The 04/18/09 MCAT Club

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Hello Everyone,

I decided to start a thread for all of us April 18 MCATers. Please feel free to share in your thought, success and frustrations throughout this process here!

All the best!
Good LUCK to all of us! 😉

 

[jboom33]

anyone else feel that the passages got easier in the middle of every section and the middle section of discretes were also easiest? could be that i was just getting into test mode by then (although i usually do discretes first so that's questionable).


PS was hard. stupid ladder right off the bat killed me. not too many intense calculations but definitely a lot more referring to/extrapolating information from the passage than on the practice tests

that verbal section was much harder than AAMC. waaaayyyy more inference questions and quotes that required you to re-read. still i finished on time which is generally a good sign for me

i usually rock the BS section, but today was different. the discretes were much harder than normal and the passages were a little more dense. some weren't too bad, but i just kept second guessing myself...

overall i thought it was much harder than any of the practice tests, but i'm sure that a lot of that has to do with the fact that i knew it was the real deal and was trying to be perfect.

for now it's time to forget about being a nerd for a little while and drown my worries in a bottle of JD...

 

[adamg]

Knittress I used a very specific algorithm for the VR.

Read the passage and briefly summarize the main idea, also try to get a sense of the tone, to help with the quotes.

1. Read question carefully, try to answer with main idea.
-Use this is eliminate the obvious wrong answers, this usually leaves 2 answers.

2. Choose the answer that is most general.
-To decide which one is more general try to fit one into another. So if A and D are left and A is a sub category of D but D isn't of A then D is right.

3. If that fails, (some questions you just can't tell which one is the more general main idea) then go with the more conservative answer, meaning the one with more "perhaps, possibly, maybe"s.


Specfically regarding this test you did have to be a fast reader and get lucky a bit.

Specifically on the passage about economic voting, I am a political junky and an econ major so I was able to slog through the passage which was very poorly presented.

Some of those questions I found very hard.


The other passage people hated was the one about the legal system.

It was also long and convoluted. When I was trying to generate a main idea I struggled a bit.

The key was the last 2 paragraphs, which gave you both the main idea and a very strong idea for the tone of the piece.

Overall this test fit my algoithm pretty well, or so I hope.

Ironically enough I used it to get 2 12's and a 13 on the practice AAMC but I got an 8,9,9 on my last 3 EK practice VR tests, (which I will curse to my dieing day as useless crap, way too interesting passages and way too difficult questions, nothing like the real thing).

 

[aryan1]

Did anyone have the light emitting squid organ passage? that was fun... I was pretty upbeat through the whole thing until that one and the MCAT gene passages in BS. They made me want to cry.

 

[adamg]

Yes, I had the squid and yes it too made me smile. The MCAT gene passage was the hardest and involved a lot of guessing.

 

[NeuroChaos]

After reading everything, I feel a bit better.....

Alright, time to work on that App. now........LORs, EC lists, PS . Oh wait. ...I have to make up four week worths of school work and finals next week....Some body shot me...plz

 

[JokerMD]

took 4/18 today. my overall impression: it was quite hard.

PS: hmm...i got scared about the ladder passage. overall it was ok. kinda tested me on all my weak points (no E&M on the test which is my strong point). I take taht back....i think there was ONE magnetism question. I don't really remember much about this section. I remember the speed of light passage (this is what yall mean by laser right??) and there were some ridiculous questions on that one.

VR: i barely finished. luckily the lasts passage i had (weeds) was not too bad. But good god....AAMC needs to update the world on the fact that the passages are getting fcking long. I'm serious! they were like 1000 words long and I didn't find them all that easy to read. The questions were quite ridiculous too! All this inference and detail questions....not much main idea stuff. That kinda disappointed me since I was getting really good with main idea questions (my weak point when I first started studying).

WS: fairly easy.

BS: I thought BS was ok. It wasn't ridiculous but it was not easy either. Just kinda what I expected. Very little ochem although they did have some fairly random rxn mechanisms in there that I didn't study. Also there were a couple questions where you just needed to know info (LOTS of circulatory system type passages and questions). Also a ton of thinking questions

i hope we all get a good score. i was very close to voiding because of verbal but i don't think my VR can go up anymore regardless of what i do so w/e

on a side note, lets all try to nail down which passages were experimental (this isn't against sdn rules right?)

 

[MegaProjectile]

amen on the BS section... that inducer section and the discretes killed me! NOT cool...

also if I didn't get to use my comprehensive knowledge of hormones today, then when?

