What form did you have?

[Mr. Z]

anybody else have form DH? I found the verbal to be pretty hard, but not overly so. The physical section wasn't bad, very similar to aamc practice tests. The bio section was F*$#ing impossible, and that was supposed to be one of my stronger sections.

Damn! I need a drink

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[xbliss187x]

Form: AG
Buffalo, NY

The verbal section was workable

Physical Science section - Terrible!! I skipped one of the passages and didn't have time to go back to the questions I skipped.

Bio section was good. I had a few minutes left to check my answers.

Writing sample - too easy. Except, towards the end of the second essay, I started to interchange the words "coopertivity" and "competition." I was tired and made a mess of crossing out words.

I hope everyone else did well! Oh, and in both the rooms I was in, there was a picture of Jesus and the Virgin Mary right above me on the wall next to me. If I ever had to believe in religion, I certainly did that day!

 

[DrBravesgirl]

i had CK...

verbal: whoa. much harder than any verbal section i'd ever done (including april mcat, prep for april mcat, and all my prep for this mcat)...ouch

physical: not that bad. nothing weird showed up. i was happy (although there wasn't any stuff on harmonic frequencies..which was what i spent all week crammin for. oh well)

bio: eh. never know what to think about bio.

anyone else have ck?

 

[VFElf]

I had AN.

Verbal:
The verbal passages are ok, but some of the questions are a bit tricky. I'm short of time for 2 questions. I am waiting for some "surprise" for my score on this section if some of my guessing answers are correct.

Physical S:
Many topics were surrounding about the similar topics, like X-Ray, Computer silicon chips, but with different concepts. One passage about half-value thinkness of skin was hard to work out. Overall, I am expecting a good score on this.

Biological S:
This one is tough... A lot of questions combined two or more study area and were hell tricky. I think the biological passages included all the study area in the study manuals.

 

[qweewq11]

wow, did everyone have thee same essays? I also had cooperation vs competition and technology vs creativity...

 

[Mimicat]

Those were my essay topics too. Hopefully my MBA background will help with topic #2 , but they really judge on your form and style more than the value of your argument.

 

[Focus]

Hey Chandler,

Are you applying to med school this year? I'd enjoy having you as a classmate. I didn't take the exam yesterday but I'm sure what you just posted will help motivate a lot of people (and it makes absolute sense, I remember people talking about 'experimental sections' last year, but I wasn't quite sure on how they were graded.)

- Focus

 

[kito]

you all will be just fine
time to go get wasted

 

[franklinthedog]

FG-----

First off, I don't want anyone feeling bad, as we really have no idea how we did..

but anyway

verbal.... is I, II, or III true!!!!!!!! I had two of those in one passage, and it seemed like every passage had at least one, some of which were a real piece of crap

physical sciences....i got really lucky, i prefer chemistry, and i got mostly chemistry, although there was a bridge passage that made me want to jump off one

lastly, bio....man, i could teach that subject i know so much, but that form was very difficult, some of the passages just needed more time, but the orgo was okay, as i prefer that, i think there were 4...overall, let's just hope that since most of us found it hard the curve will treat us nicely, thanks to everyone for all the advice all along

Hey Mr. Z, i'm putting you at a 13 or > on Physics!!

 

[Winston Smith]

Form CM anyone else have it?

Verbal - so-so but then again it isn't my best section

The PS seemed a bit too easy, probably made some dumb mistakes.

Bio - between verbal and ps. A couple of the passages were just weird.

 

[barakutha]

AG - NYC

I thought they made PS the hardest section this time around. Hope they can get our scores online even faster this time around, but anyway you look at it, i guess october is far !

 

[erock]

I had CK. Verbal kicked my tail, bio did the same. Made me wanna cry like a baby

erock
p.s. if there is such a thing as an experimental passage, I think I wasted most of my time trying to nail those questions. It was about the rise and fall of Chinese avant-garde art.

 

[Mr. Z]

Originally posted by franklinthedog
FG-----

Hey Mr. Z, i'm putting you at a 13 or > on Physics!!

Could you do me a favor? call the aamc and tell them this.

thanks, I appreciate the encouragement and hope the same for you!

 

[CoffeeCat]

Originally posted by chandler742
For what it is worth, I think you guys overall will do better than you expect. The reason I say that is this.

There are 1 experimental section in verbal, and 2 experimental sections in ps and bs, respectively. Chances are the difficult questions that you had were the experimental questions because that way they can validate a new SET of questions for future MCATS(it wouldn't make sense to field test easy questions would it?).

If you would look at your past AAMC exams. The experimental verbal sections were as follows confucious on AAMC 3, picasso on AAMC 5, and brand awareness on AAMC 6(Each passage has 10 questions that follow too). Guess how many Kap, TPR, or EK verbal tests have 10 questions per passage. NONE, ZERO, NOTTA. Now, if you look at the percentage correct these questions have the largest range in correct responses(i.e. ideal to handpick easy to hard questions for future MCATS). Still, these tests are retired. Oh by the way, one of the two passages on VERBAL that you had with 10 corresponding questions was the experimental section yesterday.

