The Official 7/2/2009 MCAT Club

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rprasan1985

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Alright, so you want to take the MCAT. You've found the urge to be a doctor, or you're doing it because you're pre-med, didn't realize what you were signing up for, and feel it's too late to back out now:p.

You've figured out where you stand, how far you need to go, and decided that the best date to take the MCAT is the 2nd of July 2009 because:

I) You want to fall into the 'early application' bucket, but still want to postpone it as far out as possible (else you'd have registered for June 18th ;))
II) You want to study your ass off over summer break, but still want to be done in time for the July 4th weekend
III) This is your second/third/fourth... attempt, and you've promised yourself this will be the lastest time everest.

Which of the above is/are true?

A) I only
B) I and II only
C) II and III only
D) I, II and III
E) None of the above, you crazy nerd. Stop wasting your time framing mindless questions and start studying already.

Anyhow, folks, welcome to the Official 7/2/2009 MCAT Club!!! We're all in this together, so let's lick this sucker!
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its much much MUCH easier not to think about my score when there's a marathon of my favorite tv show on!! :) thank you USA channel
 
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Finally done with the primary. I know it's kinda late, I spent too much time editing my essays. Anyway, I'm done! yaay!!!!

On to secondaries.... sigh

MCAT score in exactly a week.

Please, please don't bust my bubble, MCAT.
 
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I'm into talking more about the MCAT, if that means a higher score :)

What section did you guys find the most difficult?
 
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AspiringDOC2010 said:
I'm into talking more about the MCAT, if that means a higher score :)

What section did you guys find the most difficult?
Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe it will be a self-fulfilling type of thing!! :p

Verbal, hands down. I'm hoping to get at least an 8, with which I would be very happy with!
 
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I'm glad to hear that you thought it was more difficult. Man, I too hope I can get at least an 8 in Verbal. But it seems like each MCAT administration (from what I've read in the other threads) has one really difficult section. I thought PS was doable, Bio was moderate, and Verbal was just really tough. I just hate to think that I might have to retake because of Verbal. But you know it's funny, I've seen a few cases where people do better in the section they thought they did the worst in. Maybe we can attribute this to a curve/adjusted scale??
 
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AspiringDOC2010 said:
I'm glad to hear that you thought it was more difficult. Man, I too hope I can get at least an 8 in Verbal. But it seems like each MCAT administration (from what I've read in the other threads) has one really difficult section. I thought PS was doable, Bio was moderate, and Verbal was just really tough. I just hate to think that I might have to retake because of Verbal. But you know it's funny, I've seen a few cases where people do better in the section they thought they did the worst in. Maybe we can attribute this to a curve/adjusted scale??
Click to expand...

I thought BS was the toughest, followed by Verbal then PS... and I hated the writing prompts, I probably only spent 20 min on each of them.

So I have my primary submitted and in ONE WEEK we find out our scores... does anyone know how to hibernate? I think that's what I would really prefer to do between now and Aug 4th.
 
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For me Verbal was impossible. I would love to just get a decent score in that section. But like always that really hard section sometimes ends up being your highest score. My friend took the June 18th and he swore that his Bio was horrendous and that he bombed it....he got a 10 in that section so
 
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sustentacular said:
I thought BS was the toughest, followed by Verbal then PS... and I hated the writing prompts, I probably only spent 20 min on each of them.

So I have my primary submitted and in ONE WEEK we find out our scores... does anyone know how to hibernate? I think that's what I would really prefer to do between now and Aug 4th.
Click to expand...

ditto on the hibernation.
 
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i'm just nervous about PS because my mind had a miniature seizure during the test right in the area where all of my information about sound waves is stored. i swear they asked a few questions in multiple ways just to confuse me...
 
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DrHillerStyle said:
MCAT...so aptly named.
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My top schools are really up in the air, but I guess LSU, UNC, U of A, Illinois at Chicago, and if a super MCAT UNC...

If I dont get a good score, then prolly take a year off and then reapply.

