The MCAT Twitter Thread (AKA MCAT-oholics)

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ridethecliche

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Alright, so many of us are in the same boat, right?

We all have to take this exam, and lets be honest, it sucks. It's a roadblock and it's annoying. But we HAVE to do it, so we might as well enjoy it.

At the same time, I think having a 'support group' would be helpful. So why not post about MCAT trials/tribulations here?

Did you have an awesome study session? Grasp concept that you were having trouble with? Beast that practice test?

If so, post!

Did you have a crappy study session? Are you failing miserably at figuring out something seemingly simple? Just get frustrated at that practice exam you just took?

If so, post!

MCAT-oholics unite!

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Yeah I totally agree, I missed one or two questions that i reviewed a while ago, and had a bunch of mistakes because I misread the question, and gave the opposite.

Pretty happy with my score but the verbal is really fickle so I'm not putting any stock into it. I got 12/14/12, a few questions from each science tripped me up. 1 more on PS and 1 more on BS would have been 13 each, but at this point it really is going to be 1 question that makes a difference in your score. Just need to go in with the mindset of doing perfect. I really appreciate doing the Kaplan FLs because aamc felt much easier by comparison, so nothing on the science was too hard, just keep getting tripped up by question wording. On the ones I got wrong I could usually narrow it down to 2 questions on the sciences, but I would pick the wrong one. Good experience with aamc style questions and passages though, hopefully the sciences will go up when I can eliminate reading errors and think through the answers more.

Yeah definitely hit up the TPR book, I really think it's great. It really covers everything on the AAMC topic list plus a little extra. I will have to take a look at EK and BR after my actual test to compare the companies.
 
Yeah I totally agree, I missed one or two questions that i reviewed a while ago, and had a bunch of mistakes because I misread the question, and gave the opposite.

Pretty happy with my score but the verbal is really fickle so I'm not putting any stock into it. I got 12/14/12, a few questions from each science tripped me up. 1 more on PS and 1 more on BS would have been 13 each, but at this point it really is going to be 1 question that makes a difference in your score. Just need to go in with the mindset of doing perfect. I really appreciate doing the Kaplan FLs because aamc felt much easier by comparison, so nothing on the science was too hard, just keep getting tripped up by question wording. On the ones I got wrong I could usually narrow it down to 2 questions on the sciences, but I would pick the wrong one. Good experience with aamc style questions and passages though, hopefully the sciences will go up when I can eliminate reading errors and think through the answers more.

Yeah definitely hit up the TPR book, I really think it's great. It really covers everything on the AAMC topic list plus a little extra. I will have to take a look at EK and BR after my actual test to compare the companies.

Wow dude, Great score!!
Yeah I did a fast review of AAMC4 (just to see, going to actually thoroughly review it later), and I made 2 idiot careless mistakes + 1 fairly dumb mistake in PS- That would of been a 14 if I got all 3, or a 13 if I got even 1 more correct, and a very dumb mistake in BS- = a 12 in BS giving me a 37 :/

It sucks because mnaking careless mistakes is always my fall, I always make careless mistakes on tests in school too :/

MUST DO BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Btw a 14 in verbal is amazing.
 
Thanks and I know me too, just need to be in the mindset of being really anal about details on the test. Super focused on checking everything, balanced equation, right units, proper wording, etc. Hopefully I can eliminate most of them next week and get lucky again in verbal. I like the kaplan high yield problems, you won't ever get anything as complicated as them but it's good practice because you might get asked about one or two parts of them.
 
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Thanks and I know me too, just need to be in the mindset of being really anal about details on the test. Super focused on checking everything, balanced equation, right units, proper wording, etc. Hopefully I can eliminate most of them next week and get lucky again in verbal. I like the kaplan high yield problems, you won't ever get anything as complicated as them but it's good practice because you might get asked about one or two parts of them.

Our goal for the next CBT is NO STUPID MISTAKES! :p

Are you taking AAMC 5 next?

