MCAT BAD HABITS

[daking]

Spending more time on facebook than your mcat materials

Focusing on content without timed practice........

Pls add yours.

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[MichaelBergen]

Dwelling on the low scores I get on said passages instead of figuring out why I got some things wrong.

 

[mrh125]

my first few months studying were basically: "OMFG do we have to memorize all this material?!" instead of just buckling down and doing it. Also, blowing official AAMCs FLs too early really messed things up for me. Don't react either of those ways.

 

[txlonghorn2314]

Never sticking to a schedule because I constantly convinced myself there are better strategies out there

 

[BrawnsNBrain]

My worst habit was not concentrated studying which is what everyone seems to be saying so far.

Do 1hr content, 10 minute break, repeat till you need to pee!

 

[madmuttal]

Rushing the post game analysis and not going over every correct and wrong questions thoroughly...For correct ones, got to go over why each choices are wrong and why correct choice is correct...do this before reading solution....passively reading solutions and not actively critically rethinking is a giant waste of time..

 

[Futbol99]

I relate to the first post in this thread so much. I know my biggest problem is not practicing as much as I can, which is why I had to reschedule my test many times. But there are so many topics that I am weak at like in physics, that every time I have to cover that chapter for that day, I realize I forgot almost everything, and I re-read the chapter and add more notes to my notes. Every time I understand something a little better than last time, but it hinders me from getting too much practice in. I'm in a vicious cycle, because if I know I have to cover most of the content and do practice, but if its a topic I find tough , Ill find myself going slower and wasting more time and not covering what I wanted on that day. I really want to break out of these bad habits. It's significantly slowing me down.
Anyone found a way to beat that and succeed?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Scoring your sections separately

 

[CW 2010]

Dwelling on the low scores I get on said passages instead of figuring out why I got some things wrong.

I have the same problem. And then I get disappointed and discouraged about how many mistakes I make and start thinking if I could ever conquer this test... instead of just sticking to it and keep studying.

 

[Toadesque]

I never did a single full length in one go, I broke everything up into sections. Sometimes I would do PS at night and then VR and BS the next morning. It turned out okay for me though because the MCAT is really not a long exam at all (as it stands right now) so I wasn't worried about fatigue. But it was probably a stupid thing to do and I would never advise it.

 

[AKMCAT]

Doing verbal passages almost everyday without a break!!

 

[ilovemedi]

I relate to the first post in this thread so much. I know my biggest problem is not practicing as much as I can, which is why I had to reschedule my test many times. But there are so many topics that I am weak at like in physics, that every time I have to cover that chapter for that day, I realize I forgot almost everything, and I re-read the chapter and add more notes to my notes. Every time I understand something a little better than last time, but it hinders me from getting too much practice in. I'm in a vicious cycle, because if I know I have to cover most of the content and do practice, but if its a topic I find tough , Ill find myself going slower and wasting more time and not covering what I wanted on that day. I really want to break out of these bad habits. It's significantly slowing me down.
Anyone found a way to beat that and succeed?

Holy shiz. That's me. Anyone have a cure to this??? It's a viscious cycle where if I forgot how to do something (like an equation, a concept), I'd reread that part (or chapter), redo passages.. Then come 2 weeks later, I forgot the same thing I learned and have to relearn. -_-

 

[ilovemedi]

I have the same problem. And then I get disappointed and discouraged about how many mistakes I make and start thinking if I could ever conquer this test... instead of just sticking to it and keep studying.

YES! tbh this is the WORSE thing EVER. Why? because soon this stupid test will seem like an unbeatable test if you keep up that mentality. I've learned the hard way >>.<<

 

[daking]

Doing verbal passages almost everyday without a break!!

really.............thought that should help

 

[daking]

Tring to study all berkeley review materials for contents and solve all berkeley review questions within 3 months....just dont work...berkeley is so dense and the questions do not depict d real thing

 

[AKMCAT]

really.............thought that should help

Not for me !! Verbal is my weakest section, doing every possible passage/reading passage ~4 months can be a bad idea!!! I realized how essential it is to take breaks from verbal! So started to spread out days specifically for verbal !

 

[AKMCAT]

Holy shiz. That's me. Anyone have a cure to this??? It's a viscious cycle where if I forgot how to do something (like an equation, a concept), I'd reread that part (or chapter), redo passages.. Then come 2 weeks later, I forgot the same thing I learned and have to relearn. -_-

Best advice is : just practice, practice and practice some more. The only way to drill in the concepts are to do practice problems! Dont just rely on reviewing chapters. Also, keeping a notebook of your mistakes are helpful.

 

[Slave to the Game]

Best advice is : just practice, practice and practice some more. The only way to drill in the concepts are to do practice problems! Dont just rely on reviewing chapters. Also, keeping a notebook of your mistakes are helpful.

I feel that knowing/tracking your mistakes are essential. One bad habit I could think of would be to take practice exams/passage sections and guess at a question without knowing for certain whether it was right, get it right, and then never look at it because you guessed correctly.

 

[dutchie000]

Spending time reading about bad MCAT habits instead of studying

Waking up WAYYY later than I want to and having less time to study

Playing Words with Friends

Not doing enough practice... I wish I had more time....

 

[lpp06]

Taking AAMC FLs too quickly after taking my last.

Always spend a few days working out the kinks at least