PHYSICAL SCIENCE Section: it's so freakin' difficult!

[Marjan Islam]

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So I'm a Kaplan student now, going through the course. I read over and worked the EK stuff over the summer, and have taken my pre-med classes (gen chem 1 and 2 I got B's in, physics 1 and 2 I got A's in). And I'm doing these kaplan tests and they are so difficult. I'm guessing on maybe a fourth of them, and getting about 60% correct on these. I took the Kaplan FL 1 and did better than I thought (PS 10, VR 9, BS 12), and I got like 20 wrong in the PS there also! Is this okay? Should I not sweat it? I get the 60%'s on the topical tests.

I keep hearing Kaplan's PS is way harder than the AAMC, but I don't want to delve in and waste an AAMC exam just yet. I don't know, just bummed out about how hard this section is compared to the others. Anyone else feel the same way? What did you guys do?

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Do the topical tests have two passages and a few discretes (usually around 17 questions total)? If these are the topical tests I'm thinking of, they are designed to be much harder than anything you would see on an AAMC test...60% is pretty good.

 

[Marjan Islam]

I still feel I didn't earn the 60%, seeing as I guess correctly on atleast 2 or 3 questions every time. Out of 21, that's a good chunk.

Are the Physical Science Section Tests aimed to be more difficult than anything on the actual MCAT? Like an extended topical test?

Whoever came up with this strategy sucks. To make things harder so you're better prepared is not cool. Lowers self-esteem, and builds frustration in my opinion.

 

[southstar99]

Hey Marjan,

As far as the real MCAT goes, the key to the PS section is confidence. Its not necessarily that the questions are hard, its more that the answer choices are tricky. You have to KNOW your sh**. Reciting equations and knowing the "right hand" rule will only get you so far, it is important to understand the concepts...for example you should understand what free energy actually is and why randomness (entropy) must be subtracted from the energy release of a system in order to get a free energy value. Study smart not hard (actually study smart and hard).

Once you understand the concepts you will start getting 95% of the topical and subject questions right. I went from where you are right now being fustrated with the section to thinking to myself "this section is too easy, I wish they would make it harder".

Its a mindset that you have to get to and everyone can get there...once you do 90% of the questions will seem like a breeze and you will finish 15 minutes early 😀.

Hope this helps.

 

[DrMattOglesby]

I get asked about the Physical Science section quite a bit. The approach I used that helped me out was practice problems. I must have done more than 500+ physics and chemistry discrete questions.
When the MCAT came around I skimmed the passages and treated the questions as if they were stand-alones.

so...
1st) do sufficient content review.
2nd) work practice problems and review mistakes.

Over time, you might find that the mistakes you make aren't necessarily due to lack of content knowledge, but rather, are mathematical errors. And when the situation calls for it, review the content if a question suggests you lack the necessary background knowledge.

And keep in mind, the AAMC offers 8 practice tests. That is a good amount of preparatory material to utilize before taking the real thing. I wouldn't become overly concerned with running out of those tests. Instead, I would look to find as many discrete PS problems as possible.

 

[alibai3ah]

Practice, Practice, practice....do as much as u can using all the methods. EK, Kalpan, PR, and Berkeley Review books (which helped me the most). Once you have mastered it...you will actually start liking it. It was my favorite section and I got bad grades in physical sciences in college....so...

 

[silverlion]

I agree with southstar....Confidence is a big issue....

Conceptually I think i'm pretty good at physics and chem and come up with explanations to most of the questions that are asked on the MCAT. nevertheless I am really low on confidence....the second point about practicing by Drmatt is dead on...i took the Sept. 3 MCAT and bombed the PS section (I got a 7 for a total of 28S)...If i would've been a bit more confident with the Physical Science, I wouldn't have been moping around these days worrying about my future...Now I'm retaking it sometime in march and know that the trick is to practice like crazy.....The concepts don't just need to be there in your head...you should also be able to recall everything in a split second so that you don't end up wasting time...your processing speed has to be good so that you don't even get time to panic or over think something....

I feel like sharing my misery here and so will explain what happened when I took the exam( BS 12, VR 9, PS 7, WS S)

I MISSED 2 full paragraphs on the PS. Can you Imagine!! 😱

I was horrendous at managing time and was so caught up in the the early passages that by the end of it I just broke down... the thing that kept me preoccupied was that the first 30 questions i attempted were probably all correct . I might have made a few mistakes but still I'm pretty sure that I got 30 of the first 35 right....but when I looked at the time I freaked out and ended up losing everything for the last two passages and not concentrating on any of the answers that I marked ... I realized later that the fact that I consider myself weak (even when conceptually sound) at physics and chem spelled doom for me...

So here I am preparing all over again...But I intend to make sure that I practice a LOT before I go for the next one...

The MCAT Monster is going down this time and I think the same goes for a lot of people....PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE...AND THEN PRACTICE SOME MORE...Thats the key...Its not hard at all...you just need to put your head to it...

 

[Mcatguy]

Well, physics on the MCAT in general is basic. What is does is force you to take simple concepts, and apply them in more robust situations.

In fact, I would argue the physics is not even at a first year university physics level, it more like a first year overview. I opened up my first year physics textbook (granted, it was a calculus based course here, where I remember the class average was in the 40% range until they curved it up), and it was 1000X more complicated and vast than any ExamKrackers/Princeton review etc book. I realized that maybe 5-10% of the material is covered in those review books (and the MCAT), it's like they take some very general basic concept from each chapter and that's it.

The same is true of course with biology and chemistry, but it's far more apparent with physics and organic chemistry. I thought to myself "wow this electricity/magnetism chapter sure is long in this review book", than I opened up my first year text and I was singing hallelujah, thinking how lucky I am to only be reading that.

Sure the MCAT can ask you things which sound complicated, and you never seen before. But two things work in your favor, one is that the problem is (or should be) still solvable using simple concepts, and two is that the test is relative, so if you have no clue, chances are a lot of other people don't know either.

Chances are that its not that "killer" question/passage that will hurt you, but your own time management.

 

[alibai3ah]

Another key thing most people fail to understand is that the MCATs are never (rarely if they do) ask you straightforward questions with plug and chuging numbers. You really have to understand the basic concepts and understand them WELL!! B/c when i saw my physical sciences passage I was shocked. IT was HARD, like the AMCC people come up with the most ridiculous passages possible. But you have to understand they all sound "hard", but they all have basic concepts that if you have mastered you should be able to figure it out. You do not need to get good grades in your physical science classes, I even got C's on some of my chem courses. But i did well, b/c I practiced a crapload....if you do it gives you confidence as well as a solid background of most concepts