The Official 9/7/12 MCAT Thread!

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Does anyone get the feeling, that even though you've been studying for so long, it's the night before the test and you feel like you know nothing?
 
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Kittycat9 said:
Super nervous about tomorrow! My weakest areas are physical sciences, especially physics. I took the exam last year without having taken physics 2 (not wise, I know) and did terrible, but now after taking all science courses, I still feel that most of it is knowing the equations, because that's where a lot of knowledge of how the concepts relate comes from. These review books list equations like we should memorize all of them, but the passages sometimes provide the more complex equations. For those of you still reviewing, what do you guys think are the most important equations we should definitely commit to memory?
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Don't be nervous tomorrow! Anxiety made my first mcat attempt worse. Just relax and do your best.

I think you should know all the basic equations (if you have a equation sheet, basically all of those). But I feel like the mcat tests you more on relationships and how to apply (for the passage based questions), that's why they give you the complicated equations.
 
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Im trying to stay as calm as possible even though the thoughts of my mind pressing the ERASE button tomorrow before the test are creeping up in the background.

Good luck everyone.

Tally ho!
 
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callmefanny said:
Don't be nervous tomorrow! Anxiety made my first mcat attempt worse. Just relax and do your best.

I think you should know all the basic equations (if you have a equation sheet, basically all of those). But I feel like the mcat tests you more on relationships and how to apply (for the passage based questions), that's why they give you the complicated equations.
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Thanks =) It's true that a lot of it is application of concepts as well. Good luck everyone!
 
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Trying to fall asleep amidst the nervousness seems to be harder than actually studying for the test lol
why must I live next to a train station...

Anyways good luck everybody! Although I'm sure all of you have busted your behinds long enough that you won't need luck; be the badass you are and dominate. Cheers to tomorrow night.
 
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FacelessMage said:
Yep. Definitely. Trying to convince myself that I know everything right now and that I will rock it!!
Click to expand...

You will. The focus we're all gonna have tomorrow afternoon is going to be unmatched. Ignore the nerves, we know our enemy.

Good luck everyone, rest up tonight!
 
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GomerPyle said:
Did you guys die?
Click to expand...

Recuperating more like it. Honestly I cant speak for everyone but here are my impressions
PS- started off easy and ended off more difficult. I guessed on quite a few.
VR- Easiest VR I've ever written. Then again, this could just be due to the sheer relief of finishing PS.
BS- Mixed bag. Mainly it was the fatigue that did me in.Hoping for a decent score.

So in short🙁Felt like) Got rocked by PS, rocked the VR and unsure of BS.

Ive only done 3 CBT before(25, 25, 30) one as baseline, one half way through and the last was about a week ago. Besides the CBT I focused mainly on VR and manged to score 12s and 13s on thelast 6 or 7 EK. PS was my main weakness but had very little time to improve.
. In total studied for 3 weeks part time. What are my chances of getting 30+? I think I need a serious miracle....
 
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GomerPyle said:
Did you guys die?
Click to expand...

Lol I think most ppl are just drained and don't wanna think about anything.
I had a huge migraine above my left eye the entire test and i couldn't think straight :/ overall I think the test was pretty fair, although I probably have to retake it. Verbal was on par with the other aamcs. PS wasn't THAT bad seemed more conceptual than having had to know a bunch of equations. And bs was just a convoluted glob of superfluous information. I might even be recalling completely wrong as the headache is making everything a blur. What'd you guys think? I think ill join the january thread very soon
 
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I took the 1pm and PS was brutal. Heavy calculations a lot of math. Some things I was like what! After that I just couldn't stay focused I was upset over PS. VR was OK. BS was half easy half hard. I had to void. Will be taking it in JAn.
 
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fbradley99 said:
I took the 1pm and PS was brutal. Heavy calculations a lot of math. Some things I was like what! After that I just couldn't stay focused I was upset over PS. VR was OK. BS was half easy half hard. I had to void. Will be taking it in JAn.
Click to expand...

Was PS heavy calculation? Everything is a blur to me right now maybe what I said before was totally wrong 😕
 
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Bio was a cluster**** of information that made me go wtf and move on to different passages that all ended up being similar in style.

VR was ok
PS was ok

I've never run out of time on all three before. ****.
 
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Just took the 9/7 MCAT!

