The Official April 2016 MCAT Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

drbeat14

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2012
Messages
120
Reaction score
77
April Fool's you're taking the MCAT! Worst prank ever?! No really, as a serial delayer, I absolutely must take this thing on this day before application submissions this upcoming cycle in 2016. So I thought I would go ahead and start the official thread. Never to early to start an official support/study group.

Members don't see this ad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Anyone working through TBR, i am starting on it soon, would like to see if anyone wants to join in and work on a schedule and hold each other accountable. Likely test date : april 23rd.

I got the BR books last week. I'll be starting studying after I return from a trip in January. I plan on mostly following the SN2ed schedule, happy to work with you all too!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Just got my TBR books a couple of days ago. Will start studying within the next week. Good luck to everyone!
 
Yay for finals being over! Going to start my review later today :clap:. How many chapters are you all planning to do in a day? I plan to do 5 -8 hours on work days and maybe 12 hours on my days off.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Yay for finals being over! Going to start my review later today :clap:. How many chapters are you all planning to do in a day? I plan to do 5 -8 hours on work days and maybe 12 hours on my days off.


I am planning on 4 hours on work days, monday - thursday and rest of the days probably 8 hours.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Anyone else going to be studying for the MCAT while taking classes in the spring? :dead:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Anyone else going to be studying for the MCAT while taking classes in the spring? :dead:

I will be starting MCAT study tomorrow with the Nextstep diagnostic exam. And, I will be starting winter intercession (1 class retake) and taking spring semester classes (2 retakes). And, online biochem course after MCAT haha.
 
April 23rd taker. Had my final exams last week. Received Kaplan last week and contemplating if I should get TBR. I have a part-time job, shadowing and volunteering which is really time-consuming. Did anyone start studying already? Any suggestions? I was thinking of starting with psych/socio. Some of my friends were also suggesting to start by reading several journals as practice for passages.
 
Hellloooooo Aprilites,

I'm taking the exam April 23rd and would love to be contacted about a study group. I can skype whenever, and if anyone's in the DC area, I can meet in person to study as well. I already graduated, but I'll be taking a psyc/soc class next semester for as my final prereq and am planning on studying for the MCAT w/o a paid course... trying to do this on the cheap.

Set-Up:
Kaplan 7 Book Set (or should I do EK #_#?)
TPR Pysc/Soc
TPRH for CARS
EK 1001's set
& all the AAMC bundles.
 
Hellloooooo Aprilites,

I'm taking the exam April 23rd and would love to be contacted about a study group. I can skype whenever, and if anyone's in the DC area, I can meet in person to study as well. I already graduated, but I'll be taking a psyc/soc class next semester for as my final prereq and am planning on studying for the MCAT w/o a paid course... trying to do this on the cheap.

Set-Up:
Kaplan 7 Book Set (or should I do EK #_#?)
TPR Pysc/Soc
TPRH for CARS
EK 1001's set
& all the AAMC bundles.

your set up is the standard way people are using right now. If youre not good with science courses, you should look into Berkeley review.
 
Hello Altius Tutor,

Could u elaborate on the Altius strategies for CARS ? How different is ur strategy to other companies or private tutors? what is it that you are claiming since many claim the same ! though I agree that it takes a lot of practice and repetition to master all the strategies.

I'm not sure I know what you are asking when you say "what are you claiming since many claim the same...?" But I can certainly speak a little bit about our CAR strategies and how I personally help my students ace this section. This is a limited forum though, if you really want to know about our approach you can call the office 435.671.5783 anytime M-F 8AM-5PM MTN and ask to speak with a tutor. They will give you a free consultation, answer questions, often even give you one free session to check the out as a mentor, all without paying a cent. That would give you more opportunity to discuss back and forth too, rather than just reading replies to posts.

Now to CARS strategy, there are several strategies we use to help students more quickly resolve the literature they are reading into salient points which are likely to be tested by the MCAT authors. We also work on strategies for accurately dissecting the question and getting the correct answer. Even if you understand that portion of the passage being tested you can often miss the question because of poor or inefficient critical thinking habits/techniques. What we do not do is give you the false idea that there is a "secret trick" you can employ to rapidly increase your score. No such thing. The way to dramatically improve your score is to dramatically improve your reading comprehension/analysis abilities and to dramatically improve your skill at accurately answering the AAMC CAR question types. I'll explain two things which have helped my students immensely.

