LostInStudy's (LIS) Official Advice Thread

LostInStudy said:

Wow, I've been kind of nervous all day and told myself I'd keep myself busy and check at the end of the day. Even though I thought I did around my averages I was still nervous for some reason. So anyway, my score is too long awaited after having my date canceled once already.

PS: 15
VR: 11
BS: 15
W: Q

Now that I think about it, this is around about my averages. I'm just so happy to finally have this over with. I'll post more later when I have time. This is such a relief to have this off my back. Just some general advice, If you prep appropriately and have confidence in your prep you will get what you deserve.

Good luck all. I'm too sleepy right now.

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Yea, I think the best advice is to go over content review thoroughly the first time to make sure you understand and master everything and go back as needed according to your practice results.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

My argument has always been to do as much practice as you can without taking shortcuts. Me and another member on this forum named Mr. T had sort of a discussion about it a few months back whether a person should do the TBR O. Chem books or do TPR since their content is shorter. I basically said that you should cover TBR because you don't want to get stuck with a difficult O. Chem passage and want to make sure that you don't leave your BS score up to chance (hoping the more difficult concepts won't show up). I had a few difficult O. Chem passages on my MCAT so I definitely benefited from not taking shortcuts. By appropriate, I mean fully and thoroughly without any shortcuts. I've been reading the forums for quite a while and I'd say a good 70+% of people skim on their prep because of a lack of time or whatever other reason.

Also, when I said "you'll get the score you deserve" that's exactly what I meant. I took the MCAT before and voided because I didn't feel prepared enough. At that point I had done content review and a couple of practice tests. At that point I believe if I would have decided to score my test I would have gotten in the high 20's or low 30's. My content review wasn't that great, my VR skills sucked, and I hadn't taken many FLs so that is exactly what I deserved. After redoing my content review and doing all the practice problems I could get my hands on, I think I got the score I deserved. My score reflects the amount of work I put in and my understanding of the material. I think my September score would have reflected the same thing (not score but the score I deserved at that point in time).

You know in the very beginning I thought that only really smart people could score in the 35+ range but the more I practiced and studied the more I realized that it's possible with just hard work to get at least a 34 but more likely a 35 or 36. I've said this before and I'll say it again, a person with average college student intelligence can, with hard work only, get a score around 35 or 36 but most don't (< 3%) because most don't have the time, are too lazy, don't put the effort, etc. whatever the reason may be. The point is that very few people have the time I had to spend on the MCAT and even fewer do spend that amount of time. As far as amount hours go (~1600) and amount of FLs go (40), my preparation was in the top 1% and my score reflected that.

You're not the only one who says this but I'll just address it here. Yes there are people who bust their butts and can barely get over a 30 but these people are rare. Like I said, if you're an average college student then with hard work one should be able to get into the 35 range. Most people who do score in this range and decide to retake usually do significantly raise their score because the prepare better (or in my words appropriately) the second time around.

In summary what I'm saying is: Your score reflects your preparation.

Hope this clarifies or helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

For the last 2-4 weeks before your test you should be doing exactly what you will be doing on test day. Wake up the same time, eat the same time, take breaks the same time, do your studying/review the same time. It's just a habit thing, not so much a morning person thing because you could just go to sleep early and wake up early and that wouldn't really make a difference as far as being groggy or tired go, at least it didn't for me.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Take a deep breath whenever you get nervous and think about how long you've spent on your prep, your scores, all the hours you've put in. Then think about how you can do best in this test. For me the last part worked to best because I came up with a strategy on how to handle situations a week before hand. So for example, if I came across something difficult that I couldn't figure out right away I would move on, I wouldn't let myself get nervous or panic, I would move quickly, efficiently and carefully to allow myself some time to go back for the sciences. This may seem obvious but a lot of people abandon the simple principles once they get to the test center or when they start the test and see something that doesn't immediately click. By the time I got to my test center I had gone over my list of situations and how to respond about 10 times a day for 8 days. I had written them out and every time I got nervous thinking about the test I stopped and look over my list and really thought about everything on it in detail while trying to control my breathing and focus. It worked for me on test day so maybe it'll work for you. You'll see that soon you recognize yourself doing the bad habits on practice tests and correct them and by test day hopefully you'll be golden.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

I got a 15 on both sciences but I don't think that it's indicative of the company as it is more so of the student. Yes, TBR does help a lot with the studying but it does in no way guarantee a good score. I'm sure there are people who've done terribly with TBR as there are people who have thrived with EK and Kaplan.

