*Official June 2016 MCAT Thread*

[aalamruad]

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Hey there everyone! Figured I'd start this thread since I recently started preparing for the June 18th MCAT. For those of you who are taking the June 2nd MCAT, June 18th MCAT, or still considering one of those two dates, feel free to post here with any questions, comments, concerns, or support you have to offer!

Good luck to you all! Let's crush it.

 

[Ryomagoku]

I wish I can stop playing games and study all day everyday... I uninstall but then reinstall cuz I was too stressed. God, please save me. Pretty happy with cars improvement though from TPRH workbook

 

[sleepyhead22]

I wish I can stop playing games and study all day everyday... I uninstall but then reinstall cuz I was too stressed. God, please save me. Pretty happy with cars improvement though from TPRH workbook

What games are you playing? I'm trying to ell myself that I can do anything I want in a few weeks, which helps... But yeah the stress is hard to deal with. :/

 

[Scrubs101]

Mentally I'm destroyed right now. Just got a 508 on the scored due to a 125 in chem. I studied for 4+ months hardcore and there were multiple concepts I've never encountered that was on the C/P section. I did better on the section bank than I did on the actual section for C/P. How do people do well on this section- I've tried so hard and this is the result. At this point I may as well just never take this exam.

You're gonna be fine! A 508 is still a great score, just make sure to go over your C/P section every in depth and don't automatically think it was due to lack of content knowledge. I've noticed (not as much for C/P but still there in abundance) that a lot of questions can be assisted using good interpretation of the passage, my C/P score was rough too and I was still in the 60's both times so I'm probably not the best source of info. But you can definitely hit those high yield topics hard before test day!


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[Scrubs101]

I wish I can stop playing games and study all day everyday... I uninstall but then reinstall cuz I was too stressed. God, please save me. Pretty happy with cars improvement though from TPRH workbook

What games are you playing? I'm trying to ell myself that I can do anything I want in a few weeks, which helps... But yeah the stress is hard to deal with. :/

I'm in the same boat haha I got a bunch of new games back in December and have hardly played them because I started MCAT stuff in February :/ looking forward to some hardcore gaming this weekend!


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[Scrubs101]

In the middle of the scored AAMC right now. Didn't think C/P was that bad, but maybe that is wishful thinking. Something came to me that I didn't think about before. On the actual exam, if I finish a section early, can I use that time for an extended break? I'm assuming the actual test automatically moves to the next screen(the practice has you click ok before starting the break). So if there is 5 minutes left on my clock and I'm done reviewing, can I leave and come back 15 minutes later?

I believe so! I always do this for the practice and I think the AAMC practice tests are supposed to replicate just about everything besides control functions. I should probably be using my review time more efficiently but I hate second guessing myself lol. I almost never review back over psych/soc, I just say ef it I'm done lol.


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[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Hey guys!

Question on electrochemical cells, more specifically galvanic cells.

I understand the redox reactions and the potential physics questions able to be asked (emf=IR) BUT, I don't understand the point of the salt bridge... I have read the Examkrackers walkthrough a couple times and, in theory, it makes sense. It says it is to allow anions to travel to the anode and cations to travel to the cathode. However, it doesn't give an example... it just says "anions" with an arrow and "cations" with an arrow. Anyone with the EK C/P book wanna explain?

For those who don't have it, the situation is as follows:

Left Sided Beaker: Fe2+(aq) --> Fe(s) and the salt located on this side of the cell is SO4(2-)
Right Sided Beaker: Cu2+(aq) --> Cu(s) and the salt is some (2+) charged ion.. Might be Mg2+, can't remember.

I can kind of see how some type of kinky Le Chatelier principle might justify anions and cations moving back and fourth between the beakers but... what are the cations and anions??? In the picture I only see Cu2+ and Fe2+ floating in solution!

 

[summergirl]

Why is everyone so worried about C/P?? I for one did not forget that CARS exist...

 

[theNDhopeful44]

68% on C/P section bank. Holy mother of god, though. It is really going to be that hard....?

