*Official June 2016 MCAT Thread*

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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.
 
I'm doing my post mortem now, and it looks like i changed 7 from right to wrong in C/P alone

holy cow

I think I just need to step up my decision making skills

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When did you change them? I've stopped reviewing marked questions because I kept changing from the right answer when I'd review my answers at the end. Your first intuition is usually right!
 
I never change any answers. It sounds dumb but I'm not in the same mindset I was when I was reading the passage, and I could be looking back and missing a small detail I didn't miss before (vice versa is true, but I never have enough time to do much review anyway so it seems futile to me)


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For those who havent done the scored yet, when are you taking it? Im debating on whether to do NS4 Saturday, scored Monday? Tuesday? Should I leave out NS4 altogether? Thoughts?
 
I was going to take the unscored next week Thursday after I do reviewing and question pack stuff Mon-Wed and EK 4 tomorrow


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For those who havent done the scored yet, when are you taking it? Im debating on whether to do NS4 Saturday, scored Monday? Tuesday? Should I leave out NS4 altogether? Thoughts?
Schedule for the next 8 days because I know everyone is just dying to know (sarcasm).
Friday: EK FL 3
Saturday: Review FL, work on Question Packs, review Section Bank
Sunday: Break day with some Anki, "Incorrect Answers" review
Monday: EK FL 4
Tuesday: Review FL, finish any Question Packs, continue reviewing Section Bank
Wednesday: AAMC Scored FL
Thursday: Review FL, finish re-working Section Bank
Friday: Driving. Only studying will be reading through my "Incorrect Answers" notebook
Saturday: Game time
 
For those who havent done the scored yet, when are you taking it? Im debating on whether to do NS4 Saturday, scored Monday? Tuesday? Should I leave out NS4 altogether? Thoughts?
i'm just doing the scored full length on Sunday (i've done 6 so far) and then I think i'm going to do C/P sections only on NS 4 which I already have and the free TPR and Kaplan tests that I got for registering my books because those are my weakest sections and I'll never have enough practice for them. I've got my snacks/stamina under control so I don't feel like i need to spend a whole day of studying on another full length after i do the scored. I still feel really weak on some high yield concepts and I think my time is better spent drilling those areas and reviewing the section banks further.
 
I am

is july 22 too late for the MCAT this cycle?
I have the same worries, but I think the July 8th one is pushing it if you have a low gpa like mine. I guess it depends on everything else in your app and whether or not you'll be complete before score comes out.
 
yeah, I am a re-inventor. I just finished my SMP with a 3.5+ (one grade still pending) and either way I am going to be submitting in the next 10 days
 
I have the same worries, but I think the July 8th one is pushing it if you have a low gpa like mine. I guess it depends on everything else in your app and whether or not you'll be complete before score comes out.
Same. It's kind of annoying how there's 3 dates in like every other month, yet only two test dates in June... The amt of time between June 18th and July 8th is substantial.
 
So I'm applying TMDAS, and my actual application has been submitted for weeks now. My school sent my transcript 3 weeks ago, and then again a week ago and nothing has been received. I'm so scared it's not going to get there until July/August and then ruin my chances. I'm so frustrated. I've gone to the school, verified they had the right address, and TMDAS just told me to stop worrying and they can't help me. If I don't get into med school because of a stupid transcript i'm going to be so so so so upset.
 
Also: since I was scheduled for the June 2nd test, I already did all scored/unscored tests. Should I take them again? I feel like I would remember some answers, so idk if it would be worth it.
 
So I'm applying TMDAS, and my actual application has been submitted for weeks now. My school sent my transcript 3 weeks ago, and then again a week ago and nothing has been received. I'm so scared it's not going to get there until July/August and then ruin my chances. I'm so frustrated. I've gone to the school, verified they had the right address, and TMDAS just told me to stop worrying and they can't help me. If I don't get into med school because of a stupid transcript i'm going to be so so so so upset.
Some of my transcripts took an extremely long time. For instance, my final transcript received was shown on record to be have been sent 5/18. It has only been received by TMDSAS by 6/7.

