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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GandalfTheWhite said:
but there are also those who scored below their averages, and other still that scored lower than their lowest practice tests...

If anyone wants a confident answer, then just do +/- 5 from your consistent MCAT AAMC scores. Mine is a 35. That gives me a range of 30-40.

Realistically ill be hitting 34-36, but the broader you go, the more reliable it is.

I just find it somewhat irritating that people in the high 30s are "dissapointed" or "upset" at their score...
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Although I agree with that a broader range of expectation reduces your chances of being disappointed, I find it difficult to fathom that many people score +/- 5 points of their average, unless something seriously changes. However, I am inclined to believe that the higher the average score you are getting on the practice test, the more vulnerable you are to deviate from your average score. That simply because the difference between scoring 14 and 13 is much narrower than the difference between 11 and 9.
 
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All I want to say is, if the bio section has changed so drastically then the review companies and AAMC need to get their act together. I didn't do all of that content review AND spend $35 per FL to study crap that is irrelevant. I'm still raging about what I'm hearing over in 3/23.
 
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Again, coming from a retaker (me).

The AAMC 11 test will mimic the bio section to a certain extent. BUT the harder passages will be a little harder than the Ebola passage. The easier passages will be similar to the ones you see in AAMC 3-10 (the ones that don't really give you graphs/data to evaluate but rather ask you questions based on passage/memory)

Edit: when I took the exam last year, I was not asked even ONE question about hormones and their pathways...I walked out feeling weird knowing that I spent all that time memorizing those flat pigs but the bacon was never produced.
 
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to those of you panicing because of what you read there about people getting scores well below ( >-2) their averages:

This is how im rationalizing it and will even use myself as an example. my averages last year were 24.6 and my score was a 23. I was extremely underprepared. I had a heavy courseload (endocrinology, genetics, and 2 reading intensive and presentation based bio seminar classes). I took a PR course which I don't really think helped but I also didn't have as much time as I would've liked to supplement outside of the classroom. I knew I shouldn't have taken the test but I did because I was a fool or too invested. For someone as underprepared as myself, I only scored 2 points (round up) lower than my score. Granted, many things can happen test day and you can't compare yourself to anyone and you can also make the case that maybe when you score that low, the range for those scores is broad idk, but whatever happende with 3/23 happened with their exam date. My average this time around is a 29 and I'm fully expecting to go in there and score 27-29 while hoping that some miracle happens where I can score a little higher (maybe 31-33). Do your best and don't lose your head while taking it. It will be difficult and there will be material presented in ways you probably haven't seen, but you need to keep your cool and work through it. All of the answers are there. that's my .02 and if it does at least one of you some good, ill be happy.
 
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Albein said:
to those of you panicing because of what you read there about people getting scores well below ( >-2) their averages:

This is how im rationalizing it and will even use myself as an example. my averages last year were 24.6 and my score was a 23. I was extremely underprepared. I had a heavy courseload (endocrinology, genetics, and 2 reading intensive and presentation based bio seminar classes). I took a PR course which I don't really think helped but I also didn't have as much time as I would've liked to supplement outside of the classroom. I knew I shouldn't have taken the test but I did because I was a fool or too invested. For someone as underprepared as myself, I only scored 2 points (round up) lower than my score. Granted, many things can happen test day and you can't compare yourself to anyone and you can also make the case that maybe when you score that low, the range for those scores is broad idk, but whatever happende with 3/23 happened with their exam date. My average this time around is a 29 and I'm fully expecting to go in there and score 27-29 while hoping that some miracle happens where I can score a little higher (maybe 31-33). Do your best and don't lose your head while taking it. It will be difficult and there will be material presented in ways you probably haven't seen, but you need to keep your cool and work through it. All of the answers are there. that's my .02 and if it does at least one of you some good, ill be happy.
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I wish that part was true because some questions are straight memory based and nothing can be extracted from the stem or the passage. Reality hurts 🙁
 
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Technorino said:
Again, coming from a retaker (me).

