The Official 3/23/13 MCAT Thread

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Redpancreas

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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?
 
Good luck everyone! Believe in your hard work and tackle that MCAT down! I'm taking this late April but loved reading this thread, very inspirational for my studies. Good luck!
 
PS was "ok". 1 ******ed chem passage and 2 ******ed physics passage. I feel I guessed on more than what I should've.

VR as everyone says is longer by a paragraph each. The question bodies were bigger but the difficulty was easier than AAMC 8.

BS was light on Orgo. Light on physiology but heavier on experiments and molecular bio. 1-2 experiments were like WTF.

I feel like I bombed it so I'm guessing 8/8/8 = 24.
 
PS was "ok". 1 ******ed chem passage and 2 ******ed physics passage. I feel I guessed on more than what I should've.

VR as everyone says is longer by a paragraph each. The question bodies were bigger but the difficulty was easier than AAMC 8.

BS was light on Orgo. Light on physiology but heavier on experiments and molecular bio. 1-2 experiments were like WTF.

I feel like I bombed it so I'm guessing 8/8/8 = 24.

Rooting for ya---hopefully you'll do well!
 
Wow, I feel like I bombed it too. Felt that was much worse than all my practice runs and reading passages were really long. Maybe that will skew the curve a bit so raw scores will convert higher.

Here's hoping.

P.S. how long until we can register for another sitting?
 
Wow, I feel like I bombed it too. Felt that was much worse than all my practice runs and reading passages were really long. Maybe that will skew the curve a bit so raw scores will convert higher.

Here's hoping.

P.S. how long until we can register for another sitting?

Monday or Tuesday you can register. Did you feel that it was harder overall than AAMC 11?
 
I didn't do 11 but found it harder than any other aamc practice test and harder than the princeton review practice tests I did.

I'm pretty bummed about it. Got thrown off by the long passages and didn't manage time well in VR. Think I committed the cardinal sin of leaving a question blank 🙁
 
Yeah those passages were long. The verbal science passage dealing with stuff from "outside this world" was sooooo ridiculous.

Which AAMCs did you do?
 
ugh definitely felt like it was harder than AAMC 11, harder than all the AAMC ones I did in fact. I felt like none of the PS passages were straightforward, like one passage required you to know several different topics. Lots of trickery going on in the BS section as well. Surprisingly, I finished the VR with no problem, so there's that...
 
well that was fun.

my guess: 12/10/12

Sorry, had a phone call. An hour phone call.

Umm I'd agree with the other posters, in general. My strategy has generally been to rush through everything and go back and check, and I stuck to that. I finished about 20 minutes early on the PS, 5 on the verbal (strategy here is to revisit one and only one tough passage with a fresh eye), and about 25-30 on the BS.

BUT about half the questions on PS made me think very very hard, and I was uncertain on several questions on maybe 2-3 passages. I thought some were crazy tough but some were crazy easy. It was mixed. That's why I'd give my PS estimate a 12.

Verbal was kind of tough but I slagged off on doing verbal when I realized I'd plateaued at an 11 for my AAMC practices. The difference between an 11 and a 10 is something like 10%, and a 9 is another 10% below that, so I think if I messed up somewhere, a 10 is probable, 9 possible but less likely. We'll see about that in a month. Verbal's my weakest section, but none of the passages were of the "oh **** wtf is the author talking about??"

The bio. The bio was actually similar to the PS in my opinion. Some easy, some hard. I thought it was less like AAMC 11, but different from all the others. Very different feel compared to the AAMCs. I can't really elaborate as to how as it's slipping away, but certainly not the same. I guess there were some experimental questions but in general physio is my weaker side of bio. concur with the previous assessment of orgo, but only if you like orgo 🙂

Overall, on my post-content review AAMC practices I had a low of 34 on AAMC5, and a high of 41 on AAMC11. I felt pretty terrible after 5, but I felt better today. I felt kind of uncertain after 11 (before looking at my score) but feel more uncertain after my real test today.

