The Official 8/19/2011 MCAT Club!

[RNueve]

Who's with me?

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[zeppelinpage4]

Hoping to take the MCAT on 08/18 if everything goes well. Best of luck to everyone, I'm in my fourth or fifth week of studying with the Kaplan classes and I certainly understand the worn down/beaten feeling. However reading all of your posts helps motivate me to keep at it. Though I intend to take days off when needed. 😀

 

[Quester]

Hoping to take the MCAT on 08/18 if everything goes well. Best of luck to everyone, I'm in my fourth or fifth week of studying with the Kaplan classes and I certainly understand the worn down/beaten feeling. However reading all of your posts helps motivate me to keep at it. Though I intend to take days off when needed. 😀

Are you actually keeping up?

I'm dyiiiing right now taking classes + work... Anyone who's taking studying and working have any tips in this scenario?😕

p.s. i'm about 3 weeks behind...****.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Are you actually keeping up?

I'm dyiiiing right now taking classes + work... Anyone who's taking studying and working have any tips in this scenario?😕

p.s. i'm about 3 weeks behind...****.

I'm sort of keeping up, but I'm only doing the required work and topical tests. I had planned on doing everything assigned plus the optional work, but just doing the required readings and quizzes has taken a lot of time.
I imagine it's very difficult to take these classes while working.
I am hoping to volunteer and maybe do research if things work out but it's taken me several hours each day to keep up with material at the moment.

If it helps, I have only been doing the required reading/quizzes and topical tests.
I'm skipping the recommended chapter quizzes and subject tests and all the rest of the things, so that's made the work load a bit more manageable. Maybe you can try something like that?
Hoping that I can come back to the optional material for practice after the class finishes.
Kudos for taking on work and the classes. It's a tough thing to do.

 

[koolmoo]

I've kinda switched to EK for most of my content stuff. TBR is way to long and detailed for me. While I think it's great, it's just too much for me to get in, in a day. Some of those chapters are 50 pages long and it's taking me a whole day just to get through the chapter, let alone all the passages that I need to do as well. I'm basically doing EK for the material and TBR for the passages. We'll see...

I've thought about doing the same since the TBR sections are so long that I've started to fall behind schedule. I think I'll stick to TBR for the sole fact that I probably need the depth since it's been a while since I last learned this stuff. I kind of envy you EK guys though; my roommate is reading EK and plans to read all of it 3 times over (he skimmed through the whole thing in the first two weeks). 🙄 I just gotta figure out how to get through all this content faster..

 

[zeppelinpage4]

I've thought about doing the same since the TBR sections are so long that I've started to fall behind schedule. I think I'll stick to TBR for the sole fact that I probably need the depth since it's been a while since I last learned this stuff. I kind of envy you EK guys though; my roommate is reading EK and plans to read all of it 3 times over (he skimmed through the whole thing in the first two weeks). 🙄 I just gotta figure out how to get through all this content faster..

I got the same problem. I had planned on going through some topical tests and some verbal passages this week...instead I spent the last three days reading through the Kaplan Physics book. I like to highlight and add notes on the side and make sure I understand it, so it takes about 3 hours to get through a single chapter.
I am worried it might be taking too long and I should just read it over once quickly then go straight to problems.

 

[Quester]

Well, I'm taking it with TPR and the classes don't end until like end of July. But apparently people told me that I should be done with content review at least by the end of this month. I don't know about you guys but I'm forgetting a lot of stuff I've read so far.🙁 It also doesn't help the fact TPR Bio is so damn detailed compared to EK!

Shall I just screw TPR and just get a solid understanding with EK?

 

[gunito]

Hows everyone doing? I tried to tailor SN2ed schedule to what I think is more manageable for me, which I finally have figured out. Im finished with Chem, physics and bio book I and am one chapter from being done with ochem. I like to read the chapter, do the first 1/3 passages then do some EK which help to solidify some concepts. Then I plan on rereading the sections I struggle with. Any one else start off passages poorly then finish strong? I just gotta get this verbal stuff down and I think Ill do pretty well...hopefully 37ish well 😍

 

[CyberMaxx]

Are you actually keeping up?

I'm dyiiiing right now taking classes + work... Anyone who's taking studying and working have any tips in this scenario?😕

p.s. i'm about 3 weeks behind...****.

I understand, I'm in the process of catching up as well. What I've found is that it helps to break up the days studying as much as I can. I'll read a bit before I go to work, then some more after work before dinner, then after a dinner break I'll really try to finish everything. As far as catching up goes, I've found that instead of worrying about how behind I am, making a realistic plan about how I'm going to catch up helps me the most. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[komtangiee]

I'm in too.
terribly scared since this will be my first MCAT.
I'm working for the summer so I've been studying during my disgusting NYC commute and on weekends.

