Felt like CRAP and guessed a lot but ended up with a 30+, anyone?

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epinephrinerush

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well the title explains it all. i was just wondering because i took the 6/18/09 AM mcat today and this is how i felt:

PS-great! hopefully 13-15
VR- great for the most part until i ran out of time. guessed on 1 passage
BS- insanely hard. skipped 4 and didn't have time to fill them in at the end. guessed on 1.5 passages w/o reading

sounds weird saying this but the phrase "good luck" applies to me now that i've finished the MCAT
 
well the title explains it all. i was just wondering because i took the 6/18/09 AM mcat today and this is how i felt:

PS-great! hopefully 13-15
VR- great for the most part until i ran out of time. guessed on 1 passage
BS- insanely hard. skipped 4 and didn't have time to fill them in at the end. guessed on 1.5 passages w/o reading

sounds weird saying this but the phrase "good luck" applies to me now that i've finished the MCAT


I only got a 28 on the actual test, but on my test I thought I bombed the physical science section. I found myself guessing on quite a few questions and didn't even finish the section and left four questions completely blank because I ran out of time. I seriously felt like voiding my test and swore that this was the section I did the worst in. I ended up getting a 10. Unfortunately, my confidence was so shaken that I think it was part of the reason I only got an 8 in verbal. Oh well.
 
I felt somewhat like Trep14 after my test.

My real test felt much harder than any practice test (i took aamc 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) I ever took. I ran out of time on ps section of the real test and had to complete a whole passage in 2 minutes so i guessed on those 5 questions.

When I was done I thought I would get like a 26, but i ended up with a 30 +.

The curve evens everything out and I believe most people will get around what they got on the practice aamc tests.
 
I only got a 28 on the actual test, but on my test I thought I bombed the physical science section. I found myself guessing on quite a few questions and didn't even finish the section and left four questions completely blank because I ran out of time. I seriously felt like voiding my test and swore that this was the section I did the worst in. I ended up getting a 10. Unfortunately, my confidence was so shaken that I think it was part of the reason I only got an 8 in verbal. Oh well.

i know it's illogical to say this, but, YOU JUST MADE MY DAY. i hope my luck is just as good if not better. j/w, did you guess on any questions w/o reading the passage?
 
i took the test on the 28th of may and felt similar, i was averaging between a 33-36 on aamc practice 3-10 and left thinking low-mid 20's im really hoping thats not the case. these stories are really helping me feel better, if anyone has been in a similar situation and succeeded, please share.

thanks
 
I felt completely awful after my test. I straight guessed on about 5 PS and 4 or 5 BS questions and also on pretty much an entire verbal reasoning passage. I almost voided but ended up deciding to have it scored just because I couldn't imagine studying again for it. My estimated score for myself was PS-8, VR-9, BS-9 but I ended up with 10-11-10. I'm sure you guys did better than you think!🙂

Edit: My AAMC average was 30-31 which was right on, so I'd say trust those tests no matter how you feel after a section.
 
Hey I took the MCAT today as well and felt exactly like you do. I guessed on about 5-6 PS without reading, and they looked pretty easy, which killed me but I ran out of time. Same in BS and VR, hopefully luck is on my side, although this has happened on the practice tests and I have ended up doing alright.
 
well the title explains it all. i was just wondering because i took the 6/18/09 AM mcat today and this is how i felt:

PS-great! hopefully 13-15
VR- great for the most part until i ran out of time. guessed on 1 passage
BS- insanely hard. skipped 4 and didn't have time to fill them in at the end. guessed on 1.5 passages w/o reading

sounds weird saying this but the phrase "good luck" applies to me now that i've finished the MCAT

Switch Bio with PS and thats what I feel like.

The PS seemed really hard to me.
 
took the 4/18 test

PS: wow, really hard. it seemed to touch on all the subjects I wasn't very strong on. there was a calculation I had to skip and guess on...another question I couldn't remember the formula to and had to guess on...and a bunch I didn't feel good on.

