a time and spending lots of time doing post game analysis.
 
How is VR prep going for you guys? I have been practicing with Kaplan FL's, doing a few passages at a time and spending lots of time doing post game analysis.
It's going alright, consistent with basically 1 wrong max per passage, except the oddball 3 wrong per passage still come up once in a while.

Just finished the free passages from Tprhl verbal, now gonna do the tests and verbal SA.
 
I'm retaking the test on 9/6. I've been reading through the thread a little bit and thought I'd share some insight.

Clearly I didn't do well on my first test. I actually scored 5 points below my AAMC FL average and I took most of them along with a bunch of other practice, which is obviously disappointing. That's not meant to worry anyone, I just suggest you don't hang everything on those tests. Be honest with yourself and look at content areas that you know you don't understand and struggle through those. Even if you get the same question wrong 7 times, you're much less likely to get it wrong on test day. Unfortunately, I had a test that picked every single one of my weak areas and it killed me.

A note on the SAs, don't beat yourself up if you do poorly at the end and think you're getting worse. I printed all of them out and wrote whether the question was easy or hard and realized that they set them up so the end is heavy on hard questions and the beginning is heavy on easy questions.

This time I'm sticking strictly to practice. Still having a hard time improving on verbal though. I have a really hard time focusing all the way through a passage and by the time I finish I don't understand it as well as I would like to. I'm not a huge reader (as in I don't read novels in my spare time) so I feel like that's part of it.

Lastly, give yourself a break every once in a while. This time around I've given myself a day where I don't do a single thing to study (gasp!) but it makes me so much more focused on the days that I do study and I'm able to put in a lot more quality hours.
 
I'm retaking the test on 9/6. I've been reading through the thread a little bit and thought I'd share some insight.

Clearly I didn't do well on my first test. I actually scored 5 points below my AAMC FL average and I took most of them along with a bunch of other practice, which is obviously disappointing. That's not meant to worry anyone, I just suggest you don't hang everything on those tests. Be honest with yourself and look at content areas that you know you don't understand and struggle through those. Even if you get the same question wrong 7 times, you're much less likely to get it wrong on test day. Unfortunately, I had a test that picked every single one of my weak areas and it killed me.

A note on the SAs, don't beat yourself up if you do poorly at the end and think you're getting worse. I printed all of them out and wrote whether the question was easy or hard and realized that they set them up so the end is heavy on hard questions and the beginning is heavy on easy questions.

This time I'm sticking strictly to practice. Still having a hard time improving on verbal though. I have a really hard time focusing all the way through a passage and by the time I finish I don't understand it as well as I would like to. I'm not a huge reader (as in I don't read novels in my spare time) so I feel like that's part of it.

Lastly, give yourself a break every once in a while. This time around I've given myself a day where I don't do a single thing to study (gasp!) but it makes me so much more focused on the days that I do study and I'm able to put in a lot more quality hours.

Agree with the SAs.....It's so hard for me to keep focused towards the end--so I feel like I get even more questions wrong than I normally would if it were a FL. Toward the end of all my SAs, I would be making mistakes I normally don't make (not reading all the answer choices, misreading the question stems and answering the opposite of the question ahhaha, and mixing up my formulas...like usin A=vt instead of V=AT hahaha).
 
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I just finished AAMC 8 today and seriously got punched in the face. Ended up with an 8/13/8. I'm starting to really get concerned about my PS score. My gen chem has been solid, but the physics portion is just tearing me to pieces every time. The highest I've been able to get on any of my PS tests is a 9 ughhh. 3 weeks to go and I need to bring my score up by atleast 3-4 points :(!!!
 
I'm retaking the test on 9/6. I've been reading through the thread a little bit and thought I'd share some insight.

Clearly I didn't do well on my first test. I actually scored 5 points below my AAMC FL average and I took most of them along with a bunch of other practice, which is obviously disappointing. That's not meant to worry anyone, I just suggest you don't hang everything on those tests. Be honest with yourself and look at content areas that you know you don't understand and struggle through those. Even if you get the same question wrong 7 times, you're much less likely to get it wrong on test day. Unfortunately, I had a test that picked every single one of my weak areas and it killed me.

A note on the SAs, don't beat yourself up if you do poorly at the end and think you're getting worse. I printed all of them out and wrote whether the question was easy or hard and realized that they set them up so the end is heavy on hard questions and the beginning is heavy on easy questions.

This time I'm sticking strictly to practice. Still having a hard time improving on verbal though. I have a really hard time focusing all the way through a passage and by the time I finish I don't understand it as well as I would like to. I'm not a huge reader (as in I don't read novels in my spare time) so I feel like that's part of it.

Lastly, give yourself a break every once in a while. This time around I've given myself a day where I don't do a single thing to study (gasp!) but it makes me so much more focused on the days that I do study and I'm able to put in a lot more quality hours.

