{Official} August 20th MCAT thoughts?

[J ROD]

Well, let me say the real MCAT I just took was nothing like the Kaplan or AAMC practice tests I took. I can not even compared the two. Incredibly harder...

I thought every section was harder than any practice test I have seen including Kaplan. I thought the sciences were harder than Kaplan sectionals.

PS: Was very passaged based and conceptual. 4 gchem passages, 3 physics. I had to use very few equations and the ones I had to use were in from the passage.

Verbal: usually strong point, first time I have ever had a passage I could not understand fully. I spent 12 minutes on it and still was unsure. The questions were harder and the answer choices were closer and harder to pick from than the AAMCs.

BS: almost completely passage based. I have had Immuno, Micro, Biochem and two Pathophysio and I still could not understand some of the passages. I also had a hard org passage. I think I got some of it right but who knows. Immuno passage with some genetics thrown in, cell cycle passage, rest is a blur.

The discretes were all more difficult and had to guess on several on them. On practice tests for Kaplan and AAMC, I never had a problem. Did today though.

There were maybe 2 or 3 give me questions on each science section.

I have no clue what to expect for a grade since I educated guessed my way through most of it. I averaged 34 AAMC and 36 Kaplan and unless the curve is huge, I expect a 25 or so. I know many have said this before, but based on what I saw today and the AAMC curve, something has to be different or I am going to get a very different score.

Could I have prepared better? Not really. It was all passage based and hard as hell. I did finish with enough time in each section just because I did alot of guessing.

So, believe what you read in here about the difficulty of some of the real MCATs. I was not shocked because of what I have read in here, but I know I missed alot more than I usually did on AAMCs and Kaplans. I will need a Kaplan curve to be competitive.

Any others or am I the only one that thought what they saw today was rough!!

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[violet7]

PS 12 (expected 10, totally bombed one passage)
BS 10 (expected 12-13, felt really strong)
VR 8 (expected 8-9).
WS Q (impressed with myself )

Overall, I got exactly what I expected, 30 was my average AAMC CBT score, so no surprises here. English is my second language, so I was preparing myself for something like J or K on the essay part, didn't even practice it.
Now the question is to retake or not to retake... 30 is definitely not enough to get me where I want to be... but at the same time I have nice GPA: 3.89 science, 4.0 non-science.... don't know what to do but probably will retake.

 

[GoldenSunGirl88]

In general the writing score is not supposed to matter as much... but I did hear stuff like if it's really good or really bad then people will take notice.
But when you think about writing score on a MCAT as only a tiny fraction of your whole med school application (grades, activities, interviews, essays)... it really seems like it matters very little. I would also say med schools treat writing scores differently.

If your writing score wasn't too great, make it up with a good essay or good grades in English if you're taking any.

At least, this is what I think.

 

[MedChic]

HOLY CRAP! A 32Q

P: 10 V: 10 B: 12

I was expecting 20's I really really was

i am SHOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!! and will thank GOD every day for the rest of my life

 

[Sage00]

PS 11
VR 11
BS 11
WS Q

Not sure what to think. I was scoring fairly consistent 37/38 on the Kaplans and reached a 36 on the AAMC's. Probably won't retake; can't imagine going through the entire process again.

Props to everyone who did well; it was a tough test.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

I did 10 points below my average AAMC. Enough said!!!

No clue how I did that bad.

Guess I will try again!!

I'm sorry J

 

[crx7]

33S on Aug 20th

frickin! 9 VR
11 PS - losing ground here
13 BS - Finally redeemed in Bio

31R back in April
10 VR
12 PS
9 BS

I really don't know how to take this, I only improved two points and screwed the verbal. Personally I'm glad I improved on writing, but it doesn't count for anything.

 

[jlee562]

14 ps
9 v
13 bs
q ws

damn verbal

 

[kot2r]

PS-14
VR-11
BS-09
WS-Q

I know its horribly uneven but thats okay... what can I say... I was a math major! AAMC practice tests ranged from 30-37.

