The Official 9/7/12 MCAT Thread!

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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?

nah its just tht upon viewing this scale, i got excited bcuz it looks awesome! but then i got scared cuz after all, this is the mcat:scared::scared::scared:
 
I thought the PS was difficult, but I had a pretty bad migraine at the time which didn't start to ease off until WS (came back after BS, ugh). What was that last passage? I think I guessed on the entire thing.

Verbal seemed easy, but to me, verbal is always pretty simple. I thought the passages were interesting too (Dinosaurs!! 😀)

The WS prompts were awesome, reading political blogs and news sites really helped. Pretty easy to write on considering I never did anything related to this section to prepare.

I didn't think BS was too hard, but then again, I do read a lot of primary source neuroscience articles, which are structured a lot like the BS passages (yay for a 300 page neuro development textbook of a bazillion genes and knockout mice)! BS would have been perfect if the stupid exam proctors didn't start dismantling the room (I wrote at a temporary Prometric Centre at a tech college) with 20 minutes left in the section. Threw off my concentration when I was trying to review my answers.
 
nah its just tht upon viewing this scale, i got excited bcuz it looks awesome! but then i got scared cuz after all, this is the mcat:scared::scared::scared:

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.
 
Yeah honestly as one of the posters here mentioned, typing during the WS section was really annoying, I literally wore ear plugs AND those orange noise cancelling ear muffs they give you to block it all out during the BS section. Wasn't an issue for VR though because I think I was going faster than most people.

Overall, I agree with most of the sentiments already expressed in this thread. But honestly, while the BS section was hard because of all the logic and reasoning involved, I usually ended up with about 10 minutes extra on AAMC practices, so instead, I took it really slow and think I did a pretty good job on dissecting the harder passages and working through the question stems. Answered the last stand alone with 10 seconds left lol.

I can only hope I did as good as I think!
 
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.
 
i expected the exam to be much harder. i prepared like hell for physics and i was fine on gchem and bam, ALL Gchem. the verbal seemed really easy. the bio seemed straightforward enough.
 
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I know I can't do anything about it now and it's no good to think about it, but can anyone that got to every verbal passage tell me which one they thought was the most difficult (1-7 without giving too much away on the topic of the passage bc I know we aren't supposed to go over specifics). I know, you all thought this section was very easy, but I have difficulty completing 7 passages in 60 minutes and the PS gave me a migraine that sort of carried over to verbal.

For reference, I skipped the 2nd (i think) passage. I think it was something related to literature (or a literary review)? Was that passage very easy?
 
Not to induce paranoia, but apparently people are right when they say the Biological Science section really hasn't changed that much from previous years, if at all. Apparently, our bio and verbal section were administered on a previous mcat exam from over 4 years ago. I would post the link to that exam thread, but I don't want the AAMC coming after me, since it could possibly be considered the same as me posting the actual exam topics. But yeah, people in that thread had the exact same verbal section and BS section as we did. From what I could tell, it seems that, as I guessed, the verbal section was curved the same as the real aamc practice exams, or slightly harsher. Pretty much everyone in that thread got their average verbal score from the aamc practice exams or lower (there was one person however that was averaging a 6 VR in practice that got a 10 on test day, so there is hope). The bio section seemed to have a more favorable curve. Everyone seemed to get their aamc exam average or slightly higher. They didn't seem to have the same PS section as us though. Just thought I would share that to help people feel better. Anyway, if you're curious just do an sdn search. If you search for the right terms in the right way, you will find this thread. The key to opening this lock, lies within our thread and that's all I'm going to say about that. I will not be responding to pm's or any other questions related to this. I don't want my score invalidated (or so I think....:xf:).
 
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Not to induce paranoia, but apparently people are right when they say the Biological Science section really hasn't changed that much from previous years, if at all. Apparently, our bio and verbal section were administered on a previous mcat exam from over 4 years ago. I would post the link to that exam thread, but I don't want the AAMC coming after me, since it could possibly be considered the same as me posting the actual exam topics. But yeah, people in that thread had the exact same verbal section and BS section as we did. From what I could tell, it seems that, as I guessed, the verbal section was curved the same as the real aamc practice exams, or slightly harsher. Pretty much everyone in that thread got their average verbal score from the aamc practice exams or lower. The bio section seemed to have a more favorable curve. Everyone seemed to get their aamc exam average or slightly higher. They didn't seem to have the same PS section as us though. Just thought I would share that to help people feel better. Anyway, if you're curious just do an sdn search. If you search for the right terms in the right way, you will find this thread. The key to opening this lock, lies within our thread and that's all I'm going to say about that. I will not be responding to pm's or any other questions related to this. I don't want my score invalidated (or so I think....:xf:).

