Enough Time For Enough Classes/Prep

[He2]

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btw, i am advocating the beginning of junior year plan, i have a >3.8, >35. I also go out every weekend and run marathons. I have a life too, mostly because of the work ethic that the process teaches you.

 

[GoSpursGo]

i think one of the false assumptions here is that if you take the MCAT after your Junior year, you have more time to study for it. That is absolutely not true. All you are doing is ensuring that you either sacrifice your grades or study for the MCAT.

No, we're not assuming that it gives you more time to study; we're assuming that it gives you more time to space out the classes that you have to take for the MCAT so that you don't mess up your GPA. There are a lot of pre-meds who manage to mess up their GPA even doing things the traditional way; why would you want to make those first 2 years even harder? Yes, there are the exceptional students who can juggle everything, but everyone thinks they're that person. I also didn't sacrifice my grades for the MCAT that spring; those semesters I counted my prep class as an extra class and so dropped down the number of hours I was taking to accommodate it.

Aside from that, I do agree with your basic premise that taking it after the summer following sophomore year makes some sense, if you're doing it for the right reasons; it's a different way of doing things, maybe not strictly better or worse, though I personally think you wind up making things harder on yourself. What I think people are up in arms about is that the OP is seeing the August MCAT as a way to retake the exam, which as you agree, makes no sense and should not be considered in the process.

 

[He2]

No, we're not assuming that it gives you more time to study; we're assuming that it gives you more time to space out the classes that you have to take for the MCAT so that you don't mess up your GPA. There are a lot of pre-meds who manage to mess up their GPA even doing things the traditional way; why would you want to make those first 2 years even harder? Yes, there are the exceptional students who can juggle everything, but everyone thinks they're that person. I also didn't sacrifice my grades for the MCAT that spring; those semesters I counted my prep class as an extra class and so dropped down the number of hours I was taking to accommodate it.

Aside from that, I do agree with your basic premise that taking it after the summer following sophomore year makes some sense, if you're doing it for the right reasons; it's a different way of doing things, maybe not strictly better or worse, though I personally think you wind up making things harder on yourself. What I think people are up in arms about is that the OP is seeing the August MCAT as a way to retake the exam, which as you agree, makes no sense and should not be considered in the process.

ok, then we're in agreement.

see, not all online debates have to end in flames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRqu_KyXygQ

 

[GoSpursGo]

ok, then we're in agreement.

see, not all online debates have to end in flames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRqu_KyXygQ

The link doesn't work 🙁

 

[loveoforganic]

Woah now spurs, I have a 3.56, don't sell me short! 😛

 

[GoSpursGo]

Woah now spurs, I have a 3.56, don't sell me short! 😛

My bad; I thought you meant if you made straight A's from NOW ON you'd only get up to a 3.5.

 

[loveoforganic]

Oh, I might have forgotten to specify - I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be possible for me to get my BCPM GPA up to a 3.6.

 

[wanderer]

like I said, the MCAT is NOT a test of scientific knowledge. it doesn't matter how recently you've had the courses.

Quite a few questions are straight-up knowledge, and the ones that aren't are knowledge-plus. I took my courses recently and needed very little content review as a result. If I had taken it a year later I likely would have needed significantly more content review.

There are benefits and costs to each approach. If you want to have more of a life, I'd recommend taking 3 years. If you want to get the MCAT over with and can't study more than 2 months for one test, or you hate reviewing things, do it in 2 (and take the MCAT in August or September).

 

[armybound]

Quite a few questions are straight-up knowledge, and the ones that aren't are knowledge-plus. I took my courses recently and needed very little content review as a result. If I had taken it a year later I likely would have needed significantly more content review.

There are benefits and costs to each approach. If you want to have more of a life, I'd recommend taking 3 years. If you want to get the MCAT over with and can't study more than 2 months for one test, or you hate reviewing things, do it in 2 (and take the MCAT in August or September).

IIRC there are ~25 total "discrete" science questions (out of 104). I would consider that a minor portion of the exam. it's hard to argue that the verbal reasoning section or writing section benefit from having recently taken science courses.

