MCAT Course End Dates

[ilovefeet]

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Hey guys!

I will be taking my MCAT in January (most likely the 25th).

I'm looking into Kaplan courses. Do you think it would be better for me to take the course that ends January 19th, or earlier in December? Do you recommend studying an extra month individually after the course is over, before taking the exam OR dive right in, 6 days after the course is over.

Thoughts?
& Thanks 🙂

 

[mees]

I wish I had taken the exam soon after I had finished the class bc that's when the science was still fresh on my mind. However, I hadnt taken physics yet so I waited a much longer time. If you feel like you will have time to take the course and do all the extra work and practice exams, I suggest you take it soon after. Best of luck to you!

 

[ilovefeet]

I wish I had taken the exam soon after I had finished the class bc that's when the science was still fresh on my mind. However, I hadnt taken physics yet so I waited a much longer time. If you feel like you will have time to take the course and do all the extra work and practice exams, I suggest you take it soon after. Best of luck to you!

Okay thanks!
I will be registering for a Kaplan course from September 26th (ish) to January 19th!
Thanks 🙂

 

[Cascade11]

I would give yourself some time after the course to make sure you have done every practice test they have. From what I have heard and from my own experience, if you have anything else going on in the background [school, work, research] you won't give 100% to the course and that would be unfair to you. If you have a short period of time to spare then you can catch up on some tests you haven't done or some concepts you haven't hammered in. My semesters are very intense so I have to study every free time I have for school related tests and then kaplan came as an afterthought.

 

[ilovefeet]

I have already graduated so I am fully focused on the MCAT and the Kaplan courses will be my main priority. Did you take Kapland? Was it helpful for you?

Since the course ends on January 19th, I was planning to take 2 practice exams a day after that. Rest on the 24th, and then take the exam. Does that sound realistic? Do you think that I'll be burnt out?

 

[Cascade11]

It's possible you can be burnt out and that's a dangerous place to be. You can take 2 practice tests in one day? Props, I was so tired after one of them, I couldn't think about taking 2 in one day. If I was in your position, I would give it a week to go over the 2 practice exams and relax fully.

 

[ilovefeet]

oh okay...
so do you think that the 19th is an okay end date?
Or should I look for a class with a sooner end date?

... If my exam is on January 25th.

 

[Cascade11]

Oh you already registered for the test, I didn't realize that. If there is an earlier end date, then I would take it. Better to have more time than less time before the test and go into a frenzy because you believe you need more time. But don't just take my word for it.

 

[ilovefeet]

Oh you already registered for the test, I didn't realize that. If there is an earlier end date, then I would take it. Better to have more time than less time before the test and go into a frenzy because you believe you need more time. But don't just take my word for it.

I have not registered for my exam yet, I don't think you can register for January exams until October. I assumed the 25th because that's around the same time as the dates for 2012.

But thanks for the advice, I will def take that into consideration when I register for the MCAT course. 🙂

 

[nikkisorous]

I have already graduated so I am fully focused on the MCAT and the Kaplan courses will be my main priority. Did you take Kapland? Was it helpful for you?

Since the course ends on January 19th, I was planning to take 2 practice exams a day after that. Rest on the 24th, and then take the exam. Does that sound realistic? Do you think that I'll be burnt out?

Sorry but two tests a day is a terrible idea. It's not only the amount of tests you do, but also how you review the tests after...both correct AND incorrect questions.

 

[ilovefeet]

Sorry but two tests a day is a terrible idea. It's not only the amount of tests you do, but also how you review the tests after...both correct AND incorrect questions.

oh really? hmmm...

I think I was being too optimistic.
Did you guys already take the exam?
If so, how many practice exams did you guys take to prep for the actual test?

thanks!!

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

oh really? hmmm...

I think I was being too optimistic.
Did you guys already take the exam?
If so, how many practice exams did you guys take to prep for the actual test?

thanks!!

I took AAMC practice tests 3, 7, and 8.

 

[ilovefeet]

I took AAMC practice tests 3, 7, and 8.

okay I will look into that.
Thanks Max. 🙂
What did you think of the exam, did you just recently take it?

 

[nikkisorous]

I took all the AAMC tests. You aren't really supposed to discuss materials on the MCAT, but I will say this, my biological section was very organic chemistry intensive. Also the verbal passages were longer than any of the AAMC tests. You should try to aim for 8 minutes a passage while doing practice passages.

Remember the MCAT is just a hurdle you must cross to get into Podiatry School. I have full confidence you will jump that hurdle.

PS (Just my 0.02 cents): I really don't think you should waste the money on the kaplan course. They are very expensive. Unless you really don't have the motivation to study alone then those courses are essentially useless.
I have posted a link to a VERY good home 3-month study program. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=623898. Lots of people have gotten great results using this. It will be cheaper for you in the long-run and the results will be better. Maybe consider that option.

Good Luck whatever path you choose!!!

 

[msion]

I only took practice exam #3, #10, and #11. I would 11 was very very close to the real thing, but still won't reflect your actual score. My real MCAT score is 5 points higher than my practice exams. It's definitely not a test that you can be fully prepared for, there are always trivial things that you are not very familiar with. I would say it's more of a process of eliminating the obvious wrong ones than nailing the right choice. That being said, read the passages closely and use intuition. EK books are really good at building this MCAT intuition. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

okay I will look into that.
Thanks Max. 🙂
What did you think of the exam, did you just recently take it?

I thought the AAMC tests were pretty similar to the tests. Obviously content was different, but the amount of time it took me to do each section was equivalent. I took it on June 21st.

I went into the test with a pretty care-free attitude, because my AAMC's were in the high twenties, so I didn't really stress at all about it. I got out of my test at 11:58 am and it started at 8, so I really didn't use all my time/go back and check my answers. My actual MCAT was 2 points higher than the last AAMCs I did (7 & 8).

