(Warning -- this is a long post, and I make some controversial comments towards the bottom.)
Megboo asked me how I studied for the MCAT. For those who haven't read my mdapp profile, I got a 37R: 13PS, 12VR, 12BS. My score isn't my definition of incredible and it's far from the highest around here, but it is quite good and it's obviously opened doors for me. There's already a "30+ test prep" thread in the MCAT forum, which has some great advice; my purpose here is just to share what I did, and also to share some thoughts about the test itself.
I started to study for the April MCAT in mid January, giving myself about 10-12 weeks to prepare. The idea was to take practice tests at least once a week on the weekends, then use my spare time during the week to review. I was taking the second semesters of orgo, physics, and bio at the time, but I figured that most of the material would be recent enough that review time could be kept to a minimum.
I took my practice tests under timed conditions, and I tried to make things harder for myself. If I finished a section early, I wouldn't wait for time to expire before moving on. I wouldn't wait the full ten minutes between sections, and I didn't take the full one hour break in the middle. You could say I did this to makes things more difficult during practice, and that's partially true; the rest of the story is that I wanted to have some free time during my weekends, too.
By doing what I did, I was able to take a complete practice test in about four hours. I was usually so drained from the experience that I couldn't study or do much else academic for the rest of the day, but that was just fine with my wife.
As for the practice tests themselves, I used two sources. I bought all of the AAMC practice tests online, then printed them out. The nice thing about those tests was that they can be graded online relatively quickly; the answer keys were not always so helpful, but I also liked the fact that they were based on actual tests. I also bought a Kaplan book from my local B&N with two practice MCATs. My scores on those two tests were slightly above those on my AAMC tests, suggesting that they're a bit easier; I don't know about that, but the passages and questions were presented just like they would be on the real test, so they were valuable practice.
I got a 35 on my first practice test, but then I got a 31 on the second. In both cases, my PS and VR scores were either equal or within one point of each other, but my BS score was two points lower than my next-lowest score. The orgo passages were alright, but the biology passages were suffering; this is something I learned very easily, because the AAMC site breaks down questions by subject matter, among other ways. It was obvious to me that my bio knowledge was lacking, particularly when one considers the fact that most MCAT bio comes from the first semester as presented at my school. I then bought the Examkrackers bio books and went to town. During the week, I'd say that 75% of my review time was spent on bio and 25% on everything else. The Examkrackers bio books were excellent and helped me to bring my bio score to parity with the rest of the subject material. I took four practice tests in the three weeks preceding the MCAT (took my last one two days before the actual test), with scores of 37, 38, 36, and 36. With one exception, there was never more than a two-point difference between any two sections in a single test.
I liked the Examkrackers bio book because it presented just slightly more information than was actually needed for the test. The material was very dense, so progress seemed slow, but it worked. There's a mini-test after each section that's presented just like an MCAT passage, which really helped me to think like the MCAT test designers. If I needed significant help in the other sections, I would've bought the EK books for those subjects as well.
A lot of people asked me why I didn't take a class, or whether I would've taken one if I could do it over again. I honestly didn't need one; I was disciplined enough to study on my own, and I was comfortable enough with the subject material not to require intense review. I would say that a prep course is a good idea if you need a lot of review, or if you don't think you'll be able to stick to your own study schedule. If you do take a course, I VERY HIGHLY recommend that you do all of the prescribed work outside of class. If you only show up for class, or if you don't even do that all of the time, you'll just be wasting your money.
Some people have also asked me whether it was smart to take the MCAT before I had finished my prereqs. It worked for me, but I was able to handle the workload. I had my doubts, mind you, but I felt it was worth the effort and that it would reflect positively on my work ethic. If you think that preparding for the MCAT would detract significantly from your classes, don't do what I did. It's very nice to be able to say that you took three lab classes, prepared for the MCAT, saved the world in a free clinic, etc., all at the same time...but if you have a 2.0 GPA to show for it, no one's going to care. The real world doesn't reward for effort as much as you'd like. But again -- I was able to do it, and I'm not a genius or a gunner.
A note on score improvement -- it might not happen overnight. I noticed some improvement each time, but real gains (i.e., from one point bracket to the next) didnt' really happen until halfway through my preparation. Once it started, it was pretty steady until it plateaud about 1-2 weeks before the test. If you feel like you're not getting anywhere, you might want to take a look at how you're studying, but don't give up! Stick to your gameplan and keep your head down, and you'll soon reap the rewards of your labor.
