The Official August 9, 2013 MCAT Thread

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ComplexNapoleon said:
Yeah agreed on the difficulty. Hopefully we'll get a nice scale. 100% agree.. I need a beer right now. Anyone into home brewing? I haven't made anything this summer but I have a few left over from nice batch of dunkelweizen from this winter

P.S. highlight inycepoo's whole post for fun.
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Oh,I think the BS was very straightforward. The PS was not too hed. The verbal killed me. I guessed at least 2 passages. Overall the exam was not easy.
 
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sdz7424 said:
The more I think about the test this morning, the worse I feel about how I did.

Did anyone else feel PS was tough?

I've never had an issue with that section but for some reason it really tripped me up today and made me feel like I knew absolutely nothing. Now I'm thinking I probably scored < 8. After spending the past 4 months barricaded in my room studying for a retake, this is a horrible feeling, especially since I scored well in the sciences last year on my first take.
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That PS was really tough to me too. The VR was fine, except for the fact that I zoned out on one of the passages. For BS, it was okay except for the fact that it required almost no knowledge. I thought 1/2 the bio discretes were like wtf? Oh boy...
 
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Well I need to rant about today to get it over with so here goes...

First off I've been studying all summer, using TBR, EK101, EK1001, TRPH, and using all AAMC practice tests. It was hard juggling all this in addition to working part-time, research, and NICU volunteering, but I managed without complaining too much(cause there were some serious stress out moments that got to me) and all in all I felt I was getting pretty good. Was actually pretty confident waking up this morning for the test.

AAMC 9-11 Avg 11.66/11/14.33
Prediction 11/12/11

So arriving to the test center, I was informed that due to recent storms(the night before) they were having issues with the server and getting it powered on and that if it couldn't be fixed before 9 they were sending us home. That right there set me on edge for the rest of the morning. Listening to the IT guy(over the phone on speaker) attempt to walk them through how to fix it certainly wasn't helping. An hour and twenty minutes later, we're told that they are up and running and they begin taking us to begin. Turns out the problem was that they weren't plugged into a working outlet(SERIOUSLY?? That's like step 2 on IT techs checking what's wrong). So we start testing(also with no AC, that went out with the power surge as well).

PS. About on par with what I was expecting difficulty wise, no complaints here except for the two that just left me wondering why I was even trying.

VR. Felt pretty good about this one and really liked one of the passages. One question made me switch answers about 5 different times because I probably over-complicated it but overall felt like it went better than most of my FLs.

BS. Definitely harder than expected, orgo is usually one of my strong suits but a couple of these questions made me double check my mechs. All in all i thought it was harder than most FLs but I may have just been really feeling the stress of the morning here.

Trial. WOW. Had the biochem/biology part. Just took biochem last semester and escaped with an A, but these passages were nothing like that.

Overall I don't feel incredibly great about this, but don't feel like anything was really in my power to change it. Have a good month everyone, I for one can't wait for 9/10.
 
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Hey guys, I had a question about the MCAT you just wrote. How would you rate the Orgo? Was it easy/difficult? Did it require prior knowledge or was it based on the passage? Thanks in advance!
 
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I wrote the afternoon one.

PS: I knew everything til about the fifth passage where uncertainty struck but I think I managed to do well. Finished with about 10 min left to check over.

VR: worst part of the day - lost focus too much and skipped many a question in hopes I would come later. Very dry stuff and I just couldn't wrap my head around the passage sometimes.

BS: was fearing the worst, turned out not so bad. Only 2 orgo passages to my relief and the experimentals weren't anywhere as convoluted as that ebola passage.

Overall, feel decent. Was harder than practice FLs but not by that much.

Realistic score: 11/9/12? Who knows. I'm done with this and never writing it again. Hope everyone else did well. See you in a month!
 
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I'd have to agree with everyone here. I felt reallllly time constrained. Verbal I had to rush the last two passages. BS- orgo is not my strength.
 
