The Official April MCAT 2015 Takers Thread

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emulsifier

emulsifier

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Hey guys,

I've seen some old threads (from 2012, or early 2014) on the MCAT2015.

I am wondering if we can bring resources together here, discussions for those who are planning on taking the new one in or after April.

Has anyone gotten their hands on the new prep material for 2015, and the chance to compare the different companies? I scoured the internet, obviously not much at the moment. But I know someone out there has started, just need to get this info out!

Edit:
Resources mentioned in this thread or elsewhere:

  • Free mini-test: AAMC MCAT 2015 12 sample questions and answer (3 x 4 sections)
  • Next Step guide here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-mcat-2015-100-days-to-mcat-success.1101251/
  • TPR 2015 books: They seem to be the same as their previous books. Their bio book has a chapter on biochem.
  • Kaplan 2015 books: removed content that is not tested. Physics section is 400 pages (may be too much for the new MCAT). Very little practice. Whole book on biochem.
  • EK 9th edition books: reformatted the whole book. SDNer reviewer has said that even parts with same illustrations have whole new contents. Got rid of topics that won't be tested. May be too condensed though.
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StudyLater said:
Without hard data, who knows? I'd bet all the money I have you're going to get in this year to an MD school - if I had any money. 😳
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That's the sweetest thing I've heard all day! Thank you 🙂

It's really just a matter of getting those IIs. I've never been rejected for anything after an interview, but hopefully, adcoms find my application compelling enough to invite me in! Except for MMIs. I have NO idea how I would do at those.
 
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Liz1234 said:
Chem/physics - 85-100%
Verbal 17-32%
Bio/biochem 85-100%
Psych 61-76%

Any thoughts? Middle/low tier schools?
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Ah, that's rough. How'd you prep verbal? Can you do a retake?

chocoholicsoxfan said:
I've never been rejected for anything after an interview.
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I'm the same. Although it's not like I've been in a ton of interviews throughout my short life. Here are some of the highlights:

"Are you fine with washing dishes and mopping?"
"Not really."
"K you start today."

"Do you know what PCR is?"
"Kind of."
"K you start today."

"Have you ever taught before?"
"I taught my dog to roll over once."
"K you start today."
 
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chocoholicsoxfan said:
Yep! My reaches (they're all like, dream schools) are Pitt, Northwestern, and OSU, but besides that, they are all places with LizzyM scores in line with mine. Thanks for the vote of confidence!
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Those are really high reaches with your gpa; I think you fall below their 10% on gpa. Mcat won't make up for that. do you have extraordinary Ecs/anything unique? Or do you have a strong upward trend for gpa?
But I concur with others. You probably have a chance at low tier.
 
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Glazedonutlove said:
Those are really high reaches with your gpa; I think you fall below their 10% on gpa. Mcat won't make up for that. do you have extraordinary Ecs/anything unique? Or do you have a strong upward trend for gpa?
But I concur with others. You probably have a chance at low tier.
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Oh yeah I know. I'm just really applying to get the rejection letter. Though I think OSU I might be above the 10th percentile? My ECs are probably average for a matriculant, and above average for an applicant. 500 hospital volunteer hours, 80 shadowing, cofounded service club, volunteer Zumba instructor with developmentally disabled, I'm a company dancer, and 2 years of research with 6 national poster presentations at medium impact conferences. I do have a 3.95cGPA/4.0sGPA this past year, but I don't think a year is enough to show a substantive upward trend, according to what I've read on this forum?
 
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umgoblue2008 said:
Finally the moment of truth. It looks like our scores will be affected by May's outcome.
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Oh snap. So we maybe shouldn't have helped them as much as we did?

(I'm kidding, before everyone goes all well if you don't want to help people, you shouldn't be a doctor! If they didn't hear it here, they would have heard it somewhere else.)
 
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Is anyone else suddenly really nervous about the MCAT results coming out tomorrow? I managed to forget about it for the last few weeks
 
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nholaday said:
Is anyone else suddenly really nervous about the MCAT results coming out tomorrow? I managed to forget about it for the last few weeks
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I am. I've been totally unproductive the last week and a half because it's always been in the back of my mind. I really hope that 10% drop or whatever doesn't happen to anyone.
 
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Liz1234 said:
Chem/physics - 85-100%
Verbal 17-32%
Bio/biochem 85-100%
Psych 61-76%

Any thoughts? Middle/low tier schools?
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Any section score that is 7 or below has a high chance of getting screened out is what I heard from my health professions adviser.

I think you should retake anyway since from what I heard, the may testers had an exceptionally difficult verbal section.
 
