Help effectively studying

[OtisO]

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Hi! I plan to take my test January. I am fairly new at studying. I have taken a lot of pre reqs including biochem. I am trying to study 10 hrs a week until school ends and then for the winter break a month long study/practice tests for a Jan 18ish test date. This would put me at around 150hrs at beginning of December plus add another 100-150 for December. I have a very busy schedule and study 1 hr at least a day and some days more. How should I be handling these short days? I need to do content review. How do I put this info in long term? Anki sure but how. I'm a little overwhelmed. Any help will be appreciated. Sorry it is so general, please ask for clarification. Thanks

 

[Cornfed101]

I use Anki every single day in medical school so can give advice here. I wish I'd found it before taking the MCAT because it greatly contributes to my success in school now. If you want to use Anki your first step is to learn the software. There is a learning curve of a couple weeks getting used to it so I'd recommend the AnKing youtube channel. He lays out how the app works in a very helpful way and starting there will give you what you need to use it effectively. My biggest tip for Anki is consistency - you really need to do it just about everyday which sounds tough but pays off. From what I understand there are many pre-made MCAT decks so once you are familiar with the software you should look into those. I think searching SDN or Reddit would allow you to find those decks.

Second this. Anki is good, but it becomes phenomenal when you become a superuser. Get the image occlusion and cloze overlapper add ons and learn how to use both of those. You can use premade decks, but if you have the time it is better to make your own. This will ultimately save you time because you don't have to waste effort clicking through cards that you already know. Work on making cards that are better than simply "term/definition" because the MCAT doesn't test like this.

I studied for ~700 hours over 9 months so you can definitely spread out your studying and have it work. Make sure you are practicing AAMC problems throughout your study to check your progress.

 

[WrenchesToMD]

I think the two things that helped a lot during prep was:

1) Incorporate study methods that have a track record of working well in the past.
2) Study when your brain will be most engaged in material -> i.e. for some reason the most successful studying for me occurred between the hours of 6-11 pm

With those 2 I would practice/research methods for both studying and the exam, though the latter should be explored once you get into practice questions