August 6th Exam Feedback

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Ankaboot

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  1. Pre-Health (Field Undecided)
Hey Guys, I was registered for today's exam but was too sick to take it.🙁

Hope you don't mind letting me know:

Which section was the hardest?

&
Was it like the AAMC CBTs online?
(I've been hearing that the new exam passages are much longer)

Any other comments?

Thanks and best of luck on your scores.
:luck:
 
thanks a bunch for posting, guys, I'm august 14th first timer and it's good to get the most recent info about difficulties and topics.
 
I took the exam on the 24th and voided it because the physical was so brutally hard. So I retook it today (the 6th) all in all a much better test than the one on the 24th.

PS-a ton of chemistry, I only had one physics passage. Not bad though, no where near as hard as the 24th exam.

VR- ok passages weren't to bad. But this section is always a shot in the dark for me. either I do really well or ****ty.

BS-2 pretty hard orgo passages. Bio wasn't to hard, but this is my strongest section
 
Congrats to all who took the exam today. Hopefully you receive the scores you're hoping for! So far everyone has behaved themselves, but just a friendly reminder for the future posters - while you are free to mention the general topic of a passage (e.g. "lizard passage"), please refrain from posting detailed questions or answers from the exam.
 

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all right, so what are your plans tonight....

Now that it's over...I'm at a complete loss!!! Normally I'd be at the coffehouse right now studying!! But in fact, I'm at home -- reading through the boards...its like I'm in a tragic withdrawal.
 
i'm taking in a month...and these horror stories are freaking me out 🙁
 
so many of the folks are saying the PS and BS sections were harder than even the AAMC prac tests.

were they at least not as hard as the kaplan tests? or at the same level?

thanks very much
 
all right, so what are your plans tonight....

Now that it's over...I'm at a complete loss!!! Normally I'd be at the coffehouse right now studying!! But in fact, I'm at home -- reading through the boards...its like I'm in a tragic withdrawal.

That's how I felt in April, and I'm sure how I will feel this time (only more so.. since hopefully it'll be my last time)
 
so many of the folks are saying the PS and BS sections were harder than even the AAMC prac tests.

were they at least not as hard as the kaplan tests? or at the same level?

thanks very much

Yeah, I'd like to know as well!
 
Yeah, I'd like to know as well!

I wouldn't so much say that they were easier or harder, just different. It seemed like there were quite a few passages in the science sections that I really couldn't use much outside knowledge to help me. As someone mentioned before, it did seem like some of the science passages were just like VR... having to use the passage and nothing else.
 
So you know how sometimes you look at a passage and you think "ok, this is hard but I can power through it" and other times you think "this is insane but I think I can guess the answers and maybe get half right" and at yet other times you think "I don't even comprehend the passage much less the questions...what on God's Green Earth are they talking about????!!!!"

That was about 3 of the PS passages for me. The one that stands out the most was the meteor passage we all keep talking about...and I'm pretty good at VR so passage based things are usually ok for me but I'm not exaggerating when I say I read it 4 times and went back to it multiple times when trying to answer the BIZARRE questions. It was such a weird passage.

I ran completely out of time was literally racing the clock to go back and guess the ones I marked.

To 'short' answer your questions, yes a few were harder than kaplan, imho
 
I felt some of the discretes were very difficult unlike usual AAMC where I can do most of the discretes in about 8 minutes..this time it took me about 12-14 minutes to do em and even then i had to guess..
 
all right, so what are your plans tonight....

Now that it's over...I'm at a complete loss!!! Normally I'd be at the coffehouse right now studying!! But in fact, I'm at home -- reading through the boards...its like I'm in a tragic withdrawal.

Kinda like the Shawshank Redemption. I've been in prison so long, it's all I know. Just got out... now what?
 
goddammit...is this a trend we're seeing here or was this test just an anamoly?

i mean is this just a sad, miserable, pathetic attempt by the misfits at the AAMC at compensating for the shortened test by making it completely incomprehensible and f*cked??
 
I wish the practice AAMC's weren't so easy, it really gives one a false sense of security. That's how I felt about the PS section anyway.
 
I wish the practice AAMC's weren't so easy, it really gives one a false sense of security. That's how I felt about the PS section anyway.

The worst part is having no clue how badly you did... it means you have to retake to play it safe. And I thought I would be free after today...
 
I wish the practice AAMC's weren't so easy, it really gives one a false sense of security. That's how I felt about the PS section anyway.

