My Schedule and Approach to a 526 (lots of passages, not too much Anki)

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

mcatmatt

Full Member
2+ Year Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2016
Messages
54
Reaction score
55
This is from my blog (www.mcatmatt.com).

This was my approximate day-by-day study schedule from last year. You can download my schedule in Excel by clicking here (and a blank schedule template is available by clicking here). In reality I ended up approaching my schedule week-by-week, checking things off as I went, but I think it helps provide structure to list tasks by day. Some days I did slightly more, some days slightly less, and I ended up spending many of my scheduled “break days” playing catch-up. I didn’t stick to this schedule exactly, but by the end I had completed almost all of my scheduled tasks. I spent 15 weeks studying, and I don’t think I would have felt prepared had I condensed that further.

Content Resources (with lots of practice built in)

I relied on The Berkeley Review for the bulk of my content review and practice passages for Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry (organic and inorganic), and Physics. I think the general consensus is accurate that TBR is more detailed and covers more information than is generally covered on the MCAT. However, I was aiming for a top score, and I credit TBR in large part for my success. Their passages in particular are outstanding, providing ample opportunities for practice along with thoughtful and in-depth explanations. I used 2013 editions of TBR’s books, and found them to be great. They have since released updated editions that I’m sure are great as well.

For psychology and sociology, I primarily used Kaplan, and occasionally referenced Princeton Review when I found Kaplan to be lacking in a particular area. I found TPR’s sociology sections to be better than Kaplan’s, but found Kaplan much more readable and engaging otherwise.

I purchased the Examkrackers complete 2015 book set, but I found most of the content to be too superficial for me. I did use EK’s organic chemistry sections, because I knew I only needed a light review. Having gone back now as a tutor, I think that their physics and chemistry books are actually very good, and I probably didn’t need to know much of the material that TBR covered on those topics. Still, I am happy that I was over-prepared for those sections. Overall, I still think that their psychology/sociology and biology sections are too concise. However, the Examkrackers Biology section on Laboratory techniques was excellent, covering topics like NMR, IR, UV, Gel Electrophoresis, and others very well.

The 30-minute exams at the end of each Examkrackers chapter were excellent, and they gave me much-needed practice interpreting graphs and reasoning about experimental design. I think they’re worth purchasing for those passages alone, especially if you need some work in those areas.

Practice Passages and Full Length Tests

In addition to the many Berkeley Review and Examkrackers passages that I used, I did all of the official AAMC materials that were available at the time: the full-length Sample Test (no scaled score), the Official Guide Questions, and the 120 Question packs in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and CARS. They were all great, especially the CARS, since no other CARS resources truly resemble the real thing. Since then, the 300 question Section Bank and the scored Official Practice Test have become available, and like the other AAMC materials, those are essential for anyone studying now.

I also did full-length practice tests from Examkrackers, The Princeton Review, and the Berkeley Review. They are all lacking in certain areas compared to the AAMC’s tests (since then, I have also reviewed Kaplan exams through tutoring, and found those to be overly-detailed as well), but Examkrackers were the best of the bunch, and they are the only exams from third-party companies that I recommend to my students. I discuss my thoughts on these materials in more depth in this post.

I think there are probably only marginal benefits to doing more than 6-8 full-length exams for most students, and the combination of burnout and opportunity costs (in terms of time spent studying) can actually make additional full-length tests a net negative. Spending more time on targeted practice passages and thoughtful review is a better use of time, in my opinion.

Daily approach

My day-to-day approach to studying was pretty simple: read the new content, do 3-5 passages related to the new content, review them in-depth, and address all of my questions and mistakes by re-visiting the content and/or searching online. I discuss my approach to reviewing practice passages and practice tests in more detail in this post. I didn’t take notes on content, but I did log my mistakes and questions in a notebook, where I also logged the relevant explanations and answers for my own reference. I periodically reviewed this notebook to make sure I still understood the underlying concepts.

Each week I would also “loop back” on content covered in previous weeks, doing additional passages to make sure I still understood the material. I didn’t follow a set schedule for these review passages, but I tried to re-visit every content area within 1-2 weeks of initial exposure (with targeted periodic re-visiting after that).

For psychology and sociology, I made Anki flashcards and tried to review a batch every day. I did this because there weren’t as many passages available for me to practice, and most of the vocabulary was new to me, so I wanted to at least have the vocabulary down cold. For other subjects, I did not use Anki or any other form of flash cards. I still think flash cards can be a good approach if you are unfamiliar with the psychology and sociology vocabulary, but now there are more practice passages available to integrate as well. Some of the Khan academy passages are good (and they’re free), but they tend to focus on the details covered in the Khan lectures, and they are not very representative of AAMC style questions.

If you look at my schedule you’ll see that I did very little CARS review. Other than the AAMC CARS question packs, I did hardly any CARS practice. I relied on my full-length tests for CARS practice, and supplemented those with the AAMC materials.

Lifestyle

It’s normal to be fatigued by the grueling preparation that is necessary to succeed on the MCAT, so it’s extremely important to make a conscious effort to rest your mind and body in the days leading up to the test. If you’re too tired and stressed on test day, you won’t perform as well as you can. I think an important aspect of my success on the MCAT was being relatively well rested, well fed, and energetic on test day.

