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How's the studying going? (I feel like I'm alone in taking this test date)
The Official 9/7/12 MCAT Thread!
- Thread starter FacelessMage
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Just signed up for this site, and dont know if im posting in reply to someone (which is not my intention). But anyways, i thought the MCAT on september 7th was relatively easy when compared to all the AAMC practice exams, with the only exception of the bio section which resembled AAMC 11 and was somewhat (but not too) difficult. I consistently earn 13/14 on physical sciences, 8-10 on VR, and 13/14 on biological sciences on the AAMC practice exams. But the mcat seemed to be much easier then the practice exams I have taken (all AAMC and Kaplan), so i am hoping for a 35+. Did anyone else feel that the exam fit these qualities? Or maybe my sense of difficulty did not take into account the zen i was feeling in FINALLY taking the exam, and putting 110% of my energy into completing it.
Also, i feel my VR may be somewhat low relative to my science scores. Does anyone know how medical schools may view this? I am a caucasian american, and just have a hard time with timed reading ( I have crazy ADHD). This condition of mine has only seemed to interfere with my VR, and has not seemed to bring down any of my science scores.
Also, i feel my VR may be somewhat low relative to my science scores. Does anyone know how medical schools may view this? I am a caucasian american, and just have a hard time with timed reading ( I have crazy ADHD). This condition of mine has only seemed to interfere with my VR, and has not seemed to bring down any of my science scores.
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I did. The physical science section felt easier than the Kaplan practice tests, and the bio section a little harder. The VR I can't compare, since I didn't take any practice tests.
If you look back to page 4, you can see a page or two where you see my estimated scale. It's this:
"I suspect that, based on the scaled scores in practice tests according to difficulty of the individual sections, they'll look something like this:
PS: out of 52
29 to 31 = 8-9
32 to 34 = 9-10
35 to 36 = 10-11
37 to 39 = 11-12
40 to 42 = 12-13
Verbal: out of 40
31 to 32 = 9-10
33 to 34 = 10-11
35 to 36 = 12-13
37 = 13-14
38 = 14
BS: out of 52
32 to 34 = 8-9
35 to 37 = 9-10
38 to 39 = 10-11
40 to 42 = 11-12
43 to 45 = 12-13"
How I arrived at these numbers is this: I took the score curves for sample Kaplan exams, and then changed them slightly based on the difficulty of our MCAT. I shifted the curve up a few points for the physical sciences section, since it seemed easier than the practice, and I shifted the biological sciences section down a few points, since it seemed harder than the practice. Then, I put a score range that shifted the scaled score down a notch, to eliminate errors, and give a baseline estimation for people to know how well they should have done, at the minimum.
Based on my estimations, I felt like I should get a 12-13 in the PS, an 11-12 in the VR, and an 11-12 in the BS for a minimum of 34, and a maximum of 37. My average on the practice tests was a 35, so by my own estimations, the scale seems okay, maybe a little generous.
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This scale is highly improbable. If you look on the e-mcat.com website for their AAMCs, their 11s begin at 41/52 for the toughest AAMC practice test. Perhaps if there are some experimental questions that will not be counted, but I doubt there are more than a couple on any given exam.
Go to e-mcat.com, login, and go to Understanding Scores. e-MCAT practice test scales are right there in front of you. No offense but if your's was the scale then everybody would be getting 33s and above.
Go to e-mcat.com, login, and go to Understanding Scores. e-MCAT practice test scales are right there in front of you. No offense but if your's was the scale then everybody would be getting 33s and above.
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Instead of responding to this thread each time I find something new, I'm just going to edit this post with information tidbits as I find them.
___________________________________________________________________________
The scales I used to create an estimated scale are from Kaplan.
I've seen the e-mcat scales. If Kaplan used those, then no one would score above an 8.
Here are some quotes about my scale from the previous pages:
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDforMee
I gotcha. Yeah, those are standard for Kaplans practice tests. On the phone, they said that they try to make them as accurate as possible. They wouldn't sell very many classes if people were getting higher than average scores, I wouldn't think... so it seems that they wouldn't have a reason to inflate the scores.
