SN2'd first day

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TexasSurgeon

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EDIT: This was supposed to be a thread about the first day of SN2. However as with all intelligent life, things evolve. This thread has now become a support page for people following the SN2 plan. You can think of it as Alcoholics Anonymous for people studying to take the MCAT using the SN2 plan.

EDIT July 1, 2014:
If you are interested in @mehc012's Anki Deck, DO NOT SEND A PM. Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7if6wgaif98rkoa/mehc012 SN2edCh4s.apkg
**A NOTE: @mehc012 and several others (myself included) want to tell you guys that studying from another person's deck will probably not be as beneficial to you as creating your own cards. Yes you can take advantage of @mehc012's generosity, but you won't get the same advantage. Study the material. Create cards as you go along. You will find it more helpful to your studying. **

EDIT July 22, 2014:
The following is @TBRBiosadist's official MCAT Verbal Reasoning Strategy:
@TBRBiosadist's strategy that got [him] from a 7 average to scoring 13-15 average..

Spend the bulk of your time reading. Up to 3 minutes per passage.
  • Read the first and last paragraph thoroughly to begin with. Understand what the authors main point will be because 90% of questions require nothing more than a general idea.
  • After this, read the entire passage slowly enough where you dont feel like you need to reread sentences for understanding.
Next is just answer questions, there is a few tricks here that work about 90% of the time
  • Unless the passage is asking you about a specific detail, dont look back. READ EVERY ANSWER THOROUGLY AND THEN Answer what makes sense from the general point of the passage. Its very easy to prove a wrong answer to be somewhat correct if you dig hard enough, dont. Answer what your gut says and move onto the next question, dont contemplate to much. With that being said...
  • Answer like you were dropped on the head as a child. Alot of times if Im arguing between two answers, there is the answer that is 100% correct, and one that is 90% correct. Be an idoit and choose the one that seems like it is correct. However.....
  • "Always" is a word to avoid. If an answer uses this word, or definites like it, it is something to avoid. I would say 80% of the time the wishy washy answer is more correct then the highly affirmative one. This leads to my final point....
  • 100% of the time you are not actually looking for the "right" answer in verbal, this isnt PS or BS where 1+1 almost always equals 2 (unless we are talking about the different sedimentation values for Ribosomes). In verbal you are looking for the answer that isnt wrong. Often times an answer will seem very "right" but one aspect of it is clearly wrong, as compared to an answer that isnt wrong, but doesnt seem as right as that answer, these are meant to fool you. Choose the answer that isnt wrong.
I understand that I few of these tips may be at odds with each other. Ultimately you must adjust slightly for each passage, but it comes down to one thing. Read thoroughly. Read every sentence in the passage. Read every question. Read every answer. Then the correct answer will be fairly obvious. This may seem like it takes longer, but it takes much less time than skimming, and then trying to find the correct information later.

Or to summarize in one sentence

Understand what the hell the author is arguing

EDIT July 26, 2014:
@DoctorInASaree uploaded a guide to Verbal Reasoning. If you're interested, it's worth a look. Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2byivymmqwlvjms/MCAT VR Primer DRSAREE.pdf

EDIT 2, July 26, 2014: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/sn2d-first-day.1074344/page-52#post-15510851
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Just finished the first day of SN2...man is it long and exhausting.

The first day is BR physics chapter (translational motion) + 1/3 of the passages. I felt like I wasn't able to apply the stuff I read into the stuff I was tested on.

Has anyone felt this way when following the schedule? It just seems like the contents of the chapter didn't really stick in my head when I took the practice passages. Will this improve over time?

EDIT 3, March 4, 2015:

For verbal, if you are feeling lost and confused, I highly highly recommend you to look into the MCAT Strategy Course by @Jack Westin. I've been working with him, and nothing comes close to his course and teaching. It's a strategy course, so it will cover everything, not just the VR/CARS section.
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
I hate that chapter.

Things I hate studying: reproduction and development, especially the female hormones and cycles, mitosis/meiosis, stereochemistry, standing waves, electrostatics and magnetism, and galvanic and electrolytic cells.
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I hated that chapter until a few hours ago...
 
