MCAT off topic/venting thread

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Mehd School

Mehd School

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There are a few of these in the other sub forums, but always wished there was one here.

The mcat breeds stress, and this is a place that will be reserved to let off a little steam and give each other a second wind from stress directly associated with mcat prep.

Keep it civil. Looking forward to posting in this little e-stress ball over the course of the next few months. 👍
 
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Bump.

A few people have requested I revive this. It could also be a place to discuss prep materials so that we don't detract from normal MCAT discussion on the main page.
 
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Ooh I'll start! TBR blah blah blah TBR bio sucks blah blah blah. (Insert paragraph about how its too detailed and passages are too hard)

Did I nail it? But seriously, after surfing SDN this past week I'm increasingly glad I went with TPR. I have absolutely no complaints about their materials/passages, they suit me perfectly.
 
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Soooo I just started sn2ed's schedule, but here's my problem. If I time the passages I'm doing awful but if I take my time I'm doing great. Should I keep walking before I run so to speak? When do you do every passage timed? I literally started this week.
 
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The Kraken said:
Soooo I just started sn2ed's schedule, but here's my problem. If I time the passages I'm doing awful but if I take my time I'm doing great. Should I keep walking before I run so to speak? When do you do every passage timed? I literally started this week.
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Personally I feel that you should time every passage. It will get you used to the real deal. Obviously most people will do much better if given extra time but half the battle is just simply "thinking" faster. Most questions aren't hard.. Just tricky.
 
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Hemorrage said:
Personally I feel that you should time every passage. It will get you used to the real deal. Obviously most people will do much better if given extra time but half the battle is just simply "thinking" faster. Most questions aren't hard.. Just tricky.
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You will also get used with timed questions when taking FLs...Let me vent my frustrations since this is a venting thread...Chapter 3 (equilibrium) in general chem is crazy...Are all these ICE table necessary?
 
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The Kraken said:
Soooo I just started sn2ed's schedule, but here's my problem. If I time the passages I'm doing awful but if I take my time I'm doing great. Should I keep walking before I run so to speak? When do you do every passage timed? I literally started this week.
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At this point I would have a timer going just to see what pace you're going at when you kill the passages. You'll get more swift with time and practice.

I'm kind of inconsistent with timing too. I can destroy any torque question in about 25 seconds, but some kinematics take me a full minute or two to crack.
 
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Mehd School said:
Bump.

A few people have requested I revive this. It could also be a place to discuss prep materials so that we don't detract from normal MCAT discussion on the main page.
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D'aww, you're my hero for bringing this back!

Dear Stoichiometry:
1) I'm never even sure I can SPELL you, let alone do you.
2) TBR's incarnation of you just raped me and I feel very, very violated.
3) I thought we had something special after gen. chem together...
 
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O Grady said:
Ooh I'll start! TBR blah blah blah TBR bio sucks blah blah blah. (Insert paragraph about how its too detailed and passages are too hard)

Did I nail it? But seriously, after surfing SDN this past week I'm increasingly glad I went with TPR. I have absolutely no complaints about their materials/passages, they suit me perfectly.
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Yeah, after reading a few chapters out of TPR Bio book I think their style suits me the best. TBR is good preparation but just takes forever to get through. Reading each chapter + doing 1/3 of the questions + reviewing them can easily take 6 hours of focused study time. Multiply that by 38 chapters and you have ~230 hours of studying, and that's before you even attempt the last 2/3 of the questions! At the end of the day it is better to be overprepared than underprepared though, so I don't really regret going through it.
 
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after doing Ch 3 of TBR gen chem and then doing my second round of EK 1001's today for all chapters from last week, I am feeling very overwhelmed. I feel like information is going out as quick as I am jamming it in. Starting to feel like there is no possible way to remember all of this. I hope it gets better.
 
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ktanner777 said:
after doing Ch 3 of TBR gen chem and then doing my second round of EK 1001's today for all chapters from last week, I am feeling very overwhelmed. I feel like information is going out as quick as I am jamming it in. Starting to feel like there is no possible way to remember all of this. I hope it gets better.
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agreed. I'm reading TBR yet i have no idea how much i'm even retaining. The TBR structure elucidation section is well.. lets say pascal should stick with naming units rather than making triangles 😡
 
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Hemorrage said:
agreed. I'm reading TBR yet i have no idea how much i'm even retaining. The TBR structure elucidation section is well.. lets say pascal should stick with naming units rather than making triangles 😡
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TBR does a good job of repeating stuff that's important in multiple chapters. I don't think the books are written so that you remember every detail.
 
