Why Can't I Get Off the Couch?

I always wondered why, when I wanted to get something done, I couldn't find the strength to get off the couch to do it.  Today I discovered the culprit and you will be surprised as to who is responsible.  The answer is gravity my friends.  The equation for gravity is as follows

It is important to understand that gravity can be exerted between any two objects, and using that equation we can find what the force is between two distinct object.  So bear with me as I quickly describe what each variable stands for, so that we will all be on the same page. 

F is the total Force of Gravity, m1 is the mass of one object, and m2 is the mass of a second object.  For our discussion I am m1, and the couch is m2;  r corresponds to the radius between both objects, which we can basically say that it is the distance they are away from each other.  Finally G is the universal constant of Gravity.

What I want you to pay attention to are two things.  First the radius variable.  As the radius decreases the Force of gravity becomes much greater.  As radius approaches zero the Force approaches a value close to infinity which means, my ass is going to be glued to that couch and there is nothing I can do to escape.  It is just too strong!  

Oh, but gravity hasn't finished with me yet, because that brings me to our second observation.  Pay attention to the m1 and m2 variables.  Well, if I increase the mass of one or both of the objects in this system, yes you guessed it, the Force of gravity once again INCREASES!  This is where I really have a problem with gravity because the amount by which my own mass increases is directly proportional to the amount of time my ass is glued to the couch, which by now we have determined to be nearly all the time since the radius is close to zero and the Force is near infinity.

It is a vicious cycle my friends, and Gravity has me in her cold hard grip.  She is a fickle lover, jealous of all distractions.  Will I escape?  My mathematical calculations lead me to believe that there may be little hope, but that is not why I am writing this.  I want this message to reach you, dear reader, so that when you see a couch you will know that you should run and run far.  Save yourself, it is already too late for me!

The Vagaries of Change

A Beatiful Sign Close to My New Home

Things have changed since I last posted.  I quit my job and moved 850 miles away from my home.  The day I took the MCAT my wife shared a surprise with me when I got home.  She told me that she had been accepted into a Graduate program at Tulane University.  I was absolutely shocked by this, because it was something I never expected.  Somehow, in less than two months I was able to find a new place to live, a new job, and relocate to an entirely new city.

I am now settled in and we have established our new rythm of life, however things are different.  For one, living arrangements are vastly different from before.  I went from a three bedroom house with a nice yard, to a tiny 1 bedroom apartment.  When my neighbors have friends over, I can hear it.  They often wake me up in the middle of the night, which is something that never used to happen before.  The hallway often carries suspicious odors that whisper to me their nighttime activities.  I never realized that living in an apartment would mean being more intimate with your neighbors...you literally share everything with them, whether  you want to or not.

The smallness of our apartment and the need to walk everywhere has also drawn my wife and I closer together as well.  We have been spending much more time together, and I am now thinking that bigger is not necessarily better.  Most people dream of having a big house, but I am not so sure I want one now.  I don't like that family members can hide from each other by going to other rooms in the house.  I especially don't like the maintenance duties of a large house.  Cleaning, upkeep, and yardwork take up so much time.  Now these are things I don't have to worry about, and I love it!

A View From my Morning Commute

My work routine has changed as well.  After moving here, I decided that I would bike to work everyday instead of driving the car.  Many things contributed to making this decision, such as traffic, expensive parking rates, and my lack of knowledge of the city, however, the main reason is because I was really craving a way to lose weight.  As an aspiring Physician I think that it would be hypocritical to meet patients as an overweight person.  If I am going to preach the high principles of healthy living, then I must also follow those principles as well.  My problem is that I hate going to the gym, especially when I have to do it by myself.  Forcing myself to bike to work accomplishes several things at once.  It allows me to learn the city, it provides me with a means of transportation, and it ensures that I get a healthy dose of exercise every single day.  With a 22 mile round trip I have already managed to lose 10 pounds in two weeks.

All of this upheaval has been difficult, yet instructive as well.  I have learned that sometimes we need a drastic change that will take us out of our comfort zone.  In the short month I have been here I have totally revolutionized my lifestyle.  I look back on who I was before and I am amazed at the change that has happened in only one month.  Most people battle to keep things from changing, because that way they never have to face a scary or uncertain situation.  It is those situations, that makes us grow the most.  The more of them I experience, the more I look forward to it.

