The Official August 22, 2013 MCAT Thread

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Person0715

Person0715

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Hey everyone! With just a little less than 2 months to go, I am wondering why this thread hasn't been made yet.

Is anyone else here signed up for the 8/22 MCAT?

I'm following the SN2ed schedule and I can't wait to be done with content review. I'm excited to finally take an AAMC to see if I've been studying correctly these last 2 months.
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Thisisthelife said:
Did you change a lot of your answers? I would have only gotten two wrong if I had just stuck with my original answers and moved on. Sad thing is I know changing answers is not a good idea but I did it anyway lol
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I was pretty confident about my answers, which makes it worse :laugh:
 
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inycepoo said:
The GC one in one night isn't too much...they're meant to be done in 2-3 hours, not over separate days.
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It was for me because I had just taken a FL at 1pm and since then had been reviewing answers to another FL, so it was just a lot to take on mentally all in one day.

Either way, you dont have to take them the way they suggest. You have practice tests for a reason. I used mine mainly as extra practice problems. I use my FL to determine where I stand.
 
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Finished AAMC 4. PS: 9, VR: 12, BS: 11 for total of 32. I really badly want a 35 or a 36. I'm improving though!!! I think if I work really hard over the next three weeks, I might be able to get up to where I want to be. One more point in all sections would be fantastic.
 
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Thisisthelife said:
Boy do I know the feeling lol.
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I finally thought I got the hang of verbal since I went from a 9 to 14 in verbal. I guess this just goes to show how one's mindset can make a big difference on your verbal score.

When I was taking my most recent AAMC verbal, I was like "Yeah, I got this ****" :cool: I guess I let my guard down, if that even makes sense lol
 
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Person0715 said:
I finally thought I got the hang of verbal since I went from a 9 to 14 in verbal. I guess this just goes to show how one's mindset can make a big difference on your verbal score.

When I was taking my most recent AAMC verbal, I was like "Yeah, I got this ****" :cool: I guess I let my guard down, if that even makes sense lol
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Oops, I misread. I thought you just got the 14 and had figured out the trick! My bad. Maybe that's why I haven't gotten 13-14... Haha
 
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Hey guys! Been stalking this thread for a bit now haha, thought might as well join now.
I am also taking the MCAT this day!

So far, I've taken only AAMC 3 and 4.
AAMC 3: 10/7/10 (Only 27 :c)
AAMC 4 (I took it today!): 11/9/11 (Got a 31)

So looks like I'm improving. I took them 1 week apart.
The topics I know I'm unsure of are: Fluids/Solids, Electromagnetism, Electrochem, Optics mainly. Also, Orgo, omg so bad...

I went through EK for everything, seemed to be doing well on their problems but then when I got to the real stuff, I realized I have no idea what I'm doing for those subjects haha. Especially orgo... I took that 3 years ago in 10 wks over the summer.

Any advice for what you guys did to improve in these? I do have the TPRH book so I'll try doing problems for that.
I've just finished the Bio SAP, and going for Physics and Orgo's. Then I'll get to Chem.
 
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Taking the MCAT as well on this day. GLTA

I just took the AAMC practice test 3 and scored 13/10/14 (37). I need to work on verbal and maybe some chemistry stuff. I know this is one of the easy AAMC tests, but I am planning to take the later ones and see what happens.
 
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can't believe there is somehow only 2.5 weeks till test day, where did all that time go -_-
 
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What are the best exams to take outside of AAMC?
Other than TBR.

What do you guys think are the important Kaplan Exams to take?
 
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Zod said:
What are the best exams to take outside of AAMC?
Other than TBR.

What do you guys think are the important Kaplan Exams to take?
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It's been said that kaplan 1-6 are pretty good if you need extra practice.
 
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Person0715 said:
It's been said that kaplan 1-6 are pretty good if you need extra practice.
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I hate kaplan.. so many errors and incorrect information... even couple times where it says the answer is one thing then explains how a different answer is correct in the explanation. Fed up with kaplan :mad:
 
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HI all-

Sunflower - It sounds very obvious, but realize that the correct answer to a verbal question will answer the question. Many of a time, some of the wrong answers are easily sorted out because they do not answer the question at all. This might be helpful in sorting out at least 25-50% of the choices, but you do have to be careful. If you are prejudiced early against a certain answer, you may strike it out or at least drop it from consideration in your head. This is dangerous if your line of thinking is not in line with the line of thinking needed to achieve the right answer, so I would make an effort to strongly consider each choice, while knowing the right answer will answer the question. Check your recent AAMC's mistakes to see if what I am saying makes sense.

