So, we've got the 3/28 and the 4/18, but no 4/4/08 yet. Anyone else taking it on this date?
The 4/4/09 MCAT Club
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General consensus: We're all worried!
However, look at the past threads on this. Everyone freaks out and does decently well.
BS wasn't all that bad, I spent too much time on the damn capillary passage because I just had an exam on that exact same principle in physio last week but was focusing too much on this test that I suffered a bit on that test, so I spent too much time making sure I got that right because I should - I just had a damn test on it! But the terminology was different, and the two equations they referenced which make sense but the way we learned it was slightly different for those two equations. Anyway, we'll see.
I'm just so annoyed with myself for PS, I don't know if my passages were slightly different but really PS was no more challenging than AAMC FL 9 or 10, just personally I was too nitpicky in making sure I didn't make the same mistakes in AAMC 10 (dumb mistakes from rushing when I actually knew the answer), that I didn't get the opportunity to even look at the last passage so I guessed on roughly 8 questions then (omfg considering the practice test curves of 8 wrong being a 10). VR wasn't miserable, I didn't have any dinosaur passage but I know I skimmed through and guessed a bit on the last passage (some bizarre humanities/new age piece) because the first two passages consumed too much of my time.
I'm praying so hard that I went at least 9/11/12, so I can be at least near my goal. But the way physical went I'm still doubting myself if I should've voided. I was scoring consistently 33-36 over many practice tests with my lowest being a 31, but I kinda did the same thing two years ago and ended up with a 27 (blew physical but did decently well on VR and BS); so all I can hope for is improving and breaking 30.
That is my own personal experience. I'm hoping that, even though we have a mixed bag as to who thought certain things were difficult or easy, that like the 1/31 thread we all come out with decent scores. I'll be praying for all of you too, because c'mon, those of us on SDN are the people that really want this the most and probably sacrificed and put tons of effort into this, so hopefully it pays off. We find out in a month, until then the best of luck.
P.S. No melatonin passage
However, look at the past threads on this. Everyone freaks out and does decently well.
BS wasn't all that bad, I spent too much time on the damn capillary passage because I just had an exam on that exact same principle in physio last week but was focusing too much on this test that I suffered a bit on that test, so I spent too much time making sure I got that right because I should - I just had a damn test on it! But the terminology was different, and the two equations they referenced which make sense but the way we learned it was slightly different for those two equations. Anyway, we'll see.
I'm just so annoyed with myself for PS, I don't know if my passages were slightly different but really PS was no more challenging than AAMC FL 9 or 10, just personally I was too nitpicky in making sure I didn't make the same mistakes in AAMC 10 (dumb mistakes from rushing when I actually knew the answer), that I didn't get the opportunity to even look at the last passage so I guessed on roughly 8 questions then (omfg considering the practice test curves of 8 wrong being a 10). VR wasn't miserable, I didn't have any dinosaur passage but I know I skimmed through and guessed a bit on the last passage (some bizarre humanities/new age piece) because the first two passages consumed too much of my time.
I'm praying so hard that I went at least 9/11/12, so I can be at least near my goal. But the way physical went I'm still doubting myself if I should've voided. I was scoring consistently 33-36 over many practice tests with my lowest being a 31, but I kinda did the same thing two years ago and ended up with a 27 (blew physical but did decently well on VR and BS); so all I can hope for is improving and breaking 30.
That is my own personal experience. I'm hoping that, even though we have a mixed bag as to who thought certain things were difficult or easy, that like the 1/31 thread we all come out with decent scores. I'll be praying for all of you too, because c'mon, those of us on SDN are the people that really want this the most and probably sacrificed and put tons of effort into this, so hopefully it pays off. We find out in a month, until then the best of luck.
P.S. No melatonin passage
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i'm surprised everyone found BS hard. I thought it was much easier than the AAMC practice tests. However, it may be because I am really well versed in molecular bio which seemed to be stressed on this test. Also, i'm not very good at orgo (having taken it almost 2 years ago) so I was quite relieved that there was only 1 orgo passage.
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You felt molec bio was stressed on this test?
I felt it was rather fairly broadly evened out amongst bio topics. This is just coming from my perspective as a grad student doing cancer research, and thus taking a lot of cell & molec classes, I felt it was a fair examination of bio skills. A lot of it had to deal with understanding experiments or journal like passages, which should be something they test for. Normally I'd finish practice tests with 15-20minutes to kill on BS, this time I finished on time; was it tougher or did I just waste too much time on the capillary passage?
