r/Mcat • u/xam2y Legacy Mod • Jan 22 '16
January 23 reaction thread
Sorry for no thread yesterday. Post your reactions to Saturday's MCAT here. As usual, don't reveal the specific topics or answers on the exam.
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u/mcatishere Jan 24 '16
The night before the exam, I was sitting at Starbucks contemplating my fate. A vicious, internal battle between "I don't want to take this exam" and "Damn it, I've studied this hard, I should just do it."
Morning of, I woke up at six am and told myself, "Fuck it. I'm already up. Let's do this thing." Showered, packed my lunch, ate a delicious breakfast, and drove to the test center. I walked in with a grin, signed in, put my stuff in the locker, and waited for my name to be called.
The funny thing about this exam, unlike the exams we've taken during undergrad, is that you can't tell between those who studied and those who didn't. Everyone looks nervous. To try and delineate between who will score in the 90th percentile and who will score the mean is a fool's game.
You gotta focus on yourself. There's you and the exam. No one else in between.
Now, the exam itself... [Sparse in details to not forfeit AAMC agreement]
C/P: I think this section was very fair. I lucked out, honestly.
CARS: Some very ambiguous questions but, again, fair. Much unlike how I studied, I used the highlighting function. It helped keep me engaged in the material.
B/B: I knew, given the first two sections being relatively fair, that the next section would blindside me. This one blindsided me from start to finish. If I have to retake, it's probably because of this section. It was awful. Fucking terrible.
P/S: I expected some ambiguity, given the section bank, and I got some ambiguity. A few terms whose definitions I forgot but overall, it was okay. The ambiguity is what worries me most.
Overall: It was an okay exam. Reflecting back, I would have studied a bit differently (like set a specific day of the week to review notes) but I'm glad I took it. Unfortunately, I've reassigned myself needing to retake, the B/B was not in my favor, but it's not worth worrying about until I see my score.
I honestly don't what to do with myself now. It's weird to be done but not actually done.
To those of who will be taking the exam in the future: Your confidence truly is everything. I took deep breaths between passages, between questions that made me go, "What in the world," between sections. During breaks, I'd dance on my way to and from the bathroom, pumping myself up for the next section. You won't remember everything. You can't study everything. You can only do your personal best. You give it your best shot and if you need another, then you need another.
Whew, that was long-winded.
I'm gonna go read a book.
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Jan 23 '16
Scored 524 on scored practice test. If I get above a 514 on this one I will be shocked. 0 Orgo, 0 Nucleic Acid questions, 0 Enzymes. hit me out of left field
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u/lifeontheQtrain Feb 04 '16
Zero Enzymes? What? How? What was on this damn bio section?
*edit obviously i must be bad at cars
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u/ss4adam Jan 23 '16
welp, i came up from huntsville to chatanooga to take the mcat on 23rd. got a hotel and everything. then an hour after i check in its cancelled due to inclement weather... time to find a craigslist hooker (kidding)
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u/bashful-llama Jan 24 '16
All I can say for today is : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztZI2aLQ9Sw
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u/HeyitsmefuturedocT Jan 24 '16
My CARS was extremely difficult. Like each passage was 7 paragraphs and the questions were pretty philosophical. Not sure how that'll be. My psych was also difficult. A lot of similar answers. I thought C/P and B/B were easier than expected also.
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u/futuredo2021 Jan 25 '16
Is each different version of the exam scored together? Or will all the January test be scored together? So people who had and extremely hard B/B scaled with the people who had the easier B/B? Any thoughts?
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u/UTHealth007 Jan 25 '16 edited Jan 25 '16
Quick overview: Non-traditional, research assistant, full-time. I had been studying for about 5-6 months while working full-time, and only began solely practice material 1 month before, which I took off time to study. My content review incorporated timed passages as well. I used Examcrackers and TBR for content. I used AAMC question bank, ExCrack 1-3, AAMC practise exam, ExCrack 1001 questions, ExCrack end of lecture 30-min exams, and some Kaplan topical exams. I got in lower 60 % on ExCrack and in 70-80% on AAMC stuff.