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Took Afternoon one...

PS was brutal for me. Tested all my weak areas. Don't feel too bueno about this section at all.

Verbal and BS were very fair.

Now the wait :-/
 
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gettheleadout said:
You knew you had weak areas?
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Yeah :-/... I tend to do well on the passages regardless, but weak in the sense as I'm not as comfortable with the passages. For instance, chemistry is very intuitive to me, I don't really need to think about the answers, it just comes to me. Physics on the other hand can be a hit or miss. I just didn't feel confident on this test.

Life situations force you to take certain actions. Do I feel like I did enough content review? Nope. Reviewed bio, and sparingly physics. But I didn't want to take a much later MCAT and delay my application for this cycle even more.
 
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I felt good about sciences, made a few educated guesses of course.

Verbal felt i understood it, but wasn't 100% sure i got the questions right.

Is there anyway to be sure about vr like the sciences ?

Ended voiding to be safe
 
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Ok here goes...

AAMCs

3: 33 12/11/10

4: 36 12/11/13

5: 36 12/12/12

7: 35 13/10/12

8: 36 13/10/13

9: 39 14/13/12

10: 38 12/13/13

11: 36 11/13/12

Avg: 36.13 12.4/11.6/12.13

I went into the test with a good nights sleep and low stress levels. Got started early and felt ready as I went through the tutorial...

PS:
BOOM- felt like a freight train mowed me over. For some reason I found a strange mix of extremely hard and extremely easy questions. There were some I didn't even have to think about to know the answer, others I was completely lost. One passage really threw me off and I wasted a lot of time there and still couldn't wrap my head around it. I know I missed a decent amount. PS is normally a strength of mine but I was rushed for time and had to guess.

VR: thankfully I put the PS behind me and was able to focus well on this section. In my opinion it was one of the easiest VR sections I've done. None of the passages were too tough to digest and I finished with around 10 minutes left. IMO definitely no longer than any practice test.

BS: By this point I was exhausted and my focus started to slip a little bit. There were quite a few easy questions derived from the passage and some medium level inference passages. Nothing too tricky though. A decent amount of ochem. No extreme questions but all a little bit convoluted. Ochem is a strength of mine though. Definitely no crazy biology passages like past posters have experienced.

All this to say:

Worst case scenario: 9/11/11

Realistic: 10/12/12

Best case: 11/14/13

Really no idea how I did but sure am happy to be done 🙂
 
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I didn't finish PS so I voided. I did the rest though and I found BS to be pretty easy and VR to be easier than normal. Usually PS is my strongest. Ugh, rewrite.
 
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Did you guys find PS to require extensive background knowledge or was it more understanding the passage + incorporation of general concepts?
 
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DocMC said:
Did you guys find PS to require extensive background knowledge or was it more understanding the passage + incorporation of general concepts?
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Time.

Give me another 15 minutes and I don't think I miss any.

Definitely required quick synthesis and application of passage material
 
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nbraun198 said:
What did you think was weird?
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It seemed like some of the examples they were using to illustrate concepts were a ridiculous reach. I understand trying to present the material in an unfamiliar way but a couple of the passages seemed borderline absurd. Is it possible this was an experimental passage or something?
 
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bwest406 said:
Time.

Give me another 15 minutes and I don't think I miss any.

Definitely required quick synthesis and application of passage material
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Yeah, this might have been it. I didn't really have time to read through the passages I'm referring to as thoroughly as I'd have liked.
 
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shoehornlettuce said:
Yeah, this might have been it. I didn't really have time to read through the passages I'm referring to as thoroughly as I'd have liked.
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+1. One was as long as a verbal passage and if I felt obligated to read it in order to understand what the **** was going on

BTW, Mine was in the morning
 
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It seems like a LOT of people found PS hard for evening, myself included. I found BS a walk in the park, VR was good but I marked a question and forgot to come back to it and I'm killing myself over it.

