Advice for non-trad reteaching themselves through Kaplan

[Sherlock555]

I have all the prerequisites under my belt, but the last one I took was about 5 years ago, and I don’t remember much of the material.

I purchased the Kaplan 7-book + online module exam prep kit and am definitely intimidated.
Any advice on how to approach this? Do I need to really learn each book in detail? Memorize the whole thing?

I hope to take the MCAT in about six months and am able to devote 2-3 hours per day to study.

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[XsoloXela]

Just wanted to let you know you're not alone in this approach and its good to know I'm not either. This is how I'm trying to prepare. This is essentially my tactic and is a good question.

 

[Sherlock555]

Anyone have any advice?

 

[justaregularperson]

Ayye this me right here..

Here is what I did:
Month 1- Spent one month reading all of the books (minus cars) and watching the related Khan academy videos. The kaplan content is decent but khan academy was major key. Also made anki cards of everything that I didn't know right away and reviewed some daily.

Month 2- did a predetermined # of practice problems from the kaplan qbank everyday. That usually took 3-4 hours. Afterwards, reviewed the content that I struggled with on khan academy. After exhausting the kaplan qbank I moved into the AAMC question packs and most of those in a week span, reviewing my missteps on khan academy lol.

6 weeks out- 1 kaplan FL, review over two days and do practice problems, khan academy passages
5 weeks out- same, fl 2 kaplan
4 weeks out- AAMC fl 1, review over two days, start section bank, kaplan 3/4
3 weeks out- AAMC FL 2, review over two days, kaplan 5/6
2 weeks out- AAMC FL3, review test and literally everything I wasn't comfortable with
1 week out- AAMC FL4, same

Total time ~ 15 weeks, 400 hours of doing (I kept a log).

Don't set out to memorize things, learn the key concepts and as you progress you'll know what you need to memorize.


You got it homie, if I can do it you can too bc your boy is a dumb dumb.

 

[acstylin]

Download a premade Anki deck. Making cards is a waste of time. Go through the cards, rewrite poorly written ones. Watch Khan Academy on YouTube for the topics that you don’t know. Take a lot of practice tests on the way and spend a lot of time reviewing the content. You’ll start to find that they test the same topics over and over again using a different reading. Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions. I’ll also send you a PM

 

[Prestige_Vision]

Glad I came across this thread as I am in the same boat. Great information here. Thank you

 

[deleted853360]

Highly recommend checking out AK Lectures if you need more detail than Khan Academy!

 

[Mr.Blackdoc.5]

Took the exam four years out of undergrad and wrote how I prepped for 132 on c/p and b/b below
Hope this is helpful
good luck!

 

[anniekat2025]

I have all the prerequisites under my belt, but the last one I took was about 5 years ago, and I don’t remember much of the material.

I purchased the Kaplan 7-book + online module exam prep kit and am definitely intimidated.
Any advice on how to approach this? Do I need to really learn each book in detail? Memorize the whole thing?

I hope to take the MCAT in about six months and am able to devote 2-3 hours per day to study.

You don't need to memorize the whole thing. The MCAT is a problem solving test. It tests your ability to synthesize information, think critically, and draw conclusions. Obviously, doing this requires an understanding of many scientific principles and concepts, but if you study for the MCAT as if it were based on rote memorization of these principles and concepts you are will miss the mark. IMO the Kaplan books go into far less detail than the other books I used (Exam Krackers), so yes, I would say it's good to review each book in its entirety. EK maybe not. I can't speak to any other materials.

My recommendation based on what I did: Work through each of the Kaplan books, a chapter or so at a time. At the end of each chapter, do UWorld questions on the associated topic. (Don't use the Kaplan mini tests at the end of each chapter. They suck.) Thoroughly review all of the questions you got wrong and make Anki decks for things you need to memorize/re-emphasize. If you find yourself struggling on a certain topic (say, circuits) review some Khan Academy or AK Lectures videos.

Once you have worked through all of the content review (maybe six weeks if you're doing 2-3 hours a night and more on weekends) start doing UWorld questions on a regular basis. At this point you should also start doing regular practice tests. I did one a week for 10 weeks leading up to my test. I used the Exam Krackers practice tests and the AAMC FL's. Once you run out of UWorld questions and have taken a few practice tests you can start doing the AAMC section bank. Two important notes with taking full lengths: Do them in "real world" conditions (timed, no resources, quiet environment) and review them thoroughly. Go through question by question the day(s) after and figure out exactly why you got every question wrong. Determine what the right answer is and WHY. I did this in an excel spreadsheet,. If you want, I can send it to you as an example. Again, make Anki cards for things you are consistently getting wrong/need to commit to memory and use online videos or your Kaplan books to brush up on topics that feel rusty.

Finally, do your Anki every day!