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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Does anyone seem to feel the same way I do about BR passages? I typically get around 1 or 2 questions wrong per passage if I actually understand what's going on, however, I often find that if I'm not familiar or if the passage is on something really random I have an incredibly difficult time comprehending it in a 7 minute period
 
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GandalfTheWhite said:
should I do the AAMC 3 after the AAMC self assessment or should I do the assessment before the test?
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I would do the AAMC3 first because the material covered in the AAMC SA are taken from older versions of test 3-9 (including 6). Therefore, most of the passages and question in the AAMC SA are newer and perhaps "more relevant" material than those presented in AAMC 3.
 
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Just finished all the passages in Berkeley review!
Averaged around 80% in gen chem, 85% in orgo, 77% in physics, and 70% in bio (but much better in physiology chapters)
 
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Are most of you doing the AAMC Self-Assessments? Are they worth the time investment, in your opinion? If so, did you finish them in one go or did you do a few passages at a time?

Thanks,
Bill R.
 
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ahstern said:
Just finished all the passages in Berkeley review!
Averaged around 80% in gen chem, 85% in orgo, 77% in physics, and 70% in bio (but much better in physiology chapters)
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77% in physics?? damn! I'm only hitting 60-65% in TBR physics. Do you have any advice on how to get better? I find it really hard to understand some of the strange passages that they present.
 
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BillrothI said:
Are most of you doing the AAMC Self-Assessments? Are they worth the time investment, in your opinion? If so, did you finish them in one go or did you do a few passages at a time?

Thanks,
Bill R.
Click to expand...

I investigated this a few days ago and the general consensus is that its only really worth your time/money if you finished all the AAMC tests and have no other reliable material to worth with.
 
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Hemorrage said:
I investigated this a few days ago and the general consensus is that its only really worth your time/money if you finished all the AAMC tests and have no other reliable material to worth with.
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Thanks. My calendar is pretty full as is - less than a month left! - so I definitely need to start prioritizing. Appreciate the input.

-Bill R.
 
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What are you all doing to keep the stuff fresh between FLs??


Sent from my Nexus 7 using SDN Mobile
 
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Hemorrage said:
I investigated this a few days ago and the general consensus is that its only really worth your time/money if you finished all the AAMC tests and have no other reliable material to worth with.
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Thats not really the point of the self assessment.

Its purpose is to make sure you know all the content that can be tested on the MCAT. The AAMC FLs only have a handful of topics tested per exam. So it might not be the best indicator of your content knowledge, but rather a better indicator of your test taking abilities.

I would say do both.
 
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Hemorrage said:
77% in physics?? damn! I'm only hitting 60-65% in TBR physics. Do you have any advice on how to get better? I find it really hard to understand some of the strange passages that they present.
Click to expand...

I think a main thing about TBR physics (that may not actually have much to do with AAMC physics, based off of the 4 practice tests so far) is that it will make things seem significantly trickier than they are. Ultimately, aside from a question or two based on an equation we haven't seen yet, the questions can be simplified, which makes selecting the answer more straight-forward. If you don't have a problem with timing on the AAMC passages, I would do TBR without a timer.
 
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BR 4: 9-9-8 for 26 :/ never thought BS would be my lowest score. I sure hope this practice pays off for the AAMC practice tests and the real thing because it's getting demoralizing.
 
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Albein said:
BR 4: 9-9-8 for 26 :/ never thought BS would be my lowest score. I sure hope this practice pays off for the AAMC practice tests and the real thing because it's getting demoralizing.
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No worries; BR 4 was my lowest score too (29: 11/9/9). How have your other scores been?
 
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28, 28, and 3 was a killer with a 20 between BS and PS. I lost focus on the verbal and bombed it. I'm curious to see how AAMC tests 7-11 go after this set of BR tests.
 
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Wow...aamc Bio self-assessment was loooooong. I ended up scoring 73%. I was fatigued by the end, so I misread a few questions (read exocytosis rather than endocytosis 😡 )

My scores are through the roof on systems (90%) but in the pits for the nitty gritty micro stuff (DNA/RNA, proteins, cells etc 40-50% on those). I need to either figure out how to nail down DNA/RNA etc or pray that I get a systems heavy test :laugh:

Oh bother.
 
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just finished my first AAMC #3

35 (11PS/11VR/11BS)

hopefully it stays consistent on future tests.

What is the order of increasing difficulty for the available AAMC tests? So I know if my score is inflated and how I should set up my study schedule.
 
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GandalfTheWhite said:
just finished my first AAMC #3

35 (11PS/11VR/11BS)

hopefully it stays consistent on future tests.

What is the order of increasing difficulty for the available AAMC tests? So I know if my score is inflated and how I should set up my study schedule.
Click to expand...