I took a practice passage (Verbal) today after like a week off..bombed the crap out of it. :( I was like wtf, no! Anyway practice is key! Before my week off. Everyday.. I was reading an article either from New yorker, Economist, The Atlantic. Summarizing each paragraph, @ the end writing, Topic, scope, purpose. It was helping my score...until I took a week off. When you are reading articles from the above...try and focus on reading articles from humanities, science...etc. Expose yourself to different material/articles. Practice practice! Also I found these links tonight. Hope they help!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-vr-strategy-thats-working-really-well-for-me.936176/
 
Did AAMC 5 today, my 2nd full length practice. Got 34 (13/10/11) again. Kinda disappointed since I didn't improve since the last FL 5 days ago
 
Quick question - can someone explain to me how the density of water increases when salt is added? I came across a question on bouyant force stating that if salt is added, density of water is increased, thus bouyant force is increased and the submerged object rises.
 
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Finished my first aamc today - I did terrible. It was a good indicator though since I know what to study and how to do it properly now. Looking forward to the SAs and also the next aamcs.

I am in a similar position. How are you studying now (after the practice test)? After my first AAMC FL, I have spent the last few days reviewing content and doing more practice passages and lots of FSQ's. I have not reviewed the FL yet but I will do it one more time tomorrow and then review.
 
Hi pacer,

Firstly, I'm reviewing my errors from the exam and working on those, and then doing some practice for my weak parts using some question/passage generator website. The reason I'm using this site is so I can narrow down what topics I want to work on, so I can target my weaknesses, etc. Then I will be doing my AAMC SAs, and finally the rest of my aamc tests. Hope that helps!

Which website are you using?
 
I took a practice passage (Verbal) today after like a week off..bombed the crap out of it. :( I was like wtf, no! Anyway practice is key! Before my week off. Everyday.. I was reading an article either from New yorker, Economist, The Atlantic. Summarizing each paragraph, @ the end writing, Topic, scope, purpose. It was helping my score...until I took a week off. When you are reading articles from the above...try and focus on reading articles from humanities, science...etc. Expose yourself to different material/articles. Practice practice! Also I found these links tonight. Hope they help!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-vr-strategy-thats-working-really-well-for-me.936176/

yeah I've been doing passages from TPRH almost every singe day and I feel like I'm getting better at understanding the authors main idea and whatnot and I've been doing many passages and getting 0 questions wrong. But then I took a practice test from EK101 and I did horribly, so I don't know if I'm actually improving
 
yeah I've been doing passages from TPRH almost every singe day and I feel like I'm getting better at understanding the authors main idea and whatnot and I've been doing many passages and getting 0 questions wrong. But then I took a practice test from EK101 and I did horribly, so I don't know if I'm actually improving

I think that might be because you are getting comfortable with TPRH's passages.... So maybe mix em up.. Do a few from TPRH and a few from Ek101... Constantly change up your situation...stay positive.! I got super discouraged when I bombed my passage but it turns out.. I was not actively reading..and didn't really think about the questions as hard as I could.
 
Quick question - can someone explain to me how the density of water increases when salt is added? I came across a question on bouyant force stating that if salt is added, density of water is increased, thus bouyant force is increased and the submerged object rises.

From my understanding, adding salt to water causes water to enter into a more ordered structure because of solvation of solute. Because the water molecules are closer together to solvate the solute, the water is denser. The object that was submerged would have to be not much denser than water, but if the water became denser than the object, the object would have to float.

Hope that helps!
 
Been doing passages from TPR Science Workbook last couple of days. Tomorrow is my sixth FL, been averaging around a 30. Plan to write 5, maybe 6 more FLs. Almost there guys!
 
Been doing passages from TPR Science Workbook last couple of days. Tomorrow is my sixth FL, been averaging around a 30. Plan to write 5, maybe 6 more FLs. Almost there guys!
I just bought TPRHSW today, getting it Tuesday. That is gonna be my bible until the actual test. Gonna try to crank out every single problem cover to cover in 2 weeks while doing FL every 3 days
 
So 3 weeks left boys and gals, how you guys going to be distributing your time? And what's your realistic goal score/spread?
 
3rd ever AAMC FL! #5 here I go. I'm glad I'm actually feeling worried/stressed about this one--hopefully this means my concentration will be much better than the AAMC Self assessments...

I'm probably going to crap myself if my score hasn't improved. But that will be a good thing! It'll light a fire and hopefully kick my studying into gear :)
 
AAHHHHH! :( My composite score is the same, but my sciences dropped. AHH. I can see why MCAT is demoralizing. 11/12/10. Not to surprised about BS--Biology is the bane of my existence. BUT! WTF happened to PS? Got all the physics questions right but did absolutely atrocious on the chemistry section. Going to comb through it in depth tomorrow but to say this isn't discouraging would be a total lie. I have always been banking on PS being my highest scoring section with usually at least a 12.

