The Official 4/26/13 MCAT Thread

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In lieu of the other threads popping up, I thought it'd be good for those of us taking the test to identify ourselves 👍

I'm not planning on following a rigid study schedule until January, but I think I'm going to watch a single video off of wikipremed daily to lightly review.

Good luck to everyone... we will crush this exam..
 
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captainuzair said:
He is right. But I think you should postpone your MCAT if you haven't done any other full length exam before. Or take ur exams starting tomorrow and you should at least re-do those exam in mid april to see how you are doing on the re-take.
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Why would I need to postpone? I am trying to peak right before my exam, not now. Or were you not meaning me 🙂
 
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I took my first AAMC practice test today. For AAMC 3, I got PS 11, VR11, and BS 9. It's not too late to get a 35+? It's not impossible right?
 
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LisaBrown said:
I took my first AAMC practice test today. For AAMC 3, I got PS 11, VR11, and BS 9. It's not too late to get a 35+? It's not impossible right?
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First post after being a member for two years. Wow.
And 35s are possible, especially if you just took your first full length, and missed some due to fatigue rather than knowledge gaps (potentially the reason for the 9 in BS).
 
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Yeah after postponing the test twice (March 23rd and April 4th), I don't want to postpone again. I have to apply this year! I'm ready to go back to school!
(It is my first year working as a lab tech)

I haven't studied much for bio because I've been underestimating it and been focusing more on physics and chem. But now I know I have to have bio nailed down. I need a buffer in case something happens. I'm going to try to aim for a high bio score no matter what.

Good luck everyone!
 
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LisaBrown said:
Yeah after postponing the test twice (March 23rd and April 4th), I don't want to postpone again. I have to apply this year! I'm ready to go back to school!
(It is my first year working as a lab tech)

I haven't studied much for bio because I've been underestimating it and been focusing more on physics and chem. But now I know I have to have bio nailed down. I need a buffer in case something happens. I'm going to try to aim for a high bio score no matter what.

Good luck everyone!
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Bio is probably the most difficult section to nail down because theres so much variety in the questions
 
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Yeah it can really be hit or miss too because application of discrete knowledge into concepts is very important
 
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I'm so frustrated with my TPR course. I definitely feel like it's been a waste of money. The only caveat is that the instructor for Bio and Physics has been very good and helpful.

I left class today (Gen Chem) after the instructor #1 used a calculator to try and calculate Henderson Hasselbalch problems. He also was unable to demonstrate that the more similar the pka of your buffer solution was to the desired pH, the better it was, nor was he able to demonstrate that the more buffer you have, the more effective it was. None of his calculations were working, even with a calculator 😡

Then we were supposed to do ICC #13. Right before the ICC, he did 2 examples which were questions #1 and #2, just slightly different...ended up being the only 2 questions I answered correctly out of 7.

Just venting, but I will simply teach Chemistry to myself from here on out. I feel as if Chad videos are miles better than a PhD student who doesn't teach and would rather talk over you.
 
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Man the TBR physics is really screwing with me. Just got creamed on the Electrostatics & electromagnetism review section (44%)....

but atleast Im averaging 80s% on chem, 75-80% on o chem and 80-90% on tbr bio.
 
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Back 5 said:
I'm so frustrated with my TPR course. I definitely feel like it's been a waste of money. The only caveat is that the instructor for Bio and Physics has been very good and helpful.

I left class today (Gen Chem) after the instructor #1 used a calculator to try and calculate Henderson Hasselbalch problems. He also was unable to demonstrate that the more similar the pka of your buffer solution was to the desired pH, the better it was, nor was he able to demonstrate that the more buffer you have, the more effective it was. None of his calculations were working, even with a calculator 😡

Then we were supposed to do ICC #13. Right before the ICC, he did 2 examples which were questions #1 and #2, just slightly different...ended up being the only 2 questions I answered correctly out of 7.

Just venting, but I will simply teach Chemistry to myself from here on out. I feel as if Chad videos are miles better than a PhD student who doesn't teach and would rather talk over you.
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I am currently taking the TPR as well and have found it very frustrating and not helping my score at all yet. I am hoping in the next few weeks I will see definite improvement, as it ends then anyway and I will be solely focusing on practice tests.
 
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ahstern said:
emf is a horrible, cruel mistress.
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thats where I missed the majority of my question... what was really annoying was they brought in the resistors and stuff... which ironically is covered in the next chapter.🙄


Im just waiting to be done with all my content in the next week and a half so I can start with practice problems/tests/EK1001s
 
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I don't know about anyone else here but I'm nearing 70% done with content review and I'm feeling extremely depressed and anxious about forgetting everything. I think I'm not retaining anything despite the fact I review it over and over ugh..
 
