Guest ioncannon97 Posted August 10, 2002 Report Share Posted August 10, 2002 Holy crap, only 7 days left. How are people coping with the stress? (i.e have you visited the site of the test and other weird stuff like that. I think I will go to the site some time next week . Good luck all!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted August 10, 2002 Report Share Posted August 10, 2002 Hey there ioncannon97, Some of the folks in my class reported having those "oh my god, it's 3am and I've missed the exam"-nightmares already. How are you feeling about it all? I'm oddly calm but probably due to very much looking forward to getting to the post-exam rewards I've arranged. Where are you writing it? Somewhere in TO? It's unfortunate that AMCAS has not yet devised a way to dish out the scores just a couple of weeks after the exam instead of 8 or so weeks later. Cheers, good luck this week and don't forget to have your photo taken! Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LIPOSUCTIONATOR Posted August 10, 2002 Report Share Posted August 10, 2002 I don't believe in Zen week, tapering, or the like. I do best on school exams when I study up to the last minute. Note this is not the same as procrastinating/cramming. The MCAT should be no different. Why is it that a week without studying leading up to an Organic Chem exam is suicidal while the same ritual is recommended by some for the MCAT, an exam of far greater importance (needless to say)? I guess everyone is different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Richardo Xavier Posted August 10, 2002 Report Share Posted August 10, 2002 Stress? What Stress? Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Thanks so much Kirsteen! I gotta snap a photo of myself this week hehe. *hug* I could see me on MCAT day trying to stencil in a "Stick Richie" in the lil place for your 2x2 photo lol -Richie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted August 10, 2002 Report Share Posted August 10, 2002 Liposuctinator: There is a difference between the strategy used to do well on the MCAT and the strategies you would use to do well on an undergrad final. Undergrad finals are about content. You study like a mad fool trying to pack as much trivia as you can into your head. You then spend some more time integrating that trivia into some kind of functional whole and then pack some more trivia in. If you manage to pack in enough details and have some clue as to how these things relate to each other, you will do well on an undergrad final. That type of exam is conducive to studying until the last minute, because there is always more trivia that you can learn! In contrast, the MCAT is NOT about trivia. The MCAT is about reading comprehension, logic, time management, stress management and endurance. These things are tested in the guise of a 'science' exam. The MCAT does not test 'content' to any real degree. Certainly not like an undergrad final does! Most, if not all, of the content that you need to answer the questions is given to you in the passage. You need to be able to find the info, reason your way through it and logically arrive at the right answer. You also need to do this within the allowed time. To 'study' for the MCAT is essentially to practice with the question format and the time constraints that you are going to be working under. At this point, if you aren't comfortable with those two things, there is probably little that you can hope to accomplish in seven days. There is also little that will 'decay' if you take a break from studying (not like undergrad trivia which has a *very* short half life!). So, in hopes of being well rested and mentally able to tackle the MCAT on Sat, I would suggest that people do as little *studying* as possible this week! You don't run a marathon for practice the day before the real one do you? Just my two cents.... Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ioncannon97 Posted August 10, 2002 Report Share Posted August 10, 2002 Hey Kirsteen, Yeah, I just had my photo taken (didn't shave for five days before it, damn I look good! lol). I'm writing in Saskatoon. You? I'm trying to practice waking up at 6 a.m all this week but today I slept in untill 7:30 cause my alarm didn't go off!. Hope I don't do that on exam day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dfenst Posted August 11, 2002 Report Share Posted August 11, 2002 Hey all. This is my second time writing the MCAT, so I've got some advice which may help, but, since I'm writing it again, maybe I have no credibility Waking up at 6:30 am for a week before the test might be slight overkill. I don't want to say what is right and what is wrong, because every person is different, but I GUARANTEE you that you will be up for the challenge next Saturday whether you slept in this week or chose to wake up at the crack of dawn everyday. The last thing you want, however, is to tire yourself out this week. This week should be about remembering those 4 or 5 things you said you would memorize the last week (in my case, the formula for period of pendulum (I think it's 2pi root L over g )). Last year I was talking to someone who was a psych major and who had done a lot of research on sleep and dreams. A concern of mine was that I feared not sleeping the night before due to nerves and that this would screw me up for the MCAT. He reassured me (in terms much more scientific than I remember) that it has been proven that lack of sleep does not affect performance. He said that if you are staring at your ceiling until 4 am and get 2 hours of sleep, you can still perform up to your maximum potential on test day. I thought I'd share that for those of you who had this concern. Also, last year I scored 3 points higher on the real MCAT than on my highest practice. Obviously this wasn't high enough, but it goes to show that you are so much more focused on "game day" due to some fight or flight reason (pardon the MCAT reference!). Good luck to everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted August 11, 2002 Report Share Posted August 11, 2002 Hey there dfenst, Cheers for your input. Hopefully all will be well, although sometimes I do wonder if the AAMC publish accurate representations of their raw/scaled scores given the number of folk who seem to do quite differently on the big day. As a bit of a related aside, I've found a way that works to help remember the period formulae for springs and pendulums. I'll share it with you and if it works, bravo: think "large milk", or essentially, lg, mk. You then plug these into the basic formulae in that order, so you end up with your T=2pi root (l/g) and T=2pi root (m/k). The item containing the "k" has to be the one involving springs, as the "k" represents the good 'ole spring constant, and off you go from there. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ioncannon97 Posted August 11, 2002 Report Share Posted August 11, 2002 I got another way to remember those formulas Kirsteen: Just remember Wack'em and Wiggle!!! This is from the Examkrackers books so thanks Mr. Orsay. Wack'em for W=square root k/m ---obviously since its K you know its about springs. Wiggle for W=square root g/l ---for pendulum, where in both cases W is angular frequency. I swear I love EK, there's so many of these tricks I've read in their books and they all rock. Anyone else using these EK books? "understanding DNA is TOUGH, so its read UPSTREAM 3----5", god, that's classic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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