Jan. 2014 Examiners Unite

[misplacedshadow]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey all,

Anyone here postpone their exam to or are planning to take the exam on January 2014? It's the final year in the old format without the new psychology/biochemistry section.

My reason for postponing to January is because I got a bit too lazy in the studying process and will be starting a new job soon, so my September date is too soon for me to be ready to tackle the beast. So I postponed to January. Anyone else out there in a similar situation, any way if there is we have about 5 months of studying to do for this exam.

I plan on starting tonight. Let's try to inspire, motivate, offer a shoulder to cry on, and give advice to our fellow peers who have postponed their exam to Jan or will plan to register in Jan.

Please don't act negatively towards your fellow sdners, or kick them when they are down. I know this happens a lot here in these forums. Keep your bad comments to yourself because we are all friends here. 🙂


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Huge proponent of Wikipremeds Physics Flashcards and I can attribute them solely for my PS section increasing. Great tool for really mastering the concepts of Physics. Freakin' goldmine!
I think the Official MCAT guide is the most recent up-to-date passages you can get. Very good practice and you can really break down those questions. I would actually take a couple days to work through and break each question down fully and understand it.

 

[daleader]

Huge proponent of Wikipremeds Physics Flashcards and I can attribute them solely for my PS section increasing. Great tool for really mastering the concepts of Physics. Freakin' goldmine!
I think the Official MCAT guide is the most recent up-to-date passages you can get. Very good practice and you can really break down those questions. I would actually take a couple days to work through and break each question down fully and understand it.

It would cost twice the price for me (including shipment to canada) 🙁 not sure if I wanna pay that much for these...

 

[Pre-Med Village]

John I really really really want to order your flashcards but I live in Canada and the cost for shipping makes me

Is there anything we can do to lower the cost of shipping? poor canadians

I'm sorry. If someone can point to a reasonably fast, reliable way to get a two pound package from Atlanta, Georgia to Canada for less than about $20, I am all ears. Even the USPS economy service is $15, and that can take as long as six weeks to some countries, because they put it on a covered wagon and a sailing ship. I don't offer that because it's too stressful a way to save six dollars, so it's Global Priority for $21.50. This is about as much as the cards cost, which is kind of ridiculous, I guess. If it's any comfort, it took me two years to make the cards, one or two cards a day, getting up every morning at 4AM, so they have a kind of blood, sweat and tears quality which is nothing to sneeze at. They are the most artisanal MCAT physics cards available.

It's not much, but it's something! Here is a code that will get you a 10% discount. b67258 Probably should make it something like 'success' or 'rockthemcat' but it's b67258. This is an Easter egg in the January 2014 Examiners Unite thread. Good luck in your studies!

 

[daleader]

I'm sorry. If someone can point to a reasonably fast, reliable way to get a two pound package from Atlanta, Georgia to Canada for less than about $20, I am all ears. Even the USPS economy service is $15, and that can take as long as six weeks to some countries, because they put it on a covered wagon and a sailing ship. I don't offer that because it's too stressful a way to save six dollars, so it's Global Priority for $21.50. This is about as much as the cards cost, which is kind of ridiculous, I guess. If it's any comfort, it took me two years to make the cards, one or two cards a day, getting up every morning at 4AM, so they have a kind of blood, sweat and tears quality which is nothing to sneeze at. They are the most artisanal MCAT physics cards available.

It's not much, but it's something! Here is a code that will get you a 10% discount. b67258 Probably should make it something like 'success' or 'rockthemcat' but it's b67258. This is an Easter egg in the January 2014 Examiners Unite thread. Good luck in your studies!

Aw that's very nice of you, really appreciate it. There are a lot of good reviews about your flashcards so they are definitely great !! I will order soon 🙂

 

[IlyaR]

John Wetzel of WikiPremed here. I am sorry this happened. A batch just came back in the mail to us here, so I think yours and the other person in this thread must have been included. There were five where I made a really bone-headed mistake with the original shipping. I dropped some extras into the boxes (a disc and some candy) without adding the extra weight to the label. I guess USPS doesn't like doing free work! They are on the way again via Priority Mail, so you should have them by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

No worries. Looking forward to getting them, I hear they are fantastic

 

[orangeman25]

So I would say that epinephrine is a hormone while norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter. Both are catecholamines and release of either increases blood glucose.

