MCAT Math

[Mbeas]

For those who have taken the 2010 MCAT (any month), what is your opinion on the amount of math/calculations involved in the PS section on the real MCAT?

More or less than AAMC's or other practice tests (e.g. Kaplan, TBR, etc.)?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SN2ed]

For the past few tests, people have been saying there's an increase in math compared to the AAMC FLs. For more specific details, I'd check the recent MCAT Club threads around the date of the test for that club. You'll see plenty of talk about the increase in math.

 

[Econ2MD]

I took the May 1 MCAT. Personally, I didn't think there were any more calculations needed than in the AAMC exams. All of the calculations were straightforward. I certainly won't disclose any of the actual exam content, but it think suffices to say that your time is best spent understanding equations and what they are telling you. If you understand the concepts behind the questions, you will do very well on the exam.

 

[rafflecopter]

I took the April 10th MCAT and found it to be quite a bit more calculation heavy than the AAMCs, more on par with the Kaplan's in terms of amount/difficulty of calculations. Most calculations required multiple equations or conversions to get to the right answer, or heavy dimensional analysis/stoichiometry in the case of chem problems. I typically finished the PS section with 25 mins to go during practice tests, but only managed to finish on the real thing with 2 mins to spare.

 

[UofT9919]

Kind of unrelated but, Biology is mostly memorization right? Like we have to know stuff like where bile is made...

 

[jeff0106]

Kind of unrelated but, Biology is mostly memorization right? Like we have to know stuff like where bile is made...

It helps to know stuff like that, but the BS section stresses reasoning in my opinion. I took the May 1st MCAT and you HAVE to read the passages and make inferences from them to answer the questions. I found that in the AAMC FL practice tests, I could typically not read the passage to answer the problems. You do need to have things memorized just because it helps with the reasoning.

Also, to be more on topic. I found there was a hell of a lot more math on the real test and I actually had to use scratch paper. On the practice tests I could do what ever calculations there were in my head (usually by reasoning and no actual calculations).

 

[Econ2MD]

My opinion is that there was no more math beyond multiplication and division, simple log manipulation and dimensional analysis. There may have been a few more questions that required math, but not many more. I think the perception of heavy calculation may come from the fact that you're taking the real thing. While you may be comfortable estimating and rounding in your head for a practice exam, people tend to think: "This is the real deal. I need to get this right." and do less estimating. Consequently, they spend more time on calculation-type questions.

I think it would be a mistake to spend additional time learning or reviewing math at the expense of understanding relationships in equations. Maybe drill a little bit so computing moles/liter from grams/mL is not time consuming or something, but beyond that I question the return on investment. It would be misleading to portray the MCAT as something other than primarily concept-oriented.