The Official 5/12/2012 MCAT Thread

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merde

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Hello fellow May 12ers! I didn't see a thread for our test day and considering we are 5 weeks away, I decided to make one! I hope everyone's preparation is going well!

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Well, took AAMC #3 : 13/10/12 (PS/VR/BS) 35

Although this exam is supposed to be the easiest, it's for damn sure better than bombing the first one :D
Definitely had trouble with timing things out with questions not based on passages (discretes) being thrown in the mix. Haven't had those thrown in randomly during my timed practice passages. I'll readjust for next time.

Edit 1:

AAMC #4: 13/10/11 (PS/VR/BS) 34

Glad to see some consistency in verbal. Missed my first 11 on it by 1 question :D but I'm shooting for a VR 10 on the real thing. Thought the PS and BS were much harder this time around especially w.r.t. timing. A couple of the bio passages were a bit out there. Experiments I had never heard of and I had a little trouble understanding the data. Verbal timing was way better but I think I just liked the wording of these passages more. The authors didn't seem like they were trying to be smarter than they are. Tried doing science discretes first to give myself a rhythm and I think I liked it. Made me feel more in control of my timing. Tried to do all 3 sets of discretes in first 10 minutes, rest of the passages in 7 minute blocks (on average). I kept tabs on the time better asI went through.

Next one on Saturday!
 
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I know right? I had to double check that I didn't make up May 12th as a test day in my head (let alone mine) because I didn't see a thread already in the works! Compared to the 4/28 thread, it looks like we will be the only people at our test centers!
 
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AAMC #5: 12/7/13 (PS/VR/BS) 32

WHAT the F*** on verbal?! First passage went by and after finishing it I knew I was fish out of water. Couldn't regain a rhythm after that.

BUT it did motivate me to crush bio. After that verbal I knew I had no choice but to make up for it in BS.

I'd rather trade in my PS/BS average for a decent verbal score. Not sure if applying with a 32 containing a 7 in verbal would be okay or not if this was the real deal? Any insight?
 
Last test I took was a couple weeks ago...TPR 2 - Got a 24 6/9/9 :oops:

Going to wait until I take an AAMC test before I hit the panic button, but it is at least serving as a strong motivation to study.

I'm trying to keep the motivation...but I'm taking another TPR FL tomorrow, so I will inevitably be pooped on yet again. Taking my first AAMC's starting next Sunday 4/22. Hopefully there is a big increase in score from TPR to AAMC or else my choices in schooling will be severely limited...
 
AAMC #5: 12/7/13 (PS/VR/BS) 32

WHAT the F*** on verbal?! First passage went by and after finishing it I knew I was fish out of water. Couldn't regain a rhythm after that.

BUT it did motivate me to crush bio. After that verbal I knew I had no choice but to make up for it in BS.

I'd rather trade in my PS/BS average for a decent verbal score. Not sure if applying with a 32 containing a 7 in verbal would be okay or not if this was the real deal? Any insight?

Did you burn through the exam krackers?
 
Did you burn through the exam krackers?

I'm up through # 9 right now, still have about half of TPRH book on reserve too. Been a consistent 29 to 30 out of 40. My timing has sped up quite a bit but a social sciences seem to be tough on me. I don't think I have missed a single natural science verbal question (go figure), humanities are up and down depending on if there is something about art in it :D.

Trying to figure out a trend in my mistakes but there's not much there. Often it is the "hypothetical" situation they want you to apply passage knowledge or author opinion to that hurts me. That and anything with "assume" in it:

"Assuming this is true, how does it affect the authors position"
"What assumption is the authors argument most dependent on"

There's something about that word that just doesn't click and even when I review the problem it takes me a while to figure out why the right answer is right. It's going to be a long bumpy verbal month but I think I may take a full 12 hour day to dig deep into what's going wrong with it.
 
Last test I took was a couple weeks ago...TPR 2 - Got a 24 6/9/9 :oops:

Going to wait until I take an AAMC test before I hit the panic button, but it is at least serving as a strong motivation to study.

I'm trying to keep the motivation...but I'm taking another TPR FL tomorrow, so I will inevitably be pooped on yet again. Taking my first AAMC's starting next Sunday 4/22. Hopefully there is a big increase in score from TPR to AAMC or else my choices in schooling will be severely limited...


I will definitely say that TPR is a lot harder. I was scoring in your range on TPR (23 I believe) but my AAMCs are averaging at 30. I'm trying my hardest to turn my 10s into 11s for the real thing. :xf:
 
That's good news! I'm sure you'll be able to bump those 10's over. We've still got like 4 weeks. No problem!
 