On a practice test (TBR), I found out that epinephrine stimulates insulin secretion while NE inhibits insulin secretion. But the effect of both is to increase blood glucose? Is there something else going on that I'm not seeing? How is this possible?

 

[IlyaR]

I keep reading threads that say that content review is basically worthless for the real deal. Wondering what that's about

 

[daleader]

I keep reading threads that say that content review is basically worthless for the real deal. Wondering what that's about

same here man !

 

[orangeman25]

Does TBR have a section pertaining to bone anatomy/structure and ear anatomy/structure?

 

[sps27]

Has anybody taken these old style Kaplan FL exam like PS (77 Q in 100 min), BS(77 Q in 100 min), VR(60 Q in 85 min). They have 11 passages and some discreets. These exams are killing me. I am going to use these as regular practice material, not exams.

 

[orangeman25]

Has anybody taken these old style Kaplan FL exam like PS (77 Q in 100 min), BS(77 Q in 100 min), VR(60 Q in 85 min). They have 11 passages and some discreets. These exams are killing me. I am going to use these as regular practice material, not exams.

I've taken the science sections from Kaplan 9. The scaling is really lenient but yeah they are definitely not easy.

 

[sps27]

I've taken the science sections from Kaplan 9. The scaling is really lenient but yeah they are definitely not easy.

I took Kaplan 8. Sitting for 1 hr 40 min and doing 11 psgs just killed me. I lost it after 8 psgs. Gave up. Too much headache. And my scores reflect that. 11/7/9 in PS/VR/BS. OChem and Verbal are my Achilles tendon. While I can do something about Ochem, I seriously doubt I can do anything about VR given the time limit. I am not done with EK verbal and TPRVW so will keep practicing that. Will do AAMC 4 tmrw and hope that will be better.

 

[yogaenthusiast]

Have you guys all registered for January? I put off registering because I live in California but was looking at jobs in the midwest (where my husband lives). I just looked at the registration and nothing is available in California until May?I really want to write it now because it's incredibly hard to study with a (more than) full-time job and my practice test scores are really good, and I don't think I can remember everything for that long! (30 on one of the long old tests before finishing content review, 38 on AAMC 3, and still not done content review).

If I register in my husband's state, can I switch if there's an opening near where I live so I don't have to fly 8 hours to write the test?

Also, I do have the Barron's flash cards and they have not been helpful. I've used EK notes, Audio Osmosis, and the 1001 questions. If I were not learning this from scratch 9 years after finishing my science courses, I probably wouldn't need the 1001 books.

 

[sshah92]

Hey guys,

Does anybody have access to the old R exams? I only have AAMC 8, 9, and 11 left before I'm out of AAMC tests and have about three weeks before my exam, so more exams would be verry helpful!

 

[orangeman25]

I took Kaplan 8. Sitting for 1 hr 40 min and doing 11 psgs just killed me. I lost it after 8 psgs. Gave up. Too much headache. And my scores reflect that. 11/7/9 in PS/VR/BS. OChem and Verbal are my Achilles tendon. While I can do something about Ochem, I seriously doubt I can do anything about VR given the time limit. I am not done with EK verbal and TPRVW so will keep practicing that. Will do AAMC 4 tmrw and hope that will be better.

Verbal is the bane of my existence

 

[HopelessMCATer]

Freaking out, somehow since early November, my practice test scores have actually gone down ( had a gradual increase from 24 up to 35 with Kaplan, ran out of exams so I bought TBR tests, and used a free Princeton Review online, got a 20. Completely demoralized I continued to study but TBR exams have been low 20's. I cannot postpone as I am retaking from an MCAT of 24. Oh and I used all the AAMC exams over the summer as well as EK101 VR. Any advice/ motivation would be greatly appreciated. No negative comments please, that's the last thing I need.

 

[daleader]

Have you guys all registered for January? I put off registering because I live in California but was looking at jobs in the midwest (where my husband lives). I just looked at the registration and nothing is available in California until May?I really want to write it now because it's incredibly hard to study with a (more than) full-time job and my practice test scores are really good, and I don't think I can remember everything for that long! (30 on one of the long old tests before finishing content review, 38 on AAMC 3, and still not done content review).

