*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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zax said:
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
Click to expand...

I like to think of this one with An analogy. Kinetic control is something that has to have a lot of energy or be very kinetic in order to get over its massive energy activation hill. Think of kinda like an endergonic rxn. It takes a huge push to make products. But even when we applied a lot of energy the ball never made it up the hill, implying a huge activation energy. Thermodynamic on the other hand requires a small activation energy to
Get the ball falling down the hill. Think of it as an exergonic rxn. Just by shaking up the product a little bit we we're able to beat the activation energy have the ball roll down the hill and create new products
 
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Panteleimon said:
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.
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I'm just going over the results of my AAMC Scored which I took yesterday (btw did anyone think the CARS scale was kind of harsh?). Will probably review some Physics concepts and go over the Metabolic Pathways one more time today as well. As for tomorrow, nothing more than glancing over Kaplan Quicksheets and AAMC Flashcards. I'm with you 100% though, I don't think we, as pre-meds, prepare enough for the emotional stress that comes with this exam so it's important not to go overboard these next two days. We're not going to learn anything new at this point and honestly, managing our panic episodes is probably 50% of the battle come test day.
 
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Scrubs101 said:
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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It is so sad that we look forward to the second half. Does anyone else feel like they see a new psych term on every single test? Without fail, this has been happening to me. McDonaldization, sleep spindles, Mead's "Me and I", attrition bias, just to name a few that I've had to learn separate from EK.
 
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TXhopeful said:
It is so sad that we look forward to the second half. Does anyone else feel like they see a new psych term on every single test? Without fail, this has been happening to me. McDonaldization, sleep spindles, Mead's "Me and I", attrition bias, just to name a few that I've had to learn separate from EK.
Click to expand...
EK psych was really weak. I saw most of those terms in TPR tho. And a lot of the terms you can figure out what the general concept is from the name, but definitely not with those ones lol.
 
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I used a strategy that I read in the TPR psych book on memory formation for my studying this weekend. 🤣 they said that a learning tool is to put different things you need to memorize in different areas around a room so that you can visualize those areas. So I used a dry erase marker and divided up my bathroom mirror to polar/nonpolar/aromatic/charged sections for the amino acids so that I can run through them every time I brush my teeth or wash my hands. It's helping me so thought I'd pass that on to you guys!
 
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sleepyhead22 said:
EK psych was really weak. I saw most of those terms in TPR tho. And a lot of the terms you can figure out what the general concept is from the name, but definitely not with those ones lol.
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It really was! I thought it covered the biological aspects fairly well, but so much was left out. I couldn't find the Cross' Nigrescence Theory on the AAMC outline, so I'm not sure where Next Step got that from :laugh:
Interesting to read, nonetheless
 
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TXhopeful said:
It really was! I thought it covered the biological aspects fairly well, but so much was left out. I couldn't find the Cross' Nigrescence Theory on the AAMC outline, so I'm not sure where Next Step got that from :laugh:
Interesting to read, nonetheless
Click to expand...

Kaplan seems to think cognitive dissonance will make up 90% of the psych portion


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So is our consensus that the real exam will have question worded/tested similarly to the SB, but the difficulty will be on par with the scored?
 
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zax said:
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
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm also in the same boat. Got it right but was effy on the reasoning behind it.

The way I looked at it is that Compound 1 is stable to mixing, meaning that at completion, C1 didn't really shift and form new compounds. This suggests that the reaction is under kinetic control because the reaction is far from equilibrium and in order for a change in the equilibrium, the free energy of the transition state or the intermediate must be overcome, which in this case it has not. So think about the high activation energy needed for reactants to react.

on the other hand, Compound 2 is under thermodynamic control because when you mix C2, a new compound forms. That suggests the reaction is controlled by the difference in the free energies of the reactants and products - i.e. the free energy of the products is more favorable than that of the reactants. If C2 were under kinetic control, a equilibrium won't be reached and you won't see the formation of a new compound of average size.

I think this is a good visual to distinguish the two.
upload_2016-5-31_9-4-35.png
 
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TXhopeful said:
It is so sad that we look forward to the second half. Does anyone else feel like they see a new psych term on every single test? Without fail, this has been happening to me. McDonaldization, sleep spindles, Mead's "Me and I", attrition bias, just to name a few that I've had to learn separate from EK.
Click to expand...

