The Official August 16, 2013 MCAT Thread

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gettheleadout

gettheleadout

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Welcome everyone! For those following the SN2ed or a similar 3-month study schedule, prep should begin in the next few weeks.

Hope to see some ambitious and optimistic people here with me, and shout out to the 3/23'ers from before I bailed on that test date.

Let's go!
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It's all a blur now, but I remember giving questions in PS and BS a serious WTF look. There were some terms in BS that I'd never heard of before. But the experimental section.... As bad as that test was, I am so grateful to not be taking the test after 2015. Wow.
 
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I'm lurking to see how everyone's comments on today's test compared to yesterday. PS was brutal yesterday, or at least calculation heavy. And many people were saying BS was craptastic too, but moreso because the material was unfamiliar.
 
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Just got out. That trial section.. Wow is all I have to say. I doubt it if even a good PhD student would feel comfortable doing those questions.
 
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yelldan said:
It's all a blur now, but I remember giving questions in PS and BS a serious WTF look. There were some terms in BS that I'd never heard of before. But the experimental section.... As bad as that test was, I am so grateful to not be taking the test after 2015. Wow.
Click to expand...

The first two PS passages were familiar experiments but as far as the questions asked about them....WTF. I felt like there were only maybe two high yield concepts on that entire section. Really pisses me off but we will see. Every time I've felt terrible about one of these things I've done well.
 
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HotHamH2O said:
The first two PS passages were familiar experiments but as far as the questions asked about them....WTF. I felt like there were only maybe two high yield concepts on that entire section. Really pisses me off but we will see. Every time I've felt terrible about one of these things I've done well.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I was pretty pissed. But overall, seems okay.

BS had some questions involving concepts that I'd never seen before.
 
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Seemed like all the physics questions on the PS were mostly of the same topic, the ones in the passages at least. I saw the first passage and was like crap but wasn't so bad after seeing the questions, few were nonsense though.

VR is pointless to talk about. Longer passages than AAMC exams for sure

Few BS orgo questions threw me off a bit with the answer choices. Especially this one question. AAMC 11 BS was much easier than today, for me at least. I wish I had the ebola type passage from AAMC 11 than the one's I got today.

The trial section was ridiculous. Felt like I was back in my bio research class reading papers that made no sense.
 
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Yeah the physics section didn't really ask any of the high yield questions I thought they would at all. I too looked at it first, got scared, moved on and came back. It didn't seem as bad the second time around. There was also a lot more calculations involved than was seen in the AAMCs. Kinda like what people were saying from yesterday's exam. Definitely doable though.

Orgo was what struck me as a surprise the most. I guess mainly by how many were on there compared to the practice exams. There was a good amount of just basic basic knowledge needed though and now I regret having spent the time I did on trying to memorize reagents. And as far as biology goes, well that's just a different story. So many difficult passages :mad:
 
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That was unbelievably difficult. I took the one in May, much easier. WTH man? Does anybody know if the real deal follows the same "more than ten and you do horribly" rule or are they going to throw out some questions? This was really ridiculous. Felt better about verbal, not so great about everything else.
 
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First time going through, PS felt relentless with a quite a few things from out of nowhere; after going back through it didn't seem as bad but still felt like a step up from all the AAMCs. VR is same...BS was ok but surprisingly Orgo heavy which I wasn't too thrilled about. All in all, felt ehh. It was hard but hopefully reasoning worked. As people have been saying, the new MCAT does really emphasize application of knowledge more than regurgitation.
 
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Agreed.
PS wasn't too bad, but the Verbal passages were looooonnnnggg. Having taken Systems Physiology, Endocrinology, Cell Bio & Neuro, & Genetics, the Bio section went pretty good. I hope.:rolleyes:
 
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I didn't feel so great about that. :eek:

From what I'd heard, I thought the testing centres weren't so large. It was pretty crowded and I think about 90-100 people were writing today.

My thoughts:

PS - I am VERY lucky that I took 2nd year quantum physics and 4th year course on a subject that showed up pretty much word for word that I can't say because it'll violate my NDA :laugh: There were a few tricky questions that needed some outside the box thinking, but nothing too bad. I'm hoping to hit a 13-14 from 12-15 on practice.

VR - The passages were LONG. I didn't realize how long they'd be, one of them was 7 or 8 paragraphs. I did not feel good at all, I was hitting 11s on my AAMCs but at this point, I'm just hoping for a 10.

BS - Disaster. So much orgo (3 passages I think plus a few discretes) and many times I came across concepts or terms I was unfamiliar with. The straight bio passages were easier since they were so experimental but there were a few questions randomly scattered that seemed like trivia and I just had to make an educated guess and move on. I hit between 11-14 on practice for bio and I'm expecting a 10-11.

Experimental - I had biochem, it wasn't super difficult, but it's just so much more info to learn. I'm glad that I don't have the 2015 test. :laugh:
 
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Everyone - "It was hard, I really hope I hit my averages."

gtlo - "Once, during the exam, I almost used my scratch paper."
 
