The Official August 21, 2014 MCAT Thread
Started by LLawliet
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Pumped about my score on AAMC8 today: 14-13-14-41. I've never felt less confident on a verbal section, but i suppose i was guessing right today. I'll let you know what i think of AAMC9 bio when i take it in the next couple of days @Styrene Keep up the good work everyone; only a couple more weeks left.
Oh, that works, thanks!
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Woohoo! That's amazing! Congrats!
Awesome score! On AAMC 9, I got 4 wrong on PS (2 from acute vision problem), 5 wrong on VR, and 3 wrong on BS. Thus, I'm sure you'll do well.
Overall pretty similar for me. The only difference i noticed was verbal. 8 seemed a lot harder for me. I did about the same for the raw score just the scale was more generous. I think of all things keeping that in mind is probably the best for psyche; if you think the section is hard chances are so does everybody else = more generous scale.
Thanks for the info. I will try to worry less about the GS exams then.
Test day is almost here and Im getting a bit nervous and anxious. Anyone else having trouble falling sleep, while thinking about enzymes, reactions, and physics equations?
Haha I have trouble falling asleep just worrying. At least you get to review your equations!
So, I should be done with all of the AAMCs by the 16th. I'm not sure what I should do on the 4 days before the exam. I was wondering, what is everyone else planning to do (more passages, FLs, or just content review)? I was thinking about reviewing all of the content on the AAMC topic lists and also looking over most of the FLs I've taken this summer. I was also going to do a 1-2 VR passages per day (except on the last day). Any other suggestions?
Just got my fifth 9 on bio in a row on the GS exams. I think I should hit up those flashcards for bio to see if I can get up to a 10.
GS 5: 11/10/9 : 30
GS 5: 11/10/9 : 30
I'm gonna go over all the FLs.
I plan on taking AAMC 11 on the 17th, review on the 18th, and then light review and maybe some passages on the 19th and 20th.
Just did AAMC 5. Bio dropped drastically... 14/11/11 (36). Eek!
Just did the PS from GS 9, and it was ridiculous! Reminded me of five tests from my Gen Chem 2 class all at once and in 70 minutes.
Edit: I got a 9. I'll update later with verbal and bio scores.
Edit: I got a 9. I'll update later with verbal and bio scores.
AAMC 5 Bio was difficulty for me, too. Learn to love that question style.
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Hey Guys, I'm taking the Test on the 21st with you guys! Aiming for a 31+. I've been struggling with Orgo on my AAMC FL's and don't really know how to spend quality time (since there are 1-2 passages per test). Is there a better resource besides BR that you guys know of that I can use to help up my scores? Also, should I consider purchasing Chad's videos in order to improve on my fluctuating PS score?
AAMC 3-6/10/8 (24) July 15th
AAMC 4-10/9./9 (28) July 27th
AAMC 5- 8/11/10 (29) August 1st
Thanks and good luck everyone! It seems like everyone here is killin it!
AAMC 3-6/10/8 (24) July 15th
AAMC 4-10/9./9 (28) July 27th
AAMC 5- 8/11/10 (29) August 1st
Thanks and good luck everyone! It seems like everyone here is killin it!
I've had a few people tell me that Chad's videos helped them a lot, both with orgo and PS. However, I have personally NOT used them, so I can't give my own opinion.
I say this: assess the questions you got wrong on PS--specifically why. Was is content knowledge? Then open the AAMC Content Outline for Physical Sciences and use it in conjunction with mcat-review.org to make flash cards for unfamiliar topics. Was it problem solving ability? If so, find whatever source and solve as many problems as possible, including redoing all of the AAMCs until you can get a 15 on each PS section.
For problem-solving practice, considering it's too late to get TPRSW, I highly suggest going to mcatquestionaday.com, clicking on "QBANK," and getting a 1-month subscription. It's $23 and has 59 passages in each of the three MCAT areas. This is an excellent option.
Best of luck!
Awesome, thanks so much for your help! I've been using mcat-review.org for bio recently and it's helped me immensely, so I'll def look into using it for gen chem and physics. And I also have TPRSW! I've been doing discretes in there and passages from BR
Ah... is it more representative of how the BS section is on more recent AAMC tests?
I did every discrete in TPRSW (2013 edition), including all 425 physics ones
It just gets slightly more abstract. I rather it just be really difficult. Instead, there seems to always be 3-4 questions per section that are purposefully obfuscated, and I think guessing on those is what accounts for the variance.
Did you have time to finish? I had to guess on 2 answers and it was the first time i've ever been even close resorting to guessing.
I finished on time, but there were maybe 3-4 questions I heavily estimated instead of calculating. I mean, I could get like 98% correct on that test, but not without a calculator. Manual calculations are my weak point.
Physics question - for torque, the equation is torque = r*F sin theta.
There are some questions that try to trick you with the angles, and you end up having to use cos theta. What do those questions look like?
There are some questions that try to trick you with the angles, and you end up having to use cos theta. What do those questions look like?
I would pay attention to where the angle is. If theta is the angle between the force and the lever arm, then it is sine. If theta is the angle between the force and the "dotted line perpendicular to the normal," then it is cosine.
The easy way for those is to consider what happens when the angle in question is 90 degrees. If you would expect the force (usually a force) to be maximum when the angle in question is 90 degrees, then a sine function is implicit, as sin90 = 1. Try considering the equation for work as another example.
Yes, it was totally amazing for physics. I already know all of the orgo, so the orgo discretes served as my only review and were definitely helpful.
Is that 6R?
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I think I may have come across some of the R stuff on the self-assessments? Not sure, though. I thought the last few passages on the Verbal self-assessment were ridiculous!
@jagster92
For comparison: GS #9 was 9/11/11 = 31
For comparison: GS #9 was 9/11/11 = 31
Just did TBR #3 (with a TPRH verbal test instead of the actual TBR one). 12/11/12. Still a decline, but I don't feel so bad since it's TBR haha.
Thanks!
For me - GS10: 12-10-14 (disregard verbal as it was an EK test)
Thanks I'm hoping that practice tests are a good indicator because I've gotten 14s on the last 6 or so I've taken between AAMC and GS. But the higher the scores the more that one difficult passage can be a dealbreaker.
No idea how you're scoring so well on the GS tests. I've never heard of anyone else scoring that well. Definitely impressive. I think you are certainly on track to score 38+ on the real thing. I'll be happy with a 36+. One of my friends from clinical research scored a 38 in June, and his AAMC average was around a 38.
Mine was 13/9/11.
That's what I'm shooting for. It really comes down to the verbal and whether I just get a completely outlandish passage that exploits weaknesses. Although it made my path to med school 2yrs longer, pharmacy school has certainly helped bouy the BS scores. Yours are looking good too, so let's hope that carries thru for the next 2 weeks.
Just took AAMC #7. I got a 38! [13 PS/11V/14BS]. I'm really happy how much I have improved in bio. The curve was tough for PS and my mistakes were more with details in the passages rather than any content. I'm a little disappointed that my verbal scores are going down.
I've pretty much resigned to not hoping for anything above 11 on verbal for AAMC 10 and 11.
That makes sense. The host of philosophy and advanced literature classes should have me scoring higher in verbal, but maybe it's because I am not a fast reader. Then again, I did absolutely nothing to prepare for verbal besides AAMC practice tests and the self-assessment.
I apologize if i missed it earlier, but what was your undergrad major?
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Biology and Philosophy. Double major. 3 semesters left.
GS 4: 12/12/12 = 36
You guys are pros! Not taking a practice test (AAMC #7) until Saturday.
Impressive verbal. I thought 8's verbal was rather difficult.
