LostInStudy's (LIS) Official Advice Thread

[LostInStudy]

Okay guys, here it is as promised. This isn't my 30+ post but it's something for the guys who PM asking about advice and such. This is eventually going to get replaced by my 30+ post but in the meantime this will have to do. These are all the posts that I think are pretty helpful. I've categorized these into General advice, Material advice, Practice advice, and Scheduling. Please read these then if you have any questions you can post them and I'll try to help as best I can.Please read this thread and limit ALL the questions regarding my MCAT advices in this thread. Only contact me if you have a personal question or a highly specific question that you are not comfortable to post because your MCAT is exceptionally low (e.g. low <= 25, personal/family sickness, and other info that you do not want to share on the internet). In all other cases, individualized questions should be made in separate threads for other members to help, the more opinions you get the better off you will be, I guarantee you that. Otherwise, I may or may not respond depending on my time situation. Anyway, I hope this helps and if you have any questions or comments or anything just post away. Also guys remember that this is just my opinion. What worked for me isn't going to necessarily work for you but I've done a lot of research on this site and spent a lot of time reading different study strategies so I can offer general advice about schedules too. This is just what worked for me and hopefully you guys can read this, the 30+ thread, SN2ed's advice + schedule, and BerkReviewTeach's advice and get a good idea for what you want to do. If anybody has any other advice please post or if you want my opinion on a certain idea or whatever it may be. As the most interesting man in the world would say "Stay thirsty my friends [for knowledge that is]."

Hopefully this will help you guys,

-LIS

General Advice:

#1

Wow, I've been kind of nervous all day and told myself I'd keep myself busy and check at the end of the day. Even though I thought I did around my averages I was still nervous for some reason. So anyway, my score is too long awaited after having my date canceled once already.

PS: 15
VR: 11
BS: 15
W: Q

Now that I think about it, this is around about my averages. I'm just so happy to finally have this over with. I'll post more later when I have time. This is such a relief to have this off my back. Just some general advice, If you prep appropriately and have confidence in your prep you will get what you deserve.

Good luck all. I'm too sleepy right now.

-LIS

#2

Yea, I think the best advice is to go over content review thoroughly the first time to make sure you understand and master everything and go back as needed according to your practice results.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#3

My argument has always been to do as much practice as you can without taking shortcuts. Me and another member on this forum named Mr. T had sort of a discussion about it a few months back whether a person should do the TBR O. Chem books or do TPR since their content is shorter. I basically said that you should cover TBR because you don't want to get stuck with a difficult O. Chem passage and want to make sure that you don't leave your BS score up to chance (hoping the more difficult concepts won't show up). I had a few difficult O. Chem passages on my MCAT so I definitely benefited from not taking shortcuts. By appropriate, I mean fully and thoroughly without any shortcuts. I've been reading the forums for quite a while and I'd say a good 70+% of people skim on their prep because of a lack of time or whatever other reason.

Also, when I said "you'll get the score you deserve" that's exactly what I meant. I took the MCAT before and voided because I didn't feel prepared enough. At that point I had done content review and a couple of practice tests. At that point I believe if I would have decided to score my test I would have gotten in the high 20's or low 30's. My content review wasn't that great, my VR skills sucked, and I hadn't taken many FLs so that is exactly what I deserved. After redoing my content review and doing all the practice problems I could get my hands on, I think I got the score I deserved. My score reflects the amount of work I put in and my understanding of the material. I think my September score would have reflected the same thing (not score but the score I deserved at that point in time).

You know in the very beginning I thought that only really smart people could score in the 35+ range but the more I practiced and studied the more I realized that it's possible with just hard work to get at least a 34 but more likely a 35 or 36. I've said this before and I'll say it again, a person with average college student intelligence can, with hard work only, get a score around 35 or 36 but most don't (< 3%) because most don't have the time, are too lazy, don't put the effort, etc. whatever the reason may be. The point is that very few people have the time I had to spend on the MCAT and even fewer do spend that amount of time. As far as amount hours go (~1600) and amount of FLs go (40), my preparation was in the top 1% and my score reflected that.

You're not the only one who says this but I'll just address it here. Yes there are people who bust their butts and can barely get over a 30 but these people are rare. Like I said, if you're an average college student then with hard work one should be able to get into the 35 range. Most people who do score in this range and decide to retake usually do significantly raise their score because the prepare better (or in my words appropriately) the second time around.

In summary what I'm saying is: Your score reflects your preparation.

Hope this clarifies or helps,

-LIS

#4

For the last 2-4 weeks before your test you should be doing exactly what you will be doing on test day. Wake up the same time, eat the same time, take breaks the same time, do your studying/review the same time. It's just a habit thing, not so much a morning person thing because you could just go to sleep early and wake up early and that wouldn't really make a difference as far as being groggy or tired go, at least it didn't for me.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#5

Take a deep breath whenever you get nervous and think about how long you've spent on your prep, your scores, all the hours you've put in. Then think about how you can do best in this test. For me the last part worked to best because I came up with a strategy on how to handle situations a week before hand. So for example, if I came across something difficult that I couldn't figure out right away I would move on, I wouldn't let myself get nervous or panic, I would move quickly, efficiently and carefully to allow myself some time to go back for the sciences. This may seem obvious but a lot of people abandon the simple principles once they get to the test center or when they start the test and see something that doesn't immediately click. By the time I got to my test center I had gone over my list of situations and how to respond about 10 times a day for 8 days. I had written them out and every time I got nervous thinking about the test I stopped and look over my list and really thought about everything on it in detail while trying to control my breathing and focus. It worked for me on test day so maybe it'll work for you. You'll see that soon you recognize yourself doing the bad habits on practice tests and correct them and by test day hopefully you'll be golden.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#6

I got a 15 on both sciences but I don't think that it's indicative of the company as it is more so of the student. Yes, TBR does help a lot with the studying but it does in no way guarantee a good score. I'm sure there are people who've done terribly with TBR as there are people who have thrived with EK and Kaplan.

How far up you go is up to the student. Not necessarily his/her natural ability but more of how much work you're willing to put into this thing. Over and over again I see people skim on their review and sometimes it works out for them but a lot of times it doesn't and they're often confused because they "worked hard" but don't realize that they went into the exam with weaknesses that could be exploited.

