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Official August 27th 2014 MCAT Thread
Started by HaitianMD
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Ok. And you don't do anything in between breaks. Can you verify that? Also, what are you doing as far as calories? I've elected so far to skip food in between breaks and immediately beforehand, but I don't know if that's the greatest idea. With that being said, I don't feel hungry or worn-out, or tired by the end, so I don't know.
I didn't study like crazy over the weekend and actually relaxed and went out. I think I've been burning myself out a little the past couple weeks so taking it down a notch seems to have helped
I like this. Also, maybe crash wasn't the greatest word. I mean, I feel great, but just kind of lose my ability to focus (on reading). Maybe that's what you were expecting anyway. Whatever you want to call it, I felt that my reading ability took a toll.
A further analysis of your intake says that the amount of caffeine you are consuming is less than the amount that I am. For example, you are drinking half of a medium iced coffee, but I am drinking TWO THIRDS of a medium hot coffee (immediately before PS). A medium iced coffee also has less coffee to begin with, because ice takes up a fair amount of volume (unless the cup sizes are different, which is also likely). I did spread the remainder out for after the PS section, etc, though. Although, I don't know if the amount of caffeine is the issue or only the timing, or if both were perfect, or what.
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I just like snacks for snacking's sake. For #3 I didn't eat anything, but for #4 I had some string cheese before and then during both breaks, haha. No add'l caffeine, though; as I said, it takes me just about 2.5hrs, so I didn't see the need. Plenty of water, though (I have a bladder of steel).
Aside from the recent MCAT stuff, though, I typically have maybe 200mg once every week or two, so my caffeine intake is quite low and therefore I'm not using much.
LOL! at the bolded! I forgot to say that I am shocked at your speed. My goodness. My goodness.
Oh yeah, and would you recommend me to go through the VR/BS AAMC self assessments at this point? Or else just keep doing the TBR passage 3's? Etc.? I am definitely not going to bother doing the PS ones, though.
How are your VR scores looking? I definitely recommend the VR self assessment, as it's a great source of extra AAMC material, and I didn't find any of the test prep companies remotely similar to AAMC. I was scoring 10s and occasionally higher with EK, TPRH, and TBR, but my AAMCs have been a 12 and a 13, and the SA feels much better to me. Always best to practice with the real deal, eh?
If you think you are lacking specific content knowledge, I'd do the SAs and then use them to decide which TBR final thirds to focus on. Otherwise, if timing is more of an issue for you, the actual AAMCs are more important.
I'm usually 10 or 11 on VR on the AAMCs. Only on VR is timing an issue that I think is troubling. BS usually cuts it fairly close, but I haven't been burned on it yet. On TPRH, I usually score 10-11. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the self assessments and do them over the next couple days. I'm especially tempted for VR.
I also haven't really used EK101 at all.
My score on 11 was the lowest too.
I'm pretty upset about it because apparently it's the most representative of the real deal. I was hoping for 33-35 on the real thing.. Ugh
I'm sure there's plenty of lurkers in here with lower scores on their practice tests that aren't posting. Go in any other MCAT thread and you'll see most people are only posting about their 35+ scores
Indeed. Same with the August 21st thread, all "oh no I only got a 38 on AAMC X" kind of people .. that's probably why you don't see me active anymore
It's good to see that you are still around man! Hope everythings going well
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Wouldn't really say that's true at all. People frequently say they think AAMC 11 best represents the MCAT, but there's plenty of people with posted AAMC scores in CBT 30+ study habit threads who scored much better than they did on 11. Your AAMC average seems to be the best predictor - it just seems that most people tend to score around their average on 11. People also tend to write 11 just a few days before the real MCAT, which would increase the correlation due to the vicinity in time.
Hey everyone. I'm taking the MCAT for the second time on Aug 27 (my first one was early June), and I'm really concerned about being too late in the application cycle. I submitted AMCAS on Aug 5, so I'm still waiting for that to be verified - I'm guessing it'll be around the beginning of September. The scores for our Aug 27 won't be released until Sept 30. Am I screwed in terms of waiting way too late if I want to get in for next fall? Thoughts?
