Office Hours with a Tutor who scored over 40 on the exam

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Bryan, and I'm an MCAT tutor with over a decade of experience and top scores on the MCAT itself (Proof).

I've worked with students in both a classroom setting and through individual tutoring. I've worked for MCAT companies both big and small and seen what works and what doesn't when it comes to MCAT prep. At the moment, I'm the Academic Director with Next Step Test Prep, although I also still love working with my own tutoring students.

The big thing I always like to remind my students is that despite what you may hear from your friends, prep companies, etc. there's no such thing as one "right" way to prep for the MCAT. It's a fundamental tenet in education that every student learns differently, and the MCAT is no different. So if you're having trouble and finding yourself getting frustrated with the approach you're taking (because you're following the advice of a teacher/friend/professor), then the problem isn't you - it's the method you're using. Try something new and keep plugging away. Eventually you'll get there!

So about this "office hours" thread - I'll try to get logged in for a half hour to hour every morning and answer your questions about specific problems, general strategies, med admissions, etc.

- Bryan

PS Mods, if I'm violating any TOS or general guidelines, then I apologize and I'm happy to change the post to bring it into line with SDN's rules of engagement.

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[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

How to approach verbal?!

To help get questions flowing, I wanted to start off by talking about everyone's favorite part of the MCAT: Verbal Reasoning.

You can read a ton of different advice about how to approach the VR, and most books / classes will try to offer you one "right" way to do VR. Some advocate taking notes, while others say you should just quickly skim the passage, focus only the main idea, and then answer all of the questions based on that main idea.

The reality is that, like everything in education, there's many different paths to success. Finding your own way involves taking a carefully organized, empirical approach to things. I'll offer two major factors to consider:

1. What tools to use? (scratch paper, highlighting tool)
2. Where to spend your time? (on the passage, on the questions, etc)

1. What tools to use?

I. Your scratch paper.

I spent a long time teaching at a prep company that insisted that the only right way to do verbal was to stop at the end of every paragraph and take notes. In nearly a decade there, I think I could count on one hand the number of students that actually liked that method.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using the scratch paper. It's just that taking a mechanistic approach - stop at the end of every paragraph, regardless of the content of the paragraph - ends up being wasteful of time and energy.

If you want to practice using the scratch paper, instead focus on writing down key ideas (logical connections) in a flowchart form. If you read a paragraph that's just a bunch of supporting details, then don't write anything down. That's a waste of time. Instead, when the author offers lots of keywords (thus, because, therefore, since) indicating ideas that are logically connected, sketch out some quick notes outlining those relationships. After all, they call it Verbal REASONING precisely because the questions will hinge on those logical connections.

II. The Highlighting Function

This can be tough, since the highlighter often has to do double-duty. You need to highlight names and dates and things so that you can find them quickly, but you also want to highlight a few key words to help summarize important ideas.

In general, I advocate starting your VR practice by ignoring the scratch paper and focusing solely on learning how to effectively use the highlighter.

In that regard, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled for three broad categories of ideas - the ideas that show up in the questions:

• Opinion
• Contrast
• Cause-and-effect

The key here is to avoid the typical mistake of "Oh I just highlight anything that seems important". Instead, be selective and highlight as few words as possible. Be sure you can articulate to yourself WHY you're choosing to highlight a word.

1. Where to spend your time?

Broadly speaking there are three possible approaches. The only way to find "the best" is to do a ton of practice on each and see what works for you:

I. The Skimming Approach

Some students find that when they do the questions, they feel absolutely compelled to go back to the passage over and over. They don't feel comfortable answering a question unless they've looked up something in the passage.

I've learned from my long experience that it's almost impossible to break that habit. So instead of fighting a losing battle, we can accommodate that style of question-answering. We do that by learning how to skim the passage effectively. Aim to spend 60-90 seconds skimming the passage, thus leaving yourself 7 minutes or more to answer the questions very slowly and carefully.

II. The Slow, Careful Read Approach

If you have an excellent short-term / working memory and really like to get a very thorough understanding of the passage, this may be the better approach for you (and I'll admit it's the one I use).

Under this approach, you read the passage very carefully, often reading sentences two or three times. You develop a very strong understanding of the passage, allocating as much as 6.5-7 minutes of your time really "learning" the passage.

Then, you FLY through the questions. Never look anything up. Answer everything based on memory and your solid understanding of the passage.

III. The Balanced Approach

This is usually where you start. You spend about 4 minutes on the passage and 4.5 minutes on the questions. I'd venture to say something like 75-85% of MCAT students are best served by this sort of approach.

Okay - so this is obviously a very brief overview but hopefully it gives some of you something to think about when planning your VR practice.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Full Practice Exams

If you're a savvy enough premed to be spending time on SDN forums, then you already know how important it is to take full exams. And you also know that the best practice, by far, is the real stuff: the 8 official exams from the AAMC.

So the question is - how best to use those exams?

Here's the thing: You don't actually raise your score by taking a practice test. You raise your score by analyzing a practice test after you've taken it, by studying additional content based on your test results, and by fine-tuning your strategy after each exam.

That means that you should be spacing your tests out to once a week. There's a lot of nonsense out there with people making outlandish claims about taking three, four (or even five!) tests a week in some sort of super-cramming period, and then rocking the real MCAT. Don't buy it! It's the standard braggadocio nonsense you read online.

Instead, your plan should be to take a full day to review and analyze each practice MCAT you take. Go over every single question, whether you got it right or wrong. Figure out why you got it right, and how you'll do that again. Figure out why you got it wrong, and how you'll avoid that mistake next time.

Then spend the next four days studying content from your books, doing practice problems online, or doing timed sections. And of course, take a day off (even God got a day off once a week!)

Once you've gotten enough practice to really hone your skills and actually improve your performance, then take another test.

The test itself is just an assessment - it tells you where your skills are now, but it doesn't actually improve your knowledge/skills itself. The notion that you could raise your MCAT score by taking tests over and over is like saying you could cure a patient's fever by taking their temperature over and over. The assessment is not the treatment!

Give yourself a judicious mix of full tests, content studying, question review, and practice sections over the course of several months and you'll be in great shape.

 

[gettheleadout]

There's nothing wrong with taking two practice tests per week.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

There's nothing wrong with taking two practice tests per week.

You're absolutely right, depending on the student. That's the tough part about "general advice" posts like the one you're responding to. What I'm trying to offer in that case is some very loose, very general thoughts. But of course all such advice comes with a pretty heavy "season to taste" subtext.

After all, there are orders-of-magnitude differences in the speeds at which different students learn. For some folks, they might even need 2+ weeks between practice tests to really learn form them. Other folks could take a full test every 2-3 days.

The basic idea behind my advice is that learning is, simply put, a physiological process in the brain. And your brain is an organ like any other. Just like you can't go to the gym and "do a leg day" every day -- your muscles need time to heal -- you shouldn't hit your brain with a full MCAT so frequently that you don't have time to actually get anything out of it.

In the end, the only way to find what works for you is to just try it and see what the results are.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

What about prep books?


