519 - My study schedule AMA

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

Kpw101

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2013
Messages
375
Reaction score
475
Hi All,
I've sent what I did to study to a couple people already including some of my friends. Rather than sending it as a private message one by one, I figured I'd just make it so anyone can look at it. Feel free to AMA, and best of luck to everyone!

My actual was 519 (132,127,130,130) - I wouldn't be able to give much advice on CARS other than practice and practice. I feel like I'm still pretty terrible at CARS.

I followed this schedule: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-mcat-2015-100-days-to-mcat-success.1101251/

Some points though:

  • I took out Khan academy question days and used the extra buffer days to do all the AAMC material. The schedule doesn't put time aside for the section banks and question packs as well as a couple other things which I find extremely important.
  • As you can tell from my score, my CARS isn't the strongest of subjects. I'm more of a science guy and have never been an avid reader. I practiced every single day for CARS (something that the schedule doesn't explicitly say to do). I used EK 101 and TPRH for verbal.
  • I also started much earlier than I needed to. I accounted for burnout and sometimes I needed a 2-3 day break a week rather than 1. Starting early gives you the wiggle room to take the couple days to yourself when you are overwhelmed.
  • I found the NS S&P to be extremely difficult. Some people hate the books and suggest you just do without them. I feel that they worked to prep me for very dense passages but I'm sure it will be fine if you substitute the practice with something else.
  • A thing I would do differently is put aside time to watch all the KA videos on psych/socio. They cover almost all the bases and if you are a good analytical reader, practice well, and know the KA psych/socio videos down pat you should be good for a 130+ in psych. (There's 300 pages of KA psych notes lying somewhere around reddit. This is your friend.)
  • I've heard nothing but good things about the EK exams. The TPR exams are free however with the books but were difficult and unrepresentative. The NS exams were decent.
  • DON'T FORGET THAT AAMC IS RELEASING ANOTHER PRACTICE EXAM. I was at my testing center and for some reason, a couple people didn't even know about the scored/unscored exams, q-packs, and section banks. Use everything to your advantage.
Absolute euphoria once you got over this hurdle that is the MCAT. I wish you best of luck.

Your friend,
Kpw101

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 6 users
Hi All,
I've sent what I did to study to a couple people already including some of my friends. Rather than sending it as a private message one by one, I figured I'd just make it so anyone can look at it. Feel free to AMA, and best of luck to everyone!

My actual was 519 (132,127,130,130) - I wouldn't be able to give much advice on CARS other than practice and practice. I feel like I'm still pretty terrible at CARS.

I followed this schedule: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-mcat-2015-100-days-to-mcat-success.1101251/

Some points though:

  • I took out Khan academy question days and used the extra buffer days to do all the AAMC material. The schedule doesn't put time aside for the section banks and question packs as well as a couple other things which I find extremely important.
  • As you can tell from my score, my CARS isn't the strongest of subjects. I'm more of a science guy and haven't never been an avid reader. I practiced every single day for CARS (something that the schedule doesn't explicitly say to do). I used EK 101 and TPRH for verbal.
  • I also started much earlier than I needed to. I accounted for burnout and sometimes I needed a 2-3 day break a week rather than 1. Starting early gives you the wiggle room to take the couple days to yourself when you are overwhelmed.
  • I found the NS S&P to be extremely difficult. Some people hate the books and suggest you just do without them. I feel that they worked to prep me for very dense passages but I'm sure it will be fine if you substitute the practice with something else.
  • A thing I would do differently is put aside time to watch all the KA videos on psych/socio. They cover almost all the bases and if you are a good analytical reader, practice well, and know the KA psych/socio videos down pat you should be good for a 130+ in psych. (There's 300 pages of KA psych notes lying somewhere around reddit. This is your friend.)
  • I've heard nothing but good things about the EK exams. The TPR exams are free however with the books but were difficult and unrepresentative. The NS exams were decent.
  • DON'T FORGET THAT AAMC IS RELEASING ANOTHER PRACTICE EXAM. I was at my testing center and for some reason, a couple people didn't even know about the scored/unscored exams, q-packs, and section banks. Use everything to your advantage.
Absolute euphoria once you got over this hurdle that is the MCAT. I wish you best of luck.

Your friend,
Kpw101

Congrats!

How much earlier did you start?
 
