Official MCAT experience thread...

[albaniandoc]

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Overall, it was a good experience. I have dreaded taking the MCAT for two years now and I finally took the bull by it's horns.
The test center was excellent, except for the desks, which were very narrow and your ass started to hurt after 15 minutes. The proctors were excellent.
I honestly, did not thing that it was a very hard test. If you have a good understanding of the material and have practiced enough, it is doable with good results. I always thought it was impossible. With the exception of maybe 5 questions in PS and 5 in BS, I had encountered most of the material at one time or the other expecially during the 30 min lecture tests of EK.
Overall, I am glad I took it today even though I studied for less than 10 weeks, than wait until August.
Let's here it from all those who took it.

 

[kypdurron5]

Form EJ here. Easy PS, easy BS, really really hard VR. Also, I kept laughing every time they said "pen with BLACK ink" remembering the quote "Chuck Norris uses a BLUE pen on the MCAT" >)

 

[AWhitehair]

Overall, it was a good experience. I have dreaded taking the MCAT for two years now and I finally took the bull by it's horns.
The test center was excellent, except for the desks, which were very narrow and your ass started to hurt after 15 minutes. The proctors were excellent.
I honestly, did not thing that it was a very hard test. If you have a good understanding of the material and have practiced enough, it is doable with good results. I always thought it was impossible. With the exception of maybe 5 questions in PS and 5 in BS, I had encountered most of the material at one time or the other expecially during the 30 min lecture tests of EK.
Overall, I am glad I took it today even though I studied for less than 10 weeks, than wait until August.
Let's here it from all those who took it.

Congratulations!!!

 

[kiddingme]

Form EJ here. Easy PS, easy BS, really really hard VR. Also, I kept laughing every time they said "pen with BLACK ink" remembering the quote "Chuck Norris uses a BLUE pen on the MCAT" >)

another form EJ here (and USF test center) i disagree with you i found the VR to be much better than i expected, the humanities passages where not as boring as i usually find them. PS and BS were good except for that last org. chem passage. at least its over now!

 

[PBandJ]

SOOOOO glad to be done!! 😀

this is my second time around. AAMC practice tests made a HUGGEEEEE difference in my confidence. i felt awesome about the PS section, ok about VR (but SO glad to finish on time this time...last time i had to guess on the entire last passage), and so-so about BS...mostly b/c i had a HUGE headache thanks to the bad lighting. but all in all, i think i definitely improved from last time.

 

[albaniandoc]

I had form BL. Funny, I thought of Chuck Norris as well. I cannot believe how stupid we are.
Well, it's over now, when do the scores come out ?

gujudoc, I did not receive a pm from you.

 

[Nikki2002]

SOOOOO glad to be done!! 😀

this is my second time around. AAMC practice tests made a HUGGEEEEE difference in my confidence. i felt awesome about the PS section, ok about VR (but SO glad to finish on time this time...last time i had to guess on the entire last passage), and so-so about BS...mostly b/c i had a HUGE headache thanks to the bad lighting. but all in all, i think i definitely improved from last time.

that is most excellent--great job! 🙂

 

[Slide]

I had form AJ. At first I was very shaky during lunch, but the more I thought about it, the better I felt about PS and VR. The bio, though, absolutely destroyed me. One question basically asked for the stuctural difference between 4 amino acids, and another one about epitopes (did NOT see that at all in my test prep). Plus, orgo was limited to only two passages; I was banking on 3-4 passages. Not feeling too good about this test...

 

[MollyMalone]

Overall, it was a good experience. I have dreaded taking the MCAT for two years now and I finally took the bull by it's horns.
The test center was excellent, except for the desks, which were very narrow and your ass started to hurt after 15 minutes. The proctors were excellent.
I honestly, did not thing that it was a very hard test. If you have a good understanding of the material and have practiced enough, it is doable with good results. I always thought it was impossible. With the exception of maybe 5 questions in PS and 5 in BS, I had encountered most of the material at one time or the other expecially during the 30 min lecture tests of EK.
Overall, I am glad I took it today even though I studied for less than 10 weeks, than wait until August.
Let's here it from all those who took it.

Congrats on making it through! 😀

 

[albaniandoc]

I took the test at Eckerd, it's right across the bridge so it was the easiest college to get to. SPC and USF are way farther from where I live.

 

[baylormed]

Form EJ here. Easy PS, easy BS, really really hard VR. Also, I kept laughing every time they said "pen with BLACK ink" remembering the quote "Chuck Norris uses a BLUE pen on the MCAT" >)

Everybody at my classroom laughed when they said "Essays in languages other than English will not be graded."

Duh!!!

I do think, however, that Chuck Norris once wrote an essay in Swahili. He got a "Z" on it.

 

[CptCrunch]

Anyone have form EK? I thought the PS was alright, VR hard, and BS easy. On the practice test VR sections I usually finished with ten minutes to spare, but today I almost ran out of time.

