Sept 8. Thoughts?

[detvar]

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what'd people think?

generally, i'd say the feel was what one would expect from AAMC tests, but difficulty was certainly taken up a couple notches on each section.

thanks

 

[Muqabala]

I felt like it went pretty well overall. PS went by pretty fast. I got caught off-guard for a second on VS with the 7th passage, but it wasn't too bad. I could have developed more on WS, but they were pretty engaging topics. BS was tricky near the beginning at first, but after skipping to a later portion and then revisiting the earlier passages, it felt better.

 

[mshheaddoc]

ugh is all I have to say. I hate lens and optics questions! I also hate another type of question that I forgot the formulas for. Oh what the heck, I just hate formulas. 😀

 

[mtmac1]

PS- Lots of Physics. Somewhere in-between AAMC and Kaplan, I thought. More on the AAMC side. Lots of manipulation of equations that you had to have been memorized. I suck at Physics though...hoping for an 8.

VR- Not bad, just like AAMC, just slightly longer. I agree with muqabala, the 7th section was the only tricky one. Hoping for 10-11

BS- Not bad at all. Right on par with AAMC, I would say. There were three organic passages, but they were pretty straightforward. Easily the easiest of the three sections. Hoping for 11-12.

WAY better than May 31st.

Just praying I didn't tank it on Physics...

 

[detvar]

my test sounds different from the one you're all talkin about.

on BS, i had one with liver/bacteria, the microRNAs, some others i can't think of

on PS, one about optical fibers...that's the only one that comes to mind right now

anyone have this?

 

[mshheaddoc]

yep.

 

[detvar]

what lens/optins stuff are you talking about then? cuz i don't remember that

oh and do you remember some of the other bio passages, by chance?

thanks

 

[mtmac1]

Yeah, that's the one I had. Freakin optical fibers...

 

[detvar]

do u guys mind listing some of the bio passages? i'm getting this f-ed up feeling i missed one...

what'd u think of the liver/microRNA passages anyway? i thought it was kinda tricky

 

[mtmac1]

The liver/bacteria/bacteriophage passage? I thought it was ok...a few were kind of tricky. There were the 3 orgo passages...I don't remember them specifically...one was Sn2 stuff. Another bio passage was feedback regulation with TSH, etc. Another was genetics with X-linked recessive. Can't remember the last one...

 

[detvar]

thanks very much. i remember the orgo passage about carbox acids (is that what u meant by sn2)? wasn't there another one about purification, the caffine thing?

it seems like i may have had only 2 orgos cuz the 5 bios are:

bacteriophage
liver/bacteria
TSH stuff
genetics/x linked
miRNA

sound about right?

 

[boof]

For some reason I don't remember there being three orgo passages...can someone tell me what they were?

 

[detvar]

For some reason I don't remember there being three orgo passages...can someone tell me what they were?

read my above post.

could people please also post their thoughts on what they thought was hard/manageable?

 

[Cytotoxic]

I had these passages on BS:

bacteriophage
adipose tissue
liver/bacteria
x-linked recessive
caffeine passage
sn2 passage
tsh/feedback loops

 

[detvar]

I had these passages on BS:

bacteriophage
adipose tissue
liver/bacteria
x-linked recessive
caffeine passage
sn2 passage
tsh/feedback loops

adipose? could u please elaborate, i don't remember that one. unless u had a different form, of course.

oh and can you please also elaborate on the "sn2 passage"? was that the one about carbox acids?

 

[boof]

thanks very much. i remember the orgo passage about carbox acids (is that what u meant by sn2)? wasn't there another one about purification, the caffine thing?

it seems like i may have had only 2 orgos cuz the 5 bios are:

bacteriophage
liver/bacteria
TSH stuff
genetics/x linked
miRNA

sound about right?

That's what I remember too, yo. I thought bio was pretty manageable because there seemed to be less orgo than I anticipated...

 

[Cytotoxic]

adipose? could u please elaborate, i don't remember that one. unless u had a different form, of course.

oh and can you please also elaborate on the "sn2 passage"? was that the one about carbox acids?

Adipose passage had stuff about ubiquitination, adapter proteins, etc.

Yes to carboxylic acids.

 

[detvar]

anyone else think TSH and liver passages were tricky?

and i don't think i completely missed the point here, but how was the carbox passage related to sn2? it seemed to be more about rxn conditions

 

[Cytotoxic]

anyone else think TSH and liver passages were tricky?

and i don't think i completely missed the point here, but how was the carbox passage related to sn2? it seemed to be more about rxn conditions

I don't really remember much about it. I assumed that's what people meant by "SN2".

