The Official October 25th, 2014 MCAT Thread

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Violagirl

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Hey all! Just thought I'd get a thread out there for those of us taking the MCAT on October 25th! Feel free to post how you plan to study, any study tips/tricks you might have or other resources you found helpful that might benefit others. I originally planned on taking the MCAT on July 12th but ended up having to reschedule with the hassle of job hunting. Now that I have a new job lined up, I ended up rescheduling to take it in October instead in getting back on track with studying. Best of luck to everyone taking it!
 
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Even though we have 3 weeks left and Oct just started, I feel like it's already creeping towards the end of Oct. Even after doing the SAs and practice passages so far (not doing so hot on TBR phys passages), I don't feel ready at all. AAMC 7 this Saturday..who else is with me? :dead:
 
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stitchattack said:
Even though we have 3 weeks left and Oct just started, I feel like it's already creeping towards the end of Oct. Even after doing the SAs and practice passages so far (not doing so hot on TBR phys passages), I don't feel ready at all. AAMC 7 this Saturday..who else is with me? :dead:
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GS-5 Fri or Sat, and then possibly AAMC#7 on Sunday......
 
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Revising OChem today. And then Chem - SA, and then some EK-101 verbal. Feel like I want to get it all done in 1 day and be over with it. I want to escape to an island with my books and then show up auto-magically on exam day and get it over with.........
 
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Reviewing TPR chapters for physics tomorrow and organic the next day. Whilst, doing Ek1001s for corresponding chapters. Gotta bring my score up and focus on not making stupid errors! Going to take AAMC Fl#7 next Wednesday. Time to improve!
 
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Choice was N and O. I read this as Na and O and clicked it as ans. Bummer! Have you done this ? These are the kinds of errors I hate the most.....the funny part is, even in my review I am reading it as Na and O. Only when I am about to send this post do I actually see my mistake......and then throw my hands up at my error......
 
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So fair warning, the gs 9 physical section is really difficult. I felt a little bit bruised after taking it. :dead: Although it does offer fairly good practice. But in better news, took AAMC 3 today and got a 36 (13/11/12)!
 
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did a TPR verbal test, only a few wrong, verbal is improving!!! Then went into some organic chemistry passages + stand alone problems, didnt do bad on those as well. Good to see improvement! Going to try to take an FL either tomorrow or saturday. I want more time with some gen chem topics and orgo before I hit it again.

At this point, I am going to do all the kaplan section tests I have to. Doing random passages gets tiresome after awhile, I WANT THE REALLL THANNNG!
 
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Just about 2 weeks left guys!! How is everyone's studying coming along? I'm sure many of us have started the FLs by now..how is that going? I'm a little nervous but at the same time I feel I should just focus on closing the little gaps on stuff I'm horrible at and just get it over with.
 
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stitchattack said:
Just about 2 weeks left guys!! How is everyone's studying coming along? I'm sure many of us have started the FLs by now..how is that going? I'm a little nervous but at the same time I feel I should just focus on closing the little gaps on stuff I'm horrible at and just get it over with.
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3-4 days of content review left 😉
 
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stitchattack said:
Just about 2 weeks left guys!! How is everyone's studying coming along? I'm sure many of us have started the FLs by now..how is that going? I'm a little nervous but at the same time I feel I should just focus on closing the little gaps on stuff I'm horrible at and just get it over with.
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I've been a little tense lately these past couple of weeks and also slackened. Things are not moving quickly. It is taking me time to finish off the SA's along with content revisions etc.,. Finished Chem SA last week and got 88%. So some hope there. Almost done with Bio SA - just a few passages left. I wanted to push the date out a couple of weeks to Nov 7, but scared that I might not find any spot and will loose Oct 25'th in the process. But I found a spot for Nov 7 so I pushed the date out a couple of weeks. Thought that would give me time to focus exclusively on Verbal. I am not practicing verbal consistently, that's the problem. So no fabulous FL's scores to report, just some trepidation, anxiety. I will get back into the thick of things come Monday. Target for next week 1) Orgo SA, 2) GS-5 3) Verbal EK101, TPRSW every day, 4) AAMC#7....
 