Now, notice something about my practice scores. My lowest practice score was a 31, but my first practice test score was a 35. Depending on how you look at things, I either improved two points or six points in the 10-12 weeks that I studied. Don't forget that I was taking the second semesters of my prereqs at the same time, which means that each successive test was taken with more and more knowledge of the material. With all of this in mind, it's my opinion that Examkrackers helped me with bio, but that the lion's share of my MCAT score came from PRACTICE TESTS. I estimate that I answered around 2000 MCAT-style questions before taking the actual test. This gave me confidence with the testing style and comfort with the time limits, which made me quite calm on test day. What's more, all of that practice, done over a period of a few months, made me very CONSISTENT by the time of the actual test. This was key; consistency is what pro athletes strive for, and it's arguably better than being a superstar. I knew more or less what to expect on the actual test, and I had a great idea of how I'd do on it by the time I walked out of the testing room.
Finally, a note on "good" test scores and retakes. The AAMC will tell you that there is no single "good" score, and that each individual should pick a score that would make him/her happy. I actually agree with this. There is obviously an objective difference in scores -- a 40 is better than a 35, 35 is better than 30, etc. -- but realistically speaking, I'm not convinced that everyone is capable of getting a 40. Similarly, I'm not convinced that retaking the MCAT is a good idea for anyone who is dissatisfied with his/her score.
If you're unhappy with your score and you honestly think it's because you were missing some factual science knowledge, then it might make sense to retake for obvious reasons. If something unfortunate happened on test day -- car broke down en route, something happened in or around your test site, bad news the day of or night before -- then it also might make sense to retake. But if you had a good grasp of the science and made an honest effort to prepare for the test, the odds of doing significantly better the second time around are not very good. I believe this is because science knowledge is good for a certain number of points, but that skills like critical thought and probem solving are what are required to get those incredible scores. Some of that can be improved with practice, but probably not enough to matter. Not only might you not improve in one section, you might lose ground in others. So unless you are absolutely sure that you can improve your score, I wouldn't do it again. Don't forget that your MCAT score is not the only determinant to admission.
I hope this post made some sense; it strikes me as a little diffuse, but I'm tired and I don't feel like revising it. 😉 I welcome discussion and debate.
Megboo asked me how I studied for the MCAT. For those who haven't read my mdapp profile, I got a 37R: 13PS, 12VR, 12BS. My score isn't my definition of incredible and it's far from the highest around here, but it is quite good and it's obviously opened doors for me. There's already a "30+ test prep" thread in the MCAT forum, which has some great advice; my purpose here is just to share what I did, and also to share some thoughts about the test itself.
I started to study for the April MCAT in mid January, giving myself about 10-12 weeks to prepare. The idea was to take practice tests at least once a week on the weekends, then use my spare time during the week to review. I was taking the second semesters of orgo, physics, and bio at the time, but I figured that most of the material would be recent enough that review time could be kept to a minimum.
I took my practice tests under timed conditions, and I tried to make things harder for myself. If I finished a section early, I wouldn't wait for time to expire before moving on. I wouldn't wait the full ten minutes between sections, and I didn't take the full one hour break in the middle. You could say I did this to makes things more difficult during practice, and that's partially true; the rest of the story is that I wanted to have some free time during my weekends, too.
By doing what I did, I was able to take a complete practice test in about four hours. I was usually so drained from the experience that I couldn't study or do much else academic for the rest of the day, but that was just fine with my wife.As for the practice tests themselves, I used two sources. I bought all of the AAMC practice tests online, then printed them out. The nice thing about those tests was that they can be graded online relatively quickly; the answer keys were not always so helpful, but I also liked the fact that they were based on actual tests. I also bought a Kaplan book from my local B&N with two practice MCATs. My scores on those two tests were slightly above those on my AAMC tests, suggesting that they're a bit easier; I don't know about that, but the passages and questions were presented just like they would be on the real test, so they were valuable practice.
I got a 35 on my first practice test, but then I got a 31 on the second. In both cases, my PS and VR scores were either equal or within one point of each other, but my BS score was two points lower than my next-lowest score. The orgo passages were alright, but the biology passages were suffering; this is something I learned very easily, because the AAMC site breaks down questions by subject matter, among other ways. It was obvious to me that my bio knowledge was lacking, particularly when one considers the fact that most MCAT bio comes from the first semester as presented at my school. I then bought the Examkrackers bio books and went to town. During the week, I'd say that 75% of my review time was spent on bio and 25% on everything else. The Examkrackers bio books were excellent and helped me to bring my bio score to parity with the rest of the subject material. I took four practice tests in the three weeks preceding the MCAT (took my last one two days before the actual test), with scores of 37, 38, 36, and 36. With one exception, there was never more than a two-point difference between any two sections in a single test.