 

[detvar]

any other specific thoughts from you guys? cytotoxic, boof? i'm really curious to know what others thought

thanks

 

[mtmac1]

I just remember that the passage listed that the first reaction was Sn2. Maybe there were only 2 orgos...or maybe I had a slightly different version...I don't remember the miRNA or adipose, so I'm thinking that is the case. Anyone remember what the PS passages were?

 

[boof]

any other specific thoughts from you guys? cytotoxic, boof? i'm really curious to know what others thought

thanks

I thought that PS was pretty straight forward. It seemed pretty even on chem and phsysics.

I only remember one question on optics. What did you think of PS?

 

[detvar]

I thought that PS was pretty straight forward. It seemed pretty even on chem and phsysics.

I only remember one question on optics. What did you think of PS?

at first it seemed (dare i say) easy. towards the end, there was two passages that tripped me. and the only one i remember is the optical fiber one, which for me was one of the trickiest. i can't recall any others.

bio is my strongest and for some reason i felt that went worse than PS.

u felt bio was pretty straight too?

 

[boof]

I just remember that the passage listed that the first reaction was Sn2. Maybe there were only 2 orgos...or maybe I had a slightly different version...I don't remember the miRNA or adipose, so I'm thinking that is the case. Anyone remember what the PS passages were?

One about the plane taking off, throwing the ball of the building, the Haber process...

 

[Cytotoxic]

I just remember that the passage listed that the first reaction was Sn2. Maybe there were only 2 orgos...or maybe I had a slightly different version...I don't remember the miRNA or adipose, so I'm thinking that is the case. Anyone remember what the PS passages were?

Fiber optics
plane
projectile motion (off building)
pacemaker
electrochem.
gay-lussac

can't remember the 7th passage...

 

[detvar]

what exactly was the elctrochem one, i don't remember that? thanks

 

[mtmac1]

Hmm...I didn't have the plane taking off or the ball off the building. I do remember Haber process now though. The only other ones I can remember are the optical fiber, something about a guy on a horse, something with a capacitor, and a chem passage somewhat about batteries(?) Guess that leaves 2.

 

[mtmac1]

Question though...are curves based on specific versions of the MCAT, even if they differ by just a few passages?

 

[Cytotoxic]

Question though...are curves based on specific versions of the MCAT, even if they differ by just a few passages?

The curve is based on historical performance on your given question set. So you're not curved against those with whom you took the test.

 

[detvar]

they do it by individual passage, i believe, not the test as a whole

 

[sowannabemd]

VR seemed MUCH harder to me than on practice stuff....and lots longer! What'd you guys think?

 

[mohi]

this was my first time taking it and i think that alone threw me off in the beginning. I think i was too calm and slow at first. I had to sort of wake myself up and keep pace after the ps section
PS: I dont think it was particularly hard but it seemed like that to me. Physics is my weakest area and i think just knowing that made me nervous. No optics questions or did i miss something? Almost ran out of time. I think i could've done better. I can recall the least from this section...aaaahhh!!
VR: Ran out of time on the last passage and had to rush thru. I was just slower in general today. I noticed a lot of other people said that. I think it was because i was trying to be more careful now that its the real MCAT. I was double checking with easy answers too, just to make sure it wasnt a trick question or something. But i feel better about verbal than the other two sections. I could be easily mistaken though...
BS: I was actually smiling through the BS section at first!! Untill i got to that mrna, amonia cta, huc gene whatever non sense!! I couldnt believe that junk. I mean just how it looked was enough to make you think wtf?? It was the hardest passage for me and i dont think it was really all that hard. I was feeling the time constraint today, and this clearly was time consuming. It seemed like a question we'd get in a molecular test. Again, i KNOW it wasnt hard cause i was slowly figuring stuff out, but with a min and half for each question, that seemed like overkill to me. I still finsihed bio with 5 min to spare. I usually get thro BS the fastest. I felt clobbered by the end of it ...🙁
WS: Never practiced for this before but the topics were interesting enough. My second essay was a lot longer, i just kept going. I hope i was comprehensible by the end because i was making some twisted argument that started to sound confusing even to myself! lol

Overall it was a learning experience. I was much more tense leading upto the day of the test, but i calmed down in the last couple of days. I did almost all of EK 1001 physics and chem books because i was so scared of PS> i dont think it was a good idea. Its good for practice. i think the questions on PS dont get as hard as some of the ones in that EK book. I felt ripped off really, because some physics topics werent touched upon in the test at all. eg fluids and optics...and i practiced those like mad! i have a bad feeling about PS. damn! a month is too long!
Hppefully i'll be more ready for easier PS questions next time...
And thanks everyone here at SDN..this is my first time posting but i've been keeping up with your comments to get me thru the preparation..🙂

 

[Muqabala]

yeah, any thoughts on vr?

