What was the hardest test you ever taken?

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Techmed07

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What was it like?
How did you prepare for it?
How did you do?

......if the MCAT was the hardest test you taken, pick the 2nd most difficult one.
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probably one of my biochem 2 tests, definitely harder than my mcat imo
 
LOL. Mcat is by far the hardest. It's the only test where you have to be tested on english, physics, chemistry, organic chem, and biology in a matter of 8 hours (now 5 i guess?). I would much rather take a test that covers only one subject. :p
 
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Other than the MCAT, it was my Dynamic Systems course final exam...wooooww. This stuff was all Laplace and Fourier transforms coupled to some ridiculous diffeq problems. The average was somewhere between 40-50.
 
Well, my score on the MCAT would not indicate this, but the MCAT was actually the 2dn/3rd hardest test. Organic lab at my school is traditionally one of the hardest classes you can take, in large part because the final is absolutely ridiculous.
 
Well, currently USMLE Step 1 :).

But other that, the hardest test I took was a P-Chem Final.
 
This horrible physics midterm. I withdrew minutes after I threw it on my prof's table, distraught. And I had studied a LOT.
 
Hmm... that's a tough one. I would say the fundamentals of engineering exam, because it was long and grueling like the MCAT but with much more difficult questions... but you only have to pass (scores don't matter at all) so that takes it out of the running.

Past that, there were a lot of exams in heat transfer, elasticity theory, fracture mechanics etc. that were conceptually more difficult and had much lower averages than any MCAT. But those were more limited in scope and thus didn't require nearly the number of hours of preparation (your preparation just didn't do squat to help you pass).

So I guess it depends on how you define "difficult." A lot of time preparing but easy to do well? Or one that you can't prepare for more than a couple of days, but then will probably utterly fail anyway?

Post graduate, I'd say our year one cumulative final of med school. Not engineering style difficulty per question, but much more so than the MCAT, and a whole lot more material covered as well.
 
A drug test :laugh:.













j/k
 
Man...other than the MCAT...hmm...

I think, at this point, my Organic II final. I choose this test because A) The professor was awful and B) He constructed the test mainly of obscure Orgo I topics (geometry stuff) and synthesis reactions. I still destroyed it, because I love Organic like a hooker, but it was not a good time.

Tomorrow I have my first Neurobio exam, which may win (we'll see). Next week is my first Biochem exam, which I know will win.
 
Techmed07 said:
What was it like?
How did you prepare for it?
How did you do?

......if the MCAT was the hardest test you taken, pick the 2nd most difficult one.
Click to expand...

physics 2. did practice problems but they were useless since i always scored in the 60s.
 
My biochem II final. I got a 48% and was well above the average.
 
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I've taken MCAT, USMLE Steps 1 and 2, the NBME Surgery Shelf, and all sorts of beastly gross anatomy tests, but by far the hardest test was the Chemistry 32 final at Stanford, which I took 7 years ago and still frightens me. I wonder if this class still exists.

Perhaps someone else here is familiar with this beast. It's the only test I've ever run out of time on - I left at least 1/4 blank. It was an inch thick. I scored about 30% and that was good enough for an A.

The material was kind of like:

(Hydromagnetic Magnetoidal Dimensions.) For ten points: When traveling at a subsonic speed during the last one hour of hypersleep, which vector of the Romulan nebula will suffer the wrath of the impenetrable quickening? And for extra points, how many wraths till the nearest molton? Be specific, this is a real question.
Click to expand...

(I'm sure someone here knows the answer)
 
lord_jeebus said:
I've taken MCAT, USMLE Steps 1 and 2, the NBME Surgery Shelf, and all sorts of beastly gross anatomy tests, but by far the hardest test was the Chemistry 32 final at Stanford, which I took 7 years ago and still frightens me. I wonder if this class still exists.

Perhaps someone else here is familiar with this beast. It's the only test I've ever run out of time on - I left at least 1/4 blank. It was an inch thick. I scored about 30% and that was good enough for an A.

The material was kind of like:



(I'm sure someone here knows the answer)
Click to expand...

