Non-Trad: MCAT: The mistakes I made (and how to avoid them)

[mspeedwagon]

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Let me start off by saying that my post is geared toward non-trads thinking about the MCAT.

I feel like I got a wealth of information from SDN EXCEPT when it came to the MCAT. I think this is largely in part because the MCAT discussion forums are comprised of traditional students. For most non-trads, the 3-4 month time frame suggested is not realistic. I think most here would agree with me, we don't have 8 hours [a day] for 3 months straight to dedicate solely to the MCAT. 6-9 months is a more realistic time frame.

Here are my top 10 mistakes.

1 - Expecting a review course to teach me everything I need for the MCAT. As the term "review" implies, a course is just that. It is review of material that you should know. You can't "review" what you don't already know.

2 - Not clearing my schedule for the MCAT. I took a class, was traveling for work and juggling MCAT prep. While, the class turned out ok, my MCAT and work have suffered along the way. The MCAT is important. Respect it.

3 - Not turning to textbooks. I hear it again and again from prep companies: the prep book is all you need. And, I agree textbooks shouldn't be your primary means to study for the test. But, definitely utilize them for concepts not clear in the MCAT review books (for example, genetics is not clearly explained in any MCAT prep book... there is an assumption you know a lot of things, but reading a textbook will make things much clearer).

4 - Not taking more upper level biology classes. I hear time and again that the MCAT is geared to intro bio. I took the bio self assessment and scored greater than 90% correct in molecular bio and biochem... guess why? Yes, I took upper levels in those areas. I didn't take physio and I got 70% of the physio questions wrong. Physiology is almost certainly needed for the MCAT and a class I regret not fitting into my prep.

5 - Telling myself I can get by not studying a subject area. Not studying English (you'll be able to crush verbal once you understand the thinking of the test maker), o-chem or any one area is very likely to hurt your score. Don't kid yourself, you need to devote time to all areas.

6 - Not abandoning ship when life events happen. My brother's divorce, sisters break-up, parent with depression should have all been signs that I should have abandoned MCAT prep. I was eager to apply this year so kept going, but my mental state was not in tip top shape and my already not so high score took a huge plunge.

7 - Not finding a support network for the MCAT. I think this is one area that is under-emphasized. It is wonderful to find a few folks that are also studying for the MCAT and do review sessions together. I discovered this a little late and the person I discovered just took the MCAT and got a 34 (her re-take from a score in the mid-20s) so I'll need to find another. Here is how to structure the session: pick a topic. Have a person present on it for 10-15 mins on what you need to know for the MCAT and then work problems in the area. If you get something wrong, understand why you got it wrong.

8 - There is a balance between content and practice problems. Do both. I had read again and again that people place a low value on content review for the MCAT. There reason is that they know the content. Again, I feel this is a huge difference between trads and non-trads. Don't kid yourself... "content is very important."

9 - It takes about 1 month to learn how to study for the MCAT. Your first few weeks of MCAT studying will be inefficient. Budget this in when you start your MCAT prep. If you leave yourself only 3 months to prep and burn 1 month, you are already only 60 days out from the exam.

10 - I hear this all the time and this is that best piece of advice anyone can give you. This is a marathon and not a sprint. I charged ahead and was determined to apply this year. When all signs pointed to the fact I should abort, I kept going. I was mentally exhausted, completely burnt out, but didn't want to admit it (still don't). One year doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Apply once with all your ducks in a row.

Bonus: MCAT difficulty will vary from test to test. If you score 10 on the PS on one exam and 5 on the next, you have content issues. Don't be happy with a high score in an MCAT section until you can constantly repeat your performance.

Disclaimer: I did it all wrong and now I'm in a position where I have to study all over again (and trust me, it's not for lack of hours put in by me). I wish I had a list like above. At least I had the good sense to cancel my test before sitting for it and putting a low 20s score on my record. And that would be my final tip. "Know when to hold them and know when to fold them." If you don't hit a target score close to your exam, don't think you are going to on the actual exam. This is arguably the most important exam if you want to become a doctor (if you don't do well, you likely will never take Step 1, 2 CS, CK, 3, the board, COMLEX or any other medically related exam), respect it and don't rush it.

