The Official August 2015 MCAT Thread

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I just got back and had a little snack after taking it today. It was a retake for me (I sat in June but was not happy with my C/P score). I thought today went much more smoothly and the test seemed easier to read and more manageable.

C/P: More biochem than anything. Only a couple of straight organic questions (thankfully!) One diagram that I felt was a bit ambiguous and hard to understand. Much happier with my section this time around.
CARS: It really did seem like the passages were so damn long! I remember on my June test having a passage that was like 3 short paragraphs. These were 8-9 and wordy. I got a really interesting passage I loved and also that damn Frankenstein passage. Now I know what all the fuss was about! Plus my tummy was grumbling. Neutral on this section.
B/B: This felt like a cool breeze. For the most part this came easily, I have a pretty good background in human physiology and neurobiology that definitely helped me land a few points. Very happy with this section.
Psych/Socio: This was section was the polar opposite of my section for my June test. There weren't nearly as many ambiguous/similar terms to choose from (as answer choices) and it was just much more straightforward to work through. I am pretty confident I improved my score just from how much better this section went. Not as many direct "who is so-and-so" as I thought, more experimental based questions.

Soooooooo happy it is over with! That is the last time I ever have to worry about this damn test and it feels so good. I was not sure how I did after my first one, but this one leaves me feeling all warm on the inside. I hope my scores reflect my good feelings!
Amen to that. Good feelings must mean something!
 
My life plans, goals, and aspirations don't abide by the result of one MCAT test.


View attachment 194793

Really? That sounds great. Sadly, my life is not anything like an inspirational basketball meme. I don't score an average of 25 points per game at the professional level, nor do I do the equivalent in anything else. I'm just an average nobody.

I was just at a McDonald's drive thru and they had all the little graphs on the wall that show increase in sales or accidents or whatever. My brain was immediately like
:wideyed::wideyed::wideyed: how can I interpret this data??

Took me a second to realize I was in a drive thru....

Good practice for the McAT (****ty pun).

Btw McDonaldization actually is on the outline. And the concept actually relates to the graph(s) you saw - that is, a focus on efficiency and profit increase at the expense of personal interaction. So that's kind of funny.
 
This is the MCAT, not your 3xxx level class.

I agree. the MCAT =/= 3xxx class but the MCAT does expect you to have that knowledge. If what I posted does not work for you, awesome!

You are giving him/her poor advice. He/She stated they have not taken biochemistry so their knowledge is zilch, they need to learn more general stuff not crack open a book and go straight to drawing metabolic pathways!!

I would submit my advice is solid based upon experience. You may not like it but that is YOUR opinion.

The best way to learn something is to do, not note cards, not books with a lot of words in them.

Let's talk physics:

was it enough for you to just read it? or did you do the problems as well?

How about orgo which is closer to biochem. Did you just read and memorize the reagents and products? or did you do the problems and draw the reactions and mechanisms? How did you do in orgo? Did you get an "A"? some of my peers who simply memorized failed the final for they did not understand HOW the things worked. They could not think.

For me, colored pencil and paper + drawing the pathways + enzymes and substrates = know for life. I don't have to memorize seemingly endless factoids, the facts are already integrated. I don't have to "recall" I simply know. Like riding a bike. Much easier to draw for a 1/2 hour and know, than spend hours making note cards, more hours memorizing and then sort of get it.

Other people learn differently. It's all strategy. Not one size fits all.
 
Wanna know something funny? I actually do just write out the metabolic pathways in their entirety 3-4x a day. It's good practice, imo.
 
Took me sec :laugh:
At first I thought you were saying I was going to end up at McDonalds if I don't do well on the MCAT🤣
(which I accept as a totally valid possibility)

Lol I think there was a guy on here who worked at McDonalds and it actually helped him in interviews! That's so ****ing Hollywood, right? From working at McDonalds to being a physician...American dream, baby.

Though I think some of us do the equivalent. You can just picture fast food worker to doc as so much more contrasting than like...lower level hospital worker to doc.
 
Just finished the test! Overall it was definitely manageable, time wise and contest wise.

C/P: felt easier than the AAMC FL, little orgo, more gen Chem. finished with about 10 min to spare

CARS: eh. Probably a bit more difficult than AAMC. A lot more grey area in my opinion. Finished right on time.

B/B: pretty similar to AAMC. More experimental passages and biochem. Finished about 10 min early

P/S: eh. Decent. Felt like a lot more critical thinking then application of vocab. Still some words I wasn't sure on and that Kaplan didn't address. Finished about 20 min early.

SO GLAD TO BE DONE THOUGH!
 
