The Official August 15, 2014 MCAT Thread

Started by axa5780
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axa5780

axa5780

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Hey guys, I'am signed up for this date. I didn't find a thread for August 15th, so here it is. Let's make this a fun experience, and hope we all come out the other end satisfied with our score.

Materials:
PS: BR Physics, NOVA Physics, BR Chemistry, EK 1001 Chem & Phys
BS: EK Biology, BR Biology, EK 1001 Biol
Verbal: EK 101, TPR Verbal

Extras: TPRH SW, WIkiPremed Flashcards & videos. All AAMC FL plus all Kaplan FL.

Lets do this.
 
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^about to go to bed but this hotel bed isn't too comfy! (Living two hours from the nearest testing center sucks...)

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! We're gonna kill it. Have faith in all the hard work you've put in to get to this point!

(Also, thank you @TBRBiosadist for that verbal strategy! I tried it on AAMC 11. Either that verbal was really easy, or it helped a ton. It reversed the verbal slide I'd been having and brought me back up to a 14!)
 
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Skittsie13 said:
^about to go to bed but this hotel bed isn't too comfy! (Living two hours from the nearest testing center sucks...)

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! We're gonna kill it. Have faith in all the hard work you've put in to get to this point!

(Also, thank you @TBRBiosadist for that verbal strategy! I tried it on AAMC 11. Either that verbal was really easy, or it helped a ton. It reversed the verbal slide I'd been having and brought me back up to a 14!)
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you did better than me on that one! *growls* kidding 😉
 
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Lie-down-try-not-to-cry-cry-a-lot.jpg
 
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I thought physical sciences was supposed to have chemistry in it 😉 🙁

Anyways here are my thoughts

PS -What in the seven hells was that?? I usually range 12-14 in PS but I will be hard pressed to break a 10 for that section, honestly that was brutal AAMC, your practice tests do not reflect the TYPE of PS passages you put on there. For those of you yet to write it this is what I have to say - take concepts potentially related/unrelated to physics and make like a few thousand tangents and there you have it - MCAT PS, focuses on concepts you should know but in contexts that were impossible for me to fully even grasp.

VR - Pretty standard I'd say, the passages themselves were very readable an the questions ranged from "mmhm, yup" too "Hmmm why do all of these seem to make a bit of sense...". Overall I'd say I HOPEFULLY scored in the same range I usually get (10-11)

BS - I don't want to regret saying this BUUUUUUUT...easy. I thought it was fairly easy considering its similar style of passages you see on the practice tests. As others have said, make sure you do AAMC 11 to understand the experimental nature of the passages. The organic chemistry was very odd and may have tripped me up a bit but overall It could've been A LOT worse (expected -hopefully 12?)

So yea in conclusion,as with what I've seen with most other MCATs this summer, bring some lube to the first 70 minutes of the exam and be expected to apply copious amounts during the test.

A last bit of advice for those of you yet to write - You know that nagging feeling you have that some sections are probably harder to understand for you or very likely to be troublesome for the average student? Yea well expect those to be on the exams - be thorough in your studies.
 
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ayocaptain628 said:
having taken the test, do u have any tips for us that havent written the test yet?
which resources u thought were helpful for what you saw today
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Wait for the better scorers to post lol

I thought AAMC 11 biology was similar to this bio. Make sure to be comfortable with experimental passages.

Verbal wasn't that bad on today's test. Just have a good timing strategy and do plenty of practice passages

I don't want to talk about PS lol.
 
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PS was ridiculous. I never missed more than 3 on the last 6 practice tests I took in PS and I will be shocked if I get above a 10. After that section I wanted to void so bad.

I concur VR was pretty easy.

Bio passages were also much easier than AAMC 11 in my opinion; however, some of the desecrates threw me for a loop, which is really unfortunate.
 
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I thought the PS was pretty hard reading wise and it took a lot of time, had minimal general chemistry. Had to just hurry up and guess on a few just to have enough time to finish. BS was easy in my opinion which either means I did really good or I got a 2 lol. Timed questions definitely payed off big this time. (retaker)

See you guys in a month! :corny:
 
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PS is usually my highest and this one was trash based upon my practice tests. The crappy thing was that i knew i was going to void after I hit the 10 min mark for the PS because i couldn't get that passage with little time. I was surprised on how well i preformed on the Verbal and Bio knowing that i had to void.
 
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The only advice I can give with regards to the physical sciences section is to be prepared to take what you know about physics and make sure you understand it in a theoretical sense. What I mean is concept that you would apply typically in one shape or form all of a sudden applied to something that isn't so usual. For example (this wasn't on a test, I just made it up), I might write a passage on how scientists have been testing new space suits in the event of travel to Jupiter's moon have to figure out what minimal charge is require before something isn't wearable due to the flow of liquids on the surface of Europa and how the new suits will function under pressure difference between different elevations in Europa. They will also have to deal with how to best relay messages considering the surface of Europa is mostly ice and as such there may be some reflection/diffraction of the waves. <-- **** like that which is multi-conceptual and applied in weird non traditional methods is what you should expect
 
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I like aamc 11 bio, but i think i was starting to get nervous that i was almost done with the test during bio. If i get at least a 12 on bio and a 9 on verbal ill be a happy panda
 
