*Official June 2016 MCAT Thread*

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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.
 
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NecrotizingFascitis said:
If you can hit 70% on an EK exam you're looking at like a 508.

I took the unscored AAMC today and scored (depending on what converter you use) 514-515. I scored 505, 505, 506, 505 on NS 1-4 and 65%, 68%, 70% and 63% on EK 1-4.

I don't know what you're shooting for, but I'd bet good money on 508+.

I don't think the NS exams are necessarily inflated, I just think everyone scores lower on them.


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Where do you get converter for unscored?
 
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Mr. otcoD said:
Do yall know why lowering the Tm and decreasing kcat means improving conformational stability?
C/P section bank #37
my thinking: if you lower Tm, that means you lower the temperature needed to denature the protein, therefore its more unstable. So how could catalysts increase conformational stability like that?
Click to expand...

That's the kind of question where I just try and remember the knowledge and not even understand why. I know that's bad, but there are a few questions on every exam that I can't figure out, and I just memorize it haha
 
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Mr. otcoD said:
Do yall know why lowering the Tm and decreasing kcat means improving conformational stability?
C/P section bank #37
my thinking: if you lower Tm, that means you lower the temperature needed to denature the protein, therefore its more unstable. So how could catalysts increase conformational stability like that?
Click to expand...

The hAcyl enzyme in Figure 1 has an active site with 2 metals ZnA and ZnB. ZnA coordinates with residues 80 & 148 and ZnB coordinates with residues 175 & 373.

Table 1 shows enzymes variants with substitutions using Alanine. Comparing any case to the baseline (Wild Type), kcat decreases and Tm decreases. This means that all of the residues in the active site listed above (and both metals) are involved in catalyst function. If one of the rows with a substitution still showed the same kcat, for example, we would know it isn't involved in catalysis.

The catalysis part of the answer comes from seeing that kcat decreased (lower enzyme turnover rate) and the lower Tm means that the enzyme melts with less heat, meaning it's less conformationally stable with the substitution.

I wanted to provide background info because it's not the lower Tm and lower kcat that improves enzyme stability, rather it's the fact that the enzyme's kcat and Tm decrease with the substitution which gives information about the enzyme.
 
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All right finally back but I've been stalking this forum so I'm still caught up :laugh:


I got a 513 on the scored a few days ago but feeling like that was just luck and they asked about stuff I knew :\ What do y'all think?
 
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bisonbison said:
All right finally back but I've been stalking this forum so I'm still caught up :laugh:


I got a 513 on the scored a few days ago but feeling like that was just luck and they asked about stuff I knew :\ What do y'all think?
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I feel the same way after doing well on the scored. We've just gotta be confident going into the real thing and have faith that it's usually a good predictor for your score. Great job!! Nice to see you back!
 
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sleepyhead22 said:
I feel the same way after doing well on the scored. We've just gotta be confident going into the real thing and have faith that it's usually a good predictor for your score. Great job!! Nice to see you back!
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Haha I saw you did really well!! Congrats to you too! But you have been doing great so I wasn't surprised 🙂

That's the plan! I'm still looking over stuff today and then taking a break but going over stuff like optics before bed to make sure I really know it.
 
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One more sleep. Between driving, a few hours of studying, chiropractor and Finding Dory, I'm hoping my brain is ready to rest!
I slept terrible the night before I my first testing. Worst feeling ever.
 
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I'm starting to get anxious about not studying today.. I think I'm going to run through everything again and finish up my P/S section bank.. Maybe do a CARS section too. I'm worried everything will start slowly seeping out of my brain through the day


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theonlytycrane said:
The hAcyl enzyme in Figure 1 has an active site with 2 metals ZnA and ZnB. ZnA coordinates with residues 80 & 148 and ZnB coordinates with residues 175 & 373.

Table 1 shows enzymes variants with substitutions using Alanine. Comparing any case to the baseline (Wild Type), kcat decreases and Tm decreases. This means that all of the residues in the active site listed above (and both metals) are involved in catalyst function. If one of the rows with a substitution still showed the same kcat, for example, we would know it isn't involved in catalysis.

The catalysis part of the answer comes from seeing that kcat decreased (lower enzyme turnover rate) and the lower Tm means that the enzyme melts with less heat, meaning it's less conformationally stable with the substitution.

I wanted to provide background info because it's not the lower Tm and lower kcat that improves enzyme stability, rather it's the fact that the enzyme's kcat and Tm decrease with the substitution which gives information about the enzyme.
Click to expand...
OH! I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN! because the VARIATIONS lower the Tm and lower the kcat, that means that if you change either A or B, it changesTm and kcat, which means both contribute to conformational stability!
 