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Yea, it sucks. Especially because I'm supposed to start a one month class a couple days after the 18th mcat so that I could replace one of my C's for DO apps by beginning of August. If I push it back then I lose that grade replacement. This is my second time taking the MCAT so I want to make sure I do well too.
 
Also: since I was scheduled for the June 2nd test, I already did all scored/unscored tests. Should I take them again? I feel like I would remember some answers, so idk if it would be worth it.
Don't retake them and place any value on your score, but if you want to review stuff then sure. As for the transcript thing, I'm not doing TMDAS but for AMCAS I had a transcript sent to myself and one sent to amcas, it took a full week after I received my test transcript for them to process it as received. I was worried too, but they were just behind. Don't stress over it.
 
I plugged it into the same spreadsheet I used for my predictive scores (SDN search it if you want to double-check).
Overall 70% = 507
127/126/127/130 with a variability of +/- 2 points per section

How are you doing the individual sections like that? I usually use a formula for your total score, but a subsection score calculation would be nice.
 
I watched 10 hours straight of Kahn Academy videos yesterday (which was really helpful and I wish I had started doing so earlier) and allllll my dreams were in the format of the Kahn Academy videos and about glycosidic linkages. Here's hoping that means that my brain has that concept down now. Made for a kind of restless night of sleep tho.
 
How are you doing the individual sections like that? I usually use a formula for your total score, but a subsection score calculation would be nice.
I'm using the spreadsheet I found in and SDN search for "AAMC Unscored Percentages" and then there's a thread that says "TENTATIVE..." and it's in there.
 
I watched 10 hours straight of Kahn Academy videos yesterday (which was really helpful and I wish I had started doing so earlier) and allllll my dreams were in the format of the Kahn Academy videos and about glycosidic linkages. Here's hoping that means that my brain has that concept down now. Made for a kind of restless night of sleep tho.
Khan Academy is amazing. I downloaded probably 20+ videos to the app on my phone and would play them on my commute (just to listen to the audio-did this mostly for the behavioural science section).

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I will, however, tell all you guys who haven't taken the exam yet this: not having to study and being in limbo (even though the wait SUCKS and I keep going back and forth between thinking "I did really well" and "holy crap I probably didn't even get a 500") is pretty great. I had already finished my PS for AMCAS/AACOMAS and the entire application before I took the exam, so now my life has consisted of working out/watching movies/getting ready for my summer internship in Israel. It's pretty great. So there IS a life after the exam! Obviously I want to know my score (I even called the AAMC yesterday to make sure I didn't accidentally void...I didn't, so that's good 🙂 ) but I'm sort of enjoying this. I haven't been able to truly take a break from schoolwork for the past two years (took orgo last summer, did research the summer before) so this is nice.
 
So I'm applying TMDAS, and my actual application has been submitted for weeks now. My school sent my transcript 3 weeks ago, and then again a week ago and nothing has been received. I'm so scared it's not going to get there until July/August and then ruin my chances. I'm so frustrated. I've gone to the school, verified they had the right address, and TMDAS just told me to stop worrying and they can't help me. If I don't get into med school because of a stupid transcript i'm going to be so so so so upset.
lol I'm sure that's fine; I haven't even submitted yet. I've heard that as long as you do by the end of June you're in pretty good shape. I'd say you're pretty far ahead of the game to have done it three weeks ago. These poor people are going through thousands of applications. Give them some time.
 