However, for the 15 weeks leading up to those last days, I made the MCAT my number one priority, studying for 6-8 hours every day. It was sometimes hard to keep going, but I wanted to be able to look back afterwards and know that I gave it my best shot.


Let me know if you have any questions about my approach or about how to build a custom schedule!

-------------------

Update (4-28-16) - I posted my annotated schedule (notes in bold) below so that you don't have to download in excel. Each paragraph is one day.


TBR General Chemistry 1 - Stoichiometry and passages. For all new content (and for subsequent review of that content 1-2 weeks later), I did 3-5 practice passages with in-depth grading/review.

TBR Biology 1 - Nerve and Muscle and passages; make amino acids flash cards. I reviewed amino acids flash cards often until I had memorized structures, three-letter abbreviations, and one-letter abbreviations. Also, I reviewed the TBR Biology books in order, but were I to do it again, I would start with Book 2, which focuses on cell biology and biochem, and then do Book 1, which focuses on physiology.

TBR Physics 1 - Translational Motion and passages. (I did passages on the new content for every section below, so I won't continue to note it below.)

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 1 - Biology and Behavior, Anki for new terms. I reviewed some Anki Psych/Soc flash cards almost every day. If I found a Kaplan explanation to be confusing, I used the Princeton Review to clarify or, more often than not, just used wikipedia. I did the discrete questions for each Kaplan chapter and also mixed in the TPR passages.

TBR General Chemistry 2 - Atomic Theory

TBR Biology 2 - Heart and Lung

TBR Physics 2 - Forces, Circular Motion, and Gravitation

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 2 - Sensation and Perception. At this point I started doing passages on the previous weeks' topics, fitting them in where I could amid the new stuff. I continued this throughout my course of study.

Break Day

TBR General Chemistry 3 - Equilibrium

TBR Biology 3 - GI and Kidney

TBR Physics 3 - Work and Energy

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 3 - Learning and Memory

TBR General Chemistry 4 - Acids and Bases

TBR Biology 4 - Reproduction and Development

Break Day

TBR Physics 4 - Momentum and Torque

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 4 - Cognition, Consciousness, and Language

TBR General Chemistry 5 - Buffers and Titrations

TBR Biology 5 - Endocrinology and Immunology

TBR Physics 5 - Periodic Motion and Waves

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 5 - Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

Break Day

Examkrackers Chem Ch. 2 - Intro to Organic Chemistry and 30-minute exam; Examkrackers Chem Ch. 3 - Oxygen Containing Reactions (basically continuation of Organic Chemistry) and 30-minute exam

TBR General Chemistry 6 - Gases

TBR Biology 6 - Structure and Function in Cells and Viruses. This is where I would start with bio now.

TBR Physics 6 - Sound and Doppler

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 6 - Identity and Personality

Break Day

TBR General Chemistry 7 - Phases and Phase Changes

TBR Biology 7 - Metabolic Components

TBR Passages on previous topics and in-depth review

TBR Physics 7 - Fluids and Solids

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 7 - Psychological Disorders

9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Pack; 60 questions, timed, from the AAMC Biology 1 Question Pack. I spent a lot time reviewing the questions I missed, reviewing content I had already covered, and making note of content I had yet to cover. Were it available, I would have started using the AAMC Section Bank (with 300 Qs) around this time in order to practice biochem and psychology/sociology. These are more important questions to do than the other AAMC Question Packs.

Break Day

60 questions from the AAMC Chemistry and Physics Question Packs

TBR General Chemistry 8 - Thermochemistry

TBR Biology 8 - Metabolic Pathways

TBR Physics 8 - Electrostatics and Electromagnetism

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 8 - Social Processes, Attitudes, and Behavior; and 9 - Social Interaction. For all of the remaining Psychology and Sociology sections, I was using Princeton Review in conjunction with Kaplan. Not the most efficient way to do it probably, but by the end I felt pretty good about all the content.

TBR General Chemistry 9 - Kinetics

Break Day

TBR Biology 9 - Genetic Information

TBR Physics 9 - Electricity and Circuits

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 10 - Social Thinking; and 11 - Social Structure and Demographics

TBR General Chemistry 10 - Electrochemistry

TBR Biology 10 - Expression of Genetic Information

AAMC Official Sample Test

Review test and address weaknesses. Please see my post on how to review practices passages and practice tests for more information on my methods.

Review test

Review test

Review test

TBR Physics 10 - Light and Optics

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 12 - Social Stratification; Examkrackers Biology chapter on Laboratory Techniques. I didn't use a lot of Examkrackers content (I did use all of their 30 minute exams), but I thought that their two Organic Chemistry chapters and their Laboratory Techniques chapter were excellent. You can get a lot of easy points on the test just by knowing the lab techniques.

