Warning to MCAT Takers: MCAT Readjusting Again? (5/13 taker)

[Spr1ngrolls]

Hi Everyone! So I just came out of the most recent MCAT (5/13, went in knowing that I would void it) and after looking through some of the comments throughout Reddit (for the past 3-4 MCAT dates) and having the experience of taking the most recent MCAT, I think it's pretty undeniable that the AAMC is quickly re-adjusting their focus once again (I'd acutally say they're balancing it better though).

Obviously when the new 2015 MCAT came out it was all about the Biochem and everyone prepared heavily for this. I assumed the same thing going in. Boy was that wrong. There were also other general assumptions such as less physics, P/S would be a vocab test, etc etc. Again, Reddit threads of the past 3-4 exams would once again suggest that these assumptions are also becoming less and less correct.

The general trend now appears that, to me at least (again from experience and reading about the past couple exams):

• C/P: Expect more physics. Not memorization of formulas, but applying the concepts more and more. Generally speaking, the MCAT i took had an easier C/P section and I breezed through it. But it was certainly physics heavy and the general consensus is that they hit you harder on a lot of the "low yield" topics too (like concepts dealing with orgo!!!).
• CARS: For our exam CARS was actually fun for the first time ever in my life. Seems to be unchanged from the previous exams though.
• B/B: This is where they're really screwing people over if you read in to the past couple of MCATs...... Essentially the test I took had like 3-4 questions testing true principles of biochemistry.... the rest was just CELL TRAFFICKING/REGULATION HELL. I'm talking basic genetics, protein regulation, cell signaling, etc. Honestly, this portion made the Section Banks look like a complete joke... It was pretty damn crazy. Again, I urge you to go on Reddit and see what other people are saying. Knowing your biochem/amino acids are important.... but ultimately the B/B portion is evolving once again. I think I also got only 1 questions about any anatomy/physiology too... and it was about the liver (and a discreet).
• P/S: It seems that its generally being agreed that they're tuning this portion to resemble the CARS section more and more. Knowing your vocab is still important, but I was kind of surprised myself by how careful you needed to actually read in to the passage to answer a lot of their questions. With every practice test I took (TPR, NS, AAMC material), I would have nearly 20-30 minutes extra because honestly you just needed to understand the study broadly and apply your vocab carefully. However, this was definitely not true on the actual exam.

Overall, I'd say that this would be expected of the AAMC to begin re-adjusting now that we're 2 years in to the new MCAT and they're looking to balance it again. Obviously anything that was new they wanted to hit you harder with at the beginning, but it's clear that they're scaling back on it now.

Just wanted to give a fair warning to my fellow SDN'ers because y'all work so hard and I don't see many people talking about this here yet. If you had recently taken the test, I really want to know what you think as well!

Also, in case you were wondering, yes the general consensus is that the AAMC FL 1 & 2 did not resemble the actual test itself. Definitely more section bank heavy and no longer just "one or two passages like the section bank".

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[ProMom]

I am glad to see that there is more Physics. Chem is something that just mentally exhausts me so much more
Was the B/B mostly cell trafficking?? Or just for that foundational concept? Did they have anything on the body systems, populational genetics, etc?
CARS is ok for me, as long as the first couple of passages are not excruciatingly boring, I can keep my momentum and energy going.
P/S- Your experience scares me!!

 

[ProMom]

I have been avoiding wandering over to Reddit, but I am tempted to now.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

I am glad to see that there is more Physics. Chem is something that just mentally exhausts me so much more
Was the B/B mostly cell trafficking?? Or just for that foundational concept? Did they have anything on the body systems, populational genetics, etc?
CARS is ok for me, as long as the first couple of passages are not excruciatingly boring, I can keep my momentum and energy going.
P/S- Your experience scares me!!

Honesty most of them were cell trafficking I think like 4 passages were heavy on it... you really needed a really solid foundation of things you'd learn during cell biology. If you didnt know what how things are generally processed from DNA to protein to its destination you were pretty screwed on probably 50% of the B/B. Like i said, for body systems there was like 1 question and it was very straightforward and obvious. One question on population genetics that was basic Mendelian probability.


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[ProMom]

 

[g3tb0mbed]

5/13 Test Taker here.

C/P- Definitely the easiest section for me (engineering major). Definitely more physics than I am used to seeing. However, also lots of low-yield questions. Also more calculation questions than I am used to.

CARS- Very interesting passages. Usually I am not good at CARS but I was pretty confident in this section. Up to this point of the test I thought it was a breeze.

B/B- What in the world. Section bank on steroids. Harder than any MCAT practice questions I have ever seen. You read through a passage and have no clue what they are talking about, unlike the practice tests. (I averaged 131 in this section on practice tests). Also some gimmes here and there to boost your score a bit. Very abbreviation heavy.

P/S- Study the Khan Notes. However, you MUST know how to apply the terms. I agree this section has turned into CARS 2.0. You have to be able to critically analyze the passage and know exactly how the terms you've already memorized apply to the passage at hand.

I did not feel like the AAMC practice tests represent the MCAT well at all. However, I am sure normalization will make it so that my scores are in line with my practice scores. Good luck everyone. Remember almost no one comes out of this test feeling like they killed it. Trust the system.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

5/13 Test Taker here.

C/P- Definitely the easiest section for me (engineering major). Definitely more physics than I am used to seeing. However, also lots of low-yield questions. Also more calculation questions than I am used to.