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Hemorrage said:
I don't know about anyone else here but I'm nearing 70% done with content review and I'm feeling extremely depressed and anxious about forgetting everything. I think I'm not retaining anything despite the fact I review it over and over ugh..
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Have you been taking notes?
 
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Hemorrage said:
Yup I have a gigantic binder now of notes, 1/3s, etc
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You can try typing your notes from the sections you tend to forget most and the using them to make flashcards here or an app if you have a tablet. You can play many different kinds of games w/ these on your down time. I use them and it works but I do it for all sections for which I type notes.
 
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AktionPOTENTIAL said:
Have you been taking notes?
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Ive never found notes to help. the only thing you need to write down are equations and the strict relationships. By that I mean what happens to variable X as variable y decreases. For example, as temperature increased, volume increases if everything is constant.

helps cut out all the fluff.
 
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How's everyone grading their passages/practice tests?
I got a 24/40 on VR EK 101 today and that's 60% so I went back to the MCAT 15 scale and that's a 9 (9/15=60%) but EK has it as a 7 I know that they say scales may vary but 2 points are too much and I want a real predictor of my performance! Thanks!
 
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Amar2014 said:
How's everyone grading their passages/practice tests?
I got a 24/40 on VR EK 101 today and that's 60% so I went back to the MCAT 15 scale and that's a 9 (9/15=60%) but EK has it as a 7 I know that they say scales may vary but 2 points are too much and I want a real predictor of my performance! Thanks!
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the MCAT uses the AAMC tests. EK uses their own scale based on the difficulty relative to the actual MCAT or the AAMC practice tests. It could very well be that the test you took were easy paragraphs and the fact that you missed 16 easy questions dropped your grade more than getting the same amount wrong on a harder test.
 
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I got 78% of the questions correct on aamc#3 and they scored that as a 10.

EDIT: This was for verbal, sorry.
 
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I should have listened to myself and not taken aamc#4 today. I was so anxious about taking #4 that I only got 3 hours of sleep last night. I told myself when my alarm went off at 6:30am, after being awake for hours already, that I would just take the test tomorrow. But, I figured that would be a cop-out, so I sat down to take the test this afternoon.

Didn't work out.

aamc#3 6/10/10
aamc#4 7/8/9

I made many dumb errors. My brain just couldn't focus, which is an indication of my lower verbal score. Feels like I completely wasted a test today as a result. Hopefully this will be my lowest score from here on out. I think I'll take a TPR test on Sunday morning after destressing and see how I do. 🙁
 
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Back 5 said:
I should have listened to myself and not taken aamc#4 today. I was so anxious about taking #4 that I only got 3 hours of sleep last night. I told myself when my alarm went off at 6:30am, after being awake for hours already, that I would just take the test tomorrow. But, I figured that would be a cop-out, so I sat down to take the test this afternoon.

Didn't work out.

aamc#3 6/10/10
aamc#4 7/8/9

I made many dumb errors. My brain just couldn't focus, which is an indication of my lower verbal score. Feels like I completely wasted a test today as a result. Hopefully this will be my lowest score from here on out. I think I'll take a TPR test on Sunday morning after destressing and see how I do. 🙁
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When taking a practice test, especially AAMC FL's, try to simulate the exact conditions you will be under when taking the real test. This includes that you should be well rested, calm but alert, and confident.

I know how you feel about making stupid mistakes. I made several today on my AAMC5, and that in turn caused me to score 26 (10,6,10).

I selected the right approach and equations to solve some problems, but I ended up doing the calculation wrongly. In one occasion I forgot to square one of the numbers which led me to the incorrect response. From there, it's like a domino effect. I became obsessed in trying to make my answer match exactly one of the answer choices that was on the same power level as the answer I miscalculated. On the BS section, I mislabeled one of the responses that looked very similar to the correct response. I also struggled with couple of easy physiological questions that had their clues explicitly stated by the passage.

My performance reflected inadequate test taking skills and time allocation. My knowledge was on par with the material covered but I failed to apply it effectively to solve the problems.
 
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I ran out of time on PS. Had to straight guess on the last 5 questions and had no time to review the 5 I marked.

I don't doubt there are gaps in my knowledge. Hopefully I'll get a better idea of what I need to focus on tomorrow when I post game.

I plan on spending a long time going over #3 and #4, then reviewing content that evening onward.