 

[secure]

Congrats to all.

p:12 V:8 B:9

scored a 23 in 8/06, 25 in 4/07, and finally a 29 on the 8/20 MCAT.

 

[Meetchy]

I don't believe it:

PS: 15
VR: 11
BS: 14
WS: Q

Total: 40Q

I scored anywhere from 33-39 on AAMC practice tests, this is my first time writing the MCAT. I guess the curve works!

 

[amikhchi]

congrats to everyone... it's surreal... i know i didn't score a 36 or 39 like some of you, but i'm ecstatic about my 31... i thought i bombed it after rethinking some of my answers...

P isn't bad is it? (who cares, it's writing)...

is 11,8,12 really uneven?

 

[emjayel]

PS: 9
VR: 10
BS: 12
WS: Q

31Q

Better than my original 26M from August last year. Thought I did a lot better on PS though. I thought Bio was the hardest and PS was the easiest, go figure. Now I just have to worry about getting my GPA up

 

[axp107]

I don't understand... sciences were always my best..
I never scored under a 11 in sciences on any of my practice tests except the diagnostic
but I ended up with 2 10s on the sciences... should I just assume it was a fluke...? I see people's scores fluctuating wildly... just last week we heard of a guy took it on the 24th of july and got a 32.. then retook on Aug 9th and got a 38... It seems like you just have to take it until you get a version that works for you.

Anyone have any advice?

 

[veaselhaufen]

I don't understand... sciences were always my best..
I never scored under a 11 in sciences on any of my practice tests except the diagnostic
but I ended up with 2 10s on the sciences... should I just assume it was a fluke...? I see people's scores fluctuating wildly... just last week we heard of a guy took it on the 24th of july and got a 32.. then retook on Aug 9th and got a 38... It seems like you just have to take it until you get a version that works for you.

Anyone have any advice?

Sadly, I kind of agree with your reasoning. I took on July 13 and got 33R. I turned around and retook on Aug 20 and got 36Q. I was much much more prepared the first time around. The mcat sucks, but now I've won. Good luck man

 

[veaselhaufen]

Sadly, I kind of agree with your reasoning. I took on July 13 and got 33R. I turned around and retook on Aug 20 and got 36Q. I was much much more prepared the first time around. The mcat sucks, but now I've won. Good luck man

On second thought, maybe nerves play into it more than I'm giving it credit for. The first time I took the mcat I was very very prepared but I was nervous as hell. Once you have one under your belt, you kind of calm down. I am now a big fan of retaking

 

[axp107]

Yeah definitely man... I "feel" like I'll be calm next time.. don't really know why.

 

[adil909]

9 Verbal
10 PS
12 BS
R
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31R

My kaplan and AAMC practice exams ranged from 29-34 so this falls right in the middle of what i had done. all in all, i'm very happy with the score. i walked out of that exam feeling like i had gotten a low 20, and so to get a 31 is amazing and definitely something i'm happy about!

the curve worked!!!!!!!!

to those of you who aren't happy with your score, just stick with it. i honestly think that keeping calm under pressure is a huge part of this exam, and you'll definitely be more calm the next time.

congrats everyone!

 

[rugger14]

wow good job everyone,
i got a 25; 26 if i take the best from each of my 2 tests...
Is there any hope for me? I am currently doing a POst-Bac and so far am rocking the exams..is it true admissions people raise their eyebrows at a third try on the MCAT? My 2 exams are a year apart from each other..

any advice is graetly appreciated..i guess all i can do is apply in teh summer and see what happens..

 

[harano99]

37T

P: 14
V: 11
B: 12

I'm surprised at the T. Guess i'm a better bull****ter than i gave myself credit for. This always happens where i feel like i got reamed and i get a good score. This was do or die for me because of my low GPA.

 

[zdralej]

37T

P: 14
V: 11
B: 12

I'm surprised at the T. Guess i'm a better bull****ter than i gave myself credit for. This always happens where i feel like i got reamed and i get a good score. This was do or die for me because of my low GPA.

Congrats...that's an amazing score! How did you prepare for the MCAT?

