Said this before but fucking MCATalyst PS doc is OP. Grinded the Anki deck all of Sunday and had 1200 reviews due yesterday but man I felt like I was flying through that.
Last FL, hope to see this result test day!!!
so ur telling me i cant read ffs
Can someone clarify if I nailed the difference down?
Hawthorne Effect is when behavior changes just out of awareness that you are being watched/observed
Impression Management is when you want to appear like something specific to people, so you work on how you are going to appear in the back stage, then in the front stage you act as that trait or whatever
Social Desirability Bias is the tendency to give socially acceptable answers instead of what you really believe when filling out surveys/questionnaires:
Social Facilitation is when the presence of others improves your performance on easy/well rehearsed tasks but damages it on hard/unfamiliar tasks
Demand Characteristics is when a participant in a study picks up on cues about what the experiment is actually testing or what result the researcher is hoping for, and then changes their behavior to match (or sometimes deliberately contradict) that perceived hypothesis
and an example to demonstrate each one:
- Hawthorne: "I noticed these fine ass girls looking at me and I found myself smiling more, standing taller, speaking with a deeper voice, and walking slower without really planning it"
- Impression Management: "I'm going on a date with this fine ass girl tomorrow, so I'm going to dress really nice and wear my linen pants and some fresh ass cologne so she thinks I'm sexy"
- Social Desirability Bias: "this survey I'm filling out just asked me for my opinion on fat people, I don't really like fat people, but I don't want to get cancelled or seen as rude, so I'm gonna write that I think they are nice and cool"
- Social Facilitation: "Bro I'm just amazing at basketball, I've been playing it for my whole life, and when a crowd watches me, I dribble even better and score more 3s. However, I'm not the best at Football, and when people watch me play, I tend to miss more shots."
- Demand Characteristics: "I'm participating in a study and all these questions the researcher is making me answer are about how stressed I feel after drinking coffee, I feel like the researcher is testing if caffeine causes stress, I'm gonna rate my stress higher now because I think that's what he wants to see"
Thanks in advance :)
Testing 09/05. Any input will be appreciated… I may be be suffering from what they call “functional fixedness”
Just seeing if anybody has any niche topics I should know before the big day, or that could show up that I can add to my flashcards.
I initially planned on doing my exam in another country (my country doesnt offer the exam) on september 3rd but the exam got cancelled and i am not able to find any available seat in other nearby countries. i really need to do this exam this september or im gonna have to wait until next cycle to apply (and i cant afford to take a gap year). I'd really appreciate any advice on where to go from here. Thank you.
You heard it here!
5 years ago I went into the MCAT raw and scored a 500. Now I am concluding a PhD from a top 3 research institution in the world in clinical pharmacology and am going to try it again. This was not a decision I took lightly. Over the years of my PhD study I tried to immerse myself in the research I was doing and become truly passtionate about it. While I do love the field, and the field of oncology drug development, it still feels a little abstract and pointless to me without the human connection. So, here I go I guess. Studying this time!!!
ppl with a 515 better watch out for a cease and desist courtesy of the Daniels' family pretty soon...
For context, I've been taking a massive interest in hair loss medications and skincare pharmaceuticals, and the amount of things I see overlap with what I've learned when studying for the MCAT is insanely satisfying.
To give an example, let me talk about Minoxidil,
Minoxidil gets converted to its ACTIVE FORM Minoxidil Sulfate via sulfoTRANSFERASE ENZYMES in the hair follicles when applied topically.
Hence why in people that don't have enough sulfoTRANSFERASE ENZYMES on their scalp, less minoxidil will be converted to its active form, and it will not work for them (fun fact, topical minoxidil only works for around 40% of people)
Or to give another example, let's mention Tazarotene
Tazarotene gets rapidly metabolized via ESTERASE enzymes, to its active form tazarotenIC ACID which is a selective AGONIST for INTRACELLULAR Retinoic acid RECEPTORS (RAR-beta and RAR-gamma), therefore functioning as a NUCLEAR HORMONE RECEPTOR LIGAND/TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR
maybe I just sound stupid geeking over this, but the amount of doors this knowledge opens up for you is crazy, and I can't wait to learn and apply more of this knowledge in the future.
The sciences we are learning are extremely applicable to several fields, and contrary to popular belief, they are not just useless things that you will never see again after taking the exam.
I’m talking abt mint, lunch, bathroom breaks, all little details abt test day bc im going into this very blindsided idk how test day works.
