*Official MCAT January 2017 Thread*

Started by Singerpremed
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Singerpremed

Singerpremed

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Hi, I know there are many people who are also studying for the MCAT in January and I would like to connect with you guys and get insights. I'm currently taking a live online Kaplan MCAT course. I go to the University of Florida.
 
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Marsay said:
Hi do you mind if I ask how long did you prepare for the mcat and which resources did you find the most helpful and which ones closely resembled the real mcat?
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6 months, roughly 550 hours. Kaplan prep books for everything but CARS. Princeton Review for Psych/Soc. Examkrackers CARS and Scientific Reasoning book, Testing Solutions 30 days CARS manual.

Most representative practice tests aside from AAMC's were next step then exam krackers, Kaplan and princeton review tests weren't impressive.
 
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Groggs said:
6 months, roughly 550 hours. Kaplan prep books for everything but CARS. Princeton Review for Psych/Soc. Examkrackers CARS and Scientific Reasoning book, Testing Solutions 30 days CARS manual.

Most representative practice tests aside from AAMC's were next step then exam krackers, Kaplan and princeton review tests weren't impressive.
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Chem/Phys is my roughest section, would you said Exam Frackers is good for that? Also, most of the real AAMC was about experiments, and graphs. I really need to get good at those, any tips for that?
 
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Groggs said:
6 months, roughly 550 hours. Kaplan prep books for everything but CARS. Princeton Review for Psych/Soc. Examkrackers CARS and Scientific Reasoning book, Testing Solutions 30 days CARS manual.

Most representative practice tests aside from AAMC's were next step then exam krackers, Kaplan and princeton review tests weren't impressive.
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How do you feel TS 30 day CARS manual helped you?


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Groggs said:
6 months, roughly 550 hours. Kaplan prep books for everything but CARS. Princeton Review for Psych/Soc. Examkrackers CARS and Scientific Reasoning book, Testing Solutions 30 days CARS manual.

Most representative practice tests aside from AAMC's were next step then exam krackers, Kaplan and princeton review tests weren't impressive.
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I know you just got asked about testing solutions. But curious about your opinion on CARS. I'm using there 30 day prep I'm on day 17 and I'm testing April 22. What specifically did you think was the most important thing or two with cars? Anything you did differently than testing solutions guide recommends? What was your schedule after the first 30 days? and how far out from the test did you incorporate aamc material? Did you think EK vebral was good practice?Thanks for any advice much appreciated and congrats on your score.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
 
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5words said:
Omg, those verbal scores! Are you natural reader or what? Any tips to share on verbal and gratz.
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Thanks! I used EK 10 complete study package for content review. I bought AAMC Complete Prep Bundle and practiced all the stuff in it. I also supplemented these with Khan academy Psych/sociology Notes and videos.
 
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Marsay said:
Chem/Phys is my roughest section, would you said Exam Frackers is good for that? Also, most of the real AAMC was about experiments, and graphs. I really need to get good at those, any tips for that?
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I found EK content review for Chemistry, Physics & Biology to be very good. I used Khan academy videos only for confusing concepts.
 
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Thoroughbred_Med said:
How do you feel TS 30 day CARS manual helped you?


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biologybum said:
But curious about your opinion on CARS. I'm using there 30 day prep I'm on day 17 and I'm testing April 22. What specifically did you think was the most important thing or two with cars? Anything you did differently than testing solutions guide recommends? What was your schedule after the first 30 days? and how far out from the test did you incorporate aamc material? Did you think EK vebral was good practice?Thanks for any advice much appreciated and congrats on your score.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
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I went through TS 30 day manual in about 10 days. Was worried about CARS about a month before the test so I did about two weeks of about a full CARS section per day and analyzed it in the way TS recommends in the manual. After that i scaled back some on CARS to do AAMC stuff but kept doing a couple passages a day. I think I saw the biggest improvement by properly reviewing passages. Started AAMC stuff about three or four weeks out. EK verbal practice was decent, mainly liked their strategy.
 
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Great thanks. I'm going to follow that advice pretty closely. I'll finish the 30 days in a a few days and ramp up the number of passages I do daily from 4 to 8 or 9. I'm a little worried with only going through about 40 EK verbal 101 passages so far. Was it testing solutions practice tests you used for a full section a day? If so how to they compare to aamc material?

