SN2ed 2013 summer folks, post here!

[ttt92]

Hey guys,

Just thought I would start a thread for people taking the MCAT in late August/September and using the SN2ed schedule. I thought it would be a good place to post our progress, issues, rantings about the studying, or questions we had about the schedule?? I myself am not starting until later this week after finals.

GOOD LUCK everyone!

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[member0123456]

@ovenmitts Same here ! Are you taking notes and reviewing them? I started making flashcards and reviewed the material before I started the practice passages so the information sticks more.

I keep telling myself to..

just keep swimming.. just keep swimming. - Dori

 

[Sarvish]

I'm finding the Princeton Verbal Hyperlearning super difficult. Actually, I think I'm finding everything difficult. I'm trying so hard to stay confident and optimistic, but it's not working.

The thing about Princeton is that the passages are tricky to understand. Work on pulling out just important info and figuring out why the passage was written and what it's trying to tell you.

 

[IcemanMD]

I've been seeing a downward trend in physics for some reason. I'm on Day 27 now and for some odd reason I did well in physics at my university but some of the passages I'm just not understanding. Any advice?

If you're doing BR physics some of the things they stress over and over are using limiting cases for graph analysis and checking units for formula analysis type questions. Also Brightstorm youtube videos are a godsend if you're struggling with something specific.

You're not the only one who's having a hard time with it. Don't give up

 

[Synapsis]

If you're doing BR physics some of the things they stress over and over are using limiting cases for graph analysis and checking units for formula analysis type questions. Also Brightstorm youtube videos are a godsend if you're struggling with something specific.

You're not the only one who's having a hard time with it. Don't give up

Never give up. It's supposed to be challenging.

Finished my content review tonight and I am beat. Tomorrow I'm going to plan out my passages and practice test order. Then it's the real grind, of doing endless passages. It's pretty exciting that soon I'll see measurable results of my progress beyond BR passages.

Hope everyone's studying is going well.

 

[gettheleadout]

Never give up. It's supposed to be challenging.

Finished my content review tonight and I am beat. Tomorrow I'm going to plan out my passages and practice test order. Then it's the real grind, of doing endless passages. It's pretty exciting that soon I'll see measurable results of my progress beyond BR passages.

Hope everyone's studying is going well.

I can't believe you did content on hyperspeed mode haha, seems like stress I wouldn't want.

 

[Synapsis]

I can't believe you did content on hyperspeed mode haha, seems like stress I wouldn't want.

It actually wasn't as bad as you might think. It also gives me room for a lot of practice tests, which I really wanted.

EDIT: By the way, thanks for the flashcard suggestion. I'm glad I did it. I've always been a flashcard person but for some reason, I thought it'd be too much for the MCAT. I was completely wrong. They're amazing!

 

[Thisisthelife]

I wish I had started the schedule a month early because im backed up on content review and pretty much everyone seems to have the same problem.

 

[Davidasaurus]

67 Days until the MCAT = Day 28 of the schedule

But I'm actually only on Day 11...I dun goofed

Time to go into finals week mode. Did get a 13 on the BR GC2 chapter though

 

[Sarvish]

I wish I had started the schedule a month early because im backed up on content review and pretty much everyone seems to have the same problem.

I agree, I think starting a month earlier and sticking in 15 or 20 more break days would have been nice. I'm lucky that I picked an August test date, might just push it back to the September one if there's still room.

 

[Thisisthelife]

Anyone have any tips for tackling the chem passages? Im around day 30 of the schedule and I just dont see any improvements in the number of questions im getting wrong. I do heavy post game analysis, keep a question log, use flashcards etc. but I really dont see any significant improvement..Any suggestions?

 

[Thisisthelife]

@ovenmitts Same here ! Are you taking notes and reviewing them? I started making flashcards and reviewed the material before I started the practice passages so the information sticks more.

I keep telling myself to..

just keep swimming.. just keep swimming. - Dori

Just keep swimming..words to live by

 

[Sarvish]

Hit 17/19 on verbal passages for the day. Out of the last 8 verbal passages I've done, I haven't gotten more than 1 wrong. If this trend continues, I might hit the 12 or 13 I need to get into med school this application cycle!

