PS: The whale question is really bothering me. I must not be getting something. The physics hit my weak points. I've taken the MCAT before and it's always harder than the practice tests. Calculations were easy, it's the theory questions that are tricky. 11-12 maybe.
Verbal: Not too bad, honestly. The topics were quite easy to understand. 11-12?
BS: This section always throws me, probably because I have a weak understanding of molecular bio. It definitely emphasized reading the passage, extrapolating data, etc. Organic passages were easy. Forgot to memorize reaction types. Big mistake. Had very little genetics or physiology. I have no idea how I did on this section. Some discretes I really had no idea how to answer. Probably a 10.
Overall, I'm not sure what to make of today's MCAT. I definitely feel a lot better than I did the first time I took it. I took the MCAT a few years ago in 2008 and didn't really study well - just took the TPR diagnostic and a half hearted practice test, did most of the TPR HW, and mostly learned for memorization. At the time I had decided that I was jumping on the med school train too readily (easy to do studying MCB at Berkeley) and got excited about getting into management consulting. So I finished TPR and took the test just because I paid for it already. Anyways, I took the test, felt like I totally bombed PS (had to guess on like 2 passages), didn't get to all the VR passages, and was short on time on the BS section.
I ended up getting 30R (PS9, VR9, BS12) - not the best, but certainly shocking to me considering how I studied and how the test went. So from my experience so far, the MCAT can be incredibly unpredictable!
This round:
Studied well, really grounding myself in the underlying concepts, took tons of practice exams. AAMC practice tests were in the 34-38 range, TPR pretty steady at 34-36. I don't know if any of you have experienced this too, but sometimes I would feel really horrible about a section, mostly due to timing or having to guess on entire passages, but I would somehow still end up with an 11 or 12.
What I'm now just really realizing is that my biggest issue when it comes to the MCAT is that I get obsessive over little details, or if I don't really fully understand a question. I end up spending way too much on these relatively few questions, and end up having to rush on questions I could easily get, but may make mistakes on because of time/guessing. You'll probably hate me for saying this, but what annoys me the most is that I probably have the content knowledge/problem solving skills to score a 40, but my damn obsessiveness/test taking strategies gets in the way.
Actual MCAT:
Ugh. I never thought this would happen to me, but I ended catching a cold yesterday, and woke up on MCAT day feeling like crap. Hydrated like mad, ate well, and popped some NSAIDs to manage symptoms, but they didn't really kick in until VR.
PS: Pretty frazzled, wasn't on top of my pacing, and wasn't in the right state of mind to be dealing with computations. I ended up getting caught up in the numbers for conceptually simple questions rather than moving on, or could have just used logic (BTW, most questions can be answered this way - just didn't follow my own advice). The gas/stoichiometry passage leeched my time, and I was rushed on the last EM passage. On the bright side, there were quite a few questions that had really quick shortcuts (or time traps if you didn't realize it) if you saw the underlying math relationships or units.
VS: I was surprised so many people found verbal to be so killer. A few weeks before the MCAT I was freaking out about verbal because I hadn't been keeping up with the TPR HW, but I took a practice test and ended up doing quite well. After college I started getting into the habit of reading a lot of periodicals/books on a lot of different topics I found interesting, and I guess this ended up really paying off. I was a little rushed at the end, but didn't have to skip/guess blindly - just had to stop reading question stems and skim faster.
WS: Meh. If you're a decent writer and can BS, you probably did fine. I'm really detail oriented when it comes to writing, and am the type of person who makes sure useless emails are well composed, so this got in the way. I was too focused on developing bulletproof arguments vs. just word vomiting a well written plausible essay, so was down to the second.
BS: This is usually my best section and I found it very straightforward, and perhaps too straightforward. It made me regret spending all of those hours studying bio, and especially ochem, when most of the answers could be found in the passage. Having taken lots of advanced bio courses did help though since you get used to interpreting experimental design and the thought process. I'm weak in ochem, so I was really, really, really grateful it ended up being really light.
Anyways, overall pretty neutral, but the PS section has me a bit worried, especially since many found it so easy. I'd feel better if I knew I was able to perform at my peak, but the fact that I caught a cold the day before just blows. Estimating around a 34R.
Have faith everyone!!!! You can feel like you got a 5, but end up with a 12!
PS: The stupid shamu question annoyed the hell out of me too.
). I was actually human before and during the exam whereas my first time I felt more stressed than I've felt probably in my entire life. Retaking it might seem like a terrifying/ horrible idea now, but if you need to, you can suck it up, study some more, and you're going to be way less stressed taking it the second time around. So either you did fine or you'll retake it and do fine. Either way you're going to be fine. 
