taking the mcat cold?

[Bandit]

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anyone ever take the mcat without study? I know this sounds like a bad idea---and as the 15th approaches it REALLY sounds like a bad idea to me, but this is what I did!

I have a gravy six digit salary job as a PA and thought--"who cares if I dont get in, lets just see what happens." Now, I do care and have a lump in my throat you cant beleive! Doubt very much the scores will be competetive.

well, if any have--what were your score like?!

 

[ASDIC]

its really tough to score high without preparation...besides u have a 6 figure salary...u still want to be a doctor?

 

[wylie313]

unless youre an absolute scary genius i would have to say they might not be all that competitive. i studied my ass off for 4 months and i learned one thing, you just cant 100% prepare yourself for the MCAT no matter what.

 

[ferreed]

yeah, a co-worker of mine who is very bright and has a good education took it cold last year. you probably don't want to hear this, but she took it again this year after studying herself silly (or would that be studying herself un-silly?)

best of luck to you though, because you won't know until you get your scores. i've heard too many stories of scores that unexpectedly went above and beyond or flat-out tanked, so hang in there. there's no pat answer-- just what you actually make on it. 👍

 

[OnMyWayThere]

Buy AAMC 7, take it cold and see what happens.

 

[medic170]

Taking the MCAT cold=bad for you, good for the rest of us----it will help lower the curve

 

[NRAI2001]

Taking the mcat cold can be a problem, i usually do better on tests when i am nice and warm. I would wear a nice sweater or a jacket.

 

[scooter31]

I took it relatively cold 3 years ago. Did 3 AAMC exams, reviewed some Kaplan-esque review books, but didnt have all my pre reqs completed (no Ochem, second semester physics completed).

I did reasonably well, in the 20's, but took it again this April. 🙁

I dont recommend doing it cold to anyone. It really isnt a test of intelligence rather than a test of test taking ability and the ability to ration time properly.

 

[Premedtomed]

anyone ever take the mcat without study? I know this sounds like a bad idea---and as the 15th approaches it REALLY sounds like a bad idea to me, but this is what I did!

I have a gravy six digit salary job as a PA and thought--"who cares if I dont get in, lets just see what happens." Now, I do care and have a lump in my throat you cant beleive! Doubt very much the scores will be competetive.

well, if any have--what were your score like?!

You seem to be confused. IF you have a six figure salary, why spent time in medical school.

 

[me9]

My ex-boyfriend took it "cold", or essentially cold. He had been out of school for a year and prepped for one day- by reviewing obscure concepts such as the role of myoglobin or weird organic reactions. He had never seen the test and had no idea the format.

He got a 39T.

There you go-- little bit o' hope for you, there.

my BS meter is off the charts

 

[Agent Splat]

I "skimmed" the Examkracker books, but I did not take any practice tests. I took it "cool," rather than "cold," I guess. I'm not really sure how I did, so I guess we'll see.

I was just finishing up Organic chem and physics when I took it though (had an organic test the same damn week), so I considered taking those classes my prep.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

my BS meter is off the charts

Nah, this is the same guy that busted 1600 on his SAT's and etc etc... I'm serious!

 

[horrorshow]

after a summer of orgo 1 and 2 (with the labs), i had a week to study for it, which was mostly spent worrying. I got a 28P. I studied like a madman and took it this april and am hoping for a 30+ score. i honestly don't think it is possible to crack 30 unless you prepare, or you are one of those geniuses, like the dude above that got a 39T. I think I am decently smart, but not that smart.

 

[medic170]

My ex-boyfriend took it "cold", or essentially cold. He had been out of school for a year and prepped for one day- by reviewing obscure concepts such as the role of myoglobin or weird organic reactions. He had never seen the test and had no idea the format.

He got a 39T.

There you go-- little bit o' hope for you, there.

You are so full of Sh**t

 

[samurai_lincoln]

Nah, this is the same guy that busted 1600 on his SAT's and etc etc... I'm serious!

Sock check, aisle one! pinkertinkle = mbess = bad sockery

She has mentioned this story before, but the identity crisis above detracts from the believability factor.

