The Official 7/28/2011 MCAT Club!

Boost your MCAT score by 12 points or more.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
YouNeverKnow22

YouNeverKnow22

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
May 14, 2009
Messages
2,127
Reaction score
3
Sup guys :D
Members don't see this ad.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Members don't see this ad :)
zwander said:
Did anyone feel terrible about verbal!?
Click to expand...

Verbal was tough IMO. it seemed as though the passages were pretty abstract. I found myself fishing through the passage to get to the answers. I had ~6 minutes for the last passage and it wasn't enough time for me to get down everything.

I think that I had to guess on more questions than usual in verbal in order to finish, which has me worried.


Bio was definitely really hard as well. I know that I got 2 questions wrong off the bat. idk, its going to be a long month
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
snorlax said:
Each day, I feel like I did worse and worse on PS. I am getting increasingly worried.
Click to expand...

I feel like I killed VR, solid on BS, but the more blurry PS becomes I just get a general feeling of badness
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Has anybody signed up for a Sept. MCAT and is still studying? In case scores come back and their lower than expected. I feel like a month of steady studying in August could make a difference of 2-3, with some luck of course hah. What do you guys think?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iceman55 said:
Has anybody signed up for a Sept. MCAT and is still studying? In case scores come back and their lower than expected. I feel like a month of steady studying in August could make a difference of 2-3, with some luck of course hah. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

i voided and am signed up for sept 8th. i didn't get to do AAMC 8, 10, and 11 so i'm going through the TPR science workbook.

i feel like TBR while amazing, is only good for the hardest of the passages. the basic easy to medium passages were more difficult for me because i forgot important details that TBR never stressed. hopefully i get enough practice in and i'm ready to go.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iceman55 said:
Has anybody signed up for a Sept. MCAT and is still studying? In case scores come back and their lower than expected. I feel like a month of steady studying in August could make a difference of 2-3, with some luck of course hah. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I registered for Sept 2nd. I had some serious performance anxiety and feel I can do better than whatever I got in July. I'm still holding out hope though...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I did so bad on verbal that I couldn't finish...
Do you guys think that I should sign up on Sep?
Would that be enough time to improve my verbal from average of 5 to, maybe 8?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well, after 9 days' worth of emotional decompression, I think I'm finally ready to share my thoughts. This was a retake for me... I did pretty well the first time, but I fell a few points shy of my practice average and was unpleasantly surprised by the result, so I decided to throw myself in the ring again. I took first on 3/26, and this one seemed very comparable. My impressions, by section:

PS: Lulled me into a false sense of security because the first fewpassages seemed incredibly straightforward. Because I wasn't feeling pressured, I went at a pretty leisurely pace, and when I met with some harder concepts, I needed extra time that just wasn't there. From what I recall doing practice FL's, there were always 2 sections of discretes, and the fact that there were 3 on this one threw me off a little as well. Consequently, I ended up guessing on a couple questions in the last passage and on 3 or so discretes.

VR: It's just.... VR.... I had no trouble finishing, and I didn't feel the questions were any trickier than usual, but through practice I've found that my VR score vacillates pretty wildly even though my post-game impressions remain fairly consistent. No idea. Felt like a 15, but it never is.

WS: Prompts were not on abstruse subjects, and I ended up writing quite a bit more this go-round than I did on my first sitting. I did not treat this section as a "break," but even so, it ended up feeling like a respite of sorts. It was nice to feel "in control" of the content of this section, and the "differentness" of this section vs. the others was refreshing. I felt reinvigorated for BS.

BS: Very standard fare imo. Contrary to most people in here, I thought BS was quite a bit easier than PS. Organic chemistry is not my forte, but the orgo questions seemed a lot easier than they could have been (with maybe one or two exceptions). I can't remember anything particularly troubling from this entire seciton. People have mentioned that the MCAT may be moving away from pure rote-memory/fact-based questions, but I felt there were still a good mix of these with the passage-analysis-type q's.

