The Official 8/4/12 MCAT Thread

[Mehd School]

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Who's in? I just rescheduled from June 21st. I've been studying off and on since late march, but really started to kick it in about three weeks ago. Applying DO this cycle.

👍

 

[Mehd School]

Sorry to hear that DocFelt. Keep working at it and see if something changes. Keep your options open. I try to remind myself this too and its hard but its not the end of the world if you end up voiding or taking it in January.
Orgo is killing my score. Was there alot of orgo on aamc 4? 😳

Yes.

I'm usually rock solid with organic, so let that 5 do the talkin'.

Thanks for the kind words. I just got off the phone with my girlfriend (who is taking it later this month and also planning on applying this semester). It won't be the end of the world, you're right. It will be a huge disappointment, though.

I do, however, refuse to sit for the test and earn a crappy score. This is too avoidable.

I'm taking Biochem, Physics II, and A&P this fall, so all would come in extremely handy before my test.

However, on the flip side, I'm taking biochem, Physics II, and A&P, so I'll have minimal spare time Let alone working ~25 hours a week just to pay the bills.

I wish this **** could be easy. 👎

 

[shaboobly]

the only other advice i can give you is to not rush through all of it. sit down and want to take the exam, it will be easier and you probably will do better than dreading it.

before i take any section, i take a deep breath and then start as if it were just some more study questions. in the sciences, i always flip through and do the discrete questions first because they are easy and take minimal time and effort. once done with those head on through the passages. normally i will have about 10-25 minutes left in any of the science sections by doing this. it allows me to return to the hardest passage i thought and reread the passage and answer the questions again. i dont ever score below an 11 on any science.. except on the real deal i did get a 9 in bio.. which was a complete fluke 😛

 

[Mehd School]

Thanks boobs.

I just watched a youtube flick about some Loma Linda students, and decided it's time to stop feeling sorry for myself and time to get back to work.

Thanks guys.

 

[shaboobly]

for sure man. i talked to my neurologist the other day and he was telling me how he categorizes people for his residency. he told me they don't want the really smart people because they aren't as trainable compared to someone who works hard and isn't as smart. this made a lot of sense because the people who are super smart are the ones who probably will only believe themselves and won't consider it a possibility that they are wrong, which results in bad practice. keep your chin up and do the best you can.. in the end it will work out.

 

[shaboobly]

just did aamc 3 sections independently (verbal and bio yesterday and physical today) 12/9/11 (ps/vr/bs)

 

[Dman27]

yeah I've taken the real deal already and I don't feel ready at all, by the time I am home from work everyday I am so tired and find my self falling asleep while studying... I am going to only study my week points and use the weekends for practice exams i guess :/

 

[Mehd School]

yeah I've taken the real deal already and I don't feel ready at all, by the time I am home from work everyday I am so tired and find my self falling asleep while studying... I am going to only study my week points and use the weekends for practice exams i guess :/

I've worked 32 hours in the past three days. 😳

I'm officially taking tonight and tomorrow night off to refresh. Reviewing my exam yesterday showed me how many careless mistakes I made. I was one dumb mistake away from the 8 in PS, which gives me hope. Going to hit it very hard Saturday through Tuesday night with AAMC 5 on Wednesday.

I'm not going to cancel my date, as I wouldn't push it back to September and I can't reschedule to January since it's a different testing block. At the very least I'll get a $240 experience of what the real test is like in real testing conditions. I'm sure it's worth much more than that. If I haven't hit a 28+ on any practice tests prior to then I'm going to void on test day regardless of how I feel that day.

 

[Guero]

Just saying hi to everyone. I've had this date scheduled for a while and have been studying 7 days a week since June minus a weekend or two while working full-time. *yawn*

I took the MCAT August 23rd last year, got a phone call with disastrous news the morning of the test, and bombed it with a 23O: 8 VR, 8 BS, and 7 PS... Even though I landed 2 MD interviews and am still waitlisted at one school, I'm pretty sure this is the big one. I'll take my first AAMC practice test tomorrow morning to begin a weekly process of mirroring test conditions and gauging my progress.

I wish you all the best of luck. I feel like this is the biggest challenge any of us face, minus those with a knack for standardized tests. Remember that this test does not genuinely assess your suitability to become a great physician. It's psychometrically biased and flawed; but consider it a *game* you have to win in this burdensome but rewarding process. 🙂

Cheers!