I'll probably be doing TBR-2 on Wednesday and AAMC 5 on Friday
 
Yeah 5 on Saturday. I still have Kaplan 10 and 11 left plus all the section tests for Kaplan. They are a good deal harder than the aamc and even all the other kaplans, so taking those in May before the test should help to desensitize me to any difficult passages that come up. How are TBRs compared to aamc?
 
Yeah 5 on Saturday. I still have Kaplan 10 and 11 left plus all the section tests for Kaplan. They are a good deal harder than the aamc and even all the other kaplans, so taking those in May before the test should help to desensitize me to any difficult passages that come up. How are TBRs compared to aamc?

TBR science seems tougher, I would do the TBR, they are the most recommend FL on SDN after AAMC. I may end up buying 2-3 more
 
Ok after my bio test today and math test on wednesday going to get back on track. Gonna work on aamc topic list and finally actually start finishing kaplan subject tests.

For real though. Wednesday.
 
I need to get my **** together and start doing more verbal. Got about 4 weeks to go and I need to finish the TPR stuff for VR that I have.

It's probably m ore important that I do that than finish phase 3 of TBR. Honestly...

My PS has improved. I need to keep it there.

BS has been stagnant. Need to read through my notes again concentrating on reproduction, endocrine, and development.

VR is whack right now. I need to hit TPR. I'll start doing it in the mornings before work and/or at lunch at work.

This needs to happen.

MOFOING GO TIME. WOOT.

Um, but now... time for bed....
 
good god, I think this is the first time in my entire life I've been so nervous that I actually feel sick...

When is your test?

I'm terrified of putting in all this work and then having to feel awful for an entire month waiting for our scores to come out... and not getting the score I was hoping for. But only thing we can do is prepare more I guess and have to put faith in our hard work.
 
in the process of aamc 5 riught now haha, on break, just finished PS section. Wasn't too bad!

2nd break before Bio now haha
 
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AARG!!!!!!


13/8/12 33 ON AAMC5- I hate verbal!!! I fluctuate soo much! I was also 1 ? away from 1 more point in each section!!!

AAMC3 12/9/12 33
TBR-1 11/12/11 34
AAMC4 12/12/11 35
AAMC5 13/8/12 33
 
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When is your test?

I'm terrified of putting in all this work and then having to feel awful for an entire month waiting for our scores to come out... and not getting the score I was hoping for. But only thing we can do is prepare more I guess and have to put faith in our hard work.

Saturday. And yeah your right, I just hope we can be done after attempt 1
 
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Good luck! I feel like the people who consistently post on sdn are the ones who generally do better than their aamc average.
 
Here is my careless mistake checklist that I just made!!


1) For ALL Graph Questions- Read the Data First!!! The Answer is There!
2) Read the Questions thoroughly!
3) Read the questions thoroughly!!
4) Double check Decimal Places, if 2 options exist that differ by factors of 10, PROVE YOUR ANSWER
5)If a Question seems Pretty Random/Extremely Hard- USE THE PASSAGE-THE ANSWER IS PROBABLY THERE!!!!


Hopefully , I won't make these mistakes again!
 
Here is my careless mistake checklist that I just made!!


1) For ALL Graph Questions- Read the Data First!!! The Answer is There!
2) Read the Questions thoroughly!
3) Read the questions thoroughly!!
4) Double check Decimal Places, if 2 options exist that differ by factors of 10, PROVE YOUR ANSWER
5)If a Question seems Pretty Random/Extremely Hard- USE THE PASSAGE-THE ANSWER IS PROBABLY THERE!!!!


Hopefully , I won't make these mistakes again!

Nice, I like that. That's what I found out by doing kaplan FLs, if a question seems too hard, you're most likely thinking about it in the wrong way. The answer should be there from at most, a few simple concepts combined.

Going through the AAMC topic list pretty quickly by making condensed notes on each topic, done with the first 2 pages out of the 17 total. Hoping to get through at least another 2 by tonight, which should be all of gen chem.
 
