29+ MCAT without prep course?

[Corpsman Up]

Just wondering how many people on here have scored a 29+ without taking any kind of prep course. If you did, please let me know what kind of self study you did.

Thanks!

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[lolbacon]

Just wondering how many people on here have scored a 29+ without taking any kind of prep course. If you did, please let me know what kind of self study you did.

Thanks!

I got a 31 (11B, 11P, 9V) w/o taking a prep course. I got the 1001 MCAT Questions for bio, gen chem, and physics and honestly did almost every question. The way these books are set up, you have something like 10-15 questions on each topic. I think this was more beneficial for me because it allowed me to assess what particular topics I was weak in. If you just take practice tests, you probably only do one problem in a given topic, and I don't think you really get a solid understanding of what your weaknesses are. To put it another way, if you get one problem about friction on an inclined plane right on a practice exam, you may or may not have a solid understanding of it. If you do 15 different problems in the book and you get 10 out of the 15 wrong, you can see you need to spend a little more time reviewing that topic. Keep track of what kind of problems you're getting wrong, and why you're getting them wrong, and what you didn't know about the other answers to be able to eliminate them as choices. This is just what worked for me, so ymmv. The best advice I can give on verbal is just to be comfortable enough with the pace it goes at. My practice verbal scores were all over the place, 7 on one, 13 on another and everywhere in between.

edit - I didn't get the 1001 ochem book because my ochem knowledge is just beyond solid. Also, I think there are some errors in the books, so keep that in mind. Even with that flaw, it's great practice.

 

[Lukat]

I got a 29 (10P, 9V, 10B) studying on Exam Krackers. I have to say that their books are very good in summarizing the stuffs you need to know for the MCAT. Also if you can, try to get your hands on the AAMC practice exams. Those are expensive but really worth it! Good luck

 

[Siggy]

First attempt with just doing AAMC practice exams and reading part of one of the MCAT books (I don't remember):
29: 9P, 10V, 10B (written exam)

Second attempt after SMP at Tufts, including the TPR program they offered:

34: 12P, 10V, 12B (computer based exam)

I'm not sure how much the difference between a 10-11 hour and 4-5 hour exam played into this, so YMMV.

 

[ShyRem]

29 MCAT 5 years ago now. I took the pre-reqs and skimmed EK books at home.

 

[DrDre2001]

First attempt with just doing AAMC practice exams and reading part of one of the MCAT books (I don't remember):
29: 9P, 10V, 10B (written exam)

Second attempt after SMP at Tufts, including the TPR program they offered:

34: 12P, 10V, 12B (computer based exam)

I'm not sure how much the difference between a 10-11 hour and 4-5 hour exam played into this, so YMMV.

The MCAT seriously used to be 10-11 hours? LOL. When was this?

And to the thread question, I was in a class, but stopped going to the actual classes. The course prep material was good though.

I only found the actual course valuable if I had specific questions to ask the teacher. It was also good to see how other students read passages and what strategies they used and go through the prep with them. But it is certainly fine if you don't take a class.

 

[Siggy]

The MCAT seriously used to be 10-11 hours? LOL. When was this?

April 2005, second to last written exam. It used to be where every single exam was passed out and collected one at a time. Throw on fingerprinting and checking in everyone in the exam room both at the start of the day and after lunch (which was an hour long break in the middle of the day), and you have a lot of time spent doing administrative/security related work instead of test taking. IIRC, one center in NY City had the power go out and it took them around 12 hours to complete the exam.

 

[ShyRem]

Oh, yeah. MCAT used to be a marathon. I remember getting up at 6am, drive for an hour to the site (and had to get there at least 30 minutes early), with all the security crap we had 30 minutes for lunch, exams all afternoon too; and then driving home for over an hour after the entire day of exams. I knew more than one poor sot that mis-bubbled. Talk about panic.

Y'all doin this 4 hour computerized MCAT exam thing? Puh-leeeeeease.

 

[nlax30]

April 2005, second to last written exam. It used to be where every single exam was passed out and collected one at a time. Throw on fingerprinting and checking in everyone in the exam room both at the start of the day and after lunch (which was an hour long break in the middle of the day), and you have a lot of time spent doing administrative/security related work instead of test taking. IIRC, one center in NY City had the power go out and it took them around 12 hours to complete the exam.

That's around the time I took it, towards the end of the paper "era". Worst part was all the admin type stuff involved with the paper tests that made everything drag on and on.....

Anyway, back to original point. Got a 33, only dedicated materials I used were some Kaplan materials a friend had, along with, I think, a Princeton review book I picked up. Did several practice tests that our undergrad pre-med group offered.

 

[DOwnage]

This is very promising to see since I don't think I'll be able to get into a prep course simply due to time constraints. I've heard a lot of dissatisfied people who have taken the prep course say the only thing that it helped them with was providing additional study material (ie. practice problems).

 

[taylormade2006]

It is possible and it all depends on how comfortable you feel with the material and the test. I scored above 30 by taking all of the AAMC practice tests. My real score was the same as I expected from my AAMC practice tests.

If you are comfortable with your performance on the practice tests, then maybe you don't need a prep course, but ultimately that is your decision to make.

 

[Pet of the Week]

Ah yes. The paper mcat. I remember it well. Pretty sure my writing score went from a P in 2005 to an S in 2010 only because the grader didn't have to decipher my handwriting this time.

To the OP:
33S using kaplan mcat comp. review 2005 edition and ek verbal 101. I studied for about 3 weeks, but wish I had had more time to work on physical sciences.

 

[Thriller]

31 back in spring of 2008. I used examkrackers studying a little bit every day for the 3-4 months prior to the mcat. I think that one of the MOST IMPORTANT things I did in preparation was that I took quite a few practice tests (from the aamc website) so that I was accustomed to the format and types of questions asked and the time pressure associated with the test. Good luck!

 

[helloworld12]

Studied mcat for 2-3 months with examkrackers. Got 28 the first time, 30 the second. Found 1001 questions for physics to be immensely useful, useless for physical chem and bio (with the exception of hormone-based problems)

 

[Melkor]

30 O without a test prep course. Studied for about 2 months for an hour or two every day after work until 2 weeks before the test. Then just took a full length test every other day and tried to understand what I missed on the off days.

 

[4Doc4]

April 2005, second to last written exam. It used to be where every single exam was passed out and collected one at a time. Throw on fingerprinting and checking in everyone in the exam room both at the start of the day and after lunch (which was an hour long break in the middle of the day), and you have a lot of time spent doing administrative/security related work instead of test taking. IIRC, one center in NY City had the power go out and it took them around 12 hours to complete the exam.

You forgot to mention when they picked up every exam they "thumbed" through each test booklet to make sure all the pages were still there. It was the worst test taking experience ever.

 

[Siggy]

You forgot to mention when they picked up every exam they "thumbed" through each test booklet to make sure all the pages were still there. It was the worst test taking experience ever.

Yep... I forgot about that.

As for everyone else. All you young'ins with your little computer based tests. Stay off my lawn.

 

[engineeredout]

Got a 30P (8PS 12VR 10BS) studying from end of May to end of August 2008. Used exam krackers and took all the NBMEs. No prep courses. Oh and never took bio before the MCAT.