No joke, if there ever was a test very similar to AAMC 7-10; this was it. Which is why I'm kicking myself for not plowing through PS and being too methodical. This stems from my perspective as a retaker. I had an exam very similar to how the 3/28 exam is described in June '07 and I felt it was overwhelming the topics that were asked, and that it was unfair, yet I somehow came confident. Well, I'm retaking for the obvious reason that my confidence was unfounded. But like a friend of mine who's a year 2 told me today on the phone, "everyone feels like they did bad, its the people who think they did great that come out with a 21Q". Just look at the past threads, everyone freaks out and they get good scores here (granted they're being honest).
I felt it was rather fairly broadly evened out amongst bio topics. This is just coming from my perspective as a grad student doing cancer research, and thus taking a lot of cell & molec classes, I felt it was a fair examination of bio skills. A lot of it had to deal with understanding experiments or journal like passages, which should be something they test for. Normally I'd finish practice tests with 15-20minutes to kill on BS, this time I finished on time; was it tougher or did I just waste too much time on the capillary passage?
No joke, if there ever was a test very similar to AAMC 7-10; this was it. Which is why I'm kicking myself for not plowing through PS and being too methodical. This stems from my perspective as a retaker. I had an exam very similar to how the 3/28 exam is described in June '07 and I felt it was overwhelming the topics that were asked, and that it was unfair, yet I somehow came confident. Well, I'm retaking for the obvious reason that my confidence was unfounded. But like a friend of mine who's a year 2 told me today on the phone, "everyone feels like they did bad, its the people who think they did great that come out with a 21Q". Just look at the past threads, everyone freaks out and they get good scores here (granted they're being honest).
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why aren't you guys enjoying your first evening free of mcat?
i loved the test today. it was far better than last year's.
hope everyone did well but please, quit stressing over the test. its over.
drink up, smoke up, and begin stressing for the may 4th.
i loved the test today. it was far better than last year's.
hope everyone did well but please, quit stressing over the test. its over.
drink up, smoke up, and begin stressing for the may 4th.
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i agree...
PS: a bit more reading than i expected, but all-in-all doable... i can vividly remember one EASY question that i got wrong because i was just stupid at the time...
VR: never been my strong point, i'm sure it was easier considering the topics of the passages, but in any case, i am hoping for a 9+ (previous exam was an 8, and i hope to improve on that, even if it is just 1 point)
BS: Hmm... the crab passage pissed me off, and the amputee passage was just weird... other than the the majority of it was straightforward... aside from the weird way of presenting q/a in the artery/vein filtering passage and the liver/iron passage
in any case, there's no way to change what answers you've put down, so instead of stressing about the test, enjoy the next month and that way it'll go by fast
PS: a bit more reading than i expected, but all-in-all doable... i can vividly remember one EASY question that i got wrong because i was just stupid at the time...
VR: never been my strong point, i'm sure it was easier considering the topics of the passages, but in any case, i am hoping for a 9+ (previous exam was an 8, and i hope to improve on that, even if it is just 1 point)
BS: Hmm... the crab passage pissed me off, and the amputee passage was just weird... other than the the majority of it was straightforward... aside from the weird way of presenting q/a in the artery/vein filtering passage and the liver/iron passage
in any case, there's no way to change what answers you've put down, so instead of stressing about the test, enjoy the next month and that way it'll go by fast
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you're probably right, it was even spread out. I was just thinking about the first passage (the trf iron binding proteins passage). I don't know, I felt that I clicked with the topics on this test. I just felt I had a much better handle on the topics on this test as opposed to the AAMC practice tests. I'm taking histology right now so that maybe why I felt very comfortable with the muscle passage and the amputee passage. I dunno we'll see, I'm still doubtful of my PS section.
Ah, I don't know about you, but for most of us it was the first time taking the test and some of us felt that certain sections came out of left field or something....but you do make a good point. There's nothing we can do now and most people (except certain freaks) do not feel good coming out of the MCAT. Hopefully we will all be pleasently suprised come May 5
Haha, yeah I agree. But I have to say that the dinasour passage was a pleasure to read during the exam. The dinasour was the narrarator of the passage as well...I was like WTF!?!?
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Dude, me too. it's driving me nuts. I'll give a quick rundown while I'm here
PS: Thought it was actually quite difficult. The discretes were very straightforward and nice, the passages were way longer than I was expecting and I felt like almost everything came straight from them ... not a long of chances to use the stuff I learned/worked hard with on the other AAMCs.
