Die MCAT!

[bark]

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Hi. I joined this forum because it looks like a wonderful resource and I'm worried about the MCAT. I also need help. Sorry for the long post. It's important you understand exactly what I'm doing though.

I'm finished with school and I work 15 hours a week. I'm an anthropologist, so I've done the bare mininum of required science classes. I am thinking about taking the MCAT in Jan. or Feb. 2013.

I began my studying aimlessly about one and a half weeks ago with the Kaplan Premier book. I didn't do the content review. I did one practice biology section and one chemistry section. I performed poorly, only getting 50% of the questions correct. I stopped wasting any more sections.

I went through each missed question, wrote why I chose what I chose and why the correct answer was correct. For most missed questions, it appears that I didn't understand a concept adequately. The second most missed category came from not understanding what I was reading.

So I decided I needed content review. I got Exam Krackers books because they were most brisk. I went through the bio book in about four days, taking 16 pages of typed notes. I did the practice questions without reviewing notes and scored poorly, only getting 70% of questions correct.

I went through each question and wrote why the correct answer is correct, and ended up adding another page of typed notes. I want to note that a lot of the biology content from EK was never discussed in either of my two bio science classes, so I was learning it cold.

While I was at the bookstore, I looked through the Berkley Review bio book and decided to try one bio passage. It was about diffusion and seemed simple enough, but when I got to the questions, I had no clue what the correct answers were. I didn't even check.

I considered going through TBR bio content review, but it felt like reading a text book and I don't think the time investment would help me very much. Now I am in the process of making flash cards of some of my notes.

Simply put, I need advice about my study method and how to proceed from here. It's painful putting in a lot of effort and still not knowing WTF is going on in a passage or question.

I've read many of the general help threads already. Thank you for any additional help.

 

[tttgo]

They don't have tbr @ bookstore. U prob meant tpr. Of course they're not gonna test you verbatim. U need critical reasoning. Find the study style that works for you early on. Ie typing notes for me was a waste of time so I stopped.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using SDN Mobile

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

EK is essentially the cliff notes of MCAT prep and only good for a subject if you already have a solid background in that subject and just need a quick refresher on the relevant concepts.

TBR and TPR are better choices if you're rusty on the material or never got exposed to it. Yes, they're written like textbooks and, at least in the case of TBR (I never read TPR), takes hours to read through a single chapter. But like it or not that's what you probably need. With MCAT prep you get back what you put in.

My advice: Stop with the note cards. They aren't going to help you on this exam beyond memorizing formulas and hormones. The MCAT is all about concepts and critical thinking, not memorization and regurgitation.

Next, get TBR for gen chem, physics, and orgo review. The books take forever to read through and the passages are going to frustrate you, but it'll be worth it at the end. For bio get TPR's review book and the hyperlearning science workbook (you'll have to buy it off ebay/craigslist/SDN classifieds since it's only given to students in their review courses). If for someone reason you don't want to do this then get TBR bio but beware that they pack a lot of unnecessary information into their books and the passages aren't very similar to the ones you'll find on the real MCAT (they emphasize fact recall way too much and are far too difficult). For verbal get EK 101 passages in verbal reasoning and the TPR hyperlearning verbal workbook (again, you'll have to buy it second-hand, and be forewarned that it's going to cost a disgusting amount of money).

Content review will probably take you about 1.5 to 2 months. The rest of your time should be spent freebasing practice passages and tests as much as possible. Do NOT start doing practice tests until you're done with content review, you'll just be wasting them. If you want an idea of how your study schedule should look, take a look at SN2ed's schedule. Since you aren't in school and only work 15 hours a week his 4 month schedule should be very doable for you. The only changes I would make would be the addition of the self-assessment package the week after you finish content review so you know what you need to go back and review again.

 

[bark]

My background is strong. I just haven't practiced any of the subjects in one year, so I don't remember them right away.

How exactly are you doing content review? It sounds like read the book of one subject and then go on to the next. According to that time frame, finish one book every two weeks.

I'm interested in the details of the processes successful people use.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

My background is strong. I just haven't practiced any of the subjects in one year, so I don't remember them right away.

How exactly are you doing content review? It sounds like read the book of one subject and then go on to the next. According to that time frame, finish one book every two weeks.

I'm interested in the details of the processes successful people use.