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That feel when you ascend to your planar form.
SuMApOf.png
 
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orangetea said:
daaaaaaaaaaang. I was only going to make spreadsheets for my section tests, self assessments, and FL =/. fml.
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You're probably better off for it...you wouldn't believe how much time I spent procrastinating by making the Excel formulas to selectively pull values out of the table based on Subject and then average the times (Excel doesn't play nice with hh:mm)
 
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mehc012 said:
You like spreadsheets?
View attachment 182649

@TBRBiosadist , I was ONE question short of that nirvana TWICE tonight!! :hungry:
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DAMN that 20% jump from 4a to 4b on bio. I usually miss two questions when I get close, but once I got to the toilet bowl, I knew I had it. On the flip side circulatory TBRbio was not so hot for me just now. :/ then of course....verbal later on.
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
DAMN that 20% jump from 4a to 4b on bio. I usually miss two questions when I get close, but once I got to the toilet bowl, I knew I had it. On the flip side circulatory TBRbio was not so hot for me just now. :/ then of course....verbal later on.
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Haha, that's cuz it was all memorization based and I'd had a few days with Anki to solidify everything. I mean, look at the time/passage there...they weren't thinking questions at all! Also I got lucky with 'oligospermia'.
My VR is always a roll of the dice, though.

I am now looking forward to the fabled toilet bowl question...what an odd sentence to write out.
 
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mehc012 said:
Haha, that's cuz it was all memorization based and I'd had a few days with Anki to solidify everything. I mean, look at the time/passage there...they weren't thinking questions at all! Also I got lucky with 'oligospermia'.
My VR is always a roll of the dice, though.

I am now looking forward to the fabled toilet bowl question...what an odd sentence to write out.
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Its A funny thing that on the passages that I do well on, I never actually see an improvement because I don't feel challenged to study them. If I bomb them there is always a gain from me becoming neurotic over them. Awesome scores btw. I finally found a verbal strategy where I'm at least somewhat consistent and tend to do slightly better. Read the passage slowly, taking 2-3 minutes. Read through every answer on each question. Answer them once without looking at the passage (unless they reference a specific name or word, and in that case only look back to see where it was in the passage). Answer the question as soon as you finish reading the answers, don't ponder over it. Keep going. I can't tell you the number of times I get the wrong answer because I either didn't read all the answers, or convince myself my gut is wrong. This takes just as long as flying through the passage and looking back many times, but is less stressful and will lead to better understanding of the main concepts of the passage. I did 6 verbal like this. The most I missed on one was 2 questions. And half of them I didn't miss anything.

Edit: At the end of each paragraph, takes 2 seconds to think, what was this paragraph about, what was the main point. This is honestly going to be my main approach now as it feels more "right" and less of a throw of the dice the other methods were for me.
 
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Jumping on the SN2ed train with ya'll, day 11 for me (September 18 MCAT). Nice to know there are others sacrificing their summers for this insanity!
 
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I'm looking back at some passages that I did horrible on at the beginning of my studying, and I am shocked at my stupidity. Apparently humans have chloroplast, C pairs with T and A with G, and in heterozygotes the recessive allele is expressed. Ugh.
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
From my understanding it's generally 15-20%, but sometimes up to 30% of the BS section.
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How much of that have you heard is actual "reactions?" I feel like it may be more of the beginning chapters that would actually make it in the BS section.
 
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juice31 said:
How much of that have you heard is actual "reactions?" I feel like it may be more of the beginning chapters that would actually make it in the BS section.
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I've heard some people say that the first 4 chapters of orgo are useless while others say that's all they needed.
 
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TheRelevant said:
AHEAD? What madness is this?
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Hahaha, I have a strong physical science and Organic Chemistry background, so the first couple of chapters were easy.

However, I lack a sufficient (if at all any) general biology background, so Biology has been the most draining for me. I haven't taken General Biology at my Uni yet but I was forced into upper level classes for bio, so all this DNA and Cell stuff is so foreign to me.
 
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Aerus said:
Hahaha, I have a strong physical science and Organic Chemistry background, so the first couple of chapters were easy.