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gannicus89 said:
No... our scores shouldn't be affected by how May test-takers did.
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This is what I thought first as well. However, this is what someone else posted at another thread:

"Not exactly because MCAT percentiles are more complicated than what we generally think of as percentiles. If I took the MCAT on May 15th (I have no idea whether or not it was offered that day, I just made the date up) and my score came back as being in the 90th percentile, that does not mean that 90 percent of the people who took the MCAT on May 15th scored at or below my score. That is what a lot of people think it means, but that isn't true. The MCAT tries to make a scoring system that accounts for as many variables as possible, so it's very complex. They try to account for the fact that one test date could just have a better, smarter average test taker than another day, so they make the percentiles such that your percentile is supposed to be representative of your percentile amongst all people taking the test on all dates. This is complicated by the fact that there are different questions on different test dates, so even more adjusting is necessary.

The problem this poses for the first year or two of the new MCAT is that they don't have a bunch of data from previous years to rely on for creating percentiles that will do a good job of placing an applicant in the correct percentile for all test takers, not just that specific date. How do they do this for, say, the very first administration? Did they use data from the trial sections of the 2014 MCAT? If so, that may not be accurate because nobody was studying for the trial section, but people are certainly studying those topics now that they're scored. Is there some other method of adjustment that they used? If so, what? It's very conceivable that the percentiles could be a little off for the first year or two since they have no past data to go off of to make percentiles that compare a student to all test takers on all dates."

If our test scores were not affected by may's scores, there's no other explanation to why it takes 2 months for us to get our scores. Is it really coincidence that May test takers got their percentiles last Friday and we get our full report this Tuesday? Also May's scores will be out 1 month after their test, ours=2 months.
 
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umgoblue2008 said:
This is what I thought first as well. However, this is what someone else posted at another thread:

"Not exactly because MCAT percentiles are more complicated than what we generally think of as percentiles. If I took the MCAT on May 15th (I have no idea whether or not it was offered that day, I just made the date up) and my score came back as being in the 90th percentile, that does not mean that 90 percent of the people who took the MCAT on May 15th scored at or below my score. That is what a lot of people think it means, but that isn't true. The MCAT tries to make a scoring system that accounts for as many variables as possible, so it's very complex. They try to account for the fact that one test date could just have a better, smarter average test taker than another day, so they make the percentiles such that your percentile is supposed to be representative of your percentile amongst all people taking the test on all dates. This is complicated by the fact that there are different questions on different test dates, so even more adjusting is necessary.

The problem this poses for the first year or two of the new MCAT is that they don't have a bunch of data from previous years to rely on for creating percentiles that will do a good job of placing an applicant in the correct percentile for all test takers, not just that specific date. How do they do this for, say, the very first administration? Did they use data from the trial sections of the 2014 MCAT? If so, that may not be accurate because nobody was studying for the trial section, but people are certainly studying those topics now that they're scored. Is there some other method of adjustment that they used? If so, what? It's very conceivable that the percentiles could be a little off for the first year or two since they have no past data to go off of to make percentiles that compare a student to all test takers on all dates."

If our test scores were not affected by may's scores, there's no other explanation to why it takes 2 months for us to get our scores. Is it really coincidence that May test takers got their percentiles last Friday and we get our full report this Tuesday. Also May's scores will be out 1 month after their test, ours=2 months.
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Yes, your score is affected by May test.
 
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Can't wait until the full results tomorrow. Will be consistently checking twitter.

Chem/physics - 85-100%
Verbal 62-77%
Bio/biochem 65-80%
Psych 74-89%

cGpa: 3.81
 
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BabyShoes said:
I will hunt down every single May tester on this forum if they pushed me into the 5% below my percentile range.
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I just think it's funny how they had no problems coming into our thread the day of our test, but got mad at June/July people in their thread the day of their test.

You'd be shocked how entitled and rude some of the messages asking for advice to me were-especially in the days leading up to their exam date! Of course, there were a decent number of super nice ones, also.
 
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chocoholicsoxfan said:
I just think it's funny how they had no problems coming into our thread the day of our test, but got mad at June/July people in their thread the day of their test.

You'd be shocked how entitled and rude some of the messages asking for advice to me were-especially in the days leading up to their exam date! Of course, there were a decent number of super nice ones, also.
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Watch out they are reading what we are saying 😱
 
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umgoblue2008 said:
If our test scores were not affected by may's scores, there's no other explanation to why it takes 2 months for us to get our scores. Is it really coincidence that May test takers got their percentiles last Friday and we get our full report this Tuesday? Also May's scores will be out 1 month after their test, ours=2 months.
Click to expand...

