{Official} August 16th Thread

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Brutal, just brutal

Ps was doable, but hard

verbal was okay minus that nader passage

bs was fairly brutal towards the end


i hadnt gotten below a 35 on a practice...any of em...but id think im extremely luck to get that this time


everyone seems to be saying hard things so hopeuflly the curve is decent
 
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Just like baseball.

Wait for the curve...

It seems like it works out for most. If you were at the top of practice tests, then when you go and take the real one, you should still be on top.

Like the Kaplan curve. I miss alot more but end up getting higher scores because of the more difficult nature.
 
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Well, all these posts confirm my suspicion that this was a HARD test, and that we can, yes, probably feel pretty good about a slightly more generous curve coming into play. That said, here's my opinion about the whole thing. . .

PS- Passage-based. Not so many calculations. Felt like 50/50 physics/chemistry, although it's all a blur. Passages tested multiple concepts. Marked a lot, for both totally unsure and even mildly confusing questions, because a simple "Review Marked" button brings you right back to these questions in order. I'm telling you, unless you're sure, use the "Mark" feature and use it often! Went back with my remaining 6 minutes to fix a couple to the right answer and continue to scratch my monkey head at a couple more. I honestly can't remember the topics. . . although I remember being bummed that there was no titration. More on par with Kaplan. Don't worry about memorizing OBSCURE formulas and stuff, but do be prepared for random topics that you thought they surely wouldn't test on.

VR- Didn't find it that bad. Do-able topics. Nothing too philosophical/abstract. Natural science topics read more like humanities passages. Finished with 2 minutes left. Less monkey-head scratching. Comparable to AAMC.

BS- Finished with 15 minutes like I always do, but that didn't necessarily make me feel better about it all. A couple of orgo passages. Passages were on par with AAMC, but the discretes were a little more difficult. Okay.
 
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Hmm, I took the Kaplan course and practice exams from AAMC as well as the Kaplan ones. I found the PS easier than a lot of the Kaplan ones but harder than the AAMC ones. The bio I thought was pretty similar to both, maybe a little harder than Kaplan. I usually do well on the verbal but what really got me for some reason was that monkey passage...I hope it didn't kill my score... 🙄
 
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PS was tougher than it was when I first took it 3 years ago. Thought the chem was standard.

VR was standard if not a little easier than I was expecting

BS Bio was standard and the ORGO **** was nuts. About being able to recognize different sugars.. that's not hard.. but 3 different combinations of sugars.. yeh, that was tough.
 
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everyone keeps mentioning the curve... how does it work exactly? Do you know if it is simply fitting all of us onto a bell curve or do they just inflate our scores a little?

Some of those problems were crazy, I definately don't know my sugars or my butterfly life cycles 👎 lol. I wish we could get ours scores now, waiting gives you too much time to think about all the little mistakes.
 
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fahimaz7 said:
PS was tougher than it was when I first took it 3 years ago. Thought the chem was standard.

VR was standard if not a little easier than I was expecting

BS Bio was standard and the ORGO **** was nuts. About being able to recognize different sugars.. that's not hard.. but 3 different combinations of sugars.. yeh, that was tough.
Click to expand...

Curious, alot tougher on the PS?

I have a friend that took it three years ago and he thinks I am exaggerating this fact.
 
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This just blew, straight up🙁:scared:😱...someone above me described it best as demoralizing-which seems like a fairly accurate assessment...I found PS to have some very queer wording, and I felt like I was only really, really sure about only half of the problems. It seemed like the other half was utterly random with several tricky problems where key terms were left out (pendulums, anyone?) with no clear starting point for problems and calculations that probably no one could have foreseen practicing for...hopefully a 8, 9 or 10 with the curve...

VR was awesome IMO with 3-4 just really ambiguous questions (The biographies in literature one was just silly)...I am a Verbal freak though so my opinion isn't really valid (though it seemed easier but longer than AAMC) On my practice tests I haven't gotten below a 12 so hopefully with the curve and hearing others after the test say they thought it chugged, I hopefully got my average-which would make up for the pure evil that was PS and...

