The Official April 24, 2014 MCAT Thread

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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HopelessDreamer

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Anyone else on here taking it on the 24th? I'm going to start studying later this week. What is everyone else's study plan?
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Do you guys feel like Kaplan's verbal is harder/easier than AAMCs? A better question may be do you guys feel like Kaplan's Verbal is indicative of what you'd potentially get on an AAMC?
 
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amonty144 said:
Anyone know the high-yield topics for PS, BS or maybe verbal to ahha, jk?
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BS, hormones (Renin, anginotensiongen pathway might behoove you)
Genetics, small points (Punnet tables)

Not so sure about rest

Verbal, is more of Psychology thing, at least for me. In the sense that I find if I relax, and take my time I do better, than if I stress out. Next time you do a Full Length, try this, be relax and take your time, if when the 5 minute buzzer hits and you haven't finished a passage, go there random guess answers in. There isn't a penalty for doing that. One other thing, your test will most likely have 7 passages, so even if you do 6/7 and then do random guess you will be fine. Make sure you never re-read anything in the passage, if you need to re-read the question that's fine, don't bother annotating you are slowing yourself down.

Verbal is just checking to see how you deal with new information, so there is no reason to get stressed about it. Take deep breaths.

I know this kind of sounds weird, but I have been taking TPR full lengths, raised my TPR score TPR 5 Verbal 7, Cracking TPR 1 Verbal 12.
 
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ManOfDiligence said:
Ugh, got ROCKED on TPR 3 today. 20-7/6/7. My last 2 full lengths have been:
AAMC 5- 27- 10/9/8
GS3- 28- 10/9/9

How does one go from a 28 to a 20??? These Princeton tests really mess up my morale. No time to b*tch, though. Back to the drawing board.
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I am taking TPR review prep (different from most here I think), I would say TPR Reviews are designed to be much harder. My strategy is to finish those first and practice on AAMC (7-11), later during April). The first time I took MCAT, I got a 31, my AAMC practice scores were same 26-29 range. So I wouldn't fret to much about it. One thing you can do is break down the test see what you are doing wrong.

Good Luck!
 
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Don't know what to do about VR. I already went through almost of all of tprh. Might be time to bump it up to 6 passages a day.
 
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TurkTurkleton92 said:
I know it's late compared to everyone else, but I'm starting the AAMC FL's on Friday. I'll be doing ~2 FLs/week.
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I stared AAMC 3 today and will do #4 later in the week. From there I will be doing TBR 1-4 (maybe also 5) then finish off AAMC 9-11 before test day.

I'm retaking so I am hoping the TBR will give me a better idea of where I stand.
 
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Karasu said:
I stared AAMC 3 today and will do #4 later in the week. From there I will be doing TBR 1-4 (maybe also 5) then finish off AAMC 9-11 before test day.

I'm retaking so I am hoping the TBR will give me a better idea of where I stand.
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Have you ordered your TBR tests. If so how long did it take to get them?
 
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SynapticDoctah said:
Have you ordered your TBR tests. If so how long did it take to get them?
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Thanks, a question I can answer precisely because I planned it out perfectly, LOL. I live in NYC and their site says it takes 4 business days after they receive money orders to ship out the items.

I mailed my money order out on Tuesday the 25th of February, I assumed it would take 3 business days to get there (Feb 28th). I gave them 5 business days after February 28th to "ship my item".

They actually activated it on the day I hoped they would (45 days before my exam) however, I had to send them an email asking if they received my payment yet. I guess they have a small staff and lots of orders to fulfill.

TLDR: Took 9 business days for the whole process of mailing payment and getting the CBTs.
 
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Kaplan FL #5: 37!!! 13 PS/ 13 VR / 11 BS. I'm thrilled. I thought PS went really bad and BS went well, but the opposite happened. I'm psyched about verbal!

Less than a month to go now, why can't this just count for the real deal?
 
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ConsultantMD said:
Kaplan FL #5: 37!!! 13 PS/ 13 VR / 11 BS. I'm thrilled. I thought PS went really bad and BS went well, but the opposite happened. I'm psyched about verbal!

