{Official} August 20th MCAT thoughts?

[J ROD]

Well, let me say the real MCAT I just took was nothing like the Kaplan or AAMC practice tests I took. I can not even compared the two. Incredibly harder...

I thought every section was harder than any practice test I have seen including Kaplan. I thought the sciences were harder than Kaplan sectionals.

PS: Was very passaged based and conceptual. 4 gchem passages, 3 physics. I had to use very few equations and the ones I had to use were in from the passage.

Verbal: usually strong point, first time I have ever had a passage I could not understand fully. I spent 12 minutes on it and still was unsure. The questions were harder and the answer choices were closer and harder to pick from than the AAMCs.

BS: almost completely passage based. I have had Immuno, Micro, Biochem and two Pathophysio and I still could not understand some of the passages. I also had a hard org passage. I think I got some of it right but who knows. Immuno passage with some genetics thrown in, cell cycle passage, rest is a blur.

The discretes were all more difficult and had to guess on several on them. On practice tests for Kaplan and AAMC, I never had a problem. Did today though.

There were maybe 2 or 3 give me questions on each science section.

I have no clue what to expect for a grade since I educated guessed my way through most of it. I averaged 34 AAMC and 36 Kaplan and unless the curve is huge, I expect a 25 or so. I know many have said this before, but based on what I saw today and the AAMC curve, something has to be different or I am going to get a very different score.

Could I have prepared better? Not really. It was all passage based and hard as hell. I did finish with enough time in each section just because I did alot of guessing.

So, believe what you read in here about the difficulty of some of the real MCATs. I was not shocked because of what I have read in here, but I know I missed alot more than I usually did on AAMCs and Kaplans. I will need a Kaplan curve to be competitive.

Any others or am I the only one that thought what they saw today was rough!!

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[TheElement]

Verbal was really hard I thought. I thought my score could have gone anywhere from a 6-12. (I got a 9). I just went with EK's screw it mentality. I actually finished with around 8 minutes left and usually I finish with 30 seconds or so on average (I took like 12 practice tests).

 

[durrrr]

there were 7 extra individual questions, no passage. And I didnt read the number of questions on the welcome screen because I assumed there would be 52. But then I started reading the welcome screen for the rest of the sections and those sections had the usual number of questions. I actually did make a complaint, you know at the end of the test where you put any comments or complaints, but looking back at it I guess that maybe the mcat people dont read those, that its probably just for the testing center. I really didnt think it was a big deal until now, since it seems I am the only one. It's my fault for thinking that the mcat could just add extra questions all of the sudden, thats why I didn't bother to make a big fuss about it. After asking my friends about it, they convinced me that it must be some new thing they're testing out, or that my physical science section must have had easier questions so they added more...I feel so naive now If anything should I just ask the MCAT people if it was possible to have more questions on the physical science section?

Just because 7 free standing questions came after the last passage, does not necessitate that they were additional questions.

How are you so sure that the last 7 questions were not questions 46-52?

Did they say 53-59?

I've never heard of this..... and maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're assuming that the last thing on the PS should be a passage, when it doesn't have to be.....

 

[koopa_troopa]

So the question is....were there standalones after the last passage?

Aren't there always standalones after the last passage? Thats what all my practice tests had.

 

[huntergatherer9]

Ps 13
Vr 13
Bs 14
Ws T

40t

 

[Iheartcupcakes]

Just because 7 free standing questions came after the last passage, does not necessitate that they were additional questions.

How are you so sure that the last 7 questions were not questions 46-52?

Did they say 53-59?

I've never heard of this..... and maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're assuming that the last thing on the PS should be a passage, when it doesn't have to be.....

Yes, the questions were numbered 53-59. I remember it very well, I had just finished question 52(thinking that I was done, because there's only suppose to be 52 questions) and then I clicked review and I saw that there was questions 53-59 that I had not completed. I went back and there on the last page were questions 53-59.

 

[TheElement]

What score did you get on PS again?

Yes, the questions were numbered 53-59. I remember it very well, I had just finished question 52(thinking that I was done, because there's only suppose to be 52 questions) and then I clicked review and I saw that there was questions 53-59 that I had not completed. I went back and there on the last page were questions 53-59.

 

[BananaMonkey]

Dumb question here, but, is there a way to review our exam? Like many of you, I went home after the exam and immediately began submitting my applications...to Burger King and McDonald's (Taco Bell was out of my league).

But, by the luck of the universe or by a computer glitch, I did acceptably on the MCAT. However, I'm haunted by some of those bio passages.

Any way we can see our exam and our answers, and the correct answers, and all that jazz? I mean, aside from waiting until our real MCAT is available in 1-3 years as an AAMC practice exam.

 

[leopatra]

so guys help me. I took the test on the 20th of august and have not received my scores yet. Mcat wrote me a message saying it a technical problem. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? what do you think is happening? should i be worried?
Thanks

 

[koopa_troopa]

so guys help me. I took the test on the 20th of august and have not received my scores yet. Mcat wrote me a message saying it a technical problem. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? what do you think is happening? should i be worried?
Thanks

I replied to you in the other thread you posted in. It happened to me, you shouldn't be worried in that you will get your scores. If you are applying this cycle, yeah, you should get worried. My scores came back 3 weeks after the original expected score release. AAMC is really ******ed and the people you talk to offer no help. They really do not care. I e-mailed/called them everyday. Everytime they say: "we don't know when your scores are coming, we will contact you with an update when possible". After 20 days late, I e-mail the president of AAMC complaining. Magically the next day my scores come up even though the previous day I called and they had no updates or any clue of when my scores would come up. I have no idea what they were doing before then, or if they even took my problem seriously until the president stepped in. It seemed to me that it was a really simple problem, and they just didn't address it until someone higher up told them to actually work on it.