complex calculations in the MCAT?

[nev]

How often do questions which require some time consuming calculations appear in the MCAT? For example, I was looking in my chem text book about some acid base titration questions where there were multiple steps and the KSP and QSP needed to be calculated. Woul such questions generally be asked?
Thanks
Nev

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

You will have some questions on Ksp, but if you know what you are doing the calculations are fairly easy. Just remember to round, it makes things a whole lot easier

 

[MattD]

How often do questions which require some time consuming calculations appear in the MCAT? For example, I was looking in my chem text book about some acid base titration questions where there were multiple steps and the KSP and QSP needed to be calculated. Woul such questions generally be asked?
Thanks
Nev

I don't recall any big multistep problems. Just remember, gravity is 10m/s/s; not 9.81

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

How often do questions which require some time consuming calculations appear in the MCAT? For example, I was looking in my chem text book about some acid base titration questions where there were multiple steps and the KSP and QSP needed to be calculated. Woul such questions generally be asked?
Thanks
Nev

More frequently than you'd think would be appropriate for an exam that is supposed to test your "thinking skills".

At a bare minimum, half the physics questions will require you to convert units. With chemistry, maybe a quarter of them.

If you're like me and you don't do arithmetic in your head quickly, you had better practice your a$$ off at dealing with decimals.

 

[Chris Knight]

Complex calculations??? No way. You can't use a calculator, so that in itself should tell you it all should be pretty simple. If you find yourself doing calculation after calculation, your thinking about it all wrong, move on, come back and hopefully a clear mind will help you see how to best go about answering the question.

I honestly didn't do anything more than rudimentary calculations. Part of this is my learning style/skill set, I am very quick to see/understand/remember trends with math/physics etc, so I was able to guesstimate nearly every singly physical sciences question thrown at me. I didn't when I went into the test and still can't remember a single physics equation beyond f=ma.

 

[MattD]

More frequently than you'd think would be appropriate for an exam that is supposed to test your "thinking skills".

At a bare minimum, half the physics questions will require you to convert units. With chemistry, maybe a quarter of them.

If you're like me and you don't do arithmetic in your head quickly, you had better practice your a$$ off at dealing with decimals.

Oh my!! Unit conversions and DECIMALS???!?! How can an 8th grader be expected to take a high pressure exam on those topics??? OH WAIT, the test is for JUNIORS in frickin COLLEGE with a fricking SCIENCE BACKGROUND.

 

[Isoprop]

typically, the most difficult calculations are square roots and logs... and those you can estimate and only one answer choice will fall within your range. calculators are needed to compute the final answer sometimes, but they are not needed to find the right answer choice.

 

[studiddy]

Oh my!! Unit conversions and DECIMALS???!?! How can an 8th grader be expected to take a high pressure exam on those topics??? OH WAIT, the test is for JUNIORS in frickin COLLEGE with a fricking SCIENCE BACKGROUND.

Seriously. Guesstimate and round.

 

[Myuu]

typically, the most difficult calculations are square roots and logs... and those you can estimate and only one answer choice will fall within your range. calculators are needed to compute the final answer sometimes, but they are not needed to find the right answer choice.

To add to this, those square roots and logs are usually very common ones, like sqrt(3) (1.86) or sqrt(2) (~1.4). Log(2) is a popular one, too.

 

[Nataliemay24]

in my opinion, there was a lot more math than i thought there would be. i didn't get any long pH questions like you described, but in the physics section, i had what seemed like a ton of arithmetic. i took the may 11 2007 test and i think a lot of people had the same thought as me. of course you have to round and guestimate as other people have posted, but i still had a ton of calcuations - like, ADDITION and long-division, for crying out loud! so it was all really easy, but involved enough that i had to use paper (though i'm not very good with numbers in my head, so maybe others didn't have to use paper as much). one tip (in addition to 9.8 = 10, which is an excellent tip): learn to be really, really, really comfortable with scientific notation, if you aren't already. when i studied for the mcat, i hadn't used scientific notation in years. it took me a while before i was comfortable adding, multiplying, etc. in that notation, and it's a good thing i got comfortable with it before the test.

 

[RoadRunner17]

You need to know all the topics up to Calculus 3 and Differential Equations in order to solve the problems on the MCAT. For instance, you will need to know how to use triple integrals and Gauss's Law, as well as know how to solve second-order differential equations. This is mainly on the Physics part of the MCAT, though.

In case you didn't notice, I was kidding. You should not need to have any complex calculations on the MCAT; most of the stuff they test you on is more symbolic than anything, and the numbers are basic enough that if you have enough practice with those types of numbers, the MCAT should not be difficult doing the calculations on paper and pencil.

 

[littlealex]

No complex calculations in my memory. I did fill up a few scratch papers with calculations, especially on the PS section. However, most of those were simple math.

 

[halekulani]

i took the august mcat
i had no complicated calculations, all were 1 step. (not even 2) all i had to do was calculate mols or something of that nature.

now i wouldn't count on that happening again, but i think you shouldn't expect anything more than 3 steps. 2 steps is about average.