The 5/10/08 MCAT Club

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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So I am surprised this thread has not been started yet!! How is everyone feeling about the test?? How are you spending your last week & 1/2? I am retaking from Jan 26th so this is IT! I'm more ready to have it done than nervous...what about everyone else?
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NO you definitely didn't skip any. there are just a bunch of different versions. you didn't have the knapweed passage with the deer mice and larvae causing hantavirus? did anyone else have that passage?

i also must say...i was REALLY bummed about the meniscus discrete. i never took anatomy and had no clue. i looked it up when i came home and realized i got it wrong.
 
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I am relieved to hear that everyone else thought it was ridiculously hard, esp the bio. Those were the most dense experimental passages I have come across, exept for maybe some Kaplan stuff.

Since no one ACTUALLY knows how they scale the exam, lets just hope the general consensus of difficulty here is reflected in a good curve.

Either way...I will be shocked if i dont have to retake it.
 
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craniotomy, i didn't have any emphysema passage. was the emphysema passage hard?

i think the passage that is different for a lot of people was the knapweed/ecoli/emphysema passage.

the other passage was that ochem passage with the bottles...talking about specific rotation ...at least that was my 7th.
 
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GeorgianCMV said:
craniotomy, i didn't have any emphysema passage. was the emphysema passage hard?

i think the passage that is different for a lot of people was the knapweed/ecoli/emphysema passage.

the other passage was that ochem passage with the bottles...talking about specific rotation ...at least that was my 7th.
Click to expand...

is the passage tht is different usually experimental?
 
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The emphysema passage was crazy. Did you guys have the bladder passage also? That passage was really hard to follow for some reason.
 
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I thought the knapweed/emphysema, bloodtype, and heart passages were simple yet wordy. It was the lac operon passage that was difficult. The others just made you think they were difficult but were really easy.
 
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omg!

was it me or was everything way longer than AAMC's?
I can usually just about finish verbal on AAMC's but I didn't stand a chance with this sucker. And the BS (grrrrr!!!!!)... the questions were fricking passages in themselves. Its gonna be a LONG 30 days.

I feel really depressed.
 
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Bruindoc2be said:
omg!

was it me or was everything way longer than AAMC's?
I can usually just about finish verbal on AAMC's but I didn't stand a chance with this sucker. And the BS (grrrrr!!!!!)... the questions were fricking passages in themselves. Its gonna be a LONG 30 days.

I feel really depressed.
Click to expand...

How many verbal passages did you not finish? I thought the verbal was very long.
 
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I thought the Bio was unpredictably hard. I felt the most confident about Bio in preparing for the test since it was my most consistent, but after finishing the real thing felt it was much harder than the practice tests. I feel like I wasn't sure on half of them and could have missed half. I was getting 10-12 on the AAMC onces. I felt the real test was much harder for Bio.

I would be comforted knowing there is a curve, but how much could they really curve it? On the AAMC website it's never less than 37/52 to get a 10.

Does anyone know how the experimentals relate to this - like if there are 52 questions on bio, how many experimentals are there?

I was also surprised to see questions on bone names...

And H-NMR is usually straight forward, but none of the answers looked right?

I wish the aamc would start with the two week grading they have been talking about, it would make knowing if we should prepare applying or not a lot easier.
 
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i think the passage you cant remember is the experiment passage with the enzyme. i think they were tryin to figure out how it works and did something with proteins and radioactive labled H and P. or something.

those questions made NO SENSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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OH craniotomy, i totally forgot about the bladder passage, that WAS hard. overall SUCH an intense biology.

so if it's true that aamc never gives 10 for less than 37/52, it sort of sucks to get the harder test, right?
 
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MissAmanda said:
I thought the Bio was unpredictably hard. I felt the most confident about Bio in preparing for the test since it was my most consistent, but after finishing the real thing felt it was much harder than the practice tests. I feel like I wasn't sure on half of them and could have missed half. I was getting 10-12 on the AAMC onces. I felt the real test was much harder for Bio.

I would be comforted knowing there is a curve, but how much could they really curve it? On the AAMC website it's never less than 37/52 to get a 10.

Does anyone know how the experimentals relate to this - like if there are 52 questions on bio, how many experimentals are there?

I was also surprised to see questions on bone names...