Less than a month to go now, why can't this just count for the real deal?
Click to expand...

That is f*cking badass! Keep up the great work!

Are you completely done with content review?
 
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ConsultantMD said:
Kaplan FL #5: 37!!! 13 PS/ 13 VR / 11 BS. I'm thrilled. I thought PS went really bad and BS went well, but the opposite happened. I'm psyched about verbal!

Less than a month to go now, why can't this just count for the real deal?
Click to expand...

Woww great job man ..

Do you think Kaplan FLs get increasingly harder? I just did Kaplan #1 today
 
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I'm almost done but not completely done with the third chunk of kaplan stuff.

I think the difficulty is about the same really the key is less stupid mistakes and better educated guessing.
 
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My scores seem to be dropping. Just took AAMC 5, and got my lowest score yet.


Test: PS/VR/BS = Total Score
3: 12/9/8 = 29
4: 10/7/9 = 26
5: 10/6/8 = 24
 
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SOOyC52H1Sof said:
My scores seem to be dropping. Just took AAMC 5, and got my lowest score yet.


Test: PS/VR/BS = Total Score
3: 12/9/8 = 29
4: 10/7/9 = 26
5: 10/6/8 = 24
Click to expand...
You know how sometimes you just get that feeling where you already know what's going to happen? After reading this I just got that feeling that you were going to break a 30 on AAMC 7 (or 6 if you can find it.. I think its retired).

You got this!!
 
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TheAnonymous said:
Woww great job man ..

Do you think Kaplan FLs get increasingly harder? I just did Kaplan #1 today
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I don't think they get increasingly difficult, they're meant to cover a distinct amount of topics per full length. For instance, Ive been told (by my Kaplan instructor) that Kaplan FL's 1-5 are meant to cover different topics so that by the end of those 5 you've seen topics on everything. You could get a FL where it exposes all your weaknesses, one with all your strengths, or the most likely scenario of one with a mix of both.

HOWEVER..... from my own experience (as well as reading several other testimonials), Kaplan FL's 10 and 11 are disastrous. They will not indicate in any way your real score, and are extremely difficult. I got a 17 on Kaplan FL 11. The verbal passages were pretty damn difficult, and I got a 27/40 (which it said was a 7).
 
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HiloH said:
I don't think they get increasingly difficult, they're meant to cover a distinct amount of topics per full length. For instance, Ive been told (by my Kaplan instructor) that Kaplan FL's 1-5 are meant to cover different topics so that by the end of those 5 you've seen topics on everything. You could get a FL where it exposes all your weaknesses, one with all your strengths, or the most likely scenario of one with a mix of both.

HOWEVER..... from my own experience (as well as reading several other testimonials), Kaplan FL's 10 and 11 are disastrous. They will not indicate in any way your real score, and are extremely difficult. I got a 17 on Kaplan FL 11. The verbal passages were pretty damn difficult, and I got a 27/40 (which it said was a 7).
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input. I took Kaplan FL#1 today and got 11/9/11 (consider myself very very very lucky as it was my first FL) - I have only read the chapters for all subjects but haven't done any practice passages yet. My plan is to take FLs every 5 days or so and in between do passages from TBR/TPR until my test date. Any comments?
 
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TheAnonymous said:
Thanks for your input. I took Kaplan FL#1 today and got 11/9/11 (consider myself very very very lucky as it was my first FL) - I have only read the chapters for all subjects but haven't done any practice passages yet. My plan is to take FLs every 5 days or so and in between do passages from TBR/TPR until my test date. Any comments?
Click to expand...
I think if you go hardcore, the amount of practice problems you're going to do is gonna boost your score big time. The only comments I can think of is probably take FL's 10 and 11 for stamina purposes only. Also, post-game analyze your FL's like a champ, esp the PS section of Kaplan FL's because if you look at the March 22nd MCAT thread they're all going crazy about how similar it looked to Kaplans.

On Kaplan FL 1 I got a 9/5/9. I usually score 11's-12's on EK 101 verbal, but idk what the hell happened that day. Nonetheless, I rescheduled my exam until July 2nd, so I guess I have more time to prepare for verbal incase that wasn't just a 'fluke'.