VR: a blur. I never had a problem finishing, so I finished on time here too. but I didn't feel confident with many of my answers!

BS: hardest bio I've ever had. very little organic (my best subject) and flat-out TONS of experiment analysis. there were specific stand-alones that were really hard too, and not a single passage was easy. they were all pretty tough.

PS: 11
VR: 10
BS: 14

Dunno how it happened but I landed a 35. My AAMC average was 33...
 
Does anyone secretly think that the curve is very generous?!?! I'm starting to think it is since a lot of people say they come out of the exam feeling like they got hit by a truck/failed it miserably, but a month later, they're getting such awesome scores? I'm starting to think the curve is freaking huge...which would make sense since the test is so damn hard, and would explain how people did well when they felt the test was insane/nothing like what they've been practicing or studying.
 
yeah curve......whatever,

so I can't sleep, I need to know the answer to the armidillo q.
 
Does anyone secretly think that the curve is very generous?!?! I'm starting to think it is since a lot of people say they come out of the exam feeling like they got hit by a truck/failed it miserably, but a month later, they're getting such awesome scores? I'm starting to think the curve is freaking huge...which would make sense since the test is so damn hard, and would explain how people did well when they felt the test was insane/nothing like what they've been practicing or studying.

I'm sure there are also many people who walked out of their test center feeling horribly and a month later they checked up mcatthx.com and ended up with a terrible score just like they predicted.

But you don't hear about these people on a forum like this because I'm pretty sure after all of their struggles the last thing they want to talk about is the MCAT. And this is rightfully so. If I had done bad on the MCAT, my med school dreams would be almost shot, and I wouldn't even be posting on these forums.
 
I'm sure there are also many people who walked out of their test center feeling horribly and a month later they checked up mcatthx.com and ended up with a terrible score just like they predicted.

But you don't hear about these people on a forum like this because I'm pretty sure after all of their struggles the last thing they want to talk about is the MCAT. And this is rightfully so. If I had done bad on the MCAT, my med school dreams would be almost shot, and I wouldn't even be posting on these forums.

Yeah, I definitely agree with you, I'm sure there are a lot of people that felt bad and didn't do as well as they hoped. But still, there are a LOT of people that have done really well, despite feeling terrible, and I personally know many people who scored higher on the real thing compared to their AAMC scores, even when they thought they were destroyed. This is what makes me think there's a large curve. But, I do agree with you on that one.
 
I took the 6/18 exam and hope I can write back on this thread a month from now with a similar story...I felt awful after my exam and each day seems to make me feel worse cause I keep randomly remembering questions that I KNEW but for some reason didn't mark correctly. It's almost as if the pressure wouldn't let me think clearly....its just frustrating missing questions you studied and know but for some reason missed...I know there were 4 or 5 from both PS and BS that i missed for sure...and the rest of the questions I wasn't 100% sure about...what do you guys think that have had this experience from the past?? When people post on here saying that they felt awful and thought they failed after the exam...do you guys mean that you guys answered all questions to the best of your ability and just thought it was hard...OR....did you guys come out feeling it was hard and also knew of several questions you missed for sure?? Please share your experiences....thanks a lot
 
I took the 6/18 exam and hope I can write back on this thread a month from now with a similar story...I felt awful after my exam and each day seems to make me feel worse cause I keep randomly remembering questions that I KNEW but for some reason didn't mark correctly. It's almost as if the pressure wouldn't let me think clearly....its just frustrating missing questions you studied and know but for some reason missed...I know there were 4 or 5 from both PS and BS that i missed for sure...and the rest of the questions I wasn't 100% sure about...what do you guys think that have had this experience from the past?? When people post on here saying that they felt awful and thought they failed after the exam...do you guys mean that you guys answered all questions to the best of your ability and just thought it was hard...OR....did you guys come out feeling it was hard and also knew of several questions you missed for sure?? Please share your experiences....thanks a lot

".do you guys mean that you guys answered all questions to the best of your ability and just thought it was hard...OR....did you guys come out feeling it was hard and also knew of several questions you missed for sure?? Please share your experiences."

