The Official 3/23/13 MCAT Thread

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Figured I'd start this one out. I'll be registering for the MCAT first thing tomorrow. Who else is taking it on this date? How do you all plan on studying over the school year?
 
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dellian101 said:
Thanks Carboxylase. have you been finding other practice tests helpful? I'm wondering if I should do Kaplan rather than repeat AAMC. everytime i repeat the AAMC, i get 15 15 on sciences (obviously because I remember my answers...my sciences are always 9-10...). boy do i finish i would get a 15 on the actual science.
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I would never repeat tests. When it gets closer I may review the tests and just skim through them and see if there is anything I still don't know HOW to do.

I have used 2 Kaplan tests from a book I bought sophmore year and never used. I didn't use the test for scoring purposes. Rather, I used it just to learn because it was another test I had.
 
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NuttyEngDude said:
I'm mainly using regular practices (meaning just doing regular problems) and kaplan but i found this as well:
http://www.masterorganicchemistry.com/2010/10/29/trapped-in-sn1sn2e1e2-hell-some-resources/
http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/Questions/problems.htm



Thanks. I am updating my schedule for the next 2 weeks as well.
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Hi Nutty, how's it going? You were so nice and supportive to me last year when I was applying, so I just wanted to say good luck on your MCAT and applications. I hope you will do great and get accepted! :luck:
 
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startoverat40 said:
Hi Nutty, how's it going? You were so nice and supportive to me last year when I was applying, so I just wanted to say good luck on your MCAT and applications. I hope you will do great and get accepted! :luck:
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Thank you. I'm a little stressed, I haven't scored very well so far on practice tests and am probably scoring worse than last time I tried to study. So.... 😕 I'm going to plug away and keep working though. Hoping it all starts to fall in line soon.
 
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What do you guys put on flash cards? I just rewrite the topic, some notes and formulas. Also, how do you go over your weaknesses? Do you just keep doing more problems? Or keep reviewing the missed concept?
 
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Gooood morning SDN, 6:54 AM my time right now, about to take AAMC 9. Barely did anything MCAT all week but ah well.

Flashcards - i just did hormones and amino acids. kind of wish i did for physics too but meh...i ran out of cards and too lazy to go buy them lol

I think I do more problems over review now.
 
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Albein said:
What do you guys put on flash cards? I just rewrite the topic, some notes and formulas. Also, how do you go over your weaknesses? Do you just keep doing more problems? Or keep reviewing the missed concept?
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So I think I've posted that I've a running list of weak areas. Whenever I know I'm going to have downtime, I'll pack the relevant TBR book and re-read the chapter, doing example problems along the way. If by the end I'm still uncertain of the concept I'll do a few passages.

If I've a lot of time I'll also re-do a previous test where I've scored <11, in other words about 80% or less. By now most of the exams I've taken are kind of blended together, so I do have to re-think them. Before anyone gets rowdy I'll say that re-doing tests isn't for diagnostic value at all- I think they're still valuable practice. And if you can't get a 14-15 on a redone section something's going on.

I don't do flashcards. Never have, never tried. Maybe in med school 🙂

As for this morning. I'm debating taking a practice test. I thought I'd do one tomorrow but my fiancee's working this morning and not tomorrow. maybe I should knock it out now...
 
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Thanks Captain Sisko!

While I took PS I almost cried...they really took concepts out of original contexts I felt like I guessed on half of the test.
VR I thought was decent...no tricks but 5 wrong are definitely expected since it's never been a strong section for me.
BS made me feel a bit better but there were a few questions I felt iffy on. Mostly orgo. Haven't post-gamed yet but my feeling is that I got both isomerization questions wrong lol.

My two-cents: sleep really helps. Barely did review or practice last week, but SLEPT A TON because I was sick. Went to bed at 10 last night (though probably didn't fall asleep till 1 or 2...). Sleep matters. Sleep well!
 
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Congrats. That's awesome!

If this thread is to beat the January threads, I'll need to pick up my game too. I have two tests early next week then I will take AAMC-9 and I will be focusing exclusively on MCAT until the test date.
 