Wow...just...wow.
 
Midterm exam for my quantitative physiology class. An A was something like a 40% or so.
 
I did have one test in an energy systems design course that was particularly interesting... but I don't know if it fit the definition of "hard" or not.

It was one question, which was (paraphrasing):

"You are responsible for designing the fuel distribution system of a passenger jet airliner. What size fuel pump(s) are required? Show your work."

No kidding. There were no other details.
 
osli said:
I did have one test in an energy systems design course that was particularly interesting... but I don't know if it fit the definition of "hard" or not.

It was one question, which was (paraphrasing):

"You are responsible for designing the fuel distribution system of a passenger jet airliner. What size fuel pump(s) are required? Show your work."

No kidding. There were no other details.
Click to expand...

Answer: Big enough to do the job, small enough to not be wasteful.

*wipes hands*
 
Organic chem 2 final. I took it at a different school than where I had organic 1, and since they use different books, I ended up teaching myself a lot things. The prof makes notoriously hard exams..his expected avg. was a 58%. Let's just say I was well above the real avg and did not even do well at all. It covered ochem 1 & 2 and was in a 6-wk summer course. Studied forever and rewrote mechanisms til my wipe-off board marker ran out. And I guess I should mention that organic chem is my absolute least favorite course ever & I hate it with a deep passion:mad: I never want to hear the words again after my MCATs...
 
(Hydromagnetic Magnetoidal Dimensions.) For ten points: When traveling at a subsonic speed during the last one hour of hypersleep, which vector of the Romulan nebula will suffer the wrath of the impenetrable quickening? And for extra points, how many wraths till the nearest molton? Be specific, this is a real question.
Click to expand...

ATHF...nice.
 
My physics II final. I was doing alright in the class until that test. The prof. said the final was going to separate the men from the boys. It did, and turns out I'm just a boy.
 
The NY Bar Exam. I want to say the MCAT was harder, but it may just be because it's much more recent in my mind and I was more nervous about it. Third place would be the IL Bar Exam. Nah, I take that back, my orgo II final was harder than that!
 
By far, the hardest tests I have taken were my general chemistry professor's tests. There are no tests that can even compare to his test. His tests are SO grueling and SO gosh darn difficult that you need to start studying for his tests 2 weeks in advance!

The highest grade I ever got on a test was an 89. I studied for his tests by doing all practice materials he provided for us. At first, I did not know how to do the problems because I did not know the concepts behind the questions. So I reviewed his concepts and realized that I actually knew it. I then realized that I had to learn how he did the problems, as in what assumptions does he make when doing a problem--that kind of thing. I'd make a small attempt at it and get it wrong but then I'd just continue doing it and eventually (I have no idea how this happened at all--it's like a miracle) I started getting questions right. I really can't explain how that worked. But I think working through problems, especially science tests, is important.

For other genre tests (english, social science) I think it depends on what kind of test you get but yeah.
 
The worst tests I took were spelling tests in first grade, i hardly passed any of them. (and i wondered why I was in remedial reading in second grade).:D
 
Cataract said:
Other than the MCAT, it was my Dynamic Systems course final exam...wooooww. This stuff was all Laplace and Fourier transforms coupled to some ridiculous diffeq problems. The average was somewhere between 40-50.
Click to expand...


The whole point (well maybe not whole, but a big one) of laplace and fourier transforms is to make those ridiculous diff eq problems solvable...
 
lord_jeebus said:
I've taken MCAT, USMLE Steps 1 and 2, the NBME Surgery Shelf, and all sorts of beastly gross anatomy tests, but by far the hardest test was the Chemistry 32 final at Stanford, which I took 7 years ago and still frightens me. I wonder if this class still exists.

Perhaps someone else here is familiar with this beast. It's the only test I've ever run out of time on - I left at least 1/4 blank. It was an inch thick. I scored about 30% and that was good enough for an A.

