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PS - content wise similar to AAMC, but very calculation heavy. Had to guess on more than a few
VR - some hard passages, I always suck at verbal
BS - Easier than my previous MCAT, besides that one passage. Some passages were easy, but then the questions were a bit tricky. And too many damn random discrete questions.
 
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Honestly though, vague answer discussion is mostly only not done due to an honour system. I'm sure historically tons and tons of people discuss this MCATs via private streams and means.

Kinda like cannabis; you can puff it really, just don't sell it.
 
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Estimation of my score:

PS: 10
VR: 8
BS: 12

Verbal was a nightmare. I couldn't focus and pretty much guessed on the first two passages and then moved on. Got better after that except for another one that I was lost about...
 
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catzzz88 said:
I think the question was, "What is the average running speed of a full grown African ostrich?"

I said brown.
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I think the question he was referring to was: planet a is twice the mass of planet b but half the radius, how will this affect the following redox reaction?

I swear that was one of the Question. ;)
 
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azntonyking said:
I think the question he was referring to was: planet a is twice the mass of planet b but half the radius, how will this affect the following redox reaction?

I swear that was one of the Question. ;)
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Oh right! I remember that one too... I said brown for that one as well. :laugh:
 
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Dex87 said:
The most important thing to realize is that schools will NOT even look at you (assuming they've already screened you and given you a secondary) until your secondary is turned in and all your letters are turned in and assigned to their school as well.

Now, there's a few things here. Realize also, that schools will only look at you once. So, if you're waiting for your first ever MCAT score to show up, most schools likely won't send you a secondary until that score is sent to them. But, once your score gets to them...most likely schools will be able to screen you and send you a secondary within a few days. Realize that many school don't even start sending out secondaries until August...regardless of when they got your primary application. Again, the ultimate thing that matters in terms of you getting in at a school is the time they have your primary, secondary, letters, and MCAT score.

Also, if you're "re-taking" the MCAT and want them to look at your new score, you're going to have to indicate you're taking it at a future date on AMCAS. Again, schools will only take the time to look at you once. If your primary indicates that you're scheduled to take another MCAT, they're going to wait to look at you when that MCAT score is in. Last year, I took the MCAT, sent in my applications, etc. I got my score and decided prematurely to re-take the MCAT. When I got e-mails from schools telling me they wouldn't look at me until my new score was in...I changed the option on my primary application that showed I was signed up for a new MCAT date. I figured my original score was good enough to be considered on...then if I got an interview, I could mention that I had since re-taken the MCAT and gotten such and such a score. I ended up not re-taking anyway, and just applying with my original score. Just realize what I'm saying here and that you're decision to re-take also comes with a decision of delaying schools from looking at your application for the first time until your new score is reported.

Otherwise, the ONLY reason people say "get your primary application in the first date" is because processing times usually increase exponentially after the first few weeks it opens...and then you might be facing even more delays. Other than that, the ONLY thing that matters is getting your secondaries in. Typically, early primary = early secondaries = early interviews. But if you're waiting on MCAT scores or a specific letter of rec. then there's nothing you submit now that's going to matter in terms of schools looking at you.
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Thanks dex, cleared up a lot. So basically I need to decide whether/when I'm retaking the MCAT before I submit my AMCAS app (that's what you call the primary right?). If I decide to retake I need to specify that on the AMCAS and pick out a retake date whose scores are released by July/August to minimize chances of my app getting delayed.

1) But I CANNOT send the AMCAS app before deciding about my MCAT, is that correct?

2) The alternative is to just let things be the way they are, and to take the MCAT on the side just for fun and have that as proof in interviews that I retook it and did better, but not have that the score officially be counted by admissions committees.. Right?

Thanks!
 
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wheewer said:
Thanks dex, cleared up a lot. So basically I need to decide whether/when I'm retaking the MCAT before I submit my AMCAS app (that's what you call the primary right?). If I decide to retake I need to specify that on the AMCAS and pick out a retake date whose scores are released by July/August to minimize chances of my app getting delayed.

1) But I CANNOT send the AMCAS app before deciding about my MCAT, is that correct?

2) The alternative is to just let things be the way they are, and to take the MCAT on the side just for fun and have that as proof in interviews that I retook it and did better, but not have that the score officially be counted by admissions committees.. Right?

