The Official 5/23/13 MCAT Thread

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DieTrying93

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Hi everyone!

I just registered to take the MCAT on May 23, 2013 at 8:00 a.m.! I had to register early because I live in NYC and seats fill up fast!

I'm gonna start with SN2's schedule in a couple of months. I ordered the books (TBR, EK, EK1001, etc) a couple of days ago.

How are you guys gonna study?

Best of luck everyone,

- DT93
 
I felt PS was difficult. When taking the AAMC FL exams I almost always had ~10 minutes to review and at least had a decent understanding of what the question was getting at. There were several questions I had to straight up guess on, which was a first.

VR was easier than normal I felt, although I'm sure this will be reflected in the curve.

BS was typical, although some of the orgo passages took a significant amount of time to decipher. Also felt many of the discretes were longer than average. Almost like mini-passages.

I honestly have no way to predict what my score will be. I'll just hope it'll be close to my AAMC FL (35)
 
I didn't finish physical science....idk what to do with myself.

Same here. Going into the exam, PS was always my strongest and highest-scoring section, but I found the questions on the actual exam long and difficult (except for a handful of gimmes) and the passages difficult as well. I was very panicked throughout the whole section with general exam jitters, but the hard questions just exacerbated everything... I found myself unable to balance simple equations and figure out what exactly and how to calculate on certain problems. I ran out of time at the end and ended up guessing on a few, which had never happened to me before in any of the practice exams. I even thought about voiding the exam and was very panicked during the ten-minute break and dreaded having to go back and finish the exam.

Luckily though, I calmed down during VR, and I thought the section was very doable (and I agree, interesting reads). One passage even cheered me up, as the author seemed to share my sense of despondency and had encouraging words to say.

BS seemed okay (but who really knows?) I guess I'll wait to see what my score was. Very disappointed with my performance on the PS section though.

Overall, I thought the exam had a crazy hard/long PS section with doable VR and BS sections.
 
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hey everyone-

i was wondering what time any of you got out of the exam? i'm trying to book flights for after my MCAT next week (ughh), so i was planning on being done by 130. if you could shed any insight on this, i would sincerely appreciate it!

hope you all are enjoying some much deserved relaxation now that the misery is behind you!
 
hey everyone-

i was wondering what time any of you got out of the exam? i'm trying to book flights for after my MCAT next week (ughh), so i was planning on being done by 130. if you could shed any insight on this, i would sincerely appreciate it!

hope you all are enjoying some much deserved relaxation now that the misery is behind you!

I arrived at the testing center at around 7:20, was called in to the main testing room and began my exam at right about 8, and finished at about noon. I did the trial section though, so was completely done at about 12:45. Some people were called in before me, and some after, so it depends on how efficient the testing center is at processing people and getting them started. Also, this wasn't the case for me, but I've heard some people who have had to wait in long lines to return to their seat after breaks, so that could add to the total time.
 
I started at 8:06 (I remember signing in) and was done by 11:20. Hard to say how long it will take you though. I finished PS early, checked some stuff I was unsure, knew that no amount of staring was going to help so I moved on to verbal. I finished verbal with 10minutes to spare. I finished the BS early too but had a problem I knew I could figure out but for some reason couldn't so I actually spent the entire time on that section. Didn't take any breaks though either (that would add, what, 20minutes?).

I think to be safe you could add together the total time for the sections. Then add 10minutes or in case you get started late. 10 minutes for tutorial. 10minutes between PS/V, 10 minutes between V/BS.
 
PS was terrible.
The passages were long and convoluted and required a thorough read to correctly answer most of the questions it seemed. I finished in time, but I am already sure I got more than 5 wrong. Does the MCAT put experimental questions on the real exams?

Verbal - real nice. I had 20 min left, and looked over the entire exam twice. I personally liked the bigger font size of Prometrics, it was easier to keep your place.

Bio: Some tricky ochem, but I think it was very doable. Had about 15 min to spare, don't know if it helped or not.

PS felt like something straight out of the TBR, but harder with longer passages.
Verbal was similar to ExamKrackers but slightly longer.
Bio - I tried a couple sources, I think Princeton Review and mcat-review were the most helpful for this, if I had only used ExamKrackers, I think I would have lacked the depth for some of the questions.

Good luck guys!
 
I thought PS was my strongest but I was crushed.. crushed as I had to guess on at least 5.. I knew how to do some of the problems I guessed on and that was the saddest part.

Verbal is usually my worst.. and I actually felt good about it..

Bio gave me a headache.. I ended up reading the question over and over. It was way too complex then what I thought it would be.

