Thoughts on May 31st MCAT

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Okay so did the rest of you guys feel throughout the exam that you had to make a LOT more guesses on questions than you normally did on the AAMC practice items. I dunno but that's the unnerving part for me. I feel like I "Marked" more questions than normal.

Thoughts???????
 
was that passage really that hard to interpret and start answering the questions? I mean, was that kaplan passage almost exactly the same as the one on your real MCAT? See, I understand why this could make someone upset, but I seriously just looked at that passage on the Kaplan full length, and it took like an extra minute than normal, but its possible to wean out the right answer on some of the questions...

So i guess what im asking is, was the passage exactly alike to the kaplan passage?

Ok, but this is a timed test... And the fact that it is timed one has to take this into perspective. When Kaplan created that passage everyone had about more time per passage on the written exams. The questions weren't about them being hard it was trying to understand what the passage was asking for. It was relating them to the passage. I mean the symbols the numbers by the symbol's the USELESS formula stairing you in the face like a beautiful D-Tease!!!

And then they did it again with the Rail passage... OMGGGGGG WTF.

That's not two discretes that is two passages!!!

Someone said there was an exact question from an EK physics 1001 on a prior MCAT exam... EK physics 1001 are all discretes I don't think they made a passage outta one question.
 
Someone on the thread said no.

I had never seen the Kaplan passage until today but I answered 4/5 of the questions correctly just from the information given in the passage. The passage I did miss had a term I wasn't familiar with, cla---something, that meant formation of a standing wave pattern. I didn't think it was that difficult.

Foghorn... You could have done that passage in ten minutes or 30 I dunno... For us it was timed and the clock was ticking... Furthermore, I believe the questions on the Kaplan were actually easier than the ones on the real exam... But like I said. I Don't know...

I mean one question, and this is not the question, but is the equivalent to asking... If I put water on your head and then you run down the street and stop where would the water be?

🙁😱:laugh:
 
i screwed aroung in the first two passages in ps for too long.. when i was exiting the test room, two other girls were saying they did the same thing...
🙁
*prays for leniency from the curve gods* 🙁
 
And then they did it again with the Rail passage... OMGGGGGG WTF.

That's not two discretes that is two passages!!!

Someone said there was an exact question from an EK physics 1001 on a prior MCAT exam... EK physics 1001 are all discretes I don't think they made a passage outta one question.

Actually, EK1001 books have mini-passages now and then. They usually consist of 3-4 Qs based on a figure/table. I believe the figure was identical to the MCAT passage figure, but it's been a while.
 
Or just pure good guessing.
Regarding the drum question:
Yes, it was a previous practice test, probably Kaplan but most of the questions at least were different than on this one.
 
😱 The test was really difficult. I walked out feeling like I was hit in the face with a sledgehammer. The VR section was really difficult towards the end, and I completely spazzed out.. PS and BS weren't much better. :scared:

Does anyone know how they curve the test now that it's so much shorter? And also, is there anyway to figure out which passage on each section was the "experimental/ungraded" passage? Wouldn't it be horrible to find out that the passage you spent the most amount of time on was the ungraded one??? That will totally screw me up.. since on some passages I literally just blitzed through the questions.
 
is there anyway to figure out which passage on each section was the "experimental/ungraded" passage?

i was under the impression that there were experimental questions, but not entire passages.... but i could be wrong
 
geez..just be happy guys.....that you didn't have a power outage during oyur last section.....a POWER OUTAGE....

they had to ask us to leave our computers.....wait 15 minutes while they restarted everything.....then asked us to recheck in back all over again...

they didnt' give us any more time or didn't take away any more time....so it took so long that when i got back i was like um..wait..what the fudge was i reading again??....im gonna try to talk to aamc about this...
 
Foghorn... You could have done that passage in ten minutes or 30 I dunno... For us it was timed and the clock was ticking... Furthermore, I believe the questions on the Kaplan were actually easier than the ones on the real exam... But like I said. I Don't know...