Good luck all, study hard!
 
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HiloH said:
I think if you go hardcore, the amount of practice problems you're going to do is gonna boost your score big time. The only comments I can think of is probably take FL's 10 and 11 for stamina purposes only. Also, post-game analyze your FL's like a champ, esp the PS section of Kaplan FL's because if you look at the March 22nd MCAT thread they're all going crazy about how similar it looked to Kaplans.

On Kaplan FL 1 I got a 9/5/9. I usually score 11's-12's on EK 101 verbal, but idk what the hell happened that day. Nonetheless, I rescheduled my exam until July 2nd, so I guess I have more time to prepare for verbal incase that wasn't just a 'fluke'.

Good luck all, study hard!
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot man !
 
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So I have about 29 more days of studying left till D-Day.

I took AAMC #3 yesterday and scored 11's in the sciences.

I am not sure what I should for the rest of the time. Here are the resources I have

TPRH Science workbook
TBR Books (completed about 1/4 of the passages)
AAMC 4-11 (completed 4-9 last year)

I was thinking about purchasing either Gold Standard FL or BR, but BR would take at least a week to get here so I don't know if I have the time for that.

I was thinking if I completed 20 passages per day I could pretty much get through all of BR and TPRH. What would you guys do with this material that I have?
 
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New here on the thread, but quick question for those who have been posting their practice scores, are you guys also doing "post-phrasing" and going over your test results? Or just hitting the books again and reviewing before taking another test?
 
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CapCrunch said:
Took AAMC 5 on monday. Thought the sciences weren't bad, scored a 10 and 11, but the verbal was my worst yet, 8.
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I see. I'll PM you the results and questions I missed and we can see which ones you missed too.


TBR 6 (It's 100 mins each section non-CBT but I took first 52 questions/70 mins):
PS: 70%
BS: 60%
 
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I seem to be cycling in performance with these practice tests.. just took AAMC #3 and got a 12/9/10 (31). I made it a goal to make sure I drilled down to 2 answer choices, so if I got it wrong and I didn't reject the right answer, that's a good indicator at least in the right direction. I ended up changing a lot of right answers to wrong ones, so I really, really need to stop doing this-it's going to kill me!

Since I'm not getting consistent scores, this probably means that I have some content gaps. I'm going to the AAMC SAPs this weekend to see where those gaps are more clearly. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
 
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ConsultantMD said:
I seem to be cycling in performance with these practice tests.. just took AAMC #3 and got a 12/9/10 (31). I made it a goal to make sure I drilled down to 2 answer choices, so if I got it wrong and I didn't reject the right answer, that's a good indicator at least in the right direction. I ended up changing a lot of right answers to wrong ones, so I really, really need to stop doing this-it's going to kill me!

Since I'm not getting consistent scores, this probably means that I have some content gaps. I'm going to the AAMC SAPs this weekend to see where those gaps are more clearly. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

I am gonna do SAP this weekend/week as well. I am about to start FL 4 momentarily but hopefully I won't fluctuate anymore. How are you planning on tackling the SAP? I might do 2 sittings and simulate 2 FLs.
 
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ConsultantMD said:
I seem to be cycling in performance with these practice tests.. just took AAMC #3 and got a 12/9/10 (31). I made it a goal to make sure I drilled down to 2 answer choices, so if I got it wrong and I didn't reject the right answer, that's a good indicator at least in the right direction. I ended up changing a lot of right answers to wrong ones, so I really, really need to stop doing this-it's going to kill me!

Since I'm not getting consistent scores, this probably means that I have some content gaps. I'm going to the AAMC SAPs this weekend to see where those gaps are more clearly. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

To be honest with you, judging by your last Kaplan FL score of 37 (13/13/11), I'd say you weren't far off on AAMC 3. You scored 4 points lower on verbal and within 1 point on PS and BS which to me seems that AAMC verbal is your kryptonite (join the club).
 
