constantlyconfusedpremed
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- Jun 18, 2019
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Alright ya'll. First off, please take this article with a MASSIVE grain of salt. Everyone's base knowledge and testing abilities are different. I am just sharing my own personal experience so that maybe someone else can benefit (idk).
In the summer of 2018 I decided to take a Kaplan in-person course (because it was offered at a discount through a research program I was in). I didn't really pay attention much in the course (I know bad move), but knew I would be taking my MCAT in the spring 2019 and figured that I could sign up for the class and keep all the materials and stuff for when I really started to study. I took the Kaplan Diagnostic Test and got a 489, which was absolutely terrifying but seems to be the general trend with Kaplan diagnostics. It's also worth mentioning that at this point I had not taken Biochemistry yet.
Spring 2019 was when I really started to serious about my MCAT prep. I've also attached a copy of the MCAT schedule that I followed. I think I took the formatting from another study plan posted on SDN and tweaked it a little bit so it was better suited to me. I mainly used the Kaplan MCAT books to go over a lot of content review. Kaplan has 7 books in total (biology, biochemistry, general chemistry, organic chemistry, CARS, psychology, and sociology). I knew that I would want one day off per week, which meant that for one day I would have to review two chapters (7 chapters/6 days). I use a Google Calendar and would block off 3 hours of my day every day that was specifically for MCAT studying. It didn't really matter to me if it was at different times or if it was spread out throughout the day so I just did what worked best for me. Every day I would read and review a Kaplan chapter, which if my memory serves me right was around 15-20 pages. I also used Anki to make flashcards for important terms that I would keep reviewing to keep old information somewhat fresh. I had a different Anki deck for every Kaplan chapter (soooo many decks). Kaplan also has a HUGE question bank. IMO this is what makes Kaplan such a great resource. Every chapter had anywhere from 20-60 questions that I would answer on the same day that I read the chapter.
In the beginning I would do a CARS passage a day from the website MCAT Question Of The Day | Daily CARS - Jack Westin. However, the longer I studied I realized that I am pretty good at CARS and didn't have to focus too much on it. I skipped a lot of the chapters in the Kaplan book and would just do the CARS section on the practice tests.
When I first started studying in January, I would do a practice test once a month on a Saturday to simulate testing conditions. In addition to practice questions, Kaplan also has a TON of practice full lengths. I won't lie most of the time I would get up around 10 am and start testing around 11 (less than ideal). I just couldn't force myself to get up that early after an exhausting week of school. Once it got closer to my test day (May 18th) I started doing a full length almost every Saturday. I would then use my "day off" to quickly review the full length and jot down some concepts that I had missed. I also saved 2 of the AAMC practice full lengths until a week or two out from my test so I could accurately gauge where I was out and where I should try to cram.
I ended up finishing the Kaplan books with a few weeks before my test. Chem/Phys was by far my weakest section because I hate chemistry and physics so much. They were by far my least favorite classes so I didn't learn any of the information the first time and really had to start from scratch. I decided to take some time to go through every single Chem/Phys video on Khan Academy. This took forever, but really helped me nail down some topics that I was struggling with. After I made it through those videos, I used the Kaplan Quicksheets for the week before my test. It really condenses the information and gives you a good refresh on the most important stuff. The day before I didn't do any studying at all and then tossed in turned till 2 am.
Taking the actual test was a weird experience. After taking so many practice tests, I guess I trained my body to be in that environment and I wasn't nervous during the actual exam. If anything, I was really bored and just wanted to finish as fast as possible. Racing through the test is not the best strategy so I really had to force myself to slow down and be like "this is the real deal focus". Anyways, so I got my score back today and got a 514 (127/127/130/130) which was better than any of my practice tests (see below). My #1 tip is don't let the MCAT overtake your life. While this test is important, you are also a person. Take care of yourself first and make sure that you have people you can talk to if you need help and support. Good luck everyone. I'm rooting for you all!!!
Practice Tests:
In the summer of 2018 I decided to take a Kaplan in-person course (because it was offered at a discount through a research program I was in). I didn't really pay attention much in the course (I know bad move), but knew I would be taking my MCAT in the spring 2019 and figured that I could sign up for the class and keep all the materials and stuff for when I really started to study. I took the Kaplan Diagnostic Test and got a 489, which was absolutely terrifying but seems to be the general trend with Kaplan diagnostics. It's also worth mentioning that at this point I had not taken Biochemistry yet.