 

[Scrubs101]

Why is everyone so worried about C/P?? I for one did not forget that CARS exist...

The AAMC is quite devious, starting out with C/P and THEN CARS. Whenever I do a practice test I actually look forward to the second half....lol.

CARS is a crapshoot and there's nothing i can really think of to significantly improve within the amount of time left so I figure I'll wait to freakout about it until test day when I end up taking more than 10mins for a specific passage(I check the time every 30seconds anxiously) and the panic attack will thus proceed


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[summergirl]

The AAMC is quite devious, starting out with C/P and THEN CARS. Whenever I do a practice test I actually look forward to the second half....lol.

CARS is a crapshoot and there's nothing i can really think of to significantly improve within the amount of time left so I figure I'll wait to freakout about it until test day when I end up taking more than 10mins for a specific passage(I check the time every 30seconds anxiously) and the panic attack will thus proceed


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Have you been spying on me?? Because you just described exactly what happens to me whenever I do CARS.

 

[Hospitalized]

Are NextStep scores inflated? Seems to me that a 39/59 on C/P should NOT correlate to a 127. Am I wrong about this?

 

[BlastedHeath]

The AAMC is quite devious, starting out with C/P and THEN CARS. Whenever I do a practice test I actually look forward to the second half....lol.

CARS is a crapshoot and there's nothing i can really think of to significantly improve within the amount of time left so I figure I'll wait to freakout about it until test day when I end up taking more than 10mins for a specific passage(I check the time every 30seconds anxiously) and the panic attack will thus proceed


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Timing isn't really an issue for me, but stressing about timing definitely is. I had to stop paying attention to individual passage timing because I thought about it way too much. What I am doing now is having mental checks at question 20 and 40. At 20 I need to have 65 minutes left in the science sections and 60 minutes left in CARS, and at 40 I have to have 35 minutes left for science and 30 minutes for CARS.

 

[BlastedHeath]

Speaking of timing, I finished with 18 minutes left in CARS on the scored. I probably need to review my answers more.

 

[bYGODSGRACE]

Congrats that's still a great score! A 128 on cars is praise worthy haha. I definitely agree that it was graded harshly though. Not sure how correct it was but my Kaplan teacher said as long as you're scoring atleast 75% right you should be around the 90th percentile. That was a recording from 2015 but still I agree it should be curved closer towards that. I got 77.5% right and an 82nd percentile. Seems a bit harsh to me as well.


But then again if it was my choice 50% right would be the 100th percentile haha. So I'm just complaining about something I should just deal with lol.

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I'm just really worried that people are saying the current MCAT and that it is harder makes me a little scared. If such high percentages/percentiles (i mean common a 90 percentile is a 128), equal a rather lower score and it only gets harder....you can see why I'm worried...

Also does anyone have any concrete advice on C/P? I wasn't able to even fill out four of the answers on the scored one...

 

[Terror Billy]

Hey did they change the scoring scale on the AAMC scored? Damn I averaged about a 75% total and ended with a not so savory score...

 

[Scrubs101]

Speaking of timing, I finished with 18 minutes left in CARS on the scored. I probably need to review my answers more.

[emoji33][emoji33][emoji33][emoji33] are you a reading robot?!?


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[bYGODSGRACE]

Hey did they change the scoring scale on the AAMC scored? Damn I averaged about a 75% total and ended with a not so savory score...

This is what I'm talking about man....its only getting harder and the percentages you have to get are higher...I'm terrified...

 

[Scrubs101]

I'm just really worried that people are saying the current MCAT and that it is harder makes me a little scared. If such high percentages/percentiles (i mean common a 90 percentile is a 128), equal a rather lower score and it only gets harder....you can see why I'm worried...

Also does anyone have any concrete advice on C/P? I wasn't able to even fill out four of the answers on the scored one...

Good point actually, I've been hearing it's harder as well. A good batch of the May people scored below their practice scores. Welp back to freaking out for me lol


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[Terror Billy]

This is what I'm talking about man....its only getting harder and the percentages you have to get are higher...I'm terrified...