My main point is this, the reason people think they did worse than they actually did is because of the experimental sections. The tough passages are NOT graded(okay one per test are graded just to separate 12's from 15's in the sciences but most aren't).

Besides, I would like to commend you guys for "sacrificing" your summer. The fruits of your labor will come to fruition on the IDES of October(assumption here is that you did work).

Take Care and Good Luck.

P.S. Do yourself a favor and go out and remove the memory of the MCAT from your mind. It is not worth your time.

P.P.S. If you haven't watched MEMENTO yet, watch it. This is one of the best movies I have ever seen in my life.

Questions on anything? Email me. I enjoy helping other students.

Really? Is it true about the experimental passages? How come I've never heard about it???

 

[Mr. Z]

Any of you guys get the bio question where you are supposed to figure out the number of possible combinations you can make for a tetrapeptide, choosing from four different amino acids, but not using any one more than once?

I definitely punted on that one...

 

[CoffeeCat]

Originally posted by Mr. Z
Any of you guys get the bio question where you are supposed to figure out the number of possible combinations you can make for a tetrapeptide, choosing from four different amino acids, but not using any one more than once?

I definitely punted on that one...

Okay, was that question phrased strangely? I remember having to read it over a number of times before I even understood what it was asking!! I think I raced through it once I figured it out because I had wasted so much time on understanding what they were asking. Ahhh well.

 

[Lactic Folly]

I remember that question on my form CS exam. I went 4*3*2*1 = 24. It was the highest number available in the answers, so that's what I went with.

 

[CoffeeCat]

Originally posted by Lactic Folly
I remember that question on my form CS exam. I went 4*3*2*1 = 24. It was the highest number available in the answers, so that's what I went with.

I think I did also...although there was 12. I narrowed it down to those two definitely.

 

[NE_Cornhusker1]

Form: AG in Nebraska, on Sunday. Yeah, Sunday.

I graduated on Saturday so I took the Sunday test. There were three of us taking the test so we were done at 4:00 pm. Peace.

 

[Mr. Z]

I answered 24, but it was a flat out guess. I couldn't really understand what they were talking about. What the f@#$ is a tetrapeptide? I thought a peptide was a linear strand of amino acids, so therefore a tetrapeptide must be 4 strands of amino acids.

I finally tried to solve the problem going with a tetrapeptide as a single peptide with only four amino acids. Still couldn't figure it out.

 

[Samoa]

Form AM. I've already blocked out most of it, but here goes:

Verbal was about what I expected. The most difficult passage was the second or third one--the one about friends in the audience. There was another with some questions I couldn't figure out, but I can't remember what it was about.

PS--the nightmare happened! The middle two pages of my booklet stuck together, and I didn't figure it out until two passages later. So I had to go back and move all my answers down about 5 questions. I was already feeling pressured for time, and that nearly made me lose focus entirely. It seemed really hard--all questions on the same kind of topics, X-rays, silicon chips, etc. Mostly electricity, magnetism, & electrochemistry. Almost no Newtonian physics--it was very lopsided. There were a lot of questions that required calculations, but you could do a ballpark estimate if you knew the equation to use. I'm not holding my breath for a good score. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Bio--not too bad, although I bet it would have been difficult had I not just taken classes in immunology and biotechnology. I had the lac operon question, the EKG/blood pressure chart, a passage on Paget's disease, something about viruses that kill their hosts, chirality of naproxen, the proton & carbon NMR passage, some stuff about triglycerides and fatty acids, and some other organic passages I can't remember. Overall, a pretty comprehensive test.

I finished all the sections with time to spare (only a second or two in PS), so we'll see.

 

[Mimicat]

Samoa,

That S#&*s that your pages stuck together!!! If it was just humidity there's probably nothing you can do, but if it was a defect in the booklet, you should complain about it. It definitely would put you at a disadvantage time-wise, not to mention nerves .

BTW, I had form AT and had most of the same passages you mentioned. So it looks like there is lots of overlap. But all the forms starting with A may not be "identical" as someone mentioned earlier in the thread. At least one of the passages you mentioned doesn't sound familiar to me, then again I may have just blocked it out of my memory.

 

[Papi]

Originally posted by Samoa
Bio--not too bad, although I bet it would have been difficult had I not just taken classes in immunology and biotechnology. I had the lac operon question, the EKG/blood pressure chart, a passage on Paget's disease, something about viruses that kill their hosts, chirality of naproxen, the proton & carbon NMR passage, some stuff about triglycerides and fatty acids, and some other organic passages I can't remember. Overall, a pretty comprehensive test.

I finished all the sections with time to spare (only a second or two in PS), so we'll see.

Samoa,

Your passage on "triglycerides and fatty acids." Did it talk about some enzyme that digests the fat into smaller fatty acids and there were some questions about which one was more soluble etc?