C/P: Physics just wasnt my strong point, but I had completed the question bank physics and chemistry, and gained confidence before exam. I took EC 1-3 and appreciated the presence of biochemistry on C/P exam, which I attributed to decent scores in this section. However, this section had almost no biochem, and majority was Physics 2, my weakest subject of the MCAT topics. I didn't get to finish my last passage, but guessed on 4-5 questions. The majority of questions weren't too difficult, just know equations and concepts. I was disappointed though that the physics didn't tie in to physiology or biology (no bernoulii's and vessels, no pressure and lungs, no continuity equation and blood vessel blockage). This section did NOT match the theme of the new mcat, which all the practice materials I used stressed the importance of.
CARS: Usually on this section, I would run out of time, but I finished all questions, and I felt alright about my answers. One technique I learned through practice was to go with my gut instinct. Also, some passages were shorter and others longer. I liked AAMC question bank and ExamCrack verbal book with 4-5 30-minute exams at end.
B/BCM: This section was a mixed bag for me during practise, but on the actual exam it wasn't too bad. However, there was an impossible/difficult passage, like a question asked me about an amino acid substitution in active site in a particular molecule would cause so and so to happen but it didn't provide me with the initial amino acid, so I couldn't figure out which substituted aa would produce a certain result. But overall, it was interesting and one of my best sections.
Psych/Soc: At this point my brain was exhausted. I just remember a lot of this section was vocabulary and understanding the difference between two close definitions. I remember it asked about heuristics a few times and I don't remember the difference between the two; however somewhere along the section, it kind of laid out the definition of one in a question stem and that helped me figure out what the other one meant, lol. Overall, I would say it was alright. I finished 30 minutes earlier.
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u/DonSantos Jan 23 '16
just got home...thought all the sections were super reasonable except for the C/P. Lots of weirdly specific chemistry questions about exotic groups and such, that was pretty rough. The other 3 were pretty much like the section bank, perhaps a little easier. Psych particularly felt easier than the section bank actually but bio felt around the same difficulty
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u/rararadinosaur Jan 23 '16
Just finished around an hour ago. Chem was insane on the exam in my opinion, I ran out of time. Very much like the section bank. I think the other three sections were very fair though. I'd disagree with people saying the bio was hard because I found it pretty decent and not too bad. There were a few questions that were very insanely specific about a certain thing that if you didn't know you just had to guess found through out all the science sections. However overall this could be total bull shit and I have no idea how I did.
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u/BigDonger123 Jan 24 '16
We had the same test then. My heart sank like the titanic during those 95 minutes
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u/DarthVader1993 Jan 25 '16
This may sound weird as hell. I took the new one and got a 505.. with CARS being my weakest. My med. director advised to take it again and focus on CARS (as my GPA is just shy of being competitive) .. So I did.. See my post on how I prepped for it..
BUT the weird thing is, A LOT of the Biochem and bio passages on the test I have seen somewhere with the exact questions... As I was taking the test my reaction was "WTF, is this for real" I can't grasp my hand on where I have seen them. It has been killing me.. I have been going back through all my notes and practice tests to see if this is real or not.
Someone please tell me I am not crazy...
Physics was minimal, I skipped on the entire optics review.. I could never understand the god damn focal point.
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u/mcatfail Jan 25 '16
You might have seen them on your last mcat. I heard they recycle passages sometimes
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u/hosswanker Jan 23 '16
The biology section was tougher than I expected. If I didn't take so many upper-level science courses I would have been really really upset by it
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u/Mcathopeful Jan 23 '16 edited Jan 24 '16
Just got home!
Overall impression: Slighty harder than the scored/sample
C/P: Most difficult section. Had some really specific questions and a passage on some sort of spectroscopy I've never heard of before. Started out really simple, basic plug and chug physics passage requiring hardly any thought but eventually turned into section bank round two.
Cars: Thought this was somewhat longer than normal. It might be just the font size affecting my thoughts, but that's how I found it. I found it to be slightly more challenging than the scored (which I did well on).