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star_7 said:
I found EK content review for Chemistry, Physics & Biology to be very good. I used Khan academy videos only for confusing concepts.
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ok thanks, I'll try that. the only prep course I used is Kaplan and found it helpful for content but not much else, so I'll definitely take your suggestion.
 
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At the outset of my studying I was shooting 510+ but was hoping 515+.

Committed to studying over my holiday break. Probably around ~150 hours total over the course of a month and a half. Much shorter than the average time investment so I am happy with the score as it is.

1/19/2017: 511 --> 128/127/128/128 (86th %-ile)

Down ~3pts from AAMC average
- AAMC#1 - 516
- AAMC #2 - 513
Spot on for Next Step average
- NS1 - 512
- NS2 - 510

Not planning on retesting as the rest of my application is strong and I am not shooting top tier. Also I feel like this is a very balanced 511.

The actual exam was my best score of Chem/Phys that I ever received and my worst score in Bio. Not sure how I feel about that. Hope everyone reached their goals
 
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I used EK 10 complete study package. I went through this thoroughly. This was concise and very good for biology, chemistry and physics as a refresher if you knew the concepts. I used Khan Academy videos and notes for areas I didn’t have good foundation. I spent good amount of time going over EK biology books as many were first time I had seen the material. I used Khan Academy for Psychology and sociology notes. I created quizlet/flash cards for new concepts/terms.
My goal was to finish most of the content review before winter break started. 4 weeks before the exam date I was done with content review and used the AAMC prep bundle extensively the last 4 weeks. I spent nearly 12 hours daily on this during the last 4 weeks.
 
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geronimo11 said:
Thanks guys!!

let me know if any of you guys have questions about prep materials I've used a few diff companies or about just tackling the exam and what I've found worked/didn't work in this (long ass) journey
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PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR PREP MATERIAL EXPERIENCES! (And if applicable, your experience with prep courses!) I'm obsessing over which company to choose based on my learning style and what's best. Thanks in advance.
 
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Two days... do you guys know what time on 2/28 we receive the score? It says BY 5pm on the website...hoping earlier than later so hopefully can plan an evening out celebrating....or an evening in bed listening to sad music questioning my future
 
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sparkleberry27 said:
lol i had a dream last night that my score came out and I opened it, and it wasn't what i wanted. oddly, i wasn't too sad about it. but then i woke up and spent a good 10 minutes debating whether or not it actually happened and then convincing myself it wasn't real 😱
just a few more days...
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Ohh I feel you there! One of the intrusive thoughts that pop up into my head lately has been, "I scored a 573 on the MCAT". Not sure where that one came from because a 573 is just not possible.. I do think that whether you're ultimately happy or not, it is at least relieving to have closure on how you did, and what you have to do in the future.

SangriaSalsa said:
Two days... do you guys know what time on 2/28 we receive the score? It says BY 5pm on the website...hoping earlier than later so hopefully can plan an evening out celebrating....or an evening in bed listening to sad music questioning my future
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Last week, scores came out at 10:10 AM (which is rather early)! I think that in the past, scores have also come out around 11:10 AM, but for the most part have come out at 3:10 PM (all EST). I have a class until 11:30 so a 10 AM release will be a pleasant surprise, I think.
 
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So worried about Tuesday...considering taking the whole day off in case it's bad news. Are any of you guys thinking about trying to retake in time to still apply this cycle if your score is too low?
 
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Les12345 said:
So worried about Tuesday...considering taking the whole day off in case it's bad news. Are any of you guys thinking about trying to retake in time to still apply this cycle if your score is too low?
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Hmm, due to personal circumstances I would probably take an extra year off to prepare again. I would probably take the extra time to let myself decompress a bit, reflect upon what went wrong this time, and have more time for more additional AAMC material to come out seeing as I've taken all of the AAMC practice FLs (they will probably release another FL this year after testing ends in September).

