The Official November 7, 2014 MCAT Thread

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M.D.orbust

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Hey all! I am signed up for this date. 8:00 a.m. Yikes!!! I am aiming hard to make 40+ my reality so hence me making this thread so early. A former lab- mate and current medical student had a ton of MCAT prep stuff she gave to me. So I have the Examcrackers set, Hyperlearning set, regular Princeton Review, audio osmosis, and practice MCAT tests from a variety of sources I also do the MCAT questions a day through email and on my phone (to help with super quick recall). I am officially studying legitimately now. Currently starting with Examcrackers. I'd love to hear from you all doing the same. Let's do this!!!
 
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Janus_Kinase said:
@lazyindy I expected a joke somewhere in there haha 🙂 But ooo I totally get their explanation now. I was thinking about the graph literally bending towards the x-axis but instead should think of it as the graph bending in the direction of the x-axis. Thank you clarifying that!

And @sps27, or anyone, is it safe to say that whenever we compare a graph involving one 'quantity squared' and one not, that the graph will bend towards the 'quantity squared' axis?
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Will bend towards the variable responding to the "quantity squared".
 
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texan2414 said:
Will bend towards the variable responding to the "quantity squared".
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Haha yes thanks. You answered that before me even posting the question.

Oh and to give you my thoughts on the bio question you asked. The passage says "E. coli break down the foods that we lack the digestive enzymes for in order to produce vitamins" it does not say they are the digestive enzymes.


So a reduced population E. coli population will absolutely create deficiencies in specific enzymes (K & B-12) but it wont really create deficiencies in digestive enzymes because they are not digestive enzymes nor does it say they produce digestive enzymes (more like substitutes)
 
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Janus_Kinase said:
Haha yes thanks. You answered that before me even posting the question.

Oh and to give you my thoughts on the bio question you asked. The passage says "E. coli break down the foods that we lack the digestive enzymes for in order to produce vitamins" it does not say they are the digestive enzymes.


So a reduced population E. coli population will absolutely create deficiencies in specific enzymes (K & B-12) but it wont really create deficiencies in digestive enzymes because they are not digestive enzymes nor does it say they produce digestive enzymes (more like substitutes)
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Oh I see it now!!! At worst, we won't be able to metabolize the foods for which we lack the enzymes for so we would just eliminate those. I see the distinction now.

Thanks!!
 
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sps27 said:
yes to your question @Janus, @texan said correctly. I think if we sit together for this exam as a group, we will get 45 and in half the time.......🙂. @lazylindy......bud, the formula should be 2pi not 1/2pi.
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ah oops good catch. This is what happens when you're sleep deprived
 
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Ahhh finally finished bio SA! And half way through with physics - man these take forever! And finally figured out what everybody meant by SA... LOL

10-11 range on bio SA, whoo! Although I must admit, I may have cheated a little on a couple questions... Do you guys refer to your notes when doing these? I have been here and there kind of as a learning process.
 
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lostnconfused said:
Ahhh finally finished bio SA! And half way through with physics - man these take forever! And finally figured out what everybody meant by SA... LOL

10-11 range on bio SA, whoo! Although I must admit, I may have cheated a little on a couple questions... Do you guys refer to your notes when doing these? I have been here and there kind of as a learning process.
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Well.. 75-85% range. Guessing it doesn't translate into a score completely..
 
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update: took AAMC 4 today

13 PS 14 VR 13 BS 40

I immediately looked at the 14 in verbal and went like 'wut?' haha no idea where that came from as I took this test on 5 hours of sleep and after a frustrating PS section. Besides some weird questions in Biology here and there this wasn't too different from aamc 3. I keep hearing AAMC 5 is where it starts to get tough so we'll see what happens on thursday. Anyone else feel completely drained and lifeless after taking a full length?

nap time :dead:
 
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AAMC # 7 - 11/8/10. I feel OK (not great) with this result, considering my mental state after what all happened today. I lost connection 3 times in the University library before beginning the test, then very 1'st passage in PS the computer froze up. And then came back on but the figures were all icons and did not show up. And then another freeze. I powered down and then drove to the public library to continue the test. Luckily I got the option to restart the test. I thought I am dead in the water while the clock is ticking and I am driving to this other place. The other thing I feel is never take a practice test on the same day when an AAMC exam is being administered. It is awfully slow. U literally have to wait for the passages to show up while the seconds are ticking. Anyways, so was my experience today. Consider forewarned - There is freaking verbal passage in PS. That irritated me the most......and the BS is like an Orgo SA...full of Orgo. I found VR to be really tough.....
 