So bummed.
 
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I didn't get the self assessment completed like I wanted to this week (only the bio). I still have physics, chem, orgo, and the verbal self assessment to do 🙁

My plan of action:

Every Sunday or Saturday, take an AAMC exam. Every Wednesday, take a PR/Kaplan/Gold Standard exam. During the days in between, do BR passages, EK questions, and complete the self assessment.

Man, not enough hours in a day. Hope I can complete everything. Worse case scenario, should I prioritize EK 1001 over BK passages?
 
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Alright, let's hear what you guys think. I am pretty much done with primary content review but still want to go back and hammer down on some of the concepts in PS. I'm planning on taking the self assessment this week and then another practice test. Here are my current stats:

Kaplan 1: 9/8/12 --29
AAMC3: 13/7/12 --32
AAMC4: 11/9/13 --33

I know verbal is my weak spot so I just ordered EK 101 VR passages and I'm planning on spending at least 8 hrs/week on verbal.

Goal: 36
 
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LisaBrown said:
I didn't get the self assessment completed like I wanted to this week (only the bio). I still have physics, chem, orgo, and the verbal self assessment to do 🙁

My plan of action:

Every Sunday or Saturday, take an AAMC exam. Every Wednesday, take a PR/Kaplan/Gold Standard exam. During the days in between, do BR passages, EK questions, and complete the self assessment.

Man, not enough hours in a day. Hope I can complete everything. Worse case scenario, should I prioritize EK 1001 over BK passages?
Click to expand...

BK? Im starting my practice/EK/tests on March 23 or 25th depending on how much i finish. The timetable I have set up is 2 tests per week and 50EK questions per day per subject (200 questions total) on non test days. Should be doable for you too.


snipes2795 said:
Alright, let's hear what you guys think. I am pretty much done with primary content review but still want to go back and hammer down on some of the concepts in PS. I'm planning on taking the self assessment this week and then another practice test. Here are my current stats:

Kaplan 1: 9/8/12 --29
AAMC3: 13/7/12 --32
AAMC4: 11/9/13 --33

I know verbal is my weak spot so I just ordered EK 101 VR passages and I'm planning on spending at least 8 hrs/week on verbal.

Goal: 36
Click to expand...

Keep at it!
 
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Hey there! I'm switching over from the 4/4 test date mainly because I had taken my first practice test last week and got a 6/10/9. The 6 in PS was mainly due to nerves because when I went back to review answers later that night I realized I just hadnt read correctly because I was anxious. I still want more time for practice problems and tests though so more time was definitely needed! Hows everyone doing here?!
 
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vagusnerve said:
Hey there! I'm switching over from the 4/4 test date mainly because I had taken my first practice test last week and got a 6/10/9. The 6 in PS was mainly due to nerves because when I went back to review answers later that night I realized I just hadnt read correctly because I was anxious. I still want more time for practice problems and tests though so more time was definitely needed! Hows everyone doing here?!
Click to expand...

Strange for someone with anxiety to be named Vagusnerve
 
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officially switched to 4/26 today. i was originally slated for 3/23, fell behind on work due to my immune system, switched to 4/4 and realized i didnt have enough time to do the SAP, AAMC and BR exams. Hoping this is the last switch because I want to apply this time around. I am a retaker from last summer and took a PR course and tanked the exam.
So far I've taken AAMC 3-5 and BR Test 1.
AAMC 3: 9-10-11=30
AAMC 4: 8-9-10= 27
AAMC 5: 11-8-10=29
BR 1: 8-10-10= 28

Hope you guys welcome me into your club of MCAT misery and hope studying is going well!
 
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Hey Albien. I've been following your 3/23 group. Got some good people in there! Nobody posting 40+'s in here, yet. How'd you do your first time around?
 
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ahstern said:
Hey Albien. I've been following your 3/23 group. Got some good people in there! Nobody posting 40+'s in here, yet. How'd you do your first time around?
Click to expand...

Yeah, they're superhuman. I'll own my score, I got a 23. Judging from my first few practice tests, I guess I'm improving, but we'll see come test time.
 
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Albein said:
officially switched to 4/26 today. i was originally slated for 3/23, fell behind on work due to my immune system, switched to 4/4 and realized i didnt have enough time to do the SAP, AAMC and BR exams. Hoping this is the last switch because I want to apply this time around. I am a retaker from last summer and took a PR course and tanked the exam.
So far I've taken AAMC 3-5 and BR Test 1.
AAMC 3: 9-10-11=30
AAMC 4: 8-9-10= 27
AAMC 5: 11-8-10=29
BR 1: 8-10-10= 28

Hope you guys welcome me into your club of MCAT misery and hope studying is going well!
Click to expand...

