2012-2013 Social Thread!! Let's start networking!

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
iave9963 said:
Thread took an interesting and sharp turn. I can tell you are passionate about helping underserved @ChemENG, most URMs are trying to get in and get the hell far away from anything low income. Also black hearts is dope. You should check out Partynextdoor mixtape. Two good songs are right now and make a mil

@Juansolo And.....saved by on campus housing. The only place left that was decent near the school was $1078 a month, F*ck dot" -Kendrick lamar
Click to expand...

Depending on your location &1078 could be a steal. Where you be?

Also, top!!! :zip:
Members don't see this ad.
 
Juan Solo said:
Depending on your location &1078 could be a steal. Where you be?

Also, top!!! :zip:
Click to expand...

Augusta Georgia (MCG), definitely not a steal. Some of my classmates are paying $300 a month for rent, highest I've heard was ~$800. Decided to go with the more economical route.
 
iave9963 said:
Augusta Georgia (MCG), definitely not a steal. Some of my classmates are paying $300 a month for rent, highest I've heard was ~$800. Decided to go with the more economical route.
Click to expand...

NICE!!! That is definitely cheap rent! :bow:
 
Members don't see this ad :)
ChemEngMD said:
Don't count me out bruh. BTW, listened to magna carta...holy grail...it was terrible :laugh:

I miss Blueprint Jay :(

BTW I totally derailed that URM thread the other day into a discussion on how to fix the lack of Rural and Urban PCPs lol
Click to expand...

So tired of URM threads. I guess I will take a look.
 
iave9963 said:
Lol, when does your orientation start? Talk to my friend going to Duke and her's is Monday. Mine is this Wednesday :scared:
Click to expand...

My prologue starts on this Monday and orientation the following Monday! :)
 
Juan Solo said:
No love URM threads anymore?
Click to expand...

I think he means the ones in the pre-allo forum lol.


Yo I'm drowning in secondaries. I've only submitted 5 so far. Fail.
 
ChemEngMD said:
I think he means the ones in the pre-allo forum lol.


Yo I'm drowning in secondaries. I've only submitted 5 so far. Fail.
Click to expand...

Haha I know, I am just kidding. We actually know each other. However, those secondaries are a B****!
 
Yeah the secondaries are the worst part of the application process! Fortunately a lot of material gets recycled as you continue to write.

Congrats on your cheap housing iave! I envy you lol.
 
Juan Solo said:
Haha I know, I am just kidding. We actually know each other. However, those secondaries are a B****!
Click to expand...

Oh yeah yall got that secret UCSF/UCLA connection lol
 
Juan Solo said:
My prologue starts on this Monday and orientation the following Monday! :)
Click to expand...

Good luck man,

ChemEngMD said:
I think he means the ones in the pre-allo forum lol.


Yo I'm drowning in secondaries. I've only submitted 5 so far. Fail.
Click to expand...

quechua said:
Yeah the secondaries are the worst part of the application process! Fortunately a lot of material gets recycled as you continue to write.

Congrats on your cheap housing iave! I envy you lol.
Click to expand...

secondaries sucks guys, what sucks balls even more is the wait!

Cheap housing means balling out at the club on the weekends with the finest girls in all the lands taking pics like this:

tyga.jpg
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Taking my MCAT in 3 weeks and I haven't been able to improve on verbal. Verbal is holding me back from that 30 -32 that I am aiming for. Anyone have any good advice on what helped them? I'm trying to figure out why I can't understand passages and the questions associated with them.
 
NeurosciTMS said:
Taking my MCAT in 3 weeks and I haven't been able to improve on verbal. Verbal is holding me back from that 30 -32 that I am aiming for. Anyone have any good advice on what helped them? I'm trying to figure out why I can't understand passages and the questions associated with them.
Click to expand...

