SN2'd first day

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TexasSurgeon

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 used to have expectations until I realized life + AAMC were full of empty promises and false hope

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poop420 said:
hey Texas how have the FL been going for you ?
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They're Ite. I guess hard to say since made a 24 on number 3 without really any studying and now a 28 on BR fl1 so until I finish content review and hit it harder it's hard to say
Hoping to increase at least 10 pts from my 28. I know it's possible hah
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
But yeah, the 45 day thing is more than frustrating. One of the reasons I didn't buy their exams. What if I change my date?, or anything, I buy the exam, I should be able to use it as I please, at least within that MCAT administration cycle.
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If you decide to change date, you must tell them and you only get one chance to "extend" MCAT. But you again won't be able to access them before 45 days
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
If you decide to change date, you must tell them and you only get one chance to "extend" MCAT. But you again won't be able to access them before 45 days
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The hell is it to them when I choose to take the exams. Maybe I want to take them at the beginning of my studying, I mean, it should be the purchasers choice how to use them...
 
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So I have been trying to work on my Verbal skills using your guys suggestions yesterday I got a 7 out of 21 right. Today i got 10 out of 19 two of which I wrote the write answer and erased it for a wrong one . Still really bad but I hope this small improvement continue until test day! Now time for full evaluations of why I sucked so hard !
 
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poop420 said:
So I have been trying to work on my Verbal skills using your guys suggestions yesterday I got a 7 out of 21 right. Today i got 10 out of 19 two of which I wrote the write answer and erased it for a wrong one . Still really bad but I hope this small improvement continue until test day! Now time for full evaluations of why I sucked so hard !
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I you really wanna improve fast, I recommend you read stuff from antiquity
Homer, Virgil, Aristophanes (Frogs), Plato, David Hume (he's modernity)

I don't remember how much time you have though. Or at least read excerpts from them.

Read David Hume's "The Stoic" if you can. That essay changed my life

ramires said:
@TexasSurgeon did you postpone ? I thought you were taking it on the 27th of August.
@avenlea I know the feeling aamc 3 looming up on friday, don't worry you put in the effort now you will see it return.
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Hahaha yes good catch! I did postpone it because I felt that I wouldn't be adequately prepared by Aug. 27. The extra 2 weeks are a lifesaver. I feel so loved that someone remembered :biglove:
 
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I will give it a try anything that will help. Do you suggest doing anything in particular when reading the books?? or just read them like normal ?? And also If you have to choose just one book to read that would help out what would you choose ??
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
I you really wanna improve fast, I recommend you read stuff from antiquity
Homer, Virgil, Aristophanes (Frogs), Plato, David Hume (he's modernity)

I don't remember how much time you have though. Or at least read excerpts from them.

Read David Hume's "Sceptic" if you can. That essay changed my life


Hahaha yes good catch! I did postpone it because I felt that I wouldn't be adequately prepared by Aug. 27. The extra 2 weeks are a lifesaver. I feel so loved that someone remembered :biglove:
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I remembered, I just know that I would be super grumpy if I had postponed (and may be in the coming weeks), so I thought I'd just...not mention it.
 
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poop420 said:
I will give it a try anything that will help. Do you suggest doing anything in particular when reading the books?? or just read them like normal ?? And also If you have to choose just one book to read that would help out what would you choose ??
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Read philosophy books.
Read David Hume's "The Stoic". You may be able to find it free online somewhere. He writes so beautifully and the art in his writing is that it requires you to thoroughly understand his view. Does this sound familiar? It should haha.
 
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ramires said:
@TexasSurgeon did you postpone ? I thought you were taking it on the 27th of August.
@avenlea I know the feeling aamc 3 looming up on friday, don't worry you put in the effort now you will see it return.
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Look at you, @ramires, just brightening everyone's day. 🙂

Truly, thank you all for all of your support for the past 2.5 months - you guys have been an amazing support system! I don't have a lot of pre-med friends and more relevantly, I don't have a lot of friends around studying for the MCAT so this has been a great help.

Let's kill it y'all!
 
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ramires said:
hey peeps how are you ? just started the grind again on wed after finals, heck those As are pretty nice and worth sacrificing a couple of SN2 days, ill be catching up and ending my material review maybe a day late, first FL on friday and exam is in on 27th of August.
It has been maybe 4 weeks I haven't practiced verbal. I decided to use the @TBRBiosadist method, of thinking of every paragraph from the the writers point of view and guess what? my scores went from missing 3-4 questions 4 weeks earlier on the TPRH verbal to missing 1 (it is usually the answer i double think and doubt myself) thats like amazing.
Concerning other sections i still miss quite a few and I am actually depressed when I see your scores. 😛 (they are not that bad but yet what in the name of holy moly are all those 100s)
So I have about a month and 8 days left, FLs, TPRHSW, reviewing ...
@SwedishMD2B what do you think was most representative of your BS section when practicing.

