How to start studying again?!

[totallyfreaked]

So i got my scores about a month ago and I did not do well at all. I expected a low score because I was not in the best state of mind when I took the exam but I also realized i kinda cheated myself when I was taking the practice exams. I scored a 498 but expected between 500-505 (I knew I was going to retake it), but this was way lower than I expected and its just a bummer.
So i obviously plan on retaking it hopefully anytime between Jan-March and want to start studying now cause I finally gotten over my score. But I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN. I have got 5 months to study and I want a 510+. I have seen people make huge jumps because they fix their mistakes and I hope to do that.
My score obviously indicates i need to know the content more. I used kaplan books, not a fan of them but since i have them and used to them i want to keep using them. I was thinking 2-3 mon of content. I was going to supplement with Khan academy, I like them except discovered them late while studying for my first try.

People who’ve been thru this or anyone with advice: can y’all help me on how to study/what to use/how to schedule:

• I heard a lot of people use uWorld but i kinda don’t know what that is, can someone explain
• Also what anki deck to use?

Any other advice would be wonderful thanks!

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[fruitcake2511]

My advice is not going to be very helpful as I have yet to take the exam, but I felt that you needed some encouragement, so I am going to try my best to give you something of value here. As someone who has struggled immensely with standardized exams in the past, I know exactly how you were feeling. It is incredibly demoralizing, especially on an exam as huge as the mcat. It is good you took a few days to collect yourself. You need to be in the right headspace when you start again. If you used kaplan books but did not get the results you wanted, it certainly would not hurt to explore other content options. Have heard nothing but amazing things about TBR materials. I have heard plenty of people have just as much success with Kaplan though, so it could have just been your circumstances. It really comes down to your preference and how much time you are willing to dedicate to this exam. Take really thorough notes when doing content review, read the books as many times as you need to. You need to be 110% comfortable with the material so that you can eventually lean towards learning the ins and outs of the actual exam (how they word questions, how they construct answers, etc) It is also important to keep in mind you really need to understand the concepts behind the answers. Whenever you answer a practice question, make sure you are assessing what the concept behind the answer is, whether you got it right or wrong. Making connections such as these in the beginning is essential. You can give yourself mini quizes during your content review as well to keep things fresh. From what I have heard about UWorld, it contains roughly 2,000 questions and is considered the closest thing to AAMC material besides that material itself. Premed95 has an incredibly useful anki deck from what I have established. I would definitely look into that and I am sure someone else will chime in here that has a lot more experience than me! Wish you nothing but the best, happy studying!

 

[Cornfed101]

I didn’t use any books for content review because I prefer videos so I will give you advice from that perspective. Khan Academy is awesome and I used it for the bulk of my content review. I also used AK lectures and Crash Course to supplement. MCAT Self Prep has a free e-course that provides video playlists by topic that I used.

Make sure you don’t separate content review from AAMC practice. You need to be doing AAMC practice questions at least once a week and giving yourself little mini exams to test where you are (15-20 questions from each section, for example 20 chemistry, 20 bio, 20 CARS, 15 P/S).

I recommend not using someone else’s ANKI deck because most of the cards will not be good for you. I think it’s better to go through material and make a good cards based on anything new you learn or want to retain. Don’t make simple definition/term cards because the MCAT doesn’t test like that. Look at one of the AAMC flash cards (if you don’t have those you should buy them) and make cards like that.

What materials have you used so far? All the AAMC questions are required. I even did a lot of them 2x (SB and both CARS qpacks).

UWorld is awesome for P/S. It’s pretty good for chem and biochem. It isn’t great for physics. Nothing besides AAMC is good for CARS questions (including UWorld). What makes UWorld so great is their explanations. They are amazing... worth getting IMO. Not required though.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[premed20172017]

I took months after my first score was released until I began studying again. If you’re not ready to put your all into it, then it may not be time to study for it again. Look into next step, altius, EK, MCAT reddit, and khan academy. I wrote a detailed outline of how I raised my score by 11 points in the forum where someone was asking if a 518 would be detrimental to getting into a T20. Let me know if you want more info. You got this!

 

[totallyfreaked]

My advice is not going to be very helpful as I have yet to take the exam, but I felt that you needed some encouragement, so I am going to try my best to give you something of value here. As someone who has struggled immensely with standardized exams in the past, I know exactly how you were feeling. It is incredibly demoralizing, especially on an exam as huge as the mcat. It is good you took a few days to collect yourself. You need to be in the right headspace when you start again. If you used kaplan books but did not get the results you wanted, it certainly would not hurt to explore other content options. Have heard nothing but amazing things about TBR materials. I have heard plenty of people have just as much success with Kaplan though, so it could have just been your circumstances. It really comes down to your preference and how much time you are willing to dedicate to this exam. Take really thorough notes when doing content review, read the books as many times as you need to. You need to be 110% comfortable with the material so that you can eventually lean towards learning the ins and outs of the actual exam (how they word questions, how they construct answers, etc) It is also important to keep in mind you really need to understand the concepts behind the answers. Whenever you answer a practice question, make sure you are assessing what the concept behind the answer is, whether you got it right or wrong. Making connections such as these in the beginning is essential. You can give yourself mini quizes during your content review as well to keep things fresh. From what I have heard about UWorld, it contains roughly 2,000 questions and is considered the closest thing to AAMC material besides that material itself. Premed95 has an incredibly useful anki deck from what I have established. I would definitely look into that and I am sure someone else will chime in here that has a lot more experience than me! Wish you nothing but the best, happy studying!