That seems like a reasonable scale. HOWEVER, it's not that lenient when you consider that 4 - 5 questions may be thrown out b/c they're experimental.
On bio, at least three of the passages yesterday (in my humble opinion) were at least as convoluted and difficult as the infamous Ebola passage in AAMC 11.
________________________________________________________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by naye3m
i dont knw if im just worried overall but dont u think such a scale is tooo lenient? i always figuered the curves to b much harsher and also i was told repeatedly by SDN members that all curves are preset.....
These figures are from Kaplan, and I even called them on the phone to verify their accuracy.
They should be as good a predictor as we're going to get.
Do you know something I don't?
________________________________________________________________
Here's a quote I found talking about the difficulty of the Kaplan practice exams:
"Yeah, Kaplan allows you to miss more question than the AAMC and still receive the same scaled score because their questions are more difficult. So doing it the way you are currently doing it will aways result in a lower scaled score. I would just ignore the kaplan score in this case and go by what you are getting on the AAMC test as predictive of your actual score."
_______________________________________________________________
Here's a list of AAMC practice exam score conversions:
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 52-52 40-40 51-52
14 51-51 39-39 49-50
13 48-50 38-38 47-48
12 46-47 35-37 45-46
11 43-45 33-34 43-44
10 39-42 29-32 40-42
9 36-38 26-28 36-39
8 33-35 24-25 32-35
MCAT Practice Test 4-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 52-52 40-40 50-52
14 50-51 39-39 48-49
13 48-49 37-38 46-47
12 45-47 35-36 45-45
11 43-44 33-34 42-44
10 39-42 31-32 39-41
9 36-38 27-30 35-38
8 33-35 25-26 32-34
MCAT Practice Test 5-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 52-52 49-40 50-52
14 50-51 38-38 49-49
13 47-49 37-37 46-48
12 45-46 35-36 44-45
11 43-44 32-34 41-43
10 39-42 30-31 38-40
9 37-38 28-29 35-37
8 32-36 25-27 32-34
MCAT Practice Test 6-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 50-52 40-40 51-52
14 49-49 39-39 49-50
13 46-48 37-38 46-48
12 45-45 36-36 43-45
11 42-44 32-35 41-42
10 39-41 30-31 37-40
9 36-38 28-29 33-36
8 33-35 26-27 30-32
MCAT Practice Test 7-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 51-52 39-40 51-52
14 50-50 38-38 49-50
13 47-49 37-37 47-48
12 46-46 36-36 44-46
11 44-45 33-35 42-43
10 40-43 31-32 37-41
9 37-39 29-30 34-36
8 34-36 26-28 30-33
MCAT Practice Test 8-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 52-52 39-40 51-52
14 49-51 38-38 49-50
13 47-48 36-37 47-48
12 44-46 35-35 45-46
11 43-43 33-34 41-44
10 39-42 30-32 38-40
9 36-38 28-29 33-37
8 33-35 26-27 29-32
MCAT Practice Test 9-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 51-52 40-40 52-52
14 49-50 39-39 50-51
13 47-48 37-38 48-49
12 44-46 36-36 45-47
11 41-43 32-35 43-44
10 38-40 30-31 39-42
9 35-37 26-29 35-38
8 31-34 24-25 31-34
MCAT Practice Test 10-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 52-52 40-40 51-52
14 50-51 39-39 50-50
13 49-49 38-38 47-49
12 46-48 37-37 46-46
11 44-45 34-36 43-45
10 41-43 31-33 39-42
9 38-40 29-30 35-38
8 33-37 27-28 32-34
__________________________________________________________
On a personal note, I'm against the AAMC gouging us for more money to pay for sample exams.
The fact that they issue a gag-order, and threaten us with score deletion if we discuss the contents of their exams, is ludicrous.