VR: It was fine. Longer passages, but not harder. No terribly philosophy or art passage, which was good.
BS: Eh ... I don't know how to feel about this one ... I had the crab and amputee passages. Crab one was just dumb, and I felt like every question had multiple answers that I could argue were correct. Amputee wasn't bad bc I've had a lot of specific course work like it, though there was one question on it that was worded really weird and I never quite got around it.
Altogether ... I don't know how to feel. I thought it was harder than any of the AAMCS, but not terrible 'oh god I'm signing up for another test' bad. I don't know if I'll be happy with my scores, only time will tell.
By the way ... just a general question to everyone - is everyone else just judging yourself like mad, feeling like you've performed way better on other tests, that you should have done this or that differently, that you shouldn't have been nervous before PS ETC ETC?????
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Actually I don't think we can. The site really doesn't want us talking about specifics at all.
I wish I had the dinosaur passage. The first 2 VR passages on my exam were terrible. haha, I think one was about monkeys (?) or something like that
PS: Definitely tougher than the AAMCs. I spent a lot of time calculating stuff that I usually would not do, but since it was the real test I told myself I had to be careful. I almost ran out of time at the end and had to guess on 3.
VR: This was my worst section. I never broke 10 on any of the AAMCs, although I did get close to it one time. The first two passages were tough, but the rest were not too bad.
WR: I never practiced the WR section before, so I won't be surprised if I got a J or something haha
BS: I didn't use a lot of outside knowledge for this one. Like what was said before, a lot of interpretation of graphs and figures. I got really lucky on the muscle passage because I'm studying about the muscle right now in one of my physiology classes. I could have sworn that my professor wrote that passage.
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Also took the MCAT yesterday... really glad it's over!
I thought the PS and Verbal sections were fine, I almost laughed out loud reading that dinosaur passage on the verbal. It felt like a late April Fool's joke...
I really moved too slowly on the BS section though, I had the crabs passage, the melatonin passage, and the limb regeneration passage, although I barely had time to read the last one. I thought a lot of questions on the crabs and limb regeneration passages, as well as the weird sleep cycle/learning/LTM passage, were really ambiguous and I hesitated far too long on them. I ended up flying through the last two passages, as well as the stand-alone questions, so hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me too badly.
The little O-Chem on there was great, so maybe that will help make up for it...
I had a terrible nightmare last night that I accidentally clicked the "Void MCAT" instead of the "Score my MCAT" option. Someone who knows please tell me that some sort of "Are you sure?" box pops up when you choose to void. I know it's ridiculous, but it would help calm my highly frayed nerves.
I thought the PS and Verbal sections were fine, I almost laughed out loud reading that dinosaur passage on the verbal. It felt like a late April Fool's joke...
I really moved too slowly on the BS section though, I had the crabs passage, the melatonin passage, and the limb regeneration passage, although I barely had time to read the last one. I thought a lot of questions on the crabs and limb regeneration passages, as well as the weird sleep cycle/learning/LTM passage, were really ambiguous and I hesitated far too long on them. I ended up flying through the last two passages, as well as the stand-alone questions, so hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me too badly.
The little O-Chem on there was great, so maybe that will help make up for it...
I had a terrible nightmare last night that I accidentally clicked the "Void MCAT" instead of the "Score my MCAT" option. Someone who knows please tell me that some sort of "Are you sure?" box pops up when you choose to void. I know it's ridiculous, but it would help calm my highly frayed nerves.
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thought the PS and BS were on par with 8,9,10.
Nothing too calculation intensive, just parsing through graphs and figuring stuff out on the spot.
Verbal is always my weak point in the sense that it was highly variable for my scores. Thought the passages were more like AAMC and in some ways, kind of like the BR passages. I did all of the 101 EK 1-14 tests and I felt like those were much easier than most of the AAMC stuff. Difficulty wise, the TPR stuff was more on point.
Definitely going to retake, just waiting for website to update my status...
Nothing too calculation intensive, just parsing through graphs and figuring stuff out on the spot.
Verbal is always my weak point in the sense that it was highly variable for my scores. Thought the passages were more like AAMC and in some ways, kind of like the BR passages. I did all of the 101 EK 1-14 tests and I felt like those were much easier than most of the AAMC stuff. Difficulty wise, the TPR stuff was more on point.
Definitely going to retake, just waiting for website to update my status...
