The Official May 22, 2015 MCAT Thread

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fenderboi930

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I think many of you will agree that today is a great day to officially prepare for the May 22nd MCAT!!!

I was against the April 2015 MCAT because a typical 3 month schedule doesn't seem to work for
students and/or working test takers. With a little over 4 months of preparation we can go in with confidence!
It's all new and really scary--so let's kick MCAT butt together!!

I was also wondering, wouldn't many professional MCAT test takers and tutors want to take the MCAT 2015 as soon
as possible (April MCAT) so they can better they're material or teaching? Wouldn't that just destroy the curve?
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So I finished Step 1 this week. I still don't know if I did well. Practice exams were between 240-260, so I am assuming I won't fail. I am just trying to relax until clinicals start next month.
 
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raiderette said:
So I finished Step 1 this week. I still don't know if I did well. Practice exams were between 240-260, so I am assuming I won't fail. I am just trying to relax until clinicals start next month.
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Dude congrats!!!! I'm sure you crushed it. Enjoy your time off!
 
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I started UWorld in October, but was using RX for classes. I also took practice tests every weekend for two months. I hope I got a good score. I don't need to crush it, but I feel like I did enough to get what I want.
 
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Thought I would elaborate. I pretty much memorized FA bt using RX. I spent a lot of time on reviewing missed questions to find weakness. I read Robbins and feel like Pathoma was my best friend. I used Sketchy and even got over my hatred of Anki to study Pharm.
 
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raiderette said:
Thought I would elaborate. I pretty much memorized FA bt using RX. I spent a lot of time on reviewing missed questions to find weakness. I read Robbins and feel like Pathoma was my best friend. I used Sketchy and even got over my hatred of Anki to study Pharm.
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Any tips for someone with 8 weeks until d-day? Honestly kind of panicking bc I've been focused on classes and haven't touched UW, Rx, etc. I tried to get into anki but it really just was not working out for me. Kinda worried I blew any chance at a great score at this point, so trying to salvage with the highest yield (will I actually remember anything just from 1 pass of UW and going through FA and pathoma?)
 
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vernhart said:
Any tips for someone with 8 weeks until d-day? Honestly kind of panicking bc I've been focused on classes and haven't touched UW, Rx, etc. I tried to get into anki but it really just was not working out for me. Kinda worried I blew any chance at a great score at this point, so trying to salvage with the highest yield (will I actually remember anything just from 1 pass of UW and going through FA and pathoma?)
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UWorld is key. Pathoma is second. I seriously think if you get FA, you will be fine. How long is your dedicated? Get one pass of UWorld at least, focus on your questions, then fill in the blanks.
 
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raiderette said:
UWorld is key. Pathoma is second. I seriously think if you get FA, you will be fine. How long is your dedicated? Get one pass of UWorld at least, focus on your questions, then fill in the blanks.
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I'll have almost 5 full weeks. Just takes me SO long to go through UW (started this week) and I haven't even been flipping through FA (just reading explanations thoroughly, but I'm not confident I'm retaining it). I have used FA and Pathoma alongside classes, which is a plus (I'm at least familiar with them).
 
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vernhart said:
I'll have almost 5 full weeks. Just takes me SO long to go through UW (started this week) and I haven't even been flipping through FA (just reading explanations thoroughly, but I'm not confident I'm retaining it). I have used FA and Pathoma alongside classes, which is a plus (I'm at least familiar with them).
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I think you'll find you're retaining more than you think you are, if that makes you feel better!
 
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Krabbeman said:
So guys I'm pretty friggin discouraged today and however stupid it may seem to you guys, I'm going to vent it out cause your my klan. Disclaimer: you may see this as petty so go ahead and ignore if you want.

I studied more than I ever have for our past midterm. So long, so many days, every day, doing practice Qs mixing it with material etc. The best way I know how to study. Got the grades back today, got an 85% on the exam, and on the box and whiskers chart I'm still like in the bottom 45% of the class. No matter how freakin hard or little I study I always get around the median and its actually getting super friggin discouraging. Not that I'm median, but that no matter how much more I study I'm always median.

Also Kinda worried because they told us class avgs in our clinical pathophys & therapeutics class correlate the most for boards. And I'm scoring sorta low relative to my class. My goal definitely isn't to compare myself to classmates, but I DO want to do decently on step. maybe just overly anxious about step.

Anyways. 1 more final in 6 weeks, then on to dedicated.

Happy Valentine day. Over and Out.
P.S keep on keeping on @vernhart you're the man (or woman, or whichever pronoun you prefer)
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Story of my med school experience. Idk how I could do better than 90% of my classmates on the MCAT but still be just below average no matter what I do. Hang in there. I know it isn't much consolation, but remember even the average UC student scores 240+ (at least that is what I've heard).
 
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Krabbeman said:
So guys I'm pretty friggin discouraged today and however stupid it may seem to you guys, I'm going to vent it out cause your my klan. Disclaimer: you may see this as petty so go ahead and ignore if you want.

I studied more than I ever have for our past midterm. So long, so many days, every day, doing practice Qs mixing it with material etc. The best way I know how to study. Got the grades back today, got an 85% on the exam, and on the box and whiskers chart I'm still like in the bottom 45% of the class. No matter how freakin hard or little I study I always get around the median and its actually getting super friggin discouraging. Not that I'm median, but that no matter how much more I study I'm always median.

Also Kinda worried because they told us class avgs in our clinical pathophys & therapeutics class correlate the most for boards. And I'm scoring sorta low relative to my class. My goal definitely isn't to compare myself to classmates, but I DO want to do decently on step. maybe just overly anxious about step.

Anyways. 1 more final in 6 weeks, then on to dedicated.

