The 4/05/08 MCAT Club

[pingouin]

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Welcome, all April 5, 2008, MCATers!!!!

This is your official place to stress, vent, hang out, party, cry, yell, or whatever else you need to do in the week before and just after your MCAT.

As a reminder, when your test is done, you are welcome to come here and discuss your experience with it. Discussing general passage topics is OK- ie, "I had PS passages on circuits, thermodynamics, and optics." However, you are NOT allowed post specific questions, passage information, or answer choices from your test. Any posts which contain specific content from the test will be deleted, and a 1-week post hold will be placed on your account. Look here for more information on this.

to each and every one of you!!!!!!!

 

[almo88]

Well, I was a 1st timer!

PS: About the same as the Kaplan FL's that I took. I thought there were a few more Chem questions than normal, but that was fine with me.

VR: MUCH easier than the Kaplan FL's. The questions were a little tough, but I could actually read a passage and understand it! YAY!

WS: There was a power outage at my test center during the last question of my WS. I had one of my paragraphs deleted, which sucked...because I couldn't remember what I wrote about! lol. But, I really don't care...it's just the WS.

BS: Much tougher than Kaplan and AAMC, but it had very little Organic, which was AMAZING! Uhm, I'd really like to get an 8. Sad, but so true. lol. I think I really sucked this section up since I was still a little nervous about the power outage thing...

Overall, I think I made a 26-28, which is what I want. So...we'll see! Man, May cannot get here fast enough.

I hope everyone else has a pleasant experience!

 

[kierkegaard]

kierkegaard: would you mind telling me what you thought about the TPR tests... which were too hard for AAMC, which were too easy, etc? There is really no specific info on these forums regarding TPR tests. Its all Kaplan and AAMC.

Thx

The tpr tests aren't really like the real thing very much. However, they are good practice for endurance and brushing up on certain stuff. Much more specific than aamc and the real thing as far as questions. Generally tpr questions would be more math for ps more details for verbal and more specific memorization for bs. I think the tpr tests are good for general review but don't really give you a legit experience. That said, they and the course materials did prepare me to do well on the AAMC tests so theres something there. I think their tests 7 and 9 were easier, with 8 being pretty tough, or I just had a bad day. The earlier ones I took so early on that the scores I got might not be a good measure of difficulty.

 

[bozz]

Jan 26th.. the Bio section was insanely hard... never seen anything like it. I felt miserable but did fine.

The PS was harder than the AAMCs, and I knew I got 4 wrong. Ended up with a 14. So don't fret :-D

On the other hand, Verbal was reallly easy IMO.. I felt like I had gotten a 15. I was only unsure about 2 answers. Ended up with a 10.
Everyone else probably found it easy as well.

 

[Vihsadas]

Jan 26th.. the Bio section was insanely hard... never seen anything like it. I felt miserable but did fine.

The PS was harder than the AAMCs, and I knew I got 4 wrong. Ended up with a 14. So don't fret :-D

On the other hand, Verbal was reallly easy IMO.. I felt like I had gotten a 15. I was only unsure about 2 answers. Ended up with a 10.
Everyone else probably found it easy as well.

Just to emphasize how your post-test feelings don't matter, Bozz's verbal experience was exactly opposite mine.

I literally felt like crying after my exam because of my verbal section. I probably missed 20% - 25% of the questions and still ended up with an 11.

In other words, as hard as it may be, try and enjoy the next 30 days! You never know until you get your score back. 😛

 

[tncekm]

The tpr tests aren't really like the real thing very much. However, they are good practice for endurance and brushing up on certain stuff. Much more specific than aamc and the real thing as far as questions. Generally tpr questions would be more math for ps more details for verbal and more specific memorization for bs. I think the tpr tests are good for general review but don't really give you a legit experience. That said, they and the course materials did prepare me to do well on the AAMC tests so theres something there. I think their tests 7 and 9 were easier, with 8 being pretty tough, or I just had a bad day. The earlier ones I took so early on that the scores I got might not be a good measure of difficulty.

