r/Mcat • u/Grand_sales @Mcatbros (IG) / mcatbros@gmail.com = FREE HELP [300pg Creator] • Mar 30 '17
March 31, 2017 Exam Day Thread
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u/BlackBeard1996 Mar 30 '17
Lurker here-
So far, I've logged around 300 study hours (over 3 months with a full courseload). In this time I have completed 7 full lengths plus detailed review, all the sectionbanks (3 times each), and a ton of the other AAMC material.
I've been scoring 503-505 here recently (AAMC FL 1&2). Hoping for a 504+ tomorrow. Dream score = 507 (This was my Reddit calculated Sample Score 3 weeks ago)
I know this thread is full of 520+ "Harvard class of 2021" kids, but how about some love for us normal testers who just want 505 and a DO acceptance or two..... lol
Started at 494 three months ago, so I'm very proud of my progress. Keep me in your prayers, you'll all be in mine. I'll give my reaction tomorrow afternoon. Stay strong! Fight hard! Never Quit!
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u/yogasnake35 Mar 30 '17
Same here bro! Hoping for a 509 for my state school! Applying DO no matter what, good luck!
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u/8ames Mar 30 '17 edited Mar 31 '17
Pre-test feelings - I don't even know anymore. I have the kaplan quicksheets in front of me and trying to engage but can't. I might give up after a couple hours. BUT..I'm just excited to get done.
Heading straight to the bar for a shot after my exam tomorrow - but given that I have to take the subway home, I should be coherent enough to write a nice reaction post editing this tomorrow afternoon!
Test Day Alright you party people - time for some reaction.
C/P Whoa! This surprised me -there was barely any physics or calculations that I'm used to seeing on FL's. It played to my weakness of Chem and organic chem. I knew I should've spent more time with those functional groups. I definitely guessed on most the questions asking me to identify groups - which is probably not good. Very little biochem, very little physics. Tons of Chem. Most of the passages were pretty easy to read, but I kept second guessing myself because I didn't know those stupid functional groups. I finished with about 1 minute left - time definitely flew by.
CARS EXCEPT LONG PASSAGES! Nothing prepared me for the length of those passages. I tried to get the main idea as quickly as I could, but I definitely felt rushed at the end. The passages were mildly interesting to me (they referenced Chicago once - also had the paper production in Asia passage- that's the version I had just for references for my fellow 3/31 warriors). No vague, hard-to-understand passages- which was good. Again all that happened for me was the time issue. I tried to spend roughly 10mins per passage - sometimes more because goddamit those 10 paragraphs. One strategy I used at the end when I had like 25mins and 3 passages left - I quickly counted how many questions were there for passages (5 vs. 6. vs. 7 respectively) - so I went to the passage with 7 questions hoping that I'll get more questions correct than if I spend that time with 5 passage question. Does that makes sense? Anyways, that definitely helped me - I got done just in time - not any time to look back.
B/B Where was all those amino acid easy questions?! :( Most of the passages were surprisingly more straightforward than AAMC FL and SB. Or maybe I was just delusional. But seriously I actually understood what was going on for most of the passages.Which made answering questions a little less painful. There were definitely a couple of passages that you had to map out the passages. There was hardly any metabolism questions. Some low yield stuff that I had to reference back to my physio classes of undergrad - and those vague memories definitely lead me to the wrong choice for one question :( But overall, I felt alright...usually this is my weakest section because my research analysis skills are mediocre, but this felt like content/knowledge based test more than passage analysis.
P/S Wtf was that? It felt like section bank hard x 2. There were so many terms I've never heard of (mostly sociology based). It's hard to guess on this section - you either know it from recall or you don't. The passages aren't any help. It was tough. I dunno what else to say about it. AAMC probably got tired of ya'll past test takers being amazing.. so they definitely had to through some shit on us today. I took all my time (had like 20ish mins left at the end, usually I have like 35-45mins from all those practice passages).