If I register in my husband's state, can I switch if there's an opening near where I live so I don't have to fly 8 hours to write the test?

Also, I do have the Barron's flash cards and they have not been helpful. I've used EK notes, Audio Osmosis, and the 1001 questions. If I were not learning this from scratch 9 years after finishing my science courses, I probably wouldn't need the 1001 books.

Wow... well done... a 38 on AAMC3 ad you have completed prereqs 9 years ago... well done...

 

[IlyaR]

TPRH Bio grind time!

 

[oobie]

TPRH Bio grind time!

How good is TPRH for bio? I can only get it after about the 8th for $50 (so about two weeks of studying with it). Do you think it's worth it? I'm doing TBR passages now (about a quarter of the whole section for a couple of sections a day).

 

[SolidDiagnosiss]

How good is TPRH for bio? I can only get it after about the 8th for $50 (so about two weeks of studying with it). Do you think it's worth it? I'm doing TBR passages now (about a quarter of the whole section for a couple of sections a day).

Only thing I would change if I could go back in time would be using TPR Bio instead of Berkeley Bio. Well worth it.

 

[oobie]

I used EK bio mainly, but I feel like that is probably my worst subject (well, other than verbal), so I will get it. How is it for PS? A good secondary after TBR?

 

[IlyaR]

I can't say wether TPR bio content review material is good, since I used EK bio. The science workbook has excellent passages though which emphasize analytical thinking

 

[oobie]

Sounds good! That's exactly what I'm doing (or going to do soon). Also, I'm starting the New Years off right with AAMC 5 that morning/afternoon and then watching Sherlock that night! Who's with me?

Also, just a note, I'm sure most of you are doing this now, but it is best to study at 8:00 or 1:00 (or around those times), depending on what time your test will be. Memory studies show that you recall better (and I am sure that your skills are better) when you study at the time of your tests. (yay for being a neuroscience major!)

 

[IlyaR]

#8 on Friday! No way in hell am I doing anything besides chugging coconut water Wednesday lol

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

^^ yes yes rehydration for the inevitable NYE hangover lol

Kaplan 9 tomorrow!

 

[bluebillion]

Sounds good! That's exactly what I'm doing (or going to do soon). Also, I'm starting the New Years off right with AAMC 5 that morning/afternoon and then watching Sherlock that night! Who's with me?

Yeah I'm taking AAMC 5 on Wednesday too! 1pm sharp.

 

[No Limits]

Only thing I would change if I could go back in time would be using TPR Bio instead of Berkeley Bio. Well worth it.

Really? Why? I'm using BR and EK and have been doing well. Do you feel the same way about TPR for PS? I am looking for something to get my PS score higher, anyone have any suggestions?

^^ yes yes rehydration for the inevitable NYE hangover lol

Kaplan 9 tomorrow!

Yeah I'm taking AAMC 5 on Wednesday too! 1pm sharp.

Good luck fellas👍

 

[FistLength]

Finally got to 30

AAMC 7 9/11/10

AAMC 3 7/10/9
AAMC 4 7/12/10
AAMC 5 9/10/9

I personally love verbal, always my highest scoring section (not saying much since I get 9's in PS!)

I have Kaplan and TBR and TPR science workbook material. I have enough material to choke a camel, its just choosing between the 3 is difficult given time constraints of graduate school. I have been over TBR once. What is the suggestion to increase PS? Go through TPR science workbook, Kaplan sectionals, AAMC self assesment, TBR again?

 

[No Limits]

Finally got to 30

AAMC 7 9/11/10

AAMC 3 7/10/9
AAMC 4 7/12/10
AAMC 5 9/10/9

I personally love verbal, always my highest scoring section (not saying much since I get 9's in PS!)

I have Kaplan and TBR and TPR science workbook material. I have enough material to choke a camel, its just choosing between the 3 is difficult given time constraints of graduate school. I have been over TBR once. What is the suggestion to increase PS? Go through TPR science workbook, Kaplan sectionals, AAMC self assesment, TBR again?

Congrats man, keep it up.

I'm considering TPR for PS. I currently use TBR and EK and they are fine but I have been at a plateau for PS for awhile now.

 

[IlyaR]

TBR is superlative with regards to PS

 

[No Limits]

TBR is superlative with regards to PS

I know and it has been for me but PS is my weakest subject. I'm just looking for some extra materials that can help me stay consistent so my score wont be too off balanced.