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zzzetrigan said:
The only advice I can give with regards to the physical sciences section is to be prepared to take what you know about physics and make sure you understand it in a theoretical sense. What I mean is concept that you would apply typically in one shape or form all of a sudden applied to something that isn't so usual. For example (this wasn't on a test, I just made it up), I might write a passage on how scientists have been testing new space suits in the event of travel to Jupiter's moon have to figure out what minimal charge is require before something isn't wearable due to the flow of liquids on the surface of Europa and how the new suits will function under pressure difference between different elevations in Europa. They will also have to deal with how to best relay messages considering the surface of Europa is mostly ice and as such there may be some reflection/diffraction of the waves. <-- **** like that which is multi-conceptual and applied in weird non traditional methods is what you should expect
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thank you so much for giving a concrete example like that
on the other hand... *im screaming* im defo not prepared for something weird like that
 
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Felt pretty crappy about PS.
Thought verbal was super easy... Though I might have just been more focused today than usual. The past week I've been like day-dreaming during verbal for some reason and it showed on my practice scores. Prayed a lot for help staying focused during verbal, and I definitely felt better about it today.
The bio section seemed a little harder than normal. Are we allowed to say I expected more hormone stuff? The practice tests were pretty hormone-heavy. The organic was tricky. Oh and the computer screens at my testing center were square, so it cut off one of the molecules. Took me a good 2 minutes to finally find it. Wasted a lot of time on that... But you bet your butt I griped about it in the comments section.
But it is what it is. Thank goodness it's over!!!!!!!!!!! Now we get a whole 10 days of summer 😉 Good luck to everyone in the future. Oh, and I strongly recommend prayer. Definitely not joking. I have so much trouble learning the details that make this universe function, but the best reference is to look to the One who made it. He should know, right?
 
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i wonder what tbrbiosadist thought. i hope he agrees that bio was hard.. i have a feeling there are 2 diff version of the test they give out, cuz bio was kinda tough and phys not as bad for me.
 
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Murph. said:
Felt pretty crappy about PS.
Thought verbal was super easy... Though I might have just been more focused today than usual. The past week I've been like day-dreaming during verbal for some reason and it showed on my practice scores. Prayed a lot for help staying focused during verbal, and I definitely felt better about it today.
The bio section seemed a little harder than normal. Are we allowed to say I expected more hormone stuff? The practice tests were pretty hormone-heavy. The organic was tricky. Oh and the computer screens at my testing center were square, so it cut off one of the molecules. Took me a good 2 minutes to finally find it. Wasted a lot of time on that... But you bet your butt I griped about it in the comments section.
But it is what it is. Thank goodness it's over!!!!!!!!!!! Now we get a whole 10 days of summer 😉 Good luck to everyone in the future. Oh, and I strongly recommend prayer. Definitely not joking. I have so much trouble learning the details that make this universe function, but the best reference is to look to the One who made it. He should know, right?
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I agree. There were some sections that I just realized that this world is not in our control. 🙂
 
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Hard af.

I'm sure we all had the same test right?

PS: I agree it was different and definitely harder than anything I've seen. There was like no chemistry that I remember. I normally get 10-12 and hope to get a 10 on this one.

VR: kinda normal. usually there are some science passages that are easy and are freebie questions but not on this one.

BS: A little concerned no one has said this was hard yet but I'm hoping ppl will later. I'd say there were some discretes that were hard and very specific. I actually was doing fine on the passages until the last 2 which absolutely destroyed me. I'm hoping others will say the same for at least those. This is my best section usually and I don't know if I got any more than a 10.

Praying for a generous curve and that alot of the hard ones were experimental.
 
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I'm finding solice in the fact that a lot of you seemed to have trouble with the PS portion like I did. Maybe we'll get a nice curve.

As for the VR and BS, I felt really good once I finished. I hope it made up for the PS. I'd like to make up for my less than stellar GPA.
 
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iforget2 said:
Hard af.

I'm sure we all had the same test right?

PS: I agree it was different and definitely harder than anything I've seen. There was like no chemistry that I remember. I normally get 10-12 and hope to get a 10 on this one.

VR: kinda normal. usually there are some science passages that are easy and are freebie questions but not on this one.

BS: A little concerned no one has said this was hard yet but I'm hoping ppl will later. I'd say there were some discretes that were hard and very specific. I actually was doing fine on the passages until the last 2 which absolutely destroyed me. I'm hoping others will say the same for at least those. This is my best section usually and I don't know if I got any more than a 10.

Praying for a generous curve and that alot of the hard ones were experimental.
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Yeah did we all take the same test? I'm getting that feeling.
 
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For what it's worth, one of my TPR instructors said that for each test date the AAMC circulates a bunch of different exams. I'm not 100% sure if he's correct but I think it can help explain the discrepancies in difficulty people are reporting about PS/BS.
 
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sharkbyte said:
For what it's worth, one of my TPR instructors said that for each test date the AAMC circulates a bunch of different exams. I'm not 100% sure if he's correct but I think it can help explain the discrepancies in difficulty people are reporting about PS/BS.
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I mean all things considered, why not? We all know that the MCAT is scored based on a pre-determined curve. Why do they need to give the same test to each person if they've already deemed the difficulty of the test beforehand? If anything, wouldn't it make cheating less difficult if everyone DOESN'T have the same test? I hope this is the case...
 
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sharkbyte said:
For what it's worth, one of my TPR instructors said that for each test date the AAMC circulates a bunch of different exams. I'm not 100% sure if he's correct but I think it can help explain the discrepancies in difficulty people are reporting about PS/BS.
Click to expand...

I've heard about this too. I'm pretty sure they have a number of different exams circulating.
 
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