CARS- Very interesting passages. Usually I am not good at CARS but I was pretty confident in this section. Up to this point of the test I thought it was a breeze.

B/B- What in the world. Section bank on steroids. Harder than any MCAT practice questions I have ever seen. You read through a passage and have no clue what they are talking about, unlike the practice tests. (I averaged 131 in this section on practice tests). Also some gimmes here and there to boost your score a bit. Very abbreviation heavy.

P/S- Study the Khan Notes. However, you MUST know how to apply the terms. I agree this section has turned into CARS 2.0. You have to be able to critically analyze the passage and know exactly how the terms you've already memorized apply to the passage at hand.

I did not feel like the AAMC practice tests represent the MCAT well at all. However, I am sure normalization will make it so that my scores are in line with my practice scores. Good luck everyone. Remember almost no one comes out of this test feeling like they killed it. Trust the system.

Have you taken a look at the reddits of our exam and the past exams? I was kind of stunned by how well everyone agreed...


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[ProMom]

Have you taken a look at the reddits of our exam and the past exams? I was kind of stunned by how well everyone agreed...


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The reddit threads freaked me the eff out!! I am now going to channel my energy into calming techniques

 

[harkas]

5/13 Test Taker here.

C/P- Definitely the easiest section for me (engineering major). Definitely more physics than I am used to seeing. However, also lots of low-yield questions. Also more calculation questions than I am used to.

CARS- Very interesting passages. Usually I am not good at CARS but I was pretty confident in this section. Up to this point of the test I thought it was a breeze.

B/B- What in the world. Section bank on steroids. Harder than any MCAT practice questions I have ever seen. You read through a passage and have no clue what they are talking about, unlike the practice tests. (I averaged 131 in this section on practice tests). Also some gimmes here and there to boost your score a bit. Very abbreviation heavy.

P/S- Study the Khan Notes. However, you MUST know how to apply the terms. I agree this section has turned into CARS 2.0. You have to be able to critically analyze the passage and know exactly how the terms you've already memorized apply to the passage at hand.

I did not feel like the AAMC practice tests represent the MCAT well at all. However, I am sure normalization will make it so that my scores are in line with my practice scores. Good luck everyone. Remember almost no one comes out of this test feeling like they killed it. Trust the system.

Did you feel doing the section banks were helpful or were they off too?

 

[g3tb0mbed]

I did see the reddit threads. Everyone seemed to be on the same page, which makes me feel a little better. Section banks are definitely the most helpful out of all the material in my opinion. If the tough questions are similar to anything it is section bank questions. Even P/S seemed very section bank like at some points.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

Did you feel doing the section banks were helpful or were they off too?

Honestly it was only helpful to the extent of understanding the "level" of difficulty for some sections like P/S. As I noted, however, the actual B/B made the Section Bank look like childs play and I felt like the SB tested on such easy concepts of biochem so long as you were able to recognize it. Maybe it's retrospective because I studied incredibly hard for the biochem and actually did the SB a couple times.


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[RQAH]

Took the MCAT a couple days ago.
Personally, I found the P/S section to be easier than the AAMC FLs because there was more chemistry (less physics).
The CARS section is always pretty enjoyable and I think the AAMC FLs come pretty close, and even some of the KHAN academy passages.
The Bio/Biochem section was definitely my worst section (way more difficult than the AAMC FLs; very genetics focused).
The Psych/Socio, I always find to be OKAY, I found there were some nit-picky terms that they throw at you in between the passages but other than those I found the passages pretty easy to work through.

My official advice after now writing the MCAT would be practice practice practice. You don't need much memorization since 70-80% (statistic i got out of thin air) of the required information is given in the passage. What matters is how quickly and effectively you can pick up the on the critical info and apply it.

Best of luck to anyone that is planning on writing.

 

[Danny L]

Can someone elaborate on the cell signaling/etc they saw? Was it like super in depth in terms of what they expected you to know (ie they didn't provide info in the passage)?

 

[Gilakend]

Also curious as to if anyone could elaborate on the cell signalling or genetics, etc. they saw. I wasn't feeling too bad about that section because I'm taking biochem right now while studying for the MCAT. Now concerned because I haven't taken cell bio or genetics and won't be. Do you feel info outside of what is covered in review books, say TBR or EK, is needed when you say it was heavily focused? Or more just surprised and it was bad just because you hadn't focused heavily on it during content review?

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

Can someone elaborate on the cell signaling/etc they saw? Was it like super in depth in terms of what they expected you to know (ie they didn't provide info in the passage)?

Also curious as to if anyone could elaborate on the cell signalling or genetics, etc. they saw. I wasn't feeling too bad about that section because I'm taking biochem right now while studying for the MCAT. Now concerned because I haven't taken cell bio or genetics and won't be. Do you feel info outside of what is covered in review books, say TBR or EK, is needed when you say it was heavily focused? Or more just surprised and it was bad just because you hadn't focused heavily on it during content review?

I will start by saying that it's probably a little bit of both: not focusing enough on it during studying enough + having the material essentially be non-comparable to anything i've seen on TPR, NS, AAMC material. However, i'd argue that it was more the latter that really got to me personally since honestly the "terminology" and understanding was only a little more advanced. To me it felt like (and I mean this for EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION.) they would offer Pathways X, Y, Z and then throw in like 2 additional factors to each one of those pathways that were all "related" in some way or could at least be easily modulated by one another. Then they'd ask specifics like "what would most likely occur in the pathway if *so and so* occurred to this step during this pathway" and give you options that all seemed plausible since all the pathways seemingly meshed together.

As I said, I don't know why but the B/B on the May 13th test really just seemed so unrealistic to me. I think of the SB and TPR materials i've gone through, I came across maybe 2 passages that even vaguely resembled what was asked.

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

Great post. I've been trying to raise the flag of warning for some time now that the real exam is usually more difficult, more SB-like, and less AAMC Practice Test-like than most students expect.

That hasn't gone over too well as I'm mostly flamed and attacked with accusations that I only want to "scare" people into thinking the exam is harder because Altius exams are also generally harder and more SB-like. This post may bring a few of those haters back out of the woodwork again, but I will continue to advise all students to prepare for the experimental-focused, ACRONYM-heavy, data-based-reasoning heavy, cell/bio/trafficking/regulation passage types into which SB gives us a window. I literally could not have more success with my students using this approach.

There is ZERO reason to be scared by this reality. To the contrary, be happy and excited that you are going to practice and focus on those passage types now instead of being blindsided by them on test day. You are going to see what is coming, which is comforting, not scary, and MOST students will not see what is coming, so you will get all the more advantage from the curve!

 

[Danny L]

Great post. I've been trying to raise the flag of warning for some time now that the real exam is usually more difficult, more SB-like, and less AAMC Practice Test-like than most students expect.

That hasn't gone over too well as I'm mostly flamed and attacked with accusations that I only want to "scare" people into thinking the exam is harder because Altius exams are also generally harder and more SB-like. This post may bring a few of those haters back out of the woodwork again, but I will continue to advise all students to prepare for the experimental-focused, ACRONYM-heavy, data-based-reasoning heavy, cell/bio/trafficking/regulation passage types into which SB gives us a window. I literally could not have more success with my students using this approach.

There is ZERO reason to be scared by this reality. To the contrary, be happy and excited that you are going to practice and focus on those passage types now instead of being blindsided by them on test day. You are going to see what is coming, which is comforting, not scary, and MOST students will not see what is coming, so you will get all the more advantage from the curve!

Do you or anyone else have any tips for dealing w/ the acronyms and keeping track of the pathways? It sounds like it gave people a lot of trouble

Also is the tricky thing about traffiking/signaling the passage or is there a lot of information you need to have memorized? Most of the content review books don't cover this that heavily (outside of DNA->protein regulation ie promotors and definitions)

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

I have my students do one thing only for acronym/cell signaling passages and it seems to prepare them quite well. Of course, they are practicing the implementation of this simple skill for 3-6 months on practice exams, so it's no quick fix. I teach them to re-create all relationships visually by developing a mathematical way of rapidly representing all regulation relationships on paper. Whenever a passage introduces a relationship, such as "TNF-alpha is upregulated by LPS and downregulated by aKt" they write a simple flow chart on their scratch paper. Arrows represent relationships, plus signs represent upregulation/increase, minus signs for downregulation/decrease. If something phosphorylates or dephosphoryaltes something else (which is common), we use a capital P with a circle around it and a plus/minus sign to represent that process. It takes a good amount of time at first, but after practice, my students create an algorithm for every passage with acronyms, cascades, pathways, etc. that is MUCH easier to understand than the passage itself, and which--most importantly--they can use quickly to answer any question.

There is almost ZERO memorized knowledge that will make these question types easy. However, there is a huge benefit to becoming comfortable with a few terms and concepts that some students don't know well. For example, learn the G-protein signaling pathway inside and out. This is a good model for most regulatory pathways just like the Lac Operon is a good model for gene regulation. Second, because these passages are almost always based on excerpts from peer-reviewed journals, there is a set of research-specific concepts and vocabulary that it is really helpful to know, and on which most students are weak; NOT that you have to memorize a long list, or that you are being asked questions directly about those terms themselves, but they just make understanding these passage types so much easier. These are concepts like:

wild-type, naive mice, knockout mice, the +/- conventions for genotypes, adjuvant, deltaX = mutant of X, X249Y = a mutant in which amino acid Y has been substituted for aa X at position 249, titer, cDNA/ssDNA/dsDNA/siRNA/etc., cytokine, complement, oncogenes, proto-oncogenes, loss-of-function, gain-of-function, apoptosis, positive feedback loops, negative feedback loops, luciferase reporters, OD-450, etc. That's a partial list to give you an idea. These are the kinds of terms used in research regularly and you really need to become familiar with them anyway to be a good doctor who can read and interpret research.

If you really want a leg-up on the competition, and have the time, there are a few signaling molecules that show up ALL THE TIME and if you learn what they actually are and what they do it will make a ton of these complicated acronym soup paragraphs begin to make complete sense: VEGF, TNF-alpha, EGFR, RAGE, NF-kB, RAS, MAPK, etc.

 

[altblue]

Are you sure this exam wasn't just an outlier?

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

Are you sure this exam wasn't just an outlier?

