Aug 15 Mcat'ers

[amar21]

Anyone else writing on this date? I am - at 2pm. When are you guys (and gals) going to start studying? What is your plan of attack?

I'm going to start studying today and slowly ease into it. Start with an hour or two today then slowly build up my endurance and study 5x a week with weekends off. I have a kaplan prep course that is starting next tuesday as well.

What about you peeps?

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[reezer4]

I haven't actually signed up yet, but I'm looking to take it end of August. I've just started studying with the Barron's 2008 book- I did Kaplan last year so I thought it would be good to try something new- but I'll probably go back to that material as well. What are you using/planning to use to study?
I work full time so I'm going to get up early and study for 1-2 hours and then 2-3 hours each evening and then a lot on the weekends- should be fun!

 

[amar21]

I'm just using kaplan material that was supplied with the course.. my course started last week and its been a lot of BS so far (and by BS i dont mean biological sciences)... ie- this is how the CBT looks, press the arrow down key to scroll down etc..

tomorrow we begin doing some actual content review... thank god

kaplan assigns a ridiculous amount of homework as well, so it should keep me extremely busy until the course ends... how did you find the course? helpful at all? I dont think im going to learn much from the course itself, rather.. I just need the structuring to setup a schedule for me to do work as I find it hard to motivate myself unless I have a deadline to meet.

 

[wvupremed2]

I'm taking it August 15 at 2pm. I took a full-length exam last weekend to judge where I stood before any studying. I plan to use the ExamKrackers home study package. I've started this week, and I plan to get through the entire set by mid-July. I'm going to take a full-length practice MCAT exam every weekend until the exam date (beginning June 6 to allow myself a few weeks to review material). This will equal to around 10 full-length exams. I've talked to several people, and they all tell me that taking practice exams is the most worthwhile investment of time. You'll encounter all the possible question types, plus it makes the format/pace of the actual exam very familiar. Good luck!

 

[deleted74029]

I'm taking the MCAT Aug. 7 (yay for late applicants!) and I started studying 2 days ago. I planned to study 5 hours a day but only managed to go about 3 while still retaining information. I gradually work up to 5 then maybe 5+ as time goes on.

 

[sweetjo]

I am taking the MCAT, August 7th as well. I started studying about 2 months ago on and off, but i really need to start studying regularly.

 

[rocuronium]

I'm writing on Aug 15th at 8am.

I'm using EK to study, and plan on writing as many practice tests as I can.

 

[NAVYLABTECH08]

I haven't actually signed up yet, but I'm looking to take it end of August. I've just started studying with the Barron's 2008 book- I did Kaplan last year so I thought it would be good to try something new- but I'll probably go back to that material as well. What are you using/planning to use to study?
I work full time so I'm going to get up early and study for 1-2 hours and then 2-3 hours each evening and then a lot on the weekends- should be fun!

Unless Barron has updated their material, the old edition sucked. I started studying about 3 weeks ago. right now, I'm just reading the chapters and making index cards. I have live 4 more Biology chapters, 1 more O. cHM chapter left, 2 chem, and about 3 more physics chapters left. I work full time and I"m taking a full load this summer. I took the mcat in April 5th and I only scored a 26. I hope to add on to that score with the advanced studying and no fall classes to mess with me before my test date.

 

[BNSN]

How bad is August 15? Is it way too late?

 

[reezer4]

I liked Kaplan for some things but I found I got caught up in doing a lot of busy-work which meant I was studying a lot but it wasn't making me get higher scores. I think people are right when they say to take a lot of practice exams, but studying the weak areas in between is important too.

So far the Barron's book has been really good because it is organized in a different way than Kaplan (in some ways a little more intuitive to me) and I like that they don't have a ton of pictures because I can draw my own in the margins. I wouldn't suggest using Barron's alone though, I have been doing a lot of back and forth with the Kaplan material to make sure I don't miss anything- plus, some things are way more detailed than necessary, but it's easy to skip over those parts. I have Kaplan online-material through the end of June so I'll probably do as many practice exams as possible before it ends.
Also- someone recommended the exam krackers especially for the verbal which was my low area, I might do that but I'm kinda waiting for the new addition.

I am in the same boat as you NAVYLABTECH08- I got a 26 on the first one I took last summer- most likely you are more up on the material than I am given you took the real exam not too long ago. I have a little more catch up to do but hopefully it pays off with a nice score. How much are you studying each day?

Good luck all.

 

[ringflip]

I'm using EK to study, and plan on writing as many practice tests as I can.

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