Do we know if the AAMC recently changed the scale or something? Good god I did not expect to score as low for as high of a percentage correct as I had (I know 75 percent isn't a lot) but it should correspond to AT LEAST a 75th percentile score haha

 

[Hospitalized]

I was under the impression that an average of 75% correct would get you a score that would be around 507+... Thinking about it, what's really crazy is that each percent correct from thereon corresponds approximately to an additional point. E.g 87% = 519, 90% = 522, 95% = 527+?

The scale is so sensitive it seems almost entirely unreliable.

 

[Terror Billy]

I've searched the forums for an indicator of AAMC Scored FL vs real and seen some contrasting results...Some say it's +/- 2 points and others say they saw huge improvements or huge drop offs...did not think this could be any more stressful =/

 

[Nickerbocker]

I've searched the forums for an indicator of AAMC Scored FL vs real and seen some contrasting results...Some say it's +/- 2 points and others say they saw huge improvements or huge drop offs...did not think this could be any more stressful =/

The "the-official-april-2016-mcat-thread" has some pretty good results... take it for what it's worth though.

 

[BlastedHeath]

[emoji33][emoji33][emoji33][emoji33] are you a reading robot?!?


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I guess so. Who knows, it could be bad, I haven't finished yet so I don't know how I actually did. I honestly felt like I took a ton of time on a few passages, kind of couldn't believe it when I got to the end. This is my first test I'm taking under "real" timing, and I have 20 minutes left in B/B too.

 

[sleepyhead22]

I'm working through the physics question pack again, and the same question has boggled my mind twice now, so figured I'd ask if anyone had any advice? I manage to get the right answer, but don't think I'm doing it in the right way.

Question (discrete):
Consecutive resonances occur at wavelengths of 8 m and 4.8 m in an organ pipe closed at one end. What is the length of the organ pipe? (Note: Resonances occur atL = nλ/ 4, where L is the pipe length, λ is the wavelength, and n = 1, 3, 5,…)
Answers:
A 3.2m
B 4.8m
C 6.0m
D 8.0m

The answer is C, which I got by guessing at random integers.

 

[sks1313]

Which one is more valuable at this point: the question pack or the official guide questions?

 

[beOncogene]

I'm working through the physics question pack again, and the same question has boggled my mind twice now, so figured I'd ask if anyone had any advice? I manage to get the right answer, but don't think I'm doing it in the right way.

Question (discrete):
Consecutive resonances occur at wavelengths of 8 m and 4.8 m in an organ pipe closed at one end. What is the length of the organ pipe? (Note: Resonances occur atL = nλ/ 4, where L is the pipe length, λ is the wavelength, and n = 1, 3, 5,…)
Answers:
A 3.2m
B 4.8m
C 6.0m
D 8.0m

The answer is C, which I got by guessing at random integers.

rearrange the equation to get: lambda = 4L/n; we are given the wavelength of 2 consecutive resonances and n =1,3,5,... (which mean that consecutive resonances will have n and n+2)-- using the given wavelengths, we have 8=4L/n, 4.8 = 4L/(n+2); we can rearrange the first one to get 8n=4L---> n=1/2L
The second equation gives: 4.8n+9.6=4L; plugging 1/2L for n gives us: 4.8(1/2L)+9.6 = 4L --> 9.6 = 1.6L --> L= 6

 

[sleepyhead22]

rearrange the equation to get: lambda = 4L/n; we are given the wavelength of 2 consecutive resonances and n =1,3,5,... (which mean that consecutive resonances will have n and n+2)-- using the given wavelengths, we have 8=4L/n, 4.8 = 4L/(n+2); we can rearrange the first one to get 8n=4L---> n=1/2L
The second equation gives: 4.8n+9.6=4L; plugging 1/2L for n gives us: 4.8(1/2L)+9.6 = 4L --> 9.6 = 1.6L --> L= 6

That helped a lot, thank you!