Like I said, take a look at the past couple of exams of Reddit posts. You'll see that the general trend is pretty consistent.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

I have my students do one thing only for acronym/cell signaling passages and it seems to prepare them quite well. Of course, they are practicing the implementation of this simple skill for 3-6 months on practice exams, so it's no quick fix. I teach them to re-create all relationships visually by developing a mathematical way of rapidly representing all regulation relationships on paper. Whenever a passage introduces a relationship, such as "TNF-alpha is upregulated by LPS and downregulated by aKt" they write a simple flow chart on their scratch paper. Arrows represent relationships, plus signs represent upregulation/increase, minus signs for downregulation/decrease. If something phosphorylates or dephosphoryaltes something else (which is common), we use a capital P with a circle around it and a plus/minus sign to represent that process. It takes a good amount of time at first, but after practice, my students create an algorithm for every passage with acronyms, cascades, pathways, etc. that is MUCH easier to understand than the passage itself, and which--most importantly--they can use quickly to answer any question.

There is almost ZERO memorized knowledge that will make these question types easy. However, there is a huge benefit to becoming comfortable with a few terms and concepts that some students don't know well. For example, learn the G-protein signaling pathway inside and out. This is a good model for most regulatory pathways just like the Lac Operon is a good model for gene regulation. Second, because these passages are almost always based on excerpts from peer-reviewed journals, there is a set of research-specific concepts and vocabulary that it is really helpful to know, and on which most students are weak; NOT that you have to memorize a long list, or that you are being asked questions directly about those terms themselves, but they just make understanding these passage types so much easier. These are concepts like:

wild-type, naive mice, knockout mice, the +/- conventions for genotypes, adjuvant, deltaX = mutant of X, X249Y = a mutant in which amino acid Y has been substituted for aa X at position 249, titer, cDNA/ssDNA/dsDNA/siRNA/etc., cytokine, complement, oncogenes, proto-oncogenes, loss-of-function, gain-of-function, apoptosis, positive feedback loops, negative feedback loops, luciferase reporters, OD-450, etc. That's a partial list to give you an idea. These are the kinds of terms used in research regularly and you really need to become familiar with them anyway to be a good doctor who can read and interpret research.

If you really want a leg-up on the competition, and have the time, there are a few signaling molecules that show up ALL THE TIME and if you learn what they actually are and what they do it will make a ton of these complicated acronym soup paragraphs begin to make complete sense: VEGF, TNF-alpha, EGFR, RAGE, NF-kB, RAS, MAPK, etc.

Great post. I've been trying to raise the flag of warning for some time now that the real exam is usually more difficult, more SB-like, and less AAMC Practice Test-like than most students expect.

That hasn't gone over too well as I'm mostly flamed and attacked with accusations that I only want to "scare" people into thinking the exam is harder because Altius exams are also generally harder and more SB-like. This post may bring a few of those haters back out of the woodwork again, but I will continue to advise all students to prepare for the experimental-focused, ACRONYM-heavy, data-based-reasoning heavy, cell/bio/trafficking/regulation passage types into which SB gives us a window. I literally could not have more success with my students using this approach.

There is ZERO reason to be scared by this reality. To the contrary, be happy and excited that you are going to practice and focus on those passage types now instead of being blindsided by them on test day. You are going to see what is coming, which is comforting, not scary, and MOST students will not see what is coming, so you will get all the more advantage from the curve!

Wow this is weird cause a lot of those acronyms annoyingly showed up a lot on the MCAT I took actualy (looking specifically at TNF-Alpha, RAGE, and RAS....). And yes, I've seen the threads where people outright shut down anyone who says the MCAT hasn't changed... Which honestly is kind of ridiculous if you know the AAMC. If it's one thing they love doing, it's throwing curveballs.

And thank you for suggesting this technique! I took TPR and was about to email my instructor about how to manage these passages as I did void my 5/13 exam and plan to re-take in the end of June. I actually thought about this method as I actually did do this when I first started studying, but I found that doing this for EVERY passage took way too much time. However, I'm now able to quickly recognize heavy cell trafficking/signaling pathways and B/B killer passages, so I think i'll actually try your method out.

And finally thank you for continuing to insist that exam has changed despite people flaming and attacking you. I know it's probably rough, but a lot of us really appreciate it!!!

 

[deleted446889]

So how should we adjust our prep? Less content and more practice? If it's really harder than even the SB tho what practice material should we use?

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

So how should we adjust our prep? Less content and more practice? If it's really harder than even the SB tho what practice material should we use?

If you have a good foundation of content then yes, practice like hell. The section bank questions were indeed easier than a lot of the passages on our particular exam, however, I still think they're the best you've got thus far. Honestly, not even the more challenging test prep companies came close to the level of difficulty I saw on the B/B portion.

Look for cell signaling and trafficking passages specifically in the SB. Do as @Altius Premier Tutor suggested. I think that's what i'm going to do for now, I think that i'll be thankful I did!

 

[ICUBlue]

This may be an incredibly stupid question, but is the percentage of questions correct that determines your "scaled score" predetermined for the whole year or is every MCAT date different or how does that work?


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[Danny L]

This may be an incredibly stupid question, but is the percentage of questions correct that determines your "scaled score" predetermined for the whole year or is every MCAT date different or how does that work?


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It's different per test

 

[ICUBlue]

It's different per test

So if I'm understanding correctly the percentile distribution is only based on the people that took the exam the day you did? The scaled score is not predetermined based on the whole year or anything?


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[ICUBlue]

It's good to know the general direction the test is heading in but it doesn't freak me out so much if I know that an acronym, physics, or cell bio heavy test I take one day won't be compared to a gen Chem heavy, less experimental passage based test someone else takes another day


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[Gilakend]

Another dumb question, just began studying for the MCAT. What exactly is the difference between "Section bank" and just normal passages? I feel like the overall trend is people saying SBs are harder but I don't know what a section bank is.

