SN2'd first day

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TexasSurgeon

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EDIT: This was supposed to be a thread about the first day of SN2. However as with all intelligent life, things evolve. This thread has now become a support page for people following the SN2 plan. You can think of it as Alcoholics Anonymous for people studying to take the MCAT using the SN2 plan.

EDIT July 1, 2014:
If you are interested in @mehc012's Anki Deck, DO NOT SEND A PM. Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7if6wgaif98rkoa/mehc012 SN2edCh4s.apkg
**A NOTE: @mehc012 and several others (myself included) want to tell you guys that studying from another person's deck will probably not be as beneficial to you as creating your own cards. Yes you can take advantage of @mehc012's generosity, but you won't get the same advantage. Study the material. Create cards as you go along. You will find it more helpful to your studying. **

EDIT July 22, 2014:
The following is @TBRBiosadist's official MCAT Verbal Reasoning Strategy:
@TBRBiosadist's strategy that got [him] from a 7 average to scoring 13-15 average..

Spend the bulk of your time reading. Up to 3 minutes per passage.
  • Read the first and last paragraph thoroughly to begin with. Understand what the authors main point will be because 90% of questions require nothing more than a general idea.
  • After this, read the entire passage slowly enough where you dont feel like you need to reread sentences for understanding.
Next is just answer questions, there is a few tricks here that work about 90% of the time
  • Unless the passage is asking you about a specific detail, dont look back. READ EVERY ANSWER THOROUGLY AND THEN Answer what makes sense from the general point of the passage. Its very easy to prove a wrong answer to be somewhat correct if you dig hard enough, dont. Answer what your gut says and move onto the next question, dont contemplate to much. With that being said...
  • Answer like you were dropped on the head as a child. Alot of times if Im arguing between two answers, there is the answer that is 100% correct, and one that is 90% correct. Be an idoit and choose the one that seems like it is correct. However.....
  • "Always" is a word to avoid. If an answer uses this word, or definites like it, it is something to avoid. I would say 80% of the time the wishy washy answer is more correct then the highly affirmative one. This leads to my final point....
  • 100% of the time you are not actually looking for the "right" answer in verbal, this isnt PS or BS where 1+1 almost always equals 2 (unless we are talking about the different sedimentation values for Ribosomes). In verbal you are looking for the answer that isnt wrong. Often times an answer will seem very "right" but one aspect of it is clearly wrong, as compared to an answer that isnt wrong, but doesnt seem as right as that answer, these are meant to fool you. Choose the answer that isnt wrong.
I understand that I few of these tips may be at odds with each other. Ultimately you must adjust slightly for each passage, but it comes down to one thing. Read thoroughly. Read every sentence in the passage. Read every question. Read every answer. Then the correct answer will be fairly obvious. This may seem like it takes longer, but it takes much less time than skimming, and then trying to find the correct information later.

Or to summarize in one sentence

Understand what the hell the author is arguing

EDIT July 26, 2014:
@DoctorInASaree uploaded a guide to Verbal Reasoning. If you're interested, it's worth a look. Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2byivymmqwlvjms/MCAT VR Primer DRSAREE.pdf

EDIT 2, July 26, 2014: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/sn2d-first-day.1074344/page-52#post-15510851
________________________________________________
Just finished the first day of SN2...man is it long and exhausting.

The first day is BR physics chapter (translational motion) + 1/3 of the passages. I felt like I wasn't able to apply the stuff I read into the stuff I was tested on.

Has anyone felt this way when following the schedule? It just seems like the contents of the chapter didn't really stick in my head when I took the practice passages. Will this improve over time?

EDIT 3, March 4, 2015:

For verbal, if you are feeling lost and confused, I highly highly recommend you to look into the MCAT Strategy Course by @Jack Westin. I've been working with him, and nothing comes close to his course and teaching. It's a strategy course, so it will cover everything, not just the VR/CARS section.
 
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I really hope the average IQ of the people taking the test on the 15th is somewhere between potato and rutabaga.
 
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guys has anyone heard anything about the November mcat in terms of difficulty? I know that the summer one tends to be harder than spring...and so im wondering if anybody knows how november usually turns out?
 
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Confession time. The first two chapters of bio where there is about 30+ passages. I never did all them. I cut about a third out of each 1/3 because I didnt have time/was lazy. For instance im supposed to be doing 10-11 passages for my final 1/3 of ch2. Im only doing 8 if them
 
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OH YEAH BIO CHAP 2 PASSAGES. I ONLY GOT 60% ON YA THE FIRST TWO TIMES, WELL I GOT A 90 ON YEAH THE THIRD TIME. Really though, those first two passage sets in bio are a bit ridiculous
 
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which one of you good looking people did question 39 in TBR physics chapter 2.. the one about the graph of static friction and incline. 😉
 
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orangetea said:
which one of you good looking people did question 39 in TBR physics chapter 2.. the one about the graph of static friction and incline. 😉
Click to expand...
I just did it. Easy explanation. Friction is the force which opposses movement force. even the the equation is f=uN, if there is no horizontal force on the object, there is no friction. so at horizontal with only gravity there is no force to oppose. As the angle increases the force of friction increases with the gravitional force causing movement over the plane until there is a max angle where the horizontal forces matches the static friction, this is the max frictional force, pass this angle the frictional force decreases because the normal force is decreasing as compared to the increasing movement force

Think of it like this, has friction ever moved on object by itself, no, so it shouldnt be its largest at 0 angle, because it would otherwise move due to no force opposing it
 
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yes!! false alarm I thought it was a discrepancy with a Kapaln q bank question but it is not thanks for the help!!
 