 

[medic170]

Believe what you will-- it clearly has no effect on my life if you choose to think I am lying, although I don't know why, if I was choosing to BS, I would make up a story about an EX-boyfriend. For a little background information on his: he attended Harvard undergrad. He started college @ 15 and graduated @ 20 (taking a year off in the process). He graduated summa cum laude in cognition, brain and behavior (psychology). He received a 1600 on his SAT at the age of 13. He only took the MCAT "in case" he wanted to apply to medical school, and yes, he rocked it. Which would be expected of someone who was a neuroscience major and a physics minor and who generally takes standardized tests well.

Some people really are geniuses, and he is one of them. You can choose to be jealous and not believe me, and that is entirely up to you. It doesn't affect me whatsoever.

I know I am jealous. What was your ex boyfriend's name Stephen Hawking, or has Jesus Christ finally returned to fulfill the prophecy of eternal redemption?

 

[frank51]

This guy who's in med school now, studied 1-2 week before the test, and ended up getting somewhere in the high 30s, like it or not, MCAT is also an IQ test.

 

[ferreed]

can't we all just get along?!?

come on, folks-- repeat after me. "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggonit PEOPLE LIKE ME."

there. don't you all feel better? LOL

 

[medic170]

Continue to be jealous and incredulous if you choose, but I am certainly not, by any means, "full of Sh**t".

Oh yes you are sweet-pea. Does it make you made that we, the jealous freaks of SDN, will not believe you? If its true, than sit back and laugh at us, but when you keep trying to increase your valididty by continuing to respond with such emotion to our "jealousy", it just makes us more certain that you are, indeed full of Sh**t.

 

[medic170]

Holy ****! Can you not ****ing handle the fact that there are some people in the world who are just geniuses? It doesn't make him a saint! If he were a saint, we'd still be together, dig?

CHILL THE **** OUT, MAN!

Your telling me to chill out? I am just messing with you, your the one getting so upset. Don't take life so seriously, you'll have a coronary before you finish residency. Honestly, I don't care who you are are who you used to date. If it makes you feel better, than I will stop questioning your story, I really don't care. I was just having some fun!! So please, for your own health's sake, take your own advice and chill out my dear.

 

[frank51]

Your telling me to chill out? I am just messing with you, your the one getting so upset. Don't take life so seriously, you'll have a coronary before you finish residency. Honestly, I don't care who you are are who you used to date. If it makes you feel better, than I will stop questioning your story, I really don't care. I was just having some fun!! So please, for your own health's sake, take your own advice and chill out my dear.

The one thing I like about this board is that unlike other boards, people don't flame others as much, lets keep it that way, BTW, check your PMs, medic170.

 

[Shades McCool]

One of my good friends is taking the test in August and took a practice test (7R) cold to see where he stood. He is starting out at a 32 which is not bad.

 

[USIMGgrad]

If you would have said he got a 40T I would have believed you, but since you said 39T I have some doubts.

Its like going to the store and seeing a price tag saying $199.99 instead of $200 plain. Well, you know the reasoning behind that, don't you?

My ex-boyfriend took it "cold", or essentially cold. He had been out of school for a year and prepped for one day- by reviewing obscure concepts such as the role of myoglobin or weird organic reactions. He had never seen the test and had no idea the format.

He got a 39T.

There you go-- little bit o' hope for you, there.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Haha, if you check our past posts I'm sure you'll find that I am indeed a distinct person. Anyhow, I was just repeated what I had read in another thread of this nature.

 

[chopper]

I think everyone has missed the point of the original post. Maybe there is a person out there who could get a 39T with little to no preparation. There are also people who can run a sub-3 marathon with little or not training. Saying you happened to know that a sister of a friends cousin did the Boston Marathon in under 3 hours after drinking all night at an Irish pub isn't going to help the person who asks "I'm thinking of running the chicago marathon next week after doing 0 training, and wonder if you think it's likely if I'll run it in 3 hours".

The bottom line is: taking the test without prep is a bad idea. IF you are a genius, and IF you take standardized tests well, then you will do fine. So no need to even ask. But if you are a 'normal' person (as much as you can call the average pre-med normal), then you will need to prepare, and most definitely, if you prepare, you WILL do better than if you don't.

