The Official June 5, 2014 MCAT Thread

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CKP7175 said:
I took the test today, too, and though I don't feel like it was my best performance, I've felt worse about certain practice tests and better about others, and I haven't scored <30 on any of them. But I'm still worried that I may have tanked this one, as it seems like many of you guys and gals are, too. So my question is for those of you that are considering a re-take: When do you plan on re-taking it, and what is your plan in the meantime? Do you plan on scheduling another date ASAP and studying from this point until you get your scores back, and then cancelling if you're scores are in your desired range? I am considering this approach, however I'm not sure I'll be able to devote enough time over the next month and half or so (I'd want to re-take in late July/early August so I won't be too late applying) to make a real improvement in my score, because I work full time and I'll be spending a good deal of free time working on my app, personal statement, etc., plus my access to online material through Kaplan has just expired, so I won't be able to take anymore section or practice tests without spending a nice chunk of change to have my course extended.
Also, I think a big factor that affects performance is test day nervousness and anxiety, and I fear that it will only get worse if I have to re-take, as this time it will be make or break.

Anyone else having these "what if?" dilemmas? This waiting game is going to be hell.
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I agree - I need to work on this anxiety/nervousness factor - not sure what I can do to improve on this. You'd think by studying problems galore, it would be less nerve wracking...
 
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kevaznboy said:
It is basically pointless to buy any of the old AAMCs besides AAMC 11 - it may help you marginally, but that's it.

And worse thing is, if/when you retake, it probably won't be similar to today's....
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Agree.. I took AAMC 3 as a free base line to start studying and AAMC 11 a few days before the test. Even 11 seemed less harsh than today, if I get the same score I'd be ecstatic. I took Kaplan (independent) for their hard science.. but still.

PS: I'm generally a confident test taker by strategy, but I went in to the test today knowing PS would be hard (maybe just for me) and prepared to brush it off as soon as the 70 minutes was over. My nerves also got the best of me and I spent 20 minutes on the first 2 passages... not good. Otherwise... numb. I expected the worst and wasn't disappointed other than my own timing.
VR: Same old.. Interesting at least.
BS: As said before.. So narrow in the topic range. I was annoyed but at least it wasn't one of my weakest topics. It didn't touch on my strengths.. but I felt better coming out than after PS.

My experimental was a soc/psych.. Seemed REALLY memorization oriented; theories and specifics. On top of Biochem?? Hell no @ 2015-MCAT. I don't get it.
 
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Ive always heard that verbal passages are longer on the real exam. I honestly didnt think this was the case. The window for the text was smaller and the words were larger font, thus giving the impression that it was longer. I finished reading them comfortably at the normal pace I do
 
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Pretty sure I got a 5 max on that PS section. I know I got a lot of the "easy" problems wrong too because I was so stressed out and anxious. Def need to calm my nerves...and being next to the door when everyone was walking in and out extremely distracted me. 🙁 I guess I'll be retaking in august...
 
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Ruby3 said:
Anddd I can't sleep because I keep thinking about this
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Oh I can't sleep because Orange is the New Black is available in 5 minutes. You have a month, I suggest you find a nice relaxing hobby like Netflix. 🙂
 
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Ruby3 said:
Anddd I can't sleep because I keep thinking about this
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I know it's hard but don't think about it. I felt the same way after the first time I took it. Did better than I expected. Obviously I didn't do as well as I was averaging, but it wasn't as bad as it seemed leading up to the score release. What is done is done.

Spend time working on stuff that you have control over. If you're planning on retaking, or feel like you might want to, then take a day to rest and hit the books.
 
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Hey all... This is my first ever post but I had to share my what the f moment in regards to yesterday 6/5 exam. Seriously what in the world was up with the physics section? It totally threw me off for the rest of the test. After my first break I made the decision to void just based on physics which sucked because I didn't think verbal or bio were that bad at all. And I know I will def be expecting harder verbal/ bio on whatever exam I take next. From reading everyone's posts I almost wished I would've scored. I seriously thought I was the only one that would walk out of there thinking that about physics. And was anyone's room FREEZING?! I was shivering the whole freaking time! For all those who plan on retaking what is your plan? I'm at lost at what to do or change. I've already gone thru all Amcas and GS exams. Wondering if I should spend yet again more money on another source? Advice anyone?
 
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Hi. Extremely long time lurker; first time poster.

I feel more or less brutalized by today's exam. I suppose I didn't study as long as I could have, but I was scoring so well on practice exams this week (AAMC 9 = 37, AAMC 10 = 38, AAMC 11 = 36). Today just felt like a slap in the face. Reviewing my answers is always HUGE for me because I tend to catch several errors per section. There was barely time for any of that this time.