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Hey TBRBIOsadist do you think doing the TBR bio helped you alot over EK1001>?? Did you feel you made the right decision doing TBR chapters?
 
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I think you mean just ek, and I used ek for content and tbr for passages. I just skimmed the tbr chapters for points that werent covered as well. And for me at least, ek is plenty in depth. Remember, the bio section this time around is more like verbal than not. I feel that unless your bi knowledge is really lacking, using tbrbio for content over ek will give incredibly diminished returns
 
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kids, if you dont start the day's work until 6:30pm, your gonna have a bad time. I was soooo lazy today,im going to have to eat my break day to catch up, and even though im doing well on my 3/3s I feel like i should study more and that i really dont "know" anything


Ehh..... I havent done verbal practice (outside AAMC) in four days, Ive only done hat trick twice. Today was supposed to be my big catchup and overstudy day, but I just slept in and did nothing until the day was almost done.

Despite having high scores I feel like a failure. I hate myself:bang:
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
Is it just me or do you guys find reading verbal passages to be interesting? I just learned how to survive cold ass weather
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Haha, definitely one of the few perks.
TBRBiosadist said:
kids, if you dont start the day's work until 6:30pm, your gonna have a bad time. I was soooo lazy today,im going to have to eat my break day to catch up, and even though im doing well on my 3/3s I feel like i should study more and that i really dont "know" anything


Ehh..... I havent done verbal practice (outside AAMC) in four days, Ive only done hat trick twice. Today was supposed to be my big catchup and overstudy day, but I just slept in and did nothing until the day was almost done.

Despite having high scores I feel like a failure. I hate myself:bang:
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This sounds so exactly like me it's not even funny.
Except that I have to start at 6:30pm ALL THE TIME because of work which is why I'm so behind now.
Plus, I just took like 2-3d off the MCAT to work on my app for http://www.premedsurgery.org/ and then I got sick, so...

I am super excited and I hope I get in, but the app was brutal and took me way too long, and I am losing any hope on completing the SN2ed schedule 'properly', which I guess I dgaf about, but I kinda do
 
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Finished AAMC 7 today.. and surprise surprise, exact same score again lol 31 (12/8/11). I'll be completely fine if I got this score on the real thing. I have a 28 (9/8/11) from last year so I think a 3 point increase is respectable. I just want to improve on the other sections and especially VR!! Oh well, it's nap time fellas. :yawn:
 
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fkljgnsfzklg sjbadskl;bdagna Why do have to miss random stupid problems because of my own idiocy. Why couldnt I remember E=hc/(wavelength)! IM SO DUMB ARHRRHRHGHHGF
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
fkljgnsfzklg sjbadskl;bdagna Why do have to miss random stupid problems because of my own idiocy. Why couldnt I remember E=hc/(wavelength)! IM SO DUMB ARHRRHRHGHHGF
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Hey, at least you don't seem to somehow miss EVERY single, stupid 'not' question.
 
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I just feel like I should KNOW this stuff better, I feel like im an idiot an havent been doing anything.....But this may be just the affect of getting into the final month. Im freaking out now when I get anything wrong in TBR. I mean just one question. If I miss two questions on a normal passage set I lose my mind...I need help. The only exemption for these thoughts are the first two of bio because I did so poorly the first time around. I'm happy with just low 90s on those for my 3/3s.

Yarg. I need to review my equations more, I feel too weak on some of that stuff simply becuase I cant recall all of it off the top of my head
 
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@TBRBiosadist and anyone else using TBR, did/are you taking the diagnostic tests in the back of the TBR Bio books? I was skimming through them and it looked like good stuff.
 
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Yeah that's true. To be honest though... TBR is so fricking hard for me that I feel accomplished when I can only miss one or 2 or sometimes even 3 on a passage. This is from someone who has gotten 0/7 and 1/7 on a couple passages in the past as well. I HATE HATE HATE the PS section and am scared. I am comfortable with the bio and verbal but damn man, all i want is like a 9 on PS section. That would be my ideal score. I know it may seem like I'm shooting low but i know for a fact and acknowledge that I simply do not have the superb mental capacity as some in this very thread who are scoring uber well on their passages and AAMCs (which I haven't started taking yet) and most likely shooting for 40s and above.
 
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avenlea said:
It's been said time and time again here that TBR is a way to learn. I get sooo discouraged by low scores because of exactly what you said, but it's a matter of learning from the mistakes rather than using it to correlate to your AAMC score
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OOOooh he was talking about TBR passages. I thought he was talking about verbal for some reason. Oh yeah, missing 2 a passage on TBR, no worries. Because I totally started with TBR with 50% accuracy.

