The 5/27/08 MCAT Club

[DrMattOglesby]

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I wanted to start a thread for those taking the MCAT on May 27, 2008.
I wanted to see if we could get discussions going on how to schedule a game plan to tackle this test in three months time.

I have Kaplan review books and I am going to have to use them cause I dont have anything else.

I will eventually have a regimen on my own personal plan of attack and stick it out here so I can hear your criticisms =]

come on guys, lets shoot for 30+ scores!!!!

-matt

 

[tweaked17]

I'm surprised everyone got caught up on the lactone question. I guess if you didn't take orgo recently you would have a tough time, especially if you didn't review that.

I cooled down a little bit. Sent an email to my advisor to see if I should call or write the AAMC about this.

I'm pissed because I owned the BS. I think I followed the main ideas pretty well, so if anyone wants to PM me about some of those passages, go ahead (if we're allowed 😀). I finished with 20 minutes left. Twiddling my thumbs.

I think PS was kinda hard, and yes I got that photosynthesis question. Tugboat murdered me because I wasn't ready for that right off the bat and I think I panicked. Not enough chemistry. I worked so hard on learning my old gen chem haha.

Verbal was tough, but obviously it's no benefit to me if I couldn't read the last passage. Time is SO crucial on verbal. I don't think many people finish with a lot of time left on that one.

Writing had good prompts. I think most people wrote about microsoft for the first and gay marriage for the second. I thought about that, so I chose not to write about microsoft for the first, because I felt bad for those who read the essays. Funny that I was feeling generous after what I had just experienced.

I need a drink.

 

[Raryn]

i guessed no change. hopefully i'm the guessing god. 😎

I couldn't find the angle of a sine though. That was frustrating. I must've missed something in the passage.

I think that you can use the approximation that at very low #s the sin of the angle is equal to the angle itself for that one. At least I hope, because I put that... I found it odd that question required the answer to the previous question to solve though, I didn't think they did that.

 

[cougarY]

I had the barge passage on PS too but I honestly can't remember anything difficult about it. I thought it was pretty straightforward but maybe I'm just not remembering the questions. Without being too specific about it, can anyone refresh my memory?

 

[Fp02c]

guys... i just feel.... destroyed. I have been so positive about this whole thing up until 5:30. I took the tests under timed conditions.. always felt like I had a good handle on each section and averaged ~ 31-32.. But today... wow.... PS was soooo conceptual. the jumping guy??? what the hell..... I always finished ps with 10-15 mins to spare.. this time... i had 5 questiosn unanserd by the time 30 seconds came up and i left 2 blank.... Im thinking 8 for this section... verbal wasnt too bad... tricky but could have been worse. The thing about verbal is that you dont know how you did unless you left passages blank. Then you know you are screwed. I finished wiht 2 mins to spare and I hope I got atleast a 9.
Bio wasnt too bad. I know I made some mistakes... like the lactone one.... the whole dendrite passage was soo confusing... I hope I got atleast a 9.

So after doing awesome on my practice tests.. or awesome enough for me.... I feel like best case scenario... i got a 26 on this thing... RIght now I am hating life...

 

[Bdubz12]

My nerves got the best of me during the PS section. That barge question was not a good question for me to start on. I spent way too much time on the first couple of passages, skipped the 3rd passage and went back to it with about 4 minutes left. I plan on retaking as soon as I can sign up. Anyone know if the Mcat still voids 1 passage per section?

 

[139871]

I am an April 5th retaker and I just finished up today's exam.

Physics: Waaaay harder than the last administration. Too many calculations, tough concepts, and obscure examples. I got a 10 last time but expecting lower 🙁

Verbal: Not sure what to think about this section? I guess it was okay but I never really know. Last passage was easy about boys vs girls but I had such little time to do it. Hoping for an 8 or 9.

Biological: Ochem passages were tough and so were two of the experimental biology passes. Discretes were managable I suppose. Hoping for a 9 or 10.

Writing: Prompts were fine, politician one was not THAT easy though. Definitely had easier prompts on the last test.