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Yeah I got one
My molecular biology class definitely helped with this section
Although there is enough information in the passages to be able to answer the questions, knowing what an IRE is etc.,reduces the intimidation factor
I was wondering how long does it take for us to reschedule another MCAT date. I have checked the AAMC website but it only gives me my 4/4/09 test date info and there isn't a link to re-register for another test. I just want to register for another test date (may) in case i bombed this one or did not score up to my potential. Anybody have info on this????
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I know, it makes no sense to delay the entire test a month to grade those things. I'm glad someone else felt the same way. I also agree that I've felt really great after tests and then done average and bad after some and done well. I didn't feel like I did bad on the test, I just keep analyzing it and thinking of all the things I could have done better. I'd be willing to bet though that if I did every little thing I was thinking about, my scores would be the same still.
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Me too. I know there is absolutely nothing I can do about it now, so why even worry??? But it's still on my mine. The funny thing is that I'm literally 99% sure that my scores would be the same whether I felt great or felt horrible. I took AAMC practice tests I thought I dominated and got the same score on ones that I thought sucked. I'm for now just assuming PS will have a good scaling and hopingg BS does.
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Hey guys 
So let me tell you somethin' real quick... I signed up to take the 4/4 MCAT after the 1/30 one which was absolutely ridiculous. Like
But then last week I decided I wasn't ready for this one. I got my scores back 3/3 and didn't have time to study with school being full force & all, so I wanted to postpone to May. Apparently I was too late to postpone and would be out the 225 dollars... so I decided to take it yesterday as a "practice test" and just void afterwards.
Things didn't exactly go as planned because PS was amazing... but maybe that's because I've only been studying physics hardcore for the last month. So after PS, I was like.... dude... maybe I don't have to void.
And then VS... the first two passages made me chucklelaugh like HECK YEAH girl you're VOIDING! But then the other passages were not bad at ALL... I felt relieved and even had time to go back to the first two and make educated guesses on the ones I was unsure of.
Thennnn BS... holy crap! I felt like it needed very little outside knowledge when it came to biology, but you really had to be able to read and analyze the passages rapidly - which I am so not good at. I was so disappointed that there was NO genetics whatsoever. Systems for biology were not tested at all... maybe a little bit of digestive but it was in no way intensive. For ochem... eh. The passage about the frog leg or whatever and regeneration - I looked at in the last 2 minutes no joke... so I expect zero points regarding that. As for the rest of the passages... they were aight... the melatonin/light cycle one kicked my butt though. I didn't understand the second half of the passage.
So I really don't know. It's a toss-up. When the void page came along, I immediately submitted because I didn't want to sit there for 10 minutes torturing myself and maybe regretting my decision later. It's all good. Whatever happens, happens guys. We'll all be okay.
But if it makes you guys feel ANY better, this test definitely, definitely was way easier than the January ones... I guarantee it.
Best of luck!
OH and one more thing! I was not nervous at all because I went in thinking I was going to void... and that helped me out so much! I was chillin'... all breathing easy and smiling. So honestly, half of it is your nerves. But then again, I may end up having made a 20 so whatever.
So let me tell you somethin' real quick... I signed up to take the 4/4 MCAT after the 1/30 one which was absolutely ridiculous. Like But then last week I decided I wasn't ready for this one. I got my scores back 3/3 and didn't have time to study with school being full force & all, so I wanted to postpone to May. Apparently I was too late to postpone and would be out the 225 dollars... so I decided to take it yesterday as a "practice test" and just void afterwards.
Things didn't exactly go as planned because PS was amazing... but maybe that's because I've only been studying physics hardcore for the last month. So after PS, I was like.... dude... maybe I don't have to void.
And then VS... the first two passages made me chuckle
laugh like HECK YEAH girl you're VOIDING! But then the other passages were not bad at ALL... I felt relieved and even had time to go back to the first two and make educated guesses on the ones I was unsure of.Thennnn BS... holy crap! I felt like it needed very little outside knowledge when it came to biology, but you really had to be able to read and analyze the passages rapidly - which I am so not good at. I was so disappointed that there was NO genetics whatsoever. Systems for biology were not tested at all... maybe a little bit of digestive but it was in no way intensive. For ochem... eh. The passage about the frog leg or whatever and regeneration - I looked at in the last 2 minutes no joke... so I expect zero points regarding that. As for the rest of the passages... they were aight... the melatonin/light cycle one kicked my butt though. I didn't understand the second half of the passage.
