Q about real MCAT Bio passages

[pezzang]

Are they very familiar knowledge-based like EK 30 min lecture exams where you can often do problems even without reading the passages or are the real passages hard so that reading is indispensable? I am sure there are qs outside of independent questions that ask specific facts/concepts not explicitly stated in the passage but I was curious how far off from the real MCAT the EK 30min lecture bio passages are. Are some passages familiar and some really really hard that it's like learning new concepts from reading passages? Are stuff that's discussed in the passages more or less what we need to know for the MCAT? What/how did you prepare/learn to do well on those passages that you were not familiar with?

For those who have taken the MCAT, please let me know. Thank you very much for all your help in advance!

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[Polodog21]

Are they very familiar knowledge-based like EK 30 min lecture exams where you can often do problems even without reading the passages or are the real passages hard so that reading is indispensable? I am sure there are qs outside of independent questions that ask specific facts/concepts not explicitly stated in the passage but I was curious how far off from the real MCAT the EK 30min lecture bio passages are. Are some passages familiar and some really really hard that it's like learning new concepts from reading passages? Are stuff that's discussed in the passages more or less what we need to know for the MCAT? What/how did you prepare/learn to do well on those passages that you were not familiar with?

For those who have taken the MCAT, please let me know. Thank you very much for all your help in advance!

i dont know if this will help but many (not all) of the passage based questions for bio on the mcat can pretty much be answered with little need for the passage itself....this is only true for some of the "easier" passages though...i guess the answer is it totally depends on the passage and its topic...there are two types of passages: 1) factual based passage that might be found in encyclopedia (this is the type of passage i refer to above) 2) experimental passage that tells a story (you can rarely answer questions w/o lookin at passage

 

[pezzang]

Any more feedbacks from those who have taken it already please?

 

[pezzang]

please?

 

[go lakers]

i felt like on the april exam the BS for my form (CQ) felt similar to a verbal passage in that it was a good amount of reading comprehension. there was an entire passage with a signal transduction pathway and you had to predict effects of certain changes, but the only "biology" you really needed to know was what phosphorylate means and what enzymes are.

 

[DOC1987]

i think most of it can be answered without the passage (the pseudo-discretes) and then after you do those go back to the passage and skim over it for the passage based ones

 

[geno2568]

heres a fact that sadly is not addressed in any review books...

The real mcat is different from the aamc tests. This is because the aamc tests have tried and true questions; the real mcat has a lot of first-timers. So you'll see a passage and be like WTF!!!! The key is to relax and just do your best. On the mcat that i took (april 06), the bio section was impossible. I mean, it was a b*tch. There was a development passage that my development-major friend found hard. There was hardly any orgo (like 1 passage, and even that was tough). Also, there was a lot more gen/dev stuff than in the practice tests (this is true of all the recent tests).

The point that i'm trying to make is that the test is gonna be different. In some way or another, whether its really hard or really easy, whether some passages are really short or really long, whether its skewed to orgo or bio (or phys/chem),...its gonna feel different. You just gotta keep your cool and dont lose your pacing. No matter what, the standardization is gonna level the playing field at the end.

 

[go lakers]

heres a fact that sadly is not addressed in any review books...

The real mcat is different from the aamc tests. This is because the aamc tests have tried and true questions; the real mcat has a lot of first-timers. So you'll see a passage and be like WTF!!!! The key is to relax and just do your best. On the mcat that i took (april 06), the bio section was impossible. I mean, it was a b*tch. There was a development passage that my development-major friend found hard. There was hardly any orgo (like 1 passage, and even that was tough). Also, there was a lot more gen/dev stuff than in the practice tests (this is true of all the recent tests).

The point that i'm trying to make is that the test is gonna be different. In some way or another, whether its really hard or really easy, whether some passages are really short or really long, whether its skewed to orgo or bio (or phys/chem),...its gonna feel different. You just gotta keep your cool and dont lose your pacing. No matter what, the standardization is gonna level the playing field at the end.

bien dicho

 

[pezzang]

Wow, thanks all. More inputs are appreciated, though!!!

 

[Mr. Tee]

Are they very familiar knowledge-based like EK 30 min lecture exams where you can often do problems even without reading the passages or are the real passages hard so that reading is indispensable?

The latter, from what I noticed on the April exam. It was like another verbal section in ways, where you have to go with gut feel.

 

[sekem]

Are they very familiar knowledge-based like EK 30 min lecture exams where you can often do problems even without reading the passages or are the real passages hard so that reading is indispensable? I am sure there are qs outside of independent questions that ask specific facts/concepts not explicitly stated in the passage but I was curious how far off from the real MCAT the EK 30min lecture bio passages are. Are some passages familiar and some really really hard that it's like learning new concepts from reading passages? Are stuff that's discussed in the passages more or less what we need to know for the MCAT? What/how did you prepare/learn to do well on those passages that you were not familiar with?

For those who have taken the MCAT, please let me know. Thank you very much for all your help in advance!

Bio section starts with 2-3 easy passages and then they become fuking harder and harder such that the last 1-2 passages make you feel dead!