Wish me luck!

 

[rofl]

is anyone here applying this cycle?


i havent even bought prep books yet! 😱

 

[Liquidice07]

holla
just finished tbr bio book 1 and taking my 2nd prac test manana

ya, working this summer, 3 weddings, a family (cousins and everyone) trip to vegas, and trying to prepare a fulbright grant proposal

frickin a!!!

 

[gunito]

I just ordered a copy of TPRH verbal workbook for $30 and I'm stoked. Hopefully I can work on my verbal section and get my score up.

 

[snllama]

Sadly, I decided to wait on the MCAT. I felt I was rushing into it, only recently changed gears.

I'm currently in graduate school and need to pay for that and my expensive DC living expenses. I decided to work full-time this summer and during the coming school year volunteer and get more health experience before making a solid decision on my future. I am still very young and have time to decide. I want to feel fully confident in my decision to attend medical school.

Good luck to all of you who are still on the journey. I commend you all!

and btw, do you know if you are able to sell your MCAT seat to another individual?

 

[Crosspatch]

how old are you?

 

[koolmoo]

Sadly, I decided to wait on the MCAT. I felt I was rushing into it, only recently changed gears.

I'm currently in graduate school and need to pay for that and my expensive DC living expenses. I decided to work full-time this summer and during the coming school year volunteer and get more health experience before making a solid decision on my future. I am still very young and have time to decide. I want to feel fully confident in my decision to attend medical school.

Good luck to all of you who are still on the journey. I commend you all!

and btw, do you know if you are able to sell your MCAT seat to another individual?

That's totally understandable. Not everyone knows they want to be a doctor from the day they were born. 😀 I didn't really make the decision until this past year, so I'm taking a year off to get all the clinical experience and volunteering in (gonna apply next cycle after I graduate). As long as you're sure of what you want, it doesn't matter how old you are. Also, I don't think you can "sell" your seat to anyone. Most likely AAMC will refund half your fees and sell your spot to someone else. 😉

 

[gunito]

For those of you doing SN2eds schedule, I would duggest getting some flash cards to help nail down concepts if rereading chapters is too much. They also cover some stuff that TBR misses.

 

[Research3r]

For those of you doing SN2eds schedule, I would duggest getting some flash cards to help nail down concepts if rereading chapters is too much. They also cover some stuff that TBR misses.

Which flash cards do you recommend?

 

[gunito]

I got some by barrons that are pretty good. Kaplan has some good ones but theyre a little more expensive.

 

[SeanMaloney]

All set to take the 8/19 exam, been using the kaplan review books now for the better part of 4 months. At the three month mark I began getting real serious with the studying and now have completed the majority of the work. I am currently working full time, taking a summer class (physics II) and still trying to prepare, my recommendation is find one day each week to take a full practice test, review that test and spend the week just reviewing the problem areas. This method has been reducing a lot of stress for me.

For those planning on applying this cycle make sure your amcas app is completely finished and submitted at least four weeks prior to your test so as soon as your scores become available they can be sent out to your schools.

Good luck everyone.

 

[mohad]

I took my TPR test 3 and broke a 30 which makes me really happy. The bad thing is that I have to maintain high science scores and work on that horrific verbal of mine. I am literally going insane from studying. Today is actually my birthday and my parents are telling me that we should go out for dinner and I told them no because I would rather study. 🙁

 

[zeppelinpage4]

I took my TPR test 3 and broke a 30 which makes me really happy. The bad thing is that I have to maintain high science scores and work on that horrific verbal of mine. I am literally going insane from studying. Today is actually my birthday and my parents are telling me that we should go out for dinner and I told them no because I would rather study. 🙁

It's okay to take a break now and then, you still got a few weeks so a night off here or there might not be a bad idea. Especially because the last thing you want to do is burn out the week before the test.
BTW Happy Birthday! 😀

 

[mohad]

Thanks! I did end up taking a break. The only studying I did was go to my review course, but all I did was ogle over my gorgeous ochem instructor. It was a pretty good day just cause of her 😀

 

[GooseWing]

How's everyone's prep going?

I can't believe I've already been at this for ~1.5 months. We're halfway there!

Is anyone else calculating the total amount of time they've put in studying for this beast? I found a spreadsheet that sums up all the hours you've worked--it's pretty cool to watch it rise higher and higher 🙂 (I'm about to break 200!)

Anyone want to give a "halfway there" status update?

 

[Jwalker]

.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

How's everyone's prep going?

I can't believe I've already been at this for ~1.5 months. We're halfway there!

Is anyone else calculating the total amount of time they've put in studying for this beast? I found a spreadsheet that sums up all the hours you've worked--it's pretty cool to watch it rise higher and higher 🙂 (I'm about to break 200!)