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You never feel amazing after a test like that. However, I feel a lot better than my first try when I got a 25.

PS I felt was pretty ok. The passages didn't seem that bad and they were all topics that I focused on as they were weak spots. Hoping for an 11-13.

Verbal is verbal. And I don't like verbal. Hoping for a 10 at least.

BS was a little challenging. Most passages were difficult to get through but the info was there. Hopefully at least a 10 there too!

I was in love with one of those passages just because I had seen it all the time at my job. Won't say it though :)
 
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WTF...way too much o chem and not enough bio on a test that is an admissions test for MEDICAL SCHOOL....not pleased by any means. i wish my bonus section counted towards my score because there were a ton of physiology questions :/ ughhhhh
 
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I feel...okay. I definitely don't feel like I performed up to my fullest potential. I couldn't stomach any breakfast or lunch so I didn't eat, the noise-reduction headphones were too tight and uncomfortable, and I had to book it to my car to refill my parking meter during each break.

PS: When I started I literally was like WTF. Physics heavy. However, the second time I went through I began to see the underlying concepts they were testing. I feel pretty good about this section, it's normally my best section so I'm hoping I hit my average. *fingers crossed*
VR: Totally. Bombed. it. I wasn't focused. The passages seemed longer yet easy however I found myself stuck between 2 answers on a large chunk of the questions. I also ran out of time. I normally do well on VR but I am absolutely sure I totally bombed this section.
BS: Bio was similar to AAMC 10 and 11. I normally do pretty well on BS but having never finished content review, I was really worried that there would be a ton of discretes that required knowledge of miscellaneous overly-specific facts... but,... there wasn't ANY. OChem on the other hand was terrible. I never really studied it in detail during content review because it seemed pretty easy on the practice AAMCs. Totally regret that now.

AAMC Average (3,5,6,7,8,9, & 10):
PS Range: 11-14, Average: 13
VR Range: 11-12, Average: 11.5
BS Range: 11-14, Average: 12.8
Composite Range: 33-40, Average: 37

Post-Test Prediction:
PS: 12-14
VR: 8-10 (I hope :( )
BS: 11-13
Composite: 32-37

Overall, I'm just happy to have my life back.

EDIT: As soon as I finished the survey I left. I honestly couldn't care less about the trial section. My brain was already mush.
 
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HotHamH2O said:
So it sounds like I'm the only one who though PS was obscure?
Click to expand...

I thought so the first time I went through. The second time I went directly to the questions first and skimmed the passage only for relevant equations and/or details. It was MUCH easier that way to get a grasp on what they were looking for.
 
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HotHamH2O said:
So it sounds like I'm the only one who though PS was obscure?
Click to expand...

PS had a few odd balls, but overall not that unusual.

VR, wondering what the scale will be...

BS was different, maybe in the direction of 2015 content? This has me wondering if my least favorite passages were experimentals.
 
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athockey7 said:
Everyone - "It was hard, I really hope I hit my averages."

gtlo - "Once, during the exam, I almost used my scratch paper."
Click to expand...

:laugh: :thumbup:

Okay, in all seriousness, here's my review:

PS: Laughably easy. There was one question I found moderately hard, but many I thought were just jokes. Overall, I would say most similar to the PS sections on the early AAMC tests. Simply due to paranoia and excessive checking of answers while working I finished with less time remaining than normal; I usually finish PS with 10 minutes or so, and I finished with only a couple minutes remaining. Oh, and I actually used a full side of the first sheet of scratch paper.

VR: Slightly easier than expected. Several questions I found difficult, though made reasonably confident choices on. I don't believe the passages were any longer than normal, though because of the monitor size and resolution, they required more scrolling than I was used to, so I would agree with Synapsis' characterization in the August 9th thread that the need for additional scrolling may give the appearance of length. My timing was as expected, also suggesting normal passage length. High readability in general and I would say overall, felt like the AAMC test VR sections where I scored highest. Finished with 4 minutes or so remaining, as usual.

BS: Noticeably more difficult than PS, but close to the level of difficulty I was expecting. Several challenging questions where I didn't fully understand the answer until returning after marking them. One question where I literally had no idea how it was intended to be solved, got it down to 50/50 and guessed. Overall, I would say most similar to the later AAMC tests. Finished with 7 minutes or so remaining, slightly less than normal.

Overall: I expected much worse. I didn't think this was difficult, save for a few questions, and I expect to score near my average. I would not characterize any of the sections as being "killer" or stand-out difficult, so I would not expect an unusually lenient scale on any section. I feel the AAMC FL's were representative in terms of difficulty and content presentation, and I hope the same goes for scores.

Trial Section: I'm a psych major, so I'm probably coming into this with more experience that some test takers, but I didn't think this was hard at all. I would not have expected substantially more difficulty had I been a bio major, aside from some content deficiencies. 2015'ers and beyond, from my experience I really wouldn't worry about it, just wait until you need to prep and assess everything then.