Both. I felt that many of the questions in my real mcat were much more difficult than any practice test.

And i also knew of a few questions that i got wrong for sure (i went home and looked a few things up and did a few problems from memory again).

And you should realize that if you did horrible on one passage and this is what is freaking you out, there is a 1 in 7 chance that this passage was an experimental passage and so it won't count at all.
 
that's a little more comforting, thanks. Could you share your predicted scores after taking the exam vs the real outcome?
 
I've said this on a couple of other threads but I'll go ahead and say it again here hoping to make the "bumper" feel better. I felt absolutely awful both during and after my July MCAT. I felt like I guessed on a majority of the questions and I was so mad following the VR section that I almost voided my test. Turns out that I got an 11 in the VR section and broke 30 on the test, a couple of points above my AAMC practice test average. I felt like it was significantly harder than any of the practice tests that I took.

I would be very interested in hearing how the above posters, from the June test, ended up doing.
 
This epinephrine guy should have gotten his scores back long before now, I wonder what he really got.
 
He got a 35. You can click on his name and find most recent posts. I wonder what he got the second time he took it. He signed up for the July exam and retook the MCAT without knowing his scores... which turned out to be pretty good!
 
Gosh, I'm so afraid to let you guys get my hopes up. I was getting 31 to 34 on my official practice tests, but when I was done with my real test on august 21st I felt terrible about it. I feel like I got like in the 21 to 26 range. God, I'm getting physically ill just thinking about it right now. When I clicked the "do score my test" button I literally almost fainted. I literally had to immediately lie down on the floor and elevate my legs.

WHY DO THEY TORTURE US WITH A ONE MONTH WAIT TO GET OUR SCORES BACK!!!

It's all done on computer, so as soon as you click the final submit button then your grade has already been calculated! The only thing that needs time is the writing sample to be scored by a human being, but there's absolutely no reason why they couldn't show us our numerical scores as soon as we click the final submit button.

I'm seriously getting depressed and ill waiting for the shoe to drop. Plus, without knowing my mcat score it means I have to apply to a MUCH wider range and number of schools, which means doing MUCH more work on my application.

Geez man, this sucks right now. Any words of advice or encouragement in how to get through this period would be greatly appreciated. I've tried to just put thoughts of the test out of my head and simply ignore it, but it isn't working. My shoulders are super tight and stressed right now.

Oy, anyway, thanks for listening to me rant.
 
Gosh, I'm so afraid to let you guys get my hopes up. I was getting 31 to 34 on my official practice tests, but when I was done with my real test on august 21st I felt terrible about it. I feel like I got like in the 21 to 26 range. God, I'm getting physically ill just thinking about it right now. When I clicked the "do score my test" button I literally almost fainted. I literally had to immediately lie down on the floor and elevate my legs.

WHY DO THEY TORTURE US WITH A ONE MONTH WAIT TO GET OUR SCORES BACK!!!

It's all done on computer, so as soon as you click the final submit button then your grade has already been calculated! The only thing that needs time is the writing sample to be scored by a human being, but there's absolutely no reason why they couldn't show us our numerical scores as soon as we click the final submit button.

I'm seriously getting depressed and ill waiting for the shoe to drop. Plus, without knowing my mcat score it means I have to apply to a MUCH wider range and number of schools, which means doing MUCH more work on my application.

Geez man, this sucks right now. Any words of advice or encouragement in how to get through this period would be greatly appreciated. I've tried to just put thoughts of the test out of my head and simply ignore it, but it isn't working. My shoulders are super tight and stressed right now.

Oy, anyway, thanks for listening to me rant.