Welcome Neurosci! You confused the hell out of me at first cause you have the same avatar as iave and I read your message and was like, "Yo, iave you're starting medical school in a couple weeks, why you taking the MCAT???" smh

Anyway, how high are you scoring on verbal? After each time do you go through and figure out why you got the questions wrong? I found the biggest thing with verbal is to try and be critical of each passage as you go through it. Think of it like you're a college professor looking at a high schooler's work. Try to get into the author's head and ask why they are writing what they're writing, what's their motivation, what are they trying to prove/explain, etc. As I read a VR passage I would always start to form a picture of what I thought the author looked like. What kind of opinions I think they would have on other topics based upon the passage and what not. Think of the passage like a first impression, what do you know about the author based upon what you've read and what kind of assumptions would you make about him/her due to the passage.

If that's all way too convoluted and hypothetical then I'm sorry haha but I got an 11 so I guess it kinda worked for me.
 
ChemEngMD said:
Welcome Neurosci! You confused the hell out of me at first cause you have the same avatar as iave and I read your message and was like, "Yo, iave you're starting medical school in a couple weeks, why you taking the MCAT???" smh

Anyway, how high are you scoring on verbal? After each time do you go through and figure out why you got the questions wrong? I found the biggest thing with verbal is to try and be critical of each passage as you go through it. Think of it like you're a college professor looking at a high schooler's work. Try to get into the author's head and ask why they are writing what they're writing, what's their motivation, what are they trying to prove/explain, etc. As I read a VR passage I would always start to form a picture of what I thought the author looked like. What kind of opinions I think they would have on other topics based upon the passage and what not. Think of the passage like a first impression, what do you know about the author based upon what you've read and what kind of assumptions would you make about him/her due to the passage.

If that's all way too convoluted and hypothetical then I'm sorry haha but I got an 11 so I guess it kinda worked for me.
Click to expand...

Lol! Now that you brought it up... I do have the same avatar as iave. I go through each passage and figure out why I got the question wrong, but it is usually like, I didn't locate the proper information to support the answer that I picked. That is how I answer questions. I usually after I read try to locate information in the passage that matches one of the answer choices. This is why I never finish. I always have to guess on the last passage. I got an 8 on AAMC 4 then I dropped back down (kind of embarrassed to say) on AAMC 5.

Am I just going about verbal the wrong way?

While you are reading are you figuring out what the author is talking about and the purpose for why he is writing the passage? So basically are you multitasking while you are reading? Do you jot down any notes or is this all mental. What materials did you use to prepare for verbal?

My advisor said that I need at least an 8 on verbal to get into a top medical school since my sciences have been pretty consistent (11/12 on PS and 10/11 on BS).
 
NeurosciTMS said:
Lol! Now that you brought it up... I do have the same avatar as iave. I go through each passage and figure out why I got the question wrong, but it is usually like, I didn't locate the proper information to support the answer that I picked. That is how I answer questions. I usually after I read try to locate information in the passage that matches one of the answer choices. This is why I never finish. I always have to guess on the last passage. I got an 8 on AAMC 4 then I dropped back down (kind of embarrassed to say) on AAMC 5.

Am I just going about verbal the wrong way?

While you are reading are you figuring out what the author is talking about and the purpose for why he is writing the passage? So basically are you multitasking while you are reading? Do you jot down any notes or is this all mental. What materials did you use to prepare for verbal?

My advisor said that I need at least an 8 on verbal to get into a top medical school since my sciences have been pretty consistent (11/12 on PS and 10/11 on BS).
Click to expand...

You definitely are killing those science sections, my brother.

I do all of the things I mentioned in my post while I am reading the passage. Occasionally I will write down little one or two word clues to remind myself if I'm feeling foggy. I try not to focus too much on detail while I'm reading because the majority of questions are not going to be nitpicky detail questions, many of them are about the main theme of the article and understanding the author's point of view.

I try to pick apart a verbal passage the way I pick apart a scientific article. Be CRITICAL. Just because they are writing it doesn't mean they know what the hell they're talking about lol. Look for clues as to the background the person has.

