Content Review with only KA and no books?

[canmed96]

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Hi guys, i have about 5 months to study for the MCAT and i learn MUCH better from videos rather than books. Would you say it's sufficient to do content review from Khan Academy's videos only and then questions from various books/ AAMC materials? I've heard a lot of mixed things about KA so any help would be great.

Here's a look at the vids: https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat

 

[DrHart]

If that works best for you, I won't say you shouldn't do it. Although I will say Khan Academy has a lot of nonessential/extraneous content so watching a 10 minute video on something you won't need to know always seemed like a waste of time to me.
The problem is you won't know what videos are important or not until you watch them. Using books, you can skim the fluff (most review books I've seen don't really even put much fluff in) and pick out all the high yield content. Then you can reinforce these concepts with practice problems. KA practice problems (at least in my opinion) are way too narrow in focus.

Just my two cents. Honestly everyone learns a little differently so if you have the time and patience to watch videos, and also think you'll be able to pick out the important concepts and not get hung up on the fluff, I'd say do you.

 

[Bumblenest]

I loved Khan Academy, and it honestly was about 80% of my content review. I watched every single video (yes it took a long time), writing down anything that wasn't "common sense" to me. I just felt like I absorbed the material much better through videos.

I then went through Princeton review just to make sure I didn't miss anything, and went through the book like a hot knife through butter in about 2 weeks. Was like skimming, since most of it was review from Khan Academy.

 

[canmed96]

I loved Khan Academy, and it honestly was about 80% of my content review. I watched every single video (yes it took a long time), writing down anything that wasn't "common sense" to me. I just felt like I absorbed the material much better through videos.

I then went through Princeton review just to make sure I didn't miss anything, and went through the book like a hot knife through butter in about 2 weeks. Was like skimming, since most of it was review from Khan Academy.

Thanks for your reply, can i ask how you did on the MCAT? you feel you missed anything?

 

[canmed96]

If that works best for you, I won't say you shouldn't do it. Although I will say Khan Academy has a lot of nonessential/extraneous content so watching a 10 minute video on something you won't need to know always seemed like a waste of time to me.
The problem is you won't know what videos are important or not until you watch them. Using books, you can skim the fluff (most review books I've seen don't really even put much fluff in) and pick out all the high yield content. Then you can reinforce these concepts with practice problems. KA practice problems (at least in my opinion) are way too narrow in focus.

Just my two cents. Honestly everyone learns a little differently so if you have the time and patience to watch videos, and also think you'll be able to pick out the important concepts and not get hung up on the fluff, I'd say do you.

Thanks!

 

[Bumblenest]

Thanks for your reply, can i ask how you did on the MCAT? you feel you missed anything?

I ended up scoring 526, 130 in CARS. After Khan and PR, I had a pretty good overall coverage of everything. Just didn't feel worth it to do more review after that. Better to review from practice tests. I made notes of everything I didn't know in each question of practice tests, even if I got the question right, and I reviewed these giant stack of notes monthly.

But keep in mind you can never know *everything*, especially in P/S. But you can cover almost everything through content review and practice tests, and at least make educated guesses for the ones you haven't heard of.

 

[canmed96]

I ended up scoring 526, 130 in CARS. After Khan and PR, I had a pretty good overall coverage of everything. Just didn't feel worth it to do more review after that. Better to review from practice tests. I made notes of everything I didn't know in each question of practice tests, even if I got the question right, and I reviewed these giant stack of notes monthly.

But keep in mind you can never know *everything*, especially in P/S. But you can cover almost everything through content review and practice tests, and at least make educated guesses for the ones you haven't heard of.

Would you mind telling me your study schedule/what materials you used in total

 

[canmed96]

I ended up scoring 526, 130 in CARS. After Khan and PR, I had a pretty good overall coverage of everything. Just didn't feel worth it to do more review after that. Better to review from practice tests. I made notes of everything I didn't know in each question of practice tests, even if I got the question right, and I reviewed these giant stack of notes monthly.

But keep in mind you can never know *everything*, especially in P/S. But you can cover almost everything through content review and practice tests, and at least make educated guesses for the ones you haven't heard of.

Also, how did you use KA, like did you just take notes or did you make ANKI cards as you went along

 

[Bumblenest]

Would you mind telling me your study schedule/what materials you used in total

did content review for about 10 weeks for KA, watched every single video and put in ppt deck stuff I didn't know after each video. Then went through PR, took a few weeks.

Took all the old AAMC practice tests, took a few EK FLs, took all the PR FLs, some other misc free ones like kaplan diagnostic/gold standard/next step, then finally starting using the official material - section banks, qbanks, real tests...etc.

 

[lexswift]

did content review for about 10 weeks for KA, watched every single video and put in ppt deck stuff I didn't know after each video. Then went through PR, took a few weeks.

Took all the old AAMC practice tests, took a few EK FLs, took all the PR FLs, some other misc free ones like kaplan diagnostic/gold standard/next step, then finally starting using the official material - section banks, qbanks, real tests...etc.

Would you mind sharing that PowerPoint by any chance? What were your practice test scores?

 

[Bumblenest]

I have like 50+ ppt decks since I made a new one for every topic and also every practice test. Would be a lot..

Don't remember all the scores off the top of my head, but pr was around 509-515ish, one EK was like 70% something, another was 80%, 520 on scored aamc

 

[alpha-GTP]

I used Kahn academy as my primary content review for B/B and P/S. I took notes on all the topics. There is a lot of minutiae/going into the weeds, but I feel like learning way too much about a certain topic helped me retain the essential info. I found their videos very helpful. I was able to make a 132 and 129 on B/B and P/S respectively, and it was mainly due to KA.

 

[lexswift]

I have like 50+ ppt decks since I made a new one for every topic and also every practice test. Would be a lot..

Don't remember all the scores off the top of my head, but pr was around 509-515ish, one EK was like 70% something, another was 80%, 520 on scored aamc

No worries! How many practice tests did you do in total?

 

[lexswift]

I used Kahn academy as my primary content review for B/B and P/S. I took notes on all the topics. There is a lot of minutiae/going into the weeds, but I feel like learning way too much about a certain topic helped me retain the essential info. I found their videos very helpful. I was able to make a 132 and 129 on B/B and P/S respectively, and it was mainly due to KA.

did content review for about 10 weeks for KA, watched every single video and put in ppt deck stuff I didn't know after each video. Then went through PR, took a few weeks.

Took all the old AAMC practice tests, took a few EK FLs, took all the PR FLs, some other misc free ones like kaplan diagnostic/gold standard/next step, then finally starting using the official material - section banks, qbanks, real tests...etc.

Did you guys watch videos on the really basic stuff? Like on protons and neutrons... I understand being very thorough but I'm not sure if there's a point to watching stuff on topics you are already very strong on. If you found it useful I'm going to make an effort to watch those videos as well.

 

[alpha-GTP]

Did you guys watch videos on the really basic stuff? Like on protons and neutrons... I understand being very thorough but I'm not sure if there's a point to watching stuff on topics you are already very strong on. If you found it useful I'm going to make an effort to watch those videos as well.

I didn't watch those. If it was a concept that I was 100% comfortable with, I skipped it. Anything less, I watched the video because there was always something new to learn even with a semi-familiar topic. I just watched some stuff at 2x speed to get a quick overview.

 

[starspells]

I used KA as a supplement.