Yeah, sometimes I'll get a random question and I'll be like Okay this one is def. tough, lets figure it out. I get it wrong, and review my FL, and find out it was just easy information from the data (I tend to skip data parts :p)
 
Took aamc7 today.

PS seemed harder for me than AAMC5. I went braindead on a really easy question and lost valuable time. Then I hit the earthquake passage and didn't have enough time to think everything through. Ran out of time and guessed on 2 questions. One of which I needed to just bubble in the right answer... Wouldn't have brought my score up anyway.

VR was VR.

BS seemed easier. I was still iffy about some things. Turns out that I changed a right answer to a wrong one. That would have brought me up a point.

So AAMC 7 was 11/11/11

Shoulda had a 34. That just means that it's within reach. Good stuff.

I'll take 8 on saturday or sunday I guess.

I haven't started TBR phase three, but I think I'm going to concentrate on FL's while brushing up on stuff I haven't reviewed in a while.
I'll do some of phase three, esp weak points, but I'm not going to concentrate on more practice. I need to manage burnout now too.

FL's don't burn me out like doing practice passages and review.
 
Took aamc7 today.

PS seemed harder for me than AAMC5. I went braindead on a really easy question and lost valuable time. Then I hit the earthquake passage and didn't have enough time to think everything through. Ran out of time and guessed on 2 questions. One of which I needed to just bubble in the right answer... Wouldn't have brought my score up anyway.

VR was VR.

BS seemed easier. I was still iffy about some things. Turns out that I changed a right answer to a wrong one. That would have brought me up a point.

So AAMC 7 was 11/11/11

Shoulda had a 34. That just means that it's within reach. Good stuff.

I'll take 8 on saturday or sunday I guess.

I haven't started TBR phase three, but I think I'm going to concentrate on FL's while brushing up on stuff I haven't reviewed in a while.
I'll do some of phase three, esp weak points, but I'm not going to concentrate on more practice. I need to manage burnout now too.

FL's don't burn me out like doing practice passages and review.

Yeah I haven't started phase 3 either. Done 4 FL's, test is on May 31st. I'll start doing SN2 Phase 3 in May, until then I'm reading TPR Bio (almost done) and doing some extra FL's.

I may buy some more FL's as well. Reviewing an FL doesn't take me too long
(1.5 hours ish) so I think I can afford some time to do some more stuff. I'm already going to be doing TPR science Workbook for all of Bio = 85 passages. I wonder when the new AAMC material is coming out
 
Ok. I will officially stop reading old official MCAT threads. I will only occasionally neurotically look at 30+ habits. Just went through the MCAT threads from May of last year and it wasn't too inspiring. Most people that posted scored below their average or just near it. Only a few got above or at their average. Obviously not everyone posted about it, but still, depressing and anxiety-inducing.

5 weeks from tomorrow. Need to really kick it into high gear so I have no regrets about if only I had studied or practiced more.

Not going to do like 12 hour days but 6 hours seems reasonable without getting burnt(ed?) out.

Has anyone taken Kaplan 10 and 11? Everyone says they are really tough and not that realistic but it seems like they would be good practice just to get the cr.ap beaten out of you so it's not a shock if you get a really hard test. I don't know.
 
God I really wish I was better at verbal. My biggest problem is that I don't seem to know what the passage is talking about on a more intimate level. Sometimes I get the jist of 1 paragraph, other times I have no idea what a paragraph just said. Just did 9 TPR passages and got a 1/6, 2 2/6, 1 2/8 3 4/6 2 6/6 :/

Seriously, verbal is going to be the demise of me. I know once I remove my carelessness in making dumb mistakes my science scores will be 13ish, but verbal, damn verbal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Yeah I haven't started phase 3 either. Done 4 FL's, test is on May 31st. I'll start doing SN2 Phase 3 in May, until then I'm reading TPR Bio (almost done) and doing some extra FL's.

