The Official June 21, 2014 MCAT thread

Started by Saxappeal1
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Saxappeal1

M.D.
10+ Year Member
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Hey so I know a lot of us were posting on June MCAT'ers unite, but I want to get to know the progress of all of us 6/21'ers in particular. Let's do it.
 
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I've been taking them every two days, scoring upper 20s, still trying to crack 30! Just took AAMC 4 10/10/7...not too surprised about the 7 I was tired and rushed through BS. I finished the section with 30 mins left...need to build up that mental stamina 🙁
 
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Took AAMC 8 today 36 13-11-12... Just been taking tests and reviewing content basically and tryna keep my verbal from dropping.. my greatest fear is the MCAT is alot different than AAMCS and score is way lower lol
 
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mshopeful17 said:
I've been taking them every two days, scoring upper 20s, still trying to crack 30! Just took AAMC 4 10/10/7...not too surprised about the 7 I was tired and rushed through BS. I finished the section with 30 mins left...need to build up that mental stamina 🙁
Click to expand...

same! I took AAMC 5 about 9 days ago and got a 8/10/11....so close to cracking a 30...haha

taking AAMC 7 Thursday, crossing my fingers !
XxSynapsexX said:
Took AAMC 8 today 36 13-11-12... Just been taking tests and reviewing content basically and tryna keep my verbal from dropping.. my greatest fear is the MCAT is alot different than AAMCS and score is way lower lol
Click to expand...

wow thats awesome!
______

To both of you-are you using any other FLs aside from the AAMCs? Whatcha using for content review?
 
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Well I did use TPR tests which were harder but I think helped me alot. But for these last 2.5 weeks Ill just be doing AAMCs and AAMC self assessments. For content review I am using TPR and notes that I took when reading TPR books. I just think TPR is the "Goldylocks" company in MCAT prep. Its not too detailed like TBR and not too vague like Examkrackers.
 
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not gunna lie tho upper level sciences and a few key test taking philosophies has really been helping me
some of the discretes are so out there in Bio, I would never have known them if I hadnt taken physiology and genetics lol
 
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XxSynapsexX said:
not gunna lie tho upper level sciences and a few key test taking philosophies has really been helping me
some of the discretes are so out there in Bio, I would never have known them if I hadnt taken physiology and genetics lol
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I wish I had gotten the chance to take anything upper level, aside from bchem.

what do you mean by key philosophies?

XxSynapsexX said:
Nice lol I heard the GS exams were tough
anybody know from searching SDN if the June Mcats tend to be harder with a better curve or easier with a strict curve?
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I looked into this before! I was wondering if like winter month MCATs were curved better for some reason- from what I recall reading they do something where they put them all on a level playing field where it supposedly doesn't matter what month you take it.

dunno how reliable this is, or accurate for that matter, but I'd like to think I didn't shoot myself in the foot by picking June haha

http://www.nextstepmcat.com/best-and-worst-times-to-take-the-mcat/
 
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The GS exams are pretty damn tough. Im saving AAMC 8, 10, and 11 for the final 8 days before MCAT. How is everyone? I mean so far I'm at 28,29,31,27,29,31. Ranges: PS: 9-11, VR 8-10, BS: 9-11.
 
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Started content review immediately after finals (May 8 I think). Started taking AAMC FLs a few days ago. AAMC 3: 27. AAMC 4: 32. Pretty happy w/ those scores. Not sure which one to believe. One of the key differences between the two was my attitude going into them. For AAMC 3, I was nervous, scared I'd be way below my goal, etc. For #4, I pumped myself, and gave myself a huge ego boost pre-exam. Paid off! Also, I agree, upper level science courses (genetics + physiology) have helped me w/ quite a number of questions so far. I plan on finishing the lot of the FLs by June 16 or so. Then taking the rest of the time off to recalibrate.
 
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vanillabear55 said:
I wish I had gotten the chance to take anything upper level, aside from bchem.

what do you mean by key philosophies?




