The Official June 5, 2014 MCAT Thread
Started by Fight
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I'm registered for this day. For some reason they totally removed the earlier May test dates at the location nearest to me so I had to settle for taking it in June. Slightly annoying because of the delay but at least I will have more time to study.
hoping to take this day- might need the extra few weeks and take a mid/late june
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Officially registered for this day as well! Was going for may 22nd but as much as I tried, I am NOT a morning person. Exactly 6 weeks, lets do this.
that's what I figured and its my main motivation to NOT pushing it to an 8AM date in June hahaha
I'm assuming its going to be an awful night sleep as it is, so waking up at 5:30-6AM sound terrrribleeeeee
I'm gonna play a round of 18 holes all day the day before so I can increase the chances of me sleeping well that night lol
New to this, just rescheduled for this day from May 17 MCAT. For people who don't know...that feeling 2 weeks before the exam is SCARY unless you are OVERprepared. With that being said, go crazy now so by June 1st, you're just chilling and calmly waiting to meet the beast
Just took AAMC 3 yesterday and got 11/10/9 Hoping that wasn't a fluke, over a month ago I scored a 9/8/7 on Kaplan FL1 Need to get with the bio program, genetics is killing me 🙁
Hey I am currently doing an MS in Genetics and I deeply recommend EKBio Chapters 2(Nucleic Acids and proteins) then read Chapter 9 (Populations) immediately after. It really synthesizes the basics that you need to do well. I know it may seem dry at first but once you're able to relate simple mitosis, meiosis, DNA and Protein at the molecular level to larger scale applications in populations...it will be easier to grasp..hope this helps!
Hey all,
Glad to see someone made a thread! Any one know if it's possible to bring up a VR average of 6-7 to an 8-9 in four weeks? lol
Glad to see someone made a thread! Any one know if it's possible to bring up a VR average of 6-7 to an 8-9 in four weeks? lol
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Definitely is with tons of practice...I went up from a 9 to a consistent 12 from April 12 to May 1
Do you have any tips on how you improved your score? I have been doing EK101.. but scoring around 7.. 🙁
I know its repeated ad nauseum on this forum but it actually works (I am far from a genius):
1) Read A LOT of non science, subjective material like Op-ed NYTimes articles and learn to enjoy them and anticipate the subsequent arguments/ideas and gauge the tone of the author. I read every passage as if it's a Harry Potter novel (1 of my favs)
2) Do NOT speed read. If you thoroughly read and understand the article you will NOT need to refer to the passage unless its one of those I,II,III questions that require super specifics
3) Be confident in your abilities. I tend to get 6/7 right on a passage and the 1 that I get wrong is usually because I doubted my first instinct. You know more than you think!
People forget that verbal gives a grand total of EASY 15 points. You literally just have to turn your scientific brain off and use common sense and basic grade school reading comprehension. I know teachers that have their HS students do MCAT verbal passages as practice for the SAT and the kids MURDER them because they keep it simple (use this as inspiration, YOU can do it)
Try out the above and comment and tell me how it goes. Do about 5 passages, each timed with a stopwatch, not a timer and see how long it takes for you to get through it. Report your scores, I can almost GUARANTEE an increase. You are not going to get EVERY question bc some are extremely tricky but you should be able to get 30-34/40~10-12 [Try to use TBR review passages as they are all consistently 600 words and MCAT-esque regarding question format and reasoning for answers; EK101 tends to be a bit Loopy]
Hey thanks for the advice! For TBR, which passages are more similar to the MCAT, the nondiagnostic or the diagnostic or it doesn't matter? Thanks again!
I haven't taken the real MCAT but the nondiagnostic are pretty similar to the AAMC Verbal tests. The diagnostic seem to just help you fine tune mistakes you made from the nondiags. I may be wrong but that's my take...Good luck and I am happy to have helped!
just took aamc #3, my first timed FL after 2+ months content review (non-trad). 10/9/11=30. considering i've averaged an 11 on my past 1o verbals or so in both practice books was kinda shocked i missed 14. again, my weaknesses (hormones, excretory system, optics, etc) based on the self-assessment are bringing me down. hoping chad's videos will fill in the stuff i don't really understand after the books - i'm sick of sitting at my desk reading the books. was thinking that if i didn't break 30+ by 4th FL i would postpone it to june 13, but as of now going to stick with june 5. aiming for a 33.
