*The Official MCAT January 2018 Thread*

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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mariposas905

mariposas905

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Hey guys! Now that the new test dates are out, I figured I'd start a thread for all the January 2018 test-takers prepping for (and most definitely, slaying) this beast! ;) This is a retake for me, but I'm aiming high! Who else is taking it in January?

I'm sure that sharing insights and support on SDN will make this journey all the more worth it. I have a feeling 2018 is off to a great start! Good luck everyone and may the odds be ever in our favor.
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Also the hottest premed girl I've ever seen was sitting next to me. I'd be lying if I said it didn't possibly affect my score, smh.
 
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LebronManning said:
Also the hottest premed girl I've ever seen was sitting next to me. I'd be lying if I said it didn't possibly affect my score, smh.
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lowkey some hella cuties there.I had the corner spot so I couldn't hear or see anything...not that it helped.
 
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FutureDoctor06 said:
lowkey some hella cuties there.I had the corner spot so I couldn't hear or see anything...not that it helped.
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Dude I had the worst spot in the house. Along with the babe next to me, I was literally in front of the mirror looking out. So every time someone was checking in or out I was getting distracted cause I literally was seeing them through the corner of my eye. Especially cause there were dozens cause there was like 5-6 different tests going on.
 
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LebronManning said:
Dude I had the worst spot in the house. Along with the babe next to me, I was literally in front of the mirror looking out. So every time someone was checking in or out I was getting distracted cause I literally was seeing them through the corner of my eye. Especially cause there were dozens cause there was like 5-6 different tests going on.
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that's wack wtf. Our desks were situated away from the door/mirror. How many people were with you cause my place didn't have more than 25.
 
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Am I the only one in the boat of thinking; well I guess a second gap year wouldn't be the worst thing in the world..
 
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FutureDoctor06 said:
that's wack wtf. Our desks were situated away from the door/mirror. How many people were with you cause my place didn't have more than 25.
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Yeah like 25 it just sucked cause I literally kept looking up and like making eye contact with people. It was just hella distracting. Hopefully it didn't affect my score to much. I tried to like lower my chair and get in positioning so i couldn't see above my computer. Kinda hard when you're 6 feet tall tho
 
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LebronManning said:
Yeah like 25 it just sucked cause I literally kept looking up and like making eye contact with people. It was just hella distracting. Hopefully it didn't affect my score to much. I tried to like lower my chair and get in positioning so i couldn't see above my computer. Kinda hard when you're 6 feet tall tho
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:smuggrin::smuggrin::smuggrin:
 
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LebronManning said:
Yeah like 25 it just sucked cause I literally kept looking up and like making eye contact with people. It was just hella distracting. Hopefully it didn't affect my score to much. I tried to like lower my chair and get in positioning so i couldn't see above my computer. Kinda hard when you're 6 feet tall tho
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The young combination of Lebron and Peyton. You might be the GOAT.
 
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LebronManning said:
Yeah like 25 it just sucked cause I literally kept looking up and like making eye contact with people. It was just hella distracting. Hopefully it didn't affect my score to much. I tried to like lower my chair and get in positioning so i couldn't see above my computer. Kinda hard when you're 6 feet tall tho
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My place had stalls for each of us, I couldn't see or hear a thing. I'm 5'2 though so maybe that's why it felt all encompassing lol
 
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I'm getting so pissed thinking about it. Maybe I should write to AAMC about it but I don't wanna get my score invalidated if I did well lmao
 
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Just Finished my last FL (AAMC #2)... IDK how to feel about it.
I've scored the highest I've ever done in everything except CARS (which hit a new low on this FL).......I'm beginning to think I'm just illiterate :smack:

On a happier note... Congrats 1/20 testers!
 
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For all 1/25 test takers...Study the FL3 P/S HARD. Clearly this is the direction AAMC is taking P/S (CARS 2.0 with sprinkles of P/S terms). I highly regret not doing it; felt blindsided by P/S during my exam. Hopefully made it through though.
 
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LebronManning said:
For all 1/25 test takers...Study the FL3 P/S HARD. Clearly this is the direction AAMC is taking P/S (CARS 2.0 with sprinkles of P/S terms). I highly regret not doing it; felt blindsided by P/S during my exam. Hopefully made it through though.
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Wait that's a relief if it is less plain term recall/knowledge. I can reason my way through that section pretty well, but the straight up definition questions sometimes get me.
 
