SN2'd first day

[TexasSurgeon]

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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[TBRBiosadist]

Dam man every time @orangetea bakes her apple pie you go and do that

 

[poop420]

 

[TBRBiosadist]

 

[poop420]

 

[TBRBiosadist]

 

[poop420]

 

[TBRBiosadist]

 

[poop420]

 

[TBRBiosadist]

 

[TBRBiosadist]

**** me, Im going to sleep before I start having emotions again. This feels too on the nose

 

[lazyindy]

^^ this what I find after not checking this thread for a day

 

[Lokkja]

Good luck to all you 21sters!

 

[Lokkja]

AAMC 9: (11 PS/13 VR/10 BS) for a 34. I think I'm peaking at the right time homies.

After writing I thought I got a 7 on that PS, I dunno what the heck happened in that section because it had tons of my weaknesses (Fluids/Electricity/Electromagnetism/Optics). I'm gonna call it luck and say I deserved a 10.
VR felt good and it's great that my score is finally reaching the 12+ range.
BS I messed up on one passage really badly because I reversed the concept in my head. Hopefully I can actually fall asleep in the next few days. I think the PS score was Karma's way of apologizing for screwing me over on this BS section due to a lack of sleep.

My average going into the 27th will be;
30 - AAMC 5 (9/11/10)
31 - AAMC 8 (9/11/11)
28 - AAMC 11 (9/10/9)
35 - AAMC 10 (10/12/13)
34 - AAMC 9 (11/13/10)

31.6 (9.6/11.4/10.6) AAMC Average
32 (10/11/11) Realistic Target
33-35 (10/11-13/11-13) Hopeful target
28 (9/10/9) A Nightmare.

 

[pbrocks15]

AAMC 9: (11 PS/13 VR/10 BS) for a 34. I think I'm peaking at the right time homies.

After writing I thought I got a 7 on that PS, I dunno what the heck happened in that section because it had tons of my weaknesses (Fluids/Electricity/Electromagnetism/Optics). I'm gonna call it luck and say I deserved a 10.
VR felt good and it's great that my score is finally reaching the 12+ range.
BS I messed up on one passage really badly because I reversed the concept in my head. Hopefully I can actually fall asleep in the next few days. I think the PS score was Karma's way of apologizing for screwing me over on this BS section due to a lack of sleep.

My average going into the 27th will be;
30 - AAMC 5 (9/11/10)
31 - AAMC 8 (9/11/11)
28 - AAMC 11 (9/10/9)
35 - AAMC 10 (10/12/13)
34 - AAMC 9 (11/13/10)

31.6 (9.6/11.4/10.6) AAMC Average
32 (10/11/11) Realistic Target
33-35 (10/11-13/11-13) Hopeful target
28 (9/10/9) A Nightmare.

Nice work on verbal!

I think you can definitely hit your hopeful with some nice sleep and some focus! But overall good work, work on your weaknesses and make them your strengths. You got this man.

 

[sharkbyte]

Hey guys! I just took the MCAT today. It was a long, difficult exam, but I am done (for now) and I am so relieved!

I thought I would copy/paste my post from the August 21 MCAT to give you guys an idea of what I thought of today's exam:

PS: IMO it was definitely harder than any of the practice tests but not by a huge or unreasonable amount. There seemed to be an even split between chemistry and physics and the physics definitely wasn't as obscure as I thought it would be. That one passage everyone's talking about seemed really weird and I feel like I just guessed on almost every question. I feel like there were more questions than usual I was unsure about. I usually finish with a good amount of time left but I finished reviewing my questions exactly as time ran out. I believe I averaged a 13 on AAMCs, not sure if I hit that though.

VR: It felt a little harder, to be honest. The passages weren't as difficult to understand but I felt that a handful of questions were really frustrating, and it seemed like two (or even three) answer choices could work equally. I just hope some of those were experimental or the scale factors that in. I felt like I had to make educated guesses on 3-5 questions, although I felt iffy about a few more. I feel like I'm going to be most nervous for this section as the score release starts approaching.

BS: It felt on par with the AAMCs, not easier, not harder. Very similar in style to the later AAMCs, like 11. I almost panicked because in the middle I was stalling and I felt like the passages looked intimidating, but once I calmed down I felt that the questions were mostly straightforward, and didn't ask anything that required more than one-step reasoning. The Ochem was mostly straightforward; the bio wasn't a slam dunk but I felt that the passages were fine; it was the discretes that were difficult and very specific. Still, I felt unsure about more questions than I would have liked; I'm hoping my gut decisions ended up being correct. I'm a little bit upset because I got two bio discretes wrong that I should have had in the bag, but I'm feeling pretty good about the passages.