 

[IceColdPenguin]

i couldnt concentrate during verbal... usually 10-11 (35 aamc avg). that is gonna hurt.. grr


11P 7V 13B

 

[TheElement]

Great job overall everyone!

I'm kinda jealous of some of you other 35's...
P:12 V:9 B:14
Total:35R

I wish my scores were more balanced and don't like the 9 but there's no way I should retake this.

 

[freelove]

I got a 32!!!

PS- 10
VR-11
BS-11

Nice and balanced, and I am ecstatic! No more MCAT for me!!! Congrats to all who did well, that test was hard... Good luck to the people who have to retake... you'll have an upper hand on all those sucker MCAT virgins on the next go around...

 

[freelove]

I got a 32!!!

PS- 10
VR-11
BS-11

Nice and balanced, and I am ecstatic! No more MCAT for me!!! Congrats to all who did well, that test was hard... Good luck to the people who have to retake... you'll have an upper hand on all those sucker MCAT virgins on the next go around...

I have been waiting so long to post one of these... why do I feel like a VIP member now??? On to the 30+ study habits thread...

 

[CJY85]

Dont mean to put the damper on the parade. Congrats to all who did well!
22 O
PS - 7
VR - 8
BS - 7

I have a 3.1 GPA. D.O school - is it even possible?

 

[TheElement]

I would recommend a retake if possible. At least your scores were balanced?

Dont mean to put the damper on the parade. Congrats to all who did well!
22 O
PS - 7
VR - 8
BS - 7

I have a 3.1 GPA. D.O school - is it even possible?

 

[Dr.Masamichi]

I don't believe it:

PS: 15
VR: 11
BS: 14
WS: Q

Total: 40Q

I scored anywhere from 33-39 on AAMC practice tests, this is my first time writing the MCAT. I guess the curve works!

ok, I wasn't goin to quote your comment, but just have to...this is sick sick sick...very jealous of your score but very proud of you...congrats mate

 

[Doc412]

shocked... I thought I got a 25, but I ended up getting exactly my AAMC average.

PS - 12
VR - 11
BS - 12

35R

 

[Gigi333]

I got a 32!!!

PS- 10
VR-11
BS-11

Nice and balanced, and I am ecstatic! No more MCAT for me!!! Congrats to all who did well, that test was hard... Good luck to the people who have to retake... you'll have an upper hand on all those sucker MCAT virgins on the next go around...

I am so happy for you. I have been seeing your posts for some time now. PM about your current application status. Wish you the best of luck.

 

[Gigi333]

Dont mean to put the damper on the parade. Congrats to all who did well!
22 O
PS - 7
VR - 8
BS - 7

I have a 3.1 GPA. D.O school - is it even possible?

Gotta Gotta Have Faith. Do not ever give up. PM me if you want to talk.

 

[Lacipart]

I expected 11 9 10
I recieved 12 9 10

Pretty nice, that 9 in the verbal kind of sucks but the 12 in PS is looking pretty nice.

Congratulations to everyone, well done! Sit back, relax and grab a beer (or a Jones soda if your not into the whole -OH thing). We're done with the MCAT for a little while, and even if your retaking take a few days off.

 

[koopa_troopa]

On second thought, maybe nerves play into it more than I'm giving it credit for. The first time I took the mcat I was very very prepared but I was nervous as hell. Once you have one under your belt, you kind of calm down. I am now a big fan of retaking

Yeah, same thing happened to me. First time I was quite nervous. Second time I was really really relaxed, I spent less than a week preparing for it. I practically acted like it was a practice test. Went way over my 10 minute breaks everytime, sat back and drank my juice boxes. Only after I finished the test, I started to panic because I thought I was too relaxed. I ended up improving by 4 points. Weird thing is that the second test had my worst topics, I didn't expect to increase that much.

 

[ima2009]

Hey first time writing this, VR KILLED me!
PS11
BS 9
VR 4

Wr O

anyone have any suggestion to improve verbal, i really really need a miracle

 

[ToujoursMieux]

.