Lol I think there was a guy on here who worked at McDonalds and it actually helped him in interviews! That's so ****ing Hollywood, right? From working at McDonalds to being a physician...American dream, baby.

Though I think some of us do the equivalent. You can just picture fast food worker to doc as so much more contrasting than like...lower level hospital worker to doc.
Hey, I've worked at McDonald's😎 That's why I go there, I know how to custom order the good stuff, lol
 
Btw any word on how particular they get? I can see maybe like 2-3% of questions being highly detailed but overall what do you think the %age of high-level detailed questions were?
 
Oh it's great! Now I can take a nap and not feel bad about doing so!

For me the problem is more waking up every day and immediately thinking something has gone wrong, like I missed the test or I'm unprepared for the fast-approaching deadline. The feeling immediately passes though, so no biggie.
 
That's how much I want that feeling.
Same. I woke up at 3:30 last night in a deep despair because I want this feeling so much. Wrote a journal entry (that I don't even want to read now), had a good cry, and went back to sleep. I just need to be done with this test and done with my apps...
On the bright side I woke up motivated to take my first practice test today, which I've been afraid to take this whole time... will probably post for feedback later.
 
haha, I mean it's no gourmet meal, but the crispy/grilled chicken isn't bad, and the wraps are decent. Though I personally have no problem with a full burger meal every so often

Ah man I used to get the wraps all the time. Except now I just don't go. Mainly because I don't have the time/inclination/funds to do so.

Btw what's up with the consistently super-adorable avatars? I don't have a problem with it, I just....you know how some people have that running theme with their avatars? Like @Goro with the animals. I've actually seen people do that on a multiplicity of forums. Just interested if there is a story behind it.

Same. I woke up at 3:30 last night in a deep despair because I want this feeling so much. Wrote a journal entry (that I don't even want to read now), had a good cry, and went back to sleep. I just need to be done with this test and done with my apps...
On the bright side I woke up motivated to take my first practice test today, which I've been afraid to take this whole time... will probably post for feedback later.

Lol moments like that...."if they ever make a movie about me, this should be in it."
 
Same. I woke up at 3:30 last night in a deep despair because I want this feeling so much. Wrote a journal entry (that I don't even want to read now), had a good cry, and went back to sleep. I just need to be done with this test and done with my apps...
On the bright side I woke up motivated to take my first practice test today, which I've been afraid to take this whole time... will probably post about it later.

In my opinion, taking practice tests is a huge hurdle in itself. I was terrified to take my first practice test. But just remember every time you take it you gain new knowledge and are better equipped! That's the only thing that got me through it. Also, the best thing you can do is to review your test COMPLETELY. this is where you will learn from your mistakes and be able to fix them in the future.

Best of luck though 🙂
 
Took the test today, also. I'm pretty much on the same page as everyone else. After studying everyday for 4 months, ITS GREAT TO BE DONE

C/P: Physical sciences are my weakest area, always have been. I probably shouldn't have, but I went in knowing I was going to find it hard(er) compared to any practice exams. On the bright side, the gen chem wasn't super complicated so even if you weren't familiar with the formulas, you could reason through it.

CARS: WHY WERE THOSE PASSAGES SO LONG? Maybe they just seemed long on that interface, but I felt like they were way more detailed for the content of the questions that were asked. Overall, I thought it was on par with the AAMC practice.

B/B: The strict bio parts were fair, but I think some of the passages were very dense. The biochem ended up being easier than I had anticipated - if you memorized AA's then it was fine.

PSYCH/SOC: I thought this section differed most with the AAMC practice. It was very research/study design based instead of identify theories and terms. I guess that was ok.

Part of me really catch up on missed sleep. The other part needs to enjoy the 2 weeks of Summer that I'm left with 🙁
 
Ah man I used to get the wraps all the time. Except now I just don't go. Mainly because I don't have the time/inclination/funds to do so.

Btw what's up with the consistently super-adorable avatars? I don't have a problem with it, I just....you know how some people have that running theme with their avatars? Like @Goro with the animals. I've actually seen people do that on a multiplicity of forums. Just interested if there is a story behind it.



Lol moments like that...."if they ever make a movie about me, this should be in it."

Eh, I just like Pusheen because he's so cute and kind of encompasses my life, lol. https://www.google.com/search?q=pus...X&ved=0CCkQsARqFQoTCKiUhLqilccCFcOagAodj-YLlw
I used to use him on fb messaging a lot.
 
Decided to void again.

Sigh, the CARs killed me. I didn't have time to even answer the last passage, quickly chose random answers in the past 3 minutes. Rushed the 2nd last passage too.

