The Official August 2015 MCAT Thread

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I was able to finish FL CARS section tests with a few minutes to spare. The section may have varied for people but everyone after the test agreed that they were longer than expected. Regardless practice right and you'll be fine.

Know your amino acids 🙂
 
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For those who took it, do you guys think we should just be taking as many tests as possible and reviewing them? Or should be hitting content review as hard as possible.
 
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Dobechance said:
For those who took it, do you guys think we should just be taking as many tests as possible and reviewing them? Or should be hitting content review as hard as possible.
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I think the general norm for the new test is doing as many practice tests as you can.
 
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Dreamstoo said:
When should we stop reviewing the day before the test? I was planning in just putting in another 1.5 hours and stopping at 5:30
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calm_down_bro.gif


You need a clear mind going into tomorrow. You need to be done studying.
 
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Alright just got out. Of course can't say any specifics but overall I think it went....okay. I mean there was a section I think I MAY have had my ass handed to me but others were fine. I have a feeling my opinions will not be shared with others, but more likely they had a different test.

C/P - Representative of the AAMC FL but harder with a lot more gray and I think it sadly also tested some concepts that were my weakpoint...overall I felt just okay with this section, again as I iterate below some questions were hilariously easy and others just ridiculously hard.
CARS - you know i've taken the MCAT before and i've always under performed on this section, this time I felt a lot more confident and I FEEL THAT MAYBE JUST MAYBE I was able to manage a 127. I think my test was different than others because all the passages were readable, very interesting. There were definitely a bunch of grey questions but it felt like way more black and white...but I could be wrong.
B/B - Probably the easiest of the 4, but last time I took the MCAT i got a 14 on this section so I might not be the best judge - it didn't feel all that different than previous test except of course more stress on you know what.
P/S - Ah yes, this went bad. I mean there were probably 5-6 questions I guess or had to deduce down because frankly either I had not heard of the theory before or had heard of the theory but not the specific PORTION of the theory MCAT was alluding to, and maybe I just hadn't looked at Psych enough....but I had watched all Khan Academy videos, reviewed EK and TPR Psych and atken notes from Khan Academy videos, done lots of practice tests and EVEN THEN this was bad. Now when I say bad I mean some questions were hilariously easy, and others were unimagainably hard.

So In terms of difficulty for me
Usually for me Hardness --> Easiest --> CARS>P/S>Psy/Soc> B/B
But on this exam it went more like --> Psy/Soc > C/P> CARS > B/B

The fact that there were lots of easy questions make me worried...since the curve is probably gonna hurt my bumbum in a month.

The one thng I want to indicate to all of you people is while the MCAT tests analytical skills it also tests that you KNOW YOUR BASICS. This was something that honestly surprised me and almost made me guess wrong things. BOIL THINGS DOWN TO THEIR FUNDAMENTALS. Remember, MCAT wants you to understand things based on your basic and sometimes it just tests basics straight up in easy questions. With that said there was some EK level trickery in the sections.

Anyways I know I didn't say anything about each specific section as we are of course not allowed to but just giving you my feelings.

Good luck!
 
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GypsyHummus said:
Yoda: You will know... when you are calm, at peace, passive
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Yeah when I get my MCAT score, good or bad... the wait I'm sure is just plain torture. My TPR instructor didn't go into detail but he said that month waiting for his test was "interesting." He thought he got in the high 20s and then found out he got around his average which was 33+.
 
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I'm keeping my mouth shut about specifics or even trends or whatever on the exam. Respecting AAMC's wishes. I'll just reiterate what the AAMC has said multiple times in different ways: timing is everything, and don't take the exam unless you're ready. I learned the latter the hard way. Please, fellow MCAT takers, learn from my mistakes: I took the old exam before I was ready. It cost me dearly. $300 lost in voiding a test is nothing comparatively. Repeat: the MCAT will slay anyone who goes before it unprepared. Use ALL the resources the AAMC has released. Khan <3

August 5 MCAT takers: solidarity. I want to give you all a big hug. Studying was brutal. We did it. I hope you feel accomplished, and proud of yourself for having the courage to even stand before this exam. Best of luck to you all.
 