All of this has caused me to evaluate my personal goals as well.  Last year I was so sure I would get accepted into Medical School that I was rocked when the rejection came.  This year, I decided I have to prepare for it.  I must have a contingency plan in place so that I can smoothly transition into plan-B instead of being caught unprepared.  I was scared to quit my current profession before, because the stability that an Engineering income provides is very comforting, however I have realized I am reaching a point where I need to go the extra mile if I am really serious about Medicine.  If I am not accepted this cycle I will be going to Graduate school starting in January to study Neuroscience.  I have finished all the pre-med courses that I can take at a community college.  The only thing left ot me now is some GPA redemption by going through a Graduate program.  GPA redemption isn't my only goal, because I also want to study something that I find interesting while also continuing to prepare me for Medical School.

Change can be scary, but change is necessary.  The saddest thing to me is to see someone who has done the same thing, in the same place, for thirty years or more.  I know there are probably many reasons for this, but to me it looks like they were scared to go further, so they decided that where they were at was "good enough".  The possible risk to go further was too much for them so they settled.  I hope that I never settle in my life.  I hope that when I reach my goal of becoming a Physician that I will go even further from there.  I never want to be satisfied with where I am at, because the alternative is scarier than any nightmare I could ever dream up.

Being Successful

Sort of cliche, but sports are an appropriate metaphor for success

I often think about success, and say to myself "Wouldn't it be great?"  I don't think I have the traditional definition of success where the end result is tons of money, a hot car, trophy wife, and a white picket fence with a two story house.  No I am always impressed by true success.  Success that people reach where they look back after a long journey and say to themselves "I made it!"

One thing I have noticed about success is that I hear other people speak of those who have achieved it in hushed tones of envy.  "Oh if I was only as LUCKY as them."  or "I could never do that, he's a GENIUS." or "It's just not FAIR" or "I just don't have the TALENT they have".  These people always look at a fully realized successful person and assume that they have always been that way.  They totally ignore the journey  that person had to take in order to become successful.  They completely ignore the hard work, the agonizing moments, the long tear-filled nights, the times of self-doubt, the times when they believed they couldn't go on...yet they did.

I find my favorite success stories by reading through blogs.  I love reading about the journeys people take to become better athletes, to learn a new hobby, or to reclaim their lives from obesity.  Every day "average" people decide that they are going to do something great.  They are going to go from a sedentary life to running the Ironman in Hawaii.  Maybe it is someone who is going to get on a bike and ride from Alaska all the way down to the tip of Argentina.  How about a person who decides that their life has been ruined by complacency and that they are going to lose a tremendous amount of weight one day at a time?

For me, I always have to start at the first post when I read those blogs.  I want to know about the days when it was impossible.  I want to read about the times when they felt weak, unable, and inadequate.  It is because I feel like this all too often, and I hope that one day someone is going to read my blog and realize that they can do it too.  I want to say now, that I FEEL like I will never become a doctor.  The cards are stacked against me.  I have an average MCAT, and substandard GPA, and I have been out of college for more than 8 years.

It is impossible for me, but I have something that all the lazy apathetic people don't have.  I just can't find it within myself to give up.  For some reason, after I was laid out flat by rejection after five years of preparation I got back up and said, "Lets try again."  Even after everyone online said, "No, it is impossible for you, you just don't have the right stats."  I closed my ears and decided to keep going.

When I start my residency, I want to look back at this post and remember what it was like when it was impossible.  Because I know what will happen when I get into medical school.  People will start saying those things about me.  "Oh it is because he is so SMART." or "I wish I was as LUCKY as him."  But it isn't true.

None of them who say that noticed the tears streaming down my face.  None of them were with me when I was defeated.  None of them sat with me during the long study sessions I had to do AFTER I had already worked a full day at the office.  None of them were there when I had to turn my wife down for date night so that I could do well on a test.  None of them used their vacation time to study those final two weeks for the MCAT instead of going to Peru for some fun.  The only thing they see is the end result, the fruits of my labor, what happens AFTER all the sacrifices.  So they simply dismiss it with a casual statement, because it makes them feel better for giving up on their own dreams.  That is the real truth, and that is why when I am successful I want to look back and remember how high the price was.

I also hope I can inspire someone, somehow.  I want them to read about my journey and realize that Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Businessmen, or whatever you choose to be has no bearing on your intellect.  It has to do with how much time you spend practicing, improving, sacrificing and moving towards your goal.  An elite athlete practices for years so that one day he can stand on the big stage and compete in front of thousands.  It is no different for the highest levels of success in any arena.