Anyone want to give a "halfway there" status update?

Just recently took my first Kaplan FL since the diagnostic and only got a 3 point improvement, seems I've got a ways to go. As far as studying, I'm about 2-3 days behind from where I'd hoped to be as far as the study schedule, so yeah things are looking a little lackluster on the MCAT front lol. 😛
Really hoping to step up the game and see some improvement on the next few full lengths until test day.

 

[GooseWing]

Hey yeah by the way I have to give a shout out to this thread and the rest of SDN for officially getting me 1 day behind on my study sched yesterday 😡😡 😀

 

[generator]

AUGUST 19! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! ... wow what will life be like august 20th? i forgot what it was like to not have a life-altering exam hanging over my head every day.

 

[GooseWing]

AUGUST 19! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! ... wow what will life be like august 20th? i forgot what it was like to not have a life-altering exam hanging over my head every day.

I'm planning oh so much for the night of the 19th. If everything goes according to plan I will be asleep for most of the 20th 🙂

 

[generator]

I'm planning oh so much for the night of the 19th. If everything goes according to plan I will be asleep for most of the 20th 🙂

niiice. well, here's to august 20th!

 

[Quester]

I'm so behind now that I just stopped counting how many days I've fallen behind.

I don't know about you guys, but I forgot a lot of stuff I read a month ago...ugh, feel so stupid 🙁

 

[mohad]

Wow, is there any possible way for me to bring my 8 in VR up to like a 12/13 in a month? I suck so hard at VR and went through the TPR verbal book. I brought my score up from a 7 to a 9, but my 9 isn't very solid, obviously.

 

[GooseWing]

Wow, is there any possible way for me to bring my 8 in VR up to like a 12/13 in a month? I suck so hard at VR and went through the TPR verbal book. I brought my score up from a 7 to a 9, but my 9 isn't very solid, obviously.

I did TPRH verbal and wasn't sure how I was doing. Then once I finished I started EK101 and at first did terribly. I think I had gotten too familiar with TPRH verbal question format. But slowly my performance got better and now I'm consistently getting 10s-11s on the practice tests in there. I'd highly recommend EK101. It's annoying at first because they're sticklers but I feel that I've improved greatly.
I'm using Vihsadas' verbal strategy (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6022602&postcount=96). I've found it very helpful. You can find his whole MCAT strat here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6695902&postcount=273

 

[generator]

I'm so behind now that I just stopped counting how many days I've fallen behind.

I don't know about you guys, but I forgot a lot of stuff I read a month ago...ugh, feel so stupid 🙁

I feel ya... DON'T GIVE UP WE GOT THISSSS! 😀

 

[zeppelinpage4]

I'm so behind now that I just stopped counting how many days I've fallen behind.

I don't know about you guys, but I forgot a lot of stuff I read a month ago...ugh, feel so stupid 🙁

I know that feeling and there's not even enough time to go back through the old material. Just got to keep chugging along, hang in there.

 

[Quester]

Thanks guys.

Are you guys gonna just take the test regardless of how 'out of range' your diagnostic scores are compared to your achievable goal?

 

[generator]

Thanks guys.

Are you guys gonna just take the test regardless of how 'out of range' your diagnostic scores are compared to your achievable goal?

well, I made that mistake when I took it for the first time in May. The last practice AAMC I took before that exam I got a 22. I was all like, no way I'll pick it up on test day... I'm just freaking myself out over nothing. Wrong. I got exactly a 22.

Anyway. I don't recommend that. Buuuut August 19 is a week and a month from now. If you're not feeling good about your diagnostic scores just keep doing more tests... you can still bring it up. Take ones you have never done before. Hopefully it will click before the 19th.

We can do it! don't give up, there's still time!

 

[fastlane]

well, I made that mistake when I took it for the first time in May. The last practice AAMC I took before that exam I got a 22. I was all like, no way I'll pick it up on test day... Wrong. I got exactly a 22.

Hey guys, what's up. I'm in for this one too...

I'm starting to get worried because I know a lot of people are dropping everything and studying hard all summer for this, but then there are people like me that are working full-time and attempting to study too!!

I got a feeling the curve on this one when AAMC grades it will be hard to score over 30 because everyone taking it will be more prepared (and some people are retaking the test). And there wont be people doing what was done in the quote above (not to put you on the stop in a negative light in any way). In turn, after administering the test, AAMC will think the test was much easier than usual because of the high average, and correspondingly make the curve stiffer to keep the score percentages where they usually are. Do you guys think there's any truth to this??

