MCAT Prep 4 years since pre-reqs

[divXyng]

Hi,

I graduated college 3 years ago and it has been 4 years since I took the general pre med classes however I'm planning on taking the MCAT in April 2018 with my official MCAT study schedule starting in late December so I'm giving myself 4 months of 7 hr+ days to study. I'm nervous even with that time frame because I think I will have to relearn everything again and when I was in undergrad I didn't take psychology or sociology.

Would sticking to a rigorous study schedule using the exam prep materials (Kaplan, TBR) prepare me for the MCAT or should I invest some time in brushing up on those subjects again before I start studying seriously? I'm quitting my job at the end of August to take classes for letters in the fall but I want to know if 4 months a reasonable time frame for someone in my situation? Additionally, would Khan academy be a good resource for brushing up or are there better resources out there that can help me get back to speed while I'm taking classes? Thanks!

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[BerkReviewTeach]

Reviewing material cannot hurt this far out from your exam, but come January be careful not to emphasize reviewing in lieu of doing passages. True learning comes from repeatedly testing yourself, not from passively reading or making lists. This is often the power of flash cards. In essence you are repeatedly testing yourself on the information. Get all you can out of some key classes this Fall. One of the things you hopefully discover is that you know the material far better than you currently think you do and that it comes back fast. That mentality will help you greatly in studying for the MCAT.

Once you are formally studying, however, you need to learn through passages and applications. Once January rolls around, you need to be doing passages every day. Most importantly, you need to redo any questions you miss and thoroughly go through the answer explanations. Our (BR) explanations will address the concepts, but they focus more on test reasoning and strategy. To do well on the MCAT requires a test-writer's perspective, which can only be developed through practice and thorough analysis.

The MCAT is not nearly as massive or overwhelming as people think it is when they start their review. There is a ton of material for sure, but it is stuff you've learned before at some juncture so if you stay at it diligently it won't be so bad.

 

[ChopinLiszt]

I don't want to say that content review isn't important, because obviously it is, but reading, analysis, and reasoning skills really are very, very important and can take you a long way. I'd say you'll get a better score with amazing reasoning and basic content than you will with basic reasoning and amazing content. Although they will throw in some seriously low-yield discrete questions out of left field, guaranteed. Master enzymes, inhibitors, and everything about Michaelis-menten and related equations. Amino acids, DNA, separation techniques (every kind of chromatography), etc. There are good high-yield topic guides out there if you google.

You need great content for an amazing score. But you could get a good score with decent content and great scientific reading skills. On every passage question, assume that the answer is in the passage if you look hard enough. Then look harder in the passage. For example, on one practice test there was a passage about some random protein no one has ever heard of, and hidden in one long, complicated sentence, it said the protein moves by retroactive transport. Then one question asked where the protein goes after it leaves the Golgi apparatus. If you didn't go back to the passage for the answer, you'd put something about it heading out of the cell. If you go back and pick apart the passage and see the "retroactive transport" you would choose the "nucleus" option because the passage told you that it moves backward in the transport chain instead of the normal direction.

I know this is too long already, but I wanted to give my perspective. I graduated 16 years ago and did absolutely nothing science-related during those years (but I read a lot). I thought I was going to bomb my diagnostic because every question looked like Greek. But I combed through every passage desperately for information and clues and, combined with good CARS reasoning, I got a 509 on that diagnostic with basically no content review. That's not a brag, it's just an illustration of reading and reasoning skills because I had NO recent content for over a decade. Go back to the passage for (nearly) every question and figure it out! You can do it.