60 questions from the AAMC Biology Question Packs, and 60 questions from the Chemistry Question Pack

Break Day

60 questions from the AAMC Physics Question pack; and 9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Packs

60 Questions from the AAMC Official Guide, with thorough review

60 Questions from the AAMC Official Guide, with thorough review

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness

The Princeton Review Full Length Test. I would not use the Princeton Review full-length tests again. Were I to take the test now, I would do the AAMC Official Practice Test (the scored one) at this point.

Review test. While reviewing, I started working in relevant passages to practice areas of weakness. I did this for subsequent tests as well.

Review test

Review test

60 Questions from the AAMC Biology Question Packs

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics. By the end, I had done all of the Examkrackers 30 minute exams, and I found them all to be really helpful.

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

Examkrackers Full Length #1

Review test

Review test

Review test

Review test

Break day

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

Examkrackers Full Length #2

Review test

Review test

Review test

Review test

Break day

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

Examkrackers Full Length #3

Review test

Review test

Review test

Review test

TBR Biology Practice Test (from the back of the TBR Biology Book I)

TBR Biology Practice Test (from the back of the TBR Biology Book II)

TBR Full Length #1. I found the test to have some good classical science passages, but it lacked newer, research-based passages, which are emphasized on the official AAMC full lengths. The CARS section was terrible, and the psychology section was a mix of re-purposed, psychology-themed verbal passages and new psychology and sociology passages. Overall it wasn't as good as EK, but was probably better than the Princeton review. If I were studying again, I would take Examkrackers Full Length #4 in its place.

Review test

Review test

60 questions from the AAMC Biology Question Pack

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Pack

Review AAMC Sample Test. I re-read all of the passages and reviewed some of the questions/answers.

Continue reviewing AAMC Sample Test

9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Pack

Review big-picture psychology and sociology topics, high-yield physics formulas, and other random topics. No new passages.

Break day (although I studied a little)

Break day

Test Day

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 20 users
Have you tried out NS full lengths at all? Thoughts?

No. I did their half-length diagnostic, and many of the passages were adapted (to use a generous term) directly from the AAMC Official Guide questions, so I decided not to use other Next Step materials from that point on. I can't speak to their full-length tests though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
I did all of the AAMC materials except for the scored practice test and the 300 question section bank, which weren't available at the time. I would definitely do both of those, along with the other AAMC materials, if I were studying now. I did EK 1-3, but 4 wasn't available at the time. I would have done EK 4 too if it had been available.
 
Would you say just doing all 4 EK FLs and the AAMC materials would be sufficient for the last 6 weeks of studying? I'm also curious if you felt confident to go into the exam by just scoring certain percentage range for the sections. I heard EK tests don't give you a score and there is only 1 AAMC scored exam so it's hard to determine where you stand. From the people I've talked to, scoring above 75% consistently equates to probably 126/127. I don't know how accurate that really is though.
 
Great advice!

One question: I'll hopefully be finishing content review in about one month, leaving 2 months for practice exams, passages, and question packs. It seems like the AAMC section bank is by far the best practice material for the real thing. Would you recommend going through that soon rather than later? As in shortly after finishing content review?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Would you say just doing all 4 EK FLs and the AAMC materials would be sufficient for the last 6 weeks of studying? I'm also curious if you felt confident to go into the exam by just scoring certain percentage range for the sections. I heard EK tests don't give you a score and there is only 1 AAMC scored exam so it's hard to determine where you stand. From the people I've talked to, scoring above 75% consistently equates to probably 126/127. I don't know how accurate that really is though.

I think those resources are probably enough practice for the last six weeks leading up to your exam. The 4 EK full-lengths and the 2 AAMC full-lengths are certainly the best full-length exams I've seen, and the other AAMC practice materials are essential resources. If you have the time, you might want to mix in additional passages from another resource (I used TBR and EK passages) on targeted content areas during that time as well.
 
Would you say just doing all 4 EK FLs and the AAMC materials would be sufficient for the last 6 weeks of studying? I'm also curious if you felt confident to go into the exam by just scoring certain percentage range for the sections. I heard EK tests don't give you a score and there is only 1 AAMC scored exam so it's hard to determine where you stand. From the people I've talked to, scoring above 75% consistently equates to probably 126/127. I don't know how accurate that really is though.

As for confidence heading into the test, I knew I was well prepared, but I wish that I'd had access to the scored AAMC Practice Test when I was studying. That's probably the only valid scaled score out of all the companies' practice tests (or at least, it's definitely the most valid). Even though Kaplan and TPR offer scaled scores, I think they have very little validity (I haven't seen Next Step's so I can't comment).

But I felt fairly confident because I'd gotten between 85-95% on all sections on the unscored AAMC Sample Test, and I was getting between 70-80% on the EK tests. Also, I don't think I could have prepared better, so I knew I was giving it my best shot, regardless of where I stood.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Great advice!

One question: I'll hopefully be finishing content review in about one month, leaving 2 months for practice exams, passages, and question packs. It seems like the AAMC section bank is by far the best practice material for the real thing. Would you recommend going through that soon rather than later? As in shortly after finishing content review?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

The Section Bank is the best source of focused biochemistry and psychology/sociology questions. The AAMC released it because the Question Banks are assembled from the pre-2015 practice tests and therefore don't cover those subjects. Along with the two AAMC full-lengths, it's the best practice you can do to prepare for the test.

