09/12/09 MCAT Club

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Hey, just officially signed up for this beast. It's early but I figured this thread could provide some moral support to keep me on track with studying🙂 I have not done a couple of the pre-requisites, so slow and steady works for me. Looking forward to hearing from the rest of you!
 
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Pshhh...You had steroids for breakfast? I eat baby bunnies for breakfast. Every day. And before orgo exams, I would also throw in a unicorn for good luck.
 
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I'm baaaaaack!!!!!:scared:

I have no idea how I did and I don't remember any of the passages or what they were about..seriously. The only thing I do remember is the massive amounts of Genetics in the BS section.

I think I'm in shock.

Anyone else?
 
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I enjoyed the question that was mimicking the lifelines from who wants to be a millionaire.
 
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omg guys, i feel terrible about the test. the ps section was difficult. the rest was alright but aaaahhh! how are you guys handling post-test anxiety?
 
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PS: Almost all GenChem stuff. Acid/base, electronic configs, stoichiometry, trends in the periodic table. One passage on physics (circuits) and a couple discretes. This section was the hardest for me. I pretty much had to randomly fill in the last passage, 7-8 questions, which never happened to me before in any of the practice tests... bummed...

VR: Fine. My strongest section. Only advice I have is to watch the timing. There are some really easy passages and some harder ones. I blew through the first 4 passages in under 30 mins, and had plenty of time. Then I hit one that took me 19mins, so then I had to rush on the last two. Lesson is, if a passage is easy, go fast as you can still, might need that time later.

W: I actually managed to use the phrase "naked woman smeared in human feces" in one of my essays, so I got that going for me ... which is nice.

Bio: 1 passage of Ochem, a synthesis problem. A lot of genetics, molecular bio and physiology. Over all it wasn't bad. But the Ochem was hard for me and there were some VERY strangely phrased questions and sentences from the bio. Like almost "trick question" strange. I actually have my highschool grammar book out now for one question I swear was either gramatically incorrect or a typo.

Overall, PS really really sucked for me, but the rest was fine.
 
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tom1504 said:
omg guys, i feel terrible about the test. the ps section was difficult. the rest was alright but aaaahhh! how are you guys handling post-test anxiety?
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Yeah definitely agree. The PS was super hard. I had to guess on 5 or 6 of them. Let's hope they're all Bs or Cs. The rest of the exam wasn't too bad, although the Verbal passages made me sooo sleepy! Also, mine had only 1 orgo. HOORAY!
 
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tom1504 said:
omg guys, i feel terrible about the test. the ps section was difficult. the rest was alright but aaaahhh! how are you guys handling post-test anxiety?
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Gin. Lots and lots of gin. Order a pizza, put on a mindless comedy and let the gf "aww baby" you all night... That's my plan at least.
 
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Wow, easier than I thought. Unfortunately they didn't diversify the topics so you had huge concentrations of questions within few passages. That pissed me off. Overall not bad compared to AAMC practice tests. They should have really diversified the coverage though...I loved the verbal, could not have gotten a better verbal packet.

An amazing thing happened with PS that never happened to me before...I had no extra time left! With bio I still had a good 20 minutes left. I didn't like the bio section except the fact that there was virtually no organic.

Hope I crack my 10/10/11 Q minimum.
 
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Hey guys -- just wanted to congratulate you that the test is OVER!

I took the 7/2 MCAT and was beside myself afterwards because I thought I got destroyed by it. I reasoned there was no use in worrying (after about a week of non-stop worrying) and focused my time on girls, Arrested Development, hockey, and girls. It was a great summer, and it ended with me getting a 35R on the exam even though I thought it was completely different than any AAMC test I took. My AAMC average was a 34.

So sit back, relax, and forget about it. It's over 👍
 
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whew, I just got back from taking it. It was my first time, I was a little nervous, I seemed way underprepared compared to the people who were with me. Luckily I am more comfortable with gen chem than with physics, most of the PS section was gen chem :laugh: Verbal was a little difficult for me personally because I went through several epiphanies of "Holy SH** this is the real thing" but the passages seemed longer than the regular ones I'm used to and the questions slightly easier, most of the time I narrowed down to 2 choices. And the answer is no, I don't know what a covalent bond is 😡
 
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congratulations guys! amazing feeling to be done with this huh? that sure how i felt 2 days ago...
well congrats on being the last testing date of the year and wrapping it up!
 
