I think I studied all wrong....please share thoughts

[sv3]

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So I think I'm having a "mid-mcat crisis" and was hoping to get some opinions.

So far, I've finished studying chem, orgo, and am partway through physics. I left bio till last. The way I have studied is to review content material, and after every couple of chapters, I would do a ton of problems. I am using TPR hyperlearning and I would do 100% of independent questions and about 75% of the passages for each chapter.

So here is the problem: I think I should have done a minimal amount of problems with my subject content review, and waited until i was done studying all 4 subjects to go all out on practice problems. I came to this realization as I seem to be forgetting almost everything I've learned about chem and orgo as I am now studying physics. I think I've wasted all that time doing all those problems and now need to move my test date back a couple of weeks so i can do more problems at the end of all my content reviews. It makes so much sense to me now as things would be fresher in my head closer to the test date but I just didn't think of it before. I just dove in. Easily my biggest mistake thus far in studying for this beast.

How badly am I screwed? Does it really come back to you? I am sure I took the wrong course of action in studying and for the first time, I am now actually worried about being able to write my test on time.

Well I guess everyone freaks out once during this MCAT thing, and this is my version!

thanks
steve

 

[Sharka]

By the time you take your mcat, you should know the phys/chem/bio concepts pretty well and they should not be too easy to forget. If you are easily forgetting most of the basic concepts, then you probably didn't have them down in the first place.
It's helpful to go over practice problems during content review because it tests you on application rather than straight up memory. You should try to go over some practice problems now so that you aren't shocked when you see problems on practice tests or the real thing. Also, if your test date is approaching soon, spend less time on content and more time on practice tests/ post-test review.

 

[sv3]

i remember the basic concepts and even tougher ones fine. I'm just ticked at myself because I won't remember the right approaches to all the harder problems that I already did. Just sucks to have put the time in, but at the wrong stage. I should have waited - and now that will cost me some time at the end as I'll have to make room to do them all over again.

 

[Sharka]

No need to freak out--just go through the AAMC practice tests and don't spend all of your time doing TPR questions (as they are less representative of the MCAT). Make sure you know how to do the problems on the AAMC and you should be fine. There will be some questions on the real mcat that you've never seen before, so you cannot be totally prepared for every question. Good luck.

 

[JJMrK]

At this point you should start doing AAMC practice tests.

 

[sv3]

No need to freak out--just go through the AAMC practice tests and don't spend all of your time doing TPR questions (as they are less representative of the MCAT). Make sure you know how to do the problems on the AAMC and you should be fine. There will be some questions on the real mcat that you've never seen before, so you cannot be totally prepared for every question. Good luck.

I bolded a comment of yours above. What does that mean? I figure nothing is identical to the AAMC questions, but is TPR bad practice? Too one dimensional in some area? too easy or not focused enough?

And thanks for the advice, I'll definitely take it!

 

[Will Hunting]

I bolded a comment of yours above. What does that mean? I figure nothing is identical to the AAMC questions, but is TPR bad practice? Too one dimensional in some area? too easy or not focused enough?

And thanks for the advice, I'll definitely take it!

I presume the aforementioned poster meant that TPR is more difficult and that if you want to see more realistic (ie level of difficulty) take an AAMC.

 

[Chowdder]

a search on SDN will give you an indication of how unrepresentative TPR are to real MCAT. In reality, MCAT are not like TPR. Test prep companies purposely make the test harder in order to live up to the 10 points increase guarantee. So TPR is not representative means that it does not reflect actualy difficulty level.

http://www.studentdoc.com/practice-mcat.html something for you to look over if you're having doubt.

 

[sv3]

great thanks. I actually don't find the majority of TPR hard at all - of course there's always 2 or 3 passages here or there that are just bloody brutal though. That's good to know they are harder than the average though as i feel a tad bit better. However, I find that I'm opposite of most in that I rather ensure I kill the easy to moderate questions and only then do I care about the harder ones. Hopefully I'm not missing out entirely on those by using TPR - i don't want to overanalyze the easy ones b/c I've used TPR! Afterall, every question is worth the same right so i wanna make sure i got the easier ones in the bag. My actual concern was about the way i studied but i think i'll just face facts and realize i did way too much way too early, and gotto speed up my studying so i can go nuts on practice questions at the end of my entire content review....just before I hit the AAMCs.

thanks again for the help
steve

PS (i probably should have known the above but I'm a non-trad - 29 years old, and don't know of anyone personally attempting to get into medical school so I'm in the dark on alot. This site is an absolute lifeline!)