Managing MCAT and WorkLoad.

[history _ice]

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Hey,
This might sound stupid. But I'm A sophomore in college and trying to Manage studying for the MCAT and continuing my EC's and Biochem/psy majors. I will appreciate any suggestions on how to fit MCAT into workload and about how many hr to devote each week. Any suggestions or examples of study habits will be very helpful.

thanx in advance 🙂

 

[Mansoor]

I don't know how people do it. I don't have to take it for a while but already i decided that i want to take it in August. Freeing up one summer of your life to study for a test might make a world of difference.

 

[sunflower79]

From one who's tried: when you try to do everything, you usually end up doing nothing well. I would advice you to choose wisely 2 of the 3 things that are most important to you right now. Ask yourself

Do you really feel ready to take the mcat?
If yes, are you prepared to spend most of your day studying for 6-8 weeks straight? (NOT counting prep class time!)

Also if I were you, I would try to plan out how your junior year would look if you were going to do one thing over the other. Remember, there are pros and cons to everything.

For heaven's sake, you're a sophomore which means you still have the next year to do things, and another year still if you think you might take a year off to do something fun before going through another 4 years of med school with NO summers off (except 1st year).

good luck! email is welcome

 

[DW]

mind you, TPR/kaplan MCAT review course will have you in class for about 100 hours, with the HW and reading material for the class nonwithstanding. Now, i worked full time and worked on my masters thesis and volunteered at an ER while doing MCAT prep and did well (35R), but i will say it was REALLY tough and I nothing resembling a life during that this past spring. If you're doing such an intense undergrad course of studies, I would suggest maybe taking a diluted year long prep course as opposed to jamming it all into one semester.

 

[DrBlueDevil]

Another thing to consider is this:

If you really need to clear your entire schedule to study your way to a great MCAT score, it may not be worth it. You'll have more work in med school than in college, and you'll be required to juggle more things at once (I haven't been to med school yet, but I've been told this by pretty much everyone I've talk to who has). If you get an MCAT score that's far above what you would have gotten while under more pressure, you may find yourself in a top school competing with people who CAN do all the work at once. It might make you miserable or overstressed trying to keep up.

 

[JimmyD]

I took the MCAT this past April with a full workload and one very time consuming extra-curricular. I'm afraid my only piece of advice, if you need to do SERIOUS studying is to take the thing in August. My diagnostic scores alleviated some of my anxieties so really the only hardcore studying I did was the two weeks before the MCAT. The week before I dropped everything. I didn't go to classes, I didn't leave the room 🙂 I dont know if all that cramming helped. I took a Kaplan course but rarely went to class because of other commitments (and because I found it a complete waste of time.) So if you're in need of some serious studying, I'd say its better to spread it out over several months rather than cram. The summer provides you with that opportunity.

good luck! relax!

 

[banannie]

Listen, I think it's definitely possible to overstudy for the MCAT and burn out. 6-8 hours per day? Come on. At some point your learning curve is going to level off, and then beyond that you might actually harm yourself by studying more. I would advocate for maybe a couple of hours per day (occassionally more when you take a practice test), then block off the two weeks before the actual test to devote solely to MCAT. This works especially well during the summer. I was working part time (20 hrs/week), doing thesis research (20 hrs/week), then spent time in the evenings preparing. I cut loose on the weekends, had the best summer of my life, and ended up with a 40.

 

[jot]

i had a full rigorous class scheduale, lots of extracurrics and studied for the april mcat and did well. the point isn't to state that, but that if you are reasonably busy, you tend to be more potent with the time that you have. i think athletes would agree, they often do better in classes while in-season. i also liked the comraderie of studying with everyone for the april test, and the academic mindset i was in. if i had to take the august mcat i'm sure i would spend about 50% of the time tooling around, and probably not do as well. i'm a big advocate of balance, and though i did study quite a bit (starting winter break) i refused to let it consume me and get sick of it, which might happen if i had only the test to think about in the summer. thats just me though, people do fantastic in august as well, but they are somethings to think about. goodluck anyway, and don't start too early, you'll get sick of it!
-jot

 

[The Fly]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by DrBlueDevil:
•Another thing to consider is this:

If you really need to clear your entire schedule to study your way to a great MCAT score, it may not be worth it. You'll have more work in med school than in college, and you'll be required to juggle more things at once (I haven't been to med school yet, but I've been told this by pretty much everyone I've talk to who has). If you get an MCAT score that's far above what you would have gotten while under more pressure, you may find yourself in a top school competing with people who CAN do all the work at once. It might make you miserable or overstressed trying to keep up.•••••This is sadly true. . . you'll need to learn how to study more quickly, efficiently and yet still work in all the ECs that you need to -- and, as many have iterated, this will only get MUCH harder during medical school and even harder to balance during your internship/residency. I work with interns and residents all day and they'll all tell you it just gets harder and harder. . . Medicine is all about multitasking your life/work/studies efficiently and is basically a prerequisite to being successful, IMO.