Impressions
PS- Pretty Hard, calculation intensive, I'm not really sure how I did
VR- REALLY EASY, I was not expecting this, the questions were way more straight forward than I thought
BS- Sort of a wash, I finished with 20 minutes left....so not sure about that

If I had to place a score for myself right now I would guess like
PS-VR-BS
8-13-10

I hope I did better on physics than I thought.


Here were my last three practice tests
Test PS-VR-BS total
Kaplan 9 10-11-11 32
Kaplan 10 9-12-14 35
AAMC 11 8- 9-9 26 😕<---I was also throwing my guts up this day and being a premed thought 'im being so unproductive, lets take a practice test"

My average was around 31 for all of my practice tests (all 10 of kaplans and all AAMC's).


I CAN'T WAIT FOR A MONTH, I WANT MY SCORE NOW!!!! 😡
 
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Just got back home

PS: From my recollection it was much like the harder AAMC tests (9-11). I did not feel that it was heavy calculations, but definitely more conceptual knowledge. I believe this was a very fair section and even though it was only on a select few areas, it tested them well

VR: a crapshoot. I really need to improve verbal reasoning skills especially on humanities based passages. I felt the science and social science passages were not much trouble

BS: WHAT the ?????? No amount of studying textbooks or prep books will help. The MCAT has completely changed in terms of BS. The BS sections are now mostly genetics and at most you will only have 1-2 organic chemistry passages. I would suggest that for this section, you read biological papers especially in terms of genes. AAMC needs to update students on their method of testing for this section as I felt practice tests and preparatory books will be of no aide.

Overall I felt that I might have made silly mistakes in PS especially on the handful I made educated guesses/blatantly guessed. I predict 9-11.

VR is crapshoot but probably 8-11

BS: no idea, but i imagine the curve will be significant
 
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I LOVED THE WRITING SECTION !!! -.-

PS: I thought I did good, I got pressed by time probably my best section. I had 2 questions were I went.. I AM NOT DOING THIS QUESTION, and just guessed.

VR: I did not have enough time to do all of the last passage I think the passages were easy as in subject wise (I would have rather had philosophy heavy since curve is usually better with these).

BS: There were passages like a freaking story.... anyway, I think there were 2 passages around the middle that I felt were Hard, and the rest was regular stuff. There were couple of questions that were time intensive unless you were Watson.

Prediction: PS/VR/BS 11/10 /09 (30)

Average AAMC: 31.7

I would have done a lot better if I didn't stop on some Qs in the biology section. IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE YOUR TEST YET answer the Qs and move on... don't be a dumba** like me.

Probably will retake in Jan.
 
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Wow, exhausting. This was my first attempt and:

PS is usually my most underwhelming subject, and I am sure it was here. There were more physics problems proportionally (I think) than on the practice exams.

Verbal - I found the questions a little more straightforward than on the practice exams, too. I have been scoring 11s here, and think I might crack at least a 12 on this.

BS - I also found this section a tad easier than my practice exams. There was not much in the way of orgo which I appreciated. I didn't think there was significantly more in the way of genetics than on the practice exams as one person stated. I was glad to have taken physiology for some passages - there were a couple of questions that drew on material that wasn't covered in any of my study guides.
 
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PS & VR=okay
BS= the same as the initials for this section

For PS, I would say about 15 problems actually involved calculations, while the remainder was all conceptual.

Very little orgo on BS which I thought would be a good thing, but all of the passages were super dense and lots of lengthy question stems that made your head spin.

WS was extremely easy but obviously does not matter.
 
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Same here...but bio killed me. I got frustrated at the start. I didn't take any physio and I am accustom to not actually reading the passages...it did well (11-13) on practice tests, but killed me here. I was so annoyed at this section. Oh well, hopefully a 9 in bio. Sad and pathetic. :/
 
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I am so glad that they are removing the writing section come January. Not that it is a difficult section but I would like to reserve those ATPs for the other sections. 🙂
 
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PS: I thought it was a little harder than the practice ones, it was def. more tricky.
VR: I was pleasantly surprised by how straightforward I found it.
BS: It was a mixed bag, some questions were really easy and some were really complex. Bio was very passage dependent, couldn't rely on previous knowledge much.
WS: wasn't difficult.

My AAMC 3-11 avg is 13-10-12. I guessing I got 1 or 2 marks lower for PS, 1 or 2 marks higher for VR and about the same for bio.
 