So I really don't know. It's a toss-up. When the void page came along, I immediately submitted because I didn't want to sit there for 10 minutes torturing myself and maybe regretting my decision later. It's all good. Whatever happens, happens guys. We'll all be okay.
But if it makes you guys feel ANY better, this test definitely, definitely was way easier than the January ones... I guarantee it.
Best of luck!OH and one more thing! I was not nervous at all because I went in thinking I was going to void... and that helped me out so much! I was chillin'... all breathing easy and smiling. So honestly, half of it is your nerves. But then again, I may end up having made a 20 so whatever.
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PS-I actually thought mine was easier than normal. No magnetism, only one discrete optics question=wonderful news. I agree with everyone else, though-seemed like a lot of calculations, much more so than other practice tests I have taken.
VR-I'm a native speaker, and VR is usually my best subject. However, I thought these passages were more difficult than others I have read. I was pretty disappointed with my performance in this area. I felt like I came down to two choices and just had to use an educated guess between the two. Oh well, it's over, maybe I guessed correctly.
Writing-I never once practice before the real thing, and it wasn't too bad.
BS-Only one orgo passage! I was very pleased. The capillary one was pretty rough, but I felt pretty good about this section.
We're done guys! Hell yeah!
VR-I'm a native speaker, and VR is usually my best subject. However, I thought these passages were more difficult than others I have read. I was pretty disappointed with my performance in this area. I felt like I came down to two choices and just had to use an educated guess between the two. Oh well, it's over, maybe I guessed correctly.
Writing-I never once practice before the real thing, and it wasn't too bad.
BS-Only one orgo passage! I was very pleased. The capillary one was pretty rough, but I felt pretty good about this section.
We're done guys! Hell yeah!
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I had that passage ... it was very difficult in my opinion.
I remember the satellite one, I thought it was pretty easy? It was basic newtonian physics, by far my strongest ares in physics. It seems like we all feel relatively the same way: cautiously optimistic. I feel like I did better than 1/31, but guessed on enough questions to make me not as confident as I was after my AAMC tests. Or maybe I'm misreading your posts.
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Oh yeah, I do remember that one. You're right, it did have a magnetism question-but that one was pretty easy. I was just afraid of having a passage about a current-carrying wire loop or something like that.
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I got that one. Without crossing the detail line, that passage seemed to have a lot of lengthy "extra info" but was very reminiscent of one of the passages in one of the practice FLs, I forget which one specifically; just a framework to test multiple skills and 'pseudo-discretes'.
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Exactly!! I didn't think the material was top notch crazy but I wasted too much time on making sure I was perfect rather than just marching on, so I ended up guessing on 6-8 near the end... which isn't good, since on the AAMC practice tests 8 wrong was a 10 so I'm a bit panicked about it and I feel like I let it ruin my composure for VR which is typically my strongest section, as I was doing 11-14 on all the practice tests and this time I don't know if broke 10. I'm so stressed out and anxious to find out, hopefulyl curosity doesn't kill this cat.
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Looking back, I don't think that the questions were that hard ... I'm pretty sure I struggled with it because the passage was really long and full of info, and that there was one question that tripped me up. I agreed initially with the cautiously optimistic feeling, but I keep letting myself think I did worse and worse all the time. I dunno, I wish I could just quit thinking about it.
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Count Chocula
I feel ya man about the VR.
I totally went in feeling uneasy about VR, found myself finishing early (not in a good way) and found myself getting into that "i'm starting to guess" zone, rather than having good hunches about what a good VR answer should be.
I think the whole mantra of 101 EK verbal being the best practice is a bunch of BS. I felt like the seven passages were varied in terms of different types of passages, but they were longer and the questions were much more difficult in general.
I felt that BR passages were similar and TPR difficult matched. In general I'm beginning to feel like EK stuff isn't that up to date.
In terms of Bio, yeah that whole section didn't really test prior knowledge. It felt like a bunch of professors submitted questions based on papers they knew about. Bio was all interpret crazy graphs and research article (stupid crabs...)
I feel ya man about the VR.
I totally went in feeling uneasy about VR, found myself finishing early (not in a good way) and found myself getting into that "i'm starting to guess" zone, rather than having good hunches about what a good VR answer should be.
I think the whole mantra of 101 EK verbal being the best practice is a bunch of BS. I felt like the seven passages were varied in terms of different types of passages, but they were longer and the questions were much more difficult in general.