Yeah you're right. Guess it was just an off day. I still have AAMC9 and 10 to take this week, so hopefully those are closer to my average so I can go into that test center with confidence.
Honestly I have taken the MCAT three times three summers in a row (one including the writing portion which I liked because it gave you a break 🙁 ) and AAMC 11 is the most representative of the actual exam if you HAD to compare it to any other practice exam BUTTT AAMC 11 is nothing like the real exam and believe me I would know I have taken three different exams. AAMC has mutated into a beast with the questions and passages they use. They are beyond difficult and everyone who I know that has taken the exam agrees so study hard to understand the basics, practice timing and make sure to BE CALM even if you get worried because one passage is killing you because that will make the difference between getting a good and bad score. 🙂
And I definitely didnt score around the average that I got on exam 11, so just practice on knowing the material good enough to be calm when you see any variation of a question or topic that you have not been presented with in the past.
Wait what? U can take a pill during one of your breaks? Lol
Hi guys! For those of you who have done the orgo SA, I was wondering if you could comment on the level of difficulty of the SA questions. I got a 71% in it and it took me about 2.5 hours. And to me it seemed difficult. But anything remotely related to Orgo seems difficult to me. (I'm horrible at Orgo. Never took any Orgo course and ended up self-teaching myself everything in the last 2 months.)
In the last few AAMCs (5,7,8), I have been hitting a 10, which, it seemed, was mostly due to getting Orgo questions wrong. So I took 2 days to watch Chad's videos and took the self-assessment today. Now I am trying to figure out if 71% is potentially good enough to maybe get an 11-12 in bio. In that case, I would just focus on my other weakness etc. Otherwise, in case it helps, maybe I should study a bit more Orgo for a day or 2?
Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!
P.s. Sorry for this poorly worded and possibly confusing message. After all this Orgo for 7 hours, I can hardly form a proper sentence! :'(
In the last few AAMCs (5,7,8), I have been hitting a 10, which, it seemed, was mostly due to getting Orgo questions wrong. So I took 2 days to watch Chad's videos and took the self-assessment today. Now I am trying to figure out if 71% is potentially good enough to maybe get an 11-12 in bio. In that case, I would just focus on my other weakness etc. Otherwise, in case it helps, maybe I should study a bit more Orgo for a day or 2?
Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!
P.s. Sorry for this poorly worded and possibly confusing message. After all this Orgo for 7 hours, I can hardly form a proper sentence! :'(
Just wanted to post where I am at in regards to 'readiness' for other to compare to, as well as for my own personal venting 🙂. Completed AAMC 3 and 7, planning on completing 3 more before the the real MCAT. On AAMC 3 I scored PS11/VR5/BS11 and on AAMC 7 I scored PS10/VR6/BS13. I basically left verbal reasoning studying till the last minute thinking it was going to be easy (I did these practice exams a week ago) and thus since then I have been working on verbal like crazy! I've been doing EK101 practice passages and I actually just scored a 9 on the last practice test that I did, so i'd definitely say that my VR has improved a lot since those AAMC exams! My routine for how I approach the VR section is that I know I can do very well on 6 passages then I guess completely on the last one because I run out of time (with the MCAT just around the corner, I feel that this is my best approach). When I scored the 9 on the EK101 practice test, I scored 27/33 on the attempted passages then got a final score of 28/40 which included the passage I completely guessed on. Thus, I am good at verbal, just slow; or at least that's how I see it.
Hopefully when I do my next AAMC practice exam tomorrow the verbal practice - and my higher scores, such as the 9 I just scored - will be reflected on the score sheet. 🙂 I'm keen to see if EK101 passage are representative of the real thing, I hope they are....OR ELSE I'M SCREWED!