As a general note, the test is too unpredictable to have any "high yield" topics. Master and know everything you're supposed to (AAMC outline) and you'll do great. If not then I guess you should get comfortable with blind luck helping you out on one of (if not the most) important aspects of your application.

Hope this helps and good luck (if you need it that is),

-LIS

Material Advice:

#7

I did EK 1001 bio then TPR bio passages then TBR bio passages so for me they got progressively harder. As far as content goes, I think between TPRH and EK you have everything you need. I would spend my time reading TPRH and then read through EK as kind of a review. I actually ended up reading EK twice. The thing with EK is that it's short and dense. So while its short, you have to know EVERYTHING in the text, whereas in TPRH, it is longer but they spend time explaining concepts doing examples and asking questions and re-summarizing the info.

If you don't have access to TPR Science Workbook, then do both. Seriously practice drilling those concepts because its true that the test really only covers the basics but the test writers do a great job at pushing your understanding of them to the limit. The more times you see the concepts the better. I'll say it again just in case, the more time you see the concepts during your practice the better off you are.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#8

I'm not really sure which is better because they served different purposes for me. TBR bio passages are hard but if you're good at analyzing passages then you can score fairly well on them and they help develop that skill. On the other hand, TPR were a mixture of testing content and analyzing passages and they have passages varying from really easy to pretty hard which is more like what you'll see on the AAMCs. I think what you should do is do the TPRH science workbook bio and do the TBR in phases. So do the first third and all bio from TPR and keep moving. If you have time you can come back and finish the rest of TBR. You could even do half of TBR and then all of TPR bio passages and come back later to TBR if you have time.

I've been telling people for months to get on TPRH bio. That thing is amazing. Yes it is a little detail oriented but it explains things from the ground up and it asks you questions in the text. It doesn't take THAT long to read, like I did about 12-15 pages an hour (I think most chapters averaged out into the 30-35 range). Plus it's engaging, not like TBR (so dull for me) or EK (which if you don't know everything already then it's just a list of facts).

I have to admit my science score is a bit of luck. On practices I was getting in the 13-14 range for both sections and on test day I got passages that suited topics that I was very familiar with. I was familiar with everything but some topics in organic I was a wiz at and those showed up. To me anything in the 38+ range is about the same. In the sciences once you get to the 13 range, you have a good shot at hitting the 15 if things can go your way.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#9

As long as we're talking about hours, I regularly hit 15 hours a day in the middle of my studying. Basically I did three 5 hour shifts to get used to concentrating for 5 hours straight. Of course I did break for 5-10 mins every 60-80 mins in those 5 hours.

Another piece of advice guys, if you're going to take short days then don't take them in the beginning or middle. Take them when you do FLs. FLs you can afford to get behind on because as legitboss said you can cut some extra ones out but if you get behind on content then you can get into a pickle really fast. So go through a subject hard (so if you don't rotate like I didn't then do a full subject) and then take a day to rest and re-energize your ambition, motivation, hatred, and will to beat this test. I personally used my days to catch up on chores and watch war/sci-fi movies. It's easy to tell yourself that "I deserve to take one day off" or "I'll catch up tomorrow" but don't get into the habit of it. Work hard and take a good rest after the war is over.

Oh MCAT, you were such an interesting romance. You left my life as suddenly as you came. I miss you sometimes...but then I remember how much work I put into us and am glad that such a selfish, time consuming, soul-eating, heartless woman is out of my life.

Good riddance you passive aggressive street walker,

-LIS

Practice Advice:

#10

Nope, very lightly. I don't think when you're learning the material you should time yourself strictly and I think even BerkReviewTeach has said it a few times. Just learn and master the material first. Once your problem solving skills and knowledge develop speed picks up. This doesn't mean I sat there and spent 10-15 mins on problems. I would work through at my own pace and if I couldn't solve something, moved on and came back in the end. If I couldn't figure it out at the end, I just guessed. I hated flat out guessing so that fueled my need to tear apart questions and learn everything I could from them.

Basically I looked at the clock when I started and finished. If I spent less than 8-9 mins on a passage, good and if I didn't then I just kept mindful of that for next time and tried to figure out why I spent so long. That's about it. The rest just picks up with practice and as you acquire skill.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#11

I used TPR heavily for content for Biology and Physics only (their 2 best content sections). For O. Chem content and G. Chem content I used TBR because they are simply the best, better than all the rest (like the song).

Here's my view on the whole do the passages one day and review them the next day thing: I wouldn't and didn't do it. Maybe for verbal but not for the sciences. The reason is that you have to treat the MCAT studying as two completely different phases. The first is where you learn and master the necessary material (content review) and the second is where you do everything else (learn to speed up more, learn to pace yourself, stamina, test taking strategies, etc) or basically the little things. With that in mind, you need to do your passages and practice the same day or within a day of your lecture review to make sure you've mastered it and hammered it in. Here's what I did as far as material since so many people seem to ask, I started with reading the lecture, then EK 1001 problems (getting the basics and subtleties down), then I did the TPR science workbook problems for that topic, then I did TBR phase I passages. I did that everyday during content review for about a month and a half. I've posted the phases for TBR passages in the Berkeley review discussion thread. I would then do all the phase II passages at the end of the week.

I would do the EK Bio 1001 questions first (because they're not TRULY passage based) and then I did the TPR bio passages, which were amazing by the way. Also I would encourage anyone else to respond, my way was an obvious yet unorthodox way to study for the MCAT and OP should get as many different opinions as possible to see what could work for you. My way worked for me, but I'm certain it won't work for everyone else. You have to evaluate what kind of student you are, what you know and don't know, and what you need. I think the self evaluation is the hardest part of it all. After you have the figured out, put on your blinders and charge full steam ahead.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#12

Yea agree with the above [about careless mistakes], it also goes away with more practice. After you've been slapped around, tripped, and laughed at a few times (usually 3 or 4 times) by those questions then you learn it and it becomes habit. If you forget after those times then a little voice inside your head says "nooo read the question/answer/calculation/passage again carefully." Kind of like mini-me from Austin Powers.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#13

Two things that helped me. I kept an excel spreadsheet with everything in it (FL scores, verbal scores, practice scores, hours, etc.) each separated by subject and the company I used. I could go in and see trends regarding hours studied, how my scores were going, which specific subjects I struggle with, basically everything I wanted to see a trend in. It helps color coding by scaled scores or percentages too and helps you see it quicker kind of like of Vihsadas did it. I think self analysis is crucial, especially when you get to the 35+ range where single questions start counting more. The spreadsheet helped me seek out and eliminate my weaknesses.