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Holy crap!

PS was ABSURDLY HORRIBLE. I feel better that most of you seemed to think so too. That was probably more calculations than I have ever seen on a PS section...
Short on time and had to guess on a lot. Perhaps I should have voided...
Too much acids and bases for my taste. And indicators? Ugh, really?!

Last 2 verbal passages were awful too.

Well, good luck to everyone and now that it's over we can at least have a couple months of normal life!

Now on to that large to-do list that's been growing for the past month....but first, lots of drinking.
 
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PS: Didn't think it was that easy but it was definitely doable. There was much more gen chem than I expected, and that titrations passage almost killed me! Probably spent more time on it that I should have. Only 2 or 3 physics passages (one on circuits..and what were the others?) Absolutely no optics whatsoever. That section left me no extra time so I had to make educated guesses on A LOT of them. Oh yeah, I wasn't too happy about the nail-fixing thingymagig passage; I read it over and over again and still couldn't understand what the heck it was talking about. But the questions weren't too bad.

Verbal: I spent wayyy too much time trying to decipher the harder ones that I didn't have much time doing 1 or 2 passages that were much much easier. Only had about 4 minutes to go back to the one I skipped earlier. I was so freaking stuck on the African religion passage, and the one about Petrarch (what the crap?), it didn't seem hard but the dense details made it time-consuming and I had to keep referring back to the passage.

BS: I was freaking out about this section cuz I thought it was gonna turn out to be another verbal section like everyone else on SDN said, but it seemed pretty similar to AAMC bio passages. And some of questions (especially the discretes) were pretty straight-forward and easy that I had to really read carefully to make sure it was something tricky. Kinda glad there was only one orgo passage...man I should'nt have wasted all my time studying those stupid reactions and separation techniques.

Overall, it felt like another AAMC practice test to me, but I don't even wanna predict how I did, cuz you can never tell on these things. Just hope the scale is gonna be generous, and hope that this will be my last time taking the MCAT. I started out very calm this morning, but a few minutes before the test started, I began to freak out like crazy. But as soon as I got to the PS section, I finally got in my rhythm and was so into the test that I forgot about all the stress and anxiety.

Boy, it's gonna be a lonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg month ahead. :xf::xf::xf:
 
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supafield said:
Sooooo

PS: Hard... I'm not sure if that is just for me, or whether it was a tough section. Half my section seemed like complex solution chem equations as well as acid/base stuff which I apparently was not ready for. There were a few easy topics like the passage on radioactive decay and the physics seemed pretty nice.... haha however, the passage with the many forms of OClO beat me down lol.

Of the two practice tests I did, I score 12 and 15 on aamc 9 and 6 in PS... so I'm glad if I had trouble with any section it was the Physical.

Verbal: Seemed pretty simple up until the last few passages. I came into passage 6 withe plenty of time and spent too long trying to decipher the Medieval Art questions which then left me about 6 minutes to do the last passage on the African religion which also had some rough questions.

I enjoyed the question that was mimicking the lifelines from who wants to be a millionaire.

Bio.... seemed pretty straightforward..... I rewrote because I need an 11 here.... The section wasn't bad.... hopefully the curve isn't too bad. Only one orgo passage and maybe 2 discretes. Tonnes of molecular, classical, and evolutionary genetics. Also a few physiology passages thrown in there. All in all it wasn't too bad.

Overall: Should be ok as long as my physical mark isn't terrible.
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I THINK I HAD THE SAME EXACT TEST!!!!!!!!!
The VR was crazy at the end, and the BIO caught me off guard! I had not practiced that much molecular/genetics stuff. Just maybe a 100-200 questions. Crap shoot is the correct term to use for this test!
MY BRAIN IS FRIED. Remaining confident is tough because I thought BS was my best section, and I feel like I just got prison raped with a wooden broom. The PS was kind of easy, but all the dang calculations ate my time and I guessed on 2 1/2 passges. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!!

I remain positive, I remain positive, I remain positive, I remain positive...

😱:scared::xf::scared:😱:xf:😱:xf::scared::xf:
 
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I felt really confident going into the test. I have been doing really well on my AAMC practice tests (33-35).