🙁 I'm thinking I might have to retake....
 
So I Guess the real MCAT really is a lot more difficlut
That PS section was horrible... what the **** was up with that?
Verbal was slightly more difficult then average and B.S was defiantly more difficult then on AAMC 10 and 11

I got a 31 and 32 on AAMC 10 and 11 and will be thrilled with a 26 on this thing..sorry to be a downer and good luck to everyone
 
Did anyone else feel that the passage length in the VR section was above average? I felt like I was reading forever.
 
The PS section was easy but a couple passages near the end really messed with me. I started getting nervous near the end because I was running out of time so I lost my train of thought.

I'm not really that great at verbal to begin with but I thought the passages were generally easy and the questions weren't that tricky.

The bio section was so-so. I thought the bio questions were easier but the o-chem was a little more challenging.

I didn't have any time to review questions on any of the sections. :/

Overall, I'd say it was an okay experience. I would never take the test at 800am ever again. I'm not a morning person and waking up at 430am was awful.

AAMC 3 - 27
AAMC 4 - 29
AAMC 5 - 30
AAMC 7 - 35
AAMC 8 - 28
AAMC 9 - 30
AAMC 10 - 31

AAMC 3-10 average: 30
AAMC 7-10 average: 31
 
So am I the only one who thought BS wasn't really well rounded? To be discrete, it seemed heavily skewed towards a particular subject. I know that's always a possibility with the MCAT, but this seemed rather drastic. Or maybe my panicked brain is just overestimating the presence of my weaker areas. Any opinions? Without getting too specific, of course.
 
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Wow…. That PS section was INTENSE! So much harder than the practices, in my opinion. Verbal passages were long and the o-chem was so convoluted! Definitely not my favorite test.
 
OKAY So here is my take! I am putting this all in so I can quote this later when the scores come in.

First of all, background:

AAMC 3 10 12 8 (30)
AAMC 5 10 9 9 (28)
AAMC 7 9 11 9 (29)
AAMC 8 12 10 9 (31)
AAMC 9 11 11 10 (32)
AAMC 10 8 11 10 (29)
AAMC 11 8 12 10 (30)

AAMC Average: 10/11/9 (30)
Theoretical Minimum: 8/9/8 (25)
Theoretical Maximum: 12/12/10 (34)

Expected Going In: 10/11/10 (31)

I was nervous heading in, but my pacing ended up being just about where I wanted it.

Physical Sciences: I felt that the passages were all convoluted and had extraneous details that were not needed to answer the questions that were asked of them. I noticed this quickly and for a few of them I only consulted the corresponding passages for one or two questions out of a set. I felt that there were some tricky worded questions and some not so straight forward. I straight up guessed on two of them because I knew doing them out by hand would take me a while and would just be wasting precious time. There were some calculations, but nothing too crazy.

I finished with about 30 seconds left. I feel that I likely scored a 10 with a possibility of an 11. I would be surprised if I was below a 10 on this. Felt pretty standard to me.

Verbal: The verbal sections were all relatively straightforward IMO. They were a little wordy and some of the questions a little tricky, but nothing more than normal. Considering my performances on AAMC 7-11, I felt pretty confident on the passages.

I finished this one just on time as well. I feel pretty confident in an 11 on this with a slight chance of a 12 (fingers crossed). I would be surprised if I got below an 11.

Biological Sciences: This is hard for me to predict. There was more organic chemistry on it than I felt comfortable with. That being said I felt that the bio passages fell into my strong suit for the most part and I didn't have too hard of a time wading through the convoluted passages. To me this felt similar to AAMC 11 in difficulty.

It's harder for me to predict this section because there are at least ~6 questions I straight up guessed on and am unlikely to get right. Assuming a similar scaling to the previous AAMCs I think I may have just barely scooted into a 10, but I wouldn't be surprised with a 9.

In summation: I didn't think that the test I took today was terribly more difficult than AAMC 10 or 11. I do believe that background knowledge I have gained from upper level and graduate biology courses helped me in understanding the concepts presented on the test, but even those that were unfamiliar were doable. The PS had its tough questions, but I'm hoping at least one of the ones I had trouble with was experimental.

As far as specifics on test questions, I can barely remember. I blacked out :laugh:

Final Prediction: 10/11/10 (31) with a maximum of 11/12/10 (33) and a minimum of 9/11/9 (29)

Hope this helps someone! And I hope I don't look like a jackass when I quote this in a month :laugh:

Upon further reflection, I think I either did better than expected or potentially completely bombed and am oblivious to it haha, but this could just be the MCAT hangover talking.
 