Mbess: Who cares if your freakishly intelligent ex-boyfriend did so well? That's like saying "I had a friend who won the $39million dollar multi state power ball - so there you go, some hope that you didn't waste your rent money on 1000 tickets for next week's draw". It's an extreme example that will give the original poster a false sense of the reality of the situation. What is your point? To make us feel in awe of you b/c you used to date a genius?

And everyone else: Who cares if she is lying or telling the truth? Even if she is telling the truth, it doesn't take away from the fact that you can't compare people like that (child prodigy genius types) to the 'normal' premed population.

Bandit - I too had a six figure job. I took a year away to re-do classes and get ready for MCAT. I hope to go back for my 'glide' year before med school and save up before giving it up altogether for medicine. For those pre-meds who can't understand why I would want to do that, all I can say is that it is not all about the money. Anyway, good luck to you. I'll find out this week if all the work and classes was worth it. If I knew I could do the MCAT without the prep, I might have tried it.

 

[MoosePilot]

I took the MCAT cold the first time. I didn't know anything about it. I'm an excellent test taker, but not completely top tier (made a 1400 on SAT first time no prep, so good, but not amazing).

I made a 31 the first time. I got my score from my in-law over the phone and without the score report, I knew so little that I didn't know whether that was good or bad. Sounded bad, since 45 was the top.

That's a reasonable score, but if I get on the real thing what I got on the practice, I gained about 6 points after prep, which is good considering I took pre-reqs 6-10 years ago (graduated 1996).

 

[NRAI2001]

How cold was ur bf when he took the mcat? (Please answer in kelvins)

 

[Sahani]

I studied only about 1-2 weeks before the exam, about 6 hours a day, and a practice every other day. I got a 33 cold on my first one and 32/33's on the next 3 AAMC MCATs. I think it has to do a lot with test taking ability and how recent the info is. I hadn't taken chem for a year, but I knew my bio and physics like no other. As for VR, I haven't taken more than the 101 english class 6 semesters ago, and I usually got a 10/11 on it. I think it's tougher to study for the exam for April, of course, and I frankly couldn't even make any prep courses since they conflicted with class/work.

It's all about preperation, once you have the basic knowledge down. In all honesty, the chem/bio/verbal on the exam is fairly simple in comparison to an exam on the same subject in the class... the trick is knowing it _all_ pretty well.

Time will tell next week whether I'm gonna be studying hardcore for August.

Oh, and an interesting tidbit: The statistical normalization they do on each test date actually means the curve is tougher for test takers on the first exam. It's counterintuitive, but the fact is that, comparatively, retesters dominate the August test date... and they generally do poorly, far more consistently. So a first time test taker in April has fewer retesters, and more of a representative pool of the normal population, while August is overdrawn on retesters and consquently has a normal curve skewed left and thus a "higher curve." And I thought the simple logic would've been prevalent.

 

[vinoyp]

My ex-boyfriend took it "cold", or essentially cold. He had been out of school for a year and prepped for one day- by reviewing obscure concepts such as the role of myoglobin or weird organic reactions. He had never seen the test and had no idea the format.

He got a 39T.

There you go-- little bit o' hope for you, there.

If your boyfriend thought the role of myoglobin was some "obscure" concept that warranted review, as opposed to the so many truly obscure concepts in biochemistry and endocrinology, then your boyfriend likely got a 29 L.

--Vinoy

 

[Premedtomed]

If your boyfriend thought the role of myoglobin was some "obscure" concept that warranted review, as opposed to the so many truly obscure concepts in biochemistry and endocrinology, then your boyfriend likely got a 29 L.

--Vinoy

 

[larrywalkerdds]

I took the test cold. No I didn't study even a week. I attempted to but I didn't do anything. We will see how well I did in 3 days. I'm guessing I got a 20.

And unlike those people who got a "39" and a "31" without studying, I didn' have any mastery of physics, gen chem or o-chem. I didn't take AP classes in high school and I never learned those subjects in undergrad really well. I genuinely took it cold and guessed on more than 90% of the exam. The only section that I had some background in was bio but that's it.