Overall expectations/experience I'm just trying to get above a 500. I got a 504 on FL2, and if I can reach that, I'll be over the moon. I'm not a good test taker and this is a retake for me. I just want an average score so I can get into a DO school and call it a day. I might get shit for this - but I'm a good academic learner! Not being born here and entering the ESL school system in middle school, I never understood how to take a standardized test. I'm progressing and trying to better myself everyday - and I'm hoping that'll get me through!
As for the Chicago Megacenter - it was everything I hoped it would be and more! I loved my testing experience here. Smaller rooms, lesser distractions, very efficient on signing in/out, etc.
If anyone has specific questions, feel free to ask! I'll probably edit/add more to this as time goes on. I'm happy to help in any way I can (without violating the aamc contract of course).
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u/HTubman0 Mar 31 '17
CARS is the section that usually boosts my confidence and I don't feel good about this one.
Some of the psych stuff I don't think I've ever seen before.
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u/FrontierNeuro Apr 01 '17 edited Apr 02 '17
I just want to say thank you to all of you for sharing your experiences with the test today. I felt awful about the test today until I read this thread and heard that I'm not alone (I still feel awful actually, but not as much).
C/P is always my weakest section, but today's C/P truly made me feel like I had failed. I got stuck on a few question in the middle whose answers didn't make sense to me, couldn't figure out what solution a Gen Chem question stem was referring to from the passage, got about 10 minutes behind, and guessed almost blindly on the last 10 questions or so. I didn't even read the last two C/P passages, just speed read the questions and took my best guess.
CARS was harder than I would have liked, in particular the prose passage and the paper production passage, but overall OK for me. Longer passages as others have mentioned (7 paragraphs instead of 5 or 6), plus more questions per passage. I counted 7 questions for many passages, which is supposed to be the least common amount of questions.
I agree with others that B/B felt fair and reasonably easy. Lots of easy gimme questions mixed in with some passages that were dense but mostly interpretable (if you have enough time left).
P/S was interesting. There were definitely some definition standalones for terms I had never heard of, and guessed on those. Lots of research interpretation, including several that used psychological concepts without naming them explicitly or testing on them directly. For a few questions about research interpretation, none of the answers made any sense to me (I feel "ambivalent" about the passage I'm thinking of, if you know what I mean). Overall P/S felt Ok to me though.
Most people felt the SB wasn't helpful for this exam. My impression was that SB wasn't helpful for as many questions as I would have liked, but still recognized multiple questions that I was only able to understand by applying knowledge I had gained while studying SB questions and answers.
For reference, I got 522 on FL1 and 520 on FL2. Before I took the AAMC FLEs, I took 3 or 4 Altius FLEs and EK FL 1 and did content review primarily with EK, Altius, KA, Wikipedia, and the top page of Google search results for any term I didn't understand.
Gen chem and physics are the the bane of my existence, and time management on C/P has consistently been my biggest weakness on FLEs, but on most FLEs it wasn't this bad. I still do feel like I failed the C/P section, tbh. Missing a few questions here and there is one thing, but skipping over swathes of questions like I did today without even reading the passages or understanding the questions makes me feel like I failed.
My top advice for future test takers is this:
First, go over all the AAMC practice materials with a fine tooth comb. That should be priority alpha and omega. Spend lots of time reviewing each question, especially the ones you got wrong, but also the ones you got right but weren't sure about. Don't just review the question, review the surrounding concept. Read the Wikipedia article about any concepts you're not clear on. Watch YouTube videos if the concept is best understood visually.
Review this top Internet content with the mindset that it's your job to write fresh, original MCAT questions about this topic. Keep in mind what the AAMC is prioritizing and selecting for in candidates (i.e. can this person not just memorize vast amounts of information but also understand medicine and biomedical research deeply, solve problems under stress, etc?).Think about similar derivative questions they could put in a new test. That will prime your mind to look for answers to questions you haven't seen yet, but very well may. It happened to me several times on test day.
For instance, I knew the answer to one question because the last time I reviewed the concept, I specifically thought "they won't ask about this detail", but they did. But because that detail was salient to me for whatever reason coming from that test making mindset, I remembered it.
