The Official May 22, 2015 MCAT Thread

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fenderboi930

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I think many of you will agree that today is a great day to officially prepare for the May 22nd MCAT!!!

I was against the April 2015 MCAT because a typical 3 month schedule doesn't seem to work for
students and/or working test takers. With a little over 4 months of preparation we can go in with confidence!
It's all new and really scary--so let's kick MCAT butt together!!

I was also wondering, wouldn't many professional MCAT test takers and tutors want to take the MCAT 2015 as soon
as possible (April MCAT) so they can better they're material or teaching? Wouldn't that just destroy the curve?
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Gladiolus23 said:
Yeah, I agree…especially since the official AAMC test doesn't even give us a score :( as of now, my plan is to take the may exam no matter what, and see what fate lies for me. If the score is bad, I'm just going to take the gap year (no point retaking immediately in June). If it's really good, I'll apply everywhere. If it's mediocre, I'll maybe just apply early decision to one school (keep my fingers crossed!) but plan for a gap year anyway.
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Im in the same boat as you, but if my score is bad, Im probably going to apply to a post bacc or SMP program
 
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I hate when you think everything you've ever learned about a topic is all wrong...until you check errata and realize the book's answer/explanation is wrong -_-
 
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Gladiolus23 said:
Yeah, I agree…especially since the official AAMC test doesn't even give us a score :( as of now, my plan is to take the may exam no matter what, and see what fate lies for me. If the score is bad, I'm just going to take the gap year (no point retaking immediately in June). If it's really good, I'll apply everywhere. If it's mediocre, I'll maybe just apply early decision to one school (keep my fingers crossed!) but plan for a gap year anyway.
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I am planning to do the exact same thing. My state school has very high EDP acceptance rates so that is my plan if my score is the equivalent of 30.
 
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runanteldat said:
Im in the same boat as you, but if my score is bad, Im probably going to apply to a post bacc or SMP program
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Glad to know I'm not the only one! I also wanted to apply to an SMP (preferably one with a guaranteed med program, because there is no way I am going to take two gap years. But, I was told this would be a waste of money for me, because my GPA is a 3.7 already…also, wouldn't it be too late for apps by the time our MCAT scores come out?

Flashfan said:
I am planning to do the exact same thing. My state school has very high EDP acceptance rates so that is my plan if my score is the equivalent of 30.
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Yeah, my state school gets about 10 EDP applicants a year and they choose about 5 of them, so I'm hoping 50% acceptance chances will play in my favor! Best of all, the dean meets with students before application submission to assess their chances of admittance. I think this is the best way to go about the uncertainty, because at least this way we won't be reapps everywhere we apply...
 
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Anyone else starting to get really mentally fatigued? I find that I'm dreading getting up to do 6 hours of studying more and more.
 
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Premedofthesouth said:
Anyone else starting to get really mentally fatigued? I find that I'm dreading getting up to do 6 hours of studying more and more.
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I'm at a point where I'm just reviewing detailed concepts, which is probably really bad because I'm getting way too detailed and too into it. But given the fact that I've been showing signs of sleep deprivation, I can see where my poor thinking capacity is coming from..
 
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StarFall said:
I'm at a point where I'm just reviewing detailed concepts, which is probably really bad because I'm getting way too detailed and too into it. But given the fact that I've been showing signs of sleep deprivation, I can see where my poor thinking capacity is coming from..
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Yeah I think the best bet would be to take a day or two off then get back to the grind recharged. That's my plan at least. My studying as of late has become more and more fruitless.
 
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So after using EK for content review and TBR for the old test, I have to say TBR >>>>>>>>>> EK in terms of everything. Sorry EK.
 
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Question about the khan academy "mcat videos". Did they just take old videos and add the aamc slide to the beginning? Because if they're endorsed by aamc I don't see why they have a bunch that solve problems where you clearly need to use a calculator e.g. calculating angles with Young's double slit experiment
 
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somedudehere said:
Question about the khan academy "mcat videos". Did they just take old videos and add the aamc slide to the beginning? Because if they're endorsed by aamc I don't see why they have a bunch that solve problems where you clearly need to use a calculator e.g. calculating angles with Young's double slit experiment
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Can you link to the passage?
 
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somedudehere said:
Question about the khan academy "mcat videos". Did they just take old videos and add the aamc slide to the beginning? Because if they're endorsed by aamc I don't see why they have a bunch that solve problems where you clearly need to use a calculator e.g. calculating angles with Young's double slit experiment
Click to expand...

From the ones I've looked at, some are new and some are old. The ones that have the AAMC slide are usually new, the ones with Sal and dont have the slide are old
 
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I think ~6 hours should be the norm to build up endurance for the test. I would probably up to 8-9 hours a month out so 7 hours won't seem too long.
 