I'm curious because I had form EK and had that same passage. If you did have the same thing..maybe this passage is the one was the experimental passage.

 

[Lactic Folly]

Originally posted by Mr. Z
I finally tried to solve the problem going with a tetrapeptide as a single peptide with only four amino acids. Still couldn't figure it out.

I think 24 is right.. grabbing my scientific calculator , 4P4 (permutations) is 24.

 

[conure]

Form AG Boston-

I had the same bio as Samoa had, including the passage on the LAC Operon. I was cool with the LAC but I thought it was a little tough for the MCAT. I saw nothing like this in any practice item. Thank god my Intro Bio went over this and the TRP operon in detail.

Verbal I thought was killer tough to decide between two answers.

Phys Sci was fair, you could use a lot of conceptual processes as opposed to quantitative on many of the answers which is what I like.

 

[phatty925]

i put down 24 for that question too and i'm pretty sure it's right...i came down to the two highest numbers, but it was bugging me, so i actually drew out some of the combinations and 24 made the most sense. hopefully that was the right answer!

 

[Sammarai]

I had form AN

Verbal: It was iffy. I had some very difficult passages and some not so difficult passages. Overall, not my best performance on a verbal section.

PS: This section sucked! Every topic seemed to be about physics, my least favorite subject, and all the topics that I felt were my weak areas. I had 2 back to back x-ray passages. I am worried about my score in this section

BS: Seemed pretty easy but maybe I am just fooling myself. I figured out half way through the section that I was off by one bubble and I had to go back and fix them all. So I have the additional worry about that hanging over my head. I usually get a 12 on this section which I was hoping would save my PS score but now I am extremely worried about not having checked the bubbles in the end.

I guess I should leave my books out for the april MCAT. I guess it won't be too bad being 30 when I start medical school.

 

[Bevo]

form AG

 

[thirdangel]

I had form BM.

 

[3-D]

I had form DG.

Verbal was ok- I felt prepared.

PS section was great- it was a lot easier than Kaplan.

BS section- SUCKED!!!! what the heck! It was all genetics, and I did not concentrate that much on genetics. I was expecting more physiology. The only passage remotely related to physiology was a passage about the nervous system (pre and post synapse).

 

[torkd]

DH
i took it at the univ of s florida and my proctors were pretty decent
i didnt really have any complaints really

it was pretty difficult overall
i dont remember lots of it
lets hope i dont have to take it again

 

[dkrissin]

Originally posted by Mr. Z
Any of you guys get the bio question where you are supposed to figure out the number of possible combinations you can make for a tetrapeptide, choosing from four different amino acids, but not using any one more than once?

I definitely punted on that one...

could the answer be 16?

I think the answer lies in how many chiral centers are present. of the 20 most-common amino acids, only glycine(and maybe proline) is considered achiral. take 2^n (n=number of chiral centers) to find how many stereoisomers exist. I really don't know if this is the correct solution, but it's my best attempt.

 

[SouthernGirl]

Originally posted by dkrissin


could the answer be 16?

Actually, the question, as I understood it, referred to the number of possible ways that four amino acids could be lined up in a row, without repeating any. I ended up with 24; the only other choice I remember was 12 (16 was NOT a choice). Here's my logic in a nutshell, calling the four different AA'a A, B, C, and D. With A as the first letter, we have 6 possibilities: ABCD, ABDC, ACBD, ACDB, ADCB, ADBC. Since there are 4 possible letters that can be first, and equal combinations with each letter first, then the total # of combos is 6 X 4 = 24. It's hard to explain this, but can you read through the lines and get at what I'm uneloquently trying to say? Can anyone find error with this logic?
OK, I need to stop obsessing about this test that is IN THE PAST!!!

 

[Focus]

Hi,

The answer is indeed 24 possible combinations. In order to reach this number, take 4!

4x3x2x1 = 24.

- Focus

 

[jmanwaring]

BK
Took it at BYU in Provo, UT.
Physical Sciences: felt good.
Verbal: who knows.
Bio: who cares.

 

[woolie]

I don't mean to sound like a dummie, but were the letters in the upper right hand corner the test id? Mine was BN, in NYC.

Also, my test had a combination of several of the topics you'all have described: the lac operon, x-rays and the talking in front of your friends. I'm glad to know I wasn't alone in my reaction!

I thought the test was WAY harder than my TPR practice tests. I was really shocked and tried hard to just finish it and in PS I had the 10 question x-ray/radiation section which was so ridiculously difficult I just had to guess basically. I also agree about how there were ALOT of passages that had you flipping back and forth like crazy. By the time I got to Bio and the question: which structure is a triglyceride I felt so brain dead I couldn't figure it out and had to really struggle. How crazy is that. I was really @#$ mad and hope I didn't just completely bomb it.

I probably wrote too much for the essays and I think I answered them correctly, but who the hell knows really.