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My apologies if this is the wrong place to post, but I just to say few things about my experience going through the MCAT. Perhaps it may be helpful for the rising generation.
I took the MCAT three time.
BS PS VR
8, 8, 7 O = 23
11, 10, 5 R = 26
12, 11, 8 = 31
First of all. MCAT is a huge obstacle for everyone applying to medical school! There are few that study part time during school year and get 30+, but majority of us need to study the entire summer to get that 30+. I just want to say that if your journey in life took you this far and if you'll be sitting in for the mcat, be courageous! You are already ahead of many! Don't let your failure decide your future, but learn from your mistakes and become better!
As you can see, I struggled with VR until the end, so I have much to say about that section 🙁 But for the sciences I can explain what happened.
I began the mcat with SN2ed's 3 month mcat break down. Bought all the book and had a blast learning the mcat. Although SN2ed required me to do a lot, I did not have the time to follow through everything. Basically, I went over all of the TBR books and questions as well as all of the offical AAMC's. Unfortunately, I studied for 3 months while taking full time winter classes (Bad idea!). After the scored, I was discouraged but didn't stop there. I studied again 4 months later in the summer full time for 3 months again. This time, I already had TBR science content review under my belt so I focused on the EK1001 and the TPR science workbook. With the TBR science books as my content foundation, I referred to it whenever I felt lacking. Instead of content review, I focused on problem solving skills. By the end of the summer, I finished all 4 EK1001 questions books (bio, physics, chem, ochem) and the entire TPR science workbook (2007 edition). As seen in the scores, this studying improved my score to a 11 and 10. Was it enough? Nope, my verbal sucked so I had to take it again! O the pain! My 3rd mcat took place in the summer a year later. This time, I applied to a post bacc program that offered summer mcat preparation. and the mcat preparation was pretty much the TPR prep intense course. We had mcat class from 8 to 5 everyday and ate mcat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I went to classes, but TBR science review book did a wonderful job preparing my content mastery. TPR review books were more in depth, especially the bio, but their strategy was to reduce the load on the O Chem. But the BR had an awesome Ochem review so it didn't matter much. After class, I went home and had dinner and studied until 12am every day. So basically, wake up, go to class, come home, study, sleep, do it again. This life lasted 5 weeks and the TPR course ended. By this time, not only I had BR mastery, but also TPR content review. I highly recommend for those interested in the TPR, to take their amplifire review program. http://www.princetonreview.com/mcat/mcat-test-prep-video.aspx <-- here's a link to it. The amplifire really helped out in retaining certain key physics concepts. Amplifire for bio was whatever, but the physics, chem, and ochem was pretty awesome. But unfortunately, TPR science content review books were not as great as BR books. Hands down, the BR books had the best organization for the science material review! Once the TPR course ended, I spent a month doing the entire TPR science workbook (2012 edition) again since it helped me tank up my scores. The 2012 edition was better than the 2007 edition because the free standing questions were separated from the passages, so I had more control in my learning. Also, the 2012 ed was more difficult! Anyways, after studying this much, I took the mcat again and ended up with the 12/11/8. pew... barely passed the VR. My constant improvement in the sciences was due to my notes. At the start of the mcat, I had four 100pg. composition notebook. In this notebook, I wrote every important science concepts and continued adding to it until the last day of mcat. The key is to add succinctly with minimal details to only remind you of the full concept and review it everyday! I carried this notebook with me and studied in bus and trains too. Whenever, I got a question wrong, I looked for the root of the problem and wrote the concept down into the notebook to never get it wrong again. Anyways, after the 3rd mcat, I went to InNout for a burger and applied to med school... and hooked one in. yay.
What does this mean? What should I learn from this?
I took the MCAT three time.
BS PS VR
8, 8, 7 O = 23
11, 10, 5 R = 26
12, 11, 8 = 31
First of all. MCAT is a huge obstacle for everyone applying to medical school! There are few that study part time during school year and get 30+, but majority of us need to study the entire summer to get that 30+. I just want to say that if your journey in life took you this far and if you'll be sitting in for the mcat, be courageous! You are already ahead of many! Don't let your failure decide your future, but learn from your mistakes and become better!
As you can see, I struggled with VR until the end, so I have much to say about that section 🙁 But for the sciences I can explain what happened.