I may buy some more FL's as well. Reviewing an FL doesn't take me too long
(1.5 hours ish) so I think I can afford some time to do some more stuff. I'm already going to be doing TPR science Workbook for all of Bio = 85 passages. I wonder when the new AAMC material is coming out

My test is may 19th. I have a feeling I won't get to phase 3 much. Maybe just targeted practice.

I took all the AAMC's last year in addition to all the TBR exams. I think my test was just nerves and bad time management because I was doing well on the exams and hit the low side of my score on the real deal. It was still okay @ 30, but honestly, I want to shoot for atleast a 33.

I think I can hit an 11 and 12 on the science sections. I just need to hit a 10 on verbal. Ugh.

God I really wish I was better at verbal. My biggest problem is that I don't seem to know what the passage is talking about on a more intimate level. Sometimes I get the jist of 1 paragraph, other times I have no idea what a paragraph just said. Just did 9 TPR passages and got a 1/6, 2 2/6, 1 2/8 3 4/6 2 6/6 :/

Seriously, verbal is going to be the demise of me. I know once I remove my carelessness in making dumb mistakes my science scores will be 13ish, but verbal, damn verbal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Practice practice practice!

Honestly, I thought TPR was harder than AAMC. Something about them throws me.

I think I've also been doing better if I skim the questions first and then read the passage. That way I know whether I'm reading for main idea or for details and I catch the words that pop out at me.
 
Ok. I will officially stop reading old official MCAT threads. I will only occasionally neurotically look at 30+ habits. Just went through the MCAT threads from May of last year and it wasn't too inspiring. Most people that posted scored below their average or just near it. Only a few got above or at their average. Obviously not everyone posted about it, but still, depressing and anxiety-inducing.

Has anyone taken Kaplan 10 and 11? Everyone says they are really tough and not that realistic but it seems like they would be good practice just to get the cr.ap beaten out of you so it's not a shock if you get a really hard test. I don't know.

Yeah, it seems like May exams were difficult--but maybe that would help our curve? who the hecks know--all we can do is pray and work to do our best.

If you want to get the " get the cr.ap beaten out of you " DO THE KAPLAN SECTION TESTS!! Just look up old SDN threads and it will confirm that they are real deal.

Anyway took AAMC 5: 10/11/11 (32) Grateful about improvement from an 8 in Bio on last 2 exams.
I think I recited "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me like...30 times. It helped me refocus.
 
God I really wish I was better at verbal. My biggest problem is that I don't seem to know what the passage is talking about on a more intimate level. Sometimes I get the jist of 1 paragraph, other times I have no idea what a paragraph just said. Just did 9 TPR passages and got a 1/6, 2 2/6, 1 2/8 3 4/6 2 6/6 :/

Seriously, verbal is going to be the demise of me. I know once I remove my carelessness in making dumb mistakes my science scores will be 13ish, but verbal, damn verbal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nabilesmail--do you paraphrase each paragraph? (I personally use the notes option to re-write the thesis of each paragraph directly in the exam interface) Do you imagine a speaker talking directly to you?

Both of those help me get the main gist.
 
nabilesmail--do you paraphrase each paragraph? (I personally use the notes option to re-write the thesis of each paragraph directly in the exam interface) Do you imagine a speaker talking directly to you?

Both of those help me get the main gist.

I try :/. Maybe I'll do that more!
 
Hmm, I have about 33 days left to test day and 27 section tests from kaplan to take still. I'm gonna try and take 1 a day except on FL days, starting tonight.
 
AAMC 8 in the AM.

Then, reviewing notes in the PM and having fun. Sunday, I'll review AAMC 7 and AAMC 8.

3 weeks to go. I'm starting to get nervous. Tomorrow's test will be important...
 
You'll do great - read every question and answer choice twice. No stupid mistakes allowed. AAMC 5 tomorrow for me, I'll be happy as long as I don't misread any questions or mess up simple facts.
 