I mean one question, and this is not the question, but is the equivalent to asking... If I put water on your head and then you run down the street and stop where would the water be?

🙁😱:laugh:
I did it in under 10 minutes. One-third of that time was spent on the single question I missed.

As for the actual question on the May 31st MCAT, you don't even know if it's an experimental question so it might not even be graded....this whole discussion about whether or not Kaplan students had an advantage is irrelevant and therefore much ado about nothing. That's my opinion on the matter.
 
PS: 1st passage took so much time out. I was coming short at the end. So last question I had to totally guess. Out of the 52 questions I would say 45 easy, 5 between 2 answers, 2 totalty guessed


VS: Easiest out of three sections. First 30 questions pretty easy. Second to last passage 2 hard questions. Last passgae guessed on 2 questions.


BS: FOr me I finished bio with 10 min to spare and I went over the first 30 questions slowly and I found 6 mistakes, I finally understood the passages well and last 22 i knew well because ochem.



All in all I think it wasn't bad test if u study your butt off. I studied 3/4 with the time I had. Stupid quarter system. I hope rest did well and we all do beteer than 30. Hopefully good curve.
 
PS: 1st passage took so much time out. I was coming short at the end. So last question I had to totally guess. Out of the 52 questions I would say 45 easy, 5 between 2 answers, 2 totalty guessed


VS: Easiest out of three sections. First 30 questions pretty easy. Second to last passage 2 hard questions. Last passgae guessed on 2 questions.


BS: FOr me I finished bio with 10 min to spare and I went over the first 30 questions slowly and I found 6 mistakes, I finally understood the passages well and last 22 i knew well because ochem.



All in all I think it wasn't bad test if u study your butt off. I studied 3/4 with the time I had. Stupid quarter system. I hope rest did well and we all do beteer than 30. Hopefully good curve.

Were you cracking 40 on practice tests?? Cause those are some bold statements (not uncommon for SDN of course) 🙂
 
In the physics section, did you guys answer insulator or conductor for the pipe question? I know it seems like a silly question, but I felt like when I scanned the passage, it suggested one answer...though my brain says the other.
 
Oh wow! I'm sooo glad I'm not the only one who felt this bad about the exam. On top of the test being the devil, my testing site also happened to be a construction site as well. The entire time I was getting such a headache between all the hammering and the flickering screen.
 
dang.. this is the worst post mcat response ive seen on sdn... which i guess is kind of a positive, since the curve should be bigger now.. did anyone feel like it was easy.. besides baller? i was supposed to take the may 31 but postponed due to lack of comfort w/ where i was at in my studying..
 
I feel the same way that everyone else does. I took all of the AAMC practice tests, and I was doing very well, but yesterday's test was ridiculous. :scared:
 
VR - i think 4 or 5 of the passages were okay, but then the limestone one and the last one seriously fried my brain. I couldn't for the life of me concentrate on anything in the limestone passage, it was just so convoluted. And the last passage I remember spending a heck of a lot of time on b/c the questions were really tough, yet I honestly don't remember what it was about anymore...

Ditto. I remember 6 of the 7 passages. It got progressively harder and I just felt crushed under the cynical and philosophical passage about "hope" and "positive-thining." My first passage was a doctor studying the "mental powers" of monks- it was straight forward. Then there were two passages about art- one was the redefiition of "pop art" and the other discussed art as a "commodity" and its devaluation as such. There was the water cavern passage, which I stared at blankly. Then a passage about the evolution of plants on islands. Then there was a seventh passage I cannot remember at all! Does anyone know??

The first physics passage about drums was stolen directly out of Kaplan's Physics Topical Test. Hah. Hard MCAT!!
 
I've been in too much shock to post anything about this test but I totally thought it was harder than any of the practice tests. At the very end where you get to comment about the test, I wrote that I wished the real exam was more like the AAMC practice tests.

