The Official 9/11/2012 MCAT date

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nisarg2010

nisarg2010

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Hi guys,

How is the studying going for those of you taking it on arguably one of the worst days in American History? Finished content review yet? Any FL?

Just wanted to do this so we could keep each other motivated.

Ok now back to studying :laugh:!!!!!!
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Dbate said:
I'm only posting this because I know seeing other people comment on how difficult a section is can raise one's hopes of a generous curve.

I am not saying this to discourage others, but I think it would be unwise to expect that there will be a generous curve on verbal. ::Knock on wood::

I didn't think that verbal was hard. I thought it was slightly easier than the verbal passages that were on the AAMCs (mostly because the answer choices on this test seemed clear cut.) Of course I could be completely wrong and bomb the section, but this was my perception. And--as always--people have different experiences.

To be honest, I came on here hoping to hear that others found the BS section difficult. They apparently didn't, so now I know not to get my hopes up for a generous curve on the BS section.
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In all honesty I think this verbal wasn't harder, but it was different.
 
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Verbal ruined the bio section for me....I usually get 12-13 on bio, but I lost a lot of momentum and energy after verbal....ugh, hopefully my bio score is not as affected by this. I know I could have nailed the orgo passage if I just had the energy and motivation. Verbal just killed me mentally....I just pray my VR isn't as bad as I think it is.
 
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GomerPyle said:
Verbal ruined the bio section for me....I usually get 12-13 on bio, but I lost a lot of momentum and energy after verbal....ugh, hopefully my bio score is not as affected by this. I know I could have nailed the orgo passage if I just had the energy and motivation. Verbal just killed me mentally....I just pray my VR isn't as bad as I think it is.
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I'm sure you did fine bro! Most people hit their avgs and I'm sure you did too. Plus, most ppl think the verbal was hard/weird so I'm assuming AAMC will scale accordingly. Rooting for ya !
 
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hey guys,

I can pretty much echo what everyone's already said - I found PS to be savage (maybe because of nerves?), VR was long but similar to practice exams, and BS was fine except for the orgo passage everyone's already discussed and one discrete question where I went full idiot. Oh and the essays - one was good, one was less-than-good (the first one... decent examples I guess but I didn't bring everything together very well).

I was consistently scoring 36-38 on practice exams, with a high of 39 and a low of 33 (12-15 PS, 11-12 VR, 12-15 BS) - pretty disappointing to be so blindsided by PS, still trying to figure out what happened. Optimistically predicting an 11/11/12 for a 34, which was my score 4 years ago (12/9/13)... But really, I'm expecting a score in the 31-33 range which means I will most likely be retaking in January. Not terrible, but I'm not settling for a lower score when I still have the opportunity to do better before apps next summer.

Hearing that everyone had problems with PS is a bit reassuring, I hope it works out for all of us. In the mean time, enjoy the month of being able to watch TV without the voice in the back of your head telling you to study.
 
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mcant said:
In the mean time, enjoy the month of being able to watch TV without the voice in the back of your head telling you to study.
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Haha yes definitely, start watching Breaking Bad a few days before mcat...:laugh: burning through them so fast now
 
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starlight15 said:
Haha yes definitely, start watching Breaking Bad a few days before mcat...:laugh: burning through them so fast now
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I envy your Breaking Bad ignorance... Wish I could watch it for the first time again. It's one of the few shows that gets exponentially better with each passing season, enjoy!
 
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Hi, I'm a new user but a frequent browser of the forums. I've been really down the last few days. I'm a mature student and have waited a very long time to write becaue of ongoing health problems afflicting family members (I am their primary support financially as well). So years went by before I could pursue my dream. I felt great before the exam scoring very high on AAMC 11 three days before test day. Unfortunately, the same thing had happened to me on two questions (that I can remember) I felt completley demotivated and simply selected whatever answer choice because I wanted to ensure I would finish the section first and then tackle these problems which I felt would be easier if time granted (*cough* orgo rxn/struct and one about enzymes *cough*)---hope thats obsure enough. What hurts is that the questions where quite simple and I recall my selection...completely wrong. This tied into the fact I found the section overall very hard, makes me feel I may have dropped considerably. I wasted time on a passage I felt was difficult and may in fact be experimental at the expense of two easier questions. I feel as if I have gotten approx 7 questions (at very least wrong) this tied in with the two additional I had mentioned earlier brings the total upto 9....I'm used to scoring in the 13-14 range. Unfortuantely, on practice I usually have time to review my choices and get the easier questions done. Bio is usually the section that boosts my overall score considerably. Also, I usually feel the bio section has gone well...not the case on exam day... Sorry for the rant... I'm just really down and no one I know is pursuing this field and my parents have their own worries at this point so its difficult to find someone to talk to...would truly appreciate any support or feed back...