Oh well, doesn't matter now that the wait for the scores has begun. Incidentally, does anyone know why it takes ~thirty days for CBT scores to be evaluated, curved, and released? those jerks.

Your question led me to do some fishing about the MCAT "curve". According to my research, the MCAT is not curved. Every test is scaled to adjust for difficulty level already pre-determined by the AAMC test makers. A curve would mean that they take the highest and lowest grade and work their way back. That's not what done. Here's a quote I found:

"The conversion of raw scores to scaled scores compensates for small variations in difficulty between sets of questions. The exact conversion of raw to scaled scores is not constant; because different sets of questions are used on different exams. Conversion of your raw scores to the 15-point scale also helps minimize variability in test scores due to factors unrelated to your skill or knowledge. Variability in scores may be due to such external factors as state of health or degree of familiarity with standardized testing."~ Understanding Your Score ,AAMC

"How you score on the MCAT exam, therefore, is not reflective of the particular exam you took—including the time of day, the test date, or the time of year—since any difference in difficulty level is accounted for when calculating your scale scores (see above for information about scaling). "~Understanding Your Score ,AAMC

"Whatever you do, don't make a decision to test at a particular time of year because you think you will get a higher score because other examinees may not score as well—the test is not scored on a curve. "~Understanding Your Score ,AAMC


So basically, our grade is already set. You will not be punished if everyone else does well today.While some of us may have found the some questions easier today, the scale is adjusted only slightly.That means someone who answered 80% of the questions right today may score 10 compared to 11 if the student had the same accuracy on 3/28.Not a huge shift. Bottomline, the test is not curved, it's rather scaled.

 

[Verbal is evil]

Verbal has always been my weakest section but after 9 months of MCAT studying I actually go it up to a decent score.

AAMC Practice test (Composite/Verbal): 37/10, 38/10, 38/11, 40/11, 41/12, 34/8, 37/11

And today's test was tough and ruined me. It was similar to the AAMC but harder.

PS: Harder than the AAMC practice but I was ready for that. Some of the passages were really straightforward and easy although there were a couple difficult passages. But, it was not as bad as what 3/28 group said. In fact, I think I did quite well on this section. Probably got 14 or 15.

VR: KILLED ME!! This section completely ruined me. Passages were long although they weren't incredibly difficult to understand. However, the questions were absolute murder. I did fine on the first 2 passages and then everything went down hill after I started to panic and stopped paying attention to any of the passages. Overall, I guessed on more than half the questions and I"m pretty sure I got most of them wrong. Most likley I got a 7 or 8. I completely bombed this and will have to retake.

WS: Don't really care much. I was pretty depressed after VR, but it's not too hard of a section.

BS: Depression from VR prevented me from being at my best. I couldn't think straight at all but objectively, I didn't think it was too bad. It was similar to the AAMC. I estimate 12 or 13.

Overall, I hate VR. And I'm pretty pissed that the day I have to take the exam, the VR ends up being the harder section with lots of inference questions and stuff. I would not have been upset with a normal difficulty Verbal and harder sciences like the 3/28 group. No curve can save me after I paniced like that. At least I had the sanity to not void the score.

Anybody else retaking??

 

[MegaProjectile]

VR: KILLED ME!! This section completely ruined me. Passages were long although they weren't incredibly difficult to understand. However, the questions were absolute murder. I did fine on the first 2 passages and then everything went down hill after I started to panic and stopped paying attention to any of the passages. Overall, I guessed on more than half the questions and I"m pretty sure I got most of them wrong. Most likley I got a 7 or 8. I completely bombed this and will have to retake.


Anybody else retaking??

I know how you feel. Everything came together for me today except the VR. You constantly have to refer back to passages again and again. Which is fine but it eats up your time. The passage about the legal system was the worst one for me. The last two paragraphs summed up the passage nicely but WHY DID WE HAVE TO READ THE ENTIRE PASSAGE TO GET THERE!!!It also seem to have the most number of questions.

I'm one mouse click away from signing up for May 2nd before I forget everything I studied. But I'm holding back from my knee-jerk reaction.....

 

[swingline]

Hello all. I have mixed feelings coming out of today's MCAT. I was most surprised by the BS section. I prepared with the Berkeley Review (TBR) and thought that their most challenging, in-class, practice biology passages were very reflective of the passages I saw today (these are generally the same passages found in their review books). The BS sections on TBR's full length computer-based tests and AAMC practice test 9 were easier than the passages I saw today. I felt that the passages presented to me today required a much more detailed reading of the passage rather than drawing off of biology concepts already familiar to me. I think this section really demonstrated the idea that the MCAT is a "thinking test." Also, the passages in BS were fairly long. I heard someone mention earlier that BS is in some ways like VR, where you have to really analyze the passage and questions. I agree that the MCAT / TFR-1 passage was really difficult - I ended up spending more time on that passage then I would have liked, needing to go through the last two passages quicker than I would have liked. All in all, I would be happy with a 10 in BS.

