The Official May 22, 2015 MCAT Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

fenderboi930

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
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?

Members don't see this ad.
 
I tested in Orlando. According to my proctors it's a nationwide issue. Almost everyone at my test center had this issue, about 7 of us choose to leave.
Contacted AAMC (202) 828 0600. They will send you a form to fill out to report your issues. Make sure you do so ASAP, we only have 5 days.

weird, didn't happen in Michigan. I will note that at one point I went back to a previous questions, exactly 1 previous, and the answer was different from what I remember clicking. It was cars too, but it might be b/c i rushed clicked and clicked wrong. :dead:


Oh my god...that Psych section

CARS was no joke either

The psy was not ready for, applying the concept to the passage, that's where I failed. Problem was how nuance psychology experiments are.
 
Chem delivered an almost fatal blow, followed by cars. Felt a little better with bio and great with psych (being my major) but at this point who even knows LOL. Enjoy MDW everyone!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Chem delivered an almost fatal blow, followed by cars. Felt a little better with bio and great with psych (being my major) but at this point who even knows LOL. Enjoy MDW everyone!
I ran out of time in Chem this never happened in my practice. Ahhhhh!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I'm done!! I think it went really well! At least chem/phys, CARS, and psych did (psych was insanely easy, and for once I actually understood all the CARS passages). But bio killed me, it was awful. I'm counting on my good bio grades to counteract the subpar score I expect to receive on that section. But overall, I'm happy with how it went!
what content/passages did you use for chem/phys/psych? :)
 
Bio rocked my ****. I didn't think anything else was too bad though. Definitely a lot harder than their official practice one.
 
I feel so bad for those that got their tests voided! That really bites. I got checked in at about 7:45 am and got out at 12:45 pm and only took like 20 min of the lunch break. Overall I didn't come out feeling terrible about it and I felt that the aamc practice test was pretty indicative of the actual content. I'm just so relieved that it's over with. Now it's just a waiting game. I'm just crossing my fingers that I don't have to retake it!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
I've never taken biochem, if I have to retake, it'll be after that class.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Greeting Mayors (May test takers), I hope you all did very well on you MCAT and with you the best!
Can you guys that took the MCAT please briefly state what you used for content review/passages/questions and how long you studied for and how you think you did.
thank you
 
what content/passages did you use for chem/phys/psych? :)

Kaplan was my only content review for everything except for psych, for which I watched almost all of the Khan videos at double speed after reading kaplan. The khan videos were WAY better than kaplan for psych. For passages I did Khan for chem/phys, didn't really do many for psych, a few of the Khan ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I'm surprised everyone thought CARS was hard... There was definitely one passage that was difficult for me but overall I feel pretty great about it. Makes me wonder if this is one of those "you're most confident when you're incompetent" situations.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Greeting Mayors (May test takers), I hope you all did very well on you MCAT and with you the best!
Can you guys that took the MCAT please briefly state what you used for content review/passages/questions and how long you studied for and how you think you did.
thank you

I get that future test takers want input and advice but please: give us at least a day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 10 users
Members don't see this ad :)
Felt good about Chem. My timing in CARS got messed up early on and felt like I had trouble concentrating the rest of the way :( ugh its usually my best section

Bio was difficult. Psych wasn't that bad but stomach was hurting bad the last 2 sections which hurt with focusing :/


Hoping on a decent curve and that i did well on cars like I normally do
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
I'm surprised everyone thought CARS was hard... There was definitely one passage that was difficult for me but overall I feel pretty great about it. Makes me wonder if this is one of those "you're most confident when you're incompetent" situations.
I thought the CARS section was pretty easy. The passages were interesting at least. To each their own. I'm sure some thought bio was easy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
I tested in Orlando. According to my proctors it's a nationwide issue. Almost everyone at my test center had this issue, about 7 of us choose to leave.
Contacted AAMC (202) 828 0600. They will send you a form to fill out to report your issues. Make sure you do so ASAP, we only have 5 days.

OMG that passage had me thrown all the way off -.- I spent so much time on that one like wtf?!!!
 
...I run out of time on cars so I had to guess for the last passage, the last two paragraphs of phy/Chem were hard, bio had complicated passages and psyc was ok.
 
So are you guys gonna keep studying until scores are released?
Maybe. I don't really see what I can do in 1 month tho (gotta take it by june im guessing?)esp since I will be using a lot of time with my application and shadowing and volunteering. Already on a gap year so I really hope I did well :(
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Honestly walked out of there feeling very ambivalent. CARS was alot harder than AAMC practice test. CHEM/PHYS felt my strongest, which is interesting cause I went into it being my weakest. BIO was decent, definitely didn't rock me. And PSYCH felt harder than the AAMC practice but there was only one term I didn't recognize.

As far as my review, I was in a TPR course. Felt it definitely prepared me well. Mostly for psych. I think there comes a point though when you're prepared but the MCAT is going to rock your socks anyway so you just have to make your best guess.

Congrats to everyone who took it today! Feels good to be done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Just got home after finishing.

