The Official November 7, 2014 MCAT Thread

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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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TheEngineeringNerd said:
Maybe some of you don't need this mnemonic or already know it but I really liked it for electrochemistry questions because this is what they like to test:

The Red Cat gets Fat = Reduction occurs at the Cathode, which gains weight = gets Fat

Remember this and just know the opposite happens at the anode.
Click to expand...

reduction at cathode
oxidation at anode

consonant w/ consonant and vowel w/ vowel
 
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adr2be said:
guys my anxiety levels is high as the sky right now.....
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Why so?

Just remember, if you're doing well on your practice exams, then relax! Why should your real exam be any different... it's just like the other 8 or so practice exams you've taken and improved on since day 1. At this point, instead of thinking about all of the things you didn't do, think about all of the things you DID do. Think about the first time you hit that 30+ and remember that feeling. Don't let anxiety get in way of you becoming the awesome doctor you aspire to be :horns::clap:

Maybe until now and test day, think about 5 things you accomplished each day right before you go to bed i.e. positive reinforcement. Crush this exam :beat: and be positive my friend... the end is too close and you can just smell that white coat waiting for you 🙂
 
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I had the hardest time remembering refraction angles bending which way in medium, and

So I just started repeating to my self H2LA, H2LA, H2LA (has a natural rhythmic beat to it lol)
which just means high👎 to low👎 bends away from normal

Edit: Apparently ( n ) without the spaces is 👎 lol. I mean the refraction index, n.
 
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Just did AAMC 9 and got a 27 11/8/8

Worst I have ever done. Feeling pretty defeated right now and its closing in on a week out. Don't even understand how I did so bad in bio, I felt terribly burned out going into it, but regardless. I haven't reviewed it yet. Was thinking about redoing the bio section tomorrow (even if the score may be slightly inflated, idk).

Pretty lost guys.
 
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Carbon090 said:
Just did AAMC 9 and got a 27 11/8/8

Worst I have ever done. Feeling pretty defeated right now and its closing in on a week out. Don't even understand how I did so bad in bio, I felt terribly burned out going into it, but regardless. I haven't reviewed it yet. Was thinking about redoing the bio section tomorrow (even if the score may be slightly inflated, idk).

Pretty lost guys.
Click to expand...

i'm feeling a little burned out as well. can't seem to focus, etc. so i am just doing some more review on my weaker topics. just can't do tests right now. too stressful and doing them and realizing i'm stressed makes me more stressed. maybe just try going over your topics that you know are weaker for you for a few days. one less practice test will not make or break your end goal. BUT, one more practice test may break your end goal if you get so burned out that you take a few steps backward.

just realize that at this point, attitude is way more important than it ever has been. you'll get through this, just as we all will.
 
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baxt1412 said:
i'm feeling a little burned out as well. can't seem to focus, etc. so i am just doing some more review on my weaker topics. just can't do tests right now. too stressful and doing them and realizing i'm stressed makes me more stressed. maybe just try going over your topics that you know are weaker for you for a few days. one less practice test will not make or break your end goal. BUT, one more practice test may break your end goal if you get so burned out that you take a few steps backward.

just realize that at this point, attitude is way more important than it ever has been. you'll get through this, just as we all will.
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I hope you're right. I studied for a good 5 hours yesterday. I thought I felt okay this morning. Got through PS and felt good, midway through verbal I noticed I began to lose grasp of my thoughts, got to bio and I was gone. I had to read the first passage twice because I noticed after the first time I didn't grasp anything that it said.

Just demoralizing. I thought I would be breaking 33's by now. Really disheartening. I didn't think burnout could produce results like this (I always assumed burnout was an excuse). Perhaps I was ignorant about it. Maybe a few light days would help me.
 
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Carbon090 said:
I hope you're right. I studied for a good 5 hours yesterday. I thought I felt okay this morning. Got through PS and felt good, midway through verbal I noticed I began to lose grasp of my thoughts, got to bio and I was gone. I had to read the first passage twice because I noticed after the first time I didn't grasp anything that it said.

Just demoralizing. I thought I would be breaking 33's by now. Really disheartening. I didn't think burnout could produce results like this (I always assumed burnout was an excuse). Perhaps I was ignorant about it. Maybe a few light days would help me.
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definitely not necessarily true. you likely haven't studied THIS hard for anything ever. not even for midterms. cumulatively, you probably have (considering you have had multiple midterms all around the same time) but it also wasn't for this long either. and a single midterm doesn't seem to carry as much weight as an MCAT seems to carry either. so it's all about relativity.


i would really suggest taking a few days off or light review. gotta go do something fun (a hike, golf, go have a few drinks, etc)
 
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Yeah, I'm feeling burnt out right now too, can't concentrate as it feels a bit futile at this point. My last two AAMC has been two 29. I'm saving #5 (only one left) for next week. I'm studying only weaknesses at this point, but there are so many topics I don't feel like I'm an expert in especially when I cross into the q&a section lol. It's also a bit demoralizing since I'm using TPR online review stuff. Honestly, TBR passages are a easier than these.
 