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Captain Sisko said:
So I think I've posted that I've a running list of weak areas. Whenever I know I'm going to have downtime, I'll pack the relevant TBR book and re-read the chapter, doing example problems along the way. If by the end I'm still uncertain of the concept I'll do a few passages.

If I've a lot of time I'll also re-do a previous test where I've scored <11, in other words about 80% or less. By now most of the exams I've taken are kind of blended together, so I do have to re-think them. Before anyone gets rowdy I'll say that re-doing tests isn't for diagnostic value at all- I think they're still valuable practice. And if you can't get a 14-15 on a redone section something's going on.

I don't do flashcards. Never have, never tried. Maybe in med school 🙂

As for this morning. I'm debating taking a practice test. I thought I'd do one tomorrow but my fiancee's working this morning and not tomorrow. maybe I should knock it out now...
Click to expand...

All good advice 🙂

timeturner said:
AAMC 9 - 38

PS 13
VR - 11
BS - 14

so happy right now!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Congratulations timeturner!!! 👍
 
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Spent the day doing a kaplan diagnostic test, just for grins. 10/8/13 = 31.

Turns out problems in electrochem have resurfaced. Bio remains ok. And Verbal. Holy F***ing ****. Kaplan verbal blows. Seriously. I look at some of the answer explanations and they're ridiculous. I'll stick to EK and AAMC thank you very much.

AAMC11 tomorrow morning.
 
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slz1900 said:
I did all of them except verbal. It was good exposure to aamc style questions before taking practice tests.
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did you find the organic chem challening? i made an 85% percent and do not know what to think of that.....the national average was 75 i believe..hmm
 
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Captain Sisko said:
Spent the day doing a kaplan diagnostic test, just for grins. 10/8/13 = 31.

Turns out problems in electrochem have resurfaced. Bio remains ok. And Verbal. Holy F***ing ****. Kaplan verbal blows. Seriously. I look at some of the answer explanations and they're ridiculous. I'll stick to EK and AAMC thank you very much.

AAMC11 tomorrow morning.
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kaplan is terrible!!!! i have been scorring 35 on kaplan, but mid 20's on my AAMC. quiet a discrepancy...😕😕😕😕
 
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Do NOT trust Kaplan Verbal. I was scoring 8's on it for unknown reasons, I became depressed and frustrated and bam, the I got a 13 on AAMC 4 I think. I had been getting 10s consistently on EK's and lately have been getting 11's on AAMC exams. Kaplan sucks because they try to curtail their exams based on their strategies...i.e. their questions are largely "search in the passage for this tiny detail" as opposed to AAMC-logic based questions.

I wouldn't feel bad about the Kaplan score honestly.

I took the Kaplan shortened diagnostic back in October. I remember it was the weekend of before Halloween or something and they had an event at my school. I wasn't hungover but went to a party the night before and went to bed at 3-4 AM, also my boyfriend slept over that night too. I got 8 PS/10 VR/12 BS, yielding a 30. Basically my point is that I had very little review then (virtually none for PS), and there was definitely wrong scoring one way or another because I would have gotten something in the 20s on AAMC exams. I also thought their questions were knowledge-based instead of critical-thinking based. I don't think given my mental state then I would have scored realistically how I scored on the diagnostic, which makes me feel that it's more or less invalid.

Not saying that it inflates or deflates or whatever, since I don't know. Sharing the story to say that Kaplan is not reliable, that's all haha
 
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dellian101 said:
did you find the organic chem challening? i made an 85% percent and do not know what to think of that.....the national average was 75 i believe..hmm
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I think you're good, especially since organic is not tested heavily. Your bio score is probably more relevant to your success.
 
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timeturner said:
As last resort, focus on sciences more than verbal!
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i'm really trying, timeturner. my discretes questions are 100% correct, always. the passage based questions, i get wrong frequently unfortunately. the ones that say "why did they do X or Y" or based on this passage, you would infer G.
 