 

[iblunk]

so wow. curves are great. i was sure i had gotten below 30. i was already starting to plan another career path. i thought i bombed the physical sciences section; i knew i missed 3 for sure, and the rest was a blur. and verbal i thought was a complete massacre. i only read 6 out of 7 passages and one of them was the renaissance one that i totally didn't even understand. but turns out i got a 35S 11/10/14. i scored between 33-37 on the AAMC practice tests 8-10. the practice tests are generally pretty accurate provided you're not completely panicking during the actual test, trust them!

 

[whoisthedrizzle]

Whoisthedrizzle!!!! We get that you don't feel the same way about the test as the rest of us...we don't want to hear your opinion over and over again. I've heard that people who come out of any MCAT thinking it was "easy" usually score lower than average.

owned.

 

[malta97]

So this post is for people who are thinking of retaking.

Background: I took the 1st MCAT in 2005, wasn't prepared at all in Physical Sciences

Studied for about three months this summer, took the Jul 24th MCAT, was worried I didn't do as well as I wanted, thought I was owned on that test. Decided to retest Aug 20th before receiving scores from July 24th as most Med schools only accept MCATs up through the end of Aug. Thought I owned that test.

Here are the results.

Month Yr ______ PS _ VR _ WR _ BS

Aug 2005 27Q __ 6 _ 11 _ Q _ 10
Jul 2007 31Q ___ 9 _ 10 _ Q _ 12
Aug 2007 31Q __ 11 _ 10 _ Q _ 10

Dissapointed my VR was not higher, and I thought I did really well on Bio. So for my situation, the test was standardized. My low practice AAMC was a 31, my high was a 36. So I hit on the low end for both of my retakes. At least my writing is a solid Q eh

 

[Iheartcupcakes]

For those of you who took the Aug. 20th mcat...did any of you notice that the physical science section had more questions than normal??? Usually the practice AAMC tests had around 52, but on the real test I had about 7 extra questions which made me run out of time

 

[WonderBoy]

Hey first time writing this, VR KILLED me!
PS11
BS 9
VR 4

Wr O

anyone have any suggestion to improve verbal, i really really need a miracle

What did you use to prepare for Verbal? I would recommend Ek's Verbal 101, I was getting 9-10's on them and ended up with a 9 on the real thing, this is after the fact that I guessed on the most of the last passage and ran out of time!

Get that book and practice, its difficult to remain calm for me during verbal especially towards the end of the section, that's probably what cost me a 10.

I had a 6 on verbal when I took the MCAt the first time, so there is always hope, don't give up!

 

[TheElement]

7 extra questions??? What? I'm pretty sure it was 52.

For those of you who took the Aug. 20th mcat...did any of you notice that the physical science section had more questions than normal??? Usually the practice AAMC tests had around 52, but on the real test I had about 7 extra questions which made me run out of time

 

[koopa_troopa]

For those of you who took the Aug. 20th mcat...did any of you notice that the physical science section had more questions than normal??? Usually the practice AAMC tests had around 52, but on the real test I had about 7 extra questions which made me run out of time

Are you sure about that? If it happened I'm sure lots of others would be posting about it.

 

[Iheartcupcakes]

7 extra questions??? What? I'm pretty sure it was 52.

Yea i am 100% positive that I had 59 questions instead of 52, because I thought I was done with the physical science section with a minute to spare and then I realized that there were 7 more questions to answer. I freaked out and had to guess on all of them. I really wanted to void my exam after that. I totally wasnt prepared for more questions. I kept looking through the forums to see if someone had posted about the same situation, but I couldnt find anything. Now, I'm getting worried if maybe I'm the only one...and if so can I or should I do anything about it? I'm not sure if the MCAT is allowed to add as many questions as they like? Any advice???

 

[koopa_troopa]

Yea i am 100% positive that I had 59 questions instead of 52, because I thought I was done with the physical science section with a minute to spare and then I realized that there were 7 more questions to answer. I freaked out and had to guess on all of them. I really wanted to void my exam after that. I totally wasnt prepared for more questions. I kept looking through the forums to see if someone had posted about the same situation, but I couldnt find anything. Now, I'm getting worried if maybe I'm the only one...and if so can I or should I do anything about it? I'm not sure if the MCAT is allowed to add as many questions as they like? Any advice???

