The Official June 2015 MCAT Thread

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Goldentide said:
Is anyone using the older TBR sets for Chemistry and O-Chem? How are you guys structuring your studying?
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I'm using the older TBR sets for physics, chemistry, o-chem, and bio. They have a lot of passages for practice. The only issue is that you have to exclude certain contents that are not tested in the new MCAT.
 
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Wow 4 days on A/B and Buffers/Titration chapters in TBR made me a monster at this subject lol. Phase II ~84% and Phase III ~95%.
On to psych lol fml
 
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Took the AAMC practice test today after 10 days of content review! Is this good/bad? Still have till June to study.

Physical Foundations: 42%
CARS: 60%
Biological Foundations: 64%
Psych and Soc: 66%
 
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I ended up purchasing TPR's complete book (one book, not separate subject books), but I'm not too sure it's adequate enough in terms of content review. Thoughts?
 
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stressingout said:
I ended up purchasing TPR's complete book (one book, not separate subject books), but I'm not too sure it's adequate enough in terms of content review. Thoughts?
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I also have this book. The book is almost as many pages as the entire subject set, except they took out the practice passages and put them online. It's actually very thorough as you'll come to find out. I'm not even sure if its not exactly the same. I think it's a good option if you supplement it with KA
 
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Sir.SavaLottaLife said:
I also have this book. The book is almost as many pages as the entire subject set, except they took out the practice passages and put them online. It's actually very thorough as you'll come to find out. I'm not even sure if its not exactly the same. I think it's a good option if you supplement it with KA
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Hmm okay. I started reading the sociology/psychology stuff and got a bit worried when it was only 4 chapters in the book. Will definitely be supplementing with KA
 
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stressingout said:
Hmm okay. I started reading the sociology/psychology stuff and got a bit worried when it was only 4 chapters in the book. Will definitely be supplementing with KA
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Yeah but they put like 4 big sections in each chapter. I just finished the psyc/soc section, they do a good thing about covering a lot. They pretty much introduce all the concepts in a structured way, giving the definition and an example, and it seemed to flow pretty well. They also had some nice little diagrams to show the relationship between different concepts. I will be supplementing with Khan as well so I have coverage in the case that they didn't hit everything. I think the passages from KA are key as well.
 
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Agenda for today:
2 VR passages from AAMC
Finish TBR cardio/lungs passages
Start TBR electric circuits and finish the review passages
review physics flashcards from last 3 chapters done
 
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Hi Guys! I am taking the June 19th exam and I am finding myself to be extremely overwhelmed with all of the content. I am also having trouble with content retention. I would study for about 3-4 hours a day, in 1 hour increments and a 15 break after each hour and I find I am having trouble in recalling what I have learned the next day. What tips or tricks would you suggest in improving content retention? Thanks for all of the help!!
 
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FutureDoc3094 said:
Hi Guys! I am taking the June 19th exam and I am finding myself to be extremely overwhelmed with all of the content. I am also having trouble with content retention. I would study for about 3-4 hours a day, in 1 hour increments and a 15 break after each hour and I find I am having trouble in recalling what I have learned the next day. What tips or tricks would you suggest in improving content retention? Thanks for all of the help!!
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Test yourself on the content regularly, for every 4 hours I study, I end up doing a similar amount of testing plus some extra for review of what I got wrong. Knowing the information sets the foundation, using it is what makes it concrete.
 
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Sir.SavaLottaLife said:
Yeah but they put like 4 big sections in each chapter. I just finished the psyc/soc section, they do a good thing about covering a lot. They pretty much introduce all the concepts in a structured way, giving the definition and an example, and it seemed to flow pretty well. They also had some nice little diagrams to show the relationship between different concepts. I will be supplementing with Khan as well so I have coverage in the case that they didn't hit everything. I think the passages from KA are key as well.
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Alright, thanks for your input!
 
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mikil100 said:
Test yourself on the content regularly, for every 4 hours I study, I end up doing a similar amount of testing plus some extra for review of what I got wrong. Knowing the information sets the foundation, using it is what makes it concrete.
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Yeh I totally agree with this. I did too much content my first time. Now that I started to drill questions, the information is really sticking. Be cautious at how much time you are focusing on content. Based on my experience, I would highly recommend doing atleast a 1:1 ratio of hours on content/discretes : hours answering passage-based questions.
 
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hey guys Im planning on taking the MCATS in June as well and I just wanted to break down my study regime for you guys. Let me know if you guys think this is a good way to study!
I am using the 2015 EK books, I am starting with 1 book at a time, I just finished the Pysc/soc book but as I read each chapter I take condensed notes. I am able to turn the 25-30 page chapters into about 4-6 pages of notes written in my words. After I read each chapter I look over my notes for about half an hour and this makes the information stick better. Note taking is a bit more time consuming but IMO its worth it because I know if i read something today I won't remember it a month or 2 later so this way instead of rereading a whole chapter I can just skim through my notes which are precise, get to the point, and written in my words so they are easier to follow!.
I plan on rereading my notes for each subject every week or so I do not forget the content. After about month and half of reading through all the books I hope to have a good grasp of the content (hopefully) and then will start Full lengths and practice problems for the remaining month or so until the June exam!

