*The Official MCAT January 2018 Thread*

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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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went out last night for the first time in a while, and man, I hadnt felt like I was on cloud 9 since wayyyyy before the MCAT lol feels so good! enjoy yourselves while it lasts friends
 
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crap and here I am still a month and 20 days until I take my exam..... envy you guys :bow:
 
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How is it still over 3 weeks away until we find out?! This was supposed to go by quickly!
 
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We're in the teens people! 19 days and 36 minutes until score release. I'm literally going to go insane. (props to any one of you that read that in a Chris Traeger voice)
 
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Does anyone want to exchange personal statements and/or most meaningful essays and activity descriptions?
 
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Sheiko said:
Does anyone want to exchange personal statements and/or most meaningful essays and activity descriptions?
Click to expand...


My school released 2 PS of students who were accepted at our state school later cycle. I can forward them to your email. One was a nontrad.
 
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WMMCDNLD1 said:
My school released 2 PS of students who were accepted at our state school later cycle. I can forward them to your email. One was a nontrad.
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I'd like to take a look if you can send them in a PM
 
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I can't believe school/life has the audacity to continue while I am waiting for this score lol like I have two exams on Thursday? But they're not the MCAT so are they even real???
 
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17 days...I may need to have EMS on standby because my HR is going to be through the ROOF when I get that email saying scores are posted.
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
17 days...I may need to have EMS on standby because my HR is going to be through the ROOF when I get that email saying scores are posted.
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yeah for the first time now, I'm feeling a little anxious about the score.....WAIT NO TIME FOR ANXIOUSNESS I HAVE 2 TESTS and 2 PAPERS THIS WEEK AHHH
 
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hello! just wondering for those of you who have taken any version of 2018's MCAT, how would you recommend preparing for the psych/soc section? I read the sections looked different compared to previous years. Would you still recommend memorizing erms? Would the section bank be a good prep? *halp*
 
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Jewels86 said:
January 20th!! ~ Rescheduled to May; need more time to study :(

I hope everyone rocks it on the Jan MCAT!!
Click to expand...

Reading all of these posts has got me a little nervous. I think I am just freaking myself out for obvious reasons :(

Here's my MCAT study plan:
- Using Kaplan's 7 book series for review. Is Princeton or Examkrackers worth checking out? I've heard that Kaplan is better but it would be great to hear from someone who has aced the exam.
- Using Kaplan's flash cards for quick review.
- Going out one weekend night (something easy) and staying in on the other leading up to the exam. Also going to give up on social drinking.
- Regular exercise, good food etc.

I'm planning on focusing more on questions starting four weeks before the exam and shoring up any weak points.

Any other tips? Thanks and let's crush this thing
 
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br2pi5 said:
hello! just wondering for those of you who have taken any version of 2018's MCAT, how would you recommend preparing for the psych/soc section? I read the sections looked different compared to previous years. Would you still recommend memorizing erms? Would the section bank be a good prep? *halp*
Click to expand...
Definitely memorize all the terms your brain can handle. One unusual way that I studied for P/S was that I read a book on how to conduct psychology research. While I was reading it, I assumed that it would be low-yield information but it turned out to help me a lot on the actual MCAT and I felt that I did unusually well in that section.
 
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quesarasara said:
Reading all of these posts has got me a little nervous. I think I am just freaking myself out for obvious reasons :(

Here's my MCAT study plan:
- Using Kaplan's 7 book series for review. Is Princeton or Examkrackers worth checking out? I've heard that Kaplan is better but it would be great to hear from someone who has aced the exam.
- Using Kaplan's flash cards for quick review.
- Going out one weekend night (something easy) and staying in on the other leading up to the exam. Also going to give up on social drinking.
- Regular exercise, good food etc.

I'm planning on focusing more on questions starting four weeks before the exam and shoring up any weak points.

Any other tips? Thanks and let's crush this thing
Click to expand...

