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Just started studying today. Anyone else with me?
The Official August 9, 2013 MCAT Thread
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DO NOT VOID. I really disagree with all those who claim your aamc average determines your score, well not for me. I am the type who can get 16 today and 30 tomorrow depending on my mood. Idk about you but the exam might have all your strong areas. My advice is to mark every question you not sure of as you go along, if you have marked too much then void but if not trust your self and keep it. No aamc test determines our scores and also have faith in God.
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Yeah...that's a lot of faith to have that your strong areas will all suddenly appear. Hardly the approach to take for such an important exam, but it's your call. An average in the teens means you have severe content deficiencies in a lot more topics than you're willing to admit. We'd believe your theory if we saw more people reporting such instances with scores on here. Alas, we don't. Believe what you want, but the odds are heavily against you to make the jump from an average of 16 to a 30.
This is the big problem I have with putting a lot of faith, confidence, or whatever you call in some deity to rely on making a miracle happen at the expense of hard work. I'm speaking generally, not specifically to you, but that's what your comment reminded me of.
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Taking the MCAT and having it scored with a latest test score of 18 is self-destructive. Further, bouncing between 16 (!!!) and 30 on practice tests reflects something more serious than a mood change.
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Thank you for writing this, as I wanted to give the OP some better advice while avoiding another '**** the pagans'-esque argument. I attempted, but felt my words came out too harshly and thus decided to let someone else handle this more gently than I could.
~Bravo
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Seriously. It's far better to simply admit that you aren't prepared than attempt to defend poor performance with denial. No one's going to judge someone for putting off the exam to become adequately prepared, but you'll look pretty shortsighted if you take it with (honestly any) scores in the teens.
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Get over this whole pagan thing already and chill.
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Good luck tomorrow guys. May God see y'all through and May we fully enjoy the fruit of our long labor. Looking forward to seeing consistent 30s here.
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The pagan thing, I am over. You giving advice to someone based solely on the idea that an unknown entity will boost an average of 16 to a 30 is not only preposterous, but detrimental to that person. I am not upset by your ignorance, but that you presume to give advice based on your ignorant view point.
Disclaimer: I am not against having faith. I am against faith superseding hard work and common sense.
Disclaimer: I am not against having faith. I am against faith superseding hard work and common sense.
As a devout Christian I'd like to make a few comments regarding the "miracles," "pagans," and "faith" that have been mentioned in this thread. Is it possible that by God's will you could have a test that has all your strengths on it? Yes. If that were his will he could easily do that. But who is to say that God wills you to do well on the MCAT? Who says he wants you to do better than "pagans" on the test? How do you know that his plan isn't for you to utterly fail on the MCAT to teach you a lesson?
Thus I see @pauldarlington's logic flawed in his assumption that he will somehow benefit on the MCAT because he is a follower of Christ. All we can know as Christians is that God has our best interests at heart. These "best interests" usually are not defined according to worldly standards. For all I know it might be in my best interest to do poorly on the MCAT and have to retake, in the process growing as a person and strengthening my faith/resolve (I pray that this isn't the case).
So many people have it wrong in thinking that by following God their life will somehow become easier; that they will become wealthy or be protected from bad things happening. The truth is more often than not Christians don't have it any easier in this life (and often much harder) than those who are "pagan." This prosperity gospel is in complete error from the teaching of the Bible.
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Thank you, very well written. I am not trying to prod you, but your post made me wonder something: If you think that god has a plan intended for everyone and doesn't necessarily make life easier/better/more satisfactory for his followers, than why worship him? (again I don't mean to sound antagonistic at all and if i come off that way I apologize.)
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All of you gave me some very interesting and insightful feedback. Lol I'm gonna take the exam and make my decision based on how I did. Thanks all and best of luck! 🙂
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Stay hopeful :3 From what I've been hearing, verbal seems to be easier on the exam and BS is closest to AAMC 11 so hopefully those things work in your favour!
I've been using the GIMP for years and it's a love-hate relationship for me. It's not as powerful or reliable as Photoshop but it gets the job done and it's a pretty small download that I can get installed on any computer I happen to have to work on. On the side I do pixel art in MS Paint haha
Oh no worries at all, that is a logical question to ask.
The first reason for me is the sense of purpose that I have as a Christian. There is great comfort in knowing that there is a God who designed the universe and used evolution as his tool to bring about sentient life. I dont have to struggle with the idea that we are all just walking bags of cells that are here as the products of extremely unlikely chance.
I also am enabled to live with a sense of peace. To know that the Lord of the universe stepped down and sacrificed himself for a wretched person like me may not much make sense, but I embrace it because it allows me the assurance of knowing that I am loved and forgiven.