And H-NMR is usually straight forward, but none of the answers looked right?

I wish the aamc would start with the two week grading they have been talking about, it would make knowing if we should prepare applying or not a lot easier.
Click to expand...
MissAmanda how do you know that its 37/52 to get a 10?? Does it say somewhere how exactly they scale us?

H-NMR threw me off too... I was getting my highest marks on practice tests for bio and now I have no clue whats going to happen...
 
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iCY said:
i think the passage you cant remember is the experiment passage with the enzyme. i think they were tryin to figure out how it works and did something with proteins and radioactive labled H and P. or something.

those questions made NO SENSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I remember that passage! I hope my protein biochemistry knowledge helped me then. The acetyl group on the protein was labeled with an H and the ADP-ribose of NAD was label with a P.
 
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knapweed/emphesema passage? Im pretty sure had the same test as most ppl saying they had this passage but im having a hard time remebering this one...i had heart, lac operon, sugar, bladder, antibody (SUPER EASY), and then 2 more i cant remember..perhaps one of these was the lac operon...but yeah...now that i think about it...that bladder passage hard as **** too...

and yeah...its never less than 37/15 for a 10...thats how dont understand how the test could be anymore scaled...though the bio was difficult...i still feel like ppl who have taken upper level genetcs or worked in a lab would have found it much easier...for instance...ive taken ap bio, genetics and cell bio and thats it...but in my genetics class that i took freshman yr we covered those mutations of the structural genes...such as the oc and the I-...so when i saw this passage i was like sweeeeet...but the passage was soooooo dense and the questions so convulted that it threw me off...but i feel like someone with more expereince or more comfortable with the genetics would find it easier....

and the orgo was rediculous....the one discreet about the number of stereoisomers for a starch chain...WHAT! and ppl kept talkin bout how the amount of orgo has decreased....this test had aaa lllooot of orgo and aaaa lot of genetics and pretty much no physio...no digestion, very little endocrine, a little excretory but not anything worth studying for...

i prepared extensively for this exam and as i suspected how i fared would depend on if i got an exam that test my stregnths...i didnt have very many weaknesses...bcuz as suggested i filled in holes after spending hours going over practice materials, ek's, yada yada...but there are just things that u feel more comfortable with regardless...

in other news, last night i got sloppy drunk and got thrown out of a bar....my friends found me passed out in front of a 7-11 and dragged me to my room..i woke up about an hour ago...ya...thats what mcat celebration will do to you...i suspect ill be doing the same thing again when i find out how badly this test kicked my ***
 
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Ridiculous test yesterday....

I was averaging between 35 and 39 on the AAMC's and walked in to the test pretty comfortable. Physical is my best section and although the physical was tougher than the AAMC's it wasn't THAT bad. After finishing physical I was sure that the bio would be our easy section. boyyy was I WRONG. Bio was CRAAZYYYYYYYYY the level of detail you had to know was insane. Specific bone types, muscle types of very specific things, even the Ochem was crazy! Usually the discretes are cake and I average 11-14 on Bio, but here the discretes were NOT straightforward at all. Also, the passages were much more involved, the question stems were passages in and of themselves! All I can do now is hope for the best. Hopefully, I did really well in physical and well in verbal, to save my bio. This test better have a SICK curve. Advice for future MCATers; dont let the AAMC's lull you into a false sense of security. And know ur ochemm and genetics!
 
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Franksta1118 said:
Ridiculous test yesterday....

I was averaging between 35 and 39 on the AAMC's and walked in to the test pretty comfortable. Physical is my best section and although the physical was tougher than the AAMC's it wasn't THAT bad. After finishing physical I was sure that the bio would be our easy section. boyyy was I WRONG. Bio was CRAAZYYYYYYYYY the level of detail you had to know was insane. Specific bone types, muscle types of very specific things, even the Ochem was crazy! Usually the discretes are cake and I average 11-14 on Bio, but here the discretes were NOT straightforward at all. Also, the passages were much more involved, the question stems were passages in and of themselves! All I can do now is hope for the best. Hopefully, I did really well in physical and well in verbal, to save my bio. This test better have a SICK curve. Advice for future MCATers; dont let the AAMC's lull you into a false sense of security. And know ur ochemm and genetics!
Click to expand...

Anybody has any opinion on the difficulty of your exam in comparison to Kaplan FL's?
 
