Freshman entering college MCAT prep

[SteyrFWB]

I am a graduating high school senior. I am entering an early "assurance" honors medical program that would assure me of a spot in medical school.

One of the absolute requirement for advancing to medical school is MCAT 32 (old), new MCAT scale would be equivalent to 32.

Any recommendation on MCAT prep book that I can buy before entering college. I intend to use it to supplement my regular biology/ chem/ physics/ psychology classes.

Is Berkeley Review a good book to co-supplement my regular classes work? I intend to write my class note along the side edge of review book, so when it comes time to actually study for MCAT, material would be in my own words and in an organized fashion.

Or are those MCAT prep books questions based, material would fly all over the subject, thus rendering co-supplementing classes material not feasible?

If it might work well, which prep book would be the best one to get?

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[trimethylpurine]

Don't get a prep book yet. Get it when you're about to start studying. Besides it being pretty pointless, companies should update their books by the time you start studying to more accurately reflect what is actually on the test.

 

[Holmwood]

I don't have a problem with prepping as early as possible.

As trimethylpurine said, it may be better to just wait until prep companies get accustomed to the new format. That is not to say, however, that you can't start doing some content review (or in your case, content learning) to boost familiarity. Old prep materials are fine for these.

TBR is excellent for bio/chem/biochem/physics. For psychology and sociology, it may be better to just get a college textbook for each.

 

[allantois]

Doesn't sound like an "assurance" program at all with 32 MCAT score.

Buy the official guide by AAMC and as you go through pre-requisites mark off and make notes on the topics listed in the guide.

* Don't need to buy the guide:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/377882/data/mcat2015-content.pdf

It doesn't matter where you learn the material from, what's important is that you learn it.

 

[blahblahpremeds]

Hi there. I'm in a similar BS/MD program and I also have to satisfy the "national average" MCAT requirements. I think the best way to prepare for the new MCAT is to design your schedule in a way so as to be able to take multiple upper level science courses before you take the MCAT. This is especially true for the new exam. I didn't supplement my Undergraduate course work with MCAT prep books because there were no 2015 books out. But, what I did do (which seems to be super important for the new MCAT) was begin to read research papers on PubMed. The reason why this is really difficult to do as a freshman is because you're not exposed to experimental procedures. I started this my sophomore year and since I was in many upper level sciences at the time, I was able to decipher figures and graphs based on experimental data. As for the MCAT, I'm using TBR 2012-2013 edition. Good luck!

 

[Dreamstoo]

I am a graduating high school senior. I am entering an early "assurance" honors medical program that would assure me of a spot in medical school.

One of the absolute requirement for advancing to medical school is MCAT 32 (old), new MCAT scale would be equivalent to 32.

Any recommendation on MCAT prep book that I can buy before entering college. I intend to use it to supplement my regular biology/ chem/ physics/ psychology classes.

Is Berkeley Review a good book to co-supplement my regular classes work? I intend to write my class note along the side edge of review book, so when it comes time to actually study for MCAT, material would be in my own words and in an organized fashion.

Or are those MCAT prep books questions based, material would fly all over the subject, thus rendering co-supplementing classes material not feasible?

If it might work well, which prep book would be the best one to get?

I wish I thought of this when I was an underclassman... actually sounds like a decent idea. Is your program an accelerated 6-7 year program? Then in that case, I would definitely say starting light/medium level of prep at the beginning of your sophomore year is not a bad idea. If it's an 8 year program, I would recommend setting aside your summer sophomore year to take care of the MCAT and reach the requirement.

Lol, it kind of makes me laugh that as a high school student you already heard of Berkeley Review by the way. I learned about those books during the second half of my collegiate years.