I did not improve on my MCAT score this year.  Conventional wisdom says, that after 2 tries you should quit.  That a 29 is "good enough".  You know what?  It isn't good enough for me.  After three tries, guess what?  I am going to start studying again.  Because it is all stuff I NEED to know.  Because I know I can do better, and because I want to do better....for me.

I think that the key component to success is the ability to maintain discipline.  By managing to put for a solid effort every single day over a long period of time someone inches ever closer to the success that they have in mind.  Writing a novel does not happen in a one week flurry if intense activity.  It consists of research, writing, revising, and often times throwing away large portions of script that have to be redone.  Losing weight does not happen in a week, even if commercials tell you it does.  It happens over a long period of time after someone has changed their lifestyle and committed themselves to a new discipline of diet and exercise.  My own success, hinges on daily efforts of reviewing material I have learned in the past, keeping up with current advances in medicine, and constantly striving to involve myself in the opportunities that exist to participate in volunteering or research.

Today my goals seem impossible, but I can see that every day I am inching ever closer to what I truly want.  Once I reach the starting line of Medical School I am looking forward to raising the bar even higher and making a new set of goals that will further define my new success story.

Coming Clean

I have been avoiding this post for some time, because I honestly just didn't want to come clean.  I didn't want to own up to the disappointing results of my MCAT.  I studied hard for that test, like I have never studied before in my life (and if you are familiar with this blog, this is now the third time I have taken the MCAT.)

So how did I do?  Exactly the same.  Yes, that is correct, I got the same exact score as last year.  To me it was a disaster, because the whole point was to improve, not to stay static.  The numbers tell me I haven't learned a thing, and yet I am positive I know VOLUMES more than I ever did last year.  Last year after the test I felt horrible, I was in a fog, I couldn't even remember the content of the test.  This year was different.   I remembered almost every single aspect of the test, I spent weeks beating myself up over the questions I missed, constantly going over things I was unsure of in my mind.  It was significantly more traumatizing this time around, all because I knew what I did and didn't miss.

Upon receiving my score, the feeling was horrible.  It was almost as bad as realizing I wasn't going to be able to start Medical School this year.  That every single school I had applied to did not find me worthy.  That somehow intellectually I do not measure up to anybodies standards.  I just turned 34 this year, and the thought of spending another year in exile from the path that I am convinced I should be walking, sounds like a death sentence.  I am reminded of Moses and the nation of Israel who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years  How many years will I wander before I reach my promised land?  I have already wandered these last 5 years gathering pre-requisites one class at a time.  One of those years of exile was a year of rejection.

So now we come upon this year, and a new application cycle.  I decided to apply early decision this year.  It represents a huge risk to me, because early decision means I am selecting only one University and declaring my intention to them to ONLY go to their school.  I cannot send applications to any other school until I receive a rejection letter from my early decision application.  This would happen by October 1, which means my applications would be going out late, putting me behind the curve for the rest of those schools.

Why did I take such a risk?  I did the math.  For some reason it comforts me.  There are some aspects of my life in Engineering that I will never get away from.  I only received an interview invite from one University last year, so that is the one I chose to investigate.  I discovered that if I apply early decision I have a 37% chance of getting accepted versus only a 4% chance of doing a regular application.  If I get an interview invitation my chances of getting accepted suddenly jump to 60% in early decision, versus 37% for a regular application.

So come August I will find out if I will have an interview or not.  Until then I continue to second guess myself.  Why did I work fulltime during my undergrad?  I could have had a better GPA if I didn't.  Why did I major in Engineering, instead of Theater?  I could have had a better GPA if I did.  Why didn't I sign up for a Master's program as a contingency plan?  If I get rejected, yet again, it will be another wasted year.  I find that I learn all too many things in retrospect, after it is too late.  I wish I wasn't like this.

In other news I will be uprooting my entire life to move halfway across the country.  My wife has been accepted to a Master's program for Clinical Research, and I decided it would be better to give up my career to keep our family unified than try to maintain a "long distance" marriage.  Some of this hasn't been easy, but the process of relocating, of having to solve a myriad of life problems on a tight deadline has drawn my wife and I closer together than before.  Sometimes I feel like things need to be shook up, that we need to be broken out of our routine so that we have an opportunity to rely on each other more, and build our trust in each other even more.