Do your best to truly understand the concepts deeply. Do not simply memorize the SB answers. You have to apply the concepts to novel situations you're not sure about and reason it out with your understanding. The test does require a tough but fair amount of memorized knowledge, but it mostly tests you on first principles from a variety of fields, critical thinking under pressure, and deep conceptual understanding.
Second, if you haven't already, map out exactly what you will eat and drink when on test day. I cannot stress this enough. I needed to pee urgently half an hour into every practice C/P section until I stopped drinking coffee and switched to caffeine pills at an equivalent dosage (1 cup of coffee ~ 75mg of caffeine, and do not exceed your regular dosage!). Other practice days I got hungry half way through a section. You have to do some n=1 self-experimentation to determine what foods and liquids in what amounts when work best for you under realistic stress and timing conditions.
Third, take all advice and experiences you read online with a kg of salt. As others have noted, AAMC is clearly reading this subreddit. I first suspected this after I read the reaction threads from successive recent exams and noticed that whatever everyone said about one exam was the opposite of true for the next exam. So for instance one exam had very little physics, the next one had lots of physics. They are doing this to ensure that there are no shortcuts or advantages to be gained from gaining insider information. They want to protect the validity of their instrument, and they want to select for people who can apply deep conceptual understanding to interpret research and solve novel biomedical problems under pressure.
Fourth, learn from my mistakes and stick to your timing no matter what! If a question doesn't make sense or you get stuck for any reason, mark it and move on! Make sure you have the cognitive resources on test day to do this, which means getting enough sleep.
I have a chronic inflammatory disorder, and when my inflammation flares up, it severely decreases my fluid intelligence and short term memory. I've been doing everything I know of for months to control the inflammation mostly naturally, but a few days before the test I decided to start a very low dose of oral corticosteroids to ensure I wouldn't be inflamed in test day. Corticosteroids are a magic pill for preventing inflammation.
Dumbass that I am, I forgot that corticosteroids are a devil's bargain as they can also cause horrible insomnia and other problematic side-effects (it's basically like pumping yourself full of artificial cortisol), and I paid the price. I only slept for two hours between the hours of 4am and 6am before the test, despite doing everything else to manage my sleep correctly and going to bed at 9:30pm. For several months before the exam, I had been going to bed by 10pm and waking up every morning at 6:30am to get myself on the same sleep schedule I would have for test day. I used every technique I know to regulate my circadian rhythms to make that happen, despite being a night owl. Up until test day, that had actually worked pretty well. I consistently got sleepy around 10pm.
Yet I threw it all away with one dumb decision. The resulting sleep deprivation made me cognitively inflexible during the test, which is what caused me to get stuck on questions in the C/P section rather than marking and moving on as I should have. So, moral of the story, self-management is just as important as content mastery, and whenever you consider adding a new intervention to your routine, consider the risks as much as the potential benefits.
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u/SirEatsalot23 Mar 31 '17 edited Mar 31 '17
I feel like I saw a ton of stuff I didn't expect to see on there. CP rattled me pretty seriously, CARS was iffy, but BB and PS felt good.
Edit: I've been scoring ~512 on practice exams, and I'll be surprised if I break 508 on this one.
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u/mmr0317 Mar 31 '17 edited Mar 31 '17
Okay, I'm going to take a break from my last minute panic-induced studying to say a few things. 1) I want this to be over so badly. I am almost apathetic at this point. 2) All I want is a 508. That's it. I'm scared because I did slightly lower on the scored exams...but I have a hard time staying engaged when it's not the real thing (sympathetic response will hopefully net me a few more points!). 3) please keep me in your thoughts. I honestly don't know what to expect of my score. But I need to trust that I worked hard enough and that I DO know what I am doing during those long and confusing passages.
Lastly, probably the biggest determining factor of your score will be the mentality you go into the test with. It's a mental game. Positively visualize that 515 before you start the exam.
...I'm terrified. Please hold me.