Testing 8/22
Im testing in 3 days and this entire week I feel incapable of doing anything </3 Every time I try and review some content I suddenly feel like I dont know anything and get crazy anxious and overwhelmed
Ive been doing ok on FLs (fl6 was 131, 126, 132, 130, my other past few were also 518-519) but cars has been freaking me out because Ive been getting anywhere from 125 to 130 and Im Canadian 🫠 I also havent finished pankow or sb2 so at this point Im wondering if its worth trying to cram finish these before the exam or if I should just accept and trust what I know and take it easy
Took the exam (2nd attempt, first was in 2020) on May 22nd. I was a goober and didn’t contact Pearson before to ensure I would actually be given the accommodations I was approved for. Showed up on test day and got a 501 which was more than a handful of points below my FL average. Anyway, got this message from my father-in-law this morning after sending “HELP” along with a screenshot of my AAMC email reminder about my retake on Friday. Hope this makes you giggle. YOU GOT THIS!!!!!!
A while ago I had a chat with a professor, when I returned to UNI after 14 years, and before I started MCAT prep/application for undergrad med....
They said in a nutshell..that money and time is a barrier they don't talk about in the "anyone can apply", "it's a holistic admission process" (school I'm applying to).
I brushed it off, but it stuck in the back of my mind…until I took my mcat, until I started my application...if you don't have money the free resources are disorganized, especially if you are non trad with no science background, you then spend your time organizing and finding resources, I can't move back home, I can't take EI, volunteering is wishy-washy because my time is spread thin already....I run a business and have to work to pay bills, so my time is precious and limited, I don't have a lot of money, and after being in this position I realized my professor was absolutely right.
I have studied every waking moment I have free, voluntered when I can, went into debt just paying for application costs and fees, taking a tiny amount of work off to study more, and I haven't even bought any help....I am grinding, and I see people say I bought this, I took a year off, my parents paid for this and that, that's awesome appreciate what you have because some people are not so lucky.
I know it's probably well known, but it's a real punch in the gut, in order to have more time I need more money but to make more money I need more time, it's not an excuse, I truly feel if I grind hard enough there's a chance I can get in (so do a lot of supportive people in my life) but sometimes that grind costs more than you have and life isn't fair, it's not an even playing field, and yes I know that's life in our current society…
I guess the point is appreciate what you have, acknowledge that other people don't have the same amount of time or money, be mindful when you comment on people's post, don’t assume they have what you have, don’t assume they can just make more time appear, or buy support, and please don’t put them down...some people are already at the bottom...
Edit: I also forgot to mention Everytime I need an accommodation letter or form filled out it roughly costs me 180-200$ per appointment....just to get the "chance" at getting accomodations....
My test is coming up and I'm trying to make sure I review everything one more time before the real deal
AAMC is fusing the CARS diagnostic, qpack1 and qpack2 into one big question bank. They're also adding new questions
how do we feel abt this? highkey cheesed ts didn't come out earlier
I stagnated a month ago in the 507-510 range, and really didn't think I could make it to my dream score. I am genuinely so thankful that I took this full length, even though there's only three days until I test. I will be going into my test date on Friday with a lot more confidence!
All I did differently was start the section banks, ended up with a 10 point increase! 🥳There is hope!
Study schedules, mcat/life balance, tips, and in general what has gotten you such a high score in comparison to others
528+ scorers only, the rest of you are too regarded
I just had to overdraft my account for the third time because I ran out of food and don’t get paid until 2 weeks from now and now I’m just hoping the little amount I got will last.
This is just now a common aspect of my life, having to decide between choosing menstrual products or putting food on the table for my family.
I’m also in the process of studying for the MCAT (testing Sep 12th) and it’s been so hard to just pour my energy into just this especially when I just got out of being homeless not too long ago (earlier this year) and didn’t realize the lasting effects surviving that would leave on me.
Idk does this get better guys? What have you guys done that helped when it starts getting low? I know this process is insanely expensive and all these hidden fees and I genuinely don’t want anything else but man is it exhausting fighting these other battles then turning around and getting slam dunked by a CARS passage 😭😭
im not only losing hair w this section but apparently also neurons. i do a couple of passages everyday timed and end up w a COMPLETELY diff score each day.
yesterday i got 89% and today i got 50% like???? how is that even statistically possible. for context, i didnt change my strategy, all aamc passages, all timed and under same conditions, hell i even took them at the same exact hour. and whats even funnier is that i felt wayyy more confident submitting my answers today than yesterday. i give up