...BS...felt like it was almost all organic, some of which felt like they belonged on the PS, if you can believe that. I almost regret studying for Bio. period, considering that 95% of the questions were to be inferred directly from the passage, and quite poorly at that with the questions and choices they gave. I feel like my knowledge of the biology of the human body was for naught and that my acceptance into Med school hung on whether Butterflies died from the grass being cut too short🙄. As someone else stated, the genetics problems were worded UBER-badly👎 As bad as this sounds, I hope that everyone else averaged out a 40% on this section so I can possibly get a 9 or 10...This really chugs because I usually straight MURDER Bio with an 11-13 but this simply put was not Bio like you are used to seeing. The Aug. 14th'ers were right on...

Overall I feel like I could have gotten anything from a 24-32 depending on the curve...I hate to seem so doom and gloom but I was really prepared for this exam and wishful thinking gives me the stupid notion that there just has to be a really generous curve:laugh::laugh::laugh::scared:

Good luck Aug. 20th...you poor, poor sonsab*tches
 
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PS- Not too bad (except for the flea droplet passage). More calcs that I am used to. Time was an issue. Discretes were funny... asked about the same few things multiple times

VR- About average difficulty. I had time problems... thanks again Nader!

WR- 2nd prompt was tough. Wasn't 100% sure what it really meant

BS- Super tough. Usually my best section by far. 🙁
 
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I'm soo angry with my test center! Don't take any test at the Glendale, CA Prometric Center! There's 2 old ladies running the front desk for sign in. I don't think I've ever gotten this much crap from an office. If I hadn't showed up a lot earlier, I could've been late to start the exam because of these hags. They kept on giving me crap about my last name because my registration name was slightly different than the name on my driver's license. I even took 2 more forms of school ID, which had my full MCAT registration name printed on it with photo and everything. I registered with the last name I have at school and all my records are under. I have used that name since I was in elementary school. I've never had a problem about it anywhere! Finally everything settled down and they allowed me to take the test but at the beginning they were saying that I couldn't take it! :scared:😡 That's just some unnecessary stress and aggravation that I DON'T NEED right before a major exam. It's like, study hard all summer, get up at 5:30, show up an hour in advance and then be told that you can't take a test because of some old hag that doesn't know what she's doing. I called the AAMC corporate office when I was there and the lady behind the phone said it was up to the test center to decide whether I was the real person who registered to take the MCAT or not. The old ladies at the test center were making such a big deal out of such a small thing! :beat:

Now get this. I wasn't the only one they were giving a hard time to. A couple minutes after they finally signed me in and I took a seat to wait, an Indian guy came in with a turbin on. They actually told he needed to take his turbin off! 😱 He was like wtf? He said he's "never had a problem with it before." So after a moment of pause, the old lady said, ok well then I'll have to check it. She took him in the back room and made him take it off so she could "inspect it."

Oh and parking was freaking 12 bux!!!

Overall, I'm glad the exam is finally over with. I didn't let the old ladies get to me while I took the exam. I kept my cool the whole time and told myself I'd be pissed off about it later. The exam was pretty tough and tiring. At this point only time will tell... So go have fun people! Enjoy the rest of your summer and cherish every moment of it! 😀
 
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drkryptonight said:
..you guys im like freaking out now... you people said there was a verbal passage with "Nader?" what or who is that? i do NOT remember that. omg did i forget to do a WHOLE passage?????!@??!?!? 😕 please tell me more so i can calm myself down.
Click to expand...

You probably had a different form then. It was about bureaucracies and had a couple vague/unclear questions.
 
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Chill about the Nader thing. It was just research done by the Nader Institute or something.... It was the one about people having government positions being imcompetent... or something along those lines.

But seriously... did ANY of you have the passage about the ball disappearing!?!?!? Am I the only one in the world that thought it was way out there....?
 
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RedSox1982 said:
Chill about the Nader thing. It was just research done by the Nader Institute or something.... It was the one about people having government positions being imcompetent... or something along those lines.

But seriously... did ANY of you have the passage about the ball disappearing!?!?!? Am I the only one in the world that thought it was way out there....?
Click to expand...

I had it... It was weird.
 
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RedSox1982 said:
But seriously... did ANY of you have the passage about the ball disappearing!?!?!? Am I the only one in the world that thought it was way out there....?
Click to expand...