I actually thought that the PS was hard but doable and the VR was pretty easy. I guess it helps to have a Geology degree. But I basically guessed the entire way through the BS section. There was barely any ochem or instrumental which I am strong at and that really ticks me off. There wasn't much interpretation of results either which I tend to perform better at also. It just seemed to be that you either knew the material or didn't. I think that the AAMC decided to pick every aspect of Biology that I suck at and put it in one test. I knew BS was my weakest section but I actually thought I was prepared for it. I think I may start studying again next week bc I don't think I even sure I pulled a 7 on it and I was consistently getting 9s and 10s before. It is so disheartening.

Good luck to everyone!
 
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**WARNING**

Ok, as noted and posted all over this forum as well as in your agreement with the AAMC, SPECIFIC discussions of questions on the test are NOT allowed. I am deleting ANY post on this thread that has mention of a specific question and there are ALOT of them so I'm deleting rather than editing. Sorry in advance.

General mentioning of topics is ok, but please adhere to this guys. There are way too many posts on here with mention of specificity in questions. Thanks.


--
Ok this is the last warning.

[DO NOT DISCUSS SPECIFIC QUESTIONS/ANSWERS PERIOD!

If you discuss specific questions, you will be infracted! Thanks!!!
 
Ok this is the last warning.

[DO NOT DISCUSS SPECIFIC QUESTIONS/ANSWERS PERIOD!

If you discuss specific questions, you will be infracted! Thanks!!!

but what about the rail question? or the drumb question? or the .......i think you are a bit late on this
 
I have been reading these forums for 4 years and i do not remeber a time when people would have a passage almost identical to that of prep company. WTF???

It's happened... on more occassions than it should have. The whole reason I discovered SDN in the first place was because one of our students sent me link to a thread just like this one that talked about a PS passage and verbal passage that were very similar to ours. I know Princeton dealt with this a few years back. This similarity can be chalked up to a few things.

1) We all base our passages on the same information base and random overlap is inevitable. If a diagram appears on both an actual MCAT and one from a prep course, perhaps both drew from the same textbook.

2) The test writers they hire run out of creative juices and borrow from whatever source they can find. If it happens to be materials from prep courses, then so it is. Passages for the AAMC practice exams are also a source from which they can draw. Is it unfair if passages directly from their practice exams appear?

In order for them to generate a valid curve, they need some passages that have been given before. The passages in discussion in this thread could very well have appeared on the MCAT before, meaning that AAMC is the original author. No one knows where the inspiration is coming from. This time, some K students got lucky. Good for them. Next time it may very well be our students... or maybe PR students. Everyone is going to get lucky at some point and unlucky at another. The entire application process has a luck component.

Foghorn said:
As for the actual question on the May 31st MCAT, you don't even know if it's an experimental question so it might not even be graded....this whole discussion about whether or not Kaplan students had an advantage is irrelevant and therefore much ado about nothing. That's my opinion on the matter.

Excellent point. Your opinion is a great one. It seems that you understand this whole thing at a much deeper level than the average Joe. I've been impressed each time I've read your two cents.
 
I completely agree with you. I thought that the exam was a lot harder than any other Full Lenght Practice MCAT that I had taken and I took 7 of them from AAMC. I felt most comfortable with the BS before taking the exam however, afterwards I don't know about that anymore. I prayed that I get an excellent score so I don't have to go through that again though.
 
Excellent point. Your opinion is a great one. It seems that you understand this whole thing at a much deeper level than the average Joe. I've been impressed each time I've read your two cents.

What? find me that thread... I beg of you to find me a thread that talks about MCAT using a test companies passages? you say you know this process this and that... Then why would a person with a job that pays him / her a pay check every two weeks get INSPIRATION from a test company. EK doesn't overlap with Kaplan or BERK for that matter. How come their people can find the creative juices but AAMC can't?

Finally this is my last point on the the issue... NO ONE is saying the test was going to be EASY... But I have studied my ARSEEEEEEE off for months going into a test that I thought I was very prepared for.

How would you feel sitting for the test of your life and you come across a REDICULOUS passage that you only find out latter someone has done or saw before.

