MCAT Test day: a passage that freaks you out

[3838]

Hey, so I was just wondering what you would do on the MCAT if you got a passage with questions and you just really weren't getting it/understanding it. What if it just doesn't make sense or you're talking yourself in circles, or it's just not getting through? Should you just skip the entire passage and come back to it? How do you deal with it psychologically? Any advice? I'm afraid that I'm going to get a passage and just FREAK OUT. You know?

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[Gauss44]

Hey, so I was just wondering what you would do on the MCAT if you got a passage with questions and you just really weren't getting it/understanding it. What if it just doesn't make sense or you're talking yourself in circles, or it's just not getting through? Should you just skip the entire passage and come back to it? How do you deal with it psychologically? Any advice? I'm afraid that I'm going to get a passage and just FREAK OUT. You know?

I would simply void that test, and schedule another. Not worth a month full of worries and possibly a bad score. Schedule so that you have that option, meaning not on the very last day MCAT is offered this year.

Oh, and I have yet to talk to myself (in circles) during a test as your paragraph mentions. I did, however, have a funky nightmare. It was one where I was walking down a street at night that looked familiar. Oh ****, it was the one from the first Nightmare on Elm Street. And oh cr*p, this is the part where... Instead of Freddy, it was a giant MCAT graph of v=sqrt of 2gh or something. Then I had another dream where I was inside a kitchen with the light on at night and I saw that same darn graph through the window as though it were staring in at me like the scream! (from scary movie) Oh, tests.

 

[rfvbnmju]

Generally in each passage, out of the 5-7 questions you get, there will be about 3 questions that you can probably answer without really looking at the passage. I'd do those first, then make some general notes and then skip it.
Come back to it at the end and guess if you need to.

 

[Gauss44]

Generally in each passage, out of the 5-7 questions you get, there will be about 3 questions that you can probably answer without really looking at the passage. I'd do those first, then make some general notes and then skip it.
Come back to it at the end and guess if you need to.

Good point. Yeah, I wouldn't void if most of the questions could be answered without the passage.

 

[dudewheresmymd]

This happened to me on AAMC 3 on that passage with sound/harmonics. I started freaking out and wasted 6-7 minutes just trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I should have moved on and came back to it. When I got my score back I got an 11 on PS, and only missed 1 question on that passage even though when I was taking it I HAD NO IDEA what the passage was telling me. So perhaps even if you can get 3-4 right as previous post mentioned, it may be best NOT to void....b/c you never know until you get your score back.

Also, if you browse prior MCAT forums, there usually is 1-2 passages per section that seem far left field and you'll never know if some of the questions are experimental or not...that's the way sadly the MCAT works...but you should definitely feel prepared before going into the exam...only void if you completely fail to answer a passage or two. (This happened to me on AAMC 4, but somehow I guessed the same letter on every question before the timer was up and ended up getting a 10 on PS)....so the point is you never really know until the score comes back, at least from my experiences on the practice aamcs i've taken thus far.

 

[QrtrLifeCrisis]

Hey, so I was just wondering what you would do on the MCAT if you got a passage with questions and you just really weren't getting it/understanding it. What if it just doesn't make sense or you're talking yourself in circles, or it's just not getting through? Should you just skip the entire passage and come back to it? How do you deal with it psychologically? Any advice? I'm afraid that I'm going to get a passage and just FREAK OUT. You know?

You will more than likely encounter a passage like that on a section, if not every section of the exam. I think that's what the exam was designed to do, which is to test how you think under pressure. Don't void the exam. Just mark down an answer to your best ability and then move on to topics/questions that you are able to answer. Make sure you have 5-10 minutes to come back to it in the end.