High scoring people--what did you do?

[turtle00]

Hello, is their anyone who scored high (80+ percentile) on the MCAT in real or practice? What did you do?

I am just doing hundreds of practice problems. I have an old princeton review workbook, and am doing exam crackers 1001. Is that the right way? I will be doing Khan problems as well. What else?

I have read that this new MCAt has very little physics and chemistry? If so is doing those problems a waste of time!!?? Yikes! I feel that I am on the wrong path, but am really not sure what to do! Thank you so much.

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[Me.D.]

Practice tests. Lots of them. I took 13 and steadily improved throughout. I also thought Examkrackers and NestStep had tests that were the most similar to AAMC (though NextStep's were more difficult). Take your time with content review because everything is still important, but the passages are often quite difficult so they require practice getting used to. Also when you take the practice tests try to work out what fuels your body and your brain! Eating a little bit every break really helped me get through the tests (along with coffee!). If I didn't get enough to eat my brain was always super fried by the psych section lol. Hope that helps

 

[StudyLater]

I am just doing hundreds of practice problems. I have an old princeton review workbook, and am doing exam crackers 1001. Is that the right way? I will be doing Khan problems as well. What else?

If old means it's not from this year...I don't know how much help that'll be. The EK1001 seems like it'd be good enough already for just getting to know the concepts. There's very little difference in the old material (not biochem, psych/soc) - the main difference is in the subject makeup of each section. The percentages are different, so you may see more of something and less of another thing on the new exam. Anyway, step your game up - Kaplan 2015 set has been used by a few of the top scorers, along with TPR. EK has a good track record with the old material as well, but it's apparently lacking in the biochem/soc department (psych might be ok but....just use kaplan for psych/soc). Check mcatjelly's compilation on mcat commentary (google it, it's on reddit) for info.

I have read that this new MCAt has very little physics and chemistry? If so is doing those problems a waste of time!!?? Yikes! I feel that I am on the wrong path, but am really not sure what to do! Thank you so much.

There's a physical sciences section. It's called "Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems." Here's the breakdown, straight from the outline (which you should get on the AAMC site, NOW):

First-semester biochemistry, 25%
Introductory biology, 5%
General chemistry, 30%
Organic chemistry, 15%
Introductory physics, 25%

So that section is 70% chemistry and physics.

But wait, that's not all!

Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems Section:

• First-semester biochemistry, 25%
• Introductory biology, 65%
• General chemistry, 5%
• Organic chemistry, 5%

Another 10% of chem on that section. Averaged out, you need to know chem and physics for 40% of the science-based section questions (0.4*118 = ~47 questions). That's a fair amount. Don't take the idea that there's a bit less of it lightly and think that means you shouldn't study it as much as ever.

 

[EverStriving]

Reviewing the material and doing practice problems is all well and good to create a foundation of scientific knowledge. However, remember that the MCAT is largely a reading comprehension and logical reasoning test. Those skills are developed most effectively by doing passage-based practice tests.

You can also improve these skills by making a habit of reading publications such as the NY Times and Wall Street Journal, or better yet wading your way through research papers (spend the time to actually understand them!). I know for sure that my time struggling through dense research articles for my lab jobs helped immensely in this department.

 

[turtle00]

Thank you everyone! I got TPR biology and psy and orgo for 2015 and exam crackers bio and psy for 2015 as well.

I'm mostly worried about the new biochem section, since that makes up so much of the test. On the Princeton review and exam crackers bio book, they have just one chapter on biochem, and the chapter was VERY similar to the old chapter in their previous versions! So, it looks as though the new MCAT is just emphasizing a previous topic? I'm doing Khan though.

For reading comprehension, I am very good at that topic but I am still reading philosophy books by Rene Girard and doing a few previous LSAT tests! Thank you again.