Overall: Moderate test, had its highs and lows. I cannot imagine people doing well on some of these biological passages unless they have been exposed to the Kaplan material. Kaplan bio section tests are perfect indicators of the real deal.

 

[UrielSeptum]

guys... i just feel.... destroyed. I have been so positive about this whole thing up until 5:30. I took the tests under timed conditions.. always felt like I had a good handle on each section and averaged ~ 31-32.. But today... wow.... PS was soooo conceptual. the jumping guy??? what the hell..... I always finished ps with 10-15 mins to spare.. this time... i had 5 questiosn unanserd by the time 30 seconds came up and i left 2 blank.... Im thinking 8 for this section... verbal wasnt too bad... tricky but could have been worse. The thing about verbal is that you dont know how you did unless you left passages blank. Then you know you are screwed. I finished wiht 2 mins to spare and I hope I got atleast a 9.
Bio wasnt too bad. I know I made some mistakes... like the lactone one.... the whole dendrite passage was soo confusing... I hope I got atleast a 9.

So after doing awesome on my practice tests.. or awesome enough for me.... I feel like best case scenario... i got a 26 on this thing... RIght now I am hating life...

You sound exactly like me

 

[thierryhenry]

barge passage sucked

 

[UrielSeptum]

I think that you can use the approximation that at very low #s the sin of the angle is equal to the angle itself for that one. At least I hope, because I put that... I found it odd that question required the answer to the previous question to solve though, I didn't think they did that.

I hate when they ask what two antagonistic things do and then you can't remember which is which, so you have to either have them both right or both wrong 😛

 

[Fp02c]

You sound exactly like me

lol hopefully.. a month from now when you post on here that you got a 35.. i'll sound like you too!.... I am sure you did great.

 

[hoodz]

What a terrible way to start the summer... I don't even know what to do for the next 30 days. Should I continue studying just in case I did bad? I really feel bad b/c I only had like 3 mins. left for last verbal passage, guess a lot on the PS, and felt like I got tricked on the BS. Good thing I don't give a crap about the WS.

 

[UrielSeptum]

nah... I bombed the PS... couldn't even finish it had to guess on the last few Qs... which sucks! Hopefully I was accurate on the questions I actually did do. Bad time management... still hopin for a 30 tho! Guess we'll find out in a month. I wanted to void the test after the PS, but I gathered myself and think I did ok on the VR and BS... I really wanna just be done with the MCAT... but here it still hangs over my head for at least another month and maybe more! lol

 

[Revilla]

yea i got those too. it was a word in the politics one that i didn't know. you could probablyl guess which one it is (theres only one that has the potential to be unheard of). i ended up making my own definition that was pretty close to the real thin so it ended up okay i think.

Now I'm really curious what that word was. LOL

 

[RySerr21]

I'm surprised everyone got caught up on the lactone question. I guess if you didn't take orgo recently you would have a tough time, especially if you didn't review that.

i had no idea what a lactone was but none of the other answer choices made sense to me so that made it kinda easy i guess.

 

[Archdelux]

yeah - what was the word? I didn't really remember any obscure word in that prompt..the one about politics and beliefs, right?

 

[RySerr21]

Now I'm really curious what that word was. LOL

did you take the test today? i havent read through the whole thread. is it illegal to talk about essay prompts with people that just took the test? like if i PMd you or something?

 

[Raryn]

Are we allowed to say it? Please delete this if its not allowed. "Constituents" was probably the word if I remember correctly/am guessing right.

I can't think of anything else that would confuse someone.

 

[tourniquet1963]

i know i did horrible..

PS..i had that barge passage.. it was stupid that whole section.. it barely tested any scientific facts.. it was calculations usings units rather than actual formulas.. anyway... it was horrible

Verbal was even worse.. there was a ****** taking some other test next to me who was typing so insanely loud i wanted to take that keyboard and smack her across the face with it... after verbal i wanted to cry.. literally.. i didnt understand anything.. i couldnt concentrate at all..

writing was ok.. it was politics and business... i made some BS up

bio i thought was OK.. probably my best section.. although it did have some confusing questions.. very genetics heavy

I came out of the testing center haven given up on being a doctor.. i am now planning what to do with the rest of my life and i decided i want to go live by the beach and do nothing.

