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Who's with me?
The Official 8/19/2011 MCAT Club!
- Thread starter RNueve
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I learned a lot of this for the first time preparing for the MCAT.. should have used TPRH review books, but people were saying it was "too dense." Lesson learned.. better to be safe than sorry and make the time to go over lots of detail in the TPRH book, which comes out to be very handy.
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So now I have 4 questions wrong for sure on BS & 8 questions correct. Now I just need to remember the other 40 questions.............it's so strange, I thought I would remember everything but the ENTIRE day yesterday seems like a blur.. I remember waking up and then driving back home after the test and wondering what happened in between.
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atleast you finished it
i lost track of time and didnt get to finish 2 questions on PS and BS each cuz of their gay loading times b/w passages
Gandalf, if you were having major load time issues throughout your exam you may want to complain to the AAMC people and perhaps retake if they'll give you your money back-- I just recently took the exam and I was having major load time issues. Although the clock also seemed to stop, it took almost 30 seconds to go from passage to passage (which is a pain if you are trying to use an sort of triage technique) on my last test administration. I felt so bad about the test I decided to retake yesterday before even receiving my last score. The (incompetent) test center I went to tried to suggest to me that the load times were natural and I should stay at my machine, but when I asked the folks at the test center I went to this time what I should do if I have slow load times, he said alert him immediately and they'd switch my machine. I think I may call AAMC and complain on Monday with this new information. When I was taking the exam I figured everyone had a slow connection but not so-- for $235 I could almost buy them a new computer...I was not happy.
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It's almost always 2 passages-discretes-3 passages-discretes-2 passages-discretes.
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I hope you do well, but in the event you don't, try answering all the discretes first next time. They usually give you a nice boost of confidence, and as you skip through the passages you can see if there's a mountain-sized table that you can leave for last
Ugh now I have 5 wrong in BS............. maybe I should stop remembering the Q's....... I did have an addition problem on PS and wish I could ask someone to PM me about it but is this not allowed?? It's kind of bugging me because I wanted to see if maybe the option choices were invalid or something....I added it up 50 times there and 1000 times here at home, still doesn't add up to any of their options.. it was a very simple addition problem (ie. 5 +2 =7 but 7 wasn't an option).
question in physics passage?
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I just figured out even some questions/answers (at least two answer choice) on PS were wishy/washy...WTF with AAMC.
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I hope you guys are feeling better and better about your tests now that 2 days have passed (it's only been 2 days!?!?!?!)
Though I did succumb to my curiosity and look up the answer to a question I was unsure about, I think it's best if you just stop thinking about the test.
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I totally agree. We won't ever know for sure which questions we got right/wrong, which passages were experimental, what the curve was really like, etc.
All I hope every so often is that I don't need to retake this!
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Mmmm. you can tell which questions you got right/wrong if you memorized the questions, answer choices and it's a straightfoward fact-based question that you can look up. but you are right.. don't know which could be experimental (although i have my guesses) and what the curve is like.. we'll see.
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the frustrating part is not knowing i keep re-playing the test over and over in my head. i go through every passage and think about my thinking process. but it really doesnt matter cuz we won't know for 29 more days!! ah lol i'm trying to forget things now. going to be a long wait!
anyone think the curve will be favorable?
i keep re-playing the test over and over in my head. i go through every passage and think about my thinking process. but it really doesnt matter cuz we won't know for 29 more days!! ah lol i'm trying to forget things now. going to be a long wait! anyone think the curve will be favorable?
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the frustrating part is not knowing
anyone think the curve will be favorable?
Maybe the BS section?
I wish I could remember what happened in VR. I only remember what the first 2 passages were about ... the remaining 5?? I hope this isn't a bad thing... maybe my mind wasn't even working and I aimlessly bubbled answers....
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Retaking next year...
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actually, i can somehow relate to this i think. i had some difficulty navigating through my test with the "next" and "previous" tabs. my next tab would sometimes skip over 2 sections with just 1 click. i actually had trouble getting to the last discrete section because it kept skipping to the review all section. there's really no excuse because you should be faimliar with the layout at this point. there's always 52 questions!
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You cant be serious....
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Hillarious... I like McEnroe.
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i think there was only 3 questions at the end..so, maybe it ends up hurting your score 1-2 points you can always re-take.
the majority of the free-standings were manageable...with the exception of like maybe 2 from each section.
you can always re-take.the majority of the free-standings were manageable...with the exception of like maybe 2 from each section.
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What I hated was the fact that when you review all marked, it doesn't go from marked question to marked question... it went from "marked" passage to passage.
As for retaking, I will only do so if I score under a 36, or below a 12 in any section. This is because I did very well on practice tests, but I know I can reform my studying to prepare better for how the MCAT is currently structured. Also, I need to overcome gpa deflation.
As for retaking, I will only do so if I score under a 36, or below a 12 in any section. This is because I did very well on practice tests, but I know I can reform my studying to prepare better for how the MCAT is currently structured. Also, I need to overcome gpa deflation.
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Honestly? If you get a 35 you are going to retake because of ego? That's kind of dumb.
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I thought it was hard. And I didn't get to start my exam until 9 because there was something wrong with their system... it threw me off. Waiting a month will probably drive me crazy. I'll be happy with a 27!
