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How should I split the months?
Would 4 months content + 5 months practice exams be good?
Would 4 months content + 5 months practice exams be good?
Can anyone suggest a 9 month MCAT study plan for me (during academic year)?
- Thread starter Alakazam123
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You might want to look in the MCAT forum. There might be something there that can help you!
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It all depends on how much time per day you’re going to spend studying. MCAT courses are usually good for content review, but if that’s too expensive I highly recommmend getting TPR FLs, the AAMC Q banks and FLs, and other resources. Prep course FLs are good for the earlier study periods because they’re all content heavy. I would say 4 months of content review is good to start off, taking a FL every 3-4 weeks to gauge your strong/weak points. Not sure if you already have prep books but I found the TPR set to be the best because they are detail-heavy, which is especially good for the C/P and B/B sections.
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I have access to online course and full box set of MCAT prep books.
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Also, would you say about 30 hrs/week for content review is a good place to start?
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Yeah I think so. You could probably get away with less, but if you have that drive more power to you
D
deleted938090
I don't think other people's study plan suggestions will necessarily work for you. Only you can gauge how much you know about the subjects and allocate sufficient time to them. I did not follow any of the "typical" study plans in favor of thinking what is important for me to learn. Depending on your strength in the subject areas, you can elect to do more or less review. For me, I reviewed CP and BB the week before the exam and spent almost all of my 2 month study period on PS. Of course, this advice wouldn't work for other people.
Nine months is a very long to try and retain comprehensive material.
If studying for school while doing MCAT, I would set aside 6 months.
If studying only for MCAT full-time, I would set aside 3 months.
There are a plethora of posts by those who have done both 6 months part time and 3 month full time. Look those up and create your own personal plan from the ideas and strategies presented and how you think they'll work for you.
What to do with the 3-6 months of extra time? I would focus mainly on:
-classwork and maxing your GPA
-Anki flash cards for the Psych/Soc terms you need to memorize
-Physics formulas and units
-Daily CARS practice
If studying for school while doing MCAT, I would set aside 6 months.
If studying only for MCAT full-time, I would set aside 3 months.
There are a plethora of posts by those who have done both 6 months part time and 3 month full time. Look those up and create your own personal plan from the ideas and strategies presented and how you think they'll work for you.
What to do with the 3-6 months of extra time? I would focus mainly on:
-classwork and maxing your GPA
-Anki flash cards for the Psych/Soc terms you need to memorize
-Physics formulas and units
-Daily CARS practice
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Can you connect me to the post by chance?
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Shameless plug here for one of SDN's resources: StudySchedule.
It will create a customized study schedule for you based on your strengths and weaknesses and the materials you have or plan to use. And it is free!
It will create a customized study schedule for you based on your strengths and weaknesses and the materials you have or plan to use. And it is free!
D
Deleted member 953708
I agree that practice questions should be your guide to studying. Everyone focuses heavily on content when they study, but not everyone does well on the test itself. The key is becoming familiar with the way the MCAT is written--this means, more than anything, practicing PASSAGE BASED questions. Most MCAT questions are passage-based! It's not so much about knowing the intricate scientific details as it is about learning to interpret the findings of the passage. I would find a good question bank and make that the focus of your studies, along with the occasional Full Length Exam. Review your FLEs to gauge where your weak points are, so that you can then focus your content studies on what is most difficult for you personally. Altius has a bunch of exams that are pretty cheap, and I think you can get some for free. Also the AAMC full-length exams are the closest you can get to the real test. It is definitely worth it to splurge on them.
Practice CAR passages each week, too. It is, after all, 1/4 of the test! Practice reading passages in the allotted time, doing your best to figure out a main idea within 3-4 minutes. If you figure out the main idea, you can get most of the questions. I used Jack Westin passages--he puts up a new passage every day, so there's no shortage of practice passages.
Seriously, though, I think the FLEs are the most helpful tool in preparing. That was a focus of my studies and I ended up with a 524.
Feel free to DM me if you have other specific questions!
Practice CAR passages each week, too. It is, after all, 1/4 of the test! Practice reading passages in the allotted time, doing your best to figure out a main idea within 3-4 minutes. If you figure out the main idea, you can get most of the questions. I used Jack Westin passages--he puts up a new passage every day, so there's no shortage of practice passages.
Seriously, though, I think the FLEs are the most helpful tool in preparing. That was a focus of my studies and I ended up with a 524.
Feel free to DM me if you have other specific questions!
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