For anyone who didn't study...

[mRNA]

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Has anyone not studied for the MCAT at all and did well? I imagine that has happened before, but has it happened to anyone here? Just curious.

 

[Anastasis]

I studied about 6 hrs the day before - walked in and got a 40.

OH - wait, I think I was dreaming there for a sec.

The 30+ thread has some stories of people who only studied a week and did really well. I guess it happens.

 

[celeste]

a friend of mine took it after being out of school for 2 years and not being a science major with minimal studying and got a 38.

but i think for the majority of us, that it wishful thinking. 🙂

 

[Nomemory]

a friend of mine took it after being out of school for 2 years and not being a science major with minimal studying and got a 38.

Smart people are so annoying. 😀

 

[Lilah]

Smart people are so annoying. 😀

What’s even more annoying is the people who study like crazy but lie about it and act like they don’t. 👎
Come on…what’s wrong with studying? If you work hard to do well, be proud of it.

 

[KeyLime]

What’s even more annoying is the people who study like crazy but lie about it and act like they don’t. 👎
Come on…what’s wrong with studying? If you work hard to do well, be proud of it.

I totally agree. I knew a lot of people in college who spent most of their time in the library studying but acted very casual before tests and bragged about how they got A's without really trying.

 

[Schaden Freud]

a friend of mine took it after being out of school for 2 years and not being a science major with minimal studying and got a 38.

but i think for the majority of us, that it wishful thinking. 🙂

Yeah, 38 with "minimal" studying is BS. The MCAT doesn't test just native intelligence, like the SAT or LSAT might. It is content heavy, so studying is a must even for MENSA members.

 

[celeste]

Yeah, 38 with "minimal" studying is BS. The MCAT doesn't test just native intelligence, like the SAT or LSAT might. It is content heavy, so studying is a must even for MENSA members.

even though it is heavy on content, its not info we dont already know and been tested on for 4 years in school.

for most bio majors, the bio on the mcat is a cakewalk, the orgo is only 35% so the bio science should not be too bad. as for verbal, its hard to improve, though not impossible. but basically if you have it you have it. finally, for physical sciences, the topics are all conceptual, just memorize the appropriate formulas.

so, if you were a fairly good student and paid attention in school, you probably remeber some things. so if you are that person, i think you can manage with one month of studying.

 

[Lilah]

even though it is heavy on content, its not info we dont already know and been tested on for 4 years in school.

for most bio majors, the bio on the mcat is a cakewalk, the orgo is only 35% so the bio science should not be too bad. as for verbal, its hard to improve, though not impossible. but basically if you have it you have it. finally, for physical sciences, the topics are all conceptual, just memorize the appropriate formulas.

so, if you were a fairly good student and paid attention in school, you probably remeber some things. so if you are that person, i think you can manage with one month of studying.

Most people remember the major points from their classes (if they remember even that 😉 ) but much of the detail is lost. But since you’re re-learning much of the material, a few weeks of studying may be enough…but not studying at all? I would have difficulty believing anyone who claimed this and got a high score.

All in all, it’s a very individualized issue – people have different strengths, weaknesses, etc. But no one is just born knowing everything.

....I should get back to studying 😀

 

[Pharmwannab]

Most people remember the major points from their classes (if they remember even that 😉 ) but much of the detail is lost. But since you’re re-learning much of the material, a few weeks of studying may be enough…but not studying at all? I would have difficulty believing anyone who claimed this and got a high score.

All in all, it’s a very individualized issue – people have different strengths, weaknesses, etc. But no one is just born knowing everything.

....I should get back to studying 😀

This probably doesn't count, but I took the PR practice exam two weeks ago and actually scored a 30, though thought I scored a lot lower. Took it cold. No studying, and have yet to finish the third quarter of o. chem., physics, and the first quarter of genetics. Also, I didn't know jack about physiology since the lower division bio classes at my school don't cover it AT ALL, so I relied completely on information in the passages for those questions. Sure I had some lucky guesses, but there were also several dumb questions I missed that I should've gotten easily. But I was pretty damn happy overall. My expectations going in were pretty low since a friend of mine who's quite intelligent only scored a 13 total when he took this test. Going to be studying like mad over summer for the August exam and taking physiology, so I'm aiming for mid 30s range.

 

[Lilah]

This probably doesn't count, but I took the PR practice exam two weeks ago and actually scored a 30, though thought I scored a lot lower. Took it cold. No studying, and have yet to finish the third quarter of o. chem., physics, and the first quarter of genetics. Also, I didn't know jack about physiology since the lower division bio classes at my school don't cover it AT ALL, so I relied completely on information in the passages for those questions. Sure I had some lucky guesses, but there were also several dumb questions I missed that I should've gotten easily. But I was pretty damn happy overall. My expectations going in were pretty low since a friend of mine who's quite intelligent only scored a 13 total when he took this test. Going to be studying like mad over summer for the August exam and taking physiology, so I'm aiming for mid 30s range.

That’s pretty impressive. 👍
If you got a 30 with no effort, you can probably do much better than mid 30s on the real thing if you put in the time.

Good luck, though you don’t seem to need it too badly. 😀

 

[fyi411]

What’s even more annoying is the people who study like crazy but lie about it and act like they don’t. 👎
Come on…what’s wrong with studying? If you work hard to do well, be proud of it.

they lie about because they are ashamed to say they studied and did really badly, but there are a few who haven't studied and did pretty well 🙂