Congrats!
Thanks man! I started a few days after the semester ended so I had almost 3 weeks of buffer time that I pulled from here and there whenever I needed an extra day to myself! It helped enormously. I had the luxury of taking the last few days off and just reviewed quick sheets I made for no more than 30 mins a day and did nothing else but chill.
 
Hi All,
I've sent what I did to study to a couple people already including some of my friends. Rather than sending it as a private message one by one, I figured I'd just make it so anyone can look at it. Feel free to AMA, and best of luck to everyone!

My actual was 519 (132,127,130,130) - I wouldn't be able to give much advice on CARS other than practice and practice. I feel like I'm still pretty terrible at CARS.

I followed this schedule: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-mcat-2015-100-days-to-mcat-success.1101251/

Some points though:

  • I took out Khan academy question days and used the extra buffer days to do all the AAMC material. The schedule doesn't put time aside for the section banks and question packs as well as a couple other things which I find extremely important.
  • As you can tell from my score, my CARS isn't the strongest of subjects. I'm more of a science guy and haven't never been an avid reader. I practiced every single day for CARS (something that the schedule doesn't explicitly say to do). I used EK 101 and TPRH for verbal.
  • I also started much earlier than I needed to. I accounted for burnout and sometimes I needed a 2-3 day break a week rather than 1. Starting early gives you the wiggle room to take the couple days to yourself when you are overwhelmed.
  • I found the NS S&P to be extremely difficult. Some people hate the books and suggest you just do without them. I feel that they worked to prep me for very dense passages but I'm sure it will be fine if you substitute the practice with something else.
  • A thing I would do differently is put aside time to watch all the KA videos on psych/socio. They cover almost all the bases and if you are a good analytical reader, practice well, and know the KA psych/socio videos down pat you should be good for a 130+ in psych. (There's 300 pages of KA psych notes lying somewhere around reddit. This is your friend.)
  • I've heard nothing but good things about the EK exams. The TPR exams are free however with the books but were difficult and unrepresentative. The NS exams were decent.
  • DON'T FORGET THAT AAMC IS RELEASING ANOTHER PRACTICE EXAM. I was at my testing center and for some reason, a couple people didn't even know about the scored/unscored exams, q-packs, and section banks. Use everything to your advantage.
Absolute euphoria once you got over this hurdle that is the MCAT. I wish you best of luck.

Your friend,
Kpw101
How did you practice CARS everyday? Did you just do a few passages on top of other content prep? Thanks for posting this!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
How did you practice CARS everyday? Did you just do a few passages on top of other content prep? Thanks for posting this!

I aimed to at least do a few passages a day! Once as soon as I woke up, once after lunch, and once before I go to sleep. This was on top of other content prep! If i had time (I had ample CARS resources) I would do a half length or a full length on a given day. Really make the most out of each passage. Pick apart what you got wrong and why, try to keep a journal of your mistakes. I would write things like:

"You used outside knowledge for this question, stop that."
"You didn't read closely enough."
"You misinterpreted the sentence ".....",
"You didn't read the question stem thoroughly."

This is what worked for me. Obviously I don't have the most stellar CARS score compared to the rest of my sections, so someone who is better at CARS can feel free to chime in!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I aimed to at least do a few passages a day! Once as soon as I woke up, once after lunch, and once before I go to sleep. This was on top of other content prep! If i had time (I had ample CARS resources) I would do a half length or a full length on a given day. Really make the most out of each passage. Pick apart what you got wrong and why, try to keep a journal of your mistakes. I would write things like:

"You used outside knowledge for this question, stop that."
"You didn't read closely enough."
"You misinterpreted the sentence ".....",
"You didn't read the question stem thoroughly."

This is what worked for me. Obviously I don't have the most stellar CARS score compared to the rest of my sections, so someone who is better at CARS can feel free to chime in!

Could you list all the CARS resources you used?
 
Could you list all the CARS resources you used?

TPRH
EK 101 (Take out the science passages)
NS 108
NS Cars Strategy and Practice
(if you can find something else other than the NS books, do so. They weren't as good as ek 101 and tprh)
Don't forget AAMC Material!
 
Last edited:
Congrats on the great score.

Do you think 5-6 FLs is enough? I was planning to use the 3 AAMC and maybe 2-3 NS FLs.