Yeah, I believe people can get a 39 cold, but not because he or she is simply a good testtaker. There is no way you can guess your way to a 39 on test using good "test taking" skills. You have to own some background in the sciences to score well.

Owning a solid background in the sciences is not taking the exam cold. Truly taking the exam cold is somone who takes the exam that has practically no background in the sciences. Taking it cold doesn't me you didn't take Kaplan or any practice tests. If someone has a strong background in the sciences, he or she would probably score pretty well despite not having taken a formal review course or practice exams; that's not taking it cold.

This reminds me of the same crap we hear in all of our classes. Someone claims they never study for exams and get A's; that is until you catch them secretly studying in the library in the afternoon when no one else is there. Magicians...I tell ya. Nothing more. It's all an illusion. The information comes from somewhere and it's not some third dimension called the Twilight Zone

 

[MoosePilot]

If your boyfriend thought the role of myoglobin was some "obscure" concept that warranted review, as opposed to the so many truly obscure concepts in biochemistry and endocrinology, then your boyfriend likely got a 29 L.

--Vinoy

You really think so? The MCAT is just plain not in the kind of depth where obscure concepts are a big deal. So knowing what concepts are really obscure is not a big deal. Besides, people are funny about having different interests and different fields of knowledge. Myoglobin might be obscure to one person, but central to another.

Why the weird competition? If you think the guy is made up, then why is his made up score weirding you out? If he's real, then great, he made a top score without knowing myoglobin inside and out.

Is myoglobin the copper based hemoglobin analogue in crustaceans?

 

[larrywalkerdds]

I think everyone has missed the point of the original post. Maybe there is a person out there who could get a 39T with little to no preparation. There are also people who can run a sub-3 marathon with little or not training. Saying you happened to know that a sister of a friends cousin did the Boston Marathon in under 3 hours after drinking all night at an Irish pub isn't going to help the person who asks "I'm thinking of running the chicago marathon next week after doing 0 training, and wonder if you think it's likely if I'll run it in 3 hours".

The bottom line is: taking the test without prep is a bad idea. IF you are a genius, and IF you take standardized tests well, then you will do fine. So no need to even ask. But if you are a 'normal' person (as much as you can call the average pre-med normal), then you will need to prepare, and most definitely, if you prepare, you WILL do better than if you don't.

Mbess: Who cares if your freakishly intelligent ex-boyfriend did so well? That's like saying "I had a friend who won the $39million dollar multi state power ball - so there you go, some hope that you didn't waste your rent money on 1000 tickets for next week's draw". It's an extreme example that will give the original poster a false sense of the reality of the situation. What is your point? To make us feel in awe of you b/c you used to date a genius?

And everyone else: Who cares if she is lying or telling the truth? Even if she is telling the truth, it doesn't take away from the fact that you can't compare people like that (child prodigy genius types) to the 'normal' premed population.

Bandit - I too had a six figure job. I took a year away to re-do classes and get ready for MCAT. I hope to go back for my 'glide' year before med school and save up before giving it up altogether for medicine. For those pre-meds who can't understand why I would want to do that, all I can say is that it is not all about the money. Anyway, good luck to you. I'll find out this week if all the work and classes was worth it. If I knew I could do the MCAT without the prep, I might have tried it.

Yes, I believe he got a 39T if he had taken Physics, Gen Chem, O-chem and Biology and really understood those subjects in and out. But I don't believe it when people say their 6th grade brother who learned math and science for the first time last year got a 41. People love to exaggerate and pretend they are smarter than they are. Like I said, the knowledge has to come from somewhere. No one guesses their way to a 40 based on "test taking" skills. I'm calling BS

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

I'd imagine the stand alone questions in the PS and Biology sections would require a bit more than intuition and good test taking skills

 

[iggyboop]

The original poster of this thread has already taken the test cold; mbess481 tries to give some encouragement, whereupon all of sdn strikes down with all its wrath upon her. What the heck is up with you people? Are some of you so insecure that you can't stand the thought of others having done better than you without studying? 😕

I'll take lancetrad (from the e-mcat forums) over some of the ultracompetitiveness here any day. 😡

 

[Medikit]

The original poster of this thread has already taken the test cold; mbess481 tries to give some encouragement, whereupon all of sdn strikes down with all its wrath upon her. What the heck is up with you people? Are some of you so insecure that you can't stand the thought of others having done better than you without studying? 😕

I'll take lancetrad (from the e-mcat forums) over some of the ultracompetitiveness here any day. 😡

I'm not a real fan of pre-meds, makes me glad I switched my major over to chemistry, because I don't deal with them so much over there.

