The Official June 21, 2014 MCAT thread

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serenade said:
In the long run what is 300 bucks when you're about to spend 2-5 thousand?
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It's about $300 in the long run lol that could easily be prevented by grabbing a later date to get a refund. Maybe that's just broke college kid talking in me though lol
 
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My review 2 days later
PS: In anticipation of a brutal ps section I re-worked through all the BR Gen Chem and Phys questions two weeks before the exam. Needless to say, I was surprised at how straightforward PS was and felt great after this section
Prediction: 10-11
VR: Similar to the AAMC exams, some easy and some difficult passages. Overall, felt decent but not great.
Prediction 9-10
BS: Woof, that orgo came out of nowhere and some of the experimental bio passages were tricky as well. Was not expecting that rigorous of a BS section and hopefully the curve helps out.
Prediction 8-10
 
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ldiaz29 said:
It's about $300 in the long run lol that could easily be prevented by grabbing a later date to get a refund. Maybe that's just broke college kid talking in me though lol
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but i don't want to wait, i want to apply this cycle. it's not like i wasn't ready or something -- i was averaging a little over a 36 on my practice tests. if i don't get at least a 35 i'm retaking, and the sooner the better before 1) i forget everything and 2) it becomes too late to apply this cycle. i'm more than willing to eat 275 bucks for some peace of mind
 
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Vain Brother said:
but i don't want to wait, i want to apply this cycle. it's not like i wasn't ready or something -- i was averaging a little over a 36 on my practice tests. if i don't get at least a 35 i'm retaking, and the sooner the better before 1) i forget everything and 2) it becomes too late to apply this cycle. i'm more than willing to eat 275 bucks for some peace of mind
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If your average was 36.X I probably wouldn't suggest retaking a 34.


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gotta love when half of the computers at the testing center crash halfway through BS
then again 30 minutes later..
at least i finished 5 mins before it crashed the second time, but 10-15 people still had some time left on BS :O
 
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starlite911 said:
The advising department at my school recently informed me that IU had reversed this decision due to "negative feedback" they had received. I'd still call the university and check if you want to be positive though.
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They did. Originally they stated they'd only be accepting the current MCAT for this application cycle and then bam.
They changed their minds about 5 days ago and decided to allow these scores to be good for 2 app cycles. Still getting the short end of the stick, but if I can't get in after 2 tries, I probably wasn't ever going to get in anyway. It just makes me feel better because I'm likely not going to get in with my lack of EC activities, but will have a year to improve myself without having to retake / study for a new MCAT and go through this awful process again.

Then again, that's assuming I do well on it...
 
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SpringButterfly said:
Yeah ... that's why I didn't even bother applying in 2012 for 2013 cycle ... my philosophy in life is you will never know unless you try! I do believe in odd scenarios & it is possible that you could be one of the odds that got in with low scores ... but coming to SDN & seeing these applicants makes me say NO WAY on earth I'll be the odd person, so I'm not applying! I decided to apply this year regardless of what my score is going to be as I'm not going to apply later anyway .. there is no way that I'll take the new MCAT & I'll forget about the US & move to Europe, Australia or New Zealand !

Take a look!
https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2013factstable24.pdf
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Actually, this makes me feel pretty good. Over half the people with a ~3.6 and ~30 MCAT that apply get accepted.
I like this. 🙂

EDIT: On a side note: those students that got accepted with a 2.0 GPA? They literally won life.
 
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serenade said:
I think that was 7. But I don't think it was exceptionally difficult. Most of the answers were very straight forward extrapolations of stuff they stated in the passage.

6 however personally threw me for a loop though. I couldn't even figure out whether or not the author was really knowledgeable or whether or not he really thought it was all bs.
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haha dude no kidding, it's like the test writers knew 95% of test takers would drown in that passage.
 
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Neuroglia said:
haha dude no kidding, it's like the test writers knew 95% of test takers would drown in that passage.
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Honestly many people who studied literature and knew the history if that movement likely drowned in it.
I mean essentially it reminded me of the bio passages this time. Unclear and unexplained.
 
