Those of you who retook the MCAT and scored a 30+

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For those of you who retook the MCAT, and scored significantly higher, how did you change your study plan?

What did you do the second (or third, etc.) time that was different than the first?
Do you have a suggested study schedule that you used?
How do you feel about TBR compared to Kaplan or PR?

What methods did you use for Verbal that really helped?

Thanks!

SN2ed's advice was extremely, extremely helpful. I think it's stickied on the mcat forums.

My goal was 30 but I didn't quite reach it. I did however gain an extra 5 points.I took the Kaplan course and actually studied this time. I was kind of wary since the only available class was the online one, but it turned out great. For me at least, repetition is key. Going over it before class, watching the lecture, and taking the section tests really helped me. Taking practice test and simulating the test conditions as best you can was key for me too.

Verbal was actually my strong point. I really enjoyed the mapping strategy Kaplan uses, and found it very helpful. I went from an 8 to an 11 by using it. As far as texts go, I would consider reading something like The Economist. The articles are about the length of an MCAT passage, and are very much at that level. Exam Krackers Verbal was also pretty good.

I improved my MCAT quite substantially the second time, and the advice I recommend above all else is to work diligently on your reading speed/comprehension. Learning the material is important, but if you can't get all the information you need from the passage in a couple of minutes then all your studying is useless. Read my friend. Read about whatever you like. Actually, read about stuff you don't like or don't understand. Then read more. You have to be able to blow through passages or your score will not improve.

My son went from 25 to 33 ( straight 11's ). He used Kaplan and Gold Standard books.
As far as I can tell the verbal is a reading comprehension test. So I agree with OP read read read.
I think any test you can used to test comprehension would help.

Originally Posted by Pirates1992

I improved my MCAT quite substantially the second time, and the advice I recommend above all else is to work diligently on your reading speed/comprehension. Learning the material is important, but if you can't get all the information you need from the passage in a couple of minutes then all your studying is useless. Read my friend. Read about whatever you like. Actually, read about stuff you don't like or don't understand. Then read more. You have to be able to blow through passages or your score will not improve.

I agree with this advice about reading speed and comprehension. It supports Verbal, Bs and PS since the answer choices are often longer than the questions! I went from 26 to a 38. . . here is link to my thread on what was different between my two tests:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=899209

There are many skills you need and u need them all to get a solid score. . . reading speed/comprehension, science knowledge, writing skills, answer selection, confidence, etc. The hard part is not forgetting one of them while you study. For my first test I really focused too much on science knowledge and writing skills and forgot to nurture my reading skills and my overall confidence.

Good luck, it can be done!

Originally Posted by JeetKuneDo

SN2ed's advice was extremely, extremely helpful. I think it's stickied on the mcat forums.

While aspects of that were very helpful (hat trick, repeatedly going over stuff), I felt as though that schedule was a bit......well....unrealistic, particularly if you have any kind of job/class. Not to discourage anyone, just how I felt.

I went up 7pts for a >30 and I have to say the biggest thing for me was keeping a 3 ring notebook of all my equations, ideas, big points hand written for each subject as I went through the EK books (for the 2nd time). I forced myself to summarize/simplify what was in EK for my own notebook and kept it relatively thin and simple. I reviewed my notebook weekly and it was a tremendous help when doing the EK 1001's. It allowed me to expand on weak areas (by adding in more sheets) and kept everything organized and flowing.

On my first MCAT I just went through all the EK books and did some 1001's but by the time I had gotten 1/2 way through the EK's, I had basically forgotten what was in the beginning. The notebook solved this problem. Also I did lot & lots & lots & lots of verbal passages until I learned to recognize the "right" answers, common question types, etc.

I also occasionally used TBR books for work in areas that I was weak in (because EK seems to just give a nice overview/main idea and you're on your own to expand on your weak areas). But in retrospect, the 1001's + Wiki did just a good a job so I hardly ever used the TBR books.

Originally Posted by SopChoppy

While aspects of that were very helpful (hat trick, repeatedly going over stuff), I felt as though that schedule was a bit......well....unrealistic, particularly if you have any kind of job/class. Not to discourage anyone, just how I felt.

I went up 7pts for a >30 and I have to say the biggest thing for me was keeping a 3 ring notebook of all my equations, ideas, big points hand written for each subject as I went through the EK books (for the 2nd time). I forced myself to summarize/simplify what was in EK for my own notebook and kept it relatively thin and simple. I reviewed my notebook weekly and it was a tremendous help when doing the EK 1001's. It allowed me to expand on weak areas (by adding in more sheets) and kept everything organized and flowing.

On my first MCAT I just went through all the EK books and did some 1001's but by the time I had gotten 1/2 way through the EK's, I had basically forgotten what was in the beginning. The notebook solved this problem. Also I did lot & lots & lots & lots of verbal passages until I learned to recognize the "right" answers, common question types, etc.

I also occasionally used TBR books for work in areas that I was weak in (because EK seems to just give a nice overview/main idea and you're on your own to expand on your weak areas). But in retrospect, the 1001's + Wiki did just a good a job so I hardly ever used the TBR books.

I did pretty much the same thing as this person above. I completely worship exam krackers because it helped me get from a 26 to a 33 in 4 weeks. I used the 1001 examkrackers books to supplement my weak points.