I think my surprise with BS has overshadowed my recollection of PS. The ladder passage also scared me as the first passage, although I had seen similar problems in my physics classes. I'm expecting to do better in PS than BS, perhaps an 11.

VR was consistent with AAMC 9 and TBR CBTs. The most difficult passage I encountered was the economics passage. There were more questions than average following that one, and it required a lot of time. I think I would be lucky to get a 10, but will more likely get a 9.

At the end of the day, I would offer the following difficultly ranking: BS>VR>PS.

Again, I had always thought BS would be my strongest section but it was like a curve ball thrown by the big unit. I would be really excited to get a score in the low 30s, but I'm fairly concerned. If necessary, I'm prepared to spend my evenings in the summer studying for an MCAT in August.

Congratulations to everyone who completed the MCAT today and good luck to those taking the MCAT in the near future. For me, I'm going to go on a run and enjoy the good weather!

 

[Verbal is evil]

I know how you feel. Everything came together for me today except the VR. You constantly have to refer back to passages again and again. Which is fine but it eats up your time. The passage about the legal system was the worst one for me. The last two paragraphs summed up the passage nicely but WHY DID WE HAVE TO READ THE ENTIRE PASSAGE TO GET THERE!!!It also seem to have the most number of questions.

I'm one mouse click away from signing up for May 2nd before I forget everything I studied. But I'm holding back from my knee-jerk reaction.....

Yeah! I'm most likely signing up for the June 18th. I know I will get rejected from most places with VR of 7 or 8 no matter how good the sciences and GPA are.

How long do you have to wait to be able to sign up again??

I'd recommend a retake for anybody if they felt they could have done better. I know I can because I've never paniced in a practice test before.

and yeah the test was crazy. Again, I don't think the passages were too bad. However, every question required lots of complex thinking and verbal gymnastics. Sadly, there were very few easy questions. Even the AAMC practice tests, which I always thought were challenging, at least had a few super obvious questions.😡

 

[rocketbooster]

yeah, a 7 in VR will definitely get you killed in applications. you might survive with an 8, IDK. you really want nothing lower than a 10 on any section.

 

[Davejj40]

....oman the more and more i think about my answers to this mornings test the more and more i feel like i might have made a stupid mistake here or there.... anyone else feeling like this?

 

[iPodtosis]

....oman the more and more i think about my answers to this mornings test the more and more i feel like i might have made a stupid mistake here or there.... anyone else feeling like this?

ya me too. I already know i missed like 4 or 5 on PS 😎

 

[Davejj40]

ya me too. I already know i missed like 4 or 5 on PS 😎

I think Im going to dive into a bottle of jd too so i can forget every little detail i can remember of the test.😀

 

[Brwn98]

Hi guys,

Congrats on being done with the MCAT! If any of you prepared for the exam with Kaplan, did you find the High Yield problems useful--particularly for the PS section? And in general, do you think the Kaplan resources prepared you well for the exam/which resources would you have taken more advantage of? Thanks!

 

[jennbou]

man... i dont know.
i left the test completely zombied out. it was a lot harder than i expected. i guess i assumed the aamc practice tests (8,9,10,4) were made to be a bit harder than the real thing, and i think the test today was much more difficult/complex/long than the practice tests i took. i think this was cause most people say they score a couple points better on the real thing than on the practice ones so i guess i thought it would be easier... yeah, thought wrong.

PS - at the end i felt like ****... but then again, i usually feel like that after the physical science section.

Verbal - WTF?! i usually fly through the verbal, easily understand the passages, and feel great about it, but this was totally different. the passages were looong and the questions complex. there were a couple i couldn't even narrow it down to two. i am mad about this section, but it seems everyone is, so maybe if everyone did not-so-well, our scores wont be that bad.

Writing - whatever.

BS - funny i cant even remember, but i just remember being exhausted and some of the passages being very long. i got confused about the cardio question and for some reason my brain could not process the effect of the inactivated protein and sepsis.... i guess overall it was okay. i am really thankful there wasn't much orgo.

it's so hard to tell. when i think i did awful, my score is high, and when i think i killed it, my score is low. so im the fact that i feel pretty damn awful about this one means i did alright. we'll see. i'm not looking forward to the wait.

