MCAT Retake: How to study while working full time

[TwinOne]

Hi everyone. I took the MCAT September 9th and received a 508 (127/125/126/130). I did sign up to retake on March 24th but I have been on the fence on whether or not I should retake. I feel like I can do better but am worried that because I haven't been studying much and am now working full time so I wouldn't be able to put in as much time. I'm currently leaning toward retaking because I feel like I could do better but was wondering if any of you had some advice on how to approach retaking the MCAT especially with somewhat of a time crunch. I'm also open to opinions on if I shouldn't retake. Thanks in advance!

 

[TwinOne]

I had trouble finding my anything else around the time I posted this. But I retook it and ended up with at 514 (128/129/128/129) and would be more than happy to help anyone if they needed advice regarding studying while working full-time!

 

[TwinOne]

Can you share your strategy?

Of course! The biggest thing that I changed was how I thought about the test. I think going into it the first time around I thought of it as a just content-based test. My mindset was the more that I study and do practice problems to add new questions to my Anki, the better I will do. For the second time around I changed my mindset to focus on understanding the question (I really should have done that early). I focused on why the correct answer was correct versus why it was content. It helped me a lot to make an excel sheet for all the problems I got wrong and wrote down why I got it wrong. As for physical studying, I would listen to a podcast/youtube videos on my 20 min commute to and from work. I would listen in 1.5x or 2x in order to get more information into my head. There are a bunch of different MCAT podcasts on the podcast app on iPhone but you can also just play khan academy videos (usually did this for just p/s). After getting back from work I would study like crazy for 5-6 hours. I spent the first 2 weeks just going over content. I would read the chapter summaries in the Kaplan books to remember information. Fortunately, I had an old Anki deck that I would do 100 cards a day in also (did most of them during my work break). After content review, I focused on CARS as I knew it was my weakest section. I did a lot of Jack Westin passages with the idea that the questions might not be representative but focused on reading and understanding the passage. Then for practice tests, I would do them on Saturday and correct on Sunday. Take breaks. There were some days where I would get everything wrong on a CARS passage and feel like ****. I would tell myself to just come back to it later because I'm not feeling it right now.

So that was a lot of text so I do a short bullet summary of stuff.

• Change your mindset. Try to figure out what went wrong last time. Be honest with yourself to really identify this. For me, it was focusing on content rather than understanding the questions and why it was correct. This test is mostly reasoning not content. Tailor your studying around fixing what went wrong.
• Be efficient with your time. In times where you have downtime find ways to study. When working full-time you most likely have to commute so listen to podcasts/youtube videos. If you have some free time at work try doing some notecards to make the most of your time. Try to find ways to be efficient.
• Focus on your weak points. Mine was CARS. I did like 5 CARS passages a day just to prepare myself for it.
• Take breaks every now and then. Studying and working full-time was one of the most difficult things I had to do. It was very stressful and at times I did not think I could do it. What helped was taking a break for 5 minutes to just walk outside and relax.
• For practice tests, I preferred doing them in the mornings so for my work schedule it would not work. I used Saturdays to take tests and Sundays to correct them.

I don't think I did anything really special. I identified my weakness and worked on it like crazy until I improved. What was difficult was finding the time to put into studying after a long day of work. So I pushed myself and eventually, it became a habit and it was easier and easier to do it. If you are in this situation, it isn't supposed to be easy. It is hard as hell. But if you work hard everyday it is possible. If I could do it I think anyone else can to!