The thing is, it is really late now. You should have made a complaint from the start. The test is always 52 questions for the two science sections. You should know that because you are supposed to read the MCAT essentials before taking the test. I believe it even says the number of questions on the welcome screen for the section. It would be hard now, after you have already got your scores back, that there was a problem with your specific test.

Were the extra 7 questions discrete or passage type questions?

 

[TheElement]

You are sure you weren't hallucinating or misread the question numbers? It sounds really strange that you would get 59 questions. This is the first time I have ever heard about this.

 

[Iheartcupcakes]

The thing is, it is really late now. You should have made a complaint from the start. The test is always 52 questions for the two science sections. You should know that because you are supposed to read the MCAT essentials before taking the test. I believe it even says the number of questions on the welcome screen for the section. It would be hard now, after you have already got your scores back, that there was a problem with your specific test.

Were the extra 7 questions discrete or passage type questions?

there were 7 extra individual questions, no passage. And I didnt read the number of questions on the welcome screen because I assumed there would be 52. But then I started reading the welcome screen for the rest of the sections and those sections had the usual number of questions. I actually did make a complaint, you know at the end of the test where you put any comments or complaints, but looking back at it I guess that maybe the mcat people dont read those, that its probably just for the testing center. I really didnt think it was a big deal until now, since it seems I am the only one. It's my fault for thinking that the mcat could just add extra questions all of the sudden, thats why I didn't bother to make a big fuss about it. After asking my friends about it, they convinced me that it must be some new thing they're testing out, or that my physical science section must have had easier questions so they added more...I feel so naive now If anything should I just ask the MCAT people if it was possible to have more questions on the physical science section?

 

[brianmartin]

^^
Um, I actually know what you're talking about. I didn't see any standalones at the end but there easily COULD have been and I'd never have known, due to a flawed progress meter that shows only number of passages completed (not number of questions out of total questions)

On my computer, the only "progress monitor" was a box that read "1/7, 2/7, 3/7..." as you moved through the passages. The number only increased when you completed a *passage*, so when going from say, the 3rd passage to a group of standalones, the box would still read 3/7.

So, say you are on the last passage, the box reads 7/7, and you click "review answers", not aware of an additional group of standalones AFTER the last passage. You then come to the review screen and click "review marked" (the missed standalones are farther down the screen, so you don't see the red x's). You review all your marked answers, guess if you have to, then click, "end section."

Boom, you just missed a bunch of standalones, due to a ******ed method of displaying the test progress.

After I finished the section, not sure if it happened to me but fully aware that it could have, I went to the desk and reported the problem. I did not fill out any "official" forms, but I did make sure the testing administrator understood the complaint and she told me it would be logged.

So the question is....were there standalones after the last passage?

 

[brianmartin]

.........

 

[ima2009]

What did you use to prepare for Verbal? I would recommend Ek's Verbal 101, I was getting 9-10's on them and ended up with a 9 on the real thing, this is after the fact that I guessed on the most of the last passage and ran out of time!

Get that book and practice, its difficult to remain calm for me during verbal especially towards the end of the section, that's probably what cost me a 10.

I had a 6 on verbal when I took the MCAt the first time, so there is always hope, don't give up!

Hey I took the Princeton review course, that really didnt seem to help. So i have an option to either buy books for verbal either from Kaplan or Ek, I am not sure which one help me more. (English isnt officially my first language, but I have been speaking English since my childhood ie from grade 2 and I have a current gpa of 4.0 in B.Sc)

 

[DorianGray]

exam krackers for the win

 

[bluemoon57]

I know SDN is not representative of the national pre-med population, but does it strike anyone else as odd that no one in this thread has reported getting higher than an 11 on the VR for the Aug 20 exam, even among those who got 35+ scores? (I may be mistaken, of course, but this is my initial impression.)