Trial section: I got the sociology/psychology section, and I haven't really taken any of those classes so most of the stuff flew over my head. I just wanted the gift card lol.

Overall: I feel like it was okay. Not great, not bad. It'll be nice to get this exam out of my mind for a while before the score release approaches.

 

[namesthegame21]

Anyone else get disappointed when their break day is not as great as you thought it was going to be? Did a bunch of errands and made pamphlets for a club. Got in a querrel w/fam ..uhh more tbr/mcat stuff please!!

 

[namesthegame21]

Hey guys! I just took the MCAT today. It was a long, difficult exam, but I am done (for now) and I am so relieved!

I thought I would copy/paste my post from the August 21 MCAT to give you guys an idea of what I thought of today's exam:

PS: IMO it was definitely harder than any of the practice tests but not by a huge or unreasonable amount. There seemed to be an even split between chemistry and physics and the physics definitely wasn't as obscure as I thought it would be. That one passage everyone's talking about seemed really weird and I feel like I just guessed on almost every question. I feel like there were more questions than usual I was unsure about. I usually finish with a good amount of time left but I finished reviewing my questions exactly as time ran out. I believe I averaged a 13 on AAMCs, not sure if I hit that though.

VR: It felt a little harder, to be honest. The passages weren't as difficult to understand but I felt that a handful of questions were really frustrating, and it seemed like two (or even three) answer choices could work equally. I just hope some of those were experimental or the scale factors that in. I felt like I had to make educated guesses on 3-5 questions, although I felt iffy about a few more. I feel like I'm going to be most nervous for this section as the score release starts approaching.

BS: It felt on par with the AAMCs, not easier, not harder. Very similar in style to the later AAMCs, like 11. I almost panicked because in the middle I was stalling and I felt like the passages looked intimidating, but once I calmed down I felt that the questions were mostly straightforward, and didn't ask anything that required more than one-step reasoning. The Ochem was mostly straightforward; the bio wasn't a slam dunk but I felt that the passages were fine; it was the discretes that were difficult and very specific. Still, I felt unsure about more questions than I would have liked; I'm hoping my gut decisions ended up being correct. I'm a little bit upset because I got two bio discretes wrong that I should have had in the bag, but I'm feeling pretty good about the passages.

Trial section: I got the sociology/psychology section, and I haven't really taken any of those classes so most of the stuff flew over my head. I just wanted the gift card lol.

Overall: I feel like it was okay. Not great, not bad. It'll be nice to get this exam out of my mind for a while before the score release approaches.

Thanks for sharing @sharkbyte, I'm sure you did great esp considering your practice scores! Was the PS more calculation or concept heavy? What would you suggest preparing better for the PS?

 

[MelloTangelo]

Hey guys! I just took the MCAT today. It was a long, difficult exam, but I am done (for now) and I am so relieved!

I thought I would copy/paste my post from the August 21 MCAT to give you guys an idea of what I thought of today's exam:

PS: IMO it was definitely harder than any of the practice tests but not by a huge or unreasonable amount. There seemed to be an even split between chemistry and physics and the physics definitely wasn't as obscure as I thought it would be. That one passage everyone's talking about seemed really weird and I feel like I just guessed on almost every question. I feel like there were more questions than usual I was unsure about. I usually finish with a good amount of time left but I finished reviewing my questions exactly as time ran out. I believe I averaged a 13 on AAMCs, not sure if I hit that though.

VR: It felt a little harder, to be honest. The passages weren't as difficult to understand but I felt that a handful of questions were really frustrating, and it seemed like two (or even three) answer choices could work equally. I just hope some of those were experimental or the scale factors that in. I felt like I had to make educated guesses on 3-5 questions, although I felt iffy about a few more. I feel like I'm going to be most nervous for this section as the score release starts approaching.