I liked the Examkrackers bio book because it presented just slightly more information than was actually needed for the test. The material was very dense, so progress seemed slow, but it worked. There's a mini-test after each section that's presented just like an MCAT passage, which really helped me to think like the MCAT test designers. If I needed significant help in the other sections, I would've bought the EK books for those subjects as well.
A lot of people asked me why I didn't take a class, or whether I would've taken one if I could do it over again. I honestly didn't need one; I was disciplined enough to study on my own, and I was comfortable enough with the subject material not to require intense review. I would say that a prep course is a good idea if you need a lot of review, or if you don't think you'll be able to stick to your own study schedule. If you do take a course, I VERY HIGHLY recommend that you do all of the prescribed work outside of class. If you only show up for class, or if you don't even do that all of the time, you'll just be wasting your money.
Some people have also asked me whether it was smart to take the MCAT before I had finished my prereqs. It worked for me, but I was able to handle the workload. I had my doubts, mind you, but I felt it was worth the effort and that it would reflect positively on my work ethic. If you think that preparding for the MCAT would detract significantly from your classes, don't do what I did. It's very nice to be able to say that you took three lab classes, prepared for the MCAT, saved the world in a free clinic, etc., all at the same time...but if you have a 2.0 GPA to show for it, no one's going to care. The real world doesn't reward for effort as much as you'd like. But again -- I was able to do it, and I'm not a genius or a gunner.
A note on score improvement -- it might not happen overnight. I noticed some improvement each time, but real gains (i.e., from one point bracket to the next) didnt' really happen until halfway through my preparation. Once it started, it was pretty steady until it plateaud about 1-2 weeks before the test. If you feel like you're not getting anywhere, you might want to take a look at how you're studying, but don't give up! Stick to your gameplan and keep your head down, and you'll soon reap the rewards of your labor.
Now, notice something about my practice scores. My lowest practice score was a 31, but my first practice test score was a 35. Depending on how you look at things, I either improved two points or six points in the 10-12 weeks that I studied. Don't forget that I was taking the second semesters of my prereqs at the same time, which means that each successive test was taken with more and more knowledge of the material. With all of this in mind, it's my opinion that Examkrackers helped me with bio, but that the lion's share of my MCAT score came from PRACTICE TESTS. I estimate that I answered around 2000 MCAT-style questions before taking the actual test. This gave me confidence with the testing style and comfort with the time limits, which made me quite calm on test day. What's more, all of that practice, done over a period of a few months, made me very CONSISTENT by the time of the actual test. This was key; consistency is what pro athletes strive for, and it's arguably better than being a superstar. I knew more or less what to expect on the actual test, and I had a great idea of how I'd do on it by the time I walked out of the testing room.
Finally, a note on "good" test scores and retakes. The AAMC will tell you that there is no single "good" score, and that each individual should pick a score that would make him/her happy. I actually agree with this. There is obviously an objective difference in scores -- a 40 is better than a 35, 35 is better than 30, etc. -- but realistically speaking, I'm not convinced that everyone is capable of getting a 40. Similarly, I'm not convinced that retaking the MCAT is a good idea for anyone who is dissatisfied with his/her score.
If you're unhappy with your score and you honestly think it's because you were missing some factual science knowledge, then it might make sense to retake for obvious reasons. If something unfortunate happened on test day -- car broke down en route, something happened in or around your test site, bad news the day of or night before -- then it also might make sense to retake. But if you had a good grasp of the science and made an honest effort to prepare for the test, the odds of doing significantly better the second time around are not very good. I believe this is because science knowledge is good for a certain number of points, but that skills like critical thought and probem solving are what are required to get those incredible scores. Some of that can be improved with practice, but probably not enough to matter. Not only might you not improve in one section, you might lose ground in others. So unless you are absolutely sure that you can improve your score, I wouldn't do it again. Don't forget that your MCAT score is not the only determinant to admission.
I hope this post made some sense; it strikes me as a little diffuse, but I'm tired and I don't feel like revising it. 😉 I welcome discussion and debate.
