MCAT study tips and general info

[fishtolive]

Hey all, just found this site and it seems cool. Anyway, I am currently studying like crazy for the April MCAT. I've been putting in about 20 hours every week and I start the Princeton Review Hyperlearning course soon. Anybody have any tips that they feel are crucial to good MCAT scores?

Also, I have a 3.797 GPA and have experience as a volunteer at a hospital, I work a full time lab job, and this summer I was a surgical intern (via a connection) so I actually assisted surgical procedures and did rounds. I have plenty of other experiences but these, I feel, help my chances of getting into med school. Any thoughts? I get different responses from everyone. Some people laugh and say I'll have no problem nut others act like I need a 4.0 and that I should have already found a cure for cancer!
sdm

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[doctorperez]

Want to excel your MCATs?

Go beyond the prereqs...
Learn Genetics , Biochem , Histology , Micro , take a speed reading and a verbal reasoning course . All these subjects are usually found in books . Therefore , you can tackle them on an independent fashion . There you have it...a True underground premed trick . You know! the kind Ultra-competitive premeds won't tell you...
Doctorperez Copyright 2001

 

[baylor21]

trust me, there are so many 4.0 premeds out there that every med school could completely fill their incoming class with 4.0 students if they wanted to.

Not that a 4.0 is bad or anything, but honestly how many med schools have a 4.0 GPA average for their incoming class? How many even have a 3.9 or greater? I can think of about 5 schools maybe.

That should tell you something.


What it tells me that a 4.0 student really has no significant advantage in getting admitted over someone with a 3.7 GPA. To get a perfect 4.0 in college is difficult enough that (for most people) it takes a substantial greater amount of studying to get a 4.0 vs a 3.7, which means that those people are more likely to have less healthcare experience, extracurricular activities, leadership positions, etc.

Yes, I know there are many 4.0 students who have all the other stuff going on to.. but it just seems that way because as competitive premeds we ALWAYS hear about those people.. we don't hear about the 4.0 students who have nothing else but numbers.

Moral of the story: once you reach a certain GPA threshold (around 3.7 or so) getting a higher GPA will not help you get admission. Instead the other factors kick in.

------------------
"There is nothing more powerful on this Earth as a man who has nothing to lose. It does not take ten such men to change the world--one will do." Elijah Mohammed

[This message has been edited by baylor21 (edited 01-21-2001).]

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

fishtolive....based on what doctorperez said...taking some higher level science classes could/will probably give you an advantage for the MCAT, even though most of the material on the MCAT is based on your general pre-med classes. However, for the verbal section, i recommend taking Speed reading. Im taking Speed Reading and Comprehension at a community college and the class meets once a week until end of Feb. At the end of the first class, i asked the instructor if she thought this class would help for the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT. She said that it would definetly help...especially on a timed exam and she continued to add that she too had taken the LSAT exam for law school and was the only person that finished the exam before time was called. However, b/c of her unsupportive husband, she never entered law school. Moral of the story, study your ass off for the MCATs and take plenty of practice exams and you will probably do fine...but add a different strategy to your studying (i.e.speed reading)...and you can probably optimize your score. I'll let you know how much, if any, this class helps for verbal section. Take care all....

DOCTORSAIB

 

[fishtolive]

DOCTORSAIB...thanks for the advice! I was thinking about taking a speed reading course or at least buying a book about the same. I definitely agree about upper level courses too. General classes can only get you so far.
sdm

 

[danjou]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by DOCTORSAIB:
•Im taking Speed Reading and Comprehension at a community college and the class meets once a week until end of Feb. At the end of the first class, i asked the instructor if she thought this class would help for the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT. She said that it would definetly help...especially on a timed exam and she continued to add that she too had taken the LSAT exam for law school and was the only person that finished the exam before time was called•••••Sorry, but I think your instructor's trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

The LSAT, like the MCAT, has 4-5 sections that are timed individually. I took the LSAT and finished two sections before the time was called, one of which was the reading comp (ie verbal) section. I'm not a speed-reader. It's not uncommon to finish sections before time is called. I know a lot of people who did. In fact it's addressed often in prep materials, when they say things like "if you finish before the time is up make sure you check your answers."

If someone is worried about the verbal section, my advice is to just practice those kinds of section a lot. It's a standardized test, they follow a particular format. Doing them enough will help you cut your time because you know what to look for. At least, that's what helped me. (And I got a pretty descent score on the LSAT, in the 90th percentile).

 

[Tobtolip]

Last year, I was able to speak to a faculty member who was on the admissions board for grad students into philosophy (I know its not med school, but I think the same concepts can be applied). He actually recommended that I not strive for a 4.0. Well, let me rephrase that, he said that a 4.0 is great and if you can pull it off good for you, but a 4.0 also has a stigma attached. A "perfect gpa" will bring up some suspicions upon admissions committees, they may suspect that either your courses were too easy, you may have cheated somehow, or grading was a bit lax. In other words, there are benefits to NOT having a 4.0

my 2 cents

 

[Street Philosopher]

Myth 1: Schools can fill students with 4.0's. I don't think that's true. My undergrad had only 1 person with a 4.0 in 2000. ONE.

Myth 2: Speed reading will help you on the verbal section. Unless you already read VERY slowly, speed reading will not help you. The most important thing is to read once - not having to constantly re-read the passage. If you constantly re-read, then you WILL need to speed read, but this is not a good strategy. Read at a normal pace for the main idea and you should be fine.

 

[Ben01]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by fishtolive:
• <snip>and this summer I was a surgical intern (via a connection) so I actually assisted surgical procedures and did rounds. <snip> •••••I'm curious as to how that was arranged -- even with your conenction at the hospital. The reason I ask is becuase I think that allowing you to assist in surgical procedures without having the proper medical training/certification etc is..well...illegal. The hospital/doctors really put their neck out for you.

 

[TechMan]

i have assisted in surgical procedures as well, holding retractors, etc. its not "illegal".

 

[gizzdogg]

a monkey could do that

 

[Ben01]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by TechMan:
•i have assisted in surgical procedures as well, holding retractors, etc. its not "illegal".•••••did the patient sign a consent form? regardless whether or not it's technically illegal it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. If it was ok for everyone to do stuff like that even when not licensed/trained etc then why don't hospitals utilize volunteers in that manner? I mean, gee, it's a free source of labor....

 

[CaliMed]

Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read
Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read and then Read some more. The Verbal can be Killer!!!!!!!