BS: It felt on par with the AAMCs, not easier, not harder. Very similar in style to the later AAMCs, like 11. I almost panicked because in the middle I was stalling and I felt like the passages looked intimidating, but once I calmed down I felt that the questions were mostly straightforward, and didn't ask anything that required more than one-step reasoning. The Ochem was mostly straightforward; the bio wasn't a slam dunk but I felt that the passages were fine; it was the discretes that were difficult and very specific. Still, I felt unsure about more questions than I would have liked; I'm hoping my gut decisions ended up being correct. I'm a little bit upset because I got two bio discretes wrong that I should have had in the bag, but I'm feeling pretty good about the passages.

Trial section: I got the sociology/psychology section, and I haven't really taken any of those classes so most of the stuff flew over my head. I just wanted the gift card lol.

Overall: I feel like it was okay. Not great, not bad. It'll be nice to get this exam out of my mind for a while before the score release approaches.

Congratulations on (hopefully) being done with your MCAT experience! I'm sure you did just fine even with those tricky passages. I'm curious about the PS, too. How were the calculations? I know when I took the MCAT, the Physics portion seemed both calculation heavy and conceptual heavy.

Anyone else get disappointed when their break day is not as great as you thought it was going to be? Did a bunch of errands and made pamphlets for a club. Got in a querrel w/fam ..uhh more tbr/mcat stuff please!!

Yeah...I feel you. I spent my last break day helping my brother move into his dorm. He'll be starting his freshman year, and I am both happy for him, and very worried. He's not the most studious...

 

[ayocaptain628]

Hey guys! I just took the MCAT today. It was a long, difficult exam, but I am done (for now) and I am so relieved!

I thought I would copy/paste my post from the August 21 MCAT to give you guys an idea of what I thought of today's exam:

PS: IMO it was definitely harder than any of the practice tests but not by a huge or unreasonable amount. There seemed to be an even split between chemistry and physics and the physics definitely wasn't as obscure as I thought it would be. That one passage everyone's talking about seemed really weird and I feel like I just guessed on almost every question. I feel like there were more questions than usual I was unsure about. I usually finish with a good amount of time left but I finished reviewing my questions exactly as time ran out. I believe I averaged a 13 on AAMCs, not sure if I hit that though.

VR: It felt a little harder, to be honest. The passages weren't as difficult to understand but I felt that a handful of questions were really frustrating, and it seemed like two (or even three) answer choices could work equally. I just hope some of those were experimental or the scale factors that in. I felt like I had to make educated guesses on 3-5 questions, although I felt iffy about a few more. I feel like I'm going to be most nervous for this section as the score release starts approaching.

BS: It felt on par with the AAMCs, not easier, not harder. Very similar in style to the later AAMCs, like 11. I almost panicked because in the middle I was stalling and I felt like the passages looked intimidating, but once I calmed down I felt that the questions were mostly straightforward, and didn't ask anything that required more than one-step reasoning. The Ochem was mostly straightforward; the bio wasn't a slam dunk but I felt that the passages were fine; it was the discretes that were difficult and very specific. Still, I felt unsure about more questions than I would have liked; I'm hoping my gut decisions ended up being correct. I'm a little bit upset because I got two bio discretes wrong that I should have had in the bag, but I'm feeling pretty good about the passages.

Trial section: I got the sociology/psychology section, and I haven't really taken any of those classes so most of the stuff flew over my head. I just wanted the gift card lol.

Overall: I feel like it was okay. Not great, not bad. It'll be nice to get this exam out of my mind for a while before the score release approaches.

Congrats on being done xx
Shark byte i was wondering if you thought that the questions on the SA were helpful and representative of the difficulty level of the real mcat? I kno people say that the later aamcs are

 

[sharkbyte]

Thanks for sharing @sharkbyte, I'm sure you did great esp considering your practice scores! Was the PS more calculation or concept heavy? What would you suggest preparing better for the PS?

Congratulations on (hopefully) being done with your MCAT experience! I'm sure you did just fine even with those tricky passages. I'm curious about the PS, too. How were the calculations? I know when I took the MCAT, the Physics portion seemed both calculation heavy and conceptual heavy.

Thanks, I really hope. So the PS had quite a few calculations, especially for chemistry. I would say overall it was an even split between calculations and conceptual questions. The calculations were MOSTLY straightforward, although there were a couple that were a little bit tricky. As far as preparation, it's hard to say since I don't know how I did, but I think I felt I did okay enough on PS so that I wouldn't have had to prepare much better. But I do think TBR and TPR are the way to go for PS.