AAMC average: 13/11/12
Prediction: 11/11/13
Hope: 12/11/14

Seriously there were just some RIDICULOUS questions on PS but if everyone felt that way it'll reflect in the scoring
 
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PS just seemed like, in 1 or 2 of the passages (I don't really remember, it may have been 1 but I'm exhausted) they were really reaching for concepts and at the end of the day you had to say, "this passage is absurd but I'm going to go with my gut". MUCH less rote memorization, much more conceptual than usual. Definitely took me by surprise. I didn't have time to answer one question that was pretty easy but required work to find and I had to guess
 
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Took morning exam.

PS: Started off PS really strong, and got hit with a curveball midway which threw me off and spent 10 mins on it which ate precious time. Ended up with 2 passages completely left at 5 mins. huge time constraints..had to guess on a whole passage.

VR: Was so shaken from PS I couldn't think right or focus and ended up spending 10 mins on the first passage and was constrained for time through the entire thing.

BS: Cake walk, had only 1 orgo which tested the part of orgo i'm best at..this would've been a 13 BIO at least...

Voided. Didn't feel too well about PS and VR performance.... this s*** never ends. 😡
 
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Synapsis said:
How bout dat young PS section doe?

All three sections felt time constrained for me, but I did manage to finish it all (with like 3 minutes extra in each section). PS was surely harder, and somehow I knew that was going to happen. I still think I did well on it and I hate to admit it but EK helped me a lot for that section. Verbal felt pretty goodish (who knows) and I thought BS was pretty good except for a discrete I think I messed up. Eh, but you know what they say about post test predictions. Forget 'em
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If you HAD to hazard a guess at your score what would you predict? 🙂
 
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bwest406 said:
How'd you feel overall?
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PS - I felt like this section was unusually hard (this is coming from someone who considered PS their strength and scored mostly 12 - 14 on the practice tests). The timing was so tight and I just feel like I did not do well at all.

VR - pretty straightforward. The practice tests seemed to be pretty good in terms of preparation.

BS - Wasn't that bad. Definitely didn't require as much background knowledge as I thought it would have.
 
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Took the afternoon test
PS: Harder of the 3 sections
VR: Easier of the three sections. Straightforward.
BR: Orgo was tricky, bio passages were somewhat intricate and specific.
Timing wasn't that bad. just wished I studied a bit more for PS.
Anyone going to register for the September 12 test?
 
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danny89 said:
Took the afternoon test
PS: Harder of the 3 sections
VR: Easier of the three sections. Straightforward.
BR: Orgo was tricky, bio passages were somewhat intricate and specific.
Timing wasn't that bad. just wished I studied a bit more for PS.
Anyone going to register for the September 12 test?
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I am doing my best to register for it. I voided this one due to feeling uneasy after PS.
 
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does AAMC have a policy about experimentals in the PS section? Are experimentals usually entire passages or random questions within one passage?
 
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DocMC said:
Did you guys find PS to require extensive background knowledge or was it more understanding the passage + incorporation of general concepts?
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^^^ I read about your situation a few days ago when I was checking the Aug 3rd and 4th threads to see what everyone thought about their test. I feel so sorry for what happened to you at your testing center, so I will try to offer as much insight to you as I can without violating any policies.

I always do the discretes first on the science sections, so as I clicked through each page to get to the stand alones in PS, I felt like the passages looked straightforward at first glance. First half of the passages were chem; last few were physics. Roughly a 50-50 split. I felt like the gen chem passages were very similar to practice tests and especially those in the Self Assessment; however, many of the accompanying questions themselves were worded differently and the answer options were just odd. I'm sure some of this could have been due to nerves, and there definitely were a couple easy questions on each passage.

The physics passages were a mix of calculations and inference questions. Some were tough though, and I wish I would have looked at factor conversions before my test because I had to do conversions I wasn't used to doing and my nerves just wouldn't let me think clearly. Basically, I felt like I could have studied half as much as I did and wouldn't have felt any worse about it. I used maybe 10% of my total knowledge from content review.