I'm pretty sure that the PS section was really ridiculous. I had a really hard time with the titration question. I didn't even know what the hell it was asking me. I skipped it and went to the end of test and chugged through, though not feeling great about PS at all. I barely had time to go back and think about that titration question so I'm pretty sure I blew it. Overall lots of calculation and unit watching which made me slow down a lot and lose confidence. LOTS OF UNITS. DAMN!

VR I thought was interesting and relatively straight forward. I just did PT10 and though the verbal was way harder.

BS was hard, but in a weird way. Really long question stems and not very straightforward answers. A lot of weird specific memorization too. Very little OChem, which is sweet, but its what a spent the last few weeks getting strong in opposed to Gen Chem which is what would have really mattered.

Honestly, I don't know how to feel. I think I may have blown the PS part, but from what it sounds like, a lot of you guys might have too. I have NEVER randomly guessed (in AAMC pts) because of lack of understanding like I did on this test. I'm just a little butthurt about all the **** that seems counterintuitive to what I was taught to study.

Anyway, whatever. It was a very "lot of eggs in one basket" kind of test.
 
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davedm said:
I'm just a little butthurt about all the **** that seems counterintuitive to what I was taught to study.

Anyway, whatever. It was a very "lot of eggs in one basket" kind of test.
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I feel the exact same way, but magnified by average practice test scores. I really felt like all the aamc practice exams are a joke compared to the real deal. I probably have permenant forehead wrinkles from some of those genetics/molecular bio questions. I can't remember that many, on any of the practice tests. I feel a little hoodwinked, bamboozled, misguided...

Wish my math would have been faster for the PS, I probably would have breezed though that section. I knew I could get to the answer in most of those problems, but had to fight the time constraints. aaaaaaaarrrrrrghhhh!
 
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Ugh, next time I see hermit crabs I'm going to stomp them bitches!
The African Religion/Petrach one aren't bad - they're not the search and destroy type that will kill time...I was most afraid of those stupid arts passages on literary criticism / painting or film. I don't think I could have gotten a better verbal section - a mix of science, history, and politics. Too bad this test might be ruined by the stupid essay. I might even get ruined by BS...how fitting...
That PS was off but more manageable than bio I found...at least calculations give you a sense of certainty. I didn't find I had to calculate TOO much though. Mostly on stoichiometry questions...
The best way to describe this test was all eggs in one basket. Know your acid base chem and your genetics and molecular and you'd be frosty.


Good luck in a month everyone. What we see on Oct 12-14 is really what matters.
 
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BS section was.. well.. BULL****!! That thing murdered me. I am a Humanities major with only 3 classes taken in Biology, so I don't have the strongest background. The questions were so detail-oriented as opposed to read-the-passage-and-use-logic like I saw on the practice exams, it KILLED me. Grrrr. We'll see how I do on the real thing. VR and PS and even the WS had a lot of bizarre passages/questions I felt like. I have no idea. And I think there was a misspelling of a key amino acid phrase in one of the genetics sections, because it didn't make any sense to me until I changed the spelling. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Am I just being crazy?

I am so glad to be done with with the test though, I am kicking any pre-med worries to the curb or a long time haha. Feels great.
 
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Protactinium said:
Ugh, next time I see hermit crabs I'm going to stomp them bitches!
The African Religion/Petrach one aren't bad - they're not the search and destroy type that will kill time...I was most afraid of those stupid arts passages on literary criticism / painting or film. I don't think I could have gotten a better verbal section. Too bad this test might be ruined by the stupid essay. I might even get ruined by BS...how fitting...
That PS was off but more manageable than bio I found...at least calculations give you a sense of certainty. I didn't find I had to calculate TOO much though. Mostly on stoichiometry questions...
The best way to describe this test was all eggs in one basket. Know your acid base chem and your genetics and molecular and you'd be frosty.
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Yeah I was pretty disappointed at how skewed the questions were. There were almost no questions on most of the topics, and of course they had to pick the hardest topics to put a lot of material on (acid/base equilibrium, genetics, come on AAMC....).
 
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ponybreeder4 said:
well congrats on being the last testing date of the year and wrapping it up!
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Last MCAT of the decade!

