(Un)"Official" August 2005 MCAT Discussion

[Mister Pie]

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Well, most of you east coast people should be in bed by now and will be finishing 3 hours ahead of us west coasters, lucky bastards. Anyways, some of y'all will undoubtedly come back (maybe after a night of hard partying) to complain, rant, brag, whatever, so I thought I'd provide some format. If you'd be so kind to provide:

1) Your test form code. (For people who want to compare experiences)

2) Your general impression of the individual sections. Remember, do not provide anything overly specific that might make AAMC mad.

3) Your overall experience. (Test center good? bad?, etc)

4) Anything else you want to add. Feel free to predict your score if you have the guts (I know I won't).

 

[DD214_DOC]

Edit

 

[freesolo]

anyone notice, only some of the passages in PS and BS had cited sources like 2-3, some were like from 2005 was that a hint that it was experimental or what.

 

[DD214_DOC]

anyone notice, only some of the passages in PS and BS had cited sources like 2-3, some were like from 2005 was that a hint that it was experimental or what.

Possibly. I always forget about the experimental presence when I'm taking the test. PS is just a haze, so I don't remember much about it.

 

[mrhealth]

1)CM
2) PS - Everythign was on par with kaplan. harder than aamc, but hoping a curve will account for the difference
VR- unbelievably hard. first passage threw me off (the archeological tools and what not) and had to skip and guess/come back at the end
BS - finished early and had time to really try to understand the passages. i either knew the answer or a didnt

 

[dsh]

I had test CK (California)

PS was 60% phys, 40% gchem, and the gchem part was really easy. The physics part was a little tougher.

VR was medium to easy difficulty the whole way through. Robotuna was cool, and there were some really cynical essays that were kind of funny.

BS was medium to medium-hard. I had a lot of stereochem/chirality and junk on mine, I wish I'd reviewed that earlier.

 

[Twitch]

DK
...Bio was really good, only 2 orgo passages and the rest was mostly all physio.

Wait is this the same from the guy who posted above you (valency) is talking about - According to him the BS had *no* physio on FORM DK?????

That doesn't make any sense.

 

[Mutt]

Did everyone have a Verbal passage that had something to do with Russian history?

I fear I may have skipped a passage - had form CS.

 

[szrokkhmer]

Does anyone know how MCAT is scaled if everyone had a different form? Does this mean we get scaled according to what form we took or against everyone that took the exam?

 

[mandy_848]

i had form dm

physics - BRUTAL. all i really wanted was just one buoyant force question 'cause i've spent so much time trying to understand them - and i didn't get it

verbal - i don't feel like it was as good as it could have been; physics kind of threw me off

ws - not bad. i don't think my social change essay was as strong as it could have been - i might have contradicted myself...

bs - truly was bs: almost all of it was bio and really hard for me to follow. i was honestly hoping not to have too much orgo but the orgo passages were so much easier than the bio ones.

overall = no idea, my practice test scores have fluctuated so much ... the waiting game begins

 

[Doc.Holliday]

Did everyone have a Verbal passage that had something to do with Russian history?

I fear I may have skipped a passage - had form CS.

I had CT, no russian history passage for me.

 

[Mister Pie]

Well, finally I get to reply to my own thread:

1) Your test form code: DJ
2) Your general impression of the individual sections.
PS- Wow, it was a lot harder than I anticipated. I went in today assuming PS would be my money-maker because my lowest score on the last three practice tests I took was a 13. Most of the g-chem was okay but there was this one passage right in the beginning with some convoluted set up that took me a while to figure out. The physics was okay, but there were a few calculations that seemed a bit more involved than I was used to. If there was one topic I could review before taking this test again, it would have been standing waves.

VR- For the first time on any practice test (not counting stand-alone EK practice verbals), I finished early. About 15 minutes early, actually. I thought the verbal was way more straightforward than usual, but that might also be because I was a lot more focused than I usually was. Strangely, I thought that the robotuna one was kind of difficult, possibly because it was the first passage on my test. Since I had 15 minutes extra at the end though, I went back and re-read it and caught 2 (!!) mistakes. And yes, the bibliography helped me out a lot for a certain question.