Took AAMC #3 last weekend. My scores: 10/10/8 (PS/VR/BS) 28

I'm going to be a reapplicant this year. Last year I had a 27 on the real thing (8/9/10). I was only able to study for 6 weeks for it though. On this practice, I was pretty happy to report that everything I missed in PS were things I hadn't quite covered yet in my studying. The things I had covered were things I knew really well. I guess the same goes for BS, but I've really not given it the time it deserves. VR wasn't too bad either considering that I haven't put that much time in.

I've really kicked it into high gear here lately. I intend to take AAMC #6 next weekend if I don't have to work overtime. There's still a pretty good bit of time to improve for all of us.
 
Hey everyone, I've been taking practice GOLD standard MCAT exams and started off pretty well but my scores have gone down. Do you guys have any experience with gold standard stuff? Are they reliable?

I feel like i've hit a wall, I've covered all the material and done plenty of practice problems but I still feel like I dont know the material. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh btw I'm taking it 5/12/2012 =D
 
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Hey everyone, I've been taking practice GOLD standard MCAT exams and started off pretty well but my scores have gone down. Do you guys have any experience with gold standard stuff? Are they reliable?

I feel like i've hit a wall, I've covered all the material and done plenty of practice problems but I still feel like I dont know the material. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh btw I'm taking it 5/12/2012 =D
IMO.. Do GS as practice passages.. and never take their score seriously.. Sometimes I used to finish the BS or PS section with 20 minutes left and get 12 on them and other times i would get like a 9-10
Passages are not MCAT type but u can always practice the material with them
 
Just took TPR 3 - 8/9/10 -27

Verbal was a beast. I'm actually happy with the PS..laughable right. Trying to get it to like an 11 by test day.
 
IMO.. Do GS as practice passages.. and never take their score seriously.. Sometimes I used to finish the BS or PS section with 20 minutes left and get 12 on them and other times i would get like a 9-10
Passages are not MCAT type but u can always practice the material with them

i always got 8-9 on GS PS their PS sections are ridiculous so much calculation. On Bs my score would also range anywhere from like a 9 to a 12 lol. and i always finished with huge amounts of time left on BS.

Im not sure how I feel about GS.
 
Hello, taking it on the 12th as well, verbal is still killing me, been tring to read the way I've read things my hole life and that seems to have help, sometimes you get so caught up in "trying" to read critically you forget every thing your actually reading.

Just find alot of the tips and pointers distracting and make it harder then it really should be. That being said still my weakest area. Time to is killer, need more time on verbal, if I we 2 hrs' i'm pretty sure we would all ace it.

gunna take the test of aamc's test between now and the big day. been studyin for the past 4 months, been kicking it up a notch here at the end, things are starting to all come together, lots of things that aren't clear from reading i find can be clearified alot from watching u tube video's.

Took an online couse to, course saver, anyone ever heard of it, it's alright, not very indepth but good review and good problem review.

Will be happy with anything over a 30, good luck everyone and keep studying, it will be here before u know it.
 
Finally done with content review!

Now, let the onslaught of practice questions and exams begin! First practice test this Saturday, let's see how that goes ...
 
Finally done with content review!

Now, let the onslaught of practice questions and exams begin! First practice test this Saturday, let's see how that goes ...

Good luck... hope you kill it. AAMCs have been pretty good over here but the final 1/3 of BR passages are a doozy!
 
I'm a fellow 5/12er! In my practice exams I seem to have to most trouble with the physics portion of the PS. Any advice from those of you who are better at it? I think if I can pull up PS a couple of points I will be golden for the school that I want to go to, but it's just not budging on the practice tests. I have taken TPR and AAMs and average about an 8 in PS on both. I'm with everyone else that says TPR is more difficult though.

Anyway, best of luck friends!;)
 
AAMC #7: 13/8/11 (PS, VR,BS) 32

Once again, verbal was low. 1 point away from dropping to a 7. Although my PS I was 1 point from a 14 and BS was 1 point from a 12... Seriously, 3 wrong on PS is a 13?!?! Cut me a friggin break AAMC.

If I could get my verbal up to a consistent 9-10 I would be killing these exams. Just going to focus this week on less content review, more verbal practice.
 
AAMC #7: 13/8/11 (PS, VR,BS) 32

Once again, verbal was low. 1 point away from dropping to a 7. Although my PS I was 1 point from a 14 and BS was 1 point from a 12... Seriously, 3 wrong on PS is a 13?!?! Cut me a friggin break AAMC.