I think my AAMC average was around a 37 with results scattered when viewed chronologically, trended fairly linearly upwards with test number (I took them out of order). So adding nerves I think a 34 is realistic.

How'd everyone else do?
 
I estimate below a 30 for me. I had to throw a few hail mary's at some answers. Hopefully they were successful, but that's probably wishful thinking.
 
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First post on SDN!

So I've been reading over the past few weeks a lot about the MCAT on here. First time test taker here.

Took it this morning and here's what I thought:

PS: I thought there were one or two difficult chem. passages and some difficult physics, but the chem is really what worries me. The early chem. passages messed up my timing so I was rushed for the rest of the section and barely finished in time, which may have hurt me.

VR: I thought this was pretty straight forward and similar to the practice tests. The answer choices didn't seem as tricky as many of the practice test answers, so hopefully my score will reflect that. Was a little pressed for time, which I am usually not at all.

BS: I have a bio heavy background and thought all the bio was easy, even though I def. saw tricky answers that I caught myself fixing (and some maybe I didn't). I was stupid and left one blank by accident, though, since right when I was about to click the answer the time ran out! But I am not going to let that bother me, it's done. The orgo. wasn't too bad, one or two of the orgo. discreets were tricky in that I suck at orgo.

On the AAMC practice tests I was scoring between (31-35) averaging about 32.5, but depending on what other people thought of this test it can go either way. My prediction is
PS 9-10 - VR - 10-11 BS - 11-12

So range from 30-33, averaging 31.5. I really have no idea though, since I've never taken an official MCAT before. I'm hoping for a higher VR and BS than my predictions since I think they went relatively well compared to my practice tests. I'm hoping everyone thought PS was hard so the curve is generous.
 
Glad to see I'm not alone. Definitely harder than the practice tests, but the curve should reflect that, right 😳 ?
 
I don't want to people to think I'm making this up, but I had a fever and bad GI problems on the test day. I almost didn't go.

PS: Very very tough, I got destroyed on 1-2 passages and I felt this was the hardest section

VR: Felt surprisingly good, averaged 10-11 so I'm hoping its an 11

BS: Ochem was a joke but Bio had some tricky questions/passages. Hoping for a 12 here.
 
I felt the test was very hard, stylistically different from the early AAMC's but I feel like I slacked off too much at the end (maybe burnt out, maybe just too tired who knows) that I just wasn't in the right test taking mode. I felt pretty numb not knowing how I did but in retrospect it wasn't too horrible.

I ran out of time in PS - with a few minutes extra to check some answers but that's it. I freaked out with 2 passages and last set of discretes at 20 minutes to go and barely read one of the passages so hoping it was ok. Guessed on a lot of stuff just based on AAMC hunches.

VR was straight forward, had 10 minutes left over. Felt like it was ok. There was one question I was going to change my answer at the last minute but time ran out. I thought all passages were easy except for one.

BS was decent, although I didn't know one discrete which drove me crazy. It was definitely more experiment based but the passages were about topics I was familiar with so not so bad.

AAMC average: 34.54 (or something like this)
Goal: 12/11/13 - 36
Prediction: 11/12/13 - 36
 
Hey! Finally finished that test thank goodness 😛

I felt the PS section was fairly straightforward, maybe a couple of tricky questions but nothing too bad for me. Some stuff on there definitely wasn't represented on the AAMC practice exams I took though, which was obnoxious :/

For VR I thought the passages were a bit long, but the questions were pretty reasonable. However, verbal is my strongest section and it may be different for others.

BS freaked me out on the first go through, but going back and checking my answers helped a lot. I caught a few errors and had time to think difficult things through logically. I did end up guessing on like three, but I just checked some facts and think I got them right, which makes me feel a lot better.

My average practice score was a 36 so hopefully I matched or bettered that!

Good job everyone!
 
I actually felt really good about it. It felt easier than AAMC11 for me (which I got 10/10/10 on) and I am overly excited to be done studying.