However, I lack a sufficient (if at all any) general biology background, so Biology has been the most draining for me. I haven't taken General Biology at my Uni yet but I was forced into upper level classes for bio, so all this DNA and Cell stuff is so foreign to me.
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I haven't found knowing the materials to make the chapters take any less time, personally. Like, it takes a certain amount of time to translate 20-30 pages into Anki, and then a certain amount of time to do passages. Oh, and let's not forget a certain amount of time to browse SDN while supposedly studying.
 
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mehc012 said:
I haven't found knowing the materials to make the chapters take any less time, personally. Like, it takes a certain amount of time to translate 20-30 pages into Anki, and then a certain amount of time to do passages. Oh, and let's not forget a certain amount of time to browse SDN while supposedly studying.
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Haha, you're doing really well on TBR bio passages! Are you reading the TBR content? EK is horrible for preparation for those passages.
 
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Aerus said:
Haha, you're doing really well on TBR bio passages! Are you reading the TBR content? EK is horrible for preparation for those passages.
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Personally.. and please feel free to agree or disagree I think that no amount of bio passages from (TBR, TPR, EK Kaplan(this comes close)) an relate to the real thing.) Well of course the self assessments and AAMC come close but everything else is either "do you remember reading about FSH and LH" imo. I wish they were more "MCAT" bio representative. =/
 
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Aerus said:
Haha, you're doing really well on TBR bio passages! Are you reading the TBR content? EK is horrible for preparation for those passages.
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Yeah, I'm doing TBR Bio. I thought that the whole concept of "TBR is too detailed, so let's do less detailed review so that we can get reamed on the TBR questions" was...odd. I would be demoralized with that strategy. I'm OK with 'too detailed'. It's not really conceptually hard, just a few more Anki cards. Actually, it makes the conceptual bits easier, I find.
Also, I'm too lazy to correlate everything between books. No, thank you.
 
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mehc012 said:
Yeah, I'm doing TBR Bio. I thought that the whole concept of "TBR is too detailed, so let's do less detailed review so that we can get reamed on the TBR questions" was...odd. I would be demoralized with that strategy. I'm OK with 'too detailed'. It's not really conceptually hard, just a few more Anki cards. Actually, it makes the conceptual bits easier, I find.
Also, I'm too lazy to correlate everything between books. No, thank you.
Click to expand...

Personally, sometimes I prefer reading/browsing the EK bio book on the toilet since it's got nice colored figures and diagrams. But you're right that BR bio is good and the details are simply just a few more Anki cards. I feel like Anki was invented by the gods at Olympus. I've been using it for about 3 days now and it's helped increase my retention so much. And I'm the guy that hates notecards

on a side note, i stopped timing myself for the passages right now. i've always been able to finish early, so i think its good for me to just focus on "getting it down" during this period of content review

In case anyone wants to match up EK bio to TBR Bio: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/ek-1001-matched-to-tbr-how-to-supplement-ek-bio.1021208/
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
Personally, sometimes I prefer reading/browsing the EK bio book on the toilet since it's got nice colored figures and diagrams. But you're right that BR bio is good and the details are simply just a few more Anki cards. I feel like Anki was invented by the gods at Olympus. I've been using it for about 3 days now and it's helped increase my retention so much. And I'm the guy that hates notecards

on a side note, i stopped timing myself for the passages right now. i've always been able to finish early, so i think its good for me to just focus on "getting it down" during this period of content review

In case anyone wants to match up EK bio to TBR Bio: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/ek-1001-matched-to-tbr-how-to-supplement-ek-bio.1021208/
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Yeah, see, I read that thread and thought "Wow, that seems like SO much more effort than just learning the extra stuff in TBR."
I've never understood the whole 'reading materials for the toilet' phenomenon. It seems like every house, including my own, has magazines and such, but...I've just never considered using them? Like, if I'm in enough GI distress to be camped out there, I won't be in the mood to read. Also, I'm no germaphobe, but I don't like porous materials which live in the bathroom. Now, obviously EK wouldn't live there...and strangely, I'm actually fine with outside books/devices going into the bathroom, just not with them living there. I mean, who hasn't been so into a book that the 30s it takes to pee were too long to be endured without reading further!
 
