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Official August 27th 2014 MCAT Thread
Started by HaitianMD
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Just did 11, got a 37 (14 11 12). Dumb mistakes on BS or woulda gotten 14 for 39. Ebola passage was way overhyped.
Gonna do a couple more VR passages, go over my targeted content review sheet and all my missed FL questions, and read flashcards these last 2 days.
Gonna do a couple more VR passages, go over my targeted content review sheet and all my missed FL questions, and read flashcards these last 2 days.
Yea, I also don't understand why people are overhyping the Ebola passage. Which flashcards are you using and which ones are everyone else using?
Woot!
Just took 10, it was my best verbal yet. So that makes:
3: 13/12/13 38
4: 14/13/15 42
8: 14/12/15 41
10: 14/14/14 42
Taking 11 tomorrow, hopefully 9 the day after...and now I have finished my content review (at long last!) so I finally get a chance to go over these and post-game them all, including the SAs, which should help tremendously!
Then it's time for the Real Deal, and then I am FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Just took 10, it was my best verbal yet. So that makes:
3: 13/12/13 38
4: 14/13/15 42
8: 14/12/15 41
10: 14/14/14 42
Taking 11 tomorrow, hopefully 9 the day after...and now I have finished my content review (at long last!) so I finally get a chance to go over these and post-game them all, including the SAs, which should help tremendously!
Then it's time for the Real Deal, and then I am FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!
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Also, as a final note...I am now mostly done with my MCAT Anki deck. I will likely add a few here or there on topics I missed on the FLs or what have you. But it should stay approximately the same size. What size is that, you ask?
My MCAT deck has 2800 cards in it 😵
I have reviewed them all, plan to do all of them at least once in the next 2d, and am theoretically sitting at ~95% retention. I friggin' love Anki!
😍 Would not be getting the scores I am without it!
Edit: I posted about 2/3 of the deck in the SN2ed first day thread...must remember to go back there and put the rest up!
My MCAT deck has 2800 cards in it 😵
I have reviewed them all, plan to do all of them at least once in the next 2d, and am theoretically sitting at ~95% retention. I friggin' love Anki!
😍 Would not be getting the scores I am without it!Edit: I posted about 2/3 of the deck in the SN2ed first day thread...must remember to go back there and put the rest up!
Also, as a final note...I am now mostly done with my MCAT Anki deck. I will likely add a few here or there on topics I missed on the FLs or what have you. But it should stay approximately the same size. What size is that, you ask?
My MCAT deck has 2800 cards in it 😵
I have reviewed them all, plan to do all of them at least once in the next 2d, and am theoretically sitting at ~95% retention. I friggin' love Anki!
Edit: I posted about 2/3 of the deck in the SN2ed first day thread...must remember to go back there and put the rest up!
Which cards are you using specifically?
What do you mean?
I make Anki cards - it is my only method of studying. I decided to train myself to it when I began my postbacc, after reading up on spaced repetition and seeing that it might be useful for avoiding the educational binge-purge cycle which is apparently common in med school, and which I had been participating in for years. I was in search of a study method, as I had never really studied before (just crammed), and decided to invest in learning to use Anki effectively.
I make all of my cards myself; I find it to be the most beneficial part of the entire process, more so than reviewing the cards later (that's just to prevent losing the information - the learning happens while making them). And because most of my benefit comes from the making, I have no problem sharing them, which is why I did so a few months ago. No point now, though, since the exam is in a few days...there's no getting through 2800 new cards in that period of time, it's just unfeasible!
Woot!
Just took 10, it was my best verbal yet. So that makes:
3: 13/12/13 38
4: 14/13/15 42
8: 14/12/15 41
10: 14/14/14 42
Taking 11 tomorrow, hopefully 9 the day after...and now I have finished my content review (at long last!) so I finally get a chance to go over these and post-game them all, including the SAs, which should help tremendously!
Then it's time for the Real Deal, and then I am FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!
You are going to do just amazing on this test. Go kill this!
Ohh, thank you for the clarification. I always see people mentioning anki cards, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was.
Woot!
Just took 10, it was my best verbal yet. So that makes:
3: 13/12/13 38
4: 14/13/15 42
8: 14/12/15 41
10: 14/14/14 42
Taking 11 tomorrow, hopefully 9 the day after...and now I have finished my content review (at long last!) so I finally get a chance to go over these and post-game them all, including the SAs, which should help tremendously!
Then it's time for the Real Deal, and then I am FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!
omgoshh amazinngg scores! think im drooling on the keyboard right now #tmi
Haha, I doubt I'll pull that VR on the real deal, but I am hopeful for a breakdown more like 4 or 8!
Please do! If I bomb BS for some reason on the 27th then I might use the Anki over the school year - I'm also taking Biochem and social psych this year so if I have to re-take next summer it'll be after spending the year getting a really good grasp of the material, win-win!Also, as a final note...I am now mostly done with my MCAT Anki deck. I will likely add a few here or there on topics I missed on the FLs or what have you. But it should stay approximately the same size. What size is that, you ask?