The second thing was that I did all my practice problems in a separate 5 subject notebook and split them up as all O chem, all Physics, all Bio, all Chem, all verbal practice problems and notes I made on particular subjects as I did those problems. For example, I saw on my spreadsheet that electrostatics was my worst section, when I went back I had notes for all the problems I had gotten wrong or guessed on from all the different materials I did. I also wrote down intricacies for each subject that I thought I would forgot later on so that when I came back I could have a quick read over and remember all that again.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#14

Doing one passage at a time then reviewing it is what I did for all of content review and it worked out excellently for me. First you master the content then you master the timing. Those are two separate skills that are hard to master at the same time.

It's like when you learn to throw a baseball, you learn to throw the ball properly and with accuracy first and then you work on adding power and speed, you don't just grab the ball and work on throwing it hard and accurately at the same time. You learn the mechanics and once you've mastered them you work on the power and speed. No use in finishing on time if you still get a lot wrong.

Maybe this helps,
-LIS

#15

For practice, yes. But the TPR is still an amazing resource that I think people shouldn't choose either one or the other but use both to compliment each other. TBR has only hard passages which can be good and bad because although it does prepare you for the hard stuff, that's not exactly how the test is. TPR does a better job at giving you the spectrum that you'll see on AAMCS and on the real thing. Not all of your passages are going to be TBR hard. A few will but some will be easy and some will be in the middle and that's exactly what TPR has.

Also as far as Bio goes: TPR>>EK 1001 Bio>TBR for passages. I think they all are used for different purposes. TPR tests content and passage comprehension and EK Bio 1001 tests mostly content and not much passage comprehension, TBR was sort of weird. They have passage comprehension but some questions are just sort of weird as hell in that it's not mentioned in the passage and they expect you to know minute details that aren't important. Detail wise, EK 1001 covers everything as far as facts you need to know. TBR is still decent practice though. If you have time do all 3 but if not stick with the top 2. That's just my personal suggestion though.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#16

Guys, don't be afraid to get questions wrong. You have to treat it like a learning opportunity and not a criticism. In the beginning you might be getting hammered by the passages and doing bad. A few weeks later you're doing slightly better or the same. A couple months later you rarely ever get any wrong. I'm a true and honest believer that if you practice and get hammered enough and get questions wrong while reviewing thoroughly then eventually you'll master the material. I know it sounds scary but you can seriously only make the same mistake 5 or 6 times before you never make that mistake again. That's why you practice, so you make it in practice and not the real thing.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#17

I'm not saying this to be rude or harsh but just to be honest with you so that you can improve, but if you got a score lower than 27 then that means that you're majorly lacking in the fundamentals. Go back to the drawing board and start over because you can't get any worse. Pick a prep company you're comfortable with (TPR hyperlearning is an excellent start) and read the books in each section carefully and do as much practice problems as you can get your hands on. That means EK 1001 books, TPR science workbook, and TBR sciences at the least. Don't worry about getting a ton of questions wrong, because I missed a lot but focus on learning the material and perfecting your understanding of it. I never cared about getting a question wrong during content review, I just cared about understanding the concepts and making sure I knew exactly why I got the question wrong and what I could do to get it right. Only worry about scores during your FLs. Taking the above approach should get you at least a 10 or 11 on each section or even higher depending on how much effort you can put into your prep. This test is all about training. You train to get good at answering questions about the sciences. Some people do well without much studying because they got that training throughout their education, other people have to make up for not having that training (like me) by practicing a crap load of problems until you are at that level. You should be asking yourself the same questions for every question you're not 100% sure about or you don't get right which are: why did I get the question wrong?, what didn't I understand?, what is my current understanding of the subject?, what is the explanation trying to tell me?, starting from the basics how should I have thought about this to get the question right?, did I get the question wrong because I didn't understand it because it was poorly worded or I didn't concentrate? Did I get it wrong because I forgot something I should have known? and on and on.

Sorry this seems jumbled and unorganized but that's all I have time for right now.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#18

Personally, I think the best prep is through practice. I practiced my understanding of the material by doing a bunch of practice problems during content review with EK 1001 books, TPR Science workbook, and TBR books and a little kaplan stuff. Then I practiced combining the different concepts in a section and pulling out information quickly by practicing with FLs. When I took FLs, my knowledge base was solid, it was just that I had to get quicker at pulling it out and remembering equations and facts. Practice problems and FLs each serve a different purpose and I think each is essential for doing well on this test.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#19

I think first you have to look at how comfortable you are with the material. Personally, when I started FLs, I was extremely comfortable with the material because I had done all the EK 1001 books, TPR science workbook, online kaplan stuff, and TBR Phase I and II passages. Now, not everyone needs to do that but that's what I needed personally to feel comfortable. Once you feel comfortable you can move on to FLs. When you do FLs though, you need to really tear them apart. For me the motivation came from "well okay I made mistakes, so what do I need to fix and how do I do it" It irritated the heck out of me when I got a question wrong or even if I got one right but for the wrong reasons because I did the content so why didn't I get it right. The first thing is just to realize why you got the question right or wrong (was there something in the passage you missed, was there something you misread, did you just skim over some answers, did you not use POE, etc). Then the why behind it and that's when you need to dive into your prep books. Don't read the whole chapters, that's just not time efficient. Just read the parts that are relevant to your mistake. Now you have to be honest and ask yourself if you truly understand it. For me if it was something more than a simple calculation mistake then I would do a few problems just to help my conceptual understanding.