Also, I refused to join e-mcat.com, and sign away a good email address to get spammed.
__________________________________________________________________
I found a quote of yours in this thread too, plane, which was:
"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."
Since I didn't take any practice AAMC exams, and you did, perhaps we can figure out this scale...
... if you think that this MCAT was harder than the AAMC exams, and I thought that the biological sciences section was harder than the kaplan, then the scale for the biological sciences would lean more towards the Kaplan scale.
Since I thought that the physical sciences section of this exam was easier than the Kaplan, then perhaps the scores lean more towards the AAMC conversions.
The verbal sounds like the verbal, to me.
_________________________________________________________________________
Alright, so I took a range of my best estimates for numbers of problems missed in each section, and used that raw score range to find a correlation to the AAMC and Kaplan score conversions. I'm also overestimating the number of problems I suspected that I got wrong in each section by 2, to be safe.
That translates to these raw scores:
PS: 42-44
VR: 33-34
BS: 40-42
Therefore, in the worst case scenario, I at least will score:
According to the AAMC scales = 32
According to the Kaplan scale = 33.5
If you don't want to use the 1.5 point spread, take your raw score, and then record the frequency of correlating conversion scores to your raw score, then take the average.
I previously posted a way for determining your raw score that I suspect to be more or less correct, seen here:
"Here's how I'd do it for the science sections:
Estimate 1 problem wrong based on simple mistakes.
Estimate 1 problem wrong per marked question/unsure question.
Estimate 1 problem wrong per passage, additionally.
Add 2-10 to this number if you didn't feel confident after that section, based on your own estimation of confidence.
Therefore, for a 7 passage BS section, with 5-6 questions a piece, and the rest random, you should have a minimum number wrong of 8. That puts you at the high level of the score range. After that is up to you."
Last edited:
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I don't think they would ever make a the minimum score for a 9 more than 30/40 in VR. It wasn't that way for any AAMC.
PS: I thought was harder than any AAMC. I was really pressed for time and guessed on about 3+ calculation based ones. All I'm going to say about friction is you can set it equal to centripetal force. AAMC Avg: 12.5, Prediction: 10(Damn Oxygen)
VR: I always have sucked at this section and I think I sucked at this one as well. The last few passages did seem easier, but I can't quite make an assumption that I did well on them. I felt like I was guessing on the first two passages. AAMC Avg: 7.5, Prediction: 6-7
BS: Not bad at the beginning. I didn't know some later freestanding questions and overall marked about 6-7 that I wasn't sure about. AAMC Avg:11, Prediction: 10
My previous exam from Jan was 10/6/11 and to be honest, I am not too sure if I improved since I felt this exam to be much more difficult overall, despite putting in more time for this one.
PS: I thought was harder than any AAMC. I was really pressed for time and guessed on about 3+ calculation based ones. All I'm going to say about friction is you can set it equal to centripetal force. AAMC Avg: 12.5, Prediction: 10(Damn Oxygen)
VR: I always have sucked at this section and I think I sucked at this one as well. The last few passages did seem easier, but I can't quite make an assumption that I did well on them. I felt like I was guessing on the first two passages. AAMC Avg: 7.5, Prediction: 6-7
BS: Not bad at the beginning. I didn't know some later freestanding questions and overall marked about 6-7 that I wasn't sure about. AAMC Avg:11, Prediction: 10
My previous exam from Jan was 10/6/11 and to be honest, I am not too sure if I improved since I felt this exam to be much more difficult overall, despite putting in more time for this one.
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Instead of responding to this thread each time I find something new, I'm just going to edit this post with information tidbits as I find them.
___________________________________________________________________________
The scales I used to create an estimated scale are from Kaplan.
I've seen the e-mcat scales. If Kaplan used those, then no one would score above an 8.
Here are some quotes about my scale from the previous pages:
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDforMee
I gotcha. Yeah, those are standard for Kaplans practice tests. On the phone, they said that they try to make them as accurate as possible. They wouldn't sell very many classes if people were getting higher than average scores, I wouldn't think... so it seems that they wouldn't have a reason to inflate the scores.