This is the reason I stuck to the more challenging study material this time. Kaplan for PS, EK and some LSATs for verbal. There were still a couple unpleasant surprises with the meteor and eyedropper PS passages, but for the most part I felt that if I could handle Kaplan PS, I could handle anything. I used EK verbal to improve my timing, and the LSATs helped me learn how to find the structure of an argument.
 
hey, we had the same passages. I h8'ed lizzard passage, at least one question made no sense in that passage

My impression:

Overall: I h8 CRT screen so much. Nobody uses 800x600 resolution on 17" screens anymore. Every time I had to pull the periodic table, it would occupy the whole screen and I could not see the question anymore. That was annoying. Plus, I was getting tired of scrolling through passages. The test center was HOT, I was sweating through WS and BS. Also, who in the hell solves any problems on dry-erase board. Never used and will never use it again.

PS: did not like the earth-meteorite passage, had at least one question that I had to guess because i could not find the answer in the passage for whatever reason. Did not like the torque passage, my weakest link. Transition metal passage... hm, it took me forever to balance the equation which did not come out well. I am sure I could balance it, but it just did not work so I had to take a guess. Plus I had to write with huge letters on this dry erase board... never used it, that thing is so ******ed. What's wrong with paper and pen? I guess it is easy to sneak the notes out of the test center.

VR: ok, had hard passages.

WS: nah

BS. Poor chipmonks and dogs. Had quite a bit of Physeo. Had a few genetics questions, but not that many. I would've liked to see more molecular bio passages. I had a couple ambigious questions that could give a couple answers. Most of it was passage-based which was ok. It was definitely challelnging, but it could be worth. During last years MCAT we had a non-Mendelian genetics passage was was terrible.


i think we had the same exam, i seriously took like 5 mins to do the balancing one, i just hope my PS doesnt go down from a 13 last time.

VR: no bad, longer than usual but at least i finished this time...hoping for something higher than a 7 unlike last time

BS: cant really tell, last time i dint think it was easy ended up with a 15, i dontknow about this time though

WS: my favorite, super easy but doesnt count 🙁

Overall: I am gonna kick myself if my score drops😡
 
i think we had the same exam, i seriously took like 5 mins to do the balancing one, i just hope my PS doesnt go down from a 13 last time.

VR: no bad, longer than usual but at least i finished this time...hoping for something higher than a 7 unlike last time

BS: cant really tell, last time i dint think it was easy ended up with a 15, i dontknow about this time though

WS: my favorite, super easy but doesnt count 🙁

Overall: I am gonna kick myself if my score drops😡

Damn, your PS+BS scores beat my entire 1st MCAT score. 😳
 
Is it just me or do i not undertand why people got above 35 on previous MCATS and are taking this test again??? Well i took the Aug 6th n we'll see wat happens. I didnt have the same ps. passage eye dropper?? and some lizard passage?? n if those were the hard ones then thank God they didnt show up in mines - good luck waiting people - now have to start on over 20 secondaries!!!😕
 
I loved the physics part of test because i just reviewed fluidity before my test!! I was excited when i saw a question about strain etc. The one thing i wasn't expecting and just got me thinking was the question about drag.
The eyedropper passage was ok. The real downer was that atmosphere/cloud passage. I love chemistry but damn....couldn't they have come up with a myriad of other problems? The thing about the chemistry on the test and perhaps what makes it very different from the chemistry on the AAMC or even Kaplan is that some passages rarely require outside knowledge. In fact, it's a test on how well you understood the passage and the tables/figures that followed. This would be nice if you had time to read the passage like 3 fricking times!! But no, you only have time to read it once and do your best the answering question.

All in all, i finished the BS and PS with 2-3minutes to spare. Use that time to check some answers. For the VR that's another story. If i retake, it's gonna be because of the VR. The passages where very readable but i wasted so much time skipping passages and coming back to it. I should have just answered them chronologically as is.
 
First off, just want to say that be wary if anyone is taking a test at the Coral Springs location in South Florida. We didn't start for an hour and a half after schedule today, and it SUCKED. really threw off the mental preparation, etc.

Haha, I took it July 13th in Coral Springs and loved it.
 
I didn't love the test... but I did love the test site. The staff was incredibly friendly, the room was comfortable, the head set did its job without hurting my ears, and I started right on time. It was MUCH better than the Aug. 2006 paper nightmare.
 
Congrats to all who took the exam today. Hopefully you receive the scores you're hoping for! So far everyone has behaved themselves, but just a friendly reminder for the future posters - while you are free to mention the general topic of a passage (e.g. "lizard passage"), please refrain from posting detailed questions or answers from the exam.


rawrrrr 😛 ahahhahaha
i'm stalking yooooooouuuuuuuu
 
LOL, ahahaha, creep! Don't you have to go study? You have to beat Ahmed, remember!:meanie:


hahaha, he's giving me a strand of his magic beard I think... so luck is on my side. There's not much you can study with only 2 days left!! Now I'm just hoping for luckkkkkkkkkkkkkk 😀
 
i think we had the same exam, i seriously took like 5 mins to do the balancing one, i just hope my PS doesnt go down from a 13 last time.