Nice! I'm been scheduled for 4/26 but I've just been hanging around in the 3/23 thread lol
 
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osprey099 said:
Nice! I'm been scheduled for 4/26 but I've just been hanging around in the 3/23 thread lol
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I was doing the same because I was originally scheduled for that date. Sticking to 4/26 this time and hoping this experience is better than the first.
 
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Hey, I needed some advice from any one of you all. I'm scheduled for 4/26 but I just took my 4th CBT and scored a 12C. I've been studying since December using the EK Home Study Schedule. I usually take 3 hours for content review then take about an hour to do problems and go over answers. How do you think I could increase my score? Should I reschedule for May?
 
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How do you reduce simple and silly errors on the test? I've gone through and looked at the incorrect answers from aamc #3 and #4 and the vast majority of the incorrect answers in PS were my error. Either reading the question incorrectly, not understanding what they were looking for exactly, computational error. I have run out of time on both tests on PS, so I need to get faster as well.

I feel the knowledge is there, the application of the knowledge is what I really need to work on in the next 5 weeks.

Practice practice practice?
 
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Back 5 said:
How do you reduce simple and silly errors on the test? I've gone through and looked at the incorrect answers from aamc #3 and #4 and the vast majority of the incorrect answers in PS were my error. Either reading the question incorrectly, not understanding what they were looking for exactly, computational error. I have run out of time on both tests on PS, so I need to get faster as well.

I feel the knowledge is there, the application of the knowledge is what I really need to work on in the next 5 weeks.

Practice practice practice?
Click to expand...

Yes.

I'm suffering from the same exact symptoms. 9 of the 11 questions I missed on the PS of AAMC5 were due to miscalculations and not paying attention to negative values. The consequence was a 3 points drop in my score. I did even worse mistakes on the BS section of that test. I mislabeled a question and over complicated the answer for two questions while the clues could be easily found in the passage. That's another 1-2 points I could have spared.

You will keep making stupid mistakes no matter what you do. That's the definition of being human. However, I believe with sufficient practice, we could minimize these occurrences.

I have noticed that I also get very tight on timing in the PS section. I always finish with only 1-2 mins to spare, so I rarely have enough time to revisit marked questions. I realized that this happens to me mainly because I tend to spend too long trying to figure out the answer for some of the calculation problems. I have hard time moving on after investing the time and energy to crack the puzzle (finding out what equation to use), which is the hardest part in solving the problem. Perhaps, I should teach myself to learn how to let go.

Bottom line, they say practice makes perfect, so hopefully with more exposure we can improve our yield.
 
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Doctorches23 said:
Hey, I needed some advice from any one of you all. I'm scheduled for 4/26 but I just took my 4th CBT and scored a 12C. I've been studying since December using the EK Home Study Schedule. I usually take 3 hours for content review then take about an hour to do problems and go over answers. How do you think I could increase my score? Should I reschedule for May?
Click to expand...

12 implies you really don't know much of the material. I don't know what to make of the C because even if there was an essay portion on your CBT, it doesn't even go that low. So, troll?
 
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Doctorches23 said:
Hey, I needed some advice from any one of you all. I'm scheduled for 4/26 but I just took my 4th CBT and scored a 12C. I've been studying since December using the EK Home Study Schedule. I usually take 3 hours for content review then take about an hour to do problems and go over answers. How do you think I could increase my score? Should I reschedule for May?
Click to expand...

Post count: 3

Claims he/she got a 12C

Obvious troll is obvious.
 
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LisaBrown said:
Argg, I took the AAMC4 today and it's lower 🙁

AAMC3: PS 11 VR11 BS 9
AAMC4: PS 9 VR 10 BS 10
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Lisa! don't get down. We have quite a way to go. The same material isn't presented on each exam, so it is logical that there's some stuff you aren't as comfortable with. That's why there are essentially ranges for how you're going to score in each section. You now know you have the capability of scoring at least a 10 in EACH section.

And now you can look: did you miss questions in the same subject on both tests? I realized after my 3rd FL that I missed q's on specific gravity EACH TIME. And that I needed to go back over electrostatics. And some other things (damn orgo).

Keep chugging along and don't stop trying to improve. I'm having my own laziness issues/resting on laurels that I'm dealing with, but just keep the wheels moving.
 