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So this is my first time posting on SDN and I wanted to see everyone else's reactions to taking today's exam. To begin with, C/P is definitely my weakest area but I thought today was pretty fair and straightforward and I'm pretty confident in this section (yes know your amino acids). B/B almost seemed too easy for me to the point where I was second guessing myself, a lot. CARS was pretty much what I've heard, much more dense and much longer than the AAMC FL but still manageable. Psych/Soc on the other hand completely threw me for a loop. Now this is probably my next to weakest section but even still I focused a lot on this and I still felt underprepared. Again though it was manageable. Overall I think from easiest to hardest it had to be B/B<C/P<CARS<Psych/Soc
 
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Dobechance said:
For those who took it, do you guys think we should just be taking as many tests as possible and reviewing them? Or should be hitting content review as hard as possible.
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KNOW you're fundamentals, but practicing data analysis passages will greatly help. Going through them and understanding what variables are being tested and how it relates to context of the passage and being able to apply basic principles will help with the real test. What helped me was that I read each passage carefully and I made sure that while reading I understood what was going on as best as I could
 
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Just got home. I thought the Sciences were relatively pretty easy. I'll be disappointed if I didn't do extremely well on those. CARS kicked my ass on 2 of the passages, the rest weren't terrible. Psych/Soc was a bitch though. I'll be completely happy with a 125 there. Saw a lot of stuff I didn't see in Kaplan.
 
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lmladdno84 said:
Just got home. I thought the Sciences were relatively pretty easy. I'll be disappointed if I didn't do extremely well on those. CARS kicked my ass on 2 of the passages, the rest weren't terrible. Psych/Soc was a bitch though. I'll be completely happy with a 125 there. Saw a lot of stuff I didn't see in Kaplan.
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Seconded on happy with a 125.
 
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My review of today's test:

C/P: Chem heavy, not too much physics. Started off pretty easy (almost too easy that I was second guessing myself) and some parts were tough but I felt confident after it. Just glad I knew my amino acids
CARS: Holy guacamole talk about putting no interesting topics. Felt like passages were long and I had to read faster for the last few but did my best to stick to the main idea. In my opinion the hardest section
B/B: data analysis out the wazoo, which wasn't a bad thing. Some questions were tricky but stuck to what I could extrapolate and felt confident afterwards.
P/S: pretty much applying theories and terms to passages. I would say this section requires more concrete knowledge, but then again I've been exposed to the science concepts for awhile now so that's why I feel this way.

Difficulty from hardest to easiest:
CARS>P/S>B/B>P/C

Overall I felt that this test was fair in assessing your critical thinking skills. I feel confident about three of the sections and even though I won't know how I did till scores come out, feeling confident is something that I am content with for the time being.

Rest well, be confident, and you'll all kill it!
 
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Just took it today (Aug 5th).

General overview: Undoubtedly harder than practice test. Content is really not that important. Obviously know the basics, but doing a ton of practice exams is key for this test.

Chem/phys: know biochem (as everyone else has previously stated). Know gen chem. I'd recommend thoroughly studying lab techniques and interpretation of them. In my opinion, the "orgo" is essentially interchangeable with what one could consider "biochem" - just know your chemistry for this section. Physics is in there, but fairly simple stuff. I think the official guide passages are most representative. Overall, harder than the practice exam but not by much.

CARS: Very worried about this section. Not much else to say other than it's brutal and I hope it doesn't cause me to retake. Passages are no joke (long, tedious, boring, a lot harder than any other aamc material IMO). I'd recommend practicing under slightly harder time constraints - I struggled with pacing here and had to rush some questions. Unfortunately AAMC releases a ridiculously easy CARS section for the practice exam and then hits you with this hell.

Bio/Biochem: Easiest section today in my opinion. I have a history of doing well here, so I may not be the most reliable. Fair mix of Bio and Biochem. Unfortunately some unpleasant/weird experimental design/application stuff. Thought I did well here.

Psych: Know definitions very well. Be able to read experiments and apply concepts/definitions to them. I think the key to this section is just knowing a ton of material. It's not hard to apply concepts in psych/soc if you know the definitions and AAMC knows that. AAMC challenges you in the only way they can - putting obscure and closely linked terms in answer choices and having you reason out the subtle differences. This was harder than the practice test. Still think (hope) I did well here. This is the easiest section to master by rote memorization.
 