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Btw, how's everyone ochem? I'm just memorizing the basics like sterochem, e1/e2/sn1/sn2, dehydration reactions, acid/base trend, and common solvents. You think that's enough? I don't remember many reactions from ochem2 at all besides a few.
 
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popopopop said:
Btw, how's everyone ochem? I'm just memorizing the basics like sterochem, e1/e2/sn1/sn2, dehydration reactions, acid/base trend, and common solvents. You think that's enough? I don't remember many reactions from ochem2 at all besides a few.
Click to expand...

Knowing the basics and trends is all you need for ochem. Memorizing every reaction is the worst things you can do. Just remember Sn1 Sn2 E1 E2 and know the differences because that's what they like. Know what's an electrophile and what's a nucleophile and that nucleophiles attack electrophiles. Know things like which protons are most acidic, which carbons are susceptible to attack etc is important. make sure you also know which functional groups are most reactive. Other than that, a lot of what you need is already in the passage.

Also remember that ochem is not a large percentage of your biological science section so knowing this much should be enough 🙂
 
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^Yeah, that's what I figured, but I remember one of the AAMC had a wittig reaction as one of the discrete or something, makes a guy paranoid. My worst fear is having some ochem discretes. Thanks!
 
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popopopop said:
^Yeah, that's what I figured, but I remember one of the AAMC had a wittig reaction as one of the discrete or something, makes a guy paranoid. My worst fear is having some ochem discretes. Thanks!
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Yeah Wittig is on the list. Frankly, it is a GOOD idea to glance over it because there's only so many questions they can ask to differentiate test takers. There's also some trivial stuff such as terpenes, Mass spec, UV spec that we never got into our orgo class but I had to supplement from other upper level biochem classes and various sources from the internet.
 
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Carbon090 said:
I hope you're right. I studied for a good 5 hours yesterday. I thought I felt okay this morning. Got through PS and felt good, midway through verbal I noticed I began to lose grasp of my thoughts, got to bio and I was gone. I had to read the first passage twice because I noticed after the first time I didn't grasp anything that it said.

Just demoralizing. I thought I would be breaking 33's by now. Really disheartening. I didn't think burnout could produce results like this (I always assumed burnout was an excuse). Perhaps I was ignorant about it. Maybe a few light days would help me.
Click to expand...
It is perfectly normal for you to suffer this drop due to burnout/stress.
You've already demonstrated you can hit 33s so there's no reason to assume that you won't be able to come next Friday. Take a break. You really look like you need it - I plan on being done with all the AAMC FLs by this weekend myself, so all I have left are lingering questions in official AAMC guide and some 2015 practice questions before Nov 7th as well as light review of my flash cards the week leading up to next Friday.
 
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Anyone else really freaking out about this? Less than 2 weeks left and I still feel scared about geometrical optics and electromagnetism... May the odds be ever in your favor!
 
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Carbon090 said:
Just did AAMC 9 and got a 27 11/8/8

Worst I have ever done. Feeling pretty defeated right now and its closing in on a week out. Don't even understand how I did so bad in bio, I felt terribly burned out going into it, but regardless. I haven't reviewed it yet. Was thinking about redoing the bio section tomorrow (even if the score may be slightly inflated, idk).

Pretty lost guys.
Click to expand...
Hey bud, dont stress out, you know you are way more capable! So far my lowest bio score is on this aamc. For some reason it was jus timing for me, I lost track of time. I had to read, and re-read graphs quite a few times.

Take the time you need, review the silly mistakes (good to get them out now), work on weak areas, and move forward! We are in this together man!!
 
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This is a spoiler for anyone that has not completed AAMC 7 yet but there was a very specific anatomy question thrown in the passage about Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. You had to know the peritoneal cavity which shares boundaries with the GI tract. (highlight to see the spoiler sentence)

This caught me off guard because I did not recall studying this at all. I guess this is how AAMC makes sure that only a very few amount of people get all of the questions right on the actual exam. I don't know what they will ask on the real deal but from the looks of it anything seems fair game. grrr

😡😡😡
 
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^More of those for me please, my a&p is sharp lol. GI was the highest percentile possible in the bio SA for me, then respiratory, then genitourinary system lol. Cell bio on the other hand....
 
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I think I'm going to be a feminist for halloween!! what do you guys think? 😛

tvMnZA6.jpg
 
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Janus_Kinase said:
Haha inspired by some of the aamc verbal passages?
Click to expand...

Haha this doesn't relate to Halloween but I dislike verbal and have a favorite passage. It was this one about toilet training in EK 101 and man I never thought someone could be so motivated to write an entire passage (and probably more that that) about toilet training. I hope I get something nice like that on my MCAT lol!
 