I do recommend starting on it earlier rather than later, so that you can identify your areas of improvement and work on them while there is still time to do so. I like to think of the AAMC resources as opportunities to see what you know, so that you can improve, rather than opportunities to see you how would do on test day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
@mcatmatt Are the EK tests considerably more difficult? Is 70-80% a solid percentage to aim for on these?

They're harder overall. I think there are more questions in the difficult range, and also more in the easy range, and probably not as many in the middle range that most AAMC questions will fall into. 70-80 is very solid on the EK exams.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Do you think the TPR/TBR Psych and Soc books would be better than Kaplan's? Thanks.

I thought Kaplan and TPR were about equal. TPR is more dense and Kaplan is more readable and engaging. I thought The Princeton Review sociology sections were better than Kaplan. I haven't seen The Berkeley Review's psychology/sociology book.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I thought Kaplan and TPR were about equal. TPR is more dense and Kaplan is more readable and engaging. I thought The Princeton Review sociology sections were better than Kaplan. I haven't seen The Berkeley Review's psychology/sociology book.

Ok thanks. Would you recommend this schedule to someone who hasn't taken a prereq in ~2 years now? I've pretty much forgotten everything and I've never taken psych or sociology. I was originally planning to use another study guide that uses the EK box set for content review but now I'm thinking I'd be better off "over-preparing" with the TBR series instead. I already have both EK and TBR sets so it's not an issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Ok thanks. Would you recommend this schedule to someone who hasn't taken a prereq in ~2 years now? I've pretty much forgotten everything and I've never taken psych or sociology. I was originally planning to use another study guide that uses the EK box set for content review but now I'm thinking I'd be better off "over-preparing" with the TBR series instead. I already have both EK and TBR sets so it's not an issue.

Yeah I'd recommend it, or something like it. I hadn't taken a pre-req in several years, and I'd never taken psych or sociology either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Did you feel Kaplan's Psych/Soc section on the FLs were kind of ambiguous. I mean it seems like they would ask discrete questions in the form of a situation and ask which term best fits the scenario. Some of them seemed outright odd since their explanation made no sense. I felt like it could be either or. How would you go about for TPR FL? I want to try their first FL but their Psych/Soc is kind of different than Kaplan which makes me worry that it might reflect in my scores.
 
Did you feel Kaplan's Psych/Soc section on the FLs were kind of ambiguous. I mean it seems like they would ask discrete questions in the form of a situation and ask which term best fits the scenario. Some of them seemed outright odd since their explanation made no sense. I felt like it could be either or. How would you go about for TPR FL? I want to try their first FL but their Psych/Soc is kind of different than Kaplan which makes me worry that it might reflect in my scores.

I'd take both Kaplan and TPRs full-lengths with big grains of salt. Neither are that good or reflective of the real thing. I will say that on the real thing I felt like I was often making educated guesses on the pscy/soc section after getting down to two answer choices. I was pretty sure I didn't do well on the section, but ended up getting a 131 on it.
 
Just FYI I posted the actual schedule in my original post so that you don't have to download the excel file to see it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
This is from my blog (www.mcatmatt.com).

This was my approximate day-by-day study schedule from last year. You can download my schedule in Excel by clicking here (and a blank schedule template is available by clicking here). In reality I ended up approaching my schedule week-by-week, checking things off as I went, but I think it helps provide structure to list tasks by day. Some days I did slightly more, some days slightly less, and I ended up spending many of my scheduled “break days” playing catch-up. I didn’t stick to this schedule exactly, but by the end I had completed almost all of my scheduled tasks. I spent 15 weeks studying, and I don’t think I would have felt prepared had I condensed that further.

Content Resources (with lots of practice built in)

I relied on The Berkeley Review for the bulk of my content review and practice passages for Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry (organic and inorganic), and Physics. I think the general consensus is accurate that TBR is more detailed and covers more information than is generally covered on the MCAT. However, I was aiming for a top score, and I credit TBR in large part for my success. Their passages in particular are outstanding, providing ample opportunities for practice along with thoughtful and in-depth explanations. I used 2013 editions of TBR’s books, and found them to be great. They have since released updated editions that I’m sure are great as well.

For psychology and sociology, I primarily used Kaplan, and occasionally referenced Princeton Review when I found Kaplan to be lacking in a particular area. I found TPR’s sociology sections to be better than Kaplan’s, but found Kaplan much more readable and engaging otherwise.

I purchased the Examkrackers complete 2015 book set, but I found most of the content to be too superficial for me. I did use EK’s organic chemistry sections, because I knew I only needed a light review. Having gone back now as a tutor, I think that their physics and chemistry books are actually very good, and I probably didn’t need to know much of the material that TBR covered on those topics. Still, I am happy that I was over-prepared for those sections. Overall, I still think that their psychology/sociology and biology sections are too concise. However, the Examkrackers Biology section on Laboratory techniques was excellent, covering topics like NMR, IR, UV, Gel Electrophoresis, and others very well.

