How to do content review the second time?

[dopamemer]

What is the best way to do content review/ going through prep books on the second time?

I started studying this past summer with the plan of taking in September, and a few weeks from my exam date, I realized I had been studying completely wrong as I had taken way too long going through the chapters (almost 2.5 months tbh). I would highlight the crap out of my books and try to take super neat notes.

I ended up cancelling my exam and now I'm prepping for a January exam date. This time I definitely want to spend less time on review and do as much practice as I can, so I'm wondering how to go through the Kaplan books with all of my highlighting already and all the notes I had taken.

Should I take quick notes and not be so neat/detailed or just read through and make Anki cards?

Any advice is much appreciated!

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[FrameshiftAndrew]

So, bottom line, your notes/flashcards/highlights aren't going to take the exam—you are. Notes/flashcards/whatever are a tool to help you wrap your head around certain concepts, and of course to help you remember things, but they're not a goal in and of themselves. Different people have different opinions about whether it's best to make your own Anki cards or to use decks that are already out there...I don't personally have a one-size-fits-all opinion on it, but you might want to check whether you genuinely feel that the act of making flashcards helps you solidify material, and if not, consider using resources that are already out there.

Details aside, I have two main suggestions: (1) your goal during your initial pass through content review should be progress, not perfection; and (2) start practicing ASAP, at least to some extent, so that you're always getting at least some feedback between how you're studying science and how the MCAT actually tests that science content. For (1), my point is that you'll see core concepts again and again. Kind of like how we've all studied the Krebs cycle time after time. When you're going through a textbook chapter, at least on the first round through, the question shouldn't be "have I committed every single piece of information to memory forever?" (because this goal is not very realistic and will eat TONS of time)—instead, it should be "am I familiar enough w/ this topic to answer questions on it and productively learn from what I get wrong?".

 

[dopamemer]

So, bottom line, your notes/flashcards/highlights aren't going to take the exam—you are. Notes/flashcards/whatever are a tool to help you wrap your head around certain concepts, and of course to help you remember things, but they're not a goal in and of themselves. Different people have different opinions about whether it's best to make your own Anki cards or to use decks that are already out there...I don't personally have a one-size-fits-all opinion on it, but you might want to check whether you genuinely feel that the act of making flashcards helps you solidify material, and if not, consider using resources that are already out there.

Details aside, I have two main suggestions: (1) your goal during your initial pass through content review should be progress, not perfection; and (2) start practicing ASAP, at least to some extent, so that you're always getting at least some feedback between how you're studying science and how the MCAT actually tests that science content. For (1), my point is that you'll see core concepts again and again. Kind of like how we've all studied the Krebs cycle time after time. When you're going through a textbook chapter, at least on the first round through, the question shouldn't be "have I committed every single piece of information to memory forever?" (because this goal is not very realistic and will eat TONS of time)—instead, it should be "am I familiar enough w/ this topic to answer questions on it and productively learn from what I get wrong?".

Thank you so much for the advice and I agree that many of us can get caught up in the logistics of doing things that we can overlook the true concepts towards taking the exam. I was mainly worried because I haven't touched any MCAT material since I gave up in September so I wanted to make sure that I was able to go through the material again but more efficiently.

 

[FrameshiftAndrew]

Thank you so much for the advice and I agree that many of us can get caught up in the logistics of doing things that we can overlook the true concepts towards taking the exam. I was mainly worried because I haven't touched any MCAT material since I gave up in September so I wanted to make sure that I was able to go through the material again but more efficiently.

Gotcha. Definitely consider using premade Anki decks, and regardless of the method, prioritize key concepts and stuff you don't know over tiny details and familiar material. Prioritizing may also mean that you make yourself move on from a chapter even if you don't feel like you have the material down 100%, but that can be OK, because you'll revisit the material again as you practice and keep studying.

Here's another way of thinking about it: did you take a diagnostic test during your first round of studying? Those can be really frustrating sometimes because it's like, "yep, I got a question wrong on something I didn't know because I haven't studied it yet, gee thanks diagnostic exam for telling me that". One way to think about the first round of content review is that it's for you to learn enough material to get past that block...that is, to get to a point where you can learn from practice materials without feeling like you're bashing your head against a wall of stuff that you haven't seen in years (or at all), if that makes sense.