If I were you I would start questions way earlier than four weeks out. I found that going over the way they ask questions helped far more than even content review - specifically I wish that I'd done the section banks earlier than I did.
 
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DOhopeful93 said:
Anyone else feels that the more time goes by, the closer their score gets to 472? Lol! My AAMC FL average was around 506, my goal was 508, I came out of the exam feeling I didn't get past 500, but now I feel like I'm hovering around 490 lol.
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YES! I'm kinda in the same boat as you, but keep having these flash day dreams about getting some ridiculously low score. Wish I could sleep until 2/23.
 
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br2pi5 said:
hello! just wondering for those of you who have taken any version of 2018's MCAT, how would you recommend preparing for the psych/soc section? I read the sections looked different compared to previous years. Would you still recommend memorizing erms? Would the section bank be a good prep? *halp*
Click to expand...

Prep for it like you prep for CARS! Seriously.
 
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quesarasara said:
Reading all of these posts has got me a little nervous. I think I am just freaking myself out for obvious reasons :(

Here's my MCAT study plan:
- Using Kaplan's 7 book series for review. Is Princeton or Examkrackers worth checking out? I've heard that Kaplan is better but it would be great to hear from someone who has aced the exam.
- Using Kaplan's flash cards for quick review.
- Going out one weekend night (something easy) and staying in on the other leading up to the exam. Also going to give up on social drinking.
- Regular exercise, good food etc.

I'm planning on focusing more on questions starting four weeks before the exam and shoring up any weak points.

Any other tips? Thanks and let's crush this thing
Click to expand...

I had to reschedule since I could not break out of the 490's. Kaplan, in my opinion, is very difficult and actually very defeating. I bought the self-paced option and while I am a highly motivated learner and even received A's in my courses except physics, (my GPA is low from prior pre-nursing classes), my diagnostic was 484. I studied for the MCAT like I studied for my NCLEX and CEN...not the same in any way, shape or form.

This is my wisdom from what I have done so far:

~ Kaplan's books are okay. I did not like Princeton and while I used my pre-2015 MCAT examkrackers, I felt it did not do me justice on this new MCAT.
~ I have the flash cards from Kaplan and they're okay...I'm not a flash card person though.
~ Going out one weekend night and giving up on social drinking...yes and yes. Your liver will thank you :)
~ Regular exercise, good food...yes and yes.
~ I tried Next Step's diagnostic and did not feel like they were trying to overdo everything. Kaplan, to me, is kinda like the turd bodybuilder at the gym...please, we all know you're on roids...compared to Next Step. Again, my opinion only.

Picking myself up after this horrible Kaplan defeat has been very difficult. What I will be doing is Q & A's with you tube follow-up videos. To me, the FL's are long and made my pre-frontal cortex "jello".

I hope this helps.

BTW: Get your BLS. I just renewed my ACLS and if you've never done anything like that, you'll feel like a rock star. Trust me...I did when I saved my first mannequin. Happy Studying!
 
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DeadlyWarbler said:
YES! I'm kinda in the same boat as you, but keep having these flash day dreams about getting some ridiculously low score. Wish I could sleep until 2/23.
Click to expand...
Seriously! Thankfully I'm working full time and I was able to pick up more hours, so time is going by more quickly yet, slowly lol.
 
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CAFFEINE! said:
So I have a weird MCAT conspiracy theory, and I want to hear everyone's opinion on it. *puts on tin foil hat*

My theory: 1/19 and 1/20 test takers took the same MCAT exam (with the exception of the small differences in questions between everyone's exams). Here is my evidence:
  • 1/19 and 1/20 scores are being released on the same day (whereas if they were released on different days then that would be evidence that 1/19 and 1/20 had different exams).
  • 1/19 and 1/20 had very similar reaction threads on SDN and Reddit (i.e, C/P was extremely difficult, CARS was comparable to the FLs, B/B was straight forward with a few passages that were like SB, and P/S was CARS 2.0 with very few terminology questions).
  • Since the AAMC doesn't allow people to be registered for more than 1 exam at a time, it is basically impossible for somebody to have taken both 1/19 and 1/20. And since we legally aren't allowed to discuss specific questions, the AAMC has all of its bases covered for giving the same exam 2 days in a row and not have anyone figure it out.
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It could be possible. Assuming you're correct and they gave out the same test 2 days in a row, what does that mean to you? Overall, what would be the importance of that? As far as I know (possibly quite little), there could've been questions from older exams tested after 2015. Not trying to be disrespectful, just curious as to why it would matter
 
