Official August 14 MCAT Thread

[Bonesaw45]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So I have seen posts on the 20th and the 16th but nothing for the 14th. I can't wait to get this over with, counting when my kaplan course started I will have been MCATting (not a word) since October and I can't take it anymore. Most frusturating part is that I didn't have that much time to restudy, but at least I got a seat. Anyway, who's ready to take it, I know facts cold but anytime I think about the test my left arm goes numb and my face droops a little. If only I didn't get that 7 in verbal on June 15th (I apologize for abusing smiley faces in my posts there just so cool)

 

[LadyLightning20]

haha wow i seriously need to find a way to focus by tuesday... im taking it in nc. maybe this is why i keep making obvious mistakes.

me too! Where in NC are you? I'm in the 12:00 admin at Spring Field Suites in Raleigh.

 

[Summer Sweet]

I know the typical advise seems to be relaxing the day before, but I just finished taking my last practice test in hopes of some extra confidence 😀. There's really not much left now except a nice 8 hour nap, a fresh cup of coffee, and a ride down to the local testing center. Good luck everyone~ 😴

 

[Corpus Callosum]

GOOD LUCK AUGUST MCATERS

 

[DrMT]

ive never been so awake at 7am.

 

[slipstream99]

3.5 hours!

 

[mightymousefo]

=

 

[J ROD]

For those that took the exam today, what did you all encounter?

 

[Ankaboot]

Whoa, no posts. It must have been that difficult.
Everyone who took it today, I wish you the best in scores.

I'm taking it on the 16th, so will let you know then.

 

[jhh3000]

FAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK BS was hard. because when I was taking it, everybody else was typing on their keyboards during writing. sigh. i should learn how to use those headphones. i dont think i've ever been so unfocused in my life during the first 30 min of BS. oh well what's done is done, maybe i'll get a 30. ha.

back to facebook... =P

 

[CrewBHB]

Physics blew my socks off, the other two werent bad.

 

[DieselD]

FAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK BS was hard. because when I was taking it, everybody else was typing on their keyboards during writing. sigh. i should learn how to use those headphones. i dont think i've ever been so unfocused in my life during the first 30 min of BS. oh well what's done is done, maybe i'll get a 30. ha.

back to facebook... =P

Were you able to finish?

 

[RunShare]

I thought PS was really really really rough. I didn't feel good about any of it.

I felt like verbal was on the easy side, which could potentially ruin any curving.

BS was about as crummy as I expected (not my strong suit though).

 

[shevie]

earphones were really helpful

PS - same as expected
VR - a little worse than expected. COuld be that one tough passage threw off my confidence
BIO - harder than expected. Hope im not the on ly one thinking that....
why the heck did they have to have so much molecular bio in there?? How bout a renal passage once in a while? or cardiovascular physio? gosh i woulda even taken more orgo over all the stupid rna questions 🙁 uch.
Hope i broke 30 🙂

 

[Ankaboot]

I'm sorry to hear that guys. I hope the curves are in your favor. :/
👍

 

[shevie]

im not so upset that i found it difficult, i kinda expected to...i just hope im not hte ONLY one who found it difficult, and htat the curving then works in my favor

 

[yankeeny87]

Its the kind of test where what I think doesn't really matter to my score, and I kind of left not sure what I thought . . .but heres what I come up with:

PS - not too bad, a couple of tricky ones, mostly physics
VR - the passages were all straightforward to read, a little longer than usual but they weren't abstract. questions were ambiguous though. didn't seem too bad for a verbal section, but I didn't know we had headphones and was really annoyed by the girl typing away next to me.
BS- thought this one was hard. not much orgo, but the passage based questions were kind of ambiguous. i knew the material, but then when i answered the questions I felt like it didn't help much.

Overall not too bad, but not spectacular. The experience went well, and hopefully I'll get around a 30. Interested in seeing what else you all thought of the test . . . .

 

[Phoenix 47]

some questions were easy, some were really weird, and sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. harder than i expected.

 

[J ROD]

Were the physics passages similar or even harder than Kaplan?

 

[dhowe2909]

Well, I generally struggle with PS and I've never had a problem with verbal or bio. Today I thought I breezed through PS, but I basically felt they asked questions on the subjects I was stronger in. Verbal wasn't bad, probably average or a little easier compared to the practice tests.