This test was pretty much entirely Acid/Base and Genetics. The writing samples were fair, in my opinion, and the verbal was of average difficulty. Overall feel better than after 6/18 (34O) but as we all know that means squat.
 
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PS and BS were two curve balls. VR was straight forward. The WS was pretty straight forward as well.

And if hermit crabs become extinct, we know who to blame - AAMC >_>
 
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Blah that test was harder than most of the aamc prob made ALOT of stupid errors 🙁

Oh well can't think about it anymore its done and over with I hope I don't get so low that i have to retake
 
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CTAATGT said:
PS and BS were two curve balls. VR was straight forward. The WS was pretty straight forward as well.

And if hermit crabs become extinct, we know who to blame - AAMC >_>
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Hahahahha, come on guys, those poor hermit crabs didn't do anything, it's all AAMC's fault, lol. Hey at least that urine output passage had something about alcohol 😀. Does anyone have suggestions for how to make it through this next month to come? I have a feeling I'm not gonna be able to sleep at night now.
 
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damn i wasnt paying attention and ran out of time on the stupid PS. random clicks for the last 13 questions =( sooo screwed..

kicking myself so hard for messing up on the easy hardy-weinburg question.. WTH! so mad at myself... it was in my head but i checked the wrong one..

guess im going to
 
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ps. i thought it was cake, got 14 or 15 on all aamc and would be surprised if i drop. only wasnt sure on like 2

vr. awesome until renasaince and africa... seriously was horrible, i got 11, 12, and. some 13 on aamc and i think i got maybe worse here hopefully 11 or more but im doubtinv.

bs. very typical difficulty of aamc imo. i really wish there was more orgo though. some molec bio stuff was hard, like the?fat cells cancer domain one.

ws was fun prompts.

overall i thoughht easy ps, hard vr, typical aamc bio. i average 38 to 40 on aamc but here ill just be happy if i pull 35 or more. i hope vr is alright. i was super rushed on time for last passage.

sorry if i made typing errors, on my cell
 
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I was so jetlag that didnt sleep till like 2ish and I was up since 4am.

ya that stupid piss passage and one about DNA got me really good.

Ran out of time on VR...

To top it off, I was talking to a cute girl after the test but didnt to ask for her name and number because i was so mad at myself for messing up on the easy questions.
 
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I had felt terrible till I read what most of you guys are saying. It is exactly how I feel. I thought I had basically studied the wrong stuff. Way to much time on physics and organic when the whole test was chem and bio. I made a stupid mistake on elecroneg. I it haunted me the whole way home and I looked it up and could have slapped myself. I knew it! I knew it! grrr.
 
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Ok, that makes me feel a LITTLE better, but I'm still mad at myself for missing the easy Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium question!!! Gosh, it's gonna be a long month for me.......
 
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ditto.. that question made me mad at myself the whole way to the hotel, and am still upset.. sigh.. iJan. 2010..
 
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i know we're not supposed to post specifics, but which general topics do you guys remember from verbal? i can't remember all of them, and i'm starting to get paranoid...
- petrarch
- african religion
- psychology
- environmentalism
???
 
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I need to tell myself, what's done is done, and no matter what I do, it's not gonna change anything...

well, I guess at this point, all we can do is hope that those questions we missed won't count towards us. And let's just pray that the hardest passage in PS and BS will be the experimental ones. :xf:
 
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Protactinium said:
Relax guys, there's nothing further you can do, just sit back and enjoy the MCAT ride. Nothing you can do will change anything hahah. What would happen if you had an interview and you perchance screwed up?

It's out of my head now, actually, I'm at work trying to finish my assignments/projects, not even thinking about the MCAT I wrote a few hours ago. What's done is done. All you can do is pray to the MCAT Gods that you will get a good score, and even then...Well, you could bribe people as well but electronic records make that a lot harder - maybe except WS which doesn't matter.

So here's hoping to success. I honestly think I'll have to write again but no point in thinking about it until I get those scores back...
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Great post! Hopefully everyone gets a chance to read this even when the thread goes to the next page.

I am quite sure you did really well, because your posts in the this thread reflect a good balance between pragmatism and recall of how you felt in each section. Enjoy your 34 or so!
 
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ugh that bio passage with the domain proteins and the cancer cells the last two questions were like WA?????
 