Someone posted an example of the Kaplan passage it HAD the same FORMULA and SYMBOLS in the exact same places.
 
personally, I have been studying for 6 months (religously studying for the past 2 months) I have taken over 15+ full length Berkeley review, Kaplan, and AMCAS tests and to be honest with all of you, I think that the May 31st exam was nothing like what I have seen. The physical terrified me. Physical was my strength being that I would score anywhere from 10-13. It was very abstract and weird. Verbal was going well in the beg and then it got progressively harder to the point i wanted to kill myself. Bio was pretty tough too. I really hope that the curve will be generous. It seemed like every1 who walked out felt the same. My second writing promt was ******ed too (the one about corp exective) Honestly, I think the AAMC prac tests are very misleading and they were nothing like the real deal.
 
I took about 17 practice tests. 8 from AAMC and 9 from Kaplan. NONE of them were as difficult as what I took May31st. The verbal was the most like the practice tests and even that started to fade away as the passages progressed.

It's really non-sensical. Basically we poured hours and hours of studying into something that turned out to be almost completely different than what we were lead to believe it was. I'm of the persuasion that some random person off the street could have faired not too much worse than any one of us that had taken it.
It felt less like a test based off of content and reasoning and more like an endurance run on who could best interpret pedantic, pretentious and cluttered newspaper clippings taped randomly to a computer monitor.
 
Does anyone remember what all 7 VR passages were about. I'm just looking for general idea in order to see if I did ok. Here's what I have so far:

- Thermogenesis
- Criminals
- Birds and seeds
- Caves
- Art and optimism

I can't seem to remember the other two.
 
The other passages I remember were about:

Computer viruses.
The rising cost of art affecting museums.
 
How would you feel sitting for the test of your life and you come across a REDICULOUS passage that you only find out latter someone has done or saw before.


It is hard to take your posts seriously when you don't take the time to check your spelling. The word is ridiculous, you have misspelled it on numerous occasions.

Additionally, the MCAT is not suppose to be a set of questions you expected to get. If this was the case any idiot could memorize the types of questions asked, and how to produce an answer without much understanding of what is being asked. This is why they present the material in any unpredictable form that they like.

I don't doubt that the test was hard, but if everyone thought it was hard it will be scaled accordingly.

Futhermore, the whole Kaplan passage thing is being blown our of proportion. I have taken numerous passages from TPR diagnostics and that doesn't mean I explicitly remember any of them. I am sure a negligible amount of people received an unfair advantage from taking Kaplan and those can be added with the people that always get 11s and then that day get a 14. No one gets upset when people get lucky, so why be upset about this.
 
It is hard to take your posts seriously when you don't take the time to check your spelling. The word is ridiculous, you have misspelled it on numerous occasions.

Additionally, the MCAT is not suppose to be a set of questions you expected to get. If this was the case any idiot could memorize the types of questions asked, and how to produce an answer without much understanding what is being asked. This is why they can present the material in any form that they like.

I don't doubt that the test was hard, but if everyone thought it was hard it will be scaled accordingly.

Futhermore, the whole Kaplan passage thing is being blown our of proportion. I have taken numerous passages from TPR diagnostics and that doesn't mean I explicitly remember any of them. I am sure a negligible amount of people received an unfair advantage from taking Kaplan and those can be added with the people that always get 11s and then that day get a 14. No one gets upset when people get lucky, so why be upset about this.

I find it to be hillarious that people who didn't take the exam aren't being understanding at all.

are we forgetting the test is timed. if this had been the last passage I don't think people would have been freaking as much. for example the last verbal was insanely hard but it was last so can't cry about it that much. but the ps threw a passage that caused blank faces all across the nation.

its like the people who didn't even take it have no empathy or understanding of how something like that affects a timed test.....

thennnnn to find out it was an old kaplan passage... = angry
 
Let's not get caught up bickering back and forth with the fairness of the passages. Especially since there's already a thread created by you, Christian, to address the "egregariousness" of the drum passage.

Bickering back and forth is a sure method to speed up the closing of this thread, and I'd still like to see what other opinions of the test content are at this point.

