MCAT scheduling; two options....

[ChemoChef]

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I would love to try SN2's plan but I truly do not and will not have the time necessary to commit to that plan. I'm trying the mcatforme.com plan, which seems like it will work well for someone with a busy schedule such as myself.

 

[Cawolf]

What kind of schedule/time frame do you have with that plan?

 

[ChemoChef]

6 month schedule/4 days a week. I think it will take 3 hours a day to study the material (I've just started) planned for that day. I like the way it's structured and it seems like it will work well for me.

Edit: it's been taking me 2 hours to study and I have made my schedule 5 days a week.

 

[Cawolf]

That seems reasonable.

 

[ChemoChef]

It is, I am worried about retention but to be honest I have no choice in the matter. I would have preferred to study for 3 months but not enough hours in the day to work full time, go to school full time and study for the MCAT full time. #livinonaprayer

 

[Quik]

I've slightly adjusted my plan accommodating the retention concern. After the initial cursory review (month 1 of 6), I'll begin each more thorough content review block, with a lot of cumulative practice... (2 practice exams per month for months 2,3,4,5). That'll put me at a total of 9 practice exams including AAMC 3 with thorough review of each. In the final month, I'll take two more practice exams per week with the most recent exams available, and really hone in my strategy. As long as you're seeing the concepts and still using the fundamentals, over and over, retention shouldn't be much of a concern.

 

[ChemoChef]

Sounds like a good plan 😉

 

[Quik]

Today was a hard day... Ochem exam at 8 am this morning, then straight into the library for MCAT studying, doing two day's worth work after putting one off to focus on ochem exam prep. I stay until starving, and decide it's time to ride home for lunch. I come out of the library to see a flat on my road-bike and had just used my last spare tube... I pull the wheel off and find the hole is patchable, so I patch it. put the tire back one, and it deflates... I pull it off again and find another hole I missed, patch it, and thoroughly inspect the inside of the tire to make sure there wasn't a thorn or something stuck in it... nothing. I put the tire back on, pump it up, give it a few minutes to check it... It deflates. ****! The walk home is a couple of miles. I pull the tire off again, check the patches, okay, the first one failed... I can fix that. I fix it, and I'm on the road. I get home, make a sammich, finish my section review, and off to work I go. I got home 15 minutes ago, and class starts in 8 hours... Surprisingly though, this is one of those days that makes me feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

 

[Quik]

What a great weekend of slacking off and enjoying a day at the beach of Lake Tahoe and a soccer game. I did finish the gen chem content review via Chad's videos, and took a mini practice exam (chem only) last night and scored well.

@wholeheartedly how's your vacay going??

I built a simple little mistake review tracking spreadsheet that I thought I'd share with all of you. I feel like a thorough, OCD review of mistakes made is critical in shoring up any holes in understanding, and I think this helps ensure accountability for that...

Each question gets four rows:
Row 1: Question: ________
Row 2: Incorrect Answer chosen: _______
Row 3: Correct Answer & provided explanation: __________________________________________________________________________________________
Row 4: Narrative explanation of concept(s)/Equation(s) tested: _________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Highlight each row a different color, copy and past about 100 times, and you should have a very good mistake tracking tool! For the narrative, I like to explain it as if I were teaching it to someone else. If it's an equation, I'll write it out and then explain each variable within the narrative.

Hope this helps someone!

 

[Labrat07]

Hello,

I am taking the test on Jan 10th for the first time, and starting my 4 month study schedule in September.

Good to meet you all.

@Labrat07 I believe only one test at a time can be registered for.

You're right. I tried. They won't let you register for two.

Let's get motivated for MCAT studying, fellas. We all need motivation from other sometimes.

Let me introduce myself a bit.

Currently I have one full time job and a per diem. Fortunately, I work nights. Usually, I have time to study at work. After work, I study from 8-11am. Rinse and repeat. It has been almost two months and I'm almost done with content review. I study at star-buck. Haha, people remember my routines there . So sad 🙂


Materials:
TBR for physic, orgo, chem.
Ek for bio
Chad videos, mcat-review, Tpr, ek 1001...

Weakness: verbal (I'm trying different methods atm), won't know others till take the first full length.

 

[karlat]

I've been working full time for about a year now and I took TPR evening classes while working full time. Let me just say that..that was a complete waste of time and money. I wasn't able to keep up with the classes and outside factors were getting in the way. I signed up for the 05/31/14 exam and ended up voiding my exam.. smart decision on my part. I was allowed to go part-time at work and focused studying differently.. I didn't take as much practice exams as I needed to. I took the exam on 07/12/14 and just got my score..... 5/7/7/ 🙁 verbal was my strongest.. PS was definitely my weakest.
I took the trial section and I don't want to go through the extra hell of learning biochem and the other weird psych stuff.
I'm not going to give up... I decided that I will also take the exam in January, but I need advice on how to schedule myself. I am still part time, I plan on taking Physics II in the fall and possibly biochem. Has anyone tried extending the 3 month study plan?

 

[Labrat07]

@karlat
From what I see, you wasn't fully prepared. Here're couple things I recommend for you.

1st: You need to read up on how to tackle MCAT. know it's one of the hardest tests out there. You can't prepare half ass. Read up on 30+ mcat and Sdn schedule up top. I'd do 4 months in your case. Starting now so you can aim the score you want by judging your aamc practice score.

2nd: with that score, i can assume that your content's really weak. You have trouble retain information. Get access to video/audio material (chad's, khann, youtube, mcat-review, audio osmosis...). That'd help a ton.

Plan, plan....and make sure to follow it to a T.

That's all my suggestions. I'm not an expert though so don't quote me 🙂

 

[karlat]

@Labrat07 Thank you for the advice! Do you suggest that I only take practice tests after I fully finish content review? At TPR classes, they kept pushing us to take a test every few weeks. As much as I don't want to admit it, i did half ass it and expected everything to turn out okay.
You are right- I've been having trouble retaining content. I was feeling really positive that day, but I just don't know what happened.. I'll look up some videos too. The videos on the TPR website bored me, so I didn't think I'd benefit from them :/ maybe other sources will help.