Advice to April MCAT-ers

[Laxmi]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi All,

For all you August MCAT-ers, any advice for those planning on taking it in April? How do you suggest we prepare for verbal--start reading journals early on before working with passages? And for MCAT-ing during the school year, is it advisable to underload?

Thanks

 

[wgu]

do as many problems as possible in test-like conditions to get used to the punishment. Read for fun isn't what's going to happen on test day

Get EK verbal books

 

[Chronotropic]

Taking hard bio classes will help reinforce the basics so I would go ahead and continue with those. Yoiu may want to lay off things like research so you can donate more time for the MCAT.

Theres no need to read alot of journals. You would be better off rereading your test prep material. Really anything you read has very little chance of being on the MCAT and since Bio journals vary widely it would not be very productive to read alot of them.

Oh and be ready for the night before. Alot of people have trouble sleeping. Some (including me last year) don't sleep at all which obvisouly not good for the MCAT. So if you feel yourself get increasingly nervous about the test you may want to consider a sleep aid.

Hope that helps.

 

[ajnak182]

As lame as it sounds, I meditated when I was laying in bed and ended up sleeping like a baby. Really easy to do, worked like a charm. Just my 2 cents...

AJ

 

[Chronotropic]

I used Ambien, made me hallucinate for a while but after that it was straight to dream land.

 

[wgu]

Originally posted by danwsu

Oh and be ready for the night before. Alot of people have trouble sleeping. Some (including me last year) don't sleep at all which obvisouly not good for the MCAT. So if you feel yourself get increasingly nervous about the test you may want to consider a sleep aid.

Hope that helps.

That is very important advice. I woke up 3 times during the night with a fast pulse. That probably hurt me when I got to verbal

 

[silenthunder]

Hey,

I agree with the above poster's comments on sleep.

Get lots. Try to adjust your sleep cycle the week or two before the test so that you're ready to be alert and kicking ass by the time you need to be on test day(most people I spoke to wake up around 6:30 - 7am on test day).

get examkrackers material; it kicks ass. Take a physiology class before the mcat. Make sure you've taken all your first year classes before the mcat.

Focus on your weakest areas the most. Especially orgo. While the orgo stuff isn't as detailed as you would experience in undergrad, if you suck at orgo you will be screwed.

Do all the AAMC material you can get your hands on. Nothing beats the real thing (isn't that a coke commercial🙂 ) If you can't afford it new/online then buy it used or on ebay.

If there's something that you don't understand in your practice tests then check your undergrad textbooks/notes and/or find other resources to help you out. DO NOT gloss over the material.
You will kick your own ass all over the place if you see it come up in even one passage on the mcat.

For verbal: find boring hard passages of literature to read. For most people this includes the Wall Street Journal. However, I would suggest finding a friend who has taken first/second year core philosophy. ALL of the hard passages I have encountered were somehow related to philosophy. In addition: philosophy is very dense, and boring to most people. ( not trying to offend philosophy buffs. I personally like the stuff).

ALSO for Verbal: PRACTICE ALOT!!! if you want a good score on this, and you are typically scoring low, you need to work at it over time.

ONE LAST THING ABOUT VERBAL: there is a post that some dude who was (seemingly) very smart wrote a while back about verbal strategies. Do a search and find it. It is a great strategy, but takes time to practice. I'll try to find it and post some kind of reference to it here, but if I don't then try and make sure you find it yourself.

hope everyone's doin' well,

Cheers,

Silenthunder

 

[Chronotropic]

Yes and it is often overlooked by test takers. I know at least one guy at the test center I was at didn't sleep and by the looks of some of the other people they didn't either.

 

[NotShorty]

Verbal:



http://www.studentdoctor.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76327

 

[4 Ever]

the best thing that you can do to try to improve your score is find out why your answers are wrong. analysis of ur tests will help you quite a bit.

along with that, for the sciences, review all of the information well in advance... dont wait til the last minute. you will need to know formulas and concepts. id suggest review your material constantly once youve done a slow thorough review of it. itll help with increasing retention of that information. (like it was mentioned in the above post, do not just sift through the information... you have the time now to do it right so instead of wasting your time doing it the wrong way, take the extra time and do it right).

buy all the AAMC tests along with any princeton review, kaplan, examcracker tests... (in my opinion the REA and the Barrons' tests were a complete waste of time) and do them every saturday before the april exam... during the week between analyze your mistakes and then review all the information again . oh yeah, and if you are weak on one area, id suggest going and continuously practice/review it - chances are that if youre hoping a topic wont be on the test, it will be

 

[4 Ever]

Originally posted by danwsu
Yes and it is often overlooked by test takers. I know at least one guy at the test center I was at didn't sleep and by the looks of some of the other people they didn't either.

i was able to get 8hrs of sleep that night but there were still times during the exam that i was yawning... wasnt tired- actually was quite relaxed but still had those yawns coming out of me

 

[NotShorty]

sorry, that link doesn't work😕

 

[onlyme]

i agree with one of the above posters...