Both med students and premeds fall prey to a deadly disease known as "buy-another-book-itis".

It's easy to fall into the trap that more books = better, or that when you hit a road block, or difficulty of any kind, that what you should do is spend more money. Don't make that mistake!

As a general rule, you can either buy one decent set of prep books, or even go without them altogether. When it comes to what set of prep books to buy, the differences between the books tend to be largely overblown. Yes there are variations in quality, quantity, and pricetag. But the simple fact of the matter is that any of the big, popular sets of books will be fine.

Whether its ExamKrackers, Kaplan, Princeton, Berkeley, etc. you can get yourself thoroughly prepped with any of them. There's only so many ways to explain a galvanic cell or a nephron and any of the popular sets will do an adequate job.

Here's the key thing about your books, though: you've got to use them well. Frustrated students often want to blame the books when things aren't going well, but it's a poor musician who blames his instrument.

The way to make sure you're using your prep books well is to make sure that you're really, thoroughly learning the content in them. Don't be afraid of repetition! Don't be afraid of repetition!

Here's a good way to check to see if you're actually getting the most for your money on your books: go through each chapter that you've read about 3-5 days after studying it. Look at all the diagrams/charts/figures and cover up the text. Can you, entirely from memory, explain what each part of the diagram is? Can you fill in any missing text? Could you offer a 3 minute explanation right off the top of your head about exactly what the diagram is showing, why it's important, and how the MCAT can test those concepts?

Mind you, it's not enough just to generally recognize what's going on. You couldn't look at the figure and go "oh okay well that's the loop of henle, that's the collecting duct." You should be able to explain what's going on at each point and how the parts of the diagram relate to each other.

Be strict with yourself - explain the diagram out loud to an empty room and if you stumble, start over or re-study that chapter.

I can't tell you how many times I've been working with a tutoring student who tells me "yeah I studied chapter 4 yesterday and I understood all of it; I don't have any questions." But then when I quiz them on the charts and diagrams, they find that their understanding is full of holes.

So again, the solution is not to buy more books. The solution is to REALLY LEARN the books you've already got.

Okay but what about not buying books at all?

This is totally doable, but is obviously going to involve more work. Start by downloading the outlines from aamc.org of the lists of all topics that are on the MCAT. Then, you'll essentially study by writing your own "prep book" from that outline. You can find reviews of the content on wikipremed, mcat-review.org, or even wikipedia.

The major drawbacks of this approach are that it's more time intensive, and that you'll need to hunt around more for practice problems.

 

[smiley27]

This is actually really good advice.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

This is actually really good advice.

Thanks! Glad that your 2+ year old account means I can't be accused of sock-puppeting my own advice thread.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

"I just can't memorize equations!!"

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a student say something like this, I'd have... well, a lot of nickels.

The key to memorizing equations is to stop trying to memorize them! Instead, try to understand the equation. Even though it looks like a mish-mash of abstract symbols, in truth an equation is a sentence about how the world works. It tells you about important relationships that exist in the physical world.

Take a really simple one: Newton's Second Law. Sure, we could write it in the normal abstract way, "F=ma". But we could also think of it as a sentence that says, "the harder you push on something, the faster it's going to speed up". Or something like, "If you want to move a really heavy object, you're going to have to push harder on the heavy object than you would on a light one."

Stated that way, it makes much more sense. Of course you have to push harder on a heavy object. Imagine trying to push a dining room chair vs. trying to push the whole table. The table's got a lot more mass, so you need a greater force to get the same acceleration.

So how do you go about learning the most important equations in this deeper way? Make study sheets!

To make the study sheet, fold a piece of paper in half. On the left side of the paper write down a bunch of questions to quiz yourself on an equation. On the right side, put the answer. Then fold over the right side of the page so the answers are hidden. It's like making 15 flashcards in a single sheet of paper.

Here's a couple of examples:

NextStepExampleStudySheet

NextStepExampleStudySheet

You'll notice that with these study sheets you can quiz yourself on the equation itself, the units involved, the variables, and a couple of practice questions that get at the relationships involved in the equation. You're not actually solving any arithmetic here; the goal isn't to be doing long division by hand. Instead, it's to get a stronger underlying sense of the relationships the equation is telling us about.

That understanding of the equation will help guide your intuitions when solving MCAT passages.

While there aren't really that many full calculation questions on the MCAT, what there are a lot of is conceptual questions - and often getting those conceptual questions right is achieved by having a good gut "feel" for the relationships rather than rote memorization-and-calculation.

Good luck!

 

[mcloaf]

This is actually really good advice.

I agree. I was pretty skeptical of this thread when I first saw it, but there's some very good info here. Hopefully people reading this forum spend some time in this thread going over some of these things.

A lot of this isn't just necessarily for the MCAT, either. For examply, in my experience it's the ability to understand rather than just memorize that makes a huge difference in which students are able to excel in organic chemistry.

 

[sps27]

I agree as well. Esp., the advise about reading the books again and again several times to get a good grip on concepts. Lord knows how many times I have read about loop of henle, acidosis, alkalosis, action potential, bernoullis eqn, dopplers effect and several more......and I keep forgetting.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Learning How to Learn


We spend so much time in school, and yet nobody ever really sits us down and actually teaches how to learn new things. We're just supposed to figure it out on our own somehow.

Even worse, when you go to the people who are supposed to help you (professors or your MCAT teacher) you just end up getting this blank stare and you feel like the person is thinking, "What are you, an idiot? You just learn it. How did you make it this far?"

Well, I'm here to tell you it's not your fault.

It's not your fault.

(cue music from Good Will Hunting and Robin Williams giving you a big, hairy, man-hug)

The thing is, the act of memorizing new information is a skill just like any other skill and it can be taught and learned. The fact that your teachers and professors failed to ever teach it to you and then somehow expect you to just know all the information the MCAT demands is baffling. It'd be like plonking someone down at a piano, having never taught them to play, and expect them to just honk out a Rachmaninoff piece.

Now obviously I can't cover much ground in a little SDN post, but I can give you one really basic technique for helping to encode MCAT information into your long term memory: elaborative rehearsal.

It's a pretty simple idea about repeating information over and over, and building it up a step at a time. It's a way to help you memorize things by focusing on what the brain is GOOD at memorizing: connections.

We're terrible at memorizing random facts.

In elementary school they probably made you memorize all of the state capitals.

Quick, what's the capital of North Dakota?

No idea, right?

(No offense to Dakotans. My family is from the Dakotas.)

That's because it's a random isolated fact.

Instead, we're good at remembering emotions and connections. It can be kinda hard to infuse MCAT material with emotional content, so instead we'll focus on connections.

The notion here is that when trying to learn a particular chunk of MCAT knowledge, you need to construct a little "story" about how that thing works with each fact you need to know connected to the next fact somehow.

When learning, repeat the first fact until you have it memorized. Then add the second fact. Repeat those two a half-dozen times. Then add the third fact, etc.

I'll give you an example, and I'll use everyone's favorite: electrochemistry.

