Please help. Do you take longer making flashcards? Am I going to reap the benefit later?
Currently I plan on making cards for all the sections. I will be taking the exam next summer. However, I have other commitments as well like school etc.It depends really. Which section are you doing the flash cards for, when are you planning to take the test, and how many do you do a day.
What about for Biology and Biochemistry?Depends how much time you have until your test date. I ANKI'd all my psych/soc terms, orgo, & gen chem concepts and that took AGES (an entire semester)... but I was also in school during that time. I'm glad I did though, because I can basically go over psych/soc terms very very quickly, multiple times. If anything, I 100% recommend it for psych/soc since that section is memorization heavy.
It also took me about two days over winter break to review ALL of the major gen chem/orgo concepts and become refreshed.
I test in Jan, so here's to hoping that it worked out.
How about Biology and Biochemistry, how do you study for it?It really varies from person to another. I've read some threads made by individuals who used Anki and were able to get 515+, but there are others who never even bothered (two of my friends got 515, and 516 w/o doing any type of flashcards). Are you someone who uses flashcards during school?
Generally, I am told to do more practice questions which makes sense. The MCAT is a timed test designed to test your problem-solving ability than memorizing definitions.
I would suggest that you try and limit the amount of flashcards you do to specific subjects that require pure memorization. For example, don't waste time doing cards for equations (physics or chemistry) because doing practice questions should be sufficient to help you memorize them.
For me, psychology/sociology is the only section I am using flashcards for, because I don't have any background knowledge of these topics (I didn't take any psy or soc classes). Basically, my flashcards are about types of theories, and some definitions that I never came across.
I am using TBRFor me, I've always liked Biology and it's derivatives (Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pathology), I never really struggled with it (hence my interest in the medical field ). Therefore, I did not need to use flash cards or notes (except for one specific topic). I would understand if you use opt to use them since there are many things you are required to know.
The specific topic that I did not mention is Amino Acids. It is one of the most important things to remember for the MCAT.
If I were to make flash cards, I would start with amino acids (one letter and three letter abbreviations, structures, rough pKa estimates), hormones of the digestive system, types of cells of the immune system, organs and hormones of endocrine system, neurotransmitters, and so on.
The list is long and certainly not everything I mentioned requires flashcards, this is why you want to limit it to things you are very weak/unfamiliar with.
Once again, I would like to emphasize the importance of practice. I'm not sure what prep books you are using for biology section but currently, I am doing TBR, khan academy, AAMC for biology. I like TBR because they are full of experiments and long dense passages. On the other hand, KA has short passages that I generally do if my time is limited or if I am tired and don't have the energy to go through a full passage, and the AAMC are important for obvious reasons.
@ac62994 sorry, what do you mean you do a chapter separately from making a note card? Does that mean you take notes, and then make note cards?
What about for Biology and Biochemistry?