Thanks!
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1) No. Updating future MCAT testing dates is one of the few things you can edit at anytime--even after your primary application is submitted/verified/etc.

2) This is the idea I had last year. I had already submitted my app and reported my score when I decided to sign up for another MCAT. I didn't know how this would effect the process at the time. Once I updated my primary app with the "new date" I had signed up to take the MCAT, I got e-mails from the schools saying "Since you've indicated that you're scheduled to take the MCAT at a later date, we will with-hold sending you a secondary until this time." I don't know if this is how all schools operate, but quickly after I got that e-mail, I changed the notification on my primary and said I had no plans to take a future MCAT. All the secondaries were sent to me soon after that and interviews were offered based off my original MCAT score. My IDEA was to re-take it anyway, not report it, and that at any interviews I had, just "throw it in there" that I got such and such a score and they'd probably add it to my file. I ended up not even taking it again (well, I did today, actually...haha), but I'm fairly certain that if I had taken it, I could have gotten that score added to my file at the three schools I interviewed at and that it may have played a role in my admissions decision. But, to do this, you have to be confident that your original score is going to get you an interview. When I say they only look at you ONCE, I mean, there is only one initial review given in order to decide whether or not to invite you for an interview. After you're interview, most schools are pretty lenient about letting you add things to your file.

So, with that being said. By all means, get your primaries in early. Even if you're waiting on an MCAT score, it's one less thing you have to worry about. Just apply to ONE school and send in your primary. That way it'll get processed and your grades will be verified. Once your MCAT scores and letters all added to your primary, you can add 30 schools the next day and they'll "get" your application the same day.

Let me know if any of this didn't make sense. Happy to clarify. Still running on adrenaline from today's test. Damn verbal.
 
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Thought the PS was terrible but that had always been my weak point. Ended up guessing on quite a few, unfortunately, but what can you do.

Verbal I thought was fairly straightforward and simple, but verbal is usually my strong point (reading is my favorite hobby).

Bio sciences I think I probably did well on, there were a few questions which have already been discussed that I thought were difficult, but overall not too bad.

Overall, if it sucked it sucked, just gotta take it over again and maybe apply next year. The important thing is that it is OVER!

Now to go actually start studying for the finals in two weeks and write the lab report due Wednesday...XP
 
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P.S: straightforward but i always get thrown off by conceptual qz =/

V: omg i could not stay focused for the life of me for the ENTIRE section, except when i went to the mall...:cool: the third to last and second to last passages were the WORST. I literally put B's straight across the board for both passages bc i ran out of time and could not understand them for the life of me!

BS: i came out thinking it was easy, then i went home and wikipediaed 2 qz only to find i got them wrong =(. That *one* passage i straight up spend the last 20 minutes of my exam trying to figure out only to give up and just take the best guesses possible.

I never got below a 29 on an AAMC (my AAMC average was 31: 10.9PS 9.6V 10.8 BS), yet now i feel like i got a
9PS 7-8V and 10BS =(

looks like my june will be spent studying for a possible retake!
 
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I studied really hard for this test.. literally 3 months straight doing very little else.. (besides some masters coursework in pharmacology) Maybe it was the test-day pressure, but I felt like this test was kinda difficult. I took the Kaplan Advanced class and did FL's 1-8 and all AAMC's.


PS- I usually score 12-14 on practice tests... but marked 5-7 questions that I was unsure of. I feel like since I studied so much for it, whenever I had a question I was not 100% sure, I got bogged down.. test-day pressure.. sigh

VR- This has always been my weakest section (practice tests range from 7-10), but I feel like I did relatively better on this section than the other sections.. I'm trying not to trust post test emotions, however, since I always end up scoring low when ever I think I did well.. lol

BS: Definitely was a little tricky, I marked 7 or so q's but am sure that I was unsure on that many if not a few more.

Kaplan FL Average - 34
AAMC FL Average - 34

Anticipated score: PS 11-13 VR 8-11 BS 12-13

Anticipated total score : 31-37..

They say to not trust post-test emotions, but trust the training. I'll be happy if I hit my average of 34. Will be happier if I get a little higher.
 
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pfaction said:
I expect nothing less than a 35 from you
Click to expand...