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I took Kaplan FL4 today - 11/8/12 for 31 total.
Kaplan FLs definitely progressively get harder... There were 3 orgo passages and they were incredibly detailed... Felt like a mini orgo 2 midterm honestly. The PS section also rattled me with the Michelson interferometer and Hubble Space Telescope lolz. Optics isn't my forte but surprisingly it was the GChem questions that I got more wrong than Physics. VR is a big disappointer though considering last AAMC I did I got a 10 on it and last Kaplan FL, got a 9 on their VR.

Will take AAMC 5 tomorrow and report results! @lazyindy back to back 40 scores are amazing! @sps27 considering all those distractions, you still ended up with a decent score. Keep it up!
 
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I wanted to discuss the question @texan2414 posted yesterday:

ckec9.png

edit: turns out kaplans explanation was just as confusing.
 
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@lazyindy I think they did a really bad job of writing that out in the passage. The way its written implies that since we lack the digestive enzymes necessary for degradation of selective substances, the fact that we rely on bacteria suggests that bacteria produce these enzymes. When I was reading it, I made a distinction that bacteria do both 1) supply us with vitamins; 2) produce necessary digestive enzymes that we lack.
 
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i can see why it's not A...

sentence structure:
bactera [noun] break down foods [action]. they don't provide the enzymes TO US, they simply perform the action FOR US.


if that makes sense....


I think it could be A if it said:
bacteria make available to us enzymes necessary for the digestion of certain foods... or something along those lines. idk. definitely one of those "separate a 14 from a 15" questions
 
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baxt1412 said:
i can see why it's not A...

sentence structure:
bactera [noun] break down foods [action]. they don't provide the enzymes TO US, they simply perform the action FOR US.


if that makes sense....


I think it could be A if it said:
bacteria make available to us enzymes necessary for the digestion of certain foods... or something along those lines. idk. definitely one of those "separate a 14 from a 15" questions
Click to expand...

+1 this.

I edited my original interpretation because Kaplan's explanation was completely twisted and useless. It's amazing how subtle wording can effect the whole meaning behind a phrase.
 
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lazyindy said:
+1 this.

I edited my original interpretation because Kaplan's explanation was completely twisted and useless. It's amazing how subtle wording can effect the whole meaning behind a phrase.
Click to expand...
Lol MCAT is really a beast test.... Testing not only your knowledge and critical thinking but also your altertness and responsiveness.
 
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baxt1412 said:
i can see why it's not A...

sentence structure:
bactera [noun] break down foods [action]. they don't provide the enzymes TO US, they simply perform the action FOR US.


if that makes sense....


I think it could be A if it said:
bacteria make available to us enzymes necessary for the digestion of certain foods... or something along those lines. idk. definitely one of those "separate a 14 from a 15" questions
Click to expand...
I concur!!!
Thanks for elucidating it again!
 
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it's kind of a crap shoot. you just have to interpret it correctly in the first time or two, IMO lol.

i suppose if you thought both of those functions were done by bacteria, you could look back at the question to see if there was something giving away one answer or the other... and like you said it's the difference of a single word most of the time.

there just simply isn't the time to concretely understand and pick apart every word of every question and every passage.
 
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For those that have taken the AAMC 4 Full Length, what are your comments on its difficulty? I took the AAMC 3 and got 10/7/10 (of course not happy with verbal), but I am pretty excited that I finally got 10s haha. Is it more difficult? Or should I just jump straight to AAMC 5, given the lack of time I have left? I understand AAMC 3 is the easiest of them all, and AAMC 11 is the most "realistic", I suppose.
 
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adr2be said:
For those that have taken the AAMC 4 Full Length, what are your comments on its difficulty? I took the AAMC 3 and got 10/7/10 (of course not happy with verbal), but I am pretty excited that I finally got 10s haha. Is it more difficult? Or should I just jump straight to AAMC 5, given the lack of time I have left? I understand AAMC 3 is the easiest of them all, and AAMC 11 is the most "realistic", I suppose.
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Don't skip AAMC 4 - they are invaluable practice.
We still have a lot of time before the exam and you can definitely fit in all the AAMCs before Nov 7th.
 
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texan2414 said:
Don't skip AAMC 4 - they are invaluable practice.
We still have a lot of time before the exam and you can definitely fit in all the AAMCs before Nov 7th.
Click to expand...

SERIOUSLY?! lol I was planning on taking one every three days so I can only fit in 6. So I should take one every other day? :O Then I wont have time to review
 
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adr2be said:
SERIOUSLY?! lol I was planning on taking one every three days so I can only fit in 6. So I should take one every other day? :O Then I wont have time to review
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One every 3 days lol? What will you do in between?
Should take you 2 days per FL - 1 day for testing, 1 for reviewing / addressing mistakes.
 
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texan2414 said:
One every 3 days lol? What will you do in between?
Should take you 2 days per FL - 1 day for testing, 1 for reviewing / addressing mistakes.
Click to expand...

lol Because I'm trying to finish my SA as well, only done Biology and OChem so far :/. Ill probably speed up afterwards..
 
