Reviewing material during MCAT studying

[deleted600623]

Hi all,

I'm currently self-studying for the MCAT with the Kaplan 7 book series while working full time at a new job. I'm currently doing 1 chapter per day with some notecard review throughout the day of the material that I had covered. How should I go about reviewing the material that I've already studied in an efficient manner?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[IJumpYouJumpJack]

Hi all,

I'm currently self-studying for the MCAT with the Kaplan 7 book series while working full time at a new job. I'm currently doing 1 chapter per day with some notecard review throughout the day of the material that I had covered. How should I go about reviewing the material that I've already studied in an efficient manner?

You know the cheat-sheet that comes with the Kaplan review set? I put all that info into notecards and once a week I would spend a day just reviewing with those notecards and not trying to learn any new info. Honestly notecards helped me sooo much!! Plus, this way you can focus on certain sections while reviewing if you color code your notecards.

 

[Domepiece]

Anki homie. Download it, learn it, use it to cram as many facts and concepts into your head as humanly possible.

 

[deleted600623]

@Domepiece So essentially as I'm going through the chapter, make notecards on Anki and use those to study instead of making pages of notes from the chapters?

 

[deleted600623]

@IJumpYouJumpJack That's a great idea. Thanks for the help!

 

[Domepiece]

@Domepiece So essentially as I'm going through the chapter, make notecards on Anki and use those to study instead of making pages of notes from the chapters?

Depending on your note style, it may or may not be practical to put all your information onto notecards. I would utilize notecards in addition to page note reviews, but I know when I would review my own page reviews I found it easy to tell myself "oh yeah, I know that", while using the notecards really keeps you honest. The style of anki is also great at helping you retain info and the process of making the notecards themselves might help you sift out those topics which are actually segmented and memorizable. Look at using cloze cards in addition to your basic and basic+reverse cards.

There are tons of threads about the program if you search the site. Good luck!

 

[sorcerer365]

Another quick tip, make sure you shuffle chapters, when I did it I was doing 1-2 chapters a day, but biochem/psych one day, next day orgo/biochem, bio/physics etc


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[deleted600623]

@sorcerer365 That's what I have been doing but I feel like it's taking me way too long to go through 1 chapter a day. I study about an hour in the morning before work and a couple hours at night when I get home. I just feel like I'm not being very efficient when I'm reviewing material.

 

[sorcerer365]

Yeah I feel like a couple of hours a day is the sweet spot! But with Kaplan those books have waaaay too much info and words. Look at the back of the chapter at the summary bullets, see what you know and don't know. Then skim the chapter, if it's some super obscure equation, don't memorize, or some very advanced topic, just get the general gist. MCAT is a test about breadth not depth, in my experience. If you can knock out all 15 questions at the end then move on! If not then go back to what you may have missed! Hope that helps! Also supplement with Khan academy when you need something extra, I used exclusively those two resources!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile