Post MCAT musings

[Toejam]

I was wondering....do you think that small minority of test takers who aced the most recent MCAT don't know about this site or choose not to post their overwhelming confidence? It just seems like the vast, vast majority of posters feel like they were trounced by this one (me included).

Also, I'm sorry, but this test was about 5 times as difficult as the one I took in April. Makes me wonder if I should have left average enough alone.

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[Bevo]

this was my first one and hopefully last one. the verbal section startled me some. It just seemed to be tougher than a lot of the practice passages i did.

Physical sciences scared the living crap out of me. I was expecting a bit more of gravity, maybe a couple mechanics problems. But it seemed like a lot was waves and light? I tried pushing the whole experience out of my head after I left.

Biology seemed pretty easy at first. The first couple passages seemed like they were trying to jog me back into the test. But as the section went on, the difficulty increased as well.


But the one thing I noticed was that the wording of some questions was very deceiving. like not not prohibiting or something like that. Easy enough to understand if you read it, but if your cruising along and not paying too much attention to the questions so much, you could make a lot of mistakes.


But Im happy its over. Now to just sit and wait.

 

[conure]

I think this is a good question. I have a problem where i tend to beat myself up about stupid little mistakes I recall after a test. As a result I feel I did much worse. Then when the scores come I find that all is not lost and in some cases I actually did okay.

I think this may be the case with alot of people on this board. They don't feel really confident in how they did but in reality they will probably do fine.

I don't think there is anyway to walk out of this test feeling like you aced it. Its a standardized test and its meant to f'with you. The only way to feel great about this test is if you had an extra hour per section to spend some time thinking about things.

Anyway keep the faith.

 

[CoffeeCat]

SOMEONE has to ace it...I wonder if those people who did well on the MCAT felt like they did well after. Maybe we should ask in pre-allo?

 

[limit]

Let me see if I can try to explain this to you people...

The MCAT is not a test that you want to exit bragging you got a 45T... 2 months of waiting for scores is plenty of time for the cockiest of pre-meds to develop a humble side and eventually second-guess themselves on some fuzzy questions that they vaguely recall from the exam. This is hence the only exam I know where many actually end up underestimating their scores, however, this depends on many issues such as confidence, preparation, and the placement and perceived difficulty of the experimental passages.

All in all, no one can actually predict their score or the breakdown per section (ie, no one knows the curve and how everyone else scored), so the majority of people will either underestimate or overestimate their scores. I think many people, either from first or second hand experience have learned to err on the side of caution and take a humble perspective -- respecting the difficulty of the exam and just hoping for the best... No one wants to be the one to predict a 38 and end up with a 28.

 

[San_Juan_Sun]

Ditto what limit said.

Also, it is kind of funny, but as the weeks pass many that I know could only remember the questions they most likely got wrong. I walked out in April feeling kind of down, but I really doubted myself as the weeks wore on. And then I was pleasantly surprised with a decent score.

Between now and when you get your scores back: relax! Worrying excessively isn't going to change your score or anything.

 

[Sammarai]

About how early could you access your online scores?

 

[San_Juan_Sun]

About six weeks. Took the test April 20th, got my online scores June 7th.

 

[Toejam]

Sammarai: I'm insanely jealous over your avatar!!! Where did you get it? Please personal message me if there are others in the Spongebob pantheon that I can access.

Limit: Well said.

One thing that I wanted to add is that I wonder if there is another pie slice of test takers who do pretty well (like 30 and above), but based mostly on good guessing. I say this only in the sense that my test (AG) felt extraordinarily challenging and I had to guess on a lot of questions. None of the passages seemed to be straightforward. Well, I'm exaggerating, but most of them made me sweat. It makes me think that my score could easily go 5 points one way or another just based on luck.

Oh well.

 

[limit]

Originally posted by Toejam
Limit: Well said.

One thing that I wanted to add is that I wonder if there is another pie slice of test takers who do pretty well (like 30 and above), but based mostly on good guessing. I say this only in the sense that my test (AG) felt extraordinarily challenging and I had to guess on a lot of questions. None of the passages seemed to be straightforward. Well, I'm exaggerating, but most of them made me sweat. It makes me think that my score could easily go 5 points one way or another just based on luck.

Oh well.

I agree. I prepared with perhaps the best guesser in the world... he'd guess his way to 30+ on kaplan exams [gosh I hope he's not reading this !! ] and 11's on verbal.

There is of course a skill aspect -- the test writers are only human and making wrong answer choices sound correct is an immensely difficult job, but guessing is a double edged sword that everyone uses... you guess some and you loose some that's the name of the game.

 

[Kry]

Originally posted by limit


I agree. I prepared with perhaps the best guesser in the world... he'd guess his way to 30+ on kaplan exams [gosh I hope he's not reading this !! ] and 11's on verbal.

There is of course a skill aspect -- the test writers are only human and making wrong answer choices sound correct is an immensely difficult job, but guessing is a double edged sword that everyone uses... you guess some and you loose some that's the name of the game.

hahaha, I just finally saw this. Unfortunately, my "guessing abilities" didn't show up for test day.

 

[limit]

haha.. you never know!

 

[Kry]

haha, your right. We'll both end up with the 50 T^2's (inside joke).