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So I Guess the real MCAT really is a lot more difficlut
That PS section was horrible... what the **** was up with that?
Verbal was slightly more difficult then average and B.S was defiantly more difficult then on AAMC 10 and 11

I got a 31 and 32 on AAMC 10 and 11 and will be thrilled with a 26 on this thing..sorry to be a downer and good luck to everyone

Oh man same here... my thoughts exactly.

PS -- what the heck was that! It was like all of the hardest ever Kaplan passages (except the first one) combined with many calculations and really random not easy numbers :\ I was just happy to put an answer down for everything... :\ Ochem sucked too.

Trial section was super easy (psychology), I finished in 15 minutes, it was so much fun. And of course that is the one section that isn't scored :laugh:
 
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So am I the only one who thought BS wasn't really well rounded? To be discrete, it seemed heavily skewed towards a particular subject. I know that's always a possibility with the MCAT, but this seemed rather drastic. Or maybe my panicked brain is just overestimating the presence of my weaker areas. Any opinions? Without getting too specific, of course.
Which subject? just say general like physiology, cell? Not really imo :\
 
Do you think they are a lot more lenient with the real curve cause I almost think they would have to be. Like I said I got a 10 and 11 on physical sciences for AAMC 10 and 11 and the physical sciences section of those tests were MUCH easier then the real thing.
 
A proctor was dogging me; I'm pretty sure she wanted the D. 😉
Also, before the test, someone asked what the door code for the bathroom was. After that person got his answer, this really nervous guy :scared: sitting next to me made this comment to me: "that's one more number we have to memorize". Man, that comment wiped my memory clean, I couldn't even remember the units of Planck's constant, let alone the number. I wanted to ask him if Avogadro's number was 10^-23 or 10^-22 but was too embarrassed. Good thing I didn't, because Avogadro's number doesn't have a negative in the exponent.

Just some humor from my test day to lighten things up. The thick atmosphere of this thread was getting to me.

I'll post my thoughts on the exam after I shower and get some rest. 😍
 
As for PS, long, convoluted passages made it difficult. I had no time left when I guessed on my last question. Prediction-10 (11 avg. AAMC)

VR was a lot easier than normal I thought! It might be reflected in the curve, but I'm usually good under pressure situations and can keep focus but that might have attributed. Prediction-10 (8 avg.)

BS had some tough ochem, and some more detailed bio, but overall I didn't think it was as bad as everyone said it was going to be. I'm generally good at ochem which brings my score up, but it wasn't nearly as easy this time. Prediction-11 (12 avg.)
 
So am I the only one who thought BS wasn't really well rounded? To be discrete, it seemed heavily skewed towards a particular subject. I know that's always a possibility with the MCAT, but this seemed rather drastic. Or maybe my panicked brain is just overestimating the presence of my weaker areas. Any opinions? Without getting too specific, of course.

Absolutely agree. It's impossible to study for months and then go into a test and not lament about all the topics they COULD have tested on that you know and they didn't. It really seemed like half the actual bio stuff was one subject. Looks like a re-take for me but there's no way I'm going to even think about that for a week.

Oh well. I get to see my wife for the first time in two weeks and I have 4 bombers of some craft brews I'm looking forward to opening and reviewing.
 
Absolutely agree. It's impossible to study for months and then go into a test and not lament about all the topics they COULD have tested on that you know and they didn't. It really seemed like half the actual bio stuff was one subject. Looks like a re-take for me but there's no way I'm going to even think about that for a week.

Oh well. I get to see my wife for the first time in two weeks and I have 4 bombers of some craft brews I'm looking forward to opening and reviewing.

Bio was much harder than I expected. I felt like I was reading another language for a second. I wasn't able to focus on what they were asking. I had to sit and draw out the experiments. How did you guys study for Bio? I felt like I didn't study the right way. What's the best source for passages? I feel like that's more needed here over content review. I wasted time memorizing a lot of things..Any strong Bio person help me out??
 
Bio was much harder than I expected. I felt like I was reading another language for a second. I wasn't able to focus on what they were asking. I had to sit and draw out the experiments. How did you guys study for Bio? I felt like I didn't study the right way. What's the best source for passages? I feel like that's more needed here over content review. I wasted time memorizing a lot of things..Any strong Bio person help me out??

I don't know really. I've heard to read bio journal articles to get a feel for reading familiar topics in an unfamiliar way. For me, I had to do content review because I wasn't a bio major of any kind and if I dont use it I lose it.
 
