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The Official January 23, 2015 MCAT Thread
Started by cjcarter
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Don't slow down. Get a good nights sleep and get cracking.
Yeah I'm not setting my alarm tonight. I need sleep. I've done barely anything. I think I'll take a Princeton exam tomorrow. And then I'll start with AAMCs after I do the SA's
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
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I've been doing some serious holiday-induced slacking. Starting tomorrow, it's business time. We got this, team! The end is in sight!
I am studying now! Crunch time! Crunch time!
Hi All!
Is anyone that's taking it the 23rd willing to switch with me and take it the 15th? I had some fam issues crop up and could honestly use the extra week...my spot is in downtown Philly @1pm. I live in North Jersey and would be willing to go down as far as virginia to take it and as far up as NY state.
Please let me know! I don't have much money but I'd be willing to borrow some to pay you! Lol it would be beyond worth it to me. I could also maybe pay you in vitamins/supplements and other OTC stuff as I work at a vitamin place.
Thanks in advance people. Either way, I'm gnna keep my nose to that bloody grind stone; good luck to all of you!!!!!
~Sabrina
Is anyone that's taking it the 23rd willing to switch with me and take it the 15th? I had some fam issues crop up and could honestly use the extra week...my spot is in downtown Philly @1pm. I live in North Jersey and would be willing to go down as far as virginia to take it and as far up as NY state.
Please let me know! I don't have much money but I'd be willing to borrow some to pay you! Lol it would be beyond worth it to me. I could also maybe pay you in vitamins/supplements and other OTC stuff as I work at a vitamin place.
Thanks in advance people. Either way, I'm gnna keep my nose to that bloody grind stone; good luck to all of you!!!!!
~Sabrina
Dear all,
Sorry to bother you bc I know everyone is busy with studying. But I am really scared, stressed out and kinda depressed too...feel like crying even. I still have not finished content review at all...not to mention the full length. It's taking me such a long time and hard to speed up...Should I give up or just get it over with..? ..even though I might not be as ready as I expect to be or at all...? :'( (I still have 8 Ch in BR chem and all EK orgo undone.....)
Thank you.
Sorry to bother you bc I know everyone is busy with studying. But I am really scared, stressed out and kinda depressed too...feel like crying even. I still have not finished content review at all...not to mention the full length. It's taking me such a long time and hard to speed up...Should I give up or just get it over with..? ..even though I might not be as ready as I expect to be or at all...? :'( (I still have 8 Ch in BR chem and all EK orgo undone.....)
Thank you.
Aw I'm sorry you're feeling that way. I'm sure we all can relate! When I start getting anxious and/or upset, I drop what I'm doing, go for a run (or do anything outside!), take a shower, and inevitably feel way better.
But that's short term. In terms of whether you should take it, I absolutely think you have enough time to get prepared. We have four weeks! By normal, non-SDN standards that's a ton of time to study. 8 chapters left is not bad at all, assuming you feel okay about the material you have covered to this point. I say put in a couple days of hard work, take a practice test and then assess! You don't need to be done with content to do okay on full lengths, especially in terms of orgo. This test is like 90% mental. If you're really down on yourself, you'll do poorly, but if you can get your confidence back there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do well. Good luck!
T
torontopharm
A month is a long time so don't stress! Just make sure that whatever you're learning, you're learning it really well, instead of just rushing it. I'll be done content review in the first week of January and i'll only have 2 weeks to do the FL's..so i'm in a similar boat. I'm half-way done the TPR workbook but i still got another half to go.
I took the December 6th MCAT..and the bio portion was 80% reading comprehension. Also, there were at least 2 passages in the PS section that was more reading comprehension than just brain-dumping. So i'd suggest just do a lot of practice passages.
I haven't stalked this specific thread very thoroughly, but I'm going to just reiterate what was said here in case it hasn't been said already. A lot of this test is about your attitude. By the time you take it, you should feel like you have studied enough, but if you're freaking out, then you won't even be able to retrieve all that information you worked so hard to understand. Trust me. I'll be retaking on this date, and I thought I had a good attitude going into the test, but a small verbal freak out ruined my score. Stay positive folks! We can do this!
Thank you~! All of your words gave me lots of encouragement and hope, which are what I need at this point since I feel disappointed in myself--even nightmares at night about this....I will do what you recommend and try my best to finish.. Thanks again~
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Thank you! I really appreciate your advices.
I actually switched to EK orgo from BR orgo bc I don't have enough time left to do BR orgo anymore, which stresses me out even more bc I fear I will definitely have knowledge holes for orgo... Do you mind me ask as how much orgo did you kinda encounter in 12/6 exam or if you could have any thoughts about EK orgo...?
