The Official 8/13/10 MCAT Club

[TKYL]

Hey Guys,
I didn't see a post for 8/13 mcat date, so decided to create one. Anyone taking on this day? I hope everyone studying is going well. Good luck

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[GigEm91]

Hey!
I am taking it on that day.

Yea I was surprised that there was a 8/20 and 8/24 but not a forum for this day haha.

 

[TKYL]

cool. finally found someone who is taking this day too. haha. Are you applying this year?

 

[godsdoc2b]

Finally someone made a thread for this date.

I was originally set for July 29 but pushed my date back to 8/13 a few days ago....I figure more time to prep...should = higher score

How is the studying going for you guys? I am still working on content review.

 

[godsdoc2b]

Planning to apply ED to my top school this year....I already have an MCAT from Jan 2010 but am dissatisfied with the score.

 

[deytwa513]

I'm taking it on 8/13 as well. Just about finished with content review. Also, will be applying this year. Good luck all!

PS: Where is everyone? I'm in Detroit, MI.

 

[godsdoc2b]

I'm from Florida!!!!

 

[FaLoRe]

Anyone superstitious???

 

[GigEm91]

I am taking it for the first time, in Dallas, TX.

I'm going to be a junior so I won't be applying for another year.

I want to get this over with in one shot soo bad!

 

[godsdoc2b]

Yup...I going to have the best luck ever on Friday 8/13! I have faith....

 

[godsdoc2b]

I am taking it for the first time, in Dallas, TX.

I'm going to be a junior so I won't be applying for another year.

I want to get this over with in one shot soo bad!

This will be my 3rd time. 3rd times a charm!!!!!!

 

[GigEm91]

Yup...I going to have the best luck ever on Friday 8/13! I have faith....

hahahaha wow man!

I didn't even realize we are all taking it on Friday the 13th.

 

[Pulsar]

I figured everyone was too superstitious to take it on 8/13

 

[TKYL]

Finally someone made a thread for this date.

I was originally set for July 29 but pushed my date back to 8/13 a few days ago....I figure more time to prep...should = higher score

How is the studying going for you guys? I am still working on content review.

what a coincidence! I also was registered for 29 and changed it to 8/13 2 days ago

 

[TKYL]

hahahaha wow man!

I didn't even realize we are all taking it on Friday the 13th.

haha! yeah I know. I also just realized that too

 

[deytwa513]

I'm superstitious but in the opposite direction. I consider it good luck to take the test on 8/13. I was born on 5/13 (I'm also just ignoring that it's a Friday ) 13 has always been a bit of a lucky number.

I had a professor once who said you shouldn't wish good luck to someone before an exam but instead should wish them Total Recall! Luck should have nothing to do with it

 

[CIA21]

This is my date too! I'm glad there is finally a thread for it! I just took my first AAMC practice test yesterday (CBT 3) and got a 30 (10/10/10), I'm pretty happy with that but would like to score a few points higher on the real thing. I'm following SN2ed's schedule, what is everybody else doing?

 

[opti]

me too! I'm getting so nervous - it's only a month away!

 

[godsdoc2b]

I am so glad that we have a month....that's certainly better than two weeks...going to try to get through all of my material at least twice....and use the AAMC Practice tests as a way to gauge my weaknesses and concepts I need to rereview.

I am trying to get through the most difficult physical sciences concepts first...but I don't want to neglect verbal and bio sci/organic either....

Hoping for at least a 34!

What have you guys been doing?

 

[ElliottB]

Been studying since April but I took off the month of June. Using EK books and hope to have 5 FL's under my belt before the real deal. Already have 2!

Honestly, anything above a 30 and I will be content.

 

[godsdoc2b]

Been studying since April but I took off the month of June. Using EK books and hope to have 5 FL's under my belt before the real deal. Already have 2!

Honestly, anything above a 30 and I will be content.

I am with you....with the above 30....just having a goal of 34+ motivates me to study HARD....but like you I would be grateful for a few points less than that....

 

[Pulsar]

I am so glad that we have a month....that's certainly better than two weeks...going to try to get through all of my material at least twice....and use the AAMC Practice tests as a way to gauge my weaknesses and concepts I need to rereview.