Bio was the tricky one. I know bio well, but I felt like alot of the questions were passage based rather than knowledge based. This definitely through me off. Did anyone else feel this way about bio also?

 

[axp107]

When you guys say Molecular Bio, are you talking more

molecular genetics or more Cellular respiration (krebs cycle/glycolysis) stuff?

 

[Odysseus]

ambig

 

[schoi401]

Physical was completely out the door. I thought Kaplan Phys were hard and AAMCs Phys were do-able. This test was harder than Kaplan's. They rarely had a give-away question (things that take you 2 sec to think to answer. Either you know it or you don't, in later case you would guess and move on).

Verbal passages were easier reading but slightly longer in length than AAMC practice tests. Question difficulty was about par.

Bio was heavily concentrated on passage reading. Once again, I rarely ran across problems that I can answer in 2 sec because either I knew from my studies or I don't, in which case I would guess and move on.

In both science sections I had to rush through the last passage and the last discretes because I had only about 8 mins to answer those questions.

On my practices, my Physical was in the range of 10-14 and Bio range in 9-14. I'm just hoping that the real scores aren't in the lower end or even LOWER. 🙁

 

[shevie]

Were the physics passages similar or even harder than Kaplan?

not similar to kaplan, and definitely not harder. more similar to AAMC. one "tricky" physics passage (too much wordiness), and one on a chem topic that im weak in, but altogether, the passages werent as bad as kaplan.

Bio was the tricky one. I know bio well, but I felt like alot of the questions were passage based rather than knowledge based. This definitely through me off. Did anyone else feel this way about bio also?

YES!!! Like if you didnt have a broad understanding of what was going on in the passage in terms of the greater subject it was testing you werre screwed. felt the same
Bio was hte hardest for me too despite hte fact that im a bio major and htat physics is usually my weakness!!

 

[chad5871]

by ambiguous:

YES! I have been second-guessing myself on that freakin' question since I selected one of the answers (don't even remember which one I chose).

Anyway, here's my breakdown:

PS - Not too bad at all, I was extremely focused and was able to calculate EVERY value that was asked for (something I usually can't do). I had a good feeling at the end. 🙂
VR - IMO, one of the easiest Verbals I've seen. I think this will probably be my best section. I felt VERY good during this section. 😎
WS - Very strange. First prompt was okay, but the second one was very difficult to write for. I didn't expect to have any problems with the WS so I was kinda shocked, but I think I did okay in the end. 🙁
BS - 😕 Hella hard. Ambiguous questions, weird passages, and just all-around tricky. Hope the curve is generous because I feel like I sucked it bad.

All in all, about what I expected except for the impossible BS. I did my best so hopefully that's good enough. Good luck to all my fellow test-takers!

PS - I felt the need to use the smilies to fully express my emotions.

 

[chad5871]

Yay! It's over! PARTY TIME!!!!

 

[DrMT]

my thoughts:

PS: i thought this was ... dare i say... easier than some aamc's *knocks on wood* also, there was one question where they didnt give you enough info. i was pretty sure of this. how the heck do you solve a lense question without knowing if it's diverging or converging?!

VR: what i expected it to be. slightly harder than aamc's but it was doable.

BS: only four letters can describe this section for this form: OMFG. i usually get at LEAST a 10 on all the AAMCs, never any lower but this section really handed it to me. being a bio major, i thought i was going to bounce back from verbal with a strong BS section but it was worse than the VR section! experiments off of experiments! ambiguous questions! seriously... i would be so happy with a 10 right now.


im so glad it's over. anyone thought they bombed a section but did decent? 😳

Difficulty: BS > VR > PS

 

[jochi1543]

Just a reminder to everyone, do not post actual questions or answers from the exam. General discussion, e.g. "there was a lot of molecular bio" or "I'm going to go kill myself right now because I think I'll get a 2 in VR" is acceptable. If specific details are posted, a post-hold may be applied to your account.

 

[M.Furfur]

PS: Not bad, couldnt calculate the value for 2 questions, guessed on few others but overall was ok.
VR: My easiest ever which is scaring me
WS: sucks!
BS: A bit harder than usual, but overall ok

 

[Bonesaw45]

I thought that the test was easier then the first one I took. I started marking questions on this test so that I had an Idea how many I had no clue on.