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you guys serious?

that VR was super tough, passages seemed wayyy longer than the aamcs i took, threw off my timing

BS wasnt too bad, but there was a few lengthy passages, PS, i swear i couldnt do 1 or 2 problems w/o a calculator, just winged it hahaha
 
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You reallyyyy had to read the passages carefully for the bio section... Im also used to just answering the questions without the passage. Physical was slightly harder than practice exams, and verbal was pretty decent. Prediction: 9,10,12.
 
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PS was amazing. I love physics and g chem anyway (my other major for university was civil engineering which I declined)

VR I messed up because I ran out of time. Guessed on 2 passages. Hoping for >7.

BS What the hell? Everything has changed SO MUCH. The practice MCAT are very not representative of the exam. Hardest section for me even though the practice tests were so easy in this section. I found O chem easier than some Bio sections on molecular interactions, etc... Just extremely detailed and complicated.

Writing: Okay. Hoping for O and above.

Expecting 12, 6, 8, O. 🙁
 
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That was exhausting but I'm soo glad its over. Can finally start getting on with my life, which is essentially getting started with school 🙁

I thought the Physical Sciences was fair, a lot of calculations though. And it was focused only on a few topics that were heavily tested.

The verbal was fair as well. As most posts it was like the previous AAMCs but I finished just at the last second without time to review some of my answers that I would liked to go back on.

The Bio I found to be the hardest. Not only at this point are you super tired but man it was like reading science papers and being able to interpret data quickly. I definitely spent longer than usual on one or two passages just to understand what the results were telling me! I finished this section just on time.

So overall the Test was a lot harder than the AAMCs, so just praying for a good result. My AAMC's ranged from 26-30. So I don't know if I'm going to do that great but hey lets see in a month.

Goodluck to everyone!
 
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Time flew by. Those 5+ hours literally felt like seconds.

PS: More difficult than practice tests. Had literally 0 idea on about 3 questions.

VR: Fair, possible even easier than the practice tests.

WS: Wish this was weighed more, the prompts were great.

BS: First passage was extremely easy, followed by 5 very difficult passages. The O-chem passage wasn't bad. Probably completely guessed on 3-4.

Overall: Harder than any of the other AAMC's, but mostly doable. Wish the BS wasn't so dense.
 
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PS: Narrowly focused. Really tested conceptual understanding imo. Harder than PS on the AAMC. I completely guessed on 2-3.
VR: Felt normal. Hopefully it goes well
WS: It was relaxing. Hopefully it went well
BS: Quite diff from AAMC exams. Felt like there were 2 hard passages that required a lot, a lot of reasoning.

Overall: Hopefully it went well. I know it definitely felt a little harder than all the AAMC's. A few left field questions, but overall was ok.
 
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I thought the test was challenging.

PS - Really got stumped on one of the questions in the first passage. I thought the oxygen passage was tough.
Verbal - I thought all the passages were challenging & long. Question-wise, I thought the first passage was tougher than the other ones. Topic-wise, I thought the cognitive passage was very killer. But I am thankful that there were no philosophy passages.
BS - The middle three passages (P#2 - P#4) were the toughest.
 
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PS: More quantitative than conceptual (relative to AAMCs)
VR: Tough as usual. It really comes down to making the right choices when not 100% sure.
W: I did not practice for this, but I think I made some solid arguments.
BS: Tough! Each passage is jam-packed with concepts! Like verbal, this often comes down to making the best decision when not completely sure.

Not going to make an estimate since I am honestly not sure how I did. Hoping for a lenient scale since this was definitely tougher than the AAMCs, and others on here seem to think so as well.
 
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Same as most of you. PS had quite a few wtf questions. Although there were a lot of ridiculously easy freebies where I didn't even have to read the passage. I still was totally pressed for time. I had to completely guess for 3 of them, as in, not even educated guess because I had not the slightest clue.

Verbal was easier than usual.

LOVED the writing sample!!

Bio was meh. Some convoluted questions. Not quite sure how I did. It was doable though.

Average Practice score: 33
PS: 11 VR: 10 BS: 12

Probably got around my average, predicting 9-11 in PS, 10-14 in VR, 10-13 in BS and an R or S on the writing sample
 
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honestly, bio felt like a logic test. not cool to execute in the final inning of mentally-taxing exam. I spent like 40 minutes just to analyze the first three passages in painstaking detail and to complete all the free-standing questions. I was not mentally tired, but I found the questions really messing with my head.

tbh, I'm so glad we had the chance to do the writing sample. It was like a one hour-and-twenty minute mental break to recharge for the logic, i mean biology, section.
 