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Thanks ahstern!
I definitely needed to hear that. I hope this week will be super productive for all of us!
I took way too many naps today, read too many blogs, and watched too many youtube videos.
I woke up at 7am today, to specifically take the test, but ended up staying in bed till noon. And after procrastinating all day, finally took the exam at 6pm. I hope your laziness wasn't was bad as mine.

In any case, I'm not going to be afraid of coffee anymore. Also, maybe for these next couple of weeks, I should take my practice exams and my AAMC exams during the weekday evenings. It seems on the weekends, I end up losing my momentum that I had during the week.
 
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I have particularly nerdy procrastination habits nowadays. It's SDN or reddit or Khan videos, but I don't do any of those particularly efficiently. After completing content review and starting FL's, I just haven't felt as dedicated and I don't know how to recapture that mojo.
I've always heard the suggestion to take the practice when you're going to take the test, so for the 8 AM 4/26 test, I've been getting up at 730 (later than I will on test day, but come on. It's saturday.), making a little breakfast, then testing. If you can handle caffeine, it's just a helpful little slap on the back.

And to vagusnerve, no offense implied!😀
 
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Ahstern, what's your game plan for this week? Have you been using BR and EK?

I'm working as a lab tech this year so I can't do practice exams in the morning. I've tried to take them during the weekends, but I'm burnt out by the weekend. But yeah I should get into the habit of taking tests in general. I didn't have much time to review the PS section today.
 
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LisaBrown said:
Ahstern, what's your game plan for this week? Have you been using BR and EK?

I'm working as a lab tech this year so I can't do practice exams in the morning. I've tried to take them during the weekends, but I'm burnt out by the weekend. But yeah I should get into the habit of taking tests in general. I didn't have much time to review the PS section today.
Click to expand...

I work as a medical assistant this year, so I have only been taking 1 test a week on Saturday morning. If I can find a way to do more, I will, but I doubt it (and I don't think I need more than 1 a week). I have been doing SN2Ed's 4 month schedule kind of, but I'm nearing the end.
I'm doing the last 3rd of chapter 7 tomorrow and the next day, then chapter 8 at the end of the week. Then next week I'll do chapters 9 and 10, and then I will purchase the AAMC self assessments and do those for the week after. Then it is troubleshooting with EK 1001 based off of what I am screwing up in self assessments & AAMC tests (I'm only doing AAMC tests from now on. I did a princeton review test and got a 24, but have a 33, 33, and 36 on AAMC's 4,5, & 3 respectively, and if TPR tests are very different than AAMC's, I'm not going to waste my time).
 
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It's really tough, going through these TPRHL passages. The Physics passages, that are 10 questions long take me quite a while to get through. Some of the calculations, I don't know where to start, so I waste minutes reading the passage trying to get a grip for what they are asking me.

Most recently, there were a few passages on momentum that were like that. Equations for momentum that I had never seen before and it took me a while to set them equal to each other in order to solve for a variable 🙁

I certainly hope the real MCAT isn't like this. So far, aamc #3 and #4 haven't been heavy on new information...their tests seemed pretty straight forward, my failures in them were all on me versus the tests being overly difficult.
 
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Back 5 said:
It's really tough, going through these TPRHL passages. The Physics passages, that are 10 questions long take me quite a while to get through. Some of the calculations, I don't know where to start, so I waste minutes reading the passage trying to get a grip for what they are asking me.

Most recently, there were a few passages on momentum that were like that. Equations for momentum that I had never seen before and it took me a while to set them equal to each other in order to solve for a variable 🙁

I certainly hope the real MCAT isn't like this. So far, aamc #3 and #4 haven't been heavy on new information...their tests seemed pretty straight forward, my failures in them were all on me versus the tests being overly difficult.
Click to expand...

I took the real mcat last year, and from what I remember, the PS wasn't calculation heavy. In fact, I had a whole physics passage that didn't require any calculations. The questions were conceptually difficult though. However, my friend who took the same test told me that his January retake was much heavier in calculations. He ran out of time on it. I guess it's different from one test to another. I certainly hope that we don't get too many calculation questions.
 
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Judging from the 2 aamc tests I've taken, the PS was easier on those tests versus the TPR stuff.

My Physics/Bio instructor for TPR says my score will go up in PS by the time we finish the course in a few weeks. I've only self-taught physics and the last bit of GChem (with Chad's help) so the added instruction in the class will help. I really like Chad's videos, but they aren't as in depth for the tough conceptual questions.

This Friday is aamc #5. Nervous about that test because of my poor performance on aamc #4.
 
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