This is just conjecture... I haven't read any official AAMC statement saying that April scores will be affected by May scores. I think April scores required more time to generate simply because it's the first set of scores and there was likely a great deal of adjusting going on. What sort of adjusting? That I cannot answer.
 
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chocoholicsoxfan said:
I just think it's funny how they had no problems coming into our thread the day of our test, but got mad at June/July people in their thread the day of their test.

You'd be shocked how entitled and rude some of the messages asking for advice to me were-especially in the days leading up to their exam date! Of course, there were a decent number of super nice ones, also.
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:wideyed: Who asked you for advice?! Lmao
 
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Sourgrapesss said:
:wideyed: Who asked you for advice?! Lmao
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A ton of people actually, here and on reddit! 70% of people were super nice, and I was absolutely thrilled to help them. But a lot of people would message me asking them why I couldn't respond faster or include more info or take a look at the Princeton material and see how it compared.

As an example, I did a little write-up (higher up on this thread/on reddit) so I could stop answering the same questions over and over. Once I mentioned I was going to do it, at least twice a day people messaged me to ask why I hadn't finished it yet and what was taking so long. Super rude in my opinion!

And sorry, but I'm not gonna take a look at other MCAT materials that I didn't even use after I finished my test to see how good they are, and at least 6-7 people asked me to do so. I have much, much better things to do with my time.

But like I said, the vast majority of people were very nice, friendly, and grateful!
 
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chocoholicsoxfan said:
A ton of people actually, here and on reddit! 70% of people were super nice, and I was absolutely thrilled to help them. But a lot of people would message me asking them why I couldn't respond faster or include more info or take a look at the Princeton material and see how it compared.

As an example, I did a little write-up (higher up on this thread/on reddit) so I could stop answering the same questions over and over. Once I mentioned I was going to do it, at least twice a day people messaged me to ask why I hadn't finished it yet and what was taking so long. Super rude in my opinion!

And sorry, but I'm not gonna take a look at other MCAT materials that I didn't even use after I finished my test to see how good they are, and at least 6-7 people asked me to do so. I have much, much better things to do with my time.

But like I said, the vast majority of people were very nice, friendly, and grateful!
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aren't you a special snowflake

But great job on mcat 🙂
 
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Sourgrapesss said:
aren't you a special snowflake

But great job on mcat 🙂
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The tone of your emojis confuses me... I think you're accusing me of lying? But I can't be sure. Thank you, if you're sincere.

Also, pretty sure I'm not a snowflake- I bet lots of people, especially on reddit, were bombarded with requests for advice! I just happen to be much, much more active there, and so I'm sure a saw a large proportion of these requests.

But the 1st intermission is about to end, so I'm gonna go!
 
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chocoholicsoxfan said:
The tone of your emojis confuses me... I think you're accusing me of lying? But I can't be sure. Thank you, if you're sincere.

Also, pretty sure I'm not a snowflake- I bet lots of people, especially on reddit, were bombarded with requests for advice! I just happen to be much, much more active there, and so I'm sure a saw a large proportion of these requests.

But the 1st intermission is about to end, so I'm gonna go!
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I was being sincere! You people's advice saved us all for our test dates and we all owe you!
 
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i took the jan mcat, april, and now september. what is my life. graduated in june 2014 yet cause of my poor grades taking a summer class. i graduated yet still not done with undergrads sutfff. bugs me. but i don't care what my score will be tmrrow, i did very bad
 
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As long as the score I get gets me into my master's program I'm straight. The minimum is a 20 using the old scoring scale. I'm definitely going to have to tackle this beast again because by time I apply to medical school (either the 2017 or 2018 cycle) this score will have expired.
 
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Today's the big day folks! AAMC said that our scores would be up BY 5 pm...they said that when we got our prelim's too, but I remember checking mine around 11 am EST and there they were. Today's going to be full of paranoidily (word? i think not) refreshing that page.
 
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Scores are up--mine was on the lower end of the estimate they gave me: 74th percentile with a 507. Breakdown is 126/126/128/127. The conversion for percentiles is about a 30, but just taking the first 3 sections would equal a 29, I think. Hopefully that's good enough for having been out of college and working for 8 years!
 
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rachiie01 said:
I'm not just on the lower end, I'm the lowest percentile of the range they gave me. Still a good enough score to apply, but I am pissed. One percentile up and I would be at a different score on the old scale. I would retaken if I knew their range was so pathetic!
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Maybe it was really them May takers 😀
 
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To be perfectly honest, people that were in the 90-100 percentile range were always more likely to scores in the lower ends of their brackets. I mean your scores are pitted against all the Jimmy Neutrons in this country. Getting that high at all is an amazing feat!
 
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