My Week Long MCAT Prep

[eric51]

So I see a lot of people saying that the week before you take your real MCAT, you should stop taking practice tests and just focus on content review. Well, I used a completely different strategy, and it ended up working very well for me (I got a 40Q).

Well to start off with, I should say that I really didn't study very much for the MCAT at all, especially by sdn standards. I bought the Kaplan premier book, and basically read it cover to cover, and marked anything I thought I needed to work on/memorize. I then spent a few weeks learning that stuff. The week before my MCAT was spring break, so I had nothing else to do but study.
So, I took a practice MCAT every day that week. My test was on a Saturday, so Saturday though Friday I took one of the AAMC practice tests online in the morning, and spent the afternoon looking over it, and the evening reviewing anything I had missed. My score improved from a 34 to around a 38 on the last 2 tests, and I ended up getting a 40, as I said. Just thought I'd point out that different methods work for everyone, and that you shouldn't blindly follow advice you find on this forum or anywhere else if you don't think it's what is best for you.

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[IAmGettingThere]

lol different things work for different people. that is amazing. congrats..

 

[batista_123]

then you are probably a science major and already knew everything

 

[b2sun]

i think most people are science majors and know everything.

 

[Isoprop]

So I see a lot of people saying that the week before you take your real MCAT, you should stop taking practice tests and just focus on content review. Well, I used a completely different strategy, and it ended up working very well for me (I got a 40Q).

Well to start off with, I should say that I really didn't study very much for the MCAT at all, especially by sdn standards. I bought the Kaplan premier book, and basically read it cover to cover, and marked anything I thought I needed to work on/memorize. I then spent a few weeks learning that stuff. The week before my MCAT was spring break, so I had nothing else to do but study.
So, I took a practice MCAT every day that week. My test was on a Saturday, so Saturday though Friday I took one of the AAMC practice tests online in the morning, and spent the afternoon looking over it, and the evening reviewing anything I had missed. My score improved from a 34 to around a 38 on the last 2 tests, and I ended up getting a 40, as I said. Just thought I'd point out that different methods work for everyone, and that you shouldn't blindly follow advice you find on this forum or anywhere else if you don't think it's what is best for you.

You read cover to cover that big fat book in a few weeks and spent a week doing a 6 hour practice test + a few hours studying.

That's a lot of work for a short amount of time. I think you deserve a high score. Congrats!!

 

[prettylady]

So I see a lot of people saying that the week before you take your real MCAT, you should stop taking practice tests and just focus on content review. Well, I used a completely different strategy, and it ended up working very well for me (I got a 40Q).

Well to start off with, I should say that I really didn't study very much for the MCAT at all, especially by sdn standards. I bought the Kaplan premier book, and basically read it cover to cover, and marked anything I thought I needed to work on/memorize. I then spent a few weeks learning that stuff. The week before my MCAT was spring break, so I had nothing else to do but study.
So, I took a practice MCAT every day that week. My test was on a Saturday, so Saturday though Friday I took one of the AAMC practice tests online in the morning, and spent the afternoon looking over it, and the evening reviewing anything I had missed. My score improved from a 34 to around a 38 on the last 2 tests, and I ended up getting a 40, as I said. Just thought I'd point out that different methods work for everyone, and that you shouldn't blindly follow advice you find on this forum or anywhere else if you don't think it's what is best for you.

GOOD JOB!!
im studying right now, so i was wondering where did your scores start when you started taking tests everyday? and, if i understand correctly, your score went up to a 38 in a week of daily testing?

wow! congrats

 

[eric51]

GOOD JOB!!
im studying right now, so i was wondering where did your scores start when you started taking tests everyday? and, if i understand correctly, your score went up to a 38 in a week of daily testing?

wow! congrats

Well on the first Kaplan diagnostic I took in December, before I had started studying at all and didn't even know the format of the test, I got a 32. So clearly I was in pretty good shape to begin with in terms of knowledge and general test taking ability. After I studied by reading the book and stuff over a few months, I got a 34 on the first test I took that week, and then was able to get 37-38 on the last 3 I took. I think the big advantage of taking that many tests the week before, at least in my eyes, is that by the time I got to the real test, it didn't seem like a big deal at all. I was just doing the same thing I had been doing for the past 6 days.

 

[dingyibvs]

So I see a lot of people saying that the week before you take your real MCAT, you should stop taking practice tests and just focus on content review. Well, I used a completely different strategy, and it ended up working very well for me (I got a 40Q).

