To give you some background information on myself, I'm a non-trad student who took a majority of my pre-reqs between 2002-2005 at a community college. I did however recently take 2nd semester o-chem for grade improvement, 2nd semester physics for the first time, and several upper division bio classes. However, with that said, to say that I was a little rusty when it came to the knowledge tested on the MCAT would be an understatement.
I took the MCAT in April, 2013 and received a 36 (12PS, 11VR, 13BS). The most difficult subject for me was by far physical science. I remembered almost nothing from general chemistry or first semester physics.
If your knowledge is a little rusty, you'll have to work harder than most. First, you want to give yourself enough time to study in-depth, but not too much time. You'll be surprised how quickly information comes back to you. Personally, I wound't start reading 6 months prior to starting a prep course. One thing you have to be concerned about is burn-out, plus the stuff you read 6 months ago will just be hazy again anyways. It's better just to study once, and study as hard as you can. Now let me speak to my experiences:
I took the online live Princeton review prep course (none of the local in-person courses fit my schedule. I work near full time). Included in the course were the review books, the hyperlearning science workbook, and hyperlearning verbal reasoning passages. However, that was not enough for me. I also used the examkrakers 101 verbal passages, 1001 questions in MCAT general chemistry, 1001 questions in MCAT physics, and Princeton review MCAT workout book.
Now for study habits. I spent most of my weekends studying, and I was up almost everyday before work studying. I read and took notes on every page in the review books, and completed 95%-100% of all the questions in the books mentioned above. HOWEVER, for the MCAT you don't need to know 100% of the information for every subject. As long as you know 85%-90% of the subject really well, you should be fine. If something is giving you a real problem (as in it will take you hours to figure out the concept and you might still be shaky on it) move on, don't waste your valuable time. A caveat, if that concept is extremely important (boxed-in or highlighted by the book author), or needed to understand other concepts, spend the needed time to understand that concept.
One section that gives most people problems is the verbal reasoning. It is like nothing you have seen before. For that section, I would start doing practice questions 6 months ahead of time. At first I tried the Princeton review method, and it wasn't working well for me. I couldn't finish all the passages in time. It might work for some, but not me. Instead I ended up using the examkrakers method.
NOW, the MOST important thing you can do to perform well on the MCAT is practice, practice, practice. The workbooks are great, but what will make or break most people is full-length practice tests. I did 5 FL practice tests from AAMC. Do the first 1 or 2 at home where it is nice and quiet, so you can get used to the computer based system and how AAMC asks questions. After that, DO NOT do them at home. Go to a library or coffee shop (as long as it isn't too crazy) to do the rest of your FL practice tests. This is really important in helping to simulate real testing conditions (or I should say the worst possible testing conditions).
A little analogy. I was a flight instructor prior to college and this whole pre-med route. One thing I always trained my students hard on was emergency procedures (i.e. engine failures, electrical failures, fires, etc). Who do you think would perform better at the moment when the engine goes kaboom at 500 feet and a forced landing is required; a pilot that's practiced, practiced, practiced who will probably still soil his pants, or a pilot that said in training "yeah yeah yeah, probably never gonna happen, I won't freak out, I'm so good, I can handle anything if it happens." From experience, I would rather fly with the first type. The second type freaks out or freezes every time when something really happens or if the emergency is unexpectedly and unknowingly induced by their flight instructor.