That seems like a reasonable scale. HOWEVER, it's not that lenient when you consider that 4 - 5 questions may be thrown out b/c they're experimental.
On bio, at least three of the passages yesterday (in my humble opinion) were at least as convoluted and difficult as the infamous Ebola passage in AAMC 11.
________________________________________________________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by naye3m
i dont knw if im just worried overall but dont u think such a scale is tooo lenient? i always figuered the curves to b much harsher and also i was told repeatedly by SDN members that all curves are preset.....
These figures are from Kaplan, and I even called them on the phone to verify their accuracy.
They should be as good a predictor as we're going to get.
Do you know something I don't?
________________________________________________________________
Here's a quote I found talking about the difficulty of the Kaplan practice exams:
"Yeah, Kaplan allows you to miss more question than the AAMC and still receive the same scaled score because their questions are more difficult. So doing it the way you are currently doing it will aways result in a lower scaled score. I would just ignore the kaplan score in this case and go by what you are getting on the AAMC test as predictive of your actual score."
_______________________________________________________________
Here's a list of AAMC practice exam score conversions:
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 52-52 40-40 51-52
14 51-51 39-39 49-50
13 48-50 38-38 47-48
12 46-47 35-37 45-46
11 43-45 33-34 43-44
10 39-42 29-32 40-42
9 36-38 26-28 36-39
8 33-35 24-25 32-35
MCAT Practice Test 4-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 52-52 40-40 50-52
14 50-51 39-39 48-49
13 48-49 37-38 46-47
12 45-47 35-36 45-45
11 43-44 33-34 42-44
10 39-42 31-32 39-41
9 36-38 27-30 35-38
8 33-35 25-26 32-34
MCAT Practice Test 5-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 52-52 49-40 50-52
14 50-51 38-38 49-49
13 47-49 37-37 46-48
12 45-46 35-36 44-45
11 43-44 32-34 41-43
10 39-42 30-31 38-40
9 37-38 28-29 35-37
8 32-36 25-27 32-34
MCAT Practice Test 6-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Sciences Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Sciences Raw Scores
15 50-52 40-40 51-52
14 49-49 39-39 49-50
13 46-48 37-38 46-48
12 45-45 36-36 43-45
11 42-44 32-35 41-42
10 39-41 30-31 37-40
9 36-38 28-29 33-36
8 33-35 26-27 30-32
MCAT Practice Test 7-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 51-52 39-40 51-52
14 50-50 38-38 49-50
13 47-49 37-37 47-48
12 46-46 36-36 44-46
11 44-45 33-35 42-43
10 40-43 31-32 37-41
9 37-39 29-30 34-36
8 34-36 26-28 30-33
MCAT Practice Test 8-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 52-52 39-40 51-52
14 49-51 38-38 49-50
13 47-48 36-37 47-48
12 44-46 35-35 45-46
11 43-43 33-34 41-44
10 39-42 30-32 38-40
9 36-38 28-29 33-37
8 33-35 26-27 29-32
MCAT Practice Test 9-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 51-52 40-40 52-52
14 49-50 39-39 50-51
13 47-48 37-38 48-49
12 44-46 36-36 45-47
11 41-43 32-35 43-44
10 38-40 30-31 39-42
9 35-37 26-29 35-38
8 31-34 24-25 31-34
MCAT Practice Test 10-CBT
Estimated Scaled Score Physical Science Raw Scores Verbal Reasoning Raw Scores Biological Science Raw Scores
15 52-52 40-40 51-52
14 50-51 39-39 50-50
13 49-49 38-38 47-49
12 46-48 37-37 46-46
11 44-45 34-36 43-45
10 41-43 31-33 39-42
9 38-40 29-30 35-38
8 33-37 27-28 32-34
__________________________________________________________
On a personal note, I'm against the AAMC gouging us for more money to pay for sample exams.
