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Registration opens up sometime today so I thought I'd go ahead and make this thread. Anyone else taking it in August?
The Official August 2015 MCAT Thread
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oh heck yeah I had my venti vanilla latte in a little thermos mug like a good little white girlI worried about getting a tummy ache so I kept it light. Fruit, water, a small sandwich. And....
No.
It depends on how much work needs to be done. You either studied fully or you didn't. You can either handle the passages/reading/analysis, or you can't. The former might be able to be brushed up within a month, but the latter can be a difficult hump to get over.
Now, I thought. The date is there on the calendar.
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Damnnn you must be one a dem rich girls, huh??
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Truth circle time. I had a little too much on the 30min break and totally panicked for a bit on B/B.
It was pure psychosis and I finished early.
Point being, you will freak out. But you will get over it.
It was pure psychosis and I finished early.
Point being, you will freak out. But you will get over it.
If we guessed on the last passage of CARS and didn't feel confident about the entire section in general... is that normal or more like a 120 
? LOL regardless Im just glad were done. Good job guys!!! WE DID IT!
? LOL regardless Im just glad were done. Good job guys!!! WE DID IT!
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CARS has always been by lowest on every FL and I'm worried I did extremely bad the section today. Today, I thought CARS was easier than Kaplan but definitely harder than AAMC FL (which I was expecting though). The passages were easy to read but the questions/answer choices were so tricky. For most of the questions, I would eliminate two answer choices and end up guessing between the other two. UGH!
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Phys/Chem = easier than I thought (a lot more foundations than application, in my opinion)
CaRS = exactly what I thought it was, but the passages were longer
Bio/Biochem = WTF?? Jesus that was much harder than anticipated. Also, I specifically remember what I was told to study and not study for certain biochemical pathways. Without giving too much info, a certain part was told NOT to worry about it by testing companies. Yet I had at least 3 questions on it...
Psych/Social = pretty much memorizing terminology. I really should have put more work into that...
CaRS = exactly what I thought it was, but the passages were longer
Bio/Biochem = WTF?? Jesus that was much harder than anticipated. Also, I specifically remember what I was told to study and not study for certain biochemical pathways. Without giving too much info, a certain part was told NOT to worry about it by testing companies. Yet I had at least 3 questions on it...
Psych/Social = pretty much memorizing terminology. I really should have put more work into that...
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+1 on Bio
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So Ive been stalking this thread for a while and here's my opinion of the test
C/P relatively easy.. except for 1-2 passages that I was just like.. what? I had to read them over and over and still didnt know how to dissect ehat I was reading
Cars: easy but I effed it up because of the testing conditions (long story).. im gona report it to the aamc and hopefully get to retake the test. I ended up losing a lot of time and focus. I was panicking halfeay through but i managed to pick up the shattered pieces of me and powered through the rest of the test to get whatever points i could get
Bio/biochem was a breeze except for a few questions left me scratching my head hard and still wasnt sure of my answers
Psych/soc: easy to read.. however, like what everybody else is saying here, there were terms that Ive never heard of before and I almost literally memorized the kaplan book, the EK book, and watched most of Khan's videos
Overall.. it wasnt as hard as the people who tested earlier were claiming. I found it to be just a little garder than the aamc FL. I still feel like i couldve done better.. i might schedule a retest in september.. oh well
Goodluck everyone!
C/P relatively easy.. except for 1-2 passages that I was just like.. what? I had to read them over and over and still didnt know how to dissect ehat I was reading
Cars: easy but I effed it up because of the testing conditions (long story).. im gona report it to the aamc and hopefully get to retake the test. I ended up losing a lot of time and focus. I was panicking halfeay through but i managed to pick up the shattered pieces of me and powered through the rest of the test to get whatever points i could get
Bio/biochem was a breeze except for a few questions left me scratching my head hard and still wasnt sure of my answers
Psych/soc: easy to read.. however, like what everybody else is saying here, there were terms that Ive never heard of before and I almost literally memorized the kaplan book, the EK book, and watched most of Khan's videos
Overall.. it wasnt as hard as the people who tested earlier were claiming. I found it to be just a little garder than the aamc FL. I still feel like i couldve done better.. i might schedule a retest in september.. oh well
Goodluck everyone!
