Is skipping some topics for MCAT prep is common ?

[gophermanfan]

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I am just never going to be able to finish prepping for every last topic for the PS section.

I am going probably going to skip kenetics and solids altogether. Is it pretty common to skip a couple topics and hope for the best.

My problem is that I had gen chem so long ago that learning it for the MCAT is literally requiring me to learn almost everything over from scratch. I just dont have that kind of time with all my classes this semester. I am going to play a little topic roulette.

 

[foofish]

I am just never going to be able to finish prepping for every last topic for the PS section.

I am going probably going to skip kenetics and solids altogether. Is it pretty common to skip a couple topics and hope for the best.

My problem is that I had gen chem so long ago that learning it for the MCAT is literally requiring me to learn almost everything over from scratch. I just dont have that kind of time with all my classes this semester. I am going to play a little topic roulette.

You should probably try to at least skim over every topic....but that said, if you're going to skip topics I wouldn't skip a major topic like kinetics. You should get an MCAT prep book that will help you figure out the important topics that you have to know for the MCAT.

There's also a separate MCAT forum for questions like this (and I'm sure this post is going to be moved there shortly).

 

[notgettingin]

You should probably try to at least skim over every topic....but that said, if you're going to skip topics I wouldn't skip a major topic like kinetics. You should get an MCAT prep book that will help you figure out the important topics that you have to know for the MCAT.

There's also a separate MCAT forum for questions like this (and I'm sure this post is going to be moved there shortly).

I agree- if you have to skip, skip solids or something that is not tested too often. Kinetics is almost ALWAYS on there.....

 

[orthointern]

don't skip kinetics....

 

[vmc303]

I saved the kidney system (see? can't even remember the real name) for my lunch break during the test itself, when I went to the library and did some furious Googling. I did fine. So my advice is not to skip anything outright, but use your time extremely wisely.

 

[Phil Anthropist]

There's also a separate MCAT forum for questions like this (and I'm sure this post is going to be moved there shortly).

Yep 😉

 

[aspiring med]

take a test prep class or use a prep book (examkrackers class is excellent, you could use the materials and i think be very well prepared) to decide what you can skip. they are clear on what topics are huge and what topics are negligible.

my tiny secret...i did mediocre in orgo, hate orgo and basically never relearned it for my MCAT 3 yrs later. I made educated guesses, emphasis on the guess part, on all the orgo passages. did fine in bio

however for PS i studied as much as possible, i don't remember skipping any topics on purpose. so i don't know that there's any fail safe rule.

 

[xucardsfan08]

DO NOT skip a section!!!

In fact, work harder on the sections that you are not familiar with. Kinetics, especially, is not a topic that you want to mess with since it can be on the biological science section as well as the physical science section.

Study everything, and spend 15 minutes/day on the specific topics in which you are unfamiliar with.

 

[chad5871]

I read some awesome advice in an MCAT prep book once. Don't fall into the trap of reinforcing what you already know. It is often easier and more comfortable to study topics that you already have lots of knowledge in - it makes you feel more confident and also makes you believe that you are accomplishing a lot because of the study time spent. However, the majority of your time should be spent on your weaknesses.

I know that this didn't really answer your question, but I think that it's fabulous advice. Although it is pretty much common sense, I think everyone needs to be reminded of this from time to time.

 

[montessori2md]

I'm skipping verbal, because I did fine on practice exams. I will practice the writing sample, though. I can't imagine intentionally skipping any of the science stuff unless you felt like you knew it already (like, I'm barely going to look at vector addition, easy physics stuff, and probably will skim a lot, because I'm taking the course now, so it's mmm, fresh if you can say that about physics😴 ).

 

[BeatrixKiddo]

I skip sections all the time, some of them just look like too much detail to know that I never even went over when taking my pre-reqs. You should be fine.

 

[wisguy]

I tried that the first time i took the mcat due to very limited time. I was scoring well on the PT's, but when i took the real thing all of the stuff i skipped in PS showed up. You can see from MDApps how that worked out. I wouldn't recommend it.