Also, I think THE BEST way to review any of the questions is to look at the questions you get wrong and try to do them again without looking at the explanation. Try to get them right on your second chance. So all you know is that you got the question wrong and you need to figure out what the answer is. If I got it wrong the second try to then that meant I really needed to go back and do some review on the material. Work on the question with your prep material and your notes and try to figure out the solution before you look at the explanation. Once you've done that and read the explanation, try to find another path to the solution (Was there a faster way, was there a different conceptual approach, etc). So I always tried to find two ways to do it. Usually there's one way that is fast and efficient (which is what you want to do during the test) and there is a longer drawn out way that uses the basics concepts to get to the solution (which you want to use on questions that are harder and you're not sure about). This way, you always have two ways of getting an answer so it'll be rare when you come across a problem that you can't solve one way or the other. So for example, in PS you can do a question by dimensional analysis or looking at units or degrees of magnitude of the answers or you can use some of the equations related to the concepts. I think TBR does a pretty good job or showing you this with their passages and explanations so definitely use those and spend time with them and not just gloss over the explanations. After I did each set of questions from practice I could tell you exactly what types of questions I got wrong and why. That's important because if you keep a track of those (written or mental) then you see patterns and know exactly which areas to target to improve.

So I hope I've helped and if you have anymore questions let me know,

-LIS

#20

To start off, I did do all those materials and them some with 40 FLs outside of those practice passages and questions. It's weird but I felt I had to do everything solely due to confidence because I felt like if I did all the material there was NOTHING else I could have done. But with your time (unless you're willing to postpone) I don't think you can finish everything...well you might since you don't have as many FLs to do.

What I did was I would read the chapter for whichever book I chose, then do the EK 1001 problems, then the TPR science workbook problems, and then the TBR passages.

As far as bio goes, I would say that if you feel very confident with bio then EK bio is fine but if not then just spend the time with TPRH bio because it isn't THAT long (trust me it looks long but its a fast read so even though it might be twice as long as EK, it reads twice as fast too). I think for bio both were necessary. You first need the necessary facts for bio to understand the concepts then you need to practice passages and not only solidify those facts but learn how to analyze and parse through passages.

As far as study habits ago, I just kept consistent and didn't let myself take more than a day off per week or week and a half. Work hard everyday on accomplishing set goals and don't let yourself waste the time. Get it done and kill it the first time. Immerse yourself in it. I started off with the attitude of I have to put in a lot of work to do well and changed to, man I've put in quite a lot of hours and it would be a waste to slack off now no matter how tired or how much is left, to i put in so much work it would all be ruined if i don't close this out strongly in the end. The hardest thing for me each day was getting started. Once I got started I was gone. After I finished my food I got up put up the dishes and didn't let myself touch my computer and make myself pick up my book instead and start reading. I did the same with breaks, those were the hardest to get restarted from.

If you have any more questions let me know,

-LIS

#21

[For Organic Chemistry] No, don't memorize. Just look at the general trends of each reactions. Memorizing is worthless in my opinion. After you practice the trends are easy to see as to where the electrons go. That's all that organic is, electrons moving around. Learn the concepts and trends and in my opinion this can only be successfully done by lots of practice.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

#22

A typical day was I would wake up around 8 or 9, then eat breakfast while either reading the forums or watching the news. That took me about an hour sometimes less, never more though. I did study everyday but I took breaks as needed. So I didn't do the once a week thing more like half a day a week or a full day off every two weeks because that's what worked for me. I don't tire easily and can go for long stretches without burning out. Then I would do three 5 hour sessions with breaks every hour or so. It really got be used to the stamina needed to take this test. My breaks were usually 5-10 mins each hour and then after the 5 hours I would eat and do errands for an hour or so, until I felt like working again. FL days varied depending on how I did and how much I got done the previous day but usually 1-3 days. I have about 2 days between FLs in the end to give myself sometime to rest up before the test.

-LIS

#23

Do the EK 1001 series first. Go through all four books. It took me about 6 days to do them. They test on the very basic aspects of the sciences and they will get your fundamentals down. No need to waste time re-reviewing. Do like 20-30 questions and then go back and review them. If you get something wrong, don't turn to the explanations (they suck anyway) and look up and review that material from your TBR books. So go through all 4 subjects in EK 1001.

Going through and eliminating all of your weaknesses will probably take anywhere from 4 days (if you work on them full time) to 10 maybe.

Then you are ready for the more advanced passages. If you get the TPR Science Workbook, then go through that whole thing which will probably take you a week or week and a half doing it full time. Again, if you get something wrong then go back and try to figure it out on your own without looking up the answer explanation and if you can't figure it out then use your TBR or TPR content material.

Then lastly, go through and do all the TBR Phase I passages.

Then you can start FLs and finish the rest of the Phases of TBR as you go along.

Basically that's what I did but I also had the Kaplan online course material. But what you have, if you include TPR, is DEFINITELY more than enough. Anyway, doing it that way worked out for me as far as practice AAMC FL scores go.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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[SN2ed]

Thanks man. It's nice to see you're still here. I'm guessing SN2ed probably isn't around as much since he started med school. I didn't want to be one of those people that uses this forum to help him dominate this test and then bolt for the first exit I saw. There were a lot of people on here who helped me and I want the chance to be able to do the same.

Good to know i wasn't forgotten.

Whew, I'm so tired now, Just spent like 90 minutes going through half the threads on the first page and helping as much as I could.

Anyway, any questions/comments at all let me know.

Here to help,

-LIS

I'm still around, just a heck of a lot busier. I'll usually read the various threads, but I don't post as often except maybe on weekends or if I'm really sick of studying Good to see you again.

 

[LostInStudy]

Hey LostInStudy,

Thanks for creating this thread! I have both the TPR Science Workbook and BR Physics & Chem books. Should I do both the TPR Science Workbook & BR for Chem/Physics practice or would the Berkeley Review Chem & Physics books suffice?

Thanks!

If you have time to do the TPR Science Workbook then I would. I think the TPR Science Workbook was great at giving the variety of difficulty levels you see in the AAMC exams. TBR has like 12 hard passages and 1 easy passage, which is good at showing you how to think of the material and answering hard questions but might make you over-think some of the easier or middle of the line questions.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[Silverfalcon]

Good to have you back, LIS.