The fact that they issue a gag-order, and threaten us with score deletion if we discuss the contents of their exams, is ludicrous.
Also, I refused to join e-mcat.com, and sign away a good email address to get spammed.
__________________________________________________________________
I found a quote of yours in this thread too, plane, which was:
"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."
Since I didn't take any practice AAMC exams, and you did, perhaps we can figure out this scale...
... if you think that this MCAT was harder than the AAMC exams, and I thought that the biological sciences section was harder than the kaplan, then the scale for the biological sciences would lean more towards the Kaplan scale.
Since I thought that the physical sciences section of this exam was easier than the Kaplan, then perhaps the scores lean more towards the AAMC conversions.
The verbal sounds like the verbal, to me.
_________________________________________________________________________
Alright, so I took a range of my best estimates for numbers of problems missed in each section, and used that raw score range to find a correlation to the AAMC and Kaplan score conversions. I'm also overestimating the number of problems I suspected that I got wrong in each section by 2, to be safe.
That translates to these raw scores:
PS: 42-44
VR: 33-34
BS: 40-42
Therefore, in the worst case scenario, I at least will score:
According to the AAMC scales = 32
According to the Kaplan scale = 33.5
If you don't want to use the 1.5 point spread, take your raw score, and then record the frequency of correlating conversion scores to your raw score, then take the average.
I previously posted a way for determining your raw score that I suspect to be more or less correct, seen here:
"Here's how I'd do it for the science sections:
Estimate 1 problem wrong based on simple mistakes.
Estimate 1 problem wrong per marked question/unsure question.
Estimate 1 problem wrong per passage, additionally.
Add 2-10 to this number if you didn't feel confident after that section, based on your own estimation of confidence.
Therefore, for a 7 passage BS section, with 5-6 questions a piece, and the rest random, you should have a minimum number wrong of 8. That puts you at the high level of the score range. After that is up to you."
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I don't know if you guys read the SDN article, but here it goes:
"It is not an exaggeration to say that performing your best on this section is likely the most important part of the MCAT experience. Schools weigh it more, possibly because it mirrors many aspects of the experience of hearing patients stories, evaluating the evidence for and against a diagnosis, and assessing the logic behind a particular plan for treatment. You need to develop skills to put together clues, follow a complex argument, and tell the difference between a reasonable inference and an illogical jump to conclusions. If VR passages strike you as annoyingly convoluted and the authors difficult to follow, remember that in real life, the patient stories youre likely to encounter will be equally convoluted. The patient may well be too distracted by illness to worry about presenting things in precisely the way that you would prefer, and you may have to contend with language barriers, time pressures, and the difficulties of assessing other doctors opinions and recommendations as well."
>>> Honestly, this is the first I've ever heard where verbal is valued more highly than PS & BS.
"It is not an exaggeration to say that performing your best on this section is likely the most important part of the MCAT experience. Schools weigh it more, possibly because it mirrors many aspects of the experience of hearing patients stories, evaluating the evidence for and against a diagnosis, and assessing the logic behind a particular plan for treatment. You need to develop skills to put together clues, follow a complex argument, and tell the difference between a reasonable inference and an illogical jump to conclusions. If VR passages strike you as annoyingly convoluted and the authors difficult to follow, remember that in real life, the patient stories youre likely to encounter will be equally convoluted. The patient may well be too distracted by illness to worry about presenting things in precisely the way that you would prefer, and you may have to contend with language barriers, time pressures, and the difficulties of assessing other doctors opinions and recommendations as well."
>>> Honestly, this is the first I've ever heard where verbal is valued more highly than PS & BS.
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Have you ever shadowed before and found patients' stories just as convoluted.....? Really?
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Truth. I also have to kind of agree with that article, not in the sense that I think a patient's history will be at all as convoluted as these VR passages, but that it definitely shows a kind of skill that is lacking among doctors and a decent VR score will show at least a potential to apply that skill at the bedside. As we all know, however, there are doctoring courses built into medschool curriculums that will help with this as well.
