eoosen Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Hello, I am looking for some opinions on a dilemma I am facing. My MCAT is coming up, the only med school I am applying to that requires this test is McMaster. As many of you know, McMaster only considers the Verbal Reasoning section in their assessment of applicants. This is good for me because I am sure I will do very poorly on the other sections of the MCAT. So, my question is: When test day comes, should I just answer with my best guess (since there is no penalty) or should I simply leave the sections other than VR blank? At this point, I feel like I might as well just leave them blank in order to concentrate on the part that actually counts. What do you think? Does it even matter what I do? Or, could there be consequences I am not considering here? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikimate Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Well you might as well attempt the other sections, and you never know sometimes you get lucky. Even if you do bad on other sections they won't count and you can just forget about them and focus on VR instead. If you get lucky on other sections and do better than you think you also increase the breadth of schools you can apply to as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Try your best, but save ALL your focus for VR if you choose to use this strategy. DO NOT LEAVE THE OTHER SECTIONS BLANK - YOU MUST at least guess on one question to validate your score. Otherwise your score becomes invalid if you leave the other sections completely blank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 I followed this strategy last application cycle, as I wasn't prepared for Bio or Physical. I read through the physical science/biological science to get a feel for the types of questions they were asking. I focused on verbal and scored a 10, not the greatest but it was worth a shot. I wrote Aug 5th this time round, i'm hoping for a 10...as i found the verbal i wrote much more challenging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eoosen Posted August 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 Try your best, but save ALL your focus for VR if you choose to use this strategy. DO NOT LEAVE THE OTHER SECTIONS BLANK - YOU MUST at least guess on one question to validate your score. Otherwise your score becomes invalid if you leave the other sections completely blank. Alright, this is what I was wondering about... I don't want to screw up the whole test by having an invalid score. I guess I will just choose the best answer, even if it's just a shot in the dark. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopeToBeGreen Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I was in the same situation as you and I wrote the whole test. Since VR is the second section only what you do on the first section (Physical Science) can affect your VR score. I saw the PS section as a warm up for VR. It gives you time to get settled into the room and get your brain in its MCAT place. After you've written VR you might as well write the rest and enjoy it. Start from the mindset that you are getting 0 on the rest of the test and consider everything you get right to be bonus. Who knows, you may surprise yourself and do quite well. I found you can reason out many of the questions if you just know a few basic principles. I secretly wanted to at least get a respectable score on the rest of the test simply as a matter of pride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eoosen Posted August 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I was in the same situation as you and I wrote the whole test. Since VR is the second section only what you do on the first section (Physical Science) can affect your VR score. I saw the PS section as a warm up for VR. It gives you time to get settled into the room and get your brain in its MCAT place. After you've written VR you might as well write the rest and enjoy it. Start from the mindset that you are getting 0 on the rest of the test and consider everything you get right to be bonus. Who knows, you may surprise yourself and do quite well. I found you can reason out many of the questions if you just know a few basic principles. I secretly wanted to at least get a respectable score on the rest of the test simply as a matter of pride. What do you mean, "... only what you do on the first section (Physical Science) can affect your VR score." -- how does it affect it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountantGirl Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I think he means that stressing over the first section and tiring out your brain on the first section can affect your verbal mark. Trying hard on the BS section won't affect your verbal mark because it comes after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheelnard Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 From the AAMC help desk: "Thank you for contacting the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) program. It is our understanding that some medical schools only require their applicants to take and receive scores for certain sections of the MCAT exam. However, you must open each section of the exam and select at least one answer. When you get to the Verbal Reasoning part of the test, you may then complete the entire section. We do recommend that you answer each question in every section. This will help prevent any discrepancies during submission and/or the scoring process. Additionally, it is up to the discretion of the medical school on how they will view and use your scores. We will also provide scores for every section regardless of whether or not it will be used by the school. We wish you the best as your pursue a career in medicine." I take issue with their recommendation to answer each question in every section despite only sitting the MCAT for the VR score. Any statistics that the AAMC collects could be heavily skewed by test takers guessing at answers in sections outside of VR. Just my thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc752 Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I know of several people who only intended to apply to mac (including non-science students) and only wrote the VR section. As far as I know they didn't spend any time or effort on the other sections, though they obviously must have selected at least one answer from the other sections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopeToBeGreen Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 I think he means that stressing over the first section and tiring out your brain on the first section can affect your verbal mark. Trying hard on the BS section won't affect your verbal mark because it comes after. Thanks AccountantGirl. That's exactly what I meant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon1234 Posted September 29, 2011 Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 hi guys sorry to revive this thread, but i had a question for people who guessed on the physics and bio sections. basically i had been planning all along to apply only to mac because that's just really where i want to go, so i prepped a lot for verbal and went in aiming to only do well on that section. physical sciences was totally foreign to me, i just guessed throughout the section and same with biology, the stuff was gibberish to me, but still, i felt like i was making "educated guesses" for biology at least, whereas physics was just blind guessing. now my question is, has anyone else done this before, just guessed blindly and gotten a semi-decent score? i am wondering if i should even spend the time and money applying to other schools at this point. i will not get my scores until oct 11. my family has been encouraging me to apply to schools other than mac, but i have a feeling i will have a horrible score in other sections. and who knows, maybe i bombed verbal also. i guess what i'm asking is, has anyone ever gotten lucky and ended up with a somewhat decent score by just blindly guessing in one section? is it worth it for me to apply to other schools with this hope? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted September 29, 2011 Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 hi guys sorry to revive this thread, but i had a question for people who guessed on the physics and bio sections. basically i had been planning all along to apply only to mac because that's just really where i want to go, so i prepped a lot for verbal and went in aiming to only do well on that section. physical sciences was totally foreign to me, i just guessed throughout the section and same with biology, the stuff was gibberish to me, but still, i felt like i was making "educated guesses" for biology at least, whereas physics was just blind guessing. now my question is, has anyone else done this before, just guessed blindly and gotten a semi-decent score? i am wondering if i should even spend the time and money applying to other schools at this point. i will not get my scores until oct 11. my family has been encouraging me to apply to schools other than mac, but i have a feeling i will have a horrible score in other sections. and who knows, maybe i bombed verbal also. i guess what i'm asking is, has anyone ever gotten lucky and ended up with a somewhat decent score by just blindly guessing in one section? is it worth it for me to apply to other schools with this hope? The probability value for this...is statistically very small. Then again, you can just hope and see how it goes; nothing to lose my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBoss Posted September 30, 2011 Report Share Posted September 30, 2011 I'd say the chances you did well enough on both PS and BS would be too small for it to be worth the application fees, but if you've got lots of extra cash you might as well go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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