The Official August 2015 MCAT Thread

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Also, how are y'all's social lives doing 😀
I can't bring myself to ignore my friends and bf so I usually go out with them around 2 evenings a week. I can't help but feel that I'm wasting precious time in the last few weeks before my test though... I'm also working and doing some research/volunteering, (about 25 hours a week total)
 
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Pusheen said:
Also, how are y'all's social lives doing 😀
I can't bring myself to ignore my friends and bf so I usually go out with them around 2 evenings a week. I can't help but feel that I'm wasting precious time in the last few weeks before my test though... I'm also working and doing some research/volunteering, (about 25 hours a week total)
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Social life? Friends? I've been shoving mcat material into my brain all summer I've forgotten everything else. All I know now is fine dining and breathing

But yeah also taking the mcat on the 22nd and not sure when I should to the aamc FL
 
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Pusheen said:
Also, how are y'all's social lives doing 😀
I can't bring myself to ignore my friends and bf so I usually go out with them around 2 evenings a week. I can't help but feel that I'm wasting precious time in the last few weeks before my test though... I'm also working and doing some research/volunteering, (about 25 hours a week total)
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Social Life? Is there a Khan Academy video in the Psych/Soc section I am missing here? Don't remember this term.
 
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Haha, I'm the definition of an introvert, but I can't quite lock myself in my house 24/7. Need someone to rant to and distract me for a few hours
 
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Pusheen said:
Also, how are y'all's social lives doing 😀
I can't bring myself to ignore my friends and bf so I usually go out with them around 2 evenings a week. I can't help but feel that I'm wasting precious time in the last few weeks before my test though... I'm also working and doing some research/volunteering, (about 25 hours a week total)
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I have dreams about being friends with the people at my local coffee shop. That counts...right?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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I like to think of work as total energy output, since its units are joules. Since riding that stationary bike requires 30 joules per second, in 3 minutes the person will put out a total energy amount of (30 J/s) * 180 s = 5400J
 
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social life. hm. does playing WoW count!? 😀 I have no life right now. Three weeks. 8/23. Large raspberry lemonade with a good splash of Stolli on the beach of Longboat Key, towel, pool boy, and suntan oil. Cannot. Wait!
 
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federer875 said:
I like to think of work as total energy output, since its units are joules. Since riding that stationary bike requires 30 joules per second, in 3 minutes the person will put out a total energy amount of (30 J/s) * 180 s = 5400J
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Wow. I was doing 3600 x 3 as in 3 hrs. I think it's time for a break.
 
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How are y'all dealing with burnout at this point? I'm three weeks away, done with content review, and am just doing practice exams/QP's, but today I could not bring myself to wake up and take a TBR FL. I'm definitely feeling exhausted at this point.
 
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clathrin413 said:
How are y'all dealing with burnout at this point? I'm three weeks away, done with content review, and am just doing practice exams/QP's, but today I could not bring myself to wake up and take a TBR FL. I'm definitely feeling exhausted at this point.
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You feel ready? i'm not burnt out yet, I feel unprepared and kind of anxious. The fear of doing badly keeps me going, haha
 
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Pusheen said:
i'm not burnt out yet, I feel unprepared and kind of anxious. The fear of doing badly keeps me going, haha
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Exactly. I take a section test, get a 124, panic, go to Khan and then take notes on what I got wrong; I go to bed using the MCAT app from whateverthenameofthecompany is ... or that psych/soc MCAT game from someothercompany ... rinse/repeat each day.
 
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Pusheen said:
You feel ready? i'm not burnt out yet, I feel unprepared and kind of anxious. The fear of doing badly keeps me going, haha
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I alternate between 'I don't want to study anymore I don't care if I fail' and 'Holy crap I'm gonna fail and have basically wasted three months of my life'.
Also I feel like I'm currently existing in a constant state of anxiety. If any researchers were to measure my salivary cortisol levels like they're fond of doing on the Psych/Soc section...
 
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geronimo11 said:
This is my motivate me to get through the burnout song "I've still got a lot of fight left in me" :punch:

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Imagine being 51, everyone tells you never, everyone tells you to stop; but you still believe; you moved 1600 miles away from home, away from friends... and 2 years later, this song comes out. 😉
 
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Has anyone taken any of the Next Step Strategy and Practice - timed section tests here? If you have, aren't they significantly more difficult than AAMC Q packs? I haven't taken the OG or AAMC FL test so I would't know how they compare. Any insights?
 
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Not sure about Next Step, but I can tell you for a fact that the AAMC OG and FL questions are less ambiguous and very much easier to reason through than any of the Kaplan FL's I've taken.
I literally never got 500 on any Kaplan FLs (my highest was a 499) 😱

I took the OG yesterday and scored:
C/P: 70%
CARS: 66%
B/B: 50% 😕
P/S: 83%

I then took the AAMC FL in prep for next week's exam (yikes) and I scored: 66% 88% 80% 78%
Not sure what those scores equate to but they're definitely around 505 which is a testament to how much easier it is to read through and answer AAMC style questions than Kaplan questions. So I wouldn't panic if your test company's exams are borderline crazy, they'll definitely help fill in content gaps and warm your brain up as far as critical thinking goes.
 