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baxt1412 said:
27 on AAMC 4 :\
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Chin up @baxt1412 ! Analyze what you got wrong, think critically about why the wrong ones are wrong, and the right one is right. Take it as a learning experience. I know it sucks, but the more you take your mistakes in stride, the more it will help you in the long run! Take a break, come back with a fresh mind and attack it!
 
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How many FL is everyone planning on fitting in total before the exam?

I'm shooting for.. Maybe 8-10 more at this point? Is that realistic? ~4ish/week?
 
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lazyindy said:
I wanted to discuss the question @texan2414 posted yesterday:

ckec9.png

edit: turns out kaplans explanation was just as confusing.
Click to expand...

This question reminds me of practice NCLEX (RN board exam) questions I had to do. Many questions had 4 correct answers, you just had to pick the "most correct" one.
 
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Guys, I officially feel doomed.
I've had a migraine for days and my studying is getting nowhere. I at least finished my bio content review.
Really need to start taking FLs but my work schedule is kicking my butt.
 
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Well, with 16 days to go, I've still only completed two FLs and haven't finished my content review.
Things are NOT looking good.
 
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ciestar said:
Well, with 16 days to go, I've still only completed two FLs and haven't finished my content review.
Things are NOT looking good.
Click to expand...

same exact boat.

i am just going to be taking FLs and then going over chad's videos for topics i do poorly in.
 
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what do you guys think about Oct 21 PS nightmare? I think I can handle a hard PS but a hard verbal and Orgo will kill me......
 
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sps27 said:
what do you guys think about Oct 21 PS nightmare? I think I can handle a hard PS but a hard verbal and Orgo will kill me......
Click to expand...

gotta roll with the punches. you can only play with the hand that you are dealt. that's why we do so many practice tests because hopefully it will be representative of the actual odds of getting really tough passages or not.
 
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lostnconfused said:
Ahhh finally finished bio SA! And half way through with physics - man these take forever! And finally figured out what everybody meant by SA... LOL

10-11 range on bio SA, whoo! Although I must admit, I may have cheated a little on a couple questions... Do you guys refer to your notes when doing these? I have been here and there kind of as a learning process.
Click to expand...
you got a 1-15 range score... not a percentage? I got a percent and would love to know what the corresponding score would be
 
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soccerfeet said:
you got a 1-15 range score... not a percentage? I got a percent and would love to know what the corresponding score would be
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Sorry, it was a percentage! I just converted it by multiplying the percentage by 52, and then converting that with the normal raw score conversion scale. I don't think it's accurate, but I think it's pretty close cause that's moreless how I have been scoring on FLs.
 
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Okay ladies and gentlemen, am most likely going to join you guys after I register tomorrow. I am a talkative so y'all should deal with it. Ladies call me Darlington but men call me Paul. Yeah right, good luck y'all with studying. Y'all remember me in prayers I find a Nov 7th seat tomorrow!
 
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Took AAMC #8 and got a 12/10/9 composite 31. Totally messed up bio. Glanced over it and it seems I got majority of the discrete wrong LOL. At least it isn't my test taking abilities. Going to spend the rest of the week reviewing content for areas that I missed. Taking AAMC #10 on Tuesday most likely.

@lazyindy strong presence brah you're going to kill this test lol

I just want a 30 or above, I'd be okay with that.
 
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Can someone verify or correct me on this?

Resorption= increased loss of the substance
ReABsorption = increased gain of the substance

In regards to PTH...
In the bone: it increases both calcium and phosphate resorption - meaning both calcium and phosphate concentration increases in the blood
In the kidney: calcium reabsorption is increased, while phosphate reabsorption is decreased. This results in an increased calcium concentration in the blood and a decrease in phosphate concentration due to increased phosphate secretion in urine.
The NET effect of PTH though is an increase in calcium and DECREASE in phosphate in the blood (despite increased concentration in the serum from the bone)

Is this correct?? Took me awhile to figure out there was even notice that there was a distinction between resorption and reabsoprtion.
 
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lostnconfused said:
Can someone verify or correct me on this?

Resorption= increased loss of the substance
ReABsorption = increased gain of the substance

In regards to PTH...
In the bone: it increases both calcium and phosphate resorption - meaning both calcium and phosphate concentration increases in the blood
In the kidney: calcium reabsorption is increased, while phosphate reabsorption is decreased. This results in an increased calcium concentration in the blood and a decrease in phosphate concentration due to increased phosphate secretion in urine.
The NET effect of PTH though is an increase in calcium and DECREASE in phosphate in the blood (despite increased concentration in the serum from the bone)

Is this correct?? Took me awhile to figure out there was even notice that there was a distinction between resorption and reabsoprtion.
Click to expand...
Yup......that looks right to me.....
 
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