*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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do you guys think the question bank is worth doing? or should I just go with khanacademy? Also, how is the question bank set up? Like 1 set of questions for each section with like 60 questions or more? I don't know if its worth spending the money to get it when I could just do khanacademy for free. THoughts?
 
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medschoolplease123 said:
do you guys think the question bank is worth doing? or should I just go with khanacademy? Also, how is the question bank set up? Like 1 set of questions for each section with like 60 questions or more? I don't know if its worth spending the money to get it when I could just do khanacademy for free. THoughts?
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You get 120 questions for each section. They're pretty cheap and good for content review, but not necessary. I did the Bio, Chem, Physics question packs and they were helpful. If you're referring to the Section bank, then you should definitely get those. It's 100 questions in each science section and they're very close to how the real MCAT is.
 
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realizing we have 13 days left to study for this thing...
200_s.gif


edit: idk how to count
 
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Mr. otcoD said:
I have yeah. I finished biochem, orgo 2. im taking human physiology next semester but people who took the MCAT and human phys said it didnt really help.
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What?
Lol forgive me but this fascinates me. Are you a biochem major or something?
It's very rare for a sophomore student to be taking the MCAT.

And Physiology is definitely important for those hormones questions if you know what I'm saying.
 
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premedicalstudent said:
What?
Lol forgive me but this fascinates me. Are you a biochem major or something?
It's very rare for a sophomore student to be taking the MCAT.

And Physiology is definitely important for those hormones questions if you know what I'm saying.
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Lol no Im a bio major. I was able to take this stuff early because I walked in with 21 credit hours. (Technically by hours I'm a Junior. Could graduate next year, but I'm only 19 and I still want to have 2 more years of college)
 
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medschoolplease123 said:
do you guys think the question bank is worth doing? or should I just go with khanacademy? Also, how is the question bank set up? Like 1 set of questions for each section with like 60 questions or more? I don't know if its worth spending the money to get it when I could just do khanacademy for free. THoughts?
Click to expand...
Get the section bank! It's going to be a lot harder than the question packs but these will really test your knowledge and interpretation. A lot of people are saying its worth it
 
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How do y'all remember all of the different rules for mirrors and stuff? Like real/virtual/reduced/etc? My brain does not compute.
 
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Did anybody have any clue what was going on in that CARS passage about ships? I was beginning to run behind time at this point and didn't want to fall too behind. I weirdly can't remember what any of the passages were about after that point.
 
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What did it have to do with ships? One of my buddies was talking about it...

Titus Andromedon said:
Did anybody have any clue what was going on in that CARS passage about ships? I was beginning to run behind time at this point and didn't want to fall too behind. I weirdly can't remember what any of the passages were about after that point.
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bisonbison said:
How do y'all remember all of the different rules for mirrors and stuff? Like real/virtual/reduced/etc? My brain does not compute.
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Draw them. The main recurring thing I've seen is the myopia/hyperopia correction. Also, a virtual image is always upright. A real image is always inverted.

For myself, and if anyone else has struggled with this:

Myopia is where the focal point falls in front of the retina. To correct this, we need to use a diverging lens so the light rays spread out further and are therefore able to converge at a later point, which will be on the retina.

Hyperopia is where the focal point is behind the retina. To correct this, we need to use a converging lens so the light rays come together sooner, therefore hitting the retina, as opposed to a spot behind it.
 
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Hospitalized said:
Draw them. The main recurring thing I've seen is the myopia/hyperopia correction. Also, a virtual image is always upright. A real image is always inverted.

For myself, and if anyone else has struggled with this:

Myopia is where the focal point falls in front of the retina. To correct this, we need to use a diverging lens so the light rays spread out further and are therefore able to converge at a later point, which will be on the retina.

Hyperopia is where the focal point is behind the retina. To correct this, we need to use a converging lens so the light rays come together sooner, therefore hitting the retina, as opposed to a spot behind it.
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Thanks so much!!! I just get confused with all of the terminology and positioning :S
 
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To all future MCAT takers, here is another little rant. A lot of people make a big deal of the MCAT (myself included... it's a big exam!). I don't know how I scored but I have a feeling I did well, not to be boastful or anything so take what I say with a grain of salt... Don't stress out about the exam. Seriously, don't. Before I walked in, I was really worried about all those tricky Kaplan type questions that would be on the exam... You know the ones, the really ambiguous question stems with the really ambiguous answer choices (especially with CARS). But do not fear... The MCAT isn't nearly as bad. A lot of the passages seem to spoon feed you the information you need. Some will be clearer than others. The tricky ones will have a lot of acronyms and path ways to get your mind all knotted up and stressed out. That's the worst case scenario. As long as you can keep your cool, you can cut through the passages like a warm knife through butter. Besides, often times the questions are not as bad as the passages. Just keep your cool and realize this is a standardized test, you are going to do it, you are going to get a score, you are going to get into medical school and study your ass off and then take exams that are much harder and longer! All in all, you probably won't even remember the MCAT after a few years.

