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Man it seems like ppl had easy experience with BS. Expect tough scales haha.
 
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PS - I thought this was the hardest section of the day. Some of the conceptual questions were pretty ambiguous and I guessed on a few of the calculation q's.

Verbal - Pretty standard. I don't recall enough to gauge how I really did. The passages were pretty damn long though.

BS - I guess I lucked out in this sections because the q's were very similar to some of my upper division bio courses. Hoping this makes up for my PS.

Trial Section - Jesus Christ
 
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Domenic said:
lmfao

sdaDJ effects djkhjka which in turn be be affected by jhsadjhfjk and is monitered by jkhsdkjasdj which then can back regulate klsdfjasdfj which may or may not make you cry.
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LOL that is an awesome description!

Took the 1pm, thought the PS was easier than expected, the BS was hard.
 
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Now that I think of it.. Discretes weren't easier than AAMC11. I take back my comment saying that discretes were easier than AAMC11. It was probably equally hard... I'm saying this because I found one of my answer for a discrete wrong.
 
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Flagella said:
Took the 1 pm.

My thoughts:
PS: Calculation heavy that they were trying to trick you on.

VR: Went ok, thought the passages were boring and a bit long.

BS: Was BS, ran out of time with 2 minutes left and a complete passage. The passages were really long and the stupid x does y and y regulates z but without y you get no x and only if the moon is showing on a Sunday and you changed the oil in your car.

Didn't void, hopefully I can get into a historically black medical school or something lol +pity+
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Very true description, my guess is that many of us had time issues with BS and even answering some questions didn't mean much since there were so many things one could miss with the chain and multi dependance.
 
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yo, if you guys were to "average" your experiences across aamc 8-11 how would you say today's PS, BS and VR compared to just those?

also did anyone find doing the AAMC official guide questions useful?
 
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pgoyal said:
yo, if you guys were to "average" your experiences across aamc 8-11 how would you say today's PS, BS and VR compared to just those?

also did anyone find doing the AAMC official guide questions useful?
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Todays PS was a lot harder. BS was the same, with orgo being easier. VR is the same with slightly easier to understand passages.
 
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Yup I agree with summergirl. PS was harder with heavy calculation. Probably a bit different in form from AAMC. VR was easier to read. BS was like AAMC 11
 
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I thought this was different and significantly more difficult than any practice test I have taken. I was getting the scores I wanted, and got 11s in PS on all my practice aamcs and finishing on time, maybe having 2-3 question left and rarely guessing. The amount of questions that I had to guess on was ridiculous, the passages were obscure. I feel like it was heavier on physics with little variability. I had no time to finish it all. Verbal was doable, and biology required a lot of thinking and looking back at the passage. Biology is my strongest subject and I usually get 13s but time was also a factor in this section for me and I feel like I didn't need much prior knowledge to answer these questions, just a lot of looking back into the passage. God this exam was depressing.
 
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nimo2014 said:
I thought this was different and significantly more difficult than any practice test I have taken. I was getting the scores I wanted, and got 11s in PS on all my practice aamcs and finishing on time, maybe having 2-3 question left and rarely guessing. The amount of questions that I had to guess on was ridiculous, the passages were obscure. I feel like it was heavier on physics with little variability. I had no time to finish it all. Verbal was doable, and biology required a lot of thinking and looking back at the passage. Biology is my strongest subject and I usually get 13s but time was also a factor in this section for me and I feel like I didn't need much prior knowledge to answer these questions, just a lot of looking back into the passage. God this exam was depressing.
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PS was hard for everything. I wouldn't kill myself. Trust in the scale.
 
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csdanim said:
PS was hard for everything. I wouldn't kill myself. Trust in the scale.
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That's the thing to remember in cases like this. If you averaged around 14 on the AAMC PS sections (referring to you, csdanim), then you're obviously very skilled in PS. We don't know to what extent a scale may actually moderate exam difficulty; what I mean is we don't know just how hard the AAMC is comfortable with making a section, given that "harder" means a more lenient scale is necessary. For all we know it could allow 7 questions wrong to be a 13.
 