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sps27 said:
I've been a little tense lately these past couple of weeks and also slackened. Things are not moving quickly. It is taking me time to finish off the SA's along with content revisions etc.,. Finished Chem SA last week and got 88%. So some hope there. Almost done with Bio SA - just a few passages left. I wanted to push the date out a couple of weeks to Nov 7, but scared that I might not find any spot and will loose Oct 25'th in the process. But I found a spot for Nov 7 so I pushed the date out a couple of weeks. Thought that would give me time to focus exclusively on Verbal. I am not practicing verbal consistently, that's the problem. So no fabulous FL's scores to report, just some trepidation, anxiety. I will get back into the thick of things come Monday. Target for next week 1) Orgo SA, 2) GS-5 3) Verbal EK101, TPRSW every day, 4) AAMC#7....
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im not the only one then :]. Same here man, my verbal work has been shotty and unpredictive.
 
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Verbal is rough. I feel like I made a bit of progress at first, but now just a giant plateau. I was vaguely thinking of postponing to the November 7th test as well, but honestly, I feel like at this point I just need to face the MCAT and see what happens. (plus by then I will have exhausted most of the good verbal material).
 
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tea guzzling traveler said:
Verbal is rough. I feel like I made a bit of progress at first, but now just a giant plateau. I was vaguely thinking of postponing to the November 7th test as well, but honestly, I feel like at this point I just need to face the MCAT and see what happens. (plus by then I will have exhausted most of the good verbal material).
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Verbal is indeed rough. My goal is a 10, but the highest I have gotten on the AAMC FLs so far is a 9. I definitely post-game the section and understand the explanations for the correct answers, but I just feel I can't improve for some reason. What are your verbal scores like? If you have been getting 10 and above, do you have any advice or suggestions?
 
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Of the three AAMC tests I've taken, I've gotten three 11's. (I only grumble about that because that is consistently my lowest score). I think my post game analysis is what has gotten me to that point. Tips that I have gathered so far that have helped me: One look at the quotation in context, every single time. When they are asking about a specific thing, don't just go on intuition because that is what most people are doing and then they can get you there. One thing that I noticed was that the answer often hinges on a single word in the question, so make sure that you know all the words they are referring to and what they mean in the context of the passage. Finally, pay close attention to tone, and words that indicate tone. But honestly, I think it is just one of those things that requires just a bunch of practice. I went through Kaplan first, then 10 examkrackers tests, the AAMC verbal SA (which I broke into three tests), and for the next 10 days, I'm planning a whole verbal test worth of Princeton hyperlearning plus the 5 AAMC's I have left. My strategy for post game analysis is to write down the question, the answer, my answer, why I chose it, what the correct reasoning is, and then what tips I might offer to myself the next time I approach a similar problem. It takes a bunch more time, but by now I have started to collect a fairly sizeable notebook worth of tips, insights, and places where I have gone astray.
 
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Schadenfreude said:
Verbal is indeed rough. My goal is a 10, but the highest I have gotten on the AAMC FLs so far is a 9. I definitely post-game the section and understand the explanations for the correct answers, but I just feel I can't improve for some reason. What are your verbal scores like? If you have been getting 10 and above, do you have any advice or suggestions?
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Verbal is so annoying! I did about 250 passages before I took the exam, and averaged between 9-12 on the AAMC exams. Then somehow I got a 7 on the real thing! I was in shock 🙁
 
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Gordhan said:
Verbal is so annoying! I did about 250 passages before I took the exam, and averaged between 9-12 on the AAMC exams. Then somehow I got a 7 on the real thing! I was in shock 🙁
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Yeah, one of the biggest problems with verbal beyond the apparent subjectivity of the answers is that there are only 40 questions. That makes the scaling really tough, and sometimes, you just get unlucky on a passage or two which is enough to tarnish an otherwise solid performance. Best of luck on it this time around though 🙂
 
