For the nth time, please tell me i'm not an idiot.

[CremasterFlash]

So i've been perusing the MCAT discussion page and as far as I can tell, all those folks have taken their prereqs prior to beginning their MCAT studying. I'm planning on taking the May 08 test just BEFORE finishing BioIII and OrgoIII. I've finished Gen Chem and Physics already. Grades very good, strong study habits, blah blah blah.

I'm planning to take Kaplan (possibly getting a tutor) and am reading EK books for Chem and Physics now, getting scores in the 12-15 range for each section although no idea how this translates to a score for a whole MCAT.

so... is this asinine? should I wait until the June exam and violate the inviolate "early/broadly" dictum?

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[DrMidlife]

I don't think you're asinine or an idiot.

For me, maybe 75% of the test was focus and reasoning, and 25% was remembering specifics from subject material.

What I suggest is that you take a real practice test. Yes, now. See how that 75% (if relevant) for you is holding up. Yes, you still need to cover all the subject material, but getting a sense of what it's really going to be like, and having a reasonable data point to start from, are extremely valuable. You might find that you don't need to spend the money on Kaplan. I got more out of the EK 1001 books.

And then every fact you can memorize is a point in the 25% zone. For me, I don't remember anything until I've seen it 3x.

e-mcat.org is the practice test site. First one's free.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Empi]

I might not get finished Physics one and two before the mcats. I took a couple of short practice tests (more like quizzes,) and did better in the physics than some of the BIO and I got A's and A-'s in Bio in school. Go figure.

I might take the MCATs before finishing Physics and let the chips fall where they may and retake it after completing Physics and explain the issue with the adcoms.

 

[QofQuimica]

If you'll be finishing the last quarter of each course while you study for the MCAT, that's fine. What is stupid to do is to take the MCAT without having taken one or more of the pre-reqs first. But it's fine to be finishing them up while you study. to you.

 

[RxnMan]

So i've been perusing the MCAT discussion page and as far as I can tell, all those folks have taken their prereqs prior to beginning their MCAT studying. I'm planning on taking the May 08 test just BEFORE finishing BioIII and OrgoIII. I've finished Gen Chem and Physics already. Grades very good, strong study habits, blah blah blah.

I'm planning to take Kaplan (possibly getting a tutor) and am reading EK books for Chem and Physics now, getting scores in the 12-15 range for each section although no idea how this translates to a score for a whole MCAT.

so... is this asinine? should I wait until the June exam and violate the inviolate "early/broadly" dictum?

The MCAT mean raw score is always set at 24, or 8s on each section. If you're doing 12-15s for each section, then you'd get 36-45s (each of the three sections is scored 1-15 for a total 45 possible points). That's almost too high (your practice MCAT, depending on where you got it, may be inflating your score), but you're still markedly above the average, which is where you want to be.

 

[montessori2md]

One little warning about MCAT while in classes: the MCATs, recently, have had more passages on the topics usually covered in the last part of physics, if you look at the forums, compared to the e-mcat exams. That said, it was my impression that those later topics are also covered in chem, to some extent, and are also common sense (like "half life"...gee whiz).

I liked taking MCAT at the end of my last term because everything was still fresh, so I didn't have to review as much.

If your score on each section is 12-13 (as in, you are answering more than 80% of the questions correctly, first try), please don't waste your $$ on Kaplan, just take the silly exam.