MCAT/Course Load Dilemma

[Umyo]

I will be a junior undergraduate this fall. I have no idea when to take the MCAT. Originally, I would take the MCAT in January 2014, right before school starts in spring. The major roadblock with this method is that studying for the MCAT while taking 14 credit hours of school work in the fall might be difficult (Genetics, Biochemistry, Medical Humanities class, and 2 labs).

I will be volunteering at a research lab during the same semester, but only about 3 hours per week.

Should I take the MCAT this upcoming January after studying everything this Fall, or delay my MCAT until spring 2014 or possibly summer 2014?

I am concerned about managing MCAT studying with school studying, and about the possibility of "burning out". I have never had a part-time job or other part-time commitment that is as significant as studying for the MCAT.

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[IL Pre Med]

It's gonna be tough with 14 credit hours. I'm only taking one class (Orgo I) during the first half of my MCAT studying and I already feel like it's too much.

 

[Umyo]

It's gonna be tough with 14 credit hours. I'm only taking one class (Orgo I) during the first half of my MCAT studying and I already feel like it's too much.

Thanks for the response.

Anyone else have a different view?

 

[wiloghby]

Depends on how much review you will have to do. I just took the April MCAT just prior to finals and I'm taking 15 science credits this semester. If you have a lot of content review to do, I would not recommend this and I did not have a lot of time for study.

But the advantage to doing this in the spring is that I did spend all of spring break doing MCAT content review to make up for lack of time earlier in the term. If that sounds like a doable/fun spring break for you, then go for it!

I was fortunate in that the only content review I had to do was in biology, so it was ok that I had maybe 1/4 of the time to review content as is suggested in the SN2ed threads. I still did really well on the practice tests because of my fortunate/convenient background and hopefully did well on the real thing, but there's no question I could have done better if I didn't try to take 15 or even 12 credits the same time as my MCAT study.

If you take AAMC 3 before doing content review and get a 36 or something, you can probably take the MCAT on top of a full load and not have to worry. If you're on the border of 28-30, though, you want to have as much time for dedicated content review as possible.

tl;dr

Your plan is doable, but better if you don't have to do all that at once.

 

[Elevencents]

You could take a lighter load in the spring and schedule an April exam. That would give you semester break to get a strong start.

 

[Umyo]

You could take a lighter load in the spring and schedule an April exam. That would give you semester break to get a strong start.

Yes, that seems like a solid idea, and I wish that I had thought of that earlier before scheduling all of my classes for the upcoming fall semester.

 

[brood910]

Thanks for the response.

Anyone else have a different view?

It is doable in the beginning.
I did really well for the first 1.5 months but then I burnt out and stopped studying for MCAT..