MCAT Summer Studying Tips

[victoryforMSU]

Hey guys! So I'm posting this to get some feedback on my MCAT study schedule. I have the Kaplan in-person course (starts June 17th) and I began reviewing content review on May 15th. I plan to take the exam August 31st.

I got a 485 on my Kaplan diagnostic exam (May 14th) and my confidence going into the exam is completely shattered. This score doesn't really correlate to my grades (Human Bio major 3.8gpa). As of now my studying consists of reading/taking notes in 2 chapters of the Kaplan books each day except for CARS (6 days per week) then doing a few questions from the AAMC question pack and 1-2 CARS passages. At this rate I should be finished with content review by mid July and start to focus primarily on practice. I am aiming for 125/125/125/125 500 (early admittance program requirement). Any suggestions?

The diagnostic truly got in my head.

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[SweetBurger]

Kaplan exam's are difficult in the wrong kind of way (that's what i've seen as a general consensus on here and other forums). The 485 on the Kaplan Diagnostic does have some use in that it indicates definite content gaps which makes sense since you haven't really started your prep. I would aim higher than a 500 don't let the kaplan diagnostic ruin your confidence.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Just my two cents, but you really should consider a different study plan. Look at the low scores at SDN and most of those people used the plan you are committing to. Do it right the first time. Get better materials and if you're taking a class, take a class that emphasizes thinking over memorization.

 

[victoryforMSU]

Just my two cents, but you really should consider a different study plan. Look at the low scores at SDN and most of those people used the plan you are committing to. Do it right the first time. Get better materials and if you're taking a class, take a class that emphasizes thinking over memorization.

Do you have any suggestions for how to make the study plan better or what are better materials?

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Thank you for your question! I know it's really frustrating when you don't get a score that matches your expectations, but the good thing is that you don't have to be stuck at that score! As long as you continue to work through problems and learn from your mistakes, your score will definitely increase. So, try your best not to get discouraged and used your score as motivation to improve!

I will echo the sentiment in this thread that doing practice questions along with content review is extremely important. I like to emphasize getting a discrete problem practice book and doing the relevant questions to what you read that day. This will help you reinforce the material you have read and it especially helps with physics and chemistry, which are subjects that require seeing a lot of different types of problems to fully understand.

As you finish each major content section (for example biology and biochemistry) go to your resources and do a practice exam section of only that topic. That way you can start seeing some passage material as you're going through content review. After you have fully completed content review, start jumping into more passages and reviewing them to see where you mistakes are at. I find it not as worthwhile to do too many passages during content review, because it's fairly difficult to do if you don't have a solid background in the content. However, doing some passages during content will definitely help sharpen your technique and will at least get you used to being able to go through passages.

I hope that helps and if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask!