SN2'd first day

[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.

 

[TBRBiosadist]

Yea! My verbal is so inconsistent it scares me. Took a 3 mile jog with my dog and all the sprinklers on the street turned on, I ran half a mile through the sprinklers and the cars on the street were splashing the water on me, quite refreshing actually. Feel much better now, gotta tackle verbal tomorrow.

what strategies have you tried, I was averaging 8-10s until I found something that worked for me. It wasn't gradual either, my scores went instantly up. Try everything and see what feels right

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

I had been getting 10-11's on the last 6 verbal exams I took from EK101

I have always done what you did. Spend a little more time reading, answer questions without looking back much. The problem is when I get humanities passages (especially something on art) I just can't wrap my head around them or understand what is going on. I think this one had several humanities ones so I did terrible. I read a few books on philosophy and arts in the past year to try to get more experience reading that kind of stuff. No bueno.

 

[neekzg]

For those of you using TBR and TPRH, how are you picking which passages to do for TPRH? Finally got my hands on this huge book, I didn't realize that the passages weren't broken down by topic. Do you just have to search through all of the 60-80 passages and find which ones are relevant to your content review? Or do you just attack the passages in sequential order without regard for the topic they cover?

 

[orangetea]

For those of you using TBR and TPRH, how are you picking which passages to do for TPRH? Finally got my hands on this huge book, I didn't realize that the passages weren't broken down by topic. Do you just have to search through all of the 60-80 passages and find which ones are relevant to your content review? Or do you just attack the passages in sequential order without regard for the topic they cover?

They are "usually" in the same order as TBR. So for example let's say I go over forces in physics.. the first few discretes and passages are going to be about Newton's laws . Or Let's say I do acid/base in chemistry.. if you go through the chemistry section you should be able to to find all the chemistry passages clumped together. There are a few things like decay that's kind of out order. But for the most part I have been able to find what I am looking for. Also use those colorful sticky things.. idk I use them to mark sections 😀
I love this book.. esp because mine was new and it still has the new book smell..#heaven

 

[neekzg]

@orangetea Haha thanks for the info! Funny you mention that because the first thing I did before even looking at the practice problems was use a bunch of colorful sticky tabs to separate discretes/passages and their solutions for each subject.

 

[mehc012]

OK, I'm sorry to do this, but:

DEAR EVERYONE
IF YOU WANT THE ANKI DECK, PLEASE REREAD THE THREAD AS IT IS LINKED IN A PRIOR POST (probably the one which is prompting you to message me).
You are welcome to PM me, as I am generally a friendly person, but if I continue to receive frequent PMs which are just asking for the Anki deck which is already publicly linked, I may pull my hair out, and then I would be sad.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

OK, I'm sorry to do this, but:

DEAR EVERYONE
IF YOU WANT THE ANKI DECK, PLEASE REREAD THE THREAD AS IT IS LINKED IN A PRIOR POST (probably the one which is prompting you to message me).
You are welcome to PM me, as I am generally a friendly person, but if I continue to receive frequent PMs which are just asking for the Anki deck which is already publicly linked, I may pull my hair out, and then I would be sad.

It's on page 17 post # 822.

@TexasSurgeon Maybe you could mention that on the first post so people know where to look and we don't end up with a bald mehc012?

 

[TexasSurgeon]

It's on page 17 post # 822.

@TexasSurgeon Maybe you could mention that on the first post so people know where to look and we don't end up with a bald mehc012?

Bald @mehc012 prevented! I added edited it into the first post with the link.
@mehc012 if you continue to receive PM's for the Anki deck, I'm sure a few of us here will contribute towards Rogaine hair products 🙂 🙂

 

[orangetea]

So for those of you learning about the heart/lungs.. I found this page to be REALLY helpful. There are A LOT of questions always about the hemoglobin dissociation curve and I pretty much used this page to get all those questions right 100% of the time. Thought I'd share 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen–haemoglobin_dissociation_curve

 

[mehc012]

So for those of you learning about the heart/lungs.. I found this page to be REALLY helpful. There are A LOT of questions always about the hemoglobin dissociation curve and I pretty much used this page to get all those questions right 100% of the time. Thought I'd share 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen–haemoglobin_dissociation_curve

also:
CADET

CO2
Acid
DPG (2,3-DPG = 2,3-BPG, which you are taught depends on your prof/book)
Exercise
Temperature

These all shift the dissociation curve to the right!

