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
________________________________________________
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:
It's actually not that bad. It just depends. I can (could rather) do physics and gen chem in one day no problem. Physics has short chapters, short passages, I usually did physics chapter plus passages in 3 hours. Gen chem usually took 5 hours. Organic I could never do with another day those chapters were too long, usually took me 8 hours with a lot of screaming to finish. To be honest, if I could do back, I would use EK Organic instead. And biology it depends on the topics and the amount of passages if you are using EK Bio. If you are using TBR Bio then no way I could do biology with another day in one day.
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Biology is definitely massive. Freaking 10+ passages sometimes

LMAO @ the other responses hahaha
 
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Oh god, will be starting this schedule within the next couple of days for my October test date

Practically 0 background knowledge for any sort of chem or physics because I don't remember any of it. Gotta work at the same time too, hopefully the ~20 extra days will be enough of a buffer :hungover: :scared:
 
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Dat Ass said:
Oh god, will be starting this schedule within the next couple of days for my October test date

Practically 0 background knowledge for any sort of chem or physics because I don't remember any of it. Gotta work at the same time too, hopefully the ~20 extra days will be enough of a buffer :hungover: :scared:
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Your username alone is enough to get into ANY vet school. #hilarious #goodvone:clap:
 
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orangetea said:
Your username alone is enough to get into ANY vet school. #hilarious #goodvone:clap:
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Im mildly disappointed in the SN2 community that the username "Dat Ass" was not taken within the first 5 minutes of existence.
SwedishMD2B said:
@TBRBiosadist LOL. I would love to know this guy in real life, he appears to be a fun person to be around
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D'awwwwh. My friends seem to enjoy my unique brand of self deprecating humor, or think I'm a sociopath, it always kinda swings one way or the other.
 
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On the part of this schedule where it breaks down how to do the review passages and practice exam passages, do you guys just run through all of them at the same time? So for example when it says :

Review Passages #1, 2, 3
Practice Exam Passages #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

First 1/3: Review Passage #1; Practice Exam Passage: #1, 4, 7
Second 1/3: Review Passage #2; Practice Exam Passage: #2, 5
Final 1/3: Review Passage #3; Practice Exam Passage: #3, 6

Do you guys just do the first 1/3 and it's corresponding practice exam passages and then the second and the final right after or do you do them in different days?
 
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The Dream said:
On the part of this schedule where it breaks down how to do the review passages and practice exam passages, do you guys just run through all of them at the same time? So for example when it says :

Review Passages #1, 2, 3
Practice Exam Passages #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

First 1/3: Review Passage #1; Practice Exam Passage: #1, 4, 7
Second 1/3: Review Passage #2; Practice Exam Passage: #2, 5
Final 1/3: Review Passage #3; Practice Exam Passage: #3, 6

Do you guys just do the first 1/3 and it's corresponding practice exam passages and then the second and the final right after or do you do them in different days?
Click to expand...

They are done separately. It's listed on the schedule. You did 1/3, then at the end of the week you do 2/3 and when you are taking full lengths you do 3/3
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
They are done separately. It's listed on the schedule. You did 1/3, then at the end of the week you do 2/3 and when you are taking full lengths you do 3/3
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Thanks Swedish! And 1 more question if you don't mind. How many verbal passages do you do each day and how long do you typically spend on each one?
 
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The Dream said:
Thanks Swedish! And 1 more question if you don't mind. How many verbal passages do you do each day and how long do you typically spend on each one?
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Well, initially I only did like 2 passages a day and gave myself one minute more than the number of questions. Since verbal never really went well for me, for the past month I have been doing 7 passages a day with 60 minutes total time.
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Well, initially I only did like 2 passages a day and gave myself one minute more than the number of questions. Since verbal never really went well for me, for the past month I have been doing 7 passages a day with 60 minutes total time.
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I hear you. I've been doing some verbal passages all of last week trying to find the best approach for them. Still no luck yet but I suppose I'll find it with more practice. I keep finding myself having to look back at the passage to answer some of the questions but I'm trying to reduce that.
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
How are some of you guys freaking covering 2 SN2 days in one day? I'm mostly looking at you, @DoctorInASaree because I know you did it but I know there's a few other ppl as well
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TBRBiosadist said:
@DoctorInASaree is some next level **** though. I think she must be some sort of extraterrestrial to focus and do as much as she does. Or massive amounts of Addy and rit, but I don't think so.

edit: Im not actually implying @DoctorInASaree is taking study drugs, more just that she is really freaking amazing.
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Aw! Thank you so much guys. :flame:

(no drugs...just green tea).
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Well, initially I only did like 2 passages a day and gave myself one minute more than the number of questions. Since verbal never really went well for me, for the past month I have been doing 7 passages a day with 60 minutes total time.
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where are you getting so many passages 🙁 I finished EK101 and TPRH. Now I need to buy AAMC or use Kaplan/TBR #iamsopoor
 
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orangetea said:
where are you getting so many passages 🙁 I finished EK101 and TPRH. Now I need to buy AAMC or use Kaplan/TBR #iamsopoor
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Well it was more like 5 days a week. But I had the TPRH book, plus EK 101, I did some BR passages (they were the worst) then I had the FL length exams, plus the self assessment, plus the official guide and then there were some in the EK study package verbal book.