If any one has more tips, please feel free to add them. I don't think there is enough MCAT guidance geared toward non-trads on these forums.

Good luck to you all.

 

[Goro]

It's interesting that a lot of the mistakes you made are also made by many of my poorest performing students!

Let me start off by saying that my post is geared toward non-trads thinking about the MCAT.

I feel like I got a wealth of information from SDN EXCEPT when it came to the MCAT. I think this is largely in part because the MCAT discussion forums are comprised of traditional students. For most non-trads, the 3-4 month time frame suggested is not realistic. I think most here would agree with me, we don't have 8 hours for 3 months straight to dedicate solely to the MCAT. 6-9 months is a more realistic time frame.

Here are my top 10 mistakes.

1 - Expecting a review course to teach me everything I need for the MCAT. As the term "review" implies, a course is just that. It is review of material that you should know. You can't "review" what you don't already know.

2 - Not clearing my schedule for the MCAT. I took a class, was traveling for work and juggling MCAT prep. While, the class turned out ok, my MCAT and work have suffered along the way. The MCAT is important. Respect it.

3 - Not turning to textbooks. I hear it again and again from prep companies: the prep book is all you need. And, I agree textbooks shouldn't be your primary means to study for the test. But, definitely utilize them for concepts not clear in the MCAT review books (for example, genetics is not clearly explained in any MCAT prep book... there is an assumption you know a lot of things, but reading a textbook will make things much clearer).

4 - Not taking more upper level biology classes. I hear time and again that the MCAT is geared to intro bio. I took the bio self assessment and scored greater than 90% correct in molecular bio and biochem... guess why? Yes, I took upper levels in those areas. I didn't take physio and I got 70% of the physio questions wrong. Physiology is almost certainly needed for the MCAT and a class I regret not fitting into my prep.

5 - Telling myself I can get by not studying a subject area. Not studying English (you'll be able to crush verbal once you understand the thinking of the test maker), o-chem or any one area is very likely to hurt your score. Don't kid yourself, you need to devote time to all areas.

6 - Not abandoning ship when life events happen. My brother's divorce, sisters break-up, parent with depression should have all been signs that I should have abandoned MCAT prep. I was eager to apply this year so kept going, but my mental state was not in tip top shape and my already not so high score took a huge plunge.

7 - Not finding a support network for the MCAT. I think this is one area that is under-emphasized. It is wonderful to find a few folks that are also studying for the MCAT and do review sessions together. I discovered this a little late and the person I discovered just took the MCAT and get a 34 so I'll need to find another. Here is how to structure the session: pick a topic. Have a person present on it for 10-15 mins on what you need to know for the MCAT and then work problems in the area. If you get something wrong, understand why you got it wrong.

8 - There is a balance between content and practice problems. Do both. I had read again and again that people place a low value on content review for the MCAT. There reason is that they know the content. Again, I feel this is a huge difference between trads and non-trads. Don't kid yourself... "content it very important."

9 - It takes about 1 month to learn how to study for the MCAT. Your first few weeks of MCAT studying will be inefficient. Budget this in when you start your MCAT prep. If you leave yourself only 3 months to prep and burn 1 month, you are already only 60 days out from the exam.

10 - I hear this all the time and this is that best piece of advice anyone can give you. This is a marathon and not a sprint. I charged ahead and was determined to apply this year. When all signs pointed to the fact I should abort, I kept going. I was mentally exhausted, completely burnt out, but didn't want to admit it (still don't). One year doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Apply once with all your ducks in a row.

Bonus: MCAT difficulty will vary from test to test. If you score 10 on the PS on one exam and 5 on the next, you have content issues. Don't be happy with a high score in an MCAT section until you can constantly repeat your performance.

Disclaimer: I did it all wrong and now I'm in a position where I have to study all over again (and trust me, it's not for lack of hours put in by me). I wish I had a list like above. At least I had the good sense to cancel my test before sitting for it and putting a low 20s score on my record. And that would be my final tip. "Know when to hold them and know when to fold them." If you don't hit a target score close to your exam, don't think you are going to on the actual exam. This is arguably the most important exam if you want to become a doctor (if you don't do well, you likely will never take Step 1, 2 CS, CK, 3, the board, COMLEX or any other medically related exam), respect it and don't rush it.