I looked into this before! I was wondering if like winter month MCATs were curved better for some reason- from what I recall reading they do something where they put them all on a level playing field where it supposedly doesn't matter what month you take it.

dunno how reliable this is, or accurate for that matter, but I'd like to think I didn't shoot myself in the foot by picking June haha

http://www.nextstepmcat.com/best-and-worst-times-to-take-the-mcat/
Click to expand...
Thanks for the post!! and i mean when you take so many tests some of the questions start to blend.. like in bio everyone complains about experimental passages but if you look at it like an experiment ( independent variable dependent, control data etc) it starts feelig alot easier

similarly for physics EVERY question can be answered with a formula.. questions like how does gravity affect thiss.. its tricking you to use ur intuition but if u use ur formulas right and see that gravity cancels out and doesnt affect the value.. theres ur answer..
its things like this that has been helping me
 
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mshopeful17 said:
I've been taking them every two days, scoring upper 20s, still trying to crack 30! Just took AAMC 4 10/10/7...not too surprised about the 7 I was tired and rushed through BS. I finished the section with 30 mins left...need to build up that mental stamina 🙁
Click to expand...

I did 10/11/7 on AAMC 4 also last week....felt the bio was much more difficult than usual on this one...
 
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We're just less than 2.5 weeks out guys (and girls)...aside from AAMC tests, what else can you recommend I do?

As it stands now, I'm basically going through the AAMC content outline and watching Chad's videos/looking up information on content I'm not perfectly comofrtable with. Doing about 50-60 TPRH workbook quesitons as well...anything else?
 
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Those tests were a week apart.. i think aamc 3 was a bit of a fluke cuz it was my first test and i got an 8 on verbal when i usually get 10-11.. but i mean ive just been following the spinach method on sdn and so far its been working
 
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How do you guys make flash cards for some of these questions....

For instance, if I miss something because I forget what aldosterone does...okay, that's easy.

But when it's something directly from the passage I missed...how the hell do you make a flash card from that?
 
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I dont understand the AAMC tests categories.. apparently AAMC 3-5 had like 11-15 hard questions whereas the later AAMCs some of them only have 4 hard questions but they definetely feel harder.
 
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And yanks I also keep a mistake journal so that could be one way to categorize that mistake.
I would write something like " If a question seems abnormally difficult go back to the passage to search for the answer"
Its stupid and childish but I make less of those mistakes when I write them down.
 
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yanks I'm going to start using Gold Standard practice tests for fresh material, I've taken all the AAMCs over a year ago and I don't really feel like I'm remembering old questions, but just to be sure I'm taking new GS tests and seeing where I score.
 
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Here is the way I have seen it/compared it in my mind the past couple of months:
PS: Most similar to GS, much harder then AAMC PS.
VR: About equal or a little harder/longer than EK 101 Verbal
BS: Close to AAMC tests in style but mine was pretty hard.
So I use GS for PS/BS, AAMC for BS, and EK 101 for verbal. That, in my mind and from what I have heard from other people as well, resembles the real test the most.
 
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Dam now im worried about PS lol ive been using pretty simple materials like TPR and AAMCs.. what was difficult about it? calculation heavy or just wierdness in passages?
 
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I just started taking full lengths two weeks ago
AAMC 3 (10/12/12)34
AAMC 4 (12/14/13) 39
TPR 2 (8/10/10) 28
I have no idea what happened with the TPR exam but I don't think I'm going to be taking any more of them...too much of a blow to the confidence. Verbal has always been really strong for me (I originally when to college to be a lawyer so I've taken the dreaded LSAT). However, physics is hard for me. Are you guys just straight memorizing the formulas? I'm also kind of concerned with orgo, particularly the carb. acid derivatives. You guys discover any way to remember these?
 
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I would do some very desperate things for those verbal scores @AspiringDoc2015 and TPR is supposed to be harder than AAMCs, plus AAMC 3/4 don't seem to be as representative of testing.
 
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@Saxappeal1 Yeah, I started with 3/4 mainly to get a feel for the layout and test my timing. I'm gonna finish up the next 2.5 weeks with 7-11 and the diagnostics. For verbal, I found on the LSAT (and similarly, so far, for the MCAT) that when you narrow it down to two choices the credited response is usually the more convoluted response. Out of all of the TPR verbal passages I've done, it seems pretty easy to identify and eliminate the strongly opinionated and out of scope responses, so I'm typically able to narrow it down to two choices. I think most of the studying I do will be for PS since it seems like AAMC has turned that section into a beast the last few months...
 
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are you guys/gals submitting your AMCAS before you get your MCAT scores? I was aiming to do it within the next week myself, just putting the finishing touches on my personal statement and need to edit my activity descriptions.
 
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