How deep should I prepare for the mcat

[Chankovsky]

Do you guys think studying from a study guide would be enough to do well on the mcat. Do I need to be more aggressive in my preparation and dive into the textbooks. What do you all think?

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[steve007]

prep books (like EK) are fine. also, just to familiarize yourself w/ the kind of crap you'll be reading on MCAT day, take a look at the "real world" sections of your texts. Campbell's BIOLOGY has some good ones. however, don't spend much time w/ this, and certainly don't study it, just get an idea of how experiments and stuff are reported.

 

[fun8stuff]

Kinda depends on your grades in the prereqs too... If you were an A student then the MCAT prep material should suffice, but if you got Bs and Cs then you might want to figure out where your trouble spots were in those classes and use a text book to better learn the material. Also depends on how much time you have to study. If you are taking the August MCAT then going back and reading out of a text book may take too long and might not be worth it. good luck.

 

[soonerpillow]

Also do lots and lots of practice passages and full length tests!!!

 

[Lactic Folly]

Use the MCAT syllabus and practice tests as a guide.

 

[tBw]

If you are prepping for the August MCAT going back through your textbooks will take too long. If you use just review books bare in mind that these are usually the framework of what you must know - ie learn them well, as all the 'unnecessary fluff' has already been removed (more true of EK books than the Kaplan one...).

Doing well on the MCAT is not about remembering a specific fact so much as understanding the concepts so deeply that when they give you a paragraph on something completely unfamiliar you can recognise it for the fundamental principles it is testing and by second nature infer the answers. ie minutiae won't help you, solid basics will.

 

[loomis]

i think you should get a hold of some broad mcat science review. i liked the TPR. after you go through that, then use EK to hammer out the finer points. if you still have questions, then hit the textbook for that specific topic. good luck!

 

[~EnnI~]

i have recently gotten advice from someone who scored a 37 on the MCATs. if you're starting now for the august mcats and you're serious about scoring really well...you should study about 4-5 hours per day reviewing all of your science (if it's not as fresh) and doing practice problems like there's no tomarrow. i've heard over and over and over again that the key to success is doing practice problems and tests. the guy that gave me the advice ended up doing like 14 or 15 practice exams...that way, when he took the real thing it was cake.

 

[DrLady]

Originally posted by ~EnnI~
i have recently gotten advice from someone who scored a 37 on the MCATs. if you're starting now for the august mcats and you're serious about scoring really well...you should study about 4-5 hours per day reviewing all of your science (if it's not as fresh) and doing practice problems like there's no tomarrow. i've heard over and over and over again that the key to success is doing practice problems and tests. the guy that gave me the advice ended up doing like 14 or 15 practice exams...that way, when he took the real thing it was cake.

and practice makes a man perfect.

 

[ttac]

Originally posted by tBw
If you are prepping for the August MCAT going back through your textbooks will take too long. If you use just review books bare in mind that these are usually the framework of what you must know - ie learn them well, as all the 'unnecessary fluff' has already been removed (more true of EK books than the Kaplan one...).

Doing well on the MCAT is not about remembering a specific fact so much as understanding the concepts so deeply that when they give you a paragraph on something completely unfamiliar you can recognise it for the fundamental principles it is testing and by second nature infer the answers. ie minutiae won't help you, solid basics will.

This is key. I have touted this book before (and I'll do it again here), but check out Understanding Physics by Isaac Asimov. It seems intimidating (2 inches thick) but it's very readable, and explains the concepts very well, without excessive equations. That book REALLY helped me on the PS section of the MCAT (the first time I took it, got a 14, and the second time, after my scores expired, a 13)...of course, I'm a big nerd so I actually happened to be reading that book for fun, even before I had to take the mcat

ttac

 

[tBw]

Originally posted by ttac
I actually happened to be reading that book for fun, even before I had to take the mcat
ttac

do you still do practice MCATs just for fun?

 

[Columbia22]

very deep

 

[curiousforever]

review all of your Science notes.