Deliberately studying for MCAT twice

[Saigon]

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Hi,

I am going to be a rising senior and do not plan on taking the MCAT until early next year. I was wondering what people think about starting MCAT preparation now, by doing an in-depth content review of the material this summer and then following one of the study schedules on this forum in the months leading up to the exam?

I'm considering following BoomBoom1232's plan up until the end of the content review. It is a mixture of the study plans created by SN2ED and Mcatjelly. I will use TBR for general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and biology, while TPRH and EK101 will be used for verbal preparation. Over the last 6 months I have been doing a lot of leisure reading. I have also been reading articles from the The New Yorker, The Economist, WSJ, Atlantic, and some science journals (MMWR CDC, NEJM, nature, SciAM). I hope this will help my verbal score. NS Psych/sociology is used for the new sections of the exam.

I feel that if I can master the content this summer, I will have an advantage when I do a more quick review in the months prior to the exam. In the months prior to my exam, I would follow Mcatjelly's study schedule which uses the less in-depth EK, TPR psych/sociology, and a variety of question packs and FL exams. I feel that between these two study plans, I will gain a strong understanding of the material, as well as a strong understanding of how to do well on this test. I am also taking biochemistry and human physiology this upcoming semester. Any prep I do on these subjects this summer will surely make the courses easier.

boomboom plan -> http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...m-sn2ed-mcatjelly-ek-tbr-tprh-kaplan.1127723/

So, I was wondering if anyone else has done anything similar or knows of anyone who has done anything similar? I know that a strong MCAT can really improve my chances of admission to medical school. I am determined to put in as much effort as is required to get a top, top score. I would really love to get some input on this.

Thanks

 

[Xenith]

That sounds really hardcore and you are likely to burn out. If you have consistently done well (not just grades but also mastery) in your premed classes, you do not need to do double the content review. Make a hybrid plan that fits you. Aim for a total of 5-6 months of hardcore prep for the new mcat. Fit it to your schedule. If the leisure reading is working for you, keep doing it until you start your plan. Try some research articles, history essays, philosophy, etc. also, take time to curate the perfect plan for you. Look at different books, exam practice, study timings, etc. The most important part of review is something you have been doing your entire college life: building a solid foundation of knowledge on the tested subjects. The second most important thing is practice using good materials (AAMC for now). Content review should be use to plug in the gaps and refresh your knowledge. Too much will burn you out and won't really do you any good because you can never really learn everything.

 

[Promethean]

I kind of did this.

In October 2012, I owned a small neighborhood (not-just-for-profit) coffee shop and I was a nurse full-time. Then something happened that made me so angry at a doctor that my only possible productive response to her was to throw everything I had into becoming one myself so that I could do her job better than her. That is a long story, for another time.

It took me a few months to put the shop into other hands, but by Jan 2013, I was studying for the MCAT. I had to teach myself trig, so that I could teach myself physics, and also org chem, all from free online resources or cheap used textbooks. I'd never taken those subjects, ever. In the last couple of weeks of study, I paid for content review videos from jcoreview. I also took a lot of practice tests, over and over. I learned a lot about how the test writers think, which let me correctly discern the answer to some questions where my content knowledge was lacking. I'd been used to working near 100 hour weeks between my two gigs, so when I went down to just full-time nursing, I had plenty of time for intense study. I managed a 32 when I took the exam on, I think, May 1. That was perfectly acceptable but...

I still needed to actually take those courses. I enrolled at the local CC to take the pre-reqs I was missing. After actually sitting through the classes, I felt like I could do better. Again, I used mostly free online resources, paying just for a week or two of access to the review videos just before taking the exam. 37. The perfect score for me, since it matches that of my girlfriend. Lower and I'd have been disappointed. Higher and she'd be jealous.

You know you. I've done a lot of things in my life that would burn other people out, but because I was passionate about my goals, and possibly a little insanely driven, I thrived. For me, exam prep was not grueling. I really enjoyed the process. I took the exam a second time because I really like taking tests. I see them as games, boss fights, where all the study and prep was the grinding you have to do in order to level up. Thinking about it that way makes it easy and fun, at least for me.

 

[carpediem22]

I'd reiterate that your plan seems like it could be overkill.

I started studying in February through an EK course, and did self-study for the month following it. I took my exam in May and received 90-100th preliminary percentile range. I think that not burning out is a very, very important goal. I even started to feel burned out by the end of it all, and I only studied for ~3.5 months! If you are a strong science student, one round of content review should be fine. Moreover, you might forget what you studied if you start now but don't take it for a year. Very easy thing to do when you are cramming this volume of material into your brain. Condensing into a shorter time period will help you remember.

Edit: I forgot to add that reading journals will definitely help with all sections of the exam. Make sure to get a variety in there, including Psych/Soc.

 

[piii]

Personally, it seems like overkill, as other's have said. The MCAT is much (if not more, now) a test on how well you can test, rather than content. You need to have a strong foundation in science, obviously, and knowing a lot of little details can help get those additional points. But, to be honest, I question whether your method would be truly worth your time, and actually beneficial to your final score. I believe that above content prep, if I was to do anything so far in advanced, it would be verbal practice. If you are competent in studying, then a month or so of content prep followed by a few months of hardcore practice is more than sufficient. If you want to get a head start, the most beneficial thing in my opinion would be to nail down a strong verbal strategy and practice for a year. Again, this is just my opinion. I'm an incredibly hard worker and have ambitions such as yours, but in your position I would much rather spend my summer doing something else intellectually stimulating and more enjoyable. Also, keep in mind that, since the MCAT is an aptitude test, most people have a height. Say, someone starts of at a 25 on the old scale. They could 4 months of solid prep and raise their score to 33. Do you really think they could raise their score to a 37 with another 3 months? Likely, no. What if your height is a 35? Do you think that an additional 3 months on top of what you will do leading up to the test could be the difference of getting to a 40?

my .02

 

[Glazedonutlove]

Nothing wrong with getting familiar with passage style or taking a diagnostic, but I wouldn't start content reciew. You tell yourself you will do it twice but mastering all that material takes a long time and you most likely won't go through it again, causing you to forget everything by test time. I procrastinate a lot and I did for mcAt as well, crammed a lot into the last week. Make sure you start early enough to take breaks when you burn out but no need to start now.

 

[Saigon]

Thanks for all the responses! I will definitely continue with my verbal prep right now. I am also going to work through physics (using Nova) since it is my weakest subject.

Since I am taking biochemistry and physiology in the fall I am thinking of reading the analogous chapters in my prep books as I have already obtained them. This would be faster than trying to learn all the material from scratch this summer. I am also tutoring organic chemistry for the year so I guess that in itself would be its own content review.