hey y'all I wrote an MCAT guide for some friends and it blew up, hope it's helpful here. It's got info on making a study schedule, high yield topics, CARS advice, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions or opinions.
Here it is!
Here it is!
Wow thanks!
Also any tips for physics/organic chemistry?
I've been using Exam Krackers for these sections and it's not going so well. I was going to switch and use the Berkeley review, but Khan seems promising based on your score haha
And lol at neurotic premeds
hey y'all I wrote an MCAT guide for some friends and it blew up, hope it's helpful here. It's got info on making a study schedule, high yield topics, CARS advice, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions or opinions.
Here it is!
hey y'all I wrote an MCAT guide for some friends and it blew up, hope it's helpful here. It's got info on making a study schedule, high yield topics, CARS advice, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions or opinions.
Here it is!
hey y'all I wrote an MCAT guide for some friends and it blew up, hope it's helpful here. It's got info on making a study schedule, high yield topics, CARS advice, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions or opinions.
Here it is!
hey y'all I wrote an MCAT guide for some friends and it blew up, hope it's helpful here. It's got info on making a study schedule, high yield topics, CARS advice, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions or opinions.
Here it is!
Did you computerize those flashcards you made on Anki or anything similar? If you, it would be much appreciated if you share them with us!
Everything I've heard (I'll know for sure in about a month) is that the section bank is much more representative of the difficulty and style of the new MCAT.For those of us who are waiting for our January scores to come back , would you mind telling us how you felt during the real MCAT vs. AAMC Scored/other practice tests? I am holding on to hope that the AAMC FL 1 is supposed to be the most representative of what you will score on the actual MCAT (even though the actual MCAT felt harder for me), and I see that your scores lined up pretty well!
Everything I've heard (I'll know for sure in about a month) is that the section bank is much more representative of the difficulty and style of the new MCAT.
Scored test 1, scored test 2 and the sample test are reported to be easier than the new test. In addition, they all contain old passages the AAMC recycled from pre-2015 prep materials they used to sell.
It's all based on my own experience with AAMC materials and advice I've gotten from others. Take it with a grain of salt :]How did you decide what to bold for "very high yield"?
Just remember, the harder the test the more lenient the curve will be.Well I've already taken the MCAT haha (I was on Jan. 28), so I'm well aware of what the MCAT looks like. I was just personally wondering how the OP felt on the real vs. official AAMC FLs to try to make myself feel better while waiting for my scores to come back
Just remember, the harder the test the more lenient the curve will be.
I thought that's what my post got across, the level of difficulty of the real MCAT compared to the AAMC practice material. I did not mention anything about the look of the exam so I do not know where your statement came from.Well I've already taken the MCAT haha (I was on Jan. 28), so I'm well aware of what the MCAT looks like. I was just personally wondering how the OP felt on the real vs. official AAMC FLs to try to make myself feel better while waiting for my scores to come back
The AAMC has stated over and over again our scores are generated from such a large cohort, that each exam is, on average, the same level of difficulty. As far as your own personal struggles with the test that day, I fail to see how that would somehow raise your score. Looking at all the old and current AAMC data since I've been studying, there was, at best, a 1-2 Q fluctuation from what a 127 (an old 10, or min score needed to gain admission, on average) is compared to a perfect 132 (old 15). There is no curve, unless we have to hope a tens of thousands of under and unprepared students take the MCAT in the same window we are, and then get the same exam we did, and then score much worse than us compared to the giant cohort that is used to generate our scaled scores.Just remember, the harder the test the more lenient the curve will be.
The AAMC has stated over and over again our scores are generated from such a large cohort, that each exam is, on average, the same level of difficulty. As far as your own personal struggles with the test that day, I fail to see how that would somehow raise your score. Looking at all the old and current AAMC data since I've been studying, there was, at best, a 1-2 Q fluctuation from what a 127 (an old 10, or min score needed to gain admission, on average) is compared to a perfect 132 (old 15). There is no curve, unless we have to hope a tens of thousands of under and unprepared students take the MCAT in the same window we are, and then get the same exam we did, and then score much worse than us compared to the giant cohort that is used to generate our scaled scores.
Can anyone help put this myth to bed or not? If it's true, that would be helpful as well.
I thought that's what my post got across, the level of difficulty of the real MCAT compared to the AAMC practice material. I did not mention anything about the look of the exam so I do not know where your statement came from.
If you have taken the real thing, can you not answer your own question about how the material relates to what you saw? Or, are you actually asking for how that person's personal feelings on test day matched up with their personal feelings after taking the practice tests? if so, that seems utterly worthless to me. Feelings are irrelevant, your scores are not. Especially as you have already taken the real exam. I would ask them how their Scored test 1, scored Test 2 performance matches up to their real test day performance, or what they considered the level of difficulty to be compared to the previous AAMC material they had seen. These are more fact based, and useful piece of information. But to each their own.
