I am not sure how much most of the members on SDN do outside reading, reading materials outside of your science textbooks, your MCAT review books, and SDN threads. Regardless, I want to start this thread to highlight a new angle on a topic that has been discussed by writers, thinkers, and researchers for the longest time: What makes someone truly great at something?
Of course, everyone here has theorized on this topic and has arrived at his or her own conclusion on what it takes to be great. But the new angle that I mentioned above is being underscored by writers who have researched something that is known as "deliberate practice." This concept has been touched upon in books such as Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated, and another one titled The Talent Code (forgot the name of the author). In these books, the authors focus on the habits of the world's most successful people and have arrived at the conclusion that each one has practiced his or her respective craft to an almost-unprecedented extent, much beyond their own natural limits and abilities. Now, I know this concept may not seem novel or innovative to many of you but the authors are really focusing on this thing called "deliberate practice," which is not practice in the common "practice will make you perfect" kind of way.
Deliberate practice is a specific kind of practice in which the performer zooms in on aspects of a skill that need to be strengthened and then working on them with discipline and repetition. Deliberate practice also makes use of a good system of feedback which could come from a friend, a tutor, and so on and so forth.
If you google "deliberate practice," you will see more information on this technique.
So I want to know what you all think about deliberate practice in relation to the MCAT. Can the same concept be applied to tackle this beast of an exam? In my opinion, yes. Some people may require more practice than others but with the use of deliberate practice, scoring a high score on the exam is never beyond the reach of anyone here. It simply requires the ability to identify weaknesses and focus on them until your brain bleeds; it requires the discipline to repeat passages and practice problems that focus on your weakness until you can't take it anymore; it requires a good feedback system (mine is SDN) that will take a look at what you need to focus on, review your results, and offer the feedback necessary to go back and fill in the gaps in your studying.
Of course, everyone here has theorized on this topic and has arrived at his or her own conclusion on what it takes to be great. But the new angle that I mentioned above is being underscored by writers who have researched something that is known as "deliberate practice." This concept has been touched upon in books such as Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated, and another one titled The Talent Code (forgot the name of the author). In these books, the authors focus on the habits of the world's most successful people and have arrived at the conclusion that each one has practiced his or her respective craft to an almost-unprecedented extent, much beyond their own natural limits and abilities. Now, I know this concept may not seem novel or innovative to many of you but the authors are really focusing on this thing called "deliberate practice," which is not practice in the common "practice will make you perfect" kind of way.
Deliberate practice is a specific kind of practice in which the performer zooms in on aspects of a skill that need to be strengthened and then working on them with discipline and repetition. Deliberate practice also makes use of a good system of feedback which could come from a friend, a tutor, and so on and so forth.
If you google "deliberate practice," you will see more information on this technique.
So I want to know what you all think about deliberate practice in relation to the MCAT. Can the same concept be applied to tackle this beast of an exam? In my opinion, yes. Some people may require more practice than others but with the use of deliberate practice, scoring a high score on the exam is never beyond the reach of anyone here. It simply requires the ability to identify weaknesses and focus on them until your brain bleeds; it requires the discipline to repeat passages and practice problems that focus on your weakness until you can't take it anymore; it requires a good feedback system (mine is SDN) that will take a look at what you need to focus on, review your results, and offer the feedback necessary to go back and fill in the gaps in your studying.