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BerkReviewTeach said:
Great post! Hopefully everyone gets a chance to read this even when the thread goes to the next page.

I am quite sure you did really well, because your posts in the this thread reflect a good balance between pragmatism and recall of how you felt in each section. Enjoy your 34 or so!
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Thanks! I hope so too but we'll see. If not then I just remobilize again, I've got the resources (and the jist) of everything.

AAMC said:
By steroids, do you mean some sort of caffeinated energy drink?
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Nah, just getting my confidence on. I am not doing steroids hahah although testosterone would help on this MCAT...there probably wouldn't be a computer left though...or hermit crabs.
 
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i'm really having second thoughts after voiding that test. it really didn't seem that bad and I was down to the last second when I clicked that void option. but how can you blame me when i'm only hitting ~29 on practice tests. there's no way I could have gotten 35+ which is my target. But since I plan on applying next year, i thought it would just be best to study some more and take it in january or so. i hope i made the right decision... FML if i didn't!

PS: had 5 mins to spare when i'm usually strap for time. gchem>physics

VR: since i had my mind set on voiding this test anyway, this section seemed so much easier (or maybe it was just the passage selections they gave us). did the Renaissance passage last, thank goodness.

WS: 1st one was so classic that I was shocked they gave us this one. 2nd one was interesting and had my creative juices flowing.

BS: not your typical bio section because there was barely any o-chem! a little more emphasis on genetics than usual but wasn't so bad imo. some random questions here and there but doable.

voider remorse is horrible i tell ya'. i asked the lady proctoring the exam afterwards if schools would know if you voided and she said yes.. i was like wtf! i hope she's wrong!!

i hope you guys did great! i'm going to murder the next exam.. ***k
 
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htbruin said:
i'm really having second thoughts after voiding that test. it really didn't seem that bad and I was down to the last second when I clicked that void option. but how can you blame me when i'm only hitting ~29 on practice tests.
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I feel your pain buddy, at least u were getting 29's on your practice tests. The highest that I ever got was a 27 (9,9,9) and that was on AAMC 6, which is supposedly one of the easiest.

I wish you hadn't voided, cuz you probably scored really high! As for me, I would be extremely shocked to find out that I got at least a 27 or higher. So we'll see.....
 
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htbruin said:
i'm really having second thoughts after voiding that test. it really didn't seem that bad and I was down to the last second when I clicked that void option. but how can you blame me when i'm only hitting ~29 on practice tests. there's no way I could have gotten 35+ which is my target. But since I plan on applying next year, i thought it would just be best to study some more and take it in january or so. i hope i made the right decision... FML if i didn't!

PS: had 5 mins to spare when i'm usually strap for time. gchem>physics

VR: since i had my mind set on voiding this test anyway, this section seemed so much easier (or maybe it was just the passage selections they gave us). did the Renaissance passage last, thank goodness.

WS: 1st one was so classic that I was shocked they gave us this one. 2nd one was interesting and had my creative juices flowing.

BS: not your typical bio section because there was barely any o-chem! a little more emphasis on genetics than usual but wasn't so bad imo. some random questions here and there but doable.

voider remorse is horrible i tell ya'. i asked the lady proctoring the exam afterwards if schools would know if you voided and she said yes.. i was like wtf! i hope she's wrong!!

i hope you guys did great! i'm going to murder the next exam.. ***k
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Voiding your exam means that no medical school will know you participated in it. I checked the Mcat essential book, asked here on sdn, and even called aamc to double check and all said the same thing- voided mcat means no school will ever know about it and next time will be considered your first attempt. So either that lady didn't know what she was talking about or she was just being plain mean. I suggest you ignore her, and just be happy with decision you made and so next time at least you know what to expect. Good luck.
 
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I can't express how excited/relieved I am that it is OVER!!😀

I'm not gonna stress over it..no point..and im lowballing my estimate big time soo I won't be supremely let down. hah.

As far as the test, I agree with everyone on here pretty much. I wayy overstudied on the PS section. I was expecting there to be some magnetism and quantum stuff with photon excitation etc. blah blah but nooooo..my least fav acid/base shows up.

VR. um. Petrwho? Buiwhat?

BS. Wish I woulda taken Genetics last semester.. Overall, it wasn't too harsh.


ahh I'm gonna sleep great tonight! It's over!
 
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