Would you post the definition for three types of verbal passages (e.g. structure, content, etc.), the things to notice (either for our maps or in general), and the common types of MCAT questions which follow? (Similar in fashion to your response to the science passage types).
-----------------
The three types of verbal passages are:
-Humanities. Tends to focus on art, literature, or music history, and opinions are key here! Questions tend to be weighted more towards Deduction, Incoporation.
-Social Sciences. Tends to focus on philosophy, history, economics, politics. Advantages/disadvantages/problems and solutions are common passage setups. Questions tend to be weighted more towards Evaluation, Application.
-Natural Sciences. Tends to focus on paleontology, archaeology, astronomy. Questions tends to be weighted towards Detail.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Aromatics and Huckel's Rule
Hi in Huckels rule in trying to figure out aromatic vs. anti etc whats the n stand for? and does the pi electrons count one per double bond or 2 for each double bond? thanks
-----------------------
The n here is any integer, meaning that a cyclic, conjugated compound with 2, 6, 10, 14, 18... electrons will be considered aromatic. Any other number (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9...) will not be an aromatic compound.
In looking at double-bonds, each one has two pi electrons (since there have to be two electrons involved in the sigma bond, and two in the pi bond).
-----------------------
The n here is any integer, meaning that a cyclic, conjugated compound with 2, 6, 10, 14, 18... electrons will be considered aromatic. Any other number (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9...) will not be an aromatic compound.
In looking at double-bonds, each one has two pi electrons (since there have to be two electrons involved in the sigma bond, and two in the pi bond).
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Thermodynamics test - q6
I have a question on the physics thermo quiz - Q 6. In the solution they sub the info into the equation and then add in (1m/100cm) - it is because there is a cube - I had converted the cm cubed into .1 cubed which left me numerically with the right number but the wrong exponent....
--------------------
--------------------
To go over this question, I'll first copy it down:
A balloon holds 100 cubic centimeters of air. If the temperature of the air is raised from 300 K to 350 K, what is the change in the volume of the balloon? (βair = 3.67 x 10-3 °C-1).
A balloon holds 100 cubic centimeters of air. If the temperature of the air is raised from 300 K to 350 K, what is the change in the volume of the balloon? (βair = 3.67 x 10-3 °C-1).
This uses our equation for volume expansion: ΔV = βVΔT. If we start plugging in, we get:
ΔV = 3.67 x 10-3 C°-1(100 cm3)(50°C)
Note that a change in Kelvins is equal to that change in Celsius. So, we have a little problem, as you mention – 100 cm3 is given, but they want m3 in the answer. To convert here, we have to use the conversion factor that 1 m = 100 cm. However, since we have cubic units on both sides, we’ll have to use that (1 m)3 = (100 cm)3, or 1 m3 = 1000000 cm3 (that’s 106). Thus, we can say
ΔV = 3.67 x 10-3 C°-1(100 cm3)[1 m3 / 106 cm3](50°C)
or
ΔV = 3.67 x 10-3 C°-1[10 -4 m3](50°C) = (3.67 x 10-7)(50) = between 150-200 x 10-7 = between 1.50-2.00 x 10-5
The big takeaway then is that we have to cube the conversion factor to make it work for volume here!
The big takeaway then is that we have to cube the conversion factor to make it work for volume here!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Re-Cap of Orgo III
Hey everyone!
First - please make sure to respond to the survey for MSCT III if you haven't done so already:
Also, I thought it would be fun to send this attachment along. When I first came to medical school, a bunch of my friends asked me to put together a playlist of music I like or find interesting. I thought you guys might get a kick out of it -- "100 Songs that Have Changed How I Listen To Classical Music". Included are songs from all eras of Western music (the first is from 1453, the most recent from 2002, and spanning every century in between) as well as some non-Western music (such as Devi Niye Tunai, an Indian classical-style piece). Let me know if you're curious about any of the pieces. Science (and educating people on it) may be what I do for a living, but music has obviously always been a passion of mine and I eagerly welcome the opportunity to talk about it.