Wow, 6R is mad long- Each science is section is 100 minutes long. I can't believe that the MCAT used to be unnecessarily long like this--but the question were much more formulaic than the other ones..About to grad now.
 
About to grad now?

And I just took AAMC5 and wow that felt hard. Nothing too convoluted but some of the questions and topics they were asking about just seemed out of left field. I mean there were some pretty easy questions and passages but there was one PS and two BS passages that were strange. We'll see tomorrow, I refuse to look at the score until the day I review.
 
About to grad now?

And I just took AAMC5 and wow that felt hard. Nothing too convoluted but some of the questions and topics they were asking about just seemed out of left field. I mean there were some pretty easy questions and passages but there was one PS and two BS passages that were strange. We'll see tomorrow, I refuse to look at the score until the day I review.

Lol share the score. I'm putting my thoughts up in a sec.
 
AAMC 8...

PS: Sections seem to be getting way harder. This was definitely more calculation based. Finished barely in the nick of timeeeee....

VR: Some of this was pretty hard... Still haven't got my timing down. Ran out of time on the last question. Need to speed up justttt a little more.

BS: Okay. I goofed off during this section a lot. I wandered around my room and checked my cell phone. I had a LOT of time, but when I got to the last hard passage, I finished on the dot. Stupid, but I can't make this mistake on the real deal. Oh well. The section felt pretty easy other than one hard passage that I think I changed an answer from right to wrong.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Final score:

13PS/10VR/13BS

Woah. 13 PS again? Sweet. Keep coming back to visit!
VR.. Just need to hit 10 day of...
BS. Sweet! First time for 13. Ahh!!! I'm psyched.

It's been a year since I've seen these tests and I remember NOTHING.

I did 6 pts better on AAMC 8 than I did when I took it last year. I'm psyched.

So...

AAMC 4: 30 (10/10/10)
---Finished content review---
AAMC 5: 35 (13/12/10)
AAMC 7: 33 (11/11/11)
AAMC 8: 36 (13/10/13)

Hopefully this will come together come test day.
 
Nice dude, those 13's look solid, and I'd rather do better on the later ones than the early ones so that 36 looks great.

Haha I can't look at the score I'm too scared, SO many questions I was unsure of, or kept changing answers between two choices. We'll see tomorrow when I review, going to go get drunk and not worry about it. I broke up with my girlfriend a while ago and I haven't really been dating anyone seriously so I've had a lot of time to study, but I'm starting to get that itch, so time to go out and meet some people.
 
Did a AAMCR-I'm more focused on science b/c VR has been (& God-willing will stay) my strong point

PS & BS : 10--Hey, I'll take it--Hopefully I can improve. Ridethecliche, what do attribute the rise in BS? Anyway, I'm looking forward to a short AAMC as a real gauge.

Does anyone else think that TPRH easier than Kaplan practice?
 
I strongly dislike celebrity doctors who cash in on the public naivete when it comes to health products. That is all. I just needed to get it out there and release the thought so I can move on. Yes, I'm sure there are some true diamonds in the pack--but so far, not impressed...
 
Drunkenly let my friends look at my score and then I got pissed when they were teasing me about it and checked for myself, 13/12/12. Bunch of wtf questions, like the arthoprod passage? Just some crazy stuff, I won't get into specifics, but random ass questions. Some fundamental mistakes hopefully will avoid in the future, but also just a few things that couldn't really be derived from the passage, or not with my train of thought. Tomorrow fix mistakes and then SUPER STUDY MODE 32 DAYS LEFT!!
 
Got a 10 on AAMC9 Verbal. I guess I'll take it. I need to study all day today. I've been having a hard time focusing and I just need to crack down and get **** done.
 
Drunkenly let my friends look at my score and then I got pissed when they were teasing me about it and checked for myself, 13/12/12. Bunch of wtf questions, like the arthoprod passage? Just some crazy stuff, I won't get into specifics, but random ass questions. Some fundamental mistakes hopefully will avoid in the future, but also just a few things that couldn't really be derived from the passage, or not with my train of thought. Tomorrow fix mistakes and then SUPER STUDY MODE 32 DAYS LEFT!!