The material was kind of like:

(Hydromagnetic Magnetoidal Dimensions.) For ten points: When traveling at a subsonic speed during the last one hour of hypersleep, which vector of the Romulan nebula will suffer the wrath of the impenetrable quickening? And for extra points, how many wraths till the nearest molton? Be specific, this is a real question.
Click to expand...

(I'm sure someone here knows the answer)
Click to expand...

Backstreet Boys?
 
Any Organic 1 or 2 exam. Take your pick. I did well in the courses but the questions on the exams required above and beyond. You had to pull reactions and regeants out of nowhere ( ie. page 231 sentence 35 mentioned that you could find this reaction in another copy of another book's 3rd edition)to do reasonably well. Not only that but throw in a professor who enjoys trick questions and schedule the class for 9 am on a monday and you get excitement. Add the 50 min exam time constraint (40 if you count the time it took to pass the exams out) and it is the perfect recipe to get abysmal averages and an outstanding drop rate.
 
Hardest exam would be Genetics lab. The professor was foreign, and the test was fillin the blanks...

There was no subject/verb agreements, and lots of missing prepositions all over the place, so it was virtually impossible to know what went into the blanks!! - i even tried breaking down the sentences, but would eventually get lost as to what it was asking. When asked the TA during the exam, he'd say: "L:KDJF:LKSJDFLKJkjhfsdhjkflsiudhf."

blink. blink. blink. grade = C-
 
Midterm and final for a graduate level NMR class. Each one lasted 12 hours....both held on a Saturday :(
 
lord_jeebus said:
I've taken MCAT, USMLE Steps 1 and 2, the NBME Surgery Shelf, and all sorts of beastly gross anatomy tests, but by far the hardest test was the Chemistry 32 final at Stanford, which I took 7 years ago and still frightens me. I wonder if this class still exists.

Perhaps someone else here is familiar with this beast. It's the only test I've ever run out of time on - I left at least 1/4 blank. It was an inch thick. I scored about 30% and that was good enough for an A.

The material was kind of like:



(I'm sure someone here knows the answer)
Click to expand...

classic
 
Inuranic said:
Answer: Big enough to do the job, small enough to not be wasteful.

*wipes hands*
Click to expand...
lol, I really wanted to answer in just that manner. :laugh:

But those three words just ruined the party... "show your work." Turns out that not only were the actual calculations graded, but so were the assumptions (my work was otherwise impeccable, but apparently I'm not destined to be an airliner designer).

I had implemented a (so I thought) really cool self-balancing multi-supply multi-pump multi-route system for distribution with failsafe valving and built in redundancy. I guess they "just don't do it that way." I did pretty well though, all things considered.
 
Ahh... just had a flashback to my first general chemistry exam. I did a dual enrollment for that course my senior year of HS. The professor was a Dr. Gillam... affectionately known as "kill'em gillam."

I would love to take another look at that exam now to see in retrospect if it really was that difficult, or if I was just ignorant and immature. It was the first exam of the course, and the ones to follow were not even in the same universe as far as difficulty. I had heard that he liked to prove quickly that "real" chemistry was much harder than most people assumed.

He allowed unlimited time to take the exam. There were two sessions, Friday from noon-until and Saturday from noon-until. You could attend both if you wished, resuming your exam as if you had stepped out to take a piss. We weren't allowed to use text books (of any sort) but we could bring one sheet of paper, of any size, typed or whatever, with as much information as we felt would be useful. No single person in the class "passed." I remember vaguely some crazy questions about quantum mechanics that I thought he had rambled about in class. Needless to say, what I had on my sheet was mostly useless for his exam.

I guess that was the point, though. Seems a silly point to make. I could make a general algebra exam so difficult that most college students failed too.
 