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didn't take the 12-6, but I heard there was a good amount of orgo. I used BR during my initial review, then EK. I honestly think TBR is overkill. They commit 3 chapters to biochemistry, whereas EK only does 1. I honestly think EK orgo is sufficient to do well with enough practice.
Thank you for the info! Do you think the 3 Ch of Biochemistry in BR orgo helped you with the Biology section....?
T
torontopharm
I had 2 orgo passages + 2-3 discretes i believe. I solely used EK for orgo. It's ABSOLUTELY enough. No point doing 1000 something pages of TBR orgo unless you have time.
That's just my opinion anyway. I wouldn't stress about orgo to be honest. Just get the general idea from the EK books and do a ton of practice. I'm hoping for another orgo-heavy MCAT this time around
It's a good way to boost your score after doing those weird biology experimental passages. Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Honestly, I don't think I needed 3 chapters on biochemistry because I just took biochemistry in the fall. I also did very well in the class, so I felt it was very unnecessary. It really depends on your background, but I think it's overkill either way especially since you only have a month until you take it. I also have a strong orgo background, so EK was enough. You can probably get through EK orgo in 2-3 days easily, while TBR will take a week minimum.
so basically, if there are a ton of "medium" and "hard" based questions on the mcat like how its labeled on the self assessment, i'm screwed. lol.
I am with ya there. Finished physics SA today, after an unintentional 2 days off ... so now only verbal left which I'll probably finish Sunday, taking AAMC #4 tomorrow.
You probably have discussed this already but physics fried me, have you done any FLs? How have those gone for you vs the SA?
Less than a month now AHHHHH
I am with ya there. Finished physics SA today, after an unintentional 2 days off ... so now only verbal left which I'll probably finish Sunday, taking AAMC #4 tomorrow.
You probably have discussed this already but physics fried me, have you done any FLs? How have those gone for you vs the SA?
Less than a month now AHHHHH
I thought the BS for AAMC4 was easy. Somehow pulled out a 15 w/ 50 out of 52. I scored a 11 on #3 and a 85%ish on the SA BS, so definitely an outlier for me.
Do you have any techniques to prevent that in the next exam? I am taking it for the first time next month after postponing my date 3 times this year.
Are you also taking it on the 23rd? I think I hit rock bottom on that exam (it was 3 points below my AAMC average and my VB itself was 2 points below average). So I know I can do better and that I have done better. Unfortunately, I was just part of that unlucky group of people who didn't end up doing how they expected to do because something went wrong.
And that's how I'm approaching this exam. I think my first score was a mistake, and it won't happen again. 🙂
And that's how I'm approaching this exam. I think my first score was a mistake, and it won't happen again. 🙂
i did FLs 7-11 at the beginning of my studying b/c i wanted to see right away what the differences were between the "more representative tests" and to know what i was getting into.I am with ya there. Finished physics SA today, after an unintentional 2 days off ... so now only verbal left which I'll probably finish Sunday, taking AAMC #4 tomorrow.
You probably have discussed this already but physics fried me, have you done any FLs? How have those gone for you vs the SA?
Less than a month now AHHHHH
i did well on PS/BS, but god awful on verbal. i'm literally so fixated on verbal.
i haven't done any of the other SAs but verbal. i'm going to cram them in along with the other FLs to make sure my PS/BS skills don't get rusty, tho!
can you BELIEVE that we have only a February to go before this exam? 28 days is sooo little. omg.
i keep telling myself i'm just going to study and not sleep lol. i don't even know what i'm going to do, i have less than 2 weeks until uni starts up again 😱
gl on aamc#4 tomoro 🙂
It's insane how short it is yet how many hours there are in a day.
As for me, I feel like I start slowing down in efficiency after about 4-5 hrs
but does anyone feel frustrated? I feel really frustrated that despite studying for this exam first in june-august (September date) and now for the january date, i haven't been able to score a 30? It's really making me depressed and idk what to do
I'm extremely frustrated right now.
I wasted two AAMC exams because of stupidity and pride, respectively lol.
Took AAMC 7 yesterday under copious amounts of caffeine. I'm very sensitive to caffeine so I don't even know why I thought I'd try it out on a practice exam. My reading comprehension for PS and especially for VR went downhill--could not recollect my thoughts, heartbeat going a million miles a second. It was hell. Only started to feel normal during BS and it showed.
Scored a 28 (9/7/12)
I was so bummed out about PS and VR because I knew it was because of the caffeine I decided to crank out AAMC 8 today. Bad idea, I was tired, unfocused, and going in for the sake of my ego alone. The opposite thing happened now where I progressively got worse for each section as I just wanted to finish.
