This might be a difficult question to answer but how many days do you guys spend staying up studying till the morning or how many months in advance do you prepare?
On an average how many hours do you need to study a day to score well on the MCATS?
Umm, I'm sure there are plenty of geniuses out there that would disagree with me, but not being one of those, I found the MCAT this August surprisingly tough beyond my expectations. And I did study, but probably not hard enough nor comprehensive enough though, in retrospect. I'm guessing that I probably threw about 4-6hrs every other day on average for about three months into it, and I took about 6 full length tests. Now I regret that. I wish I had spent more time preparing. If I were you I'd study like there was no tommorow. And I say this not to scare you, but to tell you this test is tricky hard, especially if you are not good at taking standardized tests, like me. There's a lot more involved than mere knowledge.
I'd suggest putting as much actual time as you can afford, however much that is, into your study efforts. That way, no matter how smart you are, you leave nothing to chance. The key to the MCAT, IMHO, is to be very comprehensive with the basic knowledge/material (leave no stone unturned because you never know what you are going to get come test day) and to know how to manipulate all the concepts and formulas well enough to apply them in extremely unfamiliar situations under time pressure. I mean knowing them isn't enough, you have to be able to be a Shaolin master with your equations. That means doing as many practice tests as possible and analyzing the mistakes that you made each time. Get comfortable with scientific articles and interpreting complicated charts, etc.
If I were to retake the test, which I very, very sincerely hope I won't need to, I wouldn't measure the amount of elbow grease I needed, I'd simply throw everything and the kitchen sink into my studying. If I even began thinking about considering hours, it's probably not enough.
Good luck with your studying!
