Official July 2017 MCAT Thread

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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NarutoMD

NarutoMD

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Hello all. I couldn't find a July 2017 MCAT thread so I wanted to make one for everyone who is going to take it to chime in. Feel free to post comments, advice, tips, questions, or any concerns you may have. Us Julyers (if that is even a word) need to stick together. Happy studying and good luck all!
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NarutoMD said:
Can you be more specific? Do you have problem with timing? Understanding? Application of concepts?
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Yes! So I have run out of time on most exams and I think it is because I am having a really hard time comprehending the passage and getting useful information out of the passage to answer the question
 
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For CARS I read the whole passage at first, thoroughly and at a medium-rapid pace. Like @NarutoMD I highlight key terms, names, position summaries, contrasting/pivoting sentences, etc. Don't highlight too much though or it becomes ineffective.

I refer back to the passage quite a bit. If they are asking "the author would probably feel that Jim's ideas about gardening are..." then yes I am going to look back and see what Jim said. I do NOT take notes on the paragraphs or write anything down during CARS. I would prefer to have that time to think about the choices.

One little technique I use is that I generally take a peek over at the first question about a new passage, only the stem, to have that question in mind while I'm reading the passage.

You kind of have to keep the thread of the passage in your head and be thinking about where its all going, what is the point, and why are they telling me all this. I look at the title of the manuscript the passage comes from, it can give a clue. Timing on CARS is pretty easy, you keep up the pace of 10 minutes per passage. Don't be afraid to put in a little extra time on a hard question, but you need to make it up on easy ones.
 
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rabbott1971 said:
Did the AAMC FL #1 today and was pleasantly surprised, well maybe more correct to say I was pumped. 127, 131, 127, 126 = 511. So much better than my sample test score. I was prepared for low 500's. Anyone else doing the AAMC FL's?
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What's your best strategy/suggestion for CARS in getting such a high score? It's my lowest sadly.
 
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Can't believe we are down to basically two days at most of getting ready. I wish I knew about two hundred more things.
 
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If you look up the thread a couple of posts, I wrote my ideas about CARS. I've practiced law for a long time, so reading stuff and "getting it" is sort of a basic skill of my trade.
 
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rabbott1971 said:
Any July 22 test-takers hanging around? Its happening...Soon.
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Still here but won't be on SDN until Sat. I will be taking my final AMMC Fl2 tomorrow (kinda got pushed back) and then minute review/relax and have fun on Friday! I will be back on Sat to give my feedback. Good luck to everyone taking it this Sat. We will rock it!
 
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rabbott1971 said:
Can't believe we are down to basically two days at most of getting ready. I wish I knew about two hundred more things.
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I know right? How did time fly so fast.. I wish I had several more weeks to review.. but I think we've got it! We've been practicing and it's all in there..just gotta take it out for test day!
 
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I'm definitely feeling the nerves a little bit. I think during the 10 minutes of the computer tutorial I will maybe kind of just sit there and try to calm down. But you're right we have put in work, and its time to get it done.
 
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How's everyone doing tonight? I'm feeling a little anxious..looked on reddit about today's exam reactions.. but it can't be the same test right?
 
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Hi @mdmy318 I'm worried for sure, but its going to be what its going to be. I just want to be able to get to sleep tonight and then go do my best. I don't think everyone gets the same questions, even some of the reddit commenters seemed not to have had the same exact set of questions. Not much we can do about it at this point!!!!
 
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That's true @rabott1971.. best not to linger on it and hope for the best. Good luck to you all!
 
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So I took the MCAT yesterday. The AAMC FLs were very similar in difficulty to the real thing and in the style of questions asked. For me the CARS was easier and the BB was harder but overall it wasn't too bad! Good luck everybody!


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Welp, I seem to have survived...didn't have much fun, but I just ate a chile relleno combo and feeling a little better. Mostly relieved its over.
 