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mehc012 said:
Yeah, I'm doing TBR Bio. I thought that the whole concept of "TBR is too detailed, so let's do less detailed review so that we can get reamed on the TBR questions" was...odd. I would be demoralized with that strategy. I'm OK with 'too detailed'. It's not really conceptually hard, just a few more Anki cards. Actually, it makes the conceptual bits easier, I find.
Also, I'm too lazy to correlate everything between books. No, thank you.
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I started with TBR bio. I read the first chapter and really didn't like it. I didn't like how it was setup and organized because it seemed to start with macro concepts. Felt like the details were a little too much. My accuracy is no where close to yours (I'm at mid 70's for biology, low 70's for ochem, low 80's for the other two), but I don't want to get lost in the details. However, I think I will go to TBR for the chapters I am weak in (Reproduction and development) and solidify my understanding.
 
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This specific thread made me finally join this site. I've been lurking for so long and finally felt I needed to join lol. It's a relief to find others that I can identify with. I'm just curious, what does everyone do on their break day? I always find myself thinking or even studying more. I just can't seem to turn off my brain. I even started dreaming about passages lol.

So what do you do? Do you just relax and take the day? or do you make the day somewhat productive towards mcat studying?
 
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tcon91 said:
This specific thread made me finally join this site. I've been lurking for so long and finally felt I needed to join lol. It's a relief to find others that I can identify with. I'm just curious, what does everyone do on their break day? I always find myself thinking or even studying more. I just can't seem to turn off my brain. I even started dreaming about passages lol.

So what do you do? Do you just relax and take the day? or do you make the day somewhat productive towards mcat studying?
Click to expand...

Volunteer then maybe hang out with friends. Usually don't study but sometimes I'll just do a couple verbal or just casual read about a topic that I find difficult, nothing serious.
 
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tcon91 said:
This specific thread made me finally join this site. I've been lurking for so long and finally felt I needed to join lol. It's a relief to find others that I can identify with. I'm just curious, what does everyone do on their break day? I always find myself thinking or even studying more. I just can't seem to turn off my brain. I even started dreaming about passages lol.

So what do you do? Do you just relax and take the day? or do you make the day somewhat productive towards mcat studying?
Click to expand...
I'm behind, so I don't get break days anymore...just days where I get more behind due to one of my jobs. 🙁
 
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I don't even know how you're able to work and study and still function. lol. I had to temporarily quit my job for this schedule. Hopefully everything works out for us.
 
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Ugh, just hit the first real 'reaction' chapters in Orgo and...
I mean, I understand the reactions (I was an orgo major), but I have no idea how to Anki these. Do I want words, pictures, or both? How much detail? As an orgo major, will I be able to sleep at night if I don't do arrow pushing?

These are the difficult questions, my friends.
 
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mehc012 said:
Ugh, just hit the first real 'reaction' chapters in Orgo and...
I mean, I understand the reactions (I was an orgo major), but I have no idea how to Anki these. Do I want words, pictures, or both? How much detail? As an orgo major, will I be able to sleep at night if I don't do arrow pushing?

These are the difficult questions, my friends.
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Drawing arrows on the LCD screen in the testing center is frowned upon 😛
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Drawing arrows on the LCD screen in the testing center is frowned upon 😛
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And yet not specifically contraindicated in the Guide to the MCAT

I don't need to draw them to see them, but the orgo major in me considers any reference info incomplete without arrow pushing.
I think I've figured out my method, though. I'll Cloze them, like so:
{{c3:: Ketone::Uc}} + {{c1::ROH::ABB}} ←{{c1::Base::Uc}}→ {{c2::Hemiketal}}

And then put an image of the full mechanism in the Extra Info so it shows up after answer
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
Maybe they supply expo markers
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Dude, you don't even know...I papered ⅓ of my desk in white paper overlaid with page protectors, so all of my scratch work is done there. I'll have to get used to real pen and paper during my FLs, I suppose.
 
