Rounding on mcat

[ravens11]

I know we are supposed to round "g" from 9.8 to 10, but are there any other constants that should be rounded? Would using 6 E23 lose one any points over using 6.02 E23 ?

-Thanks

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[engineeredout]

Just be smart about it. Complex calculations will not be required, and a lot of the times you just have to get the answer down to the correct order of magnitude and you'll know which answer choice you need.

You'll also get something sometimes thats like 9.63/3.21, which is just 3.

 

[Oceaner]

MCAT is not a test to measure how well you can calculate (I think that was covered by grade 6). They're measuring how well you can THINK and RECALL in a short period. So unless the test makers are feeling particularly bitch, highly doubt there is any case where you cannot use rounding.

Of course it doesn't hurt if you're a human calculator.

 

[LossForWords]

Yeah, the answer choices won't be things that differ by .001 or anything, so you should be safe. Really though, one big thing they do is mess with orders of magnitude (10^23 vs 10^22 vs 10^-22 vs 10^-23).

 

[futuredoctor10]

Would using 6 E23 lose one any points over using 6.02 E23 ?

Nope - you can definitely round with a relative degree of liberty. As people have mentioned above watch for differences in orders of magnitude / see how close answers are to each other. But most of the time you can round ALOT.

are there any other constants that should be rounded?

Alot of constants can be rounded
k from electrostatics = 8.99 x 10^9 can be rounded to 9x 10^9

 

[GoldShadow]

When I want to round numbers, I just round them to "0", the roundest number of them all (as opposed to 4, which is the most jagged).

 

[amerz404]

When I want to round numbers, I just round them to "0", the roundest number of them all (as opposed to 4, which is the most jagged).

hahaha that made me laugh a little too much. I think all this studying is getting to my head.