SN2'd first day

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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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poop420 said:
what was the impulse when the 2 players collide ?
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completely inelastic collision, fool is still attached to me.
sticker,375x360.u1.png
 
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time to start day 4
omg its exhausting starting sn2d days when you know you're about to bombarded with stuff youve never seen before ToT
 
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Dreamstoo said:
I was shooting basketball during my break but was thinking of initial velocity and final velocity while playing.... damn it MCAT +pity+
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I'm loving that afro kobe avatar. brings back so many memories when I was 10 and first started watching basketball with my older cousins and kobe became my favorite player. Sad to see he only has maybe 2 more years max :/
 
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lazyindy said:
I'm loving that afro kobe avatar. brings back so many memories when I was 10 and first started watching basketball with my older cousins and kobe became my favorite player. Sad to see he only has maybe 2 more years max :/
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Afro Kobe was a baller. But the shoes he had back then gave me nightmares, they were so ugly. He may have lost his swag but his later shoes made up for it.
 
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ayocaptain628 said:
time to start day 4
omg its exhausting starting sn2d days when you know you're about to bombarded with stuff youve never seen before ToT
Click to expand...
after a month you will be so excited to learn something new.. Trust me I finished book one for all chapters and im giggling like a school girl to see how book 2 turns out !! You wont ,want to do anything but curl up with your book and some coffee and study your brains out !!
tumblr_levsid219Q1qfyrdfo1_500.gif
 
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🙁 no matter how hard I try I cant seem to get into American sports .. EPL starts soon though .... Then the MCAT will not be the most important thing in my life on weekends
 
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I feel like a terrible person but Ive taken the night off after my full lenght. Ill get started nice and early tomorrow and review, do passages and in general try not to have a breakdown
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
I feel like a terrible person but Ive taken the night off after my full lenght. Ill get started nice and early tomorrow and review, do passages and in general try not to have a breakdown
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Nothing wrong with that, everyone needs a break for this beast of prepping for this test.
 
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question direct to those with high BS scores:
When I am doing FLs I consistently score 8 or 9 in BS.
Should I spend more time on content review? Or just focus on doing as many questions/passages and learn the material from the questions. I just feel like I have forgotten some of the content and can't remember all the details.

But then again, people say practice is more important than content review. If I keep reviewing content.. when will I get my practice?
It takes me forever to go thru a chapter of bio/ochem.. sigh 🙁
 
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acemcatthissummer said:
question direct to those with high BS scores:
When I am doing FLs I consistently score 8 or 9 in BS.
Should I spend more time on content review? Or just focus on doing as many questions/passages and learn the material from the questions. I just feel like I have forgotten some of the content and can't remember all the details.

But then again, people say practice is more important than content review. If I keep reviewing content.. when will I get my practice?
It takes me forever to go thru a chapter of bio/ochem.. sigh 🙁
Click to expand...

It's important to mix content review and questions, by the way have you tried the verbal method I sent you?
 
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I've been realizing from taking the AAMC's that I'm going way, way too fast through the test. Does anyone else have this problem? I don't do it because I feel stressed by the time or anything. I just get impatient, especially during the BS section since the test is so close to being done. As a result, I go way too quickly through some bio questions that actually require you to analyze a graph or experiment and read through the answer choices carefully. I'm going to make sure I go through AAMC 9-11 as slowly as I can.
 
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sharkbyte said:
I've been realizing from taking the AAMC's that I'm going way, way too fast through the test. Does anyone else have this problem? I don't do it because I feel stressed by the time or anything. I just get impatient, especially during the BS section since the test is so close to being done. As a result, I go way too quickly through some bio questions that actually require you to analyze a graph or experiment and read through the answer choices carefully. I'm going to make sure I go through AAMC 9-11 as slowly as I can.
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Im opposite, if I take to long I question myself and then switch to the wrong answer, I just gotta blast through. Im my own worst enemy
 
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....and stop the clock!
yay i finished my day 4.
did really well on tbr phys sound :-O
gonna be slightly groggy tomorrow for day 5, oop.
 
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yup! i havent seen any of these topics before so im doing all their passages first since im learning from scratch anyway

edit: ur still up???
 
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Cali here, and I average only 5-6 hours a night anyways

Edit: That amount of sleep is regardless of how busy I am. If I have a free night where I could go to sleep early I usually am stupid and browse 4chan till 4 in the morning or something
 
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TBRBiosadist said:
Cali here, and I average only 5-6 hours a night anyways

Edit: That amount of sleep is regardless of how busy I am. If I have a free night where I could go to sleep early I usually am stupid and browse 4chan till 4 in the morning or something
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Not from cali, but I'm having the same problem is horrible. I browse the internet until 4am then sleep. SUCH a bad habit.
 
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Hey guys. I am retaking the mcat after voiding. I really want to do it quick (~2 months or so). I've done most content review but obviously not well enough in g chem and o chem and part of bio. Should I do the SN2d method or is there a different more preferable one?

I think I just need to do more content review and a crapton of practice questions. (BTW what is the best for practice questions, probably mostly passaged based).
 
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weird, only got 5 hours of sleep last night, and the first thing I did was get up and start day 5...
I never feel that productive w/my usual hours of sleep 😕
 
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pbrocks15 said:
That happens to me periodically and happened to me this morning actually. It doesn't last.....lol
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Yeah I gained about 7 pounds this summer studying for the MCAT so I've decided taking my breaks while going for jogs outside. Been eating healthy for the most part, I was trying to get buff so at least now I'm at the weight I want to be once I go back to the gym.
 
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Monkeys4Lyfe said:
Hey guys. I am retaking the mcat after voiding. I really want to do it quick (~2 months or so). I've done most content review but obviously not well enough in g chem and o chem and part of bio. Should I do the SN2d method or is there a different more preferable one?

I think I just need to do more content review and a crapton of practice questions. (BTW what is the best for practice questions, probably mostly passaged based).
Click to expand...

TBR. No question. I'm a retaker and there's so many awesome passages that I think are either right at or above the actual MCAT difficulty.
 
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The only TBR I use is the physics. I got better in analyzing passages and noticing things I easily get tricked up on. By far way better than EK 1001 IMO (I still don't know why I wasted so much time on this source).
 
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Dreamstoo said:
Yeah I gained about 7 pounds this summer studying for the MCAT so I've decided taking my breaks while going for jogs outside. Been eating healthy for the most part, I was trying to get buff so at least now I'm at the weight I want to be once I go back to the gym.
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What do you think about Lebron going to Cleveland?
 
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bensmitty234 said:
TBR. No question. I'm a retaker and there's so many awesome passages that I think are either right at or above the actual MCAT difficulty.
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TBR for passage based questions? For all subjects?
What about content review? And since you are in the same boat as me, are you doing more content review?

Also, just curious, when did you first take the MCAT?
 
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Do you guys think it's more beneficial while reviewing questionable or incorrect answers in AAMC VR to try to figure out why the answers are solely by analyzing the passage and the question along with the answer choices, or is it more time efficient to use the help of a third-party explanation, such as Kaplan's AAMC explanations? I'm curious what has worked for you guys as far as benefiting from reviewing VR passages?
 
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