I've taken 3,4,5,6 and my PS has ranged from 10-12, BS from 10-15, and VR from 7-9 with my top score so far being a 34 and lowest a 29. I find these to be pretty difficult. I just took #6 and got a 29 (31 on AAMC scale), but it was pretty frustrating.

*sigh* Hopefully the AAMC's will work much better for me on average. With 8-9's in verbal, I can't afford 10s in the other areas. 🙁

 

[kierkegaard]

When I did my first aamc test and got a 35 on it when my highest tpr had been a 31. my verbal bumped up from 10 to 12. you can expect a reasonable score increase compared to tpr tests so don't worry too much.

 

[MDorbust]

It was really odd... In BS there was an entire passage on SN1 vs. SN2 rxns. Did any of you notice that in two of the questions, it referred to "reaction two," yet the reactions in the passage weren't numbered? It was really confusing, and I sat there for two or three minutes trying to figure out what rxn it was talking about. I don't know if this makes sense, but IT WAS FREAKIN' ODD! Maybe they were the nongraded questions that they throw in, and they weren't placed well? IDK.

 

[atallcosts]

i had that question as well and could not find the equation or reaction they were talking about. The worst part was the time i wasted trying to figure it out😡. oh well like was said above there is really nothing that can be done for a whole month so well see what happens in may

 

[tncekm]

When I did my first aamc test and got a 35 on it when my highest tpr had been a 31. my verbal bumped up from 10 to 12. you can expect a reasonable score increase compared to tpr tests so don't worry too much.

I hope you're right, because med school is so competitive right now 🙁

 

[tf2medic]

It was really odd... In BS there was an entire passage on SN1 vs. SN2 rxns. Did any of you notice that in two of the questions, it referred to "reaction two," yet the reactions in the passage weren't numbered? It was really confusing, and I sat there for two or three minutes trying to figure out what rxn it was talking about. I don't know if this makes sense, but IT WAS FREAKIN' ODD! Maybe they were the nongraded questions that they throw in, and they weren't placed well? IDK.

OMG YES!!!!! i just got done mentioning that to someone. the exact samething!!! the question asked if Experiment 2 blah blah and they were NOT numbered experiments! there were 4 mechanisms like you said and they didn't label a single one. i seriously wasted a couple minutes on this one trying to figure wtf it was talking about. conclusion: they messed up. they did not freakin number ANY of them as "experiments" whatsover. it was so much bs. that question was the LAST question of the passage, too, so i was thinking maybe it belonged to the next passage and accidently was thrown in there. so i moved to next passage and nope...completely different. so i jus had to assume by Experiment 2 they meant the 2nd mechanism, even tho they didn't label anything as experiments. in fact, they didn't even label the mechanisms as "1, 2, 3, 4." it was garbage.

haha, on the PS i spent literallly 5 minutes balancing an equation. hahaha the whole time i was like "wtf am i doign im wasting so much time...ive already spent 2 minutes balancing this tho and i am not going to give up now!" i did end up figuring it out but too wasted much time doing so 😛. hehe it was like during the 1st 10 min of the test and i was a lil nervous, i didn't want to startoff missing an easy question. later i had to not read the last passage and just answer the ?s in order to get the last NPQs, tho. so looks like in the end that question won out haha

 

[Penguick]

I've been averaging around 32-34 for my practice tests...and I took about 10-11 of them. I got a few higher scores towards the upper 30's right before the exam too...so that was making me feel better, but when I got into the exam, either it was nerves or something else, I just thought this was really hard. I don't even know if I made a 30 on it.

PS: Harder than what I expected. Most of the AAMC's tend to have more free standing questions...this didn't as much. Spent more time than I was used to trying to work out the passages, although I still had plenty of time left over to go through questions.

VR: Easier to read passages but harder questions. I'm an English major so usually reading comprehension comes easily to me, but I thought this was rather convoluted.

BS: The hardest BS I've done yet. I was really hoping for more Orgo. There seemed to be a lot of free standing questions that required specific detail on things that I just wasn't ready for.