First, we have a 3-Stage Development System for CAR. You begin at a more basic level wherein you take more time to read, take more notes, and use a basic passage analysis/annotation strategy. You have to reach certain benchmarks at that level to move on to the next. For example, at that level, you should reach the point that you no longer feel worried about timing or the difficulty of the passage syntax. You should be able to confidently read most passages and at least feel like you understood the gist. After you reach this and several other benchmarks you move to Level 2. This requires you to become more analytical, take fewer notes, and focus more on big-picture literary components. After you reach all of those benchmarks you move to Level Three. This is the final set of skills and behaviors we find in nearly every student who performs at a high level on CARS. Your analysis is now very succinct and focused directly on relationships, argument components and mathematical/algorithm-like notes which can be jotted down very quickly. There is a separate chapter of the student manual to work through each CARS level and you do at least one 1-on-1 tutoring session with your mentor for each level.

Second, we do two separate, unique, but equally important drills. Each student gets two CAR workbooks full of passages to practice on. We use these passages to complete a) Comprehension Drills and b) Speed Drills. My students do five (5) of each every single week. The one drill gradually increases speed while holding passage comprehension level constant, the other one holds timing constant and gradually increases comprehension level. If you stick with it, eventually the two meet in the middle in an almost miraculous way. At first, you could not read to the level you needed to unless you took a lot of time to do so (way more than the MCAT allows), but we used the drills to gradually decrease that time without decreasing your comprehension. Also at first, if you read the passage in the time available (3-4 minutes) you wouldn't remember or comprehend the passage to the level needed. But, the drills gradually increased what you could comprehend in 3-4 minutes until it matches what you were originally comprehending in unlimited time. The two drills meet in the middle and you can now COMPREHEND the nuances of the passage argument to the level necessary AND you can do so in 3-4 minutes.

Good luck in your studies!
 
Hi Altius Tutor,

Have you ever written an edition of MCAT2015? If so what is the main difference between the old and new MCAT?

Yes. All of our current CAR materials are specific to MCAT-2015 versus the old MCAT form. However, that is NOT saying very much. In terms of passage format/content/critical thinking, there are no significant differences between the old VR section and the new CAR section. This is easily proven by the fact that the AAMC is regularly repurposing OLD MCAT Verbal Reasoning passages for use in MCAT-2015 materials. When doing so, they don't even change a word. They use the EXACT same passage, the exact same questions, all word-for-word. The only MCAT-2015 CARS change, and its very minor, is that you won't see passages from the "technology" or "science" subject areas on MCAT-2015 (e.g., the old practice VR passage on the bird-lizard creature, the one on flowering plant, etc.). In terms of length/number of questions there were small alterations, but that's very simple stuff called out in the Official Guide (e.g., 9 passages total instead of 7, different number of questions/passage, and so forth).
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Hey guys! I recently swapped my date to April 1st and have been studying hardcore this winter break!
I'd appreciate some feedback into my study plan and it is the following:

Kaplan Full set, EK for Physics and Chemistry/Orgo, and Khan academy for Psych/Soc.

My plan is to finish my content review in the next 2 weeks I have off from school. In the meantime, I am making Anki flashcards for the material I am reading.
Once I finish content review, I sort of don't know what to do daily until April.
I plan on doing a passage everyother day and going over my mistakes on the days in between. Advice?

Also, what are the best books for each subject? ( I googled around and even posted on reddit and didn't get a clear response)
Any other useful information would be much appreciated!
 
Hey guys! I recently swapped my date to April 1st and have been studying hardcore this winter break!
I'd appreciate some feedback into my study plan and it is the following:

Kaplan Full set, EK for Physics and Chemistry/Orgo, and Khan academy for Psych/Soc.

My plan is to finish my content review in the next 2 weeks I have off from school. In the meantime, I am making Anki flashcards for the material I am reading.
Once I finish content review, I sort of don't know what to do daily until April.
I plan on doing a passage everyother day and going over my mistakes on the days in between. Advice?

Also, what are the best books for each subject? ( I googled around and even posted on reddit and didn't get a clear response)
Any other useful information would be much appreciated!

I had your same question about 2 months ago when I was looking for what books to get. The problem is you're not going to find someone who can say "use this book for this subject and this other company for this other subject". This is because nobody is going to buy all the book sets from every company to be able to outright compare them. That would require well over $1000 on its own and would be a waste of a lot of time. All you're going to find is advice from people about the book set that they used and not much more.
 
I had your same question about 2 months ago when I was looking for what books to get. The problem is you're not going to find someone who can say "use this book for this subject and this other company for this other subject". This is because nobody is going to buy all the book sets from every company to be able to outright compare them. That would require well over $1000 on its own and would be a waste of a lot of time. All you're going to find is advice from people about the book set that they used and not much more.