I also have 3 Kaplan FLs, but heard mixed reviews for them (like the TPR ones).

Also, were the NS 108 verbal passages not representative of the real exam? I have the Ek101, Berkely verbal, and AAMC ques and my plan is to do about 3 passages a day. Thanks!
 
Congrats on the great score.

Do you think 5-6 FLs is enough? I was planning to use the 3 AAMC and maybe 2-3 NS FLs.

I also have 3 Kaplan FLs, but heard mixed reviews for them (like the TPR ones).

Also, were the NS 108 verbal passages not representative of the real exam? I have the Ek101, Berkely verbal, and AAMC ques and my plan is to do about 3 passages a day. Thanks!

Thank you!

5-6 FLs in my opinion is borderline low. I would try to get as close to 10 as you can, maybe a little over. Once you start getting close to 15, I think you might be getting a little overboard at that point. I personally took I think 8 or 9 and felt fine. I would've liked to take a few more but 8/9 seemed sufficient. Interesting side note: There's a guy on reddit who does MCAT score predictions if you give him your FL scores. He said his data shows that people's scores rise with the more FLs they take, and scores really shoot up past around the 10 mark. This is a by person basis, depending on who you are I think 5-6 FLs would be completely fine if you are already doing well!

Here's the link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mcat/comments/4il6yt/mcat_prediction_equations/?st=iubke3bi&sh=77a777aa *Don't rely on this too much. It can be a useful tool to gauge roughly where you are, but like any prediction they can be wrong.*

I never took a Kaplan exam but I hear they're around the same difficulty as TPR. Good for content review, but look at other companies if you are trying to get a more representative feel; EK comes into mind.

I didn't think NS 108 was too bad representative wise but they definitely were not the best. Definitely finish TPRH, EK101, and the AAMC material. Once you start running out of material you can start to use NS 108. I think you'll get much better yield out of other books, and very good yield from AAMC.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
What do you think of people splitting up full lengths and doing 1 section a day?

For example, they do the B/B section one day, the C/P another day, and the P/S another day? Then they thoroughly review the section the same or next day.
 
What do you think of people splitting up full lengths and doing 1 section a day?

For example, they do the B/B section one day, the C/P another day, and the P/S another day? Then they thoroughly review the section the same or next day.

I think you're not getting all you can out of your FL. The purpose of a FL is to not only test content knowledge, and improve test taking skills but also test your endurance during the exam. Fatigue plays a huge factor into how you can score and you need to take your FL as close to test conditions as possible to get an accurate score and to have a representative feel of what the exam will be like.

If you want to do individual timed sections, find material that will allow you to take individual sections without wasting an entire FL such as the N&S Strategy and Practice books!
 
I think you're not getting all you can out of your FL. The purpose of a FL is to not only test content knowledge, and improve test taking skills but also test your endurance during the exam. Fatigue plays a huge factor into how you can score and you need to take your FL as close to test conditions as possible to get an accurate score and to have a representative feel of what the exam will be like.

If you want to do individual timed sections, find material that will allow you to take individual sections without wasting an entire FL such as the N&S Strategy and Practice books!

Well I was planning on doing 1 full length a week, spending two days reviewing it, and then splitting up another full length over the next 3 days (without the cars section). Allows you to fit two full lengths in a week without getting too burnt out

Day 1 - full length
2 - review
3 - review
4 - c/p
5 - b/b
6 - p/s
 
Well I was planning on doing 1 full length a week, spending two days reviewing it, and then splitting up another full length over the next 3 days (without the cars section). Allows you to fit two full lengths in a week without getting too burnt out

Day 1 - full length
2 - review
3 - review
4 - c/p
5 - b/b
6 - p/s

I think you would get much better yield out of this

1 - full length
2-review
3-review
4- break
5- full length
6- review
7- review

I have nothing against your plan. I think it's solid. But I had a limited number for FLs because of my budget so I made sure each one was as close to test conditions as possible.
 
Thanks for the advice. So yeah I've got 3 TPR, 3 Kaplan, 4 ek, 4 ns, and will have the three aamc later on. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to get through all of them or if I should just spend more time focusing on and reviewing the ns, ek, and aamc exams as I have heard the tpr and Kaplan are poor.