If any one has more tips, please feel free to add them. I don't think there is enough MCAT guidance geared toward non-trads on these forums.

Good luck to you all.

 

[Gfliptastic]

I am an ex-Kaplan MCAT teacher and I endorse just about everything you posted!

One that I will add I always try to push (and your Kaplan teacher will also) is

~ DO NOT CRAM/STUDY THE DAY BEFORE THE ACTUAL MCAT

SERIOUSLY (okay no more caps lol)

You will NOT learn anything you didn't already. You need to rest your brain before the 1/2 marathon. And that's the analogy. Don't run the 1/2 marathon the day before and then expect to run it again on race day. (It will seem like a marathon, but anyone who has taken Board exams of med school will reassure you it is a 1/2 marathon lol)

The suggestion I like to throw in, even tho it won't apply to very many employed non-trads is to always study in a way that simulates test day. Like do physics and gen chem earlier. Biology and orgo later. It trains your brain to think in a similar way to the layout of the MCAT which helps reduce anxiety.

Also, if you are an anxious person, YES it is a very important exam, however, you CAN retake it. NOT like the Board exams. Once you pass the Board exams, that's it. No improving your score. And maybe that's not reassuring, but anyone who can come to grips w/ the fact that it IS something you can redo won't be as anxious. I've seen a lot of super brilliant kids get dumb MCAT scores because of test anxiety. 🙁

 

[MsFutureDr]

Thanks for sharing. Very helpful as i plan to take the MCAT next Spring

 

[mspeedwagon]

Doesn't surprise me. I think the above items would also hold true for Step 1 (be in the right mental state, don't rely only on a review course, refer to textbooks as needed and budget enough time).

Unfortunately for many, the best way to learn from mistakes is to make them (rather than to learn from others). I'm doing my small part today to hopefully prevent others from doing what I did.

Although, I still think the MCAT in many ways is not a great test, I do think the determination it takes to do well is likely a good gauge for medical schools. A "how much do you want it" test.

It's interesting that a lot of the mistakes you made are also made by many of my poorest performing students!

 

[mspeedwagon]

Planning on somewhere between January and March 2014. This will give me a huge leg up next cycle since I am now very familiar with the application process (since I started my apps this year).

Technically not a re-take since I didn't take the exam this go around (I shudder to think of what I would have gotten if I had).

I have some personal items I need to tend to. Then, I plan to re-take my Kaplan course in the fall and give myself about 30-60 days post course to take practice tests and review material. I'm taking a mental break as soon as I finish my required Kaplan hw (about 2 more wks of work) to be able to repeat the course and then will start a soft review in mid-July. I'm also considering dropping work (but, that's up in the air at this point).

I learned what needs to be done, now I just need to execute.

Thanks for posting this. The tips are helpful. Sorry that things didn't work out for your MCAT. I hope it's a small consolation that you can help others.

When are you going to retake it?

 

[beBrave]

Certainly learned something from this thread.

 

[malaika]

Thank you for this thread mspeedwagon. And thanks to everyone that contributed. This is very helpful.

 

[QofQuimica]

Basically agree with everything, and here are a couple of other thoughts as someone who did extremely well on the MCAT and also taught for Kaplan for several years:

• First, start out your studying with content review, and then move toward doing more test practice as you get closer to your test day. In other words, you should be doing a lot of reading when you first start out, while the last few weeks to month before the test, you should mostly be doing questions and practice tests.
  
  
• Make sure you read the explanations to each question, even the ones you get right. Review any material you don't understand. Ideally, annotate your prep book so that you can go back and review the topics you find difficult. I found this strategy useful for the USMLE and for my practice boards in residency as well.
  
