just really confused...

[fishblade2]

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I am beginning to study for the MCAT which I will take next summer in July. I want to have plenty of time to study and really get the concepts down. Now I know that the MCAT is passaged based and that it works on conceptual information not on actual facts. I have taken my general chemistry (don't remember it though), organic chemistry, and my biology classes. I still have to take physiology and I might not be able to take genetics before the summer that I take the MCAT. So with knowing that I want to begin studying for the MCAT but I don't know where to start. It's so overwhelming!! There is many different options to choose from for reviews but there are as many bad ones as good ones. For example I have thought about finally buying one of the review books but then I read reviews on how it has loads of questions to help learn concepts but they are not in passage form like the MCAT. I understand that no one guide is going to solely prepare me for the MCAT and that I will need to read my textbooks more and understand the actually material along with using a MCAT study guide. The problem is which one. Truthfully from those that have taken or have already began studying for the MCAT what book group(s) should I get that would help prepare me not only in how the MCAT will be worded and set up but also in the conceptual information needed to answer the questions? Please keep in mind that I haven't taken physics yet and I have not taken physiology or genetics. So with this in regard which book series of MCAT practice would benefit me the most and then what route should I take to begin learning the material the best for the MCAT? Lastly I have heard that Princton books are great but you have to take the course and pay that huge amount of money for them. Is it worth it? Any advice would be great!!!

 

[dsoz]

I may be coming from a different place than you are when it comes to remembering information. But I went to a bookstore and bought a couple of review books. I read them cover-to-cover. Solving all the problems in them (on a blank piece of paper so I could re-sell them when I was done).

My big shortfall was VR. What I finally did was just find prompts (I think AAMC has a list of prompts) and just start writing as much as I could in the format that the MCAT requires. I learned how to make sure that there was two or three examples for the thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis. It is a bunch of BS that nobody pays attention to anyway, but I got an R. Not bad.

I still have all the review books, and was thinking of posting them here this summer. half-price plus some to ship them.

dsoz