The Official September 18, 2014 MCAT Thread

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torontopharm said:
Hey guys..November MCAT taker here.
Anyone who used the TPRH science workbook found it useful for today's test? My plan is to finish the book a couple of times before the test.
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Sorry for the late reply. Didn't see this. I found it moderately helpful in solidifying concepts. Many of the bio passages in that book aren't experimental enough compared to the real one, but it's still great. I did almost all the bio passages in that book. The Chemistry ones are really easy, so I stopped doing them after getting 100% on most of them. I don't know anything about the Physics passages since I didn't do them. The Organic Chemistry ones were good.

Overall, I recommend doing TBR passages for Physics, Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry. The Biology ones in that book are worth doing. Do all the advanced passages if you can.
 
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Woke up this morning thinking I got everything wrong. I think I'll stay off of here and stop worrying. Nothing I can do now!

See you on October 21st!
 
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justadream said:
By beaches, people are referring to sand passage in 1PM exam. Let's just say understanding the "apparatus" was virtually impossible. You could have given me unlimited time to stare at that description and I would never ever understand wth was going on.
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Hmm. I understood it is as the 'apparatus' moved based on what the 'apparatus' was sitting on relative to the other part of the 'apparatus'.
 
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justadream said:
By beaches, people are referring to sand passage in 1PM exam. Let's just say understanding the "apparatus" was virtually impossible. You could have given me unlimited time to stare at that description and I would never ever understand wth was going on.
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I concur
 
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Fixed:
SwedishMD2B said:
Lol. Hush! Watch me get a 15 on PS now.
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No but seriously, if you could understand that, you probably did well elsewhere. That was the hardest passage on PS (and IMO, hardest passage in all the sciences). That was definitely top 3 in my "hardest science MCAT passages" I came across in the AAMC FLs.
 
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justadream said:
Fixed:


No but seriously, if you could understand that, you probably did well elsewhere. That was the hardest passage on PS (and IMO, hardest passage in all the sciences). That was definitely top 3 in my "hardest science MCAT passages" I came across in the AAMC FLs.
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I thought the famous dude one was a harder...
 
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Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I would suddenly remember a random question that I was hung up on and start questioning my answer.

Which will end up being worse, anticipating scores or having taken the actual test?
 
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organesha said:
Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I would suddenly remember a random question that I was hung up on and start questioning my answer.

Which will end up being worse, anticipating scores or having taken the actual test?
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I would definitely say the wait. I almost went crazy last time.
 
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I honestly feel like there were two or more different exams administered. Half the stuff everyone is talking about I don't remotely recall on mine.
 
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MedicineMan94 said:
I honestly feel like there were two or more different exams administered. Half the stuff everyone is talking about I don't remotely recall on mine.
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I wouldn't worry about it. I don't remember a lot of the things people here are talking about. For some of us, the test becomes one big blur afterward. Also, I think some people are referring to passages in really weird, oblique ways on here, possibly so that AAMC doesn't hunt them down.
 
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MedicineMan94 said:
I honestly feel like there were two or more different exams administered. Half the stuff everyone is talking about I don't remotely recall on mine.
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Maybe, but the people are coding things very well. The "famous person" passage only had a few words on the "famous person"
 
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Yes, the "famous person" and "sand" passages I recall but someone mentioned an airplane passage and it's not ringing any bells
 
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justadream said:
Lol yes the question was answerable but could you draw that apparatus if your life depended on it?
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I drew it. It was hideous. Like a dryer tumbler mounted on a windmill. With a certain thing on the walls of it and a center mounted north south.

I don't know if it's right but because of that stupid passage I forgot to go back and answer a question

Also do you guys think its a wise idea to go back to studying for the mcat or work on secondaries. If I was to go back and study I'd be doing problems mostly from tbr and ek 1001
 
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DrDreams said:
I drew it. It was hideous. Like a dryer tumbler mounted on a windmill. With a certain thing on the walls of it and a center mounted north south.