My thoughts:
Physical science: Was not bad at all. I have not yet taken Physics II, so I was a bit worried, but the prep work I had done was sufficient I think. As has been said so many times, KNOW THE AMINO ACIDS.

CARS: Damn, that was brutal. I used TPR and EK 101 for my prep. While I was getting consistent 13-15 on those passages by EK's scale, I will be super surprised if I do anywhere near that well on the actual thing.

Biological Science: That was fun. I really enjoyed that section. It may be skewed in my favor because I just graduated with a Masters and have just had more exposure, but I don't think with thorough preparation, anything was out of place.

Psych/Soc: Didn't really know what to expect. Most of it I thought went really well, a few of the questions I had no idea where they were getting the information to make certain comparisons, so who really knows about that one. I did notice a typo in one of the answer choices, so that was good to see...

Overall:
Not bad at all. The practice tests I had taken I didn't feel were comparable at all. Luckily I did a lot more content review than practice and was able to pull stuff out. A lot of the questions could be answered with critical thinking. Much less strict content recall than I expected.

Now to just....wait.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Honestly walked out of there feeling very ambivalent. CARS was alot harder than AAMC practice test. CHEM/PHYS felt my strongest, which is interesting cause I went into it being my weakest. BIO was decent, definitely didn't rock me. And PSYCH felt harder than the AAMC practice but there was only one term I didn't recognize.

As far as my review, I was in a TPR course. Felt it definitely prepared me well. Mostly for psych. I think there comes a point though when you're prepared but the MCAT is going to rock your socks anyway so you just have to make your best guess.

Congrats to everyone who took it today! Feels good to be done.

I agree. So great to be done. I also used TPR but I self studied, and I felt pretty good as well.
Hopefully we are accurate with our feelings on it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Yea I ran into some issue with the screen freezing for a few seconds but nothing that forced me out of the system. Sorry to hear that some people were.
 
Don't even know what the hell I would be doing/saying if I had technical issues, this test alone is enough without any outside issues

To those of you talking about studying until the scores are released...I did that exact thing for the April test...I AM SO GLAD THIS IS ALL OVER
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I was also having issues with the test taking much longer to load...I feel like that threw me off during the Bio section (which sucked for me, btw). At the end I got an error message and I didn't see any void option, but I asked the test proctors and they said they were able to salvage our tests. I feel for you guys that had to void, that's pretty awful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
so I had computer issues, lost at least 20 mins fr CARS. Started bio, took like 5 mins for each page to load. So test center solution was to stop teh test and reschedule. So I basically didn't finish, and was forced to void early. Welp, at least I got to see the questions, and get a feel of what MCAT is. I'm really pissed but I'm trying to stay positive.
Did anybody else have this issue?

That's awful, I'm sorry. :(
 
I finalized and submitted my application, got all my transcripts ordered, LOR upload instructions emailed off. Now I am just sitting here wondering what the hell do I do now?
 
I finalized and submitted my application, got all my transcripts ordered, LOR upload instructions emailed off. Now I am just sitting here wondering what the hell do I do now?

Wait how did you submit your application, doesn't it not open until June 2?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
My experience...

Chem/Phys:
This has been and will always be my weakest section. I can do science, I can do math, but please don't combine the two. Keeping that in mind, this section was by far the most difficult for me. I made the mistake of lingering too long in the beginning and then having the section end right as I landed on my last discrete that would have been an easy point for me. :( I think I ended up with 1-2 unfinished, which was really upsetting, but it is what it is. There was more physics than I expected. Less than on the old exam, but you will be doing a serious disservice to your score if you blow off studying physics just because there's less on this test. And just about all calculations I had to do (less than 5 IIRC) relied on one having memorized the equations. They're equations you would expect to memorize anyway, but my point is: study your goddamn physics!!! And of course there was a ****-ton of biochemistry. You need to know how enzymes work and you ABSOLUTELY need to know your amino acids (and, ahem, their codes). Very little orgo, but just enough that again, you really can't blow it off.

Comparison to practice material: harder than the AAMC stuff, but I'm naturally bad at physics and chemistry anyway so take that with a grain of salt. On the other hand, it was thankfully way easier than EK's Chem/Phys!

CARS: I usually dominate CARS and I don't think today was any different. There was one passage that was harder than anything I've ever seen from AAMC, but other than that I flew through it.

Comparison to practice material: Other than the EK FLs, the only other passages I used for this section were from AAMC. I really think the question packs are invaluable. Other companies are good for the practice, but only AAMC's passages are like the real thing.

Bio/Biochem: And here we see biochem once again taking center stage. The new MCAT has a love affair with amino acids; I almost laughed in the middle of the exam. You want to know what makes **** happen in your body. The how is not as important as the what, if ya know what I mean. This section also involved a greater amount of data interpretation than the Chem/Phys section, but there were also instances where I felt like reading the passage was a waste of time. Oh, and study yo lab methods!