PS: I don't think this was as bad as people are saying (then again, my undergrad degree was in math). However, I know for sure I got one wrong after Googling it, and I blindly guessed on another two (more due to freaking out than actually not being capable of figuring out how to do it). Prediction: 12.

Verbal: I call bullcrap on those who say these passages aren't longer. It was taking me CONSIDERABLY longer to get through each passage after being very consistent on the AAMCs. I have absolutely no idea how I did. I had to switch strategies halfway through because reading the passages like normal was taking far too much time. Wound up just skimming. Prediction: 10.

BS: This is the section that makes me want to jump off a cliff. I know for sure I missed three... one of which must have been the easiest question of the whole section. I blindly guessed on at least another two, and perhaps more. Prediction: 10.

These predictions, of course, do not take into account the myriad questions I simply haven't spontaneously remembered yet, Googled, and found out that I missed them. There were MANY I had to take educated guesses on even beyond my few blind guesses, some of which I'm having trouble solving even with Google because I don't remember the exact phrasing of the questions.

One of the worst parts of it as well was that the primary topics I was hoping to see heavily were featured heavily, and the primary topics I hoped not to see were completely absent. It didn't help. The representations of the topics I wanted to see were very hard.

Overall, I just feel tremendously depressed. I wanted to score very strongly, but I think I'm going to be in the low 30s. This next month is going to be intolerable for someone as obsessive as I am, and I don't really know how I'm going to deal with it. I desperately wish I knew what the numeric cutoffs are for our particular test's sections, but of course there's simply no way to know that.
 
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Uafl112 said:
The suffering has only begun my friends. This next month is going to be ****
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Having been through this before I can tell you it's going to get better. By Monday at the latest you'll be over it won't be taking over your mind anymore. For the first 2-3 days after my first exam I was thinking about it about 24/7. Then, I woke up one morning was thought why the hell am I wasting all this energy about something I have no control over...
 
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Omppu27 said:
Having been through this before I can tell you it's going to get better. By Monday at the latest you'll be over it won't be taking over your mind anymore. For the first 2-3 days after my first exam I was thinking about it about 24/7. Then, I woke up one morning was thought why the hell am I wasting all this energy about something I have no control over...
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+1. The second time around I care even less.
 
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I'm so glad I have research to keep me busy. But then my research involves some of the stuff they went over in the BS section (that one difficult passage with all those graphs), so I can't really not think of at least that passage haha.
 
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I feel the same way about PS as all of you guys. Have been getting around 12/13 on PS, and that one just killed me. Sounds like that's the consensus here though, so hopefully the curve will take that into account.
 
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MichaelBergen said:
I'm so glad I have research to keep me busy. But then my research involves some of the stuff they went over in the BS section (that one difficult passage with all those graphs), so I can't really not think of at least that passage haha.
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That sounds like interesting research even though I couldn't understand a lot of it lol
 
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What seemed like some sort of mistake for verbal really threw me off and that would definitely matter bc they asked a question on it.
 
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In your exam for Verbal, did you get an even spread of questions (5 to 6) on passages OR did you get more questions (8 etc.,) on some passages and few on others? Did you guys scan for that sort of thing? EK 101 verbal sometimes has 4 questions on a passage and the very last one sometimes has 8 questions.....that's why i am asking....
 
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I was so frustrated after that test. I was getting consistent 33's on the AAMC's, but I walked out of that test yesterday feeling like I bombed it.

PS: WAY tougher than practice tests. If felt like I had to guess on a lot more questions than normal, and a fair number of these were semi blind guesses. Also, I felt like the hard sections affected me mentally, and maybe hurt my performance on the easier questions.

VR: Not bad, but the curve could be a b*$^*

BS: Does anybody else think that this section was actually pretty tough, because I do! Not that bad until a few sections in particular maybe midway through the test. Very dense passages, and took a lot of time, and I'm still not even sure I figured them out. Plus they messed up my timing for the rest of the test! I was consistently scoring 12's and 13's on AAMC's bio, but I walked out very worried about this one. Does anyone else feel like this?!

Overall, after averaging about 32/33 on my later AAMC practice tests, I left this test praying for a 26-27. Does everyone else feel like this? Similar thoughts on PS and BS? How did you guys feel you scored leaving the test, compared to practice tests?!
 
