Does anyone have anything that could be used to study physics before mcat? i am not able to take physics this year but have to take mcat anyone know something i can use to study ??
mcat before ..?
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You're going to regret doing that.
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I'd definitely take physics before taking the MCAT.
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Yeah, it's probably not a good idea to take the MCAT before taking one of the prereqs.
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I thought I could teach myself enough physics to do well on the MCAT. I had taken first semester, but it was laughably easy and didn't prepare me well. I didn't have any background in physics 2 material.
I've yet to see how I did on the MCAT, but self teaching all of intro physics was a horrible experience that I don't recommend. On the bright side, I feel that I have now cemented those concepts because of how much time and effort I spent on them, but all of that time could have been better spent mastering things i had already learned instead of teaching myself basics, had I heeded the wisdom on SDN.
if at all possible IMO, take all prereqs before the MCAT, or be prepared for stress, anxiety, and a disappointing score. There are exceptions of course, but they are not common. I thought I could be an exception. I wasn't. Keep that in mind.
I've yet to see how I did on the MCAT, but self teaching all of intro physics was a horrible experience that I don't recommend. On the bright side, I feel that I have now cemented those concepts because of how much time and effort I spent on them, but all of that time could have been better spent mastering things i had already learned instead of teaching myself basics, had I heeded the wisdom on SDN.
if at all possible IMO, take all prereqs before the MCAT, or be prepared for stress, anxiety, and a disappointing score. There are exceptions of course, but they are not common. I thought I could be an exception. I wasn't. Keep that in mind.
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Out of curiosity, why did you guys feel you should take it before taking physics?
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I had a scheduling snafu and couldn't take both semesters of physics my sophomore year. I wanted to study all summer and take it in August before junior year so that a) I would have more time to study and b) I could retake if need be. I want to apply early next cycle, and there is absolutely no way I can study during the school year as I work full time in addition to full time classes. It was not ideal at all, and I knew that going in. But it seemed like my best option -- let's hope I don't totally regret it!
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It's very possible to take MCAT physics without taking the course in college if you have had any sort of preparation in high school and/or are comfortable thinking in vectors. I think that the Kaplan physics book does a great job teaching all the concepts you will ever need (I didn't take the course, just had the book). On top of that, I got the exam crackers 1001 free-standing question book for physics. At the end of the day, since you only have under a minute to answer each question, no one question is particularly hard or takes a lot of physics knowledge to answer. If you are willing to put in the time to recognize common questions and learn to answer them, it's very doable.
My other trick was to take time during the directions section and write out, in organized sections, all the equations I would want to remember on the test as well as a sin/cos cheat table. That way I didn't have to do as much thinking during the test, I had a cheat sheet. Plus the last instructions page (right before you hit go) isn't timed, so you can take as much time as you want to prep your self-made cheat sheet before you start the section. Then if you are ever totally lost on a question, you can write out the variables you are given (as in m for mass, V for volume, etc) and then look over the sheet you created to see if any of the equations jog your memory.
My other trick was to take time during the directions section and write out, in organized sections, all the equations I would want to remember on the test as well as a sin/cos cheat table. That way I didn't have to do as much thinking during the test, I had a cheat sheet. Plus the last instructions page (right before you hit go) isn't timed, so you can take as much time as you want to prep your self-made cheat sheet before you start the section. Then if you are ever totally lost on a question, you can write out the variables you are given (as in m for mass, V for volume, etc) and then look over the sheet you created to see if any of the equations jog your memory.
Free online classes: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/free-stuff/1247592/
Just make sure your mcat practice test scores indicate that you're ready before taking the real mcat.