A ball? Don't remember that one.

When I took the PS a few years ago all the formulas were given and the questions were a little clearer and more like real problems.
 
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ohhhh i remember the so called Nader one .... that one was dumb. phew. thanks guys. im calmin down slowly.:barf:

yeaa... what is this disappearing ball u are talking about?? no idea.
 
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drkryptonight said:
ohhhh i remember the so called Nader one .... that one was dumb. phew. thanks guys. im calmin down slowly.:barf:

yeaa... what is this disappearing ball u are talking about?? no idea.
Click to expand...

It was saying how mankind is trying to make things "invisible" by using a "metamaterial" that has weird refractive properties.
 
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Hmm.. So how many versions of the test actually exist? I thought everyone took the same test nationwide.
 
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drkryptonight said:
hmmm sounds intense.. i had this once science one about like mitochondria and like symbiosis.

and by the way, ppl reading this forum who took the test today... share your thoughts please!!! 😛
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Yea I had the mitochondria one too.

So overall, I'm very glad that I did a few AAMC practice tests. This was the first time I took the MCAT and the real test was almost identical to the practice tests in format. Difficulty wise I'd say it was typical towards high. Some of the Princeton Review practice tests I took seemed harder. Maybe it's because I could never take any practice test too seriously and put full concentration into them. I don't know...
 
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WOW!! That thing was F***ing CRAZY!!!!!!
I'm SO excited that it just isn't me that thought that......I am with the above post.....the test had me thinking melting releases heat as well.....I'm pretty sure I put that as an answer!! LOL! I actually went crossed eyed a few times......I'm so glad its over. It's honestly a huge blur and a toss up. HAHA Butterflies and invisible objects........these people have gone mad!!!!!!!!
 
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detvar said:
do you mean actually know what they specifically look like? or just whether they're ketoses, aldoses...the general stuff?
Click to expand...

Don't waste your time memorizing structures if you have better things to do. The question wasn't that detailed on the structures imo. As long as you've seen them before, you should be ok.
 
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HAHA, yeah reading about that disappearing ball made me think I accidentally checked in to an admissions test for wannabe magicians or Star Trek fans:laugh:

Honestly, does anyone else feel like they want the rest of their summer of studying back? This was not worth the stress and damage to my body-let alone a fair assessment of my background in the sciences🙄
 
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wow, I agree with the above... give me back my summer! I was hoping in ignorant bliss that I would go in, take the test, and be done with it. Relax, forget the zillions of physics facts I crammed, maybe toss on a bikini and catch some rays... but now after today I'm paranoid that I'll have to retake and re-study all over again! Where is the relaxation period in this process?!
 
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es255305 said:
wow, I agree with the above... give me back my summer! I was hoping in ignorant bliss that I would go in, take the test, and be done with it. Relax, forget the zillions of physics facts I crammed, maybe toss on a bikini and catch some rays... but now after today I'm paranoid that I'll have to retake and re-study all over again! Where is the relaxation period in this process?!
Click to expand...

I'm starting to think that this is a good thing overall...I allowed this stupid test to interfere with my enjoyment this summer(hell, probably the past 2 years) and some of my relationships with those close to me. I had this notion, I guess, that there would be a delineation between my life before and after the MCAT...sure we don't have our scores in and I might be whistling a different tune come Sept. 19th, but I feel like this test really put a lot of things into perspective. I knew everything I had to know to the best of my ability and it still feels like it came up short for this seemingly perverse method of cataloging my breadth of knowledge/reasoning ability -but life still goes on...anyone else?
 
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i didn't have the invisible ball one either, but i had all the other ones that people have mentioned... so not everyone gets the same test? i thought we all did... that's weird, why would they do that? are just a few passages different for different ones or did i somehow skip a passage 😕
 
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Physical section: this was absolutely ridiculous! I have consistantly made 13's on the physical section with all the aamc practice test, even 2 14's. In spite of " knowing the material", i felt un-prepared for invisible spheres!!! Did anyone on here know that negative indexes of refraction exists? i didnt untill i just googled it! Pound droblets with bugs in them left me physched out for the rest of the test. Every practice test i took, i would feel unsure about 2-3 problems at most, but today i felt uneasy about an entire passage plus more! Although a couple passages were weird, the stand alone questions i felt were extremly easy. If i were to do this section again, i would have not waisted so much time pondering abstract questions, and i usually only feel this way after a tough verbal section😕