I don't know if it's right but because of that stupid passage I forgot to go back and answer a question

Also do you guys think its a wise idea to go back to studying for the mcat or work on secondaries. If I was to go back and study I'd be doing problems mostly from tbr and ek 1001
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I've always been iffy about ek 1001. I occasionally find mistakes in their books. I did the physics, gen chem, orgo chem over about 2.5 weeks with about 3 hours per day. Orgo was way too easy and had some errors. Gen chem wasn't all too bad IMO, ton of questions. Physics had some errors. The Bio EK was pretty good actually for content review. On my retake in January, I will definitely redo that book. I did the EK bio book very early July. I think I finished it mid July or something and never got around to review it.
 
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mkapp said:
I wouldn't worry about it. I don't remember a lot of the things people here are talking about. For some of us, the test becomes one big blur afterward. Also, I think some people are referring to passages in really weird, oblique ways on here, possibly so that AAMC doesn't hunt them down.
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I've heard they mix it up quite a bit so there's a chance some people got a hybrid of what we were talking about. Personally I only remember like 4 questions from the whole test and I'm thankful I voided because I got I believe 2 or 3 of them wrong. One was a dumb mistake and the other was a discrete that I simply didn't know
 
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mkapp said:
A month seems overboard to me. A week or two, I could deal with. Making us wait a month is kind of sadistic :-/
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I had a long conversation with my mom yesterday explaining how the DAT and GRE get their scores so quickly and how we have to wait. But she had a pretty funny response, "If they gave pre med scores in a quiet room right after their test... you will hear people crying, dancing, and laughing hysterically."
 
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I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but yes the passage itself was very difficult and abstract, but the questions themselves really came down to understanding very basic wave properties. They gave a graph that was the primary focus of the questions.


As for the famous person everyone has been discussing.... I have no clue whatyou're talking about
 
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I started PS like woohoo this is easy! Then I got thrown by some of the verbal questions. By the time I hit that bio, I was like you have got to be kidding me!! I voided and then cried in my car 🙁
 
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Dreamstoo said:
I've always been iffy about ek 1001. I occasionally find mistakes in their books. I did the physics, gen chem, orgo chem over about 2.5 weeks with about 3 hours per day. Orgo was way too easy and had some errors. Gen chem wasn't all too bad IMO, ton of questions. Physics had some errors. The Bio EK was pretty good actually for content review. On my retake in January, I will definitely redo that book. I did the EK bio book very early July. I think I finished it mid July or something and never got around to review it.
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I don't have the bio. I did think orgo was easy but I did every 5th problem and it was incredibly helpful to me. But you think I should primarily focus on tbr?
 
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MedicineMan94 said:
Yes, the "famous person" and "sand" passages I recall but someone mentioned an airplane passage and it's not ringing any bells
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YES! I remember! It was not a airplane passage! It was a question... It either came from a discrete or from that stupid toy passage involving everything thing is 1st semester physics. I will say that there wasn't any excuse to miss that. The question literally had the equation to use in word form.
 
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Hey everyone! A little late to the party, but here are my thoughts on the exam.

PS: thought this was mostly straightforward, very similar to some of the AAMC practice tests. This would be the first time I took a PS section after having reviewed everything we needed to know (when I took my practice AAMC's I still hadn't read the last 3 chapters in both physics and chem, but finally got around to it 2 days before the exam). Anyways, I have a feeling there will be a very harsh curve. I almost wonder if I prefer a harder test just so when I get a crappy score I can be like "oh that makes sense, it was pretty difficult" lol.

VR: WTF!!! In my FLs this was by far my most consistent score (almost always got a 10, once a 11). A lot of the questions I felt had two good answers, I'm praying I get lucky on most and have chosen the better (correct) answer. Anyways, not feeling good about this. It'll be a shame that what kills me on my score is what I felt most comfortable about going in 🙁

BS: The orgo was not as straightforward as the practice tests, but still not impossible. I had some time left over so I was able to just sit and reason each step of the experiment. I hope the reasoning was okay but who knows. The biology on it was just IDK. Like many have said, it was very experimental based. A couple of very specific discretes. This could go either way.

