The Official 4/27/13 MCAT Thread

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This might be considered a bit early, but full-time college students need to prepare ahead of time, especially when they are doing a research and volunteering, which requires them to spend at least 30-40 hours per week...

Let's share plans, strategies, schedules, and so on to help each other to crack this exam.
 
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GomerPyle said:
Geez I have never been so stressed out in my life. In the last 3 months, I have been really focusing on verbal but I just scored horribly on the last two verbal tests. Such a confidence killer 🙁 ugghhhhh :scared: I am PRAYING for a light verbal section on Saturday.
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Keep your chin up bud.. Crisis control will make or break you
 
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What is everyone bringing for snacks for tomorrow's test? I hate granola bars but I don't think high-sugar filled candy bars are the solution either. Any suggestions?
 
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@annabelle17; Maybe some fruit or a Luna bar, trail mix maybe. Water for sure. Perhaps a PB and J would not be a bad idea. I have a feeling I won't want to eat much, but then again, I may want to start stress eating! I think I will stick to light snacks with protein and fat and lots of water! I lurked over on the 4/26 board (bad idea) and got super freaked out. Feeling nauseated for sure. Not sure if I should study more or if it will be useless at this point. I hate this. Wish I could just have AAMC give me a test right now and get it over with. This sucks.
 
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Ritter Sports with whole hazelnuts and maybe one of the bottled Starbucks coffee/milk thing. It's a short-ish exam, sugar crush FTW!
 
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Sphenoid927 said:
@annabelle17; Maybe some fruit or a Luna bar, trail mix maybe. Water for sure. Perhaps a PB and J would not be a bad idea. I have a feeling I won't want to eat much, but then again, I may want to start stress eating! I think I will stick to light snacks with protein and fat and lots of water! I lurked over on the 4/26 board (bad idea) and got super freaked out. Feeling nauseated for sure. Not sure if I should study more or if it will be useless at this point. I hate this. Wish I could just have AAMC give me a test right now and get it over with. This sucks.
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You can do it! We can all do it! I'm just thinking of all the fun things I'm going to do after the test like get a beer, eat junk food, watch a whole tv series in one night etc
 
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annabelle17 said:
You can do it! We can all do it! I'm just thinking of all the fun things I'm going to do after the test like get a beer, eat junk food, watch a whole tv series in one night etc
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Ha, I've already planned my spoilage for the whole weekend! I'm taking it away from home, so no TV shows for me but I might go to the movies for the first time in a while!

One more day and life will be much, much better! 🙂
 
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I am going to go shopping right after I'm out of the test center. I purposely scheduled my MCAT that way.
 
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So we're not allowed to wear a watch, even an analog one? I wanted to use it to keep track of break time. Not a big deal, but it would be nice.
 
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Soooooo close. Good luck everybody! I'm doing one final run through all the science questions that I missed on the AAMC exams and hoping, just hoping, that I miraculously improve my verbal tomorrow after intensely working on it all week. I hope you all have found some relaxation in knowing that this is just a test, as beastly as it is, that can be retaken and improved upon if need be. Whatever the outcome of the exam tomorrow I will be celebrating the end of the MCAT at the motocross track and cant wait!!! Congrats to everybody taking the MCAT tomorrow because this is the next step in your pursuit in a rewarding career of medicine.
 
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oldnaish said:
Quick question: Does stretching a lens increase or decrease the focal length?
I think it decreases it but I am not sure
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I'd you're stretching it sideways, like making its radius larger, you will increase the focal length. For most materials that's not a winning strategy - you're more likely to mess the lens up then to get something useful. But for an ideal lens, made from an ideal material - sure.
 
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milski said:
I'd you're stretching it sideways, like making its radius larger, you will increase the focal length. For most materials that's not a winning strategy - you're more likely to mess the lens up then to get something useful. But for an ideal lens, made from an ideal material - sure.
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Thanks!

What about stretching it vertically?
 
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oldnaish said:
Thanks!