 

[mtmac1]

I'll elaborate further on verbal. First off, my sections were (not in order): volcano, Barnum, something about memories/psych, honeybees, French Revolution...don't remember the other two at the moment.

The verbal passages were definitely longer than any practice test, but that has been the trend on more recent MCAts. I generally don't go back to the passage on verbal more than a few times, so I was barely ok on time. There were some tricky questions here and there, but there seemed to always be two pretty obvious WRONG answers...so for the tough ones, it was still 50/50. I really thought that the questions were similar to what one would see on an AAMC practice test. Maybe just a bit tougher.

 

[de_la_soul]

I took Friday's MCAT. PS had way more chemistry passages than physics (opposite to the Saturday test takers). but there weren't any off-the-wall topics, the passages were all doable. some questions, though, were tough. yet many were real straightforward. we had a passage on acid/base titrations and indicators, water pressure A1v1 stuff, photon/electron, le chat principle, and soemthing else

VR also had longer passages (guess it is a trend for long passages) but the reading was relatively easy. section was similar to AAMC tests IMO

BS was by far the toughest. we had 3 orgo passages, a couple of those were off-the-wall. about 2 bio passages were pretty tough, had to reason through the information on the questions. and then other passages were easier. we had passges on miRNA (a tough one), lactone orgo chem one (very tough one), cystic fibrosis (somewhat tough), circulation/hemoglobin, and something im forgetting

 

[Tenacious T]

Retaker from July 13th here

I was much calmer than when I took the test in July and I am hoping that that alone will help me at least a little. Also, traveled 6.5 hours just to be able to retake today.

PS: Def easier than July 13, everything seemed doable. More physics than chem. I had passages on optic fibers, gay-lussacs, projectile motion, some circus thing (anyone else have this one?? ) and an electrochem passage.

VR: I thought the passages were hard to read, but the questions were doable. One passage was really hard, the others seemed to be ok. Passages were french rev., barnum/bailey, psych/memory stuff, honeybees, another science topic but I dont remember it, and one on myth's

BS: Not as passage based as the July exam. I had passages on liver/histidine, 3 orgo (1 carbox acids/Sn2, amines), TSH, bacteriophages, genetics/xlinked. Overall, i thought this was harder than the last time, but still doable. Just took a while to figure out some of the questions.

Writing: Topics were pretty easy to write about.

Overall, I dont know how I did. Expecting the worst, hoping for the best. Def. feel better than last time though.

And I agree with the other poster about things being a little bit slower today, I was off on time as well. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that some of the questions were wordy and convoluted making it tough to keep momentum

 

[mtmac1]

Tenacious T, I had the same test as you. Seems like we are some of the few that got that version. I KNEW that there were three orgo passages, haha.

 

[Muqabala]

hmm...am I the only one that doesn't seem to recall a french revolution passage on verbal???

 

[Psychotropic]

Third time around (retake from Apr 07).

PS: Not bad at all. Mostly physics. Had passages on fiber optics, kinematics, some passage on caffeine and one on pacemakers. I don't really remember the rest. There were 1 or 2 that I really wasn't too sure about, but made a reasonable guess. Hoping for a high score...

VR: So this is the only reason I decided to retake: to improve my piss poor verbal score. Frankly, after 9 FL EKs and 3 AAMC tests, I feel as if everything was a waste and I'm back to square 1. The passages were really really long and the questions were supposedly manageable but tough given the length of the passages and the time it took to read them. Passage topics included, barnum/bailey, theory of warfare, memory, honeybees, islands/volcanos, robots and one other passage I don't quite remember. The honeybees and robots passages really hurt me. I finished with two minutes left and made some reasonable guesses. I am praying for a 10. If I don't get a 10, then this retake would have been totally pointless.

WS: I did horrendous here. It wasn't difficult, it was just that after 29 minutes and 30 seconds into the first essay, I glanced again at the prompt and realized I did not read it carefully enough. I did not get a chance to finish my last sentence, but that wouldn't have mattered as my essay did not really answer the prompt anyway. The second essay I did well on, I thought. I got an S last time I wrote the MCAT and a P the first time, so I really don't care what I get because I think schools understand that I can write decently.