 

[BurntFlower]

Another dumb question, just began studying for the MCAT. What exactly is the difference between "Section bank" and just normal passages? I feel like the overall trend is people saying SBs are harder but I don't know what a section bank is.

Here's the link to the section bank.

Product Detail

 

[DoctorCrush]

I will start by saying that it's probably a little bit of both: not focusing enough on it during studying enough + having the material essentially be non-comparable to anything i've seen on TPR, NS, AAMC material. However, i'd argue that it was more the latter that really got to me personally since honestly the "terminology" and understanding was only a little more advanced. To me it felt like (and I mean this for EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION.) they would offer Pathways X, Y, Z and then throw in like 2 additional factors to each one of those pathways that were all "related" in some way or could at least be easily modulated by one another. Then they'd ask specifics like "what would most likely occur in the pathway if *so and so* occurred to this step during this pathway" and give you options that all seemed plausible since all the pathways seemingly meshed together.

As I said, I don't know why but the B/B on the May 13th test really just seemed so unrealistic to me. I think of the SB and TPR materials i've gone through, I came across maybe 2 passages that even vaguely resembled what was asked.

Based on this description, I would venture out to say that the new examkracker 101 passages are along this line. Having experience with NS, AAMC, Khan, Kaplan, TPR, examkrackers are the only one so far that I noticed presented things remotely close to this.

 

[Gilakend]

Here's the link to the section bank.

Product Detail

Thanks for the reply. So why is that a bad thing? Were most practice tests and the section bank different formats? I feel like if it was like the section bank that would be a positive thing because you've seen it before, unless I'm misinterpreting the posts that I think are saying that its SB heavy is a bad thing.

 

[880cylon]

Personally I like this trend since I am involved in research. It really does give an advantage to students who work in the lab and read research papers all day.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Thanks Springrolls for this thread!!!

Also curious as to if anyone could elaborate on the cell signalling or genetics, etc. they saw. I wasn't feeling too bad about that section because I'm taking biochem right now while studying for the MCAT. Now concerned because I haven't taken cell bio or genetics and won't be. Do you feel info outside of what is covered in review books, say TBR or EK, is needed when you say it was heavily focused? Or more just surprised and it was bad just because you hadn't focused heavily on it during content review?

The feedback from our classroom students has been that they felt ready for each sitting this year. No one has voided, which is a very good indicator. And the scores have been very pleasing. I am really curious how SDN people that used BR and took the May 13 exam respond here. Having heard back from a few classroom students, it seems like all four sections were pretty straight forward and doable on May 13.

5/13 Test Taker here.

C/P- Definitely the easiest section for me (engineering major). Definitely more physics than I am used to seeing. However, also lots of low-yield questions. Also more calculation questions than I am used to.

CARS- Very interesting passages. Usually I am not good at CARS but I was pretty confident in this section. Up to this point of the test I thought it was a breeze.

B/B- What in the world. Section bank on steroids. Harder than any MCAT practice questions I have ever seen. You read through a passage and have no clue what they are talking about, unlike the practice tests. (I averaged 131 in this section on practice tests). Also some gimmes here and there to boost your score a bit. Very abbreviation heavy.

P/S- Study the Khan Notes. However, you MUST know how to apply the terms. I agree this section has turned into CARS 2.0. You have to be able to critically analyze the passage and know exactly how the terms you've already memorized apply to the passage at hand.

I did not feel like the AAMC practice tests represent the MCAT well at all. However, I am sure normalization will make it so that my scores are in line with my practice scores. Good luck everyone. Remember almost no one comes out of this test feeling like they killed it. Trust the system.

Thank you so much for posting these points. I have bolded all of the points in your post that have been comments by people complaining about our materials over the past year. I want to emphasize this not as an I told you so comment, but more so that there is a methodical way to get ready for this exam. One of the recurring SDN knocks on our practice exams is that many of the psychology and sociology passages in our practice exams read like a CARS passage. There is a reason for that, and you just posted it. SDN people on occasion comment that some of our C/P questions are random and calculation intensive, but again, there is a purpose for that. You can find plenty of comments about our molecular biology and cell biology chapters being challenging, but again, that is by design. I hope this doesn't come across as whiny, as that is not my intention. What I hope comes across is a message to people using our books that they need to trust our approach and do all of the passages. Most importantly, go over the answer explanations, as they have some great mnemonics and shortcuts.

Took the MCAT a couple days ago.
Personally, I found the P/S section to be easier than the AAMC FLs because there was more chemistry (less physics).
The CARS section is always pretty enjoyable and I think the AAMC FLs come pretty close, and even some of the KHAN academy passages.
The Bio/Biochem section was definitely my worst section (way more difficult than the AAMC FLs; very genetics focused).
The Psych/Socio, I always find to be OKAY, I found there were some nit-picky terms that they throw at you in between the passages but other than those I found the passages pretty easy to work through.

My official advice after now writing the MCAT would be practice practice practice. You don't need much memorization since 70-80% (statistic i got out of thin air) of the required information is given in the passage. What matters is how quickly and effectively you can pick up the on the critical info and apply it.

Best of luck to anyone that is planning on writing.