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NecrotizingFascitis said:
I'm starting to get anxious about not studying today.. I think I'm going to run through everything again and finish up my P/S section bank.. Maybe do a CARS section too. I'm worried everything will start slowly seeping out of my brain through the day


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I also have already gone through some notes this morning after swearing I wouldn't haha. But I am trying to just look over stuff I just did yesterday to reinforce. I'm happy that some of the stuff I focused on yesterday feels a lot more concrete this morning, and even tho I don't know every structure in glycolysis/TCA i think I have to cut myself off after reviewing high yield stuff.
 
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sleepyhead22 said:
I also have already gone through some notes this morning after swearing I wouldn't haha. But I am trying to just look over stuff I just did yesterday to reinforce. I'm happy that some of the stuff I focused on yesterday feels a lot more concrete this morning, and even tho I don't know every structure in glycolysis/TCA i think I have to cut myself off after reviewing high yield stuff.
Click to expand...

I feel like asking specific structures would be really really picky. At the most we'd see like what, 1 question on that anyways? I didn't memorize them either.


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NecrotizingFascitis said:
I feel like asking specific structures would be really really picky. At the most we'd see like what, 1 question on that anyways? I didn't memorize them either.


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Yeah there was one question on the section bank responsible for this freak out, but I figure even if there's a couple questions on specific structures, 2 out of 59 is not going to make or break my score. Confidence is more important at this point I think!
 
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What's everyone's plans before the big day? I'm gonna watch the Warcraft movie, meditate and stretch a lot, maybe go for a run, and getting my first professional 1 hour massage (excited as fuark)


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magicdock said:
What's everyone's plans before the big day? I'm gonna watch the Warcraft movie, meditate and stretch a lot, maybe go for a run, and getting my first professional 1 hour massage (excited as fuark)


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going through my sheets of facts until 2/3, then gonna go to gym, then gonna watch harry potter, then gonna maybe dance at a studio to get mind off from the world (i was part of a nationally competing collegiate dance team)
 
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bigindian4891 said:
Does anyone have any quick tricks for real vs virtual and focal distance and stuff? I cannot keep it straight.
Click to expand...

I'll attempt.. For converging lenses if the object is behind the focal point, the image will be real because the rays can naturally intersect.

If the object is in front of the focal point for that same lens, you have to extend the rays backwards to creat an image. This makes the image virtual.

I think (correct me if I'm wrong people.. Plz) if you ever have to extend rays, the image will be virtual. I also think the situation I walked through is the exact opposite for diverging lenses.

I haven't looked at this much though.. I've only gotten one lens question and it was how to correct myopia (with a diverging lens.)

EDIT: Myopia correction

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bigindian4891 said:
Does anyone have any quick tricks for real vs virtual and focal distance and stuff? I cannot keep it straight.
Click to expand...

Real is always inverted, virtual is always upright. If magnification is positive, the image will always be upright. For everything else, just rewriting the stuff will help consolidate the information...here is how I remember:

Concave mirrors:
--Object beyond focal point: ILRS (inverted, larger, real, image formed same side as object)
--At focal point: no image
--In front of focal point: ULVO (upright, larger, virtual, image formed opposite side as object)

Convex mirrors:
--Object placed anywhere: USVO (upright, smaller, virtual, image formed opposite side as object)

ConVEX lenses have the same rules as concave mirrors (because they are both converging), except switch the side for image formed (last letter).
ConCAVE lenses have the same rules as convex mirrors (because they are both diverging), except switch side for image formed (last letter).
 
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NecrotizingFascitis said:
I'll attempt.. For converging lenses if the object is in front of the focal point, the image will be real because the rays can naturally intersect.

If the object is in front of the focal point for that same lens, you have to extend the rays backwards to creat an image. This makes the image virtual.

I think (correct me if I'm wrong people.. Plz) if you ever have to extend rays, the image will be virtual. I also think the situation I walked through is the exact opposite for diverging lenses.

I haven't looked at this much though.. I've only gotten one lens question and it was how to correct myopia (with a converging lens.)


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Myopia is corrected with a diverging lens, not a converging one
 
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bigindian4891 said:
Does anyone have any quick tricks for real vs virtual and focal distance and stuff? I cannot keep it straight.
Click to expand...

You know 1/f = 1/o + 1/i right? I always got my signs consued till I found this trick: if its a concave lens or diverging mirror, use -1/f=1/i +1/o. You don't need to worry about the signs for i or o this way
 
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NecrotizingFascitis said:
Oh no, the information is already seeping out of my head..

