Best way to study MCAT?

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honor

Honor
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Hello everyone,

I'm new to the site. I'm about to begin studying for the MCAT. I will take it in March 2013. I'd like to know from your experiences, how I should prepare for the MCAT. How did you guys seperate BIOLOGY, GENERAL CHEM, ORGO, PHYSICS & VERBAL. Should I study 1 Chapter of BIO on Mondays? GENERAL CHEM on Tuesdays? ORGO on Wednesdays? PHYSICS on Thursdays? VERBAL on Fridays? Then review everything that I studied on the wkends? Please let me know how you guys prepared for it. Any response, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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honor said:
Hello everyone,

I'm new to the site. I'm about to begin studying for the MCAT. I will take it in March 2013. I'd like to know from your experiences, how I should prepare for the MCAT. How did you guys seperate BIOLOGY, GENERAL CHEM, ORGO, PHYSICS & VERBAL. Should I study 1 Chapter of BIO on Mondays? GENERAL CHEM on Tuesdays? ORGO on Wednesdays? PHYSICS on Thursdays? VERBAL on Fridays? Then review everything that I studied on the wkends? Please let me know how you guys prepared for it. Any response, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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I am taking it May 2013, and i've already started studying. i have a relatively weak science background (but a strong verbal background), and I'll share with you my plans as of now, which can change as i progress. obviously, i have no idea how effective this plan is, so take it with a grain of salt

My science strategy:
The first phase of my studying is robust content review. I am using the Kaplan content review books, nova physics, Barron content review, the MCAT review.org website, college textbooks, and random internet sites like wikipedia. after doing content review, i will complete all four EK 1001 series. spring of 2013, I will most likely enroll in a prep course, and from februrary all the way up to may 18th, i will focus on the review course materials: full lengths, MCAT passages, and eventually AAMC full lengths. my goal is to complete at least 20 full length MCAT exams (from both AAMC and prep course)

My verbal strategy:
-reading the economist for 50 minutes everyday (started this two months ago and will continue until exam date)
-do as many passages as i can get my hands on.
-in addition to all the full lengths, i will complete the following verbal passages
-all EK 101 passages
-all Berkely Review passages (will buy the verbal book)
-five kaplan verbal exams
-five ivyhall verbal exams (sucks)
-some additional princeton review materials


of course, all of this is subject to change, but so far, it seems to be working.

know that i am doing my mcat studying in addition to a 40 hr/week artistic/social endeavor, along with regular community service involvements
 
Thanks for your quick response. Are you doing verbal one day, bio the other? Or are you doing bio and verbal together one night, and then physics and chem the other??
 
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honor said:
Thanks for your quick response. Are you doing verbal one day, bio the other? Or are you doing bio and verbal together one night, and then physics and chem the other??
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that's a great question...i haven't really figured it out yet

right now i am focusing on bio, and i am trying to do at least one verbal passage everyday
 
Well I begin tonight! I'm actually excited. Good luck to you and again, thanks for your response.
 
I'm using some of the structure from the 3 month MCAT plan that SDN is famous for. Like only doing a third of the passages on the first run through the material, then going back and doing the next third after going through 1 chapter in all the various subjects, then going back and doing the last third at the end of my content review. I've found I like the Berkeley Review books the best out of those, Kaplan, and EK. They are jam packed with info and some of the questions are stupid hard. I plan to have a really intensive christmas break (5 weeks) trying to complete all the content review that I need that way I can just take practice FL's next spring on the weekends. At 1 pm, every saturday, just like the real thing.

As for verbal, I've been reading alot since around 21 (29 now), and I do a passage probably every few days and will keep that up until I take the test in April.
 
I don't know if others agree with this or not but for me a deep understanding of the prereqs and practice problems seems good enough for me.

I'm batting in the mid 30's right now on the Kaplan PT's (whatever those are worth since their PS section seems a bit lenient) after only using EK question books so far.

I also go here daily to keep me sharp:

http://www.mcatquestion.com/

It's not much but it's nice to have a little refresher on arcane subjects you may forget or ignore and only takes 2 minutes of your time a day (which adds up to a lot if you have a few months before a test).
 
Not really anything different for non-trads as there is for trads on this, you have to put in the time. Some people need more time than others.... some people have more time than others, create a REALISTIC schedule (the sn2ed is what most do-it-yourselfers pick) and stick with it.
What helps A LOT is to bake in a day a week or something every day to destress...... trust me on this :D
 
I would also like to add that it's much more important to focus on HOW the equations work, as opposed to actually trying to memorize every equation. Of course, some you see often enough you should just know. But getting used to the numbers and units involved and how they relate to each other means you can think through the question and arrive at the right answer without ever actually doing the math.

Also, for the biological sciences section, the biology is more heavily tested than the Organic, so unless you are just completely lost on Orgo, spend more time really hammering out the biology.

For verbal, (and really for the whole test), practice reading faster. Learn to pick out the important points and filter out the fluff, and really learn to quickly surmise what exactly the question is asking. Do this by reading lots of articles/pieces that are medium difficulty to really heavy stuff. I found that if you start focusing on decreasing how many times you change your eye focus you can read faster without a loss in comprehension. For instance, as you read this, if you find yourself focusing on every single little word, you will read too slowly. Learn to read groups of words without moving your eyes. Start by trying to focus on one word, and then read both the word in front of it and behind it before moving your eyes again. By the time you get good at it, you will be reading at blazing speeds.