 

[sleepyhead22]

Which one is more valuable at this point: the question pack or the official guide questions?

If you've done the section bank, i'd say the OG questions because they're in the same style as the new mcat. the question packs are just questions from the old mcat on relevant topics, so good for content review but not so much for giving you a feel for the test. You could probably do both though, I did the OG like a half length test so it only took 3.5 hours.

 

[BlastedHeath]

509 on the scored. I think I'm happy with that. 127/129/127/126, that is the best I've done in CARS and C/P, and the worst I've done in P/S, but I also felt tired and rushed and missed a few things I should have known.

 

[Mr. otcoD]

509 on the scored. I think I'm happy with that. 127/129/127/126, that is the best I've done in CARS and C/P, and the worst I've done in P/S, but I also felt tired and rushed and missed a few things I should have known.

teach me your ways of CARS! you finished early and you got an amazing score!! But still that actually is pretty great!

 

[BlastedHeath]

teach me your ways of CARS! you finished early and you got an amazing score!! But still that actually is pretty great!

I'm really happy I seem to be naturally good at CARS because I'd have no idea how to improve if I wasn't. I mean, it's a beast. My approach is to read it fairly casually, try to have some interest in the subject, and highlight liberally, like any word that could be referenced and anything that points out the point of view of the author. Then I go with my first instinct when answering questions and if I have no idea, skim back through the passage looking for clues. I also don't review anything at the end because I'm not in the same mindset as when I first read the passage and I don't want to second guess myself.

I also always glance at the first question presented so that I can read with intent to answer it. There was one passage on the scored where I made it through 4 questions and was only 75% of the way through reading the passage because I kept doing this and finding the answer without reading further.

 

[bYGODSGRACE]

I'm working through the physics question pack again, and the same question has boggled my mind twice now, so figured I'd ask if anyone had any advice? I manage to get the right answer, but don't think I'm doing it in the right way.

Question (discrete):
Consecutive resonances occur at wavelengths of 8 m and 4.8 m in an organ pipe closed at one end. What is the length of the organ pipe? (Note: Resonances occur atL = nλ/ 4, where L is the pipe length, λ is the wavelength, and n = 1, 3, 5,…)
Answers:
A 3.2m
B 4.8m
C 6.0m
D 8.0m

The answer is C, which I got by guessing at random integers.

Did they give you the equation for resonance?

 

[Hospitalized]

509 on the scored. I think I'm happy with that. 127/129/127/126, that is the best I've done in CARS and C/P, and the worst I've done in P/S, but I also felt tired and rushed and missed a few things I should have known.

Great score! Do you get the # correct as well or just a score/132? Interested to see what percentage those numbers correlate to.

 

[BlastedHeath]

Great score! Do you get the # correct as well or just a score/132? Interested to see what percentage those numbers correlate to.

Yea they give score, percentile, and percent correct.
Score: 509: 127/129/127/126
Percentile: 82: 79/95/78/67
Percent Correct: 78: 75/87/78/75

 

[sks1313]

What is the general consensus of the difficulty of OG compared to scored/actual?

 

[Scrubs101]

I've seen so many high scorers with comparatively low cars scores recently it's scary.... So many people in the high teens that if they scored the same on CARS as any other section would be 520+. Really makes ya wonder why the **** low CARS scores are seemingly common. Like the curve has got to be something like 98% 132 96% 131 94% 130 92% 129 88% 128 for these recent exams....


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[Hospitalized]

Yea they give score, percentile, and percent correct.
Score: 509: 127/129/127/126
Percentile: 82: 79/95/78/67
Percent Correct: 78: 75/87/78/75

Wow, so NS must be really inflated?

507: 127/128/126/126
Percentile: 74: 79/87/67/66
Percent Correct: 67: 66/81/62/59

Doesn't seem right...

