-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
The Official August 21, 2014 MCAT Thread
Started by LLawliet
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
This made me smile. Haha.
All scores: (all after content review)
AAMC 3: 34 (11/12/11)
AAMC 4: 39 (14/12/13)
AAMC 5: 36 (14/11/11)
AAMC 7: 40 (13/12/15)
AAMC 8: 35 (12/11/12)
AAMC 10: 36 (14/11/11)
AAMC 11: 35 (14/9/12)
AAMC 9: 38 (15/12/11)
Overall average: 36.6 (13.38/11.25/12.00)
Range: 34-40 (11-15/9-12/11-15)
I hope the real thing will be like AAMC 7! Hahah.
But to be realistic, hoping for 14/12/12.
AAMC9 SPOILER:
OHH okay i get what you were wondering about now. I don't think its a single trial they are talking about e.g. start with the OB + A and just keep dumping peptide B into the same growth medium. I think it means setting up multiple growth mediums and have OB + a constant concentration of A in all of them, but then having like 1mM B, 2mM B, 4mMB, etc added to separate growths.
and the effect of Peptide A on OB isn't instantaneous, so it's not like a bunch of osteoblatin is produced right before you add the peptide B to the cells.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
This makes sense! Is there anything in the question that would suggest this is what they meant?
Not to my knowledge. Probably just moreso background knowledge of how concentration-function experiments are set up. Because as you said, if it was set up the way you described it probably wouldn't result in useful data.
Solid scores. I'm praying that I end up with scores similar to my averages. My final:
AAMC3: 11 10 13 34 - before content review
AAMC4: 12 11 15 38 - 60% thru content review
AAMC5: 14 11 11 36
AAMC7: 14 11 14 39
AAMC8: 14 13 14 41
AAMC9: 15 11 12 38
AAMC10: 14 11 12 37
AAMC11: 14 11 14 39
Averages: 13.5-11.13-13.13-37.75
Personally, hoping for a 14-11-14 (well technically i'm hoping for something >11 in verbal to bump me up to 40 but what i expect is an 11).
Just got a 39 on AAMC 11 (13/12/14).
The PS felt harder than usual, I thought some questions seemed more weird than normal.
Verbal was okay. Pretty standard. I still feel like some answer choices AAMC deems "wrong" could work for certain questions but of course it's a waste of time to contemplate.
BS wasn't so bad. I went in a little nervous because AAMC 11 BS is so hyped up but I think paraphrasing everything and mapping out the experiments on scratch paper really helps. I think slowing down and working very carefully and meticulously helped me on the Griscelli and Ebola passages. Usually I speed through BS and finish with a lot of time left, but I left the Ebola passage for last and really took a lot of time to internalize the questions, and I actually only finished with a couple of minutes left but I got a 14.
Also, if any of you guys have AAMC 11 left to take, just keep the same mindset and approach and don't worry about what people on this website say about it. The Ebola passage is ridiculously overhyped on SDN and while it is definitely tougher than the usual ones, if you take enough time to understand the passage, the graph, and the question stems and answer choices, you should be able to understand what's going on. After doing that, it just became a matter of process of elimination, and the right answer was fairly clear.
The PS felt harder than usual, I thought some questions seemed more weird than normal.
Verbal was okay. Pretty standard. I still feel like some answer choices AAMC deems "wrong" could work for certain questions but of course it's a waste of time to contemplate.
BS wasn't so bad. I went in a little nervous because AAMC 11 BS is so hyped up but I think paraphrasing everything and mapping out the experiments on scratch paper really helps. I think slowing down and working very carefully and meticulously helped me on the Griscelli and Ebola passages. Usually I speed through BS and finish with a lot of time left, but I left the Ebola passage for last and really took a lot of time to internalize the questions, and I actually only finished with a couple of minutes left but I got a 14.
Also, if any of you guys have AAMC 11 left to take, just keep the same mindset and approach and don't worry about what people on this website say about it. The Ebola passage is ridiculously overhyped on SDN and while it is definitely tougher than the usual ones, if you take enough time to understand the passage, the graph, and the question stems and answer choices, you should be able to understand what's going on. After doing that, it just became a matter of process of elimination, and the right answer was fairly clear.
Nice! You're really consistent. 14/11/14 totally seems feasible! Nice job!
Agreed. Lets hope for no score surprises come September when they come out. What'd ur average end up being?
You guys are both so consistent! I feel like I'm all over the place and it'll come down to what topics appear on the real thing.