Haha, we will see. 28-42 is the range I'm guessing, depending on how good or bad my guesses were. Again I'm kind of hoping for a lower score so I can retake and do well.

wasabee said:
Did you think it was sorta similar to the AAMC tests?
Click to expand...

Yes I thought it was very similar to the AAMC tests. I always answer the discrete questions first so I get to see the passages and put some time in the bank for me to use later. O-chem felt easier, played to my limited strengths, as well as most of bio.

PS seemed math intensive but there were several questions where if you rearranged equations you could get a quick answer.
 
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Am I the only one in this thread who did zero practice tests and only crammed basic material? I only had 1 week to cram before yesterday's test heh.

Honestly right after, I felt that another week or month of studying would not have done anything more, the vast vast majority of memorized knowledge tested in yesterday's MCAT I already knew with the bare minimum cramming I did.

Maybe could have done a bit more verbal practice (I did none) to tighten up the time but doubt it'd make a huge difference as I read as fast as I can read, shaving off 30 more seconds ain't gonna tackle those 5 extra-ambiguous questions miraculously at the very end of the time limit.

So my conclusion is that studying is overrated! :luck: The MCAT seems to test intrinsic cognitive abilities under stress and time restraints and bare minimum of much else.
 
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Did anyone else take the exam in NYC Penn Plaza? A fire alarm went off during the verbal section followed by subsequent strobe lights and some guy over the loudspeaker (twice) explaining in excruciating detail what was going on. I took off my headphones (which seemed to amplify the message somehow) and looked around and no one else seemed to notice. I was freaking out though and lost a lot of time/concentration. SO ANNOYED. :mad:
 
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I thought the only verbal passage that was really tricky was the history-political one and the "deep" one (hopefully that's vague enough - not sure if verbal is really something that can be "spoiled" anyways). But I am not really someone who is interested in politics to begin with so part of the problem was that my eyes started glazing over when I was reading it I think. I've always found it strange that verbal is one of the things that people have a lot of trouble with, because it doesn't require any background knowledge or anything. I get that it's harder to improve on the score because of it and there are a couple of passages that I feel you almost have to guess on in some of the practice tests, but yeah. Then again the physical sciences have always been my weak point and I know most (??) people seem to do pretty well on that so who knows.
 
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jadedenvy said:
I thought the only verbal passage that was really tricky was the history-political one and the "deep" one (hopefully that's vague enough - not sure if verbal is really something that can be "spoiled" anyways). But I am not really someone who is interested in politics to begin with so part of the problem was that my eyes started glazing over when I was reading it I think. I've always found it strange that verbal is one of the things that people have a lot of trouble with, because it doesn't require any background knowledge or anything. I get that it's harder to improve on the score because of it and there are a couple of passages that I feel you almost have to guess on in some of the practice tests, but yeah. Then again the physical sciences have always been my weak point and I know most (??) people seem to do pretty well on that so who knows.
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I'd beg to differ; in my opinion having expertise in a particular topic or field of study (e.g. say...archeology or war history) you'd have a MUCH easier and more efficient time at reading and quickly understanding passages that are on such subjects, furthermore you'd have much more intuition for answering the questions, or even in some cases you could answer questions based purely on your background knowledge of this general field.
 
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Yea man, same here. There was no one passage that just clicked for me. Everything was so random and I guessed a LOT. And there wasn't enough time to penetrate those complex passages and understand them.

And I took it at Penn Plaza too yesterday in NYC but I don't recall an alarm..
 
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At the beginning of the test and during my tutorial, I started writing down an equation sheet and time scale (to keep me on track with where I should be at according to each passage). The scratch paper booklet had 3 staples, so I quietly ripped the first page (and the last page, as they were attached) from the staples (it was totally quiet and considerate). This lady stops by half way through the PS section to tell me "You weren't supposed to separate the book." I then apologized and after about 10 seconds of time wasted she said "Don't worry about it" and continued her rounds. I didn't recall reading anything about not separating your scratch paper booklet, but then again, I don't really recall paying much attention to the rules before the test anyway.
 
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jerg said:
I'd beg to differ; in my opinion having expertise in a particular topic or field of study (e.g. say...archeology or war history) you'd have a MUCH easier and more efficient time at reading and quickly understanding passages that are on such subjects, furthermore you'd have much more intuition for answering the questions, or even in some cases you could answer questions based purely on your background knowledge of this general field.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. There was one verbal passage that I would have had no idea on without the background knowledge that I had.
 