WS- Without being too specific, my first prompt had to do with society and the second prompt had to do with information technology. I think that I did a decent job in terms of eloquence but I'm not sure if I tied my ideas well enough together. Fortunately, none of the med schools I want to go to seem to have any weird WS requirements to get in.

BS- Again, I thought it was harder than any of the practice tests I had taken. I was hoping for more ochem, where my accuracy tends to be 90%+ on practice tests but to my chagrin my entire test had only 2 ochem passages. There were 9 bio passages with a lot of topics I had never seen before in my life. The one about lung development- I had to reread that passage twice before I could answer any of the questions.

3) Your overall experience. (Test center good? bad?, etc)
Proctors were okay. They joked around a lot, trying to calm us down. The chairs and desks SUCKED. I felt really cramped the whole time and I had the misfortune of being seated next to a wall. The writing surface was incredibly small and I had to reposition my booklet and my test form constantly. I'm really glad I took it at my university, however. Seeing about 10 friendly faces before and during the test made the overall experience far less daunting.

4) Anything else you want to add.
Everyone, literally everyone I talked to during/after the test (across the multiple test forms) thought that the real MCAT was harder. Hopefully that translates into a decent curve. There's no way in hell I'm predicting my score, but the range I think it fell in was between 28-37.

Well that's it. Hope everyone here gets the score that they want 60 days from now!

 

[dsh]

Does anyone know how MCAT is scaled if everyone had a different form? Does this mean we get scaled according to what form we took or against everyone that took the exam?

You're only compared with people who had the same test as you.

 

[Bhavesh]

Anyone here have test AQ?

 

[Iceageheatwave]

Wait is this the same from the guy who posted above you (valency) is talking about - According to him the BS had *no* physio on FORM DK?????

That doesn't make any sense.

yea, it was a mistake on my part. i meant to say microbio

 

[strawberryfield]

1) Your test form code: DJ

2) Your general impression of the individual sections.

PS- I thought it was very hard, very physics heavy... EDIT. Those were pretty awful. The first passage (g-chem) something about measuring...EDIT but I think I sort of got it. In general, yuck. I'm hoping for a generous curve. I would have killed for a test with more g-chem!!!

VR- Not so bad, pretty similar to AAMC 7 & 8. Two passages with 10 questions, the rest with 5, a few with 6-7 questions. No killer passages. I did probably the hardest passage too soon, something about the consequences of teaching morality in school... might have wasted too much time, but felt ok about most of the others. There seemed to be lots of ambigious questions where it took me a while to decide between two (and even then?) RoboTuna cracked me up!! Then there was one passage about linguistics or something, and you had to pick word combinations... EDIT.... strange!

WS- EDIT, not too bad, my examples for the second were a bit reaching, but I think the argument was solid.

BS- A bit more difficult than AAMC 7 & 8, VERY bio heavy-- with a lot of genetics, immunology and embryology-- one passage about diabetes. Had to read some passages twice. There were only two o-chem passages-- one about grinard reagents, don't remember the other.

3) Your overall experience. (Test center good? bad?, etc)
Proctors were awesome, I was in a small room (20) so we got out pretty early!

4) Anything else you want to add.
I'm praying to get at least a 28... preferrably higher (got 31,30 on AAMC 7 & 8)... hoping it holds true!!!

OVERALL impression:
😀 (AKA-- glad it's over)

 

[Sondra]

1) From BJ

2) PS wasn't bad. I found it to be more gchem than physics. I felt the most confident in the section.
VR started off easy and got worse. I ran out of time, and I ended up guessing on the middle passage (more than 8+ questions. I skipped this one on purpose becuase it had the latest copyright date 2004, I think. I was hoping that it would be the experimental!)
BS was harder than I expected. Only 2 passages and a few discretes had orgo.

3) Test center was good, but someone's telephone started going off for the last 30 minutes of bio. It borke my concentration!

4) I have this bad feeling that I will be taking it again in April.

 

[LaDoctorFutura]

Form: CT (New Orleans) --> Hey Doc.Holliday!!! were you at UNO?

PS:
Actually thought it was quite doable. Finished right on time. Quite a bit of g.chem. Overall, the PS was a good start to a long day.