How far up you go is up to the student. Not necessarily his/her natural ability but more of how much work you're willing to put into this thing. Over and over again I see people skim on their review and sometimes it works out for them but a lot of times it doesn't and they're often confused because they "worked hard" but don't realize that they went into the exam with weaknesses that could be exploited.

As a general note, the test is too unpredictable to have any "high yield" topics. Master and know everything you're supposed to (AAMC outline) and you'll do great. If not then I guess you should get comfortable with blind luck helping you out on one of (if not the most) important aspects of your application.

Hope this helps and good luck (if you need it that is),

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

I did EK 1001 bio then TPR bio passages then TBR bio passages so for me they got progressively harder. As far as content goes, I think between TPRH and EK you have everything you need. I would spend my time reading TPRH and then read through EK as kind of a review. I actually ended up reading EK twice. The thing with EK is that it's short and dense. So while its short, you have to know EVERYTHING in the text, whereas in TPRH, it is longer but they spend time explaining concepts doing examples and asking questions and re-summarizing the info.

If you don't have access to TPR Science Workbook, then do both. Seriously practice drilling those concepts because its true that the test really only covers the basics but the test writers do a great job at pushing your understanding of them to the limit. The more times you see the concepts the better. I'll say it again just in case, the more time you see the concepts during your practice the better off you are.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

I'm not really sure which is better because they served different purposes for me. TBR bio passages are hard but if you're good at analyzing passages then you can score fairly well on them and they help develop that skill. On the other hand, TPR were a mixture of testing content and analyzing passages and they have passages varying from really easy to pretty hard which is more like what you'll see on the AAMCs. I think what you should do is do the TPRH science workbook bio and do the TBR in phases. So do the first third and all bio from TPR and keep moving. If you have time you can come back and finish the rest of TBR. You could even do half of TBR and then all of TPR bio passages and come back later to TBR if you have time.

I've been telling people for months to get on TPRH bio. That thing is amazing. Yes it is a little detail oriented but it explains things from the ground up and it asks you questions in the text. It doesn't take THAT long to read, like I did about 12-15 pages an hour (I think most chapters averaged out into the 30-35 range). Plus it's engaging, not like TBR (so dull for me) or EK (which if you don't know everything already then it's just a list of facts).

I have to admit my science score is a bit of luck. On practices I was getting in the 13-14 range for both sections and on test day I got passages that suited topics that I was very familiar with. I was familiar with everything but some topics in organic I was a wiz at and those showed up. To me anything in the 38+ range is about the same. In the sciences once you get to the 13 range, you have a good shot at hitting the 15 if things can go your way.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

As long as we're talking about hours, I regularly hit 15 hours a day in the middle of my studying. Basically I did three 5 hour shifts to get used to concentrating for 5 hours straight. Of course I did break for 5-10 mins every 60-80 mins in those 5 hours.

Another piece of advice guys, if you're going to take short days then don't take them in the beginning or middle. Take them when you do FLs. FLs you can afford to get behind on because as legitboss said you can cut some extra ones out but if you get behind on content then you can get into a pickle really fast. So go through a subject hard (so if you don't rotate like I didn't then do a full subject) and then take a day to rest and re-energize your ambition, motivation, hatred, and will to beat this test. I personally used my days to catch up on chores and watch war/sci-fi movies. It's easy to tell yourself that "I deserve to take one day off" or "I'll catch up tomorrow" but don't get into the habit of it. Work hard and take a good rest after the war is over.

Oh MCAT, you were such an interesting romance. You left my life as suddenly as you came. I miss you sometimes...but then I remember how much work I put into us and am glad that such a selfish, time consuming, soul-eating, heartless woman is out of my life.

Good riddance you passive aggressive street walker,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Nope, very lightly. I don't think when you're learning the material you should time yourself strictly and I think even BerkReviewTeach has said it a few times. Just learn and master the material first. Once your problem solving skills and knowledge develop speed picks up. This doesn't mean I sat there and spent 10-15 mins on problems. I would work through at my own pace and if I couldn't solve something, moved on and came back in the end. If I couldn't figure it out at the end, I just guessed. I hated flat out guessing so that fueled my need to tear apart questions and learn everything I could from them.