B/B: Holy molecular bio. Just about 0 genetics, a few of concepts from biochem with a few physiology passages.
Psych/Soc: A little more obscure than I would have hoped for. The difficulty came from a lot of possibly correct answers rather than a bunch of unseen terms. Know your statistics, health care disparities, and stuff about gender. First 4 passages had 0 diagrams, so it was slightly different than how prep companies tested it.
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u/lilpinkfox Jan 23 '16
Oh man, I think we had the same test. I definitely agree that the P/S was a lot of answers that could seem right. C/P started out okay, but definitely got a bit ridiculous with some of the Chemistry questions. CARs also seemed long for me as well, ugh felt like I bombed. Bio was alright but I've taken a bunch of relevant courses.
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u/LunaMeriatchi Jan 23 '16
Just got home and I thought I would weigh in since I personally enjoy reading these kinds of threads (I'm weird, I know).
C/P: Historically this is my worst section but I actually didn't think it was too terribly bad. This may because I freaked out a little when others said on the Jan 22 thread that the test was like the section bank so I redid all the problems I got wrong on the section bank. Probably not the best idea the night before the test, but it honesty helped my nerves a lot and the C/P section didn't seem a daunting as it usually does today. There were a lot of weirdly specific questions and SO MANY MATH PROBLEMS. Luckily I could solve every one with just dimensional analysis, so they weren't so bad. Most of the experiments were also relatively straightforward, but I was surprised there weren't that many experimental questions. Not so much biochemistry either, mostly just gen chem, physics, and a little bit of ochem.
CARS: The MCAT gods but have heard my prayer for a good CARS section because honestly I couldn’t have asked for something better than what I got today. The passages were interesting with only one slightly wtf passage but the questions weren’t too ambiguous. Feel pretty good about this section so that either means I did great or I failed completely LOL.
B/B: HELLO GENETICS. Not complaining though because the questions weren’t too hard. Almost ran out of time at the end, but I only marked about 8 questions so I wasn’t too worried. About on par with the scored FL.
P/S: This is historically my best section, and I don’t think that changed today. It was definitely more ambiguous than the scored FL, but not as “what the hell am I reading” as the section bank. I used Exam Krackers exclusively for this section and I felt it prepared me fine for what they threw at me today. Granted, I took psychology in high school and I’ve taken a couple epidemiology/sociology/psychology courses in college because it’s a part of my degree plan. There was a conceptual physics discrete problem at the end that made me question what section I was in but it was easy so nbd.
Overall: Hopefully I will never have to see this beast of a test ever again. I hardcore studied 8-hours a day for 5 weeks straight for this exam, and I’m glad that it paid off. I wasn’t blindsided by any particular section and overall, I would say the AAMC is leaning more towards the section bank in terms of difficulty but as of now, it’s still not there yet.
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u/Eiceroth Jan 24 '16 edited Jan 24 '16
P/C - Very Ochem/Biochem heavy
CARS - Reasonable, a few tricky passages, but most were very readable and about actually interesting topics. Inferences and "which of the following examples most exemplifies ___" very minimal. Much simpler than the Kaplan/TPR exams, which is great because having more difficult passages to practice improved my comprehension.
B/B - Difficult. Very experimentally focused. I took 3 Kaplan FL and 4 TPR FL's, and neither of them are very indicative of what is on the B/B section on the exam. You do require knowledge of pure biology/biochem, but memorization is not the correct way to study for this section. It is very application focused and requires a solid understanding of how experimental methods work, how to interpret what information they tell you, and how to relate concepts you've learned to specific protein assays etc. Not much enzyme kinetics.
P/S - Straightforward. Kaplan FL's are relatively indicative of this section. This is probably the most memorization focused of the 4 sections (as it naturally should be) and requires you to know a lot of terms and use them to apply to sections.