Verbal: read boring articles pertaining to literature, history, and politics.

 

[silenthunder]

here's the link for the great verbal analysis thing I mentioned above:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39366&highlight=verbal

If it doesn't work, do a search for the thread title:

Deconstructing the MCAT Verbal: A guide for those who care to listen

or alternatively search for the poster's name:
MikeS 78


Cheers,

Silenthunder

 

[Laxmi]

ok thanks very much

i was thinking about reading journals as in literary journals--the economist or atlantic monthly or wall st journal--to become a better reader

for science, i was just going to use the review books from pr or something and learn that. although it seems like there were many unusual questions that didnt seem to spring from any material people learned in their review courses, or thats what i heard

 

[bigdan]

Hi group-
The link to Mike's ideas for taking the verbal was a great idea; Mike at least sounds good - let's hope his ideas work.
Other than the obvious - like taking all your courses, studying basic information, review courses - can anyone offer ideas for "how to take" the science portions of the MCAT?
Also...opinions and justifications as to which MCAT prep materials are best? I've heard a lot of good about TPR/Kaplan/EK.
Finally - what's the word on EK Audio Osmosis?
Thanks in advance

dc

 

[MeowMix]

AO is excellent for very early prep and last-minute review, as well as the regular content prep. I recommend that you buy my copy immediately!

 

[silenthunder]

I highly recommend the Examkrackers review books. I don't vouch for the 1001 series, since it is a bit different than the review books (it's still okay, but not as good for everyone).

The EK review books are criticized for being rather brief. What I did was used the EK books, then had my first and second year notes/textbooks AND a set of Kaplan course books. I used these to check on topics which I felt I wanted to know more about that seemed to be briefly covered in EK.

Out of everything I've seen (EK/Kaplan/TPR/Berkeley/Barrons) I thought EK was the best. But beware: it can be rather brief in some areas, and you may find yourself wanting to look up some topics.

I felt that Kaplan was a little TOO comprehensive. There were alot of concepts emphasized which are good to know, but are not absolutely necessary.

just my .02, I'm sure others will have their own preferences.

CHeers all,

Silenthunder

 

[StanSteel]

Verbal: Start at least 5 months in advance. Read one article every three days, at first, then start reading more and more. Do at least one practice test a week. Do not do more than 3 tests a day. Why? It kills you, makes you feel discouraged, and lowers your endurance.

Bio: Read 10000 freakin journal articles about genetics. You might want to pick the very confusing ones. While you are reading, picture the genes and all that, make a mental map of what's going on. Take at least one genetics class, and one physiology class. Do not go crazy on Ochem, just learn the major REACTION TYPES relevent to biology.

Physical: Just remember F = ma

 

[peterockduke]

*** Each person is different, but I think I can give a decent overview of what to do...



1) Get the Kaplan/PR/EK review books... it doesn't matter which one, jsut that you have a set - read them thoroughly and reread the chapters you don't know well twice (but only after a week interval). Take active notes of what you write as well for memorization purposes and for review.

2) For me, my orgo and gen chem were beasts (chem major), my bio and physics were weak. For physics, I reviewed

THE MCAT PHYSICS BOOK BY GARRETT BIEHLE - this book ROCKS!
I started getting 80%+'s on my physics questions (up from low 50's). Each chapter has ~60 questions on every topic that will be covered on the MCAT physics. Seriously, I credit my 11 and 12 on my practice tests to this book. If he made review books for bio and general chemistry I'd have a 36+ mcat.... i'm not kidding. Buffer your weak area with an entirely specialty book so that it becomes your strength!

3) Get the AAMC tests 3r-6r ... split up the cost with a friend so that the 3 tests are only 40 bucks. You can save as many practice tests as you want. Take the tests timed and in the exact order of the MCAT... do it in a place like the library.. or a place that is quiet, but not too quiet. I think Kap and PR tests are OK... good for timing issues etc and just making you think, but they generally do not have the trully conceptual questions that are all over the real MCAT.

4) Get your intro textbooks and reread select chapters ... that means GO OVER ELECTROCHEMISTRY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!!! For me, I reread stuff about acetylcholine/parasymp/symp pathways/immunology/kidneys kidneys kidneys!/electrochem/acid base elquilibria ...

5) See if you can somehow find someone taking Kaplan and get the individual subject tests for areas of weakness. Kaplan is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT worth the money one bit.

6) Based on the last exam, TAKE PHYSIOLOGY!! I took anatomy, needless to say I was pissed at the biased questions... bailing out the baby-science bio majors yet again!


I think this method will get anyone a 30+. I make a high number of careless mistakes (3-7 / section), and I was still scoring quite high on the practice exams. The real exam went very well too.