I just took my first MCAT diagnostic over Christmas break and got a 504. I start seriously prepping in April to take the MCAT end of July. My original goal was 518. Realistically, is that a viable goal? I reviewed my test and my biggest weaknesses were Biochem-related questions (I'm taking biochem over the summer while I prep), and things related to passage interpretation. Is a 518 still a good goal score? What would be a good goal? I currently have 3.83 GPA and would like to be competitive for more prestigious schools.
I have just under a 3.6 at an average undergraduate institution. I started my MCAT studies hoping I could somehow get 512, but being realistic that 510 might be about as good as I could hope for.
Everyone and their cousin will tell you exactly what you need to do, and nothing anyone says seems to match. It was honestly overwhelming at times. Do yourself a favor and do what I did. Talk to people you know personally about what worked and more importantly, didn't work. Get an idea of what materials are out there by looking at SDN and reddit. I made a list of the materials for each section … there are literally at least a dozen for each section … and then I looked at how people scored. If they did poorly (502 or lower overall or 125 or lower in a section) I gave the materials they used a -1. If they got 512 or higher (or 128 or higher for a section) I gave them a +1. At the end I had a useful tally sheet, but more importantly I had something tangible that made me confident in eliminating a seven-book set many people use at SDN, amongst other things. I may have wasted more time than seems necessary, but I wanted the best materials FOR ME. I didn't want to second guess myself later about whether I used the right materials.
I crossed out things that wouldn't work until In had three items for each of the four sections. I borrowed whichever ones I could from my big sib and her friends to look through. I took a few days to decide which worked for me. I focused on answer explanations, because that's where you are going to see improvement. I bought my science books and used them casually during the school year side by side with my classes, and this was pure gold in terms of grasping the material. I learned physics and organic chem better from my review books than my professor.
Once summer came around, I was completely motivated and ready to go. I am 100% sure, looking back now, that the time I spent matching the right materials to me was time well spent. If I would have used the materials people have been recommending in this thread, I'm sure I would not have done as well, because none of them matched my needs. Midway in my review I looked at some other materials along the way, but none of them were as good as what I was using. That doesn't mean that those materials won't work for you, they just didn't explain things well or offer enough good questions like what I was using, which is what I needed. Just be careful not to use something because it's trendy or being recommended by someone who used it blindly.
I ended up using books from three different sources. One was best for the four sciences (C/P and B/B), another was best for P/S, and I used two sources for CARS. I also found some great posts by people like Zenabi90 and KoalaT, who ended up overachieving using the same combination of books I used. It made me confident in my choice of materials.
In the end I scored a 516, well above anything I dreamed I could do. I bombed CARS, like the SAT all over again, but offset that with C/P and B/B.
Good luck in your hunt for what to use and what to do. The only universal truth is that after you review material, you have to do AAMC materials. There is nothing as good as the section banks, once you are ready to do them.