The 30-minute exams at the end of each Examkrackers chapter were excellent, and they gave me much-needed practice interpreting graphs and reasoning about experimental design. I think they’re worth purchasing for those passages alone, especially if you need some work in those areas.

Practice Passages and Full Length Tests

In addition to the many Berkeley Review and Examkrackers passages that I used, I did all of the official AAMC materials that were available at the time: the full-length Sample Test (no scaled score), the Official Guide Questions, and the 120 Question packs in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and CARS. They were all great, especially the CARS, since no other CARS resources truly resemble the real thing. Since then, the 300 question Section Bank and the scored Official Practice Test have become available, and like the other AAMC materials, those are essential for anyone studying now.

I also did full-length practice tests from Examkrackers, The Princeton Review, and the Berkeley Review. They are all lacking in certain areas compared to the AAMC’s tests (since then, I have also reviewed Kaplan exams through tutoring, and found those to be overly-detailed as well), but Examkrackers were the best of the bunch, and they are the only exams from third-party companies that I recommend to my students. I discuss my thoughts on these materials in more depth in this post.

I think there are probably only marginal benefits to doing more than 6-8 full-length exams for most students, and the combination of burnout and opportunity costs (in terms of time spent studying) can actually make additional full-length tests a net negative. Spending more time on targeted practice passages and thoughtful review is a better use of time, in my opinion.

Daily approach

My day-to-day approach to studying was pretty simple: read the new content, do 3-5 passages related to the new content, review them in-depth, and address all of my questions and mistakes by re-visiting the content and/or searching online. I discuss my approach to reviewing practice passages and practice tests in more detail in this post. I didn’t take notes on content, but I did log my mistakes and questions in a notebook, where I also logged the relevant explanations and answers for my own reference. I periodically reviewed this notebook to make sure I still understood the underlying concepts.

Each week I would also “loop back” on content covered in previous weeks, doing additional passages to make sure I still understood the material. I didn’t follow a set schedule for these review passages, but I tried to re-visit every content area within 1-2 weeks of initial exposure (with targeted periodic re-visiting after that).

For psychology and sociology, I made Anki flashcards and tried to review a batch every day. I did this because there weren’t as many passages available for me to practice, and most of the vocabulary was new to me, so I wanted to at least have the vocabulary down cold. For other subjects, I did not use Anki or any other form of flash cards. I still think flash cards can be a good approach if you are unfamiliar with the psychology and sociology vocabulary, but now there are more practice passages available to integrate as well. Some of the Khan academy passages are good (and they’re free), but they tend to focus on the details covered in the Khan lectures, and they are not very representative of AAMC style questions.

If you look at my schedule you’ll see that I did very little CARS review. Other than the AAMC CARS question packs, I did hardly any CARS practice. I relied on my full-length tests for CARS practice, and supplemented those with the AAMC materials.

Lifestyle

It’s normal to be fatigued by the grueling preparation that is necessary to succeed on the MCAT, so it’s extremely important to make a conscious effort to rest your mind and body in the days leading up to the test. If you’re too tired and stressed on test day, you won’t perform as well as you can. I think an important aspect of my success on the MCAT was being relatively well rested, well fed, and energetic on test day.

However, for the 15 weeks leading up to those last days, I made the MCAT my number one priority, studying for 6-8 hours every day. It was sometimes hard to keep going, but I wanted to be able to look back afterwards and know that I gave it my best shot.


Let me know if you have any questions about my approach or about how to build a custom schedule!

-------------------

Update (4-28-16) - I posted my annotated schedule (notes in bold) below so that you don't have to download in excel. Each paragraph is one day.


TBR General Chemistry 1 - Stoichiometry and passages. For all new content (and for subsequent review of that content 1-2 weeks later), I did 3-5 practice passages with in-depth grading/review.

TBR Biology 1 - Nerve and Muscle and passages; make amino acids flash cards. I reviewed amino acids flash cards often until I had memorized structures, three-letter abbreviations, and one-letter abbreviations. Also, I reviewed the TBR Biology books in order, but were I to do it again, I would start with Book 2, which focuses on cell biology and biochem, and then do Book 1, which focuses on physiology.

TBR Physics 1 - Translational Motion and passages. (I did passages on the new content for every section below, so I won't continue to note it below.)

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 1 - Biology and Behavior, Anki for new terms. I reviewed some Anki Psych/Soc flash cards almost every day. If I found a Kaplan explanation to be confusing, I used the Princeton Review to clarify or, more often than not, just used wikipedia. I did the discrete questions for each Kaplan chapter and also mixed in the TPR passages.

TBR General Chemistry 2 - Atomic Theory

TBR Biology 2 - Heart and Lung

TBR Physics 2 - Forces, Circular Motion, and Gravitation

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 2 - Sensation and Perception. At this point I started doing passages on the previous weeks' topics, fitting them in where I could amid the new stuff. I continued this throughout my course of study.