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The BB section was research-article dense. As in, that was hard to read (at least for me.) And I have been doing bio research for a year with reading a research article each week, if not more. I still struggled.
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I. LOVE. THAT. GIF.
Well...
C/P: Kinda hard, biochem up the butt. Very uneasy about this section.
CARS: Never been a good CARS guy. Got 83% or something on FL. Some passages were hard but had ok questions, some passages were easy but had relatively harder questions.
BIO: Seemed ok, don't want to jinx like @TexasSurgeon said. Not that many experimental, and not much Biochem.
Psych: thought it was ok, had 15 min left and had time to re check some questions. 4-6 questions I had no idea what the answer choices meant/who those losers were.
Overall: ehh, kind of a toss up. Really really really hoping that I dont have to deal with this again. Had to definitely recover from C/P nonconsensual acts.
Cheers to all those with a drink in hand!
Harder than FL, felt a bit on the downside of the Yerkes -Dodson with my anxiety, especially as I was right to the last second on CARS and C/P.
C/P: Kinda hard, biochem up the butt. Very uneasy about this section.
CARS: Never been a good CARS guy. Got 83% or something on FL. Some passages were hard but had ok questions, some passages were easy but had relatively harder questions.
BIO: Seemed ok, don't want to jinx like @TexasSurgeon said. Not that many experimental, and not much Biochem.
Psych: thought it was ok, had 15 min left and had time to re check some questions. 4-6 questions I had no idea what the answer choices meant/who those losers were.
Overall: ehh, kind of a toss up. Really really really hoping that I dont have to deal with this again. Had to definitely recover from C/P nonconsensual acts.
Cheers to all those with a drink in hand!
Harder than FL, felt a bit on the downside of the Yerkes -Dodson with my anxiety, especially as I was right to the last second on CARS and C/P.
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This was my exact thought walking out.
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I went into a nice long 'bum it' mode after that test. I barely ate, barely moved, didn't talk to anybody unless it was absolutely necessary, I feel like I need another week to really recoup. Uggghhh. Anyway I took it Aug 21st and here are my thoughts...
C/P: Poop. Seriously. Just poop. There was a ridiculous amount of chemistry, both gen and orgo, and barely any physics. I remember a lot of structures and a lot of pKa's and number for comparison. C/P has never been my favorite subject and unfortunately I think the test reflected that.
And seriously only like 5% physics.
CARS: Normal I think, CARS has always been my favorite(ish) and top subject. The passages were longer than expected (7+ full paragraphs) but the topics weren't too bad. There were a few questions where I could only narrow it down to 2 choices and couldn't choose between them. I think TPR was the most representative and the AAMC FL was a bit easier than the actual thing.
B/B: I barely remember this section, and I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. I remember being super tired and yawning a lot. Lots of amino acids. You should really know these better than the back of your hand. What really irritated me were the passages with a ridiculous pathways where HSHJ84 inhibits LIRC which produces 74UHT but only in cells that have the TYUU receptor, which only operates on Tuesday, Thursday, and every other weekend.
P/S: Not bad at all. Dare I say....good? A couple of choices or passages where I hadn't heard of a topic before. The passages had less graphs and figures than I had gotten used to in practice, but sometimes results were present in paragraph form and I didn't like that too much. I did have ~20 minutes left over.
Overall, I didn't feel like crying when I left which I am hoping means something good. But I seriously do not want to take this test ever again. I wish I was old enough (and not working) to get tipsy. I'm going to hide my books under my bed and hope that the only time I have to pull them out is for emergency kindling or to give them to some other poor soul.
C/P: Poop. Seriously. Just poop. There was a ridiculous amount of chemistry, both gen and orgo, and barely any physics. I remember a lot of structures and a lot of pKa's and number for comparison. C/P has never been my favorite subject and unfortunately I think the test reflected that.
And seriously only like 5% physics.
CARS: Normal I think, CARS has always been my favorite(ish) and top subject. The passages were longer than expected (7+ full paragraphs) but the topics weren't too bad. There were a few questions where I could only narrow it down to 2 choices and couldn't choose between them. I think TPR was the most representative and the AAMC FL was a bit easier than the actual thing.