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That PS section...the calculations and I ended up just blind guessing on like 8 of them. Even if the pre-determined curve is lenient, I'm guessing it can't save you from having bombed it huh :/

Would've been happy with even a 10 on that section..looks like I won't be getting that
 
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PLEASE I NEED REASSURANCE!!! Took for the first time 1/25, scored XX. X PS / XX VR / XX BS. This was most likely because I had barely studied and also hadn't finished 2nd semester Physics yet. I shouldn't even have taken it and I'm not sure why I did.

So I studied a ton over the semester and was scoring an average of 33 on AAMC practice (~11/~11/~11). I had also since actually finished Physics which obviously helped a ton for PS.

Took it yesterday and CANNOT stop thinking about it. So depressed and I know it doesn't do any good now but I can't get it out of mind!!! PS completely freaked me out and I don't even know what happened but I ended up so rushed for the last 2 passages that I barely read the questions. I will actually be so grateful for an 8.... I'm thinking I only got about 63% correct....

VR & BS were fine, I'm thinking at least 11 for each. The only reason I didn't void was because I felt maybe even 12 for each section.

Any advice on how to just put this out of my mind??? It is driving me absolutely crazy thinking about it!

Good luck on all on here when the scores come out... I sincerely hope everyone who put in the hard work gets to reap the reward!
 
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im all in said:
Anyone else notice the typo in the units for the specific heat?!
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Yes I saw that and I was like ummmmmmmmmm WTF! But I just ignored the typo and did the calculation like normal...

PS: I felt mostly confident, but it was definitely harder than any of the AAMC's. I normally finished PS w/ 10+ minutes to spare on the AAMC's, here I had 4 minutes left. After googling some of the things I had to make educated guesses on, I found that I got most of them right. It was definitely frustrating, but I think the curve will be generous.

VR: I thought it was much easier than the AAMC's. Normally I finish with <1 minute to spare, here I had 6 minutes left. Only one art-oriented passage, which I was happy about..... Overall not too bad.

BS: I was disappointed in the balance of this section. The majority of the passages covered the topic that I studied the least. I did feel somewhat confident though. The orgo seemed much more complex than the AAMC's. Again, hopefully the curve is generous!
 
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Hey guys, sorry the PS section gave so many of you trouble. Was it more gen chem or physics that was the main contributor?
 
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Shipley231 said:
Hey guys, sorry the PS section gave so many of you trouble. Was it more gen chem or physics that was the main contributor?
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from what i remember it was more chem than physics. I wouldn't let that change the way you're studying or anything though. All the tests are different.
 
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jamesbon said:
I was so frustrated after that test. I was getting consistent 33's on the AAMC's, but I walked out of that test yesterday feeling like I bombed it.

PS: WAY tougher than practice tests. If felt like I had to guess on a lot more questions than normal, and a fair number of these were semi blind guesses. Also, I felt like the hard sections affected me mentally, and maybe hurt my performance on the easier questions.

VR: Not bad, but the curve could be a b*$^*

BS: Does anybody else think that this section was actually pretty tough, because I do! Not that bad until a few sections in particular maybe midway through the test. Very dense passages, and took a lot of time, and I'm still not even sure I figured them out. Plus they messed up my timing for the rest of the test! I was consistently scoring 12's and 13's on AAMC's bio, but I walked out very worried about this one. Does anyone else feel like this?!

Overall, after averaging about 32/33 on my later AAMC practice tests, I left this test praying for a 26-27. Does everyone else feel like this? Similar thoughts on PS and BS? How did you guys feel you scored leaving the test, compared to practice tests?!
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I felt exactly the same way.
I was scoring around 9-10 (occasionally 8) on AAMC practist exams on both PS and BS.
Verbal.. I kinda gave up.. because there wasn't time to improve my verbal.. I just hoped for the best.

After the test,
I thought VR was ok. (but who knows really lol)
I'm a retaker.. and last time I took my VR section.. I ran out of time.. couldn't even do one passage.
So considering that I was able to read the passages (& actually understand what they are saying) and finish them on time.. made me feel better.

BS & PS: Thought they were much harder than the practice tests. For BS, I think two passages really threw me off... And I already know I missed 4 easy questions.. 🙁
For PS, I just did not have enough time 🙁 I had to rush a little (near end of section).. Normally I always had time to go back and check my marked questions.. (in practice test) .. so I don't know what to expect.

Overall, to be honest, I was aiming for 30.. but after the test, I think I will be happy if I get a 27 ~..
 