I guess the harder question for me is at what score would I decide I should retake? I would be okay with scoring maybe 2 points lower than my AAMC FLs -- a little sad that I didn't do as well as expected, but I'd take it. Around 3-4 points lower, I would be rather upset but ultimately probably wouldn't retake because they would still be good scores, just not the ones I wanted. Above 5 points lower, I would start seriously thinking of retaking because at that point I would think something specifically went wrong in my thinking during testing, and I would no longer be competitive for the schools that I want to apply to.
 
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enchantediris said:
Hmm, due to personal circumstances I would probably take an extra year off to prepare again. I would probably take the extra time to let myself decompress a bit, reflect upon what went wrong this time, and have more time for more additional AAMC material to come out seeing as I've taken all of the AAMC practice FLs (they will probably release another FL this year after testing ends in September).

I guess the harder question for me is at what score would I decide I should retake? I would be okay with scoring maybe 2 points lower than my AAMC FLs -- a little sad that I didn't do as well as expected, but I'd take it. Around 3-4 points lower, I would be rather upset but ultimately probably wouldn't retake because they would still be good scores, just not the ones I wanted. Above 5 points lower, I would start seriously thinking of retaking because at that point I would think something specifically went wrong in my thinking during testing, and I would no longer be competitive for the schools that I want to apply to.
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That's what I'm thinking too...I got 515 on AAMC FL2 and like 85% on the sample test, but I really can't afford any lower than like 512...And also that C/P section ruined me :dead:
 
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enchantediris said:
Ohh I feel you there! One of the intrusive thoughts that pop up into my head lately has been, "I scored a 573 on the MCAT". Not sure where that one came from because a 573 is just not possible.. I do think that whether you're ultimately happy or not, it is at least relieving to have closure on how you did, and what you have to do in the future.



Last week, scores came out at 10:10 AM (which is rather early)! I think that in the past, scores have also come out around 11:10 AM, but for the most part have come out at 3:10 PM (all EST). I have a class until 11:30 so a 10 AM release will be a pleasant surprise, I think.
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Oh man, you're ambitious. I'm not going to open it until I get home at the end of the day (I get out at 4p) in case it's bad news. I would probably not be able to resist if I was already home and just had somewhere to go, though.
 
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^ me either. . . I have determined I am going to wait until 5 to check my score so that I don't just stress myself out all day by refreshing the page
 
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Nope, should get scores by noon I think. Does anyone know why they wait a month to release scores? I know they have to scale/curve it, which maybe takes a couple days, but they could easily have scores in a week if they wanted. My thinking is that is prevents people from taking the test multiple times in a short time.
 
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SangriaSalsa said:
Nope, should get scores by noon I think. Does anyone know why they wait a month to release scores? I know they have to scale/curve it, which maybe takes a couple days, but they could easily have scores in a week if they wanted. My thinking is that is prevents people from taking the test multiple times in a short time.
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It has to have something to do with money


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azul21 said:
I think I'm more stressed than I was the day I actually took the test. Let's hope these scores are good... :scared:
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Yeah I'm definitely not as stressed as test day, but pretty nervous. What are you guys hoping for? I'll be really happy with anything 510+. Any celebration plans? If I get 512+, I'm going to have plenty of sangria tonight.
 
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I'm hoping for 515+. I got a 515 on FL1 and a 516 on FL2, so it's not too much of a stretch... I thought test day C/P was killer tho so idk how that'll impact my overall score. As long as I don't drop below 512 I'll be happy and call it a day, but I've already bought emergency ice cream just in case lol. For 512+, sangria sounds like a great idea! I hope everyone gets the score they want!!
 
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azul21 said:
I'm hoping for 515+. I got a 515 on FL1 and a 516 on FL2, so it's not too much of a stretch... I thought test day C/P was killer tho so idk how that'll impact my overall score. As long as I don't drop below 512 I'll be happy and call it a day, but I've already bought emergency ice cream just in case lol. For 512+, sangria sounds like a great idea! I hope everyone gets the score they want!!
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Haha emergency ice cream could be clutch. I got 512/517 on FL1/FL2 so we are fairly similar. I felt the same way, C/P felt tough, but everything else was standard. I think the curving will help us out. Someone said Jan 19 people got scores around 10am? Hopefully soon!
 
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So, you guys score 6 point below your average, Do you think the old exam inflated your scores? since AAMC FL 1 and 2 are recycled, or so i have heard?
 
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