I felt that BR passages were similar and TPR difficult matched. In general I'm beginning to feel like EK stuff isn't that up to date.
In terms of Bio, yeah that whole section didn't really test prior knowledge. It felt like a bunch of professors submitted questions based on papers they knew about. Bio was all interpret crazy graphs and research article (stupid crabs...)
Yes. I can agree with most of the thoughts posted on this thread.
PS:
Normally my second best section, I had been averaging 13.5 for my 8 AAMC CBT's, I was hoping to set a strong positive tone for the test with this section. I have found this technique critical for my performance on the rest of the exam. I sat down and just clicked "END" and "NEXT" on those two screens like I got used to on my AAMC practice CBT's and Boom! That sat. shuttle passage hit me in the face. I started freaking out because the entire premise of what was going on was so convoluted and strange. Of course we should all expect this from the hundreds of passages like this we've encountered in practice, but somehow it was just an evil suprise. I skipped it, went to the next one. I called this the balloon passage, due to the confounding nature of the former object. I felt exactly as I had upon encountering the first passage. I skipped this one as well. Next I had freestanding questions, and went through them quickly no problem. I think I simply needed to calm my nerves. The rest of the PS I felt controlled and methodical and I got the answers quickly enough without too much trouble, leaving 30 mins for the first two passages i'd skipped. Having all this time, I read figured out the passages and (hopefully) got the answers which were not too hard once I relaxed, like my boy from Cambridge UK who just posted said (my parents live there, awsome place with cool people). I had about 10 mins to check over all my answers, and felt good about most of it. I do disagree with this section being calculation intensive. There were a few, but not appreciably more than normal, in my opinion... I was surprised at the level of stoichiometry though, on one question in particular.
VS
I felt so great after my victory over my little freak out at the beginning, and invigorated at having come back from what I thought was utter dispair. I had a great 10 min break, and busted in that crappy old room to take on verbal. This is by far my weakest section, and I had spent tons of time doing passages and reading lame boring literature written by poor authors to enhance my toleration for convoluted crap. I was surprised at how interesting these passages were! The dinosaur passage was awesome! I was way into it; It was like a cool drink on a hot day. I thought the Dinosuar character was kind of a douche, but a loveable douche. What quack wrote that passgage? He must have been high when he had the idea, although I thought it was well written. The military government passage was the hardest to read, but it had managable questions. The last passage was easier to read, but had difficult questions on which I mostly had to guess. I am, however, worried that I felt good about this section. I might have just been relieved at the prospect (real or not) of having done OK on the PS and just been living in some fantasy world where I was actualy good at verbal. I walked out with cautious optimism, took my next ten mins.
Writing is all crap and noone really cares, it was my first time even considering the section. I used it to relax and get ready for BS, finishing way early without writing all that much. I don't care how I did.
BS
I was still riding my high from the PS, and had a percieved fallac high from my verbal, and was ready for my best section. I love O-chem, it was my favorite subject in school by far. I feel my kind is shafted on the BS for this reason, but whatever, sour grapes, call the wah-mbulance. I really liked the iron passage, which i got first. I was way more tired and zoned out than I am ussually by this point, a little disconcerting. Next I had the blood pressure passage, which I thought was made pretty tricky for how easy the content actually is. I felt these passage questions really tested your ability to reason while being relaxed, as seen by the organ question and a few others. The crab passage was next. F^ck those little motherf^ckers, I'm glad half of them died in that experiment. With that being said I used to major in evolutionary bio and was ok with the passage questions, but holy crap. Can't a brotha get some ochem or some biochem passages? I hated the melatonin passage, I thought it was extraneously written and stupid. Obviously I was tired by this point, trying to hold on like the last lap of a race. Then the amputee passage came. I had NO CLUE about this crap. I can ussually deduce from the passage what I don't know about the topic, but i just felt this was really tricky. I knew I should have taken developmental bio instead of immunology... I rechecked most of my answers, and think I missed anywhere from 5-10 questions (best case to worst case scenario, but really, who can tell...)
I left feeling pretty good, bought a fifth of jack, and went out on the town with my boys only to wake up wondering how i really did or if i was actually right on those hard questions on which I had to take educated guesses, which were a good few... Then I googled the test and found this thread, which is a huge relief. Thanks for reading my long boring post. Holla.