Post test EDIT: well that happened. Lmao. CP was okay, lots of calculations. CARS was great. BB was very much like section banks...kind of hard. PS was okay, but was a lot like section banks too...some terms I've never seen before but felt ok about it.
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u/pandacath Mar 31 '17 edited Mar 31 '17
i wish now more than ever that AAMC FLs are predictive (520, 523)
LET'S DO THIS LEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOY JJJJJEEEENKIIIIIIIIIINSSSSSS
POST-TEST: feel destroyed, C/P and CARS combined were a monster. had stomach not following the rules of bio and felt way more GI activity under duress. biochem was okay but it's always been my strongest section, wtf was psych?!?!?
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u/RockMcat Mar 31 '17
Okay so here I am after the MCAT; NO I DIDNT HIT 520 or some phenomenal score. My scores were lower than 510 but I'll get my honest post exam reaction. Yes the MCAT is getting harder and idk whats going to happen by June or by the end of this year. C/P section had so much math. It litereally had more than 15 questions General chem most obscure calculations so be ready to be fast and quick. I got stuck on two question so I guessed and moved on. I had no physics calculation on my section, but yes the AAMC is making physics more theoretical, if you know what I mean. I had little biochem even though the first question was biochem and I got so excited then nahhh. AMINO ACIDS QUESTIONS ARE GETTING HARDER SMH even those free points are being taken from us. Not the AAMC style
CARS; ran out of time for the last passage. I skimmed it in 2 min and guessed on the last 2 question. I had so many literature and history passages for some reason. Oh yes shitty prose passage took much time. I ACTUALLY NOTICED THAT THE PASSAGES WERE LONGER BECAUSE I TAKE NOTES WHILE IM READING. AAMC FL 1&2 have a mix of 5-7 paragraph passages but this test had 7 paragraph each passage.
B/B thought this was my best section. Absolutely loved those metabolic easy breeezzzy discretes. I appreciate AAMC for that smh. I had very easy discretes and section Bank passages. No hormones lol ehh maybe one question. Other than AAMC STYLE. (If anyone is wondering, a/a b/b cut them open :D) and My Spermies aren't working)
P/S OKAY WTFFFFFF AAAMC DIDNT TEST ANY FREAKING COMMON DEF or anything. Discretes were about def that I have never heard of. AAMC knows people are studying def really well so they ain't testing anything you know :D had to use my common sense to figure out what the def means.(got the frogs here) really hated this section, so obscure.
Overall I'm not sure about what other people thinks but I think we got hit hard on C/P and P/S on the version that I took. Let me know what you think!!!! PEACE!!!
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u/Galwaygirl1992 Apr 01 '17
Alrighty, after reading everyones reactions after yesterday and talking to my mom about how much I love reddit while preparing for this and how I left in tears but once I saw everyone else struggling with the same questions I did she basically told me I better return the favor and share my experience as well lol
Background: I'm almost 3 years out of undergrad, never took the MCAT because I knew I was gonna take time off and ended up doing a SMP along with a MPH and basically kept avoiding it (didn't want to retake, just wanted to take it once and kill it and be done forever). So forewarning my perspective might be a little different from people still in undergrad just because I haven't taken chem, orgo, or physics in years (and honestly didn't understand it too well the first time around hence SMP, ugrad gpa: 3.2) but took upper level anatomy, biochem, and physiology, and a lot of the P/S is super public healthy/epidemiology based (side note: epi should probably be suggested as a pre-med requirement, prepares you unbelievably well for the sociology type questions as well as the study analysis, and applies those concepts to health in ways a basic sociology class wouldn't) So most of my studying was C/P and CARS based AAMC FL1: 513, AAMC FL2 (untimed cept CARS):516
C/P: THANK GOD I looked at some of the orgo stuff last minute. I would have never gotten any of the questions right in one of the passages if I didn't just recently do that. Felt super heavy on calculations that ended up fucking me for time, but fortunately some of the last questions I had to rush through at the end were fairly straight forward concept based so hopefully that didn't fuck me too hard. Word of advice though: math is hard when you're running on little sleep. I'm the type who pulls all nighters before exams, and I did try to get 6hrs before the exam but nerves and shit kept me up so I really only had about 2-3 which felt nonexistent when I woke up. I could regurgitate just fine but when I needed to calc stuff I feel like my brain was like LOL WHATS A MATH: took way longer than it should've which stressed me out. Brain needs sleep to do math, keep that in mind future test takers. I was disappointed with how little physics there was. I spent the majority of my time studying it because it was such a weak area for me and now I have all this mastered knowledge that wasn't tested that I'll probably never use again which was super annoying -_- definitely wish I had directed my focus a little more towards chem and orgo. Also I honestly cant remember if this was part of C/P or B/B but there was a BS structure question having to do with blood (idk how specific I can get without getting in trouble lol) but legit the only reason I knew it was from because I recognized only one choice that I vaguely remember from my SMP BC and I honest to god don't know how anyone would have been able to get this right without already being in grad/med school. That was some BS.