A proctor was dogging me; I'm pretty sure she wanted the D. 😉
Also, before the test, someone asked what the door code for the bathroom was. After that person got his answer, this really nervous guy :scared: sitting next to me made this comment to me: "that's one more number we have to memorize". Man, that comment wiped my memory clean, I couldn't even remember the units of Planck's constant, let alone the number. I wanted to ask him if Avogadro's number was 10^-23 or 10^-22 but was too embarrassed. Good thing I didn't, because Avogadro's number doesn't have a negative in the exponent.

Just some humor from my test day to lighten things up. The thick atmosphere of this thread was getting to me.

I'll post my thoughts on the exam after I shower and get some rest. 😍

hahahahahha thanks for this. I actually laughed out loud.
 
I don't know really. I've heard to read bio journal articles to get a feel for reading familiar topics in an unfamiliar way. For me, I had to do content review because I wasn't a bio major of any kind and if I dont use it I lose it.

I felt like Content Review did not help 🙁 I felt like you had to know how to decipher those passages. I guess you have to practice those?
 
ps. was wayyy to many calculations. i literally didn't do them out for 3 of the questions since i didnt have time. just randomy picked one. UGH.
 
I felt like Content Review did not help 🙁 I felt like you had to know how to decipher those passages. I guess you have to practice those?

This isn't an easy question, but I will give my $0.02. I'm not someone who was getting 13s but I am somebody who is coming from a very unrelated undergrad background. I hadn't touched biology courses for 3 1/2 years when I started my grad program this fall and I definitely don't feel super confident from a "content" background, but what I will say is that the skills I've learned in my graduate classes in reading scientific journal papers then meticulously taking them apart has helped me immensely with these types of passages.

I usually scores 10s, but that is usually because I am not good with content and thus miss anywhere from 5-8 of the discrete questions...and I don't know ochem at all.

What I would do to study for those passages would be to read journal articles and dissect each figure one at a time in it. In journal clubs and class discussions you always ask yourself three things:

1) Why did they make this figure? What are they trying to prove? What question are they trying to answer?
2) What controls did they use? Did they account for all of the variables that could affect this figure?
3) What are the conclusions you can draw from this figure? What are the next logical steps?

Then when you're reading the discussion section of a journal paper really ask yourself if the writer is going beyond the bounds of what was actually shown in the figures. Are they overstating their findings? Understating?

A lot of these passages are set-up like mini research articles. Quick intro paragraph describing the background and problem. A paragraph on problems encountered and findings. Sometimes the findings are put into graph forms and sometimes they just tell you...in those cases I usually write them down separately.

Hope this helps some!
 
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who had issues with PS!! I was so mad that I about ran out of time.
Verbal was rough for me at first...but I think it got easier as it went on, although that might have just been my own concentration snapping back in. Finished that with a few minutes left to review a bit.
BS was disheartening. BS has always been my best score and I feel like it was super focused on things that were not my strong points 👎 I usually finished that section on the AAMC practice tests with ten or fifteen minutes left to review. Not today. So bummed. I was really banking on that section to be solid, like usual.
Oh well. It's over, and now onto the dreaded month of post-MCAT syndrome. Here's to hoping it was enough to pull a 30! And if not, here's to it being over anyway!!

Good luck to everyone!
 
Ps was easy, verbal I thought was hard but I suck at verbal, and BS was slightly harder than usual
 
UGHHHHHH. SO MANY CALCULATIONS. I LITERALLY HAVE A 25% SHOT AT STUPID EASY CALCULATION QUESTIONS I COULD NOT DO BECAUSE THEY WERE AND EFFING WASTE OF TIME. sigh. sorry guys. need to get this out my system.

also ORGO WAS HARDER THAN USUAL.i had to guess on crap and i was getting 13s on aamc bio sections.

I don't want to retake. this sucks.
 
Hope everyone did well (or at least within their range)

My thoughts;

PS: I saw so much that threw me off the first time reading the passages around that I *thought* I was unfamiliar with. Sped through the sections skipping anything remotely difficult, then went back and it was a lil' better. I def made a few dumb mistakes 🙁... also i accidentally clicked the wrong answer for the stoich question
V: Good... 'awesome' reads relative to the dry, expected bull****
B: Good... had to make educated guesses on a couple of o-chem problems, but aside from that, very manageable. EK Audio Osmosis had a lot of that ish drilled in my head

I had time to review for all my sections, but as usual, stupid mistakes will be my undoing

Low end prediction: 8/10/9 ------> 27
High end prediction: 10/13/11 ---> 34
AAMC test average: 30
Trial section: I'm a humanities major so this was pretty light, actually. I just did the questions and skimmed the passage if needed.

it's def not as bad as people have been saying though... being calm is everything. ive also resigned that based on my testing style of just speeding through everything, i'm bound to make mistakes sometimes. o well. maybe i'll be pleasantly surprised. i def felt the same way about it as my other practice exams tho

we're done, though. time to party
 
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Man, I averaged 34 on the aamc's and definitely feel like that was tough. Anyone know of any stories of people feeling like they scored 26 and scoring 31+?
 