You guys can PM each other if you want to argue.
 
Hi, I haven't posted in this thread before but have been reading the complaints about the similar Kaplan question since I also took the test on May 31st. Let me just say that I was a Kaplan online student, took their practice test with the "copied" passage and reviewed that test. Upon taking the real test, sure, I recognized that it was similar, but the questions were different of course, and just because I'd seen a similar passage before doesn't mean that I really remembered how to do it. I do not believe that it gave Kaplan students a distinct advantage at all. Likewise, I have also taken the MCAT before, and no matter how prepared you are, you will walk out of it feeling like it rocked you. Its supposed to be that way, otherwise, as mentioned before, any idiot could get a good score.
 
Let's not get caught up bickering back and forth with the fairness of the passages. Especially since there's already a thread created by you, Christian, to address the "egregariousness" of the drum passage.

Bickering back and forth is a sure method to speed up the closing of this thread, and I'd still like to see what other opinions of the test content are at this point.

You guys can PM each other if you want to argue.

LOL, in all the bickering I have done here on SDN... I agree with you meg, I don't want to bicker with other SDN members who hadn't even taken the test especially.

But I agree I think the point has been made but in all seriousness just as the previous poster put it... He doesn't think it is an advantage and for the sake of time and exposure I sure think it did.

And as far as any idiot passing the exam. I disagree.

This reminds me of the debate about prof's who have what I like to call CURVE classes vs. prof's who have NO CURVE classes.

IMO, one should strive to have a no curve class. I remember our O-chem was curved from a running average of 35%... 😱 What is someone taking a class that is curved so much supposed to learn or think while attending the class. Furthermore, it affects other classes as it did mine. Why? because while taking a class you don't know the grade on... He did curve until the end... I put all focus and attention to that one subject.

Point is... I think you can give a no curved test and it will properly show one's skills of learning and comprehension without breaking everyone else down to nothing.
 
Just thought I would throw in my .02 on the May 31 MCAT.
Overall the computer setup is pretty good, but I miss having a lunch break in the middle. The hour that you got on the paper exam was a nice time to decompress and look over some bio or org flash cards. In the end I think they are equal in terms of mental strain even though the computer test is shorter. I took the April 06 so I will try to compare the two.

P.S. Extremely hard. Much more difficult than the practice tests I’ve had. I had the test with the drums and the magnet rail gun. I found that there was very little problem solving to be done in the chemistry sections, mostly just basic redox type stuff. Also, there was almost nothing from physics I on the test, no trig at all, and maybe only 5 formulas to remember, it was almost all conceptual, but very tricky. I spent way too much time on the first three passages and almost didn’t get finished on time. I think I had to just fill in junk on the last three questions…. Sucked

V.R. The first time I took the MCAT, I did very well on the VR even though I didn’t finish. I worked a lot on building up my reading speed in the last year and was finished this time with three minutes to go. I had the test with the passages about caves, seeds, and some super complex one about modern writers. The first passage was a joke and you almost didn’t have to read it to answer the questions, but the passage about modern writers was imposable and took forever to understand. Overall I was pretty satisfied with the VR but there were a couple of questions that I had to just make a good guess on.

Essay The first essay was great and I wrote three paragraphs. Super easy. The second however stumped the hell out of me. I just sat and stared at the screen for about ten minutes trying to figure out what to say. Ended up with about a paragraph.

B.S. This was really the make or break section for me. I figured that if it was as hard as the PS I would void the test, as I think the best I could have gotten on the P.S. was an 8. But to my surprise it was not too hard. I had the test with the mice ear problems, the kidney stuff, 2 org passages, and fetal blood vessel development. I thought that the org stuff was a little harder than a lot of the practice tests, a couple of synth’ problems and some steriochem. Some of the bio passages were confusing; I got slowed down on the passage about fetal blood vessels a lot. But not too bad.

Overall, I thought the PS was extremely difficult; the other sections were what I expected. The funniest thing about the whole experience is that I have been studying for about 4 months now, and the only thing that I felt helped me at all was that I memorized the difference between bones and ligaments... what a waste of time.
 