PS: I made up one calculation, otherwise most of it went decently, but I had to really logic out a few answers. Finished with 5 mins left to spare.

VR: One terrible passage took me over 10 minutes. Loved another passage though; very thought-provoking. Finished with 10 seconds left as usual :laugh:

BS: Felt way easier than the usual BS on the practice tests. Hit most of my strengths (or so I think). Finished with about 5 mins left and took my time.

Practice AAMC average: 31.6

I'm feeling a 11/10/12 or so. I owe a lot of it to this forum for support. I wasn't feeling it at all yesterday, but I was confident going into the test thanks to you guys. I made a bunch of bad jokes with the other examinees, made up a bunch of answers on the trial section (which was extremely hard lol - I only felt like I nailed 2 questions), and ate a lot of grapes. I never want to do that again, but I will still look back on today fondly, no matter what the outcome. 👍
 
PS: Definitely caught me off guard on a few occasions, didn't have enough time to look over everything a second time but I googled a few of the answers I was unsure of after and guessed correctly. Hoping for a 14, but wouldn't be surprised if that was completely off.
VR: 1-2 difficult passages but felt the same or a slightly harder than the AAMCs. Hoping for a 10-11.
BS: 15, pretty confident.
 
Man I'm glad that's over with. Best wishes to all my fellow 3/23-ers! Did anyone else's test not load necessitating tons of scrambling by the poor proctors?
 
I thought physics was insane!! the passages were NOt hard but the way questions were presented...man. and physics has been my strong suit!

verbal was good I thought. a few tricky quesitons but good.

bio was good. orgo was not bad at all. some experimental questions.


epxectation.....10-11 verbal. 11-12 bio. physics..anywhere 8-12. man did i mess that physics up



signing up for a retake while this is all fresh in my head but NO motivation to stdy without seeing my score 🙁
 
It was a pleasure trading tips and talking to you. Good luck! I hope in a month when I'm preparing to take my exam, I glance back and see how ecstatic you are from your score.

👍 I'm rooting for you buddy! 🙂


Peace out Nutty 🙂 See you after the exam :xf:

Later, NED. Although you won't see it, good luck! I know you'll rock it.

See you on the other side.

We'll catch up in a week, when you tell us how you grabbed that test by the nose and kicked it in the ass!

Thanks everyone! 🙂


-----

Today's test. Every test dates has one section where everyone unanimously feels that it was the "killer" section. Today that section was Physical Sciences. The funny thing about this was there was a passage on subject material that i was going to write about in the "made up" passages we did rather than the dr who theme. The only problem was that I couldn't find any good papers to reference on it and I couldn't find questions that were easy enough to ask that was mcat level. But the actual topic was on the test! Having said that, the questions they asked about it were mostly theoretical (physics) and not very difficult compared to the subject matter of the passage. The section overall was difficult and I am sure I did much worse than what I feel my potential is.

Verbal was interesting. Only one passage was on subject matter that I found to be mind numbingly boring (i forget what it is now) and the others were not bad at all. The passages were longer but not 900 words like people have said, probably closer to 700 words. The aamc supplied verbal passages seemed pretty tame in comparison. I never thought of verbal as problematic for me but just unpredictable.

The Bio section I thought was extremely easy. Having said that I've never broken an 11 on a bio section in a practice exam yet so I'm giving myself a predicted 11 (what I've more or less been getting in practices). But I did most of the section skipping the experiment passage and saving it until last, where I ended up spending 20 minutes on that passage alone, just to be sure.

The theoretically/trial section was on bio, seemed just like another bio section so meh. I really wanted to see what the socioloy and psychology type of questions they would have would be like.


My AAMC average: 30.4
AAMC 3 - 29
AAMC 4 - 31
AAMC 5 - 28
AAMC 8 - 34
AAMC11 - 30


My Prediction: 30
PS: 8 (hurt pride)
VR: 10-11
BS: 11-12 (Dare I dream?)

Now the wait begins and I am hoping i did "good enough" so that I dont have to subject myself to this prep again.
 