All in all I think it's an incredibly important part of the MCAT. Why would it be there if it wasn't? Why would they be trying to add psychology, sociology, and other behavioral sciences to the 2015 MCAT? Think about it.
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VR and the sciences aren't mutually exclusive.
Some of the most famous scientists in the world are also authors, poets, and what have you. Michael Crichton, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, etc are popular examples; or just look at scientific journals for proof. The majority of writing that you see at the academic level is more well written than 99% of what you read in books, magazines, or on the internet.
In that way, I think that the hard BS sections would probably be weighted equally or more so than the VR... that is, if the med school admissions committees could see our individual section scores.
Since you all took the 9/7 test, you should know what I'm referring to.
Some of the most famous scientists in the world are also authors, poets, and what have you. Michael Crichton, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, etc are popular examples; or just look at scientific journals for proof. The majority of writing that you see at the academic level is more well written than 99% of what you read in books, magazines, or on the internet.
In that way, I think that the hard BS sections would probably be weighted equally or more so than the VR... that is, if the med school admissions committees could see our individual section scores.
Since you all took the 9/7 test, you should know what I'm referring to.
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🙂I recently took the 9/7/2012 test. Thankfully, the physical science section seemed to go pretty smooth. I would agree with previous posts, the PS seemed easier than the previous AAMC practice tests. The verbal reasoning was pretty dense, I dont feel as confident in this section. The BS section felt good as well, not too hard compared to previous AAMC practice tests
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____
I freaked out in verbal!! The dinosaur passage seemed like it would be easy but was so confusing! I rished through that whole section smh 😡
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SAME! I hate it, it's crazy frustrating. I don't understand why it takes so long. The GRE's are immediate (have to wait a week for writing section though). Of course the GRE's aren't scaled into percentiles like the MCAT, but my god, this is the most anxious I've been and we all still have 23 days!!!
Are results always exactly 30 days after or does it vary a little?
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They do the 30 day rule for the same reason as the waiting period when you buy a handgun...
so you don't shoot other people, or off yourself, in the heat of the moment.
They'd probably have to keep ambulances on standby if people got their MCAT scores right away... there'd be people flipping out when they get low 20's scores.
If it happened to me, and I bombed it, I'd at least throw my shoes at the front desk staff, since they make us lock up all of our stuff.
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Unfortunately it varies. They will be released on October 9th for us, which is 32 days. So we still have 26 days left.
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Where are you getting that date from? I'm too lazy to log in to AAMC right now and see if it says it there 😛
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this made my week! thanks!!!!! I'm all zen right now, but the week of, I'll have no nails to bite on.- Joined
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Is anyone else feeling really bored or lazy/purposeless now that theyre not studying for the MCAT? Im taking Physics II and GenChem II this semester and they are both SO easy because I basically just taught myself this material over the summer for the MCAT. I feel like I don't have anything to work for right now. I'm afraid to start working on other things because I may be studying for the MCAT again if my score isn't what I want.
Gah, you know what I'm just going to renovate my apartment.
Gah, you know what I'm just going to renovate my apartment.
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I'm not in school anymore.. but definitely feel lazy/purposeless right now since I don't have a job either. Guess its time to get cracking! But like you... afraid to become "too busy" in case I have to retake...
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I totally agree. I started a new job the Monday following the MCAT. I find myself sitting at my desk writing the hormones of the anterior pituitary on scrap paper or renaming my cool acronym for solubility. -_-.
When I get home at night I'm tempted to just 'review' notes just in case I have to restudy. I dont want to forget anything.
This waiting is torture. I dont know what to do with myself. 😕😴
When I get home at night I'm tempted to just 'review' notes just in case I have to restudy. I dont want to forget anything.
This waiting is torture. I dont know what to do with myself. 😕😴
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I totally agree. I started a new job the Monday following the MCAT. I find myself sitting at my desk writing the hormones of the anterior pituitary on scrap paper or renaming my cool acronym for solubility. -_-.