Scored a 29 (12/9/8)
These scores are coming off a 30 (10/10/10) on the last practice test.
So stressed
I think every one of us needs a Cool Runnings-style pep talk. Repeat after me...
Wait but you're stressing for no reason. You obviously are scoring above 10 in each section. You just gotta lets the external factors work out better next time.I'm extremely frustrated right now.
I wasted two AAMC exams because of stupidity and pride, respectively lol.
Took AAMC 7 yesterday under copious amounts of caffeine. I'm very sensitive to caffeine so I don't even know why I thought I'd try it out on a practice exam. My reading comprehension for PS and especially for VR went downhill--could not recollect my thoughts, heartbeat going a million miles a second. It was hell. Only started to feel normal during BS and it showed.
Scored a 28 (9/7/12)
I was so bummed out about PS and VR because I knew it was because of the caffeine I decided to crank out AAMC 8 today. Bad idea, I was tired, unfocused, and going in for the sake of my ego alone. The opposite thing happened now where I progressively got worse for each section as I just wanted to finish.
Scored a 29 (12/9/8)
These scores are coming off a 30 (10/10/10) on the last practice test.
So stressed
I'm just having issues actually scoring a 30
I was actually saying that to myself to make me feel better but hearing it from someone else is more convincing lol. I'm a little less stressed... So thank you!
Which AAMC's have you done and how far off are you?
Is there one section that you're struggling with most, or are your scores pretty even? When you go over a test, do you immediately understand the questions you got wrong and feel silly for not getting them, or do you have to go look things up to understand why their answers are right?
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TBH, the scoring is pretty even. When I first took it in September, I scored a (9/9/8)
When I'm going over them, I'm always thinking "Oh man I knew that". They're like small careless mistakes that come as a result of lack of content knowledge. When I read the answer explanation it makes sense perfectly
When I'm going over them, I'm always thinking "Oh man I knew that". They're like small careless mistakes that come as a result of lack of content knowledge. When I read the answer explanation it makes sense perfectly
Well that's better than the alternative, but definitely more frustrating. Maybe try to spend some time focusing on why you made those little errors. I'm always tempted to just say dumb mistake and move on, but I make myself categorize wrong answers as "misread the question/answer choice," "made an assumption," "calculation error," etc. I also try to look at how I could have come to the right answer even without much content knowledge because a lot of the time there are hints in the wording or answer choices or passage that could have pointed me in the right direction even if I was shaky on the subject. I think getting used to the kind of errors I'm prone to helps me be on the lookout when I'm doing the next test. We'll see if any of this actually works for me, but if you're not doing something like that already, it can't hurt!
Yeah I mean I know they're all careless, but the same thing happens to me where I realize I didn't read it closely or there's a calculation error.
Usually in PS, it's lack of knowing a formula or concept or misread. VR is just a crapshoot, BS is my best section since I took physio this semester and am decent with the microbio stuff.
At this point you need to make sure you spend a lot of time on your weaknesses! I am trying to master Electro, mag, Circuits, waves sound, solubility, acid bases before the exam because I hear they come up a lot in the later exams!
took AAMC 4 and ended with a 35, 12/13/10 - I was sure it was a 25. I am by no means an expert on this material just a good test taker. Although I was very sick of doing the test by the bio section and it shows, I clearly need to work on stamina.
My biggest strategy for verbal is just read the passage once, somewhat thoroughly then just answer the questions and refer back as needed. I never go back and check/change answers once I move on from a passage. Idk if that makes a difference. Also I missed 2 questions and marked about half, so it shows that even when you do well this section feels super frustrating and I finished feeling very unsure, but stuck with my initial answers.
Idk if that will help anyone many people like having a strategy but those made me lose focus of the main ideas I thought.
My biggest strategy for verbal is just read the passage once, somewhat thoroughly then just answer the questions and refer back as needed. I never go back and check/change answers once I move on from a passage. Idk if that makes a difference. Also I missed 2 questions and marked about half, so it shows that even when you do well this section feels super frustrating and I finished feeling very unsure, but stuck with my initial answers.
Idk if that will help anyone many people like having a strategy but those made me lose focus of the main ideas I thought.
Hey guys, also a fellow 23er... any advice for breaking the 30 block?
I just took AAMC 3/4 (within a week of each other) and got a 10/9/10 on both! Seemed rather disappointing as 4 felt a lot better, but I seem to be missing a couple random content facts but that can't be it!
I just took AAMC 3/4 (within a week of each other) and got a 10/9/10 on both! Seemed rather disappointing as 4 felt a lot better, but I seem to be missing a couple random content facts but that can't be it!
