NO CALCULATORS not ALLOWED WHAT THE HELL!!!

[kareemo]

I was shocked to learned that there will be no calculators allowed during the MCAT what the hell, I am okay in math but with the physics questions and some of the Log questions from chem section, I have no clue how I will be able to do the test.

Also how do people prepare to do the calculations, I can do about some of the calculations, but I need time, that is what pisses me off, the time I AM spending adding dividing and multiplying numbers like 3X10^-23 or something like that, I can be working on the questions, I feel like this will hurt my time and won't be able to finish.

I am one of those people who become so reliable on calculators, I can do Calculus with letters but numbers without a calculator is a problem, this crap MCAT pissing me off,.


So anybody have any advice or what do you guys think?

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[Creightonite]

the math is pretty simple and u can do it on paper, just try one of the practice tests, you will see what I am talking about. Even with numbers such as 3x10^-24 is still ok.

 

[Neuro27]

So shocked that you had to make two threads?

 

[SeminoleFan3]

Learn the math you don't know. Everyone had to do it. Plus, the real test wasn't that calculation-based. I'd say only a handful of questions required it, and they weren't that time consuming.

 

[ND2005]

The math isn't bad. Almost every study guide will have easy shortcuts to help when dealing with exponents/logs/etc.

And, as someone else said, everyone is on the same page. We've all been using calculators as a crutch for years (or like me, just flat out not doing math for years). Learn the stuff; It's not a big deal.

 

[Arsenic]

So shocked that you had to make two threads?

i just fixed that by merging the 2 threads into 1.

OP - the math isnt anything crazy, the answer choices are far enough apart most times that you can basically round everything to nice round numbers like 10,000 or 2,000 or something. When you combine that strategy with dividing/multiplying, etc... in scientific notation, its totally doable. You just need to practice but dont freak out.

 

[Nutmeg]

I was shocked to learned that there will be no calculators allowed during the MCAT what the hell, I am okay in math but with the physics questions and some of the Log questions from chem section, I have no clue how I will be able to do the test.

Also how do people prepare to do the calculations, I can do about some of the calculations, but I need time, that is what pisses me off, the time I AM spending adding dividing and multiplying numbers like 3X10^-23 or something like that, I can be working on the questions, I feel like this will hurt my time and won't be able to finish.

I am one of those people who become so reliable on calculators, I can do Calculus with letters but numbers without a calculator is a problem, this crap MCAT pissing me off,.


So anybody have any advice or what do you guys think?

You only think that it's a problem because you're reading those books by Kaplan et al. which completely misrepresent the nature of the test.

I didn't realize that calculators weren't allowed until the morning of the test. It really isn't a big deal.

 

[ZipsPwn]

i had the problem early on of over-calculating. i'm used to having to calculate to a final answer every single problem but you don't need to do that so much. use rounding and approximations as much as possible, it'll save you a ton of time.

 

[ND2005]

i had the problem early on of over-calculating. i'm used to having to calculate to a final answer every single problem but you don't need to do that so much. use rounding and approximations as much as possible, it'll save you a ton of time.

Definitely. On most questions, if you got the power of 10 correct, that would narrow it down to the right answer.

 

[masterMood]

not to sound like an ass but you basically said "calculators allowed what the hell!!!" because you had two negatives which make a positive 🙂

 

[McGillGrad]

Conceptual thinking allows you to know that the answer to a complex problem lies within a certain limit and that allows you to eliminate without calculating.

For example, if you are supposed to find frequency in optics (physics), you know it will be a very large number so you can eliminate any small numbers and that usually leaves you with the correct answer.

That is why you do not need a calculator on the MCAT.

 

[Schaden Freud]

I was shocked to learned that there will be no calculators allowed during the MCAT what the hell, I am okay in math but with the physics questions and some of the Log questions from chem section, I have no clue how I will be able to do the test.

Also how do people prepare to do the calculations, I can do about some of the calculations, but I need time, that is what pisses me off, the time I AM spending adding dividing and multiplying numbers like 3X10^-23 or something like that, I can be working on the questions, I feel like this will hurt my time and won't be able to finish.

I am one of those people who become so reliable on calculators, I can do Calculus with letters but numbers without a calculator is a problem, this crap MCAT pissing me off,.




So anybody have any advice or what do you guys think?

You're allowed to bring a small abacus.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

So anybody have any advice or what do you guys think?

Chill. Tens of thousands of us took the MCAT with no calculator, and a lot of us are pretty calculator-dependent for things like calculus - I am. I hate working problems by hand but, for the MCAT, it's not that big of a deal.

Both Kaplan and EK imply that there is a fair amount of math on the MCAT - there is not - my form had only 1 or 2 questions in PS that actually required any calculation. A good strategy is to put every number into scientific notation - make 100 equal to 1.0*10^2... once you have every number in scientific notation you can then divide by subtracting exponents and multiply by adding them... as long as you know the correct formula that you need, the math itself is extremely simple. Plus... I agree with the previous poster - often, if you simply calculate the correct exponent, you can select your answer - you don't even need to go further. Just practice a few problems and you'll be fine.

 

[RayhanS1282]

OP, be happy that you know NOW that calculators are not allowed. There was someone at my test center who got kicked out after using a calculator during the PS section. I felt bad for him but how can you NOT know that calculators are not allowed?

 

[DrBowtie]

OP, be happy that you know NOW that calculators are not allowed. There was someone at my test center who got kicked out after using a calculator during the PS section. I felt bad for him but how can you NOT know that calculators are not allowed?