VR: no bad, longer than usual but at least i finished this time...hoping for something higher than a 7 unlike last time

BS: cant really tell, last time i dint think it was easy ended up with a 15, i dontknow about this time though

WS: my favorite, super easy but doesnt count 🙁

Overall: I am gonna kick myself if my score drops😡

Umm, why did you retake when you got a 35 the first time? Even if you improve a bit, do you really think it's going to make a difference?
 
I guess I feel a little better now that I'm not the only one who thought the PS section was harder than the AAMC practice exams. I usually score an 11 on my PS during my practice exams but after yesterday, I'll be lucky to even get an 8! I felt like I used little outside knowledge for the majority of that section. It did feel more like another verbal section as someone mentioned earlier. I'm hoping for a curve!! 😀 I'm just glad it's over. I don't know what to do with all of this free time now :laugh: Good luck to those taking it within the next month or two. :luck::luck::luck:
 
Umm, why did you retake when you got a 35 the first time? Even if you improve a bit, do you really think it's going to make a difference?

My guess is that 7 in VR. I didn't get a 35 the first time, but I did get above a 30 with a 7 in VR and retook also. I do know of someone else who got a 35 with a 7 in VR (awesome GPA and ECs and a Ph.D) and did not get many interview invites, so maybe buggati isn't totally crazy for re-taking.
 
first off, test over. great feeling, huh? (until a month from now...aiiiiiii)

This probably isn't a good thing, but im going the other way on this test...

PS: decent. the cloud passage was weird, not sure how much science i needed to answer those questions. could have been better, but definitely could have been worse. liked the electricity one...


VR: good passages except the one on ecologists or what not. definitely saved that for last.

WR: cakewalk

BS: im feeling that this bio was the toughest ive ever seen. definitely 3-4 good passages, but orgo was tough and 1-2 bios didnt feel great on. most of all though, what was up with those discretes?!?!? i can just imagine those mongers making the test and saying "let's screw with them. turn to page 1004 and pick out the most random fact on the page." come on...

overall, so hard to predict.

that cloud passage was so weird! it was like VR on PS...totally annoyed me! it barely used science at all...wtf
 
LOL, ahahaha, creep! Don't you have to go study? You have to beat Ahmed, remember!:meanie:
nobody is beating ahmed! ahmed is gonna rule the mcat
hey im stalking you too 🙂 rawrrrrr sexy mama jo!😍 omg sdn has such cool smilies... :scared:
 
When I was walking out of the testing center, the administrator said that I could expect my scores in 2-3 weeks. My other score took over a month to process. Have they sped up the grading?? Did anyone else get this same estimate.... 2 weeks would be awesome- sorry if im getting your hopes up everyone....
 
When I was walking out of the testing center, the administrator said that I could expect my scores in 2-3 weeks. My other score took over a month to process. Have they sped up the grading?? Did anyone else get this same estimate.... 2 weeks would be awesome- sorry if im getting your hopes up everyone....

I was told September 5th after 5 PM, I think.
 
When I was walking out of the testing center, the administrator said that I could expect my scores in 2-3 weeks. My other score took over a month to process. Have they sped up the grading?? Did anyone else get this same estimate.... 2 weeks would be awesome- sorry if im getting your hopes up everyone....

The AAMC website says Sept. 5th after 5pm for the august 6th mcat.
 
so i'm taking the test thursday...and getting REALLY freaked out now especially because everyone's been complaining so much about PS...and i always get 8/9 on it.

I took the CBT 9 today and got a 30 (my highest so far...bleh) 9PS/11VR/10BS...it was kind of encouraging but now that i read all the comments im getting worried

do you think for the aug 9th exam they'll probably have totally different topics than the aug 6th exam? do they usually try to switch the topics they focus on from exam to exam (especially if they're so close together) or do you think they might keep the same types of questions?

I know you can't talk about the specific topics but I was just wondering what you all think...

Thanks!!
 
so i'm taking the test thursday...and getting REALLY freaked out now especially because everyone's been complaining so much about PS...and i always get 8/9 on it.

I took the CBT 9 today and got a 30 (my highest so far...bleh) 9PS/11VR/10BS...it was kind of encouraging but now that i read all the comments im getting worried

do you think for the aug 9th exam they'll probably have totally different topics than the aug 6th exam? do they usually try to switch the topics they focus on from exam to exam (especially if they're so close together) or do you think they might keep the same types of questions?