  
• Finally, don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Studying is going to be individual, and some people do better on their own than others do. Be honest with yourself. If you need outside help and motivation to keep you on track, then bite the bullet and buy that review course, or hire the tutor, or pay for that extra question bank or practice test. In the whole scheme of what your entire medical education is going to cost, even spending $5000 for MCAT prep (way more than what most people need) is a drop in the bucket.

I'd still argue that higher level bio courses (or any other advanced courses) are not necessary as long as you learn the material covered on the exam. Some of those classes might be helpful to get your feet wet for med school, although again, I still don't think any higher bio classes are strictly necessary. I didn't take higher level bio classes like physiology prior to the MCAT; all the physiology I knew going into med school was stuff I had learned from Kaplan. Even though I was coming from a PS background, BS was actually the section I got the 15 on. If you have the time and money, it won't hurt to take a few higher level classes, especially if you're doing a post bac to prove your academic readiness for med school. But I wouldn't suggest taking these classes primarily for MCAT preparation. It's just not the best use of your time.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Thanks for the post mspeedwagon. Glad you held back on taking the test and good luck when you do finally take it.

 

[mspeedwagon]

@ Q: I have mixed feelings about Kaplan teaching me everything. I will say that if you have a very recent strong performance in bio (I took intro in 2002) or if you are very strong in other areas (I happen to know you are strong in chem) and have a lot of time to dedicate to teaching yourself a semester worth of physio, then intro is likely enough. Otherwise I almost certainly would say that physiology is required.

I personally even found watching Najeeb lectures helpful for the MCAT. Way more detail that you need to know, but start by watching is intro to immunology and you'll really grasp it (google najeeb lectures or search youtube).

 

[armpitsOFmight]

I find tpr's bio book to be a little dense. I prefer studying from my textbook because the wording is easier to understand.

 

[Back 5]

Biggest thing for me was forcing myself into a schedule instead of taking the test when I knew I could consistently score 30+.

Oh well. I'll apply with what I got!

 

[docelh]

This probably is the least-forgiving part of the process towards non-trads for many reasons. I would recommend that you guys approach it like the regular college pre-meds are as much as possible because the test is designed to be approached that way.

Spacing pre-reqs over anything longer than two years is going to make it much harder for content review.

There's a phase in the process where a lot of people like myself have to go at it 24/7. For me, this was about 4 - 6 weeks. This is hard to do with a job. It's not just an issue of time. The issue is focus and energy, which will be depleted if you have a job. So after your 8 hour workday, you will eight hours of lower mental quality time to address the MCAT.

For the record, I took the MCAT once last year. Got a solid score. Submitted AMCAS yesterday. I'll post more on the MCAT on this thread.

 

[docelh]

Each person has to decide how much content review they need. The downside of spending 6+ months for content review is that you may forget it when the actual exam time comes. Another problem is that you can never cover the breadth of everything the test could cover, especially for Biological Sciences. The other downside of content review is that you may do poorly and decide you need more content review. This delays you from the real MCAT prep work (which takes many months by itself).

At some point, you have to roll with what you have and approach the real MCAT prep work, which is to dissect the passages and answer vague questions with inferences and info from poorly-worded passages under timed conditions. If you can do this, then you'll find the content review is just gravy that may or may not make a difference on at most a few questions on your actual exam. MCAT is not so much a content test (it is to some degree), as it's more an analytical (read through bad passages and bad questions) and pressure-driven (time) test.

The MCAT passage topics are so obscure that it's unlikely you'll have covered it with content review. A lot of it is efficiently and quickly dissecting through the mumbo-jumbo verbiage and data they throw at you and mapping it cohesively to what you know. And making an informed guess with some degree of uncertainty. This is especially true for Bio and Verbal.

On whether you need upper-level courses. I think you only need Genetics. The Physiology portion is pretty basic, but it's just so damn broad that you'll unlikely cover it all. At most, it'll be a few questions that are affected. For most people, it's unlikely you'll know everything that can be covered under the massive Biological Sciences topic area.

 

[Gfliptastic]

This probably is the least-forgiving part of the process towards non-trads for many reasons. I would recommend that you guys approach it like the regular college pre-meds are as much as possible because the test is designed to be approached that way.

Spacing pre-reqs over anything longer than two years is going to make it much harder for content review.