(On another note welcome me to anki land: I have used flashcards before but spending 75% of my time doing 735 cards for the finals and be the only in my class to ace them got me hooked)

Happy studying Y'all
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Sorry @ramires totally forgot you had posted this. The only thing that was representative of the biology passages was AAMC 11 passages of the BS section. However, my exam was harder than any of those, it was longer, more dense passages with more difficult questions. I didn't see anything as difficult as what I saw on my exam throughout my studying.
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Sorry @ramires totally forgot you had posted this. The only thing that was representative of the biology passages was AAMC 11 [specific passages] of the BS section. However, my exam was harder than any of those, it was longer, more dense passages with more difficult questions. I didn't see anything as difficult as what I saw on my exam throughout my studying.
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I would just caution you that this is getting a bit dangerously specific as to exam content...don't want to see you getting a couple weeks ban!
 
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mehc012 said:
I would just caution you that this is getting a bit dangerously specific as to exam content...don't want to see you getting a couple weeks ban!
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Oh no no, I'm not talking about my exam, I'm talking about the practice test. Those are experiment/research based passages!
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Oh no no, I'm not talking about my exam, I'm talking about the practice test. Those are experiment/research based passages!
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I know, I'm just saying that calling out specific passages like that from AAMC 11 just...skirts the edges. I just wouldn't put anything specific because they're super serious about all of that jazz and it doesn't really add much beyond "AAMC was the most similar, especially all of the experiment based prompts". T'would be a super silly reason to take an SDN vacay is all!
 
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mehc012 said:
I know, I'm just saying that calling out specific passages like that from AAMC 11 just...skirts the edges. I just wouldn't put anything specific because they're super serious about all of that jazz and it doesn't really add much beyond "AAMC was the most similar, especially all of the experiment based prompts". T'would be a super silly reason to take an SDN vacay is all!
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Alright, thanks for looking out. I changed it.
 
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Yeah if your gonna get banned at least make it some super racist rant or something against a race of people who dont exist.
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
Yeah if your gonna get banned at least make it some super racist rant or something against a race of people who dont exist.
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OK, I'll do a rant against ginger boys who freak out if they do good, freak out if they do bad, freak out if they don't freak out, and freak out if they do freak out
 
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I hate content review for the sake of content review. It's boring and makes me want to die.

Now I would rather take FLs and just review content and read out of those. I feel like that gives me a purpose rather than reading aimlessly about half lives which I already know from biochem.

Basically I hate content review and can't wait to get it over with by the end of this month
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
I hate content review for the sake of content review. It's boring and makes me want to die.

Now I would rather take FLs and just review content and read out of those. I feel like that gives me a purpose rather than reading aimlessly about half lives which I already know from biochem.

Basically I hate content review and can't wait to get it over with by the end of this month
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I actually liked content review
 
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Is everyone else here American? Do you guys apply to all the dozens/hundreds (not sure how many) of med schools that exist down there??
#ohcanada

@TexasSurgeon I actually enjoy content review. Passive reading and absorption is much more enjoyable to me than the hell that is passages. That being said, I learn significantly more through passages. 🙂
 
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DreamofDerm said:
Is everyone else here American? Do you guys apply to all the dozens/hundreds (not sure how many) of med schools that exist down there??
#ohcanada

@TexasSurgeon I actually enjoy content review. Passive reading and absorption is much more enjoyable to me than the hell that is passages. That being said, I learn significantly more through passages. 🙂
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American/Swedish. Dual US/EU citizen
 
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DreamofDerm said:
Is everyone else here American? Do you guys apply to all the dozens/hundreds (not sure how many) of med schools that exist down there??
#ohcanada

@TexasSurgeon I actually enjoy content review. Passive reading and absorption is much more enjoyable to me than the hell that is passages. That being said, I learn significantly more through passages. 🙂
Click to expand...


I love Canada! I lived in Quebec for 2 years. I think Montreal is really beautiful
 
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MURICA!! *Cue bald eagle screech*
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Big Macs! Walmart! Michael Bay! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!
 
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@orangetea I've never heard of anyone loving French Canada! Lol, sorry Quebec. Glad you enjoyed your experience though, hehe.
Woooo Canada! Poutines! Maple syrup!!!! SORRY!!!! 😛

On an MCAT related note, I tend to do better on passages when I spend LESS time thinking. Think less = score higher? I'll take it!
 
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Hahaha I love France, despite all the anti-French stereotype crap we have here

haven't been able to focus today...or for the past few days. I have like 25 passages to do since I didn't do the 2/3 from last week. and this kinetics chapter was so boring.
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
Hahaha I love France, despite all the anti-French stereotype crap we have here

haven't been able to focus today...or for the past few days. I have like 25 passages to do since I didn't do the 2/3 from last week. and this kinetics chapter was so boring.
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Reviewing them is the worst...sometimes it takes me almost a whole day :/
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
uhhhhh you were already supposed to do the 2/3s........
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TexasSurgeon said:
Yeah I know......


You should basically have nothing left but the last 1/3's....
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They said ALMOST done with content review. Maybe the 2/3's for the chapters they're currently on will suck...some of those late chapters are doozies.
 
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