I am very upset.

 

[RySerr21]

yeah - what was the word? I didn't really remember any obscure word in that prompt..the one about politics and beliefs, right?

yea that one. its probablly not obscure to 99% of people but i know almost nothing about politics. keep that in mind and you should be able to figure out which word would be uknown to someone who konws nothing about politics. i dont know the rules about talking about words in writing prompts....

the word was "politician"




just kidding.

 

[RySerr21]

Are we allowed to say it? Please delete this if its not allowed. "Constituents" was probably the word if I remember correctly/am guessing right.

I can't think of anything else that would confuse someone.

haha yea that was it. embarassing i know. oh well, you live and you learn. i ended up defining it as a supporter, which i think works fine for the point of prompt although i dont think its technically the correct definition. whatever, i am over it.

 

[jamesrick80]

I would have thought all of the mishaps that went on with you guys exam would have occured on the June 13th exam since it is Friday the 13th.

 

[RySerr21]

I would have thought all of the mishaps that went on with you guys exam would have occured on the June 13th exam since it is Friday the 13th.

oohhh yea. i didnt mention it but we had technical difficulties at my center. the finger print and camera were not working properly so we started a bit late.

 

[RySerr21]

anyone heard from mrmattoglesby??? i'm curious to hear how he felt, he seemed to have put a lot of time and effort into this test!!!!

 

[tourniquet1963]

haha yea that was it. embarassing i know. oh well, you live and you learn. i ended up defining it as a supporter, which i think works fine for the point of prompt although i dont think its technically the correct definition. whatever, i am over it.

hahahah i thought the same thing.. i thought it was the politican's colleagues or something.. lol OH WELL

 

[Fp02c]

i know i did horrible..

PS..i had that barge passage.. it was stupid that whole section.. it barely tested any scientific facts.. it was calculations usings units rather than actual formulas.. anyway... it was horrible

Verbal was even worse.. there was a ****** taking some other test next to me who was typing so insanely loud i wanted to take that keyboard and smack her across the face with it... after verbal i wanted to cry.. literally.. i didnt understand anything.. i couldnt concentrate at all..

writing was ok.. it was politics and business... i made some BS up

bio i thought was OK.. probably my best section.. although it did have some confusing questions.. very genetics heavy

I came out of the testing center haven given up on being a doctor.. i am now planning what to do with the rest of my life and i decided i want to go live by the beach and do nothing.

I am very upset.

I know how you feel... I am sure you did great though.. what were your practice score ranges

 

[RySerr21]

hahahah i thought the same thing.. i thought it was the politican's colligues or something.. lol OH WELL

i dont think it matters as long as you define the word, and then stick with that definition throughout the prompt. they arent testing you for your vocabulary. i think it will be fine.....well, i hope 🙂

 

[thierryhenry]

hard test everyone relax and enjoy and drink a brew doggy

 

[UrielSeptum]

anyone heard from mrmattoglesby??? i'm curious to hear how he felt, he seemed to have put a lot of time and effort into this test!!!!

+1 to that

seemed like a nice guy, hope it went well for him.

 

[tourniquet1963]

im getting insanely drunk tomorrow at the she wants revenge concert here in the city

today was also the sex in the city premier party.. i didnt go since im so depressed

but i did get a manicure and pedicure directly after the test

 

[qtMD]

Are we allowed to say it? Please delete this if its not allowed. "Constituents" was probably the word if I remember correctly/am guessing right.

I can't think of anything else that would confuse someone.

yesss wth is constituents!! i stilll don't know what it means

and i agree with some people who posted earlier, lactone?? are you effing kidding me??

PS -- had the hardest passages first, overall think i screwed myself over on this section. i was getting 11-12's on it and im praying for a 9 now
Verbal -- pretty hard, not the best ive donoe
BS -- pretty easy... minus LACTONE.😡

 

[UrielSeptum]

Glad to hear most of the people thought the PS was hard... I was hopin I wasn't the only one!

