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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Picking a test date has come down to me debating between an AM or PM test. AM = skipping classes of which at least one has a test for every available day, which is never fun. PM = weekend (YAY), but I'm a mid afternoon slump person so... **** all the things.
 
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Hey hey hey...

what do you all think the order of difficulty goes for TBR and the verbal material used in the sn2ed plan?

For TBR it goes:
1. Physics (most difficult, seriously... 2/7 and 3/7 per passage) i fail at life. 🙁
2. bio
3. gen chem
4. orgo (easiest)

In terms of Verbal sources:
1. TBR (don't know WHY these are so confusing)
2. TPRH
3. EK101 <---eazy peazy 😍
 
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To supplement tbr, I'd like to take the time to thank Khan Academy. Lifesaver/score saver because dang reviewing the day after points out those weaknesses like a dark man on an NHL team.
 
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Docility said:
On another note, my brand new TBR Physics I book fell apart after two days of using it...awesome binding! 🙄
Click to expand...

Jeez, the same thing just happened to my brand new TBR Organic Chemistry I book! Lame. 🙁 I'm pretty careful with my books, so I must have just gotten a defective set! Has this been happening to anyone else? 😕
 
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I'm doing well on my Chem review, did the first 2 sections of Chad's videos and the first 4 modules on the online TPR section and did great on the discrete questions and quizzes.

My only complaint is that there is soooo much more ahead! Not sure how I will stuff all this information into my brain...all the minutia seems overwhelming at times.
 
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My general chem score in TBR is somewhat taking a dive now...May be it's time to purchase Chad's videos.
 
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Docility said:
Jeez, the same thing just happened to my brand new TBR Organic Chemistry I book! Lame. 🙁 I'm pretty careful with my books, so I must have just gotten a defective set! Has this been happening to anyone else? 😕
Click to expand...

This is really weird, my brand new TBR Physics and Bio books are fine. :shrug:

I would say you guys really did just get a bad print. Tell TBR? I'm sure they would replace them and take it up with their printer themselves.
 
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gettheleadout said:
This is really weird, my brand new TBR Physics and Bio books are fine. :shrug:

I would say you guys really did just get a bad print. Tell TBR? I'm sure they would replace them and take it up with their printer themselves.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I've abused the hell out of my tbr books and they look brand new.
 
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gettheleadout said:
This is really weird, my brand new TBR Physics and Bio books are fine. :shrug:

I would say you guys really did just get a bad print. Tell TBR? I'm sure they would replace them and take it up with their printer themselves.
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Hmm...I have had my TBR books for over a year now and I have beat the crap out of them without any problems. I like to fold the binding all the way back when I am reading so I only have to hold 1 page worth of book. They have all held up well so far
 
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Shjanzey said:
Hmm...I have had my TBR books for over a year now and I have beat the crap out of them without any problems. I like to fold the binding all the way back when I am reading so I only have to hold 1 page worth of book. They have all held up well so far
Click to expand...

:scared:

I'm one of those book-sensitive people that doesn't write or highlight in them and doesn't like to bend the binding too much if it leaves creases, and this makes me uncomfortable haha
 
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gettheleadout said:
:scared:

I'm one of those book-sensitive people that doesn't write or highlight in them and doesn't like to bend the binding too much if it leaves creases, and this makes me uncomfortable haha
Click to expand...

I am strangely anal about this as well...except the folding part lol. I won't write in my books or mark them up at all.
 
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I guess I just got a couple of duds! Thanks guys, I'll contact them to see what they say...although I'm worried they'll want to receive these defective books before sending the replacements, which could mean that I'll be left weeks without these valuable resources. 🙁 Not sure if that would be worth it!

Shjanzey said:
Hmm...I have had my TBR books for over a year now and I have beat the crap out of them without any problems. I like to fold the binding all the way back when I am reading so I only have to hold 1 page worth of book. They have all held up well so far
Click to expand...

This made me cringe as well! 😛
 
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AHHH acid and base chapter of TBR gen chem! Could they make it anymore difficult?
 