Verbal: I felt this section was on par with the aamc test. i had to rush through the last passage and was upset because i think was probably one of the easier ones. Rght about the time i got to the monkey passage, this lady started typing out of control. This lady went nutts on the keyboard; she was pounding the keys. i was sooo pissed! the earmuffs provided were more of a pain than anything and pretty much useless for noise reduction. This brings me to a great point for all you future test takers, if youre like me and the slightest noice distracts you, then practice with noise because i was unprepared for such distractions.

Bio: This section topped it all. After the tough physical section i surely thought the BIO section was gonna be the breeze section. HAHA I usually destroy this section without doubt; today i had doubt to say the least. It was very heavy on genetics, which im usually the best at, but these were not ordinary genetics problems. I caught myself re-reading and re-reading over and over just to try and make sense of what was even going on. This may have been do to the fact that the girl next to me had whooping cough and distracted me the entire test. More orgo than usuall which was a definite plus for me, i love the orgo.

Two of my friends jsut took the test, aug. 6 and aug. 14th,, they both told me the actual test was very different from the practice test, but for some reason i didnt believe them and kept telling myself i was gonna tear the real one up like i have been on practice test all summer. I have been reading on here telling myself ohh everyones perspective is different and im different and smart and blah blah. Now after actually taking the real test i feel ridiculous for waisting so much time studying material that is only lightly covered. For all you reading this, believe me when i say the real test is DIFFERENT. aamc needs to pick up their game and make a practice test more similar to the real deal. OKAY!! im done bitching:meanie: GOODLUCK to EVERYONE i truly wish the best.
 
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Wow InvisibleSphere... it sounds like you had a much harder form than I did. Sorry- hopefully the curve will be generous for you. It doesn't look like many SDN'ers took the exam today so maybe that will help-lol
 
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PS - started off weird...just because i wasn't used to the passage based emphasis...still finished early though b/c the last passages were easy

VR - average difficulty beginning, hard in the middle, easy at teh end so i still had a minute or two to review (praying for a 10 here)

WS - whatever. does anyone really care?

Bio - started off easy, got stuck at the corn/catepillar passage and the GM passage, finished the discretes then went back to finish the GM passage. i hope i guessed ok....ochem was pretty easy though. i usually finish with 15 min left but this time i had like 10 seconds left...literally. then again i was taking my time and not doing my usual pace.

----
what is different from the AAMCs is that there are a few more passage based / concept stuff rather than "did you memorize this fact". i would say bio difficulty was on par with AAMC CBT8 (unfortunately i got a 10 on that...hopefully i guessed right and got an 11 on this one)

PS was weird....VR was more or less the same.

oh and i totally missed that discrete on sugars...dammit.
 
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haha sorry for that crazy post. Overall i dont think the test was as bad as i made it seem, i am just use to the practice tests being so so easy. Im just mad i couldnt grasp the bug in water passage.
 
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i don't remember reading both the nader and the invisibla ball one????? i really really hope that i didn't miss any passages, please don't
 
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hard, hard, hard!

PS..harder than the practice for SURE and I did quite a lot of random guessing..ahhh.

VR - passages were semi-interesting but the questions were kind of ambiguous.

WS - hmm..
BS - my brain was already dead by the time bio sci came around. 😴lots of "WHAT??" passages, like others said about the kidney disease & caterpillar development. i was expecting to have time to go back and recheck some questions but I was barely even able to finish and had to guess on the last few questions!

at least the test center is really nice and the earmuff thingys really block out all noise!
 
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My thoughts are one coming from a retaker. I got a decent but unbalanced score on the May 31st MCAT but decided to retake to try and get a more balanced score.

PS - Difficult, but doable. The one passage that got me the most was the water droplet one. Luckily, I had about 15 minutes left over to go back to it. There were a few random questions intersperesed throughout the passage, but overall it was about what I expected and was comparable to the May 31st MCAT

VR - This was the bad one for me my first time around. Consequently, this is the section that I spent the most time on since my last MCAT. I think it paid off. This time, I actually finished all of the passages and questions. Hoping for at least a 10, maybe an 11.