You said a lot of what was in EK bio was new to you. Sorry, but you're not nearly as strong in your pre-reqs, at least not for biology, as you think you are. A lot of people go into the MCAT thinking they're solid in their pre-reqs, and then they take the test and find out the hard way that they weren't as well versed as they thought they were. I went to a top 20 university where a lot of kids fell into this trap because they were so used to being able to walk into any test and destroy it with natural ability. Hence why at my prestigious school full of geniuses it was very common to run into people who got scores in the 20s.

Anyway, the way to do content review is to read one chapter from each book per day (or really per week since the other three days should be spent reviewing over what you reviewed and doing more practice passages on that week's material). This is a better strategy since that way each subject is fresh in your mind when you finish and you can see the links between subjects while you study, instead of getting to the end of your content review and realizing that you need to review whatever you started out with all over again.

Like I said before, how much success you have with your exam prep depends entirely on how much time and effort you put into it. With very rare exceptions, the people who get good scores on this exam are also the ones who bust their asses off studying for it. The only "secret" to doing well on this exam is that you just have to study more than most people would consider reasonable.

FWIW, my test average on AAMC 8-11 was 37 (range of 36-39) and I reviewed everything with TBR (content review took about 2 months IIRC). Then for about the next four months after that I crammed practice passages, tests, and re-read chapters whenever I thought I needed to. Keep in mind though that I was only doing about 2-3 hours per day (except on weekends where it was more like 3-5 hours per day) so what I did can easily be accomplished in far less time if you don't have a full time job or school.

 

[bark]

That's right, a significant amount of the bio material was never discussed in my two classes which I was surprised to find out because I read at AAMC that the pre-reqs cover the whole MCAT.

Okay OC, I will trust in your method to guide me. I will read one chapter from TBR Physics + Chem and one chapter from TPR Bio everday.

If I understood you correctly, I only read one subject per day + answer its respective practice passage, but since I have more time I should do more than that, like one chapter from each subject per day or two chapters from one subject per day?

What should I be doing when reading a chapter (take notes, make lists, etc.)? Should I incorporate practice passages from other books after finishing a chapter or should I save them for later? How and when do I review the practice passages?

One thing I noticed while reading EK bio was that if I just had a list of all the concepts from each chapter, I believe I could have learned more in less time just researching the concepts on the internet rather than reading the book. Is this the wrong attitude?

Thanks so much for your help. I'm not afraid of hard work, but I do worry that I work hard + spend time and do not see improvement. That's why I ask a ton of questions because I want to make sure my process is correct and effort not wasted.

 

[tttgo]

Here's some advice spend more time to get the content down. Ie spend more time than 2ch/ day if you're not retaining. If I had to do it over, I would aim for scores like those in the br scores thread instead of being satisfied w/ tens and moving on.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using SDN Mobile

 

[ridethecliche]

TBR or TPR and go through all the content.

Either you want to do this or you don't. If you feel like half assing it then enjoy yourself, but keep the whining to yourself too.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

That's right, a significant amount of the bio material was never discussed in my two classes which I was surprised to find out because I read at AAMC that the pre-reqs cover the whole MCAT.

Okay OC, I will trust in your method to guide me. I will read one chapter from TBR Physics + Chem and one chapter from TPR Bio everday.

If I understood you correctly, I only read one subject per day + answer its respective practice passage, but since I have more time I should do more than that, like one chapter from each subject per day or two chapters from one subject per day?

What should I be doing when reading a chapter (take notes, make lists, etc.)? Should I incorporate practice passages from other books after finishing a chapter or should I save them for later? How and when do I review the practice passages?

One thing I noticed while reading EK bio was that if I just had a list of all the concepts from each chapter, I believe I could have learned more in less time just researching the concepts on the internet rather than reading the book. Is this the wrong attitude?

Thanks so much for your help. I'm not afraid of hard work, but I do worry that I work hard + spend time and do not see improvement. That's why I ask a ton of questions because I want to make sure my process is correct and effort not wasted.

Use SN2ed's schedule as a guide (it's in the sticky thread "Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month Study Schedule"). I don't think you should go over 2 chapters per day. It took me a week to move through 4 chapters and 1/3rd of the passages for each chapter because I was working full time. What I meant by going faster is that you can probably do 1 chapter and 1/3rd of its passages per day. Then on the other 3 days of the week you do the second 1/3rd of passages for those 4 chapters and 1/5th to 1/3rd of the EK1001 problems for the relevant sections, and maybe even re-read that week's chapters. If you do that you should be solid on your background knowledge when content review is over. I would not recommend doing 2 chapters per day; while it's possible to do that much, chances are you'll be too burned out after the first chapter to get much out of the second one.

