MCAT Advice

[xwang]

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I have been out of school for more than a year and feel very rusty on my pre-reqs.

General Chemistry - B, B+, C (weak on acid and base and electrochemistry)
Physics - C+ (weak on mechanic), A (did well in electricity and magnetism, but it has been a few years, and feel like I don't really remember anything), B+ (don't feel esp. strong on optics)
Biology - A, A, A (Guess I have a strong foundation based on my grade, but have not reviewed yet, and feel like I have forgotten a lot of things)
Organic Chemistry - B+, B+, B+ (though only got B+s, feels okay with organic chemistry - B+ is pretty hard to come by at where I took the course)

Per my grades, I need to do really well on the MCAT to get into medical school (will apply to SMP). I went to a pretty good school (top 15) that I hope will excuse my grade somewhat but I know it doesn't really will.

I have not really started studying yet but right now I feel like I have forgotten all the materials I have learned. I'm signed up to take the MCAT on October 21st. I have Berkeley Review and TPRH. I also got my textbooks with me.

I'm thinking about rereading my organic chemistry and biology textbooks since I read those two books pretty thoroughly when I took the classes and I feel like I can reread those textbook pretty quickly (since I've already read the text once). However by "quickly" I think it is still going to take a while since it has been a few years since I touched those materials. Or do you think I should just stick to the review books? I'm concerned that I won't be able to pick up the materials up sufficiently/gain a good understanding of the content by using the review books. Or will the review books be sufficient for someone in my situation?

I'm thinking about solely using review books for general chemistry and physics (did not read the textbooks well the first time around when I took the courses). Any advice for someone in my situation (not a good foundation and have been out of school for a while) on how to tackle these two subjects?

I'm signed up to take the MCAT on October 21st so I have 4+half months to study. However, I'm not studying full time since I'm also working 12 hours per week as a medical scribe.

 

[kraskadva]

What I did (just took the MCAT on 5/22) was
download the topic lists from the AAMC ("Content Outlines" at https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/),
get a small study group together, go over everything to get all the concepts down pat (~9 weeks, 3days/week as a group),
then do practice tests for another 9 weeks (always timed, but at the beginning just 1 section a day. Full lengths for the last 5 weeks).

Physics is not a strong suit for me, and that part was a little rough on the real thing, but I felt pretty solid on everything else. You have to know what you need to know (hence the content lists) and you have to know how the question will be asked (hence the practice tests).
Everybody's different, but I personally found most of the various review courses pretty useless, except as a source of practice questions in the beginning. Towards the end, even those were worthless to me, as the questions were phrased differently than the real thing.

Good luck🙂

 

[MedPhys2MD]

I'm not sure I would reread your textbooks cover to cover... Don't think that would be high yield. I'm thinking you should start with the review books and go to your textbooks on any subjects you aren't able to adequately refresh or understand through the review material. Going through the text will simply take too long - even though you've read them before. Time better spent doing practice problems and full lengths.

I have been out of school for more than a year and feel very rusty on my pre-reqs.

General Chemistry - B, B+, C (weak on acid and base and electrochemistry)
Physics - C+ (weak on mechanic), A (did well in electricity and magnetism, but it has been a few years, and feel like I don't really remember anything), B+ (don't feel esp. strong on optics)
Biology - A, A, A (Guess I have a strong foundation based on my grade, but have not reviewed yet, and feel like I have forgotten a lot of things)
Organic Chemistry - B+, B+, B+ (though only got B+s, feels okay with organic chemistry - B+ is pretty hard to come by at where I took the course)

Per my grades, I need to do really well on the MCAT to get into medical school (will apply to SMP). I went to a pretty good school (top 15) that I hope will excuse my grade somewhat but I know it doesn't really will.

I have not really started studying yet but right now I feel like I have forgotten all the materials I have learned. I'm signed up to take the MCAT on October 21st. I have Berkeley Review and TPRH. I also got my textbooks with me.

I'm thinking about rereading my organic chemistry and biology textbooks since I read those two books pretty thoroughly when I took the classes and I feel like I can reread those textbook pretty quickly (since I've already read the text once). However by "quickly" I think it is still going to take a while since it has been a few years since I touched those materials. Or do you think I should just stick to the review books? I'm concerned that I won't be able to pick up the materials up sufficiently/gain a good understanding of the content by using the review books. Or will the review books be sufficient for someone in my situation?

I'm thinking about solely using review books for general chemistry and physics (did not read the textbooks well the first time around when I took the courses). Any advice for someone in my situation (not a good foundation and have been out of school for a while) on how to tackle these two subjects?

I'm signed up to take the MCAT on October 21st so I have 4+half months to study. However, I'm not studying full time since I'm also working 12 hours per week as a medical scribe.

 

[MedPhys2MD]

Oh and just my opinion, but you can definitely still study "fulltime"... You're only scribing 12 hours a week (plus volunteering/other EC??). Those things will actually give you a needed break from studying. But unless you have other big obligations such as a family, putting in 40 hours while working 12 hours isn't unreasonable

 

[cdistel]

^^^wish I could double like!!

 

[Leslie_Knope]

Just review the MCAT books. Text books will go into too much depth. The MCAT is less about memorization and more about application. Do practice problems every single time you study.