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The Official August 21, 2014 MCAT Thread
Started by LLawliet
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It sounds like everyone pretty much has their own interpretations of the real thing compared to the practice tests. I've also heard though that whatever people seem to think about the actual test most people end up scoring +/- 1 point of their practice test average, is this in line with what any of you have heard and/or read?
FWIW on studentdoc they put together an equation of AAMC score predictability of the real MCAT by section. Y=0.78x+2.41. Of course, it doesn't appear to be a huge sample size and there were more outliers skewing the data toward lower MCAT scores than higher.
This seems to be something this forum should put together. It shouldn't be hard to get a large sample size bc of all the premeds on here and the fact that most everyone is doing a good majority of the aamc tests.
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Wow everyone here is doing so well!! I have basically plateaued at 11 for each section which is super frustrating. I'm writing out all the answers to every error I've ever made in an attempt to raise my score and stop making stupid mistakes (which I should have done before). I'm hoping I either peak on test day or do just poorly enough that I can retake and raise my score more.
Im yet to get better than a 11 on PS and 9 on bio and verbal on the AAMCs.
Still have AAMC 10 and 11 left. Hope I do good. My target score is 27, but hoping for 30.
I decided to go ahead and do AAMC 8 and I got a 36: 13/10/13. Kind of bummed. I felt like that PS section was more difficult, but I ended up doing best in PS with 92% correct, compared to 90% for BS. I did finish both PS and BS early (PS had almost no calculations in it... if it were calculation-heavy, I'd have run out of time). I didn't think Verbal was too bad, but, as always, verbal is a tossup. I would have liked at least an 11, and not to make excuses, but someone decided to take his phone call to my corner of the library (which has "QUIET SPACE" signs all over the walls) in the middle of me taking verbal, and the discourteousness of this made me angry to the point that I was almost in a daze. I clearly had earplugs in, and when he came by on his phone, I held my hands over my ears, making it visibly clear that I was trying to concentrate, and he just carried on. No words.
Anyways, I still haven't done post-game for AAMC 7, or the Gen Chem SA, so I should probably do that before I do anymore AAMCs.
Edit: And taking a klonopin before the tests seemed to have helped a lot.
Before klonopin:
AAMC 3: 34 (11/10/13)
AAMC 5: 32 (11/8/13)
After klonopin:
AAMC 4: 41 (14/13/14)
AAMC 7: 37 (13/11/13)
AAMC 8: 36 (13/10/13)
Anyways, I still haven't done post-game for AAMC 7, or the Gen Chem SA, so I should probably do that before I do anymore AAMCs.
Edit: And taking a klonopin before the tests seemed to have helped a lot.
Before klonopin:
AAMC 3: 34 (11/10/13)
AAMC 5: 32 (11/8/13)
After klonopin:
AAMC 4: 41 (14/13/14)
AAMC 7: 37 (13/11/13)
AAMC 8: 36 (13/10/13)
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That's good that you found what works for your anxiety. I get really bad test anxiety sometimes, but I don't think it will be a problem for the MCAT. Somewhat of a paradox due possibly to the fact that I've practiced for at least 350 hours and know that the test may not be what I expect.
Also, I highly recommend to anyone watching the McGraw-Hill animations on gene cloning, hybridization, and PCR. They were really helpful and concise.
Yeah, I don't have so much a testing anxiety, because I don't get nervous before or during tests, but when I come across a question that I don't know how to answer, even if I just answered the last 30 questions easily, I start to panic and it screws up my game. This is particularly true for calculation questions. Often, at first glance, it appears that they're asking you to do some complicated, multi-step calculation, when once you examine the question for a moment, you realize it's much simpler than you thought. But, for me, as soon as I see that question that appears to be over-complicated, my brain just initiates panic mode, and it's almost impossible to calm myself down and recover from that. But klonopin and buspar really help with this.
I keep telling myself that there are going to be WTF passages on the real deal, and that's okay, because if I'm reading a passage thinking "wtf are they talking about" then other people probably are, too. I think as long as I keep telling myself that the real thing will probably be insanely difficult, even if it won't be, it will help me to not freak out as much when I come across difficult passages, because I will be expecting them.
Also, has anyone else found that the PS in the AAMCs are much easier than any of the TBR passages? The AAMC PS passages are often convoluted and wordy, and I'm thinking, holy crap this one's gonna suck, but then the questions that follow are so simple...
