*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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Sheiko said:
Surprised you didnt score higher tbh but that's still a really good score!

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk
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Yeah must of just messed up on some easy ones on the science sections. Oh well. Never scored that low on C/p. We all going to be doctors so we gucci!!
 
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MoDiddy said:
Yeah must of just messed up on some easy ones on the science sections. Oh well. Never scored that low on C/p. We all going to be doctors so we gucci!!
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Yup, this is just a hurdle we have to jump on our journey to become physicians. At the end of the day, our MCAT scores don't matter all that much.

Sent from my BBB100-3 using SDN mobile
 
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519 (130/132/129/128).
Kinda surprised at the peak in CARS lol reading has always been my weakness o_O but i'll take it! I am SOOOOOO happy this stressful test is finally over omg, time to celebrate!! Thank you to everyone who's contributed to this forum, it's been so helpful :)
 
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I just wanted to take a second to thank the SDN community/everyone in this thread.
I found this thread 5 weeks before exam day, with out y'all I wouldn't have realized how important the AAMC material was. I drastically changed my study plan and that allowed me to obtain an acceptable score. You guys rock!

Totally in favor of keeping this thread alive lol
 
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516 131/125/129/131 Not sure if I should retake because CARS is on the low side. What do you think? GPA is 4.0
 
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pamd1130 said:
That's a wonderful score. Could you please post how you prepared for the test ?
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yes of course! I just wanna start by saying that to all the people out there who get intimidated by other people who say they studied 500+ hours, I'm right there with you. I am not the type of person who can study for 4 months straight for 8 hours a day, because I can't hold an intense level of focus for that long. What worked for me was studying in shorter but very productive bursts, and maybe 2 months total. The point is not to say one is better than another, but rather that you should find what your style is and believe in yourself. Just because you're not preparing in the 'traditional' sense doesn't make your preparation any less valid than others.

Now onto my actual prep!!
I did not take Kaplan prep course or any prep course. I found from talking to other people and reading SDN that practice is the best way to learn, and I definitely remembered material way better when I got questions wrong rather than just reading the textbook. I think the most important study tip I can give is to limit your content review and maximize the number of questions you practice with. I had a lot of friends who studied for 3 months and spent 2 of them reviewing content, only to find that the MCAT is about 70% reasoning and 30% content. To be honest, most answers are right there in the passage, you just have to figure out how to analyze the info they give you and reason it out, which only comes through practice! That said, of course you should do some level of content review at the beginning because you def want a solid background to work with.
Materials I used:
  • Kaplan Books: I bought the Kaplan 7 book set during and skimmed them all, focusing hard and taking notes on the chapters I was not comfortable with. After I did this for about 2-3 weeks, I started taking practice tests.
  • Next Step: The only company I used for practice tests was Next Step, and they are HARD! I never scored above 510 on them, and was kind of discouraged to see my scores stay the same, but they do their job and prepare you well for the real deal. I did 9 out of the 10 total Next Step Exams. Over winter break, I did a test every other day for 2.5 weeks. For me, this was the best way to get into the mindset of taking a 7 hour test. I would take the test one day, then the next day go over the answers and review topics I didn't do well on. This resulted in me going from a 510 on the AAMC FL1 on day 1, to getting a 517 on AAMC FL3 on day 22.
  • AAMC EVERYTHING!!!!! I did all the qpacks, all the section banks, and all the full length exams. Although I've never thought of CARS as a strength, I think doing 2-3 passages every day and going over every answer choice was what resulted in me getting a 132. The only resource I used for CARS (other than Next Step practice tests, which weren't super representative of AAMC) was the question packs from AAMC. They have 240 questions total, so if you do those intensely I think you'll be in great shape for the real deal.
  • Anki flashcards: I found some people on here who had used Anki and made flashcards, I combined a few people's decks and then also added my own. These were really helpful due to Anki's spacing technique.
  • Khan Academy: SUPER HELPFUL AND FREE. use them!!! I watched videos on 2x speed for material I wasn't comfortable with, but for the most part I just read through the Khan Academy transcript notes that someone on SDN posted. Message me if you want me to send them to you! They're very useful because it's all the main points from Khan Academy videos for each subject without having to watch hours and hours of videos!

