rmorelan Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Hahahaha! Thanks for the vote of confidence. I better start saving up if I am giving everyone $200!! You are going to need to get into medical school just to eventually earn enough to pay us all that. See more motivation.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mk08 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Ok I think it's official now Law owes us $200 Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 -my logic is flawed cuz it would be hard for u to get a balanced score with ur hands stuck up somebody's a$$ (ref to jochi's dream lool)-plagiarized from sarah's blog 1. Oh God, Jochi has weird dreams. Let's not remember that one. 2. WHAT! That's a common saying!! You are going to need to get into medical school just to eventually earn enough to pay us all that. See more motivation.... Ok I think it's official now Law owes us $200 Lol. Hopefully you guys don't charge interest on the amount I have owing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 1. Oh God, Jochi has weird dreams. Let's not remember that one. 2. WHAT! That's a common saying!! Hopefully you guys don't charge interest on the amount I have owing... Prime + 1%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyDude Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Hey Law, I understand you will be re-writing in Jan but how're you going to manage the time? I understand you'll get max 2 to 3 weeks studying. Not much revision can be done once school starts in Jan. I ask because I am in a similar situation. PS: If you don't mind me asking, how many full length exams you did before the actual deed? I believe my short coming was due to my reluctance to try a lot of FL and rather practice on abstract 1001 questions from Examkrackers. Cheers And make sure you tell your grandkids how persistent you were to be a doctor. I sure will! *day dreaming now...* lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Hi AndyDude, You are correct.. Not much revision can be done once school starts, but this is going to be my third time writing and after studying last time - I feel very confident in the sciences. I also don't have midterms following Nov 3rd and so will be starting to prepare then (little by little, but it will come along - particularly given I was ultimately prepared just over a month ago). I am going to force myself to make time to study - I seem to sometimes have a knack for being a juggler. It helps that one of my good friends (lost__in__space) is going to be writing then... we will drag each other out to study marathons and make sure we stay on track. One thing I did differently that resulted in my physical sciences score jumping from a 9 to an 11 was focussing heavily on concepts at the start, but after learning them - it's all about test taking strategy and skill. Those 1001 questions are definitely a great set to instill you with the confidence to begin to take on the challenges of passage-based physics and chemistry, but by no means are they self-sufficient (in my humble opinion). What I found helped me enormously was doing difficult practice tests and passages. I was terrible at doing them at the start! I was devasatated when I started off at a 6 after reviewing with EK1001. I just kept shrugging it off and working on it and I ended up doing about 13 physical science sections. I was really focussed on what concepts I struggled with each time I wrote and thought hard about what were the flaws in my test-taking ability. I noticed that I was making mistakes on very easy questions and wasting time on ridiculously difficult ones. One thing that especially helped me was I became focussed on the easy questions (they're worth just as much as the hard ones and you have to make sure you nail these before you worry about getting every single answer right!!). My point is - keep thinking about WHAT your mistakes were and why you made them. Were you rushing? Did you waste time on hard concepts and spend too little time on seemingly easy ones? Is there a concept you need more help with? I would not be disheartened at all if you find yourself struggling. I did not crack double digits in princeton review physical science tests until a few days before my MCAT. So, I really do think it's equally important to work on test-taking skill as it is to work on understanding the concepts (if you feel you did not do enough tests, you are probably right). I also suggest working with difficult material, it makes you SO much more confident when you get easy questions on test day (and you won't panic when the questions are hard). On another note, if anyone has tips for biology, I would appreciate them!! Despite studying the material, my scores seem to stagnate at a 10. I am always around this score - it was actually my score for princeton diagnostic prior to any studying last year. I felt that with studying this year, I would pull it up... but nothing seemed to be working. Clearly there is a flaw that is not related to my ability to comprehend the concepts (otherwise with more review and practice, I would have done better and better). If people have tips on how to approach the biology section, it would be really appreciated! Good luck to all of you who are going to have to write again, I know it is a major pain... but try to keep your chin up, you will all be exceptional doctors one day! Hey Law, I understand you will be re-writing in Jan but how're you going to manage the time? I understand you'll get max 2 to 3 weeks studying. Not much revision can be done once school starts in Jan. I ask because I am in a similar situation. PS: If you don't mind me asking, how many full length exams you did before the actual deed? I believe my short coming was due to my reluctance to try a lot of FL and rather practice on abstract 1001 questions from Examkrackers. Cheers And make sure you tell your grandkids how persistent you were to be a doctor. I sure will! *day dreaming now...* lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 On another note, if anyone has tips for biology, I would appreciate them!! Despite studying the material, my scores seem to stagnate at a 10. I am always around this score - it was actually my score for princeton diagnostic prior to any studying last year. I felt that with studying this year, I would pull it up... but nothing seemed to be working. Clearly there is a flaw that is not related to my ability to comprehend the concepts (otherwise with more review and practice, I would have done better and better). If people have tips on how to approach the biology section, it would be really appreciated! AAHAHAHHAHAA clearly the flaw is related to ur ability to comprehend the concepts...or u would get better with practice. and i think this is a sign that law should give up...because ultimately, he's unable to comprehend simple biological concepts despite all the "review and practice" and so much for beating me in bio...MUAHAHAHAHHAHA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Law. Perhaps you might consider some tutoring for VR. I know you're at Western, and I've been looking to do some tutoring on the side as kind've a part time job. Let me know if you're interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dayne67 Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Yeah, I got a 7 on AAMC 10 as well. On the real thing, though, I managed to get an 11. I used EK, TPR, and AAMC's for verbal practice. I also hear that Kaplan's sectional verbal reasoning tests (1-14) are great. They are much harder than the Kaplan VR sections found on their full-lengths. The passages are more dense and the question stems are also quite long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBP Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Damn law, you're pretty thorough with your studying. I did EK only, didn't read the bio or chem books (man they were too big--intimidating). Was terrified that I was gonna do crappy. 13BS/11PS/10VR/Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addy K Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Hi AndyDude, On another note, if anyone has tips for biology, I would appreciate them!! Despite studying the material, my scores seem to stagnate at a 10. I am always around this score - it was actually my score for princeton diagnostic prior to any studying last year. I felt that with studying this year, I would pull it up... but nothing seemed to be working. Clearly there is a flaw that is not related to my ability to comprehend the concepts (otherwise with more review and practice, I would have done better and better). If people have tips on how to approach the biology section, it would be really appreciated! Good luck to all of you who are going to have to write again, I know it is a major pain... but try to keep your chin up, you will all be exceptional doctors one day! Hey Law, I got a 12 on Bio my first time writing. My advice is to not memorize facts and just know basic concepts (nothing complicated). Every time I have written the MCAT, the Bio section has required very little outside information (even for Orgo passages!). Yeah I know this advice is probably useless, but just keep in mind when you're studying you don't have to memorize much.. On another note, do YOU want to give you some advice on writing? lol I got a P and also does anyone know what I can read on a daily basis to help improve my VR (I got a 9 - damn that Satan passage ). ? I figure I won't be rewriting until the summer so I have plenty of time to improve my writing and verbal skills.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Hey Law, I got a 12 on Bio my first time writing. My advice is to not memorize facts and just know basic concepts (nothing complicated). Every time I have written the MCAT, the Bio section has required very little outside information (even for Orgo passages!). Yeah I know this advice is probably useless, but just keep in mind when you're studying you don't have to memorize much.. On another note, do YOU want to give you some advice on writing? lol I got a P and also does anyone know what I can read on a daily basis to help improve my VR (I got a 9 - damn that Satan passage ). ? I figure I won't be rewriting until the summer so I have plenty of time to improve my writing and verbal skills.. Thanks addy. This is honestly my saviour for the writing sample: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/wsprep.htm Read it to learn HOW they mark. I didn't even write a practice essay this time, I just read this and thought about it. Then randomly looked at a few prompts and tried to come up with my arguments for an essay (that's the hardest part of it for me). The thing I have learned about the writing sample is that it is all about your critical thinking. You are going to be presented with a statement. It is now your turn to take that