I LOVE your post! This thread gives me incredible hope that people preparing for the MCAT will get the message on how to best prepare. "Practice, practice, practice" followed by thoroughly going over passages and questions is the best way by far to prepare. You hit the nail directly on the head. Maybe this thread will be the spark that ignites better SDN scores. If you look back at the threads through January 2015, you'll see that SDN scores were really high. Since that time, there has been an increase in posts about lower scores and there far more SDN people repeating the exam. With more input like yours and spr1ngrolls as to what it takes to do well, hopefully people start preparing better.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

Based on this description, I would venture out to say that the new examkracker 101 passages are along this line. Having experience with NS, AAMC, Khan, Kaplan, TPR, examkrackers are the only one so far that I noticed presented things remotely close to this.

Damn it, I purchased NS's exams before actually taking the MCAT and going thru past MCAT trends.... Might just spend the couple of extra for EK's exams too then. I am in urgent need of help tbh...

Thanks Springrolls for this thread!!!
I LOVE your post! This thread gives me incredible hope that people preparing for the MCAT will get the message on how to best prepare. "Practice, practice, practice" followed by thoroughly going over passages and questions is the best way by far to prepare. You hit the nail directly on the head. Maybe this thread will be the spark that ignites better SDN scores. If you look back at the threads through January 2015, you'll see that SDN scores were really high. Since that time, there has been an increase in posts about lower scores and there far more SDN people repeating the exam. With more input like yours and spr1ngrolls as to what it takes to do well, hopefully people start preparing better.

I agree! Im just going to do practice exam after practice exam from here on out. I know for a fact that content isn't going to save me when I take it again at the end of June.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

Another dumb question, just began studying for the MCAT. What exactly is the difference between "Section bank" and just normal passages? I feel like the overall trend is people saying SBs are harder but I don't know what a section bank is.

The Section Bank was considered the "hardest" level of questions that you should expect for the new 2015 MCAT. It also gave a good feel for the new psych/soc portion.

However, as this entire post has emphasized, what was true for 2015 seems to be diminishingly true now in 2017. The MCAT is evolving and becoming less and less focused on the same topics they emphasized in 2015 (and for good reason). You'll find very quickly that the SB was essentially a big Biochem exam for the the B/B and C/P. Additionally, while there was this "standard" for the MCAT of there only being "1 to 2 passages similar to that of the section bank on the real exam", it appears that the majority of passages are now exactly like the section bank with some even considerably more difficult.

 

[DoctorCrush]

Damn it, I purchased NS's exams before actually taking the MCAT and going thru past MCAT trends.... Might just spend the couple of extra for EK's exams too then. I am in urgent need of help tbh...

I took the MCAT last year and this is going to be a retake for me too. If I were you, I would go to a book store where they sell the new examkracker 101 passage books and flip through it and see if the passages feel similar to AAMC. That's what I did. This is considering if you already exhausted your AAMC materials. I still haven't found anything close to AAMC CARS

Good luck to you. Hopefully you won't need to retake!

P.S. I think their full lengths are on point too! I feel like their new 101 is harder though but great practice!

 

[Giovanotto]

I was part of the first cohort to take the "new" MCAT and I already thought the b/b section was heavy with genetics/molecular, which I had not taken, and it killed me. I can't imagine the test trending even MORE into genetics/molecular. I recommend everyone to take those classes before the MCAT these days.

 

[tekkenman11]

I took the exam last September and I always thought the P/S section was a CARS 2.0

I even only memorized Psych/Soc terms (using khan academy videos/notes and Kaplan) about 2.5 weeks before my actual exam and got a 128. It is the most "crammable "portion of the exam, but reading comprehension and reasoning is very important to perform well on it. Every P/S passage begins with an "introduction" to the main concept and then the next few paragraphs deal with a particular experiment. And there is always 1-2 graphs detailing the study. Understanding the intent of the researchers, their approach to testing out the hypothesis, and conclusion will give you most of the answers. You need to not only understand the definition of a particular term, but also the context in which it is normally used and how it applies to that specific study.

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

May 18th exam takers reactions are up on Reddit:

On the bio:

• B/B: cell bio heavy just like the guys in the May 13th thread were taking about, although given how hard they had it I'm low-key really glad I took the 18th not 13th date. Thought it wasn't as hard as the SB but definitely harder than your normal B/B practice test. Some questions were just straight gimmes while others I had to catch myself on b/c I realized I was taking too much time on them. This section definitely is going the way of graph/figure heavy with so many acronyms that you could drown it them
• B/B - not so hot, got lost in acronyms and signal pathways. Mini breakdown but managed to rally
  
• B/B had less amino acids on it than I thought there would be. A good chunk of Cell Bio questions but overall a very fair section.
  
• B/B - Easier than SB in my opinion. My thoughts that this section was more biology focused than biochemistry. God help you if you didn't master immunology.
  
• B/B- Not as horrible as I thought. Mix between SB and question packs. Some free gimmes, some really hard experiment-based questions.
  
• B/B: it was fair I guess, but the passages were so acronym heavy. I usually finish with quite a bit of time left but only had like 9 minutes this time, which threw me off because I couldn't review my marked questions super well.
  
• B/B - the fatigue kicked in...it was a hard climb even though the passages were not unbelievably hard. The RNA polymerase one made my eyes glaze over and transported me to another world.

