Leah here from leah4sci.com/MCAT and in this
video series I will teach you how to do MCAT
Math without a calculator. As part of MCAT
you will have to answer Math related questions
especially when it comes to Physics and General
Chemistry but you're not allowed to use calculator.
Does this mean that they'll ease up at you
where the Math is related? Heck no! And so,
to learn how to answer these questions and
still save time to make sure you'll get through
the section, you will have to learn the following:
1. You have to learn how to do the required
Math by hand or better yet in your head and
2. You have to know WHEN and WHAT type of
shortcuts to use so that your answer is good
enough
Over the next few videos I'll take you through
the different types of Math problems and show
you the MCAT shortcuts that you can use. You
can find my entire series on MCAT Math Without
a Calculator by visiting my website http://leah4sci.com/MCATMath.
So how it is they allow to use shortcuts in
the MCAT? Well here's the thing, They're not
testing your Math skills, remember this is
a Science test, instead they're testing to
see if you understand the information, if
you know how to apply logic and reasons through
questions and most importantly if you know
which formulas to use and how to apply them.
So when you look at the answer choices you'll
see that the numbers are not very close to
each other, in fact some of them will be radically
different. This means that if you know how
to do the correct Math and get some version
of the right answer or better yet something
close enough, you'll be able to rule out the
wrong choices and quickly get your answer
without significance or long complicated Math
equations. This means you'll have to learn
where to round, where to simplify and what
type of shortcuts to take.
For example, you may be given a question like
this: "How many moles of Chloride Ions are
found in 4.93L of a 0.096 molar solution?"
-- My MCAT Math tricks will help you to deduce
that the answer is close to 0.5 moles of Chloride
Ions in under 10 seconds! Punching this into
the Calculator I get a value of 0.47328 which
is close enough to 0.5. Because if this was
your MCAT question, your choices will range
in the multiple decimal or multiple figures
for the answer.
If you find yourself working through the Math
this way, DON'T! Not only you're wasting so
much time, but notice I even have a careless
mistake. I have 0.472286, the answer should
be 0.47328, so I miss the number here somewhere.
And the reason I left it on the video is to
prove to you that not only is this a waste
of time but under pressure you are bound to
make careless mistakes. Now say you did do
this, the careless mistake still gives us
the answer close enough. But how did I get
the initial answer of 0.5 moles in under 10
seconds? These are the very tricks I'm going
to show you piece by piece in the upcoming
videos. But let's take a look: The first step
is to round and simplify where possible. Our
question is (4.93 x 0.096). The first thing
we want to do is simplify this; 4.93, 4.9
that's very close to 5 so I'm gonna round
the number up to 5. 0.096, 96 is close to
a hundred, so if I replace these numbers to
a hundred (100), what I'm really looking at
is 0.1. Now I have a much simpler problem
to solve and that's (5 x 0.1), as you'll soon
learn with decimals, we'd simply approach
this as (5x1) which is 5. We have 1 decimal
space to the left in the example which means
we move the answer back 1 space. Now, I wrote
this out to show you what I did, but with
enough practice you actually do this in your
head and it should take less than 10 seconds
to come up with the answer of 0.5 moles.
What happens when the choices given are very
close to each other? Let's say with this example
we have 4 choices, 2 of which are so extreme
we were able to rule them out. But now we're
left with 0.47 moles as one choice and 0.53
moles is the second. Remember we set our answer
very close to 0.5 but 0.5 is equidistant from
0.47 to .0.53, we still don't have to go back
and do the detailed Math, instead we want
to analyze how we got the shortcut and see
how that can help us guesstimate the correct
answer. Once again going back to our choices,
4.93 was rounded up to give us 5. 0.096 was
rounded up to give us 0.1 that means our answer
of 0.5 is slightly rounded up from the correct
answer. Looking at the 2 choices, we don't
want the answer that's even higher to the
answer we rounded up, instead we want the
one that's slightly lower to compensate for
the fact that we rounded up. In other words,
we rounded our answer up now we need to bring
it back down to get the correct answer and
that's how we estimate 0.47 and still haven't
spent more than 20 seconds on the entire thing.
Now before continuing to the next video, I
wanna leave you with few things, FIRST: You
have to be very comfortable with your basic
math. This includes multiplication of standard
numbers, this includes the value of fractions
and more. If you're not comfortable with this
or don't know what to memorize, visit my website
to download my FREE MCAT Math Study Guide
and you can find this at http://leah4sci.com/MCATmath.
Let me show you another trick. When it comes
to math, don't only rely on the calculations
that you know how to do or you memorize. Try
to think outside the box and see how you can
twist or manipulate numbers to solve questions.
For example: Say I ask you to perform the
calculation 25 x 7 in your head. The average
student looks at me like I'm crazy, I don't
know how to do that! But now think about this,
25 cents is the value of a quarter. If you
had 7 quarters how much money are you holding?
Some of you can do this in your head and say
Wow! 7 quarters that's a $1.75! Meaning
our answer is 175. But if you're not sure,
break it up! 7 quarters has 4 quarters for
the first dollar, that's 1 or a hundred. 3
quarters remain at a value of 75 cents that's
a dollar 75 or a hundred seventy five (175).
Noticed we went on the traditional wrap relating
it to something that we know for example MONEY!
Quarter, Nickels, Dimes, those are very helpful
when it comes to math and then we apply it
back to our questions.
Be sure to join me in the next video where
I take you through multiplication and division
tricks showing you the decimal trick that
I applied here and so much more!
Are you stuck on a specific MCAT topic? I
offer Private Online Tutoring where I focus
on your needs to strengthen your individual
weaknesses. Tutoring details can be found
using the link below or by visiting my website
leah4sci.com/MCATTutor.
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