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Another vent:

My school's financial aid office is sitting on my damn loan check, so I just missed the window of signing up for the 4/27 date I was hoping for. Now I have to go with 5/11 which is the Saturday before finals for me, as well as not having my mcat score when I submit my primary apps. 😡
 
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I need a moment to vent as well:

I must say, I'm starting to realize how incredibly difficult it is to set aside time for studying while taking classes and keeping up with ECs. I don't want to just tank my gpa this last semester before I apply, but the ways things have been going I can hardly get time to pick up my prep books. My online class has definitely helped a lot, but I am fully aware that 95% of real mcat prep is personal study and doing practice passages.

I'm pretty frustrated because I just took aamc 3 (which everyone says is the easiest) just to see where I stand, and scored a 22 (7PS, 7VR, 8BS). I know on SDN thats so low that its unspeakable, but I also know that I didn't bring my best to game day. Not to mention I haven't finished physics 2 yet, and am only about halfway through content review. Morale of the story is I don't know what to do to manage my time better, but what I'm doing now isn't working.

/end rant
 
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gettheleadout said:
I wouldn't have taken AAMC 3 before finishing content review. Score is meaningless IMO. Good news (if you agree) is that you have no reason to lose confidence.
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I definitely won't take any more aamc's until content review is done. I just took 3 because I wanted to have some idea of what a FL was like, and since the current mcat is so different from 3 I don't think I'm losing out on too much.
 
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I need to vent something too....

I just met a girl I like. Unfortunately MCAT prep + classes + ECs = little to no time to date her. And she has her schedule too of course. I think she may be slipping away...UGHH :bang:.
ALSO.....shrinking social circles yayyy. "Hey Argama wanna go drink tonight?" "No gotta do my practice test and review it..." "Aw you said that last weekend too man! You worry too much about the future." "...yah.....march 23, mark that date will ya?"

And yes....VERBAL WTF.
 
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O Grady said:
I need a moment to vent as well:

I must say, I'm starting to realize how incredibly difficult it is to set aside time for studying while taking classes and keeping up with ECs. I don't want to just tank my gpa this last semester before I apply, but the ways things have been going I can hardly get time to pick up my prep books. My online class has definitely helped a lot, but I am fully aware that 95% of real mcat prep is personal study and doing practice passages.

I'm pretty frustrated because I just took aamc 3 (which everyone says is the easiest) just to see where I stand, and scored a 22 (7PS, 7VR, 8BS). I know on SDN thats so low that its unspeakable, but I also know that I didn't bring my best to game day. Not to mention I haven't finished physics 2 yet, and am only about halfway through content review. Morale of the story is I don't know what to do to manage my time better, but what I'm doing now isn't working.

/end rant
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I feel ya bud. Although I'm keeping up with the schedule because I'm only taking 1 class this semester, I'm finding it increasingly hard to continue to pack so much information in my brain everyday. When I first started my content review, I felt like I had a nice stride going but as time goes on my brain feels like its starting to give up. I can't remember simple things that I read and it's reflecting in my BR passage scores. My scores are going down and I'm starting to worry quite a bit. I hope there's a point in all of this where it all just clicks but idk. I taking the test regardless, but right now I do not have a lot of confidence in my ability to score well :-/
 
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ktanner777 said:
I feel ya bud. Although I'm keeping up with the schedule because I'm only taking 1 class this semester, I'm finding it increasingly hard to continue to pack so much information in my brain everyday. When I first started my content review, I felt like I had a nice stride going but as time goes on my brain feels like its starting to give up. I can't remember simple things that I read and it's reflecting in my BR passage scores. My scores are going down and I'm starting to worry quite a bit. I hope there's a point in all of this where it all just clicks but idk. I taking the test regardless, but right now I do not have a lot of confidence in my ability to score well :-/
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Glad to hear I'm not the only one that feels that way. I was exactly the same way at first, all through christmas break I was flying through content and passages, and doing fairly well but now I feel like studying is a dismal experience. I'm only taking 12 credits, but for some reason I'm getting my butt handed to me haha. I guess we'll just wait and see what happens and we get closer to test day.
 
