Hello! I have been studying for MCAT for almost a month, my exam is in April. I have been reviewing the Kaplan set but haven’t got much practice. I was think to get the MCAT mastery app for practice, has anyone tried that? Is it worth it? Apart from AAMC what other places can I get practice material for MCAT? I’m really scared about MCAT!
MCAT
- Thread starter Medora
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Koala listed a good number of passage resources in her tips. Look at:
KoalaT's All-in-One MCAT Guide!
KoalaT's All-in-One MCAT Guide!
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AAMC is prob the best practice material for MCAT since they're the ones who make the exam. UWorld has really good resources as well, I've been going through their questions for the past few months and they've been pretty helpful so far. I would recommend checking them out and using their free demo questions.
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I keep reading that TBR has the best science materials and EK has the best CARS. After reading and reading and reading SDN and reddit posts that is what I plan to do. Khan Academy videos for content review, TBR passages for the sciences, TPR passages for psychology, and EK passages for CARS.
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Hi @Medora -
A key part of practice is taking realistic full-length exams under test-like conditions. As @fitdoc010996 pointed out, AAMC materials are the gold standard since they're the official test-makers. Doing practice passages is key, but you also want to make sure you get some experience simulating what it's like to a do a FL exam. For instance, when it comes to practicing Bio/Biochem passages, it can feel very different to sit down and do practice passages in isolation in comparison to working through 10 passages + some freestanding questions after you've already spent hours racking your brains on the Chemical/Physical Foundations and CARS. Depending on what your personal sleep cycle is like, you may also want to practice what it takes to get to 100% focus at 8 am! Many students find that they want practice with this beyond what the 3 AAMC FLs (+ unscored sample), especially if they want to save the AAMC materials until the end.
Best of luck getting started 🙂!
A key part of practice is taking realistic full-length exams under test-like conditions. As @fitdoc010996 pointed out, AAMC materials are the gold standard since they're the official test-makers. Doing practice passages is key, but you also want to make sure you get some experience simulating what it's like to a do a FL exam. For instance, when it comes to practicing Bio/Biochem passages, it can feel very different to sit down and do practice passages in isolation in comparison to working through 10 passages + some freestanding questions after you've already spent hours racking your brains on the Chemical/Physical Foundations and CARS. Depending on what your personal sleep cycle is like, you may also want to practice what it takes to get to 100% focus at 8 am! Many students find that they want practice with this beyond what the 3 AAMC FLs (+ unscored sample), especially if they want to save the AAMC materials until the end.
Best of luck getting started 🙂!
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Honestly I would just stick with one of the major exam preparation companies materials ie doing all TPR or all Kaplan etc.
Khan videos are great for content review in topics you’re really sturggling in but trust me you won’t be able to use them as your overall source of content review. It is just far too time inefficient to do so. They have thousands of “mcat” videos, which are really just videos they made addressing material that just so happens to also come up on the mcat. My point is they aren’t really tailored to the mcat exam specifically by and large. Your beat bet is to stick with TBR, TPR, etc.
Khan videos are great for content review in topics you’re really sturggling in but trust me you won’t be able to use them as your overall source of content review. It is just far too time inefficient to do so. They have thousands of “mcat” videos, which are really just videos they made addressing material that just so happens to also come up on the mcat. My point is they aren’t really tailored to the mcat exam specifically by and large. Your beat bet is to stick with TBR, TPR, etc.
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I took the MCAT last spring, and started studying right around this time last year. I followed the Kaplan books, but stopped using their practice tests because I didn't think they modeled the test well (they were way too difficult). I used the end of the chapter Kaplan problems though, and bought question packs from the AAMC. I also bought two full-length practice exams from the AAMC. This was a re-take for me, and the first time I took the test in the new format. I scored incredibly well, and I highly recommend the AAMC's practice problems and tests.
Quick add - I was incredibly scared to start actually practicing problems at the beginning, because I knew I'd suck. But practice is the ONLY way you'll beat this test.
Quick add - I was incredibly scared to start actually practicing problems at the beginning, because I knew I'd suck. But practice is the ONLY way you'll beat this test.