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Franksta1118 said:
Ridiculous test yesterday....

I was averaging between 35 and 39 on the AAMC's and walked in to the test pretty comfortable. Physical is my best section and although the physical was tougher than the AAMC's it wasn't THAT bad. After finishing physical I was sure that the bio would be our easy section. boyyy was I WRONG. Bio was CRAAZYYYYYYYYY the level of detail you had to know was insane. Specific bone types, muscle types of very specific things, even the Ochem was crazy! Usually the discretes are cake and I average 11-14 on Bio, but here the discretes were NOT straightforward at all. Also, the passages were much more involved, the question stems were passages in and of themselves! All I can do now is hope for the best. Hopefully, I did really well in physical and well in verbal, to save my bio. This test better have a SICK curve. Advice for future MCATers; dont let the AAMC's lull you into a false sense of security. And know ur ochemm and genetics!
Click to expand...

ya man that bio was rough. I was pumped going into it but boy i felt like I hit a wall. I was totally feeling my miniscus and trying to figure out which bones it was between during the test:laugh:. thank god for the curve..thats all i gotta say.

also, im pretty sure that its AVERAGE for the curve to put a 10 at 37/15. For harder tests the curve should adjust so that the top however percent gets tens and above....hopefully, I need a 10!!
 
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Hey guys - I found the 37/52 number on the e-mcat website for the aamc, under "How is the MCAT scored?" that number is for the practice tests that we are able to take (AAMC 3-10). I'd be happy if they curved it more, they just haven't for those specific tests.
 
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I think (hope) that the bio will curved more than any of the practice tests because it was so much harder than anything I have ever seen, including AAMC and Kaplan tests. It seems to me that it doesn't matter how low they have to make the curve they will still strive to make the percentages equal to other tests, otherwise it would be worthless to compare between applicants who have taken different tests.
 
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if sumbody who took the test yesterday knows how to do that one discreet in ps that was a momentum problem w radon and alpha decay could pm how they did it id really appreciate it...i still cant figure out how to do it and its reallllly bothering me thanks! i remember al lthe numbers 2
 
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hey guys, check this out...found this on an mcat info website. might make you feel better, although the curve on the practice aamcs would also have taken this into account...meh.

"Every MCAT includes a small number of questions which will not be scored. These questions are either used to calibrate the exam or were found to be either too ambiguous or too difficult to be counted. So if you see a question that you think is off the wall, unanswerable or inappropriate, it could well be one of these questions so never panic!"


 
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What kind of genetics are you guys talking about? I've never taken a genetics class, and the AAMC doesn't call for much genetics knowledge? I didn't take the MCAT yet, so I'm hoping I can do a quick brushup!
 
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i totally forgot about that crappy radioactive labeled H and P passage. WTF. And all I remember about proton NMR is a discrete where there was no graph, just words. is this the proton NMR that you guys are referring to???
 
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tncekm said:
What kind of genetics are you guys talking about? I've never taken a genetics class, and the AAMC doesn't call for much genetics knowledge? I didn't take the MCAT yet, so I'm hoping I can do a quick brushup!
Click to expand...

Know the basics of genetics..you need to know it pretty well because I have not seen an MCAT without even just a little genetics on it. Its only the stuff you would have learned in a gen. bio class. Know:

Hardy Weinberg
Pedigrees
How sex linked works (this was on this test)
Basic Mendelian inheritance
ABO blood type inheritance (this was on this test)
RNA/DNA and their properties (this was on this test)
Transcription/Translation (this was on this test)
Replication (very basic)

A lot of the stuff will be in the passages or will be very discrete but you need to know the basics. I think I listed it all..could be missing a little though. hope that helps a bit!
 
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GeorgianCMV said:
i totally forgot about that crappy radioactive labeled H and P passage. WTF. And all I remember about proton NMR is a discrete where there was no graph, just words. is this the proton NMR that you guys are referring to???
Click to expand...