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serenade said:
Honestly many people who studied literature and knew the history if that movement likely drowned in it.
I mean essentially it reminded me of the bio passages this time. Unclear and unexplained.
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I honestly should've skipped it and did 7 first because I wasted almost 10 minutes on it and was rushed on the last one.
 
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serenade said:
I think that was 7. But I don't think it was exceptionally difficult. Most of the answers were very straight forward extrapolations of stuff they stated in the passage.

6 however personally threw me for a loop though. I couldn't even figure out whether or not the author was really knowledgeable or whether or not he really thought it was all bs.
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What was passage 6's general topic? I thought passage 1 was the hardest and found the rest to be easy.. 7 was probably the easiest for me.
 
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lNVlNClBLE said:
Actually, this makes me feel pretty good. Over half the people with a ~3.6 and ~30 MCAT that apply get accepted.
I like this. 🙂

EDIT: On a side note: those students that got accepted with a 2.0 GPA? They literally won life.
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I've always wondered--are these stats on MD acceptances or MD+DO?
 
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studentp0x said:
Toronto/GTA area? How confident are you in a spot opening for a september test date? And by what time would you anticipate it? As of now october is when spots are available for toronto/gta...
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If we are applying this cycle, is this the last test date that can be added to our application?
 
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christinalouise said:
Which province did you find a spot in? I am waiting for my score from June 13th but figured I could book a seat quickly for a re-take if need be because there were only 6 of us writing the test that day in the facility. Might be shooting myself in the foot waiting...
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I booked it at Ottawa, Aug 7th at 8 am!
 
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I literally can't stop thinking about that one verbal passage and how much that will drop my score if I did as poorly as I think I did on it 🙁 I made an 11 on verbal when I took the test in January.
 
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Well, I have no idea what to expect since I never took any practice tests....though I haven't taken physics yet, I didn't feel too terrible on the PS section.
 
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Hey everyone! I've been following this thread for a little while (friend took it on this date) and saw how difficult BS was. I'm taking the MCAT in two weeks. Any suggestions on if I should focus on orgo? Any techniques to not get thrown off guard?
 
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neilmodi93 said:
Hey everyone! I've been following this thread for a little while (friend took it on this date) and saw how difficult BS was. I'm taking the MCAT in two weeks. Any suggestions on if I should focus on orgo? Any techniques to not get thrown off guard?
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honestly, for the harder passages you saw us talking about...I don't think there is anything you can do to prepare for them. For the rest of the section though, just be really comfortable with the big topics like digestive and excretory systems, and hormones. One word of advice, don't let a few difficult questions/passages throw off your whole mindset and tank you for the rest of the test! Maybe some other tester can give better insight but for me personally, I don't think there was anything I could have done differently to better prepare for that BS..any by BS I mean BullS***
 
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neilmodi93 said:
Hey everyone! I've been following this thread for a little while (friend took it on this date) and saw how difficult BS was. I'm taking the MCAT in two weeks. Any suggestions on if I should focus on orgo? Any techniques to not get thrown off guard?
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You need to really know all organic chemistry fundamentals. The O-chem on this exam wasn't THAT bad, but it was harder than anything on AAMC practice tests. It just required better skills in making educated guesses, dealing with a large passage, and using information from the passage.
As for biology stuff, know the nephron, know hormones, know cell biology and know basic anatomy. If you learned the material in prerequisites rather than just getting an A (hopefully) or a B, you should be fine.
 
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I agree, a lot of the organic chemistry on this exam wasn't something you could have studied in a book.

And the mechanism just by virtue of sheer size was far too difficult to complete without wasting easily 20 minutes.

In the end, I think the BS was truthfully unreasonable. I can understand being convoluted, but they took it to an extent that was far beyond reason.
 
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BS was very, very difficult. Oddly enough though, I still feel like I did well... but one ofthe orgo passages really pissed me off. That one passage wasn't called for. I enjoyed how much gen chem there was in PS, and VR was actually pretty interesting. I'm still feeling like I got anywhere from 28-30. Hopefully that's true.
 