Basically I looked at the clock when I started and finished. If I spent less than 8-9 mins on a passage, good and if I didn't then I just kept mindful of that for next time and tried to figure out why I spent so long. That's about it. The rest just picks up with practice and as you acquire skill.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

I used TPR heavily for content for Biology and Physics only (their 2 best content sections). For O. Chem content and G. Chem content I used TBR because they are simply the best, better than all the rest (like the song).

Here's my view on the whole do the passages one day and review them the next day thing: I wouldn't and didn't do it. Maybe for verbal but not for the sciences. The reason is that you have to treat the MCAT studying as two completely different phases. The first is where you learn and master the necessary material (content review) and the second is where you do everything else (learn to speed up more, learn to pace yourself, stamina, test taking strategies, etc) or basically the little things. With that in mind, you need to do your passages and practice the same day or within a day of your lecture review to make sure you've mastered it and hammered it in. Here's what I did as far as material since so many people seem to ask, I started with reading the lecture, then EK 1001 problems (getting the basics and subtleties down), then I did the TPR science workbook problems for that topic, then I did TBR phase I passages. I did that everyday during content review for about a month and a half. I've posted the phases for TBR passages in the Berkeley review discussion thread. I would then do all the phase II passages at the end of the week.

I would do the EK Bio 1001 questions first (because they're not TRULY passage based) and then I did the TPR bio passages, which were amazing by the way. Also I would encourage anyone else to respond, my way was an obvious yet unorthodox way to study for the MCAT and OP should get as many different opinions as possible to see what could work for you. My way worked for me, but I'm certain it won't work for everyone else. You have to evaluate what kind of student you are, what you know and don't know, and what you need. I think the self evaluation is the hardest part of it all. After you have the figured out, put on your blinders and charge full steam ahead.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Yea agree with the above [about careless mistakes], it also goes away with more practice. After you've been slapped around, tripped, and laughed at a few times (usually 3 or 4 times) by those questions then you learn it and it becomes habit. If you forget after those times then a little voice inside your head says "nooo read the question/answer/calculation/passage again carefully." Kind of like mini-me from Austin Powers.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Two things that helped me. I kept an excel spreadsheet with everything in it (FL scores, verbal scores, practice scores, hours, etc.) each separated by subject and the company I used. I could go in and see trends regarding hours studied, how my scores were going, which specific subjects I struggle with, basically everything I wanted to see a trend in. It helps color coding by scaled scores or percentages too and helps you see it quicker kind of like of Vihsadas did it. I think self analysis is crucial, especially when you get to the 35+ range where single questions start counting more. The spreadsheet helped me seek out and eliminate my weaknesses.

The second thing was that I did all my practice problems in a separate 5 subject notebook and split them up as all O chem, all Physics, all Bio, all Chem, all verbal practice problems and notes I made on particular subjects as I did those problems. For example, I saw on my spreadsheet that electrostatics was my worst section, when I went back I had notes for all the problems I had gotten wrong or guessed on from all the different materials I did. I also wrote down intricacies for each subject that I thought I would forgot later on so that when I came back I could have a quick read over and remember all that again.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Doing one passage at a time then reviewing it is what I did for all of content review and it worked out excellently for me. First you master the content then you master the timing. Those are two separate skills that are hard to master at the same time.

It's like when you learn to throw a baseball, you learn to throw the ball properly and with accuracy first and then you work on adding power and speed, you don't just grab the ball and work on throwing it hard and accurately at the same time. You learn the mechanics and once you've mastered them you work on the power and speed. No use in finishing on time if you still get a lot wrong.

Maybe this helps,
-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

For practice, yes. But the TPR is still an amazing resource that I think people shouldn't choose either one or the other but use both to compliment each other. TBR has only hard passages which can be good and bad because although it does prepare you for the hard stuff, that's not exactly how the test is. TPR does a better job at giving you the spectrum that you'll see on AAMCS and on the real thing. Not all of your passages are going to be TBR hard. A few will but some will be easy and some will be in the middle and that's exactly what TPR has.

