Sorry if this post is a tad long. I'll try to keep it as short and sweet as possible but here is a rundown of my preparation/experience.
Concept Review:
5 months prior to exam: Began studying from TPR Complete MCAT. This is the big bad boy ~1500 pages covering all subjects. Overall, this is a good book. Read the chapter, highlighted, took the practice questions at the end. Anything I didn't understand I would read more on and make some flashcards. I averaged about 3-5 chapters per week. This was during a 14 credit hour semester, two research jobs, and various other obligations. I mapped out a schedule but fell behind about 5 weeks in. School and MCAT is a hard teeter totter to play on.
Strategy Studying:
8 weeks prior to exam: Read Kaplan's MCAT 528. I highly recommend this book! Even if you think your testing strategies are good, this book is still worth the read. It helps you develop a good approach. What should be going through your head as you read passages? As you look at questions, question stems? As you try to narrow down the answers? I will say that "passage maps" are not my thing. If this helps you, go for it. For me - I'm a slow reader but a good thinker ;P - so passage maps were a drag on time. Making a mental passage map and highlighting the important info worked very well for me. But everyone's different so I don't think its fair to say one method is better than another.
4 weeks prior to exam: Began taking practice tests. I recommend simulating the testing environment. I went to the public library at 9:00 (I know, not 8AM - my public library didn't open until 9) every Saturday for 3 weeks. Pack the snack you'll pack for test day. Go to the bathroom only on breaks. Don't touch your cell phone. Simulating helped me a lot. 7.5 hours of focused, high pressure/stress-situation problem solving is not something I do every weekend - so I think I greatly benefitted from "practicing how you play". (*Side note* Did not purchase the question packs. I hear they're decent but I'm cheap so I didn't bother.) I know I posted my scores in April's thread but I'll post them again:
TPR1: 500 Composite (143/230 =
62%)
Chem Phys: 123 (29/59 =
49%)
CARS: 127 (41/53 =
77%)
Bio: 126 (41/59 =
69%)
Psych Soc: 124 (32/59 =
54%)
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
AAMC Official: (177/230 =
77%)
Chem Phys: (36/59 =
61%)
CARS: (45/53 =
85%)
Bio: (50/59 =
85%)
Psych: (46/59 =
78%)
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
TPR2: 499 Composite (146/230 =
63%)
Chem Phys (38/59 =
64%)
CARS: (26/53 =
49%)
Bio: 45/59 =
76%)
Psych 37/59 =
63%)
You can see my scores are not super
You can also see that I scored 15% better on the AAMC official practice test. This test (AAMC FL) is more representative of what my actual testing experience was today. TPR was so focused on the tiny details. AAMC was more big picture, reasoning about experiments/papers. Hate to be a Debbie Downer but my impressions in retrospect: the prep companies dropped the ball on this one. Wouldn't take a class (I didn't). Wouldn't spend more than a couple hundred bucks on their books (still didn't). Take your practice test scores with a grain of salt. Don't bother looking at the scaled scores, they're useless. Try to increase your raw score - although I didn't have much luck with that.
Testing:
Unremarkable. As I mentioned before, the AAMC FL is very representative of my actual testing experience. I'm disappointed that there was only one. I feel like I might have felt a little better if I had taken another 2-3 official practice tests. I saw a few really chunky jock-looking guys at my center. Hopefully they bring the average down (no offense, and as a side note - I have nothing against jocks but I'm a very skinny white boi):
Chem/Phys: felt better than official practice test. Almost ran out of time.
CARS: felt about the same as the official practice test. I'm still a slow reader so I had to pick up the pace towards the end.
Bio/BC: tbh I felt like I smashed this section. Almost mic dropped and walked out of the center. Then I realized there was one more section left.
Psych/Socio: similar to practice test = meh. make flash cards to study. memorize and pray what sticks is whats on your test.
*Overall I don't know what to think. Testing fatigue is a real thing, especially towards the end. Although I felt about the same as I did on the AAMC FL - maybe a tad worse or a tad better. Hard to say. #prayers
Bottom-line/My recommendations:
Firstly and most importantly,
take a biochem class before you take this test. In fact, I would recommend taking a class in all the subjects (yes, psychology and sociology as well). If you want to feel
really comfortable, take a genetics class and a metabolism/physiology class. Even if this is just to reinforce the basic concepts you learned, it helps. If you had to pick one class to not have under your belt, it's physics II. This should be evident from the 5% physics material in Chem/Phys. If this is your case, cut your losses. 5% missed from physics is nothing compared to the 25% biochem from the two science sections.
If you have the ability to
take a psych and socio class, do it
. At least, this is what I did. I imagine this will be debated by some testers. In my honest opinion, it helps enormously to have the stress of an exam/paper for a class to help you remember terms/concepts. I know we're (mostly) all science geeks here - but I'd recommend taking the 101 class. It'll buff your GPA and make your studying come MCAT time loads easier.
Read scientific papers. I'm fortunate enough to work in a molecular genetics lab where we breed transgenic mice. I feel like the amount of lab work/ reading I did was possibly the
best preparation for this test (as absurd as that sounds). If you are currently in research (and even if you aren't), download the "Read" app by QxMD. This app updates a feed with brand spanking new papers and you can track tags relevant to your work/what you're interested in. Even if you only read a few papers a week, looking at the graphs, analyzing the data, thinking about and understanding what the researchers did and why is
the most valuable studying you can do. Until TPR/Kap come out with better review materials, I would prioritize your studying:
AAMC FL/Material > Practice Reading Papers > Biochem Class/Concept Review > TPR/Kap Content Review > TPR/Kap FLs > Game of Thrones
Disclaimer: All opinions are my own don't flame me bruh. Obviously others will disagree with my thoughts. My opinions are just here for you May kiddos and others. And from my practice scores you can see my weaknesses were Chem/Phys and a bit of Psych/Socio so my opinions reflect this. But everyone's different so keep that in mind. Also, I won't know what I got for several weeks so for all I know this could be the recipe for mediocrity. *sigh