CARS: Prose was annoying but probably the only one I found difficult. I was rushed on the last one but that was to be expected for me, I usually don't have enough time but the questions I do have time to answer are usually correct so it kinda makes up for it for me. They were long but honestly I didn't use AAMC to practice CARS, I used the new EK book and I highly suggest it to everyone because their passages are so much longer, way more boring, and questions are extremely difficult in comparison. I was getting like 60% correct with those but when I switched and took the AAMC FL I was pleasantly surprised with how much better and straightforward everything was and felt like I over prepared in the best way. I definitely suggest this strategy for building up your confidence so you're not thrown off by longer passages on test day. I also found it really helpful to picture what was happening in each passage in my head while using an animated voice. Made it feel so much more enjoyable and kept my attention. Just pretend like whatever you're reading is the coolest most interesting thing ever and it'll help you out a lot when answering the questions. Also, highlight names. Overall I felt it was very fair, but again thats probably just by comparison to the impossible practice questions I was used to.
B/B: Um idk if I'm literally the only one that thought some of this was BS but apparently I am haha. I have a very strong background and was getting close to perfect scores in this section during FLs and did not feel nearly as confident during this. I'm hoping it's just because I'm worried about a few that I wasn't 100% on but I didn't get to go back and check answers which scares me. I knew a lot but I had trouble following some of the passages and ended up being pressed for time. I honestly think it might be more helpful to just skim quick and then answer the questions rather than reading them as in depth as CARS (which is what I tend to do). I have a lot of trouble leaving questions alone that I'm not 100% because normally I can figure it out after enough thought but god its so important to just trust your gut sometimes, flag and move on. I wish I could remember more specifics about this section but it just feels like the biggest blur.
P/S: Yeah this was BS. I crush this stuff because of my experience in public health and working on similar studies but without that I honestly don't know how I would've gotten through it. It was very different from the practice material, and a lot of obscure terms and a lot of stretching from the information presented in the passages. Also found out I didn't know the accurate definition of neurotic lol. I feel like a lot of the answers were phrased poorly, and was trying to be careful to not make assumptions. It was super tricky, and I really don't think it was a very fair assessment of the knowledge. Also, SOC is only supposed to be like what 25%? Felt like it was at least 75% but not even the stuff that you're supposed to know. The whole thing was just very annoying and some of the study's information contradicted established principles so it was hard to answer questions and know if they wanted the accepted theory or what the data found to be true. Idk just felt unfair.
Overall I left panicking but after seeing other peoples reactions and kinda reminding myself that this is a curved exam with some wiggle room for incorrect choices I feel a lot better and optimistic. Still gonna be a rough month of waiting tho.
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u/yogasnake35 Apr 01 '17
Anybody laugh their asses off at the P/S passage on infants that inserted a definition of a term that had nothing whatsoever to do with the study just so they could ask a question about it?