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heres my vent:

i am going insane. I am working 10 hours a week, taking 20 credits (1 upper biological science, 2 physics and 2 computer science), and doing SN2ed. This is without including EC's

i've realized that fun is out of the picture. I haven't done anything fun in a week.. i watch about 20 minutes of a TV show while i eat dinner but this will only last a few months.

Pain is temporary, glory is eternal.

ps: to anyone who feels like they are forgetting everything in SN2ED, buy mental case and use it. I have it on my iPhone and i review my SN2ED concepts while i eat, brush my teeth and sit on the bus. Helps ALOT with retention
 
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Also guys, if you're following Sn2ED and finding it hard to remember stuff. GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK. I'm 3-4 days behind on my schedule but i don't really care. If i realize that i don't really understand a chapter i'll spend an extra 1-2 days on it to concrete it. Quality > Quantity.
 
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Hemorrage said:
Also guys, if you're following Sn2ED and finding it hard to remember stuff. GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK. I'm 3-4 days behind on my schedule but i don't really care. If i realize that i don't really understand a chapter i'll spend an extra 1-2 days on it to concrete it. Quality > Quantity.
Click to expand...

I just changed those "break" days into "makeup" days to review my weaknesses.
 
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brood910 said:
I just changed those "break" days into "makeup" days to review my weaknesses.
Click to expand...

yeah by "break" i meant "review" haha. Honestly, try not to stress out too much about memorizing every detail. Theres no point, regardless of what you do you aren't going to remember everything in the TBR books. Focus on the main ideas of each chapter and outline throughly. I found that the SN2ED way of "re-reading" the chapter wasn't effective for me, instead i write extensive notes the first time and re-read those.. saving a ton of time
 
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Hemorrage said:
heres my vent:

i am going insane. I am working 10 hours a week, taking 20 credits (1 upper biological science, 2 physics and 2 computer science), and doing SN2ed. This is without including EC's

i've realized that fun is out of the picture. I haven't done anything fun in a week.. i watch about 20 minutes of a TV show while i eat dinner but this will only last a few months.

Pain is temporary, glory is eternal.

ps: to anyone who feels like they are forgetting everything in SN2ED, buy mental case and use it. I have it on my iPhone and i review my SN2ED concepts while i eat, brush my teeth and sit on the bus. Helps ALOT with retention
Click to expand...

Dude you are getting so burned out... No disrespect there i guess if its working for you then good
 
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ktanner777 said:
I feel ya bud. Although I'm keeping up with the schedule because I'm only taking 1 class this semester, I'm finding it increasingly hard to continue to pack so much information in my brain everyday. When I first started my content review, I felt like I had a nice stride going but as time goes on my brain feels like its starting to give up. I can't remember simple things that I read and it's reflecting in my BR passage scores. My scores are going down and I'm starting to worry quite a bit. I hope there's a point in all of this where it all just clicks but idk. I taking the test regardless, but right now I do not have a lot of confidence in my ability to score well :-/
Click to expand...

Me too. 😳
 
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May I just start by saying I hate verbal as do most people. The more I think about it, the more I want to just quit medicine and seek a revenge group on the AAMC (of course that wouldn't happen). But in all honesty why would you test people who love science on art history or wars? If I wanted to do that I'd major in art. END RANT
 
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Help me out here...am I the only one who reads through a chapter, at the end feels really good and confident about what they just read and then flips to the first passage and is like....uhhhhh. I don't understand it. As I read through the chapter, I get all the questions right, but when I get to the passages I feel so lost sometimes? Is this normal?
 
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Waiting impatiently on my BR books to arrive, wondering how long it'll take because I'm really anxious to get started as soon as the other drama in my life has resolved (repair of flooded basement)
 
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Shjanzey said:
Yep, this is totally normal. MCAT wants to throw a bunch of information at you that you don't necessarily know to see if you will panic. Just try to relax and use the information you DO know to answer the questions.

