The Official April 5th, 2014 MCAT Thread!

[BeachBlondie]

139 days!

You know, for a couple of weeks I thought I would just not subscribe to any particular SDN MCAT thread. Figured it wasn't necessary. But, frankly, knowing that there are other people out there--pissed about not remembering values for logs, and trying to sort out where epinephrine is secreted from ("Was that the adrenal cortex... or adrenal medulla?")--makes this slog towards test date bearable

Best of luck, fellow lost souls!

(P.S...... it's from the medulla )

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[wkevin5]

When's the latest I could retake the MCAT for it to be relevant for this application cycle? (2015 matriculation)

I would take it in early June that way your app will be verified early July which is probably the latest to be counted as "early". Although if you have somewhat an average score, you could take it in August, and just resubmit your new results. All depends on what you actually got and whether that old score will prevent you from receiving secondaries.

 

[STEVEHOLT1]

Hello everyone! I took my MCAT on the 5th and got a really solid score, a 38. 11 PS/13 V/14 B. I wish my PS was higher but cant complain about my final result. I have been stalking the SDN all day trying to finalize a list of medical schools and figured I'd add my two cents. This was my study schedule:

February: started reviewing content. Never took a kaplan class but got the books and read every goddamn word in them. I am ALL about notecards and must have gone through at least a thousand of those suckers. Every time I got a question wrong, I made a card for it. I bought a whiteboard and carried it with me everywhere I went.

March: Put the content to the test. Did all the practice questions in the back of the book first. Made 4 study sheets (bio, physics, orgo, gen chem) that I color-coded the living hell out of and kept revising/ re-doing as central categories emerged. Second half of march: started taking a practice test a day. Overall I took 14 practice tests of which I averaged between a 36-42.

I attribute my high score in verbal to figuring out what worked for ME, not what kaplan suggested. We are all different and there is no such thing as the "one right way." I struggled for a while if I should do it their way (write sentences for each paragraph) or my way (highlighting as I go, write nothing, save time). Ultimately I chose the highlighting method, the 5 minutes at the end proved too crucial to give up, and stuck with it. Choose something and practice it instead of continuously going back and forth.

You all rock!!!!

 

[R35]

Hello everyone! I took my MCAT on the 5th and got a really solid score, a 38. 11 PS/13 V/14 B. I wish my PS was higher but cant complain about my final result. I have been stalking the SDN all day trying to finalize a list of medical schools and figured I'd add my two cents. This was my study schedule:

February: started reviewing content. Never took a kaplan class but got the books and read every goddamn word in them. I am ALL about notecards and must have gone through at least a thousand of those suckers. Every time I got a question wrong, I made a card for it. I bought a whiteboard and carried it with me everywhere I went.

March: Put the content to the test. Did all the practice questions in the back of the book first. Made 4 study sheets (bio, physics, orgo, gen chem) that I color-coded the living hell out of and kept revising/ re-doing as central categories emerged. Second half of march: started taking a practice test a day. Overall I took 14 practice tests of which I averaged between a 36-42.

I attribute my high score in verbal to figuring out what worked for ME, not what kaplan suggested. We are all different and there is no such thing as the "one right way." I struggled for a while if I should do it their way (write sentences for each paragraph) or my way (highlighting as I go, write nothing, save time). Ultimately I chose the highlighting method, the 5 minutes at the end proved too crucial to give up, and stuck with it. Choose something and practice it instead of continuously going back and forth.

You all rock!!!!

Congrats on your high score! I might have to take a few tips from you

Also, other than the AAMC tests, which others did you use? And you completed all content review *before* doing practice questions?

 

[STEVEHOLT1]

Congrats on your high score! I might have to take a few tips from you

Also, other than the AAMC tests, which others did you use? And you completed all content review *before* doing practice questions?

Thanks! Yeah feel free to ask me anything. I used the Kaplan and AAMC tests. I had a friend give me access to her online materials after she got in to medical school before having to take her MCAT through a special university program. I did the short tests at the end of each chapter as I read, but yeah I finished all the content and then spent a weekend camped out in my attic with chinese takeout reviewing every note card before taking any full length or subject tests.

 

[Nogo]

How do you think you increased so much? What did you do differently. Congrats!

I pretty much did what Steveholt did. Every question I got wrong on practice tests I'd write it in my notebook. I'd see why I got it wrong and then without looking at it, I'd try to write the explanation down. It pretty much stimulated me "teaching" myself as a better reinforcement. But practice tests, practice tests, practice tests! Especially the AAMC as I feel they really do resemble the real test best, albeit not perfectly, but a lot better than any other practice tests. I used the others, well I used TPR, as a practice to the practice tests. They were used to help me with timing and whatnot. Hope that helps!