It might be different for you, but for me, I feel like I make many mistakes when under timed conditions. I usually go through by writing which numbers I got wrong. Then, I download a PDF version and solve them without the answer key again. I feel like I can score 15's in both science section if I do them leisurely so I practice under stricter timed conditions while practicing. I'm just really slow, even for school exams. I'm usually one of the last people to finish even though I get really good grades. I even scored a 15 on the BS section for AAMC 4 and I barely finished on time.
getting -1, -2 per passage on verbal still
timing is freaking me out; my strategy goes out the window b/c i'm looking at the timer and not understanding these questions.
i'm trying to work on my analness of zoning in on one question and just skipping it and coming back to it later but idk. it feels so haphazard b/c then i start jumping around and skipping all the questions and then it just adds to stress
timing is freaking me out; my strategy goes out the window b/c i'm looking at the timer and not understanding these questions.
i'm trying to work on my analness of zoning in on one question and just skipping it and coming back to it later but idk. it feels so haphazard b/c then i start jumping around and skipping all the questions and then it just adds to stress
getting -1, -2 per passage on verbal still
timing is freaking me out; my strategy goes out the window b/c i'm looking at the timer and not understanding these questions.
i'm trying to work on my analness of zoning in on one question and just skipping it and coming back to it later but idk. it feels so haphazard b/c then i start jumping around and skipping all the questions and then it just adds to stress
So, at first I was like this, got 1 wrong each practice at least and that was EK 101 which is supposed to be way easier. What really changed my verbal scores was first making sure I understood the main idea of the passage. This cannot be stressed enough. And then I would read the questions, and honestly if you have non aamc verbal tests, especially TPR, I would say try some passages or some tests and then just go straight through without skipping around, without skipping questions and trying to go with your gut on the answers. Once I stopped changing answers my scores have increased by a lot. It at least gives you some practice in focusing and when you don't give yourself the option to skip around it might help the stress? Idk if that will help but hopefully? good luck!
It's a longshot I know, but do you guys see any spots opening for this test date? the 13th and 15th have spots open, I'm wondering if the same will happen for the 23rd?
hm I will try this.
When sitting at 10s on the sciences, do you think its better to just do a bunch of FLs OR keep pushing the content with BR/TPRH ?
You have to literally check every 6 hours.. sit and refresh....and refresh
Gotcha, appreciate the response. Hoping for a spot in NYC or NJ. If anyone wants to drop a NYC or NJ spot please let me know. I'll even get a gift card or something for you haha.
T
torontopharm
Make sure to get on the computer on January 6th. That's when the December 6th kids get their scores back. I'm assuming more spots will open once their scores are released.
^Thank you. Appreciate that a lot. I've been checking every 15 minutes. The 23rd is the most popular because of it being the last day. Procrastinators unite haha.
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Does cancelling your exam and registering for another one count as one of the 3 takes? Sorry to thread hijack, but I hope to be joining you guys if spots open up.
ty for the advice seabiscuit🙂
ya, i have this humungous tendency to just overanalyze questions.
i just need to go with my gut and stop thinking soo much. 😡
It's so hard to keep going when you aren't seeing any improvements. All I'm doing right now is laying down in bed listening to my "feel good" music...I just feel so hopeless, maybe crying will make me feel better. 🙁
Sometimes you just need to let out a good cry! But don't give up, if you are smart enough to do well on the sciences you are smart enough to get this verbal down! I was telling this to my brother who did very well on his LSAT, and he looked at my verbal books and was being a butthole about how they were "easy", that science students are not used to the ambiguity of the verbal section. They feel uncomfortable when there is not a clear right answer.
This makes them double check the questions and answers and there are answers the test provides that seem to come straight from the passages, but don't necessarily answer the desired question or they use words from the passages in weird ways that seem like direct quotes but actually miss the whole point of the passage. These answers probably trip up a lot of students looking for that clear right answer. So, learn to feel ok with ambiguity on verbal! I am not a science major so I had a lot of humanities classes that got me away from that sort of thinking of one right answer.
You can do it!! Do not give up. Just keep at it. Just tell yourself you will do well also, cause I think it can trick your mind into feeling confident and you can avoid panic spirals on the tests that are hard to come back from. Anyways, listen to good music and just chill for a bit, take a day off if you can.
Go ahead and cry it out! Cry cry! And then you gotta pull it together and continue practicing.. It took almost 2 months for me to be "okay" with Verbal and do decent. I just never gave up .... I freaked for a day, cried, cursed, and then after some sleep I would be like "Okay now where was I". And carried on.... This is only the beginning, and those who want this bad enough will push through....good luck!