You also need to practice a lot and it gets less intimidating.
Click to expand...

Kudos to AAMC on that one...They have made a bitch of test.
 
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I don't know about you guys, but my mind is getting full of MCAT fluff and I'm forgetting normal things.

I forget to give my rabbit water, I forget to eat, I forget how to spell, and I forgot my best friend's birthday.

Probably my least favorite "forgetting" occurance was when I was half asleep from studying all day and I forgot that I needed to go to work in an hour and slept through my alarm. I showed up four hours late 🙁
 
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sworzeh said:
I don't know about you guys, but my mind is getting full of MCAT fluff and I'm forgetting normal things.

I forget to give my rabbit water, I forget to eat, I forget how to spell, and I forgot my best friend's birthday.

Probably my least favorite "forgetting" occurance was when I was half asleep from studying all day and I forgot that I needed to go to work in an hour and slept through my alarm. I showed up four hours late 🙁
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lol man that sucks. My issue is I start to dump the info that I studied a while back, not to mention I feel like I'm going to tank all my classes this semester
 
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Mehd School said:
Gettheleadout posted that he received his TBR set a week (right?) after mailing his order form. Were different shipping speeds available?
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Yep, less than a week after mailing the order form to them I received the books, and I don't live near Cali. The one caveat to this is I made sure to order them way in advance, in like October, so I doubt they were under heavy order load at the time. Just goes to show that planning ahead puts you ahead I guess.
 
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The MCAT has destroyed my sleep schedule. I can't sleep at night if I feel my study for the day was inadequate, or if I performed lower than expected on some practice passages. On the other hand, if scored great or had a great study session, I still can't sleep at night because I get too excited for study continuation for the next day. FML 🙁
 
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gettheleadout said:
Yep, less than a week after mailing the order form to them I received the books, and I don't live near Cali. The one caveat to this is I made sure to order them way in advance, in like October, so I doubt they were under heavy order load at the time. Just goes to show that planning ahead puts you ahead I guess.
Click to expand...

I had about 9 days from sending the form to receiving my books and I live in Canada but I ordered mine the first week of January.
 
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O Grady said:
lol man that sucks. My issue is I start to dump the info that I studied a while back, not to mention I feel like I'm going to tank all my classes this semester
Click to expand...

Don't worry, this is normal. Just focus on learning the stuff as you go, and worry about synthesizing all the information together after you complete your content review.
 
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O Grady said:
lol man that sucks. My issue is I start to dump the info that I studied a while back, not to mention I feel like I'm going to tank all my classes this semester
Click to expand...

Same here. At this point, I'm trying to cover several different subjects when doing practice passages. I'm definitely a forgetful person, so I'm trying to keep all this information circulating in my mind.
 
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So Monday I was studying reproduction from TBR, and one of the questions asked to identify the bond line structure of Oxytocin.....I thought to myself, "there was nothing in the content review about the structure of oxytocin!"

So I went back to check to make sure I wasn't losing my mind and there Wasn't anything about the structure!

How am I suppose to know the bond line structure of Oxytocin when I've never seen it before! lmao
 
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RoyalRailer said:
So Monday I was studying reproduction from TBR, and one of the questions asked to identify the bond line structure of Oxytocin.....I thought to myself, "there was nothing in the content review about the structure of oxytocin!"

So I went back to check to make sure I wasn't losing my mind and there Wasn't anything about the structure!

How am I suppose to know the bond line structure of Oxytocin when I've never seen it before! lmao
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This was one of my bigger gripes about TBR. Others will say to use the passages purely for learning purposes. I found it pretty damn frustrating, and wanted to get an idea about how well I digested the material I just read. If they wanted me to know the structure of oxytocin, tell me.
 
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anyone know how to conquer the bio section now with all the experiment passages?

i dont know how to not get freaked out when i read about ei332RT2A changing the transcription rate of R5S20ZTPA ? wtf??
 
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