For those of you who didn't want to read my diatribe, here is the condense version: Don't worry so much about the exam. It's no SAT, but it's probably not as bad as you think it is. Just keep your cool. If you keep your cool, you might find that it is on par with the AAMC question banks or their first scored exam. If you're lucky, your excited brain will be working on overdrive and it might even feel easier! That is all.

Now let's see if this post can get published at Random House or something.
 
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bisonbison said:
For everyone that has just taken the June 2nd exam, would you mind sharing with me the practice scores you got for the week or two before testing, along with the company? I am trying to judge where I am comparatively since I'm taking it soon!
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My Kaplan exams were taken from December into April. I'm including them here mainly so I have them written, my course expired. from 1-9: 506, 509, 513, 511, 509, 512, 511, 515, 512.

AAMC Scored (5/9): 523: 131, 132, 130, 130.
Q-Packs (taken last two weeks of May, so after AAMC 1): Averages in the mid 80s to mid-high 90s. 77% on psych/soc, granted I wasn't taking it seriously so take that with a grain of salt. I think Q-Pack CARS was more difficult than the other AAMC stuff, maybe harder than the real exam. We'll wait on my scores. Hopefully I'm consistent, don't want to jinx myself.
 
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Panteleimon said:
My Kaplan exams were taken from December into April. I'm including them here mainly so I have them written, my course expired. from 1-9: 506, 509, 513, 511, 509, 512, 511, 515, 512.

AAMC Scored (5/9): 523: 131, 132, 130, 130.
Q-Packs (taken last two weeks of May, so after AAMC 1): Averages in the mid 80s to mid-high 90s. 77% on psych/soc, granted I wasn't taking it seriously so take that with a grain of salt. I think Q-Pack CARS was more difficult than the other AAMC stuff, maybe harder than the real exam. We'll wait on my scores. Hopefully I'm consistent, don't want to jinx myself.
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Thank you very much! 🙂
 
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Anyone else find that C/P and B/B were easier than expected, CARS was about as expected, and P/S was harder than expected. For P/S there were several terms id never heard of and I used Kaplan, NS, and Khan Academy to study. Also, had a few where I narrowed it down to 2 answers and just guessed. Let's hope I get a little lucky on that section
 
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I can really only remember P/S and bio, tbh, and I think they were fine? CARS was fine except for that stupid ship passage, and I don't remember much of C/P. TBH I'd be thrilled with a 508. I just hope the reason it takes so long to get scores back is because they scale it or adjust the curve.
 
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The hardest part about the MCAT was definitely just the most recent time leading up to it, I was constantly f****** myself with my own thoughts. The night before trying to fall asleep and the morning of trying to stay level headed was definitely the worst. Like others have said the passages are definitely worse than the questions, which is where the points are! You just have to go through the passages with a level head taking out from it what you can, simple stuff like this acts positively one this and that acts negatively on that etc. spend more time on the questions themselves than trying to understand every tiny detail from the passages. Because chances are they won't even be a question on that crazy complex sentence you can't understand. Definitely spend time understanding the meaning and trends of the graphs(when instructed to by a question) though they usually try and throw in some trick to make you think incorrectly there. Reading the info below the figure and the paragraph explain how the data was collected it quite important. For B/B know your lab techniques and how to interpret them for sure. You guys have got this! Once you get to the testing center and get in that seat all your hard work will take over!


I have no clue how I did, im just hoping for at least a 508 as well. Hoping this curve works in my favor, because I felt pretty comparable to how I felt about my scored FL. If not a bit better, but idk only the AAMC knows how I did at this point.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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Hospitalized said:
**** really? I guess I did better than I thought. Is that from the conversion thread here? I might be misusing it...
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I did (75.5%)(.7133) + 451 + 6.44 = 511

Its confusing as to whether the OP on that thread was referring to the AAMC unscored or scored, however.
 