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hows everyone semester been so far? halfway through first round of tests and man I'm already exhausted again
 
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Does anyone else have this weird thing where you know how much time/effort you put into the MCAT and you know if you put that much time and effort into your normal classes you'd do way better but you just can't bring yourself to do it? It's like a weird shadow hanging over me where I know how much harder I could be trying but I'm so tired from trying that hard already... idk
 
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prairiemusic said:
Does anyone else have this weird thing where you know how much time/effort you put into the MCAT and you know if you put that much time and effort into your normal classes you'd do way better but you just can't bring yourself to do it? It's like a weird shadow hanging over me where I know how much harder I could be trying but I'm so tired from trying that hard already... idk
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yeah I'm putting in almost have as much effort into everything else rn....smh after seeing my first test grades lol
 
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Is anyone else losing their mind? I just feel bad man, I feel like I messed up as time goes on. I just feel worse and worse. FYI they usually post at 11 AM. Hope everyone is doing well, I will pray to Lord Harambe for us.

Edit: Have to wait until Feb 27th :/
 
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MoDiddy said:
Is anyone else losing their mind? I just feel bad man, I feel like I messed up as time goes on. I just feel worse and worse. FYI they usually post at 11 AM. Hope everyone is doing well, I will pray to Lord Harambe for us.

Edit: Have to wait until Feb 27th :/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I left the exam feeling just meh. Then I felt great. Then I didn't think I got my goal score. Now I don't know if I broke 500. Next week I'll probably question why I even took the exam in the first place ;)
 
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MoDiddy said:
Is anyone else losing their mind? I just feel bad man, I feel like I messed up as time goes on. I just feel worse and worse. FYI they usually post at 11 AM. Hope everyone is doing well, I will pray to Lord Harambe for us.

Edit: Have to wait until Feb 27th :/
Click to expand...

Is this 11am EST? PS I'm right there with you. This has been the longest month of my life. I can't imagine what it feels like post interview waiting for acceptance/rejection status. Although I would trade my left kidney to be post interview waiting for an acceptance or rejection for the limbo that I'm in right now.
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
Is this 11am EST? PS I'm right there with you. This has been the longest month of my life. I can't imagine what it feels like post interview waiting for acceptance/rejection status. Although I would trade my left kidney to be post interview waiting for an acceptance or rejection for the limbo that I'm in right now.
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11 AM EST. Also, this is the first real waiting period for us. It gets easier down the road I believe
 
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NaomiM said:
:) Would you care to share how you came to this conclusion?
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Yeah of course! I did some math and put some numbers together, carefully calculating and weighting every question I could remember from the exam. From this, I realized I got over 100% on every section (~61/59, 62/59, 69/53, 420/59) and have at least a minimum of a 533. I've checked it over a few times and the math checks out every time.
 
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LebronManning said:
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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Yup. (I’ve been to busy to comment on this thread) Yay premed! Or like...ochem II exams: You have motor oil, a fork, cheese whiz and a chuckle doll. What reagents do you add to make a Pizza Hut? Don’t forget stereo chemistry...
 
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Campana said:
This may have been answered already, but I searched and couldn't find it definitively.

Rules state no jewelry - what was your actual experience?
No Jewelry at all? So, say a wedding ring should be off during the exam?
Click to expand...

Probably too late as I bet you were in the 25th crew, but I just figured I wasn’t going to take anything with me and locked everything but water and a snack in the car.
 
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