PS: I marked seven questions, I thought it was pretty straight foward with the calculations and math. Main problems were me dealing with stuff I hadn't seen before and applying new stuff to it. For example (not a direct copy I made up my own example)😀 if you have ZnCl3.OH what is the oxidation number of Zn. Didn't know how to handle the .OH part.


VR: I hate VR. I never know what i get when I finish a section for practice it seems that whenever I feel the way I felt today I get about a 9 or 10 which I will be over joyed with. I marked 10 questions as unsure.

BS: My best section, and I thought the easiest. But I got a 14 the first time I took it, I would say if there is one thing I really understand it is biological trends and that is what this is all about. I marked 5 but I know that 2 are right and 2 are just absolute guesses.

So final breakdown 10 - 12 on PS 12 - 14 on BS and pray for above at least a 7 on VR🙁

 

[roycer]

I thought that the test was easier then the first one I took. I started marking questions on this test so that I had an Idea how many I had no clue on.

PS: I marked seven questions, I thought it was pretty straight foward with the calculations and math. Main problems were me dealing with stuff I hadn't seen before and applying new stuff to it. For example (not a direct copy I made up my own example)😀 if you have ZnCl3.OH what is the oxidation number of Zn. Didn't know how to handle the .OH part.


VR: I hate VR. I never know what i get when I finish a section for practice it seems that whenever I feel the way I felt today I get about a 9 or 10 which I will be over joyed with. I marked 10 questions as unsure.

BS: My best section, and I thought the easiest. But I got a 14 the first time I took it, I would say if there is one thing I really understand it is biological trends and that is what this is all about. I marked 5 but I know that 2 are right and 2 are just absolute guesses.

So final breakdown 10 - 12 on PS 12 - 14 on BS and pray for above at least a 7 on VR🙁

One person who actually liked the BS!

 

[xanonymousz]

PS: Good in general
VR: I think I might have gotten a 1, if that's possible
WS: 2nd prompt was definitely a weird one
BS: The bio definitely was full of BS, pun intended

 

[Delilah]

Do you guys think that the ppl who took this test were "more prepared" (generally speaking) and thus the curve might be more competitive than other administrations?

 

[shevie]

PS: Not bad, couldnt calculate the value for 2 questions, guessed on few others but overall was ok.

LOL! I also couldnt calculate for only two questions. Just felt pressed 4 time. wonder if they were the same time. w/o revealing too much, were they kindof about the same topic despite the fact that they were in two different passages (or maybe one was passage one was discrete? cant remember)

 

[chad5871]

how the heck do you solve a lense question without knowing if it's diverging or converging?!

I'm quite certain that they stated it explicitly in the passage.

 

[Kaydubz]

29 more days. Goddammit.

PS - Harder than any of the AAMC tests. Doable however.
VR - Too many ambiguous answer choices where I had to choose between 2, slightly harder than AAMC avg.
WS - YAY NO POLITICS / LAW!!!! I don't know what people are referring to when they mentioned the second prompt was weird. I thought mine was the perfect pre-med question.
BS - A lot of ambiguity but not horrible imo. Still harder than AAMC avg.

I now know people aren't bsing when they say the real thing is harder than the AAMC practice tests. The AAMC practice tests are still great however.

 

[mrmilad]

Yay it is over, but crap I screwed up on the verbal me thinks.👎

 

[crazysexycruz]

There is NO CURVE... why or how would there be a curve with a teired percentile? People were reporting 2's on certain sections. Why oh why do we have this discussion.

 

[mrmilad]

Oh boy...

PS: HARDER
VR: HARDEST (I think I blew this)👎
BS: HARD



Hope to break 30.

 

[lsk87]

PS: there were some that i just KNEW i could answer, but for some reason couldn't get a value that equals any of the answers, o well
VR: okay it wasn't too bad, but because I'm taking the actual test for the first time, I don't know what to think of it, there could have been some very similar answers with one better than the other, so who knows
BS: ummm this was def not as easy as AAMC ( i could breeze through these with a LOT of time to spare) ...it was def a lot more critical thinking

i was hoping for a 35+, now i'm hoping for a 30+,

...no a 28+

 

[chad5871]

There is NO CURVE... why or how would there be a curve with a teired percentile? People were reporting 2's on certain sections. Why oh why do we have this discussion.