WS:
Finished with 20 minutes to spare. Passages were not boring at all. The art one was very interesting and I enjoyed even the 10 question passages.

BS:
This was unexpected. The whole test was pretty forgiving until i got the first passage about genetics. I don't really remember any of the topics of the rest. But my answers were horrible. I had virtually no C's until they all came at once. So, i hope i did better than how i'm feeling about it.

I'm hoping for a 11PS, 11V, 9/10BS. If i get a 30, i'm good.

 

[Doctak04]

Form: AG

Location: Cal State Los Angeles

PS: Eh, it could've been worse, but I was pressured with time down to the last question.

VR: I usually bomb this section, but I felt that it wasn't bad at all. The Anne Dillard passage sucked ballz...

BS: WTF? I spent so much time learning Physio and O-chem and 99% of BS was all molecular and microbio? I felt like i bombed it but, i'm praying for a generous curve.

Avg for AAMC practice tests: 31-32

Score prediction: PS: 10 VR: 10 BS: 9-10

Lemme know what you other AG-ers thought....

 

[neo.striatum]

PS: I happened to like this section the most of all three.
VR: relatively simple compared with other VRs i've taken, but careless errors always happen, so I probably did as I always do.
BS: This was just about what I expected, namely a 100 minute bout of rough consensual sex followed by a wave if BG testees in the room keeling over one after the other from sheer exhaustion. I predict I performed up to expectations, though ample room exists for careless errors and mental lapses.

As is always the case for me, VR is the X-factor, but I tremble to predict anything out of fear that the gods will smite me for assuming the role of a prophet.

oh yeah, forgot about the WS. Jeez, what was on that again. Actually, I may just love this section the most, because it allows me to take a break from the rigid thinking of the other sections. AAMC is really quite merciful about the section order in that respect.

About the proctors: I took the test in New York, and the proctors were altogether pretty good, except the main person yelled really sharply to signal the end of each section, which made a few people shudder with fear every time. I thought it was hilarious.

Anyways, hope you all did as you should under ideal circumstances.

 

[MizzouDrWannabe]

1) I had form CP

2) PS: I thought it was better than I expected. physics is my weak spot but it turned out to be mostly chemistry, which was ok. But then, it was hard to tell how well I really did. There were a few where I was like Ummm...duhhh...C sounds good, haven't had that in awhile! hah

BS: Sucked. I didn't study much orgo, I focused a lot on genetics so I was somewhat screwed. There were several spectroscopy questions which I didn't study at all! Everything else was ok. There were some tricky spots. I'm not very good at physiology so I may have had some trouble there because there were a few of those questions too.

Verbal: This one was hard, to me, and I've always been very good at verbal. One of the passages in there was just weirdly written and it threw me off a lot. I ended up getting done about 15 minutes early but may have screwed myself because I went back and started messing around with my answers....doh!

Writing: I thought it was cake 🙂

3) My test center sucked. The proctors were totally unorganized. We didn't even start until 9:30 and it was supposed to start at 8! Then they LOST a bunch of the forms for the writing sample and had to go look for them. We got out pretty late >:|

4) I have been REALLY sick the past couple of weeks so I'm not even sure I should have taken it. I wasn't really up to it but I've been planning it for so long I couldn't give up at the very end. Now I'm afraid maybe I would have done better just to have voided the test 🙁 It sucks to have sat through a test like this, of this importance, knowing you weren't 100% due to something uncontrollable.

 

[aung]

Did everyone have a Verbal passage that had something to do with Russian history?

I fear I may have skipped a passage - had form CS.

I had a passage about some Russian leader..EDIT... I had form BS.

 

[aung]

I just remembered, I found a mistake in my form BS where they mentioned a dimer and called it DA2 instead of (DA)2. It was only one instance where they mentioned it in the paragraph but they got it right when they showed the dissociation of the dimer in an equation. I was surprised they actually made a mistake on the almighty MCAT. Did anyone else have this passage and notice this?

