The 08/07/2008 MCAT club

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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Josh L.Ac.

Josh L.Ac.

MSA/LAc & BSN/RN --> AA-S
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Took it for the first time on June 13th and I felt they should have bought me dinner first. Needless to say, I registered for a retake. While at first I was going to take it on July 10th, I moved for several reasons, including the realization that my first scores might not be back in time



So August it is. I on reading two books on ketogenic diets [to get totally ripped this summer] this week then start my content review next week. While it would probably be futile to use specific deficiencies from my first test to prep for the second, I will be going over areas that I had problems with, starting with a complete review of physics.



Anyone else?
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Man y do I feel guilty even tho I've told myself since the start to not study the day before my exam, but here I am going over formulas and hormones. How is everybody doing the day before the beast?
 
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J DUB said:
My girlfriend broke up with me last night!!

I really liked her alot and never saw it coming.

WTF....I got no sleep last night and can't seem to focus on the MCAT.


Why could she not have waited?????
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Sorry to hear that, Jdub. Try to use it as motivation to do even better on the MCAT tomorrow.

ziggydoc said:
Man y do I feel guilty even tho I've told myself since the start to not study the day before my exam, but here I am going over formulas and hormones. How is everybody doing the day before the beast?
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I'm doing the same. But I already knew I was going to. Probably gonna go to bed by 9 or 10 tonight.

I've also decided not to look at the Study Question forum, or the 08/05/2008 thread b/c I don't want to freak myself out.
 
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ziggydoc said:
Man y do I feel guilty even tho I've told myself since the start to not study the day before my exam, but here I am going over formulas and hormones. How is everybody doing the day before the beast?
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I remember last time I took the test I didn't do any studying the day before, but this time I am taking a different approach. My thinking is that for every exam I have ever taken, I studied the day before, so why should this be different? Especially since this is a much more important exam. So far today, I have done the PS section on AAMC 6R and will probably review some bio later and do the PS on 5R as well.
 
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cornpops21 said:
I've also decided not to look at the Study Question forum, or the 08/05/2008 thread b/c I don't want to freak myself out.
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ya thats def. true, I had like a panic attack yesterday when I read some of the posts, makes me feel like my AAMC practice tests were crap, but at this point, we just gota do our best.
 
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ziggydoc said:
Man y do I feel guilty even tho I've told myself since the start to not study the day before my exam, but here I am going over formulas and hormones. How is everybody doing the day before the beast?
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Reviewing everything. From start to finish.
 
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Haha nice, well same for me I will not be back till tom. Hopefully reporting good news. I can't study anymore, I am just freaking myself out more now. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And lets hope for the "AAMC" like difficulty :)
 
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Hey J Dub sorry to hear about that!!! That's awful! But you know what's even more awful? What that MCAT will look like tomorrow after you're done with it!!! Go get 'im tomorrow, you guys! Tear it a new one - take no prisoners!!!
 
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whoa is that true? that the aamc's are significantly easier than the real thing?

uh that was a major blow to my confidence. i'm all freaked out now cuz i dont know what to expect.
 
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I didn't even realize there was a 8/7 MCAT.

Good luck everyone! And do some good celebrating when it's over. You will have earned it! :thumbup:
 
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i guess i am the first one back from the exam. i think i did pretty well. i took the may 27 mcat and did very poorly, but i came out of that exam knowing i did bad. i'm coming out of this one a little more confident than the last one i took.

PS is kind of a blur for me since it was so early in the morning; i don't really remember how i did on that. i think i did okay on VR, and i think i did the best on BS. writing sample i'm not too worried about
 
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Hey guys, so the testing center was nice, ppl were nice, and the computers were from the stone ages but they worked fine. I thought PS was very hard, a lot harder than AAMC like EVERYONE has said, even tho I refused to believe it and got my butt kicked. Oh well, I guess thats what I get ><

VR was not too bad, it is my best section so I'm never too worried about it, felt like I got my average on it today. Even tho the passages were longer, so I actually only finished with 1 min left, and I usually finish with 4-7 min. left. So I would say def. do your AAMCs with a 55 min. time limit instead of 60 min.

writing was fine, I really wanted to use the current presidential race for the first one, but I didn't. And I had to use the Iraq war for the second, oh well. I don't really care.