Thank you I always love encouragement, and I feel you on the struggling on standardized exams because that is me. I feel like I am going to stick with the Kaplan books because I feel like if I buy new books I doubt I am going to finish them, so it might be better if I just rego over these. Good luck on your exam too!

 

[totallyfreaked]

I didn’t use any books for content review because I prefer videos so I will give you advice from that perspective. Khan Academy is awesome and I used it for the bulk of my content review. I also used AK lectures and Crash Course to supplement. MCAT Self Prep has a free e-course that provides video playlists by topic that I used.

Make sure you don’t separate content review from AAMC practice. You need to be doing AAMC practice questions at least once a week and giving yourself little mini exams to test where you are (15-20 questions from each section, for example 20 chemistry, 20 bio, 20 CARS, 15 P/S).

I recommend not using someone else’s ANKI deck because most of the cards will not be good for you. I think it’s better to go through material and make a good cards based on anything new you learn or want to retain. Don’t make simple definition/term cards because the MCAT doesn’t test like that. Look at one of the AAMC flash cards (if you don’t have those you should buy them) and make cards like that.

What materials have you used so far? All the AAMC questions are required. I even did a lot of them 2x (SB and both CARS qpacks).

UWorld is awesome for P/S. It’s pretty good for chem and biochem. It isn’t great for physics. Nothing besides AAMC is good for CARS questions (including UWorld). What makes UWorld so great is their explanations. They are amazing... worth getting IMO. Not required though.

Let me know if you have any questions!

So I found Khan Academy very late on to my studying for my first time around on the MCAT but it did help, so I plan on using that. I haven't tried AK or Crash Course. What is MCat Self Prep free ecourse?

I thought of using someone's ANKI and editing that to my personal preference but IDK if that works.

I bought all the AAMC material but I didn't use all of them, what order do you think I should use them?

So I have never used Uworld so I have no clue how it works, can you explain it? Also how much is it?

Thank you so much for replying and sorry about all the questions!

 

[totallyfreaked]

The cubene anki deck is better than the premed95 one. MilesDown anki deck is as well.

The popular anki decks are: Cubene, MilesDown, Ortho528, And Rebooboop. Making your own is best, but many are able to learn and reinforce from another anki. You can adapt another students anki as well and it might be far more efficient.

I second KA for any visual learners. ChadsVideos, Crash Course, AK Lectures are also videos that many students utilize in their studies.

In my own studying I liked the khanacademy.org/test-prep/MCAT playlist because it was so organized and had practice questions that correlated with everything.

I think after hearing everything I think i am going to use cubene anki deck but like edit it according to my weaknesses.
And I definitely plan on using KA more this time around!

 

[Cornfed101]

So I found Khan Academy very late on to my studying for my first time around on the MCAT but it did help, so I plan on using that. I haven't tried AK or Crash Course. What is MCat Self Prep free ecourse?

I thought of using someone's ANKI and editing that to my personal preference but IDK if that works.

I bought all the AAMC material but I didn't use all of them, what order do you think I should use them?

So I have never used Uworld so I have no clue how it works, can you explain it? Also how much is it?

Thank you so much for replying and sorry about all the questions!

Here is a link to MCAT Self Prep. It was started by a guy that scored 99th percentile on the MCAT and it’s an in depth freemium resource that has 10 sections split off my concept that include all of the KA videos with some other videos in organized playlists. It’s great. Definitely worth checking out since it’s free. He had other resources that you can pay for, but I don’t think they are worth the money beyond the $10 basic that includes an awesome spreadsheet that adjusts depending on how well you are answering AAMC questions.

I think your idea for the Anki decks are fine. Go for it, if it doesn’t work then make adjustments.

Again here I followed the plan from MCAT self prep. He has you do 12 “mini exams” 1 at the end of each major section that include 20-30 questions from each of the 4 sections tested on the Mcat. So it’s like a 3rd length MCAT. Anyway, you can do simple conversions with this to give you a gauge on how you’re doing. It’s not perfect, but it was helpful for me.

UWorld is known for step 1 prep, but they recently stepped into the MCAT realm. They have the best P/S questions outside of the AAMC, and the best explanations for every section. It’s like $200 for 90 day access to 1900 practice questions (mix of discreet and passage based) there is a 7 day free trial if you wanna check it out.