 

[RySerr21]

yesss wth is constituents!! i stilll don't know what it means

and i agree with some people who posted earlier, lactone?? are you effing kidding me??

PS -- had the hardest passages first, overall think i screwed myself over on this section. i was getting 11-12's on it and im praying for a 9 now
Verbal -- pretty hard, not the best ive donoe
BS -- pretty easy... minus LACTONE.😡

i had the barge passage first too, but right away i knew i wouldnt do well so i left it to the end.

my sister wnats to be a lawyer and shes all in to politics and stuff....when i went home and told her i didnt konw what a constituent was she just shook her head.....haha. she tried to explain it and i was like "you know what it, it doesnt even matter..." haha

 

[prettyispink]

I'm so glad that test is over. I had a pretty pleasant experience...besides having to drive over 100 miles to get there. My best friend came with me and we stayed at a friend of a friend's house last night, so it was kind of like a road trip.

PS...so much math. I usually like doing the calculations, rather than conceptual questions. On practice tests I finished ahead of time and checked my marked questions. Today, I had like 3 minutes left and had to just mark answers to a whole passage. I really pray that my guessing worked out for the best, and that the curve works to my advantage.

VR...I felt like this was my best subject. After feeling like I failed the PS section, I stayed relatively calm. I enjoyed reading the VR passages, and they weren't too long. So much about art!! Overall, will probably be my highest score (thanks to being a psych major).

WS...the prompts were not horrible. Definately could have been worse. I, too, had no clue what a constituent was. I'm not a politics person. B.S.ed my way through it though. Was kind of relaxing to do this section.

BS...Are you freakin' kidding me? This section seemed like most questions were from left field. I feel like nothing I studied was on the exam. A lot of the questions following passages required outside knowledge and were unrelatable to the passage. WTF...lactone?!?!?! I have never even heard of one (from o.chem or from my study materials). I googled it, and now thankfully know what it is... I'm praying for a miracle in this section.

So I walked out at 5:03. My friend was on the phone with my mom. I DID not feel like talking about it. I feel like all of this studying and time and effort was for nothing. I feel like I need to start all over again. Where to begin though?? I'm assuming that I'll have to retake in August, who knows though.

I'm doing a summer program at OU-COM starting June 12th, so now I can look forward to that and get excited. I also get an interview with them in late July, so I need to get my AACOMAS in. I have everything done, except the personal statement. I can't wait for June 26th!! It's going to be hard not thinking about the scores though!

 

[pingouin]

GUYS- I just deleted 7 posts which discussed specific test questions and answer choices. This is AFTER gradu8 posted a reminder not to do this. Per the rules, 1-week post holds are going to happen tonight, no matter how long or short of a time you've been on SDN. If you find that you're unable to post, this is the reason why.

Please please PLEASE be careful of what you post on here. To reiterate:

• Yes, you can post what topics were on the test
• Yes, you can post your impressions of your test center and of the difficulty of the test itself
  
• No, you cannot post specific questions, answer choices, or passage content (including graphs and figures) that was on your test
• No, you may not solicit others to tell you what answers they put down- whether asking them to post in-thread or PM you

Most of what got deleted was the discussion of lactones- specifically, if you described the structure or marked what answer choice you picked, I've removed it since it was getting easier and easier to determine what the question was, even without having taken the test.

If anyone has any questions, you're welcome to PM me- even if your account is on hold, you should still be able to do this. Also, if someone feels I've unfairly left someone else's post up, please feel free to report that post (

) and I'll check it out.

Congrats to everyone on finishing- now try to have some fun and relax a little.

 

[bazaar]

I really thought this test was a nightmare. I have been getting 31s and 32s, but I'll be overjoyed to break 30 on this one.

My testing center was great on the whole, but the monitors were old and flickery. I can't even remember the last time I used a CRT monitor.

Anyways, I'm hoping there is a really helpful curve. I need this score 🙁

 

[Revilla]

did you take the test today?