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Yea I thought that one monstrous orgo passage was way too difficult given the limited time constraints. Maybe if I had 30 minutes to spend I could figure it out, but unfortunately you have to guess sometimes when there's a passage you dont understand. I thought the other orgo passage was difficult but I feel better about that one since passage info helped on some of the questions and I didnt feel like I was blindly guessing on that one.
 
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ciestar said:
Haha I would say!
But any tips for physics? I actually haven't taken the mcat, but I struggle with physics so I need advice! Even equations you felt were absolutely necessary to know!
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You know don't forget about your ..glasses.. Like I said before. I lit wrote out a page for PS and BS of things I just had to know cold-ish, but you know when you panic everything goes out the window. So what I did, I just memorized those two lists and wrote them out when you have about 20 min before the exam starts in your booth. (tutorial time). That really helped because I was nervous but not in panic mode and even if you feel like you know nothing having all that info just shows you that's not true. Formula questions were a snap. ALSO, write out the times you need to be done with each passage/set of questions for sections to keep yourself in check.
Still ran out of time though haha. Be prepared for a much longer questions and passages. And do not be thrown off by weird topics. Take it as just reading an article. At least that's what I try to do to keep myself from thinking "Wtf, I never learned this." and going into panic mode. This is such a psychological game. And honestly.... I know the test costs a lot (perhaps you applied for financial aid?), but I HIGHLY suggest you take a 'mock' (real but cancel scores) test a month before you want to take it for real. I really wish I did. When I first took it... I was not prepared. at all. The test really scared me. So now I have this fear of it. I know it sounds really stupid but I really do. But that's my problem not yours. Either way its good to get an idea how the test really is and it will def put you in hyper learning mode.
 
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zerohour said:
This is such a psychological game. And honestly.... I know the test costs a lot (perhaps you applied for financial aid?), but I HIGHLY suggest you take a 'mock' (real but cancel scores) test a month before you want to take it for real. I really wish I did. When I first took it... I was not prepared. at all.
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Sorry, but this is not very good advice in my opinion. There are 8 full length tests available from AAMC. One is free. They are all computer based and you can replicate test day conditions by starting the exam at the time your MCAT is scheduled. Additional tests are $35 or $45 each (I forget which but I'm pretty sure they're $35). That is WAY better than spending $500 for one MCAT score or $350 if you have FAP. If you have the money to spend on another test, you would be far better off buying all the full length tests and practicing with those rather than getting 1/7 the practice by taking the real thing once.
 
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dorian baltar said:
Sorry, but this is not very good advice in my opinion. There are 8 full length tests available from AAMC. One is free. They are all computer based and you can replicate test day conditions by starting the exam at the time your MCAT is scheduled. Additional tests are $35 or $45 each (I forget which but I'm pretty sure they're $35). That is WAY better than spending $500 for one MCAT score or $350 if you have FAP. If you have the money to spend on another test, you would be far better off buying all the full length tests and practicing with those rather than getting 1/7 the practice by taking the real thing once.
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Oh no. I was not suggesting taking the test and have it in place of all the practice AAMCs. I was saying in addition to AAMC's, if funds are available. I don't know... The June 21st test was fairly close to the AAMCs but...other tests I took... not even close.
 
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zerohour said:
You know don't forget about your ..glasses.. Like I said before. I lit wrote out a page for PS and BS of things I just had to know cold-ish, but you know when you panic everything goes out the window. So what I did, I just memorized those two lists and wrote them out when you have about 20 min before the exam starts in your booth. (tutorial time). That really helped because I was nervous but not in panic mode and even if you feel like you know nothing having all that info just shows you that's not true. Formula questions were a snap. ALSO, write out the times you need to be done with each passage/set of questions for sections to keep yourself in check.
Still ran out of time though haha. Be prepared for a much longer questions and passages. And do not be thrown off by weird topics. Take it as just reading an article. At least that's what I try to do to keep myself from thinking "Wtf, I never learned this." and going into panic mode. This is such a psychological game. And honestly.... I know the test costs a lot (perhaps you applied for financial aid?), but I HIGHLY suggest you take a 'mock' (real but cancel scores) test a month before you want to take it for real. I really wish I did. When I first took it... I was not prepared. at all. The test really scared me. So now I have this fear of it. I know it sounds really stupid but I really do. But that's my problem not yours. Either way its good to get an idea how the test really is and it will def put you in hyper learning mode.
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This is a good idea. You learn a lot about how you handle uncomfortable situations while taking the test. Being stuck on a tricky question in the comfort of your home while taking a practice exam is not the same as when you are in the testing center. A huge part of the exam really is mental. There will always be a couple questions that you don't feel confident answering but it is how well you can forget about those questions and move on that will earn you a solid score.
 