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I'm glad to be done 🙂

First of all, thank you to all my fellow 3-23'ers (and everyone else who participated in this thread) You guys are the best! While everyone at my testing center was waiting to be brought in one by one, the only thought in my head was "Oh man I wish I could be hanging out with my homies on the Student Doctor Network right now!!" (Nobody at my test center was talking. Nobody!)

The logistics of the day went as smooth as silk. No malfunctioning alarm, no car trouble, no traffic, no line at Starbucks, no malfunctioning computer, etc etc etc. I woke up refreshed and feeling sound in mind, body, and spirit. I thank God for that 😍 Therefore I think I did as well as I could have. As for the individual sections and score predictions......

Physical Sciences
I felt pretty calm at the start of the exam (in contrast to my 2010 sitting, when my sympathetic nervous system freaked out as I tried to read the first passage). I felt like the chemistry passages were toughest, but I'm strongest in chemistry anyway so I took it in stride and did my best. I was about as short on time as AAMC 11, but I finished the test since my pacing was pretty good. The little voice at the back of my head kept whispering "come on, keep up the pace, you've got to move on now!"

One discreet question stumped me, but I didn't waste much time on it. I wish I could have looked at it again but I didn't have the time. It was still bothering me after I finished the exam, and I'm pretty sure I missed it based on a cursory google search. Meh

I am confident that I got: 13+
I can reasonably hope for: 14


Verbal Reasoning
This section is so unpredictable, in my opinion. I felt as unsure about this verbal as any of my recent practice test verbals, which means nothing. I managed to finish the last passage with more than 5 minutes to spare, which I immediately burned through checking over a small fraction of the questions I was doubtful about. I could have used more time to double check everything, but then again, that's always the case.....

Considering my AAMC 10 and 11 scores were both 14, even though I was super shaky on a bunch of my answers, there's a decent chance this one went well, too...

I am confident that I got: 12+
I can reasonably hope for: 13


Biological Sciences
I felt SO MUCH BETTER about this than I did on my first MCAT in 2010. Then again, I studied way more this time! The biggest difference for me was that I was super comfortable reading the passages. After practicing so much, I was pretty sure what/why everything was going on, and my mind felt clear.

I saved the beefiest experimental-looking passage for last, and got to it with more than 15 minutes left. It wasn't too bad, I think! I thought the place I was most likely to lose points was the discreet section. There were a couple "discreet" type questions on material I had either not seen before, or maybe seen once (?). Either you know it or you don't.... and those are the ones that likely will separate the 14's from the 15's. There really wasn't anything I could have done to prepare better for those. I knew enough to answer most of the discreets, and I guess I should be happy with that. It would be impossible to know everything (yes I said IMPOSSIBLE, GTLO I'm talking to you! Seriously, to think it's possible to know EVERYTHING is hubris. I would be happy to debate that.)

I am confident that I got: 13+
I can reasonably hope for: 14


-----------------------------------------------

The exam was 100% MCAT, no more, no less. I expect my AAMC practice exams to be predicative.

AAMC min: 38
AAMC max: 44
AAMC mean: 40.6
AAMC median: 41
(n = 8)

I am confident that I got: 38+
I can reasonably hope for: 41




Now I just wish I wasn't hopelessly addicted to checking this thread.... I don't see that changing any time soon.... :laugh:
 
I'm glad to be done 🙂

First of all, thank you to all my fellow 3-23'ers (and everyone else who participated in this thread) You guys are the best! While everyone at my testing center was waiting to be brought in one by one, the only thought in my head was "Oh man I wish I could be hanging out with my homies on the Student Doctor Network right now!!" (Nobody at my test center was talking. Nobody!)

haha I was going to write about this. everyone wouldn't shut up at my test center except they were all working each other up into a frenzy. It was the only time I wish i had ear plugs. lol. i'm sure it would have pissed them all off if i just sat there with ear plugs while they were all freaking out. :laugh: but i'm sure they each lost a few points on the built up anxiety they created in each other right before the test.

edit: so when are the scores out again? 😛
 
What did you guys feel overall prepared you well for the verbal portion of this exam? Basically, what prep company was this verbal closest to?
 