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

also:
CADET

CO2
Acid
DPG (2,3-DPG = 2,3-BPG, which you are taught depends on your prof/book)
Exercise
Temperature

These all shift the dissociation curve to the right!

OOH I like CADET. Just so no one gets confused, an increase in those shifts it to the right

 

[QueenJames]

Everybody is studying 8+ hours a day and I am just like

after a solid 2 hours................

LMAOOOOO

 

[K1NG]

just finished reviewing the TBR electrostatics chapter and passages.. wow what a confidence killer 🙁. anyone who hasn't read it yet I suggest you read TPR or NOVA instead. feel like crap lol

 

[mehc012]

just finished reviewing the TBR electrostatics chapter and passages.. wow what a confidence killer 🙁. anyone who hasn't read it yet I suggest you read TPR or NOVA instead. feel like crap lol

Sorry, I seem to be infinitely stuck on TBR Bio Ch 5...which reviews everything in Bio 101 in mind-numbing detail.

 

[K1NG]

Sorry, I seem to be infinitely stuck on TBR Bio Ch 5...which reviews everything in Bio 101 in mind-numbing detail.

man I gave up on TBR bio lol I only use it for practice passages. I got an 11 on BS the first time around using EK and supplementing with TBR passages so I'm sticking to that this time around.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

just finished reviewing the TBR electrostatics chapter and passages.. wow what a confidence killer 🙁. anyone who hasn't read it yet I suggest you read TPR or NOVA instead. feel like crap lol

Honestly, I think the author changed or something for TBR chapter 8 and 9. Both of those chapters were terrible, completely different from the quality 7 chapters before it. Chapter 8 was especially bad. I also remember at some point the book said 'as we have already discussed...' and I didn't remember reading about it. So I went back through the chapters to see where it was discussed and couldn't find it. So I ended up reading about it online. Then as I moved forward in the chapter, they started discussing it. So, yeah, it was a bad chapter, it needs to be rewritten. TPR does present it well.

 

[K1NG]

Honestly, I think the author changed or something for TBR chapter 8 and 9. Both of those chapters were terrible, completely different from the quality 7 chapters before it. Chapter 8 was especially bad. I also remember at some point the book said 'as we have already discussed...' and I didn't remember reading about it. So I went back through the chapters to see where it was discussed and couldn't find it. So I ended up reading about it online. Then as I moved forward in the chapter, they started discussing it. So, yeah, it was a bad chapter, it needs to be rewritten. TPR does present it well.

glad I'm not the only one who feels that way! The chapter itself wasn't written that well and on top of that the passages were extremely hard. I scored 60% on them. Really ruined my day lol but I think it's also a combo of me fasting and feeling burned out a bit. 10 more minutes until I eat!

I think I might skip the rest of the book too.. I'll skim over the rest and just go ahead with NOVA physics. Can't be crushing my confidence now

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

glad I'm not the only one who feels that way! The chapter itself wasn't written that well and on top of that the passages were extremely hard. I scored 60% on them. Really ruined my day lol but I think it's also a combo of me fasting and feeling burned out a bit. 10 more minutes until I eat!

I think I might skip the rest of the book too.. I'll skim over the rest and just go ahead with NOVA physics. Can't be crushing my confidence now

I got 60s on chapter 8-9 too. I couldn't fast and study. No way. Props.

 

[TBRBiosadist]

glad I'm not the only one who feels that way! The chapter itself wasn't written that well and on top of that the passages were extremely hard. I scored 60% on them. Really ruined my day lol but I think it's also a combo of me fasting and feeling burned out a bit. 10 more minutes until I eat!

I think I might skip the rest of the book too.. I'll skim over the rest and just go ahead with NOVA physics. Can't be crushing my confidence now

They are terrible chapters, the only reason I did well was that my physics professor practically masturbated about electrostatics. But on the other hand we had almost ZERO coverage of fluid dynamics (and by almost I mean completely). So those chapters were way worse for me.

