Those who have taken the MCAT, what surprised you the most?

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JoeKing

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I am taking the MCAT in January, and feel pretty well prepared (scoring mid to high 30s on practice tests). For those of you who have taken it, what caught you most off guard? For example, it seems that I always hear of people saying the Physical Sciences section was 'waayyy harder' than anything they had seen. What would you have focused more on if you could go back in time. Genetics? The Central Dogma? Certain areas of Gen Chem? Practice with tons of passages? Etc...

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PS - Way way easier than TBR passages.. Some concepts presented by TBR makes you go crazy. Dont worry about them. They will not show up in the real one.

VR - **** this. Practice materials dont help at all for the actual one.

BR - Content review is useless for bio. It is literally all about analyzing the passage + critical thinking. Did not even have to recall any details. Even basic ones. Orgo is easy.


About re-reading. Why would you even bother to reread the whole chapters? Just take concise notes in the first place...
Terrible, terrible advice. If you want to score well, don't listen to this stuff.


Agree with GTLO for his PS and BS comments. Agree with brood for VR. 15p/10v/13b

Regarding the actual question... Even though I was aware the screen resolution would be terrible I wasn't prepared for the fact that my monitor would be so close to the edge of the desk. So not only was the text blown up, I couldn't even push out from the table without looking suspicious. I ended up taking a very leaned back pensive kind of look, legs crossed with my chin on my hand, for a large amount of the verbal section. It might have been helpful to visit the center a few weeks before the exam to get an idea of the setup.
 
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1) Obviously it's excellent, and is my own PS score. What's your whole breakdown?

2) You could have gotten a 15 on PS and it would still be bad advice. You've taken, at most, a small handful of the MCAT forms the AAMC has, and have only seen a small percentage of their active passage/question bank. For you to say something won't appear is so obviously unfounded that I can't imagine you sincerely believe it.

What I meant by "they wont appear" is that you do not need to recall any details like you have to do for TBR passages. If you need any convoluted equations, they will be given in the passages.

Also, I have done all of AAMC FLs so far and my score on PS never dropped below 13.

IMO, MCAT is all about test-taking skills + analyzing the passages after you hit 10 for PS and BS.

I got 14/6/13. That's why I am preparing for a retake atm.
 
PS- My test was more calculation-heavy than the practice AAMCs. However, the practice problems I did (Kaplan) were very calculation-intense, so I think this actually worked to my advantage. Get comfortable with scientific notation- it should be second nature to you when you take the test.

VR- The passages seemed longer than the practice ones, but I'm not sure that's true. The questions were very similar to the practice AAMCs, so there weren't any surprises here for me.

BS- I was surprised at how random some of the questions were. Contrary to some assertions in this thread, there are questions that will be purely recall-based, and you will have to have done content review to get them right. Other questions may be doable with reasoning from the passage but could also be answered more quickly through recall. My recall-only and recall-assisted questions in the BS were on two particular, detailed subjects of biology- you were golden if you studied it, screwed if you didn't.
 
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PS- My test was more calculation-heavy than the practice AAMCs. However, the practice problems I did (Kaplan) were very calculation-intense, so I think this actually worked to my advantage. Get comfortable with scientific notation- it should be second nature to you when you take the test.

VR- The passages seemed longer than the practice ones, but I'm not sure that's true. The questions were very similar to the practice AAMCs, so there weren't any surprises here for me.

BS- I was surprised at how random some of the questions were. Contrary to some assertions in this thread, there are questions that will be purely recall-based, and you will have to have done content review to get them right. Other questions may be doable with reasoning from the passage but could also be answered more quickly through recall. My recall-only and recall-assisted questions in the BS were on two particular, detailed subjects of biology- you were golden if you studied it, screwed if you didn't.

Thanks for your input! Interesting to hear that.... finally !

If ok to ask, what resources did you use and what resources do you recommend?
 
Thanks for your input! Interesting to hear that.... finally !

If ok to ask, what resources did you use and what resources do you recommend?

If you want the full details, I have a post in the 30+ thread.

I only used Kaplan books- the 5 book set (which is terrific), their MCAT 45 book (which is really only useful for the harder problems once you're hitting 35+), Kaplan practice exams, and the AAMC exams. I really, really liked the Kaplan 5 book set. Each book has individual chapters on content review followed by questions on the chapter you just read. At the end of each book, there are 3 section tests, which are great. I can't compare Kaplan to TBR or others since I didn't use them.

I guess I should also clarify that I do understand the idea behind taking lots of practice tests and passages- it's a good strategy. But I also think if you only follow that strategy, you won't get those last few points from those discrete questions on specific topics.
 
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If you want the full details, I have a post in the 30+ thread.

I only used Kaplan books- the 5 book set (which is terrific), their MCAT 45 book (which is really only useful for the harder problems once you're hitting 35+), Kaplan practice exams, and the AAMC exams. I really, really liked the Kaplan 5 book set. Each book has individual chapters on content review followed by questions on the chapter you just read. At the end of each book, there are 3 section tests, which are great. I can't compare Kaplan to TBR or others since I didn't use them.

I guess I should also clarify that I do understand the idea behind taking lots of practice tests and passages- it's a good strategy. But I also think if you only follow that strategy, you won't get those last few points from those discrete questions on specific topics.

Thanks, found it !
 
I am taking the MCAT in January, and feel pretty well prepared (scoring mid to high 30s on practice tests). For those of you who have taken it, what caught you most off guard? For example, it seems that I always hear of people saying the Physical Sciences section was 'waayyy harder' than anything they had seen. What would you have focused more on if you could go back in time. Genetics? The Central Dogma? Certain areas of Gen Chem? Practice with tons of passages? Etc...

If I had to study for the MCAT again, I would spend a week or two brushing up on content. I would then take and review as many full length practice exams as I could find until I averaged 30+.
 
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