Milestones

Well, I've never thought that I would be this ecstatic over seeing an empty box (and, please, no dirty connotations).

So, I've been doing this Kaplan prep course for the MCAT, and for the final 4 classes, they are full length practice exams. Dave and I arranged with them so that we wrote these practices at UCFV instead of UBC, since that where we'll be writing the real thing. So, Kaplan sent these to us in a box (standard 8x11x4/5?).

For the past 4 Saturdays (including this one), that's what we've been doing.

Today, after we finished, I went to grab the box (just poking about), and noticed, to my surprise, that it was, in fact, empty.

Empty.

This is it. 4 months of hard work. Only the real test remains next Saturday.

That was milestone number 1.


So, the MCAT is one of the longest standardized tests in the world today. It comprises of 4 sections:
- Physical Sciences (1st year physics and chemistry, comprised of 10 - 11 passages, then you answer questions)
- Verbal Reasoning (read a passage, answer questions. Lots of argument and assumption dissection. 9-10 passages)
- Writing Sample (2 mini essays. 30 minutes each).
- Biological Sciences (1st year biology, and 2nd year organic chemistry, 10-11 passages).

The sciences portions are 100 minutes each, 77 questions. Verbal Reasoning at 85 minutes, 60 questions. Writing Sample at 60 minutes total. That clocks in at 345 minutes.

Just shy of 6 hours.

Throw in two 10 minute breaks and an hour for lunch, and we're at 7 hours.

Now, aside from the sheer duration, the test is long. It's a race against time. Throughout my life, I've never not finished tests (except one time when I was in Hong Kong. But that's a different story).

Until now.

Each time we write, I'd usually miss at least 3 passages overall. Usually 1 each in Physical Sciences. (Obviously, I'd guess "C".)

Today marks the first time that I've finished the entire test. Verbal was rushed, but semi-finished. I scored a tad worse per passage, but slightly higher overall on verbal (I aim to get less than 10 wrong, and generally would, if I were to finish).

That was milestone #2.

Lastly, I scored above 36 (it's graded on a bell curve type scale, total out of 3x15 = 45), a bit of a magic number that Dave and I originally shot for.

It's quite a day.

And now I must sleep.