 

[larrywalkerdds]

The original poster of this thread has already taken the test cold; mbess481 tries to give some encouragement, whereupon all of sdn strikes down with all its wrath upon her. What the heck is up with you people? Are some of you so insecure that you can't stand the thought of others having done better than you without studying? 😕

I'll take lancetrad (from the e-mcat forums) over some of the ultracompetitiveness here any day. 😡

Well, I took it cold so what's my motivation to put this guy down? If anything, I need that same encouragement but reality speaks otherwise. I'm expecting between between an 18-21 realistically.

But to encourage the guy, I think you can get lucky up to a certain point. I think you can realistically guess up to a 27 maybe 28 without any real preparation or understanding of the material. But those who claim they took it cold didn't really take it cold if they understood those subjects back and forth. Taking it cold doesn't mean you simply failed to enroll in TPR or Kaplan.

It's not being ultra competitive but people do expect sincere and somewhat credible advice. If you have a problem with people calling out others bluff then this place may not be for you. I like the fact that others keep people in check when try to spread rubbish. When you have people making false claims or implications then it will result in passionate responses. If that's going to prevent people from spewing nonsense then I love this forum.

Anyone who tries to imply that someone took it cold and got a 39T is either lying or not telling the entire story.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

were you really set on getting into med school? I'm not sure why someone would take the test cold unless they were not 100% sure they wanted to go to med school, timing/scheduling problems, or not knowing what their options were.

starting my review for the MCAT I was able to cram the Physics EK book in one day and I'm sure a half-a**ed review could be pulled off in 3-7 days. Having said that, I must to admit when I took the ACT for high school it never occured to me that people actually put an effort in the ACT/SAT. I thought it was more of a "either you know it or you don't" situation and studying would not help. and then I applied to University of Illinois-Urbana and checked the box for Univ of Illinois Chicago if not accepted there and did not apply anywhere else. I felt foolish for not taking my college admissions more seriously but things worked out. No way I will try to pull that off for medical school though.

Well, I took it cold so what's my motivation to put this guy down? If anything, I need that same encouragement but reality speaks otherwise. I'm expecting between between an 18-21 realistically.

 

[samurai_lincoln]

MY CLAIMS WERE NOT FALSE! WHAT DO I HAVE TO GAIN BY LYING ABOUT AN EX-BOYFRIEND?

I am getting EXTREMELY frustrated that all of you people are insisting that I am lying when I AM NOT! If you want to doubt me, go ahead, but stop INSISTING that what I said MUST be a lie because IT IS NOT A LIE!

I haven't been on these boards very long and I don't appreciate you jerks ruining any credibility or goodwill I have built up in this short time!

I am sorry it makes you angry that my ex is a genius! He is very smart, he understands things easily, he has good intuition, and he had taken each of those courses! He did not study for more than a day and yes, he did get that score! SO JUST SHUT THE **** UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!

Oh yeah, and maybe you'll see when I come hear on Tuesday and post MY mcat score that it's not likely to be so stellar, so if I'm honest about my weaknesses, WHY THE **** would I feel a need to puff up an ex?

I really think that each and every one of you who has insisted that I must be lying is a jerk, because you don't know me or my ex, and you are simply saying that because it doesn't sound like something YOU can imagine doing, it must be false. Well, you can doubt all you want, but it is NOT fair to just flat-out call someone a liar when you have no proof to back it up.

Read larry walker's posts before flying off the handle at him. He defined "cold" in a different respect before making the above statements. Larry stated that anyone with a solid background of coursework in the sciences is essentially NOT taking the exam "cold" in the pure sense. Which, from what I (and larry) gather, is the case with your ex. Per larry's definition, your ex did not take the exam cold. However, anyone who claims they achieved an ultra-high score w/o even having background in the material is likely full of it. That's all he was saying, he wasn't claiming your ex's 39T was fantasy.