So you want to learn the basic rules about how galvanic or electrolytic cells work. You might write out a study sheet and then repeat out loud to yourself (I often also pace while doing this - the physical movement helps keep my brain moving)

Start with the fundamental mnemonic of electrochem:

1. RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode. (picture a red cat in your mind)

Then repeat that fact to yourself:

RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode.
RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode.
RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode.

RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode.


RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode.



RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode.


Okay so if reduction is taking place there, what must be flowing there? What's required for reduction?

2. Electrons flow to the cathode.

Repeat it!

RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons: Electrons flow to the cathode.


RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons: Electrons flow to the cathode.


RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons: Electrons flow to the cathode.


RED CAT. Reduction takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons: Electrons flow to the cathode.

3. Okay what about the anode? If reduction is taking place at the cathode, what's always paired with reduction? So oxidation takes place at the anode.

Repeat it!

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode.

4. We said that electrons are flowing to the cathode, but what flows to the anode? BECAUSE current is the opposite of the flow of electrons, current is flowing to the anode.

Repeat it!

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode. BECAUSE current is the opposite of the flow of electrons, current is flowing to the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode. BECAUSE current is the opposite of the flow of electrons, current is flowing to the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode. BECAUSE current is the opposite of the flow of electrons, current is flowing to the anode.

RED CAT. Reducation takes place at the cathode. BECAUSE reduction requires electrons, electrons flow to the cathode. BECAUSE redox rxns are always paired, oxidation takes place at the anode. BECAUSE current is the opposite of the flow of electrons, current is flowing to the anode.



And so on, until you've built up a little 5-10 minute monologue about how a galvanic cell works. At every step along the way, you need to have a BECAUSE-type connection between the ideas. It's those connections that will help you both memorize and understand the material you're learning.

Often, the MCAT will reward you not so much for the individual facts themselves, but for having memorized the BECAUSE reasons that link those facts together.

Good luck!

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

I'm gonna dye my cat red

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

I'm gonna dye my cat red

lol

I choose to remember that Cat Stark from Game of Thrones is a redhead. (Well, in the book at least).

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Learning How to Learn, Part II

Quick one for today, again on the theme of how to memorize MCAT science content: The Rule of 2's

To learn MCAT content, you've got to encode information from your working memory into your short term memory into your long term memory. To do that, you need to repeat information on a timeline that matches (roughly) the rate at which your brain pushes information from one "storage bank" into another.

So lets say you've got a study sheet or some flashcards or a chart or something you're trying to memorize. Repeat it every two minutes. That's your working memory (the place where we store stuff we're currently thinking about, e.g. "Why did I just go into the basement?"). Once you've got it, put it down and move on to something else.

Then come back and review it two hours later. That's your short-term memory (the place where we store information about larger tasks we're focused on, e.g. "Where did I park the car during my trip to the supermarket?").

If you can't remember it two hours later, repeat it over and over and quiz yourself again two minutes later. Then come back two hours later again, and check yourself to make sure the information is successfully lodged in your short term memory.

Once that's done, put it away. Sleep on it. Come back two days later. Review it again. If you've got it down two days later, then you've successfully encoded the information into your long-term memory and you'll be much more likely to have access to it while actually taking the exam.

Repeat things after two minutes, two hours, and two days. The Rule of 2's.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Should I retake the exam?

This is a question a lot of folks wonder about.

First, be aware that there is a very significant risk that your score will go down.

You can see the full data here, but the basic idea it presents is this: up to a third OR MORE of test-takers who retake end up getting the same or lower score.

This emphasizes how important it is to prepare thoroughly for a retake MCAT.

It's not enough to "just study harder"; when you take the exam again. You need to carefully analyze, often with outside help, what study patterns produced the results you got the first time. Then you've got to craft an approach that will build on past success, correct past failure, and lead to a strong performance on the next test.

The decision about whether or not to re-take is easy if your score is well below the average for the programs you're applying to - of course you retake it! Similarly, if your score is comfortably at or above the average range for your target schools, then you certainly don't retake the test.

The question becomes tough if you're on the edge. If your score is below your target by only a handful of points, it can be tricky to decide whether or not to risk a lower score on another test. The solution is to ask yourself a few fundamental questions:

First, do I have time to prep for the test?

It's important to remember that when you sit for the MCAT a second time, you're not just brushing up quickly. You have to start over from scratch. All the study and practice you did months ago isn't stored up in a bank of MCAT points you can just withdraw from. You've got to prep to get yourself back into shape. Then you've got to prep even harder to push your performance beyond your first test.

So start by looking at your calendar. What other time commitments do you have? School? Job? Family? Volunteer work? If you're going to retake the MCAT, you'll need to allocate anywhere from 25 to 40 hours a week of prep time for two to four months. It's a huge undertaking, but one that has huge payoffs.

Second, what will I change this time around?


Doing the same thing will get you the same results.

This is an incredibly simple idea, but it's so easy to lose sight of it.

Doing the same thing will get you the same results.

How did you prepare the first time? Books? A classroom course? Online materials? Did you take any full practice exams under test-like conditions? If so, how many?

By far the most common mistake students make the first time around is simply not allocating enough time and resources to the MCAT. While classroom courses promise big results, you can be left flat if the instructor and materials didn't provide you with the kind of intensive and individualized feedback you need to succeed.

The second most common mistake students make is treating the MCAT as if it were just another science test. You can't study your way to a better MCAT score; you need to practice. Make sure you're practicing with full length exams as well as shorter tests and quizzes.

Finally, you may have found that you just weren't prepared for the psychological pressure of the exam itself. When it comes to the MCAT, it's not what you know, it's what you show. And that ability to show your best performance can be hampered by test anxiety in a variety of shapes and forms. All of the books and classes in the world won't help if you don't have some expert guidance to diffuse all of that test anxiety.

Finally, how will the admissions committees view multiple scores?


When you submit your applications, all MCAT scores after April 2003 will be included. If you are going to be sending multiple scores to a medical school, the admissions committee will do one of the following:

• Take the most recent scores, regardless of which scores are the highest
• Average all scores to generate a single overall MCAT score
• Take the highest single test administration
• Take the highest section scores from each test administration

Each med school will have its own policies, so it's a good idea to contact each school directly to find out how they treat individual scores.

Ultimately, retaking the test is only a good idea if you know you can work hard and see a significant improvement. Admissions committees see students with a low first score and a high second score all the time. The key is not to be one of those unfortunate folks whose second score is actually lower than the first one.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

The best way to prep for the MCAT is free.

Since that's not something you hear very often from someone who works at a test prep company, I'll clarify that a bit: The best way to prep for the MCAT is free. Seriously.

In med school, they'll tell you that to learn something you follow the rule "See one, do one, teach one."

It's really that last step where you master something.

As someone who's been a professional educator for over a decade, I speak from direct experience when I say that teaching other people how to do something is THE BEST way to learn it yourself. I didn't waltz into the MCAT knocking out perfect 15's in Bio Sci - it took teaching it to other people to get there.