Oh and can I just say your avatar is pretty awesome?

 

[LostInStudy]

What's up with you? How was your MCAT?

Also, the avatar took me a while to pick out but yes, it is awesome.

-LIS

 

[leagall]

Hey LIS,

Thanks for your response! What do you think of GS CBTs? Are they representative of the real MCAT? I also saw you mentioned Kaplan above. What do you think of the Kaplan subject tests? Worthwhile to do them? Or should I just do the topicals and section tests?

Thanks a lot!

 

[LostInStudy]

Hey LIS,

Thanks for your response! What do you think of GS CBTs? Are they representative of the real MCAT? I also saw you mentioned Kaplan above. What do you think of the Kaplan subject tests? Worthwhile to do them? Or should I just do the topicals and section tests?

Thanks a lot!

GS and Kaplan material are good at testing the material but as far as testing your thinking and reasoning skills, I don't think anyone does it well or at all other than AAMC and TBR (With AAMC much more so than TBR). I think the Kaplan topicals are golden though, I really liked those and liked how they challenged my understanding of the content. The subject tests were just straight multiple choice questions, they were okay but nothing special. The section tests were weird, some of them I thought were good and some of them not so good. I think it depends but if you have time to do the topical tests then I would do those.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[Silverfalcon]

What's up with you? How was your MCAT?

Also, the avatar took me a while to pick out but yes, it is awesome.

-LIS

Hey, not much. Just at school with tons of work this semester. Guess what they said about junior year is true - junior year equals tons of studying, studying, studying... But then I did sign up for three sciences (neuro, pchem, and intermediate orgo) in all 300-level..

MCAT was... MCAT. Can't tell you much about it at this point because I'll get my results in 9 days, but eh, what's done is done. I feel like I was prepared and did use your advices here (on the first page) and bunch of other advices I found...

I actually quoted one statement that you made after I took the MCAT. It was a metaphor you made to compare MCAT as a girl... When she was here, I was so stressed and couldn't wait till to be done with her, but then, when I was finally liberated (e.g. done with MCAT), something felt empty.

 

[leagall]

Thanks LIS! What books did you use for verbal prep? And what techniques did you use? Also what do think of EK 1001 Orgo? I am thinking of doing every third problem from that book.

Thanks!

 

[DJ303]

Im jumping on the LIS wagon. Taking test Jan.

 

[LostInStudy]

Thanks LIS! What books did you use for verbal prep? And what techniques did you use? Also what do think of EK 1001 Orgo? I am thinking of doing every third problem from that book.

Thanks!

I used EK 101 verbal and TPR Verbal Workbook. I did every passage in both. I used mainly the EK technique, nothing special. I don't really comment on verbal because there's a lot of good verbal advice already on the forum but I did notice that my scores jumped from practicing in the books to practicing in the AAMC tests because I could highlight on the AAMC tests and look up dates and names easily whereas with the books I really couldn't/didn't. Even though EK strongly advises against highlighting, it really helped me organize my thoughts after each paragraph and stay organized afterwords during the questions. It honestly is whatever strategy helps you understand the passage the most and works for you. If you read the 30+ thread, each poster has a different strategy because that's what worked for them. Start with a basic strategy (EK is a great start) then tweak it and play around with it until you get what you want. I'm glad I challenged the EK strategy a bit about the highlighting because if I hadn't I don't think I would have done as well. Don't let anything be concrete and just let yourself tweak to build comprehension and timing.

I thought the EK 1001 orgo was good at testing content and even though some people say it's a waste of time because it's way too easy I thought it was okay and the easiness was negated by the fact that you could do it lightening quick (~12-18 questions per minute) compared to the other books. I wouldn't use it as your main source of practice though, get TBR if you can or TPR Science Workbook. The TPR had some really nice passages too but TBR had all great passages. TBR was challenging, taught you to think, and had superb explanations. TPR wasn't as challenging but they did have some hard passages and the explanations were good but not great.

Im jumping on the LIS wagon. Taking test Jan.

What is this wagon and where does it go?

On a side note, I was reading the first page of my thread earlier today as I was typing up my 30+ post and I realized how much great advice there is on that first post. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I think I've gone a long way in accomplishing my goals since I started off on this quest. When I got my scores back I wanted to have detailed and informative posts that gave the reader all the knowledge and confidence they needed and I think the posts reflect that. I would read posts from people like Q, Vihsadas and Lorelei and wish that many of the other posters would give great in depth explanations and opinions like those guys did and felt like that was really lacking in the forums. I'm not sure when I started mass posting advice (probably since march when I got my score or January after I took the test) but in that time I think I've accomplished a lot of the goals stated above. Good for me and I hope I can continue doing it at least until next August.

Thanks for everything forum users,

-LIS

 

[apc]

Hey LIS,

So I'm planing on doing 2/3 of PR workbook (discretes + passages) and EK 1001 problems + all BR passage for each chapter.
However, I've had some issues with physics 1001 questions. By looking at your advice, it seems like you weren't a big fan either.
I'm thinking of switching from EK 1001 physics to NOVA (for problems).
But EK 1001 has many more problems than NOVA, but nova is mix of discretes + passages (2 passages per chapter).
Considering that both PR and BR have enough passages to practice, do you think switching EK with NOVA is a good idea? I was also thinking of mixing both EK and Nova. Doing 1/3 of EK + 1/3 of Nova

 

[TwoPaddles]

Hey LIS,

So I'm planing on doing 2/3 of PR workbook (discretes + passages) and EK 1001 problems + all BR passage for each chapter.
However, I've had some issues with physics 1001 questions. By looking at your advice, it seems like you weren't a big fan either.
I'm thinking of switching from EK 1001 physics to NOVA (for problems).
But EK 1001 has many more problems than NOVA, but nova is mix of discretes + passages (2 passages per chapter).
Considering that both PR and BR have enough passages to practice, do you think switching EK with NOVA is a good idea? I was also thinking of mixing both EK and Nova. Doing 1/3 of EK + 1/3 of Nova

I think TPR's discretes are plenty

 

[apc]

I think TPR's discretes are plenty

Yeah, if I stop doing EK 1001 for physics, I'll have enough time to go through all of PR workbook problems (instead of doing 2/3 of it).