Congrats on being done xx
Shark byte i was wondering if you thought that the questions on the SA were helpful and representative of the difficulty level of the real mcat? I kno people say that the later aamcs are

So unfortunately I took the SA package over a month ago so I can't exactly remember the questions and how difficult they were :/ but I felt like most of them were easier than the real thing. The thing is, it depends on how your real sections are. In our case, we had a hard PS and a more manageable BS, so the questions in the SA for PS are probably easier, with the questions labeled "hard" being more accurate indicators of the real thing. If you have a section that's slightly easier, then it's more likely that the "moderate" questions are more accurate.

Please keep the questions coming! I relied a lot on the input of people on this thread and others so I would like to give back

 

[ayocaptain628]

Thanks, I really hope. So the PS had quite a few calculations, especially for chemistry. I would say overall it was an even split between calculations and conceptual questions. The calculations were MOSTLY straightforward, although there were a couple that were a little bit tricky. As far as preparation, it's hard to say since I don't know how I did, but I think I felt I did okay enough on PS so that I wouldn't have had to prepare much better. But I do think TBR and TPR are the way to go for PS.



So unfortunately I took the SA package over a month ago so I can't exactly remember the questions and how difficult they were :/ but I felt like most of them were easier than the real thing. The thing is, it depends on how your real sections are. In our case, we had a hard PS and a more manageable BS, so the questions in the SA for PS are probably easier, with the questions labeled "hard" being more accurate indicators of the real thing. If you have a section that's slightly easier, then it's more likely that the "moderate" questions are more accurate.

Please keep the questions coming! I relied a lot on the input of people on this thread and others so I would like to give back

Ty
When it comes to calculation questions
I know ppl in the past have said that the arithmetic can be lengthy with weird unit conversions, multiple formulae being used, or weird answer choices but my concern is: is finding the relevant information needed for the plug and chug relatively easy to find? Are they usually stated all within the question stem or does it require some hunting
(

 

[sharkbyte]

Ty
When it comes to calculation questions
I know ppl in the past have said that the arithmetic can be lengthy with weird unit conversions, multiple formulae being used, or weird answer choices but my concern is: is finding the relevant information needed for the plug and chug relatively easy to find? Are they usually stated all within the question stem or does it require some hunting
(

Yes, I felt like it was mostly easy. However, there are questions for which you have to switch between units, for example, from liters to cubic meters/centimeters, and things like that. So it's not just one step plug and chug; a lot of the questions required dimensional analysis and unit conversions.

 

[Lokkja]

Seems like you're gonna get the score you deserve, shark! Most people tend to underestimate how well they actually did and you seem relatively comfortable afterwards.

Question for the vets; I plan on writing another MCAT ASAP after this one on the 27th due to my fluctuating VR scores (which often come down to the VR on that day and 1 or 2 questions can make the difference between an 11 and 13) The primary school I'm applying to does not accept scores after Sept 12th. What is the likelihood a spot opens up and I can grab it between the 27th and the 12th, if I'm also willing to travel (by car) to other test sites?

 

[Benighted]

My test is September 12th; however, I only recently started taking Berkeley practice tests and I'm scoring around a 28-30 (My goal is to reach 34+)

I'll finish content review by next week, which leaves me with 2 weeks to do the AAMC practice tests. I fear that I won't perform as well as I'd like on the AAMC practice tests, so I wanted to reschedule.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any testing centers open up in California for the October test. In SDN's experience, at about what time period (3 weeks?) before the test do centers start to open up?

Also, do you think it's a fair idea to just go through with the Sept. 12 MCAT and void it if I feel like I did terribly? (I plan on taking it twice max, so I don't care about losing a testing chance. I'm just worried about finding open spots because it seems like literally no testing centers are available in California throughout the rest of the year)

 

[oznefu]

AAMC 9: (11 PS/13 VR/10 BS) for a 34. I think I'm peaking at the right time homies.

After writing I thought I got a 7 on that PS, I dunno what the heck happened in that section because it had tons of my weaknesses (Fluids/Electricity/Electromagnetism/Optics). I'm gonna call it luck and say I deserved a 10.
VR felt good and it's great that my score is finally reaching the 12+ range.
BS I messed up on one passage really badly because I reversed the concept in my head. Hopefully I can actually fall asleep in the next few days. I think the PS score was Karma's way of apologizing for screwing me over on this BS section due to a lack of sleep.