BS is also sad...I've been trying to aim for a 12 on that section since I started studying (have yet to get a 12..but still).

I am also convinced that verbal is a fluke, I thought this verbal section was much easier than the AAMC SA Verbal and AAMC 3 and 4. I usually score around a 10, so I would actually think I got a 31 on AAMC 5.

At least I'm more motivated now....People usually improve in the sciences instead of get worse. T_T
 
So 3 weeks left boys and gals, how you guys going to be distributing your time? And what's your realistic goal score/spread?

I think I'm just going to be reviewing each chapter from Physics and Gen Chem while spacing out practice tests and then reviewing some physiology for Bio and mixing some TPRH/EK101 verbal in there. Honestly this test is more about problem solving than sheer memorizing, most of the content is given to you in the passage and there are rarely like wacko oddball discretes you would only be able to answer if you memorized X paragraph on Y page. I'm not entirely sure why people spend months purely studying content for this exam, unless they didn't learn it the first time around in their prereqs.

My goal all along has been a 37+ and my AAMCs have been around there, but my PS is usually a bit lower than my other two sections so I'm trying to bring that up closer to a 13. I'd be really ecstatic with like a 13 13 12 or like 14 12 12 or 13 12 12.
 
I think I'm just going to be reviewing each chapter from Physics and Gen Chem while spacing out practice tests and then reviewing some physiology for Bio and mixing some TPRH/EK101 verbal in there. Honestly this test is more about problem solving than sheer memorizing, most of the content is given to you in the passage and there are rarely like wacko oddball discretes you would only be able to answer if you memorized X paragraph on Y page. I'm not entirely sure why people spend months purely studying content for this exam, unless they didn't learn it the first time around in their prereqs.

My goal all along has been a 37+ and my AAMCs have been around there, but my PS is usually a bit lower than my other two sections so I'm trying to bring that up closer to a 13. I'd be really ecstatic with like a 13 13 12 or like 14 12 12 or 13 12 12.
Wow that's great, I'd kill for a 12 in verbal. I'm hoping for 13/10/13
 
Hi, everyone!
I am in a bit of a dilemma. I am currently registered for the Sept.6th MCAT. I put aside a full summer to prepare for this test. Currently, I have a very low Verbal score of around 6-7. When I used to time myself for just 1 or 2 verbal passages, I used to do fine (getting only 1-2 wrongs or sometimes all correct answers). However, when I started timing myself for all 7 passages, I realized I lack basic test-taking skills i.e. I cannot get through all 7 passages, feel rushed and make more mistakes than what I used to previously (while doing just 1-2 passages). I feel like I studied for the Verbal section in a wrong manner. Since the past few days, I have been trying new techniques to figure out what works for me. I have around 20 days until the test and I don't think I am prepared enough to reach my target score of 11 in the verbal section. I think with right techniques and enough practice I can definitely pull up my score. I have read tons of inspiring stories of people in this forum who started with my score and have gotten 11-12 in verbal.

The thing is I don't want to go in unprepared. I only have until this Thursday to postpone my test, else I will have to pay full price to register for another test. A part of me wants to write the test and give it a shot. Another part of me wants to write and then void it. However, I also want to give my very best and get it done in one shot. In order to do so, I am thinking of pushing my test to 25th of October to go through all GS + AAMC practice tests, pull up my verbal score and work on my test-taking skills. However, school starts from the first week of September and I am worried if school+MCAT will be too much to handle. I have a bit lighter schedule for the fall and a bit heavier schedule during the spring, so I want to get it done before next semester starts. Considering I have all my content down and have gone through the TPR science workbook completely, I don't have to start from scratch. I can keep up with content review from Kaplan, EK, etc books every now and then; juggling school, verbal practice and practice tests.

Does this make sense? :( What do you guys advice me to do? Should I take time to work on my verbal? Will school + MCAT be too much to handle? Are any of you in a similar situation? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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Ugh I just took AAMC 5 and got a 33 (11/12/10)... my BS and PS were terrible, but then again I finished them with 20-25 minutes left and just wanted to go eat dinner so idk. Silly mistakes for some of them but I just didn't pick up on them as I went through it, idk why. I don't have a lot of motivation left to keep going with the MCAT, it's really wasting my time.
 
Ugh I just took AAMC 5 and got a 33 (11/12/10)... my BS and PS were terrible, but then again I finished them with 20-25 minutes left and just wanted to go eat dinner so idk. Silly mistakes for some of them but I just didn't pick up on them as I went through it, idk why. I don't have a lot of motivation left to keep going with the MCAT, it's really wasting my time.
Don't get Into that attitude, rly going to hurt if you do. Just think how much effort you put in so far, wouldn't want to waste it because you're "tired"
 
Jeez.. Just finished AAMC 4 and got 34 (14/9/11). That's 3 FL I do and each of them I got 34. I want to get 11 in VR but it just doesn't seem to happen.
 