 

[QueenJames]

Anybody else get raped on the Sound Waves chapter in Physics? The material was chill.. I actually understood it but goddamnnnn dem passages doooeeee????

Yeah. I got raped.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Anybody else get raped on the Sound Waves chapter in Physics? The material was chill.. I actually understood it but goddamnnnn dem passages doooeeee????

Yeah. I got raped.

Haven't done it yet but I will probably end up the same as you
berkeley pls

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

Anybody else get raped on the Sound Waves chapter in Physics? The material was chill.. I actually understood it but goddamnnnn dem passages doooeeee????

Yeah. I got raped.

Mine went OK. What tripped you up?

 

[TBRBiosadist]

Mine went OK. What tripped you up?

Same, what did you have difficulties with?

 

[TBRBiosadist]

Achievement Unlocked: Be one day ahead in SN2

 

[orangetea]

not sure if EK101 test #10 was just easy or I am just getting better at verbal. fml.

 

[mehc012]

Hey, to everyone who downloaded my Anki deck:
I just uncovered a typo in my Cloze template which was making the answers not display properly (read: at all) in the mobile versions of the app. It is easy to fix, and I will update the dropbox file tonight with a glitch-free (well, free of THAT particular glitch) deck. I will also post detailed instructions here and in my original post at that time for fixing the Card template (for those who have already started reviewing the cards, it would be way easier to delete the two extra ':' characters in the Card template than to redo the review they've done!)

Sorry about that; the desktop version often compensates for errors which the mobile devices cannot deal with, so small typos in formatting get overlooked until I try to review on the go.

Bonus points to anyone who can look at the Card template and see what is causing the problem (there is a HUGE hint in the above paragraph...even if you're not familiar with Anki, between that and comparison to the built-in Cloze template, you should get it). Looking for it would honestly be great practice for familiarizing yourself with the Note and Card formatting - it's not that complex once you start messing with it!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Hey, to everyone who downloaded my Anki deck:
I just uncovered a typo in my Cloze template which was making the answers not display properly (read: at all) in the mobile versions of the app. It is easy to fix, and I will update the dropbox file tonight with a glitch-free (well, free of THAT particular glitch) deck. I will also post detailed instructions here and in my original post at that time for fixing the Card template (for those who have already started reviewing the cards, it would be way easier to delete the two extra ':' characters in the Card template than to redo the review they've done!)

Sorry about that; the desktop version often compensates for errors which the mobile devices cannot deal with, so small typos in formatting get overlooked until I try to review on the go.

Bonus points to anyone who can look at the Card template and see what is causing the problem (there is a HUGE hint in the above paragraph...even if you're not familiar with Anki, between that and comparison to the built-in Cloze template, you should get it). Looking for it would honestly be great practice for familiarizing yourself with the Note and Card formatting - it's not that complex once you start messing with it!

oh LOL did you add an extra ":" somehow into the format? that's probably causing repeats i think
also if you upload the new anki deck and it happens to have a different URL, PM me so I can update it on the first page of this thread

 

[mehc012]

oh LOL did you add an extra ":" somehow into the format? that's probably causing repeats i think
also if you upload the new anki deck and it happens to have a different URL, PM me so I can update it on the first page of this thread

cool, I will.
It doesn't cause repeats, it just causes the back of the card to be blank. I'd typed too many Cloze cards that day, so when I switched from making cards to formatting them, I kept the habit of typing double colons :: instead of singles :
The desktop can figure out small errors like that. The mobile apps need everything just right.

 

[torontopharm]

Hey guys thought i'd join in 🙂
I just finished my 1st week of Sn2ed and i'm already panicking!
How have you guys been doing in the EK Bio 30 minute lecture exams? I got 7 on both of the 1st 2 chapters. It's pretty annoying, considering i JUST finished a genetics course in my university.
Also, have you guys been timing your TBR passages? I can never seem to finish them under 7-8 minutes. I'm regularly exceeding ~10-12 minutes.