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Abraxas305 said:
I think ~6 hours should be the norm to build up endurance for the test. I would probably up to 8-9 hours a month out so 7 hours won't seem too long.
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I'd definitely recommend simulating a testing environment. Even 10 hours of studying is not the same if you're checking your phone or SDN every hour ;P
 
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Oh, if you count checking phones, social media, youtube, reddit, misc, etc it goes from 6 hours to 2 hours lololol
 
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Has anyone done the 120 questions from the official 2015 mcat guide? I just did them today and thought bio was exceptionally difficult. Psych/soc wasn't bad and verbal was pretty easy compared to the old test imo. Doing chem/phys in a bit.
 
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somedudehere said:
Has anyone done the 120 questions from the official 2015 mcat guide? I just did them today and thought bio was exceptionally difficult. Psych/soc wasn't bad and verbal was pretty easy compared to the old test imo. Doing chem/phys in a bit.
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You should get used to it. Apparently the bio section, even on the previous administered MCAT's, were similar to the passages seen in the 2015 books. Mater of fact, some 2014 official guide passages in the bio section were brought into the 2015 book.
 
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somedudehere said:
Has anyone done the 120 questions from the official 2015 mcat guide? I just did them today and thought bio was exceptionally difficult. Psych/soc wasn't bad and verbal was pretty easy compared to the old test imo. Doing chem/phys in a bit.
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I did them Thursday as a half-length exam (49 minutes per section, except for CARS which was 51 minutes). I thought Chem/Phys was the hardest out of the four and Bio much easier, though I ended up doing equally well on both (which surprised me because I have yet to review physiology). I got 21/30 on both Bio/Biochem and Chem/Phys, 23/30 on Psych/Socio, and 28/30 on CARS.
 
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somedudehere said:
Has anyone done the 120 questions from the official 2015 mcat guide? I just did them today and thought bio was exceptionally difficult. Psych/soc wasn't bad and verbal was pretty easy compared to the old test imo. Doing chem/phys in a bit.
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I did and thought it was fine mostly. Reviewing the questions I noticed I probably got a little lucky though! (26, 27, 27, 28 out of 30 in guide order)
 
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Abraxas305 said:
I think ~6 hours should be the norm to build up endurance for the test. I would probably up to 8-9 hours a month out so 7 hours won't seem too long.
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I doubt you would retain anything studying that much anyways. Even if you were taking adderall.
 
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Just took an old Kaplan exam. I can't do 6-7 hours today and the NS half length diagnostic is down so I decided I'd just give this a try to get back into studying after 6 days of minimal studying from moving and such. Got a 29. Finished ~30 minutes early and got BTFO on a couple of topics.

I don't feel too bad about this. I think I'm just going to take a FL TPR exam tomorrow. Will be my first FL.
 
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What's the minimum score you guys will still apply with? I'm averaging high 490s right now and starting to worry as time is running out
 
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GEToutLADYits6AM said:
What did you use for psychology and sociology
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Had AP psych in highschool, then last semester I took an intro social psychology class (wasn't that helpful...) Have "read" the Kaplan book, but yeah not much to be honest. Time for some KA behavioral videos.
 
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Has anyone else taken the aamc sample test?? I want to know how others are doing. Wish they could give some sort of average bc I have no idea where I stand.
 
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Glazedonutlove said:
good luck! I honestly thought it was a bit easier than the old aamc test (especially the verbal and psych). Let me know what you think.
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Have you done the 120 questions from the official mcat 2015 guide? How do those questions compare to the practice test especially the phys/chem and bio section?
 
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somedudehere said:
Have you done the 120 questions from the official mcat 2015 guide? How do those questions compare to the practice test especially the phys/chem and bio section?
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Yes, I have~ I remember like one tough bio passage in the guide but other than that, same level difficulty wise
 
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My scores from the sample test were 81,89,72,92. I am in serious need of science review. I missed simple chemistry questions and physics questions that weren't really covered in my year of class. It is going to be a busy month studying.
Psych major as well.
 
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Any tips for science heavy passages with data that are pretty much the norm now on the new test? I went through the question packs which are pretty much re-used aamc practice tests and those seem incredibly straight forward compared to the new style of question.
 
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To say i am stressed out would be the understatemt of the year. I finished the content review over a week ago. So far i have done 2 Kaplan FLs (497 and 496 :(). I am the king of the stupid mistakes and many times i find myself rushing through (and getting wrong) questions i know. 7 hours is absolutely draining. Above it all im having a lot of trouble in paychology which i thought would be my best section.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated
 
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Johnyellow said:
To say i am stressed out would be the understatemt of the year. I finished the content review over a week ago. So far i have done 2 Kaplan FLs (497 and 496 :(). I am the king of the stupid mistakes and many times i find myself rushing through (and getting wrong) questions i know. 7 hours is absolutely draining. Above it all im having a lot of trouble in paychology which i thought would be my best section.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

Don't get too stressed out over prep company's FL. Have you taken the aamc practice test? I'm taking mine tomorrow then trying to use that to fine tune all my weak points.
 
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I'm doing some passages from Kaplan 528 right now and the psych/soc is leaps and bounds harder than aamc content. Not sure about what we'll see on test day though.
 
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