Some days I find it exhausting to be the one who has to carry the load, both financially and emotionally.  Often I want to quit and say I have had enough, but how can I when this empty gnawing feeling of unfulfillment will just remain and grow even greater?  I cannot allow my current misery spill over and ruin the hope I have for the future, for that is really the only thing that pushes me to move forward.  Then there are the expectations of my family.  How could I fail them, when I have already put forth so much effort?  I don't think I could bear to look my wife in the face, to see the pain in her eyes.

I am very grateful for my wife, I don't deserve her.  Even though from the outside it looks like I am the one "bringing home the bacon", the great Software Engineer making big money, while she merely studies; the truth is I see the effort she puts forth, I see the tears of frustration she cries, the resolve she has, the passion she fights with, the organizational skills she possesses, the brilliant mind she puts to use, her patience to see things through, the strong character that allows her to stand up after several crushing defeats, and secretly think to myself that I am way out of my league.  Nobody is as lucky as I am.

I feel like we have been successful because she puts forth effort every day so she can please me, and I get stuck every day doing my best to please her.  I think that as long as we both keep putting each other ahead of our own personal desires we are always going to have a wonderful marriage.  The worst times I can remember have been when I got stuck on myself, instead of following that intrinsic Universal paradigm, that law of nature more reliable than Gravity, where I should love others more than my self.  How much moreso should I love my wife then?

Coming Back to Society

Haile Gebrselassie - Probably my most favorite distance runner of all time

For the last two weeks I have been silent, but I have not been idle.  I decided to take a two week vacation from work so that I could spend my final run into the MCAT in total isolation.  Like the ancient Taoist masters who would retreat to a remote mountain cave to contemplate the Universe, I too felt compelled to divorce myself completely from society so that I might finish my preparations unimpeded.

During those two weeks I had a Biochemistry final that was soul crushing, but I did well.  I was pleased by that.  Somehow I also managed to do a practice MCAT and review it every day.  I did not do exhaustive review, but rather re-read each question and determined whether I "guessed", accidentally got it right, or if my thinking was correct.  This seemed to be an efficient method for me to find where I was deficient in my knowledge.

Much to my chagrin, I could not score over an 11 on the Verbal Reasoning sections, no matter how hard I tried.  There always seem to be several illogical choices that the test writer insists is the "most logical" answer.  Most of the time, after reading their explanation I could see why they chose the answer that they did, but in some instances I wasn't convinced.

On Saturday I took the test and I was extremely nervous.  All that effort for a mere three hours of my life.  Much to my surprise, I started to panic on the Biology section when my mind when blank for no reason.  Fortunately I was able to take a breath, regroup and get back on track.  That was a scary moment.  Even post test, I feel like I did not do as well as I could have on the Biological sciences section.  That really annoys me, since I was counting on it to help buoy my score.  On the flipside, I felt more comfortable in the Physical Sciences section than normal.

Objectively I know that I did better than the last MCAT, but how much better?  I will be devastated if it is only one or two points.  If it is three or more points, then I will consider it to have been a success.  Running into the test, I was averaging a 32 on the practice tests, and my highest was a 35 on one test.  I think that realistically I can reach 33 if I didn't make any stupid calculation errors in PS, and I managed to see through the logic traps on VR.  We shall see in thirty days.

For now I have decided to enact plan B of my journey into medical school.  The last 9 months have been very trying for me physically.  I would usually sit at work for 10 hours, after which I would go home to study for another 3 - 4 hours.  I have gained at least 30 pounds, and I do not feel like I am presentable to an interviewing committee.  To remedy this I am going to start my Triathlon training plan over again, while also doing a juice fast for the first week.  The triathlon training will serve to replenish my overall health, while establishing a strong energy reserve, while the juice fast will be to reset my metabolism.  I feel like endurance training will consume more fat than HIIT.  I just have to be able to manage the increased food cravings that are inevitable with that type of training.

Tomorrow I will input my initial body stats, and maybe a picture to help publicly shame me into following through, although I don't know how violently the general public will react to my hideous form >:]  I am excited to be able to exercise again, and to be honest...endurance training is sort of apropos to my path into Medical School.  The journey is far, but if you take a measured pace you can reach your goal!

It is Springtime!

Two Week Comparison

 
I thought I would switch up from posting about my medical journey to talk about a little side-project I have been working on.  Every spring I usually get excited and want to plant a garden.  It always goes well until three or four weeks later when weeds have sprung up, or a long dry spell comes through and inevitably wipes out my feeble efforts.

