Everyday, I feel as if I am gonna cry

[JulianCrane]

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It seems that as much as I do study for this test over break, I can't get anything right. I don't know what my problem is, but I can not seem to get through a verbal passage without reading it entirely. When I am taking a practice passage, I be so stressed out and many times, I've only gotten 2 or 3 questions right in the whole passage. Not to mention, I wake up every day feeling as if I am approaching doomsday (April 26, 2003). It's like all the work I've done in my college career is for nothing if I don't do well on the MCAT. I have a 3.8, which I think is respectable. How well do I have to do on the MCAT to legitimize this GPA? How much studying and what kinds of strategies should I employ to prepare? I am taking a review course offered in-house. Can someone please tell me how not to let this test consume my life? When I read posts about the MCAT, it appears that everybody is basically spending the entire semester studying for this test -- to hell with classes! Help!😕

 

[care bear]

honey, don't worry so much! 🙂 you'll do fine, i'm sure. what's more important is that you don't wake up feeling stressed and not enjoying your studying. studying for MCAT can actually be enjoyable if u just relax a bit and enjoy revisiting all the material that you might have learned quite some time ago, or coming to an understanding of stuff that is relatively new. plus, with a 3.8 you've got plenty of room to play with on your scores; it's definitely not a '35+ or die' kinda situation.
breathe. . .breathe again. . .and know that we've all been there and survived, no matter the outcome. . .you will too. hang in there!

 

[Street Philosopher]

what help are you looking for?

 

[Tuesday Weld]

A 3.8 is good. Don't feel like you have to get a 35 on the MCAT or else.

Do you have good EC's? Good references? That always helps.

Are you a URM ? That will help in the admissions process.

If you stress too much about the MCATs, then it will only hurt your performance, so try not to worry about it and do the best that you can.

Originally posted by JulianCrane
It seems that as much as I do study for this test over break, I can't get anything right. I don't know what my problem is, but I can not seem to get through a verbal passage without reading it entirely. When I am taking a practice passage, I be so stressed out and many times, I've only gotten 2 or 3 questions right in the whole passage. Not to mention, I wake up every day feeling as if I am approaching doomsday (April 26, 2003). It's like all the work I've done in my college career is for nothing if I don't do well on the MCAT. I have a 3.8, which I think is respectable. How well do I have to do on the MCAT to legitimize this GPA? How much studying and what kinds of strategies should I employ to prepare? I am taking a review course offered in-house. Can someone please tell me how not to let this test consume my life? When I read posts about the MCAT, it appears that everybody is basically spending the entire semester studying for this test -- to hell with classes! Help!😕

 

[Kovox]

Um..........I think that you are burnt out from studying verbal so how about you go take a short one hour break. You have until April to study and prepare!!

As for verbal, read the passage and read it for understanding...don't try to remember every detail..try that techqnique to see if that works for you.

I read in the MCAT forum that you were waiting for january when your review course starts to really start studying for science. If you're paniking now over the MCAT then um you should since um I would too if I didn't study YET and started thinkn of taking the MCAT.😀

My advise is to calm down, get a grip, plan how you're going to attack the mcat, figure out if you want to have a study partner, order extra study materials from aamc, exam krackers, princeton review stuff NOW.....etc and not at the last minute.

Japanese proverb :

"If before the battle you think've you've lost, then you have lost without fighting"

So stop thinking and start doing.

 

[JulianCrane]

Let's see. I am a tour guide for my school, a teacher on the Bioethics outreach team, singer in an a cappella group, member of 2 honoraries, and I guess I am a URM (but I don't want that to be why I get into med school). I have been in the same research lab for the past year. How well do I have to do on the MCAT? What scores should I be targeting? I know that I don't have to get 35+, but I certainly don't want 7's and 8's in the sections either.

 

[kaos]

Right now, my grade stands @ 3.45. I got a 3.09 from just this past semester. 🙁 🙁 🙁

 

[abw]

Hey!
Everybody is different, so what helped me may not help you, but this is my personal experience: I took a practice mcat and scored a 4 on verbal - not because I'm illiterate - I actually scored almost pefect on the sat and gre. i didn't know what to do, bc i was using the reading techniques I learned in h.s. - read each question then hunt for the answer. I took a mcat course and was too stubborn to do it their way (read each paragraph then think and write a summary statement, author's purpose, an theme i think) i thought it'd all be a waste of time. After no improvement and lots of passages I finally decided to try their way on about 10 practice passages. After, I took a practice mcat and scored an 11 - no joke. I wound up with a 10 on the real thing - most here probably don't think too much about that - but I was very happy. So my suggestion is to just be open to whatever techniques your course gives you, study consistently, and don't let it stress you out too much

 

[ScreamingTreesRule]

Originally posted by JulianCrane
Let's see. I am a tour guide for my school, a teacher on the Bioethics outreach team, singer in an a cappella group, member of 2 honoraries,

Sounds like you have a great resume!

and I guess I am a URM

Why do you say that you guess that you're a URM? Are you borderline URM? 😕

but I certainly don't want 7's and 8's in the sections either.