BS: 2 orgo pasages which were easy, microRNAs, TRH/hormone, liver/bacteria, bacteriophage/antibiotic passages. I thought these passages were comprable to AAMC passages, however I felt as if the microRNA one was slightly more difficult. I think I did well on this section.


My goal coming in: PS: 12+, VR: 10+, BS: 12+

I think I will acheive my science goals, however, regarding that VR section...yea...

 

[ChubbyChaser]

PS- sort of AAMC like, definitely alot harder though
VR-aamc long just with longer passages
BS-MUCH HARDER, yes it is true it is more passage based, but i dont think it is like a second VR like some ppl said

 

[ChubbyChaser]

I dontremember any one about SN2, someone please tell me i didnt miss this whole passage??? I remember one about Caffeine was that the SN2 one??

 

[mshheaddoc]

I had a PS that gave you the lens equation. it was just one big physics problem dealing with an airplane.

 

[sassalicious]

took the exam this morning . . . .

I thought PS was pretty easy, but that probably means I completely missed the point. VR took me the whole time, which is rare. But obviously everyone else noticed that the passages are longer. that's the only reason I can think of. I actually didn't get to answer the last one because as I went to answer the question time was up. Hopefully my VR score doesn't go down as I've been getting 10-12 on it. WS was neutral. I didn't really review or practice it, so who knows. I have some faith in my writing skills, but I don't think my essays were particularly great. And BS I felt pretty shaky on. Not totally shaky, but I questioned myself on a lot of the answers . . .and I remembered reading the material and where I read it, but not the details.

Whatever. It's over with. I hope I don't have to retake it, but I acknowledge that I might. I'm gonna party now.

 

[studiddy]

hmm...am I the only one that doesn't seem to recall a french revolution passage on verbal???

The french revolution one was actually the one about the movie danton and how watching it with a Polish audience, one could see in their reactions that it could have nothing less than a double meaning, or something like that. And the French socialists were pissed because they were worried about having gone to all the trouble to effectively edit history and whatnot, and the people were pissed because the government funded part of the movie. Blah, blah, etc.

I think the verbal was easy. The other two sections (not counting writing, as I don't think anyone cares about it) I thought were certainly manageable, or would have been had I studied physics or organic. I didn't bother to learn anything about formulas or any of that, so that hurt, and on both sections I completely lost track of time and dawdled around. I think I left 5 unanswered on the PS section😱. I only took it today because I waited to long to cancel and thought it would be a good diagnostic, so I'm not freaking out or anything, and of course I expect a poor score. I think it was worth it though, and if it taught me anything, it is to never leave a question blank, instead take a best guess, then mark it. That way, worst case scenario, when you dick around and quit looking at the clock like an idiot, when the test shuts down on you don't have any blanks.

This test seemed like there were few things one truly had to know in detail. I felt like if I had just read everything in the examkrackers books and had a general feel for the material I could have recognized concepts and eliminated more answer choices. I think as I study for the next one, I'll forgo details and treat every section like the verbal and go 'big picture'.

 

[mshheaddoc]

whoa, I didn't have that VR passage 😕 😱

 

[ChubbyChaser]

me neither, i had barnum, something about reality vs imaginary, honeybees,underwater life forms, dont remember the rest

 

[detvar]

ok, was anyone annoyed at all by the Thyroid passage? (on BS)

 

[ChubbyChaser]

haha yeah a little bit, although i think the hardest passage out of both science sections was the fiber optics one, and some of the biology questions were like wow that seems really detailed, alot more detailed than EK said we had to know them....so does anyone wanna go out on a limb and predict their score???

imma go with some where between 25-37 lol and writing ( i had no idea what one of the words in one prompt really even referred to so...n-p

 

[utahjazz]

I had these passages on BS:

bacteriophage
adipose tissue
liver/bacteria
x-linked recessive
caffeine passage
sn2 passage
tsh/feedback loops

Was the caffeine passage about antibodies too? We had a caffeine/antibody passage on the Aug. 16th exam.

 

[studiddy]

imma go with some where between 25-37 lol and writing ( i had no idea what one of the words in one prompt really even referred to so...n-p

I'd say 25. I'm guessing 12 on vr and then 6 and 7. There is simply no way I could have done much better on the first section given how many I left blank.
Also, I realized once I started the test that the physics section is 95% "how far/ how long/ how fast does something fall" questions.