Don't want to get my hopes too high but like I mentioned earlier, I started verbal at a 7, to now have hope is an amazing feeling.

 

[Thisisthelife]

same here as far being on "day 32" but actually not at all lol

 

[Thisisthelife]

Make sure you conceptualize everything. You should have an intuition for all the physical situations in these passages. If you're not keeping a logbook of all the questions you are getting wrong and why, start doing that and look for trends. In my case, I noticed that I was getting every single conceptual question correct but missing all of the questions that required calculations, so I put in some time learning how to manipulate the equations. LEARN ALL THE QUICK MENTAL MATH TRICKS. Also, try to follow BR's advice when it comes to using limiting cases or ruling answer choices out based on units.

 

[jigga5]

Hit 17/19 on verbal passages for the day. Out of the last 8 verbal passages I've done, I haven't gotten more than 1 wrong. If this trend continues, I might hit the 12 or 13 I need to get into med school this application cycle!

Don't want to get my hopes too high but like I mentioned earlier, I started verbal at a 7, to now have hope is an amazing feeling.

What is your verbal strategy sarvish? are you looking to get into a canadian med school? Verbal is vital for me as queens and western have strict verbal cut offs.

 

[Sarvish]

What is your verbal strategy sarvish? are you looking to get into a canadian med school? Verbal is vital for me as queens and western have strict verbal cut offs.

Yeah, going into my 3rd year so only applying to Mac. cGPA is kind of low because of a C I got (whoops...) so I was hoping to counter it with a high VR and then pray to the CASPer gods

I think I posted my strategy in another thread pretty detailed so look through my post history but I've really worked on picking up on just the main idea of the entire passage and then working with cancelling out bad answer choices.

 

[Davidasaurus]

same here as far being on "day 32" but actually not at all lol

We're all gonna make it brah

 

[DocMC]

Hit 17/19 on verbal passages for the day. Out of the last 8 verbal passages I've done, I haven't gotten more than 1 wrong. If this trend continues, I might hit the 12 or 13 I need to get into med school this application cycle!

Don't want to get my hopes too high but like I mentioned earlier, I started verbal at a 7, to now have hope is an amazing feeling.

That's amazing. Do you mind sharing your strategy? Do you just read at a good pace, try getting the main idea/picking up on the important points, and then just answer the questions? What are you using? I am doing fine (0-2 wrong/passage on EK) but am bombing TPRH. I got a 6 on VR on my first MCAT and need an 8 minimum (preferably 9) this time.

EDIT: I just read your previous post. My bad.

 

[t5Nitro]

Has anybody used kaplan's flashcards to supplement with for on-the-go?

Curious how they are.

 

[nOchemallday]

Test date: Sep 12th
SN2ed cycle: Day 1.

Despite the thread on why diagnostics are a bad tool, I took the Kaplan Diagnostic test.
Because in my opinion diagnostic tests are helpful in a lot of ways, but are almost definitely not helpful in gauging scores. I had never even seen a passage until during the diagnostic, and I also didn't know about any of the features (such as highlighting and periodic table) or how the interface worked. [Since people seem to care a lot about scores on SDN (Kaplan diag 11-10-8; composite = 29)]

Needless to say, Day 1 begins here. Time to start on my verbal passages.

At the moment, I'm taking brief (non-detailed) notes on major topics in each chapter, more as review sheets for later reference.
I intend to have a notebook for each section: Chem, OChem, Bio, Physics, and Verbal.
(Not writing in any textbooks, so using verbal notebook more for remembering key terms in the passage)

I also plan to have the following "Quick Sheets" for later study:
Physics Equation Sheet
Chem Equation Sheet
OChem Reactions Sheet
Amino Acids Sheet

Any recommendations for other study "Quick Sheets" to make up as I go along?

Also, for anyone that did the math, yes it's only 91(or92) days. I've taken out hat trick days because frankly I'm not worried about my creative thinking. I've also taken out 3 break days (1 after OChem review is finished, and 2 around day 60 where you get like 3 days off in a week).

Good luck!

 

[orangeblue]

Sarvish, love your strategy of reading for main idea and then eliminating bad answers!!

