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A high science GPA and strong reasoning skills will usually result in a great MCAT score even if you study only using Barron's, a fishing rod and Simpson's Season 3. For most students, quality prep materials and a disciplined study schedule (average 3-6 h/day for 3-6 months) are needed to get the score to be accepted to medical school.
I'd like to add some light to an underrated aspect of this process: your personal notes.
It is the answer to the question: I know I studied that 2 months ago, how could I forget it? Or worse, being caught in the library by a friend who asks "what are you studying?" and then you flip back a couple of pages to find a title that tells you the topic. Yikes.
Of course the central dogma of MCAT prep is: content review -> practice problems -> full-length exams (I think one of them occurs on a ribosome)
When doing content review, if you read a chapter, it should result in 1/2 page or less of notes. Ideally, you read the chapter like its the last time you will ever see it (even if it is 6 months before the real test). Every line you read is a decision: do I know this already? is this related to something else I read? is this really relevant to the MCAT?
The notes you write are more like hieroglyphics than course notes. You are trying to write something that triggers an idea. For example, you should never have notes with PV = nRT because presumably you know that already. But you may have read a chapter or seen questions that get density from the Law: if you knew that, well you don't write that either, but if you did not know that, then writing the Law, crossing out the n and writing m/M should trigger in your mind the step to divide each side by V to get m/V which is D.
What's the point? Studying is an active process. You can't sit in front of a book and demand: "Learn me now!" While you read you are continually asking questions, relating facts and taking very, very, very brief notes (for selfish reasons, I call them your Gold Notes).
You read those notes 2-3 times per week and then every day in the weeks leading up to the exam. You never forget, not because you are some memory freak on 60 Minutes, but because you have seen the same content dozens if not hundreds of times. You were not spending most of your time studying. You spent most of your time consolidating.
You finished a full length exam? 1/2 to 1 page of Gold Notes created. After all the AAMC exams, you have about 5 pages of truly Gold Notes. What do you look at the night before the real exam? (ummm, rhetorical)
Because your notes are sometimes conceptual but always built on active studying, it means that you can even take notes from your VR experiences so you grow in awareness for all 3 sections.
As alluded to, I don't quite agree with the SDN consciousness that used to include keeping all AAMC to the end of content review, returning to review textbooks or review guides when needed, etc.
Studying too much can sometimes be as serious a mistake as not studying enough. I think that an early taste of AAMC is important to inform you as to how to study actively. To help you to avoid the rumors and have confidence not to chase after Nernst but master the basic fluids equations, etc. Basic MCAT-think.
Oh yeah, Disclaimer: everyone is different and no animals were harmed during this post.
I'd like to add some light to an underrated aspect of this process: your personal notes.
It is the answer to the question: I know I studied that 2 months ago, how could I forget it? Or worse, being caught in the library by a friend who asks "what are you studying?" and then you flip back a couple of pages to find a title that tells you the topic. Yikes.
Of course the central dogma of MCAT prep is: content review -> practice problems -> full-length exams (I think one of them occurs on a ribosome)
When doing content review, if you read a chapter, it should result in 1/2 page or less of notes. Ideally, you read the chapter like its the last time you will ever see it (even if it is 6 months before the real test). Every line you read is a decision: do I know this already? is this related to something else I read? is this really relevant to the MCAT?
The notes you write are more like hieroglyphics than course notes. You are trying to write something that triggers an idea. For example, you should never have notes with PV = nRT because presumably you know that already. But you may have read a chapter or seen questions that get density from the Law: if you knew that, well you don't write that either, but if you did not know that, then writing the Law, crossing out the n and writing m/M should trigger in your mind the step to divide each side by V to get m/V which is D.
What's the point? Studying is an active process. You can't sit in front of a book and demand: "Learn me now!" While you read you are continually asking questions, relating facts and taking very, very, very brief notes (for selfish reasons, I call them your Gold Notes).
You read those notes 2-3 times per week and then every day in the weeks leading up to the exam. You never forget, not because you are some memory freak on 60 Minutes, but because you have seen the same content dozens if not hundreds of times. You were not spending most of your time studying. You spent most of your time consolidating.
You finished a full length exam? 1/2 to 1 page of Gold Notes created. After all the AAMC exams, you have about 5 pages of truly Gold Notes. What do you look at the night before the real exam? (ummm, rhetorical)
Because your notes are sometimes conceptual but always built on active studying, it means that you can even take notes from your VR experiences so you grow in awareness for all 3 sections.
As alluded to, I don't quite agree with the SDN consciousness that used to include keeping all AAMC to the end of content review, returning to review textbooks or review guides when needed, etc.
Studying too much can sometimes be as serious a mistake as not studying enough. I think that an early taste of AAMC is important to inform you as to how to study actively. To help you to avoid the rumors and have confidence not to chase after Nernst but master the basic fluids equations, etc. Basic MCAT-think.
Oh yeah, Disclaimer: everyone is different and no animals were harmed during this post.
