Hi everyone,
I haven’t visited in a while because I’ve just gone through the SEMESTER FROM HELL!!! (ha ha!) Anyway, I wanted to check back in and see how everyone is doing. This past semester I took the MCAT, organic 1, physics 2, molecular bio, a psych course and the Princeton Review prep course. Yikes… My husband has forgotten what I look like. I have no idea what to do with myself now. I wake up and have nothing to study (although I should probably start studying for the Beast again soon). All has turned out well so far- all A’s in my classes and will apply this cycle given that my MCAT is 28+. I hope to hear from all you fellow OPM’s out there. I just want to say to those who are beginning the process of taking prereqs that it can be done. I was a musical theatre major 9 years ago with no previous science courses and with a lot of hard work I managed to pull it off.
Cheers!
That’s great that you managed to survive so nicely!!! It is wonderful to feel that your head is above water.
I am curious…am I reading your post correctly…did you take the MCAT with only Organic I and not Organic II?
yes, I was taking org 1 when I took the MCAT this april. It wasn’t too bad. I was managing to get decent scores on the practice tests without Org 2 so I decided to go for it. I will take it 2 this summer. Thanks for your nice reply!
this topic has come up here and I was wondering if you could give us some info about it?
1. Did you have any troubles with the organic on the MCAT since you didn’t take part 2.
2. Was it because you took Princeton Review and that gave you the info you needed?
I hope you did well in April on the MCAT. The countdown continues. I remember counting down the days till the mail came with my scores, although I guess you all can get them online now.
Well, I have to say yes, that the org 2 on the MCAT was a little beyond my reach. TPR did help a little, but not as much as having taken the class. I found, however, that I was able to achieve 10’s and above on the bio section by focusing hard on the bio and org 1 stuff and giving myself a crash course in NMR and HNMR. This was on the AAMC practice tests so I guess I’ll find out soon enough if it was sufficient for the real thing. I’ll be better able to judge then. On the real MCAT, there were a few questions on ORG 2 that I had to guess but it seemed most of them were concerning stereoisomers, sn1 and sn2, E1 and E2 and I
remember one about HNMR. I am most worried about the VR section. I think I really screwed up. I had to bubble in C’s on two and a half passages! I will probably be sitting again in August. I need to work on my reading speed.
How was your premed journey? You are in med-school now? I’d love to hear how you did it and what your experiences have been.
I actually will start med school this fall. It was a long and bumpy road with lots of pitfalls that I had to over come. I have 2 kids and a husband and jumped into classes fulltime for 4 years including summers. It was definetly a challenge and i really had to develop a plan on how to handle family time and balance it with school time.
Looking back now it seems that the time flew by. My daughter was 3 and 1/2 when I started and now is 9. I am a reapplicant that got waitlisted the first time and then didn’t apply the following year. I was crushed at not getting in and hid myself away from anything medical for a year. But my MCAT expires this year so I knew it was now or face that dreaded MCAT again and there was NO way I was going to do that.
Although I might be able to get a higher score now due to having time on my hands to study that I didn’t have when I took the test. Plus my grandmother was dying the first time I took, then she died during my finals and then I took it again that august 1 week after my daughter had surgery so it was a very very stressfull time in my life. I figure if I could get through that I can get through anything med school is going to throw at me.
I have written a bit more about my journey under the VP canidate thread.
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showpost.php?post//
It has been a challenge and I would encourage you to keep pushing forward and not look back on anything that gets in your way. If you do have to repeat the MCAT in august, I would suggest to get through the VS in the time alloted, to do lots of practice tests and make sure you are timing them at home. That is the only way to build up your speed. Good luck.
wow, Amy! You have accomplished so much. I don’t know if I could do it with two children to worry about. You are certainly one to be admired. Thank you very much for your replies and inspiration. Congrats on your acceptance!