Do the AAMC tests and you'll get a good feeling of what it's like.

 

[ilovefeet]

nikkisorous:

Thanks for being so positive 🙂 I'll try to keep that up from now until January. To be honest, I'm very terrified for the exam. I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself in the one month period of waiting! I think I'm going to take the course, I think it's worth the investment& personally, I feel like it would do me good to take the class. BUT are you applying to the cycle of 2013? Or are you already a pod student?

msion:

hmmm, 5 points higher? THAT's AWESOME!! Def very encouraging, when did you take your test? When are u applying?

MaxillofacialMN:

Thanks for the advice! Where are u applying to? &where are your top choices?

 

[nikkisorous]

nikkisorous:

Thanks for being so positive 🙂 I'll try to keep that up from now until January. To be honest, I'm very terrified for the exam. I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself in the one month period of waiting! I think I'm going to take the course, I think it's worth the investment& personally, I feel like it would do me good to take the class. BUT are you applying to the cycle of 2013? Or are you already a pod student?

msion:

hmmm, 5 points higher? THAT's AWESOME!! Def very encouraging, when did you take your test? When are u applying?

MaxillofacialMN:

Thanks for the advice! Where are u applying to? &where are your top choices?

I'm applying this cycle. Split between DMU and Temple as top choices.

 

[msion]

nikkisorous:

msion:

hmmm, 5 points higher? THAT's AWESOME!! Def very encouraging, when did you take your test? When are u applying?

I took the test on July 14 this year and I am about to submit my application today or tomorrow depending on what committee says about my personal statement. Just relax when you take the test, no practice tests can get you prepared for the knowledge you need to know, but take at least a couple so that you know the format and that will ease a bit of anxiety. Don't waste too much time studying for Ochem, no matter how prepared you are, you will always be given a reaction you haven't seen before, but know your functional groups. This is a test that is designed so that you can miss almost half of the questions and still get a good score since each question is weighed differently. 😎 Hope that helps.

 

[nikkisorous]

I took the test on July 14 this year and I am about to submit my application today or tomorrow depending on what committee says about my personal statement. Just relax when you take the test, no practice tests can get you prepared for the knowledge you need to know, but take at least a couple so that you know the format and that will ease a bit of anxiety. Don't waste too much time studying for Ochem, no matter how prepared you are, you will always be given a reaction you haven't seen before, but know your functional groups. This is a test that is designed so that you can miss almost half of the questions and still get a good score since each question is weighed differently. 😎 Hope that helps.

There is a misleading information in there.
I have yet to see an orgo reaction that was "new", every orgo reaction presented is one you should know. Also there is no proof that questions are weighted differently, it's a topic of long discussion and the consensus was no one knows.

 

[texas7]

I called aamc about a month ago asking about the differently weighted questions. They told me that it is in fact true. Hard questions are given a value of 1 and easy questions are given a value of 0.25. Your net score is then added up and ranked according to the aamc's scale for that particular mcat. From what I could gather by picking at the person I spoke to, the numbers 1 and 0.25 might not be "the exact values," that was just her explanation. Basically the point she wanted to get across to me was that not all questions are worth the same amount, and that some aren't worth anything (the small amount of experimental questions they might throw into each section.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Not all questions can be weighed the same because some questions don't count toward your score at all! All tests have "test-test questions" - or questions they are trying to test out/standardize for another test and are not reported on your score.

 

[nikkisorous]

Yes Max's comment is true all tests have experimental passages that aren't graded. I still stand firm on the fact that no one knows whether easy or hard questions are worth more.
Here's the citation-:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=927902

Looking at that you can see that someone called AAMC and got a similar response to what Texas got, but then more recently someone got an email response from AAMC with no definitive answer given. Interpret the information as you'd like and come up with your own conclusions on the matter.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Yes Max's comment is true all tests have experimental passages that aren't graded. I still stand firm on the fact that no one knows whether easy or hard questions are worth more.
Here's the citation-:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=927902

Looking at that you can see that someone called AAMC and got a similar response to what Texas got, but then more recently someone got an email response from AAMC with no definitive answer given. Interpret the information as you'd like and come up with your own conclusions on the matter.

Yeah I was just trying to be a smart ass as per usual.

 

[ilovefeet]

Yeah I was just trying to be a smart ass as per usual.

Okay so the best thing to do is studying my brains out and try to be as prepared as I can be 🙂

Thanks for the advice guys!!

 

[msion]

There is a misleading information in there.
I have yet to see an orgo reaction that was "new", every orgo reaction presented is one you should know. Also there is no proof that questions are weighted differently, it's a topic of long discussion and the consensus was no one knows.

Sorry I didn't realized I typed the word "reaction". The point I am trying to get here is that don't expect them to give some molecules you know, it's gonna be something you've never seen before. I have seen people trying to memorize standard reactions with simple molecules, this is not going to help on the test. But if you know the functional groups, then you will likely know what reaction will take place. For example you might not know what a molecule is, but if you can spot epoxides, then here you go...

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Okay so the best thing to do is studying my brains out and try to be as prepared as I can be 🙂

Thanks for the advice guys!!

If you're freaking out, then it will probably calm your nerves to study.

I only studied a little and it turned out fine, we're not trying to get into Harvard Med here...

 

[ilovefeet]

Sorry I didn't realized I typed the word "reaction". The point I am trying to get here is that don't expect them to give some molecules you know, it's gonna be something you've never seen before. I have seen people trying to memorize standard reactions with simple molecules, this is not going to help on the test. But if you know the functional groups, then you will likely know what reaction will take place. For example you might not know what a molecule is, but if you can spot epoxides, then here you go...

Okay I'll work on knowing the functional groups well!! 🙂 thanks!