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gettheleadout said:
That's the thing to remember in cases like this. If you averaged around 14 on the AAMC PS sections (referring to you, csdanim), then you're obviously very skilled in PS. We don't know to what extent a scale may actually moderate exam difficulty; what I mean is we don't know just how hard the AAMC is comfortable with making a section, given that "harder" means a more lenient scale is necessary. For all we know it could allow 7 questions wrong to be a 13.
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First, I was gonna say "hard for everyone" not "hard for everything."

Second, I don't understand what you're saying. Are you saying my mindset is correct or wrong? Obviously I am not an expert in VR and I am inebriated right now.
 
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csdanim said:
First, I was gonna say "hard for everyone" not "hard for everything."

Second, I don't understand what you're saying. Are you saying my mindset is correct or wrong? Obviously I am not an expert in VR and I am inebriated right now.
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I'm saying you are correct to remain confident haha. Here's what I'm saying:

We know more difficult exam forms have scales designed to produce equal scaled scores to those that would be received on easier exam forms by the same test takers. What we don't know is just how far the AAMC is comfortable with taking this scaling, e.g. they could presumably make an insane exam form where all questions are very difficult and just scale it where missing 10 gets you a 15 or something (a la Kaplan's FL's). That's an extreme, but we don't know where they would stop. An objectively difficult PS (such as today's) may have a scale that accounts for the difficulty by being more lenient than any of those for the AAMC FL's. We simply don't know.

In any case, we must have faith that the scale does its job.
 
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gettheleadout said:
I'm saying you are correct to remain confident haha. Here's what I'm saying:

We know more difficult exam forms have scales designed to produce equal scaled scores to those that would be received on easier exam forms by the same test takers. What we don't know is just how far the AAMC is comfortable with taking this scaling, e.g. they could presumably make an insane exam form where all questions are very difficult and just scale it where missing 10 gets you a 15 or something (a la Kaplan's FL's). That's an extreme, but we don't know where they would stop. An objectively difficult PS (such as today's) may have a scale that accounts for the difficulty by being more lenient than any of those for the AAMC FL's. We simply don't know.

In any case, we must have faith that the scale does its job.
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yeah what you're saying is true though. aamc probably has given even harder tests before, and we just gotta trust that they know how to scale it appropriately
 
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any tips of what you'd do differently? i have my exam in 3 days haha

i've done all the AAMCs (except 8 - saving for monday) & Official Guide

my averages are: PS-14, VR-10, BS-13.
 
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pgoyal said:
any tips of what you'd do differently? i have my exam in 3 days haha

i've done all the AAMCs (except 8 - saving for monday) & Official Guide

my averages are: PS-14, VR-10, BS-13.
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Your scores are very similar to mine. But nothing else really, it's too late to improve upon VR, and your PS,BS need no more studying rather than meticulousness in choosing answers. Just chill for the rest of the days. Forget about the exam. Keep taking deep breaths on the test day. If you usually consume caffeine, I would recommend cutting down the portion. (but not to zero) Take my word with a grain of salt, but I was too nervous and my heart was beating like crazy when I consumed my normal portion of caffeine. Chill, you're good.
 
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That exam for PS was rough. VB didn't seem too bad just really long. The BS section was ok. Just had to keep rereading the passages for answers. Please God let me get in off this MCAT! That trial section.......All I have to say is if that is what future candidates have to face, the MCAT will definitely weed out everybody! I didn't recognize half of the crap they had on there. Nor, could I figure out what the heck equations to use to solve it. The new MCAT will suck extra royally.
 
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cool thanks. i do consume caffeine so appreciate the heads up - normally i'm shaking one of my legs while taking the test.

statistically speaking (from SDN) majority of the people score around their average but for some reason one always feels like one will be the outlier on the left field.
 