Also, inside answers, I think that sometimes, there are two or three key words within an answer to a problem that suggest it is the right answer. Especially if the words go with the tone of the passage.

For example, if the passage is about a favorable review of an artists work, maybe the words "warm", "energetic", "passionate" within an answer choice would support that one over ones saying "gloomy" "somber" "forlorn". Of course, you'd have to be careful obviously if the question is one of those asking for the opposite of the idea, or an "except" question.

My AAMC verbal scores are 11, 11, and 13 (almost 14).

I'm not going to spend much time on here, but I'd like to say that I'm open to receiving messages on advice, or explanations for questions/topics. I feel like you should not be caught up in EK/tbr too much, but definitely use them to shore up your understanding in problem areas.


Also looking for a review on TBR full-lengths

my scores so far:

AAMC 3 35
tpr1 34
tpr2 32
AAMC 4 39
AAMC 7 38
tpr3(2/3) 22

Aiming for a 40

I'm a big reader. Right now I am reading The Brothers Karamazov and starting Sense and Sensibility. Also, on the side, reading Villette, Candide, Picture of Dorian Gray (have been stalled for a while).
Recently finished Crime and Punishment, Jane Eyre, The Trial, Old Man and the Sea, Tender is the Night.

Plan to finish Spinoza's Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, and The Republic by the end of the summer, possibly Theory of Justice.

If you'd like to chat literature or receive recommendations, I'd love to do that too. Books are magical.

(sorry for the novella)
Good luck everyone.
 
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I took five aamc exams so far and got a 31 on all of them. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I am happy with a 31.
 
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I would say try your best, you never know. Let's say the questions you got wrong, is the reason you ended up with a 31. Now if we took those questions and merged it with the other test, you may have gotten more wrong because by luck you had a test which had questions you didn't understand. Although hypothetical, imo I would aim for a higher practice avg to be certain I'd get at least a 31. My 2 cents I guess, since in the end practice mcats are practice, not the real thing.
 
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I always do a post analysis after the test. I make sure to memorize everything I got wrong and why so that I can get a similar problem correct.
 
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hawkeye3211 said:
I always do a post analysis after the test. I make sure to memorize everything I got wrong and why so that I can get a similar problem correct.
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That's about all you can really do... learn from mistakes so you never make them again... only problem with MCAT is that they can ask so many different things in so many different ways it's almost as if true preparation isn't possible... just gotta get all the basics down and hope the adrenaline helps out on test day...


Does anybody else relate everything in their life to some type of mcat science lately? I was in drive thru at del taco and saw a big semi driving down the road and I'm like... "man think of the momentum of that thing, the amount of mass it has compared to a normal car ... the impulse would be so huge in a collision that's why it kills you... but I guess airbags would increase the time, decreasing average force... notice how the pitch sounds lower as he passes driving away from me.... obviously lambda is getting larger... I wonder what the heat capacity of these beans is... "
 
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Zod said:
I would say try your best, you never know. Let's say the questions you got wrong, is the reason you ended up with a 31. Now if we took those questions and merged it with the other test, you may have gotten more wrong because by luck you had a test which had questions you didn't understand. Although hypothetical, imo I would aim for a higher practice avg to be certain I'd get at least a 31. My 2 cents I guess, since in the end practice mcats are practice, not the real thing.
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.............what are the other reasons for getting a 31 besides getting questions wrong...?
 
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!!!!!!!!!!

33 on AAMC 5 today.
11, 11, 11.

I'm still improving, so I'm hopeful I can get to 35 by test day! And I'm just ecstatic about that PS score!!!! Best part is that I was only question away from a 12 in each section :) even though this isn't my dream score yet, it was a major confidence boost!!!!
 
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amad01 said:
That's about all you can really do... learn from mistakes so you never make them again... only problem with MCAT is that they can ask so many different things in so many different ways it's almost as if true preparation isn't possible... just gotta get all the basics down and hope the adrenaline helps out on test day...


Does anybody else relate everything in their life to some type of mcat science lately? I was in drive thru at del taco and saw a big semi driving down the road and I'm like... "man think of the momentum of that thing, the amount of mass it has compared to a normal car ... the impulse would be so huge in a collision that's why it kills you... but I guess airbags would increase the time, decreasing average force... notice how the pitch sounds lower as he passes driving away from me.... obviously lambda is getting larger... I wonder what the heat capacity of these beans is... "
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LOL YES. I do this! My family thinks I'm crazy. lol. Whatever to help us get the concept down right? Hahaha.