Yeah I know! I am charging it all up on my credit card. I'll work more after the MCAT and pay it off lol. It's money well spent IMO
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Well it was more like 5 days a week. But I had the TPRH book, plus EK 101, I did some BR passages (they were the worst) then I had the FL length exams, plus the self assessment, plus the official guide and then there were some in the EK study package verbal book.

Yeah I know! I am charging it all up on my credit card. I'll work more after the MCAT and pay it off lol. It's money well spent IMO
Click to expand...

What's your assessment of TPR's materials (currently I only have their Verbal workbook)? Have you tried Kaplan? My brother is going to be dropping off all of his TPR textbooks in two weeks. Psyched!:soexcited:

Given what others have said about Kaplan...I told him to recycle the textbooks😀
 
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DoctorInASaree said:
What's your assessment of TPR's materials (currently I only have their Verbal workbook)? Have you tried Kaplan? My brother is going to be dropping off all of his TPR textbooks in two weeks. Psyched!:soexcited:

Given what others have said about Kaplan...I told him to recycle the textbooks😀
Click to expand...

I think TPRs stuff is pretty good, but I haven't looked at their stuff since I took their class in undergrad...like 5 years ago. So I may not be able to judge the best there. But I do think the verbal book is great.
 
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Man that day off felt good! I finally trimmed my "playoff" beard and got some rest. Still did some light studying but wasn't too crazy. Maybe spent an hour at most.

Since you guys were talking about dating, I scored a date with this lovely lady. She's a little older than me but meh I'm not complaining. Picked up her today for lunch and enjoyed a nice 3 course meal. We spent almost 4 hours but it felt like time was going pretty fast. I was a bit nervous at first but it went alright. Just dropped her off back at her place. I'll be meeting her friend on Wednesday :soexcited:


Her name? AAMC 3. Also got her number: 12/7/11 😛
 
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K1NG said:
Man that day off felt good! I finally trimmed my "playoff" beard and got some rest. Still did some light studying but wasn't too crazy. Maybe spent an hour at most.

Since you guys were talking about dating, I scored a date with this lovely lady. She's a little older than me but meh I'm not complaining. Picked up her today for lunch and enjoyed a nice 3 course meal. We spent almost 4 hours but it felt like time was going pretty fast. I was a bit nervous at first but it went alright. Just dropped her off back at her place. I'll be meeting her friend on Wednesday :soexcited:


Her name? AAMC 3. Also got her number: 12/7/11 😛
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that was beautiful
#icriedevrytime
 
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I haven't gotten a haircut or shaved my beard in almost three months. I look like a caveman. I was expecting people at work to comment about it, but since they didn't I just let it be. This is the first time I have needed to comb my beard
 
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K1NG said:
Man that day off felt good! I finally trimmed my "playoff" beard and got some rest. Still did some light studying but wasn't too crazy. Maybe spent an hour at most.

Since you guys were talking about dating, I scored a date with this lovely lady. She's a little older than me but meh I'm not complaining. Picked up her today for lunch and enjoyed a nice 3 course meal. We spent almost 4 hours but it felt like time was going pretty fast. I was a bit nervous at first but it went alright. Just dropped her off back at her place. I'll be meeting her friend on Wednesday :soexcited:


Her name? AAMC 3. Also got her number: 12/7/11 😛
Click to expand...

tumblr_inline_n3qeifmY6m1snq3fu.gif


jk good job😀
 
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K1NG said:
Man that day off felt good! I finally trimmed my "playoff" beard and got some rest. Still did some light studying but wasn't too crazy. Maybe spent an hour at most.

Since you guys were talking about dating, I scored a date with this lovely lady. She's a little older than me but meh I'm not complaining. Picked up her today for lunch and enjoyed a nice 3 course meal. We spent almost 4 hours but it felt like time was going pretty fast. I was a bit nervous at first but it went alright. Just dropped her off back at her place. I'll be meeting her friend on Wednesday :soexcited:


Her name? AAMC 3. Also got her number: 12/7/11 😛
Click to expand...

this made my day!! and congrats on the solid first FL score - 30 is beyond respectable, and the only way to go is up! good job!!
 
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Haha thanks guys. As you can tell I was a little bored waiting for my ride🙂.

On a more serious note, I think I could've done better. My goal is a 32 so let's see what I can do the next few weeks. Verbal is going to be the biggest challenge by far. I'm going to do heavy post game analysis tomorrow but here are my thoughts so far:

PS - I heard AAMC 3 has one of the hardest PS sections so I'm really happy with my score! Didn't look over the questions I got wrong yet but I felt pretty confident after finishing. My timing was really off though, and I had 4 passages left at the halfway mark. It was my first FL so I expect my timing to get better from here.