There's a phase in the process where a lot of people like myself have to go at it 24/7. For me, this was about 4 - 6 weeks. This is hard to do with a job. It's not just an issue of time. The issue is focus and energy, which will be depleted if you have a job. So after your 8 hour workday, you will eight hours of lower mental quality time to address the MCAT.

For the record, I took the MCAT once last year. Got a solid score. Submitted AMCAS yesterday. I'll post more on the MCAT on this thread.

Valid point. Anecdotally I support it.

I took Kaplan at night while I worked a 50hr/week job. Did super average (9's across the board). A 27 proves to be largely fruitless as far as interviewing, so I knew I had to get a better score. My company was starting to slide, so they shut a plant down. MY plant.

My "job" while I looked for a new job became MCAT study. As you might expect, being able to devote +40hrs/week to just studying (like a traditional student on summer vacay would), I added 2 pts to VS & PS and 3 pts to BS. My more competitive MCAT score helped the process along nicely, ya know!? 😉 It also helped me get a job teaching at the Kaplan center I was a student at lol.

I DEFINITELY respect any non-trad who held down a full-time job or studied w/ a spouse and kids and still did great on the MCAT. However, if you aren't hitting 30's, but also don't have an amenable schedule, if you are REALLY serious about pursuing medical school, it is worthwhile to consider how to work in a free month of pure MCAT studying.

Be it maybe being a teacher w/ a summer off. Banking a ton of vacation days into a solid 3 or 4 weeks (yeah, I know what a terrible way to use vacation/sick days). Or knowing you are starting a new job, and planning a nice 1 month gap between your last day at your old job and start date at the new one.

 

[docelh]

My take on the MCAT by section:

1. Physical Sciences. From what I've heard, this section favors Chemistry over Physics in terms of number of questions. On my MCAT, General Chemistry was 70% of the test questions, with 30% being Physics. In my prep books and on my exam, second semester physics (E&M) questions were fairly basic. The tough questions came from first-semester physics. Resources I'd recommend are Berkeley Review General Chemistry and EK 1001 Physics. Both are ridiculously hard and require intensive study --> they were harder than the actual textbooks I used in my classes.

Unlike the other two sections, I think Physical Sciences can be prepared for effectively within a 3 month window. Just a lot of concepts and rote passage/problem solving.

2. Biological Sciences. O-chem is increasingly being displaced by Genetics and Biochemistry. Physiology is huge, but it's presented in such a way that studying for it is... tough. For instance, they'll give you a passage on saliva and then adapt it to an unusual disease associated with salivary glands - something that wouldn't even be covered by medical school-level textbooks on human physio. With exhaustive studying of physio, you may get two out of the seven questions right on knowledge alone. This is a pretty low return on investment in my view.

To do well in this section, you have to read through poorly-written science text and draw inference from things implied in the text. It's as much a verbal exercise as it is science reasoning. I had a bunch of questions which were convoluted rephrasings of what was in the test. Not fun after you've been dealing with this test for four hours already. The best representative of what the MCAT Bio Sciences section is nowadays is AAMC #10 and AAMC #11.

Best way to prepare for Biological Sciences is to read journal articles, especially those with data. Just read them under timed conditions. Get used to the scientific method and the reasoning involved. This was my worst section precisely because I focused on content review.

3. Verbal. I have no ideas for this one. This one is the hardest of the three to prepare for because some people are just better at this section than others. All I can recommend is that you read non-science material because the exposition is different. Also, the MCAT test lets you highlight. I used this pretty efficiently to map the passage which saved me a lot of time. What I can say is that the actual MCAT verbal is tougher than the practice tests because the passages were much longer.

Unlike what some have suggested, the MCAT is neither biased in favor of thematic questions over specific questions or vice-versa. It asks both types of questions. And AAMC has a way of writing verbal questions that is very difficult for test prep companies to mimic. I thought EK Verbal and TPR Hyperlearning Verbal were insufficient and not representative of AAMC-style passages or questions. By far, the practice AAMC tests are the best practice questions for verbal, so be sparing in your use of them .