Yeah, I agree with this guy. I took it 8/21 and really have no motivation to do any type of schoolwork until I get my score back. The last half of the wait seems to be the worst, I cant stop thinking about it. The real thing was quite harder, but hopefully the curve works out and I can come back sept. 22 and say I scored +-1 point of my average (29.4). I cant imagine the paper based testers waiting 3 months for their scores 😱

Why oh why can't they just give us the # right then and there, that would at least let most testers decide immediately whether they need to retake.
 
+pity+

Back in the day, people had to wait MONTHS to get a score back. And the test was administered only twice a year.
 
+pity+

Back in the day, people had to wait MONTHS to get a score back. And the test was administered only twice a year.

This is a typical logical fallacy argument. It's like saying, "come on, I have no sympathy for you because even though you're getting continuously waterboarded, there are other people who are getting continuously waterboarded while also getting electrocuted." Undoubtedly, one is much worse than the other in relative terms, but that's meaningless. The only thing that matters is absolute terms. Sure, it may not be as bad as it used to be, but that doesn't mean what we're going through isn't completely terrible also.
 
This is a typical logical fallacy argument. It's like saying, "come on, I have no sympathy for you because even though you're getting continuously waterboarded, there are other people who are getting continuously waterboarded while also getting electrocuted." Undoubtedly, one is much worse than the other in relative terms, but that's meaningless. The only thing that matters is absolute terms. Sure, it may not be as bad as it used to be, but that doesn't mean what we're going through isn't completely terrible also.


Verily.
 
Omg this thread was me! Come out of the exam, the only section I was secure about was the writing and that was my worst! Everything else was fine!
 
does anyone think this thread might give some people here a sense of false hope? i understand that those who don't want to get their hopes up, etc. don't have to read this thread, but i almost feel like this is kind of rubbing salt in the wound for those who did really well on their practice exams and did worse on the mcat. i'm not talking 1-2pts but like 3,4,5...10 points!
 
This is a typical logical fallacy argument. It's like saying, "come on, I have no sympathy for you because even though you're getting continuously waterboarded, there are other people who are getting continuously waterboarded while also getting electrocuted." Undoubtedly, one is much worse than the other in relative terms, but that's meaningless. The only thing that matters is absolute terms. Sure, it may not be as bad as it used to be, but that doesn't mean what we're going through isn't completely terrible also.


  • I wasn't making an argument. I was trying to give you some perspective.
  • You're comparing waterboarding and waiting for MCAT scores? Really?
  • What you're going through is NOT terrible. All you have to do is sit there.
  • It's only 1 friggin month. Stop being so spoiled.
The AAMC is only asking for 30 days to accurately grade your exam and the exams of thousands of other students across the damn country. Have a little patience for crissakes.
 
Miracles do happen! I had been getting 31 to 34 on all my practice tests, but when I was done with the real thing I thought I did really terribly, like 21 to 27. Well I just got my score back today, and I got a 33 S!!!!!!! 😱 😱 😀 😱 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

verbal 10
physical 11
bio 12
writing S


WOO HOO!!!!!
 
ahoy anna

yeah i hear ya. the 1st time i wrote, my aveg was 30. real deal, 4 points lower!

this time around...my average was higher, and the real deal was on par and slightly higher! (thank you miraculous vr score).

Sooo the moral of the story is be prepared...and then leave it in the hands of god.

this time around, i prepared more thoroughly and felt better about the test. felt really uncertain about vr and pretty much threw out ev th i had learned and went w/ my gut instincts. oh and the psgs are longer...so i tried not to go back and forth...just read it thru once, and then tried to ans the qstns as best as i could.
 
Was averaging 32-33 on AAMCs

Walked out thinking I got PS 8, VR 6, BS 11 = 25

Actually got PS 11, VR 9, BS 10 (wtf..) = 30



So I didn't get as high as I hoped but MUCH better than I thought, and good enough to get accepted with the rest of my app : )

Don't freak out!
 
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