 

[IlyaR]

TPRH bio passages 51-65 and then EK101 #11 today! Wooooo : |

 

[bluebillion]

Started off studying today with TPRH Verbal Exam 1. 34/40 which is about 11 on a scale. VR is so frustrating! It is super difficult to get <4 wrong that you need for a 12+ score. There is so much subjectivity on some of these questions.

Nice to see some improvements tho from last week where I was stuck in "10" pergutory. Hope I can string together a few 11s or better on practice this week.

 

[sps27]

Started off studying today with TPRH Verbal Exam 1. 34/40 which is about 11 on a scale. VR is so frustrating! It is super difficult to get <4 wrong that you need for a 12+ score. There is so much subjectivity on some of these questions.

Nice to see some improvements tho from last week where I was stuck in "10" pergutory. Hope I can string together a few 11s or better on practice this week.

By TPRH do you guys mean their Science workbook (TPR SW, the big fat juicy workbook) and Verbal workbook (TPR VW, slightly on the thinner side) ???

That is an awesome score. I would be dancing crazy with a 30..........

So if I may ask, for how long and what all have you been practicing to get to that score? Do u give yourself a days gap, or do you practice daily? And how many psgs do you usually do?

 

[IlyaR]

SW is only science, so I'm sure it's the VR book. I haven't gotten a 34/40 yet but my last AAMC I managed a 33/40, and I attribute it to a 3 minute FOCUSED reading of the passages, and minimal reference back to it. Intuiting answers seems to work better for me rather than searching

 

[sps27]

SW is only science, so I'm sure it's the VR book. I haven't gotten a 34/40 yet but my last AAMC I managed a 33/40, and I attribute it to a 3 minute FOCUSED reading of the passages, and minimal reference back to it. Intuiting answers seems to work better for me rather than searching

Thanks bud. Did you practice daily, like 3 psgs or sit straight for a full exam with a days gap in between? Also, I am guessing you practiced with EK and TPR VW primarily correct?

 

[IlyaR]

I do verbal once a week (full 7 passages). Yep, TPRH and EK, but I don't place much weight onto their reasoning to be honest. I seem to be doing worse on EK despite better AAMC scores, so I don't really bother doing a lengthy overview of why I got an EK/TPRH question wrong. I do however check every single AAMC VR question fairly closely

 

[orangeblue]

***Seeking your comments, positive encouragement or good advice **


Guys,
What to do? Took 3 p.tests (AAMC, TBR 1, TBR 2 ) and got 8/9s on most sections average. I would like to bump up to 11/12 points per section.

I wonder how much I can improve? The next test day in 4/5 in my city (unless someone gives up a seat). The drop down menu on AAMC registration site doesn't even have my STATE on 3/22 date. Does this mean spots are taken or it is not offered in my city on 3/22 ? ps: i live in one of the top 4 cities in the US.

Eithercase, I'll bedoing TBR , AAMC practice tests every week and sit for the Jan exam anyways . I am greafeul to be at the point in my prep when i'm doing test, post-test analysis and of course, last 1/3 of TBR.

*I know that no one here is a master , so all advice must be given/taken with a grain of salt, but still looking to hear from you*

 

[sps27]

I do verbal once a week (full 7 passages). Yep, TPRH and EK, but I don't place much weight onto their reasoning to be honest. I seem to be doing worse on EK despite better AAMC scores, so I don't really bother doing a lengthy overview of why I got an EK/TPRH question wrong. I do however check every single AAMC VR question fairly closely

Thanks once again. I appreciate it.

 

[madmuttal]

Hello! New to this forum! gluck to everyone and I'm sure we'll kick it next month!!
Was just doing the TBR physics Section IX circuit chapter....the passage about wheatstone bridge was brutal!! has anyone done that?

 

[orangeblue]

I remember that wheatstone bridge. it didn't seem that bad to me (unless it's a differnet psg) : just dont get confused or worked up about the diagram..x

 

[loofah]

^^ yes yes rehydration for the inevitable NYE hangover lol

Kaplan 9 tomorrow!

Ay dude, was it the old length one or the normal one?
I took the normal length #9 today (CBT) and went from a 36 on AAMC 3 & 4 to a 28. Verbal. Ugh. Godawful.