 

[rtmcad2319]

mbess481
You should be condemned for your fallacious post!! 😡

 

[larrywalkerdds]

MY CLAIMS WERE NOT FALSE! WHAT DO I HAVE TO GAIN BY LYING ABOUT AN EX-BOYFRIEND?

I am getting EXTREMELY frustrated that all of you people are insisting that I am lying when I AM NOT! If you want to doubt me, go ahead, but stop INSISTING that what I said MUST be a lie because IT IS NOT A LIE!

I haven't been on these boards very long and I don't appreciate you jerks ruining any credibility or goodwill I have built up in this short time!

I am sorry it makes you angry that my ex is a genius! He is very smart, he understands things easily, he has good intuition, and he had taken each of those courses! He did not study for more than a day and yes, he did get that score! SO JUST SHUT THE **** UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!

Oh yeah, and maybe you'll see when I come here on Tuesday and post MY mcat score that it's not likely to be so stellar, so if I'm honest about my weaknesses, WHY THE **** would I feel a need to puff up an ex?

I really think that each and every one of you who has insisted that I must be lying is a jerk, because you don't know me or my ex, and you are simply saying that because if it doesn't sound like something YOU can imagine doing, it must be false. Well, you can doubt all you want, but it is NOT fair to just flat-out call someone a liar when you have no proof to back it up.

Chill out! How are you going to be a physician if you don't have the patience to deal with people on the internet let alone live people. I don't think you are lying but I don't think you knew your boyfriend's depth of knowledge or his background prior to him taking the exam. I doubt he knew nothing of those subjects and guessed his way to a 39T MCAT through intuition and test taking skills.

Yes, I think your boyfriend could score a 39T since he had taken those courses before. That makes sense then. Yes, I can if someone getting a 39T if they were a genius and truly understood the material well the first time and had a photographic memory. But I wouldn't have believed it if you told me he had never taken any of those classes before.

The point is that your boyfriend didn't take it cold. Do you really need to go to another forum before that concept makes sense to you? He had the pre-req's for the exam. Someone who takes it cold is like that well known computer science guy who got up in the morning and took the MCAT for the hell of it. (Antwoine was his name I think?) He ended up scoring a 28 which is much more believable. And even he claimed that he had some background in physics and gen chem although he was clueless in o-chem and bio.

 

[larrywalkerdds]

Um, hi, I have said several times that he is very intelligent and majored in a science. I never claimed that he got his score through "intuition" alone.

Um, the point is he didn't TAKE IT COLD then did he...duh! The "taking it cold" part only happens to be the entire point of the thread. Next time you tell us about your boyfriend, be sure to preface that that he was a science major and had taken all the pre-reqs. Thanks

 

[medic170]

MY CLAIMS WERE NOT FALSE! WHAT DO I HAVE TO GAIN BY LYING ABOUT AN EX-BOYFRIEND?

I am getting EXTREMELY frustrated that all of you people are insisting that I am lying when I AM NOT! If you want to doubt me, go ahead, but stop INSISTING that what I said MUST be a lie because IT IS NOT A LIE!

I haven't been on these boards very long and I don't appreciate you jerks ruining any credibility or goodwill I have built up in this short time!

I am sorry it makes you angry that my ex is a genius! He is very smart, he understands things easily, he has good intuition, and he had taken each of those courses! He did not study for more than a day and yes, he did get that score! SO JUST SHUT THE **** UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!

Oh yeah, and maybe you'll see when I come here on Tuesday and post MY mcat score that it's not likely to be so stellar, so if I'm honest about my weaknesses, WHY THE **** would I feel a need to puff up an ex?

I really think that each and every one of you who has insisted that I must be lying is a jerk, because you don't know me or my ex, and you are simply saying that because if it doesn't sound like something YOU can imagine doing, it must be false. Well, you can doubt all you want, but it is NOT fair to just flat-out call someone a liar when you have no proof to back it up.