Composite PS VR BS
AAMC 3 34 11 10 13
AAMC 4 32 10 10 12
AAMC 5 34 13 9 12
AAMC 7 34 10 11 13
AAMC 8 40 14 13 13
AAMC 9 36 13 11 12
AAMC 10 36 14 11 11
AAMC 11 35 11 10 14
AAMC 11 PS really ****ed me up. I was not expecting so many calculations, and was not able to pace myself as effectively as I would have liked. I honestly felt, coming from a very research heavy background, that AAMC 11 BS was significantly easier than all of the others, but maybe it's 'cause I like microbiology / infectious diseases a lot. Sort of upset about my PS score.
AAMC 3 34 11 10 13
AAMC 4 32 10 10 12
AAMC 5 34 13 9 12
AAMC 7 34 10 11 13
AAMC 8 40 14 13 13
AAMC 9 36 13 11 12
AAMC 10 36 14 11 11
AAMC 11 35 11 10 14
AAMC 11 PS really ****ed me up. I was not expecting so many calculations, and was not able to pace myself as effectively as I would have liked. I honestly felt, coming from a very research heavy background, that AAMC 11 BS was significantly easier than all of the others, but maybe it's 'cause I like microbiology / infectious diseases a lot. Sort of upset about my PS score.
On the bright side, AAMC 11's BS is apparently most similar to the BS on the real thing!
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Haha, that's reassuring.
I am curious, what is everyone having for breakfast / bringing to snack on during the break?
Since it is a special day, I am planning on splurging.
My exam is at 1pm so this is my plan:
Brunch: something with eggs + chicken
Snack before exam: Spicy tuna avocado rolls wrapped in soy paper
During my exam I am planning on bringing a banana and a bar of dark chocolate + water
What about you guys?
Also also also, the anxiety is starting to kick in now.
For breakfast I'll probably go for a cream cheese bagel, some eggs, and a banana.
During the exam - a protein bar and nuts.
What is everyone doing for the next 3 days?
I don't know what to go over, BS is my weakest and I feel like I should spend more time on organic chemistry, but now I'm wondering if I should dedicate more time to doing tests in verbal since I didn't finish AAMC 11 verbal despite trying to pace myself at 8 minutes per passage. I've been scoring well on PS but I've completely neglected learning much of Magnetism and I really need to go over it to prepare for the possibility of an entire passage on it.
Feeling far more anxious than I thought I would be feeling at this stage.
I don't know what to go over, BS is my weakest and I feel like I should spend more time on organic chemistry, but now I'm wondering if I should dedicate more time to doing tests in verbal since I didn't finish AAMC 11 verbal despite trying to pace myself at 8 minutes per passage. I've been scoring well on PS but I've completely neglected learning much of Magnetism and I really need to go over it to prepare for the possibility of an entire passage on it.
Feeling far more anxious than I thought I would be feeling at this stage.
I think you could definitely touch on all of those in the next three days. Spend a couple hours on magnetism, do some practice verbal passages each day, and maybe you could fit in some light review of orgo.
This is only my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. But personally I would suggest focusing your time on magnetism and any other glaring weaknesses, and don't be overly concerned about the orgo. It's my belief that there are easy orgo questions that even cursory background knowledge would allow you to get the right answer, and there are orgo questions that would require pretty much knowing all the minute details of orgo to answer (thankfully very few of these). But there isn't much in between, so unless you happen to stumble on the discrete info that shows up on your exam, it likely won't help much. Rather, using the passage to your advantage and using the most basic organic principles will answer the large majority of questions. I believe most of the BS from our exam will be derived from interpretation of charts/experimental data, etc so hone in your skills on those questions.
For verbal, if you get to a tough question don't...i repeat don't...get tripped up on it. Select an answer and move on. Chances are if you didn't know the answer immediately or after glancing over the text again, you're going to end up guessing anyway so you might as well do it before you waste precious time that could be spent elsewhere. This has kept me consistently finishing on time.
Last edited:
anxiety is killing me right now. As far as eating is concerned, tbh i think i perform better on a very light/empty stomach. I'll probably have a small bowl of oatmeal or maybe just coffee for bfast, go for a run, and wallow in my anxiety until about the time to leave for the test. Before i leave i'll probably have a small granola bar and a coffee. And likely i'll take some caffeinated drink and some nuts for a snack. I probably won't drink caffeine during break, but i feel more comfortable having it just in case.