 

[Dman27]

Just saying hi to everyone. I've had this date scheduled for a while and have been studying 7 days a week since June minus a weekend or two while working full-time. *yawn*

I took the MCAT August 23rd last year, got a phone call with disastrous news the morning of the test, and bombed it with a 23O: 8 VR, 8 BS, and 7 PS... Even though I landed 2 MD interviews and am still waitlisted at one school, I'm pretty sure this is the big one. I'll take my first AAMC practice test tomorrow morning to begin a weekly process of mirroring test conditions and gauging my progress.

I wish you all the best of luck. I feel like this is the biggest challenge any of us face, minus those with a knack for standardized tests. Remember that this test does not genuinely assess your suitability to become a great physician. It's psychometrically biased and flawed; but consider it a *game* you have to win in this burdensome but rewarding process. 🙂

Cheers!

Thanks for the great words, they just convinced me to stay in have a few beers and do some content on a nice friday night instead of the bar, and I'm not even mad. I need to tackle this exam finally.

My biggest issue is that I do amazing on the practice exams (in the past) and then have bombed it when it comes to the real one... I just feel like the real deal is significantly harder.

 

[shaboobly]

doing EK 101 to boost my verbal.
scores from tests 1-4 were 7 8 8 11. then did kaplan verbal 12 and aamc 3 for a 10 and a 9 respectively.
then i finish EK test 5 and get a 7 lol.
did EK test 6 cause i was mad and got a 10. hopefully this means i am getting better lol

 

[deleted401386]

Anyone else filling out secondaries and feeling as if you wrote the word "experience" a million times?

 

[shaboobly]

i really didn't not feel like doing anything mcat related today and ended up sticking to it.. lol

 

[aspiringdoc09]

Anyone else filling out secondaries and feeling as if you wrote the word "experience" a million times?

Ditto.

Hopefully the MCAT studying is going well for everyone. I started reading the questions first, and have seen an improvement on my AAMC VR. I just need to read faster because I am running into timing issues. I started pulling articles from The Economist, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Psychology Today to help me do better on the humanities and social science passages.

I was suppose to take AAMC 5 today but didn't feel up to it. Will try tomorrow and then AAMC 7 and 11 on subsequent Saturdays. I have also been keep up witih practice passages from TPRH Science workbook and have noticed that I am beginning to at least make better educated guesses on questions I don't know. That makes me feel a lot better.

 

[Mehd School]

So I took two full days off, and man. That was such a good move.

I feel very refreshed. A lot of stress and anxiety is gone. I've figured out that I'm just going to give it 100% until my test date. Going to have all of my flash cards down pat, practice a lot of my problem areas and do the best I can do. If I don't do well on the test day, then no big deal. I can take it in January, after I've completed some very test relavent classes.

This isn't the end of the world guys. All you can really do is give it your best.

How's everybody doing in the last couple weeks?

 

[zak178]

Pretty much what I'm doing and how I feel hah

 

[shaboobly]

So I took two full days off, and man. That was such a good move.

I feel very refreshed. A lot of stress and anxiety is gone. I've figured out that I'm just going to give it 100% until my test date. Going to have all of my flash cards down pat, practice a lot of my problem areas and do the best I can do. If I don't do well on the test day, then no big deal. I can take it in January, after I've completed some very test relavent classes.

This isn't the end of the world guys. All you can really do is give it your best.

How's everybody doing in the last couple weeks?

since i started studying again around june 20 i've just been mainly doing verbal.. hardly any sciences because of all the practice tests i've taken for sciences i never really score below a 10 (normally 12 or so in ps and 11 in bs). i've just been reviewing old tests for the sciences and continuing with flashcards and quicksheets from kaplan.

today i went over another bs section from aamc that i did and i was looking at some of the answers i chose and was like wtf was i thinking, so i'm thinking i can do a lot better than what my real score was. in both science sections (at my best hopefully like a 14 is ps and a 13 in bs).

up until the test i will continue just doing like a verbal test from ek 101 every day (most of the time i split it up into 2/2/3 passages at a time along with just basic science content. since the start my scores in order have been 7 8 8 11 (10 9) 7 10. (scores in parentheses are from kaplan and aamc 3 verbal). i think im actually starting to get the hang of it lol.

 

[AlwaysLucky]

Guys, I'm so discouraged right now .. just finished AAMC 3 and scored 25. And this is with me abusing the pause button a million times to take breaks and cheat on some questions 🙁

Especially worried cause of the 7 on the verbal ... noticed that the passages are signifcantly longer than EK101 and the vocab, sentence structure, & boring dense topics are very reminiscent of TPR 🙁 ... two & a half weeks away and losing hope on breaking 30

Hope you're all studying hard ... we're almost there!