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So? Compared to the 08/19 test, those practice tests were a joke (except VR-I would say they have the same level of difficulty).
still, i think scoring 5+ pts below your practice average isn't a bad excuse. it depends on how his/her GPA is. if it's <3.4 then even if he/she does get a 35, she would still have a good reason to retake.
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Hey guys I did the majority of the BR physics, bio and chemistry passages as well as the TPR science workbook passages. I noticedthat the BR chemistry,bio and physics passages were much more easier and basic compared to the actual MCAT I took on August 19, 2011. It seemed like the TPR science workbook had more similar passages for the chemistry, physics, and bio section, anyone else feel that way? Any comments? Help a sister out!
Btw do they change the form and questions of the exam for each person taking it that same day? All my friends (2 friends in Cali, one in North Carolina, the rest in Texas) and people who I knew who took it that day had exactly the same questions on the actual mcat. Even the answer choices (a b c d) were listed in the same order...Ko-in-c-dense?
Btw do they change the form and questions of the exam for each person taking it that same day? All my friends (2 friends in Cali, one in North Carolina, the rest in Texas) and people who I knew who took it that day had exactly the same questions on the actual mcat. Even the answer choices (a b c d) were listed in the same order...Ko-in-c-dense?
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The more I think about the test.. the more terrible I feel.
I finished the PS wayyyyyy too fast. Had 15-20 minutes left (which I never did for the practice tests). And spent a good chunk of it re-doing one problem so I didn't get to check all of my answers.
As for verbal, it's my worse subject. Spent 20 minutes on one passage.. but ended up finishing 6/7 of the passages.. which is more than my practice.. but still really worried.
As for bio, this is usually my best subject.. but I felt like that test hit all of my weaknesses.. and I didn't really understand one of the passage (the one with the big table).. and had to guess at the end. I'm not even sure if I answered all of the questions.
I finished the PS wayyyyyy too fast. Had 15-20 minutes left (which I never did for the practice tests). And spent a good chunk of it re-doing one problem so I didn't get to check all of my answers.
As for verbal, it's my worse subject. Spent 20 minutes on one passage.. but ended up finishing 6/7 of the passages.. which is more than my practice.. but still really worried.
As for bio, this is usually my best subject.. but I felt like that test hit all of my weaknesses.. and I didn't really understand one of the passage (the one with the big table).. and had to guess at the end. I'm not even sure if I answered all of the questions.
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The more I think about the test.. the more terrible I feel.
I finished the PS wayyyyyy too fast. Had 15-20 minutes left (which I never did for the practice tests). And spent a good chunk of it re-doing one problem so I didn't get to check all of my answers.
As for verbal, it's my worse subject. Spent 20 minutes on one passage.. but ended up finishing 6/7 of the passages.. which is more than my practice.. but still really worried.
As for bio, this is usually my best subject.. but I felt like that test hit all of my weaknesses.. and I didn't really understand one of the passage (the one with the big table).. and had to guess at the end. I'm not even sure if I answered all of the questions.
That is exactly how I feel. In bio, everything that I hoped wouldn't be on the test was on it. and that table was horrible. It was much more difficult than I anticipated.
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I apologize for the bluntness, but this is terrible advice.
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lolI'm surprised nobody has mentioned one of the verbal passages. It was about predators and prey. Did everyone have this passage? I felt terrible about this passage, thinking it was really dense and hard to read, and then the questions were very vague. I couldn't eliminate any of the answers. Did any one else feel this way, or was it just an unlucky passage for me?
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i agree with you 100% on the predator/prey passage, which i believe was the third one. it was very detail oriented and seemedd like a lot of answers were saying the same thing? i can't remember all the questions but it was a very frustrated passage as a whole. the passage before that was also pretty dense which made me rush a little on the predator/prey passage. however, it seemed like the passages afterwards were easier to manage. so, i feel like if you got through the first few passages then you'd be okay? there's always going to be a couple difficult passages tossed in there.
Hmm, I thought it was actually pretty straightforward. It appears to me that the MCAT often likes to have answer choices that are worded nearly identically so you really need to be able to pick out the one or two word differences between choices. The verbal on this test pleasantly surprised me - significantly easier in my opinion than some of the AAMC practice exams.
I did almost run out of time on PS - had to use dimensional analysis (matching units basically) to narrow down my hardest question to 2 choices - fortunately I appear to have guessed correctly after calmer post-analysis....also, thank you John Wetzel for the Wikipremed videos - one of your anecdotes/examples saved me from guessing on a PS discrete.
I did almost run out of time on PS - had to use dimensional analysis (matching units basically) to narrow down my hardest question to 2 choices - fortunately I appear to have guessed correctly after calmer post-analysis....also, thank you John Wetzel for the Wikipremed videos - one of your anecdotes/examples saved me from guessing on a PS discrete.
the verbal passage you are referring to was one of the harder passages because there was a lot of detailed information( and I had left it toward the end). I think a lot of the questions were pretty straightforward and were actually "big picture" questions. the detail answers i was largely available to find directly from the text. but i do think it was one of the trickier passages. i actually enjoyed a few of the passages (or as much as one can enjoy a convoluted standardized test reading passage)
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i'd say there were 3 easy passages, 2 medium, 2 medium-hard. that's just how i felt.
I wouldnt know, because I save that passage for last. I had 5min left, so I skimmed and chose random answers.
But I did think that navigation passage was also detail oriented too.
