Doing ONLY passages for MCAT prep?

[txlonghorn2314]

My exam is April 5th, and by the end of Christmas break I will have finished the EK 1001 series for all 4 subjects, as well as AAMC self-assessment, giving me a solid content grasp. I have all TBR books, all TPRH Science workbooks, Kaplan MCAT 45, 7 TBR Fl's, and all AAMC Fls.


From January 6-April 5th, would it be wise to ONLY do passages (10-12/day) and in the second half also taking a TBR Fl in the middle of the week and an AAMC exam on Saturday.

I haven't seen much info on this type of strategy of passage overload. Let me know if this would be a wise way to prepare for destroying this motherlover.

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[daleader]

My exam is April 5th, and by the end of Christmas break I will have finished the EK 1001 series for all 4 subjects, as well as AAMC self-assessment, giving me a solid content grasp. I have all TBR books, all TPRH Science workbooks, Kaplan MCAT 45, 7 TBR Fl's, and all AAMC Fls.


From January 6-April 5th, would it be wise to ONLY do passages (10-12/day) and in the second half also taking a TBR Fl in the middle of the week and an AAMC exam on Saturday.

I haven't seen much info on this type of strategy of passage overload. Let me know if this would be a wise way to prepare for destroying this motherlover.

If you are finishing all 1001 series by then, you should have identified your strengths and weaknesses by then and it would be wise to do passages only - unless if there is a certain chapter that you don't feel confident in...

Way to go ! Finishing everything 3 months before the actual date is amazing

Are you non-trad studying full time?

Good luck Let us know how the self-assessments go!

 

[txlonghorn2314]

If you are finishing all 1001 series by then, you should have identified your strengths and weaknesses by then and it would be wise to do passages only - unless if there is a certain chapter that you don't feel confident in...

Way to go ! Finishing everything 3 months before the actual date is amazing

Are you non-trad studying full time?

Good luck Let us know how the self-assessments go!

Yes I'm a non-trad, actually finishing up taking 14 hours this semester including Human A&P, Physics II, Toxicology, and a Cell/Molecular Bio tutor, so this semester as a whole has greatly covered content review (for Bio especially). After the EK 1001 series I'm confident my basic knowledge will be where it needs to be, but passages in general I find intimidating. So I figured why not just do 60 passages/week + 15 Fl's during the 90 days before the test? My wedding day is 2 months following the exam day, so I think I have my solid motivation to push through it. I was just making sure this would be a wise route...kind of combining Sn2'd and Spinach Dip's methods together.

And thanks! Good luck to you as well!!

 

[daleader]

Yes I'm a non-trad, actually finishing up taking 14 hours this semester including Human A&P, Physics II, Toxicology, and a Cell/Molecular Bio tutor, so this semester as a whole has greatly covered content review (for Bio especially). After the EK 1001 series I'm confident my basic knowledge will be where it needs to be, but passages in general I find intimidating. So I figured why not just do 60 passages/week + 15 Fl's during the 90 days before the test? My wedding day is 2 months following the exam day, so I think I have my solid motivation to push through it. I was just making sure this would be a wise route...kind of combining Sn2'd and Spinach Dip's methods together.

And thanks! Good luck to you as well!!

Wow well - done, I'm sure you will be fine. I personally highly recommend that study plan !

 

[phunky]

I've been doing 2-3 FLs per week (mainly weekends) plus ~10 passages/day on non-FL days. It's been working well. Directionless content review is starting to seem like a huge waste of time. Passages and FLs show you what areas you should focus.

 

[RC4L]

I admire your diligence but that is a long time to finish the material before taking the exam. You want the info fresh don't you think it would be prudent to wait a bit?

 

[Swagster]

In retrospect, I think studying by just doing passages is the best way to go. You're going to cover the material either way, so why not get more passages done?

 

[valkener]

It really depends on your level of knowledge, but if this strategy helps you then go for it.. I'm assuming you have the foundational knowledge and understand the concepts. If you discover that you need to brush up you can always go back but towards the end you should be doing mostly problem-solving anyway. Good luck!

 

[shinsoochoo]

how are you averaging on your practice exams as a result of this if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

It really depends on you . . .

This is the key thing. Almost any strategy can work, if it's right for you. I'm fond of endlessly repeating that the MCAT is not a science test, so you should stop studying for it. The MCAT tests skills, so you should practice. And there's no better practice than just doing passages. Having said that, you do need to be conversant in the basic language of the test, so you do need some science review. In OP's case, it sounds like he's already done that.

I would caution you though about simply trying to do MORE of everything. As my trumpet teacher told me when I was 11, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. If you're practicing bad habits, you're just going to engrain them." You're actually better off doing less practice but doing more thorough review of that practice. If you haven't *really learned* something from the practice set you just did, then what was the point?

To that end, I'd suggest you keep in mind the following rule of thumb: after doing a set of practice passages, you should be able to look back at each passage and extract from that passage 2-3 big lessons.

You should be able to say to yourself, "Okay after doing those three physics passages, they taught me the following seven lessons: first, remember that buoyancy depends on the volume of liquid displaced, not the volume of the object, second, remember to look at the units on the axes of the graph, third..."

Hands down the most common mistake good MCAT students make is just continuing to push forward when what they should be doing is more thoroughly reviewing their work.

Good luck!!