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improved my BS section and my gen chem knowledge taking kaplan sectional tests! Im excited now lol. Midterms + MCAT studying doesnt mix :,(
 
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Got a 34 on AAMC 8R today...I feel OK about that, not great. My breakdown was 11, 10, 13...I am a bit worried because VR used to be my best subject and now it is deteriorating for some reason. It's almost as if the better I get in science, the worse I get in VR 😛
 
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I also took AAMC #8 recently and got 12/9/12. This is the fourth exam out of the five that I have taken where I have scored 9 on VR. I still want a 35 overall with a 10 verbal, but the more of these practice tests I take, the more I feel it isn't going to happen. Still got 9-11 to do, but I'm not expecting much, considering that these are supposedly the hardest and most like the real deal.
 
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Also just took AAMC 8. I was pleasantly surprised, because it felt kind of hard and awful, but I ended up with a 37 (13/12/12). The tests have started to feel significantly harder than AAMC 3 (or is that just me?). Anyways, off to the gym with me before I go and review all the things that went wrong.
 
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tea guzzling traveler said:
Also just took AAMC 8. I was pleasantly surprised, because it felt kind of hard and awful, but I ended up with a 37 (13/12/12). The tests have started to feel significantly harder than AAMC 3 (or is that just me?). Anyways, off to the gym with me before I go and review all the things that went wrong.
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I'm not planning to do 8 or 9 but have you taken 11? If so, do you think 8 was more like 7 or 11? I'm just planning to finish up 10..saving up 8 and 9 in case I have to retake so I have at least 2 AAMCs to practice with.
 
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no mcat studying today, did about 8 hours of genetics studying for my midterm tomorrow (great). Going to take an FL tomorrow since I have been improving on all the Kaplan sectional tests so far. Lets see how it goes.
 
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stitchattack said:
I'm not planning to do 8 or 9 but have you taken 11? If so, do you think 8 was more like 7 or 11? I'm just planning to finish up 10..saving up 8 and 9 in case I have to retake so I have at least 2 AAMCs to practice with.
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I am just taking them in numeric order... so not yet. I am planning on taking tomorrow to review, then doing 9 saturday, 10 sunday, and 11 on tuesday. From what I have heard, 10 and 11 are supposed to be the closest versions of the test to the real mcat (although I have also heard that 10 has a pretty harsh scale that might not be super accurate). My approach is to just go all out on this test, and if I have to take it again, I'll just wait for the 2015 version and take a bit more time off.
 
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tea guzzling traveler said:
I am just taking them in numeric order... so not yet. I am planning on taking tomorrow to review, then doing 9 saturday, 10 sunday, and 11 on tuesday. From what I have heard, 10 and 11 are supposed to be the closest versions of the test to the real mcat (although I have also heard that 10 has a pretty harsh scale that might not be super accurate). My approach is to just go all out on this test, and if I have to take it again, I'll just wait for the 2015 version and take a bit more time off.
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thats also my plan. Since i am taking a gap year I could wait to take the MCAT2015 if I really wanted to but I ended up studying for this one. Good to know we have options.
 
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Got a 38 on AAMC 9R the other day (13, 12, 13). I was very pleased with that 😀

Goals for the rest of the week:

Take and correct AAMC 10 and 11 CBT's

Finish every third problem of EK 1001 Physics

Finish last two EK Verbal 101 exams

Review my 600 or so flashcards and 50 page logbook of "lessons learned" (questions I got wrong and the corresponding rationale for the right answer)

Breathe
 
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I also finished AAMC #9 yesterday. My subscores are all over the place: 14/8/10. I ran out of time on VR for this test and guessed on two questions, which, if I hadn't, I would have scored my usual 9. I seriously just can't improve VR, no matter how much I try and want to. Out of curiosity, for those of you who are scoring 10+ on VR for the AAMC FLs, do you consider yourself an avid reader? Have you always done well on verbal sections in previous standardized tests (i.e. ACT reading, SAT critical reading, etc)?
 