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CapCrunch said:
To be honest with you, judging by your last Kaplan FL score of 37 (13/13/11), I'd say you weren't far off on AAMC 3. You scored 4 points lower on verbal and within 1 point on PS and BS which to me seems that AAMC verbal is your kryptonite (join the club).
Click to expand...
Fair enough, that is true. Verbal wrecked me and reviewing my answers was frustrating because I changed a lot of them to wrong answers from right ones. I think I just need more time getting the hang of what they're rationale is. I also noticed that I got more of them wrong towards the end and I did feel a slight bit rushed, but I still finished 5 minutes early. Fortunately there's plenty more practice! It's just frustrating that you could change your score by 3 points by just getting 3 questions right. No room for silly mistakes!
 
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ConsultantMD said:
Fair enough, that is true. Verbal wrecked me and reviewing my answers was frustrating because I changed a lot of them to wrong answers from right ones. I think I just need more time getting the hang of what they're rationale is. I also noticed that I got more of them wrong towards the end and I did feel a slight bit rushed, but I still finished 5 minutes early. Fortunately there's plenty more practice! It's just frustrating that you could change your score by 3 points by just getting 3 questions right. No room for silly mistakes!
Click to expand...

What's your take on the Kaplan FL, I keep getting lower on them than my AAMCs. You don't get stumped by their PS questions?
My Kaplan scores have fallen from above 30 on FL1/2 to back to back 29s on 3/4. AAMCs have been around 33....
 
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Bbqchickenman said:
What's your take on the Kaplan FL, I keep getting lower on them than my AAMCs. You don't get stumped by their PS questions?
My Kaplan scores have fallen from above 30 on FL1/2 to back to back 29s on 3/4. AAMCs have been around 33....
Click to expand...

Was it a particular subsection or you have been scoring lower on all sections?
 
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TheAnonymous said:
Was it a particular subsection or you have been scoring lower on all sections?
Click to expand...

Well slightly lower on all Kaplan sections because the material is less straight forward than AAMC.
Berkley Review is good for learning the content, but it doesn't have good passages like the Kaplan FLs I tanked. I'm gonna look into the TPR science workbook.
 
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I like the Kaplan FLs, I do slightly better on them, but I think that's because of their curve. Raw score-wise, I'm doing about the same, it's just that Kaplan's raw score conversion is more forgiving, but I'm assuming AAMC has it right.

AAMCs I think are more easy, but that's why they are hard because you cannot miss any easy ones.

My scores have been consistently going up overall. It's interesting that both my first Kaplan and AAMC I got a 27, but that's the only sub-30 score I've gotten so far. The rest have been Kaplan 31-37 and AAMC 31-33 with subscores usually in the 10-12/9-11/10-12 range for me for PS/VR/BS.

I really think that once I eliminate the dumb mistakes, everything else will fall into place. Knowing the material cold will also help with that. I'm also going to to the TPR Science workbook as well, that should be helpful.
 
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ConsultantMD said:
I like the Kaplan FLs, I do slightly better on them, but I think that's because of their curve. Raw score-wise, I'm doing about the same, it's just that Kaplan's raw score conversion is more forgiving, but I'm assuming AAMC has it right.

AAMCs I think are more easy, but that's why they are hard because you cannot miss any easy ones.

My scores have been consistently going up overall. It's interesting that both my first Kaplan and AAMC I got a 27, but that's the only sub-30 score I've gotten so far. The rest have been Kaplan 31-37 and AAMC 31-33 with subscores usually in the 10-12/9-11/10-12 range for me for PS/VR/BS.

I really think that once I eliminate the dumb mistakes, everything else will fall into place. Knowing the material cold will also help with that. I'm also going to to the TPR Science workbook as well, that should be helpful.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am still having a hard time understanding why I found the PS okay in my first two Kaplan FL, and found them difficult to understand/answer on FL 3/4... Most people trend up, im trending down. So angry with myself from falling out of the 30+ Kaplan range (thank god not on AAMC).
 
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Bbqchickenman said:
Yeah, I am still having a hard time understanding why I found the PS okay in my first two Kaplan FL, and found them difficult to understand/answer on FL 3/4... Most people trend up, im trending down. So angry with myself from falling out of the 30+ Kaplan range (thank god not on AAMC).
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Exactly, still within striking distance. We have plenty of time to get inside the head of the test makers and get familiar with the answers that they're looking for. Also, I just continue to make dumb mistakes, it literally costs 4-6 points when you add it all up and look at the raw score scales.
 