 

[TwoPaddles]

Yeah, if I stop doing EK 1001 for physics, I'll have enough time to go through all of PR workbook problems (instead of doing 2/3 of it).

I think TPR's discretes are more challenging

 

[Ghayoour]

Hey LIS thanks for all your help in this forum I read through all 5 pages and have benefited immensely. Like you did in the past I will also be taking my exam in the end of Jan, and have some questions.

I already started content review for MCATs and i am half way finished through EK and will be done with it by the end of October. I have been recieving 12-13 on bio and orgo in the in class 30 minutes exam in EK, but around 9-10 in the PS sections. What do you think is best approach towards PS?

I have a schedule that i will be following starting octuber and was hoping for your feedback. I am going to use SN2ed's 3 month study guide but modified. I am sticking to his first 2 months of content review with BR. But the last month i divided into 2 months but I am planning on doing FL's maybe every other day. Do you think this is a good idea? This is give me a chance to get down at least 25-30 FLs.

I will also be using TPRH science workbook in my study, along with Ek1001.

Any help will be appreciated Thanks.

 

[HopeMed]

Thanks so much LIS for this detailed thread. It is wonderful to read through your experiences. I have gained more than you can imagine with the work you and several others have put into threads like these. I think that it is a challenge to all of us to "pay it forward". Many, many thanks!

My question to you is if you don't mind sharing, about how much did all of your materials run you in total including all of the FL's?

Also, did you accumulate over time-- ie when you felt you exhausted your current review, or did you purchase everything up front with the goal to go through it all?

 

[cdnwpg]

What happened to our friend, LIS?

 

[MCATMadness]

how is everyone doing with time management?

for each chapter, my plan is to (1) read/take notes on the chapter, (2) Do all EK 1001 for the ch, (3) Do Phase I for the ch. I do all the problems and thoroughly review. I also write out tricky problems/missed questions in a ntbk to refer to later per LIS' advice.

I have done this already for Physics Ch 1: Translational Motion. And it took me three and a half days (8 hours each day)!!

Any tips about how to better manage my time or speed things up. I feel like I am learning the material well so I dont want to cut anything out. I guess I am just slow when working thru the material.

Tips anyone? Insight? Advice? Im desperate!

 

[MCATMadness]

Also has anyone outlined what chapters correspond to each other in all the different books? Or does anyone know of a thread on sdn with this info???

thanks!

 

[LostInStudy]

Hey LIS,

So I'm planing on doing 2/3 of PR workbook (discretes + passages) and EK 1001 problems + all BR passage for each chapter.
However, I've had some issues with physics 1001 questions. By looking at your advice, it seems like you weren't a big fan either.
I'm thinking of switching from EK 1001 physics to NOVA (for problems).
But EK 1001 has many more problems than NOVA, but nova is mix of discretes + passages (2 passages per chapter).
Considering that both PR and BR have enough passages to practice, do you think switching EK with NOVA is a good idea? I was also thinking of mixing both EK and Nova. Doing 1/3 of EK + 1/3 of Nova

Yeah, if I stop doing EK 1001 for physics, I'll have enough time to go through all of PR workbook problems (instead of doing 2/3 of it).

I'm not going to comment on NOVA because I never used it so obviously I can't provide a fair or honest assessment of it. I've head good things about their content review but never anything about their practice problems. TPR has some great passages and problems though so if you can do all of that I would stick to that and TBR and you should be okay.

Hey LIS thanks for all your help in this forum I read through all 5 pages and have benefited immensely. Like you did in the past I will also be taking my exam in the end of Jan, and have some questions.

I already started content review for MCATs and i am half way finished through EK and will be done with it by the end of October. I have been recieving 12-13 on bio and orgo in the in class 30 minutes exam in EK, but around 9-10 in the PS sections. What do you think is best approach towards PS?

I have a schedule that i will be following starting octuber and was hoping for your feedback. I am going to use SN2ed's 3 month study guide but modified. I am sticking to his first 2 months of content review with BR. But the last month i divided into 2 months but I am planning on doing FL's maybe every other day. Do you think this is a good idea? This is give me a chance to get down at least 25-30 FLs.

I will also be using TPRH science workbook in my study, along with Ek1001.

Any help will be appreciated Thanks.

I think PS is the one section that is heavily correlated with how much time you've spent with the subjects either during your MCAT study or prior to it. The more practice you've done the more you've solidified the concepts and are prepared for whatever they throw at you. As a side note I wouldn't put much trust or importance on any practice scores or scaled scores outside of the AAMC tests. All those things outside of the AAMC tests are for learning and solidifying, how well you do doesn't have that much important to if you're going to do well on the practice FLs or the real thing.

Your plan looks fine just make sure you don't fall into the trap of reviewing content multiple times and using up time you should be practicing on reviewing content. What people don't realize is that after you've reviewed content thoroughly once, doing it again won't help you much. Doing questions is much more helpful because if you're reviewing properly, not only are you learning test taking techniques and skills but you're doing content review and finding weak areas in a much more effective and efficient method.

Thanks so much LIS for this detailed thread. It is wonderful to read through your experiences. I have gained more than you can imagine with the work you and several others have put into threads like these. I think that it is a challenge to all of us to "pay it forward". Many, many thanks!

My question to you is if you don't mind sharing, about how much did all of your materials run you in total including all of the FL's?

Also, did you accumulate over time-- ie when you felt you exhausted your current review, or did you purchase everything up front with the goal to go through it all?

Probably in the $800-$900 range total. It was a lot especially for someone like me who doesn't have a lot of money but it's a drop in the bucket for what I'm going to pay and if I didn't pay I may not have gotten the score I got and maybe wouldn't have even got into medical school, so even though it was a lot, it was necessary for me not to cut down or try to save money even though the TBR books were great. Who knows, if I'm lucky I might get a full ride somewhere and it will more than even out for everything. I did accumulate over time, I got the TPR set first but after I voided and was set on destroying this test I loaded up on TBR and EK 1001.

What happened to our friend, LIS?