The questions were just odd. Some of the questions reminded my of EK Physics 1001; they asked things in a way you could've never anticipated. The physics passages also reminded me of Kaplan section tests, on which you had to rely on a gut feeling rather than a guaranteed right answer. It just wasn't a 'feel good' section by any means and I felt unsure on a LOT of answers. Every test is different though. Mine in particular required more analysis and passage inference than what I was used to or had seen on AAMC tests, and those are the questions on which you can never really feel 100% confident about. If I was to go back and do things over, I think I would've prepared differently. I expected it to be similar to the test I took last year, yet, it was very different (PS last year was JUST like AAMCs, if not easier). I probably would have done more Kaplan section tests and would have assessed my performance on those more heavily because this section seemed more in line with a mix of EK 1001 style questions + Kaplan section tests.

I hope that helps. Sorry for being somewhat vague. I just don't want to get in trouble for being too specific. 🙁
 
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Guess I'll write something.

Best Case: 15/12/14
What I expect: 14/11/14
Worst Case: 13/10/13

I'm generally hesitant about predicting a high score, but I really felt that even though PS was something else, I could ground myself in what was going on. I felt like I was careful and could confidently answer all but one question, which I rushed on. And I think it goes without saying that this PS section was harder than the usual, so I wouldn't be too too surprised to see a 14.

I was much more focused in verbal than any other time and didn't have to guess on anything. I'd say that alone would put me at about a 10, and I think I caught some nuances in the writing that pushed me up to an 11, hopefully a 12. And BS I thought was pretty straightforward. I was praying to God for an orgo heavy BS section but this was fine anyway. I had heard that taking upper level bio classes helps people become at least a little more familiar with some of the things that might appear in the BS section. This was the case for me.

Overall, I think I had a good test. Tough, but I felt like I was able to really step it up today. I dunno. Guess I'll see in a month.
 
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That PS was horrible. The VR was okay and the BS was hard but manageable except one specific passage.

Hoping for a 27 but probably 24-26. DO schools please take me!
 
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oxelhs said:
BS: was fearing the worst, turned out not so bad. Only 2 orgo passages to my relief and the experimentals weren't anywhere as convoluted as that ebola passage.
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Took it same time as you..Are all the tests supposed to be the same?

..Because ebola passage?...wat
 
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bigbad said:
Took it same time as you..Are all the tests supposed to be the same?

..Because ebola passage?...wat
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No Ebola passage lol. The poster was just saying that none of the passages today were as brutal as the Ebola one on AAMC 11. I concur with that. I was kinda scared when I looked at the passages and saw the figures and charts, but they were surprisingly straight forward once I began reading them. I would say BS was substantially easier than AAMC 11 but still tougher than the older practice tests. This is the only section I feel confident about as of now.

I wonder how many different versions were administered today. Some people have said they thought the Orgo was rough, but I ony had 1 oro passage and maybe 3 stand alones and they didn't seem bad at all. Now I'm wondering if I somehow underlooked things and oversimplified the questions, or if the test versions were just different.
 
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sdz7424 said:
Basically, I felt like I could have studied half as much as I did and wouldn't have felt any worse about it. I used maybe 10% of my total knowledge from content review.

The questions were just odd. Some of the questions reminded my of EK Physics 1001; they asked things in a way you could've never anticipated. The physics passages also reminded me of Kaplan section tests, on which you had to rely on a gut feeling rather than a guaranteed right answer. It just wasn't a 'feel good' section by any means and I felt unsure on a LOT of answers. Every test is different though. Mine in particular required more analysis and passage inference than what I was used to or had seen on AAMC tests, and those are the questions on which you can never really feel 100% confident about. If I was to go back and do things over, I think I would've prepared differently. I expected it to be similar to the test I took last year, yet, it was very different (PS last year was JUST like AAMCs, if not easier). I probably would have done more Kaplan section tests and would have assessed my performance on those more heavily because this section seemed more in line with a mix of EK 1001 style questions + Kaplan section tests.