I will probably have to retake in June or July. So many months studying, and with my improving practice scores, I was hoping to do well. Sigh.

 

[kierkegaard]

anyone know if on average people tend to do better, worse, or the same as their last few aamc scores? I've talked to the only two people I know who've taken it and they both did better... but 2 people isn't enough for me to get my hopes up

 

[tncekm]

anyone know if on average people tend to do better, worse, or the same as their last few aamc scores? I've talked to the only two people I know who've taken it and they both did better... but 2 people isn't enough for me to get my hopes up

There is a poll. Most people were within a point or two, give or take, but some did way better and others way worse, although they were few.

 

[Vihsadas]

Usually I hear 'same or better'. Only occasionally I hear 'worse'. Just don't let your guard down though! The MCAT is essentially a pitching machine that only throws curve balls...eventually if you realize that you're only getting curve balls you might be able to figure out how to hit them. 😛

 

[PreMed4Dummies]

OMG YES!!!!! i just got done mentioning that to someone. the exact samething!!! the question asked if Experiment 2 blah blah and they were NOT numbered experiments! there were 4 mechanisms like you said and they didn't label a single one. i seriously wasted a couple minutes on this one trying to figure wtf it was talking about. conclusion: they messed up. they did not freakin number ANY of them as "experiments" whatsover. it was so much bs. that question was the LAST question of the passage, too, so i was thinking maybe it belonged to the next passage and accidently was thrown in there. so i moved to next passage and nope...completely different. so i jus had to assume by Experiment 2 they meant the 2nd mechanism, even tho they didn't label anything as experiments. in fact, they didn't even label the mechanisms as "1, 2, 3, 4." it was garbage.

haha, on the PS i spent literallly 5 minutes balancing an equation. hahaha the whole time i was like "wtf am i doign im wasting so much time...ive already spent 2 minutes balancing this tho and i am not going to give up now!" i did end up figuring it out but too wasted much time doing so 😛. hehe it was like during the 1st 10 min of the test and i was a lil nervous, i didn't want to startoff missing an easy question. later i had to not read the last passage and just answer the ?s in order to get the last NPQs, tho. so looks like in the end that question won out haha

THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME!! i was so confused but was like oh well i guess thats what they meant. and worst of all the computer monitor at my testing center was really old and kept flickering. i asked the proctor if i could switch as soon as i sat down and she was like NO! afterwards i complained and they said there was nothing that they could do about it and they knew that people had been having trouble with the monitor... 😡

 

[BuffGold]

I'm wondering if anybody has an issue with any questions in the PS passage on Young's modulus. As someone with an engineering background, I was a little perplexed by one of the questions asked (don't want to say too much about it, but it involved the compressive strength of a material), and I'm thinking about writing in.

 

[SaulTigh]

!

 

[PreMed4Dummies]

I'm wondering if anybody has an issue with any questions in the PS passage on Young's modulus. As someone with an engineering background, I was a little perplexed by one of the questions asked (don't want to say too much about it, but it involved the compressive strength of a material), and I'm thinking about writing in.

i don't recall having that much trouble on that passage, but it may have been because i didn't even understand it that well to even guage any trouble i could have had.

(w/o divulging too much info) did anyone else have a PS passage dealing with solar flares?? a few people who i've talked to didn't and i had found that passage to be particularly difficult. at any rate, i assume that when you are scored you are curved against people who had the same version of the test (am i correct in my assumption?)