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Whoops - I meant I took it at 675 THIRD AVE in NYC - which is where the fire alarm situation ensued. But ANYWAY...

Would you rather:

A) Only eat prune juice until you found out your score but then you were guaranteed above a 30.

OR

B) Wait and get your real score but you couldn't retake.
 
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Chinchy said:
Whoops - I meant I took it at 675 THIRD AVE in NYC - which is where the fire alarm situation ensued. But ANYWAY...

Would you rather:

A) Only eat prune juice until you found out your score but then you were guaranteed above a 30.

OR

B) Wait and get your real score but you couldn't retake.
Click to expand...

I choose A). Also I would choose A even if it were something worse. Like only eat every other day and drinking only spoiled prune juice.
 
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How do u guys think the Individual Sections will be curved this time around compared to the AMCAS practice tests?
 
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blo said:
Though this is true, it would be mere coincidence if a passage discussed one's area of expertise. The exception might be history and philosophy majors, who may be relatively familiar with the content of several passages. Regardless, keep in mind that the questions rarely address content, because that would be "easy." Rather, they are typically about the author's tone, hypotheticals ("If all of the following statements are true, which would least support the author's argument?"), and the nuances of the passage.



Before I took my exam a few months ago, I specifically asked about this. The plan was to rip off the front page of the scratch paper booklet, write like crazy, and have a separate equation sheet to which I could refer. That was the plan; the TCA said I could not do it. :(

I also asked about having multiple scratch paper booklets, as I am a very visual person and drawing helps me, especially with orgo. But that was not allowed, either! The protocol states that if you fill up one booklet, you have to exchange it for another one. And if the first one has all your equations in it, and if you can't rip off pages ... you get the picture.
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Lucky. At my testing center we had these crappy glossy plastic "paper" pads and were provided with dry mashed up sharpie markers only to write on those, and a marker eraser. I found it so distracting trying to shake ink out of the damn sharpies to do anything constructive on those.
 
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Hey - on a happy note... we are done with MCAT studying for at least a month if you aren't set on a retake. What do ya'll plan on doing now with this time?

Priority number one for me is to get back in the gym, slacked off this past month and it's already summer! Not to turn this into a bb or worse yet a misc thread, but I would like to put on 10 lbs of muscle this summer while staying lean. I was ~205 a year ago after college sport season, ~185 now, although some was fat I lost a bit of muscle, gotta put it back on. Still working on my first muscle-up, hard if you're not 150 pounds =/
 
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kasho11 said:
Hey - on a happy note... we are done with MCAT studying for at least a month if you aren't set on a retake. What do ya'll plan on doing now with this time?

Priority number one for me is to get back in the gym, slacked off this past month and it's already summer! Not to turn this into a bb or worse yet a misc thread, but I would like to put on 10 lbs of muscle this summer while staying lean. I was ~205 a year ago after college sport season, ~185 now, although some was fat I lost a bit of muscle, gotta put it back on. Still working on my first muscle-up, hard if you're not 150 pounds =/
Click to expand...

good luck!
 
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I'm going to try to focus on finishing up school now (on a quarter system, not finished until mid June), work on my personal statement and CV and pretty much everything else that I've been ignoring in favor of grades/MCAT.

On a more fun and personal note, may actually have time to play a round of Borderlands or TF2 with my friends now. :)
 
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since a lot of us found ourselves guessing on many more questions than we normally do (in verbal), can we expect a more generous curve that the ones for the AAMCs? I've never been more uncertain of a verbal section before. I usually get 10/11s on EK and AAMC but I feel like my score could be as low as 7 and as high as 11 depending on how I guessed
 
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Dunno dude(ette). Best thing is not to worry about it, what's done is done. The fact is that no one knows how ANY administered MCAT is graded etc. :/
 
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you can complain about it, nothing will get done about your test though and i don't think you can get a partial refund or anything but it's worth trying
 
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Now that I have had a few days to reflect on it, I will leave my input of the exam.

PS: A few difficult questions, but overall, I thought it wasn't too difficult. Thanks to all the Kaplan Full Lengths I took.

Verbal: I actually enjoyed this section of the test. This is usually my major weakness, but I felt like I understood all of the passages.