My average going into the 27th will be;
30 - AAMC 5 (9/11/10)
31 - AAMC 8 (9/11/11)
28 - AAMC 11 (9/10/9)
35 - AAMC 10 (10/12/13)
34 - AAMC 9 (11/13/10)

31.6 (9.6/11.4/10.6) AAMC Average
32 (10/11/11) Realistic Target
33-35 (10/11-13/11-13) Hopeful target
28 (9/10/9) A Nightmare.

May I ask what your verbal strategy is? I've been consistent the past few AAMC's in the 9-10 range but just took #8 today and it dropped to a 6 :/ I'm hoping it's just a fluke but I always feel so lost during that section and feel like I did bad coming out of it. Some passages I can't even seem to understand what they are about. How exactly do you post-phrase your exam?

 

[TexasSurgeon]

My test is September 12th; however, I only recently started taking Berkeley practice tests and I'm scoring around a 28-30 (My goal is to reach 34+)

I'll finish content review by next week, which leaves me with 2 weeks to do the AAMC practice tests. I fear that I won't perform as well as I'd like on the AAMC practice tests, so I wanted to reschedule.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any testing centers open up in California for the October test. In SDN's experience, at about what time period (3 weeks?) before the test do centers start to open up?

Also, do you think it's a fair idea to just go through with the Sept. 12 MCAT and void it if I feel like I did terribly? (I plan on taking it twice max, so I don't care about losing a testing chance. I'm just worried about finding open spots because it seems like literally no testing centers are available in California throughout the rest of the year)

Hey I've been scoring the same in BR exams.

2 weeks to do all the FLs is a bad idea IMO. You'll burn yourself out very quick. Just take it and don't void. See how you do and take it again if needed

 

[Cawolf]

Hey there!

@DoctorInASaree posted some really cool grade tracking excel sheets in photo form a bit back.

I messaged her to see if I could get a copy, but haven't heard back.

Does anyone else have a copy or something similar that they wouldn't mine sharing with a excel-challenged person?

I liked the grade tracking and organization that was used there.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Lokkja]

May I ask what your verbal strategy is? I've been consistent the past few AAMC's in the 9-10 range but just took #8 today and it dropped to a 6 :/ I'm hoping it's just a fluke but I always feel so lost during that section and feel like I did bad coming out of it. Some passages I can't even seem to understand what they are about. How exactly do you post-phrase your exam?

I stole a slight part of my strategy from TBRBiosadist, and I started using this strategy on AAMC 10 (12) and then refined it on AAMC 9 (13) on both these AAMC's even though I scored better (+4ish in raw score) I didn't actually feel any better post test, and on AAMC 10 I never went back into past passages to change answers (I did on AAMC 10 and ended up changing from 2 right answers to 2 wrong answers).

My verbal strategy is as follows;
- Read the first paragraph, then skip to the last paragraph and read that. After reading the first and last paragraph I summarize what the theme/thesis seems to be about (just a sentence or two in my head).
- I go back to the second paragraph, but before I begin to read it I first read the first question.
- As I'm reading through the passage I look for the keyword(s) from the first question, and once finding them stop and analyze what the answer should be based on the information. I then answer the first question, and read the second question.
- If I can't answer the second question yet I rinse and repeat what I just did, but if I already read pertinent information on the second question - then the recency of the material helps me identify the exact paragraph that pertains to the question, and I skip back to it.

Essentially I just systematically move question by question through the passage. After answering all the questions this way I then go back over each question to see if after reading the whole passage/answering later questions my perspective has changed. If it hasn't definitively changed then I don't touch my already answered questions (because I've noticed my intuition is almost always right in cases of 50/50 questions.)

The best way to handle answers to questions is immediately pick the choice that stands out to you. After you pick this choice then critically analyze the remaining answers - you want to eliminate any that have a FALSE premise. What's important here is eliminating things that are inconsistent in details or logic, if you eliminate all of them and are left with your choice, good - because it's pretty damn likely you're correct. If you eliminate two others but are left with the one you chose and another possibility, you have to determine how good your intuition usually is with practice so you can figure out if you can trust your initial choice. If you find the one you chose has a false premise, then this might reveal that you're actually weak in areas of logical/rational analysis - I can't really help you here, this is something you're either good at or bad at.