B/B: I barely remember this section, and I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. I remember being super tired and yawning a lot. Lots of amino acids. You should really know these better than the back of your hand. What really irritated me were the passages with a ridiculous pathways where HSHJ84 inhibits LIRC which produces 74UHT but only in cells that have the TYUU receptor, which only operates on Tuesday, Thursday, and every other weekend.
P/S: Not bad at all. Dare I say....good? A couple of choices or passages where I hadn't heard of a topic before. The passages had less graphs and figures than I had gotten used to in practice, but sometimes results were present in paragraph form and I didn't like that too much. I did have ~20 minutes left over.
Overall, I didn't feel like crying when I left which I am hoping means something good. But I seriously do not want to take this test ever again. I wish I was old enough (and not working) to get tipsy. I'm going to hide my books under my bed and hope that the only time I have to pull them out is for emergency kindling or to give them to some other poor soul.
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Only 30 days left.
Tick....Tock
Tick....Tock
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I still can't believe it's over. Anyone else walking around in a daze?
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Hey guys, we're done! Everyone be happy! Now we can just wait and hope for the best!
P/C: As a physics major, I just want to say that my sacrifices to all the Hindu, Norse, Christian, Irish, and Shinto gods were worth it. So much more physics than I expected and I felt really good about all of the other material.
CARS: Typically has been my best section, and this was no different. There were two questions I was unsure about, and like 4 I was like 75% sure about. Hoping this goes well. Also, for everyone saying the passages are longer--I went a little crazy and did my practice online tests with zoomed in passages LOL I pressed the "ctrl + =" command twice, and the practice passages I did had bigger font than the ones on my actual exam, so I was able to read on the exam much faster, like 3 minutes a passage.
B/BC: Typically my worst section, but I felt REALLY good about it. The pathways were just clicking in my head, took some good notes on the pathways that made the questions easy-peasy, and after destroying the first 3 passages, which were relatively difficult, there was no stopping my momentum all the way to the end of the exam. I'm really hoping for this to be a good indication that I did much better than I was expecting pre exam (which was like a 127)
P/S: This section was my most unsure section. There were maybe two or three terms I saw that were unfamiliar, but process of elimination and careful selection of answers really helped here. The experimental analysis was fairly easy--I haven't done much legit research (read: have read less than 5 research papers in my life). Marked about 15 questions, think I got 6 right for sure, was 50-50 about 7-8 and clueless on 2.
I'm really just hoping for higher than a 512 (obviously dream score is 528 hahaha), but realistically, and I know we can't tell, my max scores I think are probably around:
130 P/C
130 CARS
129 B/BC
+129 P/S_______
=518.
So I'd be extremely happy with that!
Sorry for all the extra stuff, just posted this year, so I can come back and reflect on it once I get my scores. I'll edit this post when that happens! Best of luck to all of us!
P/C: As a physics major, I just want to say that my sacrifices to all the Hindu, Norse, Christian, Irish, and Shinto gods were worth it. So much more physics than I expected and I felt really good about all of the other material.
CARS: Typically has been my best section, and this was no different. There were two questions I was unsure about, and like 4 I was like 75% sure about. Hoping this goes well. Also, for everyone saying the passages are longer--I went a little crazy and did my practice online tests with zoomed in passages LOL I pressed the "ctrl + =" command twice, and the practice passages I did had bigger font than the ones on my actual exam, so I was able to read on the exam much faster, like 3 minutes a passage.
B/BC: Typically my worst section, but I felt REALLY good about it. The pathways were just clicking in my head, took some good notes on the pathways that made the questions easy-peasy, and after destroying the first 3 passages, which were relatively difficult, there was no stopping my momentum all the way to the end of the exam. I'm really hoping for this to be a good indication that I did much better than I was expecting pre exam (which was like a 127)
P/S: This section was my most unsure section. There were maybe two or three terms I saw that were unfamiliar, but process of elimination and careful selection of answers really helped here. The experimental analysis was fairly easy--I haven't done much legit research (read: have read less than 5 research papers in my life). Marked about 15 questions, think I got 6 right for sure, was 50-50 about 7-8 and clueless on 2.