Haha, you reminded me to look over those. Also the Carnot cycle was super confusing.
i dont think something like the carnot cycle will show up on the exam
Watch a video on thin film, it's not as complicated as you think.
Extra topics in physics that I feel is worth a look: thin film, double/single slit, electric motor, Lenz's law, blood pressure
What about blood pressure?
I am feeling very discouraged. I started studying in May but then lost motivation in June, but have been consistently studying since July. I also took the Kaplan OnDemand course.
Kaplan Diagnostic 22 (6P, 7V, 9B)
(July 8 - Aug 5)
Kaplan 1: 27 (7, 10, 10)
Kaplan 2: 28 (11, 8, 9)
Kaplan 3: 30 (9, 10 11)
Kaplan 4: 30 (9, 10, 11)
Kaplan 5: 32 (11, 10, 11)
I was feeling good, but then my scores began to jump all over the place with no upward trend. (This is also in the order I took them)
(Aug 7 - Aug 16)
AAMC 10: 30 (11, 9, 10)
AAMC 9: 25 (9, 7, 9)… had no focus that day
AAMC 8: 32 (10, 10, 12)
Kaplan 6: 29 (9, 11, 9)
AAMC 7: 29 (10, 8, 11)
Kaplan 7: 27 (9, 8, 10)
AAMC 11: 28 (9, 9, 10)
I don't know if I should take AAMC 5 today to try to boost my confidence, but if I don't get at least a 30, I would probably feel even worse. I reviewed every test after taking it and sometimes most of my mistakes were due to losing focus and misreading questions or answers.
I am going to try to go in the test as relaxed as possible, but I really am freaking out. I need advice/help.
Kaplan Diagnostic 22 (6P, 7V, 9B)
(July 8 - Aug 5)
Kaplan 1: 27 (7, 10, 10)
Kaplan 2: 28 (11, 8, 9)
Kaplan 3: 30 (9, 10 11)
Kaplan 4: 30 (9, 10, 11)
Kaplan 5: 32 (11, 10, 11)
I was feeling good, but then my scores began to jump all over the place with no upward trend. (This is also in the order I took them)
(Aug 7 - Aug 16)
AAMC 10: 30 (11, 9, 10)
AAMC 9: 25 (9, 7, 9)… had no focus that day
AAMC 8: 32 (10, 10, 12)
Kaplan 6: 29 (9, 11, 9)
AAMC 7: 29 (10, 8, 11)
Kaplan 7: 27 (9, 8, 10)
AAMC 11: 28 (9, 9, 10)
I don't know if I should take AAMC 5 today to try to boost my confidence, but if I don't get at least a 30, I would probably feel even worse. I reviewed every test after taking it and sometimes most of my mistakes were due to losing focus and misreading questions or answers.
I am going to try to go in the test as relaxed as possible, but I really am freaking out. I need advice/help.
Last edited:
Hydrodynamic and hydrostatic chapter, Know how to relate it to BP
Don't beat yourself up. Poor confidence will certainly affect how you perform. The less sure you are about yourself, the more likely you are to convince yourself to change an answer from correct to incorrect. If you don't think your averages are close enough to your desired range, there's no shame in taking the exam then voiding your score. You'll get the real MCAT experience and also more time to get closer to your desired range. But if you got a score somewhere ~30 you'd still easily be in the running for an MD school, so depends on what range you're shooting for.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
hahaha same. When i began my studying one of my friends who is a year ahead of me said to skip the carrot cycle, and for the longest time i had no idea what he meant. Not until i found the carnot cycle section in TBR did i realize what the actual spelling was. Autocorrect strikes again.
I think I'm going to get up, eat a small breakfast like I usually do, then just eat my lunch before the exam, probably just a simple sandwich with like, a banana and maybe some chips. Part of me felt like having this really huge, awesome meal before the exam to get me energized but then I thought, I don't want to risk some sort of digestive emergency during the exam lololol
As for studying, I'm going to spend today and tomorrow kind of just doing a crash course on all the stuff I'm weak on, as well as the low-yield stuff that's pretty hard, like diffraction and heat engine/refrigerator stuff, etc. I'm also going to review all of the main physics concepts in case we get an exam like the one this past week, which was heavy on physics and very conceptual. Oh man, if the PS section were mostly gen chem and mostly calculations I think I'd actually squeal for joy during the test.
