How much time after a prep course?

[yestomeds]

I'm really sorry for asking what I can only imagine to be an oft-asked question, but my search strategies gave me lots of neat threads, but not so much advice pertaining to what I was looking for. So here is my question:

Although it would vary from person to person, how much time (days/weeks) do you suggest as being optimal for a person between the end of his/her prep class, and the day of his/her MCAT exam?

And, if content review was a little weaker for them (say, they had to put in more effort before/during the course, or maybe the took university courses many, many years ago), does or how does that affect the answer to the 1st question?

Thank you for all of your thoughts.

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[Kochanie]

I think this question varies so much from person to person. Someone might not need much time between their prep course and the MCAT and another might need much more to review other material (the courses only really allow allow enough time for you to use their stuff). Also, it depends on your work/EC schedule, whether you're in classes, etc.

 

[carpediem22]

I had ~1.25 months between my exam and the end of my prep course, and that was perfect for me. I read some other materials and went over content areas that I felt particularly weak in. I also saved all of my FLs until that month so that I could prepare myself for the real thing as close to the date as possible.

Originally I was going to take the April exam right after my course ended, but pushed back to May because I felt like I didn't have enough time to review non-course related materials. Which, in my opinion, made all the difference because my course (EK) barely touched on biochemistry or relevant sociology terms.

 

[Dreamstoo]

Some people were working in my TPR course. One person took their test 3-4 days after our course ended although this individual I believe was also scoring very high on the TPR exams, 510+ if I had to guess.

 

[QuentinT88]

This is a good question to ask in my opinion. I will be done with my Post Bacc as of July 31st ( in a little more than a month), and will likely look into starting a TPR MCAT prep class online on August 3rd - August 26nd. My goal is to take the Sept 23rd MCAT, so I will have about a month after to study more and prepare.

I don't think I will need a significant amount of time to review content, since Chem, Bio, Physics, Orgo, and Biochem will be fresh and completed within the last 1.5 years. I hope the time that I am giving myself will be enough to study well for the exam

 

[ElectricNoogie]

As many above have stated, it does depend. In my experience, if you are prepping effectively, you will typically take ~ 12-16 weeks, with the new MCAT requiring more time than the old on that range. If your prep is going well, you want about 2-4 weeks of time where you are ideally doing nothing but practice tests (section tests, full lengths, smaller subsections). This is where you can finalize your pacing/timing techniques, build endurance and really get in the mind of the test maker by seeing MCAT-style Qs over and over. This is also when the info you've seen many many times will become easier to recall due to your persistent, active use. While MCAT style practice is useful throughout your prep, IMO you don't want to be learning brand new content in the last 2 weeks or so if you can help it. If you can, schedule your class/tutoring/content review so that you can have this 2-4 week range for mcat style practice and review. During this time you will still look at content, but it will be largely based on your practice test performances and analysis of each practice test/section test/MCAT quiz you take.

Good luck!

 

[StudyLater]

Prep course might have done little for you. It might have totally prepared you. How do we know? Take an FL if you haven't already. If Kaplan or TPR, >500 you're in good shape. If EK or AAMC, >70% and you're in good shape.

Try to think critically about your question (good practice for the exam itself). Not everyone will get the same thing out of a class. It might hold some people back and go wayyy too fast for others. @Xenith has a god-level spreadsheet with the scoring data. Do some practice and keep studying. You'll know what you can expect (of course with a decent margin of error for low sample size) based on Xenith's thread. Knowing all of that, it's pointless to ask anything else on the subject. You get there or you don't. Quite simple, really.