How to study if have 1 year 'til test?

[idandps]

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Hey guys, I'm a sophomore pre-med. I am planning to take April MCAT in next year, or in August one if I screw April one up. Since I have some time, I am hoping that I could get some advice from you guys about how to prepare for MCAT. My weakest section of MCAT is definitely a verval, and would reading scientific articles, journals, newspapers, or even classics like war and peace help me improve on verbal? I know that you guys usually don't recommend this to people who only have some months to prepare, but just wondering if it could be helpful in my case. Also, I'm a CS and bio double major, and I think I can also major in chemistry (there are many overlapping courses between bio and chem in my school curriculum, taking a bit over 20 CHs would let me get Chem. deg.) if I take about 12 credit hours of courses during summer sessions. But then, I would be very well likely to be burnt out. So how much do you think would triple majoring help me on admission process? And I would appreciate if you have other comments/advices.
Thanks!! 🙂

 

[kdburton]

Hey guys, I'm a sophomore pre-med. I am planning to take April MCAT in next year, or in August one if I screw April one up. Since I have some time, I am hoping that I could get some advice from you guys about how to prepare for MCAT. My weakest section of MCAT is definitely a verval, and would reading scientific articles, journals, newspapers, or even classics like war and peace help me improve on verbal? I know that you guys usually don't recommend this to people who only have some months to prepare, but just wondering if it could be helpful in my case. Also, I'm a CS and bio double major, and I think I can also major in chemistry (there are many overlapping courses between bio and chem in my school curriculum, taking a bit over 20 CHs would let me get Chem. deg.) if I take about 12 credit hours of courses during summer sessions. But then, I would be very well likely to be burnt out. So how much do you think would triple majoring help me on admission process? And I would appreciate if you have other comments/advices.
Thanks!! 🙂

First of all if you already see the possibility of "burning out" when thinking of triple majoring, then it probably isn't a good idea. I personally think it would be be a bad idea either way. Think of it this way... your GPA is going to be a very important number when med schools are are screening your initial AMCAS application and deciding whether to send you a secondary and invite your for an interview. If your grades suffer because you are going overkill with three majors then you may be shot down right off the bat, where some student with just one of those majors a better GPA (possibly because they didn't have to take 20 science credits/semester) will get a second look by the adcomm. The second thing is that you shouldn't just major in an additional subject because "it only takes a couple more credits because they overlap a lot." Consider the answer you would give when you're being interviewed at some medical school and see if you have a valid reason for doing it (maybe you do??). Before I get into my next point, the second reason why this may be a bad idea is because even though you have over a year to prepare for the April 2007 MCAT starting now, how much prep-time do you see yourself having if you triple major in computer science, bio and chem. It will probably look positive if you were able to accomplish something like this, but the difference that it will make will probably not be enough to be a determining factor in whether or not you get accepted to a med school.
As far as MCAT prep goes I wouldn't worry about studying for it right now other than maybe some quick review here and there for pre-requisite classes that you've already taken. For now I would just focus on doing well in the relevant pre-requisite courses and making an honest effort to actually understanding the material rather than just doing what it takes to get a good grade in the class. I've done this in all my classes so far - because my personality demands it - and now when I go over MCAT review books I rarely have problems with the subject matter. I use the ExamKrackers books + Audio Osmosis and so far they've been good to me (and many others from what I've read on this forum so far). I feel like they are probably for people who have a decent grasp on the material and just need to re-enforce the major points, so if thats you then grab yourself a set of EK books when the time comes. If you think your weak point is going to be verbal then its probably a strategy issue that you can work on for the next year and I would recommend getting a VR book for MCAT review rather than reading complicated books, articles, etc.
Anyways thats my 2 cents, which ended up being a lot more than I expected to write haha. Keep in mind that I'm studying to take the MCAT this April, so since I haven't actually taken it yet my advice may not be the best. I'm sure other people will have some more advice for you shortly.