The AAMC 11 test will mimic the bio section to a certain extent. BUT the harder passages will be a little harder than the Ebola passage. The easier passages will be similar to the ones you see in AAMC 3-10 (the ones that don't really give you graphs/data to evaluate but rather ask you questions based on passage/memory)

Edit: when I took the exam last year, I was not asked even ONE question about hormones and their pathways...I walked out feeling weird knowing that I spent all that time memorizing those flat pigs but the bacon was never produced.
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Same here. I had 1 easy physio passage and maybe like 5 physio discretes. All my other discretes were either hard orgo or molecular bio. Plus, my 5 bio experimental passages were all harder than Ebola. I remember reading through some of them and frantically drawing gene pathways and linking genes to proteins and figuring out the different connections.
 
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If I get 1 or 2 hard passages like the Ebola and lysosome passage, I'm okay as long as they have freebie physio questions to make up for it. Also, I'm kinda hoping that my having experienced these passages recently, I won't make the same mistake again, or that the upcoming passages might play to my strengths instead of weaknesses.

For certain on PS, though, I am going to make a mad dash to question 52 and I'm not stopping along the way. I refuse to get bogged down redoing a math question 3 times because each of my 3 times resulted in an answer that wasn't listed. I believe I got that question correct though. I will get to the end and if I cannot answer a question immediately with first calculation, I move on. That will ensure I get a good crack at the easier conceptual questions.
 
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Back 5 said:
If I get 1 or 2 hard passages like the Ebola and lysosome passage, I'm okay as long as they have freebie physio questions to make up for it. Also, I'm kinda hoping that my having experienced these passages recently, I won't make the same mistake again, or that the upcoming passages might play to my strengths instead of weaknesses.

For certain on PS, though, I am going to make a mad dash to question 52 and I'm not stopping along the way. I refuse to get bogged down redoing a math question 3 times because each of my 3 times resulted in an answer that wasn't listed. I believe I got that question correct though. I will get to the end and if I cannot answer a question immediately with first calculation, I move on. That will ensure I get a good crack at the easier conceptual questions.
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Good idea with the PS section. DEFINITELY do not want to get bogged down for more than 1.25 minutes per question.

Also for those of you ADHD kiddos: If you're on medication that tends to make you hyperfocus...be extra careful.
 
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Albein said:
Perfect. And he means that those meds make you focused and I guess it wouldn't be conducive to being able to move on and not get bogged down on one problem
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Ahhh....well it's a good thing I only shoot black tar heroin then.
 
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Technorino said:
Just to bolster what the guy above said about the Ebola type passages:

When I took the mcat last year, those ebola type passages were killer....They throw at you LONG passages with tons of information and the questions/answers are just as long as the ebola ones. You realllllyyyy need to be prepared for that type of stuff on Friday.

The key to those is what I just learned from aamc 11...don't get overwhelmed by them. Just let it hit you that it gonna be a difficult passage but understand that behind all of the convoluted verbiage is just a simple question asking you the basics.

And also I've noticed if you think an answer is right but then think another one is right, just go with the first instance if you're 50/50 because somewhere in the back of your mind, you know the answer and I think (to some degree) your subconscious is telling you that the gut is right.

EDIT: KNOW YOUR ****ING GENES (the ebola passage TYPE + genetics WILL kill you if you don't understand genetics because guess what? The ebola passage had to do with genes and if you didn't understand the -/- and +/+ and the things they were talking about, you'll be in deep doo doo)
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Can you explain this. When you say know your genes, what exactly?
 
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ktanner777 said:
Can you explain this. When you say know your genes, what exactly?
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Know genetics in and out. Similar to the Ebola passage, if they throw a bunch things in there related to sex pili, homozygous, autosomal, sex-linked, etc etc in big paragraphs, you will start to shut down because it will look incredibly overwhelming.

Just do lots of genetics practice.

And for the ADHD meds I meant that they are super ineffective when you want to move on from one question to another because if you don't get the answer you want, you tend to stick around until you get it and boom 5 minutes have gone by.
 
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Of course I got the worst allergies of my life. Oh well, still taking the test! Working on electricity and magnetism, will be horrified to see a passage about it on friday..
 
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Were the Ebola and Lysosome passages on AAMC 11 similar to the passages in the Guidebook? I am taking AAMC 11 tomorrow
 
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yoooo so I've been getting averaging a 37 on the AAMCs (minimum was 35 on 11, max was 39 on 10) but sometimes I still don't feel that solid on content. I'm still finishing up content review lol. Since the recent MCATs seem to be more passage/critical thinking (at least in Bio), that should actually help me...right?