 

[Appless]

I think Im going to dive into a bottle of jd too so i can forget every little detail i can remember of the test.😀

Great idea!!! Its what ive been doing since I took the 3/28 test...have fun waiting for your scores you 4/28 people. Its by far the WORST WORST part of all this mcat bs😡. hope you all did well though. It sounds like the test overall wasnt too bad or some curveball out of left field like some tests are!

 

[junkct]

based on the short length of this thread, I'm going to assume that your test wasn't too bad. nice! if next test is ridculously hard, I think we'll see a pattern... 1/30 & 1/31 hard/easy couple, 3/28 & 4/4 hard/easy couple... etc.

 

[JJMrK]

adamg, I think your first post might contain too many specifics. May want to edit it.

Again, I had always thought BS would be my strongest section but it was like a curve ball thrown by the big unit.

I wish he was throwing well this season. Damn giants.

PS: Harder than the AAMC practice but I was ready for that. Some of the passages were really straightforward and easy although there were a couple difficult passages. But, it was not as bad as what 3/28 group said. In fact, I think I did quite well on this section. Probably got 14 or 15.

VR: KILLED ME!! This section completely ruined me. Passages were long although they weren't incredibly difficult to understand. However, the questions were absolute murder. I did fine on the first 2 passages and then everything went down hill after I started to panic and stopped paying attention to any of the passages. Overall, I guessed on more than half the questions and I"m pretty sure I got most of them wrong. Most likley I got a 7 or 8. I completely bombed this and will have to retake.

WS: Don't really care much. I was pretty depressed after VR, but it's not too hard of a section.

BS: Depression from VR prevented me from being at my best. I couldn't think straight at all but objectively, I didn't think it was too bad. It was similar to the AAMC. I estimate 12 or 13.

Overall, I hate VR. And I'm pretty pissed that the day I have to take the exam, the VR ends up being the harder section with lots of inference questions and stuff. I would not have been upset with a normal difficulty Verbal and harder sciences like the 3/28 group. No curve can save me after I paniced like that. At least I had the sanity to not void the score.

Anybody else retaking??

You would really retake a 14,8,12?

Bottomline, the test is not curved, it's rather scaled.

That's generally what people mean when they say it's curved. The number of wrong answers that correlates to a 10 (or 11, 12, whatever) is different from test to test.

 

[JJMrK]

based on the short length of this thread, I'm going to assume that your test wasn't too bad. nice! if next test is ridculously hard, I think we'll see a pattern... 1/30 & 1/31 hard/easy couple, 3/28 & 4/4 hard/easy couple... etc.

We didn't have many posts before the test either so I don't know if it's indicative. It seems like most people who took 3/28 were freaked out because the PS section was really hard and calculation intensive. This MCAT didn't have a ton of PS calculations, but it was way harder than any AAMC practice test. Overall it seems to be better received than 3/28 was.

 

[iPodtosis]

i saw 2 posts regarding experimental passages. What is an experimental passage, what does that mean? It doesn't count against you?

 

[UTKD]

.

 

[Verbal is evil]

You would really retake a 14,8,12?

I did say 7 or 8, so it could be 7. And yes I would retake for both of those numbers. It doesn't matter how well sciences are or how good my GPA is. I've read countless books about how medical schools reject almost everybody who is 8 or worse. That is unless you are applying to the bottom of the barrel in the USA or the Carribean schools.

What pisses me off is that I studied my arse off to get myself scoring 10-11 on practice exams very consistently and then I get bombed because the VR test today was harder than average. I could have easily tolerated a hard PS or BS but the harder VR really killed me today. And it was partially my fault for panicing (although I really had no control over that).

I'm definetly retaking. Even if I only get a 9 on the 2nd time around, I'm still going to be competitive in most places with 14s on the sciences.

Also, for all you other people who hate the VR. Just remember, that once you get into medical school, it won't matter at all. It's all about the sciences. When you take the USMLE, your VR skills will be WORTHLESS. If you want an estimate of how well you will do in medical school and on the USMLE, look at your PS and BS scores and also look at your GPA.

 

[JJMrK]

The exam was RIGHT on par with AAMC tests.

I didn't feel this was the case at all. Maybe compared to 3/28 (don't know didn't take it), but overall not so much.

I did say 7 or 8, so it could be 7. And yes I would retake for both of those numbers. It doesn't matter how well sciences are or how good my GPA is. I've read countless books about how medical schools reject almost everybody who is 8 or worse. That is unless you are applying to the bottom of the barrel in the USA or the Carribean schools.

Source?