Nice post. 👍
 
I know I can't do anything about it now and it's no good to think about it, but can anyone that got to every verbal passage tell me which one they thought was the most difficult (1-7 without giving too much away on the topic of the passage bc I know we aren't supposed to go over specifics). I know, you all thought this section was very easy, but I have difficulty completing 7 passages in 60 minutes and the PS gave me a migraine that sort of carried over to verbal.

For reference, I skipped the 2nd (i think) passage. I think it was something related to literature (or a literary review)? Was that passage very easy?

I think the more difficult passage was passage #5 or 6 (I don't remember exactly where it was but I think it was towards the end maybe...honestly not sure). I thought 2nd one was okay, seemed similar in style to a previous aamc passage about beginning writers..I think it was on AAMC 9 or 10. And, is it just me, or did anyone feel like they were having serious deja vu on the verbal section? I felt like the passages I was reading on the verbal section seemed very reminiscent of previous passages from the practice AAMC exams I had read. I'm not sure if that is a good thing, or if it will seriously screw me over. But alot of the passages seemed vaguely familiar at least in style and choice of topic. It was similar to the feeling I got when I did the practice AAMC exams and one exam had a passage about women writers and another exam had one about feminism that were extremely similar.
 
I know I can't do anything about it now and it's no good to think about it, but can anyone that got to every verbal passage tell me which one they thought was the most difficult (1-7 without giving too much away on the topic of the passage bc I know we aren't supposed to go over specifics). I know, you all thought this section was very easy, but I have difficulty completing 7 passages in 60 minutes and the PS gave me a migraine that sort of carried over to verbal.

For reference, I skipped the 2nd (i think) passage. I think it was something related to literature (or a literary review)? Was that passage very easy?
I thought the first four passages of verbal were significantly more difficult than the last three. I spent about 42 minutes just doing the first four, and had 18 minutes for the final three.

Question-wise, I thought the first passage and the dinosaur passages were the toughest. Topic-wise, I thought the cognitive passage was the hardest, followed by first passage and the second one.

Just to bump what I had asked you previously, In spending 14 minutes on the oxygen passage from PS, did you have to guess on a lot of the questions in the oxygen passage? Or did you feel you nailed down the answers solid due to the greater time/effort allocated?
 
Is anybody else religiously watching football? :laugh: I'm glad I signed up for a $25 buy in league. I am sure it will keep my mind off this test for a while.
 
Is anybody else religiously watching football? :laugh: I'm glad I signed up for a $25 buy in league. I am sure it will keep my mind off this test for a while.

Haha yep. Winning my matchup so far but Megatron ain't getting me as many points as I thought he would 🙁
 
Is anybody else religiously watching football? :laugh: I'm glad I signed up for a $25 buy in league. I am sure it will keep my mind off this test for a while.

I really need to find something to take my mind off this test. I have become obssessive. I just located our Physical Science section from a test from 4+ years ago. It is a different test from the one that had our Verbal and Biological Science Section. I will be reporting my findings soon.

Ok so I think some of PS was experimental. This test date had some overlapping passages with ours, but also some different ones. Post-test many seemed to think it was not too bad 🙂().
 
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I really need to find something to take my mind off this test. I have become obssessive. I just located our Physical Science section from a test from 4+ years ago. It is a different test from the one that had our Verbal and Biological Science Section. I will be reporting my findings soon.

Ok so I think some of PS was experimental. This test date had some overlapping passages with ours, but also some different ones. Post-test many seemed to think it was not too bad 🙂().

It's definitely haunting me too lol. I keep thinking about the test. Sometimes I doubt myself. Othertimes I feel like I did my best and not bad. It fluctuates ahha. But yeah, we def have to take our minds off this test. Maybe sports?
 
Haha yep. Winning my matchup so far but Megatron ain't getting me as many points as I thought he would 🙁

I'm currently winning my match-up too, but Brees ain't playing his best! Although he is not doing horribly point wise.

EDIT: TD pass by Brees!!!! yee
 
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I really need to find something to take my mind off this test. I have become obssessive. I just located our Physical Science section from a test from 4+ years ago. It is a different test from the one that had our Verbal and Biological Science Section. I will be reporting my findings soon.

Ok so I think some of PS was experimental. This test date had some overlapping passages with ours, but also some different ones. Post-test many seemed to think it was not too bad 🙂().