Man, I averaged 34 on the aamc's and definitely feel like that was tough. Anyone know of any stories of people feeling like they scored 26 and scoring 31+?

i mean, when i took aamc #8 i genuinely thought i got mid twenties (not the sdn 'omg i thought i got a 5 but got a 43' kind of way) but really struggled and ended up with a 32... it was practice, yea... but you never know. either way, it's out of our hands. the month long wait begins..............................
 
PS knocked me down. It was my strongest section and expected alot to save my score. but no. it killed me. I ran out off time and had to guess at least 5 questions at the end. I never had that timing problem when doing practice tests - I even had 10 min left to review all marked questions. Confidence dropped from the first section. 🙁
VR is easier than I excepted. The passages are interesting. Even though they are longer than usual, the questions are not that bad.
BS is harder than any aamc practice tests. My brain totally packed with heat when i was taking bio. I guessed on some ochem questions too because I had no idea abt them. All I remember is discrete questions are way harder than usual. I took me a lot of time to get the answer or guessed.

Moral lesson: Content review doesn't really help in the real test. Should relax and do more passages rather than reading content intensely 2 days before the test.
 
Alright here it is, my overview of the 05/23/13 MCAT.

This is the last time that I am ever taking this test. It's my fourth time! 😱
I started taking them a few years ago and couldn't break a 30. The level of maturity needed to properly prepare for this test was not something this 21 year old had at the time (I'm 21 right now). I had dropped out of high school, and was taking undergrad very lightly because I was going to finish it in 3 years time. Not putting in any/much studying due to burn out from school, I underestimated this guy THREE times!


Anyway, I had been doing clinical research my first gap year and finally found the time to properly study for the MCAT. 😉

Started in January with videos, audio, review books..I put in the work. I wasted less than $50 on my prep. On Monday, I took CBT-11 and scored a 34 (13/10/11).

My feelings on today's test:
PS: I was a little disappointed because something came up that I had never even seen before. I actually got that question right! Some of the passages were definitely longer than anything I had previously seen on any physical sciences section. It felt as if I was doing verbal or biological sciences. I don't recall much from the exam, except maybe guessing on a very small number of questions. It seemed pretty straight forward. My prediction, a 10.

VR: Always my worst section. No excuses, but I am a European immigrant from a country that doesn't even use the this alphabet. Easiest and most straightforward verbal section I have ever seen. If I recall correctly, I found maybe two passages difficult. Prediction: 9

BS Some boring, convoluted biology passages. 😴😴😴
The rest was a cake. Prediction: 10

Trial: I thought I put down that I took Biochemistry. 🙁 why no biochem???🙁🙁

Complaints: My runny/stuffy nose gave me a headache. Sore throat definitely didn't help either. I always took more than 10 minutes during the breaks, and I can't figure out why.

Life will change from now on. I will find the time now to contemplate why I exist.

[YOUTUBE]YHyF4ZljapI[/YOUTUBE]
 
Absolutely agree. It's impossible to study for months and then go into a test and not lament about all the topics they COULD have tested on that you know and they didn't. It really seemed like half the actual bio stuff was one subject. Looks like a re-take for me but there's no way I'm going to even think about that for a week.

Oh well. I get to see my wife for the first time in two weeks and I have 4 bombers of some craft brews I'm looking forward to opening and reviewing.

My sentiments exactly. Oh well, guess we'll just have to hope for the best!
 
How hard is the real test comparing to AAMC 11? I'm taking it next week and I am nervous like hell

I may be in the minority, but I don't think there is that significant of a difference between the AAMC exams. I also don't think you need to read Bio Journals ad nauseum to do well in that section. BIO = Verbal; the difference is that you need to utilize YOUR background knowledge in a unfamiliar way. You need to go into the test realizing that you are going to be thrown off your game... it's inevitable and that's the point of a standardized test. The question is how fast can you adjust. If it were a normal test, everyone would get 45's reading their books cover to cover.
 
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