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clathrin413 said:
How are y'all dealing with burnout at this point? I'm three weeks away, done with content review, and am just doing practice exams/QP's, but today I could not bring myself to wake up and take a TBR FL. I'm definitely feeling exhausted at this point.
Click to expand...
Yall I just spent the last two days at the lake with my parents. It was glorious. If you guys get a chance, you should take a break. I feel extremely rejuvenated.
 
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Not knowing the true conversion scale for our AAMC tests are really bothering me... also I'm kind of grateful they're 4 September dates available if I do decide that I have to void the August 6th exam. Doing Kaplan Quicksheets today with the 8 pages of Bio content, and go over the psych/soc amongst a lot of notes I have from TPR/KA psych/soc.

Relieved to hear from people I know who go to DO schools that taking a September MCAT isn't detrimental for the application. Friend took one in October and was accepted into his top choice by February and we both have very similar GPAs.

Also please stop asking me to post where I get the conversions.

I have posted mcatjelly's conversion scale link many times, this is the last time I will do it:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/tentative-aamc-sample-fl-score-conversion-sheet.1149516/

Although what I did is also take the TBR conversion sheet a few pages back and average the two. Seems to be more reasonable and accurate. I think mcatjelly's scale deflates your score a bit and TBR inflates it. I think the average gives a good medium.
 
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Has anyone taken Next step exam after they changed the scoring scale? I got 504 couple weeks ago so I am wondering how I am doing. can anyone tell me how they performed on other exams too? thanks!
 
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Is kaptest not working for anyone else? It keeps logging me off when I try to select my course...gonna just take a TPR FL instead.
 
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Test in 4 days, but yet I have a strong "I don't care" feeling. I'm at the point where I think maybe if i binge watch grey's anatomy long enough, that should count for studying right?
As for having a social life, I got a cat this summer (despite my strong dislike of cats) after about a month of studying and we hang out every day...so that's what my life has turned into
 
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Tiffafi said:
Test in 4 days, but yet I have a strong "I don't care" feeling. I'm at the point where I think maybe if i binge watch grey's anatomy long enough, that should count for studying right?
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Add House, ER and Marcus Welby with some Quincy, MD and you should be GTG! 🙂
 
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Dobechance said:
just took c/p for ek test 1 and it for some reason scored my test, but I got a 34/59 on C/P. ****
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Don't be disheartened, out of all the AAMC material and NS FL I've been doing best in C/P but for EK I've been scoring the worst. Their material is just a bit more tricky. I haven't paid much attention to how I'm scoring, but I thoroughly review them in hopes that there will be a certain degree of transfer for the AAMC exam.
 
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Kaplan quicksheets are so tedious to go through. It has been literally my life for like a day now. I still am finishing the Biochemistry portion and have the Biology and Psych/Soc sections left to go over in the quicksheets. I'm not sure what I'm doing the day before the test on Wednesday but when I do take it, void or not, my friend and I (both taking the MCAT on August 6th at the same location) will likely just chill for the rest of the day. Knowing my friend, we probably won't even talk about how the test went for more than 10-15 minutes.

What's been comforting me a lot is that I know people who were 3-4 years older than me now trying to take the new MCAT after working for a few years (going the non trad route) in fields they really enjoyed. I also know someone whose in their early 30s who rocked their Step 1 this summer.
 
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What's been comforting to me is that my younger brethren, co-horts in arms against the MCAT beast are mostly far younger than me and we are all in this together. Being on the Island of Misfit MCATers alone was not fun. Seeing all of your comments, questions helps me know - others share my distaste of yellow note cards, anything related to CARS, passages that pull some 1,2,5 - trimethylated esterified isomerglutamerase out of some ethlyated PCC mixture...

We will slay this beast. And then we will relax. For a day. (School starts on the 24th again for me!)
 
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BerkReviewTeach said:
The BR scale is not meant to be universally applied, so be careful how much credence you put in applying it to other exams.
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So it's only meant to be applied to TBR exams? Would you say those scales shouldn't be used to score the AAMC FL? I reasonably think it's pretty accurate especially for C/P from what it seems for AAMC FL and real test scores on SDN.

That's also why I'm recommended those to average it. I believe TBR's numbers personally are a bit inflated while I believe mcatjelly's scale is a bit harsh. That's why I think an average is appropriate.
 
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Mcatjelly's updated conversion means my AAMC FL converted to a 514 when previously it was a 511...halp I'm so confused


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Yeah so mcatjelly did this thing where the percentage right corresponds to the old scores, which you can then convert to your new score I think


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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