PS:
Normally my second best section, I had been averaging 13.5 for my 8 AAMC CBT's, I was hoping to set a strong positive tone for the test with this section. I have found this technique critical for my performance on the rest of the exam. I sat down and just clicked "END" and "NEXT" on those two screens like I got used to on my AAMC practice CBT's and Boom! That sat. shuttle passage hit me in the face. I started freaking out because the entire premise of what was going on was so convoluted and strange. Of course we should all expect this from the hundreds of passages like this we've encountered in practice, but somehow it was just an evil suprise. I skipped it, went to the next one. I called this the balloon passage, due to the confounding nature of the former object. I felt exactly as I had upon encountering the first passage. I skipped this one as well. Next I had freestanding questions, and went through them quickly no problem. I think I simply needed to calm my nerves. The rest of the PS I felt controlled and methodical and I got the answers quickly enough without too much trouble, leaving 30 mins for the first two passages i'd skipped. Having all this time, I read figured out the passages and (hopefully) got the answers which were not too hard once I relaxed, like my boy from Cambridge UK who just posted said (my parents live there, awsome place with cool people). I had about 10 mins to check over all my answers, and felt good about most of it. I do disagree with this section being calculation intensive. There were a few, but not appreciably more than normal, in my opinion... I was surprised at the level of stoichiometry though, on one question in particular.
VS
I felt so great after my victory over my little freak out at the beginning, and invigorated at having come back from what I thought was utter dispair. I had a great 10 min break, and busted in that crappy old room to take on verbal. This is by far my weakest section, and I had spent tons of time doing passages and reading lame boring literature written by poor authors to enhance my toleration for convoluted crap. I was surprised at how interesting these passages were! The dinosaur passage was awesome! I was way into it; It was like a cool drink on a hot day. I thought the Dinosuar character was kind of a douche, but a loveable douche. What quack wrote that passgage? He must have been high when he had the idea, although I thought it was well written. The military government passage was the hardest to read, but it had managable questions. The last passage was easier to read, but had difficult questions on which I mostly had to guess. I am, however, worried that I felt good about this section. I might have just been relieved at the prospect (real or not) of having done OK on the PS and just been living in some fantasy world where I was actualy good at verbal. I walked out with cautious optimism, took my next ten mins.
Writing is all crap and noone really cares, it was my first time even considering the section. I used it to relax and get ready for BS, finishing way early without writing all that much. I don't care how I did.
BS
I was still riding my high from the PS, and had a percieved fallac high from my verbal, and was ready for my best section. I love O-chem, it was my favorite subject in school by far. I feel my kind is shafted on the BS for this reason, but whatever, sour grapes, call the wah-mbulance. I really liked the iron passage, which i got first. I was way more tired and zoned out than I am ussually by this point, a little disconcerting. Next I had the blood pressure passage, which I thought was made pretty tricky for how easy the content actually is. I felt these passage questions really tested your ability to reason while being relaxed, as seen by the organ question and a few others. The crab passage was next. F^ck those little motherf^ckers, I'm glad half of them died in that experiment. With that being said I used to major in evolutionary bio and was ok with the passage questions, but holy crap. Can't a brotha get some ochem or some biochem passages? I hated the melatonin passage, I thought it was extraneously written and stupid. Obviously I was tired by this point, trying to hold on like the last lap of a race. Then the amputee passage came. I had NO CLUE about this crap. I can ussually deduce from the passage what I don't know about the topic, but i just felt this was really tricky. I knew I should have taken developmental bio instead of immunology... I rechecked most of my answers, and think I missed anywhere from 5-10 questions (best case to worst case scenario, but really, who can tell...)
I left feeling pretty good, bought a fifth of jack, and went out on the town with my boys only to wake up wondering how i really did or if i was actually right on those hard questions on which I had to take educated guesses, which were a good few... Then I googled the test and found this thread, which is a huge relief. Thanks for reading my long boring post. Holla.
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I kid you not ... did the same thing with those two passages in PS. Started with the tether one ... spent WAY to long with it, skipped the second one you talked about and went on. Those two passages are what is making my attitude post MCAT so grim.
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can someone list the BS passages for me, trying to remember parts of it
i had transferrin, capillary pressure, orgo passage, amputation, lactose, and sand crabs
can't remember the last one
i know for sure i didn't have a melatonin passage so that's not the one i'm missing
i had transferrin, capillary pressure, orgo passage, amputation, lactose, and sand crabs
can't remember the last one
i know for sure i didn't have a melatonin passage so that's not the one i'm missing
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wow i'm braindead... yeah that's 7 nevermind, i forgot about the cholera passage
what about PS passages?
shuttle/sat, thermometers, bohr spectrum, sliding cube spring, CO2 passage
can't remember rest
what about PS passages?
shuttle/sat, thermometers, bohr spectrum, sliding cube spring, CO2 passage
can't remember rest
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I don't remember seeing a CO2 or sliding cube spring in PS. I remember satellite/shuttle, Thermometers, Bohr spectrum, Density of metals, the balloon/acids/g-chem, and the last one was of 2 theories on covalent bonding...i am missing something....
