May 22nd, 2009 Mcat takers

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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futuredoc4432

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Hi guys, this is for all of you that plan on taking the mcat may 22nd. wondering when/how everyone is gonna be studying. I have a bunch of old kaplan books and plan on taking a kaplan class. I haven't started any intense studying yet, maybe after finals. lemme know
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I just write it down at the beginning of the PS section, something like this
trigvalues.jpg

I just typed this up really quickly.....hope it's clear enough for you guys.

You can see the trend....sin is squroot 0 1 2 3 4 while cos is the reverse 4 3 2 1 0 from 0 30 45 60 90 degree. :thumbup:

EDIT: oops I just realized that tan of 60 isn't 1/sqr3 it's just sqrt3 :idea:
 
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I like our MCAT family... we should all get dinner some time. haha
 
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Sup boyos! Yet another long time lurker coming out of the shadows. Here's to us all getting 45T's on Friday!
 
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Zona Pellucida said:
Is it a rule to always just flip the more negative one and then add? For both galvanic and electrolytic?

When I see the answer this is how what made sense to me:

Overall Reaction
2 Na + Cl2 --> 2 Na+ + 2 Cl-

Half Reactions

Na+ + e- --> Na (E = -2.71)
Cl2 + 2e- --> 2Cl- (E = +1.36)


Can I just say...

Since Cl2 is on the same side of the reaction in the half and overall, leave it as +1.36

Since Na is on the opposite side of the reaction in the overall than it is in the half, flip the sign to +2.71.

Add.


Is that fine?
Click to expand...

Zona, this works great. That's my thinking behind it. Works every time.

And as far as the trig stuff goes, I think I have it memorized. I never thought of it like the way chowder posted though. That's easy.
 
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derArzt said:
I like our MCAT family... we should all get dinner some time. haha
Click to expand...

Haha yeah. This works out kinda nice, feels like I have some sort of support to rely on. None of my family members or relatives are physicians, so none of them know what I'm going through. Where does everyone live?

I live close to Dallas, TX.
 
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Both my parents are in medical science, a basic science researcher and an optometrist. Not physicians though, but they do understand what I'm going through, which actually makes it even worst since they have high expectation for me :scared:.
 
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Prince Abubu said:
Haha yeah. This works out kinda nice, feels like I have some sort of support to rely on. None of my family members or relatives are physicians, so none of them know what I'm going through. Where does everyone live?

I live close to Dallas, TX.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean... seems like everyone who hasn't gone through the MCAT process has NO CLUE what this is all about, kind of frustrating.

Oh, and North Carolina here. Looking forward to see where we all end up!
 
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First time posting on this thread...

But yea... I can't wait to walk out of that testing center and have sunshine on my face again... Some weird combination of being liberated and yet having this ever-building pressure for when scores come out...

Good luck to everyone!

Oh, and I'm from Kansas City... Kansas side... In fact, tomorrow, my wife and I are going to a Royals game... Clear the head for a free day on Thursday and such...

Oi...
 
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scoutnj19 said:
Oh, and I'm from Kansas City... Kansas side... In fact, tomorrow, my wife and I are going to a Royals game... Clear the head for a free day on Thursday and such...

Oi...
Click to expand...

I have a sixer of Boulevard waiting in my fridge for me the second I get back.

What is everyone thinking their 'ideal' MCAT will be on friday?

As per me:

PS-as many calculations as possible with as little verbal-like interpretation from the passage based questions as possible. IMO, some of the 'horrific' last few MCATS that had a ton of calculations would make my day, thanks math major.

VR- Whatever. My last 4 AAMCs are consistently 10-12. As long as I don't get a passage that blows my head and I miss 3/4s of the ?s, then I should be fine. If I can pull a ten on this I will be absolutely happy, judging from how horrible I was when I first started studying.