It is also amazing to not have to try to fill the hole inside of me with things like drugs, sex booze. Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on a good time, but mostly I realize the world of hurt I am saving myself from down the road. I have seen so many people destroy themselves with these things and live unfulfilled lives. Instead I can fill that emptiness with more "wholesome" endeavors.
Lastly, its not as if there is no reward/benefit for the sacrifices I make in my life. I have the eternal hope of knowing that I get to spend eternity with my creator and that in heaven there will be no more pain or suffering. The common phrase is "storing up treasure in heaven" versus investing in the temporal things of life that wont last past death anyways.
All of this allows me to face hard things in life with the peace and purpose granted by my faith and a hope in a future paradise. Definitely worth it in my opinion.
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Well written sir. I salute you. I am not saying God will help me pass mcat when i havent studied but my belief is He will help me remember what I have studied to pass it. You dont get the easy way in life as a christian either way. Anyway thanks for your insight n am glad there is another devout Christian 👍
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Well, it's getting close to that time. My plan to tire myself out with basketball has worked well, and I'm going out to eat. Then, a focus session, and finally, bed.
Best of luck again guys. Have faith in your training.
Best of luck again guys. Have faith in your training.
D
deleted393595
He's called the Emperor, you heretic!*
But have faith, my Battle-Brothers. The Emperor Protects.
*Kudos to you if you actually get the reference...
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He's called the Emperor, you heretic!*
But have faith, my Battle-Brothers. The Emperor Protects.
*Kudos to you if you actually get the reference...
All kudos to your emperor, I hope it sees you through the test.
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lol I'm getting the feeling that he's more apt to agree with the views on a "devout Christian" than those of others. bwest did write a post that is worthy of 👍 regardless, but I've always personally found it VERY interesting how people agree along the lines of religion and partisanship. It gets even funnier when devout Christians think they're much better than others because of their faith lol. Isn't that, like, completely not what church has taught us? (NOT SAYING this is the case here, but it's funny when it happens, and it does so quite often in my experiences.)
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This is the end, guys. Remember this:
"Pessimism never won any battle. 'Worry' is a word that I don't allow myself to use." — Dwight D. Eisenhower
LET'S KICK SOME ASS TOMORROW HUH
"Pessimism never won any battle. 'Worry' is a word that I don't allow myself to use." — Dwight D. Eisenhower
LET'S KICK SOME ASS TOMORROW HUH
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Where determination is predominant, failure can never dismantle the flag of success.
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Guys we got this, we can do this, put your all in it, be determine to smash it and you will succeed
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Yikes. People are definitely on target with their comments about recent mcats. Verbal was longer, but manageable. PS and Bio were alright, though a few PS passages were more conceptually confusing than calculation heavy as reported by SDN'ers. The worst part was organic though; it just smacked me around. Timing was also more strained...
Anyone else had similar experiences today?
Anyone else had similar experiences today?
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AKSJFDHALJKHSDFAHF
First an foremost, my brain literally HURTS.
1. PS what happened?? I just felt very anxious/nervous and because of that was very frazzled when trying to answer questions that I KNOW were simple. That really stressed me out. The section wasn't hard, but it really felt like an 8-9 even though my PS avg was an 11. And i'm not just saying that. I actually thought it was reasonably less difficult than AAMC practices, my mind was just slipping.
2. VR was a cake walk. my average in VR was a 10 so im going to guess I got a solid 10 which i was happy about.
3. BS First couple of passages were a joke, which might have hurt me because I slowed down and had less time for the later passages (ORGO) that required more reading/extrapolation. I finished with a few minutes to spare. Went back to the questions that I had marked and couldn't think of any better answers so I left them all as is. My bio avg was an 11, I would be happy with a 10.
Overall
Goal: 11/10/12: 33
prediction: 9/10/10: 29
I really HOPE I got at least a 30 but honestly that **** was demoralizing. My mind/body are drained.
I did the trial section and it was painful. All I could think about was how poorly I did and I ****ed up my test and wasted my whole summer. Every time a specific psychology theory came up I chuckled to myself and picked whatever had the more foreign sounding name.
Overall, pretty upset but hey, who knows, right?
First an foremost, my brain literally HURTS.
1. PS what happened?? I just felt very anxious/nervous and because of that was very frazzled when trying to answer questions that I KNOW were simple. That really stressed me out. The section wasn't hard, but it really felt like an 8-9 even though my PS avg was an 11. And i'm not just saying that. I actually thought it was reasonably less difficult than AAMC practices, my mind was just slipping.
2. VR was a cake walk. my average in VR was a 10 so im going to guess I got a solid 10 which i was happy about.
3. BS First couple of passages were a joke, which might have hurt me because I slowed down and had less time for the later passages (ORGO) that required more reading/extrapolation. I finished with a few minutes to spare. Went back to the questions that I had marked and couldn't think of any better answers so I left them all as is. My bio avg was an 11, I would be happy with a 10.