On the C/P:

• C/P: Thought it went well but definitely the hardest section for me. It was more physics heavy than I was anticipating but I finished it early and hope the curve shows some mercy for the harder questions.
• Literally maybe one or two that had anything to do with electricity. Some kinematics. Very light on physics though I thought, a lot of general chemistry.
  
• c/p : not too bad, some confusing stuff. not really a lot of biochem. id say harder than fls
  
• C/P: Don't really remember this section. Felt like there was a lot less emphasis on acid-base chemistry then the FLs. Struggled a little bit and the section definitely did not play to my strengths.... We'll see.
  
• CP: Honestly, not as bad as i was expecting. The math was pretty elementary for chemistry. I was expecting more physics. There was a point in the exam where I thought, "Wow barely any physics.".....then the last two passages were physics. Luckily one of them was more conceptual instead of calculations.

On the P/S:

• Did anyone think that PS was a LOT harder than expected? A LOT of text-heavy passages that I was almost too exhausted to read through.
• Same! Those passages were way longer than I expected, and it seemed superfluous sometimes? I usually finish really fast on PS but it took almost 20 minutes longer than I expected.
  
• P/S - This has always been the easiest section for most people and this exam was no different, probably the easiest of the four, in my opinion. The passages were extremely long, lots of details for questions that weren't even asked. And an annoying amount of graphs and tables for P/S.

Looks like another test where they scaled back a lot on the biochem but really ramped up cell signaling/regulation to me. Once again general consensus seems to be that there was a fair amount of physics (again, application of it). P/S across the board seemed more passage heavy than what was expected. But definitely looks like B/B was much more manageable than the 5/13 date.... Let me know what you think!

 

[Spr1ngrolls]

@fldoctorgirl i've seen you lurking the MCAT forums for a while now and I know you just took the May 18th exam, did you think the above was true^? (Sorry I know you just took it a few hours ago and probz need a break from life but im genuinely curious of what you thought compared to the above reactions!)

 

[fldoctorgirl]

@fldoctorgirl i've seen you lurking the MCAT forums for a while now and I know you just took the May 18th exam, did you think the above was true^? (Sorry I know you just took it a few hours ago and probz need a break from life but im genuinely curious of what you thought compared to the above reactions!)

If you've seen the Reddit threads, they're pretty accurate and I agree with them. There does seem to have been two different versions of the exam though (or maybe more), because some people claimed their test was physics heavy while others (like me) barely had any physics.

For B/B, I agree that it was graph/figure heavy and loaded with acronyms. However, I honestly thought it wasn't that bad, definitely not as bad as the May 13th people had it. I found it very manageable and actually felt confident with most of my answers. A lot of the info could be pulled from the passage if you didn't know the answer right away, especially using POE. Definitely focused more on cell trafficking/signaling/cell bio, hardly any biochem or amino acid questions. Overall, I was fine with this section. I had no issue with timing on this section, like some people are saying.

For C/P, it seems that most of us agree that this section was brutal, so hopefully the curve will be generous. Like I said, my version was not physics heavy at all. I only had 2 or 3 free-standing questions about physics, zero passages. A lot of obscure gen chem and orgo concepts, heavy on lab technique. Things came up that I have never seen before in any practice test. Definitely guessed more than I would've liked. Literally had practically zero questions involving pH or acid/base chemistry, which was a big focus of many of the practice FLs. Quite a few calculations.

As far as CARS, I found it pretty on par with both the AAMC FLs. Like everyone always says, the sample test is definitely easier in this section. Not really worried about my score too much here.

I also thought P/S was pretty similar to the FLs. It was slightly harder (dense passages, some questions where 2 answers felt pretty plausible) but overall doable. I do agree that they provided an excess of info that they didn't even ask questions about, but whatever. I finished with more than enough time. I made a silly mistake on a free-standing question that is haunting me-- I totally blanked on the answer while looking at the question even though it was something I had studied and gotten right on other FLs. I walked out of the testing center and it hit me what the right answer was. Normally score around 129 on this section though, so not super concerned. Sucks that I have to think about that question for a month though....

TLDR: C/P was killer for me, but barely any physics. Lots of obscure low-yield topics that most people probably didn't study much. Hoping for generous curve. B/B felt pretty fair to me, lots of cell bio, minimal biochem. CARS and P/S on par with AAMC FLs, with P/S being slightly harder and more dense, but both certainly doable.

 

[iqe2010]

This actually makes me feel better because I just finished a cell bio class and I haven't taken biochem.

 

[altblue]

If you've seen the Reddit threads, they're pretty accurate and I agree with them. There does seem to have been two different versions of the exam though (or maybe more), because some people claimed their test was physics heavy while others (like me) barely had any physics.

For B/B, I agree that it was graph/figure heavy and loaded with acronyms. However, I honestly thought it wasn't that bad, definitely not as bad as the May 13th people had it. I found it very manageable and actually felt confident with most of my answers. A lot of the info could be pulled from the passage if you didn't know the answer right away, especially using POE. Definitely focused more on cell trafficking/signaling/cell bio, hardly any biochem or amino acid questions. Overall, I was fine with this section. I had no issue with timing on this section, like some people are saying.

For C/P, it seems that most of us agree that this section was brutal, so hopefully the curve will be generous. Like I said, my version was not physics heavy at all. I only had 2 or 3 free-standing questions about physics, zero passages. A lot of obscure gen chem and orgo concepts, heavy on lab technique. Things came up that I have never seen before in any practice test. Definitely guessed more than I would've liked. Literally had practically zero questions involving pH or acid/base chemistry, which was a big focus of many of the practice FLs. Quite a few calculations.