Bio was ok, there were crazy questions and passages, and I got soo tired started the second to last passage, but I think I still did ok.

SO Prediction:

PS~8-10 (putting at 8 as the bottom one cuz I have never gotten below a 9, and average was 10 on the dot, soooo I am hoping the lowest I got was an 8)
VR~10-11
BS~10-11

Total: 28-32 (I hope 30+ please :oops:)
 
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Testing center: Comfortable, quiet, good monitors, good chairs, large area for each person. Headphones blocked 99% of noise (couldnt even hear my own typing).

PS: Not much material from physics 2. One or two mechanics-related passages, several E&M/optics discretes. Lots of gen chem. Quite a few calculations. No "killer" passages.

VR: Insanely long passages. 25-50% longer than AAMC passages. Questions not terribly complex. Passage subjects weren't horrible - pretty straightforward. I was slowed down by the length of the passages though..was at about 6:30 minutes left when I got to passage 7.

WS: One of the prompts was identical to an AAMC prompt I had practiced with. Finished each essay with ~10 minutes left. Felt pretty good about these.

BS: Lots of amino acid stuff. Several organic discretes. KILLER genetics passage that made me want to stab myself. Finished everything else but this passage, left myself 17 minutes for it, and still struggled. Questions tended to be slightly more involved/complex than AAMC 7-10.

Prediction: 10PS, 9-11BS, 7-9 VR, R-S.

Congrats everyone!!!!!!!
 
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Disaster.

I completely collapsed under the pressure, and I had to void after the PS. Now that I think about it it wasn't even that hard, and I could've gotten a 12/13. Oh well. Hopefully I'll be able to recover for the next one. Cramming everything a day before from 6 am to 12 pm isn't a good idea.
 
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God, I'm glad that's over...
I thought it was ok. I feel better this time than I did the last time (May 23rd), but I still don't feel like I did amazing or anything.
PS - I don't remember, it's like a blur. But I remember thinking that it was a little hard taking it.
VR - not that bad, except the passages were LONG! This was also the primary reason I retook, so hopefully I'll go up from last time, but not sure with the first two or three passages. I knew I was taking too much time on them, and I think my score may have suffered because of that.
BS - not too bad. All the passages seemed the same though. The two orgo ones were like the same thing, and a couple of the bio throughout were practically the same. The only really hard one was the X-linked mouse disease thing. Too many letters and details.
Oh well. I'm hoping I go up from last time. If I stay the same (or go up) in the sciences and go up in verbal I'll be thrilled.:)
 
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Well, I'm actually kind of relieved. This was my first time taking the real thing, but I took a bunch of practice tests. I thought it was similar to the released AAMC versions. The testing center was really nice. I did not like one of the PS passages about generators, but other than that the passages seemed to be similar difficulty to what I've seen before. Now it's time to start working longer hours again ... fun :) (I'd been working part time so I could study some)
 
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This test went better than last year.

PS: was not horrible, was not great for me. I know I made a few stupid mistakes, but I caught a few too! There were some I did not know how to do. Also, being the first section hurt me some. Felt more like Kaplan than AAMC. Just hope for that Kaplan curve, lol!!

V: I was doing okay, then the last couple of passages got to me. I had a hard time with one passage, THEN I lost my concentration when this girl beside me started typing like a chainsaw. I mean she must have been typing 100+ wpm and banging the hell out of the keys!! I almost told the proctor to tell her to be quiet. I know I did worse than usual. Just not sure how much worse. I did not have time to review it. I had about 4 minutes after being done and tried to focus on where I lost my concentration.

BS: Started off with two ochem passages in a row. They were easy though. There was only one passage I had a problem with. I thought this section was pretty easy. Definitely my best. Good mix of genetics and physio.

I graded the test because of the BS section. I just hope I got a 28+ for a shot at my in-state schools. I could have done better though...
 
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Man, everyone else seems to think the PS wasn't that bad, so I guess I am screwed >< prob means not a huge curve. Oh and that X-linked mouse disease sucked a lot.

And J DUB I want to know how you felt as well!!! Hope your feeling awesome :)
 
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PS was easy/on-par with AAMC's

Verbal was LONG with some strange questions that I probably just misunderstood.

BS - Moderate to hard.

Glad its done.

Oh, and the first writing sample: who didn't talk about Obama v. McCain or Obama v. Clinton. They were just begging for that one.
 