Happy Valentine day. Over and Out.
P.S keep on keeping on @vernhart you're the man (or woman, or whichever pronoun you prefer)
Click to expand...

I feel ya man. Just remember that you go to an amazing school (iirc) and most of your classmates are probably above the national average. So while you may be average at your school, you're probably above average overall!
 
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Just discovered Rx's feature where they predict your score based on your percentage correct. This just got so much more stressful.
 
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Haha thanks for letting me know @Krabbeman but I do hope you get a 263! Honestly would not be even a little surprised.

Unfortunately I use Kaplan to study for End of Block exams so it would probably over-predict my score since I do only questions related to content that I just learned in great detail.
 
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Krabbeman said:
I would be surprised. I'm doing so much worse in med school than I did in college. Just tryna nab a 240, I feel like its a realistic goal for me. I'm super interested in Rads atm. But who knows. That could change depending on how rotations go. My wife and I want to move back to Cleveland, where she's from. So It feels like a lot of pressure since there's literally only Case and the Clinic there.

Let come what may. I'm learning to be less crazy and OCD and just enjoy my life. Its too short. I gotta seriously learn to let go. We all could benefit from it.
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Didn't know you were married! But Cleveland also has Metro, so add that to your list! I'm glad you're learning to enjoy life more, I think I am too. Kind of starting to realize what's most important in life, and honestly while step is important, there are far more important things.
 
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allanMED15 said:
Haha it still exists on Facebook. There is only a few of us in it though.
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lol whoever made it messaged me and i told them, guess they just never added me

Edit: well this is awkward, it was you!! hahaha I'll message you my email, add me I wanna know what you all look like lol and if any of you cure cancer I can totally be like "Oh yeah, I've known 'em for years, see even friends on fb" haha
 
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Krabbeman said:
Got married in August! There is. Like I didn't do any studying this weekend because we were in Cleveland with family, and it was marvelous. I'm not gonna fail anything just by taking a day or 2 off a week. And if I ultimately do worse then whatever. I need to stay sane.
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Congrats! Yea I have found that even if I take Monday and Friday nights off, I can still do really well. Hopefully that translates to 2nd year too!
 
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allanMED15 said:
Congrats! Yea I have found that even if I take Monday and Friday nights off, I can still do really well. Hopefully that translates to 2nd year too!
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Idk about others' experiences but I've found M2 to be WAY less work than M1. Especially first semester. Obviously things are changing now with step studying but I still feel like I have a lot of free time.
 
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@Krabbeman really glad you warned me about how inaccurate Rx is! Today I dropped from a 242 to a 234 after doing poorly on one set of ten questions, I definitely would have freaked out if you hadn't told me haha.
 
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raiderette said:
I did UWorld 2x, Rx 2x and took every test I could find. Pathoma for days and Sketchy. I did use Goljan for female reproduction pathology because I was weak there in practice.
Click to expand...

Geeeeez and here I am struggling to get through Rx and Uworld once each!
 
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Once you get to dedicated, it will be easier. I was at my computer 10-16 hours a day. You can do this.
 
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raiderette said:
Once you get to dedicated, it will be easier. I was at my computer 10-16 hours a day. You can do this.
Click to expand...

Honestly, studying for step 16 hours a day sounds so much better than trying to fake my way through repro. I hate this block with a passion.

On the bright side, last dissection ever is tomorrow morning!
 
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Lannister said:
Honestly, studying for step 16 hours a day sounds so much better than trying to fake my way through repro. I hate this block with a passion.

On the bright side, last dissection ever is tomorrow morning!
Click to expand...
I am going OB/GYN but Step 1 tests were brutal on female reproduction pathology. I had some horrible questions on the sample tests, but think UWorld was harder than my actual test.
 
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84% done with UWORLD, averaging 84%. 2 weeks and 4 days out.

starting to freak out.

damn @raiderette . I thought doing Kaplan, Rx, and Uworld one time was a lot.... you're a boss.

I had Rx, and Kaplan done at the start of dedicated. Then I read through FA one time, took a practice test, and started on UWorld. my 7 weeks of dedicated is down to 2.5 :(:(:(:(:sick::sick:
 
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Lannister said:
Dude that's crazy! And I thought my 4.5 weeks was cutting it a little short. What's their rationale for only giving two weeks?
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Rational and my school do not go hand in hand. They are not even in the same planet.
They tell us our curriculum (PBL, aka the stupidest idea on the planet) is a good enough preparation so that we do not need any dedicated. Flash news, it isn’t! The worst part is that before we started the said we had more dedicated than most people....


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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Johnyellow said:
Rational and my school do not go hand in hand. They are not even in the same planet.
They tell us our curriculum (PBL, aka the stupidest idea on the planet) is a good enough preparation so that we do not need any dedicated. Flash news, it isn’t! The worst part is that before we started the said we had more dedicated than most people....


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

The bolded would piss me off more than anything. That's basically false advertising, it's so unfair for them to do that. Sorry your school is making this so difficult for you guys :( But I am sure you are still going to do awesome on step!
 
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Test in 10 days. Got nostalgic for when studying for a standardized test wasn't so soul sucking.

damn
 
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Can't believe this thread is still going lol. How far we all have come! Hope everyone is doing well!
 
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Well hell, guess I won't see you on the interview trail. Damn endometriosis basically hid a 4 month old fetus. Looking forward to your results in 4th year. I will be watching this thread next year. In the meantime, I will be taking a research year.
 
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raiderette said:
Well hell, guess I won't see you on the interview trail. Damn endometriosis basically hid a 4 month old fetus. Looking forward to your results in 4th year. I will be watching this thread next year. In the meantime, I will be taking a research year.
Click to expand...

Whoa. Sorry to hear that! I hope that things are on the way to getting better!
 
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