 

[IAMS]

What made the diff for me this time was the large desk to take the test. Last year, I had to use a side/swing desk - and shuffle booklet with answer sheet between each question. I ended up skipping the first section of verbal and had filled in over 20 ovals before I caught my mistake. It sure felt good to sprawl my pencils, water bottle and jelly beans this time!

 

[tautomer]

Form: DG

PS: I really can't remember everything exactly, but I don't think that it was too bad, at least not that much more difficult than other practice AAMC tests. The first one with gas....EDIT....was a little hard to grasp (or maybe it was just because it was the first freaking passage of the whole thing) but I can't remember the others being overly difficult.

VR: Again, wasn't too much different from the practice tests. Nothing suprising. Got the RoboTuna thing too.

WR: Of course, I never practiced this, so I was a little unsure of how I was going to really approach this. The... EDIT....was hard to figure out what it was even trying to mean, I think I threw something stupid together.

BS: Almost all bio, which I was a little suprised about, although, it mostly wasn't bad at all. I think it was probably the easiest of the other sections, although that ain't saying much.

Testing center was great, although I'm ******ed: during verbal, I heard a cell phone vibrate. One call, wasn't a big deal. But it kept going off intermittently, like it was the "missed call" notification. The person didn't do anything about it, and I just kept getting pissed cause I hear those kind of things. Every minute, a little buzz. Then I finally got pissed and looked around, and even at my own cell phone and found out that it was MINE. I swore I had turned it off and I felt like a freaking idiot. I swear, I was pissed at myself, and felt really bad for the others who may have gotten pissed. I'm just glad it wasn't on ring.

Other than that, it was just fine.

 

[Jon Davis]

This one guy behind me went mad scribbling crap and underlining during the VR and would ho hum so loud. I figured I didnt want this jerk screwing me over since the VR demands intense focus on the passages. I had to cup my hands on my ears real hard and I read the passages and answered the questions. This guy was so annoying, theres more to tell about him but screw it.

And oh yeah, this hot blond chick was trying to flirt with me at the testing center. Err, that kinda distracted me for a little bit but I got my composure back. I didnt get her number though.

 

[hippocampus]

Form CK

ps = too many numbers, math that required numbers like 54552345543 (hard to do really fast since answers were so close), didn't understand what the passage was asking, and how the experients worked

vb: always hate this

bs: a lot of stuff i did not learn (microbio, develop, histology)

i took it in april and after taking it, i felt that i did not know anything. i took it again today, and after taking it, i also felt that i did not know anything. however, i scored better on my practice test the second time around. i am hoping my scores will be better this time but the mcat is so unpredictable, just like getting into med school >: (

 

[eli2k]

Form AH

PS - two passages on titrations blah, what happened to all the physics, I only saw lots of chemistry and some physics. Calculations threw me off a lot.

VB - no comment

BS - I noticed they used a lot of strange new scientific terminology in the question stems and that messed me up on at least two questions. Some choices were worded in such a weird way it was hard to decide what it was trying to say, like do you not dislike blah? I was really tired at this time, too. At least there were very few organic chemistry questions; whew!

Test site at Long Beach City College was okay - no AC, so it became quite warm in the afternoon, but was bearable. Proctors kept walking in and out of the freaking room. Else it's all good. But the person sitting next to me kept making slashes with their pencil, which made me think that they're eliminating answers that quickly, and messed me up. 🙁

@aung - I had that passage, too, got a bit confused, and assumed they meant (AH)2 instead of the other way.

 

[NilamPatel]

all im going to say is im scared s****less for october 13...i want to forget i even took this test...my proctors called time 5 minutes too early for PS!!!!!!! i was mad and it ruined my whole day... 😡 😡 😡

i have a funny feeling that AAMC will be getting anothe $200...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Mister Pie]

all im going to say is im scared s****less for october 13...i want to forget i even took this test...my proctors called time 5 minutes too early for PS!!!!!!! i was mad and it ruined my whole day... 😡 😡 😡

i have a funny feeling that AAMC will be getting anothe $200...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

What the heck? How could this have happened? Man that really blows.

 

[N1DERL&]

This one guy behind me went mad scribbling crap and underlining during the VR and would ho hum so loud. I figured I didnt want this jerk screwing me over since the VR demands intense focus on the passages. I had to cup my hands on my ears real hard and I read the passages and answered the questions. This guy was so annoying, theres more to tell about him but screw it.