For me, timing has always been the biggest concern. I'm a deliberate test-taker (i.e. I check/recheck like a beast and am not content to guess and move on when I don't understand something), and this seriously hurt my score on my first few practice FL's. Over the course of time, however, I learned to pace myself and on the last few AAMC's I completed all sections without having to blindly guess on any questions. However, on both of my actual sittings, I fell into my old ways and struggled to finish within time limits. The first time, I had to guess on 3-5 q's in both PS and BS (ironically, I never have trouble finishing VR, which seems opposite of most people). This time, I only struggled with the PS.

In terms of content, I think this test was equivalent to 3/26, but because I managed my time and emotions better, I'd be very, very surprised if I did not improve.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
BHaus9 said:
Well, after 9 days' worth of emotional decompression, I think I'm finally ready to share my thoughts. This was a retake for me... I did pretty well the first time, but I fell a few points shy of my practice average and was unpleasantly surprised by the result, so I decided to throw myself in the ring again. I took first on 3/26, and this one seemed very comparable. My impressions, by section:

PS: Lulled me into a false sense of security because the first fewpassages seemed incredibly straightforward. Because I wasn't feeling pressured, I went at a pretty leisurely pace, and when I met with some harder concepts, I needed extra time that just wasn't there. From what I recall doing practice FL's, there were always 2 sections of discretes, and the fact that there were 3 on this one threw me off a little as well. Consequently, I ended up guessing on a couple questions in the last passage and on 3 or so discretes.

VR: It's just.... VR.... I had no trouble finishing, and I didn't feel the questions were any trickier than usual, but through practice I've found that my VR score vacillates pretty wildly even though my post-game impressions remain fairly consistent. No idea. Felt like a 15, but it never is.

WS: Prompts were not on abstruse subjects, and I ended up writing quite a bit more this go-round than I did on my first sitting. I did not treat this section as a "break," but even so, it ended up feeling like a respite of sorts. It was nice to feel "in control" of the content of this section, and the "differentness" of this section vs. the others was refreshing. I felt reinvigorated for BS.

BS: Very standard fare imo. Contrary to most people in here, I thought BS was quite a bit easier than PS. Organic chemistry is not my forte, but the orgo questions seemed a lot easier than they could have been (with maybe one or two exceptions). I can't remember anything particularly troubling from this entire seciton. People have mentioned that the MCAT may be moving away from pure rote-memory/fact-based questions, but I felt there were still a good mix of these with the passage-analysis-type q's.

For me, timing has always been the biggest concern. I'm a deliberate test-taker (i.e. I check/recheck like a beast and am not content to guess and move on when I don't understand something), and this seriously hurt my score on my first few practice FL's. Over the course of time, however, I learned to pace myself and on the last few AAMC's I completed all sections without having to blindly guess on any questions. However, on both of my actual sittings, I fell into my old ways and struggled to finish within time limits. The first time, I had to guess on 3-5 q's in both PS and BS (ironically, I never have trouble finishing VR, which seems opposite of most people). This time, I only struggled with the PS.

In terms of content, I think this test was equivalent to 3/26, but because I managed my time and emotions better, I'd be very, very surprised if I did not improve.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, there are ALWAYS three sets of discreets that add up to 13 questions on each of the sciences - typically after the 2nd, 5th and 7th passages.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
Hey guys I also took the 7/28/11 test...and here are my thoughts..

PS- Some really straightforward questions (had me thinking are they really asking me this)?....and then came ONE passage where I felt like I was guessing a whole lot...few passages were simple...overall i felt the section was very conceptual.

VB- Thought the passages were not difficult to read, and weren't too boring. However, the questions still seemed tricky...I was between two choices for a few of them....and verbal is always up in the air.

BS- This section seemed the most difficult to me. A couple passages were pretty tricky and the orgo was ridiculous. (Idk if some others feel the same) I had to guess on a few of the orgo questions. Hoping for the best on this section.

I left the test confused as to what happened and wanted to void, but still managed enough courage to have it scored. I'm hoping for the best.

Good luck to everyone else!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I thought the organic on the test was more difficult than practice exams and it is by far my best subject.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
my test had haaaaardly any orgo on it, and from what I remember, it was VERY straightforward. Orgo is my weakest subject and I felt really confident about my answers. Really makes me wonder how many versions of the test there are per sitting...

