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Studying @ Biological Sciences MCAT - I have discovered the content is relatively straight-forward. The questions are not . . .
Here's some examples that I made up, trying to mimic the sort of things that I've seen. [You need no Biology background] All are T/F questions. Try to answer each in 60 seconds or less.
1. It's false that I will not die if I don't exhale (orally but not nasally) oxygen before inhaling.
2. Thrombin in high concentrations activates Rho-Kinase for a duration. At low concentrations, activates it transiently. The direct effect of Thrombin on M-Phosphatase is not exactly known. Active Rho-Kinase activates MLC which promotes consumption of ATP. M-Phosphatase deactivates MLC. Active Rho-Kinase deactivates a portion of M-Phosphatase. (For a duration or transiently). A muscle cell is injected with low amounts of Thrombin. You observe a decline in ATP and then an increase.
Q: It is not inconceivable that a portion of M-Phosphatase does not deactivates a portion of Rho-Kinase. (For a duration or transiently)
3. A volt meter observes an action potential originating from the NMJ, down the T-Tubule, stimulating a release of intra-intra-cellular Calcium to intracellular Calcium, deactivating Troponin, activating consumption of ATP by myosin and muscle contraction by actin. Hormone X stimulates Troponin. Extracellular Calcium stimulates Hormone X.
Q: You observe muscle contraction. It is not true that calcium is not necessary in not stimulating Hormone X and/or released from either inside or outside the cell stimulating the deactivation of an activation trigger in Troponin.
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Ouch. I'm really glad I don't have to deal with the MCAT, that does look quite nightmarish :X
Lemme try the first one though ><
So... I will live if I don't exhale oxygen before inhaling. True since you don't need to exhale oxygen to live.
The above is false. False.
So false?
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1. TRUE i guess (if you dont exhale sometime your lungs are full or smth like that so you have to exhale)
2. TRUE i guess ( M-Phosphat has no influence on R therefore it is not unconcievable)
3. Doing this in my native language would be easier ._.
MCAT is some kind of acceptence test you have time to prepare for ?
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Here's how I would do it. Obviously this won't work for everything but here goes.
Cross out negatives that interfere with each other, like "false/inconceivable" and "not." Just make it "true/conceivable" and delete the not. This would make the first one
It is true that I will die if I don't exhale oxygen before inhaling
Now the question is much more manageable.
Now some words like "never" and semi-negatives like "hardly", "barely", "may" can't cancel out "not" very well. In that case, try to reword the question. So "Oxygen never does not bond with non-metals." Becomes instead "Does oxygen ever bond with metals?" Again, much more manageable.
This will be much easier if you can write on the test or scrap paper. I am unfamiliar with these exams, and since it's biology fact based instead of math or reading analysis I can't make a reasonable guess.
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The MCAT biological science questions are nothing like those questions.
It's multiple choice and mainly conceptual questions and very straight forward. The only difficult part about biological sciences is if you read too fast, you might miss a certain detail and answer the question which is correct if you hadn't taken that detail into consideration.
And to be honest, verbal reasoning isn't even like those questions either. Verbal reasoning has more to do with reading between the lines and getting the sense of the thesis of a passage as opposed to unravelling layered negatives.
MCAT is a test of basic sciences, from my experience, it does not try to trick you at all. Physics is straight forward, biological science rewards those that are careful in reading the question and verbal reasoning asks very good questions albiet comprehension necessary to do well in verbal reasoning is at a high level.
Those questions you put forth seem to have an intention of trying to confuse people, MCAT questions are nothing of the sort. A more realistic MCAT question would be like:
What is NOT found in the nucleus of a cell.
A
B
C
D
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On September 10 2012 08:41 Tynuji wrote:
The MCAT biological science questions are nothing like those questions.
It's multiple choice and mainly conceptual questions and very straight forward. The only difficult part about biological sciences is if you read too fast, you might miss a certain detail and answer the question which is correct if you hadn't taken that detail into consideration.
And to be honest, verbal reasoning isn't even like those questions either. Verbal reasoning has more to do with reading between the lines and getting the sense of the thesis of a passage as opposed to unravelling layered negatives.
MCAT is a test of basic sciences, from my experience, it does not try to trick you at all. Physics is straight forward, biological science rewards those that are careful in reading the question and verbal reasoning asks very good questions albiet comprehension necessary to do well in verbal reasoning is at a high level.
Those questions you put forth seem to have an intention of trying to confuse people, MCAT questions are nothing of the sort. A more realistic MCAT question would be like:
What is NOT found in the nucleus of a cell.
A
B
C
D
sounds like you took the thing before 2011 or so.
the test has gotten much more complicated and diffficult recently. even the practice tests provided by the test-makers themselves don't reflect how obtuse the test has become.
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I took it in 2011...
Furthermore, 2012 tests i believe are removing the writing sample so it should be much less stressful and I found the practice tests from the aamc to be fairly accurate of what the MCAT was like except for the getting used to the program for the CBT, but they give you a tutorial for it anyway.
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well i took it only few months ago, and i mostly agree with the OP's characterization.
recently, the tests (especially the BS) have been much more convoluted in comparison to the AAMCs
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I took this test 9/11/2012 and the questions in OP are ridiculously worded. Waaay too convoluted and serve no purpose other than to fuck with the test-taker, which in my experience was not the case at all.
Just thought that I would point that out in case future medical student hopefuls on TL search up MCAT and read this stuff... Not that it matters, practice tests on AAMC will show that the OP is not accurate anyway.
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1. It's false that I will not die if I don't exhale (orally but not nasally) oxygen before inhaling.
Fuck, fuck this shit. All my biology tests are the same, all these double negative bullshit they just use to fuck with you /rage.
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Wow... And here I am stressing about studying for the MCAT and I had no inkling that the questions would be worded that way from my practice questions... -_-"
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Never taken the MCATs or actually any science test past grade 11, however, trying to decipher the first question I realized something. They are "weeding" people such as myself out. The skill they are requiring of you there is a strong working memory, that is able to hold multiple pieces of information at once and manipulate them. It makes sense if they want people who are good at doing sciencey stuff that.
I always understood the theory of math and science intellectually, but i was never good at using it in practice because of that weakness that the first question highlights. The amount of information I can manage at once is easily exceeded, making me useless for tasks that require such a skill. Science curriculum seems to want that skill, though I can't say why.
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EPT