C/P- felt too easy at times. I actually thought I did well here but probably on par with my AAMC FL performance which wasn't great. Felt like it could have been anywhere from a 124 to 125.
CARS- felt confident with the first passage and then it got progressively worse for me. Passages felt WAYYY longer than the AAMC FL. Anywhere from a 122 to a 123.
B/B- ... I don't even want to talk about it. My performance felt like it was on par with the AAMC FL maybe even worse (and my B/B performance was equal to a 122-123 on mcatjelly scale)
Psych/Soc- I thought this was on par with TPR/AAMC. If I scored it, it felt like a ~125-126.

493-497, around ~495 if I scored (I'm really accurate on predicting scores, I was spot on for AAMC FL before I decided to score it in terms of how many I predicted wrong per section). ~23 on the old scale which would have been a retake for me anyway.
Felt A LOT better though then my voided MCAT this past January. I would have scored it, if I was as confident as I was with C/P and Psych/Soc but I for the first time in awhile had a lot of trouble understanding the passages/keeping up with the timing.
B/B- felt on par with the AAMC FL which didn't go well for me.

I've been told a September MCAT isn't too late for the DO cycle. I was told if I didn't feel ready (which honestly, I didn't in terms of B/B) I should just void the August test. Met someone else that voided today who was around my age. Decided to talk to them for a few minutes because they also seemed pretty down about it and also prepped for a long time. If you're reading this (that particular individual), stay positive!

I will have the chance to sign up again on August 8th. I honestly thought B/B was manageable if you knew all of your stuff.

Also know your AAs, there were a few questions on them that really threw me off but the majority of them are easy if you know the basic properties of them.

I'm also considering applying to entry level jobs and call it "quits" on pre med. See if I want to revisit it later.
 
Decided to void again.

Sigh, the CARs killed me. I didn't have time to even answer the last passage, quickly chose random answers in the past 3 minutes. Rushed the 2nd last passage too.

C/P- felt too easy at times. I actually thought I did well here but probably on par with my AAMC FL performance which wasn't great. Felt like it could have been anywhere from a 124 to 125.
CARS- felt confident with the first passage and then it got progressively worse for me. Passages felt WAYYY longer than the AAMC FL. Anywhere from a 122 to a 123.
B/B- ... I don't even want to talk about it. My performance felt like it was on par with the AAMC FL maybe even worse (and my B/B performance was equal to a 122-123 on mcatjelly scale)
Psych/Soc- I thought this was on par with TPR/AAMC. If I scored it, it felt like a ~125-126.

493-497, around ~495 if I scored (I'm really accurate on predicting scores, I was spot on for AAMC FL before I decided to score it in terms of how many I predicted wrong per section). ~23 on the old scale which would have been a retake for me anyway.
Felt A LOT better though then my voided MCAT this past January. I would have scored it, if I was as confident as I was with C/P and Psych/Soc but I for the first time in awhile had a lot of trouble understanding the passages/keeping up with the timing.
B/B- felt on par with the AAMC FL which didn't go well for me.

I've been told a September MCAT isn't too late for the DO cycle. I was told if I didn't feel ready (which honestly, I didn't in terms of B/B) I should just void the August test. Met someone else that voided today who was around my age. Decided to talk to them for a few minutes because they also seemed pretty down about it and also prepped for a long time. If you're reading this (that particular individual), stay positive!

I will have the chance to sign up again on August 8th. I honestly thought B/B was manageable if you knew all of your stuff.

Also know your AAs, there were a few questions on them that really threw me off but the majority of them are easy if you know the basic properties of them.

I'm also considering applying to entry level jobs and call it "quits" on pre med. See if I want to revisit it later.

How many FLs did you do other than the AAMC? And what did you get on the AAMC FL?

I thought you did pretty well on the TPR ones (high 490s/low 500s?).

You've been here for a while, studying for a while. I almost have this feeling you're being a tad critical on yourself. I'm sure you know the min score to be a decent competitor for DO, assuming a decent GPA, is not terribly demanding. That is, chances can be good @ >50th percentile with solid GPA/ECs and broad application. Though I do agree that if you're cool with a retake, then simply just treating this like a ****ty FL experience and doing further study/practice for a September test (which isn't too late) is alright. There's a recent post where @Goro mentioned a December application can be alright.

As far as bagging it: **** that until you're literally out of options (you're not).


As far as your predictions go, those scores would have been OK. Not great, sure, but enough? Probably.

https://www.aamc.org/students/download/378098/data/mcat2015scorescaleguide.pdf#13
 
I am so sad. I really do want to cry and cry and cry. I have been so stressed out about this exam. Just retook, took it last in june. Definitely didnt have enough time to study-two weeks cuz i had stuff going on. Anyways i marked about half of my questions and i didnt have time to go back. I am so disappointed probably because im usually good at tests, but this exam was the worst i have ever taken. I felt better the last time and i got below 500. i dont even continue the application process. It wasnt hard, i just didnt prepare enough i guess.
 
