60 day mark

[Timorito]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hey guys, I am 60 days ( from tomorrow) from taking my mcat. I want to push it back to the 23 but there are no seats. I will continue to look for the seat but for the time being i am taking it in 60 days.Now this is my current situation. I have gone through pretty much all the material in terms of notes with chads videos. I have EK books and Ek mini mcats. I havent practiced becuase i had a recent loss in my family.

I NEED to start practicing. I need you to please give me suggestions as to how I should tackle high yield practicing. I am sure i will get beat in the head in the beginning. I want to be very efficient. I could review my notes for a bit that day and then practice, practice, practice.
I will get any materials on the spot if someone who knows what they are talking about suggests it ( AAMC SELF ASSESEMENT) or whatever. Thanks in advance and I am willing to put the work in and move on.

 

[House D.O.]

Definitely get self assessments and work through all of them (takes super long time) and then u can see where your weak and do additional practice on those topics from there

 

[Timorito]

Thank u for ur answer. now lets say im not used to passges nor discretes that much do they offer both? did u do the self assessments.

 

[stitchattack]

Self Assessments are all passage based questions. Here's a tip based on my experience: once you have a good grasp of the content, get used to doing some passage based practice from TPR or TBR or whatever then start on the SAs asap. I finished all of my SAs a month before my MCAT and did not have much time to review/practice on the topics I'm weak on. From the time you finish doing a thorough post-game analysis of your SA, you should give yourself a month and halfish to do AAMC tests and work on practicing/reviewing your weak areas. I screwed up on my timing and really only gave myself 2-3 weeks to do the AAMC tests and review those which didn't really leave me a lot of time to go over my weak topics.

 

[Timorito]

thats my problem i have 60 days and idk if i have time to review everything and get a good understanding. shouldnt i tackle that understanding through passage? on top of that do aamc exams.. does the self assesmment separate the topics in physics , biology etc in seprate sets of questions? Like.,these passages are on enzymes.. etc etc

 

[Timorito]

on top of that i have to do FL correct

 

[stitchattack]

If you have a good background in your sciences, you should be able to get through the content fairly fast. The MCAT is not about knowing everything, it's about knowing the fundamentals and applying it to the passages to answer the questions. You can do content review and passages together so you get at least some practice in. The self assessment comes in separate sections: verbal, bio, ochem, chem, physics. I separated the VR so I did 7 passages in 1 hour though the harder passages are towards the end so you might go over the 1 hr time for those. For the other subjects, it is possible to get through them within the same day. Yes, definitely do the FLs for sure. I would say at least get in 9, 10, 11 for sure though the more you can do, the better. Just that I found 11 to be somewhat representative of the real deal though expect the real thing to be longer and some weird questions thrown at you that'll make you want to bang your head on the table. With 60 days left, have a set plan and follow through with it and also be wary of getting burned out.

 

[Timorito]

Okey, There are some chapters like in EK which i am strong in and can do 2-3 topic passages a day. and verbal everyday?

 

[stitchattack]

Ek doesn't really have a lot of practice. You should look into tpr sw which has a lot of passages and discrete in all the subjects so you can do those as you move along in your content study. Yea verbal every day.

 

[Timorito]

ok i have a pdf version of the woorkbook i think its the old version though, is that okay?

 

[stitchattack]

Should be. I compared the PDF of the old book to my 2010 version and it seems the passages from the PDF are the "advanced" ones in be 2010...not all but a couple.

 

[Timorito]

i have Ek mini mcats if thats any good

 

[stitchattack]

Would do that if you run out of material. I didn't find it too helpful. I think you have enough to practice with in the next 2 months though.

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

The TPR science workbook will work perfectly for you. You'll be hard pressed to exhaust that monstrous book even with your "go, go, go" attitude (which is a nice attitude to have!!). If you can, as it was recommended earlier, I think if you can't do AAMC practice (which of course you couldn't do all the time for 60 days) then strive for TBR - those passages are pure dynamite. But TPR science workbook will certainly suffice. You can even make your own mini tests using it (i.e. take 7 passages from varying science topics, combine them, and time yourself). Good luck!!

 

[GCSDOC]

In a similar boat as you. My plan is to focus on only aamc material at this point. I am going passage by passage using the SAs and taking half the exams untimed then the more recent ones timed. Each of this requires postgaming on why I got each question correct or incorrect. I would take aamc 3 (its free), so you have a general feel for the design of the test and then begin focusing on aamc material, best of luck!

 

[txlonghorn2314]

60 days is plenty of time. I know many many people who have either destroyed the exam studying for less time, or had markedly improved a previous crappy practice/real MCAT score in less time. I would just dedicate the first 30 days to intense content review with daily passages (like a mini sn2'ed) but start with your weakest areas, saving your strengths for the end. In the last 30 days do practice exams/post-game. If you have a free bio, physics, or chemistry help clinic I would also utilize that to clear up concepts you struggle with.