Official August 2, 2014 MCAT Thread

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Good luck with your preparation everyone! I wrote my MCAT 1 year ago to this date and it worked out well
 
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BigEinstein said:
Would you mind sharing how you studied and for how long?
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I think I am the exception to the rule, almost 10 years removed from my first year sciences, not all of the 'prereq' courses were completed at the time, with the majority of my studying done while working and studying for another standardized test written about 2 weeks prior to the MCAT. I doubt my style of studying would be useful to many others.
 
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How is everyone doing? I am halfway through orgo TPR which I realize has some gaps but still EXCITED. Will also do verbal today!
 
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I am halfway through orgo as well as physics (but I'm going to have to review a lot for physics because that is definitely my weakness) and currently still in molecular biology for the bio section. as for gen chem, still in the early stages. but there's plenty of time 🙂
 
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I am glad you say that I am constantly telling myself I am behind. I start physics tomorrow (my weakness as well!)
 
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Okay starting today and will post my scores after each passage. Please lets post scores and keep this thread alive.
Following Kaplan schedule. Will watch Chad for topics, read EK on those topics and do the Kaplan tests for each.
 
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I did the first three warm up passages from EK101 and timed myself and did four timed passages from my princeton review verbal reasoning review book (not the verbal workbook). Got average 88 - 94% right so far.
 
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Day 1 of physics re-content review. Shoot me and end my misery! How detailed should our knowledge be of vectors and inverse trig functions?
 
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jebelali said:
Day 1 of physics re-content review. Shoot me and end my misery! How detailed should our knowledge be of vectors and inverse trig functions?
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Just finished chapter 1 of physics too. Just know the sine and cosine of 0,90,30 and 60 and approximate any other based on these. Tbh, not much should be known.
 
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BigEinstein said:
Just finished chapter 1 of physics too. Just know the sine and cosine of 0,90,30 and 60 and approximate any other based on these. Tbh, not much should be known.
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I've pretty much committed those to memory in terms of decimal values, trying to remember the fractions as well. I gotta say, the first time around I suffered so much but had I know what a help Chad's videos were (I feel like I am in a class) I would have signed up in Jan! Oh well, it's not like I remember anything from physics anyway.
 
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Ya. For physics for now. I realize TPR has quite a deficiency in Orgo so I plan to supplement my orgo with Chad's videos after I am done physics. If I still have time, I may jump into general chem for topics. He really explains stuff so well and for physics, which is a rather dry read, it's good for me to feel like I am "interacting" with someone else although I do feel weird shouting random things at my computer!
 
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Lol and its actually making this whole MCAT studying better for me as I do not tend to get bored from reading textbook or burn out. Are you going subject by subject?
 
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for the sin and cosine, i believe all you have to know are these
sin 0- 0
sin 30- 1/2
sin 45 - 0.7
sin 60 - about 0.85
sin 90 - 1
and then the reverse for cos
 
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jebelali said:
Ya. For physics for now. I realize TPR has quite a deficiency in Orgo so I plan to supplement my orgo with Chad's videos after I am done physics. If I still have time, I may jump into general chem for topics. He really explains stuff so well and for physics, which is a rather dry read, it's good for me to feel like I am "interacting" with someone else although I do feel weird shouting random things at my computer!
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I thought I was the only one who shouted the answers to his questions back to the computer!
 
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Let another day of MCAT journey begin. How are the other guys in this thread doing? Please post hints and misconceptions that would benefit us all 🙂
 
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1st question of the day, I know it might be easy lol but will keep this thread a little live.
An elevator is accelerating down at 4m/s^2. How much does a 10kg fish weigh if measured inside an elevator?
 
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BigEinstein said:
1st question of the day, I know it might be easy lol but will keep this thread a little live.
An elevator is accelerating down at 4m/s^2. How much does a 10kg fish weigh if measured inside an elevator?
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60N

total acceleration = -10 m/s^2 (gravity) + 4 m/s^2 = -6 m/s^2

10kg * 6 m/s^2 = 60N
 
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BigEinstein said:
Lol and its actually making this whole MCAT studying better for me as I do not tend to get bored from reading textbook or burn out. Are you going subject by subject?
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Hey...BigE...

Are you watching videos based on day or based on subject?

I did most things in day 1...but if its better to finish one subject completely...let me know.

Thanks.
 
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Does anyone have a list of periodic trends that are crucial? Or what makes something more (fill in the blank here) kind of questions?
Specifically for gen chem?
 