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Physical science: Easy. I'm glad I'm a chem guy, though. 12-13?
Verbal: Easy. The first passage was really lame. Who writes garbage like that? 12?
Bio: Took too long because of the little details. I still finished it on time, but the MCAT people made it harder than it needed to be. 11-12?

Writing: fun. Q-T?

34 +/- if my scores are what I think they are based on kaplan correctness percentages. The writing score I don't care about. I wrote so that they'd need a dictionary and a thesaurus, and should have to reread it a couple times.

That was a fun summer, studying the whole time. I wish I could do it all over again. 😴
 
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did anyone else think it was an interesting transition in BS going from
Jack and Jill went up the hill. Jack blank blank blank. He's a cool cat.
to
BAM. HERES SOME GENETICS WITH LOTS OF LONG WORDS AND STUFF REGARDING ENZYMES PROTEINS HAVE FUN READING ALL OF IT LULZ -signed MCAT
 
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i actually laughed during the story with the two people, because i visualized what took place with the guy, and how the girl wasn't paying attention. twas funny.
 
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Toughest passages:

PS - oxygen. Barely any physics. More like 75% chem, 25% physics. I was okay with that, as I was stronger and devoted excess time for Gen Chem.
BS - Toughest in order of difficulty from hardest down: 1) genetics/evolution, 2) liver, 3) mouse.

I thought the first passage, o-chem passage, and the coagulation/drug passage were easy.

The Jack/Jill passage was so sexist. Jill was fine b/c that would spark feminist outrage everywhere.

I agree on the common sentiment about genetics. To take the MCAT without genetics is like firing a half-loaded revolver against your head. It was not fun to pile on Genetics with Ochem and Physics last fall, but it was DEFINITELY WORTH IT.
 
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Jill's strong independent spirit was fine with me as long as i don't need to read another verbal passage about "female writers".
 
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On Verbal, I probably have to agree that the questions seemed more straightforward than the AAMCs. But even the AAMCs were more straighforward (to me) than ExamKrackers 101 and TPRH Verbal. Where I thought Verbal today was challenging was that the essays were really much longer than the AAMC test exam passages, and we had two heavy literary passages (excluding the light one) and I think three science-related passages. The was length and nature of the passages were kind of intense.

I think there is no effective way to study for Bio. I stopped TBR Bio three weeks ago, and I'm glad I did b/c it was just a waste of time.

As soon as I was averaging 11/12 on AAMC VR, I stopped doing EK 101. Overall, I thought EK 101 and TPRH Verbal were poor preparation materials. For their tougher questions, they offered inconsistent logic that was just confusing. I've done very decently on SAT verbal, so it's ... well, MCAT verbal is not too different. I think probably taking GMAT/LSAT verbal passages may be better b/c they vet their answers more thoroughly (through committee like the MCAT) than EK/TPR.
 
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I believe it was a reference to an AAMC verbal passage about the term "female writers" xD
 
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Everyone: Remember the MCAT rules: do not give details of the exam, or you may suffer serious consequences to your score.
 
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seojohn said:
did anyone else think it was an interesting transition in BS going from
Jack and Jill went up the hill. Jack blank blank blank. He's a cool cat.
to
BAM. HERES SOME GENETICS WITH LOTS OF LONG WORDS AND STUFF REGARDING ENZYMES PROTEINS HAVE FUN READING ALL OF IT LULZ -signed MCAT
Click to expand...

Went more like this:

Passage:

Jack and Jilmo went up the hill and found a bunch of genes laying on the ground and then they all fell off the cliff and we had to calculate what the speed of light is on Jupiter because the sun has a concentration of 0.1M in an aqueous environment and we could not see how much the light was changing simply based on the chimera centerials only because the ground was too hot causing life to burn and causing people to eat too much fatty food.

Question: What was the radius of Jupiter?
A. 1 Pascal
B. 2.4 x 10^e enzymes
C. 46 x 3.4^1 protons
D. 1.2 meters

Time remaining: 00:00:25

inception
 
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Did anyone else also have to use the ear phones provided by their test center? Mines were really tight and hurt my ears lol, but it did keep my glasses in place. :laugh:
 
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