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Did anybody else know we won't be getting a $30 gift card from amazon for doing the trial section? Wahhh what a bummer

Edit: I just read through the email I got from AAMC again and it says we won't even get it. Hmph!
 
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lazyindy said:
This is a spoiler for anyone that has not completed AAMC 7 yet but there was a very specific anatomy question thrown in the passage about Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. You had to know the peritoneal cavity which shares boundaries with the GI tract. (highlight to see the spoiler sentence)

This caught me off guard because I did not recall studying this at all. I guess this is how AAMC makes sure that only a very few amount of people get all of the questions right on the actual exam. I don't know what they will ask on the real deal but from the looks of it anything seems fair game. grrr

😡😡😡
Click to expand...

Talk about mean! I don't know how I would do any good on the biology section if I hadn't taken human physiology before this exam. It really is a tough but awesome course! I wonder if anatomy would have been good for this test... I don't need to take it.
 
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^My friend knows very very little a&p and managed a 10 (30+ overall this cycle). I imagine if the BS section is mostly experimental, then knowing genetics, cell bio, viruses, and corresponding experimental techniques will probably be more helpful.
 
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Devoted today for self-assessments. Finished Phys/ Bio / VR but still have Orgo and GChem assessments remaining (not much though)

Physics: 86% - felt easy honestly; there were a couple of VR-like passages that stressed concepts; overall happy with my performance.
Biology: 82% - thought I would score a little higher here but ok.
Verbal: 74% - very pleased with this. Towards the end, the passages get incredibly dense and rough.

Taking AAMC 7 tomorrow - hopefully I maintain my 32-33 score range, maybe even go up 🙂
 
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anon5759 said:
Maybe it would help us to generate a list of "MCAT trivia", things like the AAMC 7 that @lazyindy bhai posted.
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Drake's eqn seems like perfect AAMC test material to me. What do you think?

The Drake equation is:
24b31e87c6c617382237ab57357bd539.png

where:
N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which radio-communication might be possible (i.e. which are on our current past light cone);
and
R* = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space


I posted this just for laughs.......I hope we never get this......
 
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sps27 said:
Drake's eqn seems like perfect AAMC test material to me. What do you think?

The Drake equation is:
24b31e87c6c617382237ab57357bd539.png

where:
N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which radio-communication might be possible (i.e. which are on our current past light cone);
and
R* = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space


I posted this just for laughs.......I hope we never get this......
Click to expand...

Yikes you scared me for a second there lol! I felt constipated because I had no clue about what you were talking about!
 
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You guys are all awesome. Seriously.

I reviewed over the bio and made some very, unforgiving, terrible mistakes. I mean like misreading SN1 as SN2, misreading answer choices, not reading all the answers and just blowing through (it's like my mind must have been off when I took this, I can't even). The majority of what I got wrong was just silly.

I guess burnout is real 😕

Going to review over the rest of this exam after I do the heaviest of deadlifts in the gym (going to scream while doing them so the old ladies be mirin by Goku screams). I'm then going to review the rest of this exam and just review over content for the next few days to brush up on possible weak areas.

Going to take AAMC 10 on Sunday, 11 on Tuesday, light review on Wednesday. Take Thursday off, exam on Friday.

I'm staying positive, we are going to kill it.:beat:
 
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texan2414 said:
Hey @anon5759 did you take any of the 2015 practice material or the 2015 practice test?
Click to expand...
Hey @texan2414, I took the first section of the practice test (idk what it was called something like physical/chemical foundations of biological systems). Some questions were very easy, others quite tough. They don't give you a scaled score at the end but I think I got something like 78% correct (not very good...). There are 59 questions in that section. To be fair, I did end it with like 45 min leftover because I took it at the end of the day and was kind of fed up...
 
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Carbon090 said:
You guys are all awesome. Seriously.

I reviewed over the bio and made some very, unforgiving, terrible mistakes. I mean like misreading SN1 as SN2, misreading answer choices, not reading all the answers and just blowing through (it's like my mind must have been off when I took this, I can't even). The majority of what I got wrong was just silly.

I guess burnout is real 😕

Going to review over the rest of this exam after I do the heaviest of deadlifts in the gym (going to scream while doing them so the old ladies be mirin by Goku screams). I'm then going to review the rest of this exam and just review over content for the next few days to brush up on possible weak areas.

Going to take AAMC 10 on Sunday, 11 on Tuesday, light review on Wednesday. Take Thursday off, exam on Friday.

I'm staying positive, we are going to kill it.:beat:
Click to expand...

Deep breath. Just a test. You can retake it.