Hahaha....Sucks to be them.

 

[kareemo]

Chill. Tens of thousands of us took the MCAT with no calculator, and a lot of us are pretty calculator-dependent for things like calculus - I am. I hate working problems by hand but, for the MCAT, it's not that big of a deal.

Both Kaplan and EK imply that there is a fair amount of math on the MCAT - there is not - my form had only 1 or 2 questions in PS that actually required any calculation. A good strategy is to put every number into scientific notation - make 100 equal to 1.0*10^2... once you have every number in scientific notation you can then divide by subtracting exponents and multiply by adding them... as long as you know the correct formula that you need, the math itself is extremely simple. Plus... I agree with the previous poster - often, if you simply calculate the correct exponent, you can select your answer - you don't even need to go further. Just practice a few problems and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the helpful comments regarding the Calculator post, I was so scared out of my mind because on my first day to the kaplan course they sat us down, gave us some messed up diagnostic test with NO CALCULATORS and really confusing math problems.

So I was freakin scared and also some of the problems on the lesson book was pretty crazy to calculate and required time.

 

[akinf]

I did my Kaplan diagnostic last week, and sure the math looks overwhelming (especially those with exponents) but it is actually not bad. If you estimate and round your answers properly while understanding how it will affect your answers, then the closest answer you get will be the right one. I don't think the MCAT people expect you to obtain exact answers, that's why g = 10m/s^2, not 9.8m/s^s. Practice (like I will be doing) and you will get the hang out of it. Luckily though, I am only a few courses away from obtaining a mathematics minor, but I probably won't be doing those courses anyways.

 

[Ema]

Hey do not worry about the math, it is so simple and you do not need calculator for it, there will be maybe only one-two problems where you will have to really do heavy calculation which is not that bad but it takes a liltle bit of your time.However, everything else is so simple and you can do a lot of problems by just approximating. My advise to you is to practice math schortcuts, and before answerig the question just look at the given answer choices to see how different they are from each other, showing you how precise you need to be. For example, if answer choices are given totally diferent from each other or they are all close and vary in one decimal place.And be carfull, almost any major mistake in cacluating you do ,you will find it among answer choices. Good luck!

I was shocked to learned that there will be no calculators allowed during the MCAT what the hell, I am okay in math but with the physics questions and some of the Log questions from chem section, I have no clue how I will be able to do the test.

Also how do people prepare to do the calculations, I can do about some of the calculations, but I need time, that is what pisses me off, the time I AM spending adding dividing and multiplying numbers like 3X10^-23 or something like that, I can be working on the questions, I feel like this will hurt my time and won't be able to finish.

I am one of those people who become so reliable on calculators, I can do Calculus with letters but numbers without a calculator is a problem, this crap MCAT pissing me off,.


So anybody have any advice or what do you guys think?

 

[DORocksMySocks]

I am the worst person at math you could ever possibly meet in your life, and I did well on the MCAT. Its not about math at all, so have no fear!

 

[Med_Leviathan]

Hahaha....Sucks to be them.

Him. It was just one person.

 

[DrBowtie]

Him. It was just one person.

Thanks!

 

[NonTradMed]

You know, I guess this is one of those times I thank my parents for making me do math by hand before they'd let me near a calculator. I've never had to fear doing anything by hand and I've always been very quick with mental arithmatic. The MCAT doesn't require calculators because they make it easy to round. The point of the MCAT is to test you on concepts, so they dont' want you to use the brute force method of going through every possible calculations to solve a problem.

You need to learn to do process of elimination and general rounding. I'm thinking, as physicians and scientists, most of us will probaby tangle with numbers and there may not be a calculator handle so maintaining some simple arithmatic abilities may not be bad.

 

[Nomemory]

not to sound like an ass but you basically said "calculators allowed what the hell!!!" because you had two negatives which make a positive 🙂

Nerd. 😀 👍 😀

 

[Med_Leviathan]

I know, when I read the topic I totally thought "Yes, Ti-89 time!"

 

[bottles999]

I was shocked to learned that there will be no calculators allowed during the MCAT what the hell, I am okay in math but with the physics questions and some of the Log questions from chem section, I have no clue how I will be able to do the test.

Also how do people prepare to do the calculations, I can do about some of the calculations, but I need time, that is what pisses me off, the time I AM spending adding dividing and multiplying numbers like 3X10^-23 or something like that, I can be working on the questions, I feel like this will hurt my time and won't be able to finish.

I am one of those people who become so reliable on calculators, I can do Calculus with letters but numbers without a calculator is a problem, this crap MCAT pissing me off,.


So anybody have any advice or what do you guys think?

1. The math is not that bad really. Only a few problems really will make you calculate out things.

2. Since your doing kaplan there should be a section like "MCAT Math" that show you trick on organizing fractions and exponetials etc. to make the math nicer.

In fact I noticed if I started doing detailed calculations - I knew I was going down the wrong approach. Generally, you wanna round up/down and simplify the math and arrive at an approximation. In general. the answer choices will be easily identifiable with doing just that.

Good Luck

 

[TomWestmanRules]

NO CALCULATORS not ALLOWED WHAT THE HELL!!!

At least you'll ace the writing section.

 

[acrobat]

I saw a dude bring a calculator to the test and panicked when he was told he couldn't use it. hehe

At least you'll ace the writing section.

 

[rgerwin]

I think it's sad how much we rely on calculators. I, personally, value being able to do the math on my own. Also, from what I read in my review books, they make the answer choices based on us rounding the numbers to do the math by hand, so it really won't be that hard.