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LolMedSchool666 said:
Wait that's a relief if it is less plain term recall/knowledge. I can reason my way through that section pretty well, but the straight up definition questions sometimes get me.
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Yeah muchhhhh less recall/knowledge. But the reasoning is like on steroids. One redditor described it as "if you throw a kitten against the wall, what's the specific gravity of mars?" I agree with him.
 
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LebronManning said:
For all 1/25 test takers...Study the FL3 P/S HARD. Clearly this is the direction AAMC is taking P/S (CARS 2.0 with sprinkles of P/S terms). I highly regret not doing it; felt blindsided by P/S during my exam. Hopefully made it through though.
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This is good because I only know about 150-200 p/s terms and FL3 had my highest p/s score haha. Maybe AAMC found the Khan documents.....
 
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LebronManning said:
It's kinda scaring me that everyone else thought cars was easy...I struggled hard with the 2nd passage and the rest was fine except I had to guess on the last few questions cause I was running out of time. Also had some trouble with the 2nd to last passage (Nothing better than a cars passage full of variables and psuedo-scientific relationships and ****, smh)
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Maybe you got a more difficult CARS section on your test, who knows? I think a huge part of CARS for me is also the topic of the passages themselves. If it’s a topic I am more interested in, it definitely makes it easier.
 
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B/B = easiest bio section I've ever seen, tbh. One of my "passages" was a total of 5 sentences????? I literally though the rest of the passage was missing

YES!! That passage felt like a mini break during that section, but I definitely thought there was a whole mess of graphs an data missing.
 
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DeadlyWarbler said:
B/B = easiest bio section I've ever seen, tbh. One of my "passages" was a total of 5 sentences????? I literally though the rest of the passage was missing

YES!! That passage felt like a mini break during that section, but I definitely thought there was a whole mess of graphs an data missing.
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Right lol! And there were a few discretes that I could have literally answered when I was in 3rd grade.
 
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LebronManning said:
Just finished. Felt like the hardest MCAT I’ve taken, like on the level of Kaplan tests but obviously more reasoning and less content. I feel very bad after that. Maybe everyone just feels like that after MCAT.

C/P: medium to hard. First passage was impossible, rest were average.

CARS: Hardest cars I’ve ever encountered. 2nd passage...holy ****.

B/B: Felt easier than usual.

P/S: WTF. Literally the most BS section I’ve ever encountered in the history of AAMC. Literally nothing can prepare you for this. The hardest passage on the P/S section bank has nothing on this section for today.

People who took today...any agreements or disagreements?
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Yeah, I pretty much agree. The first part of C/P was really rough and killed my time. I was zipping through the last questions and luckily they didn't seem too difficult so I finished on time.

Pretty much agree, and definitely felt like the P/S section was ridiculously hard. Every question contained content I was solid on, but was worded in a way that made it feel impossible to apply that knowledge.
 
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autumnwind44 said:
Maybe you got a more difficult CARS section on your test, who knows? I think a huge part of CARS for me is also the topic of the passages themselves. If it’s a topic I am more interested in, it definitely makes it easier.
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I know what you mean. The first passage was literally about a subject that I am very interested in, and another passage was by an author I had already read! That was fun, though in true MCAT form they wrote questions that made me feel like I had never read that author before...or that I had never read anything before. +pissed+
 
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Lol the funniest thing though was that during my breaks we could see through the window that everyone was testing in. Everyone's faces were priceless lmao. I probably could have counted 50+ mouthed "WTFs"
 
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Just tested yesterday. I left with a lot of uncertainty, mostly because there was very little direct recall of information in any of the science based sections. LOTS of reasoning, especially in P/S.

C/P had a lot of calculation problems.

My advice for you guys testing in the next few weeks is to relax! Get in a good clear mind space so you don't get hung up on strangely worded questions.

Breaks: With all the procedures around breaks (palm scans, pocket clearing, glasses check) and needing to be escorted in an out of the room, a 10 min break is actually at 5 min break. A 30 min break is a 20 min break. All I did for my last break was use the restroom, drink some water and slap myself on the face before I headed straight back in ( and I usually plan to use all of my break time!). Once you get logged back in after the break, you have 2 minutes at the section start screen, so I used that time for a little mini meditation time before starting.
 