If I could get my verbal up to a consistent 9-10 I would be killing these exams. Just going to focus this week on less content review, more verbal practice.
Did you do any TBR CBT exams or you are just doing AAMC ones?
 
I have a question, does the RNA primer laid down in Replication contain Thymine or Uracil?
 
Three weekends left! Woke up early today (gah) and going to take AAMC8. :xf: praying for a 30.
 
I took the AAMC5 this morning, ack! It was the worst I have scored!

Still longing for advice on how to improve my PS :)
 
Rescheduled from 4/28

Just took my first FL aamc 3 and I got 8/8/11 = 27 :(!

AND THIS IS POST STUDYING (though it was on and off)

any tips or words of hope :confused:

PS - didnt have time, had to guess on 1 full passage

VR - I truly thought I knocked this one out of the park! Had plenty of time left though

BS - finished way before time, but I'm assuming this section is supposed to be a cakewalk for everyone else.
 
I scored my absolute lowest on a practice exam today too and just finished throwing a mini temper tantrum. Seriously I have no clue how it is possible to be getting worse with the amount of work I've been putting into studying for this beast of an exam. I'm really hoping it is just a bad day considering I went from a 14 to an 8 in BS within a 3 day period (usually average a 12 in that section). Now I'm scared that this is 3 weeks away!!
 
Did you do any TBR CBT exams or you are just doing AAMC ones?

Just AAMC... seeing as though I content reviewed with and finished all TBR practice passages, I feel their CBT's will be too much up the same alley. Getting a different perspective and most similar verbal to real thing through AAMC
 
So just took my first AAMC FL ...

31 - 9/10/12 PS/VR/BS on #3 ... Somewhat disappointing hearing that #3 is the easiest one ...

PS - Should've done better. I haven't fully gone over it, which I'll do tomorrow, but glancing here and there, I missed some stupid questions.
VR - I expected worse ... Some of the passages were just straight up boring .......... I think the interesting passages saved me. xD
BS - Surprised I did well. Again, just glancing, I miss some pointless questions.

AAMC #4 on Tuesday. Hope I do better!
 
So just took my first AAMC FL ...

31 - 9/10/12 PS/VR/BS on #3 ... Somewhat disappointing hearing that #3 is the easiest one ...

PS - Should've done better. I haven't fully gone over it, which I'll do tomorrow, but glancing here and there, I missed some stupid questions.
VR - I expected worse ... Some of the passages were just straight up boring .......... I think the interesting passages saved me. xD
BS - Surprised I did well. Again, just glancing, I miss some pointless questions.

AAMC #4 on Tuesday. Hope I do better!

Good start! Congrats. I definitely found 3 misleading but a good score is a good score! :thumbup:
 
Hey guys,
It's hard to believe we only have 3 weeks left and we'll all be trying to forget about the last 3 months. So stinkin ready!

I took my first FL today, AAMC#3 10/10/10.
I just finished my content yesterday and needless to say, over the last 2 1/2 months I've forgotten some formulas/relationships. Great to see a 30!

Here's to hoping that all my study from now until next friday when I take my next FL that I close the gap between an AAMC#3 score and a real 30.

So close!
 
PS I usually seem to have enough time if I keep track of it... here's my advice.

Do not waste time solving for the actual value of the answer whenever humanly possible. Getting orders of magnitude right, using limiting cases (if r goes to infinite then what), rounding like a mofo, and best of all calculating with easier numbers that are higher and lower than what they give you results in a range the answer should be in. This will speed you up. You really don't have time to crunch numbers every problem.

Keep track of time. If you are using a lot of time on a PS problem: narrow, guess, mark, come back. Those problems that you waste 3 minutes on will haunt you and you probably have a lower chance of getting it right anyway. Risk vs reward is low here. Rush on easier problems for a chance at the tough one... or get all the easier ones right.


Just my 2 cents.

Verbal... it's just a beast. One I haven't slain myself either. With that said I have had little problem with timing as of late. Do not subvocalize words (mouth them or sound them out). Skim with eyes for argument, tone, support and notice key words of transition or strong opinion. Do not skim until you feel you have an idea of what the author is saying and have a rhythm. Push your eyes across the page, they can actually see and understand more than individual words at a time. I have been amazed by this fact.

KEEP TRACK OF TIME. When you know you're behind, you have to consciously take less time on the tough questions that you have no idea on. Those are huge time sinks that tend to not pay off anyway. You are much more likely to get other questions right if you don't feel rushed on them than you are to get the ridiculously worded and long questions.

