• Bring your 2026 application questions to our open office hours with Emil Chuck, PhD, Director of Advising Services for HPSA, and get them answered live. Personal statements, secondaries, interview prep, school list strategy. Sunday, May 17 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

how about this study schedule - 22 weeks

Started by cbrons
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

cbrons

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Berkeley Review Study Schedule (12 weeks)
Sunday, December 21 – Saturday, March 14
Weeks 1-4 (Winter Break): Physics sections I-V (second book), General Chemistry sections I-V (first book)
Weeks 5-12: Physics sections VI-X (second book), General Chemistry sections VI-X (second book), Organic Chemistry sections I-VII (first and second book)
Monday – Friday: (3 hours max, skip every Friday before a Saturday workday)
Saturday: Every other Saturday, 6 hours
Sunday: Timed PS practice test and review
Examkrackers Home Study (10 weeks)
Sunday, March 15 – Sunday, May 24

Is this a good plan? The first 4 weeks fall during my winter break. Do you think covering a whole book of physics and gen. chem is too much?
 
I did Berk Review for MCATs too. It really helps with the physical sciences and bio section. So do all the practice passages; howevr, i felt like BR also gives you too much information (U DO NOT NEED TO KNOW) for the test, especially Bio. So Its good to go through it and understand it, but you do not need to know every detail in those books. Practice more than memorize
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I'd suggest going through everything fairly quickly at the beginning, before starting this schedule, and after you're done with your in-depth studying on week 12. You're very likely to forget things over a 12-week study period, and reading over the material beforehand will give you an idea of where you need to focus more time when you start hitting it hard.
 
I did Berk Review for MCATs too. It really helps with the physical sciences and bio section. So do all the practice passages; howevr, i felt like BR also gives you too much information (U DO NOT NEED TO KNOW) for the test, especially Bio. So Its good to go through it and understand it, but you do not need to know every detail in those books. Practice more than memorize

Practice is key, so make sure to do all of the passages. The text (especially biology) gives a ton of additional information that in all likelihood the MCAT test writers will give you in a passage.

On the MCAT, it is far more important to be able to determine what information in the passage and/or question is extraneous than it is to recall information.

BTW cbrons, your study plan looks pretty good. The only thing I'd change is do more BR passages and questions near the end rather than EK. You learn more from the answer explanations in BR materials, which is critical during your last minute sweep of the different subjects.