Today was an unbearably hot day, dew points in the 70s, which you science nerds should know means that its pretty damn muggy outside. The highlight of my day was finding a snake in my driveway this afternoon. I jumped and screamed like a little girl watching a scooby-doo cartoon. It was definitely a moment of pure embarrassment. I hope you can appreciate my candor. Outside of this exciting occurance, my day was pretty boring. I spent a majority of the day taking practice MCAT essays and reading about Electrostatics (hence my clever and ever-so-funny title).
The MCAT essay is one of the most useless tests I have ever had the pleasure of taking. It tests your ability to write a coherent (first-draft) quality essay in 30 minutes about an overgeneralized topic usually of very little interest to you or to the poor reader who has to read your boring essay. The essay is split into 3 parts or tasks each addressing a different part of the overgeneralized prompt, which is usually a one-line sentence stating an opinion like "Leading by example is the best way to lead." You are then supposed to determine the meaning of that statement in your own words, provide a counterexample, and then discuss how to qualify the prompt. Are you bored already? Me too. Unfortunately, if you want to become a doctor, you apparently have to be able to write this essay. If one isn't bad enough, the AAMC forces you to write two of these essays. I'm sure many of you have heard many rumors about the MCAT essay like, "oh, med schools don't care about it, its just a formality" or "no one gets a 6" or "the essays don't really count". Truth is, if it's on the MCAT your best bet is do well on it if you want a chance at a good medical school. It is true that some med schools place less weight on the essay score than on the numerical score, but determining which school does what is a task in and of itself not worth the trouble. Just because you may think its useless, doesn't mean its difficult. Also, 6's are given out in every test. You just have to write a coherent essay that addresses all the tasks with relevant examples to support your clear main idea. So stop complaining and just do it (there's my plug for Nike).
That's a great segue to all the work I did on electrostatics today -a fascinating and easy topic for any science nerd. Electrostatics is the field of study associated with stationary charges and the forces between them. There are but a few equations to memorize, most importantly the electric force equation F=kqQ/r^2. If you look closely, this equation is nothing but the equation for the Gravitational force but with charges. Though the astute MCAT student will notice that the electric force is about 10^40 times stronger than the gravitational force. I also learned about Electric Potential and Electric Potential Energy. Though they sound similar, they are different entities. Electric Potential is a measure of the difference in the potential when moving a charge from one place to another and is measured in volts. Electric Potential Energy, as you may guess, is the counterpart to the Gravitational Potential Energy. Make sure to not get confused and pay close attention to what the question is asking before you make any assumptions. Finally, I learned the physics behind the dipole moment. The equations may seem complex but they are just manipulations/applications of equations that you should already be familiar with. I think the coolest thing is dipoles in an electric field experience a net torque that causes translational motion of the dipoles. Here's a trivia fact for you: Dipoles are measured in units called Debye (3.34e-30 Coulumbs x meter). You can thank me when you impress a person of the opposite sex with that little tid-bit. Now that you've learned a little bit about the MCAT essay and Electrostatics, I'll quote my dad for you "Go to your room and study or you'll be working at McDonald's for the rest of your life".
Cheers
- BK
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