Anyone else have to travel for the MCAT?

[CloverBale]

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So annoyed! I'm traveling from California to Washington to take my MCAT. And I registered on the date it opened too. The cost of my MCAT just doubled. Thank you AMCAS for taking even more of my money.

 

[Hospitalized]

So annoyed! I'm traveling from California to Washington to take my MCAT. And I registered on the date it opened too. The cost of my MCAT just doubled. Thank you AMCAS for taking even more of my money.

It does happen, though usually to people who live in areas without a testing center very close.

 

[Ryomagoku]

I couldn't sign up for the MCAT on Jan 28th exam and March 31st exam... sigh...

I might just have to sign up for April 22nd exam for now and just switch to either March 31st or Jan 28th if any of these open up near my location.

 

[genericscreenname]

I would wait until certain registration deadlines have passed. People always delay/cancel their exam date and new spots open up.

 

[aanvar]

I'm from California and was trying to take a January test as well. I was pretty surprised that it filled up so quick but decided to push my test date to April. Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to fly out of town instead of pushing back your test date?

 

[CloverBale]

I'm from California and was trying to take a January test as well. I was pretty surprised that it filled up so quick but decided to push my test date to April. Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to fly out of town instead of pushing back your test date?

I've been studying for it for a while now and I don't think I can study for another 2 months on top of it lol. Besides I'm not working right now so I can't afford to push it back. I have a friend up in Washington so I can stay with them, and the cost of the flight will be around $100-150 if I keep an eye on flights. Just rescheduling the MCAT to another date is $85

 

[CloverBale]

I would wait until certain registration deadlines have passed. People always delay/cancel their exam date and new spots open up.

Yeah I'm hoping that too!

 

[aanvar]

I've been studying for it for a while now and I don't think I can study for another 2 months on top of it lol. Besides I'm not working right now so I can't afford to push it back. I have a friend up in Washington so I can stay with them, and the cost of the flight will be around $100-150 if I keep an eye on flights. Just rescheduling the MCAT to another date is $85

Yeah, I feel you. I was originally planning on taking the test at the end of summer but working full time while studying made that difficult so I decided to push it back to January and now I'll have to push it back even more. I quit my lab position as well to focus on studying this quarter, which is a bit of a bummer. Not really looking forward to having the MCAT on my mind for so long but it's nice that you have a place to stay there. Be sure to enjoy the state after your test, I grew up in Washington and absolutely love it!

 

[GrayArea]

Yeah, Cali filled up extremely quick! I logged in hours after registration opened and it was already booked!

I guess I do not mind taking it in March, but am worried that it would not allow me to retake if need be. But, I shouldn't be thinking of retaking anyways...

 

[CloverBale]

Yeah, I feel you. I was originally planning on taking the test at the end of summer but working full time while studying made that difficult so I decided to push it back to January and now I'll have to push it back even more. I quit my lab position as well to focus on studying this quarter, which is a bit of a bummer. Not really looking forward to having the MCAT on my mind for so long but it's nice that you have a place to stay there. Be sure to enjoy the state after your test, I grew up in Washington and absolutely love it!

Oh yeah I feel your pain 🙁 I hate not working, but I made the decision not to just to focus on this thing and get it over with. Oh any recommendations? I'll be in Seattle

 

[aanvar]

Oh yeah I feel your pain 🙁 I hate not working, but I made the decision not to just to focus on this thing and get it over with. Oh any recommendations? I'll be in Seattle

My favorite place to go in Seattle was always Pike Place Market and a tourist favorite is obviously the Space Needle. I would recommend checking out University of Washington as well, I really like the campus and its a great place to go for medical school. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been studying for the MCAT. Now that I have such a longer timeframe than I initially thought I'm trying to figure out a good study plan.

 

[CloverBale]

My favorite place to go in Seattle was always Pike Place Market and a tourist favorite is obviously the Space Needle. I would recommend checking out University of Washington as well, I really like the campus and its a great place to go for medical school. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been studying for the MCAT. Now that I have such a longer timeframe than I initially thought I'm trying to figure out a good study plan.