My God! This is just an internet board. Are you really concerned about your credibility and goodwill? I know your self esteem is higher than that. Seriously, you have got to chill sweet-pea. Half of these people are just antagonizing you so they can laugh at how upset somebody can get over a stupid ass anoymous internet post, and the other half could give a rats ass. You know if what you said is true or not, and that's all that really matters. It does not matter what a bunch of "jerks" like us think, or at least it should not matter to you. You will likely never meet or interact with any of these people ever in your life, so seriously, chill out. Like your Mom told you when you were 8, if you want them to stop calling you a liar, just ignore them, as long as you keep getting upset over something this silly and miniscule, somebody out there will be ready to push one more button. I don't know anything about you, but as a future physician, I worry about anybody who would get so upset over an anonymous internet message board. You have learn to relax. have a beer, better yet, have a shot or 2 of something strong, like yagermeister, kick back, relax, and laugh this stuff off

 

[iggyboop]

First off, if larrywalkerdds had posted first rather than the belittling "my BS meter is off the charts" and infantile "you are so full of ****" that came as responses to mbess841's post, then everything would have been groovy with me. In other words, the way everyone attacked her without at least trying to find the reason behind the 39T (which she eventually gave) was just...stupid, really.

But to encourage the guy, I think you can get lucky up to a certain point. I think you can realistically guess up to a 27 maybe 28 without any real preparation or understanding of the material. But those who claim they took it cold didn't really take it cold if they understood those subjects back and forth. Taking it cold doesn't mean you simply failed to enroll in TPR or Kaplan.

First, the original poster has already taken the exam cold, so it's not like he's going to be misdirected by mbess841's post, he just wants to know the range of scores for people who haven't studied specifically for the MCAT (well, at least that's my definition of "taking it cold"). Perhaps mbess481 should've given his background info first, but flaming her was a bit harsh. Of course, her providing so much flamebait in her responses didn't help... 🙄

Second, who takes the MCAT without any understanding of the material? At the very least, you have to at least taken the prerequisites, if not for the fact that you need those classes to apply for med school.

It's not being ultra competitive but people do expect sincere and somewhat credible advice. If you have a problem with people calling out others bluff then this place may not be for you. I like the fact that others keep people in check when try to spread rubbish. When you have people making false claims or implications then it will result in passionate responses. If that's going to prevent people from spewing nonsense then I love this forum.

I've been in worse forums, thanks. And ones in which there are many more topics other than those based around a number (not that that's a bad topic given where we are). I doubt it was her intention to spread rubbish. Speaking of which, I didn't notice much flaming of people who spread the earlier test score release dates (of which I am guilty as well), so I attribute this flame to jealousy and ultracompetitiveness rather than any sort of search for truth.

Anyone who tries to imply that someone took it cold and got a 39T is either lying or not telling the entire story.

And so it was the latter.

 

[medic170]

.There is no reason for people to freak out the way they have.

Exactly, but you see, your one of the people who is freaking out, so take your own advice. Anonymous fools like me are not worth getting upset over.

 

[rapshi]

I think you spend too much time in front of a computer. 😎

 

[Slain]

I can't believe you guys can't tell that it's an obvious troll 🙄

 

[Premedtomed]

Who loves to take down a few cold ones?

 

[sacrament]

I studied for about a week and got a 37. I'm entirely unconvinced that studying for longer periods is a decent use of your time. (Especially for the verbal section.) I don't understand people who study for months for that thing. What are you doing that whole time? The amount of material covered on the MCAT is relatively narrow.

(Of course, this is coming from somebody currently studying for Step One.)

 

[horrorshow]

Oh, and an interesting tidbit: The statistical normalization they do on each test date actually means the curve is tougher for test takers on the first exam. It's counterintuitive, but the fact is that, comparatively, retesters dominate the August test date... and they generally do poorly, far more consistently. So a first time test taker in April has fewer retesters, and more of a representative pool of the normal population, while August is overdrawn on retesters and consquently has a normal curve skewed left and thus a "higher curve." And I thought the simple logic would've been prevalent.

wow, where did you get this data sahani? i was under the impression that, although august has a bunch of retesters, that april was equally difficult for people in that they have classes to study for. and i would also think even some 'higher scorers' would be shifting to august just to study all summer and insure a high grade. if april is a tougher curve, im skrewed...