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Oh you had already posted when I was typing J DUB :)

I think you will be ok. with your average you got a lot of room even for stupid mistakes!! The thing is I don't feel too awful about it, but that could just be because I am soo happy to be done for now tho. aww now we gota wait for a month to get the results. I was chatting with the testing proctor and he was shocked to find out we don't get our results for a whole month lol.
 
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So most people think the PS was similar to AAMC, yet why did I completely collapse? :( I stumbled on this air resistance oscillation question and I couldn't think from then on.

Sorry for the rent, but...
 
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i HATED that x-linked passage. i wasted time on that, and i completely lost my cool for the following passages.
 
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True that to the Genetics passage about the mouse. That was convoluted as hell and made it difficult to tell what exactly was being asked.

On at least 2 practice tests I came out feeling good about one section and terrible about the other and the score proved opposite, so no one worry about it. If you prepared for the test you put your best foot forward. Nothing to be worried about.
 
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hey jorje I feel your pain, I thought it was a lot harder (but could be cuz its my worst section and it was the first on the exam). I had to randomly guess a few of them >< which I've never had to do on AAMCs.
 
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ziggydoc said:
Oh you had already posted when I was typing J DUB :)

I think you will be ok. with your average you got a lot of room even for stupid mistakes!! The thing is I don't feel too awful about it, but that could just be because I am soo happy to be done for now tho. aww now we gota wait for a month to get the results. I was chatting with the testing proctor and he was shocked to find out we don't get our results for a whole month lol.
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I think I am below my averages on PS and Verbal. BS I think I am at my average. I was not all there yet for PS. And, verbal I struggled alot more than usual.

I always underperform on standardized tests from practice tests. Just hoping I can lose a few points here and there and still come out fine.

Oh, and I let that female know how I felt last night. She shocked me when she first told me and I did not have the time to recover. Let's just say I said my peace. I do not think it hurt my score but caused me to lose sleep! Maybe some secondary effect...
 
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ziggydoc said:
hey jorje I feel your pain, I thought it was a lot harder (but could be cuz its my worst section and it was the first on the exam). I had to randomly guess a few of them >< which I've never had to do on AAMCs.
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I'm not sure at the moment what to think. There were definitely some hard questions, but there were many straight stoichiometry..etc. I don't think I even did that badly on it. It was a huge mental collapse.
 
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J DUB said:
I think I am below my averages on PS and Verbal. BS I think I am at my average. I was not all there yet for PS. And, verbal I struggled alot more than usual.

I always underperform on standardized tests from practice tests. Just hoping I can lose a few points here and there and still come out fine.

Oh, and I let that female know how I felt last night. She shocked me when she first told me and I did not have the time to recover. Let's just say I said my peace. I do not think it hurt my score but caused me to lose sleep! Maybe some secondary effect...
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Good I am glad you let her know how u felt, and hopefully you did well enough on the exam. Ya I was def. not all there during the PS. Now we do the waiting game.
 
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The exam was very comparable to the AAMCs. Physical sciences was exactly as expected. Verbal was slightly longer but, I finished in similar amount of time because the passages were easier to read. The Bio was also on par with AAMC with the exception of one crazy passage that others have already alluded to.
 
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J DUB said:
Please do not be sorry for giving me the rent. I would love that!! :laugh:

Just kidding around!!!

I know you meant "rant".
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lol at that. But man know I am just obsessing over this thread, ehhhhh. I need to go do something else, or I'll be dead when the score comes out in A MONTH!!!! ok I promise I won't be back till tonight after my celebration dinner with my buddies. Post lots peeps, so I can come back and obsess more :rolleyes:
 
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J DUB said:
I would say PS was the hardest section.

That x-linked passage on BS was a MF!!

I really wished I had done better on verbal. I guess I should have worked on it more. I just always got an 11. I think I probably got a 8-9 today. :(
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I think I've read quite a few threads where you offered some amazing words of insight to others who had just finished the test, right when they needed them. Things like "the curve will help." Great advice back then and applicable now. If the verbal section was difficult for you, it was for everyone else. AAMC exams are good score predictors, even if the exams are easier than the real MCAT.

I am quite sure you did great today, because the tone of you posts prior to this MCAT exuded confidence and insights. You are one of the very best people to grace this place and there are many of us rooting for you.
 