Well to start off with, I should say that I really didn't study very much for the MCAT at all, especially by sdn standards. I bought the Kaplan premier book, and basically read it cover to cover, and marked anything I thought I needed to work on/memorize. I then spent a few weeks learning that stuff. The week before my MCAT was spring break, so I had nothing else to do but study.
So, I took a practice MCAT every day that week. My test was on a Saturday, so Saturday though Friday I took one of the AAMC practice tests online in the morning, and spent the afternoon looking over it, and the evening reviewing anything I had missed. My score improved from a 34 to around a 38 on the last 2 tests, and I ended up getting a 40, as I said. Just thought I'd point out that different methods work for everyone, and that you shouldn't blindly follow advice you find on this forum or anywhere else if you don't think it's what is best for you.

I had an amazingly similar experience. I also started preparing about a month ahead and read the Kaplan book cover to cover to get the concepts down and I spent about the week before the MCAT doing the AAMC practice exams. The only difference is that in between the Kaplan and the AAMC, I did a lot of problems using the EK1001. I went from 36 to 39 to, on the actual exam, a 41. Oh, my first diagnostic, taken with Princeton Review, was also a 32.

 

[labellefille]

just out of curiosity- how did you feel coming out of the exam? did you feel like you'd done better than you had on any of the practice exams?

i'm still waiting for my score- i did well on the AAMC (avg 37-38), but the real test felt harder to me. or i felt more unsure of myself...

 

[eric51]

I felt pretty good. I think I figured I had done probably as well as my last couple practice tests (37-38), but I was definitely not expecting a 40.

 

[dingyibvs]

just out of curiosity- how did you feel coming out of the exam? did you feel like you'd done better than you had on any of the practice exams?

i'm still waiting for my score- i did well on the AAMC (avg 37-38), but the real test felt harder to me. or i felt more unsure of myself...

I felt pretty much the same. I mean, really, once you get to the higher 30's, the difference between the scores is only a single question or two.

 

[BennieBlanco]

So I see a lot of people saying that the week before you take your real MCAT, you should stop taking practice tests and just focus on content review. Well, I used a completely different strategy, and it ended up working very well for me (I got a 40Q).

Well to start off with, I should say that I really didn't study very much for the MCAT at all, especially by sdn standards. I bought the Kaplan premier book, and basically read it cover to cover, and marked anything I thought I needed to work on/memorize. I then spent a few weeks learning that stuff. The week before my MCAT was spring break, so I had nothing else to do but study.
So, I took a practice MCAT every day that week. My test was on a Saturday, so Saturday though Friday I took one of the AAMC practice tests online in the morning, and spent the afternoon looking over it, and the evening reviewing anything I had missed. My score improved from a 34 to around a 38 on the last 2 tests, and I ended up getting a 40, as I said. Just thought I'd point out that different methods work for everyone, and that you shouldn't blindly follow advice you find on this forum or anywhere else if you don't think it's what is best for you.

Cliff's notes version:

I studied the last week before the test. I scored very high.

I didn't study a lot, me smart. Different things work for different people.

Moral of the story: If you took the last week off you would have scored a few points higher.

 

[redsquareblack]

Cliff's notes version:

I studied the last week before the test. I scored very high.

I didn't study a lot, me smart. Different things work for different people.

Moral of the story: If you took the last week off you would have scored a few points higher.

 

[dingyibvs]

Cliff's notes version:

I studied the last week before the test. I scored very high.

I didn't study a lot, me smart. Different things work for different people.

Moral of the story: If you took the last week off you would have scored a few points higher.

Can't there be advice on this board for smart people, if that's your take on his post?

 

[BennieBlanco]

Can't there be advice on this board for smart people, if that's your take on his post?

To each his own. I love Tebow, so I can make no argument against you.

 

[aggie08]

Well on the first Kaplan diagnostic I took in December, before I had started studying at all and didn't even know the format of the test, I got a 32.

A 32 is a great diagnostic score and a 40 is an amazing score overall, but I'd just like to point out that you only went up 6 points from your original score.

So, if someone had an 18 on their diagnostic and did exactly what you did and went up the same amount you did....they would make a 24.

Just saying.

 

[Pet of the Week]

I read the Kaplan book two weeks before the test and made a 30+ as well. I had mono, so I just didn't have the energy to study anymore than that. So is the moral of the story that the Kaplan book is awesome for procrastinators?

I'm going to do mcat prep the right way this time. I wonder how much I will improve, if any.

 

[lstone13]

A 32 is a great diagnostic score and a 40 is an amazing score overall, but I'd just like to point out that you only went up 6 points from your original score.

So, if someone had an 18 on their diagnostic and did exactly what you did and went up the same amount you did....they would make a 24.

Just saying.

Good point. I basically used the same study strategy. My diagnostic was a 26, and I scored a 32 on the real thing.

Congrats on your awesome score though!