This year, I will finish school and play a lot of golf!!!!!!
 
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AspiringDOC2010 said:
I'm glad to hear that you thought it was more difficult. Man, I too hope I can get at least an 8 in Verbal. But it seems like each MCAT administration (from what I've read in the other threads) has one really difficult section. I thought PS was doable, Bio was moderate, and Verbal was just really tough. I just hate to think that I might have to retake because of Verbal. But you know it's funny, I've seen a few cases where people do better in the section they thought they did the worst in. Maybe we can attribute this to a curve/adjusted scale??
Click to expand...

I thought Bio was (relative the other 2 sections) the toughest, followed by Verbal, then Physics.
 
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My strategy is to pretend I got my AAMC average and move on with my life so I don't lose my job and forget to fill out secondaries. Then again I'm on SDN at 11:30 so you can see how well that's working. It's probably the .5 in my average that's throwing me off :(.
 
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MCATBear said:
My strategy is to pretend I got my AAMC average and move on with my life so I don't lose my job and forget to fill out secondaries. Then again I'm on SDN at 11:30 so you can see how well that's working. It's probably the .5 in my average that's throwing me off :(.
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The rule is to round up, no? :D

To those of you who thought bio was the hardest - was it really the experiment-style passages? I found that I was most caught off-guard by the organic passages. I swear, one of the questions I looked up when I got home and the answer was an exception to the rule. I was irked.
 
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I don't remember struggling too much with the Orgo passages. The HIV and RNA editing passages were fine. Yea, I guess the mice one was just weird. I didn't really understand what was going on in that passage. The C. elegans, while also a sort of weird passage, had some easy questions (if I remember correctly). But by the time I was doing Bio, I was getting tired and I was pretty bumbed out about Verbal.
 
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I guess the orgo passages themselves weren't awful. I might just be making them a lot worse in my head because of that one question I know I got wrong. I'll go with that. haha.
 
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CielloStelatto said:
The rule is to round up, no? :D

To those of you who thought bio was the hardest - was it really the experiment-style passages? I found that I was most caught off-guard by the organic passages. I swear, one of the questions I looked up when I got home and the answer was an exception to the rule. I was irked.
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Orgo was definitely my nemesis. The experiment-based passages I didn't mind too much (dare I say I even liked them?!). But Orgo was harder than usual for sure, and I am never ever confident in Orgo. In the AAMC practice tests I did great in Orgo, but it never felt that way while actually taking the test. I have the same knot-in-my-tummy feeling about Orgo on the real test. Hopefully it will transpire the way it always does. But who knows?

I didn't look up any answers after coming back home. Ignorance is bliss, imo :p
 
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i just looked up two because they were bothering me so much. if i didn't, i'm sure it would have turned into a dream. back in my orgo days, i had a couple of dreams about carbocations and carbonyls getting into fights
 
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gomed said:
you guys think 37/52 would lead to a 10?
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Based on the AAMC practice tests, a 37/52 seems to be a 9 the good majority of the time. I saw once on BS it gave you a 10, and once on PS that it gives you an 8. So I guess we'll find out in 6 days :(
 
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I can't believe it's only a few more days until we get our scores. I have to work in the afternoon on Monday, I'm going to be stressed.
 
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AspiringDOC2010 said:
Why would you say that we had a relatively ****ed up test?
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To start, i feel the word count was the higher in all sections and in total than any other aamc. Maybe not higher than all the Kaplan tests, but definitely higher than all the aamcs.

Then second, they had a lot of wacky questions that were not easily deducible. These questions are usually on the test, but not in as large of a proportion that i had them.

The word count problem and high proportion of thinking questions (as opposed to solving problem questions by using some method you know or are at least vaguely aware of) made this test a ****ed up test. But not just ****ed up in the sense that ok it was alittle harder than what i expected. ****ed up in the sense that it wasnt the same test that i put in hundreds and hundreds of hours studying for. For those who are using the aamc's to practice at the begining they have boxes that say easy, medium, and hard. I always hit medium, but if i had to go back i would definetly practice "hard".
 