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So I never wrote here before but have checked the progress for a while.
Yesterday I left the testing center crying. I know it might seem silly but I did.
I am a retake. I work full time up to 50 hours a week and have been studying my butt off for months. I took the mcat a year ago and did terribly. I sucked at verbal so badly. This time I felt confident going in to take the exam. I studied and all of my sections have improved during my practices. I took GS, AAMC, and TPR exams. But after the ps from yesterday I told myself to not let go and keep it up for verbal. Then somehow I couldn't finish verbal, for the first time I was hanged up in the passages and took so much time. Am I crazy? How did I take so long to read them? I have taken more than 20 exams and finish them all ( that the last passage usually within the last 6 mins). It was interesting but somehow confusing and my time just blew!

Bio, I have been good with organic and whatever was there confused me. Also, the genetics kicked my butt. I amd evastated. Anyone think that this might have a high curve?
I read that the curve is already set before anyone takes the exam. Any news about that?


thanks
 
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CKP7175 said:
Felt the same about verbal. I was finishing verbal on AAMC and Kaplan tests consistently, but I got hung up on a few of the passages on yesterday's test. I think the rather difficult and confidence rattling PS section coupled with test day nerves definitely played a big role in this. I've felt like I've absolutely bombed verbal on a few practice tests because I ran out of time, and ended up doing somewhat alright on them (8-9), so I'm hoping that is the case here. I'm also hoping that the curve isn't as ridiculous as people think it will be.
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Yeah I think verbal would have been okay if I wasn't a nervous wreck going into it. Barely had a chance to read the last passage. BS was actually pretty good for me though, I think I was finally able to calm down.

Also I was watching Law and Order SVU the night before the test and got an answer to a BS question I would've otherwise missed... so that was cool.
 
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CharmanderMD said:
Also I was watching Law and Order SVU the night before the test and got an answer to a BS question I would've otherwise missed... so that was cool.
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I know exactly which one you must mean, and I'm so upset I was stupid enough to miss it. Narrowed it down to two and picked the wrong one.
 
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I've heard the curve is somewhat predetermined, but I would imagine they would have to factor in how everyone did on the actual test as well. If everyone missed way more than AAMC was expecting, that says that the test was exceptionally difficult. I would hope AAMC would adjust their curve for that.
 
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AspiringERMD said:
I know exactly which one you must mean, and I'm so upset I was stupid enough to miss it. Narrowed it down to two and picked the wrong one.
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I think I know which one as well and I got it wrong too 🙁 so stressed out this whole exam. Thinking I should have voided. I actually got sick after so I understand to the person who said they left crying.
 
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jamesbon said:
I've heard the curve is somewhat predetermined, but I would imagine they would have to factor in how everyone did on the actual test as well. If everyone missed way more than AAMC was expecting, that says that the test was exceptionally difficult. I would hope AAMC would adjust their curve for that.
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I really hope it can be that way.
I read on the aamc website that the curve is predetermined and that a curve that changes after the exam is taken is a misconception.
I don't know how would they do that but just like any college course or any after college... If majority do horrible, maybe the exam was a little too much.

I am hoping for the best at this point. Cried too much last night!

I feel like crap. I have graduated college almost 2 years ago. I work in the blood bank/OR and have good clinical experience here. I have a 3.9 GPA and a terrible previous mcat. I need a Uplifting SCORE!!!!
 
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I know you guys dont wanna hear this right now, but you gotta let it go. Is it honestly worth crying and getting sick over an exam that imo doesnt even properly gauge how good of a doctor you will be? This was a tough exam but you guys gotta always stay positive. Dont let it ruin your month of June. We're all competent people here and we all did the best we could
 
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Ruby3 said:
I think I know which one as well and I got it wrong too 🙁 so stressed out this whole exam. Thinking I should have voided. I actually got sick after so I understand to the person who said they left crying.
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I felt like I was coming down with the flu after my exam.

Sent from my LG-LS995 using Tapatalk
 
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It was what I expected. As usual when I would take practice tests, I have no idea how I'll do. Challenging, but nothing crazy.
 
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https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/85436/preparing_understandingscores.html

Is the exam graded on a curve?
...
While there may be small differences in the MCAT exam you took compared to another examinee, the scoring process accounts for these differences so that an 8 earned on physical sciences on one exam means the same thing as an 8 earned on any other exam.
...
How you score on the MCAT exam, therefore, is not reflective of the particular exam you took—including the time of day, the test date, or the time of year—since any difference in difficulty level is accounted for when calculating your scale scores (see above for information about scaling).
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I read "when calculating your scores" to mean that the 30 days they have to figure out what score everyone gets is based on difficulty and performance. Otherwise difficulty level would have predetermined cutoffs for scale scores and results could be available sooner. The point of the exam is so each version will give schools an accurate representation of how you perform. Granted, if you panic after PS and everything goes downhill, that might hit your score in ways they can't account for based on difficulty.
 