I would be very curious to know more about this. You're a whiz with the search function, pete.
 
Not to induce paranoia, but apparently people are right when they say the Biological Science section really hasn't changed that much from previous years, if at all. Apparently, our bio and verbal section were administered on a previous mcat exam from over 4 years ago. I would post the link to that exam thread, but I don't want the AAMC coming after me, since it could possibly be considered the same as me posting the actual exam topics. But yeah, people in that thread had the exact same verbal section and BS section as we did. From what I could tell, it seems that, as I guessed, the verbal section was curved the same as the real aamc practice exams, or slightly harsher. Pretty much everyone in that thread got their average verbal score from the aamc practice exams or lower (there was one person however that was averaging a 6 VR in practice that got a 10 on test day, so there is hope). The bio section seemed to have a more favorable curve. Everyone seemed to get their aamc exam average or slightly higher. They didn't seem to have the same PS section as us though. Just thought I would share that to help people feel better. Anyway, if you're curious just do an sdn search. If you search for the right terms in the right way, you will find this thread. The key to opening this lock, lies within our thread and that's all I'm going to say about that. I will not be responding to pm's or any other questions related to this. I don't want my score invalidated (or so I think....:xf:).

I actually think that the BS section I wrote this September was way easier than the one I wrote last July. The passages were even worse, and there was 2 or 3 ochem passages as well.
 
I would just like to know what search functions we are supposed to be looking for

I mean I looked and found nothing


Also how does one figure out the 1/(menstruation cycle of women) when we have no idea where we are standing. Bogladites!
 
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I'm currently winning my match-up too, but Brees ain't playing his best! Although he is not doing horribly point wise.

EDIT: TD pass by Brees!!!! yee

Damnnnn I wanted Brees but he was snatched a pick too early. I ended up with Eli Manning and boy was he a disappointment this week.
 
Good call. I picked up Megatron first round. He fell short of his projected points for this week but I think he was a good pick.
 
Is it just me? or taking a small break after the exam is not as enjoyable as the breaks I had while studying :/

I am still in study mode and feel guilty for not studying -__-
 
Is it just me? or taking a small break after the exam is not as enjoyable as the breaks I had while studying :/

I am still in study mode and feel guilty for not studying -__-


I am going to stay in study mode...so when my 10J uploads I am prepared to retest...
 
I really need to find something to take my mind off this test. I have become obssessive. I just located our Physical Science section from a test from 4+ years ago. It is a different test from the one that had our Verbal and Biological Science Section. I will be reporting my findings soon.

Ok so I think some of PS was experimental. This test date had some overlapping passages with ours, but also some different ones. Post-test many seemed to think it was not too bad 🙂().

I think you are going to make a great doctor...researching, compiling results for the rest of us...I am impressed.
 
I'm also continuing to study for the Jan MCAT. My brain fried towards the Bio section and it still hasn't recovered (sorry if my grammar is horrible). Feels like I got ran over by a truck and beaten to guacamole. The verbal-ish bio passages should have been easy to process if that was the first section but I just could not process the info anymore..🙁 I remember I still tackled the bio section easily on my first MCAT (was not brain dead at all after the test was over, was actually confident about the bio since I finish the section with 10 minutes left to spare wtf) but only made an 8. Now being brain dead and still feeling brain dead, I am sure my score is crap. I am so frustrated with my performance this past Friday, not sure what the hell happened.
 
I'm also continuing to study for the Jan MCAT. My brain fried towards the Bio section and it still hasn't recovered (sorry if my grammar is horrible). Feels like I got ran over by a truck and beaten to guacamole. The verbal-ish bio passages should have been easy to process if that was the first section but I just could not process the info anymore..🙁 I remember I still tackled the bio section easily on my first MCAT (was not brain dead at all after the test was over, was actually confident about the bio since I finish the section with 10 minutes left to spare wtf) but only made an 8. Now being brain dead and still feeling brain dead, I am sure my score is crap. I am so frustrated with my performance this past Friday, not sure what the hell happened.

I am sure you did absolutely fine. I was kicking myself too for missing an easy question here and there, but I know that we all did our best. Most people usually feel like crap but they end up scoring around their average. I'm sure you did well! Just relax and have faith in yourself🙂
 
Good call. I picked up Megatron first round. He fell short of his projected points for this week but I think he was a good pick.

He is definitely a good choice. He may not have done that well for you this week, but he is a safe pick and is also a hell of a good player.
 