I'm really just hoping for higher than a 512 (obviously dream score is 528 hahaha), but realistically, and I know we can't tell, my max scores I think are probably around:
130 P/C
130 CARS
129 B/BC
+129 P/S_______
=518.
So I'd be extremely happy with that!
Sorry for all the extra stuff, just posted this year, so I can come back and reflect on it once I get my scores. I'll edit this post when that happens! Best of luck to all of us!
D
deleted407021
To everyone reading this thread and feeling as if they've bombed it after initially feeling ok......stop being neurotic. No. Stop. Stop it. Bad premed. You're being silly. It's over for now, so be confident you did your best because you worked very hard. Enjoy some EtOH or something.
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Senpai hold me while I cry ;(
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@ the orgo: beyond generic Sn1, Sn2, E1, E2 rxns and mechanisms? Not asking for specifics (I have all the reagents and crap written down and correlated to the AAMC official guide .pdf) ...
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I don't understand. You took Aug 5th MCAT and already received secondaries?
~512 is good. I managed ~509-511 on the AAMC FL, but I don't feel comfortable about the actual MCAT on Friday. We shall see though. At least I know how to study better now just in case I need to retake next year. Taking biochem and immunology now, so I know I could do better if I need to retest.
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I feel EXACTLY the same as you. And I did the same on the AAMC FL. Hopefully we aren't skrewed :/
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Did you void?
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I thought there was some tricks in there. A lot of times, two answers seemed right. I really had to put thought into some of them. But yeah, I feel ya.
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. delete
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Yeah ugh I woke up at 6:45 and it took forever to go back to sleep. PTSD from the MCAT...
Anyone almost run out of time on CARS? I had to skim the last two passages and sort of guess to just answer every question. Has anyone else done this and still ended up with a good CARS score? I feel like I did fine on the other sections, but I don't want CARS to bring me down and cause me to retake.
D
deleted407021
I've never had to practice with timing myself. I always had 10-20 min left over on my FL and still got 80+ percentile with closer to 90th percentile on the OG. I had a good bit of extra time left on the real thing, as well.
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I always have like 7 mins left for the last passage. This means I guess on 3. Timing is hard for me also.
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Yeah.
For the next 29 days I'm actually going to be the crankiest person. I feel on edge.
Personally I've been a ****ing sourpuss for the past 3 months. Gonna have to relearn how to be nice to people. Luckily school's starting so I can practice on some new faces.
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My thoughts on the test:
C/P: Calculation heavy! Had handful of calculation questions, you had to be comfortable with converting between units, so you couldn't rely solely on scientific notation to help you out. Other than that, it was relatively similar to the AAMC FL in which you had gen chem and some biochem questions.
CARS: No ridiculous passages. Comparable to the AAMC FL CARS, especially the passage about the"Folsom fossils/archaeology" or whatever on the FL was–nothing too deep to interpret, answer choices weren't too tricky.
B/B: There were some convoluted passages dealing with convoluted pathways and experimental setup, but easy to understand if you drew them out on scratch paper. Essentially it was biochem+genetic calculations. Critical thinking is important in this section, since it asked you to predict enzyme activity and biochemical pathway activity with little to no info and you had to connect the dots with your own knowledge/interpretation. Essentially, this section was everything we heard about from previous test takers: know amino acids, enzyme properties/kinetics, pathways, etc. There were a couple of human phys passages, but they related into biochemical pathways.
P/S: This section pissed me off, no actual data to interpret unlike the AAMC FL! It was essentially CARS 2, in which you had paragraphs that talked about the research, and you had to predict what would happen based on your own knowledge. If you knew your vocab, you could eliminate answer choices.
Overall, I'm just glad it's over, I'm glad I got school starting tomorrow so I can be distracted enough to not freak out for the next month. I'm just aiming for 80%+ (509 and above). Right now, I'm not doing crap and just playing Asphalt 8 and relaxing.