 

[Lola222]

So I got a 508 on my scored exam, which is not accurate, considering I thought that 8 questions on my C/P section were random discrete questions because the passage didn't load lol. So I don't think my score is right, but do you guys think I can pull it up to a 510 on exam day, which is Thursday? I was 4 away on bio from the next highest score and I made 2-3 stupid errors on that. Like not reading the question properly. My top choice, which is also my state school has a GPA average a tad higher than mine, but an MCAT average of 30 (508), so I'm hoping to get a 510. Any thought? haha i'm so scared i'm going to drop a few points.

 

[keepSwimmingNemo]

Wow, so NS must be really inflated?

507: 127/128/126/126
Percentile: 74: 79/87/67/66
Percent Correct: 67: 66/81/62/59

Doesn't seem right...

is NS giving higher or lower ?

 

[Hospitalized]

is NS giving higher or lower ?

Seems inflated to me. I got 11% less correct and got only 2 points less?

 

[BlastedHeath]

Wow, so NS must be really inflated?

507: 127/128/126/126
Percentile: 74: 79/87/67/66
Percent Correct: 67: 66/81/62/59

Doesn't seem right...

The percentiles line up perfectly to the AAMC charts, you just can't really compare the percent correct from test to test.

 

[Hospitalized]

The percentiles line up perfectly to the AAMC charts, you just can't really compare the percent correct from test to test.

What chart are you referring to? Yes, it does seem that way. AAMC scored is probably more brutal than anything because it is the most taken of any prep material.

 

[BlastedHeath]

What chart are you referring to? Yes, it does seem that way. AAMC scored is probably more brutal than anything because it is the most taken of any prep material.

2015 MCAT Percentiles
Something else that could affect the percent correct-->percentiles is that the AAMC scored is usually taken at the end of studying, when hypothetically people are done studying and doing their best. Plus NS1 is free, so it is likely that there are people who take it just to try it out or as a diagnostic or don't take it as seriously or whatever, bringing down their spread.

Only sorta related but I'm going with the assumption that I want 75% correct. I've tracked my practice tests and what I get wrong pretty extensively. I mark things very liberally on the test and I average 55% correct on the questions that I've marked. In addition, I usually miss 3-5 questions per section that I didn't mark. So I assumed that I will miss 5 per section unmarked, and get 50% wrong that I mark(giving me a little room for error), then I know that if I have less than 18 marked per section, I should be in good shape.

 

[Lola222]

So if I got a 78% on my scored exam, is there a percentile that it correlates to for the real exam?
Edit: Do percentiles normally go up on the real exam or down?

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Starting Next Step 2 in 77 minutes [emoji322]


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[zax]

Anyone understand this from the section banks? Second time through and still puzzled.

 

[bYGODSGRACE]

Seems inflated to me. I got 11% less correct and got only 2 points less?

Anyone understand this from the section banks? Second time through and still puzzled.

This one gave me some trouble too. In the passage it states that a higher energy laser is purposely used and the remainder energy is converted to heat and measured by sound. So if you used an appropriate laser there would be no excess energy for bond disassociation and the energy meter (which reads the remaining energy after bond dissociation) would be 0

 

[theNDhopeful44]

Anyone understand this from the section banks? Second time through and still puzzled.

F*** THAT QUESTION

Seriously, though, is is really going to be harder than the section banks? The curve would have to be insane. Like 40% right would have to be a 125, 50% would be 126, etc.

 

[zax]

Ahh thankyou @bYGODSGRACE What about this one? I got it right but I definitely didn't have the right mindset behind it. Sorry for blowing up this thread just really trying to nail this section bank

 

[Panteleimon]

Hey Guys. For those of us testing this Thursday, what are you doing this week? I'm thinking about not doing anything today and tomorrow. I finished all but one AAMC question pack (the other physical science one hidden in the psych, soc, biochem packet) since I'm a chem major and don't really feel the need to go over any more physical science stuff. I should probably go over my old practice problem sets and exams but I feel like the bulk of my mistakes were either second guessing or not paying close attention. I feel like at this point, it's important to relax and prepare emotionally for the exam.