Let me know what you guys think! Thanks

B)B)
 
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If anyone is in San Diego, CA and would like to study together, let me know!)))
I registered for the June 19th MCAT.
 
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Qamar3212 said:
hey guys Im planning on taking the MCATS in June as well and I just wanted to break down my study regime for you guys. Let me know if you guys think this is a good way to study!
I am using the 2015 EK books, I am starting with 1 book at a time, I just finished the Pysc/soc book but as I read each chapter I take condensed notes. I am able to turn the 25-30 page chapters into about 4-6 pages of notes written in my words. After I read each chapter I look over my notes for about half an hour and this makes the information stick better. Note taking is a bit more time consuming but IMO its worth it because I know if i read something today I won't remember it a month or 2 later so this way instead of rereading a whole chapter I can just skim through my notes which are precise, get to the point, and written in my words so they are easier to follow!.
I plan on rereading my notes for each subject every week or so I do not forget the content. After about month and half of reading through all the books I hope to have a good grasp of the content (hopefully) and then will start Full lengths and practice problems for the remaining month or so until the June exam!

Let me know what you guys think! Thanks

B)B)
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I would rotate subjects instead of doing one at a time. I also would start doing practice now instead of waiting for your content review to finished. Especially CARS. I try to do ~4 CARS passages a day. And then review what I got wrong. Taking notes is good, I would take a look at Next step forum and look at their schedule, you already have EK which is the main source of content review.

EX:

I read Bio CH1 and Chem CH1 on the same day, first by defining all of the terms and looking up the terms the book doesnt describe as well as I'd like (and for formulas too) I then read the whole chapter. I wait a day, then I take all the questions and the 30 min exam, and 1 week later I retake the 30 min exam and the discrete questions I got wrong. I make notes on why I got wrong what I got wrong. This is in addition to daily CARS practice, review my notes, and my formula list/definitions every other day. This forms a solid backbone of content review and practice.
 
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Man, TBR Bio Cardio/Lungs passages were hard as hell! Did 7 passages in ~45 minutes and still ended up with a ~74%. A bunch of stupid memorization crap and weirdly phrased questions kinda pushed my score low.
 
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FutureDoc3094 said:
Do you guys know what the new 30 is considered to be?
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I forget where I got this from...but this should be a somewhat similar scale up!

Old - New
---------
03 -- 472
06 -- 476
09 -- 480
12 -- 484
15 -- 488
18 -- 492
21 -- 496
24 -- 500
27 -- 504
30 -- 508
33 -- 512
36 -- 516
39 -- 520
42 -- 524
45 -- 528
For a single section:
Old - New
---------
01 -- 118
02 -- 119
03 -- 120
04 -- 121
05 -- 122
06 -- 123
07 -- 124
08 -- 125 * "Average"
09 -- 126
10 -- 127
11 -- 128
12 -- 129
13 -- 130
14 -- 131
15 -- 132
 
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Caffein3 said:
I forget where I got this from...but this should be a somewhat similar scale up!

Old - New
---------
03 -- 472
06 -- 476
09 -- 480
12 -- 484
15 -- 488
18 -- 492
21 -- 496
24 -- 500
27 -- 504
30 -- 508
33 -- 512
36 -- 516
39 -- 520
42 -- 524
45 -- 528
For a single section:
Old - New
---------
01 -- 118
02 -- 119
03 -- 120
04 -- 121
05 -- 122
06 -- 123
07 -- 124
08 -- 125 * "Average"
09 -- 126
10 -- 127
11 -- 128
12 -- 129
13 -- 130
14 -- 131
15 -- 132
Click to expand...

This is great! Thanks so much!
 
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velodork said:
Actual scoring is on a type of curve/sliding scale, so percentages don't mean much in terms of translating to an actual score. (I think)
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True! But on my practice test, if I get a 126 that usually equates to around a projected 126 for a section. That of course, is a totally arbitrary assignment because the actual test could result in much more skewed scores.
 
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Caffein3 said:
True! But on my practice test, if I get a 126 that usually equates to around a projected 126 for a section. That of course, is a totally arbitrary assignment because the actual test could result in much more skewed scores.
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True, but I think the original post was referring to AAMC questions/FL which only give you a score in terms of %
 
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velodork said:
Actual scoring is on a type of curve/sliding scale, so percentages don't mean much in terms of translating to an actual score. (I think)
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I meant from the old mcat, what percent would be eq to a 30. Then extrapolate it to the new score. I just want to have a sort of better idea where I am at instead of trusting kaplan/pr scale bc they could be way off
 
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Has anyone that's using the new EK materials taken any practice tests yet? I'm doing well on the EK lecture questions and their 30 minute exams, but I'm wondering how comparable they are to the AAMC practice test (which I'm trying to save for a bit closer to the test).
 