Also, during these last couple of days I was planning on, instead of content review, just reading and memorizing every study on PubMed, but apparently that's "absurd" and "an unrealistic goal" according to the people I talked to....
 
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Moxess said:
yoooo so I've been getting averaging a 37 on the AAMCs (minimum was 35 on 11, max was 39 on 10) but sometimes I still don't feel that solid on content. I'm still finishing up content review lol. Since the recent MCATs seem to be more passage/critical thinking (at least in Bio), that should actually help me...right?

Also, during these last couple of days I was planning on, instead of content review, just reading and memorizing every study on PubMed, but apparently that's "absurd" and "an unrealistic goal" according to the people I talked to....
Click to expand...

We are talking about hundreds of thousands of research studies. May God be with you.
 
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Moxess said:
yoooo so I've been getting averaging a 37 on the AAMCs (minimum was 35 on 11, max was 39 on 10) but sometimes I still don't feel that solid on content. I'm still finishing up content review lol. Since the recent MCATs seem to be more passage/critical thinking (at least in Bio), that should actually help me...right?

Also, during these last couple of days I was planning on, instead of content review, just reading and memorizing every study on PubMed, but apparently that's "absurd" and "an unrealistic goal" according to the people I talked to....
Click to expand...

😱

it's only absurd for mere mortals.
 
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Just drove over to my test site location to familiarize myself with the direction, so I won't panic trying to find it the morning of the test. It's located in a business office building on the second floor. It has a glass door. I looked inside and saw the torture room. It looked cold and merciless :scared:
 
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How I've been feeling tonight about the MCAT:

1335298036781_3013300.png
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Just drove over to my test site location to familiarize myself with the direction, so I won't panic trying to find it the morning of the test. It's located in a business office building on the second floor. It has a glass door. I looked inside and saw the torture room. It looked cold and merciless :scared:
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That's better than mine. My test center is in the basement of a small building with no windows.
 
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How do you guys balance the sleeping at a normal time 10-11 and waking up at 6 with studying into the wee hours of the night? I feel I need to give one or the other up but it's too close to exam day to give up sleep and a schedule just to get another few hours of work. Or is that wrong thinking on my part?
 
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I'm lightly going over the PS of AAMC 11 and noticing that I made a handful of errors because I knew the right answer but picked the wrong option or did the question wrongly. There was a question in particular that I spent at least two mins trying to solve and ended up getting it wrong because I imagined it much more complicated that it was. Instead of calculating the entire work value, I was trying to calculate the difference in work between two different height :bang:

Also, who else got tricked by question #42?
 
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Aria88997 said:
Anyone else taking it easy this last couple of days and not studying at all like me?
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Other than doing a verbal test everyday, I am not practicing a single question. I'm only going to go over tests 9-11 thoroughly and understand the type of graphs and experimental questions they tend to ask. I will also read my notes and go through mcat-review.org couple of times. Finally, I will review all equations, IR values, pathways of important hormones, and "popular" ochem reactions.

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next two days.
 
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Gonna finish reviewing my notes tomorrow, do some verbal passages, and review orgo. That's my plan before Friday.
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Just drove over to my test site location to familiarize myself with the direction, so I won't panic trying to find it the morning of the test. It's located in a business office building on the second floor. It has a glass door. I looked inside and saw the torture room. It looked cold and merciless :scared:
Click to expand...

Lulz
 
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Just did the Bio section from the guidebook. I found it not bad at all. I approached it more like verbal and it was much easier. I think what tripped me up on #11 is that I panicked that I didn't know the answers from experience or memory. If you treat it more like verbal it's not as terrifying. But I've never struggled with verbal so it might just be me. I found 90% of the questions right in the passage.
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Other than doing a verbal test everyday, I am not practicing a single question. I'm only going to go over tests 9-11 thoroughly and understand the type of graphs and experimental questions they tend to ask. I will also read my notes and go through mcat-review.org couple of times. Finally, I will review all equations, IR values, pathways of important hormones, and "popular" ochem reactions.