So if you want to teach the MCAT to other people, how do you go about that?

Simple: study groups.

But not just normal "oh okay let's get together and talk about the MCAT" study groups. They have to be well-organized, well-run and focused study groups.

So here's some guidance on how to actually run a study group that actually studies, rather than spends time bs-ing about last night's Project Runway:

1. Three people. No more, no less. Two people and you're screwed if one person flakes. Four people and you end up wasting time on stupid crap chit-chat. Three people.

2. Fixed schedule. Treat your study group like a class. Not willy-nilly "oh whatever sure we'll meet when we're free." Group up with people who understand that the MCAT is deadly serious and needs to be treated seriously. If your study group meets at Noon eastern Tue/Thu, then that means Noon, not "roll in around 12:20 and get started around 12:30."

3. Meet approximately every other day or every third day. It's a rare group that can be productive meeting every day. You need time on your own to work at your own pace, to digest the material, and to take practice sections/exams. Meeting every other day is good if you're on a "full time MCAT over the summer" schedule. Meeting every third day is good if you're on a "part time MCAT over 4-6 months" schedule.

4. Give each other homework. Seriously. CREATE ACCOUNTABILITY. If someone can't be accountable to themselves and to the study group, drop them. They're a leech and will waste your time. No excuses, no bs. Everyone's got a job to do. The MCAT sure as hell won't care that you had a fight with your girlfriend last night or that you stayed up 'til 4am playing Civilization. So don't take lame excuses from study group members. Just move on.

The way to "give each other homework" is to say something like this: "Okay guys for tomorrow's session we'll all complete the first ten passages in the AAMC Self-Assessment Bio package. Rashik, it's your job to cover the first three passages, it'll be my job to cover the next three, and Mary's job to do the next. The last passage we all cover."

Then:

5. Teach each other. By assigning people particular "homework" assignments where they will be expected to teach the material or passage to the other two study group members, it pushes each person to work extra-EXTRA-hard to really learn a passage and the associated content so that they can then explain it to the group. It's that process of over-studying and explaining to others that really cements learning.

You teach each other not b/c you want your study mate to teach you, but because you learn better by teaching it to the group.

6. Work online. This is especially important for people who don't live in huge cities or big college towns. The odds that you're going to find a study buddy that you click with on a personal level and that you can trust as a fellow hard worker is slim if you're limited by geography. So don't limit yourself by geography. Do group calls via Skype (free) and collaborate with online whiteboard (also free) drawing tools for mapping out problems (this is how we do it at Next Step - here's a link to an example [please forgive the low fidelity, this is a really old video that we're in the process of updating])

7. Finally, and most importantly, stay positive! Humans are social creatures and the secret to getting through any difficult times in life is always the same: alcohol. (actually that's probably just my family). It's social support! Seriously. This is why clubs, churches, twelve-step programs, gym classes, etc. all succeed. They put you in an environment with other people doing the same thing who can support you. Celebrate your progress with each other. Stay positive, focus on the small victories, and keep chugging away.

Good luck!!

__________________

Bryan, Next Step MCAT Tutor

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

This is a really great string of insights. Excellent job Bryan, especially the passion behind the advice. I have to say, I clicked on this thread expecting a promo and was pleased to see honest, heartfelt advice. You are no doubt a spectacular tutor. I concur on many of the things you've suggested (and feel like I've even typed a few nearly identical sentences at one point or another over the last six years here). Two things in particular that resonated are:

(1) Thinking a formula or concept goes so much farther than simply memorizing it from a flashcard. You are spot on with that advice. The problem I have seen over the years is that when people memorize they get a false sense of security and then a rude awakening when they encounter a question and don't know how to use it. Or worse, when they get memorization overload and don't know which of the zillions of equations swimming around their cranium applies.

(2) Taking a test is the first step in a bigger process and does very little for preparation besides familiarizing the student with the timing and environment. The real growth is going over every single question and evaluating how to get a best answer more efficiently or if you missed the question, then how to get it right next time. That's another great nugget you shared.

There are several other great points as well, but those two really stick. But as with anything, I have a disagreement too. The area where I disagree is the importance of learning and/or relearning information. People put way too much emphasis on drilling facts into their skull. This happens because of the misguided notion that a low score indicates a lack of understanding of the material. While in some instances a 2 out of 6 on a passage may be the result of not understanding the concept, I find many times that people who have a full knowledge of the material often undermine their score by not approaching questions in a logical fashion. Basically, they are a poor test-taker and need to improve.

Analyzing a question is not about determining what is right versus what is wrong, but more so being cognoscente of what clue led you to find the best answer and how can you duplicate that process for future use. Learning how to take the test is as important as reviewing the concepts on the test, but people rarely use their time that way. This is why I disagree that all materials are the same. Some emphasize content and informatiopn while others emphasize problem-solving and strategies. I will agree that a very good test-taker can get a great score using any materials. But for an average to below average test taker, their choice of mateirals is paramount to their performance. If they use materials that focus on content and not strategy, then they will not see improvement where they need it most.

Overall, I am very impressed and fall in step with about 90% of your ideas. Good luck in your endeavors. With your apporach and perspective, I'd drop a sizeable wager in Vegas that you will do quite well helping students.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

What are you looking for in a tutor? What should you be looking for in a tutor?

Heya SDNners,

Just wanted today's post to actually ask you what you're looking for in a tutor. Anyone had any good experiences or bad they care to share? Recommendations? What's your litmus test, if you have one?

Also, I'm in the process of putting together a video to show people what I think a good MCAT tutor should do for you (a very rough cut of it is here) and I'd love to hear the "widsom of the crowd" here at SDN, since you are all the sort of really-well-informed premeds that know what's going on.

Thanks!

-Bryan

 

[katiebananas]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Bryan, and I'm an MCAT tutor with over a decade of experience and top scores on the MCAT itself (Proof).

I've worked with students in both a classroom setting and through individual tutoring. I've worked for MCAT companies both big and small and seen what works and what doesn't when it comes to MCAT prep. At the moment, I'm the Academic Director with Next Step Test Prep, although I also still love working with my own tutoring students.

The big thing I always like to remind my students is that despite what you may hear from your friends, prep companies, etc. there's no such thing as one "right" way to prep for the MCAT. It's a fundamental tenet in education that every student learns differently, and the MCAT is no different. So if you're having trouble and finding yourself getting frustrated with the approach you're taking (because you're following the advice of a teacher/friend/professor), then the problem isn't you - it's the method you're using. Try something new and keep plugging away. Eventually you'll get there!

So about this "office hours" thread - I'll try to get logged in for a half hour to hour every morning and answer your questions about specific problems, general strategies, med admissions, etc.

- Bryan

PS Mods, if I'm violating any TOS or general guidelines, then I apologize and I'm happy to change the post to bring it into line with SDN's rules of engagement.

Hi,
I need motivation and tutoring with my studying... How can I get you to help me? Do you offer any more office hours?