 

[olemissbabydoc]

hope everyone gets some decent sleep tonight, and don't start worrying too early. predictions are usually off, especially if you think you did awful... you'll most likely end up a cpl points on eithet side of your aamc practice avg.

 

[Verbal is evil]

I didn't feel this was the case at all.
Source?

I refer you to this thread. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=551036&highlight=MCAT+Verbal+Reasoning+Mastery

This thread is about a book that I read which mentioned that high sciences do not compensate for low VR. I wish the author was wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case. You can buy the book if you want to verify.

As an aside, the book was pretty useless. I tried to apply their Neuro Visual Programming thing and I was reading about 2 hours a day for over 3 months all the while getting stressed out as hell. It clearly did not get me anywhere.

 

[JokerMD]

What pisses me off is that I studied my arse off to get myself scoring 10-11 on practice exams very consistently and then I get bombed because the VR test today was harder than average. I could have easily tolerated a hard PS or BS but the harder VR really killed me today. And it was partially my fault for panicing (although I really had no control over that).

i have the exact same feeling. i started off really bad in verbal but pushed up my verbal scores in the aamc's to the 10+ range. sadly, the test today was not very comparable to the aamc practice tests both in length of the passages and the difficulty of questions.

also, i agree...hard sciences + easy verbal is waaay preferable to hard verbal and less hard sciences. o well...

 

[Verbal is evil]

i have the exact same feeling. i started off really bad in verbal but pushed up my verbal scores in the aamc's to the 10+ range. sadly, the test today was not very comparable to the aamc practice tests both in length of the passages and the difficulty of questions.

also, i agree...hard sciences + easy verbal is waaay preferable to hard verbal and less hard sciences. o well...

I feel your pain man. 🙁
I guess it's just one of those things that we'll have to live with. I'm basically just going to forget about the MCAT and focus on other things that are going better for me. For sure, 1 month off from the MCAT. We all earned it, especially those who struggle with Verbal. It's a very hard section to improve on.

Scores aren't up until May 19th so might as well just focus on living normal life these 30 days.

I keep on trying to remind myself that at least I didn't get physically injured or something more unlucky than bombing a test.

 

[Longshanks]

Congrats on finishing boys and girls! Welcome to the waiting game with 3/28 and 4/4!!

 

[mashuk1983]

I did say 7 or 8, so it could be 7. And yes I would retake for both of those numbers. It doesn't matter how well sciences are or how good my GPA is. I've read countless books about how medical schools reject almost everybody who is 8 or worse. That is unless you are applying to the bottom of the barrel in the USA or the Carribean schools.

What pisses me off is that I studied my arse off to get myself scoring 10-11 on practice exams very consistently and then I get bombed because the VR test today was harder than average. I could have easily tolerated a hard PS or BS but the harder VR really killed me today. And it was partially my fault for panicing (although I really had no control over that).

I'm definetly retaking. Even if I only get a 9 on the 2nd time around, I'm still going to be competitive in most places with 14s on the sciences.

Also, for all you other people who hate the VR. Just remember, that once you get into medical school, it won't matter at all. It's all about the sciences. When you take the USMLE, your VR skills will be WORTHLESS. If you want an estimate of how well you will do in medical school and on the USMLE, look at your PS and BS scores and also look at your GPA.

It's a complete B.S. that people don't get into good schools with 8 or 9 on verbal. My friend got with 8 on verbal, 11 and 11 on PS and BS to Harvard Med THIS YEAR! And this was the ONLY school that accepted him. THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO YOUR APPLICATION THAT 8 ON VERBAL, BELIEVE ME! SO MUCH MORE! If you stand out as a unique applicant, nobody will ever care with your 8 on verbal.

 

[clifftacopter]

It's a complete B.S. that people don't get into good schools with 8 or 9 on verbal. My friend got with 8 on verbal, 11 and 11 on PS and BS to Harvard Med THIS YEAR! And this was the ONLY school that accepted him. THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO YOUR APPLICATION THAT 8 ON VERBAL, BELIEVE ME! SO MUCH MORE! If you stand out as a unique applicant, nobody will ever care with your 8 on verbal.

Yeah, but the point is that it was the ONLY school that accepted him. I think most people would like some options and not rely on some miracle that a top school sees something in them that NOBODY else sees.

 

[Malayna]

PS: This section had one weird passage that took a little thinking (ladder), but overall it wasn't too bad. I finished with about ten minutes left, so I was able to go back to that passage. What irks me is that I was so ready for electrochemistry, titration, and optics and they didn't have any. I could have studied half as much as I did and would have done the same. I learned so many math tricks and only used one on the entire section. After reading how hard PS has been on the previous MCATs this year, I was expecting something much harder.