 

[ChubbyChaser]

anyone know if on average people tend to do better, worse, or the same as their last few aamc scores? I've talked to the only two people I know who've taken it and they both did better... but 2 people isn't enough for me to get my hopes up

Worse for me

I think there is a big poll on this.... it was like 25% did better, 50% about the same, and 25% did worse

 

[sm007thie]

OMG YES!!!!! i just got done mentioning that to someone. the exact samething!!! the question asked if Experiment 2 blah blah and they were NOT numbered experiments! there were 4 mechanisms like you said and they didn't label a single one. i seriously wasted a couple minutes on this one trying to figure wtf it was talking about. conclusion: they messed up. they did not freakin number ANY of them as "experiments" whatsover. it was so much bs. that question was the LAST question of the passage, too, so i was thinking maybe it belonged to the next passage and accidently was thrown in there. so i moved to next passage and nope...completely different. so i jus had to assume by Experiment 2 they meant the 2nd mechanism, even tho they didn't label anything as experiments. in fact, they didn't even label the mechanisms as "1, 2, 3, 4." it was garbage.

Same experience here. At the end of the exam, during the feedback, I mentioned it. Things like that really take me off my game. Luckily it was towards the end so it didn't have a huge affect.

 

[kierkegaard]

Worse for me

I think there is a big poll on this.... it was like 25% did better, 50% about the same, and 25% did worse

if you don't mind my asking how many points worse for you

 

[dohgrl76]

I'm wondering if anybody has an issue with any questions in the PS passage on Young's modulus. As someone with an engineering background, I was a little perplexed by one of the questions asked (don't want to say too much about it, but it involved the compressive strength of a material), and I'm thinking about writing in.

i kinda remember something weird with that passage, did it have to do with units or a constant or something?

 

[presto530]

i kinda remember something weird with that passage, did it have to do with units or a constant or something?

If I remember correctly for that question there was an important unit conversion/dimensional analysis that had to be done to get the correct answer. I don't know if im allowed to say what it actually was or not so I'll hold back. But remembering that passage I found another careless mistake I made on the test. omg careless mistakes are going to be the end of me I swear.

 

[BuffGold]

i kinda remember something weird with that passage, did it have to do with units or a constant or something?

Not really. My issue is with what I think is a red herring in the problem, but the way they worked it in to the problem was very unsettling.

 

[pingouin]

If I remember correctly for that question there was an important unit conversion/dimensional analysis that had to be done to get the correct answer. I don't know if im allowed to say what it actually was or not so I'll hold back. But remembering that passage I found another careless mistake I made on the test. omg careless mistakes are going to be the end of me I swear.

Thank you for holding back on mentioning it. Again, SDN takes the AAMC's non-disclosure agreement very seriously and we will be removing from the forum anything which we believe crosses that line. Every date, at least a few people are put on post-hold, and 4/5 has been no exception.

Congratulations to each and every one of you on finishing the exam. Try to relax a little over the next few weeks, in order to provide fuel for the "waiting for scores" jitters you'll have in T-28 days and counting. 😀

 

[MDorbust]

Sheesh, it seems like an eternity since I took it, and it has only been two days. This is terrible.

I am so scared to get my test results-- I am wondering if I should sign up for the next test date available because I feel so unsure of my test performance. I was scoring around a 28 the in AAMC CBT's prior, but this test was just different for me for some reason. I hope I am seriously overreacting.


Did any of you guys feel this unsure of yourselves after taking the exam? Not just mild uncertainty, but do you feel like you already have to retake it?

 

[kierkegaard]

I felt as unsure as I've ever felt on any practice test.. I think partly because I felt like I was in a different hyperconcentrative mindset compared to when I did well on the practice tests... from what I see though nearly everyone leaves pretty unsure of themselves.

anybody actually feel good?

 

[dsma0722]

Hi fellow April 5thers,

I have been lurking for quite a while...sorry I haven't actually posted anything til now, but I just took the MCAT on 4/5 with you all and just thought I would share my experience and vent my frustrations along with you.

My score on the final AAMC test I took (AAMC 10) was a 39, granted I took AAMC 10 two months prior (so the score can be taken with a few score point grains of salt!) But my hopes were high that I would at least score mid-30s on the real thing. I tried to be careful going in to it not to be too confident that I would score in the 35 or above range - I kept telling myself I would just be grateful for anything above a 30.

Now I'm severely disappointed with myself, because PS killed me. I was consistently getting my highest scores in PS followed by BS, then VR. Wow, was I taken by surprise on 4/5.

