MCAT Breaks - What are you allowed to do?

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SirOmin0uS

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I was just wondering what is allowed during the breaks in the test? Go to the bathroom? Get food? Etc...

Just curious to know what I can expect to be able to do during the lapses.

Any info would be appreciated.
 
You can go to the bathroom and grab a snack for sure. You are not allowed to review any notes. I wonder if having sex would count as a form of review.....🙄
 
I think you might be allowed to write down review notes for bio/orgo if you want. Not too sure about that. I've been told they don't change scrap paper during breaks.
 
It depends a little on the center, I think.
At mine, there were several copies of the key to the bathroom, and then you had a locker with a key (thank god it wasn't a combo lock!) where you could keep snacks, etc. Some people have said they could take a short walk outside, others said they weren't allowed to leave the center. There are lots of signs saying no reviewing notes, but I don't think it would have been hard to glance at a notecard in your locker before bio, if you were so inclined, not that I did, or that I advocate that sort of thing, all you prometric employees reading this 😀
Honestly, what with nerves, needing to be fingerprinted, signed in, and id'ed, all I did on breaks was grab a drink from my locker and go to the bathroom. I did finish a couple of sections early, and I used that time to "rest my eyes" because the freaking monitors suck, but I didn't walk away from the computer with the timer ticking, because I just couldn't do it -though I knew it would be okay, just couldnt.
 
nothing much...went to the bathroom..ate small snacks..rememebr these are only 10 minute breaks..
 
I went to my locker, had some of my tea and granola bar, used the bathroom, and came back with like 2 minutes to spare. There is absolutely no time to do anything else except for eat, drink, and use the bathroom. Ten minutes really isn't that long of a time-- someone else on SDN said that the timer for the next section doesn't actually start when your break runs out, so technically you could take a much longer break without penalty. I didn't try it out myself though. The timer doesn't start until you go past that screen that says like "Biological Sciences, 70 minutes, 52 questions" or whatever... so I suppose its possible.

You are not allowed to use any electronic devices or consult notes.
 
10 minutes goes by pretty quickly. Just eat your snack + go to the bathroom as soon as possible so you can finger print back into the room.
 
I was just wondering what is allowed during the breaks in the test? Go to the bathroom? Get food? Etc...

Just curious to know what I can expect to be able to do during the lapses.

Any info would be appreciated.


well, i only went to the bathroom once - between the verbal and writing. other than that i just sat there, stretched, took some deep breaths, and wrote some random stuff on my scratch paper (equations, stuff that might be useful for the next section). no snack time really; the hours seemed like they flew by.
 
well, i only went to the bathroom once - between the verbal and writing. other than that i just sat there, stretched, took some deep breaths, and wrote some random stuff on my scratch paper (equations, stuff that might be useful for the next section). no snack time really; the hours seemed like they flew by.

ur allowed to write down stuff on scratch paper inbetween sections? hmm...that could turn out to be useful...for some reason i thought they collect the scratch paper after every section...

in any case, im not banking on it, but it does seem like it could help to write stuff down in between sections :idea:
 
ur allowed to write down stuff on scratch paper inbetween sections? hmm...that could turn out to be useful...for some reason i thought they collect the scratch paper after every section...

in any case, im not banking on it, but it does seem like it could help to write stuff down in between sections :idea:

they never collected it. i had it there on my desk between breaks. use that however way you can.
 
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