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tcon91 said:
This specific thread made me finally join this site. I've been lurking for so long and finally felt I needed to join lol. It's a relief to find others that I can identify with. I'm just curious, what does everyone do on their break day? I always find myself thinking or even studying more. I just can't seem to turn off my brain. I even started dreaming about passages lol.

So what do you do? Do you just relax and take the day? or do you make the day somewhat productive towards mcat studying?
Click to expand...
Either do terribly irresponsible things with friends, work, or catch up

mehc012 said:
Ugh, just hit the first real 'reaction' chapters in Orgo and...
I mean, I understand the reactions (I was an orgo major), but I have no idea how to Anki these. Do I want words, pictures, or both? How much detail? As an orgo major, will I be able to sleep at night if I don't do arrow pushing?

These are the difficult questions, my friends.
Click to expand...

I usually do flashcards of generic molecules, but coming fresh out of orgo II at this point, most reactions you don't need to memorize because you can predict what will happen with given reactants......like a magician


Seriously though, I AM IN LOVE with my new verbal strategy. Finally getting above 90% regularly on ek101 and TPRH and the ones I get wrong are specifically because I deviate from strategy.
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
Either do terribly irresponsible things with friends, work, or catch up



I usually do flashcards of generic molecules, but coming fresh out of orgo II at this point, most reactions you don't need to memorize because you can predict what will happen with given reactants......like a magician


Seriously though, I AM IN LOVE with my new verbal strategy. Finally getting above 90% regularly on ek101 and TPRH and the ones I get wrong are specifically because I deviate from strategy.
Click to expand...

what is the new strategy lol?
 
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mehc012 said:
Dude, you don't even know...I papered ⅓ of my desk in white paper overlaid with page protectors, so all of my scratch work is done there. I'll have to get used to real pen and paper during my FLs, I suppose.
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I bought a glass dining table and hung it up for the same purpose
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
SO.... who's considering adult diapers for the real deal?
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You say that BUT.
My first time taking the MCAT during my first break I took a THREE MINUTE bathroom break because I had just chugged a redbull before going to the test center and I come back and the MEANEST proctor goes:
" you're late.. where were you"
Me: umm bathroom.. but my time on the screen says I still have 5 minutes left"

The evilest person who ever lived: "well I am going to have to note that down.. that you left and came back and you were late"
Me: OKAY.
lol I called AAMC and they laughed.

Moral of the story: yes consider adult diapers.

😀
 
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tcon91 said:
I don't even know how you're able to work and study and still function. lol. I had to temporarily quit my job for this schedule. Hopefully everything works out for us.
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Hi friend,

thanks for joining us.
Yes MCAT syndrome symptoms do include excessive night terrors about having to void the exam, complete loss of social life, and occasional binge eating due to TBR bio passages that you did poorly on. It's going to be a great summer 😀

I go to the farmer's market once a week, and also gym A LOT during my free time. Other than that a nice show, maybe some flashcards, and of course world up.

the other day I decided to sit on my porch for 20 min because I think I am Vitamine D deficient due to my excessive sit in my room and study life.
 
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orangetea said:
Hi friend,

thanks for joining us.
Yes MCAT syndrome symptoms do include excessive night terrors about having to void the exam, complete loss of social life, and occasional binge eating due to TBR bio passages that you did poorly on. It's going to be a great summer 😀

I go to the farmer's market once a week, and also gym A LOT during my free time. Other than that a nice show, maybe some flashcards, and of course world up.

the other day I decided to sit on my porch for 20 min because I think I am Vitamine D deficient due to my excessive sit in my room and study life.
Click to expand...
Orange is obsessed with orange is the new black
juice31 said:
This may be sad, but I finally aced my first passage which was in Organic.
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its an amazing feeling isn't it

TBRBiosadist said:
Either do terribly irresponsible things with friends, work, or catch up



I usually do flashcards of generic molecules, but coming fresh out of orgo II at this point, most reactions you don't need to memorize because you can predict what will happen with given reactants......like a magician


Seriously though, I AM IN LOVE with my new verbal strategy. Finally getting above 90% regularly on ek101 and TPRH and the ones I get wrong are specifically because I deviate from strategy.
Click to expand...
wait wats new strategy
 
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