When I actually execute these things, I do well. But it's really really hard to do all of this. This is what CAN work for me, it's just a matter of doing it consistently that needs work for me.
 
Well guys, looks like you'll have to go on without me. I worked 12-hour day shifts on Fri., Sat., and Sun. after having worked 8's on Mon. through Thurs. This week will be no different except Fri., Sat., and Sun. will be 12-hour night shifts. I just don't feel confident enough at this point without being able to use my weekends for study. I pushed it back until July 14th. I will hopefully take AAMC #6 not this weekend but next. On a positive note, all the overtime more than pays for the rescheduling fee and practice tests. Good luck to all of you.
 
PS I usually seem to have enough time if I keep track of it... here's my advice.

Do not waste time solving for the actual value of the answer whenever humanly possible. Getting orders of magnitude right, using limiting cases (if r goes to infinite then what), rounding like a mofo, and best of all calculating with easier numbers that are higher and lower than what they give you results in a range the answer should be in. This will speed you up. You really don't have time to crunch numbers every problem.

Keep track of time. If you are using a lot of time on a PS problem: narrow, guess, mark, come back. Those problems that you waste 3 minutes on will haunt you and you probably have a lower chance of getting it right anyway. Risk vs reward is low here. Rush on easier problems for a chance at the tough one... or get all the easier ones right.


Just my 2 cents.

Verbal... it's just a beast. One I haven't slain myself either. With that said I have had little problem with timing as of late. Do not subvocalize words (mouth them or sound them out). Skim with eyes for argument, tone, support and notice key words of transition or strong opinion. Do not skim until you feel you have an idea of what the author is saying and have a rhythm. Push your eyes across the page, they can actually see and understand more than individual words at a time. I have been amazed by this fact.

KEEP TRACK OF TIME. When you know you're behind, you have to consciously take less time on the tough questions that you have no idea on. Those are huge time sinks that tend to not pay off anyway. You are much more likely to get other questions right if you don't feel rushed on them than you are to get the ridiculously worded and long questions.

When I actually execute these things, I do well. But it's really really hard to do all of this. This is what CAN work for me, it's just a matter of doing it consistently that needs work for me.
Thanks! I agree it's really hard to do this. I can't get myself to move on when I'm stuck on a question because I keep feeling like I can figure it out if I just give it another second. But I know I need to work smarter...it's just so damn frustrating! I keep imagining myself looking to the lower left corner of the screen on test day and freaking out when I see 10 minutes left with 2 more passages and discretes still to go!!

Just took AAMC 7: 13/10/12, granted this is with me having paused the timer several times when I realized I was running behind, on ALL sections! I usually have 5-10 minutes left for BS but for some reason today I ran out of time. I know I should simulate the actual test but I really wanted to know the score I would get without having to guess madly at the end. *sigh* I guess all I can do is practice more...
 
I recommend writing this down before your exam:

Time remaining:
60 53 46 39 32 25 18 11 Sci/ VR fast (counts in 3s... 3,6,9...2,5,8,1)
dis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Passage
.... 52 44 36 28 20 12 4 behind (counts in 2s... 2,4,6,8,0,2,4)

You may or may not be allowed to do this during your tutorial during the real exam (dependent on testing site) but I would do it for your practice exams rather than pressing pause.


This is my gauge and it has my timing down to a convenient science. I go through and do every discrete first (gobble up the easy points and get rhythm going for passages w.r.t. timing). Without random sets of discretes in my way I know exactly how much time I have for a "passage" and I know exactly how many passages I have left because they are clearly numbered. I never have to wonder "how many discretes have I done so far?, when are they coming?!", "am I effed for time right now?"

Essentially you get all discretes done in 10 minutes. Shoot for 7 minutes a passage. After passage 1, look at your table and see you should be at 53 minutes to go. If you are averaging 7 minutes a passage, you should be with this top section of the table. If you are averaging 8 minutes a passage you should be at the bottom part. The closer you are to the top values, the closer you are to having 11 minutes left over. The closer you are to the bottom table, the closer you are to having 4 minutes left over. I make sure I stay between these two table values at all times. This makes up for the "some passages are longer than others BS".

This may seem convoluted and time consuming but it is not. Especially after doing it twice. You will naturally get done with passage III, look at 3 on table and know exactly where you stand. For me, knowing this doesn't freak me out because I can then adjust and deal with it accordingly. In the middle of passage IV you can glance at the table and know where you are. It takes a lot of nerves off for me and I don't have to calculate time remaining/passage on the exam.

The table works for sciences and verbal since 70 minutes - 10 for discretes = time for verbal.