With all of your accomplishments, you're not going to get 7's and 8's. I'm sure you'll do fine. Just keep a positive attitude! 😉

 

[PluckyDuk8]

I just wanted to add that while you are studying make sure to continue doing the things you enjoy (ex. working out, parties, movies, etc.) to give yourself a breather and help you stay relaxed.

 

[AznTrojan]

take a break.. it seems like you're burning out.. and it's way to early to burn out in the marathon study session.. it's also way to early to panic.. so don't panic (why do i get the feeling this is like telling a depressed person to cheer up 😀)

take a few days off.. enjoy your winter break.. get liquored/go to the beach/ski/snowboard/go out and watch a movie.. then go back to study when you have a clear head.. you're in no shape or form to study productively.. so you might as well not study..

good luck.. it's a long road..

 

[Jalby]

Have you thought about drugs (I'm serious) I know one guy in my class who has an anxiety disorder and he pops a legal prescription pill before most of his tests.

 

[Neuronix]

It sounds like you are a really busy and competitive applicant! How well you do on the MCAT is really going to help determine what med schools you're going to get into. If you're shooting for any med school or state school (not that this is bad!), than a 28+ I would think would get you there. On the other hand, if you're shooting for Ivy League or MSTP or something along those lines, than you're going to be trying to get a high a score as possible.

Seriously, have you thought about taking the MCAT in August? What are you doing to prepare, just studying on your own? Something I felt I learned in my review course was strategy for attacking the verbal passages. I do read the entire passage before I look at the questions, but while I read I scribble down lots of notes and have a coding system for retrieving things when I do get to the questions. It works for me, and it's pretty much straight out of TPR.

I really advocate taking the MCAT when you feel prepared for it. However, you have time because I assume you're taking it this April. You can stick with your preparation or bail now and plan to take in August. A MCAT score that is 5 points higher because you had all summer to study for it is going to help you more, even with the late score, than 5 points lower would if you took it in April and weren't prepared. You could always take the MCAT in August and then take a year off after your undergraduate study (this is what I did, I think it was a great decision for me!).

In any case, if MCAT verbal just doesn't come to you immediately (it didn't for me either), you just have to prepare for it. Just remain calm, work a couple passages a day, and if you don't have time to feel ready now, just don't go or void the test and retake. That way you have the prep and you don't have the mark of having a bad score the first time you took it.

 

[YaFwiendToluene]

In tests with long reading passages...it usually helps for me to find the main ideas of each paragraph first through a quick 10 second skim read of the whole passage. Then I move onto the questions. For instance...if a whole passage was about how Jane Doe was a great congressional woman and one of the questions was...what year did Jane Doe begin her congrssional career. I would first think back to all the main ideas I remembered...see which on best fits that question...then go back to the passage..do another 5 second skim read and find the answer..then move on. This method takes practice..but with skill......a whole passage and a set of 5 questions should take you no longer than 1 minute. For the MCAT period...just relax..its just another one of those "PITA" exams aka Pain In The Arse exams that you have to take. Relax, Read the problem, Execute, Review, MOVE on (RRERM)..thats what works for me.



Hope that helps..see where that gets ya.

 

[tomjr]

I took the MCAT last April, the weekend after I ran the Boston Marathon... I really think that the 15 mile training runs kept my MCAT related stress at a lower than normal level... I'm not saying you have to go out and rev up the engines for a spring marathon, but even getting 15-30 mins of excercise a day (I think) will decrease anxiety in a big way

You're studying super early which is great... another great way to prepare for verbal is to pick up things and READ THEM... like, books and articles you normally wouldn't read. Try to get inside the author's head, understand what he or she is trying to say. IMO, this is much more enjoyable than cramming practice tests and its something you have the luxury of doing, since you're not up against the wall time wise. Some holiday vacation suggestiongs:

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.... classic novel that has some very relevant 'science ethics' themes

Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett... a wonderful short drama that (like most postmodern literature) is open to all sorts of interpretations

Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson.... great if you are into sci-fi/fantasy (like me!!)

anything by Kurt Vonnegut.... KV's books always have me waxing philosophical while cracking up at the same time

I hope this helps... point being, you are working hard, things will be fine. don't stress, life is good!!

all the best,

Tom

 

[efex101]

There are some great posts on the MCAT forum about how to study yada yada. Do not get discouraged with VR even though you do not get a lot of the questions correct, just keep at it. Eventually you will get the feel of VR and kind of know which are the best answers (hopefully two) and then you can pick the best choice or guess. I highly advice you to purchase the EK verbal reasoning book it is awesome! They use a total different approach than some of the major test prep companies and it is working for me, and it worked for a lot of other folks. They advice against writing or underlining (it wastes too much precious time on the real MCAT) and they are huge advocates of the "main idea". You can pretty much answer any question on VR if you know the main idea of each passage. I am struggling with freaking physics, I think every person will have one subject that just kicks our arse and we will have to try extra hard in that subject to break the trend! just keep your head up and keep on studying. If you have not started studying this may be why you are stressed out, you keep thinking OMG I should start reading, etc..Just start browsing through the different subject and make sure what areas will be tested on the MCAT. If you start doing a little now it will be less that you have to do later when classes will be starting.

 

[Lebesgue]

Yes, check the MCAT forum. And check your PM folder.