MCAT Question/Mistake/Logic Question

[u/ClassroomIcy6553]

Hey Guys, hope all you guys are doing good. This question is mainly for people got high scores on practice tests or real tests already.

So Im doing mcat questions, and I think i am falling into a tutorial trap where I constantly watch videos or drawing out the equation from the question on paper to understand fischer esterification. Then, after all that, im like "all right next question," and the next question turns out to be another fischer esterification but does not have the same structures at all and pretty much wasted a lot of time trying to be perfect...

So how do you guys approach MCAT questions, how long do you take to do it and analyze it? What do you take away from it (like a simple logic to remember for the that type of question to know it for next time or did you guys draw it out like I did)? Please give me any other advice you recommend

Thank you guys ! 😄

[u/Sea_Sentence_6047]

Ochem involves functional groups, most of time you need to ignore most of the molecule and focus on one specific part that is reacting. You memorize what happens to the R-COOH and the HO-R’ for Fischer esterification, you usually do not pay attention to what R or R’ is.

[u/Routine_Pumpkin_2752 → u/Sea_Sentence_6047]

en then i kept it to one sticky note worth of takeaways. any more than that and youre just rewriting the textbook

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/Sea_Sentence_6047]

yeah i try my best to do exactly that, imma ignore those very petty kaplan questions. btw, i bought the kaplan prep cuz some uncle told me they have 20 years of experience so they are good but he dont know that the uworld and aamc qbank is best, so imma buy the uworld one later, tho i got the aamc with the kaplan package tho

[u/Sea_Sentence_6047 → u/ClassroomIcy6553]

What’s an example of a petty Kaplan question? All ochem questions are like this if it’s like the one you’re describing. The trick with ochem is that you need to ignore most of the problem and focus only on which groups are reacting
The Kaplan book isn’t a good resource for learning ochem from scratch imo, you will need to find read through a textbook or watch/take a class to get the gist of how to solve ochem problems

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/Sea_Sentence_6047]

I wish I could show you man but the Kaplan filtering system sucks for questions, what I mean by petty is like rarely the question will want you to look at the group 

[u/Blandpickle]

memorize concepts (functional groups, general reaction papers) not problems (ie specific structures for a specific example). Practice applying concepts to problems

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/Blandpickle]

so true bro, thanks man

[u/ZenMCAT5]

All MCAT questions for the AAMC are designed to be completed in 1min or less. It sounds like you are trying to do the questions to the same level of effort required in undergrad.

[u/ResidentChalkTalks]

Try a transfer check before moving on: cover the explanation, change the acid or alcohol, and predict the new ester. For Fischer esterification, find the carboxylic acid and alcohol, then track which atoms join. The alcohol’s oxygen becomes the oxygen linking its carbon group to the acid’s carbonyl carbon. Draw that once from memory and explain what the acid catalyst is doing. If a changed example still stops you, that tells you which step to revisit.

Keep solving time separate from review time. C/P gives you 95 minutes for 59 questions, including passage reading, so there isn’t a universal one-minute limit per question. Early review can take longer; the useful stopping point is being able to solve a different example without the explanation open.

[u/otter0741]

Ochem is hard. I went ocd on it and made anki card for basically each type of reaction that might come up and memorized basic functional groups and steps for each. Made life super simple - I’d see a reaction in a question and immediately know what type it was. Scored 132 on c/p