If you are in cali, I know exactly who you are talking about!! sighing about every 3 minutes... 🙄

Let's see
Form FM

PS - actually a decent section, watch it be my lowest score! 🙄 basic acid/base calculations, reaction rates, haber process. For physics: electrostatics, no circuits (darn it!), optics as usual, that whole bullet gun momentum thing they love, pendulums. discrete questions were on doppler effect, that dimensional analysis using the units. It broke down to what I felt was a 50/50 split between the two subjects.

VB - Oh I knwo I got my a$$ handed to me. Felt like aamc 8 with really convoluted passages. The only one I like was the rap music one. The russian one was nuts, the last one was horrible, thomas malthus was decent. Two 10 question passages, one 8, one 7 and a whole bunch of 5 question passages. You'd think those would be easier but... 😱 A very apparent lack of those specific questions, if you ask me... 😛

BS - More ochem than I expected. A lot of here is a bunch of structures in between reagents, asking about how do you get from compound 1 to 2. Bio was tougher with a crazy numbers questions about aerobic respiration, the nutty frog, the lame butterfly passage, and the only one I liked was about dieting. haha! 🙄

Test site at Chapman University, Orange: I loved the site. If I have to take this test again, I'll pick this location. Nice big tables and chairs were comfy. Proctors were really quick about checking booklets but we didn't start till like 9. There was this one girl though, I swear her parents were with her and got the proctors to let her change rooms, pick her seat, and were waiting with refreshments after each break. To each their own I guess.... 🙄 what's going to happen when she gets into med school.... anyhoo, i'm tired and cranky!

Hope everyone did well!!!!

 

[aung]

all im going to say is im scared s****less for october 13...i want to forget i even took this test...my proctors called time 5 minutes too early for PS!!!!!!! i was mad and it ruined my whole day... 😡 😡 😡

i have a funny feeling that AAMC will be getting anothe $200...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

You need to write to AAMC about this so they send you a letter of apology that you can put in your application.

 

[fireorose]

Form FG
Houston,TX

PS- Mostly g-chem. Felt pretty decent about it. I was glad for the lack of the physics and got choked up on the optic/algae psg. Finished the section!!

VR- Definitely was a challenge. Philosophy, history, law passages. I was dissapointed it wasnt more interesting. Several of the first 3 psgs or so had 8-10 questions!! Finished the section so I feel pretty satisfied.

BS- I usually finish with 10-15 minutes to review/recheck, but not this time around had like 5 minutes to spare. I feel it was half/half with bio and o chem. I think it was comparable to aamc 8 bio's level of difficulty.

All in all felt good I finished VR and PS because all the times I finished in practicing I got my maximum score!! Worried and can't be for sure though... Hopefully the scaling works out for me! Hoping for 28+

 

[NontradICUdoc]

Form: BG

Impressions: PS was alright. Nothing too out there. Lots of chemistry and very little electricity was I loved because it was my weak point. But the chemistry was a lot of Acid/base stuff. Glad I hit that stuff hard.

VR: Too long passages. But doable. I had the Russian history passage and the T-rax passage.

WS: Wrote about civil right and obesity for the first and doing research for the second.

BS: Barely any Orgo, THAT WAS GREAT!!!!!. It had a lot of Mol Bio and Genetics which was great for me as I do work in those fields.

Test Center: Pretty good in the hotel in NY. Although the bartender at the lounge was a dick. He kicked some of us out because we were not buying lunch.

Score prediction: I shall not tempt the fates

 

[Nikki2002]

all im going to say is im scared s****less for october 13...i want to forget i even took this test...my proctors called time 5 minutes too early for PS!!!!!!! i was mad and it ruined my whole day... 😡 😡 😡

i have a funny feeling that AAMC will be getting anothe $200...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I would have yelled, "HELLO--WE STILL HAVE 5 MINUTES!!"

 

[Medinsane]

1) CT

2) PS: This is my worst section everytime, but I thought it was doable..if I had just a little bit more time. I had trouble with three passages but at least attempted them. Guessed on like 7 questions. But overall, PS was ALOT better than April's.