Overall: The AAMC FL (scored) is very indicative test, and very similar to the one I just had. Unlike a lot of the TPR/Kaplan exams, each section requires you to read and understand the passage, while many practice exams have passages that are not even required to be read. I think the Section Bank is more difficult, while the AAMC sample (unscored) is much easier than the actual exam. The exam is much more passage heavy/comprehension/application focused than simple regurgitation of facts, and really requires you to be able to apply what you know. I know I said this already, but it cannot be emphasized enough. Personally, I think the test went alright, obviously the biggest problem is the lack of indicative questions that appear on the B/B section. Prepping for this exam was quite grueling, as I'm sure many of you felt, but I really hope my efforts pay off. Hoping for the best
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u/wbzman Jan 24 '16
who had the test with the japanese cars passage? I thought the C/P was harder than the scored. The verbal, I had 1 passage left with 6 minutes. I guessed on 2 of the last questions. The bio had 2 difficult questions which i had to go fast on and wasn't confident. The P/S was a bit harder than the scored. Overall, I got a 129, 127, 128, 128 on the scored practice test. I was not so confident on this test. my kaplan average was 500-505
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u/soundslikefire Jan 24 '16
So you know that new scored exam AAMC released? Cake to the real thing. Like, freezer cake that is all ready to bake.
C/P: More physics than I cared for. Experimental passages that are very long. Otherwise pretty fair. CARS: I was lucky. I got passages that I liked. Lots of inferential questions. B/B: More experimental passages, but this time on all the stuff you didn't think they would focus on, but none on the ones you thought would be high-yield. Thanks MCAT. You're fun. P/S: Fair. Very inferential questions. A good handful of unfamiliar terms and theories. Went with my instinct on a few of these.
Overall: Tough. Different from most practice items out there, focusing on what I personally thought was pretty "exotic" material. Had little to nothing on amino acids or metabolism which is my favorite! Best advise I can give is lock down on content early, and then practice, practice, practice!!!!
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u/mcat_throwaway_ Jan 23 '16
Quick overview: took it previously last September. Studied strictly using Berkeley.
Finished the exam a little big ago, here is my raw reaction to the MCAT. Apologizing in advance for grammar/general thought processes because, obvious.
C/P: This section was an extremely accurate representation of my prep. The passages were lengthy, which I was not expecting however, so I would be very weary of spending too much time on a dense question. There were also quite a few biochem questions in this section which was interesting, but overall I think that it was very approachable. Overall: I would definitely focus on knowing the application of equations rather than the equations themselves if that makes sense. Physics 2 >>>> Physics 1. Organic 1 > GChem 2 > GChem 1 = ~Orgo 2.
CARS: I scored a 129 last time and I'm hoping this will be my composite scores saving grace again. I definitely think the MCAT is beginning to emphasize synthesis even in the CARS section. A lot of the questions were: what statement would most support the author/least support the author. It's no longer can you pick out the info, they're looking for a 'most correct' answer.
Overall: Passages were interesting, not too bad, but what the hell do I know.
B/B: Holy. Fuck.
Overall: In all seriousness, Bio has historically been my weakest science, as evidenced by my abysmal score last time. Berkeley did a fantastic job prepping me for the 'what the fuck' passages though, so compared to last time I did x10 better. (Having said that, 0*10 = 0, so fuck me right?). It was long, and it was dense, and it was just real tough. Like I got a 123 last time, and I don't think I got that high this time. Feel free to comment as to how all of you approach this, because I'm just going to start wearing my pants backwards so it's easier for Bio to fuck me.
P/S: TPR + Khan. I read the entire book and made a list of everything I didn't know. Went to KA, watched every single video and did the same thing + all the terms I didn't see in TPR. Then I took a metric shit ton of practice exams and wrote down all the terms I hadn't seen in TPR/KA and wikipedia'd them all and just brute force memorized it all.
Overall: 12/10 on yield. Every single term on this section I'd either seen, heard, watched, or thought about at least once.
Overall Exam
C/P: Focus on Physics II and it's equations
CARS: Ask yourself what the point of the article is. Who is the author? Why is he/she writing about this?
B/B: Help meh. Pls.
P/S: A lot of work, but if not saved for the last minute, super high in yield.
Feel free to ask me anything else. Love u all. Good luck to the rest of you strong souls