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- Jan 22, 2013
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This happens to fall on my birthday...don't know if that's a good thing or bad. Starting sn2d's 3 month program on Monday! I'm scared.
I'm done with all my pre reqsAs long as you spend time thoroughly reviewing your answers, right and wrong, I don't see why that wouldn't be ok. I haven't decided on a test date yet but my plan may be similar towards the end to yours.
Are any of you still finishing phys II or orgo II this semester while prepping?
As long as you spend time thoroughly reviewing your answers, right and wrong, I don't see why that wouldn't be ok. I haven't decided on a test date yet but my plan may be similar towards the end to yours.
Are any of you still finishing phys II or orgo II this semester while prepping?
I think that depends on your preference. I'm a morning person, and I get really tired mid afternoon. So 8 am is perfect for me.Yes I'm done with my pre reqs and am taking biochem this semester. I'm just nervous about an 8am. Any general consensus on a better time to take? Or is that too personalized of a preference
I'm on day 22 of the SN2 schedule. Prior to this I was a huge partier, doing bar runs every other night. However, I haven't been to a bar in almost a month now. Which says I've been able to motivate myself thus far. The way I do it is I read SDN constantly, meditate (close my eyes and think about being in med school), take one day off to hangout with friends, and workout for an hour every day. It's very time intensive to study for the MCAT, but the reward is endless. I also try to make the readings interesting, by actually taking an interest in them.I've been postponing the MCAT for so long and I'm finally ready to take it and apply this year... hoping for a 32+ which I think is doable. Started studying a few days ago... how do all of you stay motivated to study? I guess that's been my biggest issue so far. What doesn't help is I work full time.. blah
I'm on day 22 of the SN2 schedule. Prior to this I was a huge partier, doing bar runs every other night. However, I haven't been to a bar in almost a month now. Which says I've been able to motivate myself thus far. The way I do it is I read SDN constantly, meditate (close my eyes and think about being in med school), take one day off to hangout with friends, and workout for an hour every day. It's very time intensive to study for the MCAT, but the reward is endless. I also try to make the readings interesting, by actually taking an interest in them.
My addition to that question is: How do you keep motivated when you see no improvement, and feel like you're not cut for this exam??
I was supposed to write in Jan 25. Started studying october. But I was very weak at almost everything, more precisely VR , Physics, some Chem, Physiology, and Genetics. I signed up for a TPR course, and tried to stay up to date with their classes, but I wanted to speed things up to be ready for my Jan 25 exam. However I end up giving up days to practice the TPR exams, and some homework days just to focus on LEARNING the content. I started picking up a bit, but began forget earlier things. Felt that I need to review all my notes again, but had no time. I did more fair bit of practice on the weak things I thought. My VR suffered consistency in practice... I did Self-review AAMC's and found out my weaknesses. I scored about low but over the average they had. I reviewed a few days. Took 2 aamc's and my scores were BRUTAL. low 20's. This was early January. Decided theres no way I can write this and rescheduled to Apr. 11. My VR scores were like 5-6!
Anyway I took a few days off, but seems that I cant get into it properly again. Started looking at SN2ed's schedule, and using TBR, but finding myself slow on schedule. So Im going to change that. I dont think my problem is content more than practice and learning HOW to take the mcat. Im scheduling the company practice exams every weekend to get me in the mindset, but Im still shaky on some content, but I feel that I need an efficient method of reviewing content. Either I will watch my TPR class videos again, or read EK because I feel I need more practice using all the sources I have (TBR, TPR, EK) etc. Trying to do external reading as well to help me for VR. MY TIMING IS A HUGE PROBLEM.
Other than that, I have to other plan to go about this. Im feeling depressed, and losing hope. Im already at the end of January and havent been efficient as I promised myself I will when I rescheduled the exam. Now Im getting closer to the exam and really want to get this over. Am I already too late again?
How do you guys 'review' things and when, in terms of concepts, practice questions, and important things you learned? I feel so lost trying to study properly!
I just want a balanced score, low 30's and Im FINE! That seems rough to pull off. Anyone like to motivate/encourage/advice/tip me in anyway? Ill be grateful! I just want to be efficient and going the right way.
Please & Thank you!
I feel the same way! I am a re-take (I took my first MCAT in September) and I have absolutely NO motivation this time around. It's hard to keep focused and I feel like I won't be able to improve my score at all.
But! We can't lose hope. Don't put off the exam anymore; you will only get less and less motivated as time goes on. I originally registered for Jan 25 and I definitely put off studying for too long and had to reschedule for April 11. I told myself this morning that today was the day I'm going to be extremely committed to studying. I am watching Chad's MCAT videos on CourseSaver (only gchem and physics) and they are a lifesaver. I've been trying to read my EK books and I find it hard to understand physics and gchem problems without it being explained to me. Also you said you were struggling with verbal... really read EK Verbal and do exactly what they say. Buy the 101 Verbal EK book if you need more practice. The only way you will boost your verbal score and finish with time leftover is by plenty of practice. I think EK does a really good job preparing us for how to approach the verbal section.
What I'm going to start doing is after each day of studying, write down my plan for the next day so I'm not all frazzled in the morning trying to figure out what to study next. 3-4 hours a day is all it takes. Take a break on Sundays. When the test is a month away, take an AAMC test every Saturday and review it on Sunday (7-11 are most realistic). I keep thinking that I'm only hurting myself by not putting in as much effort as possible. In order to get into med school we have to take the MCAT, and do well!
Let's all just get motivated and become really confident that we are going to ace this test. Start today, and don't put it off until tomorrow. GOOD LUCK!
So I'm in a similar boat. Took in sep but voided. Now I keep
Saying I need to start but can't get motivated!
First off, good luck everyone!!