VB: Thought it was doable. One crazy passage that I usually guess on anyways.

W: This section is always a waste of time for me.

BS: I liked this section. Ochem was doable. The first passage was wierd though so I skipped it and went back. I'm just glad I took developmental bio so I was a bit prepared to take on that 1st passage.

3) Test center was excellent, but bring a jacket. The people were really sweet and funny. Irvine Valley College.

4) 8-10PS, 8-10V, 10-12B Upper tier pahlease!

 

[Mister Pie]

all im going to say is im scared s****less for october 13...i want to forget i even took this test...my proctors called time 5 minutes too early for PS!!!!!!! i was mad and it ruined my whole day... 😡 😡 😡

i have a funny feeling that AAMC will be getting anothe $200...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Now that I think about it, my proctors almost ended BS 10 minutes early, but my entire room of 40+ people said "no" in unison and that made her realize she was off.

 

[lilTXcatMD]

Form: CJ
PS: much more difficult than the AAMC practice tests, ran out of time
VR: not bad at all, some really easy ones and then some just odd ones; Robotuna must be really popular
BS: not bad either, lots of microbiology and a lil genetics, barely any physiology or o chem.

😳

 

[Wertt]

Form BP

PS - Same as most other people, heavy on the acid-base (two titration passages), light on physics (one electricity question!).
VR - Found it harder than practice tests, finished, but barely - no Robotuna.
BS - Easy overall, very little O-chem as others are saying. Seemed to require knowledge of research design and statistics for one passage...maybe it was an experimental.

Test Centre was AMAZING - The Concert Hall of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. This is Toronto's classiest hotel. We were writing in a massive ornate room like the dining hall on the Titanic - under huge chandeliers - it was quiet, good temperature. Best part was water coolers set up with cups and dishes of candy. Lots of people - around 200-250 writing.

Verbal: 10-13
Physical:10-12
Bio:10-13

 

[iwutitan]

Really I don't think the MCAT is supposed to be fair. Last time PS was all about electromagnetic machines and this time I had a lot of wave passages (form DG). I am not complaining this time though 'cause I think the form overall is not difficult. I finish PS 15 minutes early, VR 10 minutes early and BS 20 minutes early. (never happen... ever). I don't know what to feel about it 'cause they can just curve form DG down alot.
- PS: the first one, I stared at the apparatus for 5 minutes to figure the d*** system out. Nothing to the extreme. I was surprised that there were only one question in optics and none in motion. Alot of wave stuff.
-VR: many fun passages, opening with tunarobot. I came back to this psg at the end and caught 2 mistakes. The psg about democracy and government is a little bit out there but all the readings were straight forward.
-BS: it made my head hurt with the all biological systems I had never heard of, but most could be deduced from the passages. I ended up drawing a picture to understand the genetic/lung passage.
-score: not predicting... just hoping for the best

 

[ChiSnowman]

physics and bio were pretty hard...verbal was okay! ugh...i dont know whether im relieved or upset. BIO WAS REALLY HARD

No joke man. My friend and I both had it. We got owned hardcore on that last section.

 

[TheGuy2000]

Form AT

PS: About what you would expect from a normal PS section. Some laughably easy gen chem questions, like what which of the following has the highest electron affinity (noble gas duh!), and graph reading stuff. Titrations as usual, a weird car accident one, no optics, only like 2 on circuits, which I probably missed both of. Overall not bad I'm guessing about an 8

VR: Really liked all of the passages, minus the gardening one about topiaries, which happened to be a 10 question one. Just my luck. The race car r vs. k strategists was funny. And I loved the russian leader / napoleon one. T-rex, lots of fun stuff to read. I'm actually thinking about a 9 (knock on wood).

BS: Good bye med school. Wow what a ****ty section. There was no point in studying for this, none. It was all stupid immunolgy cell regulation stuff. Nothing on the endocrine, renal systems, cardiovascular etc. 5 on this one on if I'm lucky.

F all this, I shoulda gone to law school.