 

[sps27]

I was just reading this blog last night and highlighting - to get more focused and motivated. Thanks Bryan!

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Hey everyone!

Haven't updated in awhile since I've been away on vacation. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and now it's back to the ol' MCAT grind.

So when I first started the thread, I was imagining a sort of "office hours" where folks could ask questions and everyone could benefit from whatever discussions started. Since it seems, though, that SDN prefers to have a fresh thread for each student's question, I figured instead I could use this space to offer you guys free practice questions. So to that end, I'll try to post a free practice question every day or two. Hopefully that will get folks talking. I'll post the question first and then the answer either later that day or the next day.

Item 1

Sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate react at 230ºC to yield sodium sulfate, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. If the reaction goes to completion, and the total pressure of the products is 1.8 atm, what is the partial pressure of the nitrous oxide?

The reaction is as follows:

2 NaNO3 + (NH4)2SO4 → Na2SO4 (aq) + 2 N2O (g)+ 4H2O (g) (230—300° С)

a) 0.5 atm

b) 0.6 atm

c) 0.9 atm

d) 1.8 atm

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Hi,
I need motivation and tutoring with my studying... How can I get you to help me? Do you offer any more office hours?

Hey there Katie,

The "office hours" in the name of this thread is more metaphorical than literal. I'm afraid that I'm so busy with my management responsibilities that I can only really take one or two students at a time (described here). Any of the tutors at Next Step could do an absolute top-flight job helping you out. I'll not discuss it at length, since I don't want to tread on SDN's rules about spam/ads. Just hit up google to find us

As for the motivation, the big thing there is getting hooked up with a study buddy. I have a post earlier in the thread about setting up study groups. Hit up the general SDN MCAT discussion page, check out your university's various club facebook pages, etc. and I'm sure you can get set up with a couple of folks to help keep you motivated an on-track.

Good luck!!

 

[sps27]

Hey everyone!

Haven't updated in awhile since I've been away on vacation. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and now it's back to the ol' MCAT grind.

So when I first started the thread, I was imagining a sort of "office hours" where folks could ask questions and everyone could benefit from whatever discussions started. Since it seems, though, that SDN prefers to have a fresh thread for each student's question, I figured instead I could use this space to offer you guys free practice questions. So to that end, I'll try to post a free practice question every day or two. Hopefully that will get folks talking. I'll post the question first and then the answer either later that day or the next day.

Item 1

Sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate react at 230ºC to yield sodium sulfate, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. If the reaction goes to completion, and the total pressure of the products is 1.8 atm, what is the partial pressure of the nitrous oxide?

The reaction is as follows:

2 NaNO3 + (NH4)2SO4 → Na2SO4 (aq) + 2 N2O (g)+ 4H2O (g) (230—300° С)

a) 0.5 atm

b) 0.6 atm

c) 0.9 atm

d) 1.8 atm

0.6 nitrous oxide, 1.2 water vapor

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Item 1
Sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate react at 230ºC to yield sodium sulfate, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. If the reaction goes to completion, and the total pressure of the products is 1.8 atm, what is the partial pressure of the nitrous oxide?
The reaction is as follows:
2 NaNO3 + (NH4)2SO4 → Na2SO4 (aq) + 2 N2O (g)+ 4H2O (g) (230—300° С)
a) 0.5 atm
b) 0.6 atm
c) 0.9 atm
d) 1.8 atm

This is a basic partial pressure question testing this concept: the partial pressure of a gas is propotional to the mole fraction of that gas.

The equation would be P (N2O) = Mole frac (N2O) x P (tot)

Plugging in the values from the question, we'd get P (N2O) = (2 moles N2O) / (6 moles total) x (1.8 atm) = 0.6 atm.

Thus making (B) the right answer. Good job, sps27!

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Item 2

A cork with volume 10 cm^3 floats in water with 1/2 of its volume submerged. How much of the cork's volume will be submerged when in mercury (specific gravity = 13)?

A) 1/20th

B) 1/2

C) cork will completely submerge because of the mercury's greater cohesiveness than water

D) 5/13

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Explanation for Item 2

A floating object will displace a mass of fluid equal to its own mass. For example, if a 10 ton ship is floating in water, it must displace 10 tons of water. Or if a water strider weighing just 0.2 grams is skimming along the surface of the water, it must be displacing 0.2 grams of water.

Since the cork is floating, it must be displacing water (and mercury!) equal to its own mass. That lets us write the following:

m water = m mercury

Since ρ = m / V we can rearrange the density equation to get:

m = ρV

Thus:

(ρ water)(V water)=(ρ mercury)(V mercury)

We're told that the cork floats with half of its volume submerged. So the cork is displacing 5 cm^3 of water. Plugging into the equation we get:

(1 g/cm^3)(5cm^3) = (13 g/cm^3)(V mercury)

V mercury = 5/13 cm^3

The cork is 10 cm^3, which means that 5/13 cm^3 represents a tiny fraction of the cube's volume. Among the answer choices, only (a) is anywhere close.

a) 1/20th correct

b) 1/2, incorrect, this answer reflects no change in submersion with a more dense fluid

c) incorrect, although mercury has greater cohesiveness than water, this does not affect the buoyancy of objects floating in mercury

d) 5/13, incorrect, this answer reflects using 5/13 cm^3, 0.38, as the portion submerged rather than comparing to the total volume of 10cm^3 .Note that 5/13 is the volume of mercury displaced, but the question asks what fraction of the cork's volume will be submerged.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

shoot. I typed up a gigantic post explaining why I'm in favor of diagnostic tests and it seems it fell into an internet black hole. ah well. serves me right for not saving it. guess i'll have to re-compose it. here goes:
The Case for Diagnostic Tests

Over the MCAT Discussions Tab, SN2ed has a thread asserting that diagnostic exams at the beginning of your prep are "worthless" and lots of folks seem to agree.

You can see that thread here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/why-diagnostic-tests-are-worthless.557231/

I'm going to disagree, in one very specific way: at the start of your prep, before you do anything else, you should take AAMC MCAT #3 under test-like conditions.

There's a bunch of chatter about how prep companies use "manipulative" diagnostic exams that don't really assess you. I can't really speak to that. Instead, I think everyone ought to use a real, official AAMC exam as their diagnostic. Even if you're taking a lecture-style group course and they don't ask you to, you should still take a full AAMC on your own as your diagnostic.

Ultimately, the problem with a diagnostic at the beginning of an MCAT lecture class is that it is already too late. You've already committed time and money to a group class, when the real time to take a diagnostic is before you've started planning your MCAT prep.

When you're thinking about taking the MCAT, I always suggest people do the following things, in this order:

1. Take AAMC MCAT #3 under test-like conditions.

2. Print out and review the official outlines of science topics.

3. Based on #1 and #2, decide how much time you will need to prep, and register for the MCAT.

4. Decide whether you want to use tutoring, a group class, or self-study.

5. Set up a study group!!

6. Based on the materials available to you through #4 and #5, buy prep materials.


The reason you should take AAMC MCAT #3 totally cold is because what you're trying to assess is one critically important factor, a factor that you cannot possibly know until you take a practice exam: how well do your native reading and critical thinking instincts align with how the test makers want you to think. This is, obviously, the most clear in your verbal score.