Question tho: Anyone else start off strong with their studying but now in a bit of a rough spot after 3.5 weeks? It's been 3-4 days and my focus has absolutely SUCKED ugh
Yes! I'm on week 3 of sn2ed and am noticing some days I'm a machine all day and do everything by the book, but yesterday and today I've been feeling incredibly sluggish and blah. Gotta shotgun a Redbull and get back to it haha. But yeah I think it's humanly impossible to naturally feel good and focused for 7hrs+ a day, 6 days a week, 95 days. Just gotta make sure you have a nice reward on your break days (mine is Sunday) and that can be your light at the end of the tunnel each week
I am a retaker, but when I was studying for the September exam, I didn't do ANYTHING but study for the first 2 months and I felt horrible. My skin started breaking out and I felt gross. The one thing that I noticed that helped a ton was working out. I felt as though if I went to the gym, I would be wasting precious study time, however I feel that the gym cleared my head and actually made my study time more efficient. I recommend trying this.
Update on my studying: I started today studying for April 11th. Again, I am a retaker so I hope this time the information flows more easily and I won;t be spending more than 4 hours a day studying. I am watching the topic on Chad's videos then scanning the material in Berkeley Review before hitting problems in both BR and PR. Where is everyone at with their studying and how much are you studying?
I took a couple of days off but am going back at it tomorrow. Needed a break, I was going crazyHow's it going everyone? Feeling good about your progress and how much time is left?
I took a couple of days off but am going back at it tomorrow. Needed a break, I was going crazy
I took a couple of days off but am going back at it tomorrow. Needed a break, I was going crazy
Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like this. Today is day 16 which includes doing like 20 passages, and I'm just fed up/exhausted (plus it's 15 degrees and snowing which doesn't help) I've been afraid to take a few days off because the schedule moves so fast and I don't wanna fall behind, but maybe it's better if I do recharge a bit.
My focus has gotten low, normally on verbal I'm ranging 8-10 And yesterday I took two passages and got 2/14 right, just zero brain power haha
Does anyone have any strategy for reviewing verbal? What happens is I will take a practice VR section and try to review my wrong answers, but Im not sure Im gaining any thing to apply to future tests.
Im almost where I want to be with my VR scores but need that extra push.
EK has a good verbal strategy. Take a test and review it. Then the next time you work on verbal go back to the test you took and review the question stems. See what you can make out of the author. Do they like the subject, dislike it? And then try to answer the questions without going back to the passage! A lot of times you'll find it easy to narrow it down based on how the questions are presented and how you think the author feels about the subject. The only questions you can't really answer by doing this is the ones that are directly from the passage.
Next, review the passage and come up with a main idea in 1-2 sentences. See if it's what you guessed by just looking at the question stems. However, when you are actually taking a verbal test, don't actually write out the main idea. Take 5 seconds after reading to mentally come up with it since writing will take up too much time.
If you get into the habit of doing this after each verbal passage or test it will get easier and you'll know how to answer the questions correctly. Hope this helps!
I've completed content review. I'm now just working my way through TPRH SW problems mostly. I really need to amp up my VR practice.
Hi guys,
I have never posted in this forum before but can anyone please help by telling me how to improve the verbal score? I have been scoring extremely low on my tests especially verbal. Here are my stats so far
TEST- PS/VR/BS
AAMC 10- 8/6/9
AAMC3- 9/4/10
TPR1- 6/5/9
AAMC4- 8/4/8
TPR2- 7/4/9
I have not done any bio review for content and Im in the middle of chemistry content review. I have gone through physics but I m still weak in some areas. My major problem is verbal. Can anyone help with this pls?
A couple things:
1. It is generally considered more ideal to do the AAMC full length tests after you have finished content review, so you can gauge your weaknesses better and shore them up.
2. I would suggest studying all the topics on a cyclical basis... that is, study one topic in Gchem, then one topic in bio, etc... this allows you to keep building on previous topics every so often, and therefore keep them fresh.
3. As to your question about verbal, I would suggest checking out TPRH (The Princeton Review Hyperlearning) verbal workbook. This seems to be considered by most people on here, as the best verbal prep workbook out there. It has 43 individual practice passages and 4 full length practice tests (for the 2010 edition). Google for more information or check these forums
Your question has been asked so many times before... I suggest combing through the forums a little more as you will likely find your answer. Also, This is a thread for a specific test day (April 11th) and therefore not as many people will see your post.
I was in a similar situation as u first time I took it. I posted alittle about what I did to get my score up to a 10 here:Ok. I think I will hold off then on full lengths and finish my content review. I like the idea of the cycle studying.
As for the princeton hyperlearning book I have that and have been working with it for a while. Do you have any strategy of some sort when working the verbal passages or how I go about using the TPR hyperlearning book?
I am taking the test on April 11th as well so I want to make the best use of the time I have.
Ok. I think I will hold off then on full lengths and finish my content review. I like the idea of the cycle studying.
As for the princeton hyperlearning book I have that and have been working with it for a while. Do you have any strategy of some sort when working the verbal passages or how I go about using the TPR hyperlearning book?
I am taking the test on April 11th as well so I want to make the best use of the time I have.
Is everyone pretty much done with their content review? Cuz I'm barely at the half way point. 0.o
Same here. How's TPRH SW going for you? When do you plan on starting FLs?
Everyone has a different preferred strategy.
Is everyone pretty much done with their content review? Cuz I'm barely at the half way point. 0.o
Nope. I think I've only just reached my half way point. I've been going through everything really thoroughly so that once I hit FL's I'm as fully ready as possible.
I must admit tho, I'm kind of worried I won't be finished in time ughhh
Finally finished content review just now. Ended with ochem. Thought it would be easier the second time around. But nope, still horrible!