Gotcha. What would you say is a good source for someone who is weak in physics and the chemistries? I just cant get the material to stick :(
 
Finally, I can access my account! I have Kaplan, EK, and TPR now. Kaplan is my primary source and using EK as a backup. The TPR set I got was secondhand and mainly using for the workbooks. The holidays is making it difficult to really sit down and study since I have two jobs currently.. finally started a bit of reading.
 
registered for april 23rd!
i took the mcat this past september and scored a 512, gunna try it again i know i can do better.
gunna focus more on verbal this time. downside is i used almost every good FL available (NS, EK, AAMC sample, etc)
I used EK set primarily last time, gunna read through the old TBR set and practice with the newly released AAMC material from november.
Im starting my study jan 25th and doing a 90 day schedule.

good luck everyone!
 
registered for april 23rd!
i took the mcat this past september and scored a 512, gunna try it again i know i can do better.
gunna focus more on verbal this time. downside is i used almost every good FL available (NS, EK, AAMC sample, etc)
I used EK set primarily last time, gunna read through the old TBR set and practice with the newly released AAMC material from november.
Im starting my study jan 25th and doing a 90 day schedule.

good luck everyone!
Good luck, how did you study the first time around?
 
used EK set for content, took all those FL i mentioned above, I followed a 15 week schedule (I forgot which one it's called but I found it on here) and tweaked it to my preferences. I supped content with TPR psy/soc and TBR physics cuz I suck at physics. I studied the 15 weeks leading up to september 12 test date.
Good luck, how did you study the first time around?
 
Hey guys! I recently swapped my date to April 1st and have been studying hardcore this winter break!
I'd appreciate some feedback into my study plan and it is the following:

Kaplan Full set, EK for Physics and Chemistry/Orgo, and Khan academy for Psych/Soc.

My plan is to finish my content review in the next 2 weeks I have off from school. In the meantime, I am making Anki flashcards for the material I am reading.
Once I finish content review, I sort of don't know what to do daily until April.
I plan on doing a passage everyother day and going over my mistakes on the days in between. Advice?

Also, what are the best books for each subject? ( I googled around and even posted on reddit and didn't get a clear response)
Any other useful information would be much appreciated!

Probably going to sound stupid but when you say content review, are you planning on reading all the Kaplan books before you take FL? I started studying a week ago and reading and taking notes on all the books is very time consuming. I am worried I will run out of time before I do any practice tests and/or have practice with the passages :/
 
Hello All!
Excited to take this MCAT April 1st and be done with it! Haven't started studying yet. Probably will break it open this afternoon with the EK series. Looking at ordering TBR and then doing the AAMC practice tests. Also think I'm going to do the Princeton Review course in March as a nice finishing touch on everything - looking for a score of 514+ (518-520 would be that sweet spot!). Working full-time AND studying for my master's this spring. Busy times. Good luck to everyone!
 
Just starting studying today (made my 3month plan yesterday) and I can already tell this is going to be a major challenge. Taking 19hrs (prob going to drop some classes), working two part time jobs (one of which decided to increase my hours next semester), debate season is at it's highest next semester (means traveling alot), and during the season when all the games I want are coming out (yes I'm a big gamer).

Wish me luck y'all lol.

Hello All!
Excited to take this MCAT April 1st and be done with it! Haven't started studying yet. Probably will break it open this afternoon with the EK series. Looking at ordering TBR and then doing the AAMC practice tests. Also think I'm going to do the Princeton Review course in March as a nice finishing touch on everything - looking for a score of 514+ (518-520 would be that sweet spot!). Working full-time AND studying for my master's this spring. Busy times. Good luck to everyone!
You got this! Good luck
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Did anyone else take the Kaplan diagnostics and the science assessment exam? I did super bad and I am really freaking out. So much so that I am wondering if I should push back my exam date :|
 
Did anyone else take the Kaplan diagnostics and the science assessment exam? I did super bad and I am really freaking out. So much so that I am wondering if I should push back my exam date :|
I scored in high 60s on that one! Still a long way to go!
 
I'm doing diagnostic after I've done some reviewing then at the end to see how I've improved! :) good luck everyone!
 
How's everyone doing with mcat study? I am falling behind already lol... EK chapters are longer than expected...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Hey guys! Just dropped by to say Hi to all you guys who will also be suffering through the next few months. I'm taking mine on April 1 and probably will start studying some time mid-January. Taking a couple of grad classes and writing a thesis as well so it's gonna be a busy semester!
 
How's everyone doing with mcat study? I am falling behind already lol... EK chapters are longer than expected...
I'm also falling behind. Been getting sick and busy working two jobs. Retail is pretty hectic during holiday season! Good luck everyone and Happy New Year!!:clap:
 
How's everyone doing with mcat study? I am falling behind already lol... EK chapters are longer than expected...

I am trying not to fall behind either. I am using BR and everything is just so much longer than I had originally anticipated. This is going to be a long ~4 months.
 
I am trying not to fall behind either. I am using BR and everything is just so much longer than I had originally anticipated. This is going to be a long ~4 months.