As far as CARS, I found it pretty on par with both the AAMC FLs. Like everyone always says, the sample test is definitely easier in this section. Not really worried about my score too much here.

I also thought P/S was pretty similar to the FLs. It was slightly harder (dense passages, some questions where 2 answers felt pretty plausible) but overall doable. I do agree that they provided an excess of info that they didn't even ask questions about, but whatever. I finished with more than enough time. I made a silly mistake on a free-standing question that is haunting me-- I totally blanked on the answer while looking at the question even though it was something I had studied and gotten right on other FLs. I walked out of the testing center and it hit me what the right answer was. Normally score around 129 on this section though, so not super concerned. Sucks that I have to think about that question for a month though....

TLDR: C/P was killer for me, but barely any physics. Lots of obscure low-yield topics that most people probably didn't study much. Hoping for generous curve. B/B felt pretty fair to me, lots of cell bio, minimal biochem. CARS and P/S on par with AAMC FLs, with P/S being slightly harder and more dense, but both certainly doable.

I'm super curious about what was killer about C/P. Did they demand the usage of obscure equations? Where there many concepts that were barely covered?

This makes me consider taking all of TPR's physics/gen chem minutiae more seriously now

 

[661874]

This actually makes me feel better because I just finished a cell bio class and I haven't taken biochem.

I wouldn't be so relaxed (not to freak you out). My test on 5/19 may or may not have had lots of biochem (won't say more lest I break the AAMC agreement). I tend to agree with the consensus that there's really no such thing as low yield. Learn it all (I especially recommend AK lectures) and kill it!

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

I'm super curious about what was killer about C/P. Did they demand the usage of obscure equations? Where there many concepts that were barely covered?

This makes me consider taking all of TPR's physics/gen chem minutiae more seriously now

I would not interpret this feedback that way; that may actually hurt you. There is NO consensus that the MCAT is getting more nitpicky on details, equations, memorization, etc. (minus the theories/terms on Psych/Soc). And I say that recognizing that everyone always feels like there is an equation or detail the AAMC smacked them with that they wish they had memorized. To the contrary, the exam is getting more experimental, more acronym heavy, more cell signaling/pathway heavy...all of those factors require more critical thinking, not more minutiae!

 

[661874]

I would not interpret this feedback that way; that may actually hurt you. There is NO consensus that the MCAT is getting more nitpicky on details, equations, memorization, etc. (minus the theories/terms on Psych/Soc). And I say that recognizing that everyone always feels like there is an equation or detail the AAMC smacked them with that they wish they had memorized. To the contrary, the exam is getting more experimental, more acronym heavy, more cell signaling/pathway heavy...all of those factors require more critical thinking, not more minutiae!

Agreed, took it 5/19. P/S is... weird.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I'm super curious about what was killer about C/P. Did they demand the usage of obscure equations? Where there many concepts that were barely covered?

This makes me consider taking all of TPR's physics/gen chem minutiae more seriously now

C/P was hard because it seemed to be focused on a lot of low-yield topics rather than what most of us were expecting. Additionally, many of the questions just required you to straight-up either know something or guess-- it was very hard to glean info from the passages for many questions. So no, it wasn't really anything with equations. Just lots of focus on topics I had barely ever seen on any other practice material.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

This actually makes me feel better because I just finished a cell bio class and I haven't taken biochem.

I would follow @gujudukester 's advice. Don't let any person's experience content-wise make you feel more relaxed. Literally every single test focuses on different topics. You definitely still need to know your biochem; just because it wasn't a huge focus on my exam doesn't mean a) I had zero questions about it and b) your exam won't be loaded with it.

 

[ICUBlue]

The AAMC's content percentage of the new MCAT still stands correct? So even tho tests may have individual differences, on average they still make X% of questions on biochem, etc.? So there is still a high likelihood of lots of biochem? Or less overall physics than biochem?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Spectar]

I'd like to add a few things (I know this may be late in the post) (5/13 test taker).
I fell sick the day before which sucked (whenever I get nervous I get extreme nausea) but I pushed through and didn't void it. I was pretty confident because I was scoring well on the kaplan and aamc practice tests. All of what is below is just my opinion. I studied for about 3 months (3 hrs a day) took a 4 month break and then studied for another 3-4 months (3 hours a day). I used the Kaplan course, EK books, and Khan academy for P/S only.

C/P: I felt like I was racing the clock on this section (had to simply guess on like 4-5 questions because I actually did not have time to read two of the passages enough (both were too complex and they were towards the end so I just couldn't understand them).

CARS: Easier than I expected, but still 2-3 questions were difficult imo. Probably hard to get a high score because of the normalization.

B/B- Similar to section banks. Difficult but if you know the section banks well you should be good to go. I would say it was 50% section bank difficulty and 50% AAMC practice exam difficulty. I regret not going through the section banks twice.

P/S - What the actual F. Seriously. The passages were so so, but the discretes?!? I went through them in the beginning and I just started laughing because of how difficult 5 of them were. I feel like the AAMC pulled experiments out of a hat and made a discrete question on it. This is all coming from someone who did the kaplan, EK and Khan academy Psych/Soc. Also I agree with OP, I usually have 40 minutes left at the end of a p/s section on the practice tests, this time I had about 2 minutes.

Hopefully everything works out in terms of the standardization