Biggest tips:
  • Don't overestimate the importance of content review
  • PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE (esp with AAMC material)
  • Figure out your personal study style and follow through with a schedule that works for you
Feel free to PM me for my practice decks/materials or ask me any questions, I am happy to finally give back to this community that has helped me through this whole process!
 
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VenomGT3 said:
Since I scored a 499 how much should I dedicate to content review over the next 10 weeks vs practice?
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My suggestion would be to take the AAMC Q Packs and identify your weaknesses from there. Then spend a week or two hammering those, and return to practice tests.
 
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I scored 479, I really dont know what to do from here...I didnt study as much as I should've....I neglected memorizing those damn a.a and lack of practice. . I spend 4 week going over stuff without doing much practice , I messed up. I feel like even If I do well on my second attempt, no school will take me considering my first score.:thumbdown::( running on 0 sleep, Im still under shock
 
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Im super late but Ive been following this thread since I registered to take the Jan 25th MCAT! I was super unsure of whether I could get a good score since I studied so much when I took it last time ( I got a 501) but I decided to give it one more go and I got my results yesterday. I got a 510 (127/127/128/128) which I'm super happy with and I only had a little under 2 months to study for it! I'm so thankful for the people on the thread, it was nice knowing I wasn't the only one going through this stuff.
 
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LebronManning said:
Just took Next Step FL 1. Got a 508 (127/127/126/128).

Not too upset...My goal is a 510 so I think I'm on the right track with a few weeks left. Gonna start Q packs tomorrow, then AAMC sample on 1/3, then SBs, then FLs. My score breakdown trends are pretty weird though.

Here's my history:
NextStep HL diagnostic on 11/14 : 508 (125/127/128/128)
Altius HL diagnostic on 12/22 : 500 (124/125/126/125)
Kaplan FL 1 on 12/24: 504 (124/127/126/127)

Gonna focus on doing directed content review through AAMC Q Packs and memorizing stuff on the Kaplan quick sheets.
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I know I'm digging through the archives here but I was hoping I could get your opinion since you were able to achieve above goal on the actual MCAT. I pushed back my test date from 1/20 to 4/6 and was just wondering what you thought was the most effective way to do the Q packs and Section Banks?
 
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Robinson22 said:
I scored 479, I really dont know what to do from here...I didnt study as much as I should've....I neglected memorizing those damn a.a and lack of practice. . I spend 4 week going over stuff without doing much practice , I messed up. I feel like even If I do well on my second attempt, no school will take me considering my first score.:thumbdown::( running on 0 sleep, Im still under shock
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There are plenty of schools that will be forgiving for people with multiple MCATs. Just do well on your next exam and then put this behind you. You got this!
 
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kylelc said:
I know I'm digging through the archives here but I was hoping I could get your opinion since you were able to achieve above goal on the actual MCAT. I pushed back my test date from 1/20 to 4/6 and was just wondering what you thought was the most effective way to do the Q packs and Section Banks?
Click to expand...

Do it all man. I went ham doing these resources in the days before my test and I attribute a lot of my score to that. Also remember many points above 510 are luck lol. I got really lucky with b/b content that I studied the night before and that was what sky rocketed my score.

Use Q packs for solidifying content and use SBs to learn MCAT strategy. Do both multiple times because u have the time.
 
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MoDiddy said:
Top LAC, cGPA/sGPA: 3.92 MCAT: 515
Can you guys check out my what are my chances post?! Thanks!!
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Thinking about how easy your application cycle is going to be just made me faint lol. Your school list is solid and I didn't see anything missing from your ECs. As long as your essays and LORs aren't horrible then I'm predicting you'll have multiple acceptances by the end of this year.
 
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CAFFEINE! said:
Thinking about how easy your application cycle is going to be just made me faint lol. Your school list is solid and I didn't see anything missing from your ECs. As long as your essays and LORs aren't horrible then I'm predicting you'll have multiple acceptances by the end of this year.
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Looks good bro!
 