I've also noticed that this seems to help answering questions because after reading the entire thing you develop a bias from the author. The questions that ask what the author would probably say if "x information was revealed" are usually really easy questions because you can identify based on the whole passage what their attitude would be like. The hard questions on VR are the questions that are more objective... they tend to italicize words like challenge or undermine or weaken and have more to do with the literal availability of information in the passage. The way the passages are written centralizes information to one paragraph almost all the time, which means if you want to know if something directly affects the objectivity of the passage you can find your answer within a few sentences of each other, thus answering systematically makes you focus more on the literal interpretations rather than letting your own bias affect your intuition.

As far as post-analysis for AAMC's I kinda just briefly skim through to see what the errors of my answers were, or on questions that I guess (and got right) why my guess was correct. In BS it's almost always because I misread the passage or missed some specific detail in the passage and didn't flag it as important and then curse myself - but this has helped me in realizing that all of the BS' I've written average probably only 2-3 questions that I can't answer based on a lack of knowledge, the rest I've failed on were failures due to misrepresentation of passage details. PS it's usually because I didn't algebraically reform some sort of equation (I suck at this and have given up on getting better at it) or because I picked the weaker of the two answers conceptually. VR really comes down to just getting a sense of what they want, rather than what's right... and you only learn that through writing all the AAMC's.

 

[poop420]

Hey there!

@DoctorInASaree posted some really cool grade tracking excel sheets in photo form a bit back.

I messaged her to see if I could get a copy, but haven't heard back.

Does anyone else have a copy or something similar that they wouldn't mine sharing with a excel-challenged person?

I liked the grade tracking and organization that was used there.

Thanks in advance!

Ask @TBRBiosadist he had one as well i think!

 

[TBRBiosadist]

it wasnt that set up, Just inputed numbers in colums, had an average box which calculated the average. Simply type"=average" into a box, then select the boxes you want to find the average of

 

[DoctorInASaree]

I know I know I know! It's coming - it's on my laptop right now I promise I will upload it after I'm finished studying today.

it wasnt that set up, Just inputed numbers in colums, had an average box which calculated the average. Simply type"=average" into a box, then select the boxes you want to find the average of

My Excel spreadsheet is color-coded. Do you study for the MCAT with all of the colors of the wind?

 

[Cawolf]

I know I know I know! It's coming - it's on my laptop right now I promise I will upload it after I'm finished studying today.



My Excel spreadsheet is color-coded. Do you study for the MCAT with all the colors of the wind?

That would be great! Mine is very. . . messy looking.

I know I do, best song ever.

 

[pbrocks15]

Hey guys! I just took the MCAT today. It was a long, difficult exam, but I am done (for now) and I am so relieved!

I thought I would copy/paste my post from the August 21 MCAT to give you guys an idea of what I thought of today's exam:

PS: IMO it was definitely harder than any of the practice tests but not by a huge or unreasonable amount. There seemed to be an even split between chemistry and physics and the physics definitely wasn't as obscure as I thought it would be. That one passage everyone's talking about seemed really weird and I feel like I just guessed on almost every question. I feel like there were more questions than usual I was unsure about. I usually finish with a good amount of time left but I finished reviewing my questions exactly as time ran out. I believe I averaged a 13 on AAMCs, not sure if I hit that though.

VR: It felt a little harder, to be honest. The passages weren't as difficult to understand but I felt that a handful of questions were really frustrating, and it seemed like two (or even three) answer choices could work equally. I just hope some of those were experimental or the scale factors that in. I felt like I had to make educated guesses on 3-5 questions, although I felt iffy about a few more. I feel like I'm going to be most nervous for this section as the score release starts approaching.

BS: It felt on par with the AAMCs, not easier, not harder. Very similar in style to the later AAMCs, like 11. I almost panicked because in the middle I was stalling and I felt like the passages looked intimidating, but once I calmed down I felt that the questions were mostly straightforward, and didn't ask anything that required more than one-step reasoning. The Ochem was mostly straightforward; the bio wasn't a slam dunk but I felt that the passages were fine; it was the discretes that were difficult and very specific. Still, I felt unsure about more questions than I would have liked; I'm hoping my gut decisions ended up being correct. I'm a little bit upset because I got two bio discretes wrong that I should have had in the bag, but I'm feeling pretty good about the passages.

Trial section: I got the sociology/psychology section, and I haven't really taken any of those classes so most of the stuff flew over my head. I just wanted the gift card lol.