Either way, TWENTY DAYS LEFT!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ahhh I am so nervous..... I think I did worse then my practice tests by far.... I feel like I'd be lucky to get a 30 even though I need much higher to balance out my lower gpa. Apparently you're suppose to feel like this. FML
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have been lurking on this thread for awhile, so I thought I'd finally share my thoughts

PS- Very conceptual. Very few calculations. There was one passage I had to digest a little.

VR- Passages were easier to read but the questions were pretty tricky. I felt like was guessing a lot. I had to blindly guess on the last 5 questions (aka the last passage) because I ran out of time, and just chose B.

BS-Some very long passages than AAMC practice tests. I felt like I really had to understand the passages when I usually just skim science passages. Very little orgo but I definitley felt like I guessed on the orgo passages.

Overall, I felt like this test was more like AAMC 9 and 10 which kind of through me off. I prepared with gold standard tests so I was expecting the test to be like AAMC 11 and gold standard PS sections, with lots of calculations, but it was more conceptual. This is retake for me from 4/29/2011 mcat. That test was more like AAMC 11, with lots of calculations.

I walked out happy but confused. I was happy that I gave it my best and was able to finish almost everything on time except for the 5 verbal questions, but I was concerned because I didn't know how I did. Felt like i did alot of guessing. During the April test, I walked out feeling like I seriously bombed because I ran out of time on almost everything, and I did bomb :rolleyes:. This test felt better walking out but I'm not sure how well I did. I hope the SDN trend is right and I did better than I thought. I feel like I got a minimum 23 and a max 25.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kanna15 said:
BS-Some very long passages than AAMC practice tests. I felt like I really had to understand the passages when I usually just skim science passages. Very little orgo but I definitley felt like I guessed on the orgo passages.
Click to expand...

This!

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was running out of time, the large number of reactions on the screen or just difficult passages but the orgo definitely gave me some problems. I usually do really well on orgo so I'm not too sure what happened.

Either way I'm hoping for a 30+ :xf:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JRG said:
This!

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was running out of time, the large number of reactions on the screen or just difficult passages but the orgo definitely gave me some problems. I usually do really well on orgo so I'm not too sure what happened.

Either way I'm hoping for a 30+ :xf:
Click to expand...

Ditto...I really hope I got a 30+. Usually orgo is easy to figure out just by applying gen chem. But the test did have some difficult concepts to grasp.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
yanqin4.jpg

yanqin2.jpg

yanqin3.jpg

The organic on the test was more difficult than practice exams and it is by far my best subject.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
do you guys think the scale for the PS and BS sections are going to be similar to AAMC 11, stricter, or more lenient?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Let's say scores come back and they are much lower than you expected or wanted. What are you going to do? Who plans in taking it in sept and who plans on waiting another year?

I have so much doubt right now, but I think I'll just apply next year if this happens. Dude this month has been torture.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iTobiasFunke said:
Let's say scores come back and they are much lower than you expected or wanted. What are you going to do? Who plans in taking it in sept and who plans on waiting another year?
Click to expand...

I put all my chips in this cycle...I already submitted my primary and am praying that my MCAT score is around my avg. (32ish) It may seem cocky to claim this but I dont believe I have any glaring weaknesses in my application to the point where I would really benefit from waiting another year. Even if my MCAT is say high 20s I still feel I have a good shot at my state schools and some other mid tier schools. Its just one part of the app, though still important.

Lets everyone hold fast hope...its just one exam of the hundreds we have and will take in our aspiring career. And Id wager it was not nearly the most difficult of them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iTobiasFunke said:
Let's say scores come back and they are much lower than you expected or wanted. What are you going to do? Who plans in taking it in sept and who plans on waiting another year?

I have so much doubt right now, but I think I'll just apply next year if this happens. Dude this month has been torture.
Click to expand...

I agree it has been torturous. I am signed up to retake September 2nd if I need to but am holding out hope for the best.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iTobiasFunke said:
Let's say scores come back and they are much lower than you expected or wanted. What are you going to do? Who plans in taking it in sept and who plans on waiting another year?

I have so much doubt right now, but I think I'll just apply next year if this happens. Dude this month has been torture.
Click to expand...