My MCAT deck has 2800 cards in it 😵
I have reviewed them all, plan to do all of them at least once in the next 2d, and am theoretically sitting at ~95% retention. I friggin' love Anki!
Edit: I posted about 2/3 of the deck in the SN2ed first day thread...must remember to go back there and put the rest up!
In other news I reviewed interference and double slit- the last time I read it I thought it was an alien language, but after 9 hours of sleep last night I was actually able to sit down and understand the majority of it, I'm a little shakey on the exact math of the oil film interference examples, but I doubt they'd be mathematical anyways.
I understand the theories on both, but I loathe the calculations (probably because they ARE such simplifications because the math is too complex to do entirely right)
Anyway, here it is...I'll be cross-posting it in the other thread, too, because I promised them like 80 bajillion years ago.
Mehc's MCAT Madness Anki Deck (2014 exam)
If you downloaded the first half of my deck, once you import this one simply search for the tag 'shared' and delete those cards, and you should be able to merge everything perfectly! There will be a few (<30) duplicates because I changed the format of some cards to enable typing...when you run into those, just delete whichever version you dislike.
Sidenote for picky Anki users like me: Remember, Anki always makes the notes for any imported deck a new Note type to avoid messing up formats...so if you downloaded the first half of them, you'll have 2 Basic+ Note types, etc...this is easy enough to change, just go in the Browser, select one of the two versions of that Note format from the sidebar, select all of those cards, and "Change Note type" to the other Basic+. You should end up with 0 cards of one Basic+ type and all cards of the other, and then you can simply delete the duplicate Note type. Or you can not worry about it, but it would drive me bananas. Good skill to learn for after importing decks anyway, or you'll end up with as many Basic Note types as the number of decks you import+1!
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Holy crap, guys, just reviewed AAMC10 and of the questions I missed, 3 didn't have answers keyed in. My internet was super glitchy during that test and kept kicking me out...all three of the ones with no answers keyed in I had answered correctly (one I just remember, two I literally crossed out all 3 wrong answers but didn't have an answer selected). That would make it a 15/15/14 if I'd done it right!
OK, OK, I know that's not necessary and now I'm probably being a jerk...but the two sections which jump up with that are the two I've been doing worst in, so it's nice to see!
Shutting up now...
OK, OK, I know that's not necessary and now I'm probably being a jerk...but the two sections which jump up with that are the two I've been doing worst in, so it's nice to see!
Shutting up now...
Dang! Good job!Holy crap, guys, just reviewed AAMC10 and of the questions I missed, 3 didn't have answers keyed in. My internet was super glitchy during that test and kept kicking me out...all three of the ones with no answers keyed in I had answered correctly (one I just remember, two I literally crossed out all 3 wrong answers but didn't have an answer selected). That would make it a 15/15/14 if I'd done it right!
OK, OK, I know that's not necessary and now I'm probably being a jerk...but the two sections which jump up with that are the two I've been doing worst in, so it's nice to see!
Shutting up now...
Holy crap, guys, just reviewed AAMC10 and of the questions I missed, 3 didn't have answers keyed in. My internet was super glitchy during that test and kept kicking me out...all three of the ones with no answers keyed in I had answered correctly (one I just remember, two I literally crossed out all 3 wrong answers but didn't have an answer selected). That would make it a 15/15/14 if I'd done it right!
OK, OK, I know that's not necessary and now I'm probably being a jerk...but the two sections which jump up with that are the two I've been doing worst in, so it's nice to see!
Shutting up now...
Haha, your gonna kill it!
Can we write notes (equations, etc.) on our scrap paper during the tutorial?
There's a thread or two out there on this...consensus was yes.
So, finished AAMC11 today...I thought the VR was brutal, but I only missed one. Hopefully the real deal will be more like 10 and 11, cuz I did better on those. Or maybe I just finally got the hang of it! Did worse on PS and BS than usual (13s on both), but didn't dip below my minimum target score, so that's OK. PS and VR felt brutal. BS felt fine but I didn't do very well on it, and VR felt crappy but I did better than average, so that's interesting. No way I'll void on test day, feeling good has nothing to do with score for me.
Again, missed a question, as in did not answer it. Not sure why I keep doing this, but I noticed (too late to prevent my click) for the first time that there is a message that flashes up at the end if you have unanswered questions, so I will be alert for that on the real deal.
Not sure whether I'm going to bother taking AAMC 9 tomorrow. It'd be nice if it were a confidence booster, but probably not worth it. I have 5 exams and my scores are all ±1 of my average, excepting the first one when I still had 25% of content to cover (or if you count 1o, where I would have scored 2pts higher than just by hitting the damn buttons instead of just negating all the wrong answers) Probably more important to focus on my flashcards, weak areas, and to solidly review all AAMC practice materials I have used, as I haven't really looked at anything but my scores.
Again, missed a question, as in did not answer it. Not sure why I keep doing this, but I noticed (too late to prevent my click) for the first time that there is a message that flashes up at the end if you have unanswered questions, so I will be alert for that on the real deal.