When I get home at night I'm tempted to just 'review' notes just in case I have to restudy. I dont want to forget anything.
This waiting is torture. I dont know what to do with myself. 😕😴
I bug medical schools.
I make anonymous calls, and ask pointed questions.
They get to torture us, I might as well get to torture them.
Gotta use my minutes for something, right? Why let them go unused?
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Questions about medical withdrawals, when they'll be accredited (UC Riverside, UC Merced), what their opinions are on healthcare career changers (and how to incorporate that into a personal statement), if they take appointments to discuss admissions, whether they'll do transcript reviews over the phone, what types of specialties they encourage their students to pursue, how they view SMPs, etc etc etc.
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Wow, nice. Totally a good idea. You should post some of the really good/surprising responses up here 😉
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That is a good idea! Might as well right? lol[/SIZE]
I have shadowed, and also have been working for the past 6 years in different positions at a psych hospital. It DEFINITELY happens that patient stories can get as convoluted as some passages. Especially if they are very upset - which happens often in psych...and other medical situations (emergency and not) when people are stressed and worried about what might be wrong with them. Or not thinking clearly/able to articulate clearly due to symptoms that may be causing cognitive issues or other issues with effective communication.
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Yupp, I am but this is my second time taking it, and I have already submitted my primary and all but one of my secondaries.
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How's everyone holding up? I'm losing it. I need my score. NOW.
Anyway, here are the finding about the physical science section, as promised (someone pm'ed me about them)
I chose not to report the findings because the thread that I found only seemed to have a physical science section that was ~ 50% the same as ours. The other half of their PS section covered standard topics that most people find easy. While they seemed to find the PS section manageable overall (probably due to the 50% portion we didn't have), they struggled on one of the difficult passages that was on our PS section. As far as the curve for the physical science section, it seemed that alot of people scored around their average or lower. In any case, I've given up on trying to predict my score. We'll see what happens.
Anyway, here are the finding about the physical science section, as promised (someone pm'ed me about them)
I chose not to report the findings because the thread that I found only seemed to have a physical science section that was ~ 50% the same as ours. The other half of their PS section covered standard topics that most people find easy. While they seemed to find the PS section manageable overall (probably due to the 50% portion we didn't have), they struggled on one of the difficult passages that was on our PS section. As far as the curve for the physical science section, it seemed that alot of people scored around their average or lower. In any case, I've given up on trying to predict my score. We'll see what happens.
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Thanks, Pete.
I've been reading and rereading this thread, and trying to gauge people's opinion's of the difficulty of our test as compared to the AAMC practice tests.
If you look back in this thread/page, I posted scales for all the AAMC practice tests.
We would have a more reliable prediction of our scores if people that had taken the AAMC practice tests commented on the difficulty of those practice tests relative to our real MCAT.
If they did so, we would be able to more or less accurately predict our scores.
Based on what I've seen in this thread, most have agreed that:
1. The PS was slightly harder than the AAMC practice tests
2. The verbal was the same as the AAMC practice tests
3. The BS was slightly harder than the AAMC practice tests
If what I'm suspecting is true, then the PS and BS section scores from the AAMC scales will be moved up 1, and the verbal left as is.
Therefore, to predict your score, estimate the number of problems that you got wrong, and then match your score range to the AAMC scales I posted in this thread, giving yourself one extra raw MCAT point for the PS and BS sections, and leaving the VR alone.
Forget the kaplan scale I used in this thread. After more research, it seems that kaplan uses harder questions, and gives an easier scale.
you are pretty calculated aren't you.
i mean this as a compliment. not everyone will take the time to bullet their responses
I am honestly going a tad bit cray cray.
I check this thread and THx for the off chance that the scores were put up earlier than the Oct 9th D-day
sigh
sigh sigh sigh
i mean this as a compliment. not everyone will take the time to bullet their responses
I am honestly going a tad bit cray cray.