Thanks alot! :)
 
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Scaredysquirrel said:
Hi, I'm a new user but a frequent browser of the forums. I've been really down the last few days. I'm a mature student and have waited a very long time to write becaue of ongoing health problems afflicting family members (I am their primary support financially as well). So years went by before I could pursue my dream. I felt great before the exam scoring very high on AAMC 11 three days before test day. Unfortunately, the same thing had happened to me on two questions (that I can remember) I felt completley demotivated and simply selected whatever answer choice because I wanted to ensure I would finish the section first and then tackle these problems which I felt would be easier if time granted (*cough* orgo rxn/struct and one about enzymes *cough*)---hope thats obsure enough. What hurts is that the questions where quite simple and I recall my selection...completely wrong. This tied into the fact I found the section overall very hard, makes me feel I may have dropped considerably. I wasted time on a passage I felt was difficult and may in fact be experimental at the expense of two easier questions. I feel as if I have gotten approx 7 questions (at very least wrong) this tied in with the two additional I had mentioned earlier brings the total upto 9....I'm used to scoring in the 13-14 range. Unfortuantely, on practice I usually have time to review my choices and get the easier questions done. Bio is usually the section that boosts my overall score considerably. Also, I usually feel the bio section has gone well...not the case on exam day... Sorry for the rant... I'm just really down and no one I know is pursuing this field and my parents have their own worries at this point so its difficult to find someone to talk to...would truly appreciate any support or feed back...

Thanks alot! :)
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Don't worry about it too much, I think most of us feel the same way. We all gave up a chunk of our summers in order to attempt the MCAT. Sometimes I wonder if I wasted those hundreds of hours studying for nothing. But let's all just look at the bright side because we all did the best we could possibly do two days ago (no matter how much we might think we could have changed things), and there's nothing we can do to change our answers now. And in a month, hopefully all will work out. But until we find out our scores, just try to relax for a bit and enjoy the rest of the summer! :)
 
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Scaredysquirrel said:
Hi, I'm a new user but a frequent browser of the forums. I've been really down the last few days. I'm a mature student and have waited a very long time to write becaue of ongoing health problems afflicting family members (I am their primary support financially as well). So years went by before I could pursue my dream. I felt great before the exam scoring very high on AAMC 11 three days before test day. Unfortunately, the same thing had happened to me on two questions (that I can remember) I felt completley demotivated and simply selected whatever answer choice because I wanted to ensure I would finish the section first and then tackle these problems which I felt would be easier if time granted (*cough* orgo rxn/struct and one about enzymes *cough*)---hope thats obsure enough. What hurts is that the questions where quite simple and I recall my selection...completely wrong. This tied into the fact I found the section overall very hard, makes me feel I may have dropped considerably. I wasted time on a passage I felt was difficult and may in fact be experimental at the expense of two easier questions. I feel as if I have gotten approx 7 questions (at very least wrong) this tied in with the two additional I had mentioned earlier brings the total upto 9....I'm used to scoring in the 13-14 range. Unfortuantely, on practice I usually have time to review my choices and get the easier questions done. Bio is usually the section that boosts my overall score considerably. Also, I usually feel the bio section has gone well...not the case on exam day... Sorry for the rant... I'm just really down and no one I know is pursuing this field and my parents have their own worries at this point so its difficult to find someone to talk to...would truly appreciate any support or feed back...

Thanks alot! :)
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try to cheer up. im sure youll be fine. if you were doing good, im sure you will score near your average. i am really nervous because i feel i bombed verbal but still hoping for the best
 
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Thanks guys it really means a lot to hear it from people going through the same motions. I guess I'm just disappointed in myself. But it is true that "what's done is done". I feeling particularly uneasy because I was recently told by someone (as I was leaving the test center!) that every 2 questions wrong equals 1 overall pt down in the section so the difference between a 12 and 11.

PS thank you again for being so sweet, to be honest I already feel a huge load of shoulders having someone to talk to!
 
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sbarilla said:
try to cheer up. im sure youll be fine. if you were doing good, im sure you will score near your average. i am really nervous because i feel i bombed verbal but still hoping for the best
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PS I read your worries about verbal. From what I understand across the forums thats a good thing! If it makes any difference, I too found verbal to be very very difficult (and I usually like that section). It was long and the first passage really gave me a lot of trouble. The reason why I am soo frustrated with bio is because that had been my major many years ago.... but yes please don't fret! Verbal is great you can never be sure of your performance, so there is no need to fret. Bio on the other hand.... I know what I did wrong and its haunting me!
 