I know you can't talk about the specific topics but I was just wondering what you all think...

Thanks!!

yep, this year each exam date had different topics. I have not seen any single passage to be repeated this year yet.
 
ill be surprised if i score a 25.....meteorites and clouds and........ wtf!!!!!! I Think its time that prep companies change thier programs for prepping students, especially seeing as how the mcat has seemed to change significantly from years past.
 
My guess is that 7 in VR. I didn't get a 35 the first time, but I did get above a 30 with a 7 in VR and retook also. I do know of someone else who got a 35 with a 7 in VR (awesome GPA and ECs and a Ph.D) and did not get many interview invites, so maybe buggati isn't totally crazy for re-taking.

If you get a 15 in a section, repeating that will be tough. Let's say the OP gets 13 in both science sections, and 10 on VR, going up to 36. Will med schools really see that as a better score than a 35? From what I've heard from the adcoms I've talked to, if you don't improve by 3 points, they consider the scores to be essentially the same, and going up by a single point could even be a negative. You've taken the test before, knew what to study, studied for months, and could only improve by one point? If you get the same or worse, it's certainly a negative. Retaking has lots of risk and little reward. Let's say you did manage to increase by 3 pts and now have a 38, which is probably the best you could expect from retaking. Do you think that will make you a much better applicant in an adcom's eyes? Or will they think you're crazy for retaking when you already have a good score?
 
If you get a 15 in a section, repeating that will be tough. Let's say the OP gets 13 in both science sections, and 10 on VR, going up to 36. Will med schools really see that as a better score than a 35? From what I've heard from the adcoms I've talked to, if you don't improve by 3 points, they consider the scores to be essentially the same, and going up by a single point could even be a negative. You've taken the test before, knew what to study, studied for months, and could only improve by one point? If you get the same or worse, it's certainly a negative. Retaking has lots of risk and little reward. Let's say you did manage to increase by 3 pts and now have a 38, which is probably the best you could expect from retaking. Do you think that will make you a much better applicant in an adcom's eyes? Or will they think you're crazy for retaking when you already have a good score?


Hey, I'm not saying this person made the right decision in re-taking after getting a 35 on the first one. People asked why, and I gave the only reasonable explanation I could see from this person's posts. I probably would not have done the same if I were in buggati's shoes, but to each his own.
 
Yeah its understandable. In Canada for example, you can be rejected on a technicality from some schools with a 15/9/15. Even if you've discovered the cure for cancer, no dice. They're total number wh*res.
 
Drizzt3117 said:
If you get a 15 in a section, repeating that will be tough. Let's say the OP gets 13 in both science sections, and 10 on VR, going up to 36. Will med schools really see that as a better score than a 35? From what I've heard from the adcoms I've talked to, if you don't improve by 3 points, they consider the scores to be essentially the same, and going up by a single point could even be a negative. You've taken the test before, knew what to study, studied for months, and could only improve by one point? If you get the same or worse, it's certainly a negative. Retaking has lots of risk and little reward. Let's say you did manage to increase by 3 pts and now have a 38, which is probably the best you could expect from retaking. Do you think that will make you a much better applicant in an adcom's eyes? Or will they think you're crazy for retaking when you already have a good score?

Some schools require that one scores a minimum of an 8 in each section (e.g., Jefferson). So even with a 35 MCAT, this person would be screened out at a school such as Jefferson, hence the need to retake.
 
wow, im glad i got on and read this..... makes me feel a little more confident about my test, haha.

The Good: BS - I felt that it was a decently well put together section, with just a few questions in there that I really struggled with.

The Bad: PS - I have never been good at physical science anyway. I felt alright about it, but with my track record with PS, im not hoping for the world (or in reference to the wierd passage on the test, im not hoping for the meteor)

The Ugly: VS - To be honest, it wasnt that Ugly, i just needed a section to fill in the rest of the phrase 😉 The passages seemed to be alright, but to be honest, only two of them I really enjoyed. For some reason, whenever it's a topic I am interested in, the passages seem like they are no problem. I finished with like a minute to spare, but I rushed through the last two a bit. They did seem longer than normal.

Overall, im not sure how I feel about this test....... it was my first time, so im not all that worried on the results. if i do good, awesome, but if i didnt do so hot, no worries (hakuna matata 😉 )
 
ill be surprised if i score a 25.....meteorites and clouds and........ wtf!!!!!! I Think its time that prep companies change thier programs for prepping students, especially seeing as how the mcat has seemed to change significantly from years past.

That passage pissed me the #*$& off.
 
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