Decided to void again.

Sigh, the CARs killed me. I didn't have time to even answer the last passage, quickly chose random answers in the past 3 minutes. Rushed the 2nd last passage too.

C/P- felt too easy at times. I actually thought I did well here but probably on par with my AAMC FL performance which wasn't great. Felt like it could have been anywhere from a 124 to 125.
CARS- felt confident with the first passage and then it got progressively worse for me. Passages felt WAYYY longer than the AAMC FL. Anywhere from a 122 to a 123.
B/B- ... I don't even want to talk about it. My performance felt like it was on par with the AAMC FL maybe even worse (and my B/B performance was equal to a 122-123 on mcatjelly scale)
Psych/Soc- I thought this was on par with TPR/AAMC. If I scored it, it felt like a ~125-126.

493-497, around ~495 if I scored (I'm really accurate on predicting scores, I was spot on for AAMC FL before I decided to score it in terms of how many I predicted wrong per section). ~23 on the old scale which would have been a retake for me anyway.
Felt A LOT better though then my voided MCAT this past January. I would have scored it, if I was as confident as I was with C/P and Psych/Soc but I for the first time in awhile had a lot of trouble understanding the passages/keeping up with the timing.
B/B- felt on par with the AAMC FL which didn't go well for me.

I've been told a September MCAT isn't too late for the DO cycle. I was told if I didn't feel ready (which honestly, I didn't in terms of B/B) I should just void the August test. Met someone else that voided today who was around my age. Decided to talk to them for a few minutes because they also seemed pretty down about it and also prepped for a long time. If you're reading this (that particular individual), stay positive!

I will have the chance to sign up again on August 8th. I honestly thought B/B was manageable if you knew all of your stuff.

Also know your AAs, there were a few questions on them that really threw me off but the majority of them are easy if you know the basic properties of them.

I'm also considering applying to entry level jobs and call it "quits" on pre med. See if I want to revisit it later.
Hey, I'm sorry it went kinda rough. I'm glad you were able to make the call of whether to void or not.
Don't quit til you've gotten a full test scored this year, ya? Maybe September will treat you better.
I think we can all appreciate how much work you've put into this
 
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I am so sad. I really do want to cry and cry and cry. I have been so stressed out about this exam. Just retook, took it last in june. Definitely didnt have enough time to study-two weeks cuz i had stuff going on. Anyways i marked about half of my questions and i didnt have time to go back. I am so disappointed probably because im usually good at tests, but this exam was the worst i have ever taken. I felt better the last time and i got below 500. i dont even continue the application process. It wasnt hard, i just didnt prepare enough i guess.

Wait wait wait....you studied for two weeks, or am I misunderstanding your post? What was your study time for the initial examination?
 
like a month

If this is your total combined study time, then you don't even know what you're capable of getting yet with a proper amount of studying. Now if you had done a solid 3-5 months @ 3-5hrs per day, then you should be concerned. You've even said you think you possibly didn't study enough. There's no reason to cry or be upset when all you did was get nailed by a test you didn't properly study for. Actually studying hard and then getting nailed is something different entirely. Below par performance should have been the assumption from the start, no?

Did you void?
 
If this is your total combined study time, then you don't even know what you're capable of getting yet with a proper amount of studying. Now if you had done a solid 3-5 months @ 3-5hrs per day, then you should be concerned. You've even said you think you possibly didn't study enough. There's no reason to cry or be upset when all you did was get nailed by a test you didn't properly study for. Actually studying hard and then getting nailed is something different entirely. Below par performance should have been the assumption from the start, no?

Did you void?
no i didnt. I studied all day though.
 
Decided to void again.

Sigh, the CARs killed me. I didn't have time to even answer the last passage, quickly chose random answers in the past 3 minutes. Rushed the 2nd last passage too.

C/P- felt too easy at times. I actually thought I did well here but probably on par with my AAMC FL performance which wasn't great. Felt like it could have been anywhere from a 124 to 125.
CARS- felt confident with the first passage and then it got progressively worse for me. Passages felt WAYYY longer than the AAMC FL. Anywhere from a 122 to a 123.
B/B- ... I don't even want to talk about it. My performance felt like it was on par with the AAMC FL maybe even worse (and my B/B performance was equal to a 122-123 on mcatjelly scale)
Psych/Soc- I thought this was on par with TPR/AAMC. If I scored it, it felt like a ~125-126.