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I got a 35 on AAMC 10 CBT today (12, 11, 12) :shrug:
I made the silliest errors...misreading part of the question...an arithmetic error ...I feel like I could have done better.
Oh well...I will do better on 11!

Schadenfreude said:
Out of curiosity, for those of you who are scoring 10+ on VR for the AAMC FLs, do you consider yourself an avid reader? Have you always done well on verbal sections in previous standardized tests (i.e. ACT reading, SAT critical reading, etc)?
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Never got below a 10 on VR here. To be perfectly honest, I am not fond of reading at all. Never have been. The only reading I ever do is either in the form of assigned school-work or non-literary writing on the internet (forums, image boards, wikipedia)...I got a 760 on SAT critical reading and a 5 on AP Literature, and I always aced all my English courses with ease. Honestly, I just attribute this to a natural proclivity for language. English is actually my second language. I immigrated to the US when I was 3 years old, and I always spoke my native language at home. I guess I was forced to pay extra-close attention to English growing up out of necessity, so I naturally grew strong in it. I can see how VR would be tougher if you just passively learned English all your life.
 
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I also took AAMC 10 today. Got a 36 (12/11/13), which is around my average, but I found the scaling to be pretty brutal, with 36/40 on VR equating to an 11... eesh, that is harsh. But in other news, less than one week till game time! We got this.

Goals for me for the rest of the week:
The rest of the verbal Hyperlearning practice passages.
Take and correct AAMC 11.
4 practice verbal tests
as much bio/ physics passages as I can do
general review

and I am taking Friday off (watching a movie and exercising). Anyone have any fun plans?
 
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tea guzzling traveler said:
I also took AAMC 10 today. Got a 36 (12/11/13), which is around my average, but I found the scaling to be pretty brutal, with 36/40 on VR equating to an 11... eesh, that is harsh. But in other news, less than one week till game time! We got this.

Goals for me for the rest of the week:
The rest of the verbal Hyperlearning practice passages.
Take and correct AAMC 11.
4 practice verbal tests
as much bio/ physics passages as I can do
general review

and I am taking Friday off (watching a movie and exercising). Anyone have any fun plans?
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Taking Friday off as well and doing something fun in DC (where I'm taking the test)!

I'm having mild week-before freak outs, but I took AAMC #9 yesterday and got 39 (13/13/13), similar to 8 (39) and 7 (41). Really felt like 9 threw me some stuff I didn't know on PS and a little on BS so I guess my score should make me more confident for Saturday. Gonna do 10 either today or tomorrow and 11 Wednesday/Thursday. Not really feeling like I'll do much other studying at this point except maybe some verbal passages and looking back over amine reactions in Organic.
 
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Gordon Gekko said:
I must keep going. My AAMC #11 score was only a 24 (7/9/8) and #10 was a 25 (10/7/8). I took #3 before content review and got an 18 (6/7/5), so the 7 in PS on #11 is a crushing blow.
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Dude, I completely understand your pain. My scores on the AAMC have been all over the place. Mainly, it's because my VR fluctuates depending on the type of passages I get. I took AAMC 9 yesterday and ended up with 11/6/8 (25) but I took vr and bs with loud distractions in the background which completely threw off my mood. I didn't want good VR practice to go to waste so I went and bought those foam earplugs after the test and re-did VR 3 hours later (without looking at the answers at all) and went from 6 to 9. So, it's a hit or miss for me. My score has been dropping too..seem I did better on AAMC 11 than 10 or 9.
 
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Chickenmaster said:
Oh yeah totes. But I'm gonna do another EK Verbal Test and re-review some AAMCs....

Does anyone feel a little nervous given what the October 21sters are saying about the difficulty of the test?
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I feel very uneasy about what they said. Last time I took the exam I had an easy PS and that really made me feel comfortable. Honestly, i'd rather have a hard BS, just so I don't have to worry about it effecting the rest of my test.
 
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Kaplan FL 11 LOL!!.
we will all be fine.

Everyone complains about 10 & 11

Kaplan 10 was good, but 11 was the devil little's brother
 
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