Overall: I feel like it was okay. Not great, not bad. It'll be nice to get this exam out of my mind for a while before the score release approaches.

Thanks for this man! Best of luck!

 

[pbrocks15]

Yes, I felt like it was mostly easy. However, there are questions for which you have to switch between units, for example, from liters to cubic meters/centimeters, and things like that. So it's not just one step plug and chug; a lot of the questions required dimensional analysis and unit conversions.

Which exams other than the AAMCs would you say are most similar to the real exam?

 

[oznefu]

I stole a slight part of my strategy from TBRBiosadist, and I started using this strategy on AAMC 10 (12) and then refined it on AAMC 9 (13) on both these AAMC's even though I scored better (+4ish in raw score) I didn't actually feel any better post test, and on AAMC 10 I never went back into past passages to change answers (I did on AAMC 10 and ended up changing from 2 right answers to 2 wrong answers).

My verbal strategy is as follows;
- Read the first paragraph, then skip to the last paragraph and read that. After reading the first and last paragraph I summarize what the theme/thesis seems to be about (just a sentence or two in my head).
- I go back to the second paragraph, but before I begin to read it I first read the first question.
- As I'm reading through the passage I look for the keyword(s) from the first question, and once finding them stop and analyze what the answer should be based on the information. I then answer the first question, and read the second question.
- If I can't answer the second question yet I rinse and repeat what I just did, but if I already read pertinent information on the second question - then the recency of the material helps me identify the exact paragraph that pertains to the question, and I skip back to it.

Essentially I just systematically move question by question through the passage. After answering all the questions this way I then go back over each question to see if after reading the whole passage/answering later questions my perspective has changed. If it hasn't definitively changed then I don't touch my already answered questions (because I've noticed my intuition is almost always right in cases of 50/50 questions.)

The best way to handle answers to questions is immediately pick the choice that stands out to you. After you pick this choice then critically analyze the remaining answers - you want to eliminate any that have a FALSE premise. What's important here is eliminating things that are inconsistent in details or logic, if you eliminate all of them and are left with your choice, good - because it's pretty damn likely you're correct. If you eliminate two others but are left with the one you chose and another possibility, you have to determine how good your intuition usually is with practice so you can figure out if you can trust your initial choice. If you find the one you chose has a false premise, then this might reveal that you're actually weak in areas of logical/rational analysis - I can't really help you here, this is something you're either good at or bad at.

I've also noticed that this seems to help answering questions because after reading the entire thing you develop a bias from the author. The questions that ask what the author would probably say if "x information was revealed" are usually really easy questions because you can identify based on the whole passage what their attitude would be like. The hard questions on VR are the questions that are more objective... they tend to italicize words like challenge or undermine or weaken and have more to do with the literal availability of information in the passage. The way the passages are written centralizes information to one paragraph almost all the time, which means if you want to know if something directly affects the objectivity of the passage you can find your answer within a few sentences of each other, thus answering systematically makes you focus more on the literal interpretations rather than letting your own bias affect your intuition.

As far as post-analysis for AAMC's I kinda just briefly skim through to see what the errors of my answers were, or on questions that I guess (and got right) why my guess was correct. In BS it's almost always because I misread the passage or missed some specific detail in the passage and didn't flag it as important and then curse myself - but this has helped me in realizing that all of the BS' I've written average probably only 2-3 questions that I can't answer based on a lack of knowledge, the rest I've failed on were failures due to misrepresentation of passage details. PS it's usually because I didn't algebraically reform some sort of equation (I suck at this and have given up on getting better at it) or because I picked the weaker of the two answers conceptually. VR really comes down to just getting a sense of what they want, rather than what's right... and you only learn that through writing all the AAMC's.

Thank you for this! I'm going to try it out today with a few passages from the AAMC SA and see how it goes

 

[sharkbyte]

Which exams other than the AAMCs would you say are most similar to the real exam?

So the only non-AAMC exams that I took were 3 TPR tests. The thing about the TPR exams is that they're largely content-based, and most of the passage questions are basically discretes in disguise. On the MCAT, the majority of the questions refer to the passage in some way. A lot of people say TPR's exams are much harder than the real MCAT and I disagree - I think they're just different. Although a lot of people score substantially better on the MCAT compared to their TPR average so it might be slightly harder.

