SN2'd first day

[TexasSurgeon]

---

Members don't see this ad.

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.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Haha, I have about 2k cards in my MCAT deck now, and I'm only halfway through!
To be fair, a lot of them are for 2nd half material - I made and tagged them while I was taking the prereqs - so it's not exactly going to double or anything.

Everyone, I would be careful about audio osmosis. I've heard it contains mistakes left and right
So do most of your notecards have Cloze style questions?

 

[mehc012]

Everyone, I would be careful about audio osmosis. I've heard it contains mistakes left and right
So do most of your notecards have Cloze style questions?

Oh man, don't get me started on how I Anki...right now I'm adding Cloze's very heavily, but previously I mostly just made my own templates for certain information types.

I edited both the Basic and the Cloze templates pretty heavily so that I could add in typing as desired - it's important to me, I feel I retain things better when there is a concrete measure of ' did you really know it, or are you just convincing yourself afterward?'

 

[nontraditional1]

hey yall... ive been out of school for awhile now...
and when i read a lecture for instance in EK chemistry or EK Bio....there are a lot of little things that i do not remember from pre reqs... i find myself going back into a textbook to refresh or clarify.....is this just me and am i in serious poo here?

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Oh man, don't get me started on how I Anki...right now I'm adding Cloze's very heavily, but previously I mostly just made my own templates for certain information types.

I edited both the Basic and the Cloze templates pretty heavily so that I could add in typing as desired - it's important to me, I feel I retain things better when there is a concrete measure of ' did you really know it, or are you just convincing yourself afterward?'

What do you mean add in typing as desired? Like the stuff in the Extra section?

hey yall... ive been out of school for awhile now...
and when i read a lecture for instance in EK chemistry or EK Bio....there are a lot of little things that i do not remember from pre reqs... i find myself going back into a textbook to refresh or clarify.....is this just me and am i in serious poo here?

I'm sure you're not the only one but it seems like it can be time consuming. Use resources like wikipremed, mcat-review online, etc.

 

[mehc012]

What do you mean add in typing as desired? Like the stuff in the Extra section?

Typing as in 'type your answers and have Anki tell you whether you got it right'

For my Basic cards, instead of just Front/Back, I can dictate:
Make a reverse card?
Type the answer for the forward card? (if yes card displays hint for typing...like Uc for uppercase, ABB for abbreviation, etc)
Type the answer for the reverse card? (if yes same as above)
Type in something specific for each instead of the full back? (this allows me to put detail in the card, but only type the keyword to confirm that I remembered it, also displays typing hint).

For my Cloze, I can choose whether to type or no (I hate having multiple Note types when I can just have one).

 

[pbrocks15]

Does anyone know if the Kaplan Notecards are any good?

I got them for free and seeing everyone here is pretty much using notecards I think it might not hurt to review a few every here and there.

 

[TheRelevant]

This is my ceiling. It will be full soon. I have one of those bed-time eye covers so I can just put that on and sleep with the lights on. My nightly wind-down is going to include getting lost in equations, nomenclature and concepts that will be plastered over my walls/ceiling.

Also. I will be on day 5 soon as soon as I finish TBR physics/biology passages. Bastille. I can finally b optimist about dis.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

This is my ceiling. It will be full soon. I have one of those bed-time eye covers so I can just put that on and sleep with the lights on. My nightly wind-down is going to include getting lost in equations, nomenclature and concepts that will be plastered over my walls/ceiling.

Also. I will be on day 5 soon as soon as I finish TBR physics/biology passages. Bastille. I can finally b optimist about dis.

Good luck reading that from below!

Dang I should've gone electronic on all my documentation of mistakes from the beginning. So much more convenient than paper

 

[TheRelevant]

Good luck reading that from below!

Dang I should've gone electronic on all my documentation of mistakes from the beginning. So much more convenient than paper

The camera optics makes it look really tiny! But its actually really big. Also, you might want to consider OneNote. It's been so good for my MCAT stuff. Look at the screenshot below. Its allowed me to organize my lecture, textbook, and passage answers/notes/annotations all in one place. And the cool thing is, you can hyperlink your notes to link to within your own onenote documents but also other documents (i.e., PDFs). And everything just gets synced to all your devices (even OneNote on android!). I am getting hard just thinking about my notes. Brb guis.

 

[mehc012]

Good luck reading that from below!

Dang I should've gone electronic on all my documentation of mistakes from the beginning. So much more convenient than paper

I can share my Anki deck with you if you'd like, but it is probably far more useful for ME than for you...I've found that flashcards are not highly shareable, as most of the utility and familiarity comes from making them.
If you do take me up on it, make sure that you are proactive while reviewing...my wording will likely not be your favorite, so feel free to edit every single card DURING review to make it fit your style.

 

[orangetea]

Haha, I have about 2k cards in my MCAT deck now, and I'm only halfway through!
To be fair, a lot of them are for 2nd half material - I made and tagged them while I was taking the prereqs - so it's not exactly going to double or anything.

omg YES. I make so many flashcards but going through them takes SO LONG.However, for some reason once I go through them I feel so much more confident about the iffy subjects.