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ktanner777 said:
after doing Ch 3 of TBR gen chem and then doing my second round of EK 1001's today for all chapters from last week, I am feeling very overwhelmed. I feel like information is going out as quick as I am jamming it in. Starting to feel like there is no possible way to remember all of this. I hope it gets better.
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Dude, this is exactly how I feel! 🙁 Having these feelings only a couple of weeks into content review is pretty discouraging. 😳
 
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Hemorrage said:
agreed. I'm reading TBR yet i have no idea how much i'm even retaining. The TBR structure elucidation section is well.. lets say pascal should stick with naming units rather than making triangles 😡
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Haha...my thoughts exactly! 👍 I honestly don't remember splitting patterns in proton NMR being this complicated. 😳
 
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Docility said:
Haha...my thoughts exactly! 👍 I honestly don't remember splitting patterns in proton NMR being this complicated. 😳
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I only learned singlet, doublet, triplet and multiplet in class. I've never encountered an NMR that I couldn't decipher on the mcat after that hellish course. 👎
 
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Docility said:
Haha...my thoughts exactly! 👍 I honestly don't remember splitting patterns in proton NMR being this complicated. 😳
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Mehd School said:
I only learned singlet, doublet, triplet and multiplet in class. I've never encountered an NMR that I couldn't decipher on the mcat after that hellish course. 👎
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I still do not understand why we need pascals triangle.. i took honors orgo w/ lab and we never even covered it.. my teacher taught us how to do everything using the n+1 rule. However, on the TBR questions they often ask questions that relate to pascals triangle and i have no idea what it does.. the book does a horrible job of explaining it
 
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peropett said:
I have absolutely no complaints about their materials/passages, they suit me perfectly.
bp9v38s
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You're an optometrist why are you studying for the MCAT anyway?
 
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Mehd School said:
Bump.

A few people have requested I revive this. It could also be a place to discuss prep materials so that we don't detract from normal MCAT discussion on the main page.
Click to expand...

Orly. Why didn't they just revive it themselves.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
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MedPR said:
Orly. Why didn't they just revive it themselves.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
Click to expand...

Because shut up!

And this is the first time I've heard of Pascal's triangle, and my orgo 2 class was literally 33% interpreting NMR.
 
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And here is my first gripe of many this semester:

Now that the writing section is gone, why the hell does it still take 4 weeks to get our scores back?! Anybody have a clue on that one?
 
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ktanner777 said:
after doing Ch 3 of TBR gen chem and then doing my second round of EK 1001's today for all chapters from last week, I am feeling very overwhelmed. I feel like information is going out as quick as I am jamming it in. Starting to feel like there is no possible way to remember all of this. I hope it gets better.
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Bro when are you taking the MCAT?!
 
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Mehd School said:
And here is my first gripe of many this semester:

Now that the writing section is gone, why the hell does it still take 4 weeks to get our scores back?! Anybody have a clue on that one?
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For the same reason they don't just give us our raw score (and, really, our scaled score too) immediately on completion of the test. If my MFT could do it, so can you AAMC. But you just LOOOOOVE coming to the forum to watch the anxiety mount and read about MCAT nightmares and watch the bets on score release, don't you buggers?
 
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xGeorgettex said:
For the same reason they don't just give us our raw score (and, really, our scaled score too) immediately on completion of the test. If my MFT could do it, so can you AAMC. But you just LOOOOOVE coming to the forum to watch the anxiety mount and read about MCAT nightmares and watch the bets on score release, don't you buggers?
Click to expand...

Don't they have the scale already determined before we sit for the test, or am I mistaken?

My friends that took the DAT had their score as soon as they hit the 'submit' button.
 
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My gripe 🙁😡


The only feedback we get on our test performance is 3 numbers. No raw score, no nice little info saying whether we missed more physic or g chem, ochem or bio. No feedback on what we need to work on within each subject, just 3 numbers. And if you retake, you have to study everything all over again because you dont know what you missed.
 
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The mcat Ochem thing is so stupid. We got to know enough for it to be a pain in the ass to learn, but at the same time most of what we study won't end up being tested on a given exam. Its like they want you to know it all, but test you on such a small completely random amount. Just enough Ochem to ruin your BS score, but not enough to justify studying hardcore for it...