statement and show critical analysis skills. Really go up and beyond and explore TRULY what the statement means. You have THREE times to do it. First in your synthesis, explain what the statement means and when it is true. Then in your antithesis, explain when the opposite is true. Then at the end summarize it all and explain when it is true vs when it is not. For example, on my MCAT I had a prompt asking about "The government's laws should give us as much freedom as possible." Or something along those lines... Synthesis: I described laws and how they are important in our lives... I discussed the US constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I wrote about laws that I felt would always require important. I wrote about fundamental rights that the United Nations also talks about as being essential to humanity. I even went on to say that these types of laws were 'fundamental laws' that had to be guaranteed in a functioning democracy. Why was my synthesis strong? I thoroughly explored the issue. I gave strong examples and not only provided them, but I went on to even categorize my examples as "fundamental laws." Anti-thesis: In this case, I began to show the contrary. Obviously not all laws are guaranteed. Why was this not the case? I discussed how some laws are in place to ensure that "fundamental laws" previously discussed were not jeapordized. Yes, Americans have a right to bear arms... but that does not mean they can use it at will. I also discussed the early principle of affirmative action and how restrictions on hiring are in place to again, ensure fundamental laws were not being violated. Then, I also went on to say that laws can sometimes be viewed from the lens of evolution. Some laws, I argued, started off as being restricted... but as a process of growth in democracy become less restricted as time goes on. I used the right of women to vote as this example, and gay marriage in canada (kind of risque for me to use this on an American test lol). What made this different from a typical WS? Again strong examples, but I took it beyond just showing examples. I really explored the idea of laws and why they acted the way they did. The idea of evolution of laws and by really going into WHEN this was the case, I was able to really show complexity of thought. Synthesis: Bring your points together. Tie them directly to the synthesis and summarize what your thoughts meant. Keep thinking, am I fulfilling the criteria in the link I showed above? Am I really doing the task and answering the question directly. In your attempts to be complex, it's easy to go off-topic - MAKE SURE YOU DON'T! Always see, am I answering the question and can I really explore this issue more? Let me know if you need more tips on WS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Law. Perhaps you might consider some tutoring for VR. I know you're at Western, and I've been looking to do some tutoring on the side as kind've a part time job. Let me know if you're interested. Hey Vanguard, Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I'll need it since I'm usually really good at verbal reasoning. Last year I got a 10 in verbal, and I basically have never scored less than a 9 in my practices in the past two years (except on my very first ever TPR verbal). This score really, really came way out of the blue for me. Most of the time, when I do verbal reasoning I manage to score between 10-12. When I struggle, I usually end up with 9s... anyway, I guess this just shows anything is possible on this test. It is possible to be scoring 6s and end up with a 10 on test day, or even the reverse happening! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mk08 Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 Hey Vanguard, Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I'll need it since I'm usually really good at verbal reasoning. Last year I got a 10 in verbal, and I basically have never scored less than a 9 in my practices in the past two years (except on my very first ever TPR verbal). This score really, really came way out of the blue for me. Most of the time, when I do verbal reasoning I manage to score between 10-12. When I struggle, I usually end up with 9s... anyway, I guess this just shows anything is possible on this test. It is possible to be scoring 6s and end up with a 10 on test day, or even the reverse happening! VR is a crapshoot sometimes. I wish they would only take the best scores from different administrations in each section and make a combined score form that. Afterall, you've demonstrated that you can indeed score a 10. Anyway, keep it up and nail it next time (don't forget to do a little prep for the other sections too though). Just remember that everything will work out for the better in the end. It always does! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 Thanks mk08, I wish they combined scores too! I'll be sure not to neglect PS and BS next time I write - hopefully I manage to maintain the confidence I had in the physical sciences from before, and figure out how to improve my bio mark! Starting to study on Nov 4th! dun dun dun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 Starting to study on Nov 4th! dun dun dun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 Starting to study on Nov 4th! dun dun dun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 OMFG, I actually laughed outloud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.