I refuse to believe these CARS scores coming out are on a fair scale.....I'm having nightmares that since I was averaging 126 on CARS I'll end up with a 123-124 on the real thing :/


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I refuse to believe these CARS scores coming out are on a fair scale.....I'm having nightmares that since I was averaging 126 on CARS I'll end up with a 123-124 on the real thing :/


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ugh it sucks, i'm sorry. 🙁 i feel like the curve gets more sensitive at the top (so people who were getting like 130s are getting 128s, etc), but towards the middle around 126 it's closer to normal. so hopefully we'll be okay!
 
ugh it sucks, i'm sorry. 🙁 i feel like the curve gets more sensitive at the top (so people who were getting like 130s are getting 128s, etc), but towards the middle around 126 it's closer to normal. so hopefully we'll be okay!

That would make sense, especially with cars it's really hard to consistently score around the same % right each time. I'm hoping you're right im freaking out enough about my B/B score I don't need another section like CARS bringing me down even more lol! Thank you!


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Is electric dipole high yield? I really hope not, this ish is driving my crazy.

if you mean electric dipoles in chemistry, it's high yield for anything related to organic chem because knowing what's partially (+)/(-) in a chemical structure will really help you with any reaction (including peptide bond formation, which is of course high yield)

if you mean electric dipoles in physics, i have no clue cause i'm always lost in physics
 
if you mean electric dipoles in chemistry, it's high yield for anything related to organic chem because knowing what's partially (+)/(-) in a chemical structure will really help you with any reaction (including peptide bond formation, which is of course high yield)

if you mean electric dipoles in physics, i have no clue cause i'm always lost in physics
Physics! The chemistry stuff all makes sense, but the calculations of electric dipoles on the physics side is like reading an ancient language to me.
 
Anyone have advice on how to stay focused and connect the dots when reading through really dense B/B and C/P passages? Just finished the SB's and bombed them and I feel like it's because I'm not properly grasping what's going on in the passage. Feeling a bit deflated 🙁
 
Physics! The chemistry stuff all makes sense, but the calculations of electric dipoles on the physics side is like reading an ancient language to me.

bro i'm with you on that, my advice would be to focus on the bigger picture when relating electricity/magnetism/current/etc. all of the practice full lengths i've taken have focused on the flow of charge in a circuit and what would happen if you put an electron in magnetic/electric fields. if something regarding dipoles in physics does come up i would do strategic guessing based on what you know of the bigger concepts (especially if your exam is next saturday - you really don't want to try to learn something new now; reinforce what you already know!!)
 
Anyone have advice on how to stay focused and connect the dots when reading through really dense B/B and C/P passages? Just finished the SB's and bombed them and I feel like it's because I'm not properly grasping what's going on in the passage. Feeling a bit deflated 🙁

i'm not sure if this is the best advice to give out, but what i've come to learn is to not try to grasp every single concept in a passage! otherwise you'll lose time/brain energy that you could have otherwise used to answer easy/medium-difficulty questions associated with the passage. just focus on the main idea and jot down some general trends in terms of data/results.
 
Anyone have advice on how to stay focused and connect the dots when reading through really dense B/B and C/P passages? Just finished the SB's and bombed them and I feel like it's because I'm not properly grasping what's going on in the passage. Feeling a bit deflated 🙁
I agree, sometimes a very advanced lab technique is introduced in the passage. I try to simplify and relate to the information I know as much as possible. Don't spend much time trying to understand and reread what you don't understand because sometimes there is a lot of information that isn't necessary at all.
 
Anyone have advice on how to stay focused and connect the dots when reading through really dense B/B and C/P passages? Just finished the SB's and bombed them and I feel like it's because I'm not properly grasping what's going on in the passage. Feeling a bit deflated 🙁
What's your definition of "bombing" them? because general consensus is that anything about 60% on them means you're in pretty good shape. they supposedly reflect the more difficult questions you'll get on the real thing.
 
I'm literally the same. I actually kind of enjoy the P/S section and always look forward to it haha. B/B isn't as bad as C/P but def isn't exactly enjoyable.

Agreed... I feel like it goes in increasing enjoyability, kinda. Like CP is awful, CARS is alright, BB is enjoyable, PS is a victory lap... for the most part
 
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