Writing: Not too bad

BS: I felt like this was the most difficult section of the test. With that being said, I thought it was still very doable and depending upon my guesses, I could have scored really well.
 
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study pray love said:
P.S: straightforward but i always get thrown off by conceptual qz =/

V: omg i could not stay focused for the life of me for the ENTIRE section, except when i went to the mall...:cool: the third to last and second to last passages were the WORST. I literally put B's straight across the board for both passages bc i ran out of time and could not understand them for the life of me!

BS: i came out thinking it was easy, then i went home and wikipediaed 2 qz only to find i got them wrong =(. That *one* passage i straight up spend the last 20 minutes of my exam trying to figure out only to give up and just take the best guesses possible.

I never got below a 29 on an AAMC (my AAMC average was 31: 10.9PS 9.6V 10.8 BS), yet now i feel like i got a
9PS 7-8V and 10BS =(

looks like my june will be spent studying for a possible retake!
Click to expand...


HAHA i spent 20 minutes on that passage also. I came back to it last..Honestly, it was terrible to figure out the questions, but the questions, as usual were tricky.
 
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My aamc verbal practice scores ranged from 11-15 and I did not feel confident about this verbal section. The first passage I felt was the hardest and then I barely maintained my timing on the rest of the passages. The "mall" passage I confused myself on one of the earlier problems and at the last second I had left I switched an answer for no good reason. PS had some tough questions but overall didn't feel bad, but verbal did not feel good... not at all.

It feels sort of strange not taking tests anymore, I started taking practice tests in late January and I got through 19 of them plus several Kaplan section tests. It became a habit to take a test on Saturday. I can say at the moment I genuinely miss studying for the mcat. But good news! I probably choked for some reason, just like I did on aamc 11, and I can retake it in June!
 
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Oh and Catzzz I can't remember the deep passage at all anymore. I do now remember the geology based passage and yes, it was tough.
 
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kasho11 said:
My aamc verbal practice scores ranged from 11-15 and I did not feel confident about this verbal section. The first passage I felt was the hardest and then I barely maintained my timing on the rest of the passages. The "mall" passage I confused myself on one of the earlier problems and at the last second I had left I switched an answer for no good reason. PS had some tough questions but overall didn't feel bad, but verbal did not feel good... not at all.

It feels sort of strange not taking tests anymore, I started taking practice tests in late January and I got through 19 of them plus several Kaplan section tests. It became a habit to take a test on Saturday. I can say at the moment I genuinely miss studying for the mcat. But good news! I probably choked for some reason, just like I did on aamc 11, and I can retake it in June!
Click to expand...

How are you going to take it in June? Scores don't come out until July, and seats will be full until August then. You're going to retake before getting your score when you mite get a 38?
 
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I feel like IcySnow. The topics of passages were my preferred ones and more enjoyable than usual for me. I thought the passages were very understandable, ranging from the geology one to the deep one, although the geology one took up 11 mins and let me short for the war passage at the end. Aside from the war passage where I had to guess on a few cause of time constraints, I thought to myself many times "I know this is the right answer."
 
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AllDay24 said:
I feel like IcySnow. The topics of passages were my preferred ones and more enjoyable than usual for me. I thought the passages were very understandable, ranging from the geology one to the deep one, although the geology one took up 11 mins and let me short for the war passage at the end. Aside from the war passage where I had to guess on a few cause of time constraints, I thought to myself many times "I know this is the right answer."
Click to expand...

Lucky.... I had a lot of trouble focusing with verbal. I think I got a 7 or an 8 when my average has been an 11 with a range of 9-13. I have NEVER felt as terrible about verbal as I did on the real thing. It was nightmarish!
 
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Haha whoops I meant July. See how braindead this experience has made me? That one passage about the man walking in PS... that's the one thing I didn't wanna see. I laughed out loud when I saw it.

Do you really think they take a whole month just to grade essays? If so, then people's tests next year when the writing is gone better get scored immediately - or else I'll have real suspicions that they are doing something fishy with the grading/curving.

On another note I have legitimately read the 30+ MCAT study habits thread more than 20 times in its entirety. Before the real test it made me hopeful looking at other people's practice scores and study habits . Looking at it now I just get depressed and anxious.
 
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