For instance, if it is an art passage then while you're reading it there should be clues to indicate whether the author is a fellow artist, an art historian, an art critic, simply a layman, or any other person who may be interested in the field. From those clues in the passage I try to form an opinion of the author and his/her intentions. Say the person is an art critic, then I am looking to see if they are pro or con the artist's work and then use that to answer some of the questions. I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but you just gotta get a feel for the author rather than relying on the passage to lay out the answer. A lot of times they will put in little BS answers that resemble something that was said in the passage, but is simply not true. Often 4 or 5 of the questions in a passage are directly related to the theme so as long as you can have a clear and concise understanding of the central theme and thesis of the passage then you can take educated guesses on the questions.

The other thing I always do is to pace myself well and not return to the passage unless absolutely necessary. If it is a question where they are asking what a word means in a particular sentence or referencing a specific person or place in the passage I will go back.

I also use the highlight function to highlight a sentence I think is representative of teh whole passage's theme and also to highlight all proper nouns (people, places, etc.) because those are sometimes referenced in questions and I want to be able to find them quickly.

Hope this is helping some haha
 
ChemEngMD said:
You definitely are killing those science sections, my brother.

I do all of the things I mentioned in my post while I am reading the passage. Occasionally I will write down little one or two word clues to remind myself if I'm feeling foggy. I try not to focus too much on detail while I'm reading because the majority of questions are not going to be nitpicky detail questions, many of them are about the main theme of the article and understanding the author's point of view.

I try to pick apart a verbal passage the way I pick apart a scientific article. Be CRITICAL. Just because they are writing it doesn't mean they know what the hell they're talking about lol. Look for clues as to the background the person has.

For instance, if it is an art passage then while you're reading it there should be clues to indicate whether the author is a fellow artist, an art historian, an art critic, simply a layman, or any other person who may be interested in the field. From those clues in the passage I try to form an opinion of the author and his/her intentions. Say the person is an art critic, then I am looking to see if they are pro or con the artist's work and then use that to answer some of the questions. I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but you just gotta get a feel for the author rather than relying on the passage to lay out the answer. A lot of times they will put in little BS answers that resemble something that was said in the passage, but is simply not true. Often 4 or 5 of the questions in a passage are directly related to the theme so as long as you can have a clear and concise understanding of the central theme and thesis of the passage then you can take educated guesses on the questions.

The other thing I always do is to pace myself well and not return to the passage unless absolutely necessary. If it is a question where they are asking what a word means in a particular sentence or referencing a specific person or place in the passage I will go back.

I also use the highlight function to highlight a sentence I think is representative of teh whole passage's theme and also to highlight all proper nouns (people, places, etc.) because those are sometimes referenced in questions and I want to be able to find them quickly.

Hope this is helping some haha
Click to expand...

This is great advice! I'll start trying this approach. What materials did you use? I promise this is my last question.
 
NeurosciTMS said:
This is great advice! I'll start trying this approach. What materials did you use? I promise this is my last question.
Click to expand...

LMAO you good, bruh - ask away. The URM thread is meant to be supportive haha. EK 101 I think was pretty excellent personally, but I was kind of the opposite of you, where I needed to focus more on the sciences cause they were my weaker sections.

I think the most important thing is the practice test and getting the feel for the pacing. Even with doing well on practice tests, I was cutting it really short on the real thing in May. I had to hustle on the last two passages to finish well. I usually finished with about 1 minute to spare haha. I think keeping an eye on the clock and recognizing which passages are 7 question passages is really important too. If you are taking forever on a 5 question passage then you need to speed it up, make some educated guesses and move on because if the 7 question passage is last and you only have 5 minutes for it, you're gonna be shooting yourself in the foot, yaknow?

The EK 101 series is set up as a bunch of practice tests so they are pretty good for getting your pacing down I think.

Remember: strategy is just as important as skill. Be aware of the clock and which passages you have completed.
 