That is a very good question that I have been asking myself very frequently. I think it really depends on my score. Anything above a 30 is great but if I get a 29 I think I will still apply given my verbal isn't less than 8. Otherwise me thinks I will take another year off. I hope it doesn't come to that. UGH
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
the further we get away from the test date, the more uneasy I feel about how I did. can't wait until the wait is over, for better or worse.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sz0626 said:
the further we get away from the test date, the more uneasy I feel about how I did. can't wait until the wait is over, for better or worse.
Click to expand...

I hear you! I think that has partly to do with me now being able only to remember the passages I thought were difficult and reanalyzing my mistakes over and over again.

Either way, only 10 more days!!!!!!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I had my first MCAT dream the other night... looked at thx and it said:

P:14 V: 13 B: 15 43

I woke up and laughed my ass off! That could never happen. I always thought my first MCAT dream would come as a nightmare but guess not.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JRG said:
I had my first MCAT dream the other night... looked at thx and it said:

P:14 V: 13 B: 15 43

I woke up and laughed my ass off! That could never happen. I always thought my first MCAT dream would come as a nightmare but guess not.
Click to expand...

Of course... Your dreams violate the laws of mathematics :laugh:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JRG said:
I hear you! I think that has partly to do with me now being able only to remember the passages I thought were difficult and reanalyzing my mistakes over and over again.

Either way, only 10 more days!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


I think this is the reason everyone always feels like they do terrible. We think about the passages/questions that tripped us up and get hung up on them. Thankfully we will get our results soon!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
BHaus9 said:
Of course... Your dreams violate the laws of mathematics :laugh:
Click to expand...

In the last 2 weeks, I've had TWO dreams in which my 3 individual scores did not add up to the total score I got............. don't know how or why this keeps happening....

and, my two dreams were nightmares (= horrendous scores). Although in one of my dreams, i got a 15 and 2 ****ty scores. :/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I thought the AAMC site said release was 5pm (on the 30th)...but usually everyone spends the day checking obsessively anyway, so I'm sure we'll find out =p

In answer to someone else's question, I'm not retaking again unless it's dismal, but that's purely because this is my third time and at the moment i feel like if i study for this exam again I'll explode. ...course, that's what I said last time, too. Just praying the scores are good :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
crookedpinkies said:
I thought the AAMC site said release was 5pm (on the 30th)...but usually everyone spends the day checking obsessively anyway, so I'm sure we'll find out =p

In answer to someone else's question, I'm not retaking again unless it's dismal, but that's purely because this is my third time and at the moment i feel like if i study for this exam again I'll explode. ...course, that's what I said last time, too. Just praying the scores are good :)
Click to expand...

Scores for my last exam were released just before 3 pm EST if I recall correctly.... Only a week and some change, guys!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This question really doesn't matter at this point, but I was just wondering if someone remembers whether or not we had any Natural Sciences passages in VR on our test?

Those are the passages that I can usually vaguely recall, but not for this test.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iceman55 said:
This question really doesn't matter at this point, but I was just wondering if someone remembers whether or not we had any Natural Sciences passages in VR on our test?

Those are the passages that I can usually vaguely recall, but not for this test.
Click to expand...

The last one was natural sciences.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This exam was a complete blur compared to my first sitting. I still remember a good deal of the questions from the March one, but I'm drawing blanks for the 7/28, and that concerns me be a bit. Oh, well... if I'm unable to make a prediction, I probably won't be as likely to disappoint myself.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

agentfaithmd
AAMC MCAT Official Prep Complete Bundle Worth It?
Replies
0
Views
483
agentfaithmd
agentfaithmd
WildWing
Free Chem/Phys MCAT Webinar: April 11th at 7 PM
Replies
0
Views
382
WildWing
WildWing
L
  • Question
MCAT date for may 28
Replies
0
Views
722
lebronthegoat
L
K
  • Question
MCAT Retake. Is 7-8 months overkill?
Replies
9
Views
2K
zorcandpals
zorcandpals
P
July 28th MCAT okay?
Replies
2
Views
1K
BerkReviewTeach
B
Top