Hey guys, in what order did you solve your FLs, between Kaplan and Aamc. Did you alternate? Did you solve all of Kap FLs then turned to AAMC? How'd you do it?
 
Is PS on the actual MCAT really that much harder than practice tests?
That's kind of a really difficult question. My first MCAT last September had a very calculation heavy PS. This doesn't mean it is more difficult, just means you have to know your stuff a bit better.

But ways remember, if you get a difficult PS section, odds are that everyone else found it difficult also and it will be weighted different. So don't worry it will all pan out
 
Scored 12/11/10 on AAMC 5. Finally happy with a FL though I did make a few stupid errors (as always). Hoping the trend remains this way.
 
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Scored 12/11/10 on AAMC 5. Finally happy with a FL though I did make a few stupid errors (as always). Hoping the trend remains this way.

Thats funny I just got that on AAMC 9 today.
I am also a bio major fml and I cannot get that passed a 10. #embarrassing
 
Thats funny I just got that on AAMC 9 today.
I am also a bio major fml and I cannot get that passed a 10. #embarrassing

Got my first 11 in BS yesterday :singing: also a bio major. I have no explanation for myself.
 
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Kaplan 1 - 10/8/8
Kaplan 2 - 12/10/10
AAMC 3 - 10/13/14
AAMC 4 - 11/12/13
AAMC 5 - 11/12/10
AAMC 7 - 11/14/12

someone pls explain why i can't get above an 11 on the AAMCs for PS even though all I've been studying is Physics and why my Biology is all over the place :scared:

I really just want a 12 or 13 on PS and BS, and then a 12 on Verbal.
 
Kaplan 1 - 10/8/8
Kaplan 2 - 12/10/10
AAMC 3 - 10/13/14
AAMC 4 - 11/12/13
AAMC 5 - 11/12/10
AAMC 7 - 11/14/12

someone pls explain why i can't get above an 11 on the AAMCs for PS even though all I've been studying is Physics and why my Biology is all over the place :scared:

I really just want a 12 or 13 on PS and BS, and then a 12 on Verbal.
Perhaps you have random small content gaps in PS and in BS? If not, then I think your careless mistakes are still present.

Any tips for doing so well in verbal?
 
Perhaps you have random small content gaps in PS and in BS? If not, then I think your careless mistakes are still present.

Ah maybe... how do I limit the number of careless mistakes I make? So many times in the answer key when I look back, I'm like ugh how did I make that mistake.

For Verbal, if it's a Natural science passage (or soft natural science passage like psych/anthro), I normally don't really passage map but I instead highlight the main points/examples of each paragraph. These types of essays lend themselves nicely to that. For social sciences (like economics/history/politics) I find them literally SO boring. So I passage map them. And then philosophy ones I also passage map because it's a lot of high-falutin fluff with really only several points in each essay if you think about it.

Once you dissect the main points and argumentative flow, you can answer at least 2/3 of the questions pretty clearly. And then the rest of them are just like either putting together clues/finding details in the passage, which is just grunt work. I would say one thing that has worked pretty well in narrowing down answer choices and smartly picking between the last two is re-reading the first and last paragraph (major points are always there, normally an answer choice that can be rephrased/supported by text in 1st and last paragraph is the right answer) and if something is more subjective, absolute words like always/never/must/definitely/etc. tip me off as sketch so I normally cross them off after quickly verifying they're not in line.

I did all of TPRH. My scores got better as I went along. Um. I don't really like EK101. It has a lot of trick answer choices.
 
Just scored another 33......3 in a row. I'm remarkably consistent--yet that's quite discouraging considering I need that damn 2 point improvement! Going to go cry in a corner now before getting right back to it T_T. WHAT CAN I DO!?!??!?!??!
 
Just scored another 33......3 in a row. I'm remarkably consistent--yet that's quite discouraging considering I need that damn 2 point improvement! Going to go cry in a corner now before getting right back to it T_T. WHAT CAN I DO!?!??!?!??!
I got 34 3 times in a row. Just did my 4th FL today, AAMC7 and got 35(14/10/11). So don't worry you'll go up on the 4th one like me! :)
 
I got 34 3 times in a row. Just did my 4th FL today, AAMC7 and got 35(14/10/11). So don't worry you'll go up on the 4th one like me! :)

:( I hope so...It's quite discouraging to think that after about a month of studying, your score hasn't moved a bit. And now there's only 2 weeks left to move my score up to 13/10/12..which was my ideal score (anything 10+ in verbal is a bonus for me...) I think I must have annoyed everyone else around me with my ranting for the past 2 hours. Oh well, time to cover some PS sections so that I might be able to sleep tonight.
 
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