C/P: Calculation heavy! Had handful of calculation questions, you had to be comfortable with converting between units, so you couldn't rely solely on scientific notation to help you out. Other than that, it was relatively similar to the AAMC FL in which you had gen chem and some biochem questions.
CARS: No ridiculous passages. Comparable to the AAMC FL CARS, especially the passage about the"Folsom fossils/archaeology" or whatever on the FL was–nothing too deep to interpret, answer choices weren't too tricky.
B/B: There were some convoluted passages dealing with convoluted pathways and experimental setup, but easy to understand if you drew them out on scratch paper. Essentially it was biochem+genetic calculations. Critical thinking is important in this section, since it asked you to predict enzyme activity and biochemical pathway activity with little to no info and you had to connect the dots with your own knowledge/interpretation. Essentially, this section was everything we heard about from previous test takers: know amino acids, enzyme properties/kinetics, pathways, etc. There were a couple of human phys passages, but they related into biochemical pathways.
P/S: This section pissed me off, no actual data to interpret unlike the AAMC FL! It was essentially CARS 2, in which you had paragraphs that talked about the research, and you had to predict what would happen based on your own knowledge. If you knew your vocab, you could eliminate answer choices.
Overall, I'm just glad it's over, I'm glad I got school starting tomorrow so I can be distracted enough to not freak out for the next month. I'm just aiming for 80%+ (509 and above). Right now, I'm not doing crap and just playing Asphalt 8 and relaxing.
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It's a bit therapeutic coming here, like it's a support group for those who suffered or are suffering. Some of us feel like we now have PTSD-like symptoms. It's definitely cathartic to express what's in our minds. Classes started last week and I haven't been able to focus on them. This MCAT experience was like going to the wild, and now I must rejoin society and learn to live with them. Haha!
My testing center made about 50% of us to wait around 2.5-3 hours after the scheduled time to begin the test. I truly believe that it affected my performance. Will AAMC let me retake for free? I was going to apply this cycle, but if the next available date is Sept 3. It's super late
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Although I encourage you to call AAMC and ask, I personally doubt so. Generally these concerns must be addressed with the center prior to writing the test or immediately after, it doesn't really make sense to write the test, ask for it to be scored, spend the next days reflecting on your performance, and then telling AAMC that it had an impact on your performance. But I wish you all the best.
What score would I get if I only get 50% correct on all section on the real MCAT? I think I did much better than that on CARS and P/S, but not so sure about the other 2 sections. Just curious to know. Thank You.
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Awesome! Definitely follow up with them. Hopefully everything goes well.
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It's only day TWO and I'm already freaking out about my score.
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Just realized I missed a super easy C/P question... *tear*
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Not freaking at all, personally. I did my best. If that's not good enough, I'll retry. And if that's not good enough.....pharm?
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Don't do pharmacy as a back up, focus on what you are passionate about. If you aren't passionate about a field, you won't enjoy it.
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Do we really have to wait until September 22nd? Yikes.
So I've been doing quite a bit of thinking since yesterday. After coming out, I felt like I bombed and I swore I'd never take this test again, but I've become totally comfortable with the idea of a retake. I got rocked by those C/P calculations, and my initial feelings were that those questions just weren't fair. And maybe they weren't, but I don't think this test is meant to feel fair. Come to think of it, that would probably be a ****ty attitude for a doctor to have, and I'm guessing that most things in medicine don't feel very fair. Who knows, maybe some of them were experimental and won't count towards my score. Or maybe they weren't, and the one passage that I knew I killed was experimental. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to give up, and don't think anybody else in the same boat should either.
So I've been doing quite a bit of thinking since yesterday. After coming out, I felt like I bombed and I swore I'd never take this test again, but I've become totally comfortable with the idea of a retake. I got rocked by those C/P calculations, and my initial feelings were that those questions just weren't fair. And maybe they weren't, but I don't think this test is meant to feel fair. Come to think of it, that would probably be a ****ty attitude for a doctor to have, and I'm guessing that most things in medicine don't feel very fair. Who knows, maybe some of them were experimental and won't count towards my score. Or maybe they weren't, and the one passage that I knew I killed was experimental. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to give up, and don't think anybody else in the same boat should either.
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