Comparison to practice material: very similar to AAMC stuff and a little easier than EK. TBR's passages were good for this section, whereas they weren't quite as helpful for the Chem/Phys (but still worth doing).

Psych/Socio: I maybe spent 5 days studying for this section, to be honest. There were a few terms that were unfamiliar to me, but in most cases could be chosen or eliminated through process of elimination. You absolutely need to prepare for this section through practice passages because simply knowing definitions is not going to get you a good score. I thought TPR's passages were good, maybe a little better than EK's for this. Until we get a good idea of how this section works, you just have to be prepared to encounter terms you've never seen before. Like CARS, this is a section where process of elimination skills are really important. But it's my favorite section!

Comparison to practice material: perhaps a little more difficult than what AAMC has provided, and on par with EK.

Overall: I was most surprised at the breadth of content this exam covered. Almost every topic was addressed in some way. More often than not, any difficulties I had with a question stemmed from my own lack of preparation vs. not having seen the material before. This test isn't a monster, you just need to know your stuff. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 23 users
Congrats on being finished you guys! Could someone please comment on the level of organic on the exam? June test-taker here…and organic is the one subject I may not have adequate time to study for. Nevertheless, I have to take the exam in June :(

I'm not going to pretend….I'M FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Congrats on being finished you guys! Could someone please comment on the level of organic on the exam? June test-taker here…and organic is the one subject I may not have adequate time to study for. Nevertheless, I have to take the exam in June :(

I'm not going to pretend….I'M FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS.

Learned nothing in ochem, didn't study any ochem, and I don't really regret it. Just focus on biochem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Learned nothing in ochem, didn't study any ochem, and I don't really regret it. Just focus on biochem.

How did your exam go?? Be glad it's over and celebrate!

When you have time, would you be willing to write down the books/practice tests you used and what sections you found them most helpful for?
 
Congrats on being finished you guys! Could someone please comment on the level of organic on the exam? June test-taker here…and organic is the one subject I may not have adequate time to study for. Nevertheless, I have to take the exam in June :(

I'm not going to pretend….I'M FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS.

Very, very little organic!

@mcatjelly do you mean EK FL's or EK practice passages? also, any way to purchase TPR passages without buying the psych book? i already have kaplan :/

Their FLs, sorry. And no, unfortunately. :( I didn't use their passages so it's possible they're sufficient!!!
 
Congrats on being finished you guys! Could someone please comment on the level of organic on the exam? June test-taker here…and organic is the one subject I may not have adequate time to study for. Nevertheless, I have to take the exam in June :(

I'm not going to pretend….I'M FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS.

Yeah I barely studied for ochem. Just skimmed over topics I learned in undergrad to refresh my memory. There really wasn't that much on the test
 
So... the power went out during the exam. It was slightly inconvenient, considering the exam is computerized and all.

PS - I'm in the process of repressing this memory
CARS - I had 20 minutes left on the practice & just barely finished this time (plus the power outage was super helpful). Definitely harder than AAMC practice
BIO - Who knows? I don't.
Psych - Kaplan didn't cover *all* the terms necessary for this one, so I definitely recommend looking over the official AAMC list just to ensure you have everything you need.

Overall I really don't know. I'm tempted to re-register for a July/August date but just don't want to study anymore!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Chem/phys: I feel pretty good about this section. I used Kaplan for content review, and Khan Academy for practice passage. I think these resources were definitely adequate preparation. Oh, and the Official Guide questions were pretty representative of the real thing as well.

CARS: I feel pretty great about this section as well. I didn't really study that much for CARS. I just did practice passages from the old MCAT. I didn't read the Kaplan book so I'm not sure if it's helpful.

Bio: This is where things went south. While I am good at stuff like physiology, amino acids, and enzymes, I have literally zero background in cellular respiration, lipids/fatty acids, and organic chemistry. I think it is vital to take a good biochem course. All mine taught me was enzymes, which was helpful, but my class missed out on a lot. I tried to teach myself cellular respiration from Khan Academy videos. It was better than nothing, but not great. I think biochem is best learned from a biochem class, rather than any test company materials. The Kaplan biochem book was okay. I did a lot of Khan passages and they were more or less representative of the real thing.

Psych: Super easy. My best advice is to not overthink it, most of it is common sense. I started by reading Kaplan, which was total garbage. Then I watched almost all of the Khan videos, which were much more helpful. I only did a few practice passages for psych, from Khan. I think content review is much more important than practice for this section.

Overall: I feel good about this exam. Only section I am worried about is bio, and I don't think I *completely* bombed it, it just probably won't be great. I think the best resource at this point is the AAMC Official Guide and the AAMC FL. The official FL was very representative of the real thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Good effort team!

I think that test was decent overall. I think I made a few errors on material I probably should know... but hey, that's what happens on test day. I would guess I did anywhere from "good enough for MD" to "Pretty much killed it". Depends on how well I guessed :p

The worst part about this test were the nightmares these past few days. The best part about this test were that they were only nightmares. I feel so bad for you folks who have to reschedule :(
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top