The exam was 100% MCAT, no more, no less. I expect my AAMC practice exams to be predicative.

AAMC min: 38
AAMC max: 44
AAMC mean: 40.6
AAMC median: 41
(n = 8)

I am confident that I got: 38+
I can reasonably hope for: 41

Those are some really insane scores... Just wondering, but when you took the MCAT in 2010 did you use the same practice tests?
 
Those are some really insane scores... Just wondering, but when you took the MCAT in 2010 did you use the same practice tests?

No, of the scores I used just now to generate those statistics ....I didn't take any of those AAMC tests the first time around.

I did not include AAMC 3 in the statistics because that's the one I used prior to my 2010 exam.
 
No, of the scores I used just now to generate those statistics ....I didn't take any of those AAMC tests the first time around.

I did not include AAMC 3 in the statistics because that's the one I used prior to my 2010 exam.

That's truly amazing then. 👍 Be sure to post about your preparation in the 30+ thread when the time comes. I'm a sophomore who's looking to take this beast in December or January and I'm trying to come up with a game plan...
 
Thanks everyone! 🙂


-----

Today's test. Every test dates has one section where everyone unanimously feels that it was the "killer" section. Today that section was Physical Sciences. The funny thing about this was there was a passage on subject material that i was going to write about in the "made up" passages we did rather than the dr who theme. The only problem was that I couldn't find any good papers to reference on it and I couldn't find questions that were easy enough to ask that was mcat level. But the actual topic was on the test! Having said that, the questions they asked about it were mostly theoretical (physics) and not very difficult compared to the subject matter of the passage. The section overall was difficult and I am sure I did much worse than what I feel my potential is.

Verbal was interesting. Only one passage was on subject matter that I found to be mind numbingly boring (i forget what it is now) and the others were not bad at all. The passages were longer but not 900 words like people have said, probably closer to 700 words. The aamc supplied verbal passages seemed pretty tame in comparison. I never thought of verbal as problematic for me but just unpredictable.

The Bio section I thought was extremely easy. Having said that I've never broken an 11 on a bio section in a practice exam yet so I'm giving myself a predicted 11 (what I've more or less been getting in practices). But I did most of the section skipping the experiment passage and saving it until last, where I ended up spending 20 minutes on that passage alone, just to be sure.

The theoretically/trial section was on bio, seemed just like another bio section so meh. I really wanted to see what the socioloy and psychology type of questions they would have would be like.


My AAMC average: 30.4
AAMC 3 - 29
AAMC 4 - 31
AAMC 5 - 28
AAMC 8 - 34
AAMC11 - 30


My Prediction: 30
PS: 8 (hurt pride)
VR: 10-11
BS: 11-12 (Dare I dream?)

Now the wait begins and I am hoping i did "good enough" so that I dont have to subject myself to this prep again.

Good luck man. Just wondering, what score would you be happy with that would not warrant a retake?
 
I'm not sure why, but I can barely remember any questions from the test. The few I do remember, I looked up the answer on Google and said "sweet, I got that one right......wait, did I put that answer?", so I'm not sure what to make of it.

I would kill to go back to this morning to start over (not even considering that I've looked up some answers - purely from a test-taking standpoint). I was keeping pretty calm up to the test, but once I physically started the test, I felt...different? When I didn't know and answer right away, I somewhat panicked (not terribly, just enough to fog you're thinking a bit) and just picked a best answer because I thought I had to keep moving...at least I THINK...that's what's weird, I really DON'T REMEMBER much from this morning, which leaves me unsettled.

Same thing with VR. I developed a strategy that was working pretty well literally a few days before today. I even outlined the strategy on the scratch paper so I would remember. Once the first passage came up, I somewhat abandoned it for the first two passages. Maybe they were just hard, but I had to do the "pick an answer and keep moving" strategy. Then for the third one, I told myself to snap out of it and stick to the plan. I felt fine after that, but didn't have time to investigate a few questions because the first two passages took longer than they should've.