The best part is knowing where your cushion lies at all times. If I'm running slow on a passage I can justify using my known cushion time and fight to get back to the charted values later. This also help with the "some passages are longer than others" stuff.

This is what I have been doing and it has helped a lot. Maybe other people are more natural at this and like to wing it, but for me timing needs to be structured for controlled flexibility or I just have no idea where I am at. It took literally 2 times through this for it to become natural to use. I hope it helps someone else with timing issues.
 
Thank you for breaking this down for me!! I am definitely going to try this out. Getting all the discretes out of the way sounds like a good idea. I really hope this gets me more on track. Question, what does (counts in 3s... 3,6,9...2,5,8,1) mean??
 
I'm starting the AAMC FLs pretty late. I took #3 a couple days ago and got a 27 (8/10/9). Not sure if it makes much of a difference but I accidentally clicked the wrong answer in two questions. Though I'm disappointed with my score, it's definitely helping me figure out my weaknesses. I'm really hoping to score in the 30s :xf:
 
I'm starting the AAMC FLs pretty late. I took #3 a couple days ago and got a 27 (8/10/9). Not sure if it makes much of a difference but I accidentally clicked the wrong answer in two questions. Though I'm disappointed with my score, it's definitely helping me figure out my weaknesses. I'm really hoping to score in the 30s :xf:

I don't think it's too late.
 
I don't know what was in my coffee this morning but I just finished AAMC 8 and scored a 34 (12/11/11). I'm super happy with PS because I've been stuck in the 9-10 range forever and I've been working so hard to bump that score up. Same with VR but that section is usually hit or miss for me anyways depending on how focused I am. BS I usually do better in but for whatever reason these last few days haven't been as great. Probably because all my time has been focused on physics. Oh well, no complaints hopefully this isn't a fluke!
 
Gah. I just took another practice test. I got on my studying kind of late, but the 4 AAMC practice tests I've taken looked like this:

#3: 10/11/12 (33)
#11: 7/13/12 (32)
#8: 10/11/11 (32)
#5: 10/10/12 (32)


Fuuuuuuuu score y u no go up??? I guess it's equilibrating. I'm fine with a 32 since the rest of my application is strong, but I would like my studying to actually pay off. I finally did the whole thing including the writing sample on the last one. That section is actually kind of relaxing.
 
Gah. I just took another practice test. I got on my studying kind of late, but the 4 AAMC practice tests I've taken looked like this:

#3: 10/11/12 (33)
#11: 7/13/12 (32)
#8: 10/11/11 (32)
#5: 10/10/12 (32)


Fuuuuuuuu score y u no go up??? I guess it's equilibrating. I'm fine with a 32 since the rest of my application is strong, but I would like my studying to actually pay off. I finally did the whole thing including the writing sample on the last one. That section is actually kind of relaxing.

I love the writing section... it mellows me back out :D
 
if a have 2-pentene is the number 2 C secondary or tert? I think this probabley doesn't even apply cuz it's conventional to name it sp2, just wonder if anyone knows fo sho,
 
if a have 2-pentene is the number 2 C secondary or tert? I think this probabley doesn't even apply cuz it's conventional to name it sp2, just wonder if anyone knows fo sho,

Yeah, secondary/tertiary wouldn't apply to an alkene. If you HAD to pick, it would be secondary because it is defined the number carbon neighbors not bonds to carbons but a tertiary carbon vs secondary carbon applies only to sp3.

Hope that helps
 
Thank you for breaking this down for me!! I am definitely going to try this out. Getting all the discretes out of the way sounds like a good idea. I really hope this gets me more on track. Question, what does (counts in 3s... 3,6,9...2,5,8,1) mean??

7 min/passage counts in 3s:
60 53 46 39 32<---(would be a 12 but you get the point)... 25 18 11

8 min/passage counts in 2s:
60 52 44 36 28 20 12 4

It's how I remember to write down the numbers.
 
7 min/passage counts in 3s:
60 53 46 39 32<---(would be a 12 but you get the point)... 25 18 11

8 min/passage counts in 2s:
60 52 44 36 28 20 12 4

It's how I remember to write down the numbers.
thanks! btw, i just used aamc #3 and tried to finish the discretes in 10 min, took me 13 min even though i've done these problems once before, though i really didn't remember them (well, 2 problems, slightly). i really do think i'm inherently lacking in the speed dept, not just an issue with test taking strategy. though i think i'm going to stick with this. i think it would help with peace of mind for sure, leaving me more time for harder problems later.
 
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