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doctorgirldaisy said:
Does anyone have a list of periodic trends that are crucial? Or what makes something more (fill in the blank here) kind of questions?
Specifically for gen chem?
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Pretty sure you know this but here goes: Electronegativity, electron affinity, Ionization energy, size (and ion size), acidity

I'll ask a question: compare F and Br in terms of all above criteria

Compare Cl and S
 
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F is more electronegative (electronegativity increases to the right and up)
Ionization energy also increases to the right and up (so F)
Electron affinity (becomes more negative) to the right and up (F)
Size deceases to the right and up (so Br?)
Acidity increases to the right but increases going down a column so Br

Are there any others besides these? these are the ones that I covered, but sometimes they ask other ones related to these (such as with nuclear shielding and I get hella confused lol)
 
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UoCfin said:
Hey...BigE...

Are you watching videos based on day or based on subject?

I did most things in day 1...but if its better to finish one subject completely...let me know.

Thanks.
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I am enrolled in Kaplan course so what I do is that I follow my course schedule and watch them in order as presented in the course and just do review HWs on the topics. I have had no problems at all with this approach. If you do not have kaplan course. I do not go subject by subject. Like Yesterday I did physics days 1 and 2 and today I have done Chem days 1 and 2. If I get more than 4 wrong when practicing then I would pick EK 1001, work questions and then move on with passages. Hope I answered your question lol
 
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Nuclear shielding means zeff right? In that case let's think about what is happening across a row. More and more protons are added but no new shells are filled. Electrons are increasingly added to same number of shells. Therefore the effective nuclear charge would increase across a row as the increasing number of protons are in a way less shielded (although the shells are more populated, the cloud "remains the same size?").
I remember something to this effect from Princeton gen chem book.
 
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jebelali said:
Nuclear shielding means zeff right? In that case let's think about what is happening across a row. More and more protons are added but no new shells are filled. Electrons are increasingly added to same number of shells. Therefore the effective nuclear charge would increase across a row as the increasing number of protons are in a way less shielded (although the shells are more populated, the cloud "remains the same size?").
I remember something to this effect from Princeton gen chem book.
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Yeahh you right and as a result of the shielding, both the atomic and ionic radii tend to decrease across the period.
Effective nuclear charge= The atomic number of the atom - The sum of the core electrons.
Example: K, ENC= 19-18 = 1 , 19 is the atomic number is 18 is the sum of its core electrons since its valence electron is 1.
 
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How is it going for everyone? Are you guys done with content? I am finishing up 1/3 content today as I only started this week and will spend the whole weekend working passages on all the topics I have covered thus far. Please post questions, hints and mnemonics we can all benefit from 🙂
 
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Am still around. Getting burnt out at the moment. Not even done with physics review but I've been studying on/off since March and so it's really getting to me. I don't even have break days, I get many break hours instead. I just need this to be done so I can start attacking passages. How are your preps Big E?
 
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Same here, am trying to finish Chad's videos and do my workbook to reinforce knowledge and so far its been great and will be done with content review next weekend if I keep up. It is just the Kaplan physics topicals which has been taking all my confidence away. Is anyone done with content and starting FLs?
 
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Hey guys, just rescheduled my exam from July 12 to August 2nd! So far, I'm done physics and all bio review, 1/2 way done gchem and a bit of ochem. Hoping to finish up content review within the next week and get on to FLs and timed passaged everyday! Have you guys started doing practice exams?? I've only done Kaplan 7 so far just to test myself with physics and I got a 10 in Physics and 9 in Verbal. I didn't do the Biology one because it was sooo LONG! LOL (Kaplan exams are much longer than the real MCAT for some reason).
 
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medhopeful2014 said:
Hey guys, just rescheduled my exam from July 12 to August 2nd! So far, I'm done physics and all bio review, 1/2 way done gchem and a bit of ochem. Hoping to finish up content review within the next week and get on to FLs and timed passaged everyday! Have you guys started doing practice exams?? I've only done Kaplan 7 so far just to test myself with physics and I got a 10 in Physics and 9 in Verbal. I didn't do the Biology one because it was sooo LONG! LOL (Kaplan exams are much longer than the real MCAT for some reason).
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We are more like on the same page, are you taking Kaplan course?
 
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BigEinstein said:
We are more like on the same page, are you taking Kaplan course?
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Hey! No I actually took a Princeton Course last summer so this time I'm just reviewing with my Princeton books/notes, but I have the Kaplan tests from a friend so I'm also using those for practice!

Is anyone applying this cycle?
 
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Damn making me feel behind.. well I am behind lol on Day 35 on SN2 schedule. If I can get to day 60 by 4th of July I'll be good.
 
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Its not like am done with content or strong with content, i find content a waste of time so I want to learn content more from my FLs while getting in shape for the exam
 
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