I am trying to get through the most difficult physical sciences concepts first...but I don't want to neglect verbal and bio sci/organic either....

Hoping for at least a 34!

What have you guys been doing?

I've been doing EK101 for verbal and using BR for physics and bio concepts I'm not confident in. Taken AAMC 4 and 5 so far, going to try to do all of them I think

 

[deytwa513]

I'm using a combination of the EK & BR books. I'm just about done with content. I'll be taking AAMC practice tests every Friday from here until the test at approximately 1:00 PM I'd do more but I can't really afford it. I will also do as many problems from the EK 1001 series, especially on stuff I'm still shaky on. I'm going to step up my verbal practice too...probably do a FL Verbal test from EK 101 every other day.

I'm glad we're finally on the home stretch. I always work best under pressure! Also, looking forward to the two week break before school starts again in September.

 

[deytwa513]

Been studying since April but I took off the month of June. Using EK books and hope to have 5 FL's under my belt before the real deal. Already have 2!

Honestly, anything above a 30 and I will be content.

Same here. I volunteer with a kid who took it in June and he got a 30. I have to do at least as well as him!

 

[ElliottB]

Took CBT3 and got 3 points higher than my first diagnostic. Slowly but surely making progress.

25 more days!

 

[godsdoc2b]

I was almost considering pushing the date back again to Sept 11 or even a week later....than August 13 because I hadn't been sticking to my study calendar, was exhausted, and my motivation was running on fumes....

However, after thinking about my PS and my recent interview last cycle to my top choice medical school...I remembered how I could have been in medical school now if I had the MCAT score that they were seeking. This makes me switch into high gear....and push myself further to just want to go ahead and study my best and conquer the MCAT Beast on August 13!

Just one more hurdle I have to clear to make it to my dream!
Will I let the MCAT stop me? NO!

 

[goldenniche]

I'm writing this day

 

[godsdoc2b]

How is it going fellow testers? Just checking in on everybody.

 

[opti]

I got my first 13 in a PS section!!! But only because none of my dreaded topics (circuits, fluid physics, acids/bases) came up. I still have a ton of weaknesses and I'm getting concerned that I won't be ready. I'm also debating how much I should really study for orgo...ugh. Anyone else having MCAT dreams?

 

[ElliottB]

I'm not focusing too heavily on organic to be honest. I think with the core concepts down one can rationalize the majority of the questions.

I got an 11 on my VR score with the latest practice test, so that is a good improvement over the 6 that I got on my very first one. Slowly getting there!

 

[Prateek]

Last test I did was TPR Practice #5 (July 23) where I got 13 BS/10 PS/10 VR
Last AAMC Test (#7) was on July 2: 12 BS/10 PS/10 VR

I need to somehow push that VR up to 11 for my Canadian schools

Need to review more on Physics and a scan of biology before I do a ****load of verbal passages

 

[AcclratngCharge]

Anyone superstitious???

LOL, I thought about that right after credit card went through! I'm as non-superstitious as it gets (well I guess not now), but Friday the 13th is so well-known. I was originally taking it July 29 but thought 2 extra weeks would be nice. I'm actually thinking about rescheduling again to 8/19 @ 8 am. I have been getting really tired at 3pm on the practice AAMC's (good nap time), and my brain is pretty good in the morning.

Assuming I'm taking it 8/13, any advice for improving VR quickly? I have been 8-10 on all of my AAMC's, avg ~ 9 obviously. I am practicing w/ AAMC's (all), and using EK manual and EK audio osmosis.

PS/BS are good, earning ~25 from those 2 combined usually.

Good Luck Everyone! Who is using these scores for this cycle? SDN wisdom says we are waaaaaaaay late.

 

[AcclratngCharge]

I'm using a combination of the EK & BR books. I'm just about done with content. I'll be taking AAMC practice tests every Friday from here until the test at approximately 1:00 PM I'd do more but I can't really afford it. I will also do as many problems from the EK 1001 series, especially on stuff I'm still shaky on. I'm going to step up my verbal practice too...probably do a FL Verbal test from EK 101 every other day.