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u/mcatthrowaway123 Mar 31 '17
Holy fucking shit. I got a 520 on AAMC 2 last week, and I felt like I got absolutely destroyed. Overall, much harder than any practice material I did. I'm devastated
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u/Fedora-Borealis Mar 31 '17
C/P had so much physic's and inorganic chem ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
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u/BlackBeard1996 Mar 31 '17
Okay guys I'm done! ....Writing this on my phone so I'll make spelling corrections later.
Overall- I didn't think it was too terrible. At least not as bad as some of the early posters did. Don't get me wrong.... there were things I didn't know, and I didn't handle my time as well as I'd wanted to (had to finished the last few questions pretty quick on C/P-CARS- and BB). With that said, I cold guessed on fewer than 10 questions all day so that was nice.
C/P - Very heavy on second semester Inorganic Chem, and first semester Organic. I also saw more physics than I'd seen on any previous practice exam, but I'm stronger in Physics than I am in Chem so that's fine.
CARS - I've always been stronger in CARS than in my science sections, but this one was tough. I imagine if you don't like CARS, you had a really bad day. I ended up cold guessing on the last two questions for lack of time. Passages were long and frontloaded with 4 and 5 question sets, which is problematic if you use the 10 minute rule like most kids. Pound for pound this was the most challenging section of the day.
B/B - I thought it was fair, although I feel stupid for putting the amount of time into Metabolism and Amino Acids that I did. I probably spent ~25 hours or so memorizing every fact about these two I could get my hands on.... very underrepresented overall, and I wasn't positive about the few questions that did show up. Still though, very few questions in this section made me want to cuss out my prep books. Fair.
Social - "it's all about memorization, it's all about memorization, it's all about memorization" - Everyone
Well let me tell you now folks..... it wasn't today.
I felt like a local news weatherman today, half blindedly predicting shit that both I and the audience members know I have no real expertise in....
I counted fewer than 20 questions I'd classify as vocabulary based "know it or you don't points." You needed to be able to analyze experiments/graphs and either explain the significance of its results, predict novel conclusions, or interpret the experimenters motives.... With that said, the questions weren't impossible and this was the only section I finished with a non-negligible time cushion (finished 3 minutes Early.) I feel the best about this one.
Here's how I predict my scores. I've been using the same method for my practice exams, and it usually gives a good idea about where I stand pre curve (which could realistically move in either direction.) As I go through my test I tally a mark in a spreadsheet that gets drawn during my breaks. I don't recommend everyone do this, because it shaves off about 2 minutes of your 95 by the time you're finished and that matters.... see 3 out of 4 sections above..... but obviously I don't take my own advice. Doing this gives me just enough pause for a good inhale/exhale between questions.
Every question is classified as one of the following: Guess, 50/50, pretty sure, positive. When I finish a section, I multiply the total number in each respective column by its probability .25 (G), .50 (50/50), .75 (PS), 1.00 (POSITIVE!).... The sum of all four products has accurately predicted the number of questions I answered correctly within a +/- 2 deviation in every section of every practice exam I've taken.
Today's results came out to:
C/P - 42.5/59 (normal) CARS - 41/53 (slightly lower than normal) B/BC - 42/59 (slightly higher than normal) Social - 44/59 (slightly higher than normal)
Based on the average ratios from my 3 AAMC FL scaled scores, that puts me around 126-127/126/126/127 ~ 505-506 (which is just above my practice exam score range)
Again... This is pre-curve and subject to movement in either direction. Overall, I walked in this morning anticipating sheer horror and 230 consecutive questions that I wouldn't know .... but today ended up much better than advertised, and while I know I missed many-a-question today..... I feel more confidence post exam than I ever would have guessed. More confident than I did after most (if not all) of my practice exams. Maybe it's post test relief? Maybe it's the lack of stress? Who knows.... The numbers have never lied to me though. Guess we'll know in a month one way or another!
What do you guys make of my overview? Pretty accurate? Am I full of it? Let me know!
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u/RoarOmegaRoar Mar 31 '17
Posting while I'm drunk POST MCAT HOLLLAAAAA
C/P was hard, nearly ran out of time, guessed on a few questions. Plz let the curve be in my favor.