I hope that helps. Sorry for being somewhat vague. I just don't want to get in trouble for being too specific. 🙁
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This. This is literally EXACTLY how I feel. I went through all the berkeley review stuff, cramming content review and their questions. Stressed the fu*k out for the past 3 weeks while cramming material, barely sleeping, and working full time. I used about 10-15% of all the concepts I studied. I think that's what threw me off most, which led to me being rushed. I wish I would've had time to do any practice exams, but I used TPR hyperlearning verbal workbook for verbal practice and would only miss one or less per passage, while timing myself. I felt that these passages were 1.5 times the length of what I was practicing with. Probably didn't help that I let a couple questions eat away about 7 minutes of my time, which led me to only have about 13 minutes left when I got to the 6th passage. I had to speed read and answer the questions best I could. Blindly chose an answer for the last two questions of the last passage due to running out of time.

Overall, I'm hoping there's a decent curve. I was glad to come on here and find out that everyone felt the same way about the exam.

I don't have any reference scores, but if I had to guess, I'd say 10/11/10

I'm normally an extremely good test taker, and have 4.0ed all of my upper level science classes, but this exam was completely different than what I was expecting...
 
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sdz7424 said:
I wonder how many different versions were administered today. Some people have said they thought the Orgo was rough, but I ony had 1 oro passage and maybe 3 stand alones and they didn't seem bad at all. Now I'm wondering if I somehow underlooked things and oversimplified the questions, or if the test versions were just different.
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yea I had the 1 orgo w/ 3 stand alones..the morning test.. the section was easier then any BS section I ever took [but then again I have a grad degree in the physiological sciences]... that PS tho...😡
 
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Alright, might as well talk about how I felt. I wrote the afternoon exam:

P.S. - A mix of very straightforward questions and others that were too conceptual for my liking. I would be happy with a 9. Overall the hardest section of the exam IMO.

V.R. - Challenging... there were a few passages I struggled ot understand. Once again, would be happy with a 9-10.

B.S. - Easiest section of the exam. I only found one passage to be a bit convoluted but still managed to answer the two questions that did not require passage knowledge anyway. Otherwise, straightforward. Hoping for a 12-13.

Didn't void the exam because last time I got a 29 and who knows, since everyone else found P.S. tough, I might end up doing better than expected.
 
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Again, I agree with you all! Why did I reread my 450pg Kaplan Bio book to have VERY few questions that actually required bare outside knowledge. Do you all feel like some discreets were unnecessarily worded awkwardly? I mean it's hard enough; they could at least give clear answer choices! There was one in particular but I won't go into it. I feel like the current study materials available just do not how the test is now unfortunately. There is no sufficient way to prepare it seems. Frustrating! But I am happy you all agree about PS because I was really worried it was just me...Also for those who had the social science trial...how bad do you feel for 2015ers?! The passages are not hard nor interpreting but sooooo much vocab/theories to memorize.
 
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LXMO said:
Again, I agree with you all! Why did I reread my 450pg Kaplan Bio book to have VERY few questions that actually required bare outside knowledge. Do you all feel like some discreets were unnecessarily worded awkwardly? I mean it's hard enough; they could at least give clear answer choices! There was one in particular but I won't go into it. I feel like the current study materials available just do not how the test is now unfortunately. There is no sufficient way to prepare it seems. Frustrating! But I am happy you all agree about PS because I was really worried it was just me...Also for those who had the social science trial...how bad do you feel for 2015ers?! The passages are not hard nor interpreting but sooooo much vocab/theories to memorize.
Click to expand...

Are they going to add the social science section in the 2015 MCAT for sure, or will it depend on the results of the guinea pigs?
 
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