I ended up out of town somehow with no internet. I was supposed to use the weekend to finish what little work I have on the 30+ post and secondaries but I was away from the internet and computers in general so I couldn't do any of that and am now a week behind everything. But it's cool, the trip was nice.

Hope this helped guys and keep the comments/questions coming,

-LIS

 

[LostInStudy]

Also has anyone outlined what chapters correspond to each other in all the different books? Or does anyone know of a thread on sdn with this info???

thanks!

Look on the first page of this thread.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[LostInStudy]

how is everyone doing with time management?

for each chapter, my plan is to (1) read/take notes on the chapter, (2) Do all EK 1001 for the ch, (3) Do Phase I for the ch. I do all the problems and thoroughly review. I also write out tricky problems/missed questions in a ntbk to refer to later per LIS' advice.

I have done this already for Physics Ch 1: Translational Motion. And it took me three and a half days (8 hours each day)!!

Any tips about how to better manage my time or speed things up. I feel like I am learning the material well so I dont want to cut anything out. I guess I am just slow when working thru the material.

Tips anyone? Insight? Advice? Im desperate!

Maybe cut out the note taking. I'm not a huge fan of it because usually it takes much more time than it's worth. Some people swear by note taking but I think these are people who are efficient and effective at it and don't make like 3-4 page notes per chapter. Trust me if you're doing enough practice (as it seems like you are) then you don't really need the notes. It feels awkward at first but you get used to it and I think the extra practice with that saved time helps more.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions,

-LIS

 

[MCATMadness]

thanks so much LIS for all of your advice and help. i started studying about a month ago and was really discouraged bc i was not getting the concepts and scoring well on anything. after reading your thread, i revamped my schedule to model yours and im feeling confident with the material and scoring very well (at least on one chapter so far!). well see how the rest goes but im optimistic! but seriously, thanks for the all the time and effort. you have helped so much!

im going to cut out the note taking for the next chapter and see how it goes. hopefully it saves me some time.

ive read thru this whole thread, but just want to clarify. during your marathon 15 hour study sessions, were you able to complete reading, EK 1001, and phase I (including review and note taking on hard problems)?? how did you complete all of it in that amount of time? my goal was one day and it took me 3 days!!!

thanks again LIS!

 

[apc]

Hi LIS,

So Nova's problems are actually alright.
But most of them are discretes. And their passages seem way too short.
Still, to me they are better than EK. I'm doing all of PR and BR and 1/3-2/3 of Nova (overtime).

One more thing, since you mentioned you did Kaplan topicals and sectionals, did you by any chance go over Kaplan's verbal sectionals? I'm already doing EK and PR, just wanted extra practice.

 

[LostInStudy]

thanks so much LIS for all of your advice and help. i started studying about a month ago and was really discouraged bc i was not getting the concepts and scoring well on anything. after reading your thread, i revamped my schedule to model yours and im feeling confident with the material and scoring very well (at least on one chapter so far!). well see how the rest goes but im optimistic! but seriously, thanks for the all the time and effort. you have helped so much!

im going to cut out the note taking for the next chapter and see how it goes. hopefully it saves me some time.

ive read thru this whole thread, but just want to clarify. during your marathon 15 hour study sessions, were you able to complete reading, EK 1001, and phase I (including review and note taking on hard problems)?? how did you complete all of it in that amount of time? my goal was one day and it took me 3 days!!!

thanks again LIS!

Give the no-note taking strategy some time to work, like a week at least. You might do well or you might not, but with time and practice you'll improve either way. I posted it earlier somewhere but during content review, to do all the reading and problems usually took me around 1.5-2 days but I wasn't putting in the 15 hours then. Most of the 15 hours came close to the practice FLs time.

The funny thing is that preparing for this exam is a lot like preparing for a position in a sport like football. So for a Wide Receiver, you might start off not catching the ball well at all or you might have a good day here and there but as you get a feel for it and get more repetition and practice in you will do better and better and do it more consistently. In the beginning you might have a few good days and mostly bad days but as you progress you will have mostly good days and very few (if any) bad days. The MCAT works in a very very similar way.

Hi LIS,

So Nova's problems are actually alright.
But most of them are discretes. And their passages seem way too short.
Still, to me they are better than EK. I'm doing all of PR and BR and 1/3-2/3 of Nova (overtime).

One more thing, since you mentioned you did Kaplan topicals and sectionals, did you by any chance go over Kaplan's verbal sectionals? I'm already doing EK and PR, just wanted extra practice.

If you can fit in the practice then just do them if you think they're helping.

I didn't do Kraplan Verbal. I never heard a good thing about them so I didn't bother. PR and EK should be enough along with AAMC and other practice FLs.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[Ghayoour]

Thanks for the reply LIS. We really do appreciate it, not many people give advises or help out after they get good score on their MCAT, so thank you this helps a lot.

Yes, i am only going to do content review solidly for 2 months (oct & nov). I am almost done with EK, but will do the first 2 months of SN2ed as i mentioned for content + the practice.

My plan for the last 2 months is to take many FLs (around 27) for practice plus i plan on doing extra practice on the side.

My goal is to finish TBR passages, TPR workbook, and EK1001 series. Do you think thats good enough?

 

[LostInStudy]

It's certainly good enough, it just depends on how much effort and attention you put into learning from the problems and reviewing them and learning from your mistakes.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[Ghayoour]

It's certainly good enough, it just depends on how much effort and attention you put into learning from the problems and reviewing them and learning from your mistakes.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

Thanks LIS, it certainly helps.

 

[apc]

Thanks for all the info LIS.
Sorry to bug you so much, but which did you find more helpful; EK bio or PR WB bio (for practice). I have enough time to go over all passages of one book and 2/3 of the other. What do you suggest?
Thanks again

 

[leagall]

Hey LIS,

Thanks for all your help in this thread. I believe you mentioned you reviewed each passage you did right after you completed it---is there any advantage to doing this instead of doing a set of 5-10 passages and then reviewing them all together at the end? Also when reviewing, did you read over the passage again and try to figure out the answers on your own a second time before looking at the explanations?

Thanks!

 

[epsilonprodigy]

Hey LIS,

Hope the app cycle is treating you well. Surely you have some interviews to stellar schools already?