 

[deleted401386]

I took a week and a half off 🙂 I scored a 10 12 11 on AAMC 5 today...go figure

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

Hope everyone is doing well. Looks like if didn't cancel or change the date you're now locked in for August 4th!

 

[Dman27]

hmmm couldn't seem to find nearly enough studying time for this retake with work taking up most of my time... taking a practice exam tomorrow. I'll post the results.

 

[bbvm16]

Hey fellow august 4th test takers! I've been reading this thread for a while but have yet to post since I really only started doing practice tests and finishing up my content review. Anyways, I've only done aamc 3 and 5 so far. Here are my scores:

AAMC 3 (took a few days ago): (ps/vr/bs) 11/10/9
AAMC 5 (took today): (ps/vr/bs) 11/11/11

Very excited by my score today! Guess it goes to show that not everyone finds AAMC3 really easy in comparison to the others haha...

Also just want to let anyone who's reading this and is doubting themselves know that you can do it! Two weeks is still plenty of time to brush up on weak content areas and get in a bunch of practice tests. Up until today I didn't think I was prepared or ready for this test at all but my score today really gave me a confidence boost. Like I said, if you are doubting yourself keep going and don't give up! We can do this guys!!

 

[Guero]

I took a week and a half off 🙂 I scored a 10 12 11 on AAMC 5 today...go figure

Ah, my dream score. *stares off into space*

 

[Mehd School]

Did Kaplan's Physical Science section test 1 and scored an 8.

I only got 48% so the scaled score is inflated. I will say though, this was significantly more challenging than the aamc PS sections I've done thus far. Much more calculations and some deeper critical thinking in my opinion. I wouldn't say it's as hard as TBR passages, but it's more challenging than aamc, and I think this accounts for the inflated scale. I've gotten ~60% on recent AAMC PS's.

Going to keep on trucking. Doing Kaplan PS 2 and BS 1 tomorrow.

 

[bbvm16]

Good for you for doing the Kaplan material. I did a Kaplan course but totally gave up on their practice material weeks ago - I got way too frustrated. I have been exclusively using TBR for passages (ie all the practice I've been doing lol). The Kaplan stuff will be great in preparing you for the test though, it was just too irritating for me! Good luck with the PS 2 and BS 1 tomorrow!

 

[shaboobly]

damn im getting so bored of looking at the same stuff over and over again. this is a retake for me, i only took one practice test this time around so far (planning on taking about 2-3 more before the test idk if i should do more. i only have aamc 4 and 11 and kaplan 5 FL onward.) average before the first test was a 31 (from all sources; low of 28 high of 33). got 32 on aamc 3.

i just want to retake it already. i thought i would be doing all the kaplan stuff this time around but i feel so confident in myself to get at least 11s on both sciences. then there's the crapshoot verbal which is the reason why im retaking. i hate that section. it makes me feel stupid sometimes because of the answers i pick lol.

this is my 2 week to go rant. just want this **** done. if i get my dream score of 14/10/13 (if everything goes my way lol) jeeez 🙂

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

Has anyone taken AAMC 7 yet? The curve for PS is kinda harsh -_-

 

[Mehd School]

Has anyone taken AAMC 7 yet? The curve for PS is kinda harsh -_-

After starting with Kaplan FL's, I think all of aamc scales are harsh.

50% on Bio section 1 test. It was very heavy with immunology, and I'm glad it was because I've now found another weak spot. 🙄

 

[TheU12]

That is crazy you said that I just did BS section 1 for Kaplan and scored a 50%(6) also !
I'm also taking the test 8/4.....ive been consistently scoring 8's in BS. Im hoping I can get it up to a 9 in the next few weeks...I'm just having verbal trouble my verbal has ranged from 5-11
Taking AAMC 8 tomorrow!

After starting with Kaplan FL's, I think all of aamc scales are harsh.