493-497, around ~495 if I scored (I'm really accurate on predicting scores, I was spot on for AAMC FL before I decided to score it in terms of how many I predicted wrong per section). ~23 on the old scale which would have been a retake for me anyway.
Felt A LOT better though then my voided MCAT this past January. I would have scored it, if I was as confident as I was with C/P and Psych/Soc but I for the first time in awhile had a lot of trouble understanding the passages/keeping up with the timing.
B/B- felt on par with the AAMC FL which didn't go well for me.

I've been told a September MCAT isn't too late for the DO cycle. I was told if I didn't feel ready (which honestly, I didn't in terms of B/B) I should just void the August test. Met someone else that voided today who was around my age. Decided to talk to them for a few minutes because they also seemed pretty down about it and also prepped for a long time. If you're reading this (that particular individual), stay positive!

I will have the chance to sign up again on August 8th. I honestly thought B/B was manageable if you knew all of your stuff.

Also know your AAs, there were a few questions on them that really threw me off but the majority of them are easy if you know the basic properties of them.

I'm also considering applying to entry level jobs and call it "quits" on pre med. See if I want to revisit it later.

CARS was literally ridiculous.
 
Just want to say I know where Favour517 is coming from. I ended up only being able to study for about a week and a half to take the January test. In hindsight I should have voided or not taken it, but I was getting 30-33 on the AAMC FLs and felt like I *had* to try before they changed the test. The test was wildly and laughably harder than the practices and I ended up with a 27. Now I wish I could delete it from my record, because I have been working so hard for months this time. I'm also terrified all that work will mean nothing, but c'est la vie...

Favour517: now the real work begins. I went through the same thing because this was the first standardized test where I couldn't waltz in and get a 90%ile without trying. Study your content (my weakest point), learn the test, and try again when you're ready.
 
There wasn't a visible timer but I'm prety sure there is an internal one. The screen just times out and all it shows is the general "cars" or " Biological sciences" etc. If you don't come back I'm sure it will time out at some point.
 
CARS was excessively long. Ambiguous answer choices to the questions as I felt you could've pick between two choices for a good 5 or so questions. Passages were just long to go through but not difficult to understand at all (annoying # of questions required you to go back which ate up time as well). Had at least 10 questions marked (92% on FL btw) but there was no time to even review them.
P/S - Ambiguity galore. Take your pick and see if you feel lucky on a number of questions between two viable answers.

EDIT:
B/B: Quite a few experimental passages were exceedingly long. Got hung up on one that felt quite complex to me. Damn the random pathway and numerous procedures in that one (seriously, a whole bunch of random stuff happening to figure out a pathway comprised of but a few components). But the other 9 passages were fine.
C/P: Wasn't easy but not ridiculously hard either. There wasn't time to really review stuff in detail. Calculations were tiresome and ate up time.
 
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There wasn't a visible timer but I'm prety sure there is an internal one. The screen just times out and all it shows is the general "cars" or " Biological sciences" etc. If you don't come back I'm sure it will time out at some point.

This is for the break periods, right? We do get a visible timer on the actual sections?
 
This is for the break periods, right? We do get a visible timer on the actual sections?
No I was saying that if you stayed too long during your break the screen would time out and take you to the general section page. The breaks AND the indivudal sections both had a timer on the top right of the screen.
 
No I was saying that if you stayed too long during your break the screen would time out and take you to the general section page. The breaks AND the indivudal sections both had a timer on the top right of the screen.

Oh okay! Momentary panic as I thought about having to take the test without a timer 😱
 
Just want to say I know where Favour517 is coming from. I ended up only being able to study for about a week and a half to take the January test. In hindsight I should have voided or not taken it, but I was getting 30-33 on the AAMC FLs and felt like I *had* to try before they changed the test. The test was wildly and laughably harder than the practices and I ended up with a 27. Now I wish I could delete it from my record, because I have been working so hard for months this time. I'm also terrified all that work will mean nothing, but c'est la vie...

Favour517: now the real work begins. I went through the same thing because this was the first standardized test where I couldn't waltz in and get a 90%ile without trying. Study your content (my weakest point), learn the test, and try again when you're ready.
thank you so much. I feel really stupid now. its nice to hear from you.
 
Oh man, reading post-exam reactions these last two days have compounded my nervousness
sorry. its not a hard exam. you just have to prepare- be thorough. I thought the mcat would have more biochem so i focused more on that to my detriment. good luck.
 
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going over my EK CARS. They really like to **** with your head don't they. Not really a fan of their answer options and rationale.
Hope the AAMC stuff makes a little more sense.
 
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