MCAT 2015 Self Study

[cobalt12]

I just tried to take the old MCAT and only got a 28. I'm hoping to break past 30 with this new MCAT and would like to know how to do so through self study. What books should I get and how should I go about studying on my own? I'm shooting for June. With the old MCAT I think I knew the material pretty well but I needed to practice more. Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[try2catchmike1987]

I had staples print this out and bind it. https://www.aamc.org/students/download/377882/data/mcat2015-content.pdf. Then I made a chart in Excel to note which sections I had reviewed. I am going through everything line by line and making Anki decks for each section. I use Kaplan books (2015 versions), Khan videos and some random youtube videos if I need them. I also have all my textbooks from undergrad to reference. I think this is probably a pretty good way to review everything while doing some practice problems from my old books. I will take a bunch of practice tests as I get closer to my MCAT date. Maybe try a variation of this?

 

[Jack Westin]

I had staples print this out and bind it. https://www.aamc.org/students/download/377882/data/mcat2015-content.pdf. Then I made a chart in Excel to note which sections I had reviewed. I am going through everything line by line and making Anki decks for each section. I use Kaplan books (2015 versions), Khan videos and some random youtube videos if I need them. I also have all my textbooks from undergrad to reference. I think this is probably a pretty good way to review everything while doing some practice problems from my old books. I will take a bunch of practice tests as I get closer to my MCAT date. Maybe try a variation of this?

Brilliant study plan. Just don't forget the importance of doing a lot of problems from day 1. Problems, problems and more problems. When I was studying, on any given day for instance, I would do 2 passages before breakfast, 3 after breakfast, take a break, then tell myself I'd do another one before a snack. Go to the gym and do two passages after working out (at the gym). Go eat with some friends. Come home and do another 2. Take a break and then tell myself that I'd do another 3 passages before watching a movie, and another 2 after the movie and that I'd be done studying for the day.

It's the little steps that get you to places in life others envy.

 

[Levrone]

Brilliant study plan. Just don't forget the importance of doing a lot of problems from day 1. Problems, problems and more problems. When I was studying, on any given day for instance, I would do 2 passages before breakfast, 3 after breakfast, take a break, then tell myself I'd do another one before a snack. Go to the gym and do two passages after working out (at the gym). Go eat with some friends. Come home and do another 2. Take a break and then tell myself that I'd do another 3 passages before watching a movie, and another 2 after the movie and that I'd be done studying for the day.

It's the little steps that get you to places in life others envy.

that's a great quote at the end..

idk why but studying in general takes me so long.. for example, doing 15 passages and reviewing them takes me nearly 6-7 hours on a good day. reading one whole chapter and doing some questions would take me ~8 hours.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Brilliant study plan. Just don't forget the importance of doing a lot of problems from day 1. Problems, problems and more problems. When I was studying, on any given day for instance, I would do 2 passages before breakfast, 3 after breakfast, take a break, then tell myself I'd do another one before a snack. Go to the gym and do two passages after working out (at the gym). Go eat with some friends. Come home and do another 2. Take a break and then tell myself that I'd do another 3 passages before watching a movie, and another 2 after the movie and that I'd be done studying for the day.

It's the little steps that get you to places in life others envy.

that's a great quote at the end..

idk why but studying in general takes me so long.. for example, doing 15 passages and reviewing them takes me nearly 6-7 hours on a good day. reading one whole chapter and doing some questions would take me ~8 hours.

That's exactly my issue as well. I'm scheduled for the exam this Friday but I may end up voiding it. But it takes me a long time to read and do/review passages, and I don't know how to fix that

 

[linsanity17]

Brilliant study plan. Just don't forget the importance of doing a lot of problems from day 1. Problems, problems and more problems. When I was studying, on any given day for instance, I would do 2 passages before breakfast, 3 after breakfast, take a break, then tell myself I'd do another one before a snack. Go to the gym and do two passages after working out (at the gym). Go eat with some friends. Come home and do another 2. Take a break and then tell myself that I'd do another 3 passages before watching a movie, and another 2 after the movie and that I'd be done studying for the day.

It's the little steps that get you to places in life others envy.

So do you suggest doing passages during our content review? Any ideas how we should go about doing this (i.e. what resources)? Should we be doing passages for the chapter we studied that day?

 

[SuperSlim]

what passages should we use, I have the old TBR passages.. but I feel like its a waste cause totally new exam.

 

[Levrone]

what passages should we use, I have the old TBR passages.. but I feel like its a waste cause totally new exam.

it's not a waste imo.. there's hardly any 2015 content that you can use, so you'll need to go to old content anyway for extra practice. for old practice i'm using tbr and tprh sw

although i'm a little scared b/c a lot of those 2015 passages involve date being taken + graphs/experiment done, most passages in tbr/tprh are just a block of info

 

[SuperSlim]

it's not a waste imo.. there's hardly any 2015 content that you can use, so you'll need to go to old content anyway for extra practice. for old practice i'm using tbr and tprh sw

although i'm a little scared b/c a lot of those 2015 passages involve date being taken + graphs/experiment done, most passages in tbr/tprh are just a block of info

A lot of physics has been reduced as well as Orgo and chem. So what about the sections that integrate a topic that we are supposed to know and a topic that we arnt. For example solids and fluids. We don't need to know about solids. I was doing fluids passage and got asked a momentum question. Momentum isn't on the exam. This is really not fair. And one practice exam is not enough.

 

[Ulgarmoose]

This is my concern as well. Adding more material? That's doable. I just don't want to waste my time studying content that will no longer be on the exam.

Is there a resource to compare the old and new content in physics, ochem, and gen chem? Just something showing what is no longer on the exam would be great.

 

[SuperSlim]

This is my concern as well. Adding more material? That's doable. I just don't want to waste my time studying content that will no longer be on the exam.

Is there a resource to compare the old and new content in physics, ochem, and gen chem? Just something showing what is no longer on the exam would be great.

I found this site: http://portal.mcatquestion.com/mcat2015-something-new/
I don't know how accurate it is however. can someone confirm this?

thanks

 

[Jack Westin]

So do you suggest doing passages during our content review? Any ideas how we should go about doing this (i.e. what resources)? Should we be doing passages for the chapter we studied that day?

In the month of your content review, stick to doing the back of the chapter questions. You should do about 1/3 of them as SN2ed suggests.

 

[Levrone]

In the month of your content review, stick to doing the back of the chapter questions. You should do about 1/3 of them as SN2ed suggests.

I'm not too familiar with SN2ed, but for the other 2/3 of passages, we do them just in any order after content review? shouldn't we still at least skim the chapter again since it's easy to forget the details? I'm having trouble remembering everything, some chapters I've read 3 times and still am not doing so hot on the passages.. and idk if you've read the new EK passages, but wow, imo those are much harder than TBR or any other source