😕 From AMCAS official explanation of scores:

The two-digit numbers in the upper boxes on the left-hand side of your MCAT Report of Scores are the scaled scores that you achieved in each of the multiple-choice sections. The score scale for each section ranges from 1 (low) to 15 (high). The standard error of measurement for each section is one scaled score point. Conversion of your raw scores (the number of correct answers recorded in each section of the test) to the 15-point scale serves to help minimize differences in test scores due to factors unrelated to your skill or knowledge. Two candidates of equal ability would be expected to achieve the same scaled score, even though there might be a slight difference in the raw scores which each of them obtained for the test.

That's the curve we're talking about. Each different administration has a different conversion chart depending on the difficulty of the exam, among other things.

 

[RunShare]

29 more days. Goddammit.
WS - YAY NO POLITICS / LAW!!!! I don't know what people are referring to when they mentioned the second prompt was weird. I thought mine was the perfect pre-med question.

It was for sure a pre-med-like question, but I thought it was difficult to "define" it for the beginning of the essay.

 

[chad5871]

29 more days. Goddammit.
WS - YAY NO POLITICS / LAW!!!! I don't know what people are referring to when they mentioned the second prompt was weird. I thought mine was the perfect pre-med question.

It was for sure a pre-med-like question, but I thought it was difficult to "define" it for the beginning of the essay.

I thought it was even harder to find a specific example of it and then develop conditions that determine whether or not it's realistic. Seriously?! I decided to write my prompt globally rather than nationally. Without divulging any copyrighted information, how did you all attack the prompt?

 

[wills686]

The writing prompts automatically save what you have at the end, right? I didn't click save for one of them at the end.

 

[RunShare]

29 more days. Goddammit.
WS - YAY NO POLITICS / LAW!!!! I don't know what people are referring to when they mentioned the second prompt was weird. I thought mine was the perfect pre-med question.


I thought it was even harder to find a specific example of it and then develop conditions that determine whether or not it's realistic. Seriously?! I decided to write my prompt globally rather than nationally. Without divulging any copyrighted information, how did you all attack the prompt?

I went globally as well. I couldn't think of a more local example.

 

[malli]

i thought

PS was not that bad

VERBAL i don't know as usual

BS at least couple of the passage were hard.

WS easy but i am not great at typing i am a writing guy.

 

[WonderBoy]

Wish we could bring in a pillow for WS section, take a nice nap before Bio. I mean come on, no one cares about that section, its absurd we even have to deal with it. I don't mind writing in fact its actually a lot easier now, with the paper administration, my hand used to cramp up so bad.

 

[whightknight]

I did the same. Used developed vs underdeveloped countries as the what determine how reasonable such a proposal was...

 

[ismail]

It was my first time taking the test and I had no idea what to expect. I found that the PS section was actually easier than the average AAMC tests. Some problems required extensive calculations but it wasn't at all conceptually difficult. The verbal is....verbal and I have no idea what to say about it. However, the Bio was insanely hard. I usually finish this section with plenty of time to spare, but today I found myself rushing to finish on time. I think it was a combination of fatigue and extremely conceptual/abstract questions. I was so drained afterwards, borderline comatose.

Anyways, it's over. FREEDOM

 

[slipstream99]

PS - thought it was harder than normal. one question i got an answer pretty much halfway in between two answers, so that threw me off. seemed like a lot of physics and not much chem.

VR - not too bad. a couple of questions, like always, were there that seemed like they had two right answers. no killer passages for me, though.

W - first prompt super easy. second prompt, not so hot.

BS - thought it was easier than pretty much any aamc BS i've taken. one orgo question was pretty confusing, but all the bio questions seemed really straightforward. finished with 29 minutes and went back over each and every question til time ran out.

who's gonna start the countdown? ... 28 days!

 

[Tan008]

My MCAT virginity is gone. I was a bit surprized by the test overall. I usually have extra time left at the end of each section, but during this test I felt pressed for time. A lot of very wordy passages in PS and BS.

PS - I thought was pretty challenging. A lot of tricky questions and not enough time to sort through all.

VR - meh. I didn't think the passages were longer than AAMC practice ones, but a lot of the questions had ambiguous answers (where it seemed like two would fit and you had to pick the "better" one)

BS - holy! so hard and I'm usually pretty good at Biol, but a lot of those passages were pretty hard, and some of the questions seemed very random (I wasn't even sure how to approach them).

All in all - gaaaawwwww!!! glad I'm done at least for now