 

[pbrocks15]

So the only non-AAMC exams that I took were 3 TPR tests. The thing about the TPR exams is that they're largely content-based, and most of the passage questions are basically discretes in disguise. On the MCAT, the majority of the questions refer to the passage in some way. A lot of people say TPR's exams are much harder than the real MCAT and I disagree - I think they're just different. Although a lot of people score substantially better on the MCAT compared to their TPR average so it might be slightly harder.

I would agree with your comparison of TPR and the AAMCs, i've noticed the same thing but didn't know if it was just me or not.

What would you have done differently, if any?

 

[sharkbyte]

I would agree with your comparison of TPR and the AAMCs, i've noticed the same thing but didn't know if it was just me or not.

What would you have done differently, if any?

I don't think I would have done anything differently. I think I studied as properly as I could for this exam. The thing that frustrates me is that on the BS section, I got two pretty easy Ochem discretes wrong because I overcomplicated them, and I also got a bio question wrong because I switched my answer at the last second. So it's just stupid mistakes like that.... I really hope it doesn't deflate my score too much.

 

[pbrocks15]

I don't think I would have done anything differently. I think I studied as properly as I could for this exam. The thing that frustrates me is that on the BS section, I got two pretty easy Ochem discretes wrong because I overcomplicated them, and I also got a bio question wrong because I switched my answer at the last second. So it's just stupid mistakes like that.... I really hope it doesn't deflate my score too much.

Would you recommend taking more exams to prevent those types of mistakes?

 

[JMMTB]

Does anyone else have a copy or something similar that they wouldn't mine sharing with a excel-challenged person?

I liked the grade tracking and organization that was used there.

Thanks in advance!

I've been using this http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/an-mcat-spreadsheet-based-on-the-sn2ed-schedule.1072276/
to track my progress. May or may not be what you want, but I liked how I could see which passages I really messed up on, plus it includes room fro AAMC exam tracking.

Good Luck!

 

[sharkbyte]

Would you recommend taking more exams to prevent those types of mistakes?

To be honest, not really. The two ochem ones had clear answers, I just overthought them. The bio one was completely passage-based so other exams wouldn't have helped me on that one; I just fell for a trap answer that "looked" good based on passage info when the original answer I chose was actually correct. It was just a classic case of second-guessing and overthinking that shouldn't have happened. I'm hoping the curve compensates though.

 

[Lokkja]

Electrostatics/magnetism makes no sense. You spend the whole chapter understanding the basics and then get to the berkeley passages and none of the answers seem to make any sense. I hope none of this makes it onto my MCAT.

 

[poop420]

Electrostatics/magnetism makes no sense. You spend the whole chapter understanding the basics and then get to the berkeley passages and none of the answers seem to make any sense. I hope none of this makes it onto my MCAT.

try wiki premed !! that helped me alot ..

 

[Cawolf]

I've been using this http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/an-mcat-spreadsheet-based-on-the-sn2ed-schedule.1072276/
to track my progress. May or may not be what you want, but I liked how I could see which passages I really messed up on, plus it includes room fro AAMC exam tracking.

Good Luck!

Cool thanks.

 

[DoctorInASaree]

Electrostatics/magnetism makes no sense. You spend the whole chapter understanding the basics and then get to the berkeley passages and none of the answers seem to make any sense. I hope none of this makes it onto my MCAT.

What's troubling you?

@Cawolf - I'm not sure how to upload a file to a conversation, so I will post the message here.

Hi!

I believe this is the exact copy that I took screenshots of and posted in the SN2'd thread. For what its worth, the comments column helped me track my progress, because they spoke to my mental state and what sorts of improvements I need to make, etc.

I hope this helps!

Warm Regards,
Saree~

 

[Lokkja]

What's troubling you?

All of it. The questions don't seem to correlate with the content. I've got only a couple days left of studying - I'm not going to spend it frustrated on the topic. I'm just moving on.

 

[poop420]

Do you huys use TBR-Bio at all ??? I am tempted to read couple of the chapters to bush up..

 

[lazyindy]

Do you huys use TBR-Bio at all ??? I am tempted to read couple of the chapters to bush up..

completely switched to it after realizing that EK Bio goes into little detail but that's just personal preference because I like details over just scratching the surface. The passages are really good imo.

 

[lazyindy]

Everytime I try to wrap my head around a new orgo topic:

 

[deleted388502]

Happy Sunday. Happy studying. TUNEZ for motivation:



For you August 27thers, hope y'all are chillin'. So close!