I will definitely check those out!
Also, how are you guys approaching biochem? I'm not really sure with how much depth I should go into it.
Didn't even really cover it. I just know the characteristics and general structures of biologic molecules, as that is what's on the AAMC outline.
I haven't come across many questions that are strictly biochemistry. I would think knowing the process of glucose to ox phos would be sufficient and knowing some points about how energy is stored. I took biochemistry in ug so I didn't do much of anything outside of that.
Oh yes I forgot it would help to know basic AA categories and sugar structures.
@JAH360 I would know:
- Saponification
- Structure of DNA, amino acids, fatty acids, triglycerides
- Thermodynamic properties of micelles
- Important nucleotides
- Absolute config of amino acids and sugars
- Anomerization of glucose upon cyclization to corresponding pyranose
- Reducing sugars have hemiacetal
- Adding weak acid to glycosidic linkage
- Alpha vs. beta glycosidic linkages
- Polymerization of nucleotides via nucleophilic attack on alpha phosphorus of NTP by free 3' -OH
- Why something like DNA pol III can only add to the free 3' end of a growing chain (nucleophilic -OH)
- Possible chemical action of endo- and exonucleases (phosphodiesterase activity)
- Pyrophosphate as effective leaving group
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Enzyme kinetics as in knowing how the saturation curve can change with inhibitors and understanding Vmax and Km is more than enough.
Metabolism biochem is covered enough on the Bio review. Nothing too specific is vital, although can be useful.
Got a 38 on AAMC 10 (14/11/13).
Note: AAMC 10 Discussion below (may include spoilers)
PS wasn't bad. I got one question wrong, on the indicators, which have historically given me trouble. Also, is the one physics passage you guys are talking about the one that was all conceptual questions, about the proportional chambers? I actually got all of the questions right but I wasn't 100% sure about any of them, except maybe one. It was one of those passages in which I went with my gut + eliminated answer choices that didn't sound right and I was able to get the right answer.
VR was a little tough. There was one question on the fiction writer passage that I don't really like, but whatever.
BS was okay. I thought the passages were pretty simple for the most part, although the passages on the hantavirus and lung tissue infection had some questions in which the difference between two choices was very, very small and you had to pick the one that was better by only a slight margin. I agree with everyone else about the discretes - I got four questions wrong and three of them were bio discretes. The conditioning questiong got me, as well as the question asking for the correct direction of sperm flow. I got an ochem passage based question wrong on Grignard as well.
I'm a little bit nervous for AAMC 11, but as long as it isn't too much of a step above AAMC 10 then I think I'll be fine.
Note: AAMC 10 Discussion below (may include spoilers)
PS wasn't bad. I got one question wrong, on the indicators, which have historically given me trouble. Also, is the one physics passage you guys are talking about the one that was all conceptual questions, about the proportional chambers? I actually got all of the questions right but I wasn't 100% sure about any of them, except maybe one. It was one of those passages in which I went with my gut + eliminated answer choices that didn't sound right and I was able to get the right answer.
VR was a little tough. There was one question on the fiction writer passage that I don't really like, but whatever.
BS was okay. I thought the passages were pretty simple for the most part, although the passages on the hantavirus and lung tissue infection had some questions in which the difference between two choices was very, very small and you had to pick the one that was better by only a slight margin. I agree with everyone else about the discretes - I got four questions wrong and three of them were bio discretes. The conditioning questiong got me, as well as the question asking for the correct direction of sperm flow. I got an ochem passage based question wrong on Grignard as well.
I'm a little bit nervous for AAMC 11, but as long as it isn't too much of a step above AAMC 10 then I think I'll be fine.
Yea, proportional chambers. Got them all, too. The one I missed was the one about water in the linoleic acid passage.
Same for me with the proportional chambers. I ended up getting the question wrong on the nitrogen bonding (obviously i know what types of bonds N has but to me the right answer didn't really answer the question). And for the verbal, there was a question i missed that required you to know the difference between astronomy and astrology. I'm probably naive in the fact that i wasn't aware, but still disagree that this should be the deciding factor on the right answer.
I move back into my dorm Sunday, so it might get pushed to monday by default.
For that question I actually picked one of the groups but then I was like... wait, I'll just play it safe and assume the two fields are different and put neither. I got it right but if I went through the test as fast as I normally do I would have gotten it wrong.
The one about water not being cylindrical? Haha that was so frustrating!