Hopefully when I do my next AAMC practice exam tomorrow the verbal practice - and my higher scores, such as the 9 I just scored - will be reflected on the score sheet. 🙂 I'm keen to see if EK101 passage are representative of the real thing, I hope they are....OR ELSE I'M SCREWED!
Hey guys,
I 'll be writing the MCAT on August 27th as well. I hope everyone's studying is going very well!
So far I have taken 2 AAMC practice tests and 5 Kaplan Full lengths.
AAMC 3 - 33
AAMC 9 - 35
Kaplan 1 - 34
Kaplan 2 - 35
Kaplan 3 - 35
Kaplan 4 - 33
Kaplan 5 - 36
Have you guys attempted any of the Kaplan full lengths? From other discussion boards, I have seen people mention that the real exam is a lot harder than the practice exams AAMC releases. The AAMC exams seemed a lot easier to me compared to the Kaplan full lengths, which seem a lot tougher, especially the Biological and Physical sections. Do you guys think I should keep taking the Kaplan Full lengths or should I take more AAMC tests, such as 8, 10 and 11?
I 'll be writing the MCAT on August 27th as well. I hope everyone's studying is going very well!
So far I have taken 2 AAMC practice tests and 5 Kaplan Full lengths.
AAMC 3 - 33
AAMC 9 - 35
Kaplan 1 - 34
Kaplan 2 - 35
Kaplan 3 - 35
Kaplan 4 - 33
Kaplan 5 - 36
Have you guys attempted any of the Kaplan full lengths? From other discussion boards, I have seen people mention that the real exam is a lot harder than the practice exams AAMC releases. The AAMC exams seemed a lot easier to me compared to the Kaplan full lengths, which seem a lot tougher, especially the Biological and Physical sections. Do you guys think I should keep taking the Kaplan Full lengths or should I take more AAMC tests, such as 8, 10 and 11?
I would definitely do 8 10 and 11 if I were you
I agree with the above - more AAMC materials. As much as people state that the real deal is more difficult, AAMC FL scores correlate pretty well with test-day performance. It's worth it just for the VR, imo.
Thanks guys! I'll try to do those 3 over the next week.
Hey all, another 8/27er here. Hope you guys are all wrapping up content review and taking practice FLs. Looks like everyone's doing great!
I've taken a bunch of Kaplan and AAMC FLs, and the Kaplan ones have a really weird curve. I stopped doing them about 2 weeks ago to focus on the AAMC FLs.
In order:
Kap FL1 - 34 (14 9 11)
AAMC 3 - 36 (13 12 11)
AAMC 4 - 37 (13 11 13)
Kap FL2 - 36 (14 9 13)
Kap FL3 - 44 (14 15 15)
AAMC 5 - 35 (14 10 11)
Kap FL4 - 37 (14 9 14)
AAMC 7 - 34 (12 11 11)
AAMC 8 - 35 (13 9 13)
AAMC 9 - 38 (14 11 13)
AAMC 10 - 36 (14 9 13)
AAMC 11 - will do this weekend
Self-assessments:
Chem - 97%
Phys - 88%
Bio - 88%
Orgo - 95%
Verbal - 83%
Anyone have any suggestions for VR, cuz it's most likely gonna make or break my score come 8/27. Currently I've been skimming the questions, reading the passage, then trying to see which answers have passage support. A lot of the time, when I miss questions, it's a good wrong answer. I've started the EK 101 VR, and it's definitely challenging (easier passages to read, a bit harder questions). Gonna try to knock them all out in the next couple days. One of my friends who got a 39 (14 12 13) told me to skim instead of read and then hit the questions.
My goal is a 38 (14 11 13 or 14 10 14).
Thanks!
I've taken a bunch of Kaplan and AAMC FLs, and the Kaplan ones have a really weird curve. I stopped doing them about 2 weeks ago to focus on the AAMC FLs.