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charles2493 said:
Just took it today (Aug 5th).

General overview: Undoubtedly harder than practice test. Content is really not that important. Obviously know the basics, but doing a ton of practice exams is key for this test.

Chem/phys: know biochem (as everyone else has previously stated). Know gen chem. I'd recommend thoroughly studying lab techniques and interpretation of them. In my opinion, the "orgo" is essentially interchangeable with what one could consider "biochem" - just know your chemistry for this section. Physics is in there, but fairly simple stuff. I think the official guide passages are most representative. Overall, harder than the practice exam but not by much.

CARS: Very worried about this section. Not much else to say other than it's brutal and I hope it doesn't cause me to retake. Passages are no joke (long, tedious, boring, a lot harder than any other aamc material IMO). I'd recommend practicing under slightly harder time constraints - I struggled with pacing here and had to rush some questions. Unfortunately AAMC releases a ridiculously easy CARS section for the practice exam and then hits you with this hell.

Bio/Biochem: Easiest section today in my opinion. I have a history of doing well here, so I may not be the most reliable. Fair mix of Bio and Biochem. Unfortunately some unpleasant/weird experimental design/application stuff. Thought I did well here.

Psych: Know definitions very well. Be able to read experiments and apply concepts/definitions to them. I think the key to this section is just knowing a ton of material. It's not hard to apply concepts in psych/soc if you know the definitions and AAMC knows that. AAMC challenges you in the only way they can - putting obscure and closely linked terms in answer choices and having you reason out the subtle differences. This was harder than the practice test. Still think (hope) I did well here. This is the easiest section to master by rote memorization.
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I agree with what you're generally saying here, except for one major caveat: "content is really not that important."

You can't apply and reason about things you don't know. Know your stuff, peeps.
 
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Congrats to everyone who took it today, and good luck to everyone taking it tomorrow!

I'm taking it Aug 21st, which means I have two more weekends before the test, which is when I usually take full-lengths. My question is what full-lengths would you guys recommend? I've taken 3 Kaplan (avg 504) and 4 TPR (avg 510) so far and plan on doing the AAMC FL on the final weekend, but that leaves this upcoming weekend undecided. It seems from the posts that EK is the best preparation for the wtf questions, but is that too discouraging two weeks out?
 
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moesman777 said:
Congrats to everyone who took it today, and good luck to everyone taking it tomorrow!

I'm taking it Aug 21st, which means I have two more weekends before the test, which is when I usually take full-lengths. My question is what full-lengths would you guys recommend? I've taken 3 Kaplan (avg 504) and 4 TPR (avg 510) so far and plan on doing the AAMC FL on the final weekend, but that leaves this upcoming weekend undecided. It seems from the posts that EK is the best preparation for the wtf questions, but is that too discouraging two weeks out?
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Definitely take EK 4. It is pretty representative of the style of the real MCAT. Just don't pay attention too much to your score. The EK exams are a lot harder. Just take the exam so you can get a better feel of what you will encounter on test day.
 
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Timmy248 said:
Definitely take EK 4. It is pretty representative of the style of the real MCAT. Just don't pay attention too much to your score. The EK exams are a lot harder. Just take the exam so you can get a better feel of what you will encounter on test day.
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Thanks! Whats another $50 at this point right, I'm already broke from paying off Kaplan and TPR.

Does it give you a MCAT score (482-528) or percent correct like the AAMC FL?
 
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Aakash Trivedi said:
When you guys say know your amino acids...what should be memorized?
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Know the structures, know side chains and their properties (basic, acidic, polar, non polar etc.). More than likely you won't be directly asked "which is acidic" or such, rather they would ask what residue will bind to a hydrophobic/positively charged site on a domain. Truly understand the amino acids. I'm fortunate enough being a buochem major to be exposed to them for many semesters now
 
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Lol I actually know someone who was a biochem major and got a great score on the old MCAT (36). He probably would have enjoyed studying for this MCAT a lot more than I would have since the BS and VR section were his best (13 each)
 
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Hmz117 said:
Know the structures, know side chains and their properties (basic, acidic, polar, non polar etc.). More than likely you won't be directly asked "which is acidic" or such, rather they would ask what residue will bind to a hydrophobic/positively charged site on a domain. Truly understand the amino acids. I'm fortunate enough being a buochem major to be exposed to them for many semesters now
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Do you recommend knowing the pI or pKa as well?
 