Also as far as Bio goes: TPR>>EK 1001 Bio>TBR for passages. I think they all are used for different purposes. TPR tests content and passage comprehension and EK Bio 1001 tests mostly content and not much passage comprehension, TBR was sort of weird. They have passage comprehension but some questions are just sort of weird as hell in that it's not mentioned in the passage and they expect you to know minute details that aren't important. Detail wise, EK 1001 covers everything as far as facts you need to know. TBR is still decent practice though. If you have time do all 3 but if not stick with the top 2. That's just my personal suggestion though.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Guys, don't be afraid to get questions wrong. You have to treat it like a learning opportunity and not a criticism. In the beginning you might be getting hammered by the passages and doing bad. A few weeks later you're doing slightly better or the same. A couple months later you rarely ever get any wrong. I'm a true and honest believer that if you practice and get hammered enough and get questions wrong while reviewing thoroughly then eventually you'll master the material. I know it sounds scary but you can seriously only make the same mistake 5 or 6 times before you never make that mistake again. That's why you practice, so you make it in practice and not the real thing.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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I'm not saying this to be rude or harsh but just to be honest with you so that you can improve, but if you got a score lower than 27 then that means that you're majorly lacking in the fundamentals. Go back to the drawing board and start over because you can't get any worse. Pick a prep company you're comfortable with (TPR hyperlearning is an excellent start) and read the books in each section carefully and do as much practice problems as you can get your hands on. That means EK 1001 books, TPR science workbook, and TBR sciences at the least. Don't worry about getting a ton of questions wrong, because I missed a lot but focus on learning the material and perfecting your understanding of it. I never cared about getting a question wrong during content review, I just cared about understanding the concepts and making sure I knew exactly why I got the question wrong and what I could do to get it right. Only worry about scores during your FLs. Taking the above approach should get you at least a 10 or 11 on each section or even higher depending on how much effort you can put into your prep. This test is all about training. You train to get good at answering questions about the sciences. Some people do well without much studying because they got that training throughout their education, other people have to make up for not having that training (like me) by practicing a crap load of problems until you are at that level. You should be asking yourself the same questions for every question you're not 100% sure about or you don't get right which are: why did I get the question wrong?, what didn't I understand?, what is my current understanding of the subject?, what is the explanation trying to tell me?, starting from the basics how should I have thought about this to get the question right?, did I get the question wrong because I didn't understand it because it was poorly worded or I didn't concentrate? Did I get it wrong because I forgot something I should have known? and on and on.

Sorry this seems jumbled and unorganized but that's all I have time for right now.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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Personally, I think the best prep is through practice. I practiced my understanding of the material by doing a bunch of practice problems during content review with EK 1001 books, TPR Science workbook, and TBR books and a little kaplan stuff. Then I practiced combining the different concepts in a section and pulling out information quickly by practicing with FLs. When I took FLs, my knowledge base was solid, it was just that I had to get quicker at pulling it out and remembering equations and facts. Practice problems and FLs each serve a different purpose and I think each is essential for doing well on this test.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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I think first you have to look at how comfortable you are with the material. Personally, when I started FLs, I was extremely comfortable with the material because I had done all the EK 1001 books, TPR science workbook, online kaplan stuff, and TBR Phase I and II passages. Now, not everyone needs to do that but that's what I needed personally to feel comfortable. Once you feel comfortable you can move on to FLs. When you do FLs though, you need to really tear them apart. For me the motivation came from "well okay I made mistakes, so what do I need to fix and how do I do it" It irritated the heck out of me when I got a question wrong or even if I got one right but for the wrong reasons because I did the content so why didn't I get it right. The first thing is just to realize why you got the question right or wrong (was there something in the passage you missed, was there something you misread, did you just skim over some answers, did you not use POE, etc). Then the why behind it and that's when you need to dive into your prep books. Don't read the whole chapters, that's just not time efficient. Just read the parts that are relevant to your mistake. Now you have to be honest and ask yourself if you truly understand it. For me if it was something more than a simple calculation mistake then I would do a few problems just to help my conceptual understanding.

Also, I think THE BEST way to review any of the questions is to look at the questions you get wrong and try to do them again without looking at the explanation. Try to get them right on your second chance. So all you know is that you got the question wrong and you need to figure out what the answer is. If I got it wrong the second try to then that meant I really needed to go back and do some review on the material. Work on the question with your prep material and your notes and try to figure out the solution before you look at the explanation. Once you've done that and read the explanation, try to find another path to the solution (Was there a faster way, was there a different conceptual approach, etc). So I always tried to find two ways to do it. Usually there's one way that is fast and efficient (which is what you want to do during the test) and there is a longer drawn out way that uses the basics concepts to get to the solution (which you want to use on questions that are harder and you're not sure about). This way, you always have two ways of getting an answer so it'll be rare when you come across a problem that you can't solve one way or the other. So for example, in PS you can do a question by dimensional analysis or looking at units or degrees of magnitude of the answers or you can use some of the equations related to the concepts. I think TBR does a pretty good job or showing you this with their passages and explanations so definitely use those and spend time with them and not just gloss over the explanations. After I did each set of questions from practice I could tell you exactly what types of questions I got wrong and why. That's important because if you keep a track of those (written or mental) then you see patterns and know exactly which areas to target to improve.