 

[bluebillion]

By TPRH do you guys mean their Science workbook (TPR SW, the big fat juicy workbook) and Verbal workbook (TPR VW, slightly on the thinner side) ???

That is an awesome score. I would be dancing crazy with a 30..........

So if I may ask, for how long and what all have you been practicing to get to that score? Do u give yourself a days gap, or do you practice daily? And how many psgs do you usually do?

i have started to do a VR exam almost every other day. I have 7 EK101 exams left, plus 3 more TPRH Verbal exams from the book. I also have some old kaplan longer VR exams I can burn through if need be.

I stopped using the highlighter tool. I used to underline everythign like crazy, but now I force myself to just read it slowly and understand what the author is saying. If I don't know wtf is going on, I keep reading anyway. I think it is a common MCAT trick that they will throw in an ambiguous passage and then have you reading and re-reading the text. Just tell yourself that if you didn't understand what was going on, chances are no one else does either. in this case, use the question stems + main idea to try and figure out the answer

but then again i am no VR master, i'd like to consistently hit 12/13 in upcoming exams.

 

[bluebillion]

***Seeking your comments, positive encouragement or good advice **


Guys,
What to do? Took 3 p.tests (AAMC, TBR 1, TBR 2 ) and got 8/9s on most sections average. I would like to bump up to 11/12 points per section.

I wonder how much I can improve? The next test day in 4/5 in my city (unless someone gives up a seat). The drop down menu on AAMC registration site doesn't even have my STATE on 3/22 date. Does this mean spots are taken or it is not offered in my city on 3/22 ? ps: i live in one of the top 4 cities in the US.

Eithercase, I'll bedoing TBR , AAMC practice tests every week and sit for the Jan exam anyways . I am greafeul to be at the point in my prep when i'm doing test, post-test analysis and of course, last 1/3 of TBR.

*I know that no one here is a master , so all advice must be given/taken with a grain of salt, but still looking to hear from you*

Just keep chugging along man. For me personally, I was getting super discouraged with the scores from third party exams. I made the decision that I going exclusively AAMC from here on out. I am all in for this January exam. I think especially now that we are close to the exam date confidence plays just as important as a role as anything else, and it was really demoralizing for me to see low-mid 20s on TPR exams and stuff.

I got a 29 in AAMC 3, 28 in TPR 3, and 27 in Cracking #1. I couldn't sleep for so many nights because of these scores lol. However, I got a 34 in AAMC 4, maybe a week after these tests. Maybe they did shock me into getting my ass in gear, idk.

Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and I will get a similar (better) score tomorrow when I take AAMC 5

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Ay dude, was it the old length one or the normal one?
I took the normal length #9 today (CBT) and went from a 36 on AAMC 3 & 4 to a 28. Verbal. Ugh. Godawful.

Old one but I did only up to how many questions are in the AAMC. I got 9/10/12.

 

[gonnamakeit13]

Happy New Year and best of luck to all the Jan examinees.May your hard work pay off!!!

 

[sps27]

Happy New Year and best of luck to all the Jan examinees.May your hard work pay off!!!

Wish you the same and to everybody else. May this year be truly happy to all attempting this exam now or in the future. U guys are awesome. Keep plugging. Will be doing some TBR revision work today.

 

[patellati]

Happy new year to all.

 

[bluebillion]

10-10-12 in AAMC 5. suckssssssss

 

[orangeblue]

Just keep chugging along man. For me personally, I was getting super discouraged with the scores from third party exams. I made the decision that I going exclusively AAMC from here on out. I am all in for this January exam. I think especially now that we are close to the exam date confidence plays just as important as a role as anything else, and it was really demoralizing for me to see low-mid 20s on TPR exams and stuff.

I got a 29 in AAMC 3, 28 in TPR 3, and 27 in Cracking #1. I couldn't sleep for so many nights because of these scores lol. However, I got a 34 in AAMC 4, maybe a week after these tests. Maybe they did shock me into getting my ass in gear, idk.

Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and I will get a similar (better) score tomorrow when I take AAMC 5

Thanks bro..yep...chugging along. Confidence is very important and #1 determinor of sucess

You and I (and others) are VERY VERY CLOSE.