To be fair, I don't generally have much time to focus on gardening so the elements will have their way, whether it be the rapacious squirrels who always eat everything I try to plant or last year's heavy drought which sucked my plants dry.  The only thing I have had real success with have been my grape vines.  Those hardy plants grow despite me, which is a good thing.

This year I was planning on avoiding the garden altogether until I read a blog about hydroponic gardening.  The author talked about how he preferred it, because he could control everything and more importantly he didn't have to deal with bugs or weeds.  As soon as I saw that I was already 95% interested in what he had to say.  I don't know whereas I could adequately summarize what I learned in that blog, so I recommend you head on over to Hydroponic Workshop and start reading from his first post.  He takes a very scientific approach to his hobby and has debunked a lot of the myths that have been circulating about growing vegetables hydroponically.

I think that hydroponics has been unfairly treated due to the many associations with illegal production of Marijuana. If you think about it, in order to maximize their profits, those engaged in such an activity are looking for the easiest and quickest way to get their product out.  If that is not an endorsement for hydroponics I don't know what is.

As for me, I bought a simple set up and planted a tomato plant two weeks ago.  I didn't know how it would go, because I don't plan to spend much time with it, however I have been very surprised by the results.  If you look at the picture above you will see a "before and after" comparison of when I started.  In only two weeks that tomato plant has outpaced the pepper plant next to it, and I have run out of grow space since it has already reached my grow light.  Luckily I can move it outside this week since we will finally have some temperatures in the 70s, with no chance of freezing.

I am having trouble deciding how I will proceed from here.  I am tempted to plant that tomato and put more plants into the hydroponic setup so that they have a quick growth boost before going into my garden where I can set up a trellis and let them fruit.  This is opposed to letting the plant sit for it's entire lifecycle in the hydroponic setup.  The negative part to this approach is that there are only four spots for planting.

I am also considering building an "ebb and flow" system, which would give me much more space to do pure hydroponic growing.  This is an attractive idea to me, and I have learned (from the blog I mentioned above) that this can be accomplished for a fairly cheap price.  Once I have taken the MCAT, I will have an abundance of free time that I plan to use to decompress initially, before going back to volunteering and hopefully doing some research.  Rounding out this years garden looks like it will be my top priority.

After three years of substandard results, I was ready to give up.  Now I am excited about gardening again.  I can't wait to see what I can do!

MCAT Update & Study Tips

I originally planned to take a follow up practice MCAT last week, but I was derailed by a Biochemistry test that was more pertinent to study for.  After finishing up with the Biochem test, I was able to return to my original plan, so I continued my regular weekly study schedule and then took my practice test on Saturday.

This time I decided to go with one of the AAMC  practice tests, since these tests are usually the most predictive of how you will do on an actual MCAT.  This time around the test did not seem nearly as difficult as the Kaplan diagnostic I just took.  When I finished I was pleased to see that I scored a 33.  To be honest I was still a little upset by this score, since I thought I would score a 35 - 37.

When I reviewed the content I found out that the majority of the questions I missed were not due to lack of knowledge.  Several of  the questions I missed were because of some really stupid calculation errors.  A few others were because I misread the question.  This is good to know, because these are things that I can resolve quickly within the amount of time I have left.  I believe that if I had not made those avoidable mistakes, I would have scored at least a 35.

My final analysis of that Kaplan diagnostic is that it is off-the-charts difficult.  There is no reason that there should be a 10 point disparity between an AAMC practice test and the Kaplan diagnostic.  The diagnostic did serve one good purpose, and that was to frighten me enough for me to reevaluate my study techniques and make a few changes. 

If you are planning on taking the MCAT, I would like to share with you some advice that has helped me prepare.  I have tried many different approaches, and after making quite a few mistakes I feel like I am on the right path to a high score.

Finish the Core Curriculum 

My recommendation is that if you plan to take the MCAT you should not even think about it until you have finished the following courses

• General Chemistry 1 & 2
• Organic Chemistry 1 & 2
• Principles of Cellular and Molecular Biology 
• Microbiology
• Physics 1 & 2

There are also two other courses that AAMC says aren't necessary, which is a recommendation that I have recently come to disagree with.  After having taken Anatomy & Physiology and Biochemistry I suddenly find the Biology section of the MCAT, which has always been my weak point, coming into focus.  You would do yourself a huge favor if you added these to your pre-MCAT list of courses to take.

