How to create an effective MCAT study plan?

[mcatstudent1]

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I just finished a Kaplan course yesterday, but I feel like I still have some glaring weaknesses and am not all that prepared to take the MCAT. I am scheduled to take the MCAT on Sept. 1, leaving me 6 weeks of preparation. My question is, what strategy and schedule can I employ at this point in my prep? Should I start over in my content review due to the fact that cramming Kaplan review notes proved ineffective? Maybe I should incorporate Berkeley books or some aspect of a modified Sn2ed schedule into my prep? Also, I'd like to go through EK 101 verbal. Please let me know your suggestions!

 

[PanRoasted]

It all depends on what your weaknesses are. Surely the kaplan course improved SOME area of your MCAT score. Look at your FLs and see why you are missing questions. If it is content, go review content, if it's something else, see how you can improve in that area. Nobody can give you an educated and intelligent schedule without knowing in what areas you need the most improvement.

 

[mcatstudent1]

You are so correct. I was just panicking. My question is once I identify the weaknesses from my full-lengths, is it prudent simply to just review that corresponding section again in the notes or employ some other strategy. For instance, I completely messed up a nephron passage so I added some videos of nephron function into the study plan. Any other tips? Especially how to space out content review with full lengths.

 

[PanRoasted]

I think it is prudent to only review content that gave you trouble on your FLs. MCAT doesn't test pure, straight up content as heavily as a lot of test prep companies would lead you to believe (whether this is for marketing and profit or whether it is to prepare you more adequately for the test is of something I am not so sure). My philosophy is that if I knew enough about the concepts related to a problem to answer it correctly, I do not need to study it any further. There is always going to be a balance between how much content you know and how much you can deduce from the passages/question stems/question answers. The former is an easier area to improve in.

TL;DR
bang out your content review ASAP, then do FLs 24/7.

also I used the materials SN2ed suggested for each respective MCAT topic. (TBR for phys, chem, orgo, EK for bio; etc). they were adequate for me.