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DrknoSDN said:
https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/85436/preparing_understandingscores.html



I read "when calculating your scores" to mean that the 30 days they have to figure out what score everyone gets is based on difficulty and performance. Otherwise difficulty level would have predetermined cutoffs for scale scores and results could be available sooner. The point of the exam is so each version will give schools an accurate representation of how you perform. Granted, if you panic after PS and everything goes downhill, that might hit your score in ways they can't account for based on difficulty.
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I am glad to hear this. Hopefully this can give everyone some peace of mind
 
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kevaznboy said:
It is basically pointless to buy any of the old AAMCs besides AAMC 11 - it may help you marginally, but that's it.

And worse thing is, if/when you retake, it probably won't be similar to today's....
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Lets not get carried away here bro... its pretty clear AAMC is the best material out there and the AAMCS scores correlate closely to real scores
 
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I find it INSANE that I am doing TPRH Biology WB questions and I am getting 4/8, 5/8 on passages while before I took the MCAT yesterday I was getting 7/7 and 5/6 consistently....yesterday completely rocked my world. This test really has me breaking like Batman in the Dark Knight. 🙁🙁🙁

IDK what to do from here. I have to schedule my retake soon after voiding..😕
 
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If scores on any particular mcat day are considered when they are setting the curve for that specific test, do they also factor in everyone who voided, or are those people not even considered? It sounds like their may have been a lot of people that voided yesterday, and if those people aren't considered when running the stats on the test the results could be very skewed.
 
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jamesbon said:
If scores on any particular mcat day are considered when they are setting the curve for that specific test, do they also factor in everyone who voided, or are those people not even considered? It sounds like their may have been a lot of people that voided yesterday, and if those people aren't considered when running the stats on the test the results could be very skewed.
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Voided exams aren't scored at all, so I would assume they do not count in any sort of calculations.
 
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Jericho91 said:
I find it INSANE that I am doing TPRH Biology WB questions and I am getting 4/8, 5/8 on passages while before I took the MCAT yesterday I was getting 7/7 and 5/6 consistently....yesterday completely rocked my world. This test really has me breaking like Batman in the Dark Knight. 🙁🙁🙁

IDK what to do from here. I have to schedule my retake soon after voiding..😕
Click to expand...

Wait are you already studying?? The lower scores might be because you're mentally tired from yesterday. Give it a break for a little to readjust mentally and then go back at it
 
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Hey guys, this is my first post, but I read the forum pretty frequently. I was a first-timer yesterday. I had a pretty similar experience.

PS - I didn't leave feeling as discouraged as some have mentioned, but maybe that's an even worse sign. Some of the answers were pretty obvious, and then some of them required knowledge or understanding of the passages that no amount of preparation could have gotten us ready for. I really didn't feel like it was as calculation heavy as some people are suggesting, but a lot of the answers weren't very similar so a full calculation wasn't necessary much of the time. I don't feel great about it, but I never feel great about PS. I think the main difference is that when you take a practice test and you don't know something, you don't sweat it. You just tell yourself to look it up and learn it after the test. But when you take the real thing you find yourself continually kicking yourself for not being able to figure things out.

VR - I didn't think it was any more difficult than most of the practice tests (AAMC/Kaplan) that I took. The curve could be bad, and of course there were a few implication/extrapolation questions that are always on the verbal section that made me shake my head. As far as the "mammal" passage, I don't remember that contradiction question. I remember one that was very close to it but nuanced a difference, but I could have misread it.

BS - I felt great about this section and I was blowing through it. BUT then I got to one really effin stupid hard passage toward the end that really rocked me. I still don't know what it was trying to say, in the passage or in many of the question stems. I really hope some of the experimentals were involved in that passage, because it sucked. Otherwise, I was pretty pleasantly surprised by the section and the orgo, especially. I studied it the least, since it was the least tested.

Overall, like many previous testers, I was the most blown away at what didn't get asked. SO many concepts that just weren't even mentioned or utilized at all. Many of them were my weaker topics, so that was good, but I also spent a lot of time trying to craft them into strengths, all for nothing. I left shellshocked and just indecisive about how to feel. I've gone back and forth from feeling like I did poorly, to feeling like I did very well, to just not knowing. Sorry for the novel, I just can't stop thinking about this test.
 
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