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soccergurl1987 said:
Has anyone that's using the new EK materials taken any practice tests yet? I'm doing well on the EK lecture questions and their 30 minute exams, but I'm wondering how comparable they are to the AAMC practice test (which I'm trying to save for a bit closer to the test).
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In my opinion, overal the EK 30 min exams are harder than the offical exam by a marginal amount in all sections except CARS, which in the AAMC test is much... easier
 
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Glazedonutlove said:
I mean yea but there's usually an average with most other than like aamc 10
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The new AAMC doesn't have a conversion chart yet (from raw scores/percentiles to your score out of 528). I'm not sure what the averages are for the practice exams from other companies. Hopefully post-April exams, they'll publish one for their practice exam, which would give us a better idea of where we all stand. I'm not sure if they're planning on doing that or not though.
 
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mikil100 said:
It varies greatly... for example for Psych/Bio I am scoring between 126-129, with a few lows of 125. For the PS sections I am scoring 124-126. CARS is all over the place. 🙁

What are you scoring?
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I don't even know how to convert to those scores lol. For the ps, I definitely miss like half the questions which sucks. Bio is easier and that's all I've done lol. So have u taken the aamc practice test?
 
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Glazedonutlove said:
I don't even know how to convert to those scores lol. For the ps, I definitely miss like half the questions which sucks. Bio is easier and that's all I've done lol. So have u taken the aamc practice test?
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I get those scores from the EK books themselves,they have a column to convert scores. I get roughly half the physics wrong too, if that makes you feel better.

I did take the practice exam. I got like 64%/85%/73%/64% PS, CARS, BS,Psych in that order. My PS and Psych have probably gone up marginally since then and my BS and CARS are definitely in the same ballpark.
 
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So you think the ek questions are similar?
mikil100 said:
I get those scores from the EK books themselves,they have a column to convert scores. I get roughly half the physics wrong too, if that makes you feel better.

I did take the practice exam. I got like 64%/85%/73%/64% PS, CARS, BS,Psych in that order. My PS and Psych have probably gone up marginally since then and my BS and CARS are definitely in the same ballpark.
Click to expand...
k
 
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mikil100 said:
I get those scores from the EK books themselves,they have a column to convert scores. I get roughly half the physics wrong too, if that makes you feel better.

I did take the practice exam. I got like 64%/85%/73%/64% PS, CARS, BS,Psych in that order. My PS and Psych have probably gone up marginally since then and my BS and CARS are definitely in the same ballpark.
Click to expand...
And where is this column you speak of..
 
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Anyone using EK audio osmosis in addition to the text? Curious to hear what you guys think about it.
 
Last edited:
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Are you all doing CARS passages every day? If so, where are you getting them from?
I have the new NS CARS book, so will probably use that soon, but it only has about 5 full tests, so it should last me about 10-15 days if i do 3-4 passages a day?
Any other practice materials for the new CARS section? I have used some of EK 101 and TPRH verbal in the past and still have plenty left, but just wondering if there is more CARS material out there. Thanks!

Same thing for psych practice! Have the NS book, but haven't seen much else practice material, any help would be appreciated!
 
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linsanity17 said:
Are you all doing CARS passages every day? If so, where are you getting them from?
I have the new NS CARS book, so will probably use that soon, but it only has about 5 full tests, so it should last me about 10-15 days if i do 3-4 passages a day?
Any other practice materials for the new CARS section? I have used some of EK 101 and TPRH verbal in the past and still have plenty left, but just wondering if there is more CARS material out there. Thanks!

Same thing for psych practice! Have the NS book, but haven't seen much else practice material, any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Are you using Khan academy? I haven't done any of their passages yet, but they do have some for psych/soci. As for CARS, I don't really know of anywhere to get new material, so I've been using old stuff (old AAMC tests, EK101, Kaplan tests). I'm not doing them every day yet as I'm trying to finish up content review while teaching and trying to finish up my grad degree, but once I finish up content review, I'll be doing them more regularly.
 
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soccergurl1987 said:
Are you using Khan academy? I haven't done any of their passages yet, but they do have some for psych/soci. As for CARS, I don't really know of anywhere to get new material, so I've been using old stuff (old AAMC tests, EK101, Kaplan tests). I'm not doing them every day yet as I'm trying to finish up content review while teaching and trying to finish up my grad degree, but once I finish up content review, I'll be doing them more regularly.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, I've used KA for its bio videos in the past; it's actually very detailed for some organ systems so those were great. I'll have to check out their passages, thanks!

Perspectives on content review: best to cover some of each subject per day or focus on one each day? Personally, 1 chapter takes 3+ hours for me to finish; maybe I need to cut down on the distractions and work more diligently though.
 
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