We'll see what happens! I'm happy to answer any other questions provided they don't constitute a breach of the Examinee Agreement, and I'd like to reiterate to others that violations of such should not take place in this thread (or any other).
 
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HotHamH2O said:
So it sounds like I'm the only one who though PS was obscure?
Click to expand...

Nah def. felt like the PS section was obscure. They gave passages in which the set ups were unfamiliar but I guess the questions tested more familiar concepts.
 
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Gauss44 said:
BS was different, maybe in the direction of 2015 content? This has me wondering if my least favorite passages were experimentals.
Click to expand...

I thought all of the sections on the test are graded. Are there some that aren't?

Lol I think I did better on the trial section than I did on the actual test
 
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HotHamH2O said:
PS was stupid. The rest was fine. That's all I have to say.
Click to expand...

tennisalex said:
Strangely I thought the PS wasn't too bad. Verbal definitely wasn't terrible, but the BS section though... Anybody else thought it was brutal?
Click to expand...

Interesting... I agree with my second quote mostly - PS wasn't too bad, I thought the verbal section was easier than the practice exams.

Bio though. omgwtfbbq I got destroyed by bio
 
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I thought the test was much harder than AAMC 10 and 11 and agree with a lot of what's been said already-- PS seemed kind of out there, BS was okay but there were a handful of questions that were very questionable. Verbal passages seemed so much longer than normal.. maybe it was the font size or maybe the text screen was narrower than typical, I don't know, but I didn't have time to spare like I usually do. On one of the passages I was like .... I could barely figure out what the argument was. I don't even know if the author knew what he was trying to say..

Also, trial section: yikes.
 
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We shall see. Let the waiting game begin.

By the way, whats up with "Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 41 (13 members and 28 guests)"

Guests don't wanna chime in huh?
 
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BlackTea said:
If it makes you feel better, I was definitely thrown off by PS and that's normally my best section. Oh well. I guess all we can do is hope now.

Btw thanks gettheleadout
Click to expand...

I put a lot of time into improving my PS score since it was my weakest section first time around and I've been consistently scoring 12-13 on practice exams in the section for the past 2 months. Today I felt like majority of the question were low yield and obscure. None of the passages seemed unfamiliar but the questions on them seemed very obscure. I feel like I took a different test. My PS was not calculation heavy and most conceptual and my BS section was not that bad. Idk. Hopefully my guesses were educated.
 
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csdanim said:
gettheleadout, was there any killer discrete in BS that required detailed knowledge?
Click to expand...

I found all of the actual discrete questions to be reasonable. The one question where I had to guess was not free-standing. I will say that I retained a large number of details/facts for the test in preparation for "crap nobody knows" types of discretes, and I don't believe doing so to a greater extent would have helped on that particular question.
 
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gettheleadout said:
I found all of the actual discrete questions to be reasonable. The one question where I had to guess was not free-standing. I will say that I retained a large number of details/facts for the test in preparation for "crap nobody knows" types of discretes, and I don't believe doing so to a greater extent would have helped on that particular question.
Click to expand...

I thought one BS discrete was possibly unreasonable... The rest were much much easier than I expected.
 
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Ahh love me some breaking bad. Can't wait for episode 2 of this season!

I'm probably gonna end up watching some Star Trek TNG, playing Civ5/Kerbal Space Program/Simcity4, and crying into my pillow.
 
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HotHamH2O said:
Me too. I only knew the answer though from clinical experience.
Click to expand...

I am more upset about the PS. I was pretty angry to see so many "less high-yield" topics given precedence in the passages. It was definitely physics heavy, and some of the calculations were tedious.

All-in-all I feel pretty good about it. I have no comments about verbal though, haha. You can tell through my MDapps that I'm not too keen on the verbal. I'm just hoping the break a 10!!

My main problem has been lack of focus during my practice exams (I got 12/9/13 on AAMC 11 when being completely unable to focus on the test). But focus was not a problem for me today! I felt really good at the end of both the science sections.

As for the trial, I just hope I get my 30$ for amazon.
 
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gettheleadout said:
Ah actually, thinking about this again I do remember a particular discrete now that I thought was harder than the others. I wouldn't say it was unreasonable though.
Click to expand...

It wasn't very difficult I thought, but it wasn't a concept that I ever thought would be explicitly tested.
 
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Man I wish had taken the test today

seems like PS was better

I would have personally loved a normal PS section even at the cost of tough VR and BS sections because it's a nice confidence booster to start off tests

I think it was the reason I did pretty well on my AAMC FLs because I'd start off so well it was I was able to ease into the test

instead of having to get all tensed up about everything afterwards; I felt like i was taking the test like a zombie. I think I had no consciousness

Anyway best of luck to you guys

I have so many feelings still going on right now about this whole medical school idea
 
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