Break Day

TBR General Chemistry 3 - Equilibrium

TBR Biology 3 - GI and Kidney

TBR Physics 3 - Work and Energy

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 3 - Learning and Memory

TBR General Chemistry 4 - Acids and Bases

TBR Biology 4 - Reproduction and Development

Break Day

TBR Physics 4 - Momentum and Torque

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 4 - Cognition, Consciousness, and Language

TBR General Chemistry 5 - Buffers and Titrations

TBR Biology 5 - Endocrinology and Immunology

TBR Physics 5 - Periodic Motion and Waves

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 5 - Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

Break Day

Examkrackers Chem Ch. 2 - Intro to Organic Chemistry and 30-minute exam; Examkrackers Chem Ch. 3 - Oxygen Containing Reactions (basically continuation of Organic Chemistry) and 30-minute exam

TBR General Chemistry 6 - Gases

TBR Biology 6 - Structure and Function in Cells and Viruses. This is where I would start with bio now.

TBR Physics 6 - Sound and Doppler

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 6 - Identity and Personality

Break Day

TBR General Chemistry 7 - Phases and Phase Changes

TBR Biology 7 - Metabolic Components

TBR Passages on previous topics and in-depth review

TBR Physics 7 - Fluids and Solids

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 7 - Psychological Disorders

9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Pack; 60 questions, timed, from the AAMC Biology 1 Question Pack. I spent a lot time reviewing the questions I missed, reviewing content I had already covered, and making note of content I had yet to cover. Were it available, I would have started using the AAMC Section Bank (with 300 Qs) around this time in order to practice biochem and psychology/sociology. These are more important questions to do than the other AAMC Question Packs.

Break Day

60 questions from the AAMC Chemistry and Physics Question Packs

TBR General Chemistry 8 - Thermochemistry

TBR Biology 8 - Metabolic Pathways

TBR Physics 8 - Electrostatics and Electromagnetism

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 8 - Social Processes, Attitudes, and Behavior; and 9 - Social Interaction. For all of the remaining Psychology and Sociology sections, I was using Princeton Review in conjunction with Kaplan. Not the most efficient way to do it probably, but by the end I felt pretty good about all the content.

TBR General Chemistry 9 - Kinetics

Break Day

TBR Biology 9 - Genetic Information

TBR Physics 9 - Electricity and Circuits

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 10 - Social Thinking; and 11 - Social Structure and Demographics

TBR General Chemistry 10 - Electrochemistry

TBR Biology 10 - Expression of Genetic Information

AAMC Official Sample Test

Review test and address weaknesses. Please see my post on how to review practices passages and practice tests for more information on my methods.

Review test

Review test

Review test

TBR Physics 10 - Light and Optics

Kaplan Behavioral Sciences 12 - Social Stratification; Examkrackers Biology chapter on Laboratory Techniques. I didn't use a lot of Examkrackers content (I did use all of their 30 minute exams), but I thought that their two Organic Chemistry chapters and their Laboratory Techniques chapter were excellent. You can get a lot of easy points on the test just by knowing the lab techniques.

60 questions from the AAMC Biology Question Packs, and 60 questions from the Chemistry Question Pack

Break Day

60 questions from the AAMC Physics Question pack; and 9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Packs

60 Questions from the AAMC Official Guide, with thorough review

60 Questions from the AAMC Official Guide, with thorough review

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness

The Princeton Review Full Length Test. I would not use the Princeton Review full-length tests again. Were I to take the test now, I would do the AAMC Official Practice Test (the scored one) at this point.

Review test. While reviewing, I started working in relevant passages to practice areas of weakness. I did this for subsequent tests as well.

Review test

Review test

60 Questions from the AAMC Biology Question Packs

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics. By the end, I had done all of the Examkrackers 30 minute exams, and I found them all to be really helpful.

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

Examkrackers Full Length #1

Review test

Review test

Review test

Review test

Break day

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

Examkrackers Full Length #2

Review test

Review test

Review test

Review test

Break day

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

Examkrackers Full Length #3

Review test

Review test

Review test

Review test

TBR Biology Practice Test (from the back of the TBR Biology Book I)

TBR Biology Practice Test (from the back of the TBR Biology Book II)

TBR Full Length #1. I found the test to have some good classical science passages, but it lacked newer, research-based passages, which are emphasized on the official AAMC full lengths. The CARS section was terrible, and the psychology section was a mix of re-purposed, psychology-themed verbal passages and new psychology and sociology passages. Overall it wasn't as good as EK, but was probably better than the Princeton review. If I were studying again, I would take Examkrackers Full Length #4 in its place.

Review test

Review test

60 questions from the AAMC Biology Question Pack

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

TBR Passages on earlier topics and areas of weakness; Examkrackers 30 minute exams on various topics

9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Pack

Review AAMC Sample Test. I re-read all of the passages and reviewed some of the questions/answers.

Continue reviewing AAMC Sample Test

9 passages, timed, from the AAMC CARS Question Pack

Review big-picture psychology and sociology topics, high-yield physics formulas, and other random topics. No new passages.

Break day (although I studied a little)

Break day

Test Day
Thanks so much for doing this!

Do you remember what specific scores you got on the EK FL's? I'm taking the MCAT on June 18th, and just got 72% on EK 1 and 76% on EK 2, and I'm curious as to what those scores mean around 7 weeks out. How much improvement do you think you made in your last 3-4 weeks after finishing your EK exams?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Thanks so much for doing this!