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LebronManning said:
Lol the funniest thing though was that during my breaks we could see through the window that everyone was testing in. Everyone's faces were priceless lmao. I probably could have counted 50+ mouthed "WTFs"
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I wish I could get the video footage of me during the P/S section. Tired and cranky and gesturing at the monitor.
 
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Anyone else feelin like they have no idea how they did yesterday? Like I remember absolutely none of the passages or questions from yesterday and just the fact that I don’t remember is causing the feeling that I absolutely got wrecked. This next month is going to suck.
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
Anyone else feelin like they have no idea how they did yesterday? Like I remember absolutely none of the passages or questions from yesterday and just the fact that I don’t remember is causing the feeling that I absolutely got wrecked. This next month is going to suck.
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Yeah, I'm with there there. Feeling very unsure about that test. I keep getting flashbacks to questions, but it's mostly a blur. Hopefully, just trust what you know. February 20th feels like a long way away.
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
Anyone else feelin like they have no idea how they did yesterday? Like I remember absolutely none of the passages or questions from yesterday and just the fact that I don’t remember is causing the feeling that I absolutely got wrecked. This next month is going to suck.
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Yeah, I don't remember much either. I'm trying not to obsess over it and hoping that the things that felt really weird were experimental lol
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
Anyone else feelin like they have no idea how they did yesterday? Like I remember absolutely none of the passages or questions from yesterday and just the fact that I don’t remember is causing the feeling that I absolutely got wrecked. This next month is going to suck.
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I'm the same way. I can never tell how I did, even going back to the practice tests. I've had sections I felt good about but did bad on, sections I've felt terrible about but did good on, and everywhere in between. I can never tell if a section was hard or easy or even feel anything particular about it. People always discuss how FL3 CARS was easy or FL2 B/B was hard or FL1 C/P was similar to the real thing or how they hope the MCAT is like FL2, etc etc etc and I never have a clue what they're talking about lol. I'm reading all these reactions and I really just can't feel anything about any section lol.

To me everything is always a blur and I have no idea how it went. All I know is that I knew some and guessed some, just like the practice tests. All I can do now is pray and hope for the best!
 
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So I know we're not allowed to discuss exam specifics in public but are we allowed to discuss them in private with others who took the exam same day as us?
 
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Whelp, 29 more days till test scores out (not like I'm counting or anything). Wish I could rip the bandaid off already
 
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BTC0821 said:
Am I the only one in the boat of thinking; well I guess a second gap year wouldn't be the worst thing in the world..
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DUDEEE im thinking of the same thing lol The only reason I rushed to take this mcat is to make this year's cycle. Now I better schedule my next mcat and possibly thinking of a plan B
 
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Hopefully we can bump this thread in a month and laugh at how stupid we sound when we find out that we scored 3 points above FL average....I hope
 
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LebronManning said:
For all 1/25 test takers...Study the FL3 P/S HARD. Clearly this is the direction AAMC is taking P/S (CARS 2.0 with sprinkles of P/S terms). I highly regret not doing it; felt blindsided by P/S during my exam. Hopefully made it through though.
Click to expand...
what about section banks? I find them more helpful for P/S
 
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How did you guys spend your last day before the exam?

I have to fly out to take my MCAT and I'm contemplating if its worth bringing subject notes.
Other than an I.D. (oh also lunch and confidence) I don't need to bring anything else for exam day correct?
 
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WMMCDNLD1 said:
Also in the 1/25 crew,
Let us know how FL3 goes, good luck!
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Just finished it. Got a 517 with a 130/128/130/129 breakdown. Feeling better than yesterday after the SB. Still worried it'll drop on the real thing. Now I just need to go over it, fill in a new content gaps, and try to relax.
 
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SiakTiDoc said:
How did you guys spend your last day before the exam?

I have to fly out to take my MCAT and I'm contemplating if its worth bringing subject notes.
Other than an I.D. (oh also lunch and confidence) I don't need to bring anything else for exam day correct?
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yes, if you go through this thread, your question was already answered buddy:rolleyes: id , food and much needed confidence
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
Feelin the same way but I’m going to wait a month and see what the damage was.
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Agreed ^^ Even though Chem/Phys was like, a new kind of foreign language I had never seen before, its usually my worst section and I felt like the rest of the test could have gone alright, so just waiting. But I'm over here rationalizing below what score I will convince myself to retake it.. and that score keeps getting lower lol
 
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