I check this thread and THx for the off chance that the scores were put up earlier than the Oct 9th D-day
sigh
sigh sigh sigh
MDforMee, I would tend to agree with your assessment there! And I doubt that the scale can be moved more than 1-2 questions (not points) either direction.
9/7, luck number 7 for the epic release in <2 weeks!
9/7, luck number 7 for the epic release in <2 weeks!
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MDforMee, I say this from experience, the AAMC has a gauge that can be unpredictable at times. Just because a section is easier or harder than the practice exams, does not mean that the AAMC will take that into consideration. The AAMC has their own scoring set up in mind and can either be a god send to students taking the exam or hell. So it is more random than most people think.
I was under the impression that you get scored relative to everyone else that took the exam on that day and that's how they come up with the percentiles; at least this is what my TPR bio teacher told me. Is that not the case?
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Man, I'm loosing my mind too. Headaches, tooth aches, weird skin rashes....you name it. I'm trying to calm myself down, but this test has kept me down for so long (years) that I just want it to finally be over. I doubt the curve could possibly compensate for the difficulty I experience on the PS section of this test....
Wish you guys the best in about two weeks. I may be too depressed to post my scores though when the time comes...
Wish you guys the best in about two weeks. I may be too depressed to post my scores though when the time comes...
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The raw scores are scaled before we take the exam.
Speaking of scaled scores, how did you guys feel the difficulty of our MCAT sections compared to the practice AAMC tests?
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So they don't care if by some weird luck everyone gets below a 12 on the PS or something?
I was wondering that too. So what if they make a really hard PS section and don't take that into account when making the curve and no one gets above 13, they won't change anything ?..
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Well, I think there will always be at least some crazy geniuses out there who will get a 13+ no matter what the MCAT folks throw at them lol.
It's really a shame though, because I literally did every single PS passage I could get my hands on and I couldn't even finish the section. A big curve would be nice, but I know I can't bank on it.
I found the thread where the test was previously administered. It seems like only a few passages in the PS were similar between us and them though. Like Pete said, it seems like they got the easier ones too
. Man, time travel back to the past and take that test!- Joined
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Well, I think there will always be at least some crazy geniuses out there who will get a 13+ no matter what the MCAT folks throw at them lol.
It's really a shame though, because I literally did every single PS passage I could get my hands on and I couldn't even finish the section. A big curve would be nice, but I know I can't bank on it.
I found the thread where the test was previously administered. It seems like only a few passages in the PS were similar between us and them though. Like Pete said, it seems like they got the easier ones too
Completely agree with the statement about crazy geniuses. I mean just look up a couple of posts above at what adderall20xr said about the PS section, lol. He/She thought it was easier than the aamc. Not similar to, but easier. Right now, I'm just praying to get an 11 on PS. I actually got an 11 on PS on the real thing before. And, my only prep at that time, was reading through and doing the discretes at the end of the Kaplan book. No passage based practice at all (I only took aamc 3 in preparation for that exam and got a 9 PS on it...lol). However, I had a PS section that played heavily to my strengths. While, this time, the test seemed to play heavily to my weaknesses unfortunately. I don't care what anyone says, no matter how prepared you are, there is definitely an element of luck to the test.
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This is purely anecdotal, but I've heard that there have been test administrations where the highest score on a section was a 14. This also goes back to luck, because my experience from perusing the forum is that there have definitely been a few test administrations where the aamc curve did not seem to adequately account for the difficulty of the examination. And, on such exams, a large amount of posters (sdn posters, mind you) got well below their practice averages. It's really stupid.
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Also, is there anyone else out there who is banking on a a miracle 15 on verbal or something? lol. I felt very good about that verbal section. Maybe, too good...😎 Also, did anyone see the person in the 8/23 thread that had an aamc range of 28-32, but got a 37 on test day? Plz God, let that be me this time. PLEASE. I don't know how I'veI made it the past few weeks, but I am now 100% back to panic mode about my score on this stupid test.