I think you would get much better yield out of this

1 - full length
2-review
3-review
4- break
5- full length
6- review
7- review

I have nothing against your plan. I think it's solid. But I had a limited number for FLs because of my budget so I made sure each one was as close to test conditions as possible.
cice
 
Thanks for the advice. So yeah I've got 3 TPR, 3 Kaplan, 4 ek, 4 ns, and will have the three aamc later on. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to get through all of them or if I should just spend more time focusing on and reviewing the ns, ek, and aamc exams as I have heard the tpr and Kaplan are poor.



cice

You have 17 exams in total so don't feel bad if you can't finish all of them. Do as many as you can while having good yield out of your reviews at the same time. With the amount of exams you have, you can spare taking them as individual sections for practice. If I were you, I would save at least EK, AAMC, and a couple of the NS for test-like conditions. Don't forget you still have SBs, questions packs, and the OG for practice.
 
Hi All,
I've sent what I did to study to a couple people already including some of my friends. Rather than sending it as a private message one by one, I figured I'd just make it so anyone can look at it. Feel free to AMA, and best of luck to everyone!

My actual was 519 (132,127,130,130) - I wouldn't be able to give much advice on CARS other than practice and practice. I feel like I'm still pretty terrible at CARS.

I followed this schedule: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-mcat-2015-100-days-to-mcat-success.1101251/

Some points though:

  • I took out Khan academy question days and used the extra buffer days to do all the AAMC material. The schedule doesn't put time aside for the section banks and question packs as well as a couple other things which I find extremely important.
  • As you can tell from my score, my CARS isn't the strongest of subjects. I'm more of a science guy and have never been an avid reader. I practiced every single day for CARS (something that the schedule doesn't explicitly say to do). I used EK 101 and TPRH for verbal.
  • I also started much earlier than I needed to. I accounted for burnout and sometimes I needed a 2-3 day break a week rather than 1. Starting early gives you the wiggle room to take the couple days to yourself when you are overwhelmed.
  • I found the NS S&P to be extremely difficult. Some people hate the books and suggest you just do without them. I feel that they worked to prep me for very dense passages but I'm sure it will be fine if you substitute the practice with something else.
  • A thing I would do differently is put aside time to watch all the KA videos on psych/socio. They cover almost all the bases and if you are a good analytical reader, practice well, and know the KA psych/socio videos down pat you should be good for a 130+ in psych. (There's 300 pages of KA psych notes lying somewhere around reddit. This is your friend.)
  • I've heard nothing but good things about the EK exams. The TPR exams are free however with the books but were difficult and unrepresentative. The NS exams were decent.
  • DON'T FORGET THAT AAMC IS RELEASING ANOTHER PRACTICE EXAM. I was at my testing center and for some reason, a couple people didn't even know about the scored/unscored exams, q-packs, and section banks. Use everything to your advantage.
Absolute euphoria once you got over this hurdle that is the MCAT. I wish you best of luck.

Your friend,
Kpw101
So you studied for ~ 1oo days, or 14 weeks? That is about what I have to prepare. How do the NS and EK exams compare to the real exam and the AAMC practice tests? Is it true the section bank reflected your exam more than any of the AAMC practice tests? Are there any materials you now wish you had not used?
 
So you studied for ~ 1oo days, or 14 weeks? That is about what I have to prepare. How do the NS and EK exams compare to the real exam and the AAMC practice tests? Is it true the section bank reflected your exam more than any of the AAMC practice tests? Are there any materials you now wish you had not used?

Sorry about the extremely late reply. I promised myself I would fight my senioritis and that involved spending less time on SDN. Any-who now that the semester is almost over:

The NS exams came close but I found them a little easier. I haven't taken any EK exams. It isn't true that the SB reflected the AAMC more than anything else; they represented the top 20% most difficult passages you would get in my opinion. Now that I'm done, I probably would have opted for EK books rather than TPR books and practice exams. In retrospect it doesn't matter what you use as long as you study hard and supplement your material. But you should take the time to read through a chapter of a book to see if their teaching style resonates with your learning style. But my last point isn't as big of a deal as getting a solid study plan together that involves giving yourself a break, maximum efficiency, and having the diligence to stick with it.
 
Congrats on the killer score! Did you use the new EK 101 CARS book or the old version?

Thank you!

I used the old CARS book. I would definitely give the new one a shot as it has been updated to better represent the CARS section now. The old EK book still has the science passages that they don't use anymore I believe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top