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mscaramel said:
That exam for PS was rough. VB didn't seem too bad just really long. The BS section was ok. Just had to keep rereading the passages for answers. Please God let me get in off this MCAT! That trial section.......All I have to say is if that is what future candidates have to face, the MCAT will definitely weed out everybody! I didn't recognize half of the crap they had on there. Nor, could I figure out what the heck equations to use to solve it. The new MCAT will suck extra royally.
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What subject did you have for the trial section? I had psych/socio and it seemed like VR with a hint of BS because it required reading comprehension, experiments, some outside knowledge.

pgoyal said:
cool thanks. i do consume caffeine so appreciate the heads up - normally i'm shaking one of my legs while taking the test.

statistically speaking (from SDN) majority of the people score around their average but for some reason one always feels like one will be the outlier on the left field.
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Because real MCAT is nothing like AAMC FL's. "Nothing like" may be an exaggeration, but you can't expect the scale to be the same as AAMC FL's.
 
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First time posting but im a long time creeper! Took my MCAT today and my thoughts.....WTF JUST HAPPENED?! PS freaked me out during the first passage! After that, I went and did all of the discretes which weren't bad and built my confidence with doing the other passages. My only trouble was that I took too long on the first passage which put me behind the count and I ended up having to guess on an entire passage. Overall, I am guessing I got a 10 or 11. Next we have verbal...this was actually the easiest of the three sections and questions were not convoluted. I also found the passages interesting with the exception of one. I'm guessing anywhere between 10-13 because sometimes with verbal, you just don't know. Biological sciences....what the s**t? Seriously, this is usually my strongest section and I feel like I got slapped across the face...multiple times. I felt like my content knowledge didnt help much and most of it had to be derived from the passage or you had to know it from other classes. Also, diagrams of a certain organ was unclear to me and could have been a lot better....these test writers need to work on their illustrations. Anyways, this whole section was a giant mind***k and clearly I'm not happy. I also had to guess on an entire passage because I ran out of time. These passages were much longer than the practice ones. I can't even guess what I got on this but I'm praying for a killer scaled score. Uhhh I'm so angry because I feel like BS was nothing like the practice tests.

At the end of it, I was close to voiding but then remembered that I often feel terrible after exams and then end up doing well. Lets hope that's the case this time. Anyways, experimental for me was EASY and will probably be my highest scoring section...too bad that can't replace PS or BS! I hope people feel the same way i do about this exam. Lets all hope for a generous curve. Fingers crossed!
 
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Student4life222 said:
First time posting but im a long time creeper! Took my MCAT today and my thoughts.....WTF JUST HAPPENED?! PS freaked me out during the first passage! After that, I went and did all of the discretes which weren't bad and built my confidence with doing the other passages. My only trouble was that I took too long on the first passage which put me behind the count and I ended up having to guess on an entire passage. Overall, I am guessing I got a 10 or 11. Next we have verbal...this was actually the easiest of the three sections and questions were not convoluted. I also found the passages interesting with the exception of one. I'm guessing anywhere between 10-13 because sometimes with verbal, you just don't know. Biological sciences....what the s**t? Seriously, this is usually my strongest section and I feel like I got slapped across the face...multiple times. I felt like my content knowledge didnt help much and most of it had to be derived from the passage or you had to know it from other classes. Also, diagrams of a certain organ was unclear to me and could have been a lot better....these test writers need to work on their illustrations. Anyways, this whole section was a giant mind***k and clearly I'm not happy. I also had to guess on an entire passage because I ran out of time. These passages were much longer than the practice ones. I can't even guess what I got on this but I'm praying for a killer scaled score. Uhhh I'm so angry because I feel like BS was nothing like the practice tests.

At the end of it, I was close to voiding but then remembered that I often feel terrible after exams and then end up doing well. Lets hope that's the case this time. Anyways, experimental for me was EASY and will probably be my highest scoring section...too bad that can't replace PS or BS! I hope people feel the same way i do about this exam. Lets all hope for a generous curve. Fingers crossed!
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Totally feel you bro. Feel like I hammered the verbal hard (12+). Sciences if I get above a 9 I'll be happy. What an insane test.
 