So here is my post-test wrap-up:

PS: This section killed me. My nerves really got to me on this section and I screwed up my timing badly. I ran out of time, and had to make random guesses on the last 1.5 passages. It was so horrible, instead of answering all the questions I could with the little time I had left, I watched as the last minute ticked away and while visions of my future flushed down the toilet. STUPID! I wish I had the footage of my expression from the camera above my head...that would have been priceless. I even visualized AAMC people just sitting there laughing at that footage. But anyway, not only can I count on getting at least 8 or 9 questions wrong (maybe 2 or 3 right if my random choices were correct answers), but I already know of about 5 questions I did answer that I got wrong. I suck! Now I would give anything for an 8 or a 9 on that section! If anyone had an experience where this, or something similar happened to them and they actually ended up doing ok in the end -- please tell me your story. I had a good cry over it on my way home from school today. I guess I'm just so disappointed in myself. If I had only gotten to those questions, I may have gotten a decent score. IMO, I think that's a worse feeling than knowing you didn't do well because you didn't study enough!

VR - This is section I ususally score anywhere from 10-13 and I really felt that it wasn't too bad. I was feeling confident about this section, and finished on time...But we all know that just because it felt easy, doesn't mean the scores will be lenient! We'll see...

WS- Prepared for this the last week before the exam and didn't even use any of the examples I came up with. I ended up using some really generic scenarios - not very impressive stuff, but all in all, I think I met the 3 criteria and did it with a little flare.

BS - I know this was a tough one. But I honestly feel that my adrenaline kicked in for this one. Yes, there were a few tough, tough passages that tested your ability to see the forest, not just the trees. There were several questions I felt were borderline unfair because they required you to extract some pretty detailed information and formulate some complex meaning behind it - yes, this is the very nature of the MCAT beast. But I really felt I rocked on this one and I really hope that VR and BS will carry me through overall.

If your still reading this, thanks for getting to this point...I know it is a long one, but I feel better now -- and I hope we are all pleasantly surprised May 6th!

 

[appple85]

PS: This section killed me. My nerves really got to me on this section and I screwed up my timing badly. I ran out of time, and had to make random guesses on the last 1.5 passages. It was so horrible, instead of answering all the questions I could with the little time I had left, I watched as the last minute ticked away and while visions of my future flushed down the toilet. STUPID! I wish I had the footage of my expression from the camera above my head...that would have been priceless. I even visualized AAMC people just sitting there laughing at that footage. But anyway, not only can I count on getting at least 8 or 9 questions wrong (maybe 2 or 3 right if my random choices were correct answers), but I already know of about 5 questions I did answer that I got wrong. I suck! Now I would give anything for an 8 or a 9 on that section! If anyone had an experience where this, or something similar happened to them and they actually ended up doing ok in the end -- please tell me your story. I had a good cry over it on my way home from school today. I guess I'm just so disappointed in myself. If I had only gotten to those questions, I may have gotten a decent score. IMO, I think that's a worse feeling than knowing you didn't do well because you didn't study enough!

 

[appple85]

PS: This section killed me. My nerves really got to me on this section and I screwed up my timing badly. I ran out of time, and had to make random guesses on the last 1.5 passages. It was so horrible, instead of answering all the questions I could with the little time I had left, I watched as the last minute ticked away and while visions of my future flushed down the toilet. STUPID! I wish I had the footage of my expression from the camera above my head...that would have been priceless. I even visualized AAMC people just sitting there laughing at that footage. But anyway, not only can I count on getting at least 8 or 9 questions wrong (maybe 2 or 3 right if my random choices were correct answers), but I already know of about 5 questions I did answer that I got wrong. I suck! Now I would give anything for an 8 or a 9 on that section! If anyone had an experience where this, or something similar happened to them and they actually ended up doing ok in the end -- please tell me your story. I had a good cry over it on my way home from school today. I guess I'm just so disappointed in myself. If I had only gotten to those questions, I may have gotten a decent score. IMO, I think that's a worse feeling than knowing you didn't do well because you didn't study enough!

the same thing happened to me 🙁

 

[Vihsadas]

the same thing happened to me 🙁

You realize you just quoted yourself right?


