How to solve problems on mcat without calculator

[deleted421268]

Since mcat does not allow calculators for the exam to be used how do one solve calculation based problems that involve math and etc?

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[Isoval]

Round any number they give you to a nice, flat number that ends in 0 or 5.

Make sure you’re up to snuff on scientific notation.

Add zeroes if you’re not comfortable with decimals, then remove them when you’re done (.056/.008 = 56/8 = 7)

Round any number they give you.

Round any number they give you.

Round any number they give you.

Source: I rounded all the numbers they gave me on the MCAT.

 

[alana615]

^^^ Yes. None of the answer choices will be so close together that you can't select the right answer with rounded calculations. Just remember which direction you rounded and if that means the answer should be slightly more or slightly less than you calculate (this can get somewhat confusing when you have to round several numbers) And as with all things MCAT, practice practice practice. On test day you don't want to waste a bunch of time calculating the answer to one question.

 

[Saifa]

Leah4Sci has a nice (albeit corny) YouTube series on the subject that I used with good results.

 

[Lucca]

U also had paper and pencil when I took it so u could jot things down

 

[CJhooper123]

Scientific notation


And for pH calculations...
log(nx10^m)=m+0.n

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

One tip for rounding is when you’re multiplying or dividing, round one number up and one number down. That will give you an estimate closer to the true value most of the time. Most of the time, the answer choices will be sufficiently far apart that this won’t matter, but sometimes two of them can be fairly close.

 

[HomeSkool]

If it's good enough for him...

In all seriousness, though, the MCAT writers deliberately make the calculations ones that you can approximate easily enough by rounding, and they often provide answer choices that differ by an order of magnitude (i.e., 0.1, 1, 10, 100).

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

View attachment 230069
If it's good enough for him...

In all seriousness, though, the MCAT writers deliberately make the calculations ones that you can approximate easily enough by rounding, and they often provide answer choices that differ by an order of magnitude (i.e., 0.1, 1, 10, 100).

And if there are two answers close together, one of them can usually be eliminated just knowing the equation. Like knowing the square root of a decimal will get bigger.

 

[21Rush12]

Agree with gonnif here for sure. Make sure your answer makes sense in context. Don’t put down 500L/min for cardiac output etc.

 

[Optimist Prime]

For logs remember log(2)=.3 and log(3)=.48 with that you can solve any log problem. For Example: Log(6) is log(2 x 3) which is .3+.48= .78

 

[aldol16]

Be comfortable doing simple operations on simple exponents and very basic logs. Past that, I wouldn't worry much about math - they're not going to give you a super complex math problem to solve - that's not the point of the exam.

 

[3toedsloth]

None of the math is beyond a middle school level. Granted, it's been a long time since you've done that without a calculator.

- Memorize common sin/cosin/tan values.
- Learn arithmetic rules for using scientific notation
- Practice the pH calculation shortcuts outlined in Kaplan and Berkeley review prep books.
- gain fluency with division facts if you wiggled out of memorizing them in elementary school, lol
- practice rounding.

That basically covers all of the math.

 

[freak7]

Don’t put down 500L/min for cardiac output etc.

Bruh do you even pump?