VR: I never know what to think on this section. I finished on time and didn't get any freaky passages, but the questions seemed harder than AAMC and BR and way different than EK. There were a bunch more inference questions than normal. The EK method completely failed me on this MCAT and I abandoned it by the end of the second passage. You had to go fishing through the passage on many of the questions and the stems didn't help me at all.

BS: I have to hand it to BR for pulling me through this section with a good feeling. The kidney lecture gave me everything I needed. And I never understood the lac operon before the class and it paid off today. I think this will end up being my best section. Studying for the organic chemistry of this section proved to be a complete waste of time. All that time invested for one easy passage.

I am so glad it's over. After this post, I'm going to pass out and wake up around noon tomorrow. Going in, I was hoping for a 36, but I don't think I will get it. I was completely ready in terms of material, but I think the test caught me off guard a bit. I studied way too much. Out of all the AAMC, BR, EK, and PR passages I did to get ready (probably 2000 passages), only maybe twenty to thirty really gave a good feel for what I saw today. EK was way off the mark and AAMC was definitely easier than the real thing. I have to express some gratitude to BR for their class handouts, because those were the best materials of everything I used. But if you would have told me to just study those and I'd be okay, I never would have done it. Better overprepared than under.

Thanks everyone at SDN for living through the last five months with me.

 

[sdguy2008]

it's late, i'm half drunk/half still in mcat daze. i just feel compelled to write this: how on earth did anyone think the verbal was easy or even doable/comparable to AAMC?? its not like im a verbal god, but im not a dummy and i can understand these passages and finish on time and score 10-12 consistently. today's verbal was crazy. the passages were so long, some were complex, the questions were long, you had to refer back to the passage a lot...how did anyone finish this section on time or with any sense of confidence with half their answers?? this is like my third rant about verbal, and most likely my last...im just stunned that anyone was able to feel like he/she excelled in this section (even though im sure many people did). i am usually anti-religion, but i am gonna pray to every god out there that verbal doesnt force me to retake this test, it would be devastating for sure.

 

[Protactinium]

Holy ****, I've barely broken 10 on AAMC's.

 

[JaggerPlate]

Your guy's experiences sound a lot like the 4/4 test. Seems like the MCAT is just getting harder all around and that new AAMC practice tests need to be released. Good luck with the wait, try to not think about it as much as possible. 👍

 

[Hindiana_Jones]

This was my third time taking the test, and I felt the best coming out of it. I had no passage on rocks, and all I can say is that this physical sciences section was the easiest I've taken. It was very straightforward, and seemed to be testing whether or not you'd studied the material, rather than throwing some crazy passage at you and have you use completely new equations and do calculations you have no idea how to even approach. All I can say is there is such a huge variability between forms out there. Sometimes you may get screwed with a form you'll be terrible at (i.e me in September of 2008) or you'll take a PS form and do okay, as I feel I did yesterday. The point is to study everything and practice being able to do scientific notation and do basic math very quickly. There was stuff on my exam that I'd seen before on previous AAMCs, stuff that you would think "oh, the MCAT is more of a thinking test, you don't need to memorize this info about ________, they don't test like that anymore, it's all in the passage now," No. That's not necessarily true. You won't necessarily get screwed with awful passages in PS about harmonic dampening in car breaks.

A lot of stuff TBR went over in their chemistry books showed up on the actual test. The same material was covered in Kaplan and TPR, but TBR did a better job explaining it. TPR also had some easy tips on how to solve problems that helped me yesterday on the actual test in PS. If you study hard, known your material and then take practice tests, you will be rewarded. I started studying for the MCAT in May 2007 and I was getting a 24 on my practice tests. I had a lot of deficiencies in PS in content and in math ability. I took the test first in August 07 and voided, studied more, took it again in September and got a 26. I studied with TBR, but I didn't work on my math speed, didn't pace myself in VR or PS. I didn't even finish VR or PS, and I had to guess on multiple passages in both because I ran out of time.

Now, my third time studying for it I've managed to get 29-32s on my practice tests, with no section below an 8. I still may retake in June, but the point here for all those people reading this thread who haven't taken the test: Don't let SDN freak you out, study hard, practice, pace yourself, and you'll be rewarded. Maybe it won't happen as quickly as you hope, but it will happen if you keep at it.

 

[MegaProjectile]

I couldn't sleep last night. The test kept replaying in my mind over and over again. There was one question about some diabetic group in the BS. Not sure if I got it right.