 

[ChiSnowman]

Well, most of you east coast people should be in bed by now and will be finishing 3 hours ahead of us west coasters, lucky bastards. Anyways, some of y'all will undoubtedly come back (maybe after a night of hard partying) to complain, rant, brag, whatever, so I thought I'd provide some format. If you'd be so kind to provide:

1) Your test form code. (For people who want to compare experiences)

2) Your general impression of the individual sections. Remember, do not provide anything overly specific that might make AAMC mad.

3) Your overall experience. (Test center good? bad?, etc)

4) Anything else you want to add. Feel free to predict your score if you have the guts (I know I won't).

1. FG

2. The P. sciences was ok. A lot of gen chem, I kept on looking for the physics which I what I usually studied.

The verbal was a little bit harder. A few of the passages were pretty tough to decipher. Usually I had time on verbal to go back and check, not on this one.

BS: this was crazy. I never thought Biology could be this hard. It was crazy and if I'm not mistaken it was about half organic passages. It's a good thing this was last because this would have shot my confidence for the rest of the day.

3. Overall the day went pretty well. I kept my headphones on and ignored pretty much everyone. There were some people's parents waiting for them between sections, bringing them their notes. 🙄 I thought that was pretty weird.
I had small desks but I worked with it. My neck ended up hurting so bad by the last half hour.

4. I'm just glad to have this out of the way although I do feel I didn't test my best. Oh well.

 

[Faust]

Form FL--I have not seen anything like this in my life. It was unbelievably hard. PS was alot more reading comp ah cheese, the whole got dammmm test felt like a verbal reasoning test. I felt like voiding. For the verbal, i kept thinking. "wow that passage was brutal, well at least the next one should be easier," and just my luck, i read the next passage and found myself saying that until the end---This is completely unfair, if those aamc idiots are going to increase the reading comp, then it should be reflected in all the practice they offer---they are a bunch of deceptive thieves.

And the bio section, i felt that I needed a PH.D in genetics and ochem, I was usually getting like 95-100% correct in the practice for ochem, but i left feeling like i got 0-5% correct in the ocem..

Killed the writing sample-maybe i should apply the iowa workshops instead..


Overall,
PS: Guessed on like two passages.
Verbal: Guessed on one passage..
And for BS i ended up guessing on like 2-3 passages..

Took the test in NYC.


How I am feeling right now? Honestly, up to this point in my life, I have out manuevered out clevered and out smarted everything I have come into contact with, but yesterday I felt like some big monster grabbed me by both feet, flipped me over, and banged me into a concrete wall for 7 hours or so. I feel defeated I am not going to try to pretend like i did well, because I know I did not....

Yesterday, I am so glad you are yesterday.

 

[deacon]

physics and bio were pretty hard...verbal was okay! ugh...i dont know whether im relieved or upset. BIO WAS REALLY HARD

I DEFINITELY agree with that!! Bio on the F form was truly harder than normal....I had to guess on too many of those questions

 

[baylorshannon]

3) Test center was good, but someone's telephone started going off for the last 30 minutes of bio. It borke my concentration!

Same thing happened at my center in Houston. Crazies.

 

[CoffeeCat]

1) Form BK

2) Physical - I can't say it was unfair, I just felt unprepared...I wasn't able to get a grip on psci in practice and it was the same here.

Verbal - I loved it. I felt good about it although one of the 10q sections knocked me down. Did anyone else have TWO passages on scavengers and predators???

Biological - I was really happy too with Bio, I don't think I could've gotten a better mix of passages. I'm alright with Ochem, but was happy it wasn't really on there and I LOVED all the molecular bio stuff - I felt like upper division classes and research helped with the process of thinking through the experiments.

3) Test center was great, nice proctors.

4) No way am I going to predict my score but I'm hoping that verbal and bio are awesome and distract the adcoms from my likely very low PSci.

 

[Doc.Holliday]

Form: CT (New Orleans) --> Hey Doc.Holliday!!! were you at UNO?

PS:
Actually thought it was quite doable. Finished right on time. Quite a bit of g.chem. Overall, the PS was a good start to a long day.

WS:
Finished with 20 minutes to spare. Passages were not boring at all. The art one was very interesting and I enjoyed even the 10 question passages.

