Kuantum Posted November 5, 2006 Report Share Posted November 5, 2006 Hey everyone, I am making this thread so that all those writing in January can come together and discuss progress, strategies, and suggestions. Those who have written before can also make suggestions and give any advice. I guess I'll start. I wrote in Aug. 2006 but did quite poor in verbal reasoning, thus that will be the main focus of my study. I am going to get as many verbal reasoning passages as possible and do all of them. For the sciences, I will review over the kaplan and EK stuff just to refresh on major topics like fluids. Otherwise, I'll mostly be working on improving my VR since I did pretty well on the other sections in Aug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darla Posted November 5, 2006 Report Share Posted November 5, 2006 I won't be writing, but wanted to post some sites I liked... and they're free http://qlink.queensu.ca/~8jrv/Memory.html http://www.mcatpearls.com/ Looks like Pearls has recently been updated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted November 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2006 It seems like I am the only one writing in January, interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted November 13, 2006 Report Share Posted November 13, 2006 I'll be rewriting because of VR as well...but not in January. I've decided to enjoy my upcoming finals before starting to practice VR, and rewrite closer to Aug. Besides, even though we were among the last grp of ppl to write the paper mcat, I don't wanna be among the first for the computerized format. But for you Kuantum & anyone else who feels they can be ready by Jan, it would definitely be a huge relief to get it over with as early as possible. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted November 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 Definitely, I am not really worried about writing it so soon after because I think my VR performance was a bit of a fluke. I am taking more chemistry and biology courses this term that as stuff was covered on the MCAT, so I think that's some preparation too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireDragoonX Posted November 14, 2006 Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 removed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted November 14, 2006 Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 This is the link: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/registration.htm although it's not working at the moment...which is strange. Is it too early to register for the January test? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted November 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 Registration starts on November 15 at 12:01 a.m ET. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireDragoonX Posted November 14, 2006 Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 removed.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted December 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 bump I know everyone is probably entrenched in finals right now and isn't studying (I know I'm not) just wanted to check back on this thread to see how preparation was going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utscdave2 Posted December 30, 2006 Report Share Posted December 30, 2006 Hey there, I'll be rewriting it this January 27th. I scored: 13 PS 8 VR Q WS 12 BS in August 2006. I missed the VR cutoffs by two points for Western and Queens, and by 1 point for UofT. I live in Toronto but unfortunately I'll be writing it in Montreal because I signed up late. I'm studying over the holiday break right now. I'm using EK for quick science review but I'm really concentrating on my verbal reasoning. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Just wanted to say good luck to all those writing tomorrow (including myself). I'll post on here about how it went tomorrow afternoon/evening. Normally I'd be celebrating, but I think I'll probably be studying for my multiple term tests occuring next week. Lata. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Good luck guys!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyleh Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 I second that^. Hope everything runs smoothly:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Good luck to all of you writing right now!!! I'm sure wherever Jochi is, she's sending her positive vibes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Good luck to all of you writing right now!!! I'm sure wherever Jochi is, she's sending her positive vibes Ah shoot, I thought he was writing yesterday!!!! Gotta catch up on the positive vibes for today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Hey everyone, Just got back from writing the first CBT MCAT. Well, it was interesting. I went to a place where there was only 5 of us writing, so the room was super small. Check-in took about 5-7 minutes per person and involved the scanning of my liscence, the confirmation of all my information, and the taking of my index fingerprints on both hands. Anyways, everyone starts in around 1-minute intervals where you are led into the room individually. The room we were in had a camera facing each stall and it was being video-taped (kind of creepy). So, if you were cheating at some point in the test, they'd know. So, you can do the tutorial on how the CBT works. I did a free one on the internet a couple days ago so that wasn't bad, however, I was allowed 20 mins for that one, whereas you were only allowed 5 mins for todays. The computers were about 3 to 4 years old. They used CRT monitors and non-scroll BALL mice which I found pretty annoying. You can highlight the text within the test and cross out wrong answers. PS 52 questions 7 passages 70 minutes I found this section harder than the Aug. 06 one I wrote. In fact, all of the sections seemed harder. There were some super easy questions, and some super tough questions where I almost felt blown away. Generally though, the concepts tested where the same, except there wasn't really multiple testing of the same topic. So, you can still except acids and bases, energy and momentum, and the major ones. Everyone now-and-then there was a less common concept tested like binding energy in nuclei, but that is fair game. I found that I moved a bit slower than I did in Aug. 06 and only had about 5 mins left at the end. The good thing about the CBT is the option of reviewing your answers to see which ones you haven't done and which ones you "marked". Marked answers at the questions you are essentially unsure about and want to come back to