Is anyone having trouble sleeping at night? I'm not sure if it's because of all this MCAT stress but I have been struggling to sleep throughout the night the past week. The other day I couldn't sleep until 5am, just tossing and turning in bed. So I woke up that morning at 8AM and didn't nap all day or drink caffeine so I could sleep early. Went to bed at 10pm and then woke up at 12:30 am and couldn't sleep again until 5:30 am. :eek:
 
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yoonst said:
LOL YES. I do this! My family thinks I'm crazy. lol. Whatever to help us get the concept down right? Hahaha.

Is anyone having trouble sleeping at night? I'm not sure if it's because of all this MCAT stress but I have been struggling to sleep throughout the night the past week. The other day I couldn't sleep until 5am, just tossing and turning in bed. So I woke up that morning at 8AM and didn't nap all day or drink caffeine so I could sleep early. Went to bed at 10pm and then woke up at 12:30 am and couldn't sleep again until 5:30 am. :eek:
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I hear you man! I've been having trouble sleeping lately too. Also, today I was so distracted during my studying. Hope it's not burn out.
 
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Scared for tomorrow, taking AAMC 7. Latter half of the AAMCs coming up, hopefully performance on them doesn't dip dramatically -_-
 
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hey everyone, i've been reading some threads now and then during breaks and wanted to join in on the fun.

i'm taking the 22nd exam also, scoring 34-36 on both Kaplan and AAMC FL's. My goal is 35+ on the real deal so hoping to get at least a point increase on each section in 2 weeks.

Avg section scores are:
PS - 12-13
Verbal - 10-12
Bio - 10-12

Anyone have any ideas how to get the bio details down? I"ve been going over Kaplan flashcards but feel like I'm still having some trouble with applying the concepts to passages.

Phys science, I keep on making careless mistakes here and there, around 4-5 questions each time... If only I could cut those down I'd be on the 13-14 range.

For verbal, I've literally been stuck at 10-12 since the beginning. But I'm somewhat satisfied with that as long as I perform normally on the real thing.

Good luck everyone! D-16 til the end of this grind! Hopefully won't have to retake.
 
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I'm definitely having a hard time sleeping too... Doesn't help that my work schedule is wack. I work an overnight later this week -- yikes. Don't think that'll help normalise my sleep schedule.
 
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Trying to start my AAMCs.. and princeton review's website is down AGAIN..
PR, you're really screwing with me. :wtf:

Anyone know if you can access the AAMC stuff without going through PR's website??
 
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sunflower18 said:
Hahaha I have this problem where I Britishise my spellings of things. Colour, favourite, -ise instead of -ize... Drives my professors crazy when I write essays.
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:thumbup: I use "whilst" quite often whilst writing manuscripts because I'm used to writing for a London-based research group; my PI thinks it's great. My favorite is the -eing ending, though, as in "singeing," which differentiates it from "singing." :laugh:
 
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inycepoo said:
:thumbup: I use "whilst" quite often whilst writing manuscripts because I'm used to writing for a London-based research group; my PI thinks it's great. My favorite is the -eing ending, though, as in "singeing," which differentiates it from "singing." :laugh:
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Ooh see I don't have an excuse hahah. But I've been using British spelling since I was 7 or so.
 
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Just took AAMC 9... is it just me or does the verbal on 9 have some of the most abstract passages i've ever read? :mad:

PS - 14
VR 9 (lol)
BS - 12

Gonna do some EK 1001 bio and verbal until test date...
 
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Just took AAMC 5 today. Only scored 30 (10PS/10VR/10BS). I thought the PS was difficult while taking the exam, but I felt like the BS was easy (thought I'd get like a 13). Saw my score and both were the same scores... weird. I'm still way too far away from my goal of getting high 30s...

Btw, do you guys have any specific strategies for reviewing your exams? I have just been going through each question right or wrong, seeing what I may have missed or didn't know before. And those things I did wrong, going back and doing problems similar to them to try and fix those problem areas. Pretty generic.
 
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Zod said:
Just took AAMC 5 today. Only scored 30 (10PS/10VR/10BS). I thought the PS was difficult while taking the exam, but I felt like the BS was easy (thought I'd get like a 13). Saw my score and both were the same scores... weird. I'm still way too far away from my goal of getting high 30s...