 

[revolt1112]

My experience was OKAY. I took it at Georgetown. All the testimonials had said that they keep it really cold in the basement, but in was, in fact, very warm...a little too warm. Then, my classroom was about 50 people, and so it was two proctors. The two women were talking the entire time, trying to whisper but clearly disturbing the test-takers in the first few rows....and guess what, i was in the front row, RIGHT in front of the proctor desk. Furthermore, in the middle of the sections, other proctors would come into the room (making lots of noise as they opened the closed the door to come and leave), and talk to my proctors. It sucked 🙁 I feel like writing a letter to AAMC won't get me anywhere. August...here I come.

 

[Arsenic]

Everybody at my classroom laughed when they said "Essays in languages other than English will not be graded."

Duh!!!

I do think, however, that Chuck Norris once wrote an essay in Swahili. He got a "Z" on it.

you guys and your chuck norris quotes.

 

[rgerwin]

I took CBT. A little bizarre. No talking or studying during breaks, but I loved the freedom of the timing and the typing. Took it the first time in Aug. 2004 (24P) and tried last Paril (freaked out and voided after PS), so lots of pressure. Started studying in beginning of Dec. (full-time job, family, class, so not alot of time, needed to stretch it out), and I felt pretty good. Definitely better than the other times. A little rushed at the end of PS, but otherwise pretty good.

 

[Anastasis]

Everybody at my classroom laughed when they said "Essays in languages other than English will not be graded."

Duh!!!

I do think, however, that Chuck Norris once wrote an essay in Swahili. He got a "Z" on it.

You didnt' happen to test in South Texas did you? Cause the same thing happened at my testing site.

 

[baylormed]

You didnt' happen to test in South Texas did you? Cause the same thing happened at my testing site.

Central Texas (BU, to be exact) =)

 

[oxeye]

All I can say is thank goodness it is done!!!!! It was such a long day and I am just completely mentally exhausted.

My proctors were pretty good - let us drink during the exam which was very nice. 👍 I do wish they could have been faster at handing things out and picking them back up. There was a lot of wasted time there. But I guess that's just part of the process.

The room was freaking hot!! It is cold outside today and I wore sweats and a short-sleeve shirt and I was totally sweating during all the sections. Combine that with going two 5 hours stretched without nursing the baby and it was overall an uncomfortable physical experience.

Thank goodness is is over!!!! I'm keeping everything crossed that I did okay and I won't have to retake it in August. I never want to take that *@&#^# test again.

 

[oxeye]

Oh, and I thought about you guys so many times during the test - Chuck Norris quotes and I couldn't get the MCAT farting thread out of my head during BS for some odd reason!

I hope everyone here did awesome!!

 

[Siggy]

You didnt' happen to test in South Texas did you? Cause the same thing happened at my testing site.

Happened out here in Southern California too...

 

[Mr. Tee]

Thank goodness is is over!!!! I'm keeping everything crossed that I did okay and I won't have to retake it in August. I never want to take that *@&#^# test again.

cmon oxeye...you won't have to 😉

Were you still feeling under the weather, though?

 

[oxeye]

cmon oxeye...you won't have to 😉

Were you still feeling under the weather, though?

Yeah my throat is killing me despite taking enough pain killers to completely destroy my liver. The pain killers got rid of most of the achiness so I don't think my score will be too affected by being sick (I hope not anyway).

 

[ty5353]

What a nightmare! I took my exam at the Holiday INN in DC (not my 1st or 2nd choice) and we had to be evacuated because of smoke coming through the ceiling!! Ontop of that, we were already an hr behind before the incident because we had one of those huge ballrooms where they had to collect a hundred booklets and the proctors were really slow! Finally allowed back in after they found the problem to be in the AC, which they now shut off so it's steaming hot. We didn't get out until 8:30pm!!!! 😡

 

[Mr. Tee]

Yeah my throat is killing me despite taking enough pain killers to completely destroy my liver. The pain killers got rid of most of the achiness so I don't think my score will be too affected by being sick (I hope not anyway).

Oh, sorry to hear 🙁 I still have the feeling that you did awesome, though 😎

 

[STUCKinUCR]

I took form CQ at UCR, and the whole day sorta sucked. it started raining after lunch, and the test itself was friggin hard. the science sections were SOOOOOOOOOO much harder than any practice tests, including the AAMC ones. ive been studying since january, and i feel like i just wasted 4 month. i think that i will commit myself if i have to take this thing again

👎

 

[musiclink213]

My MCAT experience wasn't that bad, the desks were small though, I'm used to spreading myself out. One of the PS passages came from one of my textbooks, so I had seen that info before, which was nice. VR was eh. BS wasn't entirely horrible, but we'll see. What killed me was that the two orgo passages were both at the very end for me. I hate hatte hate orgo with a passion, and since I go in order, I ended up doing them both at the end when I was tired and didn't want to deal with it anymore.