I believe all those terms were covered in Khan Academy too
 
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Just wanted to pop in and say good luck to you guys taking it soon. Always trust your logic; you are going to feel horrible when answering the questions but the test is designed to make you feel that way. Your logic will almost always get you to the right answer. Always ask yourself what the purpose of different variables of an experiment are, how the variables relate to one another, and what they experiment is trying to measure. On CARS, put yourself in the author's shoes and answer from the perspective of the author. The author may not be factually right, but the questions don't care about this -- they care about how the author formulates their argument. For strengthen and weaken questions, ask yourself for each answer choice whether or not it specifically strengthens or weakens the argument. Incorrect answers will either do the opposite or will not be relevant. The correct answer always and most clearly strengthens or weakens.

Outside of that, know your amino acid types. Structures in all honesty are not terribly important and the answer choices will be so completely different that specifically knowing the structure isn't necessary. Same can be said of pathways, etc. Do know how the different nucleobases DIFFER from one another; the actual ring structure is not important.

Good luck, ya'll will kill it
 
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Could someone please explain #53 on the C/P section of the AAMC Scored to me? I reasoned out the right answer based on the fact that H+ has to be reduced, but I can never figure out how to read those metal ion/metal strip charts. Thanks.
 
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For those of you taking the test on the 18th- where are you with studying right now? I am almost finished up going through all of my KA 7 book set. I have about a week left of note-taking. I've taken 3 practice exams (2 FL, 1 half length) from KA and one set of 100 Qs in Bio/Biochem from the section banks. Not sure if I'm behind or not with where I should be so I wanna get a perspective of where others are.
 
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theNDhopeful44 said:
Guys seriously please explain why I'm getting creamed by the SB but did really well on the scored?
Click to expand...
Some people in the May thread said that the SB is like the most challenging passages that you'll encounter on the real thing. So it'll probably be a mix of the scored + SB. I think people who are saying that real thing was so much harder suffer from the problem that you remember the hard questions much longer than you remember easy ones.
 
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I'm confused about Kd and was hoping someone could clarify! The way I understand it,

Kd = molar conc. of ligand at which half of the binding sites are occupied and,
a lower Kd = greater affinity of ligand to protein and,
Kd is inversely proportional to Ka


Is this correct?
 
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Scrubs101 said:
That's exactly how i feel and it makes me want to do nothing but cram today and tomorrow, but part of me feels like thats the opposite of what i should be doing. I just need to relax.
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Personally, I'm cramming. I really crammed on Sunday and then a lot of those things I went over ended up being on the scored I took yesterday, so I kinda feel like I only got those things right because it was so fresh. Now I don't want to lose it.
 
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BlastedHeath said:
Personally, I'm cramming. I really crammed on Sunday and then a lot of those things I went over ended up being on the scored I took yesterday, so I kinda feel like I only got those things right because it was so fresh. Now I don't want to lose it.
Click to expand...
I'm sure seeing those concepts on the full length and then reviewing your answers has reinforced them more than you think!
 
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sleepyhead22 said:
I'm sure seeing those concepts on the full length and then reviewing your answers has reinforced them more than you think!
Click to expand...
Probably, but I'm paranoid. I'd rather review a little more now than question whether I should have done more later. Every little bit helps. I know my limits though and I'm definitely not going to push myself.
 
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Can anyone explain questions 45 (the focal length one) and 54 (on the salt bridge passage)? I couldn't understand 45, even though i'm normally decent on optics and for 54 I put D instead of C, and I'm confused how it's C. Thanks!!!

Also: do you guys anticipate the test being the same difficulty as the scored? Cause that was not that bad.
 
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bluepeach9 said:
I'm confused about Kd and was hoping someone could clarify! The way I understand it,

Kd = molar conc. of ligand at which half of the binding sites are occupied and,
a lower Kd = greater affinity of ligand to protein and,
Kd is inversely proportional to Ka


Is this correct?
Click to expand...