These are things that really transcend the Bio/Chem/Verbal, etc. groupings and are extremely high yield. They are strategies you can practice EVERY night, no matter which subject it is that you are actually studying.

And I also want to echo NuttyEngDude's comment that you MUST find time to de-stress every single day. The MCAT is an extremely important test, but it is something that you can beat, and you must know you can beat it. If you let it stress you out too much, when test day comes you will go in already defeated, and your score will reflect that.

I hope my comments help, and best of luck to you.
 
My SO and I used this method and found it worked very well. We crammed for 3 months. We took several MCAT practice tests and from the beginning of out studying to the end we both saw Significant improvement in scores that was accurately reflected on our tests!
We read through and did all of the problems, practice sections, etc of the entire Exam Krackers set. Meanwhile, during labs, while driving, etc any time we could, we listened to Audio Osmosis. After completing the books, we took a practice test. (We used the actual online AMCAS tests, those give the most accurate idea of how you will do IMO as they are old MCATs and it gets you used to the format). After seeing where we did poorly, we studied up more in those areas (from Exam Krackers, we continued listening to AO throughout the 3 months), and after 2 weeks took another practice test. Other than the first test we always made sure to time ourselves during the practice tests according to the actual timing of the test so that we could also make sure we were completing the sections within the allotted time. Every time we took another practice test, we both saw a few points of improvement in our scores.
 
honor said:
Please let me know how you guys prepared for it. Any response, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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1. Obviously review content.
2. Practice taking the test to get a sense of timing and strategy.
3. Don't burn through AAMC practice tests too fast. You will need them to gauge when you are ready for the real MCAT.

Aside: I noticed that The Berkeley Review takes a lot of it's passages from The New Republic magazine. If you run out of practice tests, the cheapest way to get access to the Princeton Review's 19 tests is to pay for 3 hours of tutoring at $600 (expensive, but not as bad as paying for the class). There are also less mentioned practice test books by Columbia Review and Arco available on Amazon.com. The most popular review books are Examkrackers, Kaplan, Princeton Review, and The Berkeley Review.
 
I think one of the best ways to motivate yourself for this test is to see it as a one shot deal. Go all in and don't look back.
 
NuttyEngDude said:
Not really anything different for non-trads as there is for trads on this, you have to put in the time. Some people need more time than others.... some people have more time than others, create a REALISTIC schedule (the sn2ed is what most do-it-yourselfers pick) and stick with it.
What helps A LOT is to bake in a day a week or something every day to destress...... trust me on this :D
Click to expand...

what is the sn2ed method?
 
Here's my post on the 30+ MCAT thread. Hope it helps. Also (underlines were my emphasis):

MD Odyssey said:
One final thought. There were a lot of people that I knew, mostly people from my post-bacc courses, that told me "Don't take it too seriously" and "Don't worry about it so much". You'll also hear people that have taken the exam say "I shouldn't have been so worked up about it" or "Keep the MCAT in perspective". They're all wrong. People that tell you that have no idea what it takes to excel. The MCAT is a huge deal. For 3-4 months of your life, it needs to be the ONLY thing you think about. Everything else gets shifted to the sidelines. I broke the MCAT because I took it too seriously. I killed it because I didn't balance my life. I worked. I studied. I didn't ride my bike for four months. And it worked. I did well on the exam because I took it seriously and didn't let other things get in the way. In my opinion, if you want to do really well on the exam, you have to be willing to make it the only thing that matters for a few months. If you aren't having dreams about gremlins stealing your knowledge of acids and bases, you aren't making it the priority that you should. That sounds extreme, I know. But I scored a lot higher on the exam than any of my friends did that told me they "weren't worried about the MCAT". I worried about it. They didn't. Most of them didn't break 30. Make it a big deal because it is.
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THIS.
 
My advice to all my former students has been largely successful.

~ Always study in the same way the test is given. ie - Gen Chem + Physics in the AM, Bio + Orgo in the PM.

~ Always study at the same time you plan to take it if you can help it. ie - Don't study at night even tho you take it @ 8am.

~ Cast a "wide net" early on, meaning study more the further out you are. As you approach your test date, start to focus on your weaknesses. The week or 2 before you test date, focus on your STRENGTHS. No point in wasting precious time on concepts you don't quite understand at that point, when you can be mastering the stuff you do know.

~ Take a practice FL on the same day of the week you will sit for the real thing. It helps w/ your mental conditioning, and lessens your anxiety somewhat when you fall into a ritual.

~ Remember it is more of an APPLICATION test, than a memorization test. If you have the luxury of a study partner or group, try to get together, and try to teach each other something you learned. I always asked my students to incorporate a concept into a metaphor. ie - If you can explain the different types of electron sharing via a big dog vs. a smaller dog fighting over a steak, that means you understand it. You didn't just memorize it.

Good luck from a former Kaplan MCAT teacher/tutor. :)
 
I got the offical MCAT guide and some practice books in each topic area and then studied for 10 days straight. I ended up with a decent score (somewhere between 32 and 35). I'm sure more study would have helped, and now that I've taken more upper level classes I can see how taking MCAT right after pre-reqs can put one at a disadvantage. I would say, though, buy the AAMC MCAT book, review the areas it spells out in your old textbooks if you don't have other resources, do as many practice tests as you can get your hands on and you should be OK. If you have time, the study plans on this site look awesome. If you are nontrad and have a tight schedule, though, you might have to self-identify your weaknesses and target those areas in your studying.
 
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