Either a test from "probability & random processes" or "electromagnetic engineering"..a couple of those tests really sucked!..in engineering, after a while you realize you can't necessarily expect anything out of studying...the tests are created to make you think rather than regurgitate...most of the time its a crapshoot and you're relying on the curve (or no curve when the teacher just wants to be brutal) and just hoping you took the right approach :eek:..however, the plus side is that there's not a lot of reading.. anyone else in engineering feel that way?
 
radi0headfan said:
in engineering, after a while you realize you can't necessarily expect anything out of studying...the tests are created to make you think rather than regurgitate...most of the time its a crapshoot and you're relying on the curve (or no curve when the teacher just wants to be brutal) and just hoping you took the right approach :eek:..however, the plus side is that there's not a lot of reading.. anyone else in engineering feel that way?
Click to expand...
That was pretty much my impression. It takes very little studying to learn the few equations and big concepts involved. The key is whether you really understand them, because when it comes exam time the questions usually seem impossibly contrived and intractable.
 
Back in High School i was dating a girl, and we were in a serious relationship. I'de say our relationship was good until we both went to a party a mutual friend was having. We spent most of the time there together, dancing, chatting, and well drinking of course. Later on that night, i was chatting with some of my close male friends on a couch when a girl came up to me. I'de seen her before from school but had no idea who she was. She was extra nice to me and we innocently danced. After this, things happened and we went up to a room where we were alone. I don't know what i was thinking but we started to make out..after only a short time we stopped and she basically left without a word, i didn't think much of it.

The next day my GF called me and dumped me..apparently she said i failed her Test:(
 
Magisto said:
Back in High School i was dating a girl, and we were in a serious relationship. I'de say our relationship was good until we both went to a party a mutual friend was having. We spent most of the time there together, dancing, chatting, and well drinking of course. Later on that night, i was chatting with some of my close male friends on a couch when a girl came up to me. I'de seen her before from school but had no idea who she was. She was extra nice to me and we innocently danced. After this, things happened and we went up to a room where we were alone. I don't know what i was thinking but we started to make out..after only a short time we stopped and she basically left without a word, i didn't think much of it.

The next day my GF called me and dumped me..apparently she said i failed her Test:(
Click to expand...

LOLLLLLLLLLLLL (sorry, couldn't help myself!)

and as for my hardest test, i'd have to say that not counting the mcat, pretty much every chem 2 exam (of which there were 3) plus the final...still can't figure out how i passed that class!
 
Hmmm... GRE was cake compared to MCAT, but our A&P tests were insane. I routinely made 80% and the highest in the class - with the avg around 50%. The good thing for me (bad thing in general) was that the class was scored with an A equal to 90% of the highest avg in the class, which means one other gunner and myself were the only one to get out alive with A's.. there was one B.. and everyone else was lucky for a C or D.
 
Second semester organic chem. Third exam. That was just brutal. I think I got a 42%.


Followed by M1 neuroscience, block 1. Ouch.
 
statistics. god, i hated trying to learn incomprehensible double integrals from my teacher with the thickest french accent.
 
The MCAT was the worst test I'd ever taken by far. College-wise it is a toss up. I loved Organic and the prof was an excellent teacher. He also was a master at creating miserable exams. I ended up with a C+ in Orgo II from spring semester. Way back in 1988 when I went to college for the first time, the Anatomy and Physiology class had horrible exams. All multiple choice followed by 4 or 5 choices. The kicker was any number (or none) of the answers could be picked so you really had to know your stuff. Mercifully, he curved and I got an A both semesters.
 
sportstownusa said:
my first p-chem exam, hands down.
Click to expand...

That was me at 4pm today!

I was good at Calc (took thru IV), good at gen chem, and decent at physics. I even got a 12 on PS, but still that test and its 2 problems took 2 hours. Not my cup of tea. I understood organic pretty well and never had trouble...

Boo pchem! why am I double majoring???
 
Biological Physics!
I have made it through hundreds of exams without anything more than a smidgen of nerves but for this test, my hands couldn't stop shaking. I could hear the ticking of the clock in the back and the hands never moved from 5 after 1 (straight out of a horror movie). After battling for 2 hours, it was time to turn in the exam and my feet refused to move. It was that kind of day!
 
Every question on every Genetics exam from that class. Honest to God I got the 4th exam, looked at the first page, turned it in blank and then promptly dropped the course.

I should not have been surprised because when I asked my prof what we should expect from our 1st exam he simply said "terror".
 
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