I'm also continuing to study for the Jan MCAT. My brain fried towards the Bio section and it still hasn't recovered (sorry if my grammar is horrible). Feels like I got ran over by a truck and beaten to guacamole. The verbal-ish bio passages should have been easy to process if that was the first section but I just could not process the info anymore..🙁 I remember I still tackled the bio section easily on my first MCAT (was not brain dead at all after the test was over, was actually confident about the bio since I finish the section with 10 minutes left to spare wtf) but only made an 8. Now being brain dead and still feeling brain dead, I am sure my score is crap. I am so frustrated with my performance this past Friday, not sure what the hell happened.

I feel like I got run over by the truck in the first PS passage 😛
 
He is definitely a good choice. He may not have done that well for you this week, but he is a safe pick and is also a hell of a good player.

For sure.

All my opponent's players are locked in! Just gotta hope Antonio Gates comes through tomorrow night with more than 4 points and I'm set haha
 
Just to bump what I had asked you previously, In spending 14 minutes on the oxygen passage from PS, did you have to guess on a lot of the questions in the oxygen passage? Or did you feel you nailed down the answers solid due to the greater time/effort allocated?

I mean I tried to the best of my ability. Some questions on that passage were definitely very difficult after I POE'ed down to 2 choices. I thought one questions had two good answers. But, like I said before, if I could go back I would have done what you did and invested half the time for that passage and moved on to the last physics passage. That passage derailed my timing and no, I'm not sure I got them all right. The same thing happened in verbal for me. I guess I need to change that for January now.

I really need to find something to take my mind off this test. I have become obssessive. I just located our Physical Science section from a test from 4+ years ago. It is a different test from the one that had our Verbal and Biological Science Section. I will be reporting my findings soon.

Ok so I think some of PS was experimental. This test date had some overlapping passages with ours, but also some different ones. Post-test many seemed to think it was not too bad 🙂().

:laugh: Some PS experts right there. Got a bad feeling this test is going to slam me then. Any idea how many passages were different, and were they those brutal ones?

I feel like I got run over by the truck in the first PS passage 😛

Me too and then my brain started to radioactively decay.
 
The PS section was a killer for sure. It's my first time taking the MCAT, so the timing threw me off despite my brain constantly reminding me not to spend too much time on that damn electrochemistry passage. I had to guess on pretty much everything on the last passage, and I would've voided if it were possible to just void a single section.

I finished VR 22 minutes early, and felt pretty confident in my answers too. I spent 5 minutes meditating before going over my answers, and revised my some of my answers after spotting traps, but I think my performance on the VR might redeem my piss-poor PS performance.

The writing section was absolutely terrible. I had no good examples whatsoever, so in my third task for both prompts, I pointed out how ****ty my counterexample was in an attempt to support my thesis.

The BS section wasn't bad at all; I'd been taking tons of paper-dependent courses in my final year of undergrad, and I'm pretty glad I did a minor in chem. Here's to hoping I get a decent score :/
 
The PS section was a killer for sure. It's my first time taking the MCAT, so the timing threw me off despite my brain constantly reminding me not to spend too much time on that damn electrochemistry passage. I had to guess on pretty much everything on the last passage, and I would've voided if it were possible to just void a single section.

I finished VR 22 minutes early, and felt pretty confident in my answers too. I spent 5 minutes meditating before going over my answers, and revised my some of my answers after spotting traps, but I think my performance on the VR might redeem my piss-poor PS performance.

The writing section was absolutely terrible. I had no good examples whatsoever, so in my third task for both prompts, I pointed out how ****ty my counterexample was in an attempt to support my thesis.

The BS section wasn't bad at all; I'd been taking tons of paper-dependent courses in my final year of undergrad, and I'm pretty glad I did a minor in chem. Here's to hoping I get a decent score :/

Maybe this is because I've only had enough time to take Kaplan FLs, but how on Earth did you in 38 minutes finish Verbal? I spend at least 20 minutes reading the passages.
 
So guys, anything you wish you had studied or knowing prior to taking the test?
Everything will be okay. I was pretty nervous and anxious during the first passage of the PS section. I wasted a good 2-3 minutes just calming myself down. Also, be prepared to see questions you haven't before, but learn to cope with them - don't let them dictate how you will do on the exam. What I mean is that you should not dwell on a difficult question and keep telling yourself "o ****..... o ****. I never saw this before." Just calm down a bit and use your intuition
 
Maybe this is because I've only had enough time to take Kaplan FLs, but how on Earth did you in 38 minutes finish Verbal? I spend at least 20 minutes reading the passages.

i want to knw this as well...god bless u for having such a remarkable talent 😱😱😱😱
 
The PS section was a killer for sure. It's my first time taking the MCAT, so the timing threw me off despite my brain constantly reminding me not to spend too much time on that damn electrochemistry passage. I had to guess on pretty much everything on the last passage, and I would've voided if it were possible to just void a single section.