Haha. You're ridiculous.
 
Drunkenly let my friends look at my score and then I got pissed when they were teasing me about it and checked for myself, 13/12/12. Bunch of wtf questions, like the arthoprod passage? Just some crazy stuff, I won't get into specifics, but random ass questions. Some fundamental mistakes hopefully will avoid in the future, but also just a few things that couldn't really be derived from the passage, or not with my train of thought. Tomorrow fix mistakes and then SUPER STUDY MODE 32 DAYS LEFT!!

Haha I got the same score as you except for verbal! I made stupid mistakes in the PS, but yeah Bio was weird. I thought it was a pretty hard section, the mitosis/meiosis protozoa was a tough one for me, it was hard to keep track of what was going on
 
Lol I know I was being kinda silly, but almost every question I felt really bad about I got wrong. Each time it was me over thinking the question though, I need to be able to pause, get back to the basics - what is this question really asking about. I definitely let the test freak me out too much this time, when I saw something I didn't recognize I sort of mentally gave up. I need to really do the Kaplan, Stop and Think thing. What is this question asking about, what topic or topics, and what equations, formulas, or knowledge is directly involved in answering, etc.

I've done like 6 months of content review so that's not really the issue. I got all the difficult math problems right but I messed up the two easiest ones, where I thought they asked for 100 mL instead of 10 mL and when they said 2 moles and I thought it was 1. Also I let bio freak me out when I saw that crazy passage --- but I got that whole passage right and messed up some easier questions on the next page.

Next week I'll go in knowing I shouldn't be freaked out by any questions, everything they are asking for is relatively simple and only requires a concept or two per question, if not derived mostly from the passage.

I will never mess up a question regarding gas evolution or gas exchange again. Gas evolution will almost always involve an oxidation/reduction reaction, with the metal in solution being oxidized and an element being reduced and thus forming its gas and evolving out of solution.

And yeah, that bio was weird, I got two questions wrong because I disagreed with how they used two different definitions. Nabile I didn't really follow the passage that much either, I did get lucky on one question where I figured out a right answer but for the wrong reason, but several of those questions were pseudo-discretes, the actual crazy mechanism of what was going on wasn't needed for the questions.
 
Nice dude, those 13's look solid, and I'd rather do better on the later ones than the early ones so that 36 looks great.

Haha I can't look at the score I'm too scared, SO many questions I was unsure of, or kept changing answers between two choices. We'll see tomorrow when I review, going to go get drunk and not worry about it. I broke up with my girlfriend a while ago and I haven't really been dating anyone seriously so I've had a lot of time to study, but I'm starting to get that itch, so time to go out and meet some people.

Yeah, my ex and I broke up in feb, I pushed my test back a month after that. It was a good decision. An awesome one even haha.

Did a AAMCR-I'm more focused on science b/c VR has been (& God-willing will stay) my strong point

PS & BS : 10--Hey, I'll take it--Hopefully I can improve. Ridethecliche, what do attribute the rise in BS? Anyway, I'm looking forward to a short AAMC as a real gauge.

Does anyone else think that TPRH easier than Kaplan practice?

Honestly, I feel weird answering this because I feel like I'm not worthy since I'm retaking these exams. It's been a year... but still.

I think that reading the questions before the passage is starting to be a good idea for ALL three sections since a lot of questions fake you out by sounding like a pseudo discrete when they're really a passage based question.

I realized that a lot of my mistakes when I scored an 11 in bio came from not going back. If you can't find an answer in bio off the top of your head, consult the passage.

I read the question, then highlight parts of the passage. I've found that it saves me a lot of time. I finished the bio of aamc 8 with like 15-20 mins to spare...
 
Um. I got a 10 on AAMC 8's VR after getting an ENTIRE PASSAGE COMPLETELY WRONG.

Wow. Reviewing this one. That's nuts! Haha.
 
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