Only now my back is killing me, right around my kidney's. Shouldn't it be my liver that's hurting instead?

 

[docolive]

Dear SDNers,
I took the august and april mcats in Clear Lake, TX. Fantabulous this time. We were put in this newer building with nice rooms and bathrooms. Anyhow, the proctor was nice and the experience was a better one--minus the 2 hrs of sleep the night before.

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

of course both of my kids developed a projectile vomitting projectile diarehea virus the day before the test. this made mommy mad. the actual test was hard but I expected it to be. verbal was kind to me. And my proctors etc. were good. My only complaint is the smug man who sat in front of me and finished every section half an hour early. Oh, and I saw one of my old students there. That weirded me out. Probably weirded him out more...

 

[oxeye]

of course both of my kids developed a projectile vomitting projectile diarehea virus the day before the test. this made mommy mad. the actual test was hard but I expected it to be. verbal was kind to me. And my proctors etc. were good. My only complaint is the smug man who sat in front of me and finished every section half an hour early. Oh, and I saw one of my old students there. That weirded me out. Probably weirded him out more...

I just checked out your mdapps profile - did you retake the MCAT today?? If you did - why??? Your score was awesome!

Best of luck to you in the whole process from one non-trad with two kids to another. 🙂

 

[DF38]

Test itself wasn't too bad, testing experience could have been better.

At my testing center they ended up splitting us up between two rooms (in two different buildings) even though everyone's admission ticket had the same room. And one of those rooms, the one on the admission ticket, is nice, big and spacious with huge tables to spread out on. The other one is a large, cramped lecture hall with each seat having one of those itty-bitty desks that's less than a square foot. And, of course they shoved the second half of the alphabet into the bad room (why do they always hate on us?), and I ended up there.

That, and the proctors in our room were SO SLOW. Took them forever to pass out/pick up tests, we were there till after 6:00. And there were a ton of people there (about 80, I'm such a dork that I counted the number of rows and figured it out), so everything took awhile. The other room got out about an hour before us.

 

[witt105]

Actually, I'm always in that last group with the low last names (T-Z) and totally agree that we usually get the shaft.... not so fast my friends!!! Today we got the totally kick ass rooms with tables instead of desks and everything... I was pretty happy. Until I opened my test and got killed by it.

 

[MasterMD]

i had form AN.... i thought it was awful... doable but it was really hard... i felt almost like this wil 7 and 8... the overall experience was pleasant... haha i wish i wasnt so nervous... i woulda done better on PS... but overall i felt like it just went ok.... but hopefully i did as i did on my practice tests... now comes the wait...

 

[Mr. Tee]

Actually, I'm always in that last group with the low last names (T-Z) and totally agree that we usually get the shaft.... not so fast my friends!!! Today we got the totally kick ass rooms with tables instead of desks and everything... I was pretty happy. Until I opened my test and got killed by it.

Were you by any chance at UGA?

 

[Zephyrus]

Form FL, got out at 5:30, felt "ok" about every section, felt a little time-cramped, made 2 dumb errors in PS and 1 in BS, neutral, really don't want to wait. Really.

Z

 

[coralfangs]

My experience was OKAY. I took it at Georgetown. All the testimonials had said that they keep it really cold in the basement, but in was, in fact, very warm...a little too warm. Then, my classroom was about 50 people, and so it was two proctors. The two women were talking the entire time, trying to whisper but clearly disturbing the test-takers in the first few rows....and guess what, i was in the front row, RIGHT in front of the proctor desk. Furthermore, in the middle of the sections, other proctors would come into the room (making lots of noise as they opened the closed the door to come and leave), and talk to my proctors. It sucked 🙁 I feel like writing a letter to AAMC won't get me anywhere. August...here I come.

u shouldve asked them not to talk

thats what i did during my 2nd yr bio test, and i was asked to do the same when i was proctoring last month haha


proctors are not supposed to talk during the test unless its about official business

 

[AWhitehair]

All I can say is thank goodness it is done!!!!! It was such a long day and I am just completely mentally exhausted.

My proctors were pretty good - let us drink during the exam which was very nice. 👍 I do wish they could have been faster at handing things out and picking them back up. There was a lot of wasted time there. But I guess that's just part of the process.

The room was freaking hot!! It is cold outside today and I wore sweats and a short-sleeve shirt and I was totally sweating during all the sections. Combine that with going two 5 hours stretched without nursing the baby and it was overall an uncomfortable physical experience.

Thank goodness is is over!!!! I'm keeping everything crossed that I did okay and I won't have to retake it in August. I never want to take that *@&#^# test again.

Oxeye-

You are amazing!!! You will be a wonderful doctor one day. I could not imagine taking the MCAT under those "conditions"!!! I just PM'ed you.