BS:
This was unexpected. The whole test was pretty forgiving until i got the first passage about genetics. I don't really remember any of the topics of the rest. But my answers were horrible. I had virtually no C's until they all came at once. So, i hope i did better than how i'm feeling about it.

I'm hoping for a 11PS, 11V, 9/10BS. If i get a 30, i'm good.

yep, i was at UNO also...

i agree about PS and Verbal... PS was pretty straight forward imo, i actually really liked the gas apparatus passage so many have been complaining about. i was really rushed towards the end, i didnt do a good job of pacing myself, but hopefully my accuracy up until then was good. Verbal is always a nice chance to relax for me... but bio, jeez, i just lack the stamina i suppose, i just let my emotions get ahold of me, hopefully im just dwelling on a few bad parts. the first passage screwed me up. right when i saw it i was like YES, developmental bio, i freakin work in a developmental genetics lab, i'll kill this.. i dont know what happened but i got really confused and wasted too much time on it and even just went ahead and moved on without answering most (and didnt have time to go back). the middle of the section was ok i think, i dont remember anything real hard, that diabetes stuff, leaukocytes, cellular evolution etc. the questions and writing in all the passages were different than ive been exposed to, i dont know what was different, but the whole time i sure didnt feel like i was taking anything like any of the practice tests. then the 3? orgo passages right at the end. maybe 2 with 1 in the middle i cant remember. grignards, carbohydrates, amines? that was ok i suppose, i just didnt like having em all bunched like that. i really dont know what to think at this point.

 

[NilamPatel]

it was too late when everyone said something and they did nothing i wrote AAMC and im going to call them and YELLLLLLLLLL and im sooooooooooooooo mad still...sigh im so scareddddddd 😱 😱

 

[jebus]

AH - albuquerque, NM
someone else posted about it.
I think I tore this shizzit up. I'm hoping for a 36.

 

[~CDN Pre-med~]

1) Form BK (York University - Toronto Ontario)

2) Overall impression of the test

PS - Difficult as usual....this is always challenging for me. But I was very relaxed because the first few passages were G. chem which I was comfortable with. Then came the hardcore physics passages which left me feeling rather neutral because I wasn't sure about the answers for some of them. What made me feel better is that the FSQs were fairly easy and it made me feel slightly better about my performance.

VR - I found the passages interesting. I pretended to feel as interested as possible and this really helped me. I was completely finished at the 5 minute mark. This was my lowest score last year but I feel pretty good about it this year. I expected the 10 question passages because this is what happened last year. I didn't let it phase me...I just made sure I spent the time that was necessary to finish it as accurately as possible.

WS - One on social change and another involving the internet. I think my examples were strong for the first one and fairly strong in the second. I always try to write as much as possible...although I know its not necessary. It just makes me feel better! Got "R" last year so not too worried about this. Besides no one ever cares about this score.

BS - I found this difficult, but do-able. I'm a biology major and have taken pretty much every type of bio course there is. So I felt fairly comfortable reading the passages since I usually knew the material ahead of time. The immunohistochemistry passage was the most difficult but again, tried to just take the information I knew and that in the passage to choose the best answer. So happy there wasn't a lot of orgo...

3) The test centre was wonderful. It was a large lecture hall with those long desks and since there were only 30 people per room, there were only 2 people per row so it was extremely quiet and calm. The invigilators were great...there was a guy who was taking huge, rather obnoxious breaths, during the writing sample and they talked to him and told him to try to be a little more quiet...lol. One of them kept cracking jokes so it was a relaxing environment....helped to de-stress...

4) Score predictions...who knows? I'm always scared that maybe I got one of the easier tests and that I'll be lower down on the curve as a result. I'm hoping for at least a 9 in PS,a 10 in VR, and maybe a 11/12 in BS, and Q-R on WS.

Good luck people...the thing you really have to remember is that no matter how hard you think you did, it's all relative. My friend last year thought she absolutely bombed PS last year since she had an incredible urge to pee in the middle of the test. The bathrooms were a little out of the way so there would be definitely time lost on the test...even though she was distracted and found PS difficult, she ended up with a 10 and is now in med. So, keep calm..get drunk, we deserve it! 😉