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i haven't taken the mcat yet but I'm confused as to how the verbal passages can be 25-50% longer. the aamc website says the passages will be between 500-600 words. You guys think they have passages that are around 900 words?
 
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I just can't tell how I did. I certainly don't think I did as well as I could have on the PS. There was more gen chem than I was hoping for... I lost track of time and had 2 passages and the discretes with about 13 minutes left, so I skipped reading through the passages and went straight to answering the questions. I think it worked out OK.

The VR section went fine, I would predict a score in the 9-10 range.

Bio was not bad except for the horrible genetics passage with its 39 questions. I want to slap the a-hole who put that passage on there. Seriously, only a geneticist studying breast cancer in mice would fully understand that passage.

I walked in feeling confident and walked out feeling like I have no idea what my score will be.

Glad it's over.

Cheers!
 
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BerkReviewTeach said:
I think I've read quite a few threads where you offered some amazing words of insight to others who had just finished the test, right when they needed them. Things like "the curve will help." Great advice back then and applicable now. If the verbal section was difficult for you, it was for everyone else. AAMC exams are good score predictors, even if the exams are easier than the real MCAT.

I am quite sure you did great today, because the tone of you posts prior to this MCAT exuded confidence and insights. You are one of the very best people to grace this place and there are many of us rooting for you.
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Thanks, BRTeach!!

I agree that everyone feels bad and then scores the same!!

But, the verbal was not that bad. I just did not perform as well as usual. I lost my concentration when that girl beside me starting typing. How much worse a performance I am not sure.

One thing I know is I will not give up!
 
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JasonE said:
i haven't taken the mcat yet but I'm confused as to how the verbal passages can be 25-50% longer. the aamc website says the passages will be between 500-600 words. You guys think they have passages that are around 900 words?
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I would say they were longer by at most 15%. It is just barely noticeable. However, they are way less convoluted than some AAMCs. The timing works itself out.
 
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i just took the test today and i dont think the verbal passages were any longer than the practice tests...i timed myself to see how quick i read each passage and finished about as fast as i did with my practice tests...i think its just the font (bigger) they use that makes it seem longer
 
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Dr.D-man said:
Bio was not bad except for the horrible genetics passage with its 39 questions. I want to slap the a-hole who put that passage on there. Seriously, only a geneticist studying breast cancer in mice would fully understand that passage.
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Haha, agreed! There is no good reason to label alleles like that :)
 
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JasonE said:
i haven't taken the mcat yet but I'm confused as to how the verbal passages can be 25-50% longer. the aamc website says the passages will be between 500-600 words. You guys think they have passages that are around 900 words?
Click to expand...

The passages were a little longer on some. Like 4 sentences, an extra paragraph.

Best advice I can give is be sure you can finish the practice AAMCs in 55 minutes. Also, get there early so you can be done with verbal when people start typing.
 
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Dr.Jay said:
i just took the test today and i dont think the verbal passages were any longer than the practice tests...i timed myself to see how quick i read each passage and finished about as fast as i did with my practice tests...i think its just the font (bigger) they use that makes it seem longer
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I agree, the passages did not seem longer to me while reading them. They did look bigger, however, but that is probably due to the larger font they use.
 
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Overall I thought it was a reasonable test, with Bio being the hardest section.

PS I thought was fine, overall pretty predictable, except for my last passage, which was on railcars or something like that... that passage really drained my time and I think I got a couple wrong there.

VR wasn't too bad, I finished the first 3 passages with plenty of time, and then started getting the sense things were gradually getting harder. I am usually very pressed for time on this section, so it was no surprise I only had 6 minutes to do the last passage.

BS I thought was tough. Started out with some tough discretes, and as everyone has mentioned, one pretty nasty genetics passage. I also thought the nervous system passage was bad as well. The diabetes passage, my last passage I thought had pretty tough questions even though I understood the material being presented well. Maybe I was just drained at that point, though.

I have never gotten below an 11 on bio, but I thought this was by far the hardest bio I had ever seen. Orgo is usually my strength, and while there were 2 passages on it, they really didn't focus on the things I thought they would and didn't have a whole lot of questions. Curious to hear what everyone else thought about this section.

My guess: 12PS, 11VR, 10BS
 
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