I feel like the pressure is seriously on for us cause we're all like OMGAH LAST TEST DATE BAHH but reality is we can most likely sign up for a january test date after we test, and we if not, we'll study for the 2015 exam. It is NOT the end of the world. If you really want to be a physician, you will figure it out. It is literally just a test. Not an ideal situation but don't put so much pressure on yourself. I find that's where the burnout comes from.

Of course, this coming from the girl that curled up fetal and rocked back and forth before aamc 9 on Sunday crying "I dont wanna" in the library before my friend literally had to tell me to get my **** together. But seriously all the answers you need are provided to you on the test. I prefer the later AAMCs. I don't have all the formulas memorized, I understand a decent amount of the concepts, I have to trust that I'll be able to figure it out when I get on there.

I started this summer wanting a 35+ but I saw a great post on here recently that asked whether you're taking the MCAT to prove your intelligence to yourself or to get into medical school. As someone with a type A, competitive personality (something I think a lot of us premeds have in common), I think about this often when I obsess about my scores. Sure, we all have dream schools that we would like to get ourselves in a good position for or makeup for a lower GPA. but at the end of the day the dream is to be a physician. If I see a 30 on the screen come December I'll be closer to having achieved that and that's all that matters.

Happy studying all!
 
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avenlea said:
Deep breath. Just a test. You can retake it.

I feel like the pressure is seriously on for us cause we're all like OMGAH LAST TEST DATE BAHH but reality is we can most likely sign up for a january test date after we test, and we if not, we'll study for the 2015 exam. It is NOT the end of the world. If you really want to be a physician, you will figure it out. It is literally just a test. Not an ideal situation but don't put so much pressure on yourself. I find that's where the burnout comes from.

Of course, this coming from the girl that curled up fetal and rocked back and forth before aamc 9 on Sunday crying "I dont wanna" in the library before my friend literally had to tell me to get my **** together. But seriously all the answers you need are provided to you on the test. I prefer the later AAMCs. I don't have all the formulas memorized, I understand a decent amount of the concepts, I have to trust that I'll be able to figure it out when I get on there.

I started this summer wanting a 35+ but I saw a great post on here recently that asked whether you're taking the MCAT to prove your intelligence to yourself or to get into medical school. As someone with a type A, competitive personality (something I think a lot of us premeds have in common), I think about this often when I obsess about my scores. Sure, we all have dream schools that we would like to get ourselves in a good position for or makeup for a lower GPA. but at the end of the day the dream is to be a physician. If I see a 30 on the screen come December I'll be closer to having achieved that and that's all that matters.

Happy studying all!
Click to expand...

I might literally pee myself if I see a 30! I like your comment about our motive for taking the test - to become a physician. A 30 will be nearly guaranteed an acceptance SOMEWHERE given the rest of our app is at least average. So that's all that matters. We have done all the prep we can do in terms of raw knowledge, like I told carbon, now it's just honing in on those skills and having enough stamina for a FL under test conditions.

Definitely the best time for positive thinking is right now.
 
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anon5759 said:
Hey @texan2414, I took the first section of the practice test (idk what it was called something like physical/chemical foundations of biological systems). Some questions were very easy, others quite tough. They don't give you a scaled score at the end but I think I got something like 78% correct (not very good...). There are 59 questions in that section. To be fair, I did end it with like 45 min leftover because I took it at the end of the day and was kind of fed up...
Click to expand...
I bought the official guide questions to the 2015, it was like $10. Was the material far different from current? Like compared to current aamc practice FLs?


I was thinking about doing some 2015 prep just for practice, but dont want to waste time if it is not helpful. What do you think?
 
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Janus_Kinase said:
I bought the official guide questions to the 2015, it was like $10. Was the material far different from current? Like compared to current aamc practice FLs?


I was thinking about doing some 2015 prep just for practice, but dont want to waste time if it is not helpful. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Lol.....
I had trouble figuring out which one was "PS" and which one was "BS".
Apparently in their chemical and physical foundations section "PS", you had to know Lys structure. looool
 
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Janus_Kinase said:
I bought the official guide questions to the 2015, it was like $10. Was the material far different from current? Like compared to current aamc practice FLs?


I was thinking about doing some 2015 prep just for practice, but dont want to waste time if it is not helpful. What do you think?
Click to expand...
hmm, I personally wouldn't waste too much time on it, but if you glance through the passages and see some that look extra conceptual, and in the scope of the current MCAT, I don't see any harm in doing them. I thought the material content was on par with the current MCAT, but you did have to know a lot more biochem (structure of proline, lys etc).

I'll probably do the BS/biochem section of the practice test if I have time this weekend.
 
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update: AAMC 8

PS: 15
VR: 14
BS: 15

total: 44!!!! highest score yet!! so ecstatic can't even describe how I feel about this! :soexcited::soexcited::soexcited:

I used more POE on this FL than I have on the previous ones. Also this time I trusted my gut instinct and didn't change any of my answers and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised!
 
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