I love the humorist passage in the VR. It was a good way to relax after that legal system passage. I'm just upset I didn't finish this section.

What do you guys think of the passage on anesthesiologists? Good read, hard questions.

 

[Studoc20]

Yes so it appears that everyone feels similar about verbal.

BS: Doable, PS: Doable , Writing: Easy and useless as always(hour break), VR: We all dont know how we did, wtf was that? I cant be too cocky about this going to be thinking about this for the next month, why do these passages stand in the way of my dream i hope i get at least a nine ect. making obscure comments about something like an 8 instead of a 9 being a red flag that wont get you accepted regardless of whether or not you did community service in peru. The same old ****. If you guys geta 9 or better on the verbal keep it. You're better off with a 9, 10, and a 9 or something like that then taking it over and possibly having to void and waste money that could be used for a second application fee. or risking getting a lower score so medical schools can see that you regressed. The average mcat VR score for accepted students in the nation is around a 9. No this does not mean oh EVERYONE GOT 9's. it means people got 8's, people got10's ext. Dont let one smaller than normal number determine whether or not you retake it and possibly bomb and waste money. If you have community service, research experience, working with the mentally ill ect. and a GPA of atleast 3.5 GO APPLY RUN! STOP TRYING TO BE PERFECT. VR will always **** you guaranteed. Roll with it.

 

[UTKD]

Does anyone have the friction section or problems?

PM me if you did.

 

[Verbal is evil]

Actually, now that I think about it. If I got an 8 on VR, I might not retake. I can still get in somewhere if I apply broadly. I have the misfortune of living in California. 🙁

But yeah, 7 is unacceptable and I will retake for sure. And if my sciences were worse than usual, I will retake for a VR of 8. I won't touch a VR of 9. I might never get that good fortune again.

All I have for my application is a very good GPA, and excellent science MCAT scores (speaking too early). I don't have much ECs though I'm bringing that up a little bit.

 

[iPodtosis]

How long do you have to wait before retaking another MCAT?

 

[mashuk1983]

Yes so it appears that everyone feels similar about verbal.

BS: Doable, PS: Doable , Writing: Easy and useless as always(hour break), VR: We all dont know how we did, wtf was that? I cant be too cocky about this going to be thinking about this for the next month, why do these passages stand in the way of my dream i hope i get at least a nine ect. making obscure comments about something like an 8 instead of a 9 being a red flag that wont get you accepted regardless of whether or not you did community service in peru. The same old ****. If you guys geta 9 or better on the verbal keep it. You're better off with a 9, 10, and a 9 or something like that then taking it over and possibly having to void and waste money that could be used for a second application fee. or risking getting a lower score so medical schools can see that you regressed. The average mcat VR score for accepted students in the nation is around a 9. No this does not mean oh EVERYONE GOT 9's. it means people got 8's, people got10's ext. Dont let one smaller than normal number determine whether or not you retake it and possibly bomb and waste money. If you have community service, research experience, working with the mentally ill ect. and a GPA of atleast 3.5 GO APPLY RUN! STOP TRYING TO BE PERFECT. VR will always **** you guaranteed. Roll with it.

Totally and completely agree! There's so much more to your application. I wish everybody here to get a good score in a month and be ABSOLUTELY happy with it!!!

 

[mashuk1983]

Actually, now that I think about it. If I got an 8 on VR, I might not retake. I can still get in somewhere if I apply broadly. I have the misfortune of living in California. 🙁

But yeah, 7 is unacceptable and I will retake for sure. And if my sciences were worse than usual, I will retake for a VR of 8. I won't touch a VR of 9. I might never get that good fortune again.

All I have for my application is a very good GPA, and excellent science MCAT scores (speaking too early). I don't have much ECs though I'm bringing that up a little bit.

I'm also from California...Not originally, but I have been living here for almost 5 years since I moved to the States...Even if you get 8 on Verbal, which, looking at your practice AAMC scores that you posted earlier, you probably won't (you should get 10, or at least 9, i'm not trying to jinx it), so...even if you get 8, but get 11s, 12s, or 13s on PS and BS, then, of course, apply to many many schools.

As I was telling here everybody about a friend who got into Harvard with 8 on Verbal (30Q overall), I want to clarify here that he applied ONLY to 7 schools; he didn't think he would have any chance, so he decided not to waste much money on applications, thinking he would have to retake MCAT. So he applied only to 7 schools, and he applied in October (!!!!), believe it or not. He got 3 interviews (UCLA, U.Penn, Harvard), and he got into Harvard. He went to community college in NorCal for 2 years (4.0 there), and then transferred to UCSD (3.9 GPA), did two years of intensive research, probably, some other EC activities...