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Similar goals. Aiming to take aamc 3 as my first timed either tomorrow or Monday. Have you checked out the khan academy mcat section? They have some pretty good videos for endocrine etc
in all honestly i haven't even attempted to learn things like the kreb's cycle or hormones or lenses or any of that stuff that requires knowing specifics instead of the conceptual stuff. once i get that down i should be good. finding it really hard to read verbal passages on the computer screen, hopefully more practice will get me back to where i was.
ugh, dreading my next full length tomorrow, don't feel like I'm going to see as much progress (or gasp, going down) and gonna ruin my motivation for the week. well at least its experience! aamc 4 I think ?
Do you guys recommend doing the self assessment before or after AAMC 3?
defo do it before. it will specifically show you what your weaknesses are. focus on say 3 of those, maybe 30min each, from each section before any FL. i got my SA scores and then took aamc #3 right after without improving my weaknesses, and of course those same areas where on the exam. now i'm studying them anyways, knowing had i done this before i would have done better, and was going to have to do that eventually anyways (did ~9 in physical sciences & ~10 in bio on SA; 10/9/11 on #3).
This might sound odd but I think coffee right before VR helps especially with paying attention to detail. I got an 8 on AAMC 3 verbal but got an 11 on AAMC 4 after I drank coffee🙂
I'm assuming we can't leave a cup of coffee in the lockers though haha. What is it we are allowed? Some granola bars and water bottles? I know I'm gonna need like a cliff bar during one of the breaks haha
I bought a thing of chocolate covered espresso beans to munch on during breaks. Sugar + caffeine = alertness + morale boost.
This test is killing me!
This test is killing me!
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Even more motivation to get it overwith June 5th and not push it off, ruin as little of summer as possible with MCAT!
Chocolate covered espresso beans sound perfect...definitely going to try that haha- we can bring that to the test center??
Agreed! As far as I know we can keep food in our locker and have snacks during breaks. Anybody know otherwise?
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just did #4: 11/12/9 = 32. if you super score that with my #3 (10/9/11 = 30) i'd have a 34. target score is 33. honestly expecting to do better in verbal & biology than physical sciences (advanced physics concepts is my downfall). 2 more days of focusing on weaknesses before #5; i'm not even attempting to go over specific questions i missed. if i can do 30+ work on that then not delaying my exam till june 13, as i'd hate to wake up early, plus i'm leaving for brazil june 17, so want to get this out of my mind asap.
Taking #4 tomorrow, and #5 Sunday.
If I'm not breaking 30s on either of them I'm going to have to delay, which would be super irritating, so fingers crossed.
If I'm not breaking 30s on either of them I'm going to have to delay, which would be super irritating, so fingers crossed.
I'm following SN2D's advice and usually spend 7-8 minutes per passage. That way - you have approx 5-10 mins left at the end of the section.
For me, lots of practice questions help. You'll start to see a pattern by which the administrators ask the questions. Therefore, the more you do the more you'll be able to recognize these patterns and question types. Learn from the practice tests you take and the explanations to their answers.
Lol! I'm not gonna lie, caffeine does help me focus much more than ever! It helps me gain interest into the stories... 🙂
Ummm, is it me or was the Physics Self-Assessment impossible to complete?! 🙁
It's tiring most definitely. Are u doing it in one sitting?
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Best MCAT investment thus far: Chad's Videos particularly for Gen Chem and Orgo, decent is Physics
-Used EK (ehhh) and TBR (too dense and addicted to minutiae) and wa sgetting 7s(3 exams-2 Kaplan, AAMC 5), watched Chad for 2 weeks now and I am at an 11 (2 AAMC)-3&4.
Maybe it's more of me doing practice and going "hard" but take it for what its worth. They have been golden in enhancing my understanding of Chemistry that I took in 2009..be good!
-Used EK (ehhh) and TBR (too dense and addicted to minutiae) and wa sgetting 7s(3 exams-2 Kaplan, AAMC 5), watched Chad for 2 weeks now and I am at an 11 (2 AAMC)-3&4.
Maybe it's more of me doing practice and going "hard" but take it for what its worth. They have been golden in enhancing my understanding of Chemistry that I took in 2009..be good!
aamc #3: 10/9/11 = 30 (low = verbal)
aamc #4: 11/12/9 = 32 (low = bio)
aamc #5: 8/11/12 = 31 (low = physical)
was aiming for a 33, now aiming for a 34 - and with this, i bid adieu and say hello to june 13. jealous you guys don't have to wake up early. good luck.
aamc #4: 11/12/9 = 32 (low = bio)
aamc #5: 8/11/12 = 31 (low = physical)
was aiming for a 33, now aiming for a 34 - and with this, i bid adieu and say hello to june 13. jealous you guys don't have to wake up early. good luck.
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