I finished VR 22 minutes early, and felt pretty confident in my answers too. I spent 5 minutes meditating before going over my answers, and revised my some of my answers after spotting traps, but I think my performance on the VR might redeem my piss-poor PS performance.

The writing section was absolutely terrible. I had no good examples whatsoever, so in my third task for both prompts, I pointed out how ****ty my counterexample was in an attempt to support my thesis.

The BS section wasn't bad at all; I'd been taking tons of paper-dependent courses in my final year of undergrad, and I'm pretty glad I did a minor in chem. Here's to hoping I get a decent score :/


Yes and there I sat with two passages left and 25 seconds...What is your strategy??😛
 
I actually think that the BS section I wrote this September was way easier than the one I wrote last July. The passages were even worse, and there was 2 or 3 ochem passages as well.

If you are referring to the 7/6 exam, I know what you mean. The curve on that exam was ludicrous, especially verbal. People said the 7/6 had straight forward questions and passages (which was a hell no for me). The 9/7 verbal passages were so much easier to understand and the questions were so much more straight forward as well.

The BS passage were somewhat easier as well. This one o-chem passage was very pleasant while those two on 7/6 were ridiculous. I am glad I took this exam!

Good luck to you all.
 
Maybe this is because I've only had enough time to take Kaplan FLs, but how on Earth did you in 38 minutes finish Verbal? I spend at least 20 minutes reading the passages.

The passages were easy to read for me, I just did a lot of reading all my life. And, well, there were lots of times when I didn't do the assigned readings for my classes back in high school, and had to catch up by reading discontinuous passages and derive information from that alone. The desperation there trained me well for the MCAT VR.

On test day, I just went in, I made myself comfortable in my seat, and pretended that I was in front of a fireplace and that the passages were torn out of a novel. Then, I just read that trying to guess context and from which book/section of the book the passage was torn from. This allows me to anticipate most of the questions that later came up.

Yes and there I sat with two passages left and 25 seconds...What is your strategy??😛


As far as strategy goes, I didn't really have one - I'm just a really fast reader. I marked off all of the answers that didn't feel right or had wording that implied a inconsistent tone with the passage. I would then bubble in the best answer, while leaving suspected trap answers alone for me to come back for review.

I've always had strong Verbal scores on the SAT/GRE, and I don't have any secrets, unfortunately. Many years of constantly reading magazine articles (National Geographic, Nature, etc.) does help your reading comprehension though.
 
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I feel like I might have got shafted on this exam. PS started easy with some buoyancy stuff, however it turned harder. As for I find it very interesting to hear that it was "easy" I didn't have one passage on dinosaurs and I felt like it was very long. I know some people had a different exam 100% positive on this. I wonder if my curve or scale for the vr section will be against people who wrote the easier one. And by easier, I mean the questions were more straight forward. Also I wonder how many different versions of the exam there are in total. Guess its the luck of the draw! Oh and as for bs... well thats what it was, BS!
 
Has everyone else applied this cycle? Luckily, the school I love accepts the January MCAT so, if I have to retake there is a small chance I will still be considered.
 
Nope, applying next cycle incase I need a retake...I hope to have an MCAT score I am happy with by June so that I can apply super early, my GPA isn't that great
 
Was going to apply this cycle but feel extremely depress over my mcat that I decided to withdraw. Now I predict I made less than a 20..I could not remember the questions on BS and the unknown is killing me.
 
Was going to apply this cycle but feel extremely depress over my mcat that I decided to withdraw. Now I predict I made less than a 20..I could not remember the questions on BS and the unknown is killing me.

I too predict low...BLAH! I hate this exam. :barf:
 
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I too predict low...BLAH! I hate this exam. I am a slow and calculated test taker and perfectionist. The MCAT is a joke...we have to calculate ridiculous problems with no calculator in seconds. Complete a verbal section that only gives you enough time to actually read five passages thoroughly. And, interpret BIO passages that most people with Phd's would find confusing. :barf:

I have a question for you... what's with the "trauma" in your username? What's it mean?
 
Everytime I think about it my perception of how I did goes down. I left the exam feeling pretty good about it, like 32+. Now I'm sure I didn't get better than a 23....

This waiting game is killing me.
 
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