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next two days.
Click to expand...

Hahaha gang I guess I'm the only one just doing nothing. It feels super weird not to be doing anything but on my previous exam I really feel like going in burned out hurt. Idk if its just my mind or if there is really some merit behind this.
 
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I find it ironic i asked how you guys are getting sleep while studying into the wee hours. Haven't been able to fall asleep all night because I've been worrying -_-
 
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Since the exam is at 8am, I was trying to practice going to bed early and waking up early... but I guess that's not going to work. The next couple days are going to be agonizing!
 
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I rarely cannot sleep before a big event 🙂 I guess this goes along with my not getting stressed out during a test.

At any rate...you've only got 2 more sleeps before Friday, so not much opportunity to practice, but I have been waking up at 5am all week, just to get myself prepared and used to the morning routine. I typically wake up at 7:30am anyway, but 90 minutes is a significant amount of time. I have also been going to bed by 10pm, maybe read for an hour if I'm not sleepy yet.
 
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Back 5 said:
I rarely cannot sleep before a big event 🙂 I guess this goes along with my not getting stressed out during a test.

At any rate...you've only got 2 more sleeps before Friday, so not much opportunity to practice, but I have been waking up at 5am all week, just to get myself prepared and used to the morning routine. I typically wake up at 7:30am anyway, but 90 minutes is a significant amount of time. I have also been going to bed by 10pm, maybe read for an hour if I'm not sleepy yet.
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Dang... I wish I had your sleep routine. I'm still in college so I go to bed around 3am and wake up at like 11am..:laugh:🙁:scared:
 
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I went to the testing center today and I'm glad I did for a few reasons.

I can accurately gauge how long of a commute it will be on Friday. I know the check in process is slow and thanks to me spending an hour and a half at the testing center this morning, I know to show up even earlier on Friday.

My testing center is the only one in my town, I believe, that is administering the MCAT. The woman at the center double checked all my info to make sure I was in the system and scheduled etc and she let me know that if I wanted to be seated by 8:00am for the test, I needed to show up between 7:00am-7:15am. The doors don't open until 7:30am, but she said there will be a long line at the door by then and anyone who gets caught deep in that line most likely won't be sat until after 8:30am.

Perfect. Glad I took the time to hang out at the testing center to learn a lot of valuable information today. Otherwise, I would have gotten there at 7:30am, been in a long line and had to wait in the lobby with a bunch of strung-out pre-meds who are flipping their crap because they are 30 minutes behind schedule.

I also got to chat with a bunch of medical students who were taking their Step-I practice exam this morning and a resident who was taking his Step-III. Every single one of them said they would rather be taking their steps than the MCAT, just to put that into perspective :laugh:
 
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Yeah I got no sleep last night. I was tossing and turning over the test and was terrified of a repeat of last summer. Almost done with lab and then heading home, eating and getting back to work minus the procrastination due to panic. Have a good day studying. I really need to learn the sarcomere and differences with different muscles and cytoskeleton
 
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Back 5 said:
I went to the testing center today and I'm glad I did for a few reasons.

I can accurately gauge how long of a commute it will be on Friday. I know the check in process is slow and thanks to me spending an hour and a half at the testing center this morning, I know to show up even earlier on Friday.

My testing center is the only one in my town, I believe, that is administering the MCAT. The woman at the center double checked all my info to make sure I was in the system and scheduled etc and she let me know that if I wanted to be seated by 8:00am for the test, I needed to show up between 7:00am-7:15am. The doors don't open until 7:30am, but she said there will be a long line at the door by then and anyone who gets caught deep in that line most likely won't be sat until after 8:30am.

Perfect. Glad I took the time to hang out at the testing center to learn a lot of valuable information today. Otherwise, I would have gotten there at 7:30am, been in a long line and had to wait in the lobby with a bunch of strung-out pre-meds who are flipping their crap because they are 30 minutes behind schedule.

I also got to chat with a bunch of medical students who were taking their Step-I practice exam this morning and a resident who was taking his Step-III. Every single one of them said they would rather be taking their steps than the MCAT, just to put that into perspective :laugh:
Click to expand...

I'm doing this tomorrow. Hopefully they let me in and answer questions.
 
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