I apologize! @QueenJames @avenlea
 
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avenlea said:
It's been said time and time again here that TBR is a way to learn. I get sooo discouraged by low scores because of exactly what you said, but it's a matter of learning from the mistakes rather than using it to correlate to your AAMC score
Click to expand...

And it ALSO comes down to whether or not I encounter a passage where I am like "Oh snap. I totally know these answers!" and am really comfortable with the topic at hand. That of course is the luck aspect in this whole journey... which I try not to put too much weight on.
I know there are probably peeps scoring just as bad as I am but what can i say. I need some confidence boosting lol
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
OOOooh he was talking about TBR passages. I thought he was talking about verbal for some reason. Oh yeah, missing 2 a passage on TBR, no worries. Because I totally started with TBR with 50% accuracy.

I apologize! @QueenJames @avenlea
Click to expand...

haha no problem man. No offense was taken on my part. The thing is I HAVE been improving from my first 1/3 to the second 1/3 passage sets but it seems like my OVERALL average will be around 60%. Maybe. I know these numbers don't mean anything but damn i just hope that the mcat is not exactly like TBR. lol
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
OOOooh he was talking about TBR passages. I thought he was talking about verbal for some reason. Oh yeah, missing 2 a passage on TBR, no worries. Because I totally started with TBR with 50% accuracy.

I apologize! @QueenJames @avenlea
Click to expand...

No worries at all yo. Two pages back we were talking about being testy because of this stupid test right??? Bad day for me lol.

@QueenJames, if the MCAT is like TBR, I will be screwed as well so no worries
 
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QueenJames said:
haha no problem man. No offense was taken on my part. The thing is I HAVE been improving from my first 1/3 to the second 1/3 passage sets but it seems like my OVERALL average will be around 60%. Maybe. I know these numbers don't mean anything but damn i just hope that the mcat is not exactly like TBR. lol
Click to expand...

My first 1/3 to 2/3 didn't change much. However, I saw a drastic improvement on my 3/3
 
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I don't think anyone in this thread is targeting to score only every second question correctly on their MCAT. As Swedish said that will result in a 6 or a 7. Not desirable!

Scoring 50% on TBR passages? I think most of us have been there at some point. I look at those scores and see room for improvement, and I highly doubt a lot of you will end up scoring only 50% of passages correctly on the MCAT. I see a lot of potential in most of the posters in this thread. I haven't conversed with anyone who started scoring 90% right away. I think those scores are healthy as long as people see the challenge(s) in front of them and rise and overcome them.

We're all trying to climb the MCAT mountain, and some of us are at different stages. We're all headed towards the same place! So, climb at your own pace, with your own gear, and do it your way, but make sure you get to the top. Cross that finish line! Plant your flag at the summit! 😀

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go pass out on my bed. :flame:
 
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Hey everyone!

I was wondering what practice exams you guys would recommend? I have the Princeton exams and the AAMC exams but I have 8 weeks left before my exam and I want to do more practice exams.

Recommendations?
 
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pbrocks15 said:
Hey everyone!

I was wondering what practice exams you guys would recommend? I have the Princeton exams and the AAMC exams but I have 8 weeks left before my exam and I want to do more practice exams.

Recommendations?
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There can be only one @pbrocks15

Have you completed Princeton & AAMCs? Because that sounds like you'll have 15 exams and it should be enough. If you want more, then go buy TBR exams
 
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QueenJames said:
Yeah that's true. To be honest though... TBR is so fricking hard for me that I feel accomplished when I can only miss one or 2 or sometimes even 3 on a passage. This is from someone who has gotten 0/7 and 1/7 on a couple passages in the past as well. I HATE HATE HATE the PS section and am scared. I am comfortable with the bio and verbal but damn man, all i want is like a 9 on PS section. That would be my ideal score. I know it may seem like I'm shooting low but i know for a fact and acknowledge that I simply do not have the superb mental capacity as some in this very thread who are scoring uber well on their passages and AAMCs (which I haven't started taking yet) and most likely shooting for 40s and above.
Click to expand...
I find that when I score really low like a 2/7 or 1/7 or gasp, 0/7 for example, it's because I wasn't paying attention when I was reading the chapter or I seriously have gaps in content that I need to go back and review...so consider skimming the chapter again?
 
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pbrocks15 said:
Hey everyone!

I was wondering what practice exams you guys would recommend? I have the Princeton exams and the AAMC exams but I have 8 weeks left before my exam and I want to do more practice exams.

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

From my understanding Gold Standard exams are pretty good too. I don't have personal experience, but you could try those.
 
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And yall I realize my freaking out is kinda ridiculous, its just how im wired. Getting a 40 on my first aamc took the pressure off. I dont work well with no pressure ao I manufacture in my mind more pressure. I have to convince myself that if I dont get 100s that im going to fail, otherwise I qont dedicate myself. Dont use me as a example.
 
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Choose all the wrong answers on the last passages on purpose 😛

Then as you are freaking out do the passages while correcting them
 
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I'm in the mood for passages!! TBR here I come!!

35i24gwjpg.gif
 
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