How do I study MCAT P/S without Anki?

[pinklimediluted]

Throughout my entire academic career, flashcards have NEVER worked for me. This is one of the reasons why I struggle in courses that require pure memorization. I get much better results when I read the book or create logical flow charts/diagrams. The reason I mention this is because everyone swears by Anki to study for P/S. Therefore, I've struggled immensely with these subjects. I took the MCAT and got a 123 (30th percentile) on the P/S last year, YIKES! Can anyone give me some suggestions? I'll take anything at this point T.T.

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[thatchemguy]

There is a reason why everybody swears by it. Did you even bother trying it? It's different from doing physical flashcards, which don't work for me either. But the spatial repetition algorithm really works wonders. Other than that, if you really don't want to do Anki, then commit to memorizing your entire prep book front to back.

 

[Optimist Prime]

You may as well try out anki if you're scoring that low. I also Don't use flash cards to study so I write down everything in a notebook that is important and just study it for hours and hours until I have memorized absolutely everything. However, for P/S there are some great pre-made decks floating around that I would also use on top of whatever your normal strategies are.

 

[pinklimediluted]

I've tried Anki in the past for classes and it doesn't work for me. I will give it a shot at looking at decks already out there. But other than Anki, can anyone reccomend a book?

 

[theonlytycrane]

There's like a 400 page P/S document on Reddit. Just memorize that.

 

[Cornfed101]

There are many different ways to write a flash card. The key I’ve found is to follow the anki strategy that @otterxavier used. See almost all the way down on the first page of this thread. I’ve been using this in all my classes and I currently have a 99% in accelerated O-Chem (both semesters of o-Chem in 1). I would recommend giving it a shot!

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

Hi @pinklimediluted -

Out of curiosity, how did you study for the P/S section when you took the MCAT before?

I ask because creating your own flowcharts and diagrams can be a useful technique, especially for terms that are used similarly in everyday life but have distinct technical meanings for the MCAT (like stereotypes/discrimination/prejudice/stigma) and logically related concepts where the names don't really help (like the James-Lange/Cannon-Bard/Schachter-Singer theories of emotion). However, flowcharts and diagrams can be pretty time-consuming, and it can be difficult to scale up that technique for the whole range of psych/soc content that you have to master.

So I'm wondering whether (1) you didn't use flowcharts/diagrams much because flashcards/reading seemed more appropriate, (2) you used flowcharts/diagrams to some extent, and they helped, but it just wasn't enough, (3) you used flowcharts/diagrams but they didn't seem to meaningfully help w/ this content, or (4) something else? A more detailed sense of what happened would be helpful to generate more specific advice .