How am I suppose to retain material long-term?

[californiadreaming93]

I'm taking the MCAT 3/24 and I'm 2 months into content review. I have a little over a month left cover the remaining portion of content. How am I suppose to remember the material that I went over at the beginning of content? Should I be reviewing my notes weekly?

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[aldol16]

Generally speaking, you should be taking away the key concepts from the content and not be sweating the small details. Hopefully, you've seen the key concepts enough via your courses via repetition that review will bring them to mind and you'll recall them. The MCAT isn't testing you on small details - they want you to know the important concepts and be able to apply them.

So get through content review focusing on big concepts and then start applying them during practice. When you do practice passages and FLs, go back and review key concept areas that you're struggling with so you can focus your time on the high-yield areas for you.

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

Anki. I am using it right now to go over high-yield information that doesn't "stick" the first time.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Truth be told, you should stop worrying about retaining information and instead figure out how you can recognize when to apply the information you retain. The key to MCAT success is applying a little, not knowing a lot. As you go through passages, keep track of the primary concepts being presented in the passage. As you do the corresponding questions, note how often a basic understanding of a concept from the passage leads to the best answer. By active reasoning and being cognoscente of the topics as you encounter them in homework passages, you should end up retaining nearly all you need for your MCAT.