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Qcumber4life said:
To start, i feel the word count was the higher in all sections and in total than any other aamc. Maybe not higher than all the Kaplan tests, but definitely higher than all the aamcs.

Then second, they had a lot of wacky questions that were not easily deducible. These questions are usually on the test, but not in as large of a proportion that i had them.

The word count problem and high proportion of thinking questions (as opposed to solving problem questions by using some method you know or are at least vaguely aware of) made this test a ****ed up test. But not just ****ed up in the sense that ok it was alittle harder than what i expected. ****ed up in the sense that it wasnt the same test that i put in hundreds and hundreds of hours studying for. For those who are using the aamc's to practice at the begining they have boxes that say easy, medium, and hard. I always hit medium, but if i had to go back i would definetly practice "hard".
Click to expand...

Agreed. I wouldn't say it was a ****ed up test, but it definitely had some different things about it that made it tricky, especially if you practiced with the aamc practice tests.
 
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Qcumber4life said:
To start, i feel the word count was the higher in all sections and in total than any other aamc. Maybe not higher than all the Kaplan tests, but definitely higher than all the aamcs.

Then second, they had a lot of wacky questions that were not easily deducible. These questions are usually on the test, but not in as large of a proportion that i had them.

The word count problem and high proportion of thinking questions (as opposed to solving problem questions by using some method you know or are at least vaguely aware of) made this test a ****ed up test. But not just ****ed up in the sense that ok it was alittle harder than what i expected. ****ed up in the sense that it wasnt the same test that i put in hundreds and hundreds of hours studying for. For those who are using the aamc's to practice at the begining they have boxes that say easy, medium, and hard. I always hit medium, but if i had to go back i would definetly practice "hard".
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Yup Yup. What happened to optics, or even circuits and electromagnetism for that matter? I am still willing to concede that the difficulty of the PS and BS sections were just due to test-day jitters, but the VR was without a doubt more difficult than the AAMCs (as you said, via word count).

Everything was asked in a different way, so you really had to know your stuff. For instance, there was a (pseudo) Mendelian discrete on mine, but it required no probability calculations (which is something I practiced endlessly), and had to be answered strictly by inference from the question. No way you could have "studied" for that question in the traditional sense.
 
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Soo.... haha i just had my first score report dream last night... haha anyone else had this? I guess its getting close enough to start invading my mind. Anyways it was a dream i got a 42... haha yea right, but hey even if my score comes back terrible i enjoyed a dream of a 42. With my nerves going a 32 would be great.
 
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Qcumber4life said:
To start, i feel the word count was the higher in all sections and in total than any other aamc. Maybe not higher than all the Kaplan tests, but definitely higher than all the aamcs.

Then second, they had a lot of wacky questions that were not easily deducible. These questions are usually on the test, but not in as large of a proportion that i had them.

The word count problem and high proportion of thinking questions (as opposed to solving problem questions by using some method you know or are at least vaguely aware of) made this test a ****ed up test. But not just ****ed up in the sense that ok it was alittle harder than what i expected. ****ed up in the sense that it wasnt the same test that i put in hundreds and hundreds of hours studying for. For those who are using the aamc's to practice at the begining they have boxes that say easy, medium, and hard. I always hit medium, but if i had to go back i would definetly practice "hard".
Click to expand...

The real deal always has longer passages than the AAMC ones. This is a common complaint.

There seemed to be more logic and reading comprehension based questions in biology than normal. So that might throw you off. I wouldn't get upset until you see your score.

PS- felt like a harder AAMC to me just because it hit some weaknesses.

Verbal- seemed fine besides running low on time at the end.

Biology- best I ever felt about this section. I guess I got luck that it hit my strength.

So I'm the opposite of everyone else.

It felt like a very fair test, but I took March 28th this year too, so I only know what a really bad one feels like.
 
