I need Someone to tell me How to study

[lmnguye4]

I've started EK content review about a few weeks ago, but I'm a little confused on how to study. I know everyone has their own way, but I feel like it's a lot of information to know by heart... I don't know how much of the material I'm suppose to know, I feel like I'm supposed to know the book word-by-word in order to do well on the MCAT... but I know that's not possible to do in 2 months. So far, I just read the lecture and do the problems in the the lecture. I get problems wrong, then I read the explanation in the back of book. But I never go back to the lecture content.

So, when you go through content review books, do you read very slowly, go back a lot, and make sure you UNDERSTAND or MEMORIZE each concept, terminology, characteristics, and functions of each topic before moving on?.... You even know the small things like how Dihydroxyacetone phosphate is converted to PGAL somewhere during glycolysis... or how some energy derived from hydrolysis of pyrophosphate is used to drive replication.... Or is that just too detailed for the MCAT?

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[LoveWalk]

I've started EK content review about a few weeks ago, but I'm a little confused on how to study. I know everyone has their own way, but I feel like it's a lot of information to know by heart... I don't know how much of the material I'm suppose to know, I feel like I'm supposed to know the book word-by-word in order to do well on the MCAT... but I know that's not possible to do in 2 months. So far, I just read the lecture and do the problems in the the lecture. I get problems wrong, then I read the explanation in the back of book. But I never go back to the lecture content.

So, when you go through content review books, do you read very slowly, go back a lot, and make sure you UNDERSTAND or MEMORIZE each concept, terminology, characteristics, and functions of each topic before moving on?.... You even know the small things like how Dihydroxyacetone phosphate is converted to PGAL somewhere during glycolysis... or how some energy derived from hydrolysis of pyrophosphate is used to drive replication.... Or is that just too detailed for the MCAT?

Yes

You don't need to know details like that

ABSOLUTELY NOT

 

[Wheee]

Nah, I'd say that's a little overkill. For the most part, EK seemed to do a pretty good job of telling you what's important and what's not (though I did have a question on mine where EK had specifically said not to bother memorizing the equation...but overall, it was pretty good).

I'd say that you have a good start, with reading the explanations for the ones you got wrong. But don't forget all the questions that you weren't sure of and just happened to guess right, check those answers too. Also I'd make a list of the topics that give you trouble, based off the in-class questions and the 30-min quizzes at the end of the book, and go back and re-read those sections.

Another thing I did was to first go through EK completely, and then went through the Princeton Review book completely (that 1000 page, just the basics, thick one...the subject info and then the 8 end-of-chapter exams, no TPR exams or anything). PR didn't explicitly say what was important like EK did, but it did have a different explanation style that worked better for me for some topics. I don't have my score back yet, but I thought this approach worked pretty well for me. If you've got the time and money for other books (or the library??), maybe think about it.

 

[phillips101]

I think the general consensus on SDN (and anywhere else for that matter) is that memorizing concepts & equations will only get you so far on the MCAT. What really matters is practice practice practice. Of course, you would NEED to know the concepts BEFORE you start to practice (there's no point in sitting down with passages if you have no clue what the equations are). But I think that after doing tons and tons of practice problems-and getting some of them wrong- the concepts get pounded into your head, and you don't even need to memorize them in order to know them. For example, I've always had problems with kinematics, don't ask me why. I just can't seem to wrap my head around those 4 ******** equations! So I read TBR, my old physics book, BR, AND EK 1001 (yes I know- that's over kill, it did took me 3 days to do them) but hey finally, I didn't even need to memorize them explicitly, I finally get it! Good luck to us! Yay.

Also, checking SDN for study tips is pretty nice too
BTW, are you Viet, OP?

 

[lmnguye4]

I think the general consensus on SDN (and anywhere else for that matter) is that memorizing concepts & equations will only get you so far on the MCAT. What really matters is practice practice practice. Of course, you would NEED to know the concepts BEFORE you start to practice (there's no point in sitting down with passages if you have no clue what the equations are). But I think that after doing tons and tons of practice problems-and getting some of them wrong- the concepts get pounded into your head, and you don't even need to memorize them in order to know them. For example, I've always had problems with kinematics, don't ask me why. I just can't seem to wrap my head around those 4 ******** equations! So I read TBR, my old physics book, BR, AND EK 1001 (yes I know- that's over kill, it did took me 3 days to do them) but hey finally, I didn't even need to memorize them explicitly, I finally get it! Good luck to us! Yay.

Also, checking SDN for study tips is pretty nice too
BTW, are you Viet, OP?

Hey everyone, thanks for your advice! I feel like I understand what I need to know now.

Hi Phillips101, yes I'm viet. How did you know? ..Wait...Let me guess... last name? ha ha ha

 

[phillips101]

Yea, the "nguye"

 

[phillips101]

I'm viet too, and have the same last name, that's why I asked ...