So you may think, "yeah but I already know that I'm a horrible test-taker so I don't need to take a practice test to know that I'd do bad."

But here's the thing: we (and by "we" I mean "humans") are really really bad at assessing ourselves, especially on a topic we're not expert on. (See the Dunning Effect)

The second critically important reason you need to take a full AAMC at the very beginning, before you've even started planning your prep, is that your performance on that exam is going to have a huge impact on how you decide to prep.

Now I know that SDN is full of posts with people bragging about how they raised their score a bajillion points and so on, but the reality is that score improvements tend to be pretty tightly clustered. And statistics are a cruel master - they apply to us all (whether it's MCAT scores, your chances of getting in a car accident, or whether it makes rational sense to buy a lotto ticket).

I've worked with literally thousands of MCAT students over the years and based on my experience, he's a (very) rough rundown of how we need to react to our diagnostic score:


Diagnostic was a score I'd be okay with on the real exam (30+): Congratulations! You won the critical thinking lottery. Somehow you've managed to walk in doing phenomenal. You shouldn't just go take the exam now, but give yourself 5-6 weeks of self-study to brush up on sticky parts of the content, and mostly you just want to finish taking all of the AAMC's. Good luck!

Diagnostic was okay, but I'd like to boost my score 2-4 points (26-30): Good job! Again, this is a very strong position to be in. Score improvements don't come for free, even modest score improvements of like 3 points do take work. So allocate about 8 weeks of self-study to do a quick review of all the science topics (something like the EK books) and take all of the AAMC's.

Diagnostic was weak, and I need to boost my score 5-9 points (21-26): Okay, not to worry. That's going to take a lot of work, but this is the situation that most students are in. You will need to get help - either tutoring or a really good study group. And you will need to work hard - something like 12 weeks of full time MCAT prep. The good news is that you're a dedicated pre-med so hard work isn't a problem for you. Keep at it, keep positive, and get expert help and you'll get that score.

Diagnostic was rough, and I need to boost my score 10-13 points (17-21): This is where we start to worry. Raising your score more than 10 points is rare. Exceptionally so. If your score was that far from your goal, then there's something wrong. Perhaps you haven't yet taken physics. At this point, your best bet would be to delay the MCAT by a bit so you can take some more courses to build your content and critical thinking skills (take a Logic class). If you still want to plow into MCAT prep, you're going to have to expect to spend >5-6 months.

I'm really not sure what happened. I need to boost my score >13 points (<15): I'm so sorry that things went bad. At this point, you really can't take the MCAT. In over a decade of experience, I've never seen a student go from a score below ~15 to being able to get into an allopathic U.S. program. I'm sure it's happened somewhere, but banking on a miracle is an irrational choice. Instead, you need to change your plans (Caribbean school, alternative health program that requires the GRE, etc) or you need to spend a couple of years taking and re-taking classes to build your content and skills.


So again, where you place on your diagnostic vs. your goal can dramatically alter how much time and how much money you need to throw at the MCAT.

I can't tell you how many times I saw students walk into my classroom (when I was teaching for one of the big companies) whose diagnostic score made it clear that they were wasting their money. Kids would walk in with a 29, meaning they wasted thousands of dollars - they would've been just fine with self-study. And kids would walk in with a 12, meaning they wasted thousands of dollars - no prep class in the world could get that to a 30.

The second major step in assessing yourself at the beginning of your prep is to work your way through the official AAMC outlines, and flag topics as "know it well" vs. "sort of know this" vs. "wtf is that even english?" How you break down your comfort level with the various science topics can have some impact (although not a huge one) on the sorts of materials you buy or the plan you set up for your prep. But this post is already getting too long, so that's a topic for another day.

 

[gettheleadout]

A composite score on AAMC 3 will reflect a lot more than critical thinking. One could easily score very, very low simply by being long out of the prereq's or having forgotten the content, and that could have little to do with their critical thinking ability.

 

[sakabato93]

A composite score on AAMC 3 will reflect a lot more than critical thinking. One could easily score very, very low simply by being long out of the prereq's or having forgotten the content, and that could have little to do with their critical thinking ability.

In response, I'd just like to say that the students you're referring to represent a minority of MCAT takers (or retakers); most of the students he's referring to will probably be fresh out of pre-req classes, preparing for the MCAT.

 

[gettheleadout]

In response, I'd just like to say that the students you're referring to represent a minority of MCAT takers (or retakers); most of the students he's referring to will probably be fresh out of pre-req classes, preparing for the MCAT.

I don't know about you, but as a traditional student "fresh out" of the prereq's for me and all of my classmates meant two years post-gen chem/bio. Most don't remember that much content.

 

[sakabato93]

I don't know about you, but as a traditional student "fresh out" of the prereq's for me and all of my classmates meant two years post-gen chem/bio. Most don't remember that much content.

Right, but classes like organic and physics should still be fairly fresh, and concepts taught in gen chem and intro bio are usually refreshed or expanded upon if you are a science major (which most pre-meds are) during upper level classes. So they may not be "fresh out" of all intro classes, but it's not like they lose 100% of the information learned in those classes.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Free MCAT Prep and Piracy

The cost of MCAT prep can really get out of hand, and if you're on a college student budget even the most basic resources can seem unattainable.

That usually means that your mind may immediately turn to quasi-legal and illegal ways to get MCAT prep. Now I'm not going to pretend I'm some sort of paragon of perfect virtue (I may have found a web stream of the last five episodes of a certain crystal-meth-based drama before it was available on Netflix), but I will say that I think you'll want to think carefully before turning to the "cheaters" way to get MCAT materials.

First and I think most importantly, you should think of your MCAT prep as the first step in your professional life. This isn't some pop quiz in class that maybe you can peek over at your neighbor's paper for just one question. This thing is the big gatekeeper into a professional world. As a professional in medicine (arguably the only real profession left that almost everyone respects), you're going to have rights and powers well beyond a normal citizen. And as Spider-Man reminds us, those powers come with a whole lot of responsibility.

And the fact of the matter is that those responsibilities are almost all self-imposed and self-policed. There may be various agencies meant to keep doctors in line, but in the day to day operations of a physician, it's self-policing that keeps them upholding the highest standards of their profession. Your MCAT prep is an excellent place to start what will be a lifetime habit of maintaining an exceptional level of personal and professional integrity.

Second, you may be able to "justify" piracy to yourself by thinking, "Well, it's not like Lars Ulrich is going to starve to death if I pirate one Metallica album." or "Hey I would gladly pay a small fee to watch last night's Game of Thrones legally, but HBO is a giant jerk and won't even take my money if I offered it, so if piracy is the only way to get it, then I'm going to pirate." or "None of my money would be going to the author anyway, it is just going to line the pockets of the executive a-holes at the publishing company and I'll be damned if I'll spend my money to pay their marketing budget."