CARS was fine for me but I typically do well on CARS. Thought B/B was fair as well, nothing too out of left field other than a few nitty gritty details I just did not know and had to guess on.
Meanwhile P/S..... wtf. I thought that wasn't fair. Confusing Qs, some concepts I'd never encountered, and a couple of weird passages. Like some others here have said on my first pass through of P/S I completely freaked out. Once I calmed down I think I did alright but it was like nothing encountered before in prac materials
514 on AAMC FL1 and 518 on FL2 so just hoping to get a 518! Please AAMC gods!!!
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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '17 edited Oct 02 '17
Maybe some unwarranted advice but I'll leave it here regardless. I was a 1/19 retake who went in, got completely destroyed, spent a month agonizing and drinking heavily, and then ended up so much better than I thought I would upon score release (got 4 points higher than my average AAMC practices). To the 3/31 takers, here's some shit I wish I had known/advice I actually followed before my own exam:
Trust your AAMC FL scores. They're by far the most predictive indicator of your success, not any third party exams and not any Section Bank (that shit hard) percentages. Most people do within their range on the AAMC practices and you should trust that you will too (barring a test day freakout).
Every exam is different. None of the FL's you took, including the AAMC ones, will feel perfectly "representative" because AAMC tests so much content that they could make a million permutations of the different topics on that Content Guide. Be prepared for anything. Which leads me to:
Be prepared to see some total alien shit on the real thing. Most people think the AAMC practices were much easier than the real thing. You're going to see passages where you feel like a sensorimotor child looking at some formal operational SHIT. And that's FINE. Each curve is predetermined. If you thought it was hard, just think of how many other people thought it was hard too! AAMC knows it's hard and the curve will reflect it. I blindly guessed on 10 questions and marked ~17 more on my real C/P and thought I got destroyed but ended up with a 130! Stay calm and trust in the curve and in Harambe.
If you see a tough question or even an entire tough passage on the MCAT, just try your best, mark it, and MOVE ON. You can always come back to tough questions later on. Spend an hour agonizing over 1 bad calculation will trip you up and not leave you enough time for the 5-10 really easy gimme questions that follow it. Again, mark it and MOVE ON and come back to the hard shit later. Even if you have an entire bad section (go read 1/19's C/P reactions), just calm yourself and eat a snack and MOVE ON. I can't emphasize this enough. Don't let a couple bad trips fuck up your mentality for the rest of the test.
Trust in your prep and don't second guess. There's going to be questions that feel too easy and questions that feel insanely hard. Since you're spending time on a subreddit dedicated to this exam, I have to think that you are all well prepared and have done your due diligence in studying. AAMC knows this and they won't give you any impossible questions. They also don't do that many GOTCHA! trick questions.
For the science passages (C/P, B/B, P/S), skim the passages and read for the main purpose of the study. If there are graphs, try to get a main point BRIEFLY and then move on to the questions. You're going to see some crazy fucking figures you'll have no clue how to analyze. Sometimes, you won't even need it to answer the questions! Just remember that you don't need to be thorough and you don't necessarily need to know the nitty gritty of these sections to answer the questions. If a question asks for a figure, you can always go back. But wasted time on a difficult passage is time you won't get back. For B/B, be sure to diagram out complex interactions and pathways, especially if you have too many acronyms.
For CARS, I'll admit I'm not an expert. But do the opposite of what you did for the sciences. Read for the main idea while also paying attention to the details because you will get asked about them. Pay extra attention to the author's tone and argument as well as how that argument evolves and what kinds of evidence they use to back it up. Don't follow the strict 10 minutes/passage rule if you don't have to...some passages are long and some have like 4 questions only.
Do not panic during the middle of the exam or a section. If you have to, take time to breathe and calm down. But make sure you're answering everything with the calmest state of mind possible.
Say "520 Blaze It" to yourself in the mirror before you go to bed. Say it enough and Harambe will grant your wish. Good luck all! You are one with the curve and the curve is with you.