brainstorming for how to physically study for MCAT?

[medanthgirl]

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wondering if people would be willing to share how they motivate themselves to study for the mcat after working/going to school all day & other activities and then crunch out 3 hours of mcat study or so...

i work a full time job and teach at a community college on monday nights. the other nights i'm good about studying for an hour or so, but by then i'm so physically/mentally tired, i start shutting down and it takes me forever to read even a simple section. yet i know i need to be doing more.

i know we need to just suck it up and go for it, but wondering if anyone had any suggestions of how they may have started out slow, but have been able to build up.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

I work full timeso I understand. The trick that worked for me was to do nothing at all at first. I bought Half Life 2 on Dec 23rd and finished the game in 4 days, Watched a ton of movies, stopped working out,drank a lot of beer,slept all day when I was not at work...basically I just gave myself a break after my semester ended and now I feel like such a slacker it is easy for me to study 4-6 hours/day. I was planning on starting 1 week after school let out but it was just not happening. I have to make myself feel guilty after having some fun to get a big project started.

Motivation comes from within.

 

[tigress]

I'm having the same problem. I don't work but I'm in grad school and so not only am I exhausted at the end of the day, I also have trouble studying for the MCAT without feeling guilty about not spending the time on more immediate concerns like papers I need to read for school. I've pretty much given up on getting any significant amount of studying done before my TPR class starts on Jan 23. At least then I'll sort of be forced to study to prepare for class, and I'll have a schedule imposed on me externally, which I find helps.

But if anybody has advice I'd love to hear it!

 

[QofQuimica]

I was in the same position as Tigress (studying for the MCAT while in grad school). What I did was to assign time each day for studying, and no matter how I felt, when it was time to study, I studied. It doesn't have to be a lot of time every day (reserve 30 minutes on a day when you're really busy) and it doesn't have to be all at once (spend 15 minutes in the morning and 15 before bed if that's the only way you can fit in) but the important thing is to just get some time in every day! On the weekends, I'd study longer, probably 1.5 or 2 hours per day. I took all of the practice tests on the weekends when I had more time. And the last few weeks before the test, I started working only halftime in the lab (with my mentor's permission) so that I could study more. It also helped me that my part-time job was teaching MCAT classes. 😛

 

[bigdan]

I hear all y'all. I was doing 50+ hours in healthcare and studying for the MCAT too.

I kinda forced myself into it after work. At least one hour with the books in front of me, no exceptions, at the library. No cell phone. Sure, I slept in my books sometimes, but it did work out. If work asked for one more hour of your time each day, you'd do it cause you have to. Ditto the MCAT. Maybe a change of local for studying would help?

I do admit to delaying the study time at times, but only to go lift first. Gets the juices flowing, so it helped. And anything extra was gravy. Either Saturday OR Sunday I'd do extra study, but never both. You'll need time off. You could try the EK Audio Osmosis CDs if you spend any considerable time in the car. I also did flash cards so I could cram 15 min. of study in here or there...you gotta know the chem and phys formulae cold...

Good luck with it.

dc

 

[tigress]

I also did flash cards so I could cram 15 min. of study in here or there...you gotta know the chem and phys formulae cold...

That's something I'm planning on doing too. When I go through the material I'll make flashcards for the stuff I really need to memorize, and then if I'm in the lab and I have 5 minutes while something does its thing I can just take out the cards and go over them. That way I can utilize all those otherwise empty times in the lab that are too short to actually sit and read but long enough to do something

 

[Khenon]

I was in the same position as Tigress (studying for the MCAT while in grad school). What I did was to assign time each day for studying, and no matter how I felt, when it was time to study, I studied. It doesn't have to be a lot of time every day (reserve 30 minutes on a day when you're really busy) and it doesn't have to be all at once (spend 15 minutes in the morning and 15 before bed if that's the only way you can fit in) but the important thing is to just get some time in every day! On the weekends, I'd study longer, probably 1.5 or 2 hours per day. I took all of the practice tests on the weekends when I had more time. And the last few weeks before the test, I started working only halftime in the lab (with my mentor's permission) so that I could study more. It also helped me that my part-time job was teaching MCAT classes. 😛

I agree with this. You have to just schedule the time, and then do it. No debating with yourself . . . It's scheduled, so there's no excuse. I also find that sometimes I'm just not "in the mood" for certain subjects (ie I planned on studying physics, but I HATE the subject), and I found that it was better for me to study something else (like biology or verbal). When I would try to motivate/force myself to study physics, I ended up not studying at all. But if I would just give in and study something I was more in the mood for, at least I was getting SOME kind of studying in. Obviously you can't do that all the time (or I wouldn't have studied physics AT ALL!), but sometimes your brain just doesn't want to deal with certain topics. Just go ahead and study something . . . anything during your scheduled time. Good luck! I'm right there with you by the way . . . still haven't cracked open that organic book! 😳

 

[sscooterguy]

First of all, as I've heard in some of these posts, yes, make sure you take a good break before you start studying hardcore. Take that week or few days and enjoy yourself. Secondly, start off with stuff that you like to read. If you have a particular interest in biology, then read some bio material. If you have an innate sense of the laws of physics, then study that. As I have suggested under different topics, just reading will improve your overall skills and mcat score. You can pick up the New York times or other source and just read for an hour a day, but MCAT style. Go search under other mcat advice on how to study for verbal. If you read say an hour a day from the news paper, your body will slowly start to adjust and start working more efficiently with less time. Oh, and also try to get some kind of exercise in during all of this. Every day or two, do whatever it is you do for exercise, whether its walking around the block, to working out for an hour. It will clear your mind, and get your body prepared for an eight hour exam. Eventually you will have to increase studying time, no matter what other responsibilites you have, and you have to prioritize. Good luck.
Sscooterguy