But none of those classic "justifications" work in the context of MCAT prep. You're not defrauding some giant multi-billion dollar transnational corporation (with the possible exception of the Graham Holdings Company), you're stealing from a relatively small to medium sized business. And the owners and operators of MCAT prep business will "starve to death" if their material is stolen rather than paid for. Or rather, they'll eventually quit the business b/c they can't afford to operate if they can't sell their materials. And finally, you can certainly never claim that the companies aren't willing to distribute their materials in a convenient way, so piracy is justified - these things are available immediately online or in just a couple of days shipping from Amazon.

Finally, you can't justify piracy as "the only option" since there are tons of low-cost and no-cost ways to get yourself ready for the MCAT.

So, how to prep for no cost?

1. Study groups. They're free and they're the single best way to prep for the MCAT. Chat programs like Skype are free, so you can't use the excuse "well there's nobody in my area". It's the 21st century. "Your area" is the whole planet these days.

2. Borrow books from friends.

3. Public library. People are often a little surprised when I say this, but lots and LOTS of public libraries have plenty of high-quality (if somewhat roughed up) prep books available to check out.

4. AAMC.org has the full outlines of science topics for free.

5. In combination with #4, use mcat-review.org or wikipremed, or just wikipedia or khan academy. When it comes to just purely learning science content, prep books are a convenience but far from a necessity. The work at mcat-review.org is especially convenient, well-organized, and consistent quality.

6. Free Practice Tests: heres where going free hurts the most, but at the very least you can get a free test from AAMC, from Kaplan, and from Princeton. Three exams is really light, but it's better than nothing. Take AAMC MCAT #3 at the beginning of your prep, take KTP halfway through, take TPR near the end, and re-take AAMC MCAT #3 a few days before the real thing.

7. Free Practice Questions: here's where the library or borrowing from friends will really help, since those books will have practice questions in them. You can also just google MCAT Question of the Day to see several sites that will give you a free question every single day. I've also got several posted on my blog (although I haven't updated in awhile).


How about if you have a small budget? Say $150?

Stick with all of the options above - don't pay for any books. If you only have a tiny budget, you need to spend your money on practice questions. I'd suggest a one-month subscription to the Q-bank at http://www.mcatquestion.com/qbank.php

The qbank there has thousands of discrete questions and about a hundred passages. The quality is variable, but the price/Q ratio can't be beat.

After that go to e-mcat.com and buy the bundle described here where you get all of the self-assessment packages and AAMC practice test 4. More practice tests would be better, but if you're looking to stretch your prep dollar as far as possible, you need to maximize your Q/cost ratio and the self-assessment packages are better for that.

And finally, what if you have a chunk of money but not enough for a whole prep course ($500-$800)?

Here's where you can finally start purchasing everything you really need. SN2ed's schedule lays out several options, so I'll just add a few comments here:

Even if you've got several hundred dollars to budget for MCAT prep, I still think you should try to get your books cheaply or for free. Before buying anything, check with friends and your local libraries. If you can get the books for free (legally!), that saves you money to buy more practice materials.

Next, you'll want to buy all of the official AAMC materials. The full retail price if you bought each item ($35/test, $45 BS/PS, $40 for VR self-assessments) is $375. At Next Step, we've arranged a discount for Next Step students, so if you sign up for tutoring with us, you can save a few bucks (all AAMC materials for $300).

Finally, if you want additional practice problems, I'd still recommend the qbank mentioned above and the set of all 10 gold standard exams (the quality is variable, but the price of $15/exam can't be beat).

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Item 3

The voltage drop across Rd is 8V. What is the current across Re?


a) 2A


b) 8A


c) 14A


d) 32A

 

[icedragon]

I'm a little rusty on this, but I'll give it a shot.

Voltage drop on Rd is 8V, and since it's in parallel with the other two Rc and Rb are also 8V. Now the individual currents of those three, will be 4, 8 and 2 amps. Adding the currents together and I got 14 amps. Based off of resistors in series, the currents should be the same for all of them. 14 amps is my answer.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

My take on SN2ed's study schedule in a separate thread here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/breaking-down-the-mcat-100-days-to-mcat-success.1043255/

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

I'm a little rusty on this, but I'll give it a shot.

Voltage drop on Rd is 8V, and since it's in parallel with the other two Rc and Rb are also 8V. Now the individual currents of those three, will be 4, 8 and 2 amps. Adding the currents together and I got 14 amps. Based off of resistors in series, the currents should be the same for all of them. 14 amps is my answer.

I got the same answer with the same method. I pretty much PoE'ed A and B, then did some re-checking on C and D.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

I'm a little rusty on this, but I'll give it a shot.

Voltage drop on Rd is 8V, and since it's in parallel with the other two Rc and Rb are also 8V. Now the individual currents of those three, will be 4, 8 and 2 amps. Adding the currents together and I got 14 amps. Based off of resistors in series, the currents should be the same for all of them. 14 amps is my answer.

Perfect - this is the right answer and the right reasoning.

 

[constantreverie]

Subscribed

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

We've had a couple of physics and chem questions, so time for a quick bio discrete:

Item 4

The pH inside the stomach is very closely regulated. Which of the following is a major function for the pH in the stomach?

1. Neutralizing the acidity of the chyme entering it
   
   
2. Denaturing proteins to allow for digestive processes
   
   
3. Activating trypsinogen into the active form
   
   
4. Establishing a proton gradient for ATP production
   

 

[broski123]

1 and 4 seems unlikely. 3 seems wrong since pepsin is the main enzyme in the stomach. My guess would be #2 because high pH denatures proteins.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

1 and 4 seems unlikely. 3 seems wrong since pepsin is the main enzyme in the stomach. My guess would be #2 because high pH denatures proteins.

You're right, but your reasoning is just a bit off.

1. Chyme is the substance that leaves the stomach and goes into the small intestine. Stomach acid doesn't neutralize chyme - stomach acid is the reason that chyme is acidic.

2. Correct! The low pH created by stomach acid helps denature proteins in the food.

3. Trypsinogen is found in the small intestine, not the stomach and is activated by enteropeptidase, not stomach acid.

4. This is a function in mitochondia, not the stomach.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Let's go with another bio question today:

Item 5

Prior to vaccinations for poliomyelitis, widespread polio infection created wards of patients at risk of death due to loss of control of respiratory muscles. In 1928, Drinker and Shaw invented the first "iron lung," a device that sealed the patient's body from the neck down in a chamber with controllable pressure. The pressure change in the "iron lung" aided respiration by:


a) increasing the positive pressure in the lungs, driving diffusion of O2.

b) increasing the positive pressure in the lungs, thereby increasing lung ATP utilization efficiency.

c) increasing negative pressure within the iron lung caused the patient's lungs to expand.

d) delivering positive abdominal pressure driving the diaphragm .

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Keep a Good Attitude

The two biggest factors in MCAT success are social support and a good attitude. Keeping a good attitude seems like one of those nebulous, touchy-feely things that hard headed science students often want to dismiss, but the effect of attitude on outcome is a real, empirically studied phenomenon.