I have stopped writing out why i missed some VR questions, i find that it took a lot of time..for now, I read the passage again, re-do the questions that I got wrong and then match my second-time answers with the answer key/explainations. Anyone else doing that too for VR? I guess it's a lot more intuitive than other sections of the mcat?

I will try to do this for the next week or 2 and then see how i'm doing. I'm missing no more 2 (btw 1 - 2) per passage in both TPHR and EK.

 

[Sarvish]

Sarvish, love your strategy of reading for main idea and then eliminating bad answers!!

I have stopped writing out why i missed some VR questions, i find that it took a lot of time..for now, I read the passage again, re-do the questions that I got wrong and then match my second-time answers with the answer key/explainations. Anyone else doing that too for VR? I guess it's a lot more intuitive than other sections of the mcat?

I will try to do this for the next week or 2 and then see how i'm doing. I'm missing no more 2 (btw 1 - 2) per passage in both TPHR and EK.

I do something similar, writing out VR explanations takes too long and I find that it doesn't stick. Instead, I read the answer solutions and then redo the passage a week later or so. I mark in the book which ones I got wrong but don't mark which answer I picked the first time or what the correct answer is. When I get to the questions for a second time, I think about what wrong answer I might have chosen and why I screwed it up the first time. I found that this way of thinking helps really solidify what traps I'm falling into.

I know everyone says don't redo verbal passages, it's not as effective as doing a brand new passage but I think it's better than just writing out why I screwed something up.

 

[jigga5]

It actually wasn't as bad as you might think. It also gives me room for a lot of practice tests, which I really wanted.

EDIT: By the way, thanks for the flashcard suggestion. I'm glad I did it. I've always been a flashcard person but for some reason, I thought it'd be too much for the MCAT. I was completely wrong. They're amazing!

what strategy did you use to complete the content review in "hyper mode"? Can you break it down

 

[Thisisthelife]

You guys ever notice how TBR Gen Chem will have those occasional questions where each answer choice requires you to evaluate some weird mathematical relationship and it's crazy hard?

Those are really irritating.

YES. Irritating is great word to describe those questions

 

[Thisisthelife]

eh..I see no point in redoing the passages because the point of practicing them is learning how to read fast and with clarity while keeping the main idea in mind. If you have already read the passage, there is no point in rereading because its not going to be new material. I read a lot so I've been scoring very high in verbal since day 1. I attribute this to the intuition I've developed from reading so many different forms of literature all my life. However, I have noticed some of the common mistakes that are made because of the way the mcat verbal is tested so here are a few pointers:

1. You really have to read the whole passage and read it fast.
2. When you get to the answers, the BEST way to approach a question is to eliminate all the answers that are obviously wrong. This normally leaves you with two answers that could both be correct. If you think about it briefly and still cant figure out which one is better go back to the passage and read the sentences before and after the material in the passage that is being referred to in the question.
3. ALWAY, ALWAYS keep in mind the main idea. It will help guide you in answering all the questions.
4. Remember that there may well be two correct answers but one is MORE correct than the other. If you find that you consistently have trouble with picking the right one out of the two, really reflect on what it is that keeps confusing you (i.e Are you using your own bias, are you neglecting an answer that has a word you dont know the meaning of, are you choosing an answer that is correct but doesn't EXACTLY address the question being asked.)

Hope this helps.

 

[Thisisthelife]

Day 2 and I'm already getting rocked

ANY tips on Stoich? Br GChem Ch1? What would be the best way to train Gchem Stoich so no matter what is thrown/twisted at me regarding mass percent, mass percent in solution, molarity, molality, the relationship with density, I have a solid sense of what to do (steps to take, etc.)?

Should I grind EK 1001 stoich over and over? Redo the BR Ch1 GChem Stoich passages till I get it? Supplement with discretes found on the web?

Any help would be much appreciated. Just feeling kind of owned by today. Thanks

First let me say, im a chem major, a chem LA and I will be gen chem TA next semester, and even I was rocke by those first passages. The most important thing you can do is go back to the fundamentals. Use youtube videos for anything you still cant understand after reviewing your answers.

 

[humangenome]

Wow the American forum is so awesome! so much more posting haha.