So I hope I've helped and if you have anymore questions let me know,

-LIS

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To start off, I did do all those materials and them some with 40 FLs outside of those practice passages and questions. It's weird but I felt I had to do everything solely due to confidence because I felt like if I did all the material there was NOTHING else I could have done. But with your time (unless you're willing to postpone) I don't think you can finish everything...well you might since you don't have as many FLs to do.

What I did was I would read the chapter for whichever book I chose, then do the EK 1001 problems, then the TPR science workbook problems, and then the TBR passages.

As far as bio goes, I would say that if you feel very confident with bio then EK bio is fine but if not then just spend the time with TPRH bio because it isn't THAT long (trust me it looks long but its a fast read so even though it might be twice as long as EK, it reads twice as fast too). I think for bio both were necessary. You first need the necessary facts for bio to understand the concepts then you need to practice passages and not only solidify those facts but learn how to analyze and parse through passages.

As far as study habits ago, I just kept consistent and didn't let myself take more than a day off per week or week and a half. Work hard everyday on accomplishing set goals and don't let yourself waste the time. Get it done and kill it the first time. Immerse yourself in it. I started off with the attitude of I have to put in a lot of work to do well and changed to, man I've put in quite a lot of hours and it would be a waste to slack off now no matter how tired or how much is left, to i put in so much work it would all be ruined if i don't close this out strongly in the end. The hardest thing for me each day was getting started. Once I got started I was gone. After I finished my food I got up put up the dishes and didn't let myself touch my computer and make myself pick up my book instead and start reading. I did the same with breaks, those were the hardest to get restarted from.

If you have any more questions let me know,

-LIS

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[For Organic Chemistry] No, don't memorize. Just look at the general trends of each reactions. Memorizing is worthless in my opinion. After you practice the trends are easy to see as to where the electrons go. That's all that organic is, electrons moving around. Learn the concepts and trends and in my opinion this can only be successfully done by lots of practice.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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A typical day was I would wake up around 8 or 9, then eat breakfast while either reading the forums or watching the news. That took me about an hour sometimes less, never more though. I did study everyday but I took breaks as needed. So I didn't do the once a week thing more like half a day a week or a full day off every two weeks because that's what worked for me. I don't tire easily and can go for long stretches without burning out. Then I would do three 5 hour sessions with breaks every hour or so. It really got be used to the stamina needed to take this test. My breaks were usually 5-10 mins each hour and then after the 5 hours I would eat and do errands for an hour or so, until I felt like working again. FL days varied depending on how I did and how much I got done the previous day but usually 1-3 days. I have about 2 days between FLs in the end to give myself sometime to rest up before the test.

-LIS

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LostInStudy said:

Do the EK 1001 series first. Go through all four books. It took me about 6 days to do them. They test on the very basic aspects of the sciences and they will get your fundamentals down. No need to waste time re-reviewing. Do like 20-30 questions and then go back and review them. If you get something wrong, don't turn to the explanations (they suck anyway) and look up and review that material from your TBR books. So go through all 4 subjects in EK 1001.

Going through and eliminating all of your weaknesses will probably take anywhere from 4 days (if you work on them full time) to 10 maybe.

Then you are ready for the more advanced passages. If you get the TPR Science Workbook, then go through that whole thing which will probably take you a week or week and a half doing it full time. Again, if you get something wrong then go back and try to figure it out on your own without looking up the answer explanation and if you can't figure it out then use your TBR or TPR content material.

Then lastly, go through and do all the TBR Phase I passages.

Then you can start FLs and finish the rest of the Phases of TBR as you go along.

Basically that's what I did but I also had the Kaplan online course material. But what you have, if you include TPR, is DEFINITELY more than enough. Anyway, doing it that way worked out for me as far as practice AAMC FL scores go.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

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