I was a Kaplan student, and I took the full-length that had the passage that everyone is talking about. However, when I took the MCAT a few days ago, I did not remember the passage at all, and it was incredibly confusing for me. So I don't think I had any kind of advantage over the other students taking the test. I know I can't speak for every Kaplan student, but I just though I would give my input.

Also, I don't feel like I did very well on the test, and I've been thinking about registering for a date in July, just in case I am not happy with my scores. :scared: I wanted to know if anyone else thinks that is a good idea. Would taking it in July be too late to apply for this application period, and would my score likely even improve? It'd be great if you guys could let me know what you think. 😕
 
Just thought I would throw in my .02 on the May 31 MCAT.
Overall the computer setup is pretty good, but I miss having a lunch break in the middle. The hour that you got on the paper exam was a nice time to decompress and look over some bio or org flash cards. In the end I think they are equal in terms of mental strain even though the computer test is shorter. I took the April 06 so I will try to compare the two.

P.S. Extremely hard. Much more difficult than the practice tests I’ve had. I had the test with the drums and the magnet rail gun. I found that there was very little problem solving to be done in the chemistry sections, mostly just basic redox type stuff. Also, there was almost nothing from physics I on the test, no trig at all, and maybe only 5 formulas to remember, it was almost all conceptual, but very tricky. I spent way too much time on the first three passages and almost didn’t get finished on time. I think I had to just fill in junk on the last three questions…. Sucked

V.R. The first time I took the MCAT, I did very well on the VR even though I didn’t finish. I worked a lot on building up my reading speed in the last year and was finished this time with three minutes to go. I had the test with the passages about caves, seeds, and some super complex one about modern writers. The first passage was a joke and you almost didn’t have to read it to answer the questions, but the passage about modern writers was imposable and took forever to understand. Overall I was pretty satisfied with the VR but there were a couple of questions that I had to just make a good guess on.

Essay The first essay was great and I wrote three paragraphs. Super easy. The second however stumped the hell out of me. I just sat and stared at the screen for about ten minutes trying to figure out what to say. Ended up with about a paragraph.

B.S. This was really the make or break section for me. I figured that if it was as hard as the PS I would void the test, as I think the best I could have gotten on the P.S. was an 8. But to my surprise it was not too hard. I had the test with the mice ear problems, the kidney stuff, 2 org passages, and fetal blood vessel development. I thought that the org stuff was a little harder than a lot of the practice tests, a couple of synth’ problems and some steriochem. Some of the bio passages were confusing; I got slowed down on the passage about fetal blood vessels a lot. But not too bad.

Overall, I thought the PS was extremely difficult; the other sections were what I expected. The funniest thing about the whole experience is that I have been studying for about 4 months now, and the only thing that I felt helped me at all was that I memorized the difference between bones and ligaments... what a waste of time.


Best response I have heard... but there was a passage about fetal blood vessel development... I don't remember it being exactly like that.
 
my butt got kicked on this test. I wish they would just tell us the scores already! It would be a godsend if they could just tell us the numerical score and then give us the essay score later.
 
So I'm guessing I'm the only one that didn't have the option to void my test?
I just get a "MCAT is over" pop up and it goes to the desktop.
 
Hey
Does anyone else have the absolute urge to register for another date just in case?
I am really disappointed by my performance on this one. The test was much harder than what I expected, seeing as though I did all the previous AAMC exams.
 
mikkey, I'm thinking about doing the same thing. However, I felt like I studied as much as I could have for the May 31st test, and I don't know how much my score would improve if I took it in July or August.
 
Best response I have heard... but there was a passage about fetal blood vessel development... I don't remember it being exactly like that.



Hey thanks.
It was about a certain thing that is exhibited during fetal developement that leads to blood vessel production, had a little chart with some info.
Not sure about what I can really say about the exact question, other than just the basic subject. I'm wondering how much the test different from person to person.....
 
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