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Wow, that was tough. I felt so defeated. It seemed like they decided to give me a test with only SB passages. OMG. I always had about 10-15 mins to spare in CP and BS but this time, I had no time to go back to marked questions.
CP- so physics-heavy. I felt like every passage was physics related. I had to randomly guess on a few so that I could finish it on time. I don't know what to say. I scored 132 on both FLs but I felt this time I would be lucky to even get a 128.
CARS- not longer compared to AAMC FLs (maybe because I practiced doing the FLs at higher screen view). However, the passages were more difficult to understand and the answer choices were weird. I hope I break a 125 here.
BS- although I felt it was SB heavy (so many graphs/tables,etc), I felt pretty good about this section. Again, I didn't have time to go back to my marked questions. I am guessing in the 129-131 range (131-132 on practice FL)
PS- It wasn't that bad until the last few passages. I usually finished this with 30 mins to spare but this time I almost ran out of time because the last few were so hard. I had to rush to finish it on time. PS scale is harsh so I don't know how I did on this one. Hoping for a 128.
 
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I was happy that I managed my time relatively well. I don't like to review, prefer spending extra time the first time through. Rushed to finish CP and did deliberately guess on a few to save time. But the other sections I finished right within the last minute or two.

But yes it was extremely hard! I have a few thoughts like NarutoMD.

CP -- Pretty bad! I'd say it was a full de-pantsing, with underwear I was not proud to display. They asked many hard things, and also they asked easy things that I did not know. Science is hard!
CARS -- I may have gotten them all correct. Or missed ten. Nobody can tell with CARS. This is always my best section, where I recover a little dignity.
BB -- Back to another Custer-esque debacle with full rectal hemorrhage. Little mercy was shown as the testmakers again demonstrated their disregard for the Geneva Convention.
P/S -- This is the section that everyone gets 90% right, so unless you're in that boat, your score goes south pretty fast. I was gassed at this point but stuck it out like a hero and clicked on answers.
Extra Credit -- I got all these right, so that's going to help a lot.

I think I may have scored in a range of 472-528. Hope everyone else got worse than me so it will scale in my favor! Not you guys, just all the other people. :nod:
 
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rabbott1971 said:
Well yeah! I need every point I can get! :highfive:
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Haha, I hear ya. Same here. Hopefully, we did fine. It just sucks that we have to wait for another month to get our score. I guess I will start pre-writing my secondaries now.
 
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I know!!!!! I got spoiled from the AAMC materials where you just click "get score report" and Boom, there it is. This month will be a half-speed time warp of anticipation.
 
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NarutoMD said:
Wow, that was tough. I felt so defeated. It seemed like they decided to give me a test with only SB passages. OMG. I always had about 10-15 mins to spare in CP and BS but this time, I had no time to go back to marked questions.
CP- so physics-heavy. I felt like every passage was physics related. I had to randomly guess on a few so that I could finish it on time. I don't know what to say. I scored 132 on both FLs but I felt this time I would be lucky to even get a 128.
CARS- not longer compared to AAMC FLs (maybe because I practiced doing the FLs at higher screen view). However, the passages were more difficult to understand and the answer choices were weird. I hope I break a 125 here.
BS- although I felt it was SB heavy (so many graphs/tables,etc), I felt pretty good about this section. Again, I didn't have time to go back to my marked questions. I am guessing in the 129-131 range (131-132 on practice FL)
PS- It wasn't that bad until the last few passages. I usually finished this with 30 mins to spare but this time I almost ran out of time because the last few were so hard. I had to rush to finish it on time. PS scale is harsh so I don't know how I did on this one. Hoping for a 128.
Click to expand...

CARS sucked man :( I hope I break 125 also... It was the worst section for me. Really hated the way it went.
 
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I took it friday, my C/S was fairly straightforward, but i was running out of time and skipped almost every calculation even if it was easy. Hoping for a 125/126 at least. FL range is 125-126 so there is really no telling how that will go. CARS I hope was able to save some face and pull out a 129-130. Its always my best section, but I felt some of the questions were even more ambiguous than usual. On B/B there were so many charts and graphs, but I felt it was fair. P/S was almost like a second CARS section, and I had a lot of wtf did i just read moments so....may the curve be in our favor.
 
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danae39 said:
I took it friday, my C/S was fairly straightforward, but i was running out of time and skipped almost every calculation even if it was easy. Hoping for a 125/126 at least. FL range is 125-126 so there is really no telling how that will go. CARS I hope was able to save some face and pull out a 129-130. Its always my best section, but I felt some of the questions were even more ambiguous than usual. On B/B there were so many charts and graphs, but I felt it was fair. P/S was almost like a second CARS section, and I had a lot of wtf did i just read moments so....may the curve be in our favor.
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Yea, the PS on mine had some passages on some weird theories that someone in a PhD psychology program would care to learn. It was awful. It took me a long time to get over them and to reason out what they were trying to say. The scale for PS on the practice FLs is very harsh so I don't know if the curve will be in our favor. This section traditionally had been treated as a score buffer but I think AAMC wanted to change that perception by making it insane now lol.