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me16 said:
Do you recommend knowing the pI or pKa as well?
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As long as you know that the pKa for the COOH groups is ~3 and for NH3 ~9 for all the amino acids you should be fine (you can calculate pI from there) I memorized the pKas of the the side chains of the basic and acidic amino acids. It's not difficult cause it's only a few numbers but you can get away with just understanding what the pI indicates and how the pKa's relate to the protation state of the group with respect to the pH of the environment. That is the super important part; you won't be able to get away with just knowing pKa values. Khan academy has a good video review on the topic
 
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I wrote the MCAT today and I am absolutely exhausted but very happy that it's over! I needed a place to share my thoughts because no one else in my life has any clue what I'm talking about when I go into details, so here I am 🙂

I struggled a bit with the Physical Sciences section today. Normally (after 7 practice exams) I finish with about 2 minutes to spare, so I didn't particularly rush in the beginning. Today, somehow I was crunched for time at the end and had to rush through the last few passages. In my opinion 2 of the passages (in the middle) were more challenging than what I'm used to and so I may have spent a little too much time trying to understand a particular experiment. In hindsight I would make sure to watch my timing after every passage (I did this for the rest of the exam and I was fine). Additionally I spent a lot of time in the past few days reviewing my formulas and in hindsight it was a waste... but your mileage may vary.

I agree with everyone who felt that CARS was longer than the AAMC practice exams. However I thought the passages were fairly easy reads and felt that the answers were pretty obvious for most of them. Definitely more straightforward than my EK exams. I finished with a few minutes to spare and I let the clock run to extend my MUCH needed lunch break. CARS is usually my highest scoring section and I hope this trend will continue today.

The Biochemical Sciences section was fair and maybe a tad on the easier side of the spectrum? Definitely know your amino acids; that was where the time spent memorizing paid off for me. I agree with whoever said that the ease of this section made them second guess their answers at times. Again, I did all of the EK exams and I found at times I missed answers on those exams simply because of tricky wording. Today's exam was definitely written much more clearly.

Finally, Psych/Soc. I finished the section very quickly (in under 40 minutes) and I typically do very well on this section, but as others have mentioned there were a lot of terms that I had never seen before. I used mainly EK and some Khan academy to prepare and felt that I had a great grasp of the concepts and scored very highly in practice but I suspect my score went down today simply because I had to make a lot of educated guesses. The questions that I was prepared for were extremely straightforward (hence finishing quickly) but there were definitely some terms/theories (particularly sociological I'm assuming?) that were foreign.

Overall I felt ok about the final 3 sections, a little disappointed in the first but I think I did enough to get into med school and that's what matters... We'll see in a month....
 
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GypsyHummus said:
Im starting to burn out. Think Imma go and watch Empire Strikes Back and then study Sociology Notecards for an hour
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Dude if you are burning out, I wouldn't recommend studying after the movie. Just finish studying before 7pm, that's what I would recommend. I'm looking at a "few" things in the morning like formulas, hormones and a quick page about biochem that I seemingly always have trouble understanding.
 
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@Dreamstoo Posting this now before you go to sleep. I'm really rooting for you tomorrow! I see you working incredibly hard and I saw you on forums for the old exam as well. You will be rewarded for all your hard work. You got this. Good luck!

That said, good luck to everyone else too! Take the night off and kill it tomorrow.
 
