My Study Plan - Critics Welcome!

[krogers21]

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Hello,

I recently started studying for the MCAT (May 8th) and am needing some advice from past and present MCAT takers. I received a set of EK 7th Edition books from my UG's pre-health advisor to study with over the summer. After diagnostics I have found that my BS needs the most work (wanting an ~6 point improvement!). I'm considering purchasing the BR set of study material as I'm afraid the EK set isn't going to go as in depth from what I've read so far (only BIO Lecture 1). I've been watching some of Chad's Videos and it seems like this is a great way to go; however, I'm planning on buying a lot of AAMC Practice FLs and am wanting to minimize as much money spent as possible. Would you recommend buying Chad's videos and sticking with the EK set + AAMC 3-11 as productive study materials? Or should I consider something else? I've thought about maybe buying the BR Bio set, EK 101 VR set, and Chad's videos + AAMC 3-11 but I was wanting some ideas from the SDN community.

 

[chemhead123]

I hope you mean June 8th. May 8th, I am afraid has come and gone : (

 

[krogers21]

I hope you mean June 8th. May 8th, I am afraid has come and gone : (

May 8th is when I started studying 🙂

 

[chemhead123]

err... that makes more sense : ) I was reading too fast. From my own experience, EK's practice materials are great, but TBR books are the best in terms of content review. Their practice problems are also really strong. If you have time to go through both sets of practice problems, you will be in great shape.

 

[brood910]

err... that makes more sense : ) I was reading too fast. From my own experience, EK's practice materials are great, but TBR books are the best in terms of content review. Their practice problems are also really strong. If you have time to go through both sets of practice problems, you will be in great shape.

Not at all.
The most important thing is to take a lot of FLs.
The practice passages made by companies other than AAMC are different, especially in terms of the way they are worded + their length. It is undoubtedly a great practice to do them before taking FLs first tho.

 

[aspiring20]

when do you take your MCAT?

 

[krogers21]

when do you take your MCAT?

I was shooting for August 3rd, but I'm thinking maybe August 15th or 16th now in order to be well prepared. I've only started studying and I want to have enough time to do well. I've averaged a 22 pre-study (horrendous to me) and I'm hoping to achieve around a 36 but I'll be happy with a 34. My score averages are 8 PS, 9 VR, 5 BS(I'm primarily focusing on BIO) prior to studying (taken AAMC 3,5,9). I'm hoping that my VR will be able to really help me with the BS. I'm weird in the fact that I feel like VR is my weakest point though.

 

[rfvbnmju]

I was shooting for August 3rd, but I'm thinking maybe August 15th or 16th now in order to be well prepared. I've only started studying and I want to have enough time to do well. I've averaged a 22 pre-study (horrendous to me) and I'm hoping to achieve around a 36 but I'll be happy with a 34. My score averages are 8 PS, 9 VR, 5 BS(I'm primarily focusing on BIO) prior to studying (taken AAMC 3,5,9). I'm hoping that my VR will be able to really help me with the BS. I'm weird in the fact that I feel like VR is my weakest point though.

I honestly don't think 2 months is enough time to raise your scores to what you want. A 34 would require at least a 12/10/12 or 12/11/11.

You need to know the materials pretty much cold to get those scores.

As for raising your bio scores, I'd recommend the
0) Ditching EK Bio, it doesn't appear to be helpful.

1) Kaplan for basic bio overview (their mnemonics devices are really helpful) This will get to knowing the basic structure and functions of your various systems.

2) TPR Bio book (I got the one w/ the red blood cells on it)
It goes into a bit more depth but is good at having questions that require much more critical thinking. Less recall but more like why does this happen or what occurs if this happens.

3) BR Bio Supposed has very unforgiving passages. (never used it) Getting a 50-60% would be doing pretty well.

Raising your PS scores requires more than just memorizing equations but an understanding of their relationship of the concept. You want to get to the point where you're not memorizing the equations but deriving them from the "core equations"

1) Kaplan I feel is more through with its explanation of the concepts. Their "high yield" problems are not representative but does a through job of tying the concepts.

2) BR I feel has more representative of the questions that you'll be ask and their math tricks is really useful

Hope that helps.

 

[krogers21]

As for raising your bio scores, I'd recommend the
0) Ditching EK Bio, it doesn't appear to be helpful.
.

Is this based on my scores? Because this was a diagnostic. Thanks for the idea though. I ordered EK 101 and BR Bio in order to raise my bio. I think the organic will be relatively easy for me to raise as ill just need a quick review. Maybe I'm wrong however.

 

[rfvbnmju]

Is this based on my scores? Because this was a diagnostic. Thanks for the idea though. I ordered EK 101 and BR Bio in order to raise my bio. I think the organic will be relatively easy for me to raise as ill just need a quick review. Maybe I'm wrong however.

Oh if it's EK test or lecture series, then I have no idea.

If you're referring to EK 1001 Bio, then I believe the general consensus is to ditch it since it's material is not representative of the actual test. It's more like a ton of discretes.

I bought the EK 1001 for Physics. I found it to be semi helpful in just pure content review. They like to ask the same set of questions and vary it a little so you can see how certain factors will vary your calculated answers.