later on to check. Marked answers get graded so you don't have to unmark all of them. This was especially helpful seeing as I almost forgot to do the last free standing questions after the last passage. I found to be successful on this passage, you really either needed to know your concepts extremely well or have memorized quite a few things about what to do in certain problems. Overall, I'd consider this one of the harder MCATs I have done. VR 40 questions 7 passages 60 minutes The time went by INSANELY fast. You have less time for this section than the paper so now not only do you have to read very fast, but you also have to be able to synthesize and analyze quickly as well. The verbal is exactly the same as before, just faster. I ended up guessing on the last two questions and didn't get a chance to put an answer for another one. I am kind of disappointed by my performance on this, but I'm pretty sure its a lot better than my Aug. 06 perforamance...well...actually I'm not that sure. I was pretty sure last time too . Overall, try to get into the habit of not making notes when doing this section, its difficult because you'd have to write it on your scrap paper provided, and highlighting tended to distract me. WS 2 prompts 30 mins each Exact same format as the paper, except you are typing instead of writingl. I don't know what the maximum allowed number of characters is, but I tried to write as much as possible. Also, I'm pretty sure I'd seen both my prompts previously, or prompts very similar to it. When I looked at the first one, I was quite surprised by it. BS 52 questions 7 passages 70 minutes Similar to physical except my test had emphasis on human physiology, molecular genetics, and microbiology. For the questions I just didn't know on this section, it was due to a lack of studying, not understanding. Some of the questions were just direct memorization questions found in the passages. So, when you study this, I recommend just taking the necessary courses especially if you don't want to study some of the material on your own. Also, some of the questions were pretty straight forward and didn't present as many "tricks" as in physical science. For this section, the understanding of experiments and major concepts are probably the main things that will get you success. I finished with 15 minutes left, which was much faster than my Aug. 06, and I think that is because I wasn't as tired. An advantage of CBT is the fatigue factor is really minimized. Also, no more 1 hour break, just 10 mins in between, so make you have snacks that are good enough to last for 1-1.5 hours. I had a 780mL gatorade to last me the day, 3 bananas, and quaker oats bars that were very good. You are given scrap paper that you must return at the end of the day. Try to get it sharpened right before you do the writing sample. The reason is because I usually spend 5 mins pre-writing for the writing sample and my pencils became dull. They aren't mechanical, just regular old school pencils. You are given head phones to block out noise during the day. I used them for the PS, but my ears have been feeling funny lately so it felt like pressure was building up, so I took them off. However, when I got to my BS, someone was still doing the writing sample and literally hacking away at the keyboard, so I put them back on, then took them off again because of my ears...lol . While in BS, because I was at the Sylvan learning centre, I could hear some kid screaming, but I drowned that out. I had sort of expected that because I scoped out the building about a week ago, so I did my practice exams in a loud computer lab at my school. Overall, I'd say the CBT was probably harder than the paper, but I wasn't as tired as I was during the paper. The biggest difference was the difficulty of some of the questions, and the noticeably reduced amount of time in verbal reasoning. Let me know if you have any questions. K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Looks pretty thorough!!! So, when are you expecting your scores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Kuantum, clear out your inbox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 you can try again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Jochi, ask your questions in public so everyone can benefit...and no private flirting with Kuantum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Kuantum, for VR, did you find that the questions were more-or-less evenly distributed or did you have like a passage with 10 questions and others with 4-5? In August, the 2 passages I didn't have time to read well had 10 questions each & killed me. Also, for BS and PS, are there now like 10 free-standing questions instead of 15? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Umm...I can recall some of the VR passages being longer than the other ones, but there weren't any 10-question passages. I think the longest may have been 7 questions, maybe 6. I'm not sure how many free-standing questions there are, but I know they showed up after the 2nd passage for sure and I think think after the 5th or 6th, then again at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vip_138 Posted January 27, 2007 Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 You have less time for this section than the paper so now not only do you have to read very fast, but you also have to be able to synthesize and analyze quickly as well. don't you actually have more time. you technically get 1.5 min/question on cbt vs. 1.4 min/question on paper or, by passages; you 8.57 min/passage cbt vs. 8.5 min/passage paper (assuming 10 passages in total). edit: this is concerning VR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2007 Actually no, all MCATs I've ever done (including practices and 1 real one) only have 9 passages. I've never encountered one with 10 and I don't think most people have either. Paper 85 mins for 9 passages 85/9 = 9.44 mins per passage CBT 60 mins for 7 passages 60/7 = 8.57 mins per passage. <--- this made a significant difference Also, assuming the average amount of time to read each passage is 5.50 minutes. Paper (5.50minutes/passage)(9 passages) = 49.5 minutes spent on reading the passage 85 minutes - 49.5 minutes = 35.5 spent on answering questions 35.5/60 = 0.59 minutes per question CBT (5.50 minutes/passage)(7 passages) = 38.5 minutes spent just reading passages 60 - 38.5 = 21.5 minutes spent on answering questions 21.5/40 = 0.54 minutes/question So either way you look at it, by passage or by question (assuming the average amount of time per passage is 5.50 minutes) CBT is shorter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.