Do you remember what specific scores you got on the EK FL's? I'm taking the MCAT on June 18th, and just got 72% on EK 1 and 76% on EK 2, and I'm curious as to what those scores mean around 7 weeks out. How much improvement do you think you made in your last 3-4 weeks after finishing your EK exams?

Those are really strong scores. I got around 70 on EK 1, 76 on 2, and 80 on 3.

That's plenty of time to improve, and you're probably in good shape already. I'm not sure how much improvement I made in the last month. I didn't really think about it that way, I just kept practicing and reviewing as much as I could. I definitely felt increasingly confident with more practice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Those are really strong scores. I got around 70 on EK 1, 76 on 2, and 80 on 3.

That's plenty of time to improve, and you're probably in good shape already. I'm not sure how much improvement I made in the last month. I didn't really think about it that way, I just kept practicing and reviewing as much as I could. I definitely felt increasingly confident with more practice.
Awesome, thanks so much for the feedback!
 
Do anyone know of an EK correlation spreadsheet somewhere on this forum?

This spreadsheet, which was posted on reddit.com/r/mcat, has user-posted practice exam scores and actual scores, including Examkrackers:

Update 5/15/16: There is a problem with embedding the spreadsheet, but you can find it by going to reddit.com/r/mcat and clicking on the link for "Compilation of User Exam Scores."
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Did you cater your study schedule to incorporate having a full time job? On average, how long did it take you to review the chapter and do the practice passages per day?
 
Did you cater your study schedule to incorporate having a full time job? On average, how long did it take you to review the chapter and do the practice passages per day?

No, I worked part time for the first ten weeks or so, and then I focused full time on the MCAT until test day. I think it would have been impossible to do my schedule while working full time. Chapter review, passages, passage review, and further content review based on my passage weaknesses took about 6-8 hours each day. I'm sure some people could do that in less time, but I err on the side of reading slower and taking more time while reviewing chapters and passages.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Thanks for the incredible advice! I will be incorporating a lot of these tips into my studying.

At the moment I only have funds to purchase 2 out of the 4 EK exams. Which ones would you recommend to purchase or are they all of equal quality?
 
Thanks for the incredible advice! I will be incorporating a lot of these tips into my studying.

At the moment I only have funds to purchase 2 out of the 4 EK exams. Which ones would you recommend to purchase or are they all of equal quality?

You're welcome, I hope it's helpful!

I'm honestly not sure which two I'd recommend. They all seemed about the same to me (at least 1-3 did while I was studying, and 4 appears to be as good as those). You might want to pose that as a question in the forum to get feedback from others.
 
Alright thank you! Appreciate it. Also, another question: did you take 4 full days to review the FL itself, or does this include content review as you reviewed each question?
 
Alright thank you! Appreciate it. Also, another question: did you take 4 full days to review the FL itself, or does this include content review as you reviewed each question?

Good question, thanks for asking! That time included content review.
 
Do you think that the 7th edition EK is a suitable substitute for the 2015 EK? Do they still have the 30 minute exams?

They might, but I think they made new passages and questions for 2015. I'm not 100% sure, but my guess is the 7th edition wouldn't be worth it. The most useful thing about the EK books were the research-oriented passages. I think you can get a used 9th edition for a pretty good price now though.
 
Yes. Do you have any questions about preparing for the exam?
Yes! Sorry if that was a dumb question. I'm reviewing TBR and honestly, a lot of the things in there, make me feel dumb. Sometimes I need to go back to the basics for chem or bio because TBR, while going in depth, doesn't always necessarily explain concepts too well. I'm someone who needs to *understand* concepts, I refuse to memorize too many things haha. What was your experience with the TBR? Was it easy for you to read and understand? Did you find it difficult?
 
Yes! Sorry if that was a dumb question. I'm reviewing TBR and honestly, a lot of the things in there, make me feel dumb. Sometimes I need to go back to the basics for chem or bio because TBR, while going in depth, doesn't always necessarily explain concepts too well. I'm someone who needs to *understand* concepts, I refuse to memorize too many things haha. What was your experience with the TBR? Was it easy for you to read and understand? Did you find it difficult?

I thought that the chem and physics books were very clear and easy to follow, with helpful example questions peppered throughout each chapter. The content portions of the biology books were sometimes not as clear and/or they were overly detailed, but for the most part I thought they provided a good content review. The main benefit of the Berkeley Review Books, though, and the thing that sets them apart from other resources, are the passages that are included with every chapter. That was my main focus, and the main reason I recommend those books. Also, oftentimes the answer explanations helped explain concepts I was still confused about after reading a given chapter.

Keep in mind that in general, TBR is going to provide you with more information than will likely be covered on the test, and the passages are more difficult. However, I felt like that helped me overall.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
I thought that the chem and physics books were very clear and easy to follow, with helpful example questions peppered throughout each chapter. The content portions of the biology books were sometimes not as clear and/or they were overly detailed, but for the most part I thought they provided a good content review. The main benefit of the Berkeley Review Books, though, and the thing that sets them apart from other resources, are the passages that are included with every chapter. That was my main focus, and the main reason I recommend those books. Also, oftentimes the answer explanations helped explain concepts I was still confused about after reading a given chapter.

