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Hello my fellow premeds,
Since I've received some messages asking about my study strategies, I thought I'd provide some insight into the long-term, nontraditional way in which I went about preparing for my MCAT that I hope might help those of you who are planning far ahead and/or still have a significant chunk of time left before your test. This will apply to improving your Bio/Phys score, not verbal.
I'm going to split this into two parts so you can skip to only what interests you: my prep story, and my study suggestions/takeaway messages at the bottom.
I. The Story: How I taught my way to a good score (for free, too)
My MCAT prep started very early, and quite by accident-- but it worked out amazingly well in the end.
As a socially-awkward sophomore, I started tutoring chemistry at my college's tutoring center simply because I liked the subject and loved helping others. Although I didn't start out with a strong grasp of the material to begin with, as a tutor one quickly discovers over time what one doesn't know or is weak on-- and can then fix it. You learn every possible question a student will ask, the most frequently confusing topics, and most importantly, the best ways to explain such concepts at a basic level. When you can accurately explain the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation to a freshman with no chemistry background, you've truly learned it-- and will never forget it.
I moved on to tutoring organic with similar results, starting slow and making many mistakes. I mastered it over time, learned the best strategies, understood the common mistakes, and eventually began teaching actual classes of small students lecture-style. This helped even more, as I was inspired to explicitly draw out lesson plans that would break down every single topic to the most basic level (picture a drawing board for a movie, frame by frame). After all, explaining how to use the H-H equation to a student is one thing.. but can you teach it to a class on a blackboard, and can you explain what it's useful for, its limitations and when it applies, and where it fits in with the rest of the course material?
After graduation, I later applied to TPR as an instructor (nope, they don't require you to have taken the MCAT to teach there if you have extensive teaching experience). Not only was I trained to start teaching classes tailored specifically towards the test, but I also gained free access to all of TPR's materials as an instructor (including all AAMC's, textbooks, online materials, and classes). Thus, I was essentially being paid to use TPR materials and "study" the MCAT while teaching for the course (and I was able to continue helping others at the same time, which is always highly gratifying as a teacher).
But as a direct result of my history with the subjects, by the time I started actually studying for the test, I was almost completely solid on gchem and ochem material. This left only physics and bio as the subjects for which I needed to do thorough content review. I studied for about 7 focused hours a day for 6 days a week for approximately 5 weeks while only using TPR materials (which are more than sufficient for science review, IMO).
Pure content review was first: 1 day for gchem and ochem together, no notes. ~5 days for physics, ~7 days for bio. I would review the material in the book from chapter to chapter, taking notes on every chapter I didn't feel I knew cold (will talk more about this later) and doing ~25 discrete problems and 2-4 passages following each chapter to make sure I understood it and could do the mechanics.
Then practice problems time: Since I didn't need any further practice with ochem or gchem, so I'd switch between drilling physics and bio, doing ~50 discretes from TPR science workbook at a time, alternating. When I ran out of discretes, I started doing ten passages at a time, switching off. For the last two weeks, I took an AAMC or TPR full length every other day and carefully went through any problems I got wrong to see where I was weak and what I needed to review.
My final results from the 4/27 test were 14P, 15B, 11V*.
*(I noticed zero improvement in my verbal score from beginning to end, and I think the time spent studying for it was useless for me)
II: Suggestions:
Obviously, the path I took isn't easily replicable, especially by anyone taking their test anytime soon. The overall themes, though, and the specific way in which I took notes, however, are what I hope might help some of you with your studying.
1. For those of you who are a long way out, consider teaching/tutoring one of the subjects consistently (don't do it just to study for MCAT though, make sure you enjoy it or you'll do your students a disservice). It's a fantastic experience that not only helped me cut down my MCAT studying by 50%, but it also helped immensely with public speaking, confidence, and social skills. Nobody starts out as an amazing tutor, so don't be scared to start if you have no experience-- it's supposed to be a learning experience for you, too.
If you're already in the midst of studying, it's not too late! You really don't need to have been teaching for years to benefit from the shift in the way your mind works when you challenge it to explain, rather than memorize. I know it may go against natural premed instinct to study with a friend (
), but consider working with a study buddy and explaining concepts to him/her. Instead of just quizzing each other randomly, go back and forth and teach something to each other. Form a study group and quiz each other, force each other to explain concepts-- and check each others' understanding in the process. I believe even at this very moment there is an SDN skype study group that's being formed under the guidance of fellow SDN members holding free content reviews online. Even if you have no place else to start, you could always start by answering questions in the SDN MCAT Q&A thread.