Unlike what the rest of SDN thinks, I think the GRE, LSAT, and GMAT practice verbal questions are better than those of the MCAT test prep companies. The passages are not as hard as those on MCAT, but they ask similar types of questions and most importantly, the questions and answers are vetted more aggressively by committee like the MCAT, and this makes them more cohesive than Berkeley, Princeton, Kaplan, or ExamKrackers. There were enough times where I really questioned the test prep companies' reasoning and defense of their answers. This never happened when I reviewed the official practice questions of MCAT/GRE/etc.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Unlike what the rest of SDN thinks, I think the GRE, LSAT, and GMAT practice verbal questions are better than those of the MCAT test prep companies. The passages are not as hard as those on MCAT, but they ask similar types of questions and most importantly, the questions and answers are vetted more aggressively by committee like the MCAT, and this makes them more cohesive than Berkeley, Princeton, Kaplan, or ExamKrackers. There were enough times where I really questioned the test prep companies' reasoning and defense of their answers. This never happened when I reviewed the official practice questions of MCAT/GRE/etc.

Which of these non MCAT books did you use/ find helpful? I took the older gre and still have some review books lying around somewhere. I was told by some science faculty that my verbal score was quite a bit higher than most of their sci grad school applicants. I'm hoping I can try to capitalize on that and do well on the mcat verbal as well.

As an aside, has any body taken exams like the ACT or AP English exam and can offer a comparison for verbal?

 

[docelh]

I used some GRE and GMAT passages very early into my verbal practice passages to get re-acquainted with reading comprehension. I think any of them should work fine for this purpose.

 

[534455]

[....]
[*] Expecting a review course to teach me everything I need for the MCAT.
[*] Not turning to textbooks.
[*] Not abandoning ship when life events happen.
[*] Not finding a support network for the MCAT.
[*] There is a balance between content and practice problems. Do both.
[*]This is a marathon and not a sprint.

[...]
If any one has more tips, please feel free to add them. I don't think there is enough MCAT guidance geared toward non-trads on these forums.

Dear MSSpeedwagon,

Your post was very impressive. It demonstrated a great deal of maturity. Congrats.
You asked for tips. Here is some feedback:

I repost a few points from your excellent post in that they apply to once you are in MD School as well, not just MCAT preparation. If you want to get into medical school and graduate, you would do well to adopt those bullet points into your academic pursuits.

First year MD Students often:

* expect a review book to teach them everything they need to know about a course, be it Biochemistry, Histology, etc. The medical student quickly learns in the first few weeks of school that there are innumerable review books. Way too many. They try to stick by one, then switch to another one then switch to another modality, and then they start drowning. why?

* they abandoned their textbooks. I heard all throughout my MS 1 year, "use Najeeb videos, use Kaplan videos, use BRS, use Roadmap, don't read the textbook - it's too time consuming". It was almost universal in medical schools during first year to adopt a mindset of NOT using the course textbooks. Big mistake. Huge mistake. These people want shortcuts. They want the easy way out. Do not listen to them. Use the textbooks

* Life happens! You should know that as a non-trad student. The use of psychiatric medications is quite high in medical school. Self-esteem plunges among many MD students for a reason. They have a difficult time adjusting to all the demands, and their coping skills are not very strong when they start medical school. Some people fell to drugs. Some of the students had problems back at home and they were powerless miles away. It brought them down. Many sunk in depression. Life happens indeed. Which dovetails nicely to:

* find a support network. If you do not have support network be it in your personal intimate relationships (e.g. marriages, girlfriends/boyfriends/significant others), or supportive family/friends, you will fail medical school. You can not go at it alone. One guy in my class was homeless prior to starting medical school, was the eldest child of a large family, and was the only college graduate. He had a terrible time his first year because he could not turn to his family for support. They were in continual flux. He was alone...and island. He disappeared for a while and looked like a mess when he would show to campus. He finally made it but largely because he turned to some of us in his class as his new "family". He's going to make an awesome doctor! But you need that support network in place. Start now!

