Hi everyone, I've posted this question before but it was a while back so wanted to get some new opinions.
I had form FG and I thought it sucked in all sorts of ways. I didn't finish verbal and had to guess at the end, PS was pretty hard, and do not get me started on BS....that was impossible.
I found myself guessing a lot throughout the entire exam and I just feel really bad about it. I know I should let it go and just hope for the best but I need some other opinions.
anything will help. thanks
Hi there,
I had an F form as well. I've avoided coming to this forum for the past few days, because allowing myself to think about my score just stresses me out. It took a few days of mojitos and Magic Hat to forget the MCAT ever happened, so I'm trying to keep it out of my head until the scores come out.
I'm somewhat far removed from my undergraduate science courses, so really felt that I had to put a tremendous amount of work in to do well on the MCAT. I studied for three months solid, at least ten hours a day (I know, I know - but I really just did not want to have to retake this exam), and felt that I couldn't have been more prepared come August 19. On practice exams (both Kaplan full-lengths, as well as the old AAMC tests), I was scoring 35-37s.
I left the real MCAT thinking I'd be lucky to score half of that. Seriously.
I thought the physical sciences was challenging. Some of the passages were very straighforward, but towards the end, I got the impression that there were a lot of trick questions interspersed throughout, and I'm afraid that I didn't catch all of them. After finishing that section, I contemplated voiding. I felt I didn't do well at all.
Then came verbal. I spent far too much time trying to figure out whether Drake was a thief, who stole ceramics from whom, etc... and ended up rushing towards the end. Though I was fortunate that I did have the chance to read every passage and think about every question, I know I was glazing, still obsessing over Drake - and when I glaze, I get rocked. Felt even worse about verbal than I did about physical sciences, and again, contemplated voiding the exam at that point and just retaking in January.
Then, however, I got to bio. It was insane, unlike anything I had ever seen. The passages were so ridiculously dense, there was a very heavy emphasis on molecular bio, and the orgo questions seemed so much more advanced than the material previously tested on the AAMC practice exams. Bio was my strongest section going into the MCAT, but now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll at least get a few points for bubbling in my name. By the time the exam was over (6:15pm - many thanks to the proctor who apparently thought the MCAT was an opportunity to attempt his stand-up comedy skills), I realized that there was no way I was voiding those scores. I wasted an entire day on that exam (not to mention a whole summer), and I really just wanted to see my scores - good or bad.
A week-and-a-half later, I'm feeling much better - not because I think I actually performed well, but more because I've been able to forget about the challenging questions I was obsessing over in the days immediately after the exam.
I wrote in an earlier post that I don't even know how to predict a score, since it's all curved, and I'm sure we all underestimate our abilities on actual test day given the tremendous amount of second-guessing we've been doing. I imagine many of our sentiments can be attributed to post-MCAT anxiety (now that I'm not studying night and day, I have way too much time to think about how I did). If you found the F form to be difficult - more so than the practice AAMCs - chances are you're not alone (you at least have me on your side), and this will be reflected in the curve for the F form.
Just an aside: I took the GRE a few years back. It's actually administered on the computer, and if you opt not to void your scores, you get your verbal and math scores at the testing center, as soon as you've completed your exam (writing is graded at a later date). Again, after I finished that exam, I felt so uncertain - much like I'm feeling now after the MCAT, and much like you're feeling - and thought I got rocked on the verbal (though the GRE math is cake, the verbal is very challenging - on par with MCAT verbal). For about thirty seconds, I sat and stared at the computer screen, thinking I had gotten an embarrassingly low score (again, same way I am feeling now), and that it would destroy my chances for grad school if I chose to click on the "Submit for Scores" button rather than the "Void Exam" button. I was just really curious to know how I did, though, so I ended up choosing "Submit", and scored above the 96th percentile on the verbal section. I think it's only natural to feel nervous about the real thing, especially during this waiting period (fortunately, the GRE waiting period was only thirty seconds) - but chances are, if you were scoring well on the practice exams, you'll score well on the real thing. If I were you, I'd be concerned if I walked out of the MCAT thinking it was easy - then, there would really be something wrong!
By the way - I'm not one of those obnoxious over-achievers looking for sympathy because I'm afraid I may have only scored a 35 instead of a 40. I really felt the exam was challenging, to the point where I'm afraid my score will be so low that it will appear as a typo.
Best of luck to you!
