They should allow calculators for MCAT

[BillyGoatGruff]

The AAMC and Kaplan swear up and down that only basic computation is required for the MCAT. I beg to differ.

On multiple questions throughout the practice exams, I've notice that I've had to divide 3-digit numbers by 3-digit numbers, and in some cases, I've had to do this twice (for very similar sets of 3-digit decimals) and compare the results in order to find the correct result...which is conceptually easy to calculate....for example, in calculating the limiting reagent when you have 1.76g of a 286g substance reacting with 1.82g of a 296g substance.

Seriously, sometimes it seems to me like the MCAT tests your ability to do long-division as much as it does your knowledge of the material.

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[wcbcruzer]

They should... But that's just another way to filter people out from applying to medical school.

 

[mindquick]

you learn how to divide in elementary school. they give you stratch paper.

 

[chad5871]

In general, the math on the MCAT is relatively simple. Even if you have something like 7.8 x 10^-15 divided by 1.2 x 10^-12, you can do that pretty easily in your head...

7.8/1.2 is 6.5
10^(-15)/10^(-12) - (-15)-(-12) = -3

Therefore 6.5 x 10^-3.

This is just an example, but there are many ways that you can use tricks and strategies to get around the heavier math calculations.

 

[QofQuimica]

In general, the math on the MCAT is relatively simple. Even if you have something like 7.8 x 10^-15 divided by 1.2 x 10^-12, you can do that pretty easily in your head...

7.8/1.2 is 6.5
10^(-15)/10^(-12) - (-15)-(-12) = -3

Therefore 6.5 x 10^-3.

This is just an example, but there are many ways that you can use tricks and strategies to get around the heavier math calculations.

Right.

OP, if you're doing heavy-duty calculations on your practice tests, you're working way too hard.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

yup, caluclations are fairly simple.

 

[Ian1223]

No calculators needed ever.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Lol apparently you needed something Ian- with your cumulative score of 3 and all

 

[michigator04]

It would have been nice, but definitely not necessary. That being said, computation skills are one of the most important parts of the physics section on the MCAT. Obviously you need to understand the concepts and some equations, but it won't help if your answers don't match any of the choices. A lot of people lose a lot of time, and points, because they didn't practice this enough.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

It would have been nice, but definitely not necessary. That being said, computation skills are one of the most important parts of the physics section on the MCAT. Obviously you need to understand the concepts and some equations, but it won't help if your answers don't match any of the choices. A lot of people lose a lot of time, and points, because they didn't practice this enough.

Precisely. A lot of people lose time and points because some of the more "involved" computation requirements (i.e. dividing 1.86 by 298 and comparing it with the answer of 1.92/278, etc.). And for what? A test (any test) is supposed to acquire certain information important to the people using the test. What important information does AAMC acquire by having this as part of their exam? Candidate A does long division more quickly than candidate B?

 

[TurnYourHeadAnd]

most of the time when a problem seems very complicated, the values can be simplified quite a bit to make the problem more simple. In general try and round as much as possible and estimate when the answers are far apart. This skill is critical to having enough time on the PS section.

 

[xrevision]

I've taken all the AAMC tests and the real MCAT and never once did I think I wasn't going to finish the PS if I didn't have a calculator. Some of the kaplan tests though.... some of those calculations were rough and were not representative of anything I saw on the real test.

 

[studiddy]

Precisely. A lot of people lose time and points because some of the more "involved" computation requirements (i.e. dividing 1.86 by 298 and comparing it with the answer of 1.92/278, etc.). And for what? A test (any test) is supposed to acquire certain information important to the people using the test. What important information does AAMC acquire by having this as part of their exam? Candidate A does long division more quickly than candidate B?

Using your logic, why even have a test in the first place? All it's going to show is that A is better than B at this or that, whether testing math, bio, etc.
1.86/ 298 in and of itself looks tough, but can be done easily.
300/ 180 ~ 1.6. 100/1.6 ~ 63ish. Move the decimal back 4 places to the left to make up for the initial rounding and the 100/1.6 part and you get .0063, which isn't too far off the calculator answer of 0.00624.

This:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307338401
just came in today with my Schaum's genetics book, and while I haven't read past the first chapter, so far it looks very promising. The first few pages are probably worth the ten bucks by themselves, especially the part about quickly finding squares.

 

[Raryn]

That and the fact that the answers on the MCAT are almost never close to each other.

1.86/298 can easily be rounded to 2/300 which is .0066. If your options are then A. .103 B. .064 C. .0062 D. .012, then its obvious which is the right answer. The most important part on the PS part is getting the correct order of magnitude...

 

[studiddy]

That and the fact that the answers on the MCAT are almost never close to each other.

1.86/298 can easily be rounded to 2/300 which is .0066. If your options are then A. .103 B. .064 C. .0062 D. .012, then its obvious which is the right answer. The most important part on the PS part is getting the correct order of magnitude...

Speaking of orders of magnitude, I came across a stand-alone asking me about them. Something along the lines of "how many orders of magnitude are there between 1,000 and 1,000,000,000."
For some reason, I simply can never get that stuff straight. I know it's as easy as just remembering what it its, but I never do. It just never sticks. Kind of odd.

