First off....SDN's servers f$%*in suck! I wrote out an identical draft of this post earlier and the server crashed so I lost the post. Someone needs to do something about this. I didn't donate my hard-earned $7 to become an SDN angel for nothing!...oh wait, I really didnt...
Onto some thoughts about EK:
Does the story of the anonymous Teri R. from NY simply unnerve you? Considering my 30 minute practice scores, I was quite distraught when I read that. Who else wants to know what this girls 30 minute scores were? Lets find this girl! Whos with me?
Finished the Chem Book. 30 minute practice scores (in order, 1-7): 13, 11, 10, 9, 12, 10, 12. The Chapter on Solutions (4) didnt look that hard, I thought I did well. And then, bam. Got smacked down like EK likes to do!...I think I'm starting to like it.
Heat engines were covered poorly, I thought, considering how many questions were devoted to it. Something bizzare: I opened up the box that I had stowed the Complete Study Guide in and found the 1001 series for Chem and Physics, along with 101 verbal passages. Don't remember buying it since it was nearly a year ago and I havent looked at those books since last month...oh well! I'm wondering if I should work through the Chem book considering my scores. The study guide books say no if you're scoring above 10's, but when I posted on the examkrackers.com forum, Jordan Zaretsky said that they were excellent review even if you were scoring above 10 and would be helpful. I looked through some of the questions, and they look like theyre different from the lectures and 30 min exam questions, but they're all discrete (some based on mini passages..and i mean mini), so I'm wondering if I might be better served by trying to get full length physical science exams and working those. Any thoughts?
Verbal scores: 10, 10, 7. Got my a$$ kicked on the third exam like everyone else. I really thought the logic they presented to defend their answers was far too convoluted--much more than in the other exams and in what I saw in AAMC 3r. I just dont think the MCAT is going to require reasoning that is that involved per question. I think they just make it ridiculously hard to make you brace yourself. I have the 101 passages book, but I havent started on it. I'm assuming they are a little more reasonable. Also, I'm kinda lazy and dont want to do their 'reread each passage and write out the main idea' exercise. Usually, I dont even bother thinking about the main idea...I just have some innate idea of the writers purpose and wing it with that. Has anyone done this exercise...did bring about the 'dramatic score improvements' they advertise?
I'm working through one book at a time. I know EK recommends doing all the subjects concurrently, but I find it a little more intense to concentrate on one subject at a time. Anyone else trying this approach? If you're further along, are you forgetting material you've already reviewed?
Along those lines...I'm also taking notes on each chapter. Equations, concept summaries and even some diagrams. It helps me understand the concepts better, and I'm hoping that the notes will be helpful the week before the MCAT when I can just review all of them. But its taking a lot of time to get through each chapter. For chem, I had 21 double-sided pages of notes. It usually took me 4 hours to go through a chapter, take notes, do all the lecture questions, review them and write notes on the ones I missed. Another 30 mins for the in-class exams, and another 30 to review the exam. So 5 hours per chapter!! This is starting to get painful, particularly considering I'm also taking Micro, Genetics and Neurobiology, along with the 15 hours I spend in lab for research. Also, the bio chapters look dense! So if anyone else is currently trying this approach, or if you've already done EK and taken the MCAT, did you find notes useful at all?
Ok...time to get to Physics! Good luck to everyone with their reviewing for this week.
PS I'm serious about tracking down this Teri chick. Send me a pm....we'll talk.