Based on how you guys have been doing on the practice tests, which do you think are you better able to handle - a difficult PS, or a difficult BS? I think for me it would be BS just because the tough experimental passages/questions don't require you to have outside knowledge that you don't currently possess, you just need to spend more time mapping out everything they give you. I feel like with PS, if I come across some wacky physics conceptual stuff, I just have to make a bunch of educated guesses, which throws me off a bit.
I agree a tougher BS would be better than a tough PS. First of all, PS is the first section so screwing it up may affect performance on later sections. Also, for BS you can usually make a decent guess with the passage info, but for PS this is not always the case (ex. That one Earthquake passage.... wtf?). And yes I am also hoping for a Chem heavy PS section!
Just took AAMC 11:
PS 12 Verbal 9 BS 8 for a 29!
I know its a horrible score for most of you guys here, but it was my highest score so far and a great confidence boost : ,)
PS 12 Verbal 9 BS 8 for a 29!
I know its a horrible score for most of you guys here, but it was my highest score so far and a great confidence boost : ,)
Yeah, I agree!
I'm not sure what people mean when they say a PS section is really conceptual though. Is there an AAMC that had a conceptual PS I could compare to? I thought there were fairly conceptual passages here and there (like the last passage on 11, or the one water passage on 9, or that earthquake one). Do they mean many passages are like those? That would be awful!
I'm not sure what people mean when they say a PS section is really conceptual though. Is there an AAMC that had a conceptual PS I could compare to? I thought there were fairly conceptual passages here and there (like the last passage on 11, or the one water passage on 9, or that earthquake one). Do they mean many passages are like those? That would be awful!
That's not horrible! Congrats on getting your highest score! And on 11, too!
My hunch is that those passages are like the proportion chamber passage from AAMC 10 in which they present you with devices or experiments you haven't seen and then they ask you 6-7 strictly conceptual questions on it. Although some people said the passages looked nothing like the AAMCs and were really "weird", so who knows
Thanks guys! I'm going to focus on weaknesses for these next two days and then I have a flight to catch on Wednesday so it will just be light review on that + test day.
How do you map Bio passages? I haven't been doing that (which now I realize is a terrible strategy) because for most of the earlier AAMC tests and TPR tests I've done well in the bio passages and just referred back to the passage/used memory. Now after AAMC 11, I'm realizing I'm truly f'd after a score of 9 in BS and this had an easy orgo passage too. It's probably too late but since it's not so much a content problem, I'm hoping I would be able to improve after practicing some more these next 2 days. I'm applying in Canada only and I wish I could switch my PS score with BS or VR since those two often tend to be "filters" here.
How do you map Bio passages? I haven't been doing that (which now I realize is a terrible strategy) because for most of the earlier AAMC tests and TPR tests I've done well in the bio passages and just referred back to the passage/used memory. Now after AAMC 11, I'm realizing I'm truly f'd after a score of 9 in BS and this had an easy orgo passage too. It's probably too late but since it's not so much a content problem, I'm hoping I would be able to improve after practicing some more these next 2 days. I'm applying in Canada only and I wish I could switch my PS score with BS or VR since those two often tend to be "filters" here.
Just wrote AAMC 11 and thought I got f***ed on BS AND PS while I found verbal to be easiest. Of course it was the opposite and my lowest score was in VR (10). I actually scored my highest ever on BS. I found the PS to be very physics heavy and I kind of lost track of time and had to rush near the end.
Finished with 11 10 12 (PS VR BS) and would have liked to score 11 in VR but oh well..
Finished with 11 10 12 (PS VR BS) and would have liked to score 11 in VR but oh well..
just finished AAMC 11: 11/13/11
i've gotten a 35 for AAMC 9, 10, and 11 and i would be so happy to get that on the real deal. i think i ended up "peaking" at just the right time.
definitely found myself a bit more crunched for time in AAMC 11's PS and BS sections. flew through verbal, with a personal best of 13! finally broke my 11 streak! the only thing i did differently this time was throw out all the previous strategies i had tried, and just read the passage, highlighting as i go, and then answered the questions. left me with ~10 min. at the end to go over my marked questions. sometimes simple is best? n = 1, obviously
BS was tough but fair. i fumbled on a few easy discretes and "discrete-like" passage questions, because i thought they were trying to trick me when in fact it was really simple. gotta tell myself to be confident and not second guess. lesson learned.
good luck to those who still have to take 11!
i've gotten a 35 for AAMC 9, 10, and 11 and i would be so happy to get that on the real deal. i think i ended up "peaking" at just the right time.
definitely found myself a bit more crunched for time in AAMC 11's PS and BS sections. flew through verbal, with a personal best of 13! finally broke my 11 streak! the only thing i did differently this time was throw out all the previous strategies i had tried, and just read the passage, highlighting as i go, and then answered the questions. left me with ~10 min. at the end to go over my marked questions. sometimes simple is best? n = 1, obviously
BS was tough but fair. i fumbled on a few easy discretes and "discrete-like" passage questions, because i thought they were trying to trick me when in fact it was really simple. gotta tell myself to be confident and not second guess. lesson learned.
good luck to those who still have to take 11!