I'm also following the SN2ed schedule and I am honestly SO thankful for it. It is so clever and though it is just a schedule and you are the one who has to put in the work, I think making a solid schedule is actually the hardest part for many people in the first place. Every time I think about how horrible the intense studying is, I think about how thankful I am to even be able to use this schedule and think about all the super positive testimonials about people who have used it and achieved amazing scores. Doing this makes me happy and super motivated lol

I have a question for you guys: I'm working all day on this thing (besides some volunteer hours and hanging out with friends and family once in a while), but I'm still always behind! I'm finding that there is SO much work to do. How do you guys break up the studying?
For me, I spend about 4 hrs reading and doing the problems while I read + 3 hrs making notes and solidifying problems + couple hours on the passage + couple hours reviewing the passages from the previous chapter/day (as SN2ed advises to check answers the next day). This leaves me lagging behind often. The way I study is 3 hours studying 1 hour break 3 hours studying 1 hour break etc. with 10 mins of break for each hour I study. I always study like this b/c I feel that it maximizes my efficiency (though I'm not a computer that follows through this exactly haha, I tend to take longer breaks or study longer sometimes)

 

[Thisisthelife]

brah? you do know im a female right?

 

[Thisisthelife]

I agree, I think starting a month earlier and sticking in 15 or 20 more break days would have been nice. I'm lucky that I picked an August test date, might just push it back to the September one if there's still room.

Yup same here. I think september would be ideal.

 

[t5Nitro]

I just wanted to let everybody know that if you search Ankiweb for MCAT, you will find a deck of close to 900 cards that somebody has made and generously shared. I'm going to DL it.

 

[ShySpliceosome]

Every time I think about how horrible the intense studying is, I think about how thankful I am to even be able to use this schedule and think about all the super positive testimonials about people who have used it and achieved amazing scores.

Well said!

brah? you do know im a female right?

 

[Synapsis]

Wow the American forum is so awesome! so much more posting haha.

I'm also following the SN2ed schedule and I am honestly SO thankful for it. It is so clever and though it is just a schedule and you are the one who has to put in the work, I think making a solid schedule is actually the hardest part for many people in the first place. Every time I think about how horrible the intense studying is, I think about how thankful I am to even be able to use this schedule and think about all the super positive testimonials about people who have used it and achieved amazing scores. Doing this makes me happy and super motivated lol

I have a question for you guys: I'm working all day on this thing (besides some volunteer hours and hanging out with friends and family once in a while), but I'm still always behind! I'm finding that there is SO much work to do. How do you guys break up the studying?
For me, I spend about 4 hrs reading and doing the problems while I read + 3 hrs making notes and solidifying problems + couple hours on the passage + couple hours reviewing the passages from the previous chapter/day (as SN2ed advises to check answers the next day). This leaves me lagging behind often. The way I study is 3 hours studying 1 hour break 3 hours studying 1 hour break etc. with 10 mins of break for each hour I study. I always study like this b/c I feel that it maximizes my efficiency (though I'm not a computer that follows through this exactly haha, I tend to take longer breaks or study longer sometimes)

I just work til I'm done with what I need to do for the day. I don't like timing myself because it makes it easy to get less work done than I could for the day. Also just because the timer's been going for 4 hours doesn't mean I've been studying for four hours.

 

[Sarvish]

I just work til I'm done with what I need to do for the day. I don't like timing myself because it makes it easy to get less work done than I could for the day. Also just because the timer's been going for 4 hours doesn't mean I've been studying for four hours.

I'm the same, something in my brain just doesn't like timers. If I time myself, my brain says "**** this, I'm not listening to you" and wanders.

I don't mind taking long breaks but when I get started, I turn on my music playlist and I can go for a while. For me, this MCAT score affects 2 years of my life so the motivation is pretty big.

 

[gettheleadout]

I just wanted to let everybody know that if you search Ankiweb for MCAT, you will find a deck of close to 900 cards that somebody has made and generously shared. I'm going to DL it.

I'm just gonna say it took me about 30 seconds of browsing through the cards to find an error.

I really recommend making your own cards.

 

[Davidasaurus]

How important is nomenclature?

