Is it possible to get 40 on mcat....

[ipod01]

Hey guys, so i just started my tpr course yesterday and i was wondering, do you think i can be ready to take the mcat this september 12. I will have had 2 months of intense studying. is that enough though to get around a 40?
How much time did you spend studying to get around a 38-40? I have already finished all my prereqs.

Otherwise the next test date that i could do would probably be sometime march 2010 which is seven months after i will be done with my mcat class.
And i am also looking to still have time to retake it if i need to and apply early in the cycle. thanks!

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[capn jazz]

There is no such thing as an amount of time to get a 40. A 40 is the result of studying well and hard AND having some luck on the test.

That said, 2 months is probably not enough time. Most people study 3-4 months.

 

[MCATBear]

The test is a combination of knowledge, luck, deductive reasoning, and test taking skills: timing, picking the best answer, understanding what they think is the best answer even if you could argue otherwise etc. Plenty of people study for months, know all the material and pray for a 30. From my practice tests, I would usually get a 13 if I missed 2 questions, so to get a 40 you need to miss less than 2 questions on at least 1 section. So in short, you need to know everything covered well, be good at problem solving and reasoning in a stressful test-taking environment, and get lucky.

Try some sample verbal sections to get a sense of what is required of you on the test besides knowledge. I recommend reading exam krackers verbal book first because it's short and for me it doubled my verbal score (literally I got a 7 the first VR I tried, then I read the book and got a 14 on the next one).

 

[ipod01]

thanks for the advice guys! is march a good date to take the test then? i guess i am just concerned because i will have classes then and will also have to study for the mcat.
anyone else wanna chime in? any insight?

 

[capn jazz]

When will you finish all your prereqs?

 

[ipod01]

i am already done with my prereqs

 

[capn jazz]

Then you should be fine. Studying during classes is not ideal but still doable. I started studying beginning of April and had classes until mid-June. I managed to get it done perfectly on schedule. Mid-June to mid-July is my practice test/intense month. If you can do that I recommend it.

 

[muhali3]

The answer is in the 30+ MCAT thread. Many 40's and above there.

 

[229141]

I think this whole issue with study time is extremely variant.

I really don't believe most people need to study 3-4 months. Some need much more, some need much less.

A bad student or someone who has been off from college for a few years might need up to a year...while a 4.0 student who worked hard all through undergrad might only need 3-4 hrs a day for 2 months to get a great score since they likely understand the material well.

So ask yourself how you feel about the material..most people I know already knew the sciences really well when they started studying...so kids here did like 3-4 hrs a day for 1-2 months and were fine.

As for making a 40...don't know what to tell you. Once you get past 35 its true there is some luck involved..especially if you get topics that suit you as well as good guessing skills. Shoot for a 40, and if you get a 33 or w/e your still in like the 90th percentile so who cares dude...

 

[LostInStudy]

I think this whole issue with study time is extremely variant.

I really don't believe most people need to study 3-4 months. Some need much more, some need much less.

A bad student or someone who has been off from college for a few years might need up to a year...while a 4.0 student who worked hard all through undergrad might only need 3-4 hrs a day for 2 months to get a great score since they likely understand the material well.

So ask yourself how you feel about the material..most people I know already knew the sciences really well when they started studying...so kids here did like 3-4 hrs a day for 1-2 months and were fine.

As for making a 40...don't know what to tell you. Once you get past 35 its true there is some luck involved..especially if you get topics that suit you as well as good guessing skills. Shoot for a 40, and if you get a 33 or w/e your still in like the 90th percentile so who cares dude...

Yea, I strongly agree with this. I was under the impression that most students need 3-4 months when I started studying but now that I'm a good ways into it I think a typical premed (understood the material the first time around and is only 1-2 years removed from prereqs) would only need to spend 4-6 weeks on content review with 6 weeks being on the very high side and probably another 4-6 weeks on practice tests. This comes out to be 2-3 months for a typical premed. That's just my opinion though from my experience. I think if you work 6-9 hours a day and if you have nothing else to do then you could definately do the whole prep in 2 months maybe less if you just finished the prereqs.

Everyone's different and you should be able to tell about where you are and what you can handle and go from there.

-LIS