So the question then becomes how to maintain a positive attitude? I recommend a few basic things:

1. Positive visualization

You need to focus on success on Test Day. Take your test results from your diagnostic (usually AAMC #3) and blank out the scores, and then type in the score you want. Print out 6-8 copies of that "score goal" and tape it up several places around your house - in the corner of your bathroom mirror, the door to your bedroom, etc. Make sure that as you go about your day, your eyeballs are getting this constant, almost subconscious, reminder of how you're going to do on Test Day.

2. Downtime

You must allocate time to doing fun, non-MCAT things.

But, you know, not too fun. Don't get arrested. Or lose an entire day of MCAT prep to a hangover.

3. Focus on the Positive

This is, by far, the most important thing to do: once a week, review a set of questions from a chapter in a book, or a section from a practice test, but only review the questions you got right.

The normal thing students do when reviewing is flip quickly through going, "okay, got that right, got that right, oh wait got that wrong what happened there let me focus on that ohgodimsostupidwhywhywhy". Every MCAT teacher or tutor worth their salt will tell you to review all of your questions, but sometimes it can be hard to be self-disciplined enough to do that.

So instead, flip that on its head: at least once a week, go through a section and casually dismiss everything you got wrong, and slow down and focus on the questions you got right. "Okay got that wrong, whatever, not going to look at it, oh hey YAY I got that one right! What happened? How did I get that right? I'm so smart! I'm so lucky! Go me!"

I can't tell you how many times over the years I've heard students say, "I can always get it down to two but then I always get it wrong." (especially in Verbal!)

That is, of course, false. When you get it down to two, you're getting about half right and half wrong.

But b/c students only focus on questions they got wrong, all they notice is the times they guessed wrong. If you reviewed a section and only looked at q's you got right, but then you'd be saying to yourself, "omg I'm the luckiest person in the world every time I get it down to two I guess right!"

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Let's go with another bio question today:

Item 5

Prior to vaccinations for poliomyelitis, widespread polio infection created wards of patients at risk of death due to loss of control of respiratory muscles. In 1928, Drinker and Shaw invented the first "iron lung," a device that sealed the patient's body from the neck down in a chamber with controllable pressure. The pressure change in the "iron lung" aided respiration by:


a) increasing the positive pressure in the lungs, driving diffusion of O2.

b) increasing the positive pressure in the lungs, thereby increasing lung ATP utilization efficiency.

c) increasing negative pressure within the iron lung caused the patient's lungs to expand.

d) delivering positive abdominal pressure driving the diaphragm .

Here you just need to know one fact: humans use negative pressure to breathe. We lower the pressure in our lungs, drawing air in. To aid in respiration you aid that negative pressure. So it's (C). Typical of the MCAT, there's extraneous stuff that you've got to read past to see to the simple, underlying science fact being tested.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Here you just need to know one fact: humans use negative pressure to breathe. We lower the pressure in our lungs, drawing air in. To aid in respiration you aid that negative pressure. So it's (C). Typical of the MCAT, there's extraneous stuff that you've got to read past to see to the simple, underlying science fact being tested.

Very good information. I reasoned C basically because I knew that C was true and relevant to the question. D sounded wrong even though I didn't really know the intricacies of abdominal pressure for that matter to make any informed reasoning to that choice. A and B were definitely wrong.

 

[Gauss44]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Bryan, and I'm an MCAT tutor with over a decade of experience and top scores on the MCAT itself (Proof).

I've worked with students in both a classroom setting and through individual tutoring. I've worked for MCAT companies both big and small and seen what works and what doesn't when it comes to MCAT prep. At the moment, I'm the Academic Director with Next Step Test Prep, although I also still love working with my own tutoring students.

The big thing I always like to remind my students is that despite what you may hear from your friends, prep companies, etc. there's no such thing as one "right" way to prep for the MCAT. It's a fundamental tenet in education that every student learns differently, and the MCAT is no different. So if you're having trouble and finding yourself getting frustrated with the approach you're taking (because you're following the advice of a teacher/friend/professor), then the problem isn't you - it's the method you're using. Try something new and keep plugging away. Eventually you'll get there!

So about this "office hours" thread - I'll try to get logged in for a half hour to hour every morning and answer your questions about specific problems, general strategies, med admissions, etc.

- Bryan

PS Mods, if I'm violating any TOS or general guidelines, then I apologize and I'm happy to change the post to bring it into line with SDN's rules of engagement.

On VR, how did you vary your reading speed? For example, did you read the first sentence or so of each paragraph carefully, form a prediction of what the paragraph would be about, and then read super quickly only to confirm that the main idea of the paragraph was what you thought? Do you think a strategy like that would work? The idea would be to go back for details later if the questions require - but only to remember the big picture and not the details the first time through.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

On VR, how did you vary your reading speed? For example, did you read the first sentence or so of each paragraph carefully, form a prediction of what the paragraph would be about, and then read super quickly only to confirm that the main idea of the paragraph was what you thought? Do you think a strategy like that would work? The idea would be to go back for details later if the questions require - but only to remember the big picture and not the details the first time through.

My own reading speed is irrelevant - after all, you're the one taking the MCAT! I'm lucky in that I happen to be a very fast reader, so I could comfortably get through the passage in less than 2min if I was pushing it.

As for your suggested strategy, that certainly seems viable. Usually skimming means reading the first bit and the last bit in each paragraph just to have a general sense of "where stuff is" in the passage.

I think your strategy can work, but the key is always to be empirical about it. Take a chunk of passages from the EK101 book or the AAMC VR SAP and try it out. See how it feels, what your accuracy is like, your timing, etc. Hope it works for you!

 

[Gauss44]

Thanks MCAT Guru.

I tried that strategy on a bunch of EK, TPR, and AAMC passages and it seems to be hit or miss. Sometimes it saves time on the passage and questions; other times, I get through the reading quickly, and then mess up on the questions because I missed or skimmed through an important detail.

When I'm not doing that strategy (and when I just read the whole passage at one thorough pace), it takes me more than 5 minutes on average! (Again, that's just reading the passage without attempting any questions.) I don't know what to do. This puzzles me because I read all the time and even have a journalism degree. My tutors are also puzzled.

Please offer suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

it seems to be hit or miss . . . it takes me more than 5 minutes on average . . . Please offer suggestions. Thanks!

1. Practice skimming so that you get better at it and it becomes more "hit" than "miss"
2. Force yourself to read faster but still read the whole passage
3. Spend 5 min on the passage but do the questions faster

Ultimately noone can make this decision but you, since you're judging your gut instinct on whether or not you want to stick with any particular method. Skimming is a very particular skill, though, and it can take several dozen passages to get better at it. Do two or three whole 60min timed sections your "normal" way and look at your overall % right. Then do two or three whole 60min sections continuing to skim and look at how you do and how you feel.

Your accuracy may go down slightly but if skimming is letting you finish all 7 passages in 60min, it might be a better approach.