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Yeah that's what I was thinking. I definitely didn't have a spring, and I'm unsure about the covalent one. I remember doing some bonding, but I thought it was in discretes??
And I didn't have the melatonin BS passage either.
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Yeah, there was a passage about bonding and VSPER geometry. That was the passage I had to pretty much guess, since time was running out of time but there were a few quick easy questions there now that I think about it so hopefully this doesn't end up so bad. The spring passage consisted of two blocks if that rings a bell.
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AHH you're right there was a VSPER passage. Lol I don't remember because it went well for me. I definitely didn't have the spring passage ... would have LOVED to swap the balloon or tether passage for it though.
I sort of remember that passage, have no clue what it was about though. It's funny when you mentioned VSEPR and Cobalt i was like wtf?? but then 2 minutes later i remembered it. Its as if we completely block out the memories of the test, and slowly but surely all the passages are vaguely coming back. If you paid me to tell you any question on the exam i couldnt do it, i literally dont remember.
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I was sorely disappointed in the lack of both those. Probably my best/favorite subjects ... I think I only had one question that had anything to do with optics. I felt like PS played to a lot of subjects I was 'okay' at, with few of the ones where you go 'sweet' and dive into it. Oh well ... probably will all come out in the wash. So are the scores due May 4th then err any news about that??
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AHH you're right there was a VSPER passage. Lol I don't remember because it went well for me. I definitely didn't have the spring passage ... would have LOVED to swap the balloon or tether passage for it though.
Oh, I didn't have a swap. I had all of those. The tether, the balloon, the blocks etc. I actually liked the tether one lol. I was feeling good about PS at that point, it was when I all of a sudden saw I had 20 minutes left for three passages I bugged out. Who knows, I can't decide if I feel better or worse now. I came out of the test beating myself up, but now looking back at least for myself it comes down to how bad were my crazy guesses at the end of PS and if I lost my composure or did I actually get an improved sense of urgency for the rest of the exam. I'm happy I didn't get that dinosaur passage though, that sounds bizarre.
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I wonder what I had instead of the blocks??? I didn't have the dinosaur either. I think I got through the tether passage okay, I was just really thrown off by the length of the passage compared to what you actually needed to answer with the questions and I spent WAY too long on it. I think I was opposite of you ... felt good after the test, now I'm picking apart every detail I can remember in my mind and convincing myself I did it wrong even though I can barely, VAGUELY remember the question. Lol ... it's fading though.
The PS passages I remember having were the tether, the blocks, the CO2 balloon, the bohr transitions, the cobalt coordination one, thermometer one, and the kids with the sleds. The CO2 one was hardest/most time consuming IMO. I didn't get the dinosaur passage, got the monkey's instead which wasn't terrible. Coming out of the test I felt pretty bad but I think I've felt everything from confidence to dread since then and this thread makes me feel even more up and down. It sounds like everyone is in the same boat though. Only ~28 days left to go!
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Yeah I had the monkey too. Okay seriously though ... I don't know what was up with my PS, or if I have just blocked a big part out ... but I know I had tether, CO2 balloon, bohr transitions, cobalt, metal density, and thermometer ... but no sled and no block/bell. I checked that I didn't miss any passages, I just don't know what other ones I had then.
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Looking back, I definitely think I did better now than I did when i first walked out of the test. I'm just worried about VR, i know it wasnt' hard for everyone but it's never been my strong point and I just am praying for a 9+
Does anyone know if the the sections are curved based on the results of the specific test day, for all test centers combined?
I felt as though the PS section had more calculations than most Kaplan and AAMC practice tests, the VR section was not too bad aside from the first couple passages, and the BS section wasn't too challenging. Like others have said, not too much outside knowledge was needed.
Good luck everyone!
I felt as though the PS section had more calculations than most Kaplan and AAMC practice tests, the VR section was not too bad aside from the first couple passages, and the BS section wasn't too challenging. Like others have said, not too much outside knowledge was needed.
Good luck everyone!
