MCAT Tips / Tricks etc to tackle the beast

[DoctorCrush]

Hi everyone,
Hoping your journey is going well! To make the story short, I took the MCAT in August and did horribly because like DJ khalid said, I played myself and with work responsibility and passive studying I did absolutely horrible on my exam (way below the 500 mark). No one to blame but myself. Took me a bit to get my **** together and now I'm taking one more stab at it.
I also took the exam without having biochem, which again, was not a smart idea.

Currently taking the biochem clss and trying to get into the groove of studying again and hopefully, if all goes well as I plan on taking the April exam.

Materials I am currently using is
1) my Kaplan books for references / reading and following the topic that is being tested.

2) Watching AK Lecture materials on youtube on topics that I don't really understand. He's been such a helpful babe.

3) Using TBR for passage practice only with questions that accompany the Kaplan chapters, while doing one passage of AAMC material per day in topic of biology, verbal, chem and about to start physics soon. I find this helpful because I can really focus and really review the questions I got wrong and learned from them.

4) Full-length wise, I'm using Nextstep which I found to be most representative of the exam. But I'm doing really bad on them which got me questioning about my knowledge.... I'm trying to get in atleast 1 full length per week. But it's been difficult because of other priorities so I've been doing 1 every two weeks.

5) I'm also supplementing my verbal skills by reading short essays from sites like Aeon.co and asking myself questions about the piece like how MCAT would ask.

Any suggestion or modification about this plan is greatly appreciated!!!

Now, my dilemma is that I find myself, on the full -length test atleast, to be really struggling on those hardcore molecular biology passages with a bunch of genes, proteins, methylation, phosphorylation etc and asking me about design and things like as to why they did them or what could weaken the experiment etc...how can I beef up my knowledge and prepare myself for something like this??? Another issue is timing. I spend so much time trying to follow and understand what's going on to the point that I loose so much time on a crappy passage. I'm getting better at just picking something and moving on though because of that issue.

Any recommendation / tips is greatly appreciates!!!

***** Oh another info piece••••• my full-length scores on next step as been ball park of 488-494

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[theonlytycrane]

Focus a lot more on practice passages and questions than pure content review. Also, when you review your practice passages, go through them thoroughly to understand the purpose, methods, and results of each experiment presented.

 

[DoctorCrush]

Focus a lot more on practice passages and questions than pure content review. Also, when you review your practice passages, go through them thoroughly to understand the purpose, methods, and results of each experiment presented.

Thanks! I've been doing that. I'm actually watching videos as my "content review" more than pure reading because I feel like I learn better when someone teaches / lecture it to me than reading.
I think I just get super flustered when I'm faced with an obnoxious passage with so many things that I've never even heard of. And then, I die the second time when questions are asked about the experiment but I can't answer them because I don't understand the experiment or what the point was...and then 15 mins and I'm still on the same 5 question passage

 

[ScreenName23]

Hi. I'll just recommend using Anki flashcards in addition for your content review. I think it really helps to make them as you learn the content and then actively review them everyday. When I took the MCAT (old format) the first time I did not use Anki and did not have a solid enough content background. Given your score was so low I think your content review could use help. Making the Anki cards will help you learn and if you study them everyday the information will stay fresh in your mind. If you don't know about Anki flashcards, I think there is a good bit of information in this forum about them.

I got a 520 when I retook so don't be discouraged! Remember that you can definitely make big improvements if you put in the work and change the way you study!
Good luck!

 

[DoctorCrush]

Hi. I'll just recommend using Anki flashcards in addition for your content review. I think it really helps to make them as you learn the content and then actively review them everyday. When I took the MCAT (old format) the first time I did not use Anki and did not have a solid enough content background. Given your score was so low I think your content review could use help. Making the Anki cards will help you learn and if you study them everyday the information will stay fresh in your mind. If you don't know about Anki flashcards, I think there is a good bit of information in this forum about them.

I got a 520 when I retook so don't be discouraged! Remember that you can definitely make big improvements if you put in the work and change the way you study!
Good luck!

Hi! Thanks for bringing up Anki! I started a deck in the beginning of my studying this semester, but I slipped through, missed a couple of days and deck became really large for my daily studying. I wonder if there's like a "reset" option where I can start fresh and use the deck I already made as if I just made it and start studying from it again? Because just looking at my count right now, I have 40 that's due...

 

[theonlytycrane]

Thanks! I've been doing that. I'm actually watching videos as my "content review" more than pure reading because I feel like I learn better when someone teaches / lecture it to me than reading.
I think I just get super flustered when I'm faced with an obnoxious passage with so many things that I've never even heard of. And then, I die the second time when questions are asked about the experiment but I can't answer them because I don't understand the experiment or what the point was...and then 15 mins and I'm still on the same 5 question passage

The passages can definitely be convoluted and hard to decipher. For these, make sure to review them thoroughly later on and understand the setup, methods, and results. Once you do this for about 10-20 tough passages, you'll be able to start seeing patterns in how things are presented experimentally.

 

[DoctorCrush]

The passages can definitely be convoluted and hard to decipher. For these, make sure to review them thoroughly later on and understand the setup, methods, and results. Once you do this for about 10-20 tough passages, you'll be able to start seeing patterns in how things are presented experimentally.

I was even thinking of searching peer-reviewed and just start breezing through them to get an understanding of the stuff out there but that in itself is difficult unless you're versed in the subject.

 

[theonlytycrane]

I was even thinking of searching peer-reviewed and just start breezing through them to get an understanding of the stuff out there but that in itself is difficult unless you're versed in the subject.

Yeah that may be more time-consuming than helpful. Carefully review the research-based passages, work through the AAMC question packs and especially the section bank (twice!), and make sure you're familiar with basic lab techniques like chromatography, blotting, isoelectric focusing, etc.

 

[sushilover2015]

Hey guys! If you are interested, you can easily connect to current medical school students at https://thrivespace.herokuapp.com It's a website i helped build and partially inspired by the challenges I went through. Hope it helps someone!

And feel free to let me know if you have any feedback/questions/concerns!