Not sure whether I'm going to bother taking AAMC 9 tomorrow. It'd be nice if it were a confidence booster, but probably not worth it. I have 5 exams and my scores are all ±1 of my average, excepting the first one when I still had 25% of content to cover (or if you count 1o, where I would have scored 2pts higher than just by hitting the damn buttons instead of just negating all the wrong answers)
Probably more important to focus on my flashcards, weak areas, and to solidly review all AAMC practice materials I have used, as I haven't really looked at anything but my scores.How did you get so good at verbal? What is going through your mind as you start the section. It takes me a while before I get into verbal mode and I tend to miss more at the beginning of the verbal section than at the end.
Good luck tomorrow!
I sucked at verbal in all of my practice stuff...EK, TBR, TPRH, I was averaging 10s unless I tried really hard, and then my scores plummeted.
When I got to the MCAT, they just...clicked. Somehow the AAMC format makes sense in my brain, it is exactly what I expected. I read once, answer each question, and then verify with passage information before moving on. Ideally, I try to look at each of the answers and say 'this is right/wrong because...'
Trying to figure out how they are trying to trick me with each answer helped!
This is interesting because I feel almost the same way. Perhaps for some reason we feel more comfortable reading through a computer rather than hardcopy. I have only taken two AAMCs and GS #1. My verbal scores online don't compare to my mediocre average EK and TPRH scores (6.7). I'm feeling confident for tomorrow.
Would you say that you rely heavily on your gut feelings? Or do you know EXACTLY why one answer is correct and the other ones incorrect. It's interesting because most people I have seen scoring 12+ go by their instincts and can't explain why exactly they are picking their answers but people scoring in 9-10 range know. I'm thinking maybe overthinking hurts and sometimes you should go ahead and pick the best answer that feels good (ofcourse, still following the rules like not bringing outside info etc)...
I wish I had more time to improve my VR. I am not feeling confident for tomorrow, unfortunately.
When I first started studying I noticed i changed from my first answer, which was correct, to another answer and ever since I've resisted the urge to do so and gone with my gut feeling. It seems to have helped
Good luck tomorrow everyone! From the looks of the practice scores posted I think we're gonna do great. I'm shooting for 12 11 13 based on all my AAMC scores.
I could usually explain to you why I'm picking the answer I am. I know it as soon as I see it, generally, but I always try to run a double-check by, after I have selected my gut answer, going through the other three and saying "yeah, this one is wrong because of xyz". The difference is that, having already decided what the right answer is, I am actively looking for what is wrong, rather than evaluating if it is right. I think that's easier to do...it avoids false matching and whatnot. Sometimes I can't find anything wrong with one of the other answers, and then I have to ponder it a while. For those, I mark them and then go through my marked questions at the end...sometimes the break let's me have my 'aha' moment later, after it silently percolated somewhere deep in my brain in the interim!
Good luck!
Hoping for a 14/13/15
though really I will be ecstatic with anything 40+ and happy with 38+. I know, that's picky of me, but it would suck to have gotten built up and then lose it, you know?
guys, I haven't done aamc 11 yet..
Should I do it now? or just skip it and do content review?
Should I do it now? or just skip it and do content review?
Are you writing it tomorrow? I wouldn't do an AAMC having less than 20 hours left. I'd personally do a light review and just relax now..
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Yea doing it now is probably not going to help you. Just review and relax
Yeah writing it tomorrow...
Are you going to be able to wake up on time?!
...it's a 1pm exam and it's not even midnight on the west coast. I think I'll be good!
Guys it's here let's destroy this SOB and never look back! See yall on the other side
Just got to the testing center.... sht just got real
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I recall 2 passages and maybe a couple discretes. Honestly I don't remember
Um so I feel violated from that PS section, the duck was going on with chem passages? But I guess it could have also been the test anxiety in the beginning. But going in the only thing I was really concerned about was verbal because my PS was usually a 12 and BS was usually 13 and verbal could range from 7-10, but surprisingly like the person above said, verbal was kinda a breeze compared to some of the aamc practice verbals. BS I found had some harder passages that the usual, but I'm stronger in that section anyways. It was split like 50/50 for bio vs orgo questions, I noticed they kinda combined both types of questions into one passage sometimes. I'm just glad to finally be done! Now the waiting game begins 🙁
The PS was similar to the AAMCS. The BS was similar to 10/11. I felt like I did well on both sections. BS had a couple really random hard questions sprinkled throughout the test that felt like you were guessing on.
I thought the VR on this was harder than the other VR's I've written. The Answers felt more ambiguous than past ones, I'm already planning on re-writing because of this. If you think VR was easy, then I think you might have fallen into some of their traps.
Prediction; 10 PS/10 VR/10 BS For a 30. Hoping for an 11+ in BS and an 11+ in verbal.
I need at least a 31.
I thought the VR on this was harder than the other VR's I've written. The Answers felt more ambiguous than past ones, I'm already planning on re-writing because of this. If you think VR was easy, then I think you might have fallen into some of their traps.
Prediction; 10 PS/10 VR/10 BS For a 30. Hoping for an 11+ in BS and an 11+ in verbal.
I need at least a 31.
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