BS- as factual as possible. Same with PS, as little bull verbal-like interpretation questions as possible. If I look at my practices, there is a huge correlation; whenever there is a bio passage with a bunch of (ambiguous) passage-interpretations I bomb it and it sends my score sliding. As little organic as possible... probably 70% of my wrongs in the AAMCs BS are from organic.

ROCK ON! only two more days!
 
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Yay for Boulevard!

My ideal MCAT would be to show up and be handed a 45T...

But in the real world, considering my background, I'm hoping to take advantage of the VR and writing (even though the latter doesn't matter too too much)...

As for BS, I'm looking for a lot of genetics, cell metabolism, and evolution-type stuff etc...

For PS, I'll take ideal gas stuff, physics of magnetism and charge and the like...

I'm a non-trad of sorts in that my degree is in journalism. Spent the last two years doing post-bacc pre-reqs to get ready for this dang test. So, I'm just hoping to get a 30 and head to KU Med.
 
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delicatefew24 said:
California! You guys will be taking it earlier than me... lucky I wanna get this over withhh
Click to expand...

You have 3 more hours of study time AND have 3 hours less to wait before you get scores. I wouldn't be surprised if that gets you a few extra points. I should apply as disadvantaged.
 
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AAMC 10

PS 11
VR 10
BS 13

Ah well. I made some dumb PS mistakes and some BS questions were a little...odd. VR..whatever.

I'll be happy if finish off Friday with any score starting with a 3_.
 
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derArzt said:
You have 3 more hours of study time AND have 3 hours less to wait before you get scores. I wouldn't be surprised if that gets you a few extra points. I should apply as disadvantaged.
Click to expand...

Haha, I didn't even think about the score waiting, maybe I'll change my testing center to Hawaii...
 
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Hey Everyone!

Hmm...my ideal MCAT:
PS: minimal optics and minimal passage based interpretations, lots of kinematics, lots of calculations, loving waves, particle decay, titrations, acids and bases, stoichiometry, and rate laws

BS: lots of neuro :), genetics, evolution, and mechanistic organic

Verbal: a 10 would make me pleased...I start off scoring 6s in verbal and have now gotten up to consistent 10s/11s, but know that test day could bring anything...no philosophical or econ based passages pleased!

I'm ready to have this weight lifted off of my shoulders (for 30 days, at least)
How are you all holding up?
 
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Hey y'all. I'm taking MCAT this Friday as well! I just took AAMC #10 and am pretty satisfied with my result: 33 (12PS/9V/12BS). One more question correct to get 10 on verbal, but w/e. I'll be happy as long as I get 30+. 2 more days! Can't wait for this to be over! Good luck! :thumbup:
 
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Kind of worries me when I see people have been doing all the aamc practice tests in april and I only started doing practice tests 7 days before the real exam...But did anyone feel that the AAMC tests differed significantly in difficulty? As I went from #3 to #8 my score has been going from 33 to 37/38. I don't know if thats just getting used to the format or the tests actually changed from year to year (which ones are more recent anyways?)
Also if I had to choose between 9 and 10 to take, which would you recommend?
 
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Just finished AAMC 10

I think I lost all focus. Oh well.

12P/7V/11B


I've never scored so low on Verbal. That last passage... man, I got every one wrong!! Ahhh ****. Great way to ruin my pre-test confidence.
 
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ammc10: 11/9/10, thought the verbal was the easiest to read so far, but none-the-less...

i got my lowest score on bio on this exam, anyone think it was tougher? i've gotten the same overall score as aamc9, anyone with similar trends?
 
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Just took AAMC10 - did fairly well but orgo kicked my tail. If I hadn't done orgo, I would have done much better.

Oh well. Lets hope for easy orgo, lol.

Verb was way easier too
 
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wahoo2010 said:
Hey y'all. I'm taking MCAT this Friday as well! I just took AAMC #10 and am pretty satisfied with my result: 33 (12PS/9V/12BS). One more question correct to get 10 on verbal, but w/e. I'll be happy as long as I get 30+. 2 more days! Can't wait for this to be over! Good luck! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

According to the AAMC 10 thread there was a mistake in verbal grading so you probably got a 12 10 12. Unfortunately I was away from an 11 by more than one point so it didn't matter for me. Oh well.