No worries, though, the MCAT can do loopy things to your mental state!

 

[MooseKing]

You realize you just quoted yourself right?


No worries, though, the MCAT can do loopy things to your mental state!

hahaha

 

[dsma0722]

Actually, apple was responding to my post above. I think apple attempted to copy/paste my post and then write a response, but the response was not in the post until the second time. Please read above apple's for the original statement. Thanks!

 

[appple85]

hahah! meant to quote dsma0722 ! guess i'm still braindead from saturday 😀

 

[nickie]

Hi fellow April 5thers,

I have been lurking for quite a while...sorry I haven't actually posted anything til now, but I just took the MCAT on 4/5 with you all and just thought I would share my experience and vent my frustrations along with you.

My score on the final AAMC test I took (AAMC 10) was a 39, granted I took AAMC 10 two months prior (so the score can be taken with a few score point grains of salt!) But my hopes were high that I would at least score mid-30s on the real thing. I tried to be careful going in to it not to be too confident that I would score in the 35 or above range - I kept telling myself I would just be grateful for anything above a 30.

Now I'm severely disappointed with myself, because PS killed me. I was consistently getting my highest scores in PS followed by BS, then VR. Wow, was I taken by surprise on 4/5.

So here is my post-test wrap-up:

PS: This section killed me. My nerves really got to me on this section and I screwed up my timing badly. I ran out of time, and had to make random guesses on the last 1.5 passages. It was so horrible, instead of answering all the questions I could with the little time I had left, I watched as the last minute ticked away and while visions of my future flushed down the toilet. STUPID! I wish I had the footage of my expression from the camera above my head...that would have been priceless. I even visualized AAMC people just sitting there laughing at that footage. But anyway, not only can I count on getting at least 8 or 9 questions wrong (maybe 2 or 3 right if my random choices were correct answers), but I already know of about 5 questions I did answer that I got wrong. I suck! Now I would give anything for an 8 or a 9 on that section! If anyone had an experience where this, or something similar happened to them and they actually ended up doing ok in the end -- please tell me your story. I had a good cry over it on my way home from school today. I guess I'm just so disappointed in myself. If I had only gotten to those questions, I may have gotten a decent score. IMO, I think that's a worse feeling than knowing you didn't do well because you didn't study enough!

VR - This is section I ususally score anywhere from 10-13 and I really felt that it wasn't too bad. I was feeling confident about this section, and finished on time...But we all know that just because it felt easy, doesn't mean the scores will be lenient! We'll see...

WS- Prepared for this the last week before the exam and didn't even use any of the examples I came up with. I ended up using some really generic scenarios - not very impressive stuff, but all in all, I think I met the 3 criteria and did it with a little flare.

BS - I know this was a tough one. But I honestly feel that my adrenaline kicked in for this one. Yes, there were a few tough, tough passages that tested your ability to see the forest, not just the trees. There were several questions I felt were borderline unfair because they required you to extract some pretty detailed information and formulate some complex meaning behind it - yes, this is the very nature of the MCAT beast. But I really felt I rocked on this one and I really hope that VR and BS will carry me through overall.

If your still reading this, thanks for getting to this point...I know it is a long one, but I feel better now -- and I hope we are all pleasantly surprised May 6th!

I know what you mean. I run out of time and had to randomly pick some answers. I spent too much time on the graph on last page and missed the very last G-chem question. I still can't get it out of my head. I already knew I missed 3 in PS. Don't worry. You are not the only one. A lot of people seem to run out of time in PS; I guess Adrenaline hasn't rushed in yet.

BS: it is hard. I had like 20% questions marked to go back and never had the time to review them. Crossing fingers that I made the correct choice.

27 days to go. It's killing me inside too.