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Scaredysquirrel said:
PS I read your worries about verbal. From what I understand across the forums thats a good thing! If it makes any difference, I too found verbal to be very very difficult (and I usually like that section). It was long and the first passage really gave me a lot of trouble. The reason why I am soo frustrated with bio is because that had been my major many years ago.... but yes please don't fret! Verbal is great you can never be sure of your performance, so there is no need to fret. Bio on the other hand.... I know what I did wrong and its haunting me!
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hopefully it turns out well for both of us. i took my exam in miami. now the long drive moving back to NY. Over 20 boring hours of mcat reflection lol
 
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Anyone else get a little tripped on that first Chem passage in PS section? I feel like I completely blanked on what to do!
 
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41234 said:
Anyone else get a little tripped on that first Chem passage in PS section? I feel like I completely blanked on what to do!
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Me too...I mostly guess on that first passage....but i did well on the rest of the PS i think except for that wave passage that trip me again.
 
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Temperature101 said:
Me too...I mostly guess on that first passage....but i did well on the rest of the PS i think except for that wave passage that trip me again.
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The first passage caught me by surprise too, but I thought the wave passage was really easy...
 
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GomerPyle said:
Verbal ruined the bio section for me....I usually get 12-13 on bio, but I lost a lot of momentum and energy after verbal....ugh, hopefully my bio score is not as affected by this. I know I could have nailed the orgo passage if I just had the energy and motivation. Verbal just killed me mentally....I just pray my VR isn't as bad as I think it is.
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VR did the same thing to me....I had two minutes left when I get to the last passage. I was so upset because that last passage was a freeby and I did not get a chance to do it...spent 10+ minutes on the passage before it. From there, everything went downhill.
 
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If I have to rewrite, I will crush and conquer this beast of a test. I will put my all into it to ensure I destroy it.



Okay, being more realistic, maybe not destroy, but get 35+.
 
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TheBrownGuy said:
If I have to rewrite, I will crush and conquer this beast of a test. I will put my all into it to ensure I destroy it.



Okay, being more realistic, maybe not destroy, but get 35+.
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I just need a 28 to be competitive for DO. If I have to rewrite, I think will definitely get that 28+.
 
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futureortho said:
Yes, yes I did. Not a good omen for the rest of the exam when the first passage is difficult.
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You actually didn't need a whole lot of math to solve it. When I first saw it, I was completely lost too, so I skipped a couple of the questions and came back to them at the end.

The answers were mostly in the passage.
 
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Dbate said:
You actually didn't need a whole lot of math to solve it. When I first saw it, I was completely lost, so I came back to it at the end.

The answers were all in the passage.
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That first passage was the only one I was unsure about in PS...
 
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That number def looks familiar.

Urghhhh Oct 11th can not come soon enough.

I totally blocked the test coming out of it but now that I've had some time to think back, I'm spazzing about some of those discretes. Def picked a couple of wrong answers :/
 
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GomerPyle said:
Were one of the answers 42,000 joules? That first passage was the only one I was unsure about in PS...
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Kinda-pretty sure it was. That entire passage tbh was odd, I couldn't remember how to do any of the math so I basically made assumptions, like how acid + base = a lot more heat/energy than other AB reactions.
 
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I can barely remember any of the questions O_O I'm just going to enjoy this month of no studying or guilt haha :sleep::sleep:
 
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serenade said:
Kinda-pretty sure it was. That entire passage tbh was odd, I couldn't remember how to do any of the math so I basically made assumptions, like how acid + base = a lot more heat/energy than other AB reactions.
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Yeah, I remember using that to answer the very first question because I had no idea how to use the equations to solve it with the information they gave us! lol but I think we made a very strong educated guess using that rationale you just described..
 
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I was planning to take the MCAT last September and then opted not to, since I hadn't had biochemistry or physiology yet. In hindsight, I'm really glad that I did that. I felt a lot more confident this time than I would have last time.

That being said, the verbal was absolutely nothing like the practice exams. The first three passages were easily twice as long as the longest of the ones on the official full-lengths.
 
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It's only been four days....but I feel like I've been waiting for my score forever. Do any of you know why it takes such a long time for scores to come out? Does it really take that long to grade (or apply the curve) or is the AAMC just trying to mess with us? :laugh:
 
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GomerPyle said:
Yeah, I remember using that to answer the very first question because I had no idea how to use the equations to solve it with the information they gave us! lol but I think we made a very strong educated guess using that rationale you just described..
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Yah... It also helped that passage was my second before last. I did discretes first.
But yah, I'm hoping I actually finished the PS section. I ran out of time on my supposedly last section of the ps. So I'm hoping I didn't miss an entire passage lol. I'm sure I didn't though.
 
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lemonade123 said:
It's only been four days....but I feel like I've been waiting for my score forever. Do any of you know why it takes such a long time for scores to come out? Does it really take that long to grade (or apply the curve) or is the AAMC just trying to mess with us? :laugh:
Click to expand...

It probably needs some time to assess by question and passage a few things. Normalizing the scale afterward will only take a minute honestly.
 
