Guest avisee Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I thought I'd start a thread for nonspecific pre-MCAT venting. No particular questions, just feel free to share how things are going with your studying, vent your anxieties, declare your intentions to finally buckle down, etc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avisee Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 To start things off.. There are 3 weeks and a bit of time left to study. I'm working through ExamKrackers but haven't made a lot of progress lately now that I've been focusing on physics and inorganic chem. I wrote a practice test last week and just barely reached my target score, which is encouraging, but still a little worrying because it's driven me to relax my studying maybe a bit too much. I would have liked to have been done my first round of working through the science basics by the end of this week, so that I could devote August to writing prep tests and reviewing certain areas rather than still working through my first round of reading. Especially since I haven't been working these past few weeks but will be starting next week, I think. Otherwise, things are going okay. I'm trying to fool myself into thinking that MCAT day will be like a fun conference of sorts, so I don't have a whole lot of anxiety except for the daily criticisms that I spend too much time procrastinating. How are things going for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MDmmmsure Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Howdy... Well, things are a little hectic as I'm sure they are for many. I'm going into fourth year immunology and infection and therefore have a very strong background in the biological sciences.... and I've always done well in organic chemistry.... however, inorganic and physics are killing me. By the end of this week I will have completely gone over organic, physics, and inorganic chem. By the end of next week I will have completed biology. I have already practiced reading comp (Ie. gone through two practice tests) and have looked over the writing stuff. I am doing research at the UofA right now, so my days basically consist of working and studying. I have got the terrible mindset that because I have a solid GPA I don't need to do as well on this test, and therefore slacked a little in the studying department. Despite this... the last two weeks before the test will consist of practice after practice questions, with review of the weak area's, followed by six full practice tests from sunday to friday preceeding the test (my supervisor has graciously given me the week off before the test). To boot, I have to write in Calgary which means that after I finishing practicing Friday it's off to Calgary for some food and plenty of sleep. All in all, I think I could have studied harder.... but it's the summer dangit!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UTStudent03 Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 Hey avisee, I haven't done *any* practice tests yet (not counting 3R, in which I did only PS and VR). I'm sweating over PS; it's been way too long since first year physics and chem. I've been making a bunch of flashcards for studying; hopefully that will help somewhat. It turns out the physio summer course I'm taking pretty much covers 3/4 of the EK bio book so I skimmed through that pretty fast. But there's definitely no overconfidence on my part concerning the bio section, since I haven't taken second year orgo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CHUBBY Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 Hey all.. good luck...yes only 3 weeks left...i'm still most worried about the verbal..and am relying on the examkrackers passages..i'm hoping that it'll all come together in the next week few weeks as my verbal score still as high as I'd like it to be..and as for the other stuff..still need to keep reviewing and practicing over the next 3 weeks.. good luck guys!!!!! chubby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sweetstuff25 Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 ok, i'm sucking sooooo bad in VR!!! and i've done a lot of PR passages and test but can never improve my VR. I also have access to kaplan AAMC VR passage BUT I've read a lot about buying EK book on VR...why is it that popular? do they have proven techniques? should i also give it a shot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted July 26, 2004 Report Share Posted July 26, 2004 I've got the EK books, but not the 1001 Verbal Qs. I may try to borrow it. The EK books seem to be good, then again, all I have to compare it to is the Kaplan stuff. I pretty much need help with everything, but mostly PS at this point. Anyone planning on studying 8+ hours/day for the next 3 weeks?? I'm hoping to pull things together that way, otherwise, there is no point (shudder) in writing the exam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avisee Posted July 26, 2004 Report Share Posted July 26, 2004 I have the ExamKrackers set, and I think that their Verbal lesson book has been as much of a help in learning new verbal strategies as I've found in any of the other prep materials I have. I'm not sure doing a lot of practice tests has helped much for verbal - unless you find that you make common types of mistakes, it might not be the most efficient way to use your time (as in, it may or may not actually improve your score), though it obviously can't hurt. If you want to improve your verbal skills by practicing and analyzing where you go wrong, then the 101 passages could be worth buying. EK is pretty good in waking you up to some of the trick questioning and confusing logic employed on the MCAT. However, as mentioned in an old post, this could have you overanalyzing everything on the real MCAT, as EK is more consistently tricky than a real MCAT. I would definitely recommend buying the EK verbal instruction book though (ie, not the 101 passages). I'm not big on trying to employ verbal strategies proposed by prep companies, and EK is pretty non-gimmicky, but I still think I've learned some good pointers. The only downside is that the book is fairly slim, with basically 3 chapters on strategy and 3 thirty=minute exams, so you may not find it worth your money as much as a whole book filled with passages. If you want to invest the money, buying both the lesson book and the extra passages could help improve your score (and probably has a good resale value afterward, anyway) - and at the very least, the cost of the two combined is still less than the cost of rewriting the MCAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ploughboy Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 You want venting? A couple of weeks ago I picked up Arco/Peterson's book of sample MCATs. I'd flipped through it in the store, the questions looked reasonable and the price was right. Big mistake. I tried the first sample exam a few days ago. I couldn't finish any of the sections of the exam in the alloted time! Holy cow! I marked PS, discovered that my scaled score was...(wait for it)...5! Geez, that's less than half the score I got on the real MCAT PS in April! I just tossed the book away at that point. Money down the drain there... Actually, one more thing. Is anybody else dreaming about the MCAT? This morning I dreamt that I turned the paper over and discovered there was a new test section. According to the instructions, AAMC wanted to measure the "empathy and humanity" of their applicants, so all candidates were required to perform a 5-minute piano solo! The most bizarre part was the fine print at the bottom of the instructions: "no interpretive dance allowed". It's funny in retrospect, but I woke up really confused and more than a little frightened... Thanks for listening, I just had to get that off my chest. I feel much better now. pb -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (MingW32) iD8DBQFBEDTW/HNgbK3bC2wRAtGjAKCSNTWF1cZLm6qCooXwcUyIR0athQCePiHA 0HVI48y9sc9i9hrGCtwU2ZE= =jrZF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest antissa Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 ohmygod, yes! I'm so glad I'm not the only one having dreams about the MCAT. Two nights ago, I dreamt that I had just found out I need to learn Japanese for the MCAT, and nobody had bothered to tell me (and I'm not Japanese, so I have no idea where that came from). I was panicking and cramming so furiously in my dream that I woke up with a headache Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sweetstuff25 Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 haha, nice dreams everyone. i haven't had any MCAT related dreams lately but i ended up with prescribed sleeping pills. hahah i've never tried them before but they knock you out so fast you don't know what hit ya. i was having a lot of anxiety (about the mcat) b4 i went to bed thas why i could never go to bed till like 3am-4am! I just hate this verbal reasoning bs%$%! the boring practice passages just makes me fall asleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Darkfalz Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 1 week of studying left.... 6 days if you take off the friday before as recommended. =P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest medicator007 Posted August 7, 2004 Report Share Posted August 7, 2004 I'm heading out to the Maritimes for a road trip, so I'll take this opportunity to wish EVERYONE who is writing the MCAT next saturday the best of luck. Kick some MCAT ass! Medicator PS.... Take the day off before as suggested above, relax, watch some movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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