Thank you for the correction, in case it is on the exam tomorrow.
Click to expand...
The way EK explained it is in myopia, the lens bends the light too well (image forms in front of the retina) so you need a diverging lens to make it so the image will focus on the retina. For farsightedness it's just the opposite (lens doesn't bend light as well, fine for things that are far away but up close the light needs to be bent more). This helps me a lot, hope it sticks for you too!
 
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sleepyhead22 said:
The way EK explained it is in myopia, the lens bends the light too well (image forms in front of the retina) so you need a diverging lens to make it so the image will focus on the retina. For farsightedness it's just the opposite (lens doesn't bend light as well, fine for things that are far away but up close the light needs to be bent more). This helps me a lot, hope it sticks for you too!
Click to expand...

Someone also said think of M.D.- myopia diverging lens! 🙂
 
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Can I just say I am so thankful to be a part of this thread. Everybody is so supportive and shares information with each other and stuff. I feel like were some kind of MCAT team. I legitimately hope everybody on this thread hits their goal score and we all get into awesome medical schools. Can't wait to go through this with (at least in spirit) you homies tomorrow!

The peeps that have already taken it have been awesome too 😀
 
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maheenk said:
Real is always inverted, virtual is always upright. If magnification is positive, the image will always be upright. For everything else, just rewriting the stuff will help consolidate the information...here is how I remember:

Concave mirrors:
--Object beyond focal point: ILRS (inverted, larger, real, image formed same side as object)
--At focal point: no image
--In front of focal point: ULVO (upright, larger, virtual, image formed opposite side as object)

Convex mirrors:
--Object placed anywhere: USVO (upright, smaller, virtual, image formed opposite side as object)

ConVEX lenses have the same rules as concave mirrors (because they are both converging), except switch the side for image formed (last letter).
ConCAVE lenses have the same rules as convex mirrors (because they are both diverging), except switch side for image formed (last letter).
Click to expand...

Holy crap, thanks a bunch guys! Hopefully thats one extra point we all will get! I just checked out my testing center, theres going to be only 5 other kids with me in the center...
 
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A bunch of neighborhoods around my testing center lost power last night from the storm and still haven't had their lines set back up. Almost hoping that my testing center lost power too (haven't heard anything from them yet so I'm assuming we're good for tomorrow), but that's just me wanting to run away from this at the last minute 🙄
 
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Speaking of lenses, could someone explain #45 on c/p of the scored aamc FL? I'm not sure how they're manipulating the thin lens equation to get the heights of the image and object
 
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Can anyone explain question 11 on the physical science section of the aamc section bank? Thanks in advance

Is this correct 1/12 + 3/12 = 4/12cm =1/3 = then flip it to get 3 cm?
 
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bigindian4891 said:
Holy crap, thanks a bunch guys! Hopefully thats one extra point we all will get! I just checked out my testing center, theres going to be only 5 other kids with me in the center...
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Which side of town are you taking it on? I'm going to be on the east side and just checked in at my center as well. They didn't tell me how many people, but it would be crazy if we ended up being at the same place lol.
 
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maheenk said:
Speaking of lenses, could someone explain #45 on c/p of the scored aamc FL? I'm not sure how they're manipulating the thin lens equation to get the heights of the image and object
Click to expand...
This one took me a while and I'll try to explain as best I can through the Interweb.
You're given that the object is at 3 focal lengths, so your Do = 1/3f, and set the focal length at 1, so 1/f = 1/1
We're trying to find image height now, so rearrange the thin lens equation to look like 1/1f - 1/3f = 1/di
Solving for that gives you 1/1 - 1/3 = 2/3, but is flipped for 1/di......now Di = 3/2
Now that you have Di and Do, plug them into the magnification formula, Di/Do = Hi/Ho, which gives you (3/2)/(3) = 1/2
Ratio of Hi to Ho is what the question was asking so there you have it
 
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sleepyhead22 said:
Which side of town are you taking it on? I'm going to be on the east side and just checked in at my center as well. They didn't tell me how many people, but it would be crazy if we ended up being at the same place lol.
Click to expand...
Im actually taking it at Case. and haha that would be funny!
 
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The uncertainty right now is killing me... Like what will each section be like? Have I crammed enough random information into my brain to be able to answer their questions? Will I be able to sleep tonight? Will I have a breakdown taking the test? How will I survive a month wait to get back my score? Will I have to retake? I keep looking over my notes but am super unfocused and think I need to stop. What I know right now has gotten me my goal score on practice tests, so I just have to have faith that my brain won't break down on me tomorrow.
 
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