I was a beast at NMR in Orgo 2, and both my Orgo professors neglected nomenclature (both saying it wasn't important and wanted us to focus more on the structures). In the 2nd chapter of Orgo for BR I got rocked by all the practice problems simply because I wasn't able to visualize the MC options since they were given in IUPAC.

I'd say my knowledge of naming compounds at this point is still reallllllllly basic even after taking a sidebar and memorizing some popular structures, but it's frustrating since I know what the structure should look like but not what it's called, am I the only one that's bad at this?

 

[humangenome]

How important is nomenclature?

I was a beast at NMR in Orgo 2, and both my Orgo professors neglected nomenclature (both saying it wasn't important and wanted us to focus more on the structures). In the 2nd chapter of Orgo for BR I got rocked by all the practice problems simply because I wasn't able to visualize the MC options since they were given in IUPAC.

I'd say my knowledge of naming compounds at this point is still reallllllllly basic even after taking a sidebar and memorizing some popular structures, but it's frustrating since I know what the structure should look like but not what it's called, am I the only one that's bad at this?

I didn't start the orgo part of the MCAT yes, but I'd say it's a good thing you've nailed down NMR and have little knowledge of nomenclature instead of vice versa b/c I think nomenclature is easier to pick up (memorizing a bunch of rules lol). Seems like you should invest some time in learning nomenclature and I don't think it will take too long/be too bad

 

[t5Nitro]

Sounds good, I will stay away from them.

On the other hand, I purchased a set of over 650 from a current med student on this board. Hopefully they're not error prone.

I'm ahead of schedule in content review but really behind in reviewing passages so I was looking for something quick.

 

[Sik965]

Do you guys have any tips when approaching the science passages? In Ch1 and Ch2 my scores were in the 70-80% range.

I just finished the 2nd 1/3 of the Ch.3 Questions and I got 56% in both Gchem and Physics, and 76% in Bio and ochem. I haven't changed anything in my study habits and I dont find these topics particularly challenging.

When I did the 2nd 1/3rds today, I did the Bio/ochem together. Then 10 min break followed by Phys/Gchem, to try and simulate test day conditions. Anyway does anyone have any tips?

 

[Synapsis]

How important is nomenclature?

I was a beast at NMR in Orgo 2, and both my Orgo professors neglected nomenclature (both saying it wasn't important and wanted us to focus more on the structures). In the 2nd chapter of Orgo for BR I got rocked by all the practice problems simply because I wasn't able to visualize the MC options since they were given in IUPAC.

I'd say my knowledge of naming compounds at this point is still reallllllllly basic even after taking a sidebar and memorizing some popular structures, but it's frustrating since I know what the structure should look like but not what it's called, am I the only one that's bad at this?

Neither of my orgo professors cared about nomenclature either, but it does show up on tests so it's good to at least practice it some if you're having a hard time. Nomenclature can generally be a little easier than most other questions, so it's good to have it down.

 

[t5Nitro]

I don't think you're the only one. In fact, I would venture to say most of us aren't scoring incredibly high on a lot of this material. I find the topics are generally easy and the in-text sample problems to be a breeze. The passages are more difficult.

Do you guys have any tips when approaching the science passages? In Ch1 and Ch2 my scores were in the 70-80% range.

I just finished the 2nd 1/3 of the Ch.3 Questions and I got 56% in both Gchem and Physics, and 76% in Bio and ochem. I haven't changed anything in my study habits and I dont find these topics particularly challenging.

When I did the 2nd 1/3rds today, I did the Bio/ochem together. Then 10 min break followed by Phys/Gchem, to try and simulate test day conditions. Anyway does anyone have any tips?

 

[Davidasaurus]

Neither of my orgo professors cared about nomenclature either, but it does show up on tests so it's good to at least practice it some if you're having a hard time. Nomenclature can generally be a little easier than most other questions, so it's good to have it down.

Any recommendations on good sites? The section regarding nomenclature in the BR review books is really surface and didn't help much.

For example on an NMR problem I'll quickly register that there's an isopropyl or ethyl substituent because of the peak locations/trends (so if the MC were in the form of structures I'd easily be able to narrow the selection) but since they're all in IUPAC it takes me a lottttt longer than it should and it usually boils down to me making an educated guess on what I think the structure looks like

 

[t5Nitro]

I'm sure YouTube has an abundant number of videos if you search for organic chemistry nomenclature.