Keep in mind that in general, TBR is going to provide you with more information than will likely be covered on the test, and the passages are more difficult. However, I felt like that helped me overall.
Thanks for the answer :)!
 
I have a question if you don't mind. When you were studying for biology/biochemistry, did you memorize every detail such as Lipid names, and what kind of lipid group does Vitamin X belong to?
I don't think I will have problem answering passages in the MCAT, but I'm terrified of stand-alone question that might ask something similar to what I mentioned above. Thank you for posting your experience!
 
What was the thinking behind scheduling the first practice exam a few days before initial content review should be finished?
 
I have a question if you don't mind. When you were studying for biology/biochemistry, did you memorize every detail such as Lipid names, and what kind of lipid group does Vitamin X belong to?
I don't think I will have problem answering passages in the MCAT, but I'm terrified of stand-alone question that might ask something similar to what I mentioned above. Thank you for posting your experience!

I didn't focus too much on memorization, but through lots of practice and review I ended up memorizing lots of details. Also, discrete questions tend to be fair, and cover the same basic science content you need to know for the test in general, so I wouldn't stress too much about preparing specifically for them. In your example above, you'd probably be pretty familiar with the major classes of lipids through your standard preparation anyway (i.e. steroids, triacylglycerols, etc), and there's a good chance that the question would actually test you on some other concept related to lipids, like whether the given vitamin was water soluble or fat soluble.
 
What was the thinking behind scheduling the first practice exam a few days before initial content review should be finished?

I was just aiming to take my first full-length 8 weeks before test day. In general I don't think it's necessary to completely finish content review before moving on to practice tests. Depending on how your preparation is going, there could be benefits to starting full-lengths sooner. I would recommend giving yourself a good amount of time to do dedicated practice, though, depending on how much time you have. I think it's important to have time to adjust your approach and your focus based on your experience with the full-lengths, especially the AAMC ones.
 
hey i noticed you only read 2 chapters of ochem on the schedule am i right? Was that enough you think?

And when you say, "this is where I would start with bio now" what do you mean?
 
hey i noticed you only read 2 chapters of ochem on the schedule am i right? Was that enough you think?

And when you say, "this is where I would start with bio now" what do you mean?

I thought that amount of o-chem (what EK covers, basically) was sufficient. I thought it was as or more in depth than the o-chem featured in the official AAMC materials (the two full lengths, question packs, etc.) at least.

And good question, I should have made that more clear. I would have started with that chapter in bio were I to start studying now, doing TBR book two (molecular biology/biochem) first and then proceeding to book one (physiology) after.
 
I thought that amount of o-chem (what EK covers, basically) was sufficient. I thought it was as or more in depth than the o-chem featured in the official AAMC materials (the two full lengths, question packs, etc.) at least.

And good question, I should have made that more clear. I would have started with that chapter in bio were I to start studying now, doing TBR book two (molecular biology/biochem) first and then proceeding to book one (physiology) after.

Ah okay that makes sense.

I have been following your schedule and I'm like half way done with content review although my MCAT is in a month. What do you recommend me doing? Should I utilize qpack now or after done with the content?

If You don't mind me asking, how did you do on the passages? I find TBR biology passages quite difficult. Lowest I got was 1/7 on one passage while averaging around 60-70%.
 
Ah okay that makes sense.

I have been following your schedule and I'm like half way done with content review although my MCAT is in a month. What do you recommend me doing? Should I utilize qpack now or after done with the content?

If You don't mind me asking, how did you do on the passages? I find TBR biology passages quite difficult. Lowest I got was 1/7 on one passage while averaging around 60-70%.

I can't really say what you should be doing. I will say it's probably a good idea to integrate full-lengths sooner rather than later if you haven't already, since those are the most important practice resources. Feel free to private message me if you have more detailed questions.

60-70 on TBR passages is pretty solid. They're really hard, I think I probably averaged about 75-85% on them, but there were definitely some 1/7 or 2/7 passaged mixed in there. I would say try not to get discouraged and just focus on what you can learn from each passage.
 
@mcatmatt hey Matt, how should I some of the content that I am missing. I am taking physics 2 in the upcoming semester. Also, how could I synthesize a study schedule using TBR bio, gen chem, orgo, and physics with EK 2016 and TPR CARS? Please help me out.
 
@mcatmatt hey Matt, how should I some of the content that I am missing. I am taking physics 2 in the upcoming semester. Also, how could I synthesize a study schedule using TBR bio, gen chem, orgo, and physics with EK 2016 and TPR CARS? Please help me out.

That sounds like a similar mix of resources to what I used, so you could take a look at my schedule and adjust that as you need to. I think that using TBR as your main content and practice source and supplementing that with the passages from EK's 30 minute exams is a solid approach. As far as content that you're missing, if it's only Physics 2, you'll probably be ok. TBR and EK both cover physics in sufficient depth for the MCAT.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top