We’re almost there; only one more science class left! Let’s review the homework for our Biology III session next time:
- Biology Review Notes Chapters 8 (Respiration), 11 (Homeostasis), 12 (Endocrine System), 15 (Molecular Genetics), and 16 (Evolution)
- The vast bulk of our lesson will be spent discussing the kidney and the endocrine system (especially the menstrual cycle) so if your time is limited, prioritize chapters 11 and 12 over the others.
- Online Workshop & Quiz: The Lymphatic System and the Respiratory System
- Online Workshop & Quiz: Molecular Genetics
- The Molecular Genetics OWQ reviews many concepts and topics that you do not need to know for the MCAT. While it may be useful to be exposed to some of these concepts, please do not feel overwhelmed if a lot of the information appears to be over your head.
To reinforce the concepts we discussed in Organic Chemistry III review the following:
· Separations & Purifications Test 1
· Biological Molecules Test 1
· Amines Test 1
Helpful Hints:
- Have you started incorporating full length practice tests into your study schedule? If you haven’t yet, don’t delay! Make sure you complete a number of the AAMC Practice Tests, in addition to the five practice tests scheduled in the course (you want to do at least eight full lengths before Test Day; more is better!).
- The (Crossed) Aldol Condensation reaction mechanism is nothing other than a nucleophilic attack against an aldehyde carbonyl carbon resulting in an addition product (the aldol product) followed by elimination of water to form a conjugated pi bond system. The Claisen Condensation mechanism is nothing other than a nucleophilic attack against an ester carbonyl carbon resulting in a substitution product (the beta-keto ester). All this terminology sounds super-complicated, but it’s all something you’ve seen before in Orgo II! In both reaction mechanisms, the nucleophile is formed by the removal of the relatively acidic alpha hydrogen from a carbonyl compound, resulting in a nucleophilic carbanionic carbonyl intermediate, which is stabilized by the formation of the enolate ion.
- The workshop on Spectroscopy is an excellent overview of IR and NMR! Remember that you can go back to the workshops as many times as you need to.
See you next time at my favorite session, Biology III!
Personal statement
Are 2625 characters enough for a personal statement?
-------------------
The personal statement can be a maximum of 5300 characters. While they don't require to fill that space (mine was closer to 4500 or so), I'd encourage you to extend it some past 2600. Make sure that what you add isn't filler, but adding to the strength of your personal statement!
-------------------
The personal statement can be a maximum of 5300 characters. While they don't require to fill that space (mine was closer to 4500 or so), I'd encourage you to extend it some past 2600. Make sure that what you add isn't filler, but adding to the strength of your personal statement!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Reminders
|
Have you registered for your MCAT yet? If not, DO IT! Seriously. Don’t delay. There are already no seats in Philadelphia for the January 28 or 29 tests, so you’ll have to travel if you’re taking the MCAT on one of those dates.
Don’t forget about Full-Length #2! I know we just took Full-Length #1 recently, but it’s already time to start looking forward to the next Full-Length. You should have Full-Length #2 completed by our last session (MCAT Strategy and Critical Thinking III).
Remember to send content, strategy and other questions to our class journal. The address is mchv10702.blogspot.com. You can easily post your questions anonymously using the screenname “mchv10702” and the password “letsgo45T”.
MSCT III will have to be moved. The current date of that session is Thursday, December 9. There is an honors banquet for the second-year class before we enter clinicals, and I would really like to attend. Survey:
Speaking of clinicals, remember that I start in the wards on January 3, 2011. Since my first rotation will be inpatient medicine, I am guessing it will be very unlikely that I can respond to emails and questions as expeditiously as I can these days.