 

[mehc012]

Hey guys thought i'd join in 🙂
I just finished my 1st week of Sn2ed and i'm already panicking!
How have you guys been doing in the EK Bio 30 minute lecture exams? I got 7 on both of the 1st 2 chapters. It's pretty annoying, considering i JUST finished a genetics course in my university.
Also, have you guys been timing your TBR passages? I can never seem to finish them under 7-8 minutes. I'm regularly exceeding ~10-12 minutes.

I confess, I always skip the EK lecture exams, since I'm following TBR Bio straight.

 

[lNVlNClBLE]

Just took my MCAT today, seems a lot of the recent ones are going pretty heavy on PS. You guys might wanna make sure you're pretty good there!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Hey guys thought i'd join in 🙂
I just finished my 1st week of Sn2ed and i'm already panicking!
How have you guys been doing in the EK Bio 30 minute lecture exams? I got 7 on both of the 1st 2 chapters. It's pretty annoying, considering i JUST finished a genetics course in my university.
Also, have you guys been timing your TBR passages? I can never seem to finish them under 7-8 minutes. I'm regularly exceeding ~10-12 minutes.

bio is my worst section now. I have no helpful words, other than to read as critically as possible.

 

[orangetea]

any good ideas on how to memorize mirrors/lens stuff

 

[MrTaco92]

I think I'm finally starting to understand mcat physics! My physics scores have been going up and today I got an average of 1 question wrong per passage. That is, until I got a 1/6 on my last passage of the day... talk about a major #faceplant. I'm pretty excited about this though.

Hey guys thought i'd join in 🙂
I just finished my 1st week of Sn2ed and i'm already panicking!
How have you guys been doing in the EK Bio 30 minute lecture exams? I got 7 on both of the 1st 2 chapters. It's pretty annoying, considering i JUST finished a genetics course in my university.
Also, have you guys been timing your TBR passages? I can never seem to finish them under 7-8 minutes. I'm regularly exceeding ~10-12 minutes.

How are you doing on TBR bio passages? I find the EK ones to be easier than TBR passages, but both are pretty tough for a lot of people from what I've been reading around here.
As far as timing goes, you should expect a steady improvement over time

 

[mehc012]

any good ideas on how to memorize mirrors/lens stuff

Take my job for a year - I work with a bunch of engineers in a custom flow cytometry company. I'm not expected to know any of that stuff, but then, if I need to use an instrument, I usually have to reassemble the optics to whatever configuration I want on that machine, so...my geometric optics are pretty ingrained now. "oh yeah, we took the 488nm laser out of that machine, so if you want to run a 407 you'll have to move the beam to the 1st slit to trigger off FSC - and don't forget to remove the notch filter or you won't get any events! Then you just have to adjust the 1st and second dichroics to move the beam into the 3rd slit so it will hit the fiber optic pickup. Then just pick your bandpass filters and dichroics for your dye molecule and you're golden! Oh, and if you're not getting signal, the fiber is probably kinked and you just cost us a few hundred bucks."

 

[lNVlNClBLE]

any good ideas on how to memorize mirrors/lens stuff

I would just memorize that diverging mirrors/lenses are always "SUV". Smaller, upright, virtual. Then there are like 5 cases for converging lens/mirrors that TBR physics really goes into, regarding the object location between the focal length, radius, etc.

 

[K1NG]

I got 60s on chapter 8-9 too. I couldn't fast and study. No way. Props.

haha thanks. It's going pretty good so far. Just can't push it too much because I'll get burned out easier, my exam is the end of this month (aug 1). But the bulk of my studying is this month as well unfortunately lol.. practice FL's, passages and reviewing chapters. Should be fun.


btw, any of you guys started FL's yet? want to see how TBR scores compare. Here's my breakdown so far:

Gen chem: 71.79%
Physics: 66.5%
Orgo: 75.2%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC): 70.7%

 

[ayocaptain628]

omg how do you guys handle EK1001?
i'm doing the EK1001 for physics and some of these questions i'm like whaat? when did we learn how to apply this info in that manner
the wording is tripping me up and the explanations are too succint

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

haha thanks. It's going pretty good so far. Just can't push it too much because I'll get burned out easier, my exam is the end of this month (aug 1). But the bulk of my studying is this month as well unfortunately lol.. practice FL's, passages and reviewing chapters. Should be fun.


btw, any of you guys started FL's yet? want to see how TBR scores compare. Here's my breakdown so far:

Gen chem: 71.79%
Physics: 66.5%
Orgo: 75.2%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC): 70.7%

I have been taking FL's. FL scores are higher than TBR

GChem = 81%
Physics = 78%
Orgo = 74%
Bio = 70% (not including EK30-I usually missed 3-4)
Bio = 73% (including EK30)

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

omg how do you guys handle EK1001?
i'm doing the EK1001 for physics and some of these questions i'm like whaat? when did we learn how to apply this info in that manner
the wording is tripping me up and the explanations are too succint

I always got my butt kicked by EK1001.