Writing - I thought these prompts were relatively easy.

BS - Hardest section of the test, in my opinion. O chem is usually a strength so I didn't mind the heavy emphasis. What killed me were the genetics passages with ackward statements and weird questions. Like many of you, I had to read through the prompts several times before I could even hope to understand. The butterfly question sucked. Overall I'm just glad to be done with it. Hopefully I can improve on my last score.
 
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Hopefully, I never have to see/study for this test again in my life!!!

I'm second guessing all of my answer choices right now....

PS: Not too bad. I felt that my test covered many of the topics that I reviewed during the past 2-3 days. overall: okay.

VR: It could've been much worse. This is my weakest area, but I'll be jumping up and down if I can pull off a 10. Nader was a mind f^ck. overall: comparable to AMCAS.

WS: whatever

BS: Felt like I was taking another VR section. 1/3 orgo which is actually good for me. The GMi passage was ******ed. Unfortunately, it didn't seem as though I had many stand alones. overall: eh okay.

post-BS: Vodka and coronas!!! 😀
 
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zhousilai said:
i don't remember reading both the nader and the invisibla ball one????? i really really hope that i didn't miss any passages, please don't
Click to expand...

the "Nader" one was the VR passage that was about like, incompetent bureaucrats... red tape...legislative... those are the only words about it coming to me right now, lol.

the invisible ball one - i'm not sure which one this was, was this the PS one with the charged spheres in the vaccuum? because i didn't even understand that one... if it was it that's funny i zoned out on it so hard that i didn't even realize it was talking about invisible balls!:laugh: but if this isn't the so-called "invisible ball" passage, then i may have missed it as well :idea:
 
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sorry quick questions: when can we register for the next mcat?? the aamc site still says that i'm registered for today's test. yea this just says how optimistic i am right now
 
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Invisible sphere and the 3 spheres in a vacuum (one of them charged) were two different problems.
 
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Yuc: 48 hours. A couple of my friends were able to register early in the morning two days after the exam. This would be Saturday morning?
 
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Hmm, I didn't have the invisible sphere thing either. Is it possible that passages that weren't in common to both forms were the "field" questions that are not graded?

Did the people who had the invisible sphere also have two chem passages, one about heat of solution and one about some redox reaction?

(btw, new on this board, and nice to see everyone hated the exam as much as I did...I felt like all my preparation meant nothing for the passages)
 
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GUYS- I posted a warning on page 1. DO NOT DISCUSS SPECIFIC QUESTIONS OR ANSWERS FROM YOUR MCAT- IT IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. Violations of this rule will result in a one-week post-hold.

If your posts are disappearing, it's because you've crossed the line on what is OK to post. Anyone who quotes a post that has crossed the line will have the quoted part edited.
 
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ah.... keep searching on wikipedia and trying to find what i did wrong... no luck at all so far, missed 3 easy ones for sure on PS already, i shouldn't do this >.<
 
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zhousilai said:
ah.... keep searching on wikipedia and trying to find what i did wrong... no luck at all so far, missed 3 easy ones for sure on PS already, i shouldn't do this >.<
Click to expand...

I've been doing the exact same thing since my August 14th exam, and it's highly detrimental to my confidence level... I already know I missed at least 2 PS and 3 BS. 🙁
 
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zhousilai said:
ah.... keep searching on wikipedia and trying to find what i did wrong... no luck at all so far, missed 3 easy ones for sure on PS already, i shouldn't do this >.<
Click to expand...

chad5871 said:
I've been doing the exact same thing since my August 14th exam, and it's highly detrimental to my confidence level... I already know I missed at least 2 PS and 3 BS. 🙁
Click to expand...


If I may make a suggestion here..

STOP DOING THAT!!! :laugh: Seriously- you guys are going to freak yourselves out even further, when there is nothing you can do to change any of it at this point. GO- have fun. Relax. Do something that you've been neglecting for the last few months of studying. Sleep. Whatever.

BUT STOP WITH THE SECOND-GUESSING!
 
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Re: the beans

That was my thinking... but I wasn't sure. I freaked out at first but then it seemed to make sense.
 
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