BS - again, I really don't remember anything. Did I really read 7 passages and take 52 questions? Doesn't seem like it. Again, maybe that's because I had to quickly pick answers and keep moving sometimes.

Trial - My section was on biochem. I think I owned it. Maybe AAMC will feel nice and pass along some effort points.

I still think I'll come out with a 29ish. The practice tests averaged 10 questions wrong for an 11. I don't think it's a stretch to say I got more than 10 wrong on them, especially since I can't remember anything. I realize a passage may have been purely experimental so the scoring is different but I'm also not expecting much of a curve on this. Still feel like I underperformed.
 
haha I was going to write about this. everyone wouldn't shut up at my test center except they were all working each other up into a frenzy. It was the only time I wish i had ear plugs. lol. i'm sure it would have pissed them all off if i just sat there with ear plugs while they were all freaking out. :laugh: but i'm sure they each lost a few points on the built up anxiety they created in each other right before the test.

edit: so when are the scores out again? 😛

NED, this is hilarious!! :laugh: I wonder what the difference was between my silent test center and your nervous/talkative one? Maybe if one person at mine had opened their mouth, the nervous pre-med banter would have spread like wildfire-contagion! :meanie:

Entadus, stop worrying, you probably got like a 40 🙂

I'm not worried 🙂 I'm just super glad that my 4 months of studying is over 🙂 I'm going to take a break from "studying"
 
I'm not sure why, but I can barely remember any questions from the test. The few I do remember, I looked up the answer on Google and said "sweet, I got that one right......wait, did I put that answer?", so I'm not sure what to make of it.

I would kill to go back to this morning to start over (not even considering that I've looked up some answers - purely from a test-taking standpoint). I was keeping pretty calm up to the test, but once I physically started the test, I felt...different? When I didn't know and answer right away, I somewhat panicked (not terribly, just enough to fog you're thinking a bit) and just picked a best answer because I thought I had to keep moving...at least I THINK...that's what's weird, I really DON'T REMEMBER much from this morning, which leaves me unsettled.

Same thing with VR. I developed a strategy that was working pretty well literally a few days before today. I even outlined the strategy on the scratch paper so I would remember. Once the first passage came up, I somewhat abandoned it for the first two passages. Maybe they were just hard, but I had to do the "pick an answer and keep moving" strategy. Then for the third one, I told myself to snap out of it and stick to the plan. I felt fine after that, but didn't have time to investigate a few questions because the first two passages took longer than they should've.

BS - again, I really don't remember anything. Did I really read 7 passages and take 52 questions? Doesn't seem like it. Again, maybe that's because I had to quickly pick answers and keep moving sometimes.

Trial - My section was on biochem. I think I owned it. Maybe AAMC will feel nice and pass along some effort points.

I still think I'll come out with a 29ish. The practice tests averaged 10 questions wrong for an 11. I don't think it's a stretch to say I got more than 10 wrong on them, especially since I can't remember anything. I realize a passage may have been purely experimental so the scoring is different but I'm also not expecting much of a curve on this. Still feel like I underperformed.

As someone who has taken the test before, this is totally normal. I wouldn't worry until you have to. There is no sense in it. You will know how you did and what to do in 30 days...
 
NED, this is hilarious!! :laugh: I wonder what the difference was between my silent test center and your nervous/talkative one? Maybe if one person at mine had opened their mouth, the nervous pre-med banter would have spread like wildfire-contagion! :meanie:

This is why I cracked a bunch of terrible jokes and didn't mention one thing about studying or MCAT anxiety. I asked the test proctor if I was allowed to take a nap in between sections because it didn't really have a 10 minute timer. She advised against it, but gave me a pity smile at my attempt of a joke. 👍

I also happen to look nothing like my driver's license, so that was fun watching the proctors struggle with that.
 
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