50% on Bio section 1 test. It was very heavy with immunology, and I'm glad it was because I've now found another weak spot. 🙄

 

[shaboobly]

just got around to taking aamc 4 and got 12/9/11. seems like i get a 12 like 95% of the time in PS and an 11 85% of the time in BS (this is for like all the aamc tests ive taken.. just a random % i made up but thats what it seems like).

my verbal has been stuck at avg of 9 for the last like 2 weeks, with a high of 11 and a low of 7.

aamc scores: (PS/VR/BS)

(5/10/2012) AAMC 8: 31 (11/9/11)
(5/11/2012) AAMC 7: 29 (10/7/12)
(5/12/2012) AAMC 9: 32 (11/9/12)
(5/13/2012) AAMC 10: 30 (12/7/11) AVG= 30.5 (11/8/11.5)
(5/19/2012) Real Test: 27 (12/6/9) <-- lol
(7/12/2012) AAMC 3: 32 (12/9/11)
(7/23/2012) AAMC 4: 32 (12/9/11) <-- i really hope my score translates to this next time.

 

[bbvm16]

Hope everyones studying has been going well. I just finished aamc 7 and got (ps/vr/bs) 11/11/12. Feeling good! We're almost there guys! (Is anyone else feeling like these last few days are going by SO slowly when the last two and a half months have gone by so fast? lol)

 

[deleted401386]

AAMC 11: 10/11/12

That is what I want on the real thing! Stay focused everyone...don't forget to calm down before the test. I didn't sleep the first time I took it and got a score that did not look anything like my practice test scores.

 

[Guero]

I'm taking an AAMC practice test every other day between now and the test, starting with AAMC 7 tomorrow. I still have access to all of them from last year. They expire on Aug 2nd. I've taken 4 and 5 so far, still have 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. I'll be reviewing the tests, weak spots, and doing EK passages on the days in between tests. I'm really hoping to break 30 at the very least, but would be absolutely content with a 33. I'm on an upward swing I hope to continue in these last days. Good luck everyone.

 

[gunslinga]

it

 

[zak178]

would somebody be able to explain the n and x number for each stage of mitosis and meiosis?

 

[bbvm16]

Just finished a practice test:

AAMC 8: (ps/vr/bs) 12/10/11

Slightly concerned about the 10 in verbal (really hoping for an 11!) but if I had gotten one more question correct it would have been an 11....verbal is what I will likely be most nervous about on test day because it's just going to come down to how well I can interpret the specific passages they give us. Oh well....few more days of studying to go...

 

[Guero]

OMFG guys! I'm so excited!!

Practice test 4: 26
Practice test 5: 26
Practice test 7: 31!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!! (10PS, 11VR, 10BS)

Sorry, I just about did a lap around the biomedical library here. I just had to share the good news. I was so so afraid I was stuck in a rut. Keep up the work. It'll pay off!!

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

OMFG guys! I'm so excited!!

Practice test 4: 26
Practice test 5: 26
Practice test 7: 31!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!! (10PS, 11VR, 10BS)

Sorry, I just about did a lap around the biomedical library here. I just had to share the good news. I was so so afraid I was stuck in a rut. Keep up the work. It'll pay off!!

Congrats!
Anyone else find AAMC 8 ridiculously hard?

 

[Dman27]

Didnt get around to the FL the other day because I had something to do, but did content... I have a few hours and a day off of work tomorrow... so Hopefully a FL.... flipping through flash cards tonight...

Any last minute focus advice? because I havent had any these past two weeks!

 

[bbvm16]

Congrats!
Anyone else find AAMC 8 ridiculously hard?

While I was doing it, I was so discouraged and felt like it was going horribly! But in the end my score was pretty much the same as the last few practice tests. Definitely learned a lesson for test day though - don't let how you perceive the test to be going affect you!! Keep on going as though you are rocking it. The verbal humanities passages killed me though. Looking back at it, I think my brain shut off during one of them lol - definitely not going to let that happen on test day!

 

[bbvm16]

Didnt get around to the FL the other day because I had something to do, but did content... I have a few hours and a day off of work tomorrow... so Hopefully a FL.... flipping through flash cards tonight...

Any last minute focus advice? because I havent had any these past two weeks!

Yeah I've been having a bit of a focus problem too. What's been helping me is planning really fun activities for after the test so I have something to look forward to!

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

While I was doing it, I was so discouraged and felt like it was going horribly! But in the end my score was pretty much the same as the last few practice tests. Definitely learned a lesson for test day though - don't let how you perceive the test to be going affect you!! Keep on going as though you are rocking it. The verbal humanities passages killed me though. Looking back at it, I think my brain shut off during one of them lol - definitely not going to let that happen on test day!