Thanks, that does help! But, like the old MCAT, will this really fluctuate more than 1-2 Qs in a given section? If not, then there is a minimal impact here. And "hard" or easy is incredibly subjective, which is why the AAMC aims to make each exam about as even as possible, for the average test taker. Otherwise, one could just get "lucky" and score significantly higher.I'm going by the way the AAMC describes their scoring process. "Curve" was a misnomer; there is NO curve based on how you compare to other students on your test day. But the conversion from raw scores (# of correct answers) to scaled scores (118-132) IS predetermined based on the difficulty of a given test. Hence, missing 3 questions on the AAMC scored practice exam COULD potentially come out to the same score as missing 6 questions on the real test.
I understand now that you are nervous/anxious and just want something to think about, to make your anxiety/nerves less scary? Something to justify it is ok to feel that way and still get a good score? If so I get it, but still do not understand it. Your feelings are subjective, and will not affect your scores whatsoever now that the exam is done. Has anyone met anyone who came out of their MCAT feeling fantastic and then get an amazing score? The exam is supposed to be tough, right? Feeling exhausted, worn out, "meh" or challenged when you are done would be a good sign IMO.What my question was trying to get at is the fact that many people who end up scoring very well (either at or above their AAMC average) also feel horrible coming out of the MCAT exam. I personally felt a mixture of "eh" and numbness. While personal feelings may be irrelevant and worthless to you, that's what I'm currently interested in because I am still waiting for my scores to come out.
There is already a lot of data out there about practice MCAT scores vs. real scores, which I have analyzed a ridiculous number of times after I've taken the MCAT. I've counted the number of people with my AAMC FL score, and calculated the average real MCAT score that they recieved. None of this helps with the anxiety that is waiting for my MCAT score to be released, which is why I find asking about feelings helpful. It does make me feel better to know that how you feel on test day isn't necessarily representative of how you ultimately score. Because the AAMC FLs are easier than the real MCAT, it adds a layer of uncertainty because you begin to wonder how predictive these FLs can be, and you begin to worry that you did not score as well as your AAMC FLs would predict.
You also have to take into account that the majority of people who post their scores online do so because they are happy with their scores. A person who went from a 517 AAMC to a 511 real MCAT is just as fact-based as a person who went from a 511 AAMC to a 517 MCAT, but that fact doesn't really help you when you're waiting for your scores to come back. Maybe after you take your MCAT you'll be able to shut it away for a month while you wait for your scores, I don't know, but I have definitely had a hard time not thinking about it. That's why I care about feelings.
So by definition, you can get a "more forgiving" scale on a tougher exam, but if its tougher, then you will likely not get as many correct. Your score is still your ability, you cannot game the system or luck out with a real hard exam right? I don't think your scenario of 3 more questions wrong staying the same score is possible, and from what AAMC raw to scale data there is, there is no evidence of that big a discrepancy. Would that not undermine the consistency and standardization of the exam itself?
I understand now that you are nervous/anxious and just want something to think about, to make your anxiety/nerves less scary? Something to justify it is ok to feel that way and still get a good score? If so I get it, but still do not understand it. Your feelings are subjective, and will not affect your scores whatsoever now that the exam is done. Has anyone met anyone who came out of their MCAT feeling fantastic and then get an amazing score? The exam is supposed to be tough, right? Feeling exhausted, worn out, "meh" or challenged when you are done would be a good sign IMO.
If it helps you though, then I hope you do feel better. I don't want to come across as too logical or uncaring, so we agree to disagree. Good luck to you!
@mcatdoggo I'd say don't even pay attention you did more than enough for us all by posting the great review people have to stop taking a helpful hand and kindness for granted.
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I guess I misunderstood what you said here, or you were not clear enough for meYou're putting words in my mouth there. I'm not saying you can game the system, my point was exactly the opposite. I mentioned above that it's pretty likely that your actual score is within 3 points of the results from the AAMC Scored practice exam. I got that number based on the AAMC's confidence bands and from the spreadsheet where people post practice scores compared to their real scores. Subsection scores have a confidence bands of +/-1 (eg 129-131 for a score of 130) and exam scores have a confidence band of +/-2 (eg 499-503 for a score of 501). So if the AAMC's system was perfect (it's not but it is very good) then your Scored practice exam score wouldn't be far off from your actual score, even if you felt the actual exam was much harder.
you linked to Blind Review method. This seems like it would not work too well for mcat practice, would it? Or maybe take too much time. If I dont know content I can just put "?" next to a Q to remind me later this was content issue. LSAT is basically a gigantic logic test, with no previous content knowledge required, unlike mcat. Now that i think about it, maybe this method would be excellent for CARS only.
Anyways, I'm planning on using mostly Khan videos for my next 4 weeks to wrap up my content review. I have gotten the impression that everything/anything essential you need to learn is taught there. @mcatdoggo would you say this is the case? What I've been doing going through Kaplan books has worked but it's just not efficient. I've already spent maybe ~180 hours for content review just to get halfway through. I feel like its more than needed and that it'd be better invested with practice problems. Are there other materials you would supplement this with?
Congratz on your great score!
hey y'all I wrote an MCAT guide for some friends and it blew up, hope it's helpful here. It's got info on making a study schedule, high yield topics, CARS advice, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions or opinions.
DO you have the flashcard you made?