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zerohour said:
You know don't forget about your ..glasses.. Like I said before. I lit wrote out a page for PS and BS of things I just had to know cold-ish, but you know when you panic everything goes out the window. So what I did, I just memorized those two lists and wrote them out when you have about 20 min before the exam starts in your booth. (tutorial time). That really helped because I was nervous but not in panic mode and even if you feel like you know nothing having all that info just shows you that's not true. Formula questions were a snap. ALSO, write out the times you need to be done with each passage/set of questions for sections to keep yourself in check.
Still ran out of time though haha. Be prepared for a much longer questions and passages. And do not be thrown off by weird topics. Take it as just reading an article. At least that's what I try to do to keep myself from thinking "Wtf, I never learned this." and going into panic mode. This is such a psychological game. And honestly.... I know the test costs a lot (perhaps you applied for financial aid?), but I HIGHLY suggest you take a 'mock' (real but cancel scores) test a month before you want to take it for real. I really wish I did. When I first took it... I was not prepared. at all. The test really scared me. So now I have this fear of it. I know it sounds really stupid but I really do. But that's my problem not yours. Either way its good to get an idea how the test really is and it will def put you in hyper learning mode.
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what two lists are you referring to?
 
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That Monstrous orgo passage was definitely unfair. I stayed behind and wrote a long complaint. However, I am fairly confident about the answers though, the questions wasn't too hard, just the format...unacceptable that so much scrolling up and downs are required. Don't they know the testing center has a computer screen the size of a waffle?
 
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neilmodi93 said:
Hey everyone! I've been following this thread for a little while (friend took it on this date) and saw how difficult BS was. I'm taking the MCAT in two weeks. Any suggestions on if I should focus on orgo? Any techniques to not get thrown off guard?
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Just keep calm when you take the MCAT. ALL the problems can be solved with what you know already (I'm saying this as someone who usually gets 14+ on BS and PS). If you saw a question that you may not seem to know straightforwardly, find an angle that will allow you to use what you know. I guarantee you there will be one. The weirder the question, often time it is easier to answer--once you really figure out what they are asking. Are they really trying to ask you to know before hand the product of this reaction that you're sure you've never seen before? Or they are asking you to figure out the similarity between the reaction in the question and the one in the passage and find the pattern? If you can see it's actually the later one, it won't be hard to answer the question. The question turns into this "Tell me what you get if you subject flour to this temperature?" Then you go back to the passage and find that in the passage it says flour turns into a pancake under the same condition. The answer, no surprise will be "a pancake". AAMC expects you to spend sometime cursing and panicking when you see the weirder questions and that's part of the test. There was a guy hyperventilated so hard during BS in my testing center that I was worried he's gonna faint.
 
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WHY THE *&(^((^&^ %#%^@*( it takes a month to grade multiple choices based exam!!!! UGH!!!! 🙁
 
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Friendly_female_house said:
That Monstrous orgo passage was definitely unfair. I stayed behind and wrote a long complaint. However, I am fairly confident about the answers though, the questions wasn't too hard, just the format...unacceptable that so much scrolling up and downs are required. Don't they know the testing center has a computer screen the size of a waffle?
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My mouse's scroller didn't even work 😉.
 
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kazin said:
My mouse's scroller didn't even work 😉.
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Yeah, mine was very weird as well. Remember the big ass graph about the marathon runner stuff? It was so wide that I had to move the bar thingnie left and right. It was very distracting. After everybody was gone, I sat there and typed a long feedback to AAMC (the keyboard sucks as well). One of the issue I reported was that, the design of the questions need to consider the fact that it would be hard to view very big graph on such a small screen.
 
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