I have taken tests 3-7 so far and the order of difficulty is"

7>5>3>4

So, yes, 3 is one of the easier tests, but not the easiest. However, I thought the verbal on test 3 was a killer.

Keep in mind that all this is subjective so what's difficult for me may be easy for your and vise versa.
 
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GandalfTheWhite said:
just finished my first AAMC #3

35 (11PS/11VR/11BS)

hopefully it stays consistent on future tests.

What is the order of increasing difficulty for the available AAMC tests? So I know if my score is inflated and how I should set up my study schedule.
Click to expand...

11+11+11=33?

I think my highest score was on AAMC 3 b/c of slightly inflated bs and ps.
 
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GandalfTheWhite said:
just finished my first AAMC #3

35 (11PS/11VR/11BS)

hopefully it stays consistent on future tests.

What is the order of increasing difficulty for the available AAMC tests? So I know if my score is inflated and how I should set up my study schedule.
Click to expand...

I don't know. My average for AAMCs have been fairly consistent so far. I think a part of reason is that the area of emphasis is different for each exam, hence it sort of averages out. In my own experience AAMC 5 was the hardest one, because that was the very first one I took (AAMC 3 doesn't count since I have taken it numerous times). I definitely feel more relaxed after each passing exam, but my score has been rather flat on the same average. It could be that difficulty rating is going up, or it just shows that I don't know my contents throughly enough to crack high 30 range.
 
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Some of these aamc self-assessment questions seem more difficult than the aamc exams I have taken. Especially in Physics and Gen Chem. 🙁
 
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Back 5 said:
Some of these aamc self-assessment questions seem more difficult than the aamc exams I have taken. Especially in Physics and Gen Chem. 🙁
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Are these questions passage-based or independent? I personally found the bio passages on the long versions "R tests" to be more challenging than those on the AAMC FL's.
 
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I can't wait to be done with the BR tests and the SA and finish up the AAMCs. Hopefully this abuse from BR tests pays off!
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Are these questions passage-based or independent? I personally found the bio passages on the long versions "R tests" to be more challenging than those on the AAMC FL's.
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It's a combination of passage and discrete questions. The physics self-assessment is 105 questions I believe.
 
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Ok I need some help folks. Took AAMC 3 and got 6/10/9 and took AAMC 4 today and got 9/12/9. I'm getting better at the PS but can anyone give me tips on how to raise my pesky BS score?!
 
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vagusnerve said:
Ok I need some help folks. Took AAMC 3 and got 6/10/9 and took AAMC 4 today and got 9/12/9. I'm getting better at the PS but can anyone give me tips on how to raise my pesky BS score?!
Click to expand...

TPRH SW. Also you may try TBR bio passages, but they are a little too overkill.
 
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Ok sweet, you all are awesome! I have the BR books so ill start those passages ASAP. I also bought the self assessments the other week but haven't started yet so ill get on that tomorrow. I'm taking another practice test next week so ill give you all an update. Thanks again 🙂
 
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vagusnerve said:
Ok sweet, you all are awesome! I have the BR books so ill start those passages ASAP. I also bought the self assessments the other week but haven't started yet so ill get on that tomorrow. I'm taking another practice test next week so ill give you all an update. Thanks again 🙂
Click to expand...

I think the good thing about bio is that there are more discrete sections that you can find to study up on. For example, I need to work on hormone stuff and evolutionary things. But those are things that can be addressed pretty succinctly.

Edit: I was worried I used the word succinctly wrong. I think I'm ok.
 
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Do you all think that bio is more reading comprehension than knowing your stuff? I've realized I'm missing a lot of questions because I may not be comprehending / processing the info in the passages.
 
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GandalfTheWhite said:
LOL apparently my TPR package doesnt include the AAMC SAs so I have to pay the extra 105... really gayyyy
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I signed up for the 105 hour TPR classroom course. Do they have different ones to sign up for? I figure if you signed up for a course, all the online content should be available.
 
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moto_za said:
Do you all think that bio is more reading comprehension than knowing your stuff? I've realized I'm missing a lot of questions because I may not be comprehending / processing the info in the passages.
Click to expand...

For myself i think its a mixture of both. I find the bio passages to be pretty easy in TBR (i score above 80% most of the time) not because i have every little fact memorized but because i personally feel its very similar to verbal- you simply need to deduce the best answer using what you know already and what they mention in the passage. Typically you can negate or validate many answers simply based off a sentence they say but of course thinking about the exam this way is a double edged sword since in PS it generally doesn't work.
 
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Omgness! I'm so happy. I took AAMC 7 today! I got at 35!!!

PS: 12 VR: 13 BS: 10

I'm hoping it's real and I hope I will improve! I only had 5 minutes to check answers on both PS and VR. For BS I had 19 minutes left, but I was so tired to check. Plus there was a lot of orgo on this one. I think the orgo helped me.
 