 

[mohad]

I'm so pissed off at verbal because it is the only wild card that I have. Luckily, it seems that I can score 10+ on the sciences, but verbal is all over the place. I need to hit 10/11 solidly to ensure a good score. Especially cause the rest of my resume is lacking.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Thanks guys.

Are you guys gonna just take the test regardless of how 'out of range' your diagnostic scores are compared to your achievable goal?

I want to say that I wouldn't, but I've dedicated my whole summer for this and schools starts back up at the end of August. So canceling this exam would require me to take the MCAT either over winter break or the following summer....I'd be starting back at square one.😱
Knowing that I'd have to start all over again, I'd probably follow through. However I don't intend for the above situation to occur. It's just more motivation for me to study, I will try my best to be ready so that I only have to take this once....hopefully. 😳

Gonna take generator's advice and really hope...just hope that I can get my FL scores up. I'm still in the low/mid 20's at the moment. Just got to keep at it. 😀

 

[Idroppedsoap]

SO NERVOUS!!!! Counting every seconds till 08-19-2011 2pm

 

[fastlane]

I want to say that I wouldn't, but I've dedicated my whole summer for this and schools starts back up at the end of August. So canceling this exam would require me to take the MCAT either over winter break or the following summer....I'd be starting back at square one.😱

I am in the EXACT SAME boat.... I am getting mid 20's on practice tests too... ****!

I am just going to take it and get the damn thing over with... then hopefully not have to retake it. 😛

 

[zeppelinpage4]

I am in the EXACT SAME boat.... I am getting mid 20's on practice tests too... ****!

I am just going to take it and get the damn thing over with... then hopefully not have to retake it. 😛

Good plan. 👍

This whole process is a little more bearable when you're not the only one. 😀

Gonna try to take FL2 tomorrow, I'll be ecstatic for if I get anywhere in the high 20's.

 

[fastlane]

Good plan. 👍

This whole process is a little more bearable when you're not the only one. 😀

Gonna try to take FL2 tomorrow, I'll be ecstatic for if I get anywhere in the high 20's.

I took a test yesterday and got a 27. 6 in verbal 🙁

For the sciences I know my weak point is undoubtably that I DONT KNOW THE MATERIAL!

I'm not sure if I should back off of doing practice tests and go back to doing content review again 😡

 

[GooseWing]

Which FLs are you guys taking? And what did you score on them? I'm taking my first FL on the 24th

 

[zeppelinpage4]

I took a test yesterday and got a 27. 6 in verbal 🙁

For the sciences I know my weak point is undoubtably that I DONT KNOW THE MATERIAL!

I'm not sure if I should back off of doing practice tests and go back to doing content review again 😡

Yeah, I feel like I've forgotten a month's worth of material from May/June but I still need to finish up content review and do practice tests.

For now I'm probably gonna go over content for one or two topics that I consistently miss on the practice tests and just hope that doing that will help fill most of the gaps.

Which FLs are you guys taking? And what did you score on them? I'm taking my first FL on the 24th

I'm doing the Kaplan ones now, we're supposed to do Kaplan FL1-5 for the class I think. I really need to start the AAMC tests though, if I can't get to em' before my class ends, I'll probably focus on just AAMC the two weeks before the real thing....time is really going by too fast.

 

[Quester]

Yeah, me too -- I think I'm just gonna do all the AAMC two weeks before. I've done one so far--like 2 weeks into the class -- obviously, it was a waste.

I just want to quit working and just study but I still got like 3 weeks left...I can't believe I'm saying this but I'd rather study than get paid right now.

 

[ScarlettOHara]

is anyone here applying this cycle?


i havent even bought prep books yet! 😱

I am applying this cycle. Turned in my primary already. The plan is to have all secondaries in by the time the MCAT score comes out. So that my application will be complete September 20th. Not "early" anymore but still in the game!

Is anyone else applying this cycle with this exam date?

 

[berriesandcream]

I am applying this cycle. Turned in my primary already. The plan is to have all secondaries in by the time the MCAT score comes out. So that my application will be complete September 20th. Not "early" anymore but still in the game!

Is anyone else applying this cycle with this exam date?

I'm taking it 8/23, but I wanted to pop by and say, I'm applying as well. good luck!

 

[mohad]

I'm kind of worried about my verbal score cause it's around an 8-9. Luckily there is a month left to improve. I think I may take 2 tests a week starting next week cause I need to get more practice. Especially with the essay. I don't wanna blow it off completely and get boned by it just cause I didn't practice.

At least my science scores are coming along decently. If I can maintain/improve science and bring my verbal into the double digits, I think I'll be set.

 

[erure]

I guess I'll be writing here even though my MCAT date is 8/18. I didn't see any 8/18 threads here but I don't feel like making one ._. Anyway hope you guys are doing well with the studying -- only about one month to go!