I'm not at my computer right now but if you need any clarification send me a PM. My Ochem 1 and 2 hit nomenclature hard and used it throughout the courses.

 

[Synapsis]

In case you guys weren't planning on getting it, I really recommend the AAMC official guide to the MCAT. The test writers make the questions, and they give decent explanations and sometimes tips. They also tell you the question difficulty and what percent of people got it correct or not in the past. I know difficulty is relative, but it's nice to see what they consider hard and easy.

Any recommendations on good sites? The section regarding nomenclature in the BR review books is really surface and didn't help much.

For example on an NMR problem I'll quickly register that there's an isopropyl or ethyl substituent because of the peak locations/trends (so if the MC were in the form of structures I'd easily be able to narrow the selection) but since they're all in IUPAC it takes me a lottttt longer than it should and it usually boils down to me making an educated guess on what I think the structure looks like

Nitro is right - there are YouTube vids on nomenclature that are often separated by functional groups. So some just focus on alkanes, some on alkenes, alcohols, etc.

For those NMR problems I just try to quickly draw the structures in the answer choices. It's easier (and faster) for me to draw the structure from the name, than to name the structure from it's picture. Then I look at the structures and see what's different in them, because that's what the NMR will be useful for.

 

[enervate]

How did you guys do on EK 101 Verbal Exam #3 relative to the others? My scores for Exam #3 saw a significant bump relative to the first two. On previous exams, I was averaging about two questions missed per passage. On Exam #3, I averaged less than one question missed per passage. Hopefully the trend continues but I'd like to see if Exam #3 just happens to be easier than others.

 

[Logorrhea]

How did you guys do on EK 101 Verbal Exam #3 relative to the others? My scores for Exam #3 saw a significant bump relative to the first two. On previous exams, I was averaging about two questions missed per passage. On Exam #3, I averaged less than one question missed per passage. Hopefully the trend continues but I'd like to see if Exam #3 just happens to be easier than others.

I actually got an 8 on Exam #3, while my average is a 10. So I didn't think it was easy! You're probably just improving!!

 

[Sik965]

How did you guys do on EK 101 Verbal Exam #3 relative to the others? My scores for Exam #3 saw a significant bump relative to the first two. On previous exams, I was averaging about two questions missed per passage. On Exam #3, I averaged less than one question missed per passage. Hopefully the trend continues but I'd like to see if Exam #3 just happens to be easier than others.

It seemed easier to me also. I got a 12 on it, my avg is 10.6

 

[jevindoes]

Hello everyone.

I am new to this forum and am using the 3 month study plan for my 9/19 test date. I am having trouble figuring out how to shift all of the calendar dates in the given study schedule to match my test date. I would like to keep it all on Google Calendar. Right now I am simply changing the dates 1 by 1, but this is becoming tiresome. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!

 

[pencap]

Has anyone done Section VIII Electrostatistics and Electromagnetism. I really do not understand where the majority of these questions are coming from. It wasn't covered in the book. Is it just me?

 

[humangenome]

Hey guys, I read that people are reading BR bio for content .... is it on the S2ned schedule? Because I don't see it anywhere. Or are people just doing it b/c they feel EK is not enough content for the bio part?

Also, is anyone typing notes for bio? I'm definitely doing hand-written notes for physics, o-chem and ten chem, but it seems like it may just be faster to type notes for bio b/c of the amount of info/lack of math stuff

 

[Sarvish]

Hey guys, I read that people are reading BR bio for content .... is it on the S2ned schedule? Because I don't see it anywhere. Or are people just doing it b/c they feel EK is not enough content for the bio part?

Also, is anyone typing notes for bio? I'm definitely doing hand-written notes for physics, o-chem and ten chem, but it seems like it may just be faster to type notes for bio b/c of the amount of info/lack of math stuff

I used to type notes for courses a few years back but I've learned that I learn better by writing. And if I type then I end up typing everything instead of actually filtering anything out.

And I think people are just reading BR as extra, I'm a weak bio student but I think EK teaches enough to do well.