So, everyone here, NEVER LOSE hope! Admission to medschool is a totally random process. You NEVER KNOW when you'll be lucky. Good luck to everybody! Buena suerte!

 

[staticsoliloquy]

So, everyone here, NEVER LOSE hope! Admission to medschool is a totally random process. You NEVER KNOW when you'll be lucky. Good luck to everybody! Buena suerte!

What ethnicity is he?

 

[DocDrakeRamoray]

As I was telling here everybody about a friend who got into Harvard with 8 on Verbal (30Q overall), I want to clarify here that he applied ONLY to 7 schools; he didn't think he would have any chance, so he decided not to waste much money on applications, thinking he would have to retake MCAT. So he applied only to 7 schools, and he applied in October (!!!!), believe it or not. He got 3 interviews (UCLA, U.Penn, Harvard), and he got into Harvard. He went to community college in NorCal for 2 years (4.0 there), and then transferred to UCSD (3.9 GPA), did two years of intensive research, probably, some other EC activities...

I'm sorry but why would he only apply to such top-notch med schools with 30? You said he thought he would not get in, but yet he applied to schools with very low acceptance rate. Interesting. But it gives anyone a hope. I wonder if the person had something that made him stand out.

 

[Studoc20]

it's late, i'm half drunk/half still in mcat daze. i just feel compelled to write this: how on earth did anyone think the verbal was easy or even doable/comparable to AAMC?? its not like im a verbal god, but im not a dummy and i can understand these passages and finish on time and score 10-12 consistently. today's verbal was crazy. the passages were so long, some were complex, the questions were long, you had to refer back to the passage a lot...how did anyone finish this section on time or with any sense of confidence with half their answers?? this is like my third rant about verbal, and most likely my last...im just stunned that anyone was able to feel like he/she excelled in this section (even though im sure many people did). i am usually anti-religion, but i am gonna pray to every god out there that verbal doesnt force me to retake this test, it would be devastating for sure.

I hear you. Ive been praying rosary every night leading up to this test. God granted me a good BS, PS, and Writing. But left me doubts about VR as i suppose a small price to pay. If i get a 9 i'll be stoked. But dont worry about people that think they did well on VR because most of the time its impossible to tell. 2 answers can be right even 3. When picking the MOST right answer most people dont have the godlike spidysenses necessary to make an accurate assessment about how they did. its bull. If i get a 9 or above on all of the sections im going to be very happy.

 

[McKaty]

Hi guys,

Congrats on being done with the MCAT! If any of you prepared for the exam with Kaplan, did you find the High Yield problems useful--particularly for the PS section? And in general, do you think the Kaplan resources prepared you well for the exam/which resources would you have taken more advantage of? Thanks!

I have been studying with Kaplan since January and I was really pleased with how well it prepared me for the actual test. I would recommend taking a lot of the practice tests Kaplan offers, they are a lot harder than the AAMC ones and the general consensus on here is that the actual exam was a lot harder than the AAMC ones. The verbal section on the actual test was a lot more similar to Kaplan.

As the for the High Yield problems, I did use them for the subjects I was having a hard time with. I thought they helped me understand how exactly to use each equation a little better.

How excited are all of you about only having 1 o-chem passage?? A lot of the discretes were o-chem. But I was expecting 2 and felt a little more confident when I never saw a second!

 

[JJMrK]

Weaksauce, I just realized an easy, easy PS discrete that I got wrong. Let's just say it had to do with the sun. LAME.

This is gonna be a looong 30 days.

But dont worry about people that think they did well on VR because most of the time its impossible to tell. 2 answers can be right even 3.

Two answers might seem right, but really if you read the passage carefully enough and apply some logic, there's only one answer that truly makes sense, or one that stands out as more correct. Not saying I can necessarily do this, but I've yet to see an AAMC practice test with a VR question explanation that didn't make sense.

 

[sdguy2008]

Weaksauce, I just realized an easy, easy PS discrete that I got wrong. Let's just say it had to do with the sun. LAME.

This is gonna be a looong 30 days.

Two answers might seem right, but really if you read the passage carefully enough and apply some logic, there's only one answer that truly makes sense, or one that stands out as more correct. Not saying I can necessarily do this, but I've yet to see an AAMC practice test with a VR question explanation that didn't make sense.

i refer you to AAMC 10, question 53 (i think). i guess AAMC could have made a mistake with answer choices, but wouldn't they have corrected it by now?

in general i agree with you, but that question was wack.