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born2run said:
Just took the aamc scored and got a 509, which is 7 points higher than any other FL I've taken. I'm sort of excited but afraid it's a fluke. How often do people do worse on their real test compared to their aamc scored practice?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

What company's tests were you taking before? If it's Kap or TPR they're notoriously deflated. Statistically speaking on SDN the average person improves 3pts from scored FL to real thing, but there's a weak correlation apparently. Not to mention an obvious sampling bias. More recently it's been seeming to go either way, AAMC seems to be a lot less predictable with these recent MCATS. Check out the April MCAT thread if you want some recent data. I'm sure you'll be fine though! 509 is a great score and you can only get better at with content/test taking skills from here!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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born2run said:
Just took the aamc scored and got a 509, which is 7 points higher than any other FL I've taken. I'm sort of excited but afraid it's a fluke. How often do people do worse on their real test compared to their aamc scored practice?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

You're probably in good shape for a 507-511!
 
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Hospitalized said:
Draw them. The main recurring thing I've seen is the myopia/hyperopia correction. Also, a virtual image is always upright. A real image is always inverted.

For myself, and if anyone else has struggled with this:

Myopia is where the focal point falls in front of the retina. To correct this, we need to use a diverging lens so the light rays spread out further and are therefore able to converge at a later point, which will be on the retina.

Hyperopia is where the focal point is behind the retina. To correct this, we need to use a converging lens so the light rays come together sooner, therefore hitting the retina, as opposed to a spot behind it.
Click to expand...
I like to remember MD. For Myopia, you need a Diverging lens.
 
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Mr. otcoD said:
I like to remember MD. For Myopia, you need a Diverging lens.
Click to expand...
Ah good one as well! I'm trying to relate material to myself to make it stick better. Like my sister is nearsighted and has a very negative prescription (helps me remember magnitude) and trying to think of looking at her glasses lenses!
 
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For all the June 2nd'er and even future test takers I highly suggest giving the Reddit June 2nd reactions thread a look!

For everyone that has already taken it reading all the reactions will definitely make you feel better about a potential curve! In my experience of just reading threads people that actively look out for info and discuss pre-med/MCAT stuff like this on websites like Reddit and SDN all tend to score quite well so there's definitely a bias in that direction. But even so, everybody was complaining about the C/P and B/B sections. Taking this into account and realizing that most test takers are not as well prepared as all of us I think we can definitely expect a sizable curve on those sections!

For future test takers they definitely go a little more in depth in some of the reviews on that thread then we have here, guess a lot of people reporting over there aren't as afraid of the AAMCs guidelines(I'm sure as all h*** not gonna go into too much detail even if it's within legal rights). Definitely give it a look as I would concur with a majority of the remarks made on it!


Edit: I would also like everyone to know I did absolutely nothing this weekend and f****** loved it

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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I'm hoping that with my July 8 test I'll end up with a bunch of unprepared people taking it last minute to apply for this cycle. One can hope, right!? 😛
 
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My brain has hit a wall and refuses to think. 🙁 it literally starts hurting an hour in to studying. I really think I need to take a day break, but not sure when to do it because I still want to take the AAMC scored, one more NS FL, and C/P and B/B section banks.

I'm also dying trying to get my amcas and aacomas application materials ready to submit in down time.
 
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can you post the reddit link?

Scrubs101 said:
For all the June 2nd'er and even future test takers I highly suggest giving the Reddit June 2nd reactions thread a look!

For everyone that has already taken it reading all the reactions will definitely make you feel better about a potential curve! In my experience of just reading threads people that actively look out for info and discuss pre-med/MCAT stuff like this on websites like Reddit and SDN all tend to score quite well so there's definitely a bias in that direction. But even so, everybody was complaining about the C/P and B/B sections. Taking this into account and realizing that most test takers are not as well prepared as all of us I think we can definitely expect a sizable curve on those sections!

For future test takers they definitely go a little more in depth in some of the reviews on that thread then we have here, guess a lot of people reporting over there aren't as afraid of the AAMCs guidelines(I'm sure as all h*** not gonna go into too much detail even if it's within legal rights). Definitely give it a look as I would concur with a majority of the remarks made on it!


Edit: I would also like everyone to know I did absolutely nothing this weekend and f****** loved it

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
 
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