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I just did EK 4
76%/66%/56%/80% :bang:

I legitimately don't know what my problem is. I've never gotten below a 80% on verbal ever. And I felt great about bio. I'm just feeling so confused right now...legitimately considering pushing my date back 🙁
 
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@FOCUSandEARNit
I agree - I should rephrase "content is really not that important." That is misleading, especially for the psych section where I would argue content is most important. One should sufficiently know all the content topics, as some questions were direct recall and direct application (some incredibly easy questions that almost made me second guess myself). What I meant to convey in my earlier post is that the real challenge in most of the science questions comes in the form of critical reasoning and application. And you are definitely correct in stating that you have to know the content in order to critically reason and apply things. I just think people underestimate the time they should allocate to building critical reasoning skills with the sciences and put too much emphasis on content review. So general message to future test takers is: Once you feel you know the content well enough, move on to practice tests and do a lot of them. Practice tests are the key to success on this exam.
 
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Dumb question: can you leave the timer running on a section and leave the room and take an extended break? granted you've finished answering the questions of course
 
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Pusheen said:
I just did EK 4
76%/66%/56%/80% :bang:

I legitimately don't know what my problem is. I've never gotten below a 80% on verbal ever. And I felt great about bio. I'm just feeling so confused right now...legitimately considering pushing my date back 🙁
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That verbal section was super tricky. Don't be disheartened!
 
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kam94 said:
Dumb question: can you leave the timer running on a section and leave the room and take an extended break? granted you've finished answering the questions of course
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I tried this today and they made me go back and end the section. I don't know if other testing sites are different.
 
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Pusheen said:
I just did EK 4
76%/66%/56%/80% :bang:

I legitimately don't know what my problem is. I've never gotten below a 80% on verbal ever. And I felt great about bio. I'm just feeling so confused right now...legitimately considering pushing my date back 🙁
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ur fine
 
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@moesman777

I'd recommend doing all the AAMC material if you can. Qpacks and official guide passages are more useful than any of the practice exams I took (I took 7 Kaplan exams and 3 EK exams). After the AAMC material, I'd recommend EK4 and EK3 - they're the most representative. Can't stress enough how important the AAMC material is.
 
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Pusheen said:
I just did EK 4
76%/66%/56%/80% :bang:

I legitimately don't know what my problem is. I've never gotten below a 80% on verbal ever. And I felt great about bio. I'm just feeling so confused right now...legitimately considering pushing my date back 🙁
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I think you're still fine. I wouldn't worry about the verbal because EK is very tricky at times. You should focus your efforts in seeing where you went wrong in the bio section. EK is just hard in general. Don't 'Pusheen' back your test. :laugh:
 
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Pusheen said:
I just did EK 4
76%/66%/56%/80% :bang:

I legitimately don't know what my problem is. I've never gotten below a 80% on verbal ever. And I felt great about bio. I'm just feeling so confused right now...legitimately considering pushing my date back 🙁
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Don't let it get to you man. I scored around 56% on EK P/C and did my best not to get emotional about it. AAMC is not as tricky as EK and on test day you'll be a lot more attentive and focused. You're overall was better than mine and I was considering the same thing but I went for it and I'm glad I did. Breath, learn from your mistakes, and move forward.

We all forget that in the grand scheme of life this is just one test. Sucks that the MCAT takes over your soul, but keeping that in mind will make it better.
 
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Profound said:
I think you're still fine. I wouldn't worry about the verbal because EK is very tricky at times. You should focus your efforts in seeing where you went wrong in the bio section. EK is just hard in general. Don't 'Pusheen' back your test. :laugh:
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Thank you, made me smile 😛

Hmz117 said:
Don't let it get to you man. I scored around 56% on EK P/C and did my best not to get emotional about it. AAMC is not as tricky as EK and on test day you'll be a lot more attentive and focused. You're overall was better than mine and I was considering the same thing but I went for it and I'm glad I did. Breath, learn from your mistakes, and move forward.

We all forget that in the grand scheme of life this is just one test. Sucks that the MCAT takes over your soul, but keeping that in mind will make it better.
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Thanks...I'll probably take the AAMC one very soon and use that to gauge where I am and decide about postponement.
I feel like my results make no sense, one day I'll bomb p/c, another day I'll bomb bio completely out of nowhere, and now I bombed the section I've always been great at, CARS. And there is just so much hinging on this test for me. I'm from CA and probably need to stay here for fam reasons..so getting into schools here sucks, and is a total crapshoot, and I was counting on the MCAT to help with that.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, just needed to vent somewhere. Thanks for the encouragement!
 
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