 

[He2]

the rest of the questions that aren't discrete rely on your knowledge of material and ask you to apply it to new situations in journal readings. The first step to pounding a nail is to have a hammer, period. if you dont have one, you're screwed.

skill based questions rely on factual knowledge that can be applied to new situations, which can be practiced through practice exams

also, embedded in alot of the passage questions were discrete questions, i.e. if the passage is about light, then they ask you to calculate the wavelength given the freq. plug and chug, given that you simply know the equation.

its a significant portion that can set you apart, especially between the low to high 30's.

 

[He2]

Quite a few questions are straight-up knowledge, and the ones that aren't are knowledge-plus. I took my courses recently and needed very little content review as a result. If I had taken it a year later I likely would have needed significantly more content review.

There are benefits and costs to each approach. If you want to have more of a life, I'd recommend taking 3 years. If you want to get the MCAT over with and can't study more than 2 months for one test, or you hate reviewing things, do it in 2 (and take the MCAT in August or September).

agreed. there are benefits and costs to each side. As i said, if you have a strong work ethic and alot of humility with the intention of being a better student (to see how not to act, see http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=663165), then the beginning of your junior year is a very strong option for you.

 

[armybound]

there's no doubt you need a background of scientific fundamentals for the exam. this is why you review the basic science for the exam.

but the test is about critical thinking. you need to know what you need to know to answer the question. what's relevant in the passage and what isn't? how do you incorporate your prior knowledge into the answer? that's all critical thinking.

but what do I know, I only taught MCAT for Kaplan. I probably don't know anything about the exam.

 

[wanderer]

IIRC there are ~25 total "discrete" science questions (out of 104). I would consider that a minor portion of the exam. it's hard to argue that the verbal reasoning section or writing section benefit from having recently taken science courses.

Quite a few of those questions (plus a few questions that are passage-based) are very specific, and the only way to answer them without guessing is if they are fresh in your mind, or you had VERY solid content review. Maybe I'm biased because my review books (EK) didn't mention a lot of the minor details, but all those little detail questions I got right because I had taken the courses very recently.

Edit: I'd also like to mention the fact that I took everything at the same time helped me with integration of different topics.

ps. I took almost everything in less than 2 years and got over a 35 with little content review.

 

[loveoforganic]

Kaplan stinks!


...

🙂

 

[armybound]

Kaplan stinks!


...

🙂

it's even worse to work for. but they do teach you a lot about the structure of the exam

 

[premedicine]

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[armybound]

Eh, I dunno if I'd gamble with my GPA. I had to overcome a bad freshman year GPA and it was really, really hard to do.

But it's your future.

 

[premedicine]

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[GoSpursGo]

Alright. Good luck.

 

[armybound]

what math are you taking? calculus is a bit of a beast also (imo).

 

[premedicine]

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[premedicine]

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[He2]

question: why can't you :

FR: Genchem/calc
Soph: phys,bio,ochem?

i feel like genchem/calc should be a good indicator if you can handle phys,bio,ochem

being a kaplan prof doesnt mean much, imo. again, they are a business, which means they teach towards the masses, whcih means if you move from a 24+, you have improved. things like STP really just stop you from going nuclear, which if you are ready for the exam, going nuclear shouldnt be a problem.

 

[premedicine]

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[XRanger]

spread your schedule if you can. bad gpa is harder to overcome than bad mcat. At my school most people take gchem/bio - first year, ochem,calc - second year, physics - third year, and take mcat in the spring of junior year.

 

[snorlax]

I guess I agree that its a matter of personal preference. Getting everything done in 2 years (which is what I'm doing) probably depends on what school you go to and how that school handles the coursework. For me, I was able to take 1 quarter of bio, physics, and ochem my freshman year. So my sophomore year will be 2 quarters of bio, 2 quarters of physics, 2 quarters of ochem, and 1 quarter of biochem (the rest will probably be English).

I guess it's more than 2 science classes per quarter, but for me its not a problem since I'm majoring in biochem. If you're good at science, I don't think having 3 science classes vs. 2 will have any negative effect on your gpa.

 

[IHeartSleep]

Best plan:

1. Give up your winter break in junior year
2. Study like mad for Jan MCAT

Sure, your Christmas break will blow like no other, but you have another semester's worth of classes/extra time, and IF you happen to do poorly on the Jan MCAT, you have another 2-7 months to study for the next one. And maybe you'll have the discipline to take a Kaplan class during the semester, or just study a little on your own.