What about stretching it vertically?
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How exactly does that look? Think about it as a pizza on the table. So far we've covered both of us pulling the pizza towards us and making it a larger disc. By vertical, do you mean making the pizza thicker?
 
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oldnaish said:
Quick question: Does stretching a lens increase or decrease the focal length?
I think it decreases it but I am not sure
Click to expand...

Not 100% sure about stretching, but if you mean tensing vs relaxing...

"tensing" a lense will make it more curvy/converging and will therefore decrease the focal length, this occurs when looking at far objects

"relaxing" a lense will increase the focal length because the lens is less curvy/converging, this occurs when looking at closer objects

When you're near sighted your eyes don't properly relax, causing the focal length to be before the retina, due to too much converging

When you're far sighted, your eyes don't tense well enough, causing the focal length to be beyond the retina, due to not enough curving.

Hope that helps, and good luck tomorrow, we'll be done with this madness soon
 
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milski said:
How exactly does that look? Think about it as a pizza on the table. So far we've covered both of us pulling the pizza towards us and making it a larger disc. By vertical, do you mean making the pizza thicker?
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Sorry for the confusion lol. I guess i meant making the lens thinner at the center by stretching it vertically?
 
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Morgadeshou said:
Not 100% sure about stretching, but if you mean tensing vs relaxing...

"tensing" a lense will make it more curvy/converging and will therefore decrease the focal length, this occurs when looking at far objects

"relaxing" a lense will increase the focal length because the lens is less curvy/converging, this occurs when looking at closer objects

When you're near sighted your eyes don't properly relax, causing the focal length to be before the retina, due to too much converging

When you're far sighted, your eyes don't tense well enough, causing the focal length to be beyond the retina, due to not enough curving.

Hope that helps, and good luck tomorrow, we'll be done with this madness soon
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Yes!! Thank you so much.

And good luck everyone 👍👍
 
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oldnaish said:
Sorry for the confusion lol. I guess i meant making the lens thinner at the center by stretching it vertically?
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Looks like Morgadeshou cleared it up for you.

In general, the more "curvy", the larger difference between thickness/thinness the lens has, the shorter the focal distance. That applies for both converging and diverging lenses. For MCAT what Morgadeshou explained is probably the practical application.
 
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ukae said:
Is it true that we can't take off shoes during the exam?
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Hahaha that's what it says in the Rules, but who's really going to be checking everyone's feet? And why is this in the rules? Is it to keep test-takers from stinky feet? 🙂
 
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I should have taken tomorrow off from work. This test is going to put me in a catatonic state for the next 24 hours.
 
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Good luck ladies and gentlemen. I was originally scheduled for 4/27/13 but postponed. Hope this test was not brutal on you guys and hope the exam was controllable.
 
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And here is my attempt to be the last one to post before the test. 🙂

Good luck again!
 
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It may just be me, but I actually found the BS section far worse than the PS. From what I hear though, it could have been the same test.
 
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Just finished and felt the like PS and verbal were both brutal compared to practice AAMC exams. BS didn't feel so bad.
 
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So.....eh

PS: I don't know if it was me / nerves but the first passage really threw me off. After then I don't know what to say -- that sectionwas a blur. It didn't seem overly hard but at the same time I felt like the previous AAMC and Kaplan FLs didn't prepare me as much for the PS section. It's hard to describe without violating the non-disclosure but basically it seems somewhat familar but with a new twist. I guess I just don't know how to feel about this section.

VR: I donno, there was 1 or two passages that was a tad tough. But there was 1 passage that was on the level of WTF.... I think I feel ambivalent about this section too.

BS: this is usually my strongest section but I also don't know how to feel about this section. lol. I felt it was much more experimentally based than all the AAMC and kaplan FLs. It got to a point where I feel I could technically get away without studying much bio. Ochem wasn't as much as I expected either.


Overall... =/ I really don't know what to do. On some of my practice FLs I've done, I felt absolutely great but after I scored it...pretty ****ty. Some FLs that I thought were tough turned out to be somewhat ok score-wise. I think it's really tough for me to gauge how well I did on this exam.

What did you guys think of it?
 
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