And the whole Ochem language is just so annoying. I will never understand the people that actually enjoyed the class in undergrad (more common than you'd think). When I hear ETHER I still think of That sht that make your soul burn slow. Not R-O-R
 
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Hemorrage said:
I still do not understand why we need pascals triangle.. i took honors orgo w/ lab and we never even covered it.. my teacher taught us how to do everything using the n+1 rule. However, on the TBR questions they often ask questions that relate to pascals triangle and i have no idea what it does.. the book does a horrible job of explaining it
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You don't really need it, I also never learned about Pascal's Triangle in my orgo courses. All it does is explain the relative height of the peaks within the splitting pattern. For example, a quartet would have four peaks in a 1:3:3:1 ratio. The n+1 rule is pretty much all you need to know, especially since they usually integrate the peaks for you on the NMR data anyway. This is a good example of why some people think TBR Organic Chemistry is overkill, but oh well.
 
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I'm literally getting my ass handed to me by genetics and biochem. Verbal, physics, Orgo, and chem I'm scoring great on (75%-90%). Second lecture for bio in EK I scored a 6 on the 30 minute exam and I'm getting 50%-60% on the passages. I just can't retain all the info. I am taking my break day today and hoping that my brain just needs a rest. Idk what else to do. I guess if that's all I'm struggling with I still have over 3 months just to work on memorizing those 2 chapters. Anyone else having trouble with these sections?
 
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cuculici1 said:
You don't really need it, I also never learned about Pascal's Triangle in my orgo courses. All it does is explain the relative height of the peaks within the splitting pattern. For example, a quartet would have four peaks in a 1:3:3:1 ratio. The n+1 rule is pretty much all you need to know, especially since they usually integrate the peaks for you on the NMR data anyway. This is a good example of why some people think TBR Organic Chemistry is overkill, but oh well.
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Oh i see, so thats all it does?? Wow.
 
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Hemorrage said:
Oh i see, so thats all it does?? Wow.
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Yeah. Knowing the relative height doesn't really help much unless they give you a scale on the Y axis. All you need to know is how many unique carbons you have and the n+1 protons next to them. I didn't even pay attention to that pascal triangle in TBR and did fine on the passages.
 
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cuculici1 said:
You don't really need it, I also never learned about Pascal's Triangle in my orgo courses. All it does is explain the relative height of the peaks within the splitting pattern. For example, a quartet would have four peaks in a 1:3:3:1 ratio. The n+1 rule is pretty much all you need to know, especially since they usually integrate the peaks for you on the NMR data anyway. This is a good example of why some people think TBR Organic Chemistry is overkill, but oh well.
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OMG I've never even heard of Pascal's triangle.... I had two different professors for orgo 1 and orgo 2 and not one of them ever mention Pascal's triangle.
 
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Stupid ochem is my strongest subject by far and it's not even important for this stupid test. Why do I suck at gen chem so much...shouldn't have slacked freshmen year
 
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The Kraken said:
Stupid ochem is my strongest subject by far and it's not even important for this stupid test. Why do I suck at gen chem so much...shouldn't have slacked freshmen year
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My friend had 3 orgo passages on his test. I took mine a week later, and had TWO discretes, and that's all.

You never really know.
 
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Mehd School said:
Don't they have the scale already determined before we sit for the test, or am I mistaken?

My friends that took the DAT had their score as soon as they hit the 'submit' button.
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I was actually pretty sure that the scale was predetermined when I mentioned it, but I didn't want to say it and be wrong. :laugh:

Yeah, it's definitely a torture exercise. No other explanation.

Today's thought to self:
You know girl, maybe you should just relax for a semester. Take your super easy 17 credits (of, wait for it, biochem + 200 level gen. ed courses + P.E.), skip the MCAT, spend a two years on your post-bac instead of one, and test for the MCAT next summer. Take up yoga on the way. It could be fun.

But then I was like 'nah bro.'
 
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Docility said:
TBR equilibrium chapter = 🙁

I just don't see how we can possibly be expected to do some of these calculations in ~ 1 minute! I'm wondering if the expectations set forth in this chapter are in accord with the actual MCAT. 😕
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I feel you! I did great on the first 1/3 of that chapter scoring somewhere in the 80% but the second 1/3 had a bit more calculations and I got in the 60% I believe. I was pretty crushed yesterday. It was a very rough week for content review.
 
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Mehd School said:
My friend had 3 orgo passages on his test. I took mine a week later, and had TWO discretes, and that's all.

You never really know.
Click to expand...

Lucky. I had 3 passages and a handful of discretes

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
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Stereochemistry today in my BR Orgo review. Finally something that is easy.
 
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