PS. I keep on thinking about the test that I cannot sleep haha.
 
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NarutoMD said:
Yea, the PS on mine had some passages on some weird theories that someone in a PhD psychology program would care to learn. It was awful. It took me a long time to get over them and to reason out what they were trying to say. The scale for PS on the practice FLs is very harsh so I don't know if the curve will be in our favor. This section traditionally had been treated as a score buffer but I think AAMC wanted to change that perception by making it insane now lol.

PS. I keep on thinking about the test that I cannot sleep haha.
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ugh i know. surely there were easier passages out there. some of mine were also ridiculous. I have a decent background in various psych/soc topics and probably came across at least 10-15 terms I had never seen/heard of. It will be a long month of waiting, im just trying to do as many fun things as possible until the day!
 
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Made it through day 1 of the official 30-days-that-seem-like-six-years-waiting-for-MCAT-score. Had a couple of cycles of "maybe somehow I just crushed it, it could happen," to "I know I blew it, there's no way, I mean come on," then settling on "I would eat a live scorpion if I could just lock in at my practice test score."
 
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rabbott1971 said:
Made it through day 1 of the official 30-days-that-seem-like-six-years-waiting-for-MCAT-score. Had a couple of cycles of "maybe somehow I just crushed it, it could happen," to "I know I blew it, there's no way, I mean come on," then settling on "I would eat a live scorpion if I could just lock in at my practice test score."
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Literally me - all day for the next 30 days.
 
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rabbott1971 said:
Made it through day 1 of the official 30-days-that-seem-like-six-years-waiting-for-MCAT-score. Had a couple of cycles of "maybe somehow I just crushed it, it could happen," to "I know I blew it, there's no way, I mean come on," then settling on "I would eat a live scorpion if I could just lock in at my practice test score."
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THIS IS ME right now. Hi guys. Yeah, it was pretty challenging in my opinion with time keeping. Honestly, if there was more time given, it would not be as bad..CARS and B/B was probably the most difficult for me with time and BS was definitely a push too.
 
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mdmy318 said:
kind of terrified? I can't believe a week has come and gone so fast..
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I feel the opposite :( I feel like time is dragging and I'm just getting more anxious about my score... I need to do my best to distract myself!!!
 
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natre_ said:
I feel the opposite :( I feel like time is dragging and I'm just getting more anxious about my score... I need to do my best to distract myself!!!
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Oh I agree its dragging but its a sinking scary feeling that when I look forward that theres already just 19 days left
 
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Am I the only one that thinks of the people in charge of aamc sitting by a fireplace with an expensive bottle of scotch and a pipe laughing at our torment?
 
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Our judgement day is almost here. 3 more days! So excited and ****ing nervous at the same time. :soexcited::barf:. Don't know if I could sleep on Monday night knowing that my dream is determined by a single score. MCAT, please don't let me down.
 
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The final 24 hours before scores. Not fun. Its odd that we are having the solar eclipse as our scores are about to be released. May the heavenly bodies align in our favor!
 
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rabbott1971 said:
The final 24 hours before scores. Not fun. Its odd that we are having the solar eclipse as our scores are about to be released. May the heavenly bodies align in our favor!
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Maybe that's a sign that we all might have done better than we have thought haha. I am at work and I can't even focus. Don't know how I can possibly stay focused tomorrow. Hopefully our scores will come out early tomorrow so I can relax the rest of the day. Otherwise, I might go crazy checking the Scores page every minute. That will be torture.
 
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Completely forgot about that. But I am sure that won't help since you already know how neurotic we premeds can be.
 
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So happy I don't live in the eastern time zone. when scores are released it will be morning here!
 
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Wish I could just stay home and get drunk while waiting for the MCAT scores to be released. Maybe I will ask my SO to check my scores for me so I don't kill myself tomorrow at work.
 
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Its going to be what its going to be. But yeah, I'm clawing out of my own skull a little bit. 13-ish hours.
 
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