... PS #20 was lame. I still don't really get whats going on but I honestly don't even care right now.
 
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CH6207 said:
Kind of worries me when I see people have been doing all the aamc practice tests in april and I only started doing practice tests 7 days before the real exam...But did anyone feel that the AAMC tests differed significantly in difficulty? As I went from #3 to #8 my score has been going from 33 to 37/38. I don't know if thats just getting used to the format or the tests actually changed from year to year (which ones are more recent anyways?)
Also if I had to choose between 9 and 10 to take, which would you recommend?
Click to expand...

I thought 10 was more difficult. 9 was very straight forward with lots of gimmes in my opinion so I would probably say 10.
 
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Ugh just went over #10 and there were so many questions I looked at, and was like d'uh your an idiot for picking that answer. lol

like 10^-3 is mW not kW.... ugh
 
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robflanker said:
Ugh just went over #10 and there were so many questions I looked at, and was like d'uh your an idiot for picking that answer. lol

like 10^-3 is mW not kW.... ugh
Click to expand...

Yeah. I did a lot of dumb PS things.

I got the wavelength = (v/f) plug and chug one wrong. Seriously? : |
 
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robflanker said:
Ugh just went over #10 and there were so many questions I looked at, and was like d'uh your an idiot for picking that answer. lol

like 10^-3 is mW not kW.... ugh
Click to expand...

I made the same mistake. That question would have given me a 13.

I thought Verbal was a bitch! The last passage made absolutely no sense. I think I might just be going crazy. That verbal was seriously difficult.
 
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lol i hear you i did all the math right on PS but it was then picking stupid answers that killed me.

as long as it doesnt happen on fri then i'll be happy
 
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Ok so we've finished all of our practice tests.... now what?

I'll start by posting my summary and my expectation for Friday.

AAMC 3 (5-Mar)
10P/8V/9B - 27

AAMC 4 (15-Apr)
8P/11V/11B - 30

AAMC 5 (23-Apr)
10P/9V/11B - 30

AAMC 6 (30-Apr)
10P/10V/10B - 30

AAMC 7 ( 7-May)
10P/10V/12B - 32

AAMC 8 (15-May)
9P/10V/11B - 30

AAMC 9 (18-May)
12P/10V/14B - 36

AAMC 10 (20 May)
12P/7V/11B - 30

My average:
PS: 10
VR: 10
BS: 11
Composite: 31

My expectation:
PS: 12
VR: 10
BS: 12


You guys can just list averages. Might be easier.
 
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I didn't date mine...

AAMC 3
7 9 9 25

AAMC 4
12 11 11 34

AAMC 5
10 12 13 35

AAMC 6
10 10 9 29

AAMC 7
10 11 11 32

AAMC 8
12 9 10 31

AAMC 9
12 9 13 33

AAMC 10
11 10 13 34


My average:
PS: 10.5
VR: 10.1
BS: 11.1
Composite: 31.7

My expectation:
PS: 12
VR: 10
BS: 12
 
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Just took AAMC 10,
11/12/13 = 36

Averages:
PS - 12.2
VR - 11.6
BS - 11.6

Expectations (hopeful)
PS 12
VR 12
BS 12

What kind of prep have you guys been doing for the writing sample? Honestly I have put almost no effort into it cause I figured the other stuff was more important and I've been pressed for time.
 
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I haven't done much. I know there's a sort of "formula" you're supposed to follow in order to write a good essay. I'll probably check out one of the prep books and see what they have to say about it.
 
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I did Kaplan so I just follow their stuff. I didnt work on it massively but made sure I did them on every practice test and used that as my only practice.
It's not a big deal unless you get the worst score possible. Then its a raised eyebrow
 
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IMO, averages are worthless. It takes away from using the AAMCs as tools instead of diagnostics exams. If you actually studied hard, you should absolutely destroy your average. I haven't calculated mine, and I don't plan to.

