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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you know sometimes I want to use your instead of youre..

why do I need to conform to societies rules of grammar.
Never mind, I read that wrong. Apparently the entire PS section is 213 questions, not physics and chemistry each. Seems doable in a day then.


I am doing them in 52 question intervals!
 
@TBRBiosadist @mehc012

I'm wondering if the two of you are using the default intervals for your MCAT decks. 1m, 10min, 4days. If not, what are your intervals set at? I'm under the impression that the 4d option is too long.
Uhhh, I'm at work so I can't track it all down, but NO, that is not how I Anki. I thought their default settings assumed too much short term review and then too long of an interval.

If I recall correctly, I do 10min (for missed), 2hr (aka if I do it in the morning I'll go over it again later that night), 1d...3d for 'Easy'.

My Anki Central thread is linked in the post where I shared my deck...or you can just search for 'Anki Central', thread by my username. I have all the basic deets on my Anki strategies in there.
 
In other news. That "Democratic Man" in TPRH Verbal (test3, passage 3) was ridiculous.

I'll write a blurb about my Verbal technique when I have some free time. Sorry, but I want to watch Tangled tonight...

I skipped ahead a bit and tried the Democratic Man passage. It was interesting! Here's how I answered the questions: I usually don't write my reasoning out (it's all in my head!), so this took a bit longer than 7 minutes to solve.

http://imgur.com/a/SUKxn

I sincerely hope that my handwriting is legible; as I was writing fairly quickly, and it is difficult writing on the iPad 🙁
edit: I gambled on the last question - 17. Hooray for intuition!

Uhhh, I'm at work so I can't track it all down, but NO, that is not how I Anki. I thought their default settings assumed too much short term review and then too long of an interval.

If I recall correctly, I do 10min (for missed), 2hr (aka if I do it in the morning I'll go over it again later that night), 1d...3d for 'Easy'.

My Anki Central thread is linked in the post where I shared my deck...or you can just search for 'Anki Central', thread by my username. I have all the basic deets on my Anki strategies in there.

Thank you! I knew something felt off.
 
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I'll write a blurb about my Verbal technique when I have some free time. Sorry, but I want to watch Tangled tonight...

I skipped ahead a bit and tried the Democratic Man passage. It was interesting! Here's how I answered the questions: I usually don't write my reasoning out (it's all in my head!), so this took a bit longer than 7 minutes to solve.

http://imgur.com/a/SUKxn

I sincerely hope that my handwriting is legible; as it is difficult writing on the iPad 🙁



Thank you! I knew something felt off.
Yeah, it's like "OK, I got it the first 5x I saw it today, maybe let's wait a bit" and then 5d later it'll pop up and I'll have no idea where it came from. I don't like that setup - makes review take too long.
 
I'll write a blurb about my Verbal technique when I have some free time. Sorry, but I want to watch Tangled tonight...

I skipped ahead a bit and tried the Democratic Man passage. It was interesting! Here's how I answered the questions: I usually don't write my reasoning out (it's all in my head!), so this took a bit longer than 7 minutes to solve.

http://imgur.com/a/SUKxn

I sincerely hope that my handwriting is legible; as I was writing fairly quickly, and it is difficult writing on the iPad 🙁
edit: I gambled on the last question - 17. Hooray for intuition!


Thank you! I knew something felt off.
Ah 17 was the one i missed on that. It just felt so much more complex than the usual verbal fair.

I think in the fiture when i encounter really hard ones like that ill write it out for them just to get my ideas straight, have the time I found mself getting lost in the long answers
 
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I took the chemistry Self-Assessment and got an 86%. Anyone know how to roughly interpret these? Not sure what shape I'm in.
 
Idk if I'm just stupid or what but some of the TPRHSW passages are making me miss TBR.
Also, today marks 31 days till my exam. Excuse me while I go sob into my pillow


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Idk if I'm just stupid or what but some of the TPRHSW passages are making me miss TBR.
Also, today marks 31 days till my exam. Excuse me while I go sob into my pillow


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Girl I just made some bomb banana bread, lemon drops, and hazelnut brownies.

I have reminded myself again that if medical school does not work out I can open my bakery.

#hopeful
 
ImageUploadedBySDN Mobile1405824841.430892.jpg
stress baking is like the only way to deal


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Mmmm, now I wanna bake too! I think I'll go with my current fav, chocolate basil cake. Tons of fresh basil pulsed with the sugar, then you make a normal chocolate cake from scratch. Super moist and super basil-y, it is wonderful.
 
Ok did verbal today and totally bombed it. 7 right out of like 23 questions I did them in rounds of 3.. I re-read every chapters and tried to answer them over again and got 20 right out of the 23 .. I did a deep review of why i got everything wrong and why i got them right this time. Any more advice of what i can do to improve the horrible display .. SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!!!
 