No, I didn't take the test today. I'm scheduled for Friday the 13th.

Don't worry about the word since I'm sure you all did great anyway, but for anyone interested, a politician's constituents means all of us. A constituent is the person who votes for the politician. We're all the president's constituents. You're one of your governor's constituents.

 

[Jonassen]

I thought Bio was much harder than just the lactone question. That had to be one of the most straightforward questions.

A lot of answers for Bio were really vague, and several questions were "LEAST likely" etc (which is really a pain in the butt).

 

[Jonassen]

No, I didn't take the test today. I'm scheduled for Friday the 13th.

Don't worry about the word since I'm sure you all did great anyway, but for anyone interested, constituent means all of us. A constituent is the person who votes for the politician. We're all the president's constituents. You're one of your governor's constituents.

You can be a constituent of a politician even if you didn't vote for him. Pretty much just general public in his political district/jurisdiction.

 

[Revilla]

You can be a constituent of a politician even if you didn't vote for him. Pretty much just general public in his political district/jurisdiction.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. You're right. Anyone who is a member of the politician's electorate -- even if he or she didn't vote for said politician -- is that politician's constituent or part of that politician's constituency.

 

[Vido]

I knew that the organic test that i dropped would come back and hunt me. that test was about the lactones and lactames and i thought i won't need to know anything about them.
Anyway, i just can't remember what is meant by the jumping man, which question was it.

 

[RySerr21]

I knew that the organic test that i dropped would come back and hunt me. that test was about the lactones and lactames and i thought i won't need to know anything about them.
Anyway, i just can't remember what is meant by the jumping man, which question was it.

you were able to drop one of your ochem tests!?!? LUCKY!


the jumpin man was in the PS section...it was like the 2nd passage for me. talked about ability to jump and bending your knees or something. you might not have had it.

 

[WinterLights]

Predicting around a 7 on the verbal. . . not good.

 

[RySerr21]

Predicting around a 7 on the verbal. . . not good.

i feel like verbal is hard to predict.....keep the faith.

 

[doctordodo]

i f***ing hate jumping men, boats, and anything relating to them.

 

[WinterLights]

i feel like verbal is hard to predict.....keep the faith.

I essentially guessed on over 70% of the questions in the VR section. I can be certain that it was the worst I have done on VR, practice test or otherwise. My lowest practice score was a 7. I will probably throw myself into the abyss if I get lower than a 7. I would have been wise to skip the difficult passages and actually finish the easier ones. Instead I was left with 10 minutes to complete around 15 questions and two passages. Terrible, absolutely terrible.

 

[tncekm]

Definitely keep track of time as you go! If I start breaking 8 mins on a passage, I get anxios select to the best of my ability the ones I don't know, and then just move on and come back to the marked ones later if I can.

 

[WinterLights]

Definitely keep track of time as you go! If I start breaking 8 mins on a passage, I get anxios select to the best of my ability the ones I don't know, and then just move on and come back to the marked ones later if I can.

Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[tourniquet1963]

Hindsight is 20/20.

word

and i forgot to mention that my screen kept flickering like crazy.. and it kept reflecting the light so i could barely see whats actually on the screen..
and i totally also guessed on many verbal questions.. so i totally feel you on this Winterlights.

 

[RySerr21]

I essentially guessed on over 70% of the questions in the VR section. I can be certain that it was the worst I have done on VR, practice test or otherwise. My lowest practice score was a 7. I will probably throw myself into the abyss if I get lower than a 7. I would have been wise to skip the difficult passages and actually finish the easier ones. Instead I was left with 10 minutes to complete around 15 questions and two passages. Terrible, absolutely terrible.

i'm sorry man...thats rough. but you never know, it coulda been your day and you guessed correctly.

whenever i hear anything related to an abyss or falling into an abyss i automatically think of 300......thiiiiis iiiiiiis spaaaaartaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

[the lost crow]

What was hard about the lactone? Was it something along the lines of advanced chemistry work or was it something you would've seen in O-Chem. I mean, I've learned about lactones but I'm just curious.