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ConsultantMD said:
Exactly, still within striking distance. We have plenty of time to get inside the head of the test makers and get familiar with the answers that they're looking for. Also, I just continue to make dumb mistakes, it literally costs 4-6 points when you add it all up and look at the raw score scales.
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Dumb mistakes on PS or BS/VR? Very different type of "dumb mistakes" I noticed.
For me, dumb mistakes on PS are usually not seeing what the question is asking. Like when it's a pseudo-discrete simple calculation and I think its some complex question.
Dumb mistakes for me on VR and BS is literally answering increasing instead of decreasing, or forgetting to look at the answer right there in the passage. These I find are much easier to improve.
 
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I know this might not be the place to discuss discretes but this question bothered me. The Correct answer is A but I feel that it is B. From what I understand the question is asking about the electron affinity of ns2np1 compared to that of ns2np^2 . I think the electron affinity of the 1st atom is lower so I chose B. Anyone care to help me understrand where I went wrong in my reasoning?



For an element whose valence electron configuration is ns2np1, where n is some integer, how will its electron affinity compare to its neighboring element whose electron configuration is ns2np2?
checkbig.png

A
It will increase because electron affinity increases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
BIt will decrease because electron affinity increases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
CIt will increase because electron affinity decreases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
DIt will decrease because electron affinity decreases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
 
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Bbqchickenman said:
Dumb mistakes on PS or BS/VR? Very different type of "dumb mistakes" I noticed.
For me, dumb mistakes on PS are usually not seeing what the question is asking. Like when it's a pseudo-discrete simple calculation and I think its some complex question.
Dumb mistakes for me on VR and BS is literally answering increasing instead of decreasing, or forgetting to look at the answer right there in the passage. These I find are much easier to improve.
Click to expand...
Dumb mistakes everywhere. Like I tally them up just prove how much of a difference it can make. On AAMC #3, had I avoided the 13 silly mistakes I made, that would've been a 38. Crazy.
 
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Dr.Keem said:
I know this might not be the place to discuss discretes but this question bothered me. The Correct answer is A but I feel that it is B. From what I understand the question is asking about the electron affinity of ns2np1 compared to that of ns2np^2 . I think the electron affinity of the 1st atom is lower so I chose B. Anyone care to help me understrand where I went wrong in my reasoning?



For an element whose valence electron configuration is ns2np1, where n is some integer, how will its electron affinity compare to its neighboring element whose electron configuration is ns2np2?
checkbig.png

A
It will increase because electron affinity increases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
BIt will decrease because electron affinity increases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
CIt will increase because electron affinity decreases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
DIt will decrease because electron affinity decreases as one goes right and up along the periodic table
Click to expand...


e- affinity follows the same trend as electronegativity. It increases as you move up and to the right. This automatically rules out C and D. Now...comparing np1 to np2 is a move to the right because there is one more electron in the p shell. This is an increase in electron affinity, not a decrease.

However, don't memorize the trends. It's more useful if you relate it to effective nuclear charge. This will explain e- affinity, electronegativity, ionization energy, and all that good stuff.
 
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CapCrunch said:
e- affinity follows the same trend as electronegativity. It increases as you move up and to the right. This automatically rules out C and D. Now...comparing np1 to np2 is a move to the right because there is one more electron in the p shell. This is an increase in electron affinity, not a decrease.

However, don't memorize the trends. It's more useful if you relate it to effective nuclear charge. This will explain e- affinity, electronegativity, ionization energy, and all that good stuff.
Click to expand...

I understand the trend/concept, I guess its just the wording of the question. I thought it was asking "what is the electron affinity of np1 compared to np2?"(lower: decrease) , not " in going from np1 to np2, how will the electron affinity change" (increase). Guess I need to pay more attention to wording.
 
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Oh, wait, after reading that question again, I see where it can be confusing. You answered your own question right, but the poorly worded question threw you off. Where did you get that question anyway?
 
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