VR - Kinda disappointed honestly.. my weakest section by far but was hoping for at least an 8. I was actually only 1 point away from an 8! One thing I realized is that I only practiced verbal by taking 3 passages at most. So after the first 3 passages on the test I felt myself slowing down and losing focus. My stomach growling like crazy didn't help either lol. The verbal section is the one you need to have your absolute most focus on and I felt I didn't do that 100%. I'm going to practice this section the most the next few weeks. I'm planning on simulating test conditions and will only practice verbal by doing 7 passages in an hour.

BS - Honestly was expecting this to be higher. I looked at the scale and I was 1 point away from a 12. I just skimmed through the questions I got wrong and at least 3 of them were so stupid! Even if I had one of those right I could have gotten a 12 or even a 13 if I got them all. One of the questions was asking how many signals for acetone and I put 2 lmao yeah really stupid mistakes.

Going to finish up the Optics chapter that I've let linger on and going to call it a day!
 
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Why on earth are ALL of the 2nd ⅓ passages for the Endocrine chapter about freaking PTH/CT?
I'm over it. I don't like that particular hormone system. It is boring.

That chapter sucked...I felt good, except for one passage. Score? I missed zero questions on 4 of the passages, and on the one I felt badly about? I missed all but one. FML.
 
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mehc012 said:
Why on earth are ALL of the 2nd ⅓ passages for the Endocrine chapter about freaking PTH/CT?
I'm over it. I don't like that particular hormone system. It is boring.

That chapter sucked...I felt good, except for one passage. Score? I missed zero questions on 4 of the passages, and on the one I felt badly about? I missed all but one. FML.
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That calcitonin pth passage at the end destroyed me. Same thing. I had all my other endocrine stuff solid and I missed almost all of the questions on that one passage
 
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Out of curiosity how far would you guys go to gain a slight advantage on the real test? I would literally blow my proctor with a smile on my facel if they gave me 10 extra minutes on a section.
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
Out of curiosity how far would you guys go to gain a slight advantage on the real test? I would literally blow my proctor with a smile on my facel if they gave me 10 extra minutes on a section.
Click to expand...

Better question is what would I not do. Probably won't kill someone, that's all I can think right now.
 
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DoctorInASaree said:
What would I do for a high score on the MCAT? Hmmmmmm!

study2.jpg


What...too anti-climatic?😀
I'm off to have my beauty sleep. Great day today!:flame:
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Aren't you a sight for sore eyes lol. I think you're the only one remaining enthusiastic about this process
TBRBiosadist said:
Out of curiosity how far would you guys go to gain a slight advantage on the real test? I would literally blow my proctor with a smile on my facel if they gave me 10 extra minutes on a section.
Click to expand...
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
Out of curiosity how far would you guys go to gain a slight advantage on the real test? I would literally blow my proctor with a smile on my facel if they gave me 10 extra minutes on a section.
Click to expand...
Time isn't a factor for me...and I don't know if I just did the ⅓ breakdown wrong, but my 2nd set from that chapter had 2 immuno passages and THREE FREAKING CALCIUM REGULATION ones.
 
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mehc012 said:
Time isn't a factor for me...and I don't know if I just did the ⅓ breakdown wrong, but my 2nd set from that chapter had 2 immuno passages and THREE FREAKING CALCIUM REGULATION ones.
Click to expand...

Lmao you've been getting a lot of passages on Calcium recently.. it's a sign:eyebrow::thinking:
 
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Any of you guys submitting your apps this cycle? My plan was to submit my primary before 4th of July but I've been slacking lol. Randomly decided to rewrite my personal statement this weekend
 
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What other practice tests are ya'll going to be doing besides the official ones. I have the Kaplan ones but just wondering if there are better alternative sources?
 
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FitnessDoc said:
What other practice tests are ya'll going to be doing besides the official ones. I have the Kaplan ones but just wondering if there are better alternative sources?
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THE AAMC are FL are the best when it comes to a predictor of your real MCAT grade. And the Berkley review one isn't so bad ..
 
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Honestly, I had plans of doing so much extra because I have all this spare material that I got from a friend, and I have not touched any of it. SN2 actually ranks the tests on the official sn2 3month breakdown post

1. AAMC #7-11
2. BR #1-7
3. Kaplan #1-6
4. AAMC #3-5
5. TPR
6. Kaplan #7-10/GS
 
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FitnessDoc said:
What other practice tests are ya'll going to be doing besides the official ones. I have the Kaplan ones but just wondering if there are better alternative sources?
Click to expand...


I have Kaplan too! Just a word of advice don't use those tests to gauge your score because their scaling is totally different.. I am just making this up but for example you can miss 15 on verbal and get a 10. But they are great practice imo especially the biological sections!!

I've also heard Gold Standard and AAMC self assessments are great practice as well 🙂
 
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Confession time. When I do Ek1001, I only do every 4th problem instead of every third because I want to be done more quickly I don't feel like I miss out terribly much.
 
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