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dellian101 said:
i'm really trying, timeturner. my discretes questions are 100% correct, always. the passage based questions, i get wrong frequently unfortunately. the ones that say "why did they do X or Y" or based on this passage, you would infer G.
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Ok gotcha, it's definitely more reason to stay away from Kaplan and do more AAMC questions. My experience from AAMC 9, during of which PS section I actually almost cried because I felt like I knew nothing, is that they take what you learn and put it in a completely different context. You definitely have the knowledge and I think now just practice application and you will most likely see improvement! I haven't done content review except for reviewing physics formulas (actually never took second semester physics so learning everything on my own, so I'm really rusty) since I think early February, but my score has been increasing due to more and more practice with AAMC questions.

Don't feel discouraged or give up! Also, I don't know how your days go but I started sleeping 8+ hours a day and my score saw a huge improvement (from 34 avg to 38 today). Sleep sleep sleep!
 
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Hey guys,

I was wondering . .. for everyone doing( or did) the TPRH Science Workbook problems . .. did you guys think that they were pretty easy compared to the real MCAT? What's the purpose of doing them? Is it just to build up your content knowledge?
 
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timeturner said:
Also, I don't know how your days go but I started sleeping 8+ hours a day and my score saw a huge improvement (from 34 avg to 38 today). Sleep sleep sleep!
Click to expand...

Eh, not to be that guy, but the skeptic in me challenges the idea that sleeping is the cause of the jump, and the solution to increasing MCAT scores.

Now, as far as taking a break and looking at passages/questions with a fresh mind (versus the constant drilling of MCAT material every day), that interpretation of the jump I can support. It oftentimes helps remove the tunnel vision and see the forest instead of the trees.
 
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timeturner said:
Ok gotcha, it's definitely more reason to stay away from Kaplan and do more AAMC questions. My experience from AAMC 9, during of which PS section I actually almost cried because I felt like I knew nothing, is that they take what you learn and put it in a completely different context. You definitely have the knowledge and I think now just practice application and you will most likely see improvement! I haven't done content review except for reviewing physics formulas (actually never took second semester physics so learning everything on my own, so I'm really rusty) since I think early February, but my score has been increasing due to more and more practice with AAMC questions.

Don't feel discouraged or give up! Also, I don't know how your days go but I started sleeping 8+ hours a day and my score saw a huge improvement (from 34 avg to 38 today). Sleep sleep sleep!
Click to expand...

Thanks time turner! i'm definitely starting to sleep 8 hours now and trying to wake up early (night owl here..). i took a whole week off from mcat because of midterms this week and next week.

i'll try to do a practice test tomorrow. fingers crossed!!
 
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Earlier today I went to my testing center, just to make sure I knew where to go. Getting up early to do AAMC 9...so scared!!!
 
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This ends my journey with Berkeley Review... TBR7 10/10/10. TBR has interesting scoring scales that shift according to the difficulty (i think). AAMC5 tomorrow? or GS1 tomorrow? hmm..

also, don't forget to turn your clocks forward!
 
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pablosohn said:
This ends my journey with Berkeley Review... TBR7 10/10/10. TBR has interesting scoring scales that shift according to the difficulty (i think). AAMC5 tomorrow? or GS1 tomorrow? hmm..

also, don't forget to turn your clocks forward!
Click to expand...

if you do gs don't get discouraged by your score. most of mine were low 30s but my aamcs are much higher.
 
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dellian101 said:
good luck!! do they let you go up to see the testing room? i've never seen one of these prometrics before..yikes.
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No, they do not...when I got to the address, there was a sign on the front door that said if you were there to take a test, to call a number to be let in...weird. I will also add that while I was walking there, I got SO INCREDIBLY NERVOUS...like I was there to take the actual test. I just really hope I don't get that nervous when it's time to take the real thing. :scared::scared::scared:
 
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carboxylase said:
Eh, not to be that guy, but the skeptic in me challenges the idea that sleeping is the cause of the jump, and the solution to increasing MCAT scores.

Now, as far as taking a break and looking at passages/questions with a fresh mind (versus the constant drilling of MCAT material every day), that interpretation of the jump I can support. It oftentimes helps remove the tunnel vision and see the forest instead of the trees.
Click to expand...