2. For those of you who are already strong in a subject and have some teaching experience, consider teaching for a test prep company like TPR. In my (biased) experience, the company treats its tutors very well, and literally all of its preparation materials are free for you as an instructor (i.e. if you're weak in physics, you can sit in on TPR physics classes for free). The books and the course are fantastic, and worked well enough for me that I never felt the need to buy any others. Note that this is not an advertisement for TPR-- I just have no idea if you have free access to the course materials as an instructor for Kaplan or any other test-prep company-- you'll have to ask someone who's worked for them. I also have no idea whether TPR is any better than any other company in terms of materials quality.
3. Most importantly-- even for those of you who are in the midst of studying now: when you're doing content review, literally write down your notes as if you were going to subsequently use the notes to lecture a class of freshmen on the subject for the first time. Yes, it is a greater time investment than "regular" note-taking-- but perhaps the most valuable study lesson I learned as a tutor is that the best way to truly learn something efficiently is to map it out like a lesson plan. DON'T just write down the important points from the book or copy word for word-- a lot of the info simply slips away like this, because it is all too easy to copy bolded phrases without actively processing (much like the common experience of "reading" a textbook while not really reading it). How many times have you experienced that annoying feeling when you were sure that you learned a concept, but had to keep going back to it in your notes the next day because you couldn't remember? Invest the time to learn a topic well the first time, and you won't waste as much time revisiting it.
To learn efficiently, ensure that you're actually processing and understanding the information by forcing yourself to organize and present the information in a straightforward, logical way (in a lesson plan) such that if a student were to look at your notes, they'd be able to learn the entire chapter just from that without referencing the text. Write down exactly what you would have loved to see on the blackboard back you were a student and your professor was trying to teach the concept to you the first time (instead of the garbled, disorganized nonsense that the prof likely did write instead). This is how I learned to mentally organize the vast amount of information such that each concept had a place, and made sense in context. When things make sense and are arranged in a logical framework, they're much easier to remember; nowadays, whenever I need to learn anything, I take the time to think to myself as to how I would teach it.
I know this may be a bit abstract, so I'd be happy to give a concrete example of how I used to do this for MCAT material if you shoot me a PM.
Anyway, these were the major points of advice that I figured I'd offer since they don't fit into the conventional strategies that are normally suggested. If you have any other questions about my study strategies or experience, or you need help/advice with anything studying-related, feel free to message me. Otherwise, good luck, and hope this helps!
-AE
Since I've received some messages asking about my study strategies, I thought I'd provide some insight into the long-term, nontraditional way in which I went about preparing for my MCAT that I hope might help those of you who are planning far ahead and/or still have a significant chunk of time left before your test. This will apply to improving your Bio/Phys score, not verbal.
I'm going to split this into two parts so you can skip to only what interests you: my prep story, and my study suggestions/takeaway messages at the bottom.
I. The Story: How I taught my way to a good score (for free, too)
My MCAT prep started very early, and quite by accident-- but it worked out amazingly well in the end.
As a socially-awkward sophomore, I started tutoring chemistry at my college's tutoring center simply because I liked the subject and loved helping others. Although I didn't start out with a strong grasp of the material to begin with, as a tutor one quickly discovers over time what one doesn't know or is weak on-- and can then fix it. You learn every possible question a student will ask, the most frequently confusing topics, and most importantly, the best ways to explain such concepts at a basic level. When you can accurately explain the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation to a freshman with no chemistry background, you've truly learned it-- and will never forget it.
I moved on to tutoring organic with similar results, starting slow and making many mistakes. I mastered it over time, learned the best strategies, understood the common mistakes, and eventually began teaching actual classes of small students lecture-style. This helped even more, as I was inspired to explicitly draw out lesson plans that would break down every single topic to the most basic level (picture a drawing board for a movie, frame by frame). After all, explaining how to use the H-H equation to a student is one thing.. but can you teach it to a class on a blackboard, and can you explain what it's useful for, its limitations and when it applies, and where it fits in with the rest of the course material?
After graduation, I later applied to TPR as an instructor (nope, they don't require you to have taken the MCAT to teach there if you have extensive teaching experience). Not only was I trained to start teaching classes tailored specifically towards the test, but I also gained free access to all of TPR's materials as an instructor (including all AAMC's, textbooks, online materials, and classes). Thus, I was essentially being paid to use TPR materials and "study" the MCAT while teaching for the course (and I was able to continue helping others at the same time, which is always highly gratifying as a teacher).
But as a direct result of my history with the subjects, by the time I started actually studying for the test, I was almost completely solid on gchem and ochem material. This left only physics and bio as the subjects for which I needed to do thorough content review. I studied for about 7 focused hours a day for 6 days a week for approximately 5 weeks while only using TPR materials (which are more than sufficient for science review, IMO).