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serenade said:
Yah... It also helped that passage was my second before last. I did discretes first.
But yah, I'm hoping I actually finished the PS section. I ran out of time on my supposedly last section of the ps. So I'm hoping I didn't miss an entire passage lol. I'm sure I didn't though.
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Yeah I spent 10 full minutes on that first passage trying to understand how to tackle it. I thought we needed to use the heat equations but none of them worked so I just used an intuitive approach and answered the questions intuitively (which I hear was the correct way). Thankfully I finished most the PS section on time despite being stuck on that damn first passage! I had to rush the last kinematics problem though. Kinda wish I tackled the passage later on in the exam when I had some momentum, but nope had to see it FIRST.
 
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GomerPyle said:
Yeah I spent 10 full minutes on that first passage trying to understand how to tackle it. I thought we needed to use the heat equations but none of them worked so I just used an intuitive approach and answered the questions intuitively (which I hear was the correct way). Thankfully I finished most the PS section on time despite being stuck on that damn first passage! I had to rush the last kinematics problem though. Kinda wish I tackled the passage later on in the exam when I had some momentum, but nope had to see it FIRST.
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I rushed through the water drop think more or less. I think I made a few in the dark guesses, but I was happy that I understood buoyancy well ( Thank you Chad).
 
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GomerPyle said:
Yeah I spent 10 full minutes on that first passage trying to understand how to tackle it. I thought we needed to use the heat equations but none of them worked so I just used an intuitive approach and answered the questions intuitively (which I hear was the correct way). Thankfully I finished most the PS section on time despite being stuck on that damn first passage! I had to rush the last kinematics problem though. Kinda wish I tackled the passage later on in the exam when I had some momentum, but nope had to see it FIRST.
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Wow...No equations needed to do that passage...No wonder I spent almost 10 minutes on it trying to come up with some equation...At the end I blindly guess on most of the questions...Hoping that I get the right answers on half of the questions.
 
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Temperature101 said:
Wow...No equations needed to do that passage...No wonder I spent almost 10 minutes on it trying to come up with some equation...At the end I blindly guess on most of the questions...Hoping that I get the right answers on half of the questions.
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That passage should have taken no more than 3 minutes lol. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to solve it via equation...doh.

The intuitive approach should get you all the answers right - if u made an educated guess, your on the good side.
 
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Temperature101 said:
What is a 'deleterious effect'?
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When used in the context of biology or genetics, I treat "deleterious" as non-survivable embryos. Deleterious means detrimental. Although it doesn't meant death, its detrimental effects lead to death, because biological mechanisms that perceive developmental errors may commonly proceed to abort the undesirable fetus. Many things can be deleterious to a fetus/embryo/egg. For example: lethal genes(deadly recessive recessive genes), drugs, environment, etc. I don't recall it on test day. But they are more popularly incorporated to alter punnet-square mendelian ratios. Nonetheless, deleterious can be applied to an extensive amount of biological problems with significant or insignificant results. Depends on the context of "deleterious".
 
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Can't believe its only been less than a week... feel like forever has gone by since we look the exam. Want scores already :(

Are most of you guys just waiting until you get your scores back before deciding to continue studying for retake or are any of you already lightly studying now just in case?
 
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I was told (this has helped me for every question in which I've seen the term) that "deleterious" means that it deletes a certain trait/protein/etc that affects the overall health/fitness of the individual. I think of deleterious as being caused by a loss-of-function mutation or gene that was inherited; compare with gain-of-function.
 
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Honestly I don't even remember a question about deleterious effect. Idk of I should be worried or not then lol...
 
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serenade said:
Honestly I don't even remember a question about deleterious effect. Idk of I should be worried or not then lol...
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One answer choice had deleterious effect on it on the insulin passage but I had no idea what deleterious effect was....If I am being too specific, let me know so I can delete my post...
 
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serenade said:
Honestly I don't even remember a question about deleterious effect. Idk of I should be worried or not then lol...
Click to expand...

I don't remember either. I actually don't remember anything about any of the passages except the orgo passage. I def think I should be worried...
 
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Temperature101 said:
One answer choice had deleterious effect on it on the insulin passage but I had no idea what deleterious effect was....If I am being too specific, let me know so I can delete my post...
Click to expand...

I think I vaguely remember that passage, I don't think it gave me too much trouble... Except for one question on that passage.
 
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The correct answer was not deleterious effect but one of the choices had the words 'deleterious effect' on it.
 
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I had 2 separate MCAT nightmares last night. The first, I really screwed up on physical sciences - I remember that every question was 5 star in difficulty and I have never seen those certain concepts before. I woke up and had a different dream, and then another MCAT nightmare. In the second one, I really screwed up in biological sciences (had to guess on the last 15 questions due to time running out - I remember I had specifically 20 seconds left). Wholey crap that was scarey. :scared:

It ain't over till you get your damn score. Ugh...
 
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