How much pen-to-paper problem solving was on your MCAT?

[cfx]

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Having taken several of the AAMC CBTs, I'm noticing that I'm making very little use of the multitude of equations I've spent a month re-memorizing. I set my area up with scratch paper, and only end up going through about 1 page, and doing very little written problem solving.

I feel like they're calling upon conceptual knowledge, passage understanding, and mental manipulation about 95% of the time. Was this an accurate reflection of your experience with the actual test, or am I under-utilizing the equations?

 

[UnclePhil]

I haven't used pen and paper for my last 2 kaplan FLs. Mostly it was due to laziness because the math is fairly simple, but I'm starting to become more and more convinced that you really don't need to use it that much. It's really just more reassuring to see the right answer written down from an equation that you know is correct. But ymmv. Most of the questions I miss are due to stupidity or confusion on concepts anyway.

 

[phltz]

You're absolutely right. Assuming you're generally proficient at working the straightforward stuff out in your head (like what's the effect of doubling one variable on another), you often barely need to do any actual calculations. One my real MCAT, I had probably less than half a page of calculations for the PS section. I might well have gotten away with not writing any of it down, but due to nerves I was being extra thorough.

Kaplan claims the MCAT is a test of how you think, not a test of content. While this overstates the case, there's something to it. It's much more conceptual than a lot of people seem to realize when they're studying.

 

[NickNaylor]

I'd say there were 4-5 problems where I actually needed the paper to do the math. I'm the kind of person that writes little things on paper for questions where it's not necessary, but there were definitely a few questions where you would need to be a math whiz to not use paper.

The thing that sucks about equations is that they're so easy to memorize that it's really, really painful when you run into a problem, know that an equation exists to solve the problem, but you don't remember it. You memorize equations to avoid situations like that.

 

[echolalia16]

My MCAT had very few questions that required calculations. I remember walking out of the testing center feeling a bit shafted because I hardly used any of the information I spent the past couple months memorizing.

 

[cfx]

Ah, ok. These responses make me feel a bit more at ease about it.

 

[zipzapzop89]

I took the June 17 MCAT and I honestly felt the physical science section had more (and much more complicated) calculation problems than the online AAMC ones....