So far? 5 months. My biggest recommendation to you is utilizing Anki. You're going to forget a lot of the things you've learned weeks prior, and it is such a waste of time and a huge hassle having to go back and review things. Make flashcards of the things you need to memorize, and review them everyday. If you utilize anki correctly, you won't have too much to review everyday as you go along. Make an effort to do at least 1-2 passages and review your answers in details and take notes/mental notes on topics you need to cover. When you're bored, there are a bunch of apps you can use to practice yourself with (favorite one is called MCAT Prep by like varsity). What's your time frame like and what have you been doing so far?

 

[aanvar]

So far? 5 months. My biggest recommendation to you is utilizing Anki. You're going to forget a lot of the things you've learned weeks prior, and it is such a waste of time and a huge hassle having to go back and review things. Make flashcards of the things you need to memorize, and review them everyday. If you utilize anki correctly, you won't have too much to review everyday as you go along. Make an effort to do at least 1-2 passages and review your answers in details and take notes/mental notes on topics you need to cover. When you're bored, there are a bunch of apps you can use to practice yourself with (favorite one is called MCAT Prep by like varsity). What's your time frame like and what have you been doing so far?

Damn ok, like I said earlier I was planning to take it at the end of summer so I took a PR course but had no time outside of it to practice cause of work so I didn't benefit too much from it unfortunately. After the course ended I took a bit of a breather to enjoy the last few weeks of summer since my schedule was 8AM-7PM in class/work everyday and got back into studying at the start of the quarter (UC system). Once the quarter started I just followed the outline of the class again, reading through ~2 chapters of a PR subject book and taking practice passages for those subjects each day as well as a practice test every other weekend. But now I have about 6 more months to study, so I have quite some time. This might sound like a stupid question but what's anki? I've never heard of it and something I do struggle with is remembering what I learned prior so I'm sure that could be useful. I really appreciate the insight, I don't really know anyone studying for the MCAT right now so I haven't been able to pick other peoples brain much.

 

[CloverBale]

Damn ok, like I said earlier I was planning to take it at the end of summer so I took a PR course but had no time outside of it to practice cause of work so I didn't benefit too much from it unfortunately. After the course ended I took a bit of a breather to enjoy the last few weeks of summer since my schedule was 8AM-7PM in class/work everyday and got back into studying at the start of the quarter (UC system). Once the quarter started I just followed the outline of the class again, reading through ~2 chapters of a PR subject book and taking practice passages for those subjects each day as well as a practice test every other weekend. But now I have about 6 more months to study, so I have quite some time. This might sound like a stupid question but what's anki? I've never heard of it and something I do struggle with is remembering what I learned prior so I'm sure that could be useful. I really appreciate the insight, I don't really know anyone studying for the MCAT right now so I haven't been able to pick other peoples brain much.

OMG UC system! Ha! Which one 🙂? Just graduated from the one in Los Angeles 😛 Anki is an online-based flashcard app that uses like special "spacing" techniques so you can learn a lot of information in a short amount of time and have a higher retention rate than say a regular flashcard app. It basically keeps track of what you know and what you did wrong and tests you in intervals. A lot of medical school use this while studying. Google it 🙂 It's free and there are a ton of youtube videos showing you how to use it. Because 6 months is a lot of time, and a lot of time to forget things too.

 

[aanvar]

OMG UC system! Ha! Which one 🙂? Just graduated from the one in Los Angeles 😛 Anki is an online-based flashcard app that uses like special "spacing" techniques so you can learn a lot of information in a short amount of time and have a higher retention rate than say a regular flashcard app. It basically keeps track of what you know and what you did wrong and tests you in intervals. A lot of medical school use this while studying. Google it 🙂 It's free and there are a ton of youtube videos showing you how to use it. Because 6 months is a lot of time, and a lot of time to forget things too.

I just looked into Anki, seems like it will be very useful for me so thank you! 6 months is definitely a lot of time, now that I have this much time I'm gonna have to figure some activities to fill it up. I go to UCSD and am in my last year right now but only have 1 more class till I'm done so I'm almost there! How did you like your time at UCLA?

 

[CloverBale]

I just looked into Anki, seems like it will be very useful for me so thank you! 6 months is definitely a lot of time, now that I have this much time I'm gonna have to figure some activities to fill it up. I go to UCSD and am in my last year right now but only have 1 more class till I'm done so I'm almost there! How did you like your time at UCLA?

Oh congrats! Oh, god. UCLA was difficult AF. And I was in the library 24/7 lol