All in all, as a first time test taker, I was able to walk in (falsely) confident and I came out alive, and I feel a large weight off my shoulders. I let this test take over my summer, and now I will be able to go back to concentrating on work and living life again, spend time with family and what not. And most of all I don't want to have to go through it again. This next month will be torturous but I will try my best not to think about it too much. If I can get 30 or higher I will be ecstatic but we'll see how it goes. I'm praying for all y'all SDN buddies!!!
 
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I've never had a hotel fire alarm go off at night..except last night lol. Was doing well in my practice tests towards the end then tanked my last leaving my confidence low going in.

Ps, seemed too easy, and not at all like I expected. Prepared and was doing well at calculation heavy and it seemed more concept based. Overall, fair but not sure how straight forward it was. Predicting 10

Verbal, easy to read passages (not expecting either) hard questions usually at least 2 seemed right sometimes even up to 3. Felt like it was way different then what I was used to facing on the practices. Usually the harder part for me was figuring out the main idea or getting into a flow... This time is was all the questions seemed like good ones..super unsure. I feel like I know when I do 10 or better, too many guesses, predicting an 8.

Bs, what the heck. Feel like most of my studying didn't benefit me much at all. Orgo was obsolete expect one passage at the end. That was nice. Experimental passages based on extracting information is not my key strength... Predicting 8 or 9

Overall,this test was a blur..is that common or does it mean I did poorly? I cannot even recal the ps passages, and hardly anything from bio. Totally unsure. I feel like this test was easier in a way then I expected and also more sneaky. Feel it went better than expected, but not as well as I hoped. Really grateful for the opportunity and felt like I did my best regardless of the turnout. Probably be signing up for a January test soon here..
 
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Does anyone know if the last part of PS was passage based or discrete questions? I was on passage 7 of 7 and I know I had three sections of discrete questions before the last passage. But instead of going to the review page, I just let the time run out. And now I am paranoid I didn't see the questions at the end.
 
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If the words "airplane" and "noise" do not ring any bells for the VR section, we had different tests.

Likewise, I did not have any passage on immigration, but I'm confident others did.
 
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Does anyone know if I can call AAMC on monday and confirm my voided exam? I know I pressed void and next and a screen came up saying something along the lines of "since you voided, the trial selection is not offered." Do AAMC respond to questions like that 3-4 days after the exam? I was sent straight to the MCAT questionnaire after pressing next on the since you voided etc screen.
 
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Dreamstoo said:
Does anyone know if I can call AAMC on monday and confirm my voided exam? I know I pressed void and next and a screen came up saying something along the lines of "since you voided, the trial selection is not offered." Do AAMC respond to questions like that 3-4 days after the exam? I was sent straight to the MCAT questionnaire after pressing next on the since you voided etc screen.
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I already called about this. They said they can tell you whether you voided 5 business days after the exam.
 
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mkapp said:
I already called about this. They said they can tell you whether you voided 5 business days after the exam.
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Alright thanks. So I guess I will call next Thursday. Did you also void. Did you also get a "the trial section isn't offered" or something after pressing next?
 
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Dreamstoo said:
Alright thanks. So I guess I will call next Thursday. Did you also void. Did you also get a "the trial section isn't offered" or something after pressing next?
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I didn't void, but I'm one of those people who are paranoid they accidentally voided. Despite staring at the void screen for 60 seconds to confirm that I didn't void.
 
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mkapp said:
I didn't void, but I'm one of those people who are paranoid they accidentally voided. Despite staring at the void screen for 60 seconds to confirm that I didn't void.
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Yeah I spent about 2 minutes deciding to void or not. Then I pressed on it. Made sure it was the right one. Clicked on next and saw a screen that said something about "because I voided, the trial section wasn't offered." I don't remember the exact words but I was sent to the questionnaire once I pressed next on that screen. I'm just paranoid that somehow the computer misread that and counted it lol. Now I'm questioning technology as a whole.
 
