physical sciences are killing me...

[JRock310]

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...i feel like im DOOMED.

i am good at bio and orgo. VR is fine. physical sciences are seriously going to kill me.

i am SO nervous.

i have the EK books and even bought the berkeley review books, but i really dont think anything is going to help. i feel hopeless.

i am going to get a physics tutor, too, til my test date (july 17th) and am hoping that he/she can work miracles.

 

[bkz]

what's tripping you up? math?
if you elaborate a little more maybe we can help?

 

[rockaction]

Is it the math? I usually found myself usually making 3-4 calculation errors. Once I practiced my MCAT math, I was able to trim that down. It really is the difference between an 8 and a 9 or a 9 and a 10.

Is it the formulas? Once I had a firm grasp of how every formula in my practice books worked, my scores increased dramatically.

Is it time? If you're running out of time you may need to practice your math (fast, accurate calculations are key) or just need to be quicker in making connections between the passage and the information you know.

Is it physics specifically and not so much gen chem? That's where I was. I was fairly solid on my gen chem during my review, but physics didn't stick with me my first time around. I really had to work at it. You need to get a set of practice problems and work them till your brain explodes. Then work more.

In three or so weeks leading up to my MCAT here is how my time was distributed:
0% - Organic
2% - Biology
10% - Gen Chem
25% - Verbal
63% - Physics

It paid off during my prep. I was making 12s and 13s consistently on my practice tests. Ended up with an 11 on the real thing, I couldn't have been happier. On the real thing, it all comes down to over-coming your nerves at the start of the test.

Hope this is helpful! Once we know more directly what your problem is I'm sure we all can help more!

 

[phEight]

Don't defeat yourself before giving it all you got. The TBR books are excellent. Sometimes I don't get topics unless I re-read the material a few times and sometimes I don't completely understand the solution to some of the questions, but I go back and re-read that part of the material or re-read the solution a few times, draw out what the solution is trying to tell me where drawing is applicable (usually physics). Sometimes I still don't get it. I move on, and then the next day look at it again, and then somehow things start making more sense. Sooner or later, it WILL come. Don't defeat yourself before trying or else you will approach the material with a negative energy, and that usually doesn't help anything. I used to be afraid of physics. Before while reading physics I would be thinking about how I seriously hate this stuff and I can't understand it... well it's easy to see how this is kind of self-fulfilling. Instead of focusing my energy on physics, a good portion was focused on being annoyed by it. That's a big waste of time, and more importantly keeps you from understanding physics and it doesn't help your mood much either.

Not to mention, some of the TBR passages kick my ass. Either I cave in and say "goddamn this stuff seriously sucks I don't want to do this" (which I have), or you get rid of that negativity and learn from your mistakes (which is something I've learned to do much more often). It feels good when you grasp the material. It will feel even better once after all this struggle you're rewarded with a nice MCAT score. 🙂

And remember what it says on those TBR books on the back cover... "If you study it, it will come!" 😛

Once we know more directly what your problem is I'm sure we all can help more!

+1

 

[JRock310]

thank you all so much!

i have been using EK physics right now...i will read the lessons usually 2 or 3 time...go over the formulas...and then when i try the practice problems, i just dont understand it at all. i have trouble visualizing it, i have trouble with what formula to use (even though you would think this would be obvious, i swear it is not). i do have TBR books but havent cracked them open yet mainly because they are SO much bigger than my EK book and that is really intimidating to me. probably not a good thing, but my skewed logic just figures, "hey...the EK book is SO much smaller, so the TBR books must be full of useless stuff that i dont need to know for the test."

i havent started reviewing gen chem yet but when i took it in class i was not so great at it. had to work VERY hard to do well.

orgo and bio just come naturally. it's so frustrating.

 

[phEight]

thank you all so much!

i have been using EK physics right now...i will read the lessons usually 2 or 3 time...go over the formulas...and then when i try the practice problems, i just dont understand it at all. i have trouble visualizing it, i have trouble with what formula to use (even though you would think this would be obvious, i swear it is not). i do have TBR books but havent cracked them open yet mainly because they are SO much bigger than my EK book and that is really intimidating to me. probably not a good thing, but my skewed logic just figures, "hey...the EK book is SO much smaller, so the TBR books must be full of useless stuff that i dont need to know for the test."

i havent started reviewing gen chem yet but when i took it in class i was not so great at it. had to work VERY hard to do well.

orgo and bio just come naturally. it's so frustrating.

The TBR books are only bigger because they have a minimum of 10 passages per each section AND paragraph answers for literally each question. There's atleast 50 passages (~7 questions per passage) in just one book, which means a minimum of 350 of questions & 350 paragraph answers. Usually there are more like 13 passages or so per section... so it's even more than that number. That's what leads to the bulk of the books. You should give them a shot. Honestly don't waste your time with EK for physical sciences. Once you start using TBR you'll realize that's what you should've began with!

 

[sv3]

i agree with pheight. Ek physics is pretty brutal and even people who generally like Ek admit its their worst covered topic. For what its worth, my physics marks were absolutely horrific and i was sure that physics alone was going to keep me out of medschool but now I'm actually most confident in it from all 4 sciences! I used TPR and yes, it is way bigger than Ek (more than twice the size) but i understand physics now. Ek gives you the bare (and emphasis on bare) bones and then you got figure it out and without a good background you're screwed. So spend the time now, and you'll feel alot better soon. I do have Ek physics too so I'm not bashing them without experience, im bashing them with experience.

sv3

 

[bkz]

TBR is amazing, give them a chance. I have heard good things about Nova for physics, but have not tried them. There are a couple threads floating around this forum raving about Nova =)

i don't like the EK explanations/text (only use them for discretes)because it seems like they focus too much on memorization/mnemonics...that's not gonna get you too far on the mcat...BR really goes into the how and why, so that you can reason your way to an answer.

 

[crazymedgirl]

I have BR for physics, and, while I think the explanations to problems are amazing, I too am very discouraged by the subject as a whole. I am currently getting only about half (or less) right of the problems that I do...I will understand the lesson, but when it comes to applying what I know to solving the problem, it's like I can't make the connections in my mind.

I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do, other than reading through all the solutions. I don't really feel good about moving on to the next topic when I have a mastery level below 50% of the previous one, but I'm just not sure what else I can do.

Definitely having the most trouble in this area...

 

[olemissbabydoc]

the math was getting me a lot more than I realized. the EK verbal & math book can really help with that. Calculation errors can totally cost you a few points on the real deal.

Hang in there. I loathed PS.