You got it right.
Kd is equivalent to the molar concentration of ligand at which half of the available ligand binding sites are occupied. At this point, the protein is said to have reached half-saturation with respect to ligand binding. The more tightly a protein binds a ligand, the lower the concentration of ligand required for half the binding sites to be occupied, and thus the lower the value of Kd. --> from Leningher book

Think about it this way: Kd is the dissociation constant, the higher the Kd, the more the substrate wants to dissociate ( bound loosely)
Kd is inversely proportional to Ka ( association constant). meaning that the lower the kd value, the higher the affinity of the ligand to the protein as a result the more tightly it is bound to the protein.
 
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bisonbison said:
For those of you taking the test on the 18th- where are you with studying right now? I am almost finished up going through all of my KA 7 book set. I have about a week left of note-taking. I've taken 3 practice exams (2 FL, 1 half length) from KA and one set of 100 Qs in Bio/Biochem from the section banks. Not sure if I'm behind or not with where I should be so I wanna get a perspective of where others are.
Click to expand...

Same. I've done the NS diagnostic half-length, NS 1 full-length and all the section banks so far. Working my way through the Question Packs 30-60 questions at a time while reviewing full-lengths and working on weaknesses. Taking the AAMC Sample Test (unscored, I believe?) tomorrow and then one of the EK full-lengths on Friday. Goal from here on out is complete the Question Banks, do at least 2 full-lengths a week with thorough review, write down all my incorrect answers in a notebook and review it everyday.

Could you clarify what company KA is? I feel like that usually represents Khan Academy, but I didn't think they had a book set or full-lengths, so maybe that's Kaplan?
 
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Scrubs101 said:
That's exactly how i feel and it makes me want to do nothing but cram today and tomorrow, but part of me feels like thats the opposite of what i should be doing. I just need to relax.
Click to expand...
I remember cramming an entire pizza the night before my first MCAT testing. So many feels and no regrets.
 
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Just finished NS FL2! Time was my main problem.. C/P I had to guess on the last 10 questions again.. and I wasn't able to read the last passage in CARS. For B/B I honestly have no idea where that score came from, I thought the passages were very dense. Psych/Soc had many, many terms I hadn't seen before. I'm not sure if NS just has a poor, unrepresentative psych/soc section or if EK is just missing a ton of terms because this happened to me on the last exam as well. I usually kill the psych/soc section so.. not sure. I read reviews saying that NS2 was the most difficult exam of the NS exams.. Idk.

NS FL 2:
126/125/128/125
504
 
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NecrotizingFascitis said:
Just finished NS FL2! Time was my main problem.. C/P I had to guess on the last 10 questions again.. and I wasn't able to read the last passage in CARS. For B/B I honestly have no idea where that score came from, I thought the passages were very dense. Psych/Soc had many, many terms I hadn't seen before. I'm not sure if NS just has a poor, unrepresentative psych/soc section or if EK is just missing a ton of terms because this happened to me on the last exam as well. I usually kill the psych/soc section so.. not sure. I read reviews saying that NS2 was the most difficult exam of the NS exams.. Idk.

NS FL 2:
126/125/128/125
504
Click to expand...
From my experience, EK is definitely missing a ton of terms. Supplement with Khan Academy or use the Princeton Review book.
 
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TXhopeful said:
Same. I've done the NS diagnostic half-length, NS 1 full-length and all the section banks so far. Working my way through the Question Packs 30-60 questions at a time while reviewing full-lengths and working on weaknesses. Taking the AAMC Sample Test (unscored, I believe?) tomorrow and then one of the EK full-lengths on Friday. Goal from here on out is complete the Question Banks, do at least 2 full-lengths a week with thorough review, write down all my incorrect answers in a notebook and review it everyday.

Could you clarify what company KA is? I feel like that usually represents Khan Academy, but I didn't think they had a book set or full-lengths, so maybe that's Kaplan?
Click to expand...
Whoops yes I meant Kaplan. I feel like being able to articulate has gone out the window since my brain is full of all MCAT stuff :laugh:
How well do you feel prepared material-wise? I have all of my notes on things but don't feel like I'm remembering things that I know I've reviewed.
 
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For those of you who have taken both the AAMC Unscored Sample Test and the AAMC Scored FL #1, which did you find more difficult to get a good score on? How did your scores compare between the two?
 