 

[mehc012]

omg YES. I make so many flashcards but going through them takes SO LONG.However, for some reason once I go through them I feel so much more confident about the iffy subjects.

I never go through all of them at once...I just let Anki schedule them for me. When I'm done with content review, I will probably make a Custom Study deck with all MCAT cards for each week and make sure to get through all of them every week or so *gulp*

 

[TheRelevant]

I have a bad habit* of making too many notes that I never read again. I am scared I'll spend so much time on anki flashcards to never look at them ever again ;_;

 

[mehc012]

I have a bad had of making too many notes that I never read again. I am scared I'll spend so much time on anki flashcards to never look at them ever again ;_;

Set your daily review limits LOW. Seeing a ton of due cards is demoralizing and, frankly, screws with the scheduling if you don't stick with it.
Start with a very low review limit and you'll be likely to keep up even when you're slammed. Then, if you have extra time, you can 'Increase todays new/review limit' and crank through a bunch.

I have cards which I made 1.5yrs ago which I still see. It never feels like much...just 20-50/day, yet I have a total load of almost 4k cards and 95% retention. I have never felt such long-term confidence academically as I do now that I'm using Anki. I completely replaced all other study methods with Anki (slow transition over a few courses), and I don't regret it at ALL, especially now that I'm studying for the MCAT.

 

[TheRelevant]

Are you reviewing MCAT-related 1.5 year old flashcards? Or just stuff from various courses that you found interesting? That sounds like a really awesome setup though. Very smart.

 

[mehc012]

Are you reviewing MCAT-related 1.5 year old flashcards? Or just stuff from various courses that you found interesting? That sounds like a really awesome setup though. Very smart.

Whenever I take a course (at least in the past 1.5yrs) I make an Anki deck as my studying. When I was taking an MCAT prereq, I made sure to go through at the end and tag everything by the AAMC content outline.
While I'm taking a course, the cards for that class are in their own separate deck with frequent reviews. When the class finishes, all cards are thoroughly tagged and then dumped into my overall 'Review' deck, with less frequent reviews.
When I began MCAT studying, I created an 'MCAT' deck by searching for the cards in my Review deck which had been tagged 'MCAT'. My MCAT deck has frequent reviews. I add to it every time I study.
My Review deck still exists, and still has less frequent reviews, but if I'm slammed on MCAT studying, I don't mind missing a day or 2 of Review deck studying.

So...my MCAT deck has both new material AND cards which I made while taking the prereqs. My Review deck has all non-MCAT related cards for the other courses I've taken in the past year. I also have a 'Medical Spanish' deck with extremely infrequent reviews and few cards, which is my side project, and can be skipped whenever (but rarely has due cards anyway).

 

[TBRBiosadist]

I have a bad habit* of making too many notes that I never read again. I am scared I'll spend so much time on anki flashcards to never look at them ever again ;_;

This is actually how I always take notes. I make them super detailed and never look at them again. For me it solidifies the details extremely well. Granted, flashcards really are meant to be looked at multiple times but simply the act of making them will be great review.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

I can share my Anki deck with you if you'd like, but it is probably far more useful for ME than for you...I've found that flashcards are not highly shareable, as most of the utility and familiarity comes from making them.
If you do take me up on it, make sure that you are proactive while reviewing...my wording will likely not be your favorite, so feel free to edit every single card DURING review to make it fit your style.

I may take you up on that offer sometime! I've almost never really made notecards before so it would be nice to see how you format them
thank you!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

WTF USA #WORLDCUP

 

[orangetea]

so BASICALLY. give or take you can miss 10 on BS/PS to get a 10 right? that seems so harsh............

 

[nontraditional1]

had kids all day...now back to Chem and VR!

damnnn this is sucking...do i really want to go thru this?

helll to the ffkkking yeah.. i do!

 

[nontraditional1]

HELP....

i am new to the forum here...this may seem stupid to yall... but how the fetch to i quote parts of another users reply so i can address specific stuff in posts?

 

[TexasSurgeon]

HELP....

i am new to the forum here...this may seem stupid to yall... but how the fetch to i quote parts of another users reply so i can address specific stuff in posts?

there's a quote button on bottom right of every post. click it and then click reply and it'll pull the quote

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

WTF USA #WORLDCUP

Ugh. Terrible. Way to stop playing a minute before its over

 

[mehc012]

there's a quote button on bottom right of every post. click it and then click reply and it'll pull the quote

You don't even need to hit the quote button...just hit reply!
The +quote let's you do multi-quotes, even though you can do that just as easily by hitting 'Reply', typing, hitting 'Reply' to the next post, etc (each time you hit it, it simply adds the new quote to the bottom of your drafted response)

 

[nontraditional1]

there's a quote button on bottom right of every post. click it and then click reply and it'll pull the quote

so////// surg in rocketown.... like this

 

[TexasSurgeon]

so////// surg in rocketown.... like this

yeee

 

[TheRelevant]

#Canadian #usedtodisappointment

 

[graden]

EK 1001 is a lifesaver. Really helps solidify your understanding of the material.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Do you just do it like HW? Meaning if you don't know how to do a problem you look up how to do it and go from there?