Prepare with Adequate Review

There is an essential component of preparation that everyone has to do when studying for the MCAT.  To prepare myself I chose to use the Berkely Review prep course materials.  There are several test prep companies such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Exam Krackers.  When I was doing my initial research, I discovered that a lot of the guys who scored high and wrote a "how to study for MCAT" used the Berkeley Review materials as their core, while supplementing their study with material from the other prep companies.

The first, and probably most important step, is to simply slowly and methodically work your way through every subject and make sure you really understand what is being presented.  I would also like to mention that these materials are a very condensed presentation of subject matter that you should have already covered in your undergraduate course load.  I made the mistake of taking the MCAT the first time without having finished 4 of the main core required courses.  This was an extremely stupid mistake, and led to my demise on the first test.

Identify Your Weaknesses

Once you have worked your way through all of the prep books, then the hard work begins.  You now switch from reviewing, assimilating and understanding information, to working on your instant recall, test taking skills, and identifying key weaknesses in your basic knowledge.  I believe that the way you approach this portion of your preparation will be the difference between a 30 and a 35+ on the MCAT.  

This has probably been the most difficult part of the process for me.  I like the studying, and I like understanding the material intimately because I feel like I have a more profound understanding of how the Universe works.  However, I become irrationally angry when I miss questions.  I don't know why, but I take it really personally when I miss something.  If you are like me, then you really have to approach each study session with humility, ready to miss every question, ready to set aside your ego to plow forward, otherwise you will find many excuses for why you just never get around to it.

Another mistake I have made during this phase of preparation was slamming through questions with the idea that "the more questions I see, the better prepared I will be."  That is only half-correct.  It is true that the more questions you do the more variety of questions you will have encountered so you will be less surprised by such a question on test day.  The true point of running through so many passages and answering thousands of questions is to reveal to you where your major weaknesses are.

The main point of doing so many questions is so you can show yourself just where you don't measure up.  This year I decided that in addition to doing thousands of questions I would also review every single one to see if I answered correctly because I knew the answer, or because "I got lucky".  I also decided to find out why I was missing certain questions.  If it were due to a lack of knowledge then I have been forcing myself to go back and re-read the sections I am weak in.  This has resulted in a remarkable increase in my knowledge and confidence.

Fill the Gaps

You cannot memorize every single tidbit of information, but hopefully by this point in your preparation you should have noticed that several tricky things seem to keep recurring, that cause you no end of trouble.  The things I have struggled with have been; quick calculations, hormones and their corresponding organs, light spectrum questions, and chemical reactions.  Here are a few things you can do to quickly plug some of those holes.

My Study Whiteboard

1. Note Cards - I always cringe at note card use, because I have never needed it before.  I have had a change of heart, because they do serve a very specific purpose if they are used correctly.  I stupidly bought some "MCAT Prep Notecards" from some company, that I have never used.  Instead I have found that they are most effective when you find a formula or simple relationship that you totally bombed on, so you put that on a notecard so that you can review it in your down time.  This is my opinion, but notecards only work if you fill them out yourself.
2. Mnemonics - I always thought these were childish, but now I see how awesome they are. All information is encoded in language and a mnemonic is an extremely efficient way to recall information you already know, but had trouble dredging up in the past.  The best mnemonics I have found so far deal with light, and hormones.  ROY G. BiV (Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Violet), etc.
3. Estimation Techniques - Every single prep book offers techniques on how to round to an easier number to make math quicker and give you a reasonable estimate of the answer.  I have been trained as an Engineer so I was quite resistant to this idea.  We are taught that a lack of exactness will lead to disastrous results.  Breaking this habit was difficult but rewarding.  Questions that caused me to sweat before, don't really stress me too much, and I generally finish the Physical Sciences section with plenty of time remaining.  I also like to use a small dry-erase board/markers while I am studying so that I can quickly jot things down, or work through a math problem.  I think it is way better than using a notebook, saves time, and simulates test day (you won't have previous notes jotted down to refer to).

Practice the Test

The only thing left now is to practice taking the test.  Take as many timed practice tests as you can, so that on test day the 3 blocks of question will be just like another day of study.  If you are planning on taking the MCAT, I hope that the many mistakes I have made will help you prepare in a more rational manner so you can achieve a great score the first time. 

As for me, I will sit for this exam again on May 18.  I will let you know how it turns out so that you can see whether or not my advice is worth taking.  Until then, lets keep studying!