Aug. 16 MCAT difficulty level

[greggth]

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Physical Sci- easy
Verbal- difficult
Biol. Sci- medium

I was sweating, not because of the test, but because it was HOT in the room!- New Jersey

 

[wgu]

P: a little tougher than average
V: tougher than average
W: average
B: a little tougher than average

 

[Selisa]

P: slightly easier than average
V:WAY tougher than average
W:easier than average
B: average

from the way everything else looked on the exam, i think i'm gonna get MEGA screwed by the curve on verbal 🙁

 

[MUN2005]

Originally posted by generation2MD?
P: slightly easier than average
V:WAY tougher than average
W:easier than average
B: average

from the way everything else looked on the exam, i think i'm gonna get MEGA screwed by the curve on verbal 🙁

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion yet...I thought verbal was rough, as well as EVERYBODY else I've talked to, and the same opinion seems to reside on this site. I'm hoping to go up due to the curve... 😀

 

[maygirl]

Physical Sciences: easy
Verbal Reasoning: so frickin hard that I considered voiding during the exam
Biological Sciences: Orgo was easy, Bio was medium

Because of the Verbal, I think I'll probably have to retake it....🙁
The test form I got had the difficult passages in the beginning and middle, and I ended up screwing myself over because I freaked out. I couldn't concentrate for the whole test, thus ruining my chances with even the easy passages....right now, I'm just glad the darn thing is over.

 

[SteveUTexas]

Form CM
Physical: Way too damn easy (ie. what is 200+/-80)
Verbal: Too damn hard
Bio: Tough orgo and moderate biology

Hooray Beer! The answer to and cause of all of life's problems.

 

[winstonm]

Form EG

PS - more difficult than V or VI (screwed myself with timing though)

VR - average; science passages were the worst

WS - wonderful (folder 051)

BS - easier than normal

 

[wgu]

it sounds like (from all the posts) that the hardest materials were:

1) western blot, 2) heartland essay, 3) humanities essays in general

 

[Herpeto]

Physical Sciences: Easier than expected

Verbal: About 3 of the 9 passages were extremely difficult, but the rest weren't too bad

Biological Sciences: Medium/Hard, I say that just because I didn't feel as confident leaving the section as I did with practice tests.

Writing Sample: Very Easy, folder 51

I screwed myself with the Hess's Law question on PS. I was thinking we could somehow explain enthalpy with Gibb's free energy equation, what a dumb mistake.

Here's to hoping for 10 or better across the board.


Herp

 

[ajnak182]

The general impression I'm getting from you guys is that most found the bio section fair, not exceedingly difficult. I felt that it was much harder than any of the bio sections of the practice AAMC tests, even the TPR tests. I feel like I got my ass handed to me. This seemed mainly due to the fact that the questions were so much more passage based than the practice exams and therefore critical reasoning was needed to a much higher degree. I just felt that all the time I spent studying bio was fairly worthless. I felt it gave me little advantage because of all the passage based questions. By the way, I took test CN. Well, at least on the bright side, I now know that I'll have something to do next April. Choking sucks...

AJ

 

[4 Ever]

yeah i agree with you that the test seemed a lot more passage based... i mean i know its supposed to be that way but on the practice AAMC tests , not every question was like that.

what annoyed me most was one passage had the whole passage on one side with graphs and tables that you had to refer to, and the other side had the questions, it was annoying having to flip the page back and forth for that passage... it was the ADII passage with Na+ reabsorption , arterial pressure, etc. i had the most trouble with this one because of the flipping

 

[silenthunder]

Hey 4 ever,

I think I had the same test form as you: AG.
I had to do that annoying flipping thing with those three graphs regarding arterial pressure/GFR/AGII etc. I tried to fold the page so that I could avoid this, but despite this I kept having to flip the page over every 3 seconds. I heard other people doing the same thing. The guy next to me shot me the evil eye. I can't help it if AAMC are a bunch of evil bastards!!!!

I don't know what I'm gonna do. I think I'm screwed on the test, and I think I'm goin' to the caribbean as a result.....