Ya that NMR was interesting. They did that style of question a few times; there was a lot of questions where they worded everything out and didnt give any visuals. not used to that :(
 
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jimboapu said:
Know the basics of genetics..you need to know it pretty well because I have not seen an MCAT without even just a little genetics on it. Its only the stuff you would have learned in a gen. bio class. Know:

Hardy Weinberg
Pedigrees
How sex linked works (this was on this test)
Basic Mendelian inheritance
ABO blood type inheritance (this was on this test)
RNA/DNA and their properties (this was on this test)
Transcription/Translation (this was on this test)
Replication (very basic)

A lot of the stuff will be in the passages or will be very discrete but you need to know the basics. I think I listed it all..could be missing a little though. hope that helps a bit!
Click to expand...
Thanks. That stuff I'm familiar with. But, the way its get stressed on the boards, I keep thinking there must be a whole lot more on the MCAT that I am not familiar with!
 
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jimboapu said:
Hardy Weinberg
Pedigrees
How sex linked works (this was on this test)
Basic Mendelian inheritance
ABO blood type inheritance (this was on this test)
RNA/DNA and their properties (this was on this test)
Transcription/Translation (this was on this test)
Replication (very basic)
Click to expand...

To add to Jimbo's list:

Complete vs. incomplete dominance
Co-dominance
Central dogma (DNA --transcribed--> RNA --translated--> protein) and what
happens when you inhibit one step or the other
Effect of mutation on somatic vs germ cells

(edited to fix poor grammar.)
 
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Funny thing is that 95% of the genetics yall listed will not be on the MCAT, but I guess its better to be safe than sorry.
 
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ferreed said:
To add to Jimbo's list:

Complete vs. incomplete dominance
Co-dominance
Central dogma (DNA --transcribed--> RNA --translated--> protein) and what
happens when you inhibit one step or the other
Effect of mutation on somatic vs germ cells

(edited to fix poor grammar.)
Click to expand...
Cool, all stuff I'm familiar with, thanks.

So, in reality, everything that is covered in the AAMC's list is there, right? I just get confused b/c people make it sound like the genetics are more complicated than we're told to prepare for.
 
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i jus looked up the aforementioned hnmr question for that molecule on sdbs and i think we got that right...i cant believe that i am second guessing myself on an nmr question as an orgo TA...wtttfff
 
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Actually, take advantage of the passage that the MCAT gives you when it comes to genetics and you would be fine.
 
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jamesrick80 said:
Funny thing is that 95% of the genetics yall listed will not be on the MCAT, but I guess its better to be safe than sorry.
Click to expand...

I've actually seen all of what has been listed on real live MCAT exams, though some was on the old on-paper test a few years ago. (Due to circumstance rather than scores I've taken the test more times than I would like.)
 
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On my practice AAMC exams, I never got a single Orgo Question wrong after 6 exams. After yesterday, I felt like I miss 2 right off the bat. I wanted to cry on my 5 hour car drive back :( cause that was **** was hella hard. Did anyone else hear your own heart beat with those earmuffs on or was it just me?
 
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l7anxtl7lvln2n said:
I wanted to cry on my 5 hour car drive back :(. That was **** was hella hard. Did anyone else hear your own heart beat with those earmuffs on?
Click to expand...

Hahaaa! OMG....I totally heard my heart beat constantly! It was pissing me off...it can be very distracting! I feel you on the crying thing. After PS, I almost cried on my break....whew, what a test
 
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I didn't think physics was too bad becuz I had just took my final on the second semester of physics 3 days before the exam luckily.
 
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the ps wasnt thaaaaaat bad...it was def worse than any aamc...but not worse than kaplans....i really only felt uneasy about 5 or 6 questions...that experiment passage with the agcl i found 2 be the most difficult....i hate those kind of passages...under a time crunch they are very difficult...

verbal was a relief tho....i dont kno why ppl think this section was so hard...it was comparable to aamcs and i actually finished with 10 min left..something ive neeever done, not even with exam krackers or kaplan...my experience for this was euphonius (HA!)

and bio...bio was a b*tch...but i was soooo unbelievably relievd to have been done that it didnt really phase me...

but yo, that second writing prompt was kinda vicious...i dint care tho but i was def bs'ng my arse off....whole time i was just going over enzymes and stuff in my head...which turned out to be completely useless...
 
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Yeah, i totally bs'ed the second writing part too. I did it in 10 minutes and took a short break before heading to bio. I was pissed by the bio sect having no hormone questions.
 
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does anyone remember the last two passages for physical, I know one of them was the negative refraction one, what was the other?

which was the agcl passage?
 
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