 

[supafield]

Speaking of orders of magnitude, I came across a stand-alone asking me about them. Something along the lines of "how many orders of magnitude are there between 1,000 and 1,000,000,000."
For some reason, I simply can never get that stuff straight. I know it's as easy as just remembering what it its, but I never do. It just never sticks. Kind of odd.

Count the extra zeros!

 

[ldnk]

The MCAT doesn't test difficult math, but things like this separate people who can think in their head as they work. Know the material and you should have plenty of time to fiddle with any calculations.

 

[Vihsadas]

Count the extra zeros!

Yes, and to be more explicit, the difference in order of magnitude is really just the number of times you have to multiply the smaller number by "10" to the get the bigger number...which is the same as counting the number of zeros.

 

[supafield]

I think we should be thankful the AAMC doesn't allow calculators....

If they did the physical section would become a math test.. they could include things calculus related... and then everyone would whine about why the AAMC makes the math so god-awful lol.

 

[xjustbreathex]

O man - I am soooooo glad the MCAT doesnt allow use of calculators. Can you imagine the kind of crap they would make us do if we had the use of a math machine?!

Like it was said above, the MAJORITY of math questions on the MCAT are purely questions of order of magnitude. Know your units of measure, master scientific notation, practice rounding and it will be mostly 6th grade math.

OP - At first I felt like you did. But then I realized that I was approaching some of those problems that seemed impossible from the very wrong angle. A lot of times if you look at the answer choices you can reason your way down to a 50/50 ("Well A and C are out because they are less than X, and I know I am looking for an answer that is larger than X). Then you can round and get the answer without all of the crazy calculations.

 

[Kaustikos]

O man - I am soooooo glad the MCAT doesnt allow use of calculators. Can you imagine the kind of crap they would make us do if we had the use of a math machine?!

Like it was said above, the MAJORITY of math questions on the MCAT are purely questions of order of magnitude. Know your units of measure, master scientific notation, practice rounding and it will be mostly 6th grade math.

OP - At first I felt like you did. But then I realized that I was approaching some of those problems that seemed impossible from the very wrong angle. A lot of times if you look at the answer choices you can reason your way down to a 50/50 ("Well A and C are out because they are less than X, and I know I am looking for an answer that is larger than X). Then you can round and get the answer without all of the crazy calculations.

Exactly. if anything, the "involved" ones are only about using conceptual reasoning to get your answers. They don't expect you to spend time on the questions.

 

[What up doc]

i agree that the calculations are relatively easy...but i dont see how my ability to understand physical science has 2 do with my way 2 do annoying calculations under time pressure..its stupid...i feel like i would have got a 15 on the ps were it not for the stupid calc errors i kno i made...f*ck the mcat

 

[Raryn]

i agree that the calculations are relatively easy...but i dont see how my ability to understand physical science has 2 do with my way 2 do annoying calculations under time pressure..its stupid...i feel like i would have got a 15 on the ps were it not for the stupid calc errors i kno i made...f*ck the mcat

Reading your posts hurts my eyes.

 

[bluemonkey]

i agree that the calculations are relatively easy...but i dont see how my ability to understand physical science has 2 do with my way 2 do annoying calculations under time pressure..its stupid...i feel like i would have got a 15 on the ps were it not for the stupid calc errors i kno i made...f*ck the mcat

Most people would probably score a 40+ if they had all weekend to work on the test. The entire point is to see how well you can critically think in a time-pressured environment. Would you want just anyone becoming a physician? There has to be some standard criteria, like it or not.

 

[mdmaybe1]

There was a kid on my june 13th test that walked in and was insistent that he could use his calculator much to the test centers denials..lol guess he didn't get the memo

 

[What up doc]

Reading your posts hurts my eyes.

lol...get some spectacles

 

[What up doc]

Most people would probably score a 40+ if they had all weekend to work on the test. The entire point is to see how well you can critically think in a time-pressured environment. Would you want just anyone becoming a physician? There has to be some standard criteria, like it or not.

lol..i never said all weekend...and i know there should be some objective way of screening ppl...i just dont agree with the way its done on the PS section of the mcat...as hard as the verbal is, i dont really mind it...and the BS would be okay if they didnt lie and say all u need was bio 1 & 2

 

[Raigon]

If you are finding calculations hard, what I would suggest for you is to go buy the EK Verbal and Math 7th edition (or borrow it from someone you know who has it) and learn to round. Saves time. 99.9931415926...% accurate. PIE. XD

 

[dingyibvs]

The AAMC and Kaplan swear up and down that only basic computation is required for the MCAT. I beg to differ.

On multiple questions throughout the practice exams, I've notice that I've had to divide 3-digit numbers by 3-digit numbers, and in some cases, I've had to do this twice (for very similar sets of 3-digit decimals) and compare the results in order to find the correct result...which is conceptually easy to calculate....for example, in calculating the limiting reagent when you have 1.76g of a 286g substance reacting with 1.82g of a 296g substance.

Seriously, sometimes it seems to me like the MCAT tests your ability to do long-division as much as it does your knowledge of the material.

Some practice tests go a lil crazy on the numbers, but on the real MCAT you won't see any questions as stupid as the one you posted.

 

[Marcus Brody]

Like hell they should. I already memorized all of the logs and natural log ratios and about 20 square roots.

 

[Raryn]

Like hell they should. I already memorized all of the logs and natural log ratios and about 20 square roots.

Why? All you need is sqrt(2), sqrt(3), and then just remember log(3)=.5