Cheers all,

Silenthunder

 

[Md 2b In TN]

First of all I had form BT. I thought that the PS was harder than most of the practice test, and the tests I have sat for in the past (yeah I'm an idiot, third time). Verbal was freakin' insane, everyone here in Nooga has been complaining and walking around rubbing their butts. Biological was about what I expected - Medium. For all you guy that are in my boat here is my hypothesis. I don't think that the test was any harder than it has in the past, I feel that I was just so much more experienced and well prepared, that this year I realized how hard it actually was. At least that is what is going to get me through till Oct. Good luck to all - it's final;y over!!

 

[TTSD]

Form AG:

I thought Physical Sciences was tougher than the practice exams because there were passages that weren't really covered by them. Such as electrolytic cells and optics. I felt like crying.

Verbal, I have no bloody clue about it. I was just trying to finish on time. The passages I thought were interesting, but the questions were mind-boggling ambiguous.

Writing. Fun.

Biology was fair in my opinion. Not too easy.. but not too tough either. I agree, the GM-i questions had me sometimes wondering.. "wait.. is GM-i the GOOD thing or BAD thing?" And the arterial and renal blood pressure graphs were incredibly annoying, way too much unnecessary data.

 

[StanSteel]

It seemed that most of physical science was doable, but there was stuff in it that you don't usually expect to be on the MCAT.

I did not think that verbal was that difficult, but this is personal. I am not that good at it, so my strategy is always to insure good answers on the first 4 or 5 passages, then rush through the rest (that's how I got the best scores (8 - 10, as opposed to 6-8 using my old strats) on the practice tests. The passages get harder as you go further through a section. As a result, the passages I spent time on were the easy ones, and the ones I fudged, were the hard ones anyways.

Bio seemed to me the most disproportionately difficult section on this August MCAT.
The GM-i, the Bt tox/Monarchs, and the Na+/AngiotensinII passages were to me absolutely insane. The GM-i passage gets the palm. I would give 100 bucks right now, just to go over it again even without the answers.

 

[KS123]

Over all I thought my form was pretty easy (I had an F form). PS was a bit weird. Verbal and Bio seemed a thousand times easier than any practice test I took. From reading all this curve stuff I wonder if it means I'm screwed because I got an easy form.

 

[Persistence101]

Just out of curiosity, what did you guys think was hard about the GMi passage? The questions?

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by Persistence101
Just out of curiosity, what did you guys think was hard about the GMi passage? The questions?

By the GMi passage I was just out of it.. I couldn't keep my facts straight, lol.

 

[Mgro33]

FORM FG:

Physical: Some passages were easy, some were hard.

Verbal: WHAT THE F%$& was that ?!!

Biological: Not that bad-but hey that was what I thought last year when I first took the exam.

 

[4 Ever]

Originally posted by Persistence101
Just out of curiosity, what did you guys think was hard about the GMi passage? The questions?

ill agree with TTSD, by the time i got there my mind was sorta fried and as such i was having a hard time thinking straight (though if i saw the passage now after a break, it wouldnt be so bad)

 

[Freakingzooming]

Originally posted by Mgro33
FORM FG:

Physical: Some passages were easy, some were hard.

Verbal: WHAT THE F%$& was that ?!!

Biological: Not that bad-but hey that was what I thought last year when I first took the exam.

That's what I thought too of the verbal. It was just the weirdest questions ever. They were way too ambigous! damn us poor FG people

 

[cad_15]

Originally posted by Freakingzooming
That's what I thought too of the verbal. It was just the weirdest questions ever. They were way too ambigous! damn us poor FG people

totally agree with that but I had CN

 

[StanSteel]

Originally posted by Persistence101
Just out of curiosity, what did you guys think was hard about the GMi passage? The questions?

Everything was hard about it. Did you actually have that passage?
It was like, when reading the questions I realized I had not understood jack about the passage, upon which fact I decided to reread it. By the end I was even more confused. I had to randomize thru those damn questions. . I wasted so much time on this ridiculous (obviously) killer passage. Big mistake. I could have used this time to do better on other passages.
NEVER reread a confusing passage on the MCAT..., if it is confusing the first time, chances are that it will remain the same no matter how many times you read it.

 

[mosfet]

I can hardly recall the GMi passage. Could you describe more about it??