Do you have a schedule made out ? If you don't mind sharing it, i would appreciate it. Just checking, have you skimmed over the gchem and physics BR books to decide which topics are relevant for 2015 mcat ? I was going to use TBR as well...
 
Do you have a schedule made out ? If you don't mind sharing it, i would appreciate it. Just checking, have you skimmed over the gchem and physics BR books to decide which topics are relevant for 2015 mcat ? I was going to use TBR as well...

I started off only using TBR but found the content review to be extremely comprehensive and unnecessary. As of two days ago, I've switched to using EK for content review and TBR for their passages and found myself spending ~75% of my time doing and reviewing the passages which is what I'm aiming for. The EK books are great because they're straightforward in saying what you should and shouldn't know for the 2015 MCAT.
 
EK should be enough. I was reading EK TBR and Kaplan. And, I found Kaplan likes to make sections lengthy. EK was just enough to know what's up and do the passages. But, I'm going to start over from Day 1 because I just feel that falling behind is not something I want and want to start fresh again. Starting tomorrow!
 
(For those of you having difficulties keeping up with your MCAT schedule)
Some people can manage balancing school, work, MCAT etc. Others can't. I personally had a heavy engineering load, worked 20 - 30 hours, had a handful EC's atop of the MCAT. So, I struggled with my busy workload to maintain my MCAT schedule. As a result I have to take on this beast again. When instead I should have probably focused on it after graduating or put some of my EC's on hold. However, I wanted to maintain things so I could apply this cycle. From my experience taking the new MCAT I would strongly suggest to all of those who are struggling with this to rethink your activities (i.e. EC's). If you need to dedicate more time so you can get through the MCAT content and passages do so. If that means you have to put some EC's on hold than do it (many places will be understanding). However if you have an inflexible schedule TAKE IT ANOTHER TIME. This is not rocket science just be honest with yourself and you will hopefully save the hassle I went through learning it on my own since I placed expectations on myself that I couldn't maintain.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Do you have a schedule made out ? If you don't mind sharing it, i would appreciate it. Just checking, have you skimmed over the gchem and physics BR books to decide which topics are relevant for 2015 mcat ? I was going to use TBR as well...

I do have a schedule but its sort of disorganized right now mainly because of the psychology/sociology section. I am trying to make it realistic in terms of the time that I have so that I can watch KA videos to cover topics that may not be covered in the TPR Psych/SOC book while working on my research and completing my thesis.

For example physics chapter 1 focused on translation motion, which is on the MCAT and projectile motion, which is not on the MCAT. When I am reading, I have the AAMC guide side by side so that I can make sure that I cover certain topics and skim/skip over topics that are not on the MCAT. It seems as though the passages mix concepts together at times so its really hard to separate out what you need to know for the MCAT and what you don't need to know. I can share my schedule with you (it is based off of SN2ed's 4 month schedule).
 
Negative, I graduated in May! I work full time though Monday-Friday 5am - 1:30pm. It's been tough adjusting to getting off after a full day's work and trying to be focused on studying. Small naps have helped immensely though lol
ahhh i see I see... I'm retaking courses at Mt.SAC :( from 12:30PM to 5:45PM... that's pretty tough for me... I'm gonna start studying tomorrow though ahaha I can't sleep cuz it'll mess up my sleeping schedule
 
Figured I would share this with anyone also using TPR for their content review. This is a way of managing my progress for each chapter for each subject in the books. Red means I haven't started, yellow means started but not finished, green means finished, and green with bold text means finished and inputted into Anki.

v6KWf4g.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Just starting to study right now using TPR... Getting really bored and tired already. I hate learning things I've already learned! I find myself skipping ahead and then realizing dammit I shouldn't have skipped ahead... So I end up wasting a lot of my own time. Anyone have any tips on how to just put your head down and study the stuff you think you already know? Also, any other TPR users here? How's your study going and what schedule are you using? :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Just starting to study right now using TPR... Getting really bored and tired already. I hate learning things I've already learned! I find myself skipping ahead and then realizing dammit I shouldn't have skipped ahead... So I end up wasting a lot of my own time. Anyone have any tips on how to just put your head down and study the stuff you think you already know? Also, any other TPR users here? How's your study going and what schedule are you using? :)

Yeah I'm using TPR as well and I totally feel your pain. Honestly you just have to sit down and go chapter by chapter evaluating what you think you know for sure and what you might need to brush up on. At the very least, you need to at least just read the stuff you already know, and at the very most take detailed notes on the stuff you have no recollection of at all. I've found that TPR has some pretty good insights onto topics that I thought I knew for sure but that I didn't actually know completely (stuff like the FONClBrISCH acronym for electronegativity was never taught in gen. chem at my undergrad for example).
 
Top