Spring 2019 was when I really started to serious about my MCAT prep. I've also attached a copy of the MCAT schedule that I followed. I think I took the formatting from another study plan posted on SDN and tweaked it a little bit so it was better suited to me. I mainly used the Kaplan MCAT books to go over a lot of content review. Kaplan has 7 books in total (biology, biochemistry, general chemistry, organic chemistry, CARS, psychology, and sociology). I knew that I would want one day off per week, which meant that for one day I would have to review two chapters (7 chapters/6 days). I use a Google Calendar and would block off 3 hours of my day every day that was specifically for MCAT studying. It didn't really matter to me if it was at different times or if it was spread out throughout the day so I just did what worked best for me. Every day I would read and review a Kaplan chapter, which if my memory serves me right was around 15-20 pages. I also used Anki to make flashcards for important terms that I would keep reviewing to keep old information somewhat fresh. I had a different Anki deck for every Kaplan chapter (soooo many decks). Kaplan also has a HUGE question bank. IMO this is what makes Kaplan such a great resource. Every chapter had anywhere from 20-60 questions that I would answer on the same day that I read the chapter.
In the beginning I would do a CARS passage a day from the website MCAT Question Of The Day | Daily CARS - Jack Westin. However, the longer I studied I realized that I am pretty good at CARS and didn't have to focus too much on it. I skipped a lot of the chapters in the Kaplan book and would just do the CARS section on the practice tests.
When I first started studying in January, I would do a practice test once a month on a Saturday to simulate testing conditions. In addition to practice questions, Kaplan also has a TON of practice full lengths. I won't lie most of the time I would get up around 10 am and start testing around 11 (less than ideal). I just couldn't force myself to get up that early after an exhausting week of school. Once it got closer to my test day (May 18th) I started doing a full length almost every Saturday. I would then use my "day off" to quickly review the full length and jot down some concepts that I had missed. I also saved 2 of the AAMC practice full lengths until a week or two out from my test so I could accurately gauge where I was out and where I should try to cram.
I ended up finishing the Kaplan books with a few weeks before my test. Chem/Phys was by far my weakest section because I hate chemistry and physics so much. They were by far my least favorite classes so I didn't learn any of the information the first time and really had to start from scratch. I decided to take some time to go through every single Chem/Phys video on Khan Academy. This took forever, but really helped me nail down some topics that I was struggling with. After I made it through those videos, I used the Kaplan Quicksheets for the week before my test. It really condenses the information and gives you a good refresh on the most important stuff. The day before I didn't do any studying at all and then tossed in turned till 2 am.
Taking the actual test was a weird experience. After taking so many practice tests, I guess I trained my body to be in that environment and I wasn't nervous during the actual exam. If anything, I was really bored and just wanted to finish as fast as possible. Racing through the test is not the best strategy so I really had to force myself to slow down and be like "this is the real deal focus". Anyways, so I got my score back today and got a 514 (127/127/130/130) which was better than any of my practice tests (see below). My #1 tip is don't let the MCAT overtake your life. While this test is important, you are also a person. Take care of yourself first and make sure that you have people you can talk to if you need help and support. Good luck everyone. I'm rooting for you all!!!
Practice Tests:
| Test | Total | CP | CARS | BB | PS |
| Diagnostic Kaplan Test | 489 | 123 | 120 | 121 | 125 |
| Practice Full Length (AAMC #1) | 501 | 123 | 128 | 125 | 125 |
| Practice Full Length (Kaplan #1) | 503 | 124 | 124 | 127 | 128 |
| Practice Full Length (Kaplan #2) | 503 | 124 | 126 | 126 | 127 |
| Practice Full Length (Kaplan #3) | 510 | 126 | 128 | 127 | 129 |
| Practice Full Length (Kaplan #4) | 509 | 125 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Practice Full Length (Kaplan #5) | 509 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 128 |
| Practice Full Length (Kaplan #6) | 507 | 125 | 127 | 127 | 128 |
| Practice Full Length (AAMC #2) | 512 | 127 | 129 | 130 | 126 |
| Practice Full Length (AAMC #3) | 513 | 128 | 128 | 129 | 128 |
| Real MCAT | 514 | 127 | 127 | 130 | 130 |
So personally I had two problems with CARS. Problem #1 was that I was reading at a surface level (skimming the words and getting the gist) instead of actually understanding the context and tone of the passage. I was nervous/stress that I was going to run out of time so I would race through passages and finish CARS sections with 30-40 minutes left. This strategy worked for answering simple questions about the passage, but I would be so confused when it would ask you those dreaded "reasoning outside of the text" questions.
