For all you Aug Verbal fans!

[Chronotropic]

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Someone posted this on the EK board. Brings back fond memories doesn't it?

1) Henry James: Literary Critic/Novelist who had picky standards for literary criticism. (LONG LONG LONG passage with 10 questions) I spent forever on one question: the author regards Henry James with "genuine enthusiasm" or "recognition as his weaknesses"....all in all the author seemed pretty objective and presented both sides

2) A musician's poetic view on inside versus outside world and aesthetic/pleasure appeal of non-mundane things (example of Nightingale song); apathy for workplace: reference to harpo marx and nonspeaking cartoon (WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS ABOUT?--50-60 lines)

3) Gulls/crows dropping rocks on shellfish or dropping mollusks based on altitude and area of rock--analyzing learning behavior of the animals (short pass., but hard to follow b/c i kept confusing the different birds)

4) Formation of universe from calcite crystals and L vs D alanine amino acids, relative affinity for jagged crystals, understanding Chirality (i.e. shoes are chiral) (about 60 lines)

5) PT Barnum as a misunderstood man, whose early career of lying and deception to make money (though it was preceded by a benefactorship to museums) was followed by an old age of giving and public service, though he couldn't change his image. (DO you guys remember the question about what his goals were: i.e. to educate the public or to make money off them deceptively? I didn't quite understand the chronology of his life or when he regretted his past either.)

6)i can't remember these two, i might think of them later, against my will--any help?
7)

8)Technology and scientific progress as gauged by a Skeptic who sensationalized problems to sell books or something (i thought this passage was Long and very hard, with 8 questions--did the author imply something about science being unfair for taxpayers? and there was a hard "which would most CHALLENGE" question)

9) Voting (constituencies divided by geographic region, something about the feudal system, something about misrepresentation--I DID NOT really get to this one, I just skimmed it and I had to guess--it was like 75-80 lines and had about 8 questions); it seemed to me that the author hates gerrymandering and how democracy isn't representative b/c your candidate might not win...?????

 

[DrLady]

I think we had the same form although I don't remember having the same #5 and #8 passages as you have posted. Ohh..and someone's cell phone kept on beeping every few seconds for 5-10 minutes during verbal section...that just got me extremely annoyed and distracted for few min. I am terrified how I did on it. I used to finish the section with 10 min left over but I think i spent too much time on Henry James passage and couldn't finish the last passage and had to bubble all C's. I am going to end up with a low score! 🙁

 

[dookbloo]

if it makes you feel any better doc lady, i dont feel like i was paying any attention the whole time on the verbal section. kind of just filling in random answers. i did read the last passage, and i still think my last 4 answers were c.....if i were aamc though, i would put as few c's on the hardest and last verbal passages as possible. isnt their goal to make us miss as many as possible?

 

[DrLady]

oh thanks dookbloo! Yeah you are right about aamc..it works in strange ways. My friend and I were discussing during the lunch time that we didn't feel focused at all in verbal because we were so used to taking verbals in noisy bookstores: B&N and Borders, that it was hard sitting in a quiet room and focusing. That might be it.

 

[dookbloo]

did you have form dk, too? i hope the science sections worked out better fory ou.

 

[DrLady]

No, I had form CH..but it had the same physical, verbal, and bio section as you guys. Well, the whole day was weird. Physical section, our proctor's one of the two cell phones went off and he told us during break that he will report to aamc. Then on verbal section, someone's cell phone went off for few min..beeping and beeping. Then during Bio section, few jets were roaring coz Chicago had the Air and Water show this weekend. Although that wasn't sooo bad, it was for few min.

I felt that the physical section was more like Ek's practice exams and i am more worried about that, coz Ek practices were damn hard. Bio, as is the general consensus among us, was quite hard as well. Ah well, i am terrified about the whole score.

What did you think?

 

[dookbloo]

i thought the physical was fair, but still more difficult than i had expected. i usually could cruise through the aamc tests, but i struggled a little more with this one. i dont think they made it completely unfair, though. the verbal i obviously got rocked on. the bio i thought was generally pretty fair, but still challenging. contrary to what most people are saying, i thought the organic was pretty tough. i thought the freestanding questions were pretty out there for the most part. most of the bio passages were reasonable, but some were pretty rough. overall, the test was harder than i would have liked. i dont really buy that its just mental that aamc tests are not as tough as the real thing. its not hard to determine what information is difficult and what isnt.