Remember that I run an optional “bonus” session right after MSCT III. I will take some time to discuss a timeline for applying to medical school, and try to give you advice as we go along. I try to run it in forum-style, so please feel free to gather questions beforehand. After that, I will stay as long as anyone wants to discuss content; I don’t want anyone to leave the class without feeling that their questions have been answered. Common topics in the past have included inclined planes, the oxy-hemoglobin dissociation curve, electrochemical cells, organic projections and others.
I am aware that many of you may not have received the mid-point survey. If you did, please make sure to fill it out. Also check your spam folders to make sure it didn’t end up there. If you didn’t receive the survey, I’d still really enjoy getting feedback on what I’m doing well, and what I could stand to improve. Please send me feedback if you have the chance; you can do this anonymously by using the email for the class blog – mchv10702@gmail.com. You should all receive a survey at the end of the class. I have spoken to the national team to make sure that there aren’t issues with its distribution.
Re-Cap of Verbal III
Hey everyone!
I have attached to this email the reminders sheet I handed out in class. Please make sure to look at it and cover everything you need to as we move forward into the two months before the MCAT (for most of you).
Also, there is a survey. There is an honors banquet on the night we should have MSCT III. I would really like to go to it (I'm crossing my fingers I win something!), and I want to make sure you get everything out of this course you should (i.e., I'm not calling in a sub for our last session, duh). So I found five days that I can do the class, all around when we would be ending. I'm cognizant of the fact that finals periods start on 12/6 for Drexel, and 12/11 for USP (Penn's a bit later, at least). So I'm trying not to delay it too much -- I don't want to run into everyone's finals.
Please fill out the survey (if you can, try to do it by class tomorrow so I can let you know the result then):
To reinforce what we have covered in Verbal Reasoning III, complete the following:
- Verbal Reasoning Section Tests!
Helpful Hints:
- If you are having trouble with identifying the argument in a passage, revisit the Arguments Basic workshop to review the key components of an argument.
- For Inference Questions, the correct answer is an inference that MUST be true, not one that simply MIGHT be true. For example, if I were to state to you that we are currently in the month of March (but did not tell you the exact date in March) the only MCAT-valid inferences to be made are that we are NOT in the season of Summer or Autumn and that we MUST be in either Winter or Spring. To infer that simply because it is March it must be Spring is wrong (because it MIGHT be Spring or it MIGHT be Summer).
- Continue to work on your Writing Sample databases. Read articles from the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, or Scientific American for ideas and examples that relate to the ten Writing Sample prompt categories. If you haven’t done so already, look at the Writing Sample Items link:
- Just because I’m a major nerd and I LOVE musicology, I’d like to share with you pieces from each of the composers in that passage on page 404:
- Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, op. 64, mvt. III (How playful!)
- Mendelssohn: Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bet you didn’t know that was Mendelssohn!)
- Wagner: Prelude from Tristan Und Isolde (Interesting fact: the chord on the fourth note here, called the Tristan chord, has had more articles written on it than any other chord in music history.)
- Wagner: Prelude from Das Rheingold (The opening chord is supposed to be the entire Earth resonating).
- Schoenberg: "Nacht" from Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg’s best-known piece. The weird vocal delivery is called “Sprechtstimme,” – literally, talk-sing – and I’m pretty sure the people who made this video were on some VERY strong drugs).
- Schoenberg: Prelude from Piano Suite, op. 25 (Pardon me?)
We have Organic Chemistry III on deck, which has the following Preview assignments:
- Organic Chemistry Review Notes Chapters 11, 12, 14 and 15.
- These chapters cover the synthesis and reactions of amines, spectroscopy, separations and purifications techniques, and biological molecules (carbohydrates, fatty acids, proteins). There is no OWQ associated with Organic Chemistry III (yay!).
- The most important topics are separations and purifications and biological molecules. With respect to biological molecules, you do not need to memorize the structures of any specific molecules like glucose or histidine, but you are expected to be familiar with the basic chemical structure of these molecules and properties derived from them. We’ll talk about it further next time.
And that’s all I have to say! Wow, my shortest email ever. See you at Orgo III!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)