Examkrackers? Psychic?

[quiksilver87]

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How do they know what and what not to study for the MCAT? They tell you not to know things but many times they are clearly listed in the AAMC outline of the topics covered by the MCAt.

For instance aromaticity...they only have about 3 sentences on it!
4n+2 = aromatic

what are your experiences with this? Did you study for the MCAT only using their material?

 

[tncekm]

They base their information on taking many MCAT's, and from thoroughly reviewing the content of the exams 3-10 that are available to the public.

IMHO from my practice exams EK has covered pretty much everything I would have needed to know to ace the exams. The errors come from a) not figuring out what the question is really asking you, b) not being able to figure out passage based questions, c) calculation errors, d) just not practicing enough. With regards to (d) you will see strange things you may have never seen in other classes. They'll mix g.chem and physics, and ochem and bio.

The last AAMC I did I missed about 8/52 PS questions. I could honestly say that about 4 of them were calculation errors, a couple were logic errors, and maybe 1 of them was just hard to follow even after they give you the explanation. That's generally how it is. The whole test is a "D'OH!" test as long as you have a decent base on the topics covered. I think the MCAT beats us psychologically more than anything.

Essentially,if you understand the equations in G. Chem and Physics, and if you understand the basics of ochem (functional groups, simple nomenclatures, acidity and resonance, and how electrons move) you're in good shape. The bio is the most memorization extensive, but even then the discretes tend to be simple, and most of the difficult questions are based off of information from the passages which you should be able to figure out based off of previous understanding of "how things work" in biology.

 

[quiksilver87]

hmm...I don't get it...They send out a representative to take MCATs for them so he can report back? lol...Or do they base their info off of student opinions after they take the real thing.

Btw, your test scores are excellent. You seem to be VERY versatile in that you score consistently high on all the different prep tests...TPR verbal was very hard for me and all the people in my class...so don't worry about that either.
To tell you the truth though...the real deal is harder than the AAMC exams. I averaged 12's on the sciences and I got 11's on the actual test (I'm horrible at verbal...I scored about the same on the CBT's) . My friend was scoring about 10.5 on the PS and he ended up with an 8. That is where your versatility comes into play! Just leave yourself some time this cycle to retake because you NEVER know what could happen (bad day? Nerves? passages not clicking?)...Thats my best advice

The whole test is a "D'OH!" test

hahah my thoughts exactly! On the real test there was only 1 question where I wished I had studied the material harder...The reason I made this thread is mainly due to curiosity...

 

[smeagol]

EK said I probably didn't need to know the Hardy-Weinberg formulae.

I had a Hardy-Weinberg discrete.

Take what they say with a grain of salt. They've been misleading on a number of occasions, telling you things that you probably won't need to know, but you actually do.

You might be able to search it; I think another famous one was, 'you don't have to know about angular momentum.' I remember people being very thrilled about seeing that passage 😀

 

[quiksilver87]

hmm, that hardy weinberg principle equation SHOULD be memorized! It is listed clearly in the AAMC topic section for biology. You are right...the equation was not red and bolded in the EK book, so you are to assume it is not to be memorized...

Angular momentum is not listed as one of the topics in the AAMC outline, however momentum is.

All i know is that I have no time to go through all the TPR crap! I guess I can just refer to them...

 

[tncekm]

hmm...I don't get it...They send out a representative to take MCATs for them so he can report back? lol...Or do they base their info off of student opinions after they take the real thing.

They may go off student feedback, but Jordan and John have taken quite a few tests.

Btw, your test scores are excellent. You seem to be VERY versatile in that you score consistently high on all the different prep tests...TPR verbal was very hard for me and all the people in my class...so don't worry about that either.

Thanks, but, my scores are definitely not excellent... they're okay. I doubt I'd score under a 10 on the real thing even with a bad day on either of the sciences--it'll be up to verbal. But, those damn Gold Standard exams can be pretty demoralizing (and infuriating b/c at times the questions and answer make absolutely no sense! I'm not taking any more of those.) I've taken GS exams I was "positive" I got 12+ and came out with a 9.

To tell you the truth though...the real deal is harder than the AAMC exams. I averaged 12's on the sciences and I got 11's on the actual test (I'm horrible at verbal...I scored about the same on the CBT's) . My friend was scoring about 10.5 on the PS and he ended up with an 8. That is where your versatility comes into play! Just leave yourself some time this cycle to retake because you NEVER know what could happen (bad day? Nerves? passages not clicking?)...Thats my best advice

Well, your friends luck is not very encouraging! Anyway, yeah, I'm really hoping I wont have to retake, but if sh1t happens, it happens. I'll just be crossing my fingers in the meantime and hope you're right about my versatility 😀

re: that Verbal score of yours, I know most people say not to bother reading, but I really found it helped me to read long articles from Harpers, The New Yorker, and others would include the Economist and Scientific American; I always read as fast as I can while still retaining comprehension. My speed has definitely increased. I can read the shorter passages in 2.5 mins and the longer ones in 3 mins where it used to take me 5-6 mins to read short and long passages, respectively, and have a decent level of comprehension. I also read them about an hour or two before every test and I feel its really been "priming my brain" to read. If you throw out one bad day, my last 20 passages in ExamKrackers have been an 11 average, and I made more 100%'s in the last 6 passages than the previous 30. It could be a fluke, but I like to think I'm improving. And, when I started I was in the 6 range with the three tests in the back of the EK book. Give it a try, it sure doesn't hurt! With your sciences if you can just get that VR to a 9 you'll be set.

 

[tncekm]

hmm, that hardy weinberg principle equation SHOULD be memorized!

Yeah, that's one of those equations they definitely should have said to memorize. They just bolded the fact that p+q=1 as something you should "understand". Luckily its a very hard equation to forget 😀