In order:
Kap FL1 - 34 (14 9 11)
AAMC 3 - 36 (13 12 11)
AAMC 4 - 37 (13 11 13)
Kap FL2 - 36 (14 9 13)
Kap FL3 - 44 (14 15 15)
AAMC 5 - 35 (14 10 11)
Kap FL4 - 37 (14 9 14)
AAMC 7 - 34 (12 11 11)
AAMC 8 - 35 (13 9 13)
AAMC 9 - 38 (14 11 13)
AAMC 10 - 36 (14 9 13)
AAMC 11 - will do this weekend
Self-assessments:
Chem - 97%
Phys - 88%
Bio - 88%
Orgo - 95%
Verbal - 83%
Anyone have any suggestions for VR, cuz it's most likely gonna make or break my score come 8/27. Currently I've been skimming the questions, reading the passage, then trying to see which answers have passage support. A lot of the time, when I miss questions, it's a good wrong answer. I've started the EK 101 VR, and it's definitely challenging (easier passages to read, a bit harder questions). Gonna try to knock them all out in the next couple days. One of my friends who got a 39 (14 12 13) told me to skim instead of read and then hit the questions.
My goal is a 38 (14 11 13 or 14 10 14).
Thanks!
I read the last paragraph, look over the questions and then read. Works pretty well with me; my verbal average is 12
EDIT: I was wrong my VR average is 11
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Took that today too! Got 13/9/11. Verbal stays killing me lol
The verbal was tricky on that one. Just finished reviewing the reviewing the bio questions now, time to call it a night
Yeah i thought verbal was pretty difficult, I almost ran out of time. I'm just about to begin reviewing it
How did you feel about the BS on AAMC 9? Easier or harder? I remember I scored higher on it than I usually do on the BS section (scored a 14/ usually get around 12 or 13)
I thought it was kind of hard but scored my usual 13
What are you guys doing other than just the full lengths right now? Are you guys reviewing over concepts that you haven't revisited for a while or are you just doing more practice-based stuff?
I thought it was pretty fair.
Yeah I feel that that is all we can do at this point. I'm taking/reviewing FLs and then reviewing the concepts of what I got wrong (or found confusing) along with concepts closely related to it.
That's what I'm doing, I also do TPRH passages on subjects I get wrong. Plus the daily Anki cards, etc
It's kind of crazy that we only have 5 more days until the big one!
LOL! No, you're not. Seriously. You've obviously already demonstrated your MCAT prowess.
...on exams which barely touched on the subjects I am missing. How awful would it be, come test day, to encounter a bunch of the stuff I'm not prepared for and blow it? That would be exactly how people end up scoring well below their practice average!
Hey all. I just wanted to wish you all good luck this Wednesday. I'm sure nerves are flaring right now (well, at least for me they are), but you know, as this online community, we stuck through together. The discipline to study throughout the summer and partake in this rites of passage are accomplishments in and of itself. Regardless of how we do, I am proud of us. 🙂
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I kind of modified SN2ED's schedule, so no I won't be taking a break day today or Tuesday, but Tuesday will be a very light day. Just review some ExamKrackers and one FL, do 3 Verbal passages, and go shopping <-- hahaha (looking forward for that).
Not using the SN2ED schedule but Monday and Tuesday classes start so I'm not gonna be doing any hardcore studying then
Nice! I can't believe that you are doing the classic "not taking any breaks whatsoever" strategy. It's taboo around here.
Ahhhh. Good old 3 months of pure studying for the MCAT followed immediately with no break by classes. That sounds fun. haha
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I'm not taking a break today, but I think I'll take most of Tuesday off. Might just wake up early in the morning to look over physics equations and a couple of VR passages, then just relax and keep my mind off of it hopefully lol.
when you say your not done with content review, do you mean you havent read chapters or you haven't gotten around to doing the last 1/3. if its the former, how'd you do so great on all the tests, was it based on stuff you learned at school? would i be able to take aamc 3 for example done like 90% of content and have a fair chance