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walloobi said:
For those of you who have taken both the AAMC Unscored Sample Test and the AAMC Scored FL #1, which did you find more difficult to get a good score on? How did your scores compare between the two?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this answers you question but I felt the scored was harder but I ended up doing better on it. Not quite sure how/why, maybe it was just the CARS that was harder on the scored and the bio and psych sections were slightly easier.

I can for sure say the CARS was significantly harder on the scored.


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Scrubs101 said:
Like I just want it to be over with already lol


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Scrubs101 said:
I'm not sure if this answers you question but I felt the scored was harder but I ended up doing better on it. Not quite sure how/why, maybe it was just the CARS that was harder on the scored and the bio and psych sections were slightly easier.

I can for sure say the CARS was significantly harder on the scored.


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Click to expand...
Definetly agree with this got a 91% on the unscored and a 126 on the scored for CARS :wtf:
 
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zax said:
Definetly agree with this got a 91% on the unscored and a 126 on the scored for CARS :wtf:
Click to expand...

I wish I could donate my CARS score over to C/P- 130 on the scored. I kinda want a whole test full of CARS lol
 
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bisonbison said:
Whoops yes I meant Kaplan. I feel like being able to articulate has gone out the window since my brain is full of all MCAT stuff :laugh:
How well do you feel prepared material-wise? I have all of my notes on things but don't feel like I'm remembering things that I know I've reviewed.
Click to expand...
Khan Academy videos were very helpful. They are great visual aids and usually make a connection with an example or explanation that I didn't read in my prep books. My suggestion is to drill anything that you are missing, which is great for this time of prep since all your weaknesses become abundantly clear. Two of the best pieces of advice that I got from SN2'ed study schedule the first time I took the MCAT was 1. use Anki and 2. get a review notebook.

There's a lot of threads on Anki flashcards that explain it if you haven't used it and is great for memorization of facts. I'm still looking at those 3 kinematic equations to this day :annoyed:
The review notebook is for review of any full-lengths, Section Bank or Question Pack that you got wrong. Get a 3-subject notebook (C/P, B/B, P/S) and any question you missed or even guessed on, write in there with a full explanation and any relevant information. I missed 2 questions on enzyme kinetics/types of inhibitors on the Section Bank and I drew out every single one of them on both types of graphs in my review notebook. Look at it as much as possible, at least every day.
 
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Scrubs101 said:
I'm not sure if this answers you question but I felt the scored was harder but I ended up doing better on it. Not quite sure how/why, maybe it was just the CARS that was harder on the scored and the bio and psych sections were slightly easier.

I can for sure say the CARS was significantly harder on the scored.


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Click to expand...
zax said:
Definetly agree with this got a 91% on the unscored and a 126 on the scored for CARS :wtf:
Click to expand...
Hm, interesting. Do you two mind telling me what percent you got on the unscored and what your raw score was on the scored?
 
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walloobi said:
Hm, interesting. Do you two mind telling me what percent you got on the unscored and what your raw score was on the scored?
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I dont remember the subsections but its like 75% unscored overall and 77.5% overall on the scored. I had a 88% for CARS and that went down to a 75% for the scored.
 
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TXhopeful said:
You may have already posted your strategy, but I need to hear it.
Click to expand...

I've never studied for CARS, which I thank God for since I had to study nonstop for Chem and Physics. 90% of the time the first instinct you have on a CARS passage is right, so I answer all the questions, even if I mark them, then I go back at the end. It gives me a piece of mind haha. I have 3 things I normally follow: 1) Read the whole passage first. I know many people do questions first and then go back to the passage, but I find reading the whole thing lets me go faster. I normally finish within a hour. 2) For each paragraph write a few words on the main idea. I then go back at the end and write a huge main idea. This helps so much because so many questions deal with the main idea, or the author's view on certain topics. 3) Translate the question. Sometimes there are long and convoluted questions that no one can make sense of. I take that and shorten it into a few words and make it easier. This took practice initially, but it helps so much. Also, unless you are super certain you were wrong, don't change answers. The questions I tend to miss were ones I switched back. Trust your instinct on CARS.
 
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Scrubs101 said:
I dont remember the subsections but its like 75% unscored overall and 77.5% overall on the scored. I had a 88% for CARS and that went down to a 75% for the scored.
Click to expand...
Oops sorry, meant to ask what your score was out of 528 on the scored FL, not the raw percent
 
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