MCAT and Social Life

[listener23]

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How often did you go out during your 3-4 month mcat study time?

 

[solitarius]

all night. every night.

 

[Gauss44]

How often did you go out during your 3-4 month mcat study time?

Go out and have fun? Not enough!

First: Friends felt neglected.
Second: I sent letters saying "I miss you" and explaining that I haven't seen anyone much at all.
Third: They wondered if my studying so much was "healthy."
Fourth: I thought no one understood me.

Then I finally found a study group. 🙂

The times that people have said encouraging positive things to me have been so MOTIVATING and so HELPFUL.

 

[edgerock24]

Go out and have fun? Not enough!

First: Friends felt neglected.
Second: I sent letters saying "I miss you" and explaining that I haven't seen anyone much at all.

Did you take the MCAT in 1970?

 

[Gauss44]

Did you take the MCAT in 1970?

No, just last year. By "letters" I meant emails (mainly) and a few cards. Cards take time to write and maybe show a little more thought effort than an average email, a nice gesture that may seem more sincere.

 

[Ace-Co-A]

Once a week.

 

[Zelda840]

I don't think I went out and had fun at all during that 3 months. I had a lot of family health issues at that time so every second not spent studying was spent in the hospital. I'm so glad it's over. I've never worked so hard for such an average score on something in my entire life. Very humbling.

 

[Hemorrage]

Ill be honest, my social life during my MCAT period was fairly miserable.. and quite frankly, everyone i knew that somehow found time to have "fun" ended up scoring <28.

I made up for the lack of fun after i did well.

 

[EvenStevens]

Probation for too many threads?

 

[Bovary]

How often did you go out during your 3-4 month mcat study time?

It shouldn't matter what everyone else on SDN experienced. You need to work as hard as you need to work in order to get the grades and score you want. Everyone is going to have to put a different amount of effort in, and there's no reason why you should necessarily conform to the habits of a handful of posters on this website.

Kaplan Inc claims that, on average, successful applicants study for 350+ hours for the mcat. I probably prepared for around 300 hours and I'm very happy with my score. Find a schedule, either offered for free online (including on this website) or provided by another reputable organization, and stick to it. Then, if you have extra time in your day and can manage to socialize, maybe you can "go out" without guilt. Or maybe not. We can't tell you what test prep plan is right for you, just make sure you find a consistent plan and stick with it.

 

[listener23]

Probation for too many threads?

Nope,

 

[sunflower18]

I studied during the summer along with working 20-30 hours a week. I took two days off completely over the course of the summer, but studied at least 2 hours every single other day --- most days I studied between 6 and 8 hours. I think I had 4 or 5 social outings total, not including my two days without study. I did all right. I don't think reducing my amount of social interaction would have helped me do better, but more probably would have made me do worse.

 

[sworzeh]

I studied for the MCAT while going to school full time, working 16 hours a week, and owning my own business. I went out very sparingly, perhaps a couple times per month.

 

[phunky]

Never. I'm working full time while studying though.

 

[Elevencents]

Didn't change anything. The whole "need to study 10 hours a day and not see the light of day" is overstated. And this is while taking classes and going to work. Time management is key.

However, I only scored a 30, which I was perfectly happy with.

 

[jeghaber]

Shot-gunned it over 3.5 weeks during winter break on campus. No one was around to distract me and it was cold outside, hahah.

 

[swolebrah]

I will be studying for the MCAT this summer along with working as a scribe PT and running my business. Social Life is not on my priorities, I could care less. To much effort has gone by to even think of that lol. As long as I can workout to relieve this stress, I will be good.

 

[TheShaker]

I definitely went out less and it decreased more as the test day approached. I think I could have moved time around to go out though, I just tend to shut myself off when I get stressed out.