You can take notes or make lists while you read if you think it'll help you. Your call.

 

[gtbROX]

What has helped me tremendously for conceptual questions and memorization is reading and taking notes on EK chapters/sections and then watching videos on khanacademy.org that are relevant to that section. TPR science workbook was a great resource for testing myself after reviewing each topic to help retain them in my memory.
You want to have a balance of reading, visualizing, and self-testing/practicing when you're doing your content review.

 

[bark]

Use SN2ed's schedule as a guide (it's in the sticky thread "Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month Study Schedule").

I imported the file to google calender, but when I clicked on the calender I imported it to, the calender was still blank. I don't have any of the other compatible programs for ics files.

I don't think you should go over 2 chapters per day. It took me a week to move through 4 chapters and 1/3rd of the passages for each chapter because I was working full time. What I meant by going faster is that you can probably do 1 chapter and 1/3rd of its passages per day. Then on the other 3 days of the week you do the second 1/3rd of passages for those 4 chapters and 1/5th to 1/3rd of the EK1001 problems for the relevant sections, and maybe even re-read that week's chapters. If you do that you should be solid on your background knowledge when content review is over. "

That helps me a lot. I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do now. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. 😍 Do you check and review the questions on the same day that you do them?

 

[Capltd29]

Not trying to sound mean or offensive, but it sounds like you are really rushing and trying to fly through the content without actually learning it. You should take some time to go through the content and do some practice questions with a diverse angle on the content. The MCAT loves asking the same question in different ways. You should probably pick a book/program and go with it. Trying to go through the bio book in 4 days isn't gonna do it. You simply cannot learn and retain information effectively enough to use it in such a short time.

 

[bark]

Some questions:

1. I started SN2 schedule, read chapter 1 of physics and G. chemistry, but have not studied for one week after that due to illness. I also start volunteering at a hospital soon, so I am almost working 20 hours a week now. Should I be using the four or three month schedule at this point?

2. I just read half of chapter 1 O. chemistry, but some of the pages are a convuluted wall of text to me. How should I deal with this: Refer to another source, ignore it, re-read it 100 times?

Since I'm not taking notes, I don't know how much of the information I'll actually retain and I'm not exactly sure what key points I should be getting out of all this. The O-chem book seems to ask much fewer questions in between paragraphs as a concept check than the physics and g-chem books. Other people make it sound like the bio book will be similar...

3. How do I see more details in the calender if I'm using google calender to view ics files?

4. I did the first six verbal passages from EK 101. I made three categories about why I missed questions with a brief sentence about the missed questions. Some answer explanations or answer choices are really out there though... anyway, I'm not really sure how I should be reviewing this?

 

[ToldYouSo]

Some questions:

1. I started SN2 schedule, read chapter 1 of physics and G. chemistry, but have not studied for one week after that due to illness. I also start volunteering at a hospital soon, so I am almost working 20 hours a week now. Should I be using the four or three month schedule at this point?

2. I just read half of chapter 1 O. chemistry, but some of the pages are a convuluted wall of text to me. How should I deal with this: Refer to another source, ignore it, re-read it 100 times?

Since I'm not taking notes, I don't know how much of the information I'll actually retain and I'm not exactly sure what key points I should be getting out of all this. The O-chem book seems to ask much fewer questions in between paragraphs as a concept check than the physics and g-chem books. Other people make it sound like the bio book will be similar...

3. How do I see more details in the calender if I'm using google calender to view ics files?

4. I did the first six verbal passages from EK 101. I made three categories about why I missed questions with a brief sentence about the missed questions. Some answer explanations or answer choices are really out there though... anyway, I'm not really sure how I should be reviewing this?

Yeah the sn2 schedule is pretty much a full time commitment. When I started it I was surprised at just how much time was required to do the assigned readings and questions. Being that you're a week behind and having trouble with o-chem and verbal I would switch to the 4 month schedule; it's really hard to catch up on missed days so rather than stress yourself just give it more time. It get's harder in the final few weeks so you want to be caught up.