 

[QofQuimica]

First of all if you already see the possibility of "burning out" when thinking of triple majoring, then it probably isn't a good idea. I personally think it would be be a bad idea either way. Think of it this way... your GPA is going to be a very important number when med schools are are screening your initial AMCAS application and deciding whether to send you a secondary and invite your for an interview. If your grades suffer because you are going overkill with three majors then you may be shot down right off the bat, where some student with just one of those majors a better GPA (possibly because they didn't have to take 20 science credits/semester) will get a second look by the adcomm. The second thing is that you shouldn't just major in an additional subject because "it only takes a couple more credits because they overlap a lot." Consider the answer you would give when you're being interviewed at some medical school and see if you have a valid reason for doing it (maybe you do??). Before I get into my next point, the second reason why this may be a bad idea is because even though you have over a year to prepare for the April 2007 MCAT starting now, how much prep-time do you see yourself having if you triple major in computer science, bio and chem. It will probably look positive if you were able to accomplish something like this, but the difference that it will make will probably not be enough to be a determining factor in whether or not you get accepted to a med school.
As far as MCAT prep goes I wouldn't worry about studying for it right now other than maybe some quick review here and there for pre-requisite classes that you've already taken. For now I would just focus on doing well in the relevant pre-requisite courses and making an honest effort to actually understanding the material rather than just doing what it takes to get a good grade in the class. I've done this in all my classes so far - because my personality demands it - and now when I go over MCAT review books I rarely have problems with the subject matter. I use the ExamKrackers books + Audio Osmosis and so far they've been good to me (and many others from what I've read on this forum so far). I feel like they are probably for people who have a decent grasp on the material and just need to re-enforce the major points, so if thats you then grab yourself a set of EK books when the time comes. If you think your weak point is going to be verbal then its probably a strategy issue that you can work on for the next year and I would recommend getting a VR book for MCAT review rather than reading complicated books, articles, etc.
Anyways thats my 2 cents, which ended up being a lot more than I expected to write haha. Keep in mind that I'm studying to take the MCAT this April, so since I haven't actually taken it yet my advice may not be the best. I'm sure other people will have some more advice for you shortly.

I thought your advice was pretty good. 👍

OP, VR is the hardest section to raise your score in, and it has the hardest curve. It's definitely a good idea to read dense prose to practice, but you don't need to read War and Peace, because that's about 900 pages longer than any of your MCAT passages are going to be. 😉 (Though it's an excellent book, and well worth reading.) If you want to seriously practice reading for the MCAT, go to your university library and visit the periodical section. Pick up journals in subjects that you don't normally read, like economics, anthropology, philosophy, literary criticism, ecology, etc. Read about five or six paragraphs of an article. Most importantly, when you do this, pay attention to the author's arguments. Lorelei, who scored a perfect 15 on the VR section of the MCAT, wrote some fantastic posts in the MCAT subforum about how to read passages critically. I recommend that you check them out if you haven't already.

 

[idandps]

Thanks for the replies. I will keep those advices in mind. But when I were interviewd, I will of course say that I have done triple major because I love learning, I want to become a knowledgeable and capable doctor who patients can trust and rely on, and what not, which is the part of reasons I am trying to triple major 🙂

 

[MediMama23]

To be honest, I don't think that triple majoring is worth it. Unless you're a genius (and I mean GENIUS) or psychic or something, you'll be devoting a great deal of time to your studies than if you were say, double majoring and taking some fun, non-science related courses on the side that can keep you sane. Devoting so much time to all of those chem, bio, and CS (think about it....CS!) will leave you with little time to devote to the community through volunteer service and clubs and organizations, factors that are also important to med schools.

You can show that you have the ability to be a knowledgeable and capable doctor without having to virtually kill yourself to do it. Just focus on doing well in your bio and CS courses (because believe me, the **** hasn't even BEGUN to hit the fan in those CS courses), build your application up with volunteer service and other ECs, slay the MCAT, and truly understand what you're getting yourself into with medicine, and you'll be good as gold. Maybe even better 🙂 .

 

[McGillGrad]

You take 7 months concentrating on your courses then take a Kaplan course for 3 months.

 

[forevalwayzz]

give yourself a break, but if you feel like you have to study then buy a review book and read a chapter every week or so, it would also save you money on review courses.