Btw, do you guys have any specific strategies for reviewing your exams? I have just been going through each question right or wrong, seeing what I may have missed or didn't know before. And those things I did wrong, going back and doing problems similar to them to try and fix those problem areas. Pretty generic.
Click to expand...

That's so funny. I thought PS was really easy and BS to be rather difficult. I got 11s on both. We're opposites but not! Haha.

That's what I am doing to review too. Going through each question, writing why it was wrong and how to solve it, and then doing TPR and TBR questions related to that topic until I nail it.
 
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Taking my test on Aug 16th, but I thought to jump in here y'all are more lively (just don't let the Aug 16'ers know I said that!).

Anyways, good luck to all of you'll!

inycepoo said:
:thumbup: I use "whilst" quite often whilst writing manuscripts because I'm used to writing for a London-based research group; my PI thinks it's great. My favorite is the -eing ending, though, as in "singeing," which differentiates it from "singing." :laugh:
Click to expand...

Whenever I watch British shows on PBS, I can't make out a word of what they're saying and wonder if they're even speaking English. Then I realize that they actually are...

Austorior said:
hey everyone, i've been reading some threads now and then during breaks and wanted to join in on the fun.

i'm taking the 22nd exam also, scoring 34-36 on both Kaplan and AAMC FL's. My goal is 35+ on the real deal so hoping to get at least a point increase on each section in 2 weeks.

Avg section scores are:
PS - 12-13
Verbal - 10-12
Bio - 10-12

Anyone have any ideas how to get the bio details down? I"ve been going over Kaplan flashcards but feel like I'm still having some trouble with applying the concepts to passages.
Click to expand...

Review the textbook. That's the best source of info tbh.
 
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Zod said:
Just took AAMC 5 today. Only scored 30 (10PS/10VR/10BS). I thought the PS was difficult while taking the exam, but I felt like the BS was easy (thought I'd get like a 13). Saw my score and both were the same scores... weird. I'm still way too far away from my goal of getting high 30s...

Btw, do you guys have any specific strategies for reviewing your exams? I have just been going through each question right or wrong, seeing what I may have missed or didn't know before. And those things I did wrong, going back and doing problems similar to them to try and fix those problem areas. Pretty generic.
Click to expand...

Spoiler below for people that haven't taken AAMC 5




I thought the bio was okay except for that insane passage on micro and macronuclei. I was like, lolwut :laugh: Fortunately, I ended up getting a 13 on that section.

I find it frustratingly so hard to stop making those few careless mistakes. I haven't really been stumped by content as much, which is good, but I make stupid mistakes. Like when the question asks something about Ka, read it as pKa instead, or the question asks about equivalence point and I use pKa. Argh!
 
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ElCapone said:
Thanks! I think I'm on track to hitting my target score! Couldn't have done it without TBR tbh
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Lucky you. You only have 10 days until your test.

I can't wait to be done with the MCAT so that I can enjoy my 1 week of summer break before classes start up again.
 
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Person0715 said:
Lucky you. You only have 10 days until your test.

I can't wait to be done with the MCAT so that I can enjoy my 1 week of summer break before classes start up again.
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Same situation. I'm trying to not even think about next semester, as my lack of break is depressing.
 
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Person0715 said:
Spoiler below for people that haven't taken AAMC 5




I thought the bio was okay except for that insane passage on micro and macronuclei. I was like, lolwut :laugh: Fortunately, I ended up getting a 13 on that section.

I find it frustratingly so hard to stop making those few careless mistakes. I haven't really been stumped by content as much, which is good, but I make stupid mistakes. Like when the question asks something about Ka, read it as pKa instead, or the question asks about equivalence point and I use pKa. Argh!
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing about that passage, i feel like it's usually just one passage that goes above and beyond the other ones in Bio especially
 
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Any of you have problems with verbal consistency?

I have taken 4 of the AAMC FLs 3-7 and my verbal scores just seem to be arbitrary

I've gotten a 10, 12, 11, 10 on 3-7 respectively so far. I would really like to be able to keep this in the 11-12 range if it all possible but I can't seem to highlight the problem in verbal as my mistakes everytime i analyze them for verbal seem random and unrelated
 
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Don't you hate reading a big long passage then answering 6 or 7 questions that have absolutely nothing to do with the passage? ...
 
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