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The weird thing was, I was completely shocked when I saw the score. I didn't feel like I did well at all.

Now I know it's possible to score well, I'm so motivated!
 
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LisaBrown said:
Omgness! I'm so happy. I took AAMC 7 today! I got at 35!!!

PS: 12 VR: 13 BS: 10

I'm hoping it's real and I hope I will improve! I only had 5 minutes to check answers on both PS and VR. For BS I had 19 minutes left, but I was so tired to check. Plus there was a lot of orgo on this one. I think the orgo helped me.
Click to expand...

Congrats 🙂- like the BR books say, "If you study, it will come"

btw could you comment on your VR method? You did exceptional there.
 
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moto_za said:
Do you all think that bio is more reading comprehension than knowing your stuff? I've realized I'm missing a lot of questions because I may not be comprehending / processing the info in the passages.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think a lot of it may be reading comp/me wanting to just be done with the practice test. All I had during my breaks was a piece of carrot cake and I think my sugar high went away by the time I got to bio. Sure helped for verbal though. I still think I need more practice though with bio, so I'll be doing passages all this week and need to review my test as well.
 
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Another BR test, another demoralizing score. I really can't wait to start the self assessment and AAMC tests and see if there is a difference in difficulty of questions. I took 3-5 and the difference in scores between those tests and my average here is at least 4-6 points. Anyone else who did BR tests finding this pattern or am I the only one struggling?
 
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Albein said:
Another BR test, another demoralizing score. I really can't wait to start the self assessment and AAMC tests and see if there is a difference in difficulty of questions. I took 3-5 and the difference in scores between those tests and my average here is at least 4-6 points. Anyone else who did BR tests finding this pattern or am I the only one struggling?
Click to expand...

32 on #3 and 29 on #4, skipped #5. My other scores are 33 (CBT 1), 34 (CBT 2), 34-35 (CBT 6).

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Your scores should stabilize once you get past the unholy trinity.
 
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Sub Rosa said:
32 on #3 and 29 on #4, skipped #5. My other scores are 33 (CBT 1), 34 (CBT 2), 34-35 (CBT 6).

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Your scores should stabilize once you get past the unholy trinity.
Click to expand...

In terms of the BR, I peaked at a 28 and then dropped each time after. My AAMC exam was a 30 and then wavered +/- 2. I'm just hoping these tests show highlight my weaknesses (at least that's what I'm telling myself to not go crazy) and this way, my AAMC tests break 30s consistently.
 
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Albein said:
In terms of the BR, I peaked at a 28 and then dropped each time after. My AAMC exam was a 30 and then wavered +/- 2. I'm just hoping these tests show highlight my weaknesses (at least that's what I'm telling myself to not go crazy) and this way, my AAMC tests break 30s consistently.
Click to expand...

I think now (>1 month) would be a good time to replace those BR tests with AAMC tests unless you're doing 3 a week or something.
 
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LisaBrown said:
Omgness! I'm so happy. I took AAMC 7 today! I got at 35!!!

PS: 12 VR: 13 BS: 10

I'm hoping it's real and I hope I will improve! I only had 5 minutes to check answers on both PS and VR. For BS I had 19 minutes left, but I was so tired to check. Plus there was a lot of orgo on this one. I think the orgo helped me.
Click to expand...

Hey Lisa -

I had a very similar experience with AAMC #7. I was sure I had scored a 30 or below, but I actually got a 37. Maybe it is one of the easier AAMC exams? I am hoping that the more recent AAMC FLs are more like the real thing, in which case we'll be in good shape for the April exam.

-Bill R.
 
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ahstern said:
I think now (>1 month) would be a good time to replace those BR tests with AAMC tests unless you're doing 3 a week or something.
Click to expand...

I took 3-5 already. I'm finishing up the BR tests Wednesday, spending a few days on the self assessment and then doing 7-11 after that.
 
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Finally broke a 30 on a BR test!! Just took BR 6 and got 11-9-10. I need to learn how to slow down in BS because I finish the sections with way too much time remaining (this time was 35 minutes -_-). Did better on verbal, but the last Gingrich passage got to me. He must've appeared in 2-3 of the passages. Have BR 7 left on Wednesday and then SA package and then remaining AAMCs next week. Happy studying everyone!
 
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Albein said:
Finally broke a 30 on a BR test!! Just took BR 6 and got 11-9-10. I need to learn how to slow down in BS because I finish the sections with way too much time remaining (this time was 35 minutes -_-). Did better on verbal, but the last Gingrich passage got to me. He must've appeared in 2-3 of the passages. Have BR 7 left on Wednesday and then SA package and then remaining AAMCs next week. Happy studying everyone!
Click to expand...

If you're taking more TBR tests, get used to hearing about good ol' Newt.
 
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