 

[mehc012]

Do you just do it like HW? Meaning if you don't know how to do a problem you look up how to do it and go from there?

No, I attempt all of them...it's multiple choice, so I get a chance to practice 'picking the best MC answer when I have no effing clue', which is a valuable skill in its own right. I also put a star by it so I know to give that one extra focus when reviewing (with EK I only review missed answers and starred questions).

If I get a problem wrong, or starred it, I look it up, then look up their solution (there's usually a simple way to get from A → Z) and then I sit there and work the math out from every angle I can, throw in a few mixes, and rederive formulas if I have to to remind myself. Then, once I'm very familiar with the setup, I wait a while and go back through the same material in EK1001, but I only do the problems directly before and after those that I missed...since we do every ⅓, there are plenty to do this with no overlap. EK tends to keep the same system for a few questions and ask variations on it, so if my practice worked, I'll get them. If not, I look up those answers and then put several cards into Anki on that setup.

 

[TBRBiosadist]

EK 1001 physics expects more mental math out of you then the MCAT and the ochem is a joke. It is a great tool though, just beware their numerous mistakes.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

EK 1001 physics expects more mental math out of you then the MCAT and the ochem is a joke. It is a great tool though, just beware their numerous mistakes.

i'm worried i won't be able to catch them and i'll learn the wrong crap lol

 

[DoctorInASaree]

i'm worried i won't be able to catch them and i'll learn the wrong crap lol

Finding and correcting mistakes in a textbook / teacher's solution has always been a confidence booster for me.

Happy studying today everyone!

Orgo pour mois!

 

[mehc012]

i'm worried i won't be able to catch them and i'll learn the wrong crap lol

Eh, TBR has had a couple as well.
There was one answer where they clearly changed it between editions. The answer key said 'A', the explanation said 'A' 80 times, but the explanation was clearly for C.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Eh, TBR has had a couple as well.
There was one answer where they clearly changed it between editions. The answer key said 'A', the explanation said 'A' 80 times, but the explanation was clearly for C.

oh yeah i think i spotted that one

Finding and correcting mistakes in a textbook / teacher's solution has always been a confidence booster for me.

Happy studying today everyone!

Orgo pour mois!

haha true

thinking about getting the BR practice tests, but they only activate 45 days before the test day?! that makes no sense. I'm probably gonna put an earlier date on the from to get them activated sooner

 

[nontraditional1]

good morning. it is a rainy day here in dallas...great day to study..
hoping you all have a great week studying...

 

[nontraditional1]

EK 1001 physics expects more mental math out of you then the MCAT and the ochem is a joke. It is a great tool though, just beware their numerous mistakes.

i am using the EK books and have found (not really errrors per se') but stuff like "the polar end of the phospholipid shown on the right is in pink" and then their is no diagram in the margin on the right!

 

[nontraditional1]

Do you just do it like HW? Meaning if you don't know how to do a problem you look up how to do it and go from there?

surg....can you tell me what HW is?

 

[DreamofDerm]

Studying Bio from EK and trying to match up the content to TBR's passages is so disorienting... -_-'' Anyone else having the same issue?
Looks like I'm just using BR all the way.
Happy Monday all. Just keep swimming~

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

Studying Bio from EK and trying to match up the content to TBR's passages is so disorienting... -_-'' Anyone else having the same issue?
Looks like I'm just using BR all the way.
Happy Monday all. Just keep swimming~

SN2ed has the passage numbers for TBR for each corresponding EK chapter written out

 

[DreamofDerm]

SN2ed has the passage numbers for TBR for each corresponding EK chapter written out

That's what I'm attempting to follow. Even then, I find that TBR goes waaaay more in depth so I'm seeing material that wasn't presented in EK being tested in the passages. =/

 

[TexasSurgeon]

That's what I'm attempting to follow. Even then, I find that TBR goes waaaay more in depth so I'm seeing material that wasn't presented in EK being tested in the passages. =/

Welcome to TBR

 

[TexasSurgeon]

surg....can you tell me what HW is?

HW as in homework! Haha

 

[TheRelevant]

Trying to do verbal passages sleep deprived is like reading another language

 

[nontraditional1]

HW as in homework! Haha

well.....fkkkking aye.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

That's what I'm attempting to follow. Even then, I find that TBR goes waaaay more in depth so I'm seeing material that wasn't presented in EK being tested in the passages. =/

hmm. I didn't have too much trouble, it might get better as you go forward.

 

[TBRBiosadist]

Trying to do verbal passages sleep deprived is like reading another language

...maybe the reason my verbal scores are all over the place is because I always do them sleep deprived....

 

[BobaBoba]

thinking about actually taking this test freaks me out. just thinking what if....

 

[Aerus]

Ugh this weekend was so lazy. Hoping today will be better. Luckily I did some things last week so I'm still ahead but not by that much anymore...