ChemEngMD said:
LMAO you good, bruh - ask away. The URM thread is meant to be supportive haha. EK 101 I think was pretty excellent personally, but I was kind of the opposite of you, where I needed to focus more on the sciences cause they were my weaker sections.

I think the most important thing is the practice test and getting the feel for the pacing. Even with doing well on practice tests, I was cutting it really short on the real thing in May. I had to hustle on the last two passages to finish well. I usually finished with about 1 minute to spare haha. I think keeping an eye on the clock and recognizing which passages are 7 question passages is really important too. If you are taking forever on a 5 question passage then you need to speed it up, make some educated guesses and move on because if the 7 question passage is last and you only have 5 minutes for it, you're gonna be shooting yourself in the foot, yaknow?

The EK 101 series is set up as a bunch of practice tests so they are pretty good for getting your pacing down I think.

Remember: strategy is just as important as skill. Be aware of the clock and which passages you have completed.
Click to expand...

Alright thanks. I've been using EK 101 and TPRH, but I think my approach has been wrong the entire time. I'm going to start un-timed and try to get the authors point of view and then slowly increase my speed. My sciences were my weak point last year (verbal still being my weakest) when I took the MCAT, but I studied much harder this time for them even though I focused on verbal even more but nothing has changed in my verbal score. I just need to hash out what I am doing wrong. I have 3 weeks which isn't a lot of time but if I can get my pacing down for verbal I think I can pull at least an 8 even though I am aiming for a 10.
 
Seems like lots of MCAT talk. Good luck to those who are about to take it.
 
I see it's live in here again! I have resurfaced from the ash. That phone app The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth sucked my soul put for too long hahaha. Back to grinding and my SDN addiction.
 
WhittyPsyche said:
I see it's live in here again! I have resurfaced from the ash. That phone app The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth sucked my soul put for too long hahaha. Back to grinding and my SDN addiction.
Click to expand...

You a Tolkien nerd??? :thumbup:
 
ChemEngMD said:
I think he means the ones in the pre-allo forum lol.


Yo I'm drowning in secondaries. I've only submitted 5 so far. Fail.
Click to expand...

I feel your pain. We'll get through this! :thumbup:
 
WHAT'S UP PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! 2.5 months into med school and I am still here. I see I have a fan or a son lol (same avatar) Med school is cool, has it's ups and it's down but I like it overall. Will give more of an update around xmas break, just finished two exams today so i'm really lazy right now and don't feel like typing alot. If you have any questions PM. CHEMENG I see you bro, get at me lol
 
iave9963 said:
WHAT'S UP PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! 2.5 months into med school and I am still here. I see I have a fan or a son lol (same avatar) Med school is cool, has it's ups and it's down but I like it overall. Will give more of an update around xmas break, just finished two exams today so i'm really lazy right now and don't feel like typing alot. If you have any questions PM. CHEMENG I see you bro, get at me lol
Click to expand...

We up in this man!!!!!!!

Hope you're knocking those classes out of the park.
 
I made a mistake on my Happy Halloween post. I notice it automatically quotes the person message if you click reply on their post.
 
How was everyone's first year? Mines was rough. I got through it thankfully. Congrats to the new class as well.
 
Second Half hit like a ton of bricks...Exhaustion set in. Just happy to make it.
 
Bump! I'm back guys. Med school is over...starting residency orientation in a few days.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

Mr.Smile12
SHPEP 2024 thread in predental forums
Replies
0
Views
413
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
B
***2023-2024 URM Medical School Application Thread***
Replies
4
Views
2K
BoctorBro
BoctorBro
OchemOficionado
***2022-2023 URM Medical School Application Thread***
2
Replies
73
Views
14K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
NaomiM
  • Locked
Texas Academic Fresh Start
Replies
0
Views
1K
NaomiM
NaomiM
Ms Procrastinator
***2021-2022 URM Medical School Application Thread***
2
Replies
92
Views
28K
skeptastic
skeptastic
Top