Hi, everyone! Sara here! I took the April 16th MCAT at the Culver City location and I am still decompressing...but I wanted to give you details on what it was like.
There are two or three rooms of about 16 computer stations each. We have no control of which room we take the MCAT in, and unfortunately, one of the rooms has cubicles where the test-takers can see the person across from them. Luckily, I wasn't in that room.
I arrived at 10:40am, put my snacks and keys in the locker, got my picture taken, had my fingerprints recorded, and went into the testing room to start the 12pm MCAT at 10:55am. They're really lax about letting you go in whenever you're ready. There were two people already in the room, finishing some other standardized test. I was the first MCAT-er to enter and was seated in the back corner which meant that no one would walk past me during the test.
Unfortunately, my computer monitor was a flickering, glass-covered antique, so I was distracted at first. I could have moved seats, but I opted to stay because I'd be more distracted by people walking past me during their breaks.
I put in the ear plugs and put on the orange sound-reducing headphones. I couldn't hear a thing past the bizarre vacuum sound that comes with the headphones. Happily, I got used to it very quickly.
You cannot take a jacket or sweater off inside the testing room, but you CAN take it off outside of the room. I ended up leaving my jacket in the locker after the first section. The room was kept at a very even temperature.
I had a booklet of pink scratch paper. I believe it was 3 or 4 pages total. You could get a new booklet for each section if you wanted. Two sharp pencils were sitting at the computer station.
Starting the MCAT, I was thrown a bit by the format. It isn't like the AAMC online practice tests. Take a look at the following links:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/differences.htm
http://www.prometric.com/demos/mcat/index.htm
My nerves got the best of me during the first section (Physical Sciences) and I was wasting time re-reading questions and second-guessing myself even when I knew the answers. There were a lot more conceptual questions than I had expected. I calmed down for the second section (Verbal) and even more for the Writing Section. The Biological Sciences section was a combination of Bio/O.Chem and Verbal. One passage in particular felt like in should have been in the Verbal Section.
I took about eight minutes of the ten provided between each section, even if I didn't need the break. I grabbed my water and granola bars from my locker and noshed a bit, hit the bathroom, and then returned to the testing room and just sat there until I was ready to hit END BREAK.
A note of caution: DO NOT PULL YOUR CELL PHONES OR NOTES OUT DURING BREAKS. It's in the AAMC MCAT Rules that we cannot study in between sections, and the people who run the testing centers know this. If they see you with notes or with cell phones, they may write you up, and your scores will have some note attached to them for all med school adcoms to see.
After the test was over, all I could focus on were the questions I didn't know. I felt awful. I was happy to discover that this was the normal reaction for most MCAT-ers. It's still another few weeks until I get my scores, and until then, I'll just try not to think about how I did.
What I would have done differently:
1) more practice tests to make it feel more routine...of course, I don't know if that would have helped...
2) practice tests on many different computer screens, so that I wouldn't be as thrown as when I started the real MCAT. I got so used to taking the practice tests on my computer screen with my font and font size...
3) more time on preparing for the NERVES aspect before taking the test
4) read and practiced more essay prompts. One of the prompts I got was almost identical to one that I did as practice, so I was all set. The other one threw me because I had never practiced an essay from that topic area or had even checked out any prompts from that topic area.
5) more practice at rounding numbers
6) concentrated more on concepts and trends across the disciplines
7) been prepared to comment on the testing experience. They give you a survey after the MCAT and I typed in a short comment about my flickering monitor, but I wish I had taken the time to really write all my issues down about the experience. This being the first year of all CBT MCATs, it's important for AAMC to know the differences from facility to facility, monitor to monitor...
If you have any questions, ask away!
Good luck,
Sara
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
what test prep di you take?
I took Berkeley Review at UCLA from Jan 2nd to April 1st. They helped so much with physics, g.chem, and o.chem. Their bio was pretty good too. Taught what you needed to know and taught it well. And they have office hours that are well worth going to and extra bonus classes and How to Apply to Med School seminars!
-Sara
It's Sara again! One of the club members asked about parking and the bathrooms. We can park in the parking lot at the Culver City site. They've got a huge lot. When you turn into the driveway of the complex from the street, make your first right and drive straight, almost to the end of the lot. Park somewhere around there, if you can. The Prometric testing center is closer to that end of the business park complex. For the bathrooms, you need to grab a key from the wall by the Prometric workers' desks. The bathrooms are a bit of a walk from the testing center. You walk outside through their courtyard and through a door to the hall of bathrooms. Hopefully, it doesn't rain on your test day. Oh, and one more thing: every time you exit and enter the testing room, you have to sign the logbook, show your ID, and get your fingerprint recorded. Hopefully, there isn't a line during your breaks! Best of luck!!
Post a Comment