AAMC 10, just finished minutes ago:

13PS/10VR/13BS.

I missed 11 in VR by one question (33/40; I think 34 was an 11), so I might be a 37. But I need to check it out.

If I get anything above a 30, I am not retaking. That is all am I positive about.
 
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My averages for 3-10:

PS- 11.4
VR- 10.2
BS- 10.0

What I think might maybe probably mostly happen:
12, 9, 10

What I really hope will possibly best-case scenario happen:
13, 10, 11
 
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Oh, and as far as strengths/weaknesses

Physical Sciences- Not good w magnetism or "explain this phenomenon"... everything else is fine

Verbal- good with passages involving psychology/studies/sciences, bad with literature/art/philosophy (duh)

Biology- good with MOLECULAR BIO, viral stuff/pathogens, genetics, orgo... thats it sadly!
 
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Oh, has anyone been working on the personal statement? I'm about half way finished... it's a horrendous task. I suck at writing!
 
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I want a replica of AAMC 9. That'd be ideal. Same questions, same everything... with no writing section, everyone gets T's.

I have a very rough outline of personal statement, but that's after MCAT. I'm back in the library now looking over my horrendous verbal performance on AAMC 10.
 
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Oh, and did anyone notice the repeat question #48 in PS? The discrete one, about comparing arterial blood pressure in arm vs. leg. I smiled.
 
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Um AAMC 10's curve was hard. Not cool. No more official tests to take ahh!

Edit- What's the deal with the VR? Is question 54 the error?
 
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bleedblue said:
ha ha i missed it the first time, glad to get it the second time
Click to expand...

Same with me! Got it wrong the first time and wasn't gonna let it happen twice. Also, I think it was in the BS section last time? Unless my memory is shot right now.

Question BS #122 pissed me off. I picked C "Use of drugs that inhibit bacterial protein synthesis" to BEST prevent the recurrence of stomach ulcers. The passage says that 'when drugs that neutralize or reduce the production of stomach acid are used to treat patients with ulcers, 95% of the patients have a recurrence of the ulcer within two years'.

That makes me believe that the lucky 5% were not safe from ulcers because of the drug, but from some other factor. So why would I add an inhibitor of acid production to a drug when only 5 out of 100 people did not have a recurrence of an ulcer in the first place. It seems as if it would be ineffective and that that bacterial inhibitor is the best route.

These are the kinds of questions I am going to get wrong on Friday. Ambiguity between passage and question.
 
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I kind of did worse on AAMC 9 than 10?
AAMC9 I got a 30, AAMC10 I got a 34.. again, it's all about focus.

I also don't go back and look over my answers when I finish with 20 minutes left because I just can't be bothered... but I'll do this on test day.
 
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Zona Pellucida said:
Same with me! Got it wrong the first time and wasn't gonna let it happen twice. Also, I think it was in the BS section last time? Unless my memory is shot right now.

Question BS #122 pissed me off. I picked C "Use of drugs that inhibit bacterial protein synthesis" to BEST prevent the recurrence of stomach ulcers. The passage says that 'when drugs that neutralize or reduce the production of stomach acid are used to treat patients with ulcers, 95% of the patients have a recurrence of the ulcer within two years'.

That makes me believe that the lucky 5% were not safe from ulcers because of the drug, but from some other factor. So why would I add an inhibitor of acid production to a drug when only 5 out of 100 people did not have a recurrence of an ulcer in the first place. It seems as if it would be ineffective and that that bacterial inhibitor is the best route.

These are the kinds of questions I am going to get wrong on Friday. Ambiguity between passage and question.
Click to expand...

Your reasoning actually sounds really good. But at the end of the first paragraph it says: "When ulcer patients are treated with a combination of antibiotics and drugs that reduce acid production, there seems to be no recurrence of ulcers." which is why I chose D.
 
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