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The famous person must not be so famous (or my memory is horrific - probably this) because I don't remember the famous person. I did have the sand/beach passage.
 
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justadream said:
The famous person must not be so famous (or my memory is horrific - probably this) because I don't remember the famous person. I did have the sand/beach passage.
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Which honestly even though I voided that exam, I thought wasn't too bad. I knew how to answer most of it.
 
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Dreamstoo said:
Yeah I spent about 2 minutes deciding to void or not. Then I pressed on it. Made sure it was the right one. Clicked on next and saw a screen that said something about "because I voided, the trial section wasn't offered." I don't remember the exact words but I was sent to the questionnaire once I pressed next on that screen. I'm just paranoid that somehow the computer misread that and counted it lol. Now I'm questioning technology as a whole.
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I'm 99.99% sure I didn't void and am just being an idiot. After I chose "I want my test SCORED," I think I was sent to a screen that said, "Would you like to participate in the trial section?" And there were two big buttons--one said "Yes" and the other said "No."
 
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mkapp said:
I'm 99.99% sure I didn't void and am just being an idiot. After I chose "I want my test SCORED," I think I was sent to a screen that said, "Would you like to participate in the trial section?" And there were two big buttons--one said "Yes" and the other said "No."
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If they asked you if you would like to participate in the trial section then you didn't void the exam. They only ask for those people to participate in the experimental sections who get their exam scored.

And I am going to get off this forum now. I am tripping balls... Feels like I missed a passage and am really confused. Cause the last questions, I remember on PS were discrete questions...
 
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Lol why does everyone worry about voiding their exam?

I'll share my secret to AVOID voiding.

1) Finish exam
2) Sit and don't touch your mouse.

The default option is "scored". So just sit back and relax for 5 minutes.
 
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justadream said:
Lol why does everyone worry about voiding their exam?

I'll share my secret to AVOID voiding.

1) Finish exam
2) Sit and don't touch your mouse.

The default option is "scored". So just sit back and relax for 5 minutes.
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I think I wouldn't be afraid if I didn't read SDN--the fact that everyone gets nervous about voiding made me nervous about voiding.

It's like when someone asks, "Are you sure you turned off the stove?" You wouldn't worry about it unless someone brought up the possibility.
 
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Would you guys say majority of the questions in PS/BS passages could be answered directly from the passage? How much recalling did you guys actually use besides from the ochem stuff?
 
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camng22 said:
Would you guys say majority of the questions in PS/BS passages could be answered directly from the passage? How much recalling did you guys actually use besides from the ochem stuff?
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For PS, there weren't that many questions that could be answered directly from the passage. For BS, however, there were a lot of questions that solely tested your ability to comprehend the data/graphs presented. That being said, a few discretes were super specific and required you to really know your stuff.
 
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I'm going to take today off and tomorrow off and get back into it on Sunday. Planning to just go on a netflix binge tomorrow and hit up the gym. Maybe go out with friends (last time I did this was mid July...). Then get back into it on Sunday, probably will do one TBR chapter for physics and maybe one for gen chem and 4 verbal passages from like 12pm-5pm.
 
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Does anyone else do the same thing as me and try to remember as many questions and the answers you put as you can and then try to check them? Haha...I get obsessive :\
 
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qutbshah said:
If they asked you if you would like to participate in the trial section then you didn't void the exam. They only ask for those people to participate in the experimental sections who get their exam scored.

And I am going to get off this forum now. I am tripping balls... Feels like I missed a passage and am really confused. Cause the last questions, I remember on PS were discrete questions...
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Don't worry about it. If you got to the review screen and there wasn't a button for "Review incomplete," you should be good.
 
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