I'm taking it tomorrow, and doing AAMC 9 on Sunday. If you do it Sunday you'll have more time to review!
Yeah, I'm really scared! I'll let you know what I think after tomorrow!
Thanks! Good luck!
AAMC 10 SPOILER
Yea, because, at least in my mind, no molecule is cylindrical, and the passage clearly stated that it was ASSUMED that oleic acid was cylindrical, thus leading me to assume that molecular cylindricality was not a necessary precondition for the experiment, and that oleic acid was, in fact, not cylindrical, for if it was, no assumption of such would be needed.
Further, oleic acid, also known as (9Z)-Octadec-9-enoic acid, is a fatty acid, so it can stand on end in oil with its hydrocarbon tail immersed in the hydrophobic oil layer. Water does not have such a tail and thus cannot "stand on end." The water would disperse; hence, choice C is the better answer, at least for me. I believe the formation of a monolayer requires at least one amphipathic substance at the interface, or at least an added surfactant.
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Hope it goes well!
AAMC 10 SPOILER (still)
I actually chose answer A. The reason why I didn't think it was C is because I assumed the water would clump together, rather than disperse. Like oil in water.
And thanks for the good wishes, both of you!
Hey guys just have a question about impulse, is impulse always zero in a perfectly elastic/inelastic collision since it is the change in momentum and momentum is conserved in these scenarios (i.e no change in momentum). So the only way impulse is not zero is if an external force is applied so that the change in momentum is nonzero?
Also took AAMC 11 today (the impulse question has nothing to do with it), scored a 33- 11/11/11. my AAMC average is 32 but I did drop 3 points from my AAMC 10 score. Definitely felt the science sections are more difficult than previous AAMC's but doable. Was crunched for time on both science sections which usually doesn't happen to me leading to a bunch of carless mistakes because I had no time to review at the end of those sections.
Also took AAMC 11 today (the impulse question has nothing to do with it), scored a 33- 11/11/11. my AAMC average is 32 but I did drop 3 points from my AAMC 10 score. Definitely felt the science sections are more difficult than previous AAMC's but doable. Was crunched for time on both science sections which usually doesn't happen to me leading to a bunch of carless mistakes because I had no time to review at the end of those sections.
Where can I find these?
Because momentum is a vector, You can have a change in momentum (and impulse) if something changes direction. So if something collides with another object and bounces backward, that is considered impulse because velocity has changed direction. Even though the magnitude of the momentum may not change, the vector quantity will. I hope that makes sense.
Yea that makes sense and helps a lot, thanks!
As for AAMC 11 after reviewing it the physical sciences were pretty on par with the other AAMC's, the bio wasn't difficult, just different in that it was very experimental/data based not requiring that much outside knowledge. Also felt verbal was easier than some of the other AAMC's.
Tried as hard as I could not to read the Aug.15 thread, but couldn't help myself. Seems like it was very physics heavy and conceptual. Hope our Mcat is not too bad!
Aug 15 taker here. I wanted to say good luck on your exam. I remember when I was a week till my test. Have confidence and don't worry about how other people felt. You've prepared well and taken practice tests. You know how the exam works. Good luck!
Wowww just pushed through AAMC 11. Got a 35: 14/9/12. That's the lowest VR score I've ever gotten (lowest before was an 11). I definitely struggled through it and felt it was much harder... Also BS was just crazy. Had no idea what was going on.
Dammit, and I rescheduled from the 15th... I would MUCH rather have a concept-heavy PS than a calculation-heavy PS. Although they're talking about how hard the orgo was...maybe I should do the rest of the TBR orgo passages...
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If I had to take the 8am exam I could see my scores reasonably dropping a few points, haha. HATE MORNINGS
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Man I'd take calc over concept any day. 1pm for me as well.
Same. There's really no way the AAMC can make you do ridiculous calculations without a calculator. I mean yes they can ask you a multi-step calculation that requires you to make a certain connection between formulas or something, but the calculations appear to be very basic. Conceptual questions can really throw you for a loop especially if you don't fully understand what's occurring in the passage.
I wouldn't worry bout the verbal. Aamc11 is notorious for being the Holy F#&% I'm taking the real MCAT in less than a week verbal score.
Just google search "McGraw-Hill (insert topic) animation". If it's a bio topic, especially anything related to genetics, they'll have an animation.
Haha, I hope that's it!