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CAFFEINE! said:
Thinking about how easy your application cycle is going to be just made me faint lol. Your school list is solid and I didn't see anything missing from your ECs. As long as your essays and LORs aren't horrible then I'm predicting you'll have multiple acceptances by the end of this year.
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CAFFEINE! said:
Thinking about how easy your application cycle is going to be just made me faint lol. Your school list is solid and I didn't see anything missing from your ECs. As long as your essays and LORs aren't horrible then I'm predicting you'll have multiple acceptances by the end of this year.
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Lol I just think my MCAT is lacking tbh. But hopefully i'll be in striking distance for some of the top 20's
 
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Instead of doing something productive (read: finishing my research project) I decided to use AAMC data to estimate the percentile ranking of MCAT scores for all people who received at least 1 M.D. acceptance during the last application cycle. Here is what I came up with if anybody's interested:

695IsG4l.jpg


Fv3AUTJl.jpg
 
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First off just wanted to say congratulations to everyone who finished their MCAT journey! I was wondering if someone who is familiar with both Kaplan and Next Step exams could comment as to which they thought was more similar to the MCAT in regards to the CARS and PSYCH sections. I have major score discrepancies between the two and trying to figure out which one I should trust more. Thanks!
 
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duckdoc20 said:
First off just wanted to say congratulations to everyone who finished their MCAT journey! I was wondering if someone who is familiar with both Kaplan and Next Step exams could comment as to which they thought was more similar to the MCAT in regards to the CARS and PSYCH sections. I have major score discrepancies between the two and trying to figure out which one I should trust more. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't trust any CARS score but AAMC material. You can use them to practice timing/stamina for full lengths but if I recall correctly no third party has been able to choose the kind of passages and word the weird questions that AAMC does.
 
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duckdoc20 said:
First off just wanted to say congratulations to everyone who finished their MCAT journey! I was wondering if someone who is familiar with both Kaplan and Next Step exams could comment as to which they thought was more similar to the MCAT in regards to the CARS and PSYCH sections. I have major score discrepancies between the two and trying to figure out which one I should trust more. Thanks!
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Next Step CARS is waaay harder and different from AAMC, I completely agree with @prairiemusic that you should only trust AAMC. I did 8 of the Next Step tests but for the last 3 I just skipped the CARS section and used the AAMC question bank instead. I got a 132 on CARS and literally the only resource I used for CARS was the AAMC 240Q question bank. So I think getting into the mindset of the AAMC style is the most important part, rather than practicing from 100 different sites that all have styles different from the real deal
 
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How is everyone doing? I started writing secondaries and there are too. damn. many. At least my primary application is polished off and ready to go. Lots of work to prepare for application!
 
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Sheiko said:
How is everyone doing? I started writing secondaries and there are too. damn. many. At least my primary application is polished off and ready to go. Lots of work to prepare for application!
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Yeahhh I'm going to work on my personal statement over spring break. Haven't even thought about secondaries yet, although my school had us fill out a ton of secondary-like questions for our committee letter so I have a few done.
 
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I spent the first week post-MCAT trying to write my PS but I couldn't get the creative juices flowing, so now I'm spending all of February and March spear-heading my research project so that I can hopefully get my second first-author pub sometime before interview season begins.
 
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prairiemusic said:
Yeahhh I'm going to work on my personal statement over spring break. Haven't even thought about secondaries yet, although my school had us fill out a ton of secondary-like questions for our committee letter so I have a few done.
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My school does the same thing! It was a bitch to do but I'm glad I did it. it really helped me with gap year job interviews.
 
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Man, you guys are all way ahead of me. Planning on taking some time this weekend and sit down and get some thoughts down for my personal statement. Haven't even thought about primary or secondary apps yet!

I've spent most of the month since the MCAT relaxing, volunteering, picked up a new sport and I'm looking for a part-time job. Wanted to give myself some calm before the storm of the cycle starts - though I really should get on it!
 
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I have the ideas but won't start for a while! Still enjoying the MCAT high haha
 
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I think I have to start to write the persona statement as well as to schedule shadowing experiences. Currently I am still in Asia for a research trip. Good luck everyone here. Perhaps may run into some of you during interviews later this year.
 
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Since scores were released, I have literally averaged 60+ hours per week in the lab finishing my research project. Today, I am officially finished with it!! Now it's time to do the truly difficult work: write my PS :oops:
 
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CAFFEINE! said:
Since scores were released, I have literally averaged 60+ hours per week in the lab finishing my research project. Today, I am officially finished with it!! Now it's time to do the truly difficult work: write my PS :oops:
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WashU emailed you?? I got one from westernU
 
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CAFFEINE! said:
Since scores were released, I have literally averaged 60+ hours per week in the lab finishing my research project. Today, I am officially finished with it!! Now it's time to do the truly difficult work: write my PS :oops:
Click to expand...
Im always available to read PS
 
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