MCAT studying

[futuredoc246]

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I am reading my MCAT study materials and I am currently taking notes by hand. I've realized that it takes me a very long time to write it all out. Would it better to just type it? What other study tips do you guys have?

Typing
Pros
1. Able to cover more material in my study time
2. Neater/more organized

Cons
1. Wont retain info as much as I would if I handwrite the notes
2. Would have to handwrite or draw in graphs or diagrams

Writing
Pros
1. More likely to retain the info

Cons
1. Takes very long (3-4 hrs to read, understand and take notes on a chapter in the book)

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Typing is def more efficient by a WIDE margin, but for me I found the act of writing by hand produced such superior recall that it was worth it.

At the end of the day though, practice questions >>> studying/note taking

 

[fldoctorgirl]

At the end of the day though, practice questions >>> studying/note taking

This is golden advice. The MCAT isn't about memorizing; review the concepts, chug out a couple of Anki/Quizlet decks for key concepts & equations, and focus more on practice problems. Memorizing the study books isn't going to get you a good score.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

This is golden advice. The MCAT isn't about memorizing; review the concepts, chug out a couple of Anki/Quizlet decks for key concepts & equations, and focus more on practice problems. Memorizing the study books isn't going to get you a good score.

Exactly. MCAT actually has a surprisingly small amount of “memorization” content coupled with a metric F—- ton of critical thinking/application of that material

 

[freedoctor17]

Don't underestimate the content though. You still want a pretty good understanding of them. But yeah I hand wrote all of mine but as I went on I'd write less and less and not worry about how neat they were. I realized I was never going to look back at them and I just wanted to write them initially to help remember it. I did practice throughout my entire study period and recommend others to do the same. By the time I took the actual MCAT 7 hours didn't seem anywhere near as long.

 

[persistenceofmemory]

I follow a Harvard premed blogger and she mentioned that when studying for the MCAT she was writing things but realized it was taking too long, so she just began reading things and absorbing the information, taking her time. She would go back and then "review" what she had trouble with.

 

[CloverBale]

I agree with others are saying, it's sort of a waste of time to take notes for the MCAT. You're better off doing flashcards/ANKI, and writing things you absolutely HAVE to memorize, and then just practice, practice and practice some more.

 

[Prometheus123]

I follow a Harvard premed blogger and she mentioned that when studying for the MCAT she was writing things but realized it was taking too long, so she just began reading things and absorbing the information, taking her time. She would go back and then "review" what she had trouble with.

@futuredoc246, I got to ^this point the last couple months before my exam. Once the reality hits you that you HAVE to remember this because it may be the last time you see it before D-day, you find that you can imprint most concepts and facts on your brain and just remember them. For everything else, there's Anki. Just make sure you stay in the sweet spot of that Yerkes-Dodson inverted U curve / on the sunny side of life.

To reiterate the wise words of everybody else, spend most of your time doing practice problems. When you get questions wrong, identify your weaknesses and do focused content review on that specifically. I know it feels like you couldn't possibly do that because you're not ready yet, but no one ever feels ready. The sooner you just jump in, the sooner you can learn to swim to the other side.

 

[aldol16]

Read the text actively and breeze through it. You want to get through content review ASAP so you can get to the kind of practice that scores you points on test day: practice exams and problems.

 

[Lucca]

agree with others. the abbreviated khan academy notes available online are a good way to breeze through all of the content. What I did was review and then do practice for the content I already did the day before to help reinforce. It doesnt matter if u dont absorb everything on content review. practice will bring out ur deficiencies and help cement things.

 

[Sheiko]

At the end of the day though, practice questions >>> studying/note taking

This. I would try to cut out note-taking all together and just Anki everything and then do practice questions.

 

[Dwight Snoot]

I personally did not take any notes as I felt that practice was much more important than memorizing content. There is way to much material to try to take notes on all of it. By the time you get through the material you will have forgot the stuff that you started with. Try just taking notes on the really high yield stuff that you have difficulty with.

 

[Mr. Babe]

Practice, Practice, Practice! You will learn way faster from taking thousands of practice questions and learning from ones that you got wrong. That way you learn the material and you get comfortable with the MCAT question style at the same time.

 

[DetroitDoc1993]

I don't think theres anything wrong with writing notes, but that is my own personal bias I am a slow typer plus writing has always helped me learn the material better. Making flow charts, using flash cards, diagrams, drawing things out I think its important for learning material. But just as everyone is saying, do not spend too much time on content review/note taking if its taking up so much time. But what is important is that while you are doing content review you are also doing questions making sure not to neglect practice questions (most importantly passage based questions) for content review. It definitely is good do have a strong foundation because then you are able to take those concepts and apply them to difficult scenarios/questions and be able to critically think and use that info to get to the right answer. They do say practice makes perfect though, so make sure you are planning enough time for practice exams! For example if you have 3 months allotted time, I would do my first practice exam about halfway through with content review till the end of the second month, followed by mostly practice exams and passage based questions the last month before your mcat.

 

[Spectar]

I think it depends on the person. I memorized the kaplan books from cover to cover, not even writing notes just highlighting/writing on the margins in different colors and did pretty well.