Overall
Goal: 11/10/12: 33
prediction: 9/10/10: 29
I really HOPE I got at least a 30 but honestly that **** was demoralizing. My mind/body are drained.
I did the trial section and it was painful. All I could think about was how poorly I did and I ****ed up my test and wasted my whole summer. Every time a specific psychology theory came up I chuckled to myself and picked whatever had the more foreign sounding name.
Overall, pretty upset but hey, who knows, right?
It looks like the recent tests have been emphasizing orgo? I think there was a sentiment that they were reducing the emphasis on orgo in favor of molecular genetics and other bio topics, so maybe people started taking orgo lightly and boom, the AAMC throws some curveballs.
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I should clarify; the Orgo wasn't necessarily very hard, but it was towards the end and a VERY long passage in my opinion
Pretty much exact same sentiment.
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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
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
Well, wow that was quite different from the test I took last year. Ouch. Feeling much worse about it than I did last year.
PS was odd and seemed very different from practice tests. Ran out of time and had to blatantly guess on the last passage. Discretes weren't bad though. Averaged 11 on practice tests; feeling like an 8 today.
Didn't enjoy Verbal, that's for sure. Guessed on the last passage due to time constraints.
BS passages looked crazy at first glance but were actually quite manageable and very comprehendible for the most part. I only had 1 Orgo passage and the answers were easy to infer from the passage.
Overall, much harder than my first mcat and required far less content knowledge, and much more critical thinking.
PS was odd and seemed very different from practice tests. Ran out of time and had to blatantly guess on the last passage. Discretes weren't bad though. Averaged 11 on practice tests; feeling like an 8 today.
Didn't enjoy Verbal, that's for sure. Guessed on the last passage due to time constraints.
BS passages looked crazy at first glance but were actually quite manageable and very comprehendible for the most part. I only had 1 Orgo passage and the answers were easy to infer from the passage.
Overall, much harder than my first mcat and required far less content knowledge, and much more critical thinking.
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Yeah the Orgo was unexpectedly complex and long so timing was really rushed on it. Lots of extraneous material to pick out and it rolled me over...Though I still think that to me, on average, the content of the orgo questions were harder than I expected. I wouldn't worry too much about the difficulty of the trial section because wasn't it designed to draw on a body of information we just haven't learned?
On the bright side, those who had difficulty can feel comforted in the fact that it was prolly a harder test (judging from what I'm reading) and it wasn't a complete lack of preparation!!! You guys worked hard!
And I'm really sorry inycepoo :[ You've worked super hard up to this exam too. Going on vacation to celebrate the end! I also highly recommend drinking a few to forget about this exam guys [:
edit: Ahahaahaha inycepoo got me! Well good, we all made it through!
On the bright side, those who had difficulty can feel comforted in the fact that it was prolly a harder test (judging from what I'm reading) and it wasn't a complete lack of preparation!!! You guys worked hard!
And I'm really sorry inycepoo :[ You've worked super hard up to this exam too. Going on vacation to celebrate the end! I also highly recommend drinking a few to forget about this exam guys [:
edit: Ahahaahaha inycepoo got me! Well good, we all made it through!
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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.
so i know i'm new, but i've been following along all summer. i just needa vent to randoms so my friends don't have to deal with me.
i effed up. timing ate me. primarily in verbal, which is by far the most critical when it comes to canadian schools. i averaged 11 on the practice tests, i'd be surprised at anything more than 9 for today (shocked at >9 actually). 11 is the verbal cutoff (like hard cut for interviews) at my school of choice.
way too many gut choices in ps and bs too. the clock killed me. i'm pretty rattled. 10,9,11 is my prediction. god effing dammit.
january rewrite it is.
i effed up. timing ate me. primarily in verbal, which is by far the most critical when it comes to canadian schools. i averaged 11 on the practice tests, i'd be surprised at anything more than 9 for today (shocked at >9 actually). 11 is the verbal cutoff (like hard cut for interviews) at my school of choice.
way too many gut choices in ps and bs too. the clock killed me. i'm pretty rattled. 10,9,11 is my prediction. god effing dammit.
january rewrite it is.
hahahahahahahahaahha.
i'm 2 pints deep, many more to go, it's over for now i guess. round 2 for me soon, but i need shave my exam pubic beard and get laid. at least i have good canadian beer to look forward to ya yankee bastards.
cheers ya'll.
Take it easy....you are beginning to hurt the feeling of many nice American SDNers.
You are very lucky inycepoo is gone for food until sometimes next month. Otherwise, you are going to have your ears full. 😛
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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.
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.