I'm glad we're finally on the home stretch. I always work best under pressure! Also, looking forward to the two week break before school starts again in September.

Do you like Berkeley Review? I'm thinking about buying the BS and PS ones if my MCAT isn't good (35+) and studying over breaks and such next year while in pharmacy school.

I have read that they have good BS passages and provide a very thorough review. EK seems kind of skimpy and superficial on some topics (especially some Chem stuff). I thought you would be a good person to ask since you are using both EK and BR. Also, I am thinking of buying the 101/1001 EK books and studying w/ them over the next year if I earn less than what I want. Yes, I'm going to have an MCAT library.

 

[godsdoc2b]

I got my first 13 in a PS section!!! But only because none of my dreaded topics (circuits, fluid physics, acids/bases) came up. I still have a ton of weaknesses and I'm getting concerned that I won't be ready. I'm also debating how much I should really study for orgo...ugh. Anyone else having MCAT dreams?

Which exam did you take opti?

I am still trying to get thru content review...ugh! Thought about rescheduling...but I am going to try to push myself until the 30th at least and take another practice test.

I am using EK Orgo and the Orgo 1001's to prepare for Orgo...I figure it may add 1 or 2 points to my overall score.

I still need to practice more Verbal reasoning...and also to finish content review for physical sciences (my weakest area....this seems to be the easiest to pull up tho).

Trying hard to get thru this tho!

 

[opti]

Which exam did you take opti

Well I haven't started taking AAMC exams yet...it was a Kaplan test. Full Length #7. Still an improvement though, because I had been getting 11-12 on PS.

My verbal average is around 11 with both EK and Kaplan (although I find EK a lot easier) and my BS is 12-13 with Kaplan. I'm really hoping my scores don't go down when I start taking AAMCs tomorrow.

Do you like Berkeley Review? I'm thinking about buying the BS and PS ones if my MCAT isn't good (35+) and studying over breaks and such next year while in pharmacy school.

I'm also using both Berkeley Review and EK and I like Berkeley Review better. However, I think it really depends on how you like to study and how comfortable you are with the material. I think Berkeley Review is more oriented toward people who like to learn conceptually, wheras EK (although somewhat conceptual) skims over some of the less important concepts that you can get by with just memorizing, rather than fully understanding. If you really need someone to teach you the material (for example, I had terrible gen chem and physics profs and never truely learned the concepts despite getting A's) then I'd go with TBR. EK is better as a refresher. I will warn you though, that if you go through all of TBR, it'll take you FOREVER. Keep that in mind if you don't have much time or aren't comfortable skipping over things.... Hope that helps. And obviously, I haven't taken the MCAT yet so my opinion might change.

 

[godsdoc2b]

Ugh....I so still need to finish content review!

 

[AcclratngCharge]

I'm also using both Berkeley Review and EK and I like Berkeley Review better. However, I think it really depends on how you like to study and how comfortable you are with the material. I think Berkeley Review is more oriented toward people who like to learn conceptually, wheras EK (although somewhat conceptual) skims over some of the less important concepts that you can get by with just memorizing, rather than fully understanding. If you really need someone to teach you the material (for example, I had terrible gen chem and physics profs and never truely learned the concepts despite getting A's) then I'd go with TBR. EK is better as a refresher. I will warn you though, that if you go through all of TBR, it'll take you FOREVER. Keep that in mind if you don't have much time or aren't comfortable skipping over things.... Hope that helps. And obviously, I haven't taken the MCAT yet so my opinion might change.

Thanks for the perspective. I had a poor physics teacher(was his 1st class, and it was 4 years ago) and could probably use a thorough review, although EK has helped a lot (MUCH better than a Princeton Review I bought at first).

When was BR published? I'm concerned that the MCAT is changing and test prep may be outdated. For example EK Audio Osmosis was made in 2001(didn't realize until after I got it in mail), and AAMC changes the list of topics tested (like benzene, alkenes...).

Anyone taking an AAMC FL this Friday?

 

[Prateek]

Thanks for the perspective. I had a poor physics teacher(was his 1st class, and it was 4 years ago) and could probably use a thorough review, although EK has helped a lot (MUCH better than a Princeton Review I bought at first).