Haha no I totally get the skepticism. I was getting 4-5 ish hours a day on average because I wasn't quite ready to give up social life and work...last weekend I had a breakdown and got really depressed. Luckily I had my parents and good friends to pull me up so I spent the week sleeping and felt instantly better. I can only provide the subjective experience that after I caught up with sleep, I felt much much much better taking the exam than I did when I took them half-asleep, or even when I thought I was awake but really wasn't thinking clearly. The biggest difference I saw on this weekend's practice test was that I didn't make any stupid mistakes. Anything I missed I actually just didn't know the answer. 😴
 
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pablosohn said:
This ends my journey with Berkeley Review... TBR7 10/10/10. TBR has interesting scoring scales that shift according to the difficulty (i think). AAMC5 tomorrow? or GS1 tomorrow? hmm..

also, don't forget to turn your clocks forward!
Click to expand...

Ugh. Daylight savings. One fewer hours to do things. 😡😡😡
 
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timeturner said:
I can only provide the subjective experience that after I caught up with sleep, I felt much much much better taking the exam than I did when I took them half-asleep, or even when I thought I was awake but really wasn't thinking clearly. The biggest difference I saw on this weekend's practice test was that I didn't make any stupid mistakes. Anything I missed I actually just didn't know the answer. 😴
Click to expand...

😱

I'm sold, going to try for a solid 8+ hours tonight!!

Edit: not being sarcastic 😛 Sometimes I'll fall asleep sitting straight up in my chair while reading a passage.
 
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Took AAMC FL #5 today and scored a 26 (8/8/10). For some reason, I wasn't feeling it. I found myself staring into space and concentrating on the screaming baby in the back of the library instead.

Either way, I told myself that if I didn't feel comfortable with this one, I was delaying. So i'm now scheduled for the May 11th exam.

Good luck to all the 3/23 writers! I'll be stalking all of you the day of the test to see how things went!
 
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tibetanowl said:
👍 I kept telling myself that I just had to make it through yesterday without changing my test date :laugh:
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dellian101 said:
that's so nerve wracking!!


AAMC 5 today killed me. Lowest again since I started....that was so tough!
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Hang in there guys. I was only able to sleep like 7 hours, though i tried for more haha. I have trouble sleeping in, so if I dont sleep early i dont get the sleep....

I'm putting in a solid day of review/weaknesses then doing a practice test tomorrow.
 
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AAMC 11

14/13/14 = 41

So frickin psyched right now. All time AAMC highs for total and verbal. I honestly didn't think I'd improve on AAMC 10 but I'll take it! Lessons learned before I get trashed this afternoon:

1) Get sleep. I got to bed at 9:30 last night and got 9 hours of sleep.
2) verbal not indicative at the time of how you did. I thought I got <10 at the time
3) If you get caught up on something, move the f*** on and get back to it.
 
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Congratulations!!

Captain Sisko said:
AAMC 11

14/13/14 = 41

So frickin psyched right now. All time AAMC highs for total and verbal. I honestly didn't think I'd improve on AAMC 10 but I'll take it! Lessons learned before I get trashed this afternoon:

1) Get sleep. I got to bed at 9:30 last night and got 9 hours of sleep.
2) verbal not indicative at the time of how you did. I thought I got <10 at the time
3) If you get caught up on something, move the f*** on and get back to it.
Click to expand...
 
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Captain Sisko said:
AAMC 11

14/13/14 = 41

So frickin psyched right now. All time AAMC highs for total and verbal. I honestly didn't think I'd improve on AAMC 10 but I'll take it! Lessons learned before I get trashed this afternoon:

1) Get sleep. I got to bed at 9:30 last night and got 9 hours of sleep.
2) verbal not indicative at the time of how you did. I thought I got <10 at the time
3) If you get caught up on something, move the f*** on and get back to it.
Click to expand...


that's awesome!!!!!!!!👍👍👍
 
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Captain Sisko said:
AAMC 11

14/13/14 = 41

So frickin psyched right now. All time AAMC highs for total and verbal. I honestly didn't think I'd improve on AAMC 10 but I'll take it! Lessons learned before I get trashed this afternoon:

1) Get sleep. I got to bed at 9:30 last night and got 9 hours of sleep.
2) verbal not indicative at the time of how you did. I thought I got <10 at the time
3) If you get caught up on something, move the f*** on and get back to it.
Click to expand...

Right on the money... nice work
 
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