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Yup I found VR unusually easy except for some questions. I'm worried about the scale being too tough lol
 
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My test went almost exactly like Student4Life222's except I'm not very good at verbal so it doesn't matter how easy it is. I'll still only get a 9 or maybe a 10 if I'm lucky. I too had to fill in multiple questions on the PS and BS due to time. BS was hard mainly due to long convoluted passages. I think the PS was hard but I feel like the pressure got to me on that section and may have made it seem harder than it really was. I found myself reading questions and passages over and over again and not comprehending what I was reading. I want a do over in the worst way.
 
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I agree dskelton12. For both PS and BS, I was reading the questions over and over and over....and still scratching my head! Ughhh I either did extremely well or completely bombed it. Don't know if I have realistic expectations considering all of the guessing.
 
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Ya I felt pretty good about the Verbal

The PS section was calculations-heavy,& there were tons of tricks in there...The BS was ridiculously hard, It emphasized upper-level class material a lot more(genetics, immunology stuff)..It seemed very different. There wasn't really as much Orgo in there

I could have voided it, but it would've been a waste. And besides, when I feel bad after a test, I usually find out I did better than I thought 😉

Hopefully the scale works out well
 
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Student4life222 said:
I agree dskelton12. For both PS and BS, I was reading the questions over and over and over....and still scratching my head! Ughhh I either did extremely well or completely bombed it. Don't know if I have realistic expectations considering all of the guessing.
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Feels bad man. Guessed 7 questions for Bio and wasnt sure at all about answers I was putting in. PS started off well but I ended up giving educated guesses on a TON of questions+left 2-3 blank because time ran out. Terrible terrible exam. Only thing that kept me from going into the fetal position was verbal.
 
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Dat AAMC is playing tricks on you to prevent voiding by making the hardest section the easiest.
:meanie:
 
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And I think two energy drinks and a large cup of coffee may have been overboard....whoops. Talk about throwing a few PVCs. Note to self...no need to consume excess caffeine and listen to hardcore rap music before the MCAT. People probably thought I was on crack...I was talking a million miles per hour in the lobby prior to getting called back hahaha at least I provided entertainment!
 
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How come I don't recall the organ passage you guys are talking about?? By organ you meant like an organ in your body (as in BS) right? Not the music instrument like in PS. Can anyone give me a hint as to which passage that one was?

EDIT: Nvm, I just realized that by organ you guys meant organic chemistry. Lol...
 
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I thought that passage was one of the two passages that I found the hardest in BS. But the diagram wasn't that bad.. Unlike the very first problem in PS.
 
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Lol, thanks for the hint. Although it's probably a bit too obvious for sdn 🙂. I only remember one passage on the topic dskelton said, and the diagram was more "loocalized" than an organ 😳....
 
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Nahh overall I feel like their illustrations are not very good. They aren't trying to make things easy so I shouldn't expect Netter's quality
 
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Did your mouse scrolling work on the right half of the screen where questions were? Mine worked on the left half where passages were, but not on the right side. It annoyed me..
 
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If it makes anyone feel better there was one girl whose test crashed in the middle of taking it. I dk if she was able to resume.... wait, I wish mine crashed.
 
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**** that passage with the 4 graphs in BS.... wow the amount of time it took me to decipher that destroyed my timing, I'm signing up for january in a month no matter what. That exam did not show my true potential. UGHHHHH MCAT i hate you.
 
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t0ny said:
**** that passage with the 4 graphs in BS.... wow the amount of time it took me to decipher that destroyed my timing, I'm signing up for january in a month no matter what. That exam did not show my true potential. UGHHHHH MCAT i hate you.
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Yeah, I felt the same way Lol
The hard one was the genetics passages and the ones on kidney stuff...It involved a lot of second-hand knowledge.

The PS was rough in general. I guess a lot of people didn't void the test because the Verbal was a little better...
 
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