I began the mcat with SN2ed's 3 month mcat break down. Bought all the book and had a blast learning the mcat. Although SN2ed required me to do a lot, I did not have the time to follow through everything. Basically, I went over all of the TBR books and questions as well as all of the offical AAMC's. Unfortunately, I studied for 3 months while taking full time winter classes (Bad idea!). After the scored, I was discouraged but didn't stop there. I studied again 4 months later in the summer full time for 3 months again. This time, I already had TBR science content review under my belt so I focused on the EK1001 and the TPR science workbook. With the TBR science books as my content foundation, I referred to it whenever I felt lacking. Instead of content review, I focused on problem solving skills. By the end of the summer, I finished all 4 EK1001 questions books (bio, physics, chem, ochem) and the entire TPR science workbook (2007 edition). As seen in the scores, this studying improved my score to a 11 and 10. Was it enough? Nope, my verbal sucked so I had to take it again! O the pain! My 3rd mcat took place in the summer a year later. This time, I applied to a post bacc program that offered summer mcat preparation. and the mcat preparation was pretty much the TPR prep intense course. We had mcat class from 8 to 5 everyday and ate mcat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I went to classes, but TBR science review book did a wonderful job preparing my content mastery. TPR review books were more in depth, especially the bio, but their strategy was to reduce the load on the O Chem. But the BR had an awesome Ochem review so it didn't matter much. After class, I went home and had dinner and studied until 12am every day. So basically, wake up, go to class, come home, study, sleep, do it again. This life lasted 5 weeks and the TPR course ended. By this time, not only I had BR mastery, but also TPR content review. I highly recommend for those interested in the TPR, to take their amplifire review program. http://www.princetonreview.com/mcat/mcat-test-prep-video.aspx <-- here's a link to it. The amplifire really helped out in retaining certain key physics concepts. Amplifire for bio was whatever, but the physics, chem, and ochem was pretty awesome. But unfortunately, TPR science content review books were not as great as BR books. Hands down, the BR books had the best organization for the science material review! Once the TPR course ended, I spent a month doing the entire TPR science workbook (2012 edition) again since it helped me tank up my scores. The 2012 edition was better than the 2007 edition because the free standing questions were separated from the passages, so I had more control in my learning. Also, the 2012 ed was more difficult! Anyways, after studying this much, I took the mcat again and ended up with the 12/11/8. pew... barely passed the VR. My constant improvement in the sciences was due to my notes. At the start of the mcat, I had four 100pg. composition notebook. In this notebook, I wrote every important science concepts and continued adding to it until the last day of mcat. The key is to add succinctly with minimal details to only remind you of the full concept and review it everyday! I carried this notebook with me and studied in bus and trains too. Whenever, I got a question wrong, I looked for the root of the problem and wrote the concept down into the notebook to never get it wrong again. Anyways, after the 3rd mcat, I went to InNout for a burger and applied to med school... and hooked one in. yay.
What does this mean? What should I learn from this?
- My entire mcat study time was 9 months total through two years. If you want to do well in the mcat, you must prepare early! I consider myself fairly intelligent, but ill preparation caused me the great fall. I recommend finishing all the basic science courses before the mcat and give yourself plenty of time for the mcat. For example, after your 2nd year in college, you'll have the basic sciences under your belt so start studying the mcat then! Doesn't have to be full powered study, but try to master the content before the summer when you'll study full time. In my experience, you honestly don't have enough time to master both the mcat content and the test taking skill in a single summer. It would be wise to have good content familiarity so by the time summer begins, you can start problem solving!
- I probably through more than 10,000+ mcat practice questions (including passage and free standing). It takes lots of hard work! mcat isn't easy! Even with this I only got 12/11 max.
- Every time I retook the MCAT, I used the same official AAMC practice tests again and again = used it 3 times. But, because I had a year gap before the 3rd mcat, these AAMC looked brand new and I felt that I wasn't handicapped by the prior usage. Therefore, if you take a break for a year, official AAMC will still be a good reflector of the real score.
- Don't be discouraged! strive to improve. if mcat was hard, then im sure usmle/comlex will be hellish
- 3 mcat... too many times? Yea, it's bad but when I went to the interview for med school, my three mcat worked in my favor. It help me prove my resilience and the maturity to learn from failure to make it into a success. So don't your failures stop you from taking the mcat multiple time. In fact, I was prepared to take the mcat 4 times if I had too!