When was BR published? I'm concerned that the MCAT is changing and test prep may be outdated. For example EK Audio Osmosis was made in 2001(didn't realize until after I got it in mail), and AAMC changes the list of topics tested (like benzene, alkenes...).

Anyone taking an AAMC FL this Friday?

I probably will, not sure which one though (I've already done 4 and 7)

 

[opti]

I'll probably take one Friday too. So far I've only taken AAMC 4 and got a 34. Not bad, but not what I wanted

 

[AcclratngCharge]

I'll probably take one Friday too. So far I've only taken AAMC 4 and got a 34. Not bad, but not what I wanted

That's a good score! That was the first one I took and I made 32. I'm taking 8 or 9 tomorrow.

 

[Prateek]

Let's take 8!

 

[AcclratngCharge]

Let's take 8!

Sounds good. 35?...

 

[Prateek]

Sounds good. 35?...

*gulp* hope so! Though the highest I've scored so far is a 33 on a TPR test

 

[GigEm91]

*gulp* hope so! Though the highest I've scored so far is a 33 on a TPR test

My freind's taking TPR and I've seen those tests. They are MUCH harder than AAMC. 33 on that and I'd say your looking at 35ish on the real deal. Good work!

 

[GigEm91]

I'll probably take one Friday too. So far I've only taken AAMC 4 and got a 34. Not bad, but not what I wanted

That is a great score. If you actually go that on the real exam, over 90% of the people who have taken the MCAT will be jealous of you lol. saying 34 is "not bad" is not right lol.

But ne way, that's something to be proud of. I also got a 34 on that one.

I just took AAMC 7 today and got 14-9-13 (PS VR BS). AHH verbal is soo annoying I just want a 10/11 please!!

I am feeling pretty confident after this exam, it was by far my best performance. If i could get this score on the real deal I will be so happy!

 

[godsdoc2b]

Two more weeks....still studying along....
(the little engine that could) "I think i can...I think I can...I know I can!" LOL

Good luck on your practice tests today peeps...

Imma sit out today and work on finishing my content review...

Going to be taking AAMC 10 in a bout a week or so...and perhaps 9 as well.

Are you guys taking the paper or CBT versions?

 

[AcclratngCharge]

Two more weeks....still studying along....
(the little engine that could) "I think i can...I think I can...I know I can!" LOL

Good luck on your practice tests today peeps...

Imma sit out today and work on finishing my content review...

Going to be taking AAMC 10 in a bout a week or so...and perhaps 9 as well.

Are you guys taking the paper or CBT versions?

I'm taking the online CBT's, just trying to get used to the test as much as possible. I don't even take the exams at home, I go across town to the public library.

Well it is now official, I received my "MCAT Test Day Reminder" e-mail from AAMC. Lol at the #1 tip, be there

The first “Test Day Tip” is simple, show up to the exam! The MCAT Resource Center highly recommends you arrive at your test center AT LEAST 30 minutes prior to the start of the exam. If you arrive much earlier, don't be alarmed if the test center is not yet open. If you arrive after your exam start time, you will not be permitted to test. Give yourself enough time for traffic, detours, weather changes, and any other unpredictable circumstances that may arise on test day

Well I'm about to head of for practice #8. Anyone think they are definitely going to do better on the real test? I just don't have any pressure or adrenaline on these practice tests that I need to do good, for real tests in school and such. Just a thought.

 

[godsdoc2b]

I got the email from AAMC today too! I am kinda excited....since I know that I will definitely be sitting for the exam on Friday, August 13...Whooo...Hooo!

I'm studying now as I type.

I have the paper exams from years ago from AAMC...I was thinking about purchasing the AAMC #10 from AAMC so that I could take it online just like the actual tests....because I believe that it would be a more accurate assessment or feel than the paper tests.

Going to try to be done with content review at least by the end of this coming week....lol...I know....I am really behind...but working at a steady and good pace now that pressure is on to finish.

Then I believe my practice scores will be more accurate.

Once again best wishes on your practice tests today!

 

[Prateek]

Alright...starting #8!

 

[Prateek]

How was it?