Yeah it was the first FL in which I felt horrible doing.... It's my worst score so far. I ran out of time in PS and rushed through the last passage - which I got all wrong lol. VR - I have been getting 11's and I got 9. I just did a thorough SDN search and found that alot of other found this as well with AAMC 8 and have said it was the most difficult exam for them. Some people scored 5 points less than their average on 8 😱

 

[bbvm16]

Yeah it was the first FL in which I felt horrible doing.... It's my worst score so far. I ran out of time in PS and rushed through the last passage - which I got all wrong lol. VR - I have been getting 11's and I got 9. I just did a thorough SDN search and found that alot of other found this as well with AAMC 8 and have said it was the most difficult exam for them. Some people scored 5 points less than their average on 8 😱

Wow, well that's good to know! Makes me feel better about my verbal - I've been getting 11's too and on this one got a 10 (not that that's like a huge cause for concern, but I really am hoping to get an 11 on the real thing). It's really funny looking at my score breakdown for the verbal though, it's like 53% on humanities and 100% on the other two types lol. Normally I don't tank humanities this bad, but these 3 humanities passages killed me for some reason. Hope the real thing doesn't have such difficult humanities passages!

 

[shaboobly]

i took EK #11 from the 101 passage book and got a 7. started doing another one and after the first two passages i got raped some more. sometimes i understand the passage easily and answer all the questions right within 5-6 min, other passage take like 7-8 min and sometimes ill get 1-2 wrong. up until these tests (ek 11 and 12) i thought i was doing better, but i feel the answers to some of these questions are straight bs. i just want a 9 come test day in verbal.

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

Wow, well that's good to know! Makes me feel better about my verbal - I've been getting 11's too and on this one got a 10 (not that that's like a huge cause for concern, but I really am hoping to get an 11 on the real thing). It's really funny looking at my score breakdown for the verbal though, it's like 53% on humanities and 100% on the other two types lol. Normally I don't tank humanities this bad, but these 3 humanities passages killed me for some reason. Hope the real thing doesn't have such difficult humanities passages!

Haha I just looked at my verbal break down ~ 47% for humanities 80% and 100% for Natural and Social Science. 🙄

 

[bbvm16]

Haha I just looked at my verbal break down ~ 47% for humanities 80% and 100% for Natural and Social Science. 🙄

Glad I'm not alone on this one!

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

i took EK #11 from the 101 passage book and got a 7. started doing another one and after the first two passages i got raped some more. sometimes i understand the passage easily and answer all the questions right within 5-6 min, other passage take like 7-8 min and sometimes ill get 1-2 wrong. up until these tests (ek 11 and 12) i thought i was doing better, but i feel the answers to some of these questions are straight bs. i just want a 9 come test day in verbal.

I stopped doing EK now. I heard the EK tests #10 onward suck. I would just use AAMC's since our test is almost a week away now

 

[shaboobly]

I stopped doing EK now. I heard the EK tests #10 onward suck. I would just use AAMC's since our test is almost a week away now

only have aamc 5 verbal and aamc 11 full length left. i need more practice and dont wanna buy the assessment lol. ill prob still finish the ek just because.

 

[Guero]

While I was doing it, I was so discouraged and felt like it was going horribly! But in the end my score was pretty much the same as the last few practice tests. Definitely learned a lesson for test day though - don't let how you perceive the test to be going affect you!! Keep on going as though you are rocking it. The verbal humanities passages killed me though. Looking back at it, I think my brain shut off during one of them lol - definitely not going to let that happen on test day!

This. When I did that last test and improved 5 points, I thought I was going to decrease several points while I was actually taking it. I had to look twice to make sure I was actually looking at my score when I finished. If you let yourself get bogged down in thinking about your meta-performance, you'll definitely decrease your efficacy.

Good luck. Let's make this MCAT our biat-ch!

 

[Guero]

Um...for those of you using the EK 1001 questions of (C)2003, is anyone else noticing rampant errors in the text and answers (e.g., answer to Q75 of physics: x-axis times y-axis is not "meters," but veolicity). I mean, the letter answer is correct, but the explanation is flawed. I end up having to look stuff up to make sure I'm not crazy and to clarify concepts that the errors make me second guess. It's totally wasting my time and ticking me off a bit.

 

[AdmiralAckbar]

Um...for those of you using the EK 1001 questions of (C)2003, is anyone else noticing rampant errors in the text and answers (e.g., answer to Q75 of physics: x-axis times y-axis is not "meters," but veolicity). I mean, the letter answer is correct, but the explanation is flawed. I end up having to look stuff up to make sure I'm not crazy and to clarify concepts that the errors make me second guess. It's totally wasting my time and ticking me off a bit.

Yeah, EK is known to be riddled with errors. I stopped using their 1001's for this same reason.