 

[K1NG]

I have been taking FL's. FL scores are higher than TBR

GChem = 81%
Physics = 78%
Orgo = 74%
Bio = 70% (not including EK30-I usually missed 3-4)
Bio = 73% (including EK30)

nice scores man. My physics looks horrible lol going into the test I thought it would be one of my strengths. Not sure how to improve now but I did just order WikiPremeds physics flash cards.

omg how do you guys handle EK1001?
i'm doing the EK1001 for physics and some of these questions i'm like whaat? when did we learn how to apply this info in that manner
the wording is tripping me up and the explanations are too succint

I haven't been doing EK1001 but going to start during my "break" days in between my FL exams. I'll only be doing physics and gen chem though, haven't heard good things about their orgo and bio books.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

omg how do you guys handle EK1001?
i'm doing the EK1001 for physics and some of these questions i'm like whaat? when did we learn how to apply this info in that manner
the wording is tripping me up and the explanations are too succint

I love it when their explanation for an answer is "The answer is C"

 

[nontraditional1]

View attachment 182755

of fudge...you guys are way to high tech for me...i feel like a dinosaur.

 

[nontraditional1]

Well I just took AAMC #5

and????

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

and????

Lol on that one I got 13/12/13 you must have missed that post

 

[TBRBiosadist]

haha thanks. It's going pretty good so far. Just can't push it too much because I'll get burned out easier, my exam is the end of this month (aug 1). But the bulk of my studying is this month as well unfortunately lol.. practice FL's, passages and reviewing chapters. Should be fun.


btw, any of you guys started FL's yet? want to see how TBR scores compare. Here's my breakdown so far:

Gen chem: 71.79%
Physics: 66.5%
Orgo: 75.2%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC): 70.7%

Fls start next week

Overall
Gen chem:87%
Physics: 86%
Orgo: 85%%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC):87%
Verbal: ~70%
but my scores went up in general as I got better at answering questions so...
Past 3 weeks
Gen chem:89%
Physics: 90%
Orgo: 87%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC):92%
Verbal: 96% (once I got my **** together)

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

Fls start next week

Overall
Gen chem:87%
Physics: 86%
Orgo: 85%%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC):87%
Verbal: ~70%
but my scores went up in general as I got better at answering questions so...
Past 3 weeks
Gen chem:89%
Physics: 90%
Orgo: 87%
Bio (including EK 30-min IC):92%
Verbal: 96% (once I got my **** together)

Dannggg Sadist. You're gonna kill the FLs.

 

[TBRBiosadist]

Dannggg Sadist. You're gonna kill the FLs.

Or choke horribly lol

It's 90% my mental state. I have to tell myself a test doesnt mean anything to do well. My first SAT I went in anxious and did ok on mostly and bombed one section because I had shifted half the answers up one. The second one, with not much extra studying I was calm and got a 2300.

 

[TBRBiosadist]

On the flip side I will only get work done if I'm behind and freaking out, otherwise I have zero work ethic. I remember that in the final month of this semester I got all my major papers done in less than a week because I just was crazy focused by stress. Then there was this one little assignment that I had mostly finished (needed less than 10 minutes of work). I put that sucker off for month and instead just worked out or played LoL. I didn't finish and submit until 15 minutes before it was due.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

Or choke horribly lol

It's 90% my mental state. I have to tell myself a test doesnt mean anything to do well. My first SAT I went in anxious and did ok on mostly and bombed one section because I had shifted half the answers up one. The second one, with not much extra studying I was calm and got a 2300.

In my days SAT's didn't go above 1600 😵