How to manage prereqs?

[663697]

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My school has a weird system where they have us take a lot of the prereqs for the MCAT in freshman and sophomore year, so as of now I'm taking a very heavy courseload of the 3 sciences + psych + a heavy elective.
I'm managing to make good grades but it feels like I'm hardly LEARNING anything due to time constraints. I'm really worried that I'm just getting the grades without grasping the underlying concepts in my courses, which might be detrimental when it comes time for me to revisit everything fot the MCAT.

Any suggestions on how I should be approaching this?

 

[Verity]

I agree, and have struggled with the same worries. I switched into science senior year from a completely unrelated (and ridiculously easy) major (but thankfully had intro bio/chem completed), and have consequently taken 18 credit hours of upper-level science courses for four semesters in a row. I have found that the more science courses I take, the more they draw upon one another, and I find that I remember far more than I had feared. I would often jot down the most important concepts on a few sheets of paper before each exam while I reviewed my notes/the book. I keep all these sheets in a folder, stapled together by subject. Every now and again, months after the fact, I'll skim the sheets. I'll bet you're retaining more than you realize.

 

[SailorHg]

This isn't hard advice, but I'd try not to worry about it for now and focus on keeping your grades up. I think you'll be surprised at how much you are familiar with when it comes time to study for the MCAT. Maybe try to pick an early fall test date so you have all summer to focus on it.

 

[663697]

I guess I'll just keep at it and hope for the best lol. My primary concern is physics -- there's a lot of concepts that you can't just memorize and I'm crunched on time so I usually only get to doing some of the problems. In the end I feel like there's gaps in my knowledge which is apparent when I get asked conceptual questions on tests, most of which my terrible prof doesn't even bother to cover in class.