 

[kierkegaard]

anybody know what info we end up getting with our scores? i know we get percentile, but do we get to see the test at all or our wrong answers or the numbers of them or anything?

 

[Vihsadas]

anybody know what info we end up getting with our scores? i know we get percentile, but do we get to see the test at all or our wrong answers or the numbers of them or anything?

Nope. you get only your scaled scores, writing score, total score and the percentiles that each scaled score corresponds to, and that's it.

 

[J ROD]

hahah! meant to quote dsma0722 ! guess i'm still braindead from saturday 😀

Thanks for the laugh!!


I saw it but it was too good to make fun of!

First time, I have ever seen someone quote themselves in a post...

at least you are an original 😀

 

[SDN2013]

that is quite funny indeed

 

[SDN2013]

that is quite funny indeed

Stop being a copy cat !

 

[Vihsadas]

Stop being a copy cat !

Bahaha. Well played sir. Well played...

 

[Cp22kjer]

I'm pretty much worried silly at this point. I just do not have any idea how I did. Seems like it could be anywhere from 21-29. I felt bad about the test in general but it seems others did as well and if thats the case I hope the curve is more generous. I hate this feeling of uncertainty.

 

[Vihsadas]

I'm pretty much worried silly at this point. I just do not have any idea how I did. Seems like it could be anywhere from 21-29. I felt bad about the test in general but it seems others did as well and if thats the case I hope the curve is more generous. I hate this feeling of uncertainty.

Yeah its a tough feeling to stomach...but you really can't tell until you get your score back. I realize what I'm about to say is impossible, but try not to dwell on your performance that day too much in the next month.

 

[dsma0722]

I know I sound crazy, but I just registered to retake it on April 18th!!! There was actually a seat available for 4/18, but none available in May or June! (My main goal is to have my app. in June 1st.)

I'm probably out of my mind because I won't know my score from 4/5, but I really feel I messed up PS on 4/5, and I could do SOOO much better. What do you guys think? On 4/5, I didn't finish the last 1.5 passages of PS and already know of 5 questions I DID answer that I got wrong...VR and BS I think went well for me, but I need peace of mind.

 

[Vihsadas]

I know I sound crazy, but I just registered to retake it on April 18th!!! There was actually a seat available for 4/18, but none available in May or June! (My main goal is to have my app. in June 1st.)

I'm probably out of my mind because I won't know my score from 4/5, but I really feel I messed up PS on 4/5, and I could do SOOO much better. What do you guys think? On 4/5, I didn't finish the last 1.5 passages of PS and already know of 5 questions I DID answer that I got wrong...VR and BS I think went well for me, but I need peace of mind.

At least sign up for a date AFTER you get your score. hehe. I mean if you took it near to May 5th, you still wouldn't be late for AMCAS.

 

[Just Joshin]

I know I sound crazy, but I just registered to retake it on April 18th!!! There was actually a seat available for 4/18, but none available in May or June! (My main goal is to have my app. in June 1st.)

I'm probably out of my mind because I won't know my score from 4/5, but I really feel I messed up PS on 4/5, and I could do SOOO much better. What do you guys think? On 4/5, I didn't finish the last 1.5 passages of PS and already know of 5 questions I DID answer that I got wrong...VR and BS I think went well for me, but I need peace of mind.

This is the worst thing you can do. What if you get your 4/5 results back and you got a 35, despite how you feel you did? Maybe the curve will be good or maybe you just got lucky. Then you retake it on 4/18 and you end up with a 27 because the curve sucked on that day. Adcoms will think your 35 might have been a fluke and will probably ask about your 27. I think you're shooting yourself in the foot taking the exam before you have your score.

The reason there's a seat for 4/18 and not May is because as people realize test day is coming and they're not ready, they cancel or postpone. May dates will open up towards the end of April when people start to freak out because they have finals just a few days before the exam. At that time, sign up for May 10th. Then when you get your scores on May 5th, you can cancel your May 10th date if need be.