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How did everyone think the exam compared to the Kaplan full lengths (if you took any) ? I didn't take any of the AAMC tests (poor planning on my part) but I found I was typically running out of time on the PS and Verbal Kaplan sections, which didn't happen on test day. I also thought the Kaplan Verbal passages were way longer than the ones on test day.
 
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cah87 said:
The real deal always has longer passages than the AAMC ones. This is a common complaint.

There seemed to be more logic and reading comprehension based questions in biology than normal. So that might throw you off. I wouldn't get upset until you see your score.

PS- felt like a harder AAMC to me just because it hit some weaknesses.

Verbal- seemed fine besides running low on time at the end.

Biology- best I ever felt about this section. I guess I got luck that it hit my strength.

So I'm the opposite of everyone else.

It felt like a very fair test, but I took March 28th this year too, so I only know what a really bad one feels like.
Click to expand...

Mind telling me how you felt you did after the March 28th and how you actually did? Thanks.
 
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jal06c said:
Mind telling me how you felt you did after the March 28th and how you actually did? Thanks.
Click to expand...

The July 2nd test wasn't for fun ;). I thought I did about average because I knew it was going to be harder than the practice tests and overall longer, but I felt like everything was doable. Then everyone was freaking out about how impossible everything was, so I felt like I would score at least at my average. I ended scoring 5 points below my average, the majority in one section. The lowest score I've ever gotten on a test. I had some personal problems the week prior that I thought I had gotten over, so I'm assuming they were still affecting me.

First test was mostly a blur and I barely remember any of the passages. This time I remember reasoning through the problems and didn't mark as many as I normally do in practice. You never really feel awesome after the test though. There's always something you wish you had the time for or that you remembered during the test.
 
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Anyone else checking the THx juuuuuust in case it's done early? Sigh I'm dying to know now that it's so close haha
 
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Auriga said:
Anyone else checking the THx juuuuuust in case it's done early? Sigh I'm dying to know now that it's so close haha
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I actually checked it a few days after the test. One of my Kaplan instructors said that his test scores had come out a few days early so maybe it could happen.
 
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sustentacular said:
I actually checked it a few days after the test. One of my Kaplan instructors said that his test scores had come out a few days early so maybe it could happen.
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:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: a few days early??? I haven't heard anyone else say that. (I just checked before I logged on to SDN... slow day at work. No research to be done today haha). But now that I saw you said that, Im going to be even more obsessive compulsive about checking. Dang it. haha.
 
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So just to split hairs, coz the wait is totally killing me.... Yesterday was 4 weeks, Saturday is exactly 30 days, Sunday is 1 month, and I have a printout that shows scores are released by Aug 4. :scared:
 
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Auriga said:
So just to split hairs, coz the wait is totally killing me.... Yesterday was 4 weeks, Saturday is exactly 30 days, Sunday is 1 month, and I have a printout that shows scores are released by Aug 4. :scared:
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impressive number-crunching... way to lose sleep over the MCAT ;)
 
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hsb2 said:
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: a few days early??? I haven't heard anyone else say that. (I just checked before I logged on to SDN... slow day at work. No research to be done today haha). But now that I saw you said that, Im going to be even more obsessive compulsive about checking. Dang it. haha.
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Yep, he said "a few days early" and had taken the test last spring/summer sometime.

Won't we get an e-mail saying "your MCAT scores are now available" or something like that?

also: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/reserving/deadlineandscorerelease.htm it says "tentative release date" so I supposed that could mean early... or late :\
 
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sustentacular said:
Yep, he said "a few days early" and had taken the test last spring/summer sometime.

Won't we get an e-mail saying "your MCAT scores are now available" or something like that?

also: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/reserving/deadlineandscorerelease.htm it says "tentative release date" so I supposed that could mean early... or late :\
Click to expand...

No, you won't get an email. And I wouldn't count on it being early. All but two tests have been released on time this year. And AAMC is getting into their busiest season.
 
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