Ok did verbal today and totally bombed it. 7 right out of like 23 questions I did them in rounds of 3.. I re-read every chapters and tried to answer them over again and got 20 right out of the 23 .. I did a deep review of why i got everything wrong and why i got them right this time. Any more advice of what i can do to improve the horrible display .. SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!!!


Sooo what did you discover? Why did you get them wrong the first time?
 
Ok did verbal today and totally bombed it. 7 right out of like 23 questions I did them in rounds of 3.. I re-read every chapters and tried to answer them over again and got 20 right out of the 23 .. I did a deep review of why i got everything wrong and why i got them right this time. Any more advice of what i can do to improve the horrible display .. SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!!!

Yeah don't do that crap in sets of 3 just do them like in sets of 5 and give yourself 40 mins total
 
Sooo what did you discover? Why did you get them wrong the first time?
I just didn't really think when I was reading, like the author would mention something once but it wasn't the major theme and i would just gravitate to that answer, also the author would mention multiple reasons for something but say in the end that one point was more significant and I would just never pick up on that. Also when they refer to specific quotes in the passage I would just read the line before and then the line they were referring to and if I spent sometime to read quickly 2 lines below I would see the real reasoning behind the quote. I also fell short on questions in which they say which does NOT support a claim or view I normally pick a answer that does support the claim or view vaguely .. Then the biggest killer is when the answer is not in the passage but I need to use the tone of the author to make a judgement call .. So yeah alot to improve on.. This is chapter 5-8 in the TPR verbal so I hope to get better with practice. Its just that you guys are so good , my competitive nature just aspire to match up but i cant keep comparing myself with anyone else i just need to buckle down !
 
I just didn't really think when I was reading, like the author would mention something once but it wasn't the major theme and i would just gravitate to that answer, also the author would mention multiple reasons for something but say in the end that one point was more significant and I would just never pick up on that. Also when they refer to specific quotes in the passage I would just read the line before and then the line they were referring to and if I spent sometime to read quickly 2 lines below I would see the real reasoning behind the quote. I also fell short on questions in which they say which does NOT support a claim or view I normally pick a answer that does support the claim or view vaguely .. Then the biggest killer is when the answer is not in the passage but I need to use the tone of the author to make a judgement call .. So yeah alot to improve on.. This is chapter 5-8 in the TPR verbal so I hope to get better with practice. Its just that you guys are so good , my competitive nature just aspire to match up but i cant keep comparing myself with anyone else i just need to buckle down !

You should only compete with yourself.

Figure it out, do practice, learn from your mistakes, and improve.
 
so sets of 5 then ?? I will try that .. And also did you guys put the timer in-front of you and so you can see it? I am thinking of blindly timing myself so i naturally work fast and not try to speed up when i see i hit the 4 minute mark
 
@avenlea For a concave mirror and convex lens, what happens when the object is at the focal length?

convex lens/concave mirror - an object at the focal point will form an image at infinity; that's part of the definition of focal point. I personally learned it in my physics classes as the image will be at infinity, but TBR told me today that "no image forms" so take that as you may
 
convex lens/concave mirror - an object at the focal point will form an image at infinity; that's part of the definition of focal point. I personally learned it in my physics classes as the image will be at infinity, but TBR told me today that "no image forms" so take that as you may

OK cool. I didn't see a mention of it in your notes, so was just checking 😛
 
ha yeah sorry it was just drilled into me

Nothing was drilled into me. My physics professor was terrible. He gave us practice problems, told us to memorize the solutions manual for each problem, and when you see a problem on the exam that is same, write exactly what was in the solutions and just change the numbers. I got an A for physics I, then he told me, he will make sure that doesn't happen again for physics II...and he did.
 
so sets of 5 then ?? I will try that .. And also did you guys put the timer in-front of you and so you can see it? I am thinking of blindly timing myself so i naturally work fast and not try to speed up when i see i hit the 4 minute mark
I use my iphone as a timer and put it on sleep. I don't think time is as important for you right now. Learn to read like you're writing it. Figure out the authors views
 
Nothing was drilled into me. My physics professor was terrible. He gave us practice problems, told us to memorize the solutions manual for each problem, and when you see a problem on the exam that is same, write exactly what was in the solutions and just change the numbers. I got an A for physics I, then he told me, he will make sure that doesn't happen again for physics II...and he did.

This is how I'm feeling about Physics I!

I'm fresh out of Physics II, I hated the prof while I was in his class because it sucked so bad but the way he tested is literally MCAT-style and it's helping me so much now, I want to bake him cookies and give him a gigantic hug. I want to go back and retake Physics I because that's what's giving me the most trouble. Physics I and freaking Bio. It's like I never took Physics I.