Just finished AAMC 11:
13/12/15 = 40
Definitely relieved. I think it's interesting that I find the earlier AAMC bio sections MUCH harder than the later ones. I think the PS score was due to extreme anxiety right as I started the test. Does anyone have a plan for preventing that before the actual test?
13/12/15 = 40
Definitely relieved. I think it's interesting that I find the earlier AAMC bio sections MUCH harder than the later ones. I think the PS score was due to extreme anxiety right as I started the test. Does anyone have a plan for preventing that before the actual test?
Nice work! Ya the later BS passage based questions require very little outside knowledge which is nice. As far anxiety is concerned, I think its somewhat inevitable. Just take it in stride and use the extra epinephrine to ur advantage for the heightened sense of alertness. If this is doable for you, go check out the testing center before the big day. I did that today and realized it's just a simple building with computers in a classroom. Nothing too intimidating.
I hate that feeling! I always get that, but I learned that if my gut feeling tells me it is simple, they probably aren't trying to trick me.
Can you look in the room and everything? I'm gonna try and check it out on wednesday.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
This probably differs from site to site, but ya the door was open so I just popped my head in to ask the women at the desk (probably a proctor) what time I should arrive. Easy access to a bathroom too so that's nice. But even if you can't see it directly being familiar with the surroundings will help a lot I think.
Alright dudes my highest Aamc score was on 11, it was a 29! How are you people getting 38's before you study?! That's just amazingly good and why are you so worried you seem like you'll get a really high score. Are there any average kids like me? I dedicated my whole summer to studying and didn't even crack a 30 on one practice test!
Phenomenal score! The 15 in BS is especially impressive. I'm also finding that I prefer the BS sections of later AAMCs as well, because I feel like I just need to take out more time to understand the data or the graphs and then the questions aren't so bad. I'm just a tad nervous for the discretes, because I always feel like something random is going to show up, like the question about joints.
As far as nerves go, I'm not the best person to ask because I also get very nervous for important exams. Still, I'll relay what one of my TPR instructors told me a few days ago that I think can help everyone:
When you sit down and start your MCAT (i.e. the PS section), you will work through your first passage or the discretes and you will suddenly be hit by the realization that you are taking the real MCAT. You are taking this exam that you've prepared so much for, and it's the real deal, the one that counts. Everyone experiences this feeling, whether you're averaging a 40 on the AAMCs or a 20.
The DIFFERENCE, though, is how you manage this stressful feeling. There are two ways that you can go, and they'll likely dictate the score you end up getting. There are those people who use that stress/anxiety to their advantage, and they motivate themselves to be more focused and careful during the real thing. These are your people who perform well under pressure. These are the students who are going to score above their AAMC averages.
The other avenue is to let the stress get to you, and you start to panic, you can't think properly, and you become less sure of your answers. You don't do as well on the test as you would have liked, because you couldn't concentrate or focus properly. These are the students who score below their AAMC averages.
My advice to you and to everyone else (including myself lol) is to just remind yourself that this is AAMC 12. When you realize it's the real MCAT, do what the kids in the first camp do and motivate yourself to focus and analyze even more than you did on the AAMCs. I think if you do that, you'll be fine.
Also, I swung by my testing center today and I'd recommend that you find where EXACTLY your testing center is. I mean the actual room, not just the street or the building. I found the room (I opened the door but didn't go in because people were testing and stuff) and I also scoped out the nearest bathroom too.
Final AAMC Scores
Before Studying:
AAMC 4: 9/12/12 = 33
During Studying:
AAMC 5: 11/12/13 = 36
AAMC 7: 13/11/12 = 36
After Studying:
AAMC 8: 14/10/14 = 38
AAMC 9: 13/11/13 = 37
AAMC 10: 14/12/14 = 40
AAMC 11: 13/12/15 = 40
Great advice! Thanks.