 

[Vihsadas]

This is the worst thing you can do. What if you get your 4/5 results back and you got a 35, despite how you feel you did? Maybe the curve will be good or maybe you just got lucky. Then you retake it on 4/18 and you end up with a 27 because the curve sucked on that day. Adcoms will think your 35 might have been a fluke and will probably ask about your 27. I think you're shooting yourself in the foot taking the exam before you have your score.

The reason there's a seat for 4/18 and not May is because as people realize test day is coming and they're not ready, they cancel or postpone. May dates will open up towards the end of April when people start to freak out because they have finals just a few days before the exam. At that time, sign up for May 10th. Then when you get your scores on May 5th, you can cancel your May 10th date if need be.

I agree. It's a really bad idea overall. You really, really, usually can't tell how well you did based on your perception of the test. You just have to wait and see what your score is.

 

[dsma0722]

You guys definitely have a point. It was certainly a split second decision. But having to randomly guess on 8 or 9 questions towards the end of PS on 4/5 screwed my chances of getting the score I feel I'm truly capable of, IMO. It would be one thing if I got a little futher to the end of the test and/or ended up finishing all the questions and only realized later that I got a few wrong once I was done, but I realized I got a few wrong AND didn't finish the PS section. I mean, I had to randomly answer all the questions corresponding to 1.5 passages!!! I know post-test feelings aren't reflective of your score, but this is a little more than just feeling nervous - this is a complete and utter let down.

I will however try to consider exchanging dates if any open up in May, because it would be more ideal to know my score and then consider retaking. Do you guys honestly think the curve would be good enough to give me a 9 or 10 if I missed approximately 15-20 questions??? (I usually score anywhere from 12 to 14 on PS practice tests - and I think that a 12 corresponds to missing less than 7 or 8 questions, at least from the score conversion chart on the aamc practice test site)

Thanks for your input everyone!

 

[Vihsadas]

You guys definitely have a point. It was certainly a split second decision. But having to randomly guess on 8 or 9 questions towards the end of PS on 4/5 screwed my chances of getting the score I feel I'm truly capable of, IMO. It would be one thing if I got a little futher to the end of the test and/or ended up finishing all the questions and only realized later that I got a few wrong once I was done, but I realized I got a few wrong AND didn't finish the PS section. I mean, I had to randomly answer all the questions corresponding to 1.5 passages!!! I know post-test feelings aren't reflective of your score, but this is a little more than just feeling nervous - this is a complete and utter let down.

I will however try to consider exchanging dates if any open up in May, because it would be more ideal to know my score and then consider retaking. Do you guys honestly think the curve would be good enough to give me a 9 or 10 if I missed approximately 15-20 questions??? (I usually score anywhere from 12 to 14 on PS practice tests - and I think that a 12 corresponds to missing less than 7 or 8 questions, at least from the score conversion chart on the aamc practice test site)

Thanks for your input everyone!

I'm telling you that you still can't know for sure. I definitely missed a large, large proportion of the verabl questions on my exam. I usually have 10-15mins left over to recheck all of my verbal answers. I had 0 mins on my real exam and just barely finished the last q. I was sure I was going to see '7-8' on my score report. You really just never know. Everyone else could have been low on time as well, and what if that last passage was the experiemental one?

Seriously, you should at least reschedule your test date for after your scores are released.

 

[presto530]

Everyone else could have been low on time as well

To add to that I usually finished my AAMC PS sections with 5-8 mins left. On the 4/5 MCAT I had like around 1.5 mins left. So I basically had time to relook at 2-3 questions. I continually caught myself spending way too much time on individual problems that I shouldn't have. I even had to sacrifice a stoichiometry problem (written out math) because I knew that if I had tried to work it, I wouldn't have finished the PS section.

Same thing on the BS section. I usually finished BS sections with 12-15 mins left, but on this test I had a little over 5 mins left to go back over problems. Those passages were hard to digest. And then there was the orgo passage that had the invisible "reaction 1" and "reaction 2" that were asked about, yet not labeled in the passage lol.