Pure content review was first: 1 day for gchem and ochem together, no notes. ~5 days for physics, ~7 days for bio. I would review the material in the book from chapter to chapter, taking notes on every chapter I didn't feel I knew cold (will talk more about this later) and doing ~25 discrete problems and 2-4 passages following each chapter to make sure I understood it and could do the mechanics.
Then practice problems time: Since I didn't need any further practice with ochem or gchem, so I'd switch between drilling physics and bio, doing ~50 discretes from TPR science workbook at a time, alternating. When I ran out of discretes, I started doing ten passages at a time, switching off. For the last two weeks, I took an AAMC or TPR full length every other day and carefully went through any problems I got wrong to see where I was weak and what I needed to review.
My final results from the 4/27 test were 14P, 15B, 11V*.
*(I noticed zero improvement in my verbal score from beginning to end, and I think the time spent studying for it was useless for me)
II: Suggestions:
Obviously, the path I took isn't easily replicable, especially by anyone taking their test anytime soon. The overall themes, though, and the specific way in which I took notes, however, are what I hope might help some of you with your studying.
1. For those of you who are a long way out, consider teaching/tutoring one of the subjects consistently (don't do it just to study for MCAT though, make sure you enjoy it or you'll do your students a disservice). It's a fantastic experience that not only helped me cut down my MCAT studying by 50%, but it also helped immensely with public speaking, confidence, and social skills. Nobody starts out as an amazing tutor, so don't be scared to start if you have no experience-- it's supposed to be a learning experience for you, too.
If you're already in the midst of studying, it's not too late! You really don't need to have been teaching for years to benefit from the shift in the way your mind works when you challenge it to explain, rather than memorize. I know it may go against natural premed instinct to study with a friend (
), but consider working with a study buddy and explaining concepts to him/her. Instead of just quizzing each other randomly, go back and forth and teach something to each other. Form a study group and quiz each other, force each other to explain concepts-- and check each others' understanding in the process. I believe even at this very moment there is an SDN skype study group that's being formed under the guidance of fellow SDN members holding free content reviews online. Even if you have no place else to start, you could always start by answering questions in the SDN MCAT Q&A thread.2. For those of you who are already strong in a subject and have some teaching experience, consider teaching for a test prep company like TPR. In my (biased) experience, the company treats its tutors very well, and literally all of its preparation materials are free for you as an instructor (i.e. if you're weak in physics, you can sit in on TPR physics classes for free). The books and the course are fantastic, and worked well enough for me that I never felt the need to buy any others. Note that this is not an advertisement for TPR-- I just have no idea if you have free access to the course materials as an instructor for Kaplan or any other test-prep company-- you'll have to ask someone who's worked for them. I also have no idea whether TPR is any better than any other company in terms of materials quality.
3. Most importantly-- even for those of you who are in the midst of studying now: when you're doing content review, literally write down your notes as if you were going to subsequently use the notes to lecture a class of freshmen on the subject for the first time. Yes, it is a greater time investment than "regular" note-taking-- but perhaps the most valuable study lesson I learned as a tutor is that the best way to truly learn something efficiently is to map it out like a lesson plan. DON'T just write down the important points from the book or copy word for word-- a lot of the info simply slips away like this, because it is all too easy to copy bolded phrases without actively processing (much like the common experience of "reading" a textbook while not really reading it). How many times have you experienced that annoying feeling when you were sure that you learned a concept, but had to keep going back to it in your notes the next day because you couldn't remember? Invest the time to learn a topic well the first time, and you won't waste as much time revisiting it.
To learn efficiently, ensure that you're actually processing and understanding the information by forcing yourself to organize and present the information in a straightforward, logical way (in a lesson plan) such that if a student were to look at your notes, they'd be able to learn the entire chapter just from that without referencing the text. Write down exactly what you would have loved to see on the blackboard back you were a student and your professor was trying to teach the concept to you the first time (instead of the garbled, disorganized nonsense that the prof likely did write instead). This is how I learned to mentally organize the vast amount of information such that each concept had a place, and made sense in context. When things make sense and are arranged in a logical framework, they're much easier to remember; nowadays, whenever I need to learn anything, I take the time to think to myself as to how I would teach it.
I know this may be a bit abstract, so I'd be happy to give a concrete example of how I used to do this for MCAT material if you shoot me a PM.
Anyway, these were the major points of advice that I figured I'd offer since they don't fit into the conventional strategies that are normally suggested. If you have any other questions about my study strategies or experience, or you need help/advice with anything studying-related, feel free to message me. Otherwise, good luck, and hope this helps!
-AE