I just got the terrible news that I got a 25P on the August 24 MCAT. This was after scoring 33-35 on the AAMC's and 31-32 on the last few Kaplan's. So I'm still picking up the pieces (just found out yesterday.) I will most likely re-take in the spring, even though I have already submitted multiple apps, I'm obviously not very optimistic.

I wondered if you had any advice for things I could be doing this early on (8 months pre-retake.) I'd much appreciate it, actually have a few more questions but I'm in a hurry! Thanks much.

 

[afib c rvr]

Hi, LIS! TPR and TBR chapters dont correspond exactly. How did you combine them? Did you start figuring out what passages in TBR correspond with the TPR chapters before you started the schedule? Or did you just try to figure it out as you read them after you went over each TPR chapter?

 

[PlatinumPenny]

Hello,
Post #99 of this thread had a modified version of a study schedule. Has anyone atempted that schedule? If so, how is it working out? Do you have it written out so I can see it? THanks

 

[eastm002]

Hey LostInStudy, you mentioned that you kept an excel spreadsheet with everything in it (FL scores, verbal scores, practice scores, hours, etc.). I wast just wondering if you could post an example of how you did it. I want to replicate something similar but i do not know where to start. Thank you in advance.

 

[LucileDupin]

eastm002, did LIS end up posting a sample study schedule?

 

[NickNaylor]

What happened to this guy? He was super active in the summer and then disappeared.

 

[getright]

Awesome thread.

 

[kevnm67]

Has anyone made a an excel sheet or some type of study schedule based on the advice from this thread?

 

[flight24]

I have tried searching this, but I can't find the answer. I have TBR books, but what do you guys mean by "Do phase I" and "phase II" and "phase III".

What are these phases?

 

[tttgo]

aren't phase 1 and 2 the 2 books for each subject? I think phase 3 is additional reinforcing material used in the class. you could probably replace that with something else.

 

[Silverfalcon]

What happened to this guy? He was super active in the summer and then disappeared.

Unrelated, but Nick Naylor? And a picture of Descartes? bleargh is an assistant mod and you have a different username now. Where is SDN going?

 

[flight24]

aren't phase 1 and 2 the 2 books for each subject? I think phase 3 is additional reinforcing material used in the class. you could probably replace that with something else.

OK, I did more research and looked thru my TBR books. It looks like phases are simply passages after each chapter and broken down into 3 categories: phase I, phase II, phase III.

However, this seems to be only in the g-chem and o-chem books. But I don't such a breakdown for the biology and physics books. I searched for it on the Berkeley Review Discussion thread and it looks it was once posted by LIS, but edited out currently. Does anyone have the phase breakdown for the physics and biology book (I have the edition from 2009, I believe they were updated few months ago)?

 

[SmurfinUSA]

Bump it!

 

[apc]

Bump it!

ok

 

[skiing]

Hi LIS,
Thank you sooo much for all the amazing information!!

When you are in the first stage of getting all the content down, how do you read review chapters? Sometimes reading chapters feels a bit like swimming in a conglomerate of sentences and words, and then trying to grab at random surrounding seastuff, not knowing what I'll still have with me at the end of the chapter.

Do you break every page down into subsections and focus on keywords you don't understand, do you try to memorize every paragraph in order? Do you skim/mentally outline pages before you read them and then go back for detail? You say you spend a few hours per chapter - how do you retain all of that?

How do you remember everything important you've read, along with key details scattered in text?

I always have trouble knowing where to direct my focus.

Thanks again!

 

[muhali3]

Hi LIS,
Thank you sooo much for all the amazing information!!

When you are in the first stage of getting all the content down, how do you read review chapters? Sometimes reading chapters feels a bit like swimming in a conglomerate of sentences and words, and then trying to grab at random surrounding seastuff, not knowing what I'll still have with me at the end of the chapter.

Do you break every page down into subsections and focus on keywords you don't understand, do you try to memorize every paragraph in order? Do you skim/mentally outline pages before you read them and then go back for detail? You say you spend a few hours per chapter - how do you retain all of that?

How do you remember everything important you've read, along with key details scattered in text?

I always have trouble knowing where to direct my focus.

Thanks again!

This is why you must do practice questions. Also, when I did my review, I had a copy the AAMC content outline beside me, so I knew what I needed to learn for a given section. I checked each bullet point off once I felt comfortable with it.

 

[MedPR]

I've only been able to find a 2006 copy of TPRH BIo. Since the MCAT changed in 2007, would it be bad to use the 2006 book?

 

[jcf1804]

Hello LostInStudy,

I've read most of your posts, I would like to thank you, your advice is very helpful.
I'm going to retake my exam, I did horribly in VR. I checked your method of studying and you did all the EK 1001 in your first 2 weeks.
I was thinking of spreading the my EKs exercises, doing 1/3 of all EKs every 2 weeks for 6 weeks. But in the first 2 weks I will be complementing them with Kaplan's subject test, quiz and Practice questions.
I know, we each have our own way of studying. But I wanted to have someone elses advice.
What do you think about this method?

Thks

 

[Forkit]

Hello LostInStudy,

I've read most of your posts, I would like to thank you, your advice is very helpful.
I'm going to retake my exam, I did horribly in VR. I checked your method of studying and you did all the EK 1001 in your first 2 weeks.
I was thinking of spreading the my EKs exercises, doing 1/3 of all EKs every 2 weeks for 6 weeks. But in the first 2 weks I will be complementing them with Kaplan's subject test, quiz and Practice questions.
I know, we each have our own way of studying. But I wanted to have someone elses advice.
What do you think about this method?

Thks

Wow, strong bump lol!

 

[edmotets]

How can I buy this book TPR Hyperlearning Biology LIS is referring too ? Is it one of this book ?
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Mcat-Series-Hyperlearning-Biological/dp/B007YKILUU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5
I mean is it the book "Hyperlearning Mcat Biological Sciences Review" that supposedly content biology and Organic Chemistry that can be bought only upon enrollment to the class, or was he talking about the Biology content book of Princeton review that can be bought without enrolling to the class ? Please can someone clarify this to me ?
Thanks you.