I've heard commonly that Physics is hard to teach though. I think if you were at least tested by a professor who knew what he was doing you have somewhat of an advantage. At least you have the GPA boost 🙂?
 
wait.. how do you go and revivew each question and the answer after you're done with the self assessment???
 
I always missed more in sets of 3 than 5
how many passages will be on the real thing?? And how do you time yourself do you have the stop which in-front of yourself or you time yourself but dont check until after you finish the problem,. My fear is I wont have a stop watch in the exam so i should have a feel for how fast I should be answering questions instead of looking at a stop watch and speeding up or slow down according to the time
 
This is how I'm feeling about Physics I!

I'm fresh out of Physics II, I hated the prof while I was in his class because it sucked so bad but the way he tested is literally MCAT-style and it's helping me so much now, I want to bake him cookies and give him a gigantic hug. I want to go back and retake Physics I because that's what's giving me the most trouble. Physics I and freaking Bio. It's like I never took Physics I.

I've heard commonly that Physics is hard to teach though. I think if you were at least tested by a professor who knew what he was doing you have somewhat of an advantage. At least you have the GPA boost 🙂?

And A and B = not much of a GPA boost in med school terms.

For me, everything is new. Physics was 2004, Bio was 2004-2005, gen chem was 2004-2005, orgo was 2005-2006.

Had to learn it all from scratch using TBR.
 
how many passages will be on the real thing?? And how do you time yourself do you have the stop which in-front of yourself or you time yourself but dont check until after you finish the problem,. My fear is I wont have a stop watch in the exam so i should have a feel for how fast I should be answering questions instead of looking at a stop watch and speeding up or slow down according to the time

You will have 7 passages (40 questions) on verbal and 1 hour time. On PS and BS you will have 7 passages each which add up to 39 questions each plus 13 freestanding discrete questions. You will have a timer on the bottom left of your screen.
 
convex lens/concave mirror - an object at the focal point will form an image at infinity; that's part of the definition of focal point. I personally learned it in my physics classes as the image will be at infinity, but TBR told me today that "no image forms" so take that as you may
I was told that an image 'forming at infinity' would look very far away to an observer - distant objects have nearly parallel rays entering our eyes, so we are used to equating parallel with 'far'. This is why microscopes and such things aim for parallel rays - our eyes relax for distant vision and thus it is less tiring. OR SO MY PROF SAID.
 
I was told that an image 'forming at infinity' would look very far away to an observer - distant objects have nearly parallel rays entering our eyes, so we are used to equating parallel with 'far'. This is why microscopes and such things aim for parallel rays - our eyes relax for distant vision and thus it is less tiring. OR SO MY PROF SAID.

yup thats how I learned it as well
 
Do you guys partake in any interesting research ?? or have any other science love outside of the general MCAT type stuff.. IM a bacteriophile !!! I love bacteria soooo much mycobacterium tuberculosis and i are practically lovers !!
 
Do you guys partake in any interesting research ?? or have any other science love outside of the general MCAT type stuff.. IM a bacteriophile !!! I love bacteria soooo much mycobacterium tuberculosis and i are practically lovers !!

I work with viruses. Cytomegalovirus. I do vaccine development, drug design, and look for novel drug targets. But I don't really care what virus I work with.
 
I work with viruses. Cytomegalovirus. I do vaccine development, drug design, and look for novel drug targets.
WOW that's pretty darn cool!! I bet you must have really interesting stories.. Have you ever been to ASM ?? (American society for Microbiology)
 
And next to bacteria I am married to bonnie bassler I love that woman soo much!! I wish she and i could quorum sense all day!!
 
Do you guys partake in any interesting research ?? or have any other science love outside of the general MCAT type stuff.. IM a bacteriophile !!! I love bacteria soooo much mycobacterium tuberculosis and i are practically lovers !!

A few months ago (when I was in school), I did research focusing on the effects of electroacupuncture on blood pressure 🙂 and I'm really into muscles/sports med/ortho and the such haha I wanna go into PC sports med when it's all said and done
 
No, but I did publish a paper with them recently.
That's pretty cool there journal is really big. I recently got a under-grand fellowship from there but the timing sucks all I care about is MCAT! I think my subconscious feel bad about neglecting my bacteria so much last night i had a dream that i drank a eneter concical vile full of mycobacterium tuberculosis by accident lol
 
That's pretty cool there journal is really big. I recently got a under-grand fellowship from there but the timing sucks all I care about is MCAT! I think my subconscious feel bad about neglecting my bacteria so much last night i had a dream that i drank a eneter concical vile full of mycobacterium tuberculosis by accident lol

That's awesome. You should try to pursue it. Research is cool, usually, however I wanted to jump out of my lab window most of the time, and my lab was on the 12th floor.
 
Ha if this MCAT stuff doesn't work out the lab is where I will be.. I find the simple silence of lab work and the constant failure that fallows it very humbling ...
 
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