* balance between content/practice. If you do not do practice problems 50% of the time in medical school, don't expect to pass. USMLE World, Kaplan Q Bank, Roadmap, Highyield, Pretest, Exam Master....these are all key to studying in medical school. Studying content is not enough.

*marathon

this is the for long haul. If you are looking for immediate gratification, do not pursue MD. About the only thing immediate about it is constant struggle. Keep your eyes on the prize. It's about a journey....not a race.

 

[amygdala2]

thanks for this! great resource!

 

[ddmbmom]

thanks for this! great resource!

I would like to add to the discussion on this topic as the info posted has been most meaningful to me. I have been pushing myself thru O Chem, Physics and Biochem while working full time and having a busy family. Everything has suffered, grades, work and family. It takes a big person to admit failure, but at 45 years, I can. Although my goal was to take the MCAT this summer and be accepted so I can start working in my second career at age 52, I am pushing it back. Age doesn't doesn't scare me at all. My mom worked in her career till she was 78 not because she had to for financial reasons, but because she loved her career (college professor in Education Dept.). I barely passed these past 3 courses, as in a D, C and B, and will obviously be repeating the first 2 in order to better attack the O Chem II and Physics II courses. Instead of taking 2 classes per semester I will reduce to just one. A 3 hour lab per course on top of the courses themselves is a ton of responsibility for absorbing the topics and understanding them inside out. I will also be reducing my work hours as a diabetes educator to 30/week instead of 45. Life lessons are hard to learn, I have been very stubborn, in thinking I could get As or Bs in these hard classes. I surrender and will not quit. Thanks nontrad forum, especially working moms, for sharing your thoughts, ideas, fears and concerns to this anonymous forum. While we don't know each other personally, we definitely are going thru some real similar issues.

 

[katiemaude]

My biggest mistakes were:

- not devoting all or almost all my time to studying for the MCAT for 3-4 months before the test. I was taking classes full time (including orgo and physics), volunteering and working part-time up until 6 weeks before the test, when I was done with classes but kept working and volunteering. I should have stopped it all, at least for those 6 weeks.

-working myself in a nervous knot before the test partly because I knew I'd taking the test while sick. I had a bad sinus infection, I kept sneezing and coughing and was asked to leave the testing room (totally understandable) until I could get control of my cough. I lost 12 minutes of test time as a result. I should have cancelled it and rescheduled but I was dumb and wanted to try to apply (with a late July test date! WHAT?). Of course I waited another year. I should have postponed the test until September, giving me another six weeks of study time without distractions.

- taking a Kaplan course in person. My instructor didn't use the time to teach us much of anything and it was a huge waste of $2,000. Mainly we did practice questions and some review. Less than 45 minutes of each session was dedicated to actual review and test tips. I would have gotten more bang for my buck with the online program or even more, the study schedule and review books recommended all over SDN. The only upside was it kept me on track for review because I knew we'd be doing whatever section that week.

If I could do it again, I'd do the self study schedule, quit the part-time job and postpone the test.

I got a 30, so I can't complain, but I know I could have gotten a 33-35 if I had a few more weeks and wasn't sick. And no way in heck was I going through that experience twice!

 

[Ruskithin]

As a non-trad who had to take the MCAT 3x, if I could give one piece of advice to retakers it would be to CHANGE your study strategy the second time around. The 1st time I took the MCAT, I took the Kaplan course (I'm from the NE and Kaplan is very well-regarded here) and I devoted my very existence to preparing for this exam. I lived at home and didn't work, I had a BS in chemistry (so plenty of upper-level science courses at a Top 10 school), and I had minimal "real-life" stressors. After a solid 5 months of prep, I scored in the mid/upper 20s. The 2nd time around I used all of my Kaplan materials again and this time I did all the AAMC full-length exams (simulating test-day conditions). My score improved by 1 insignificant digit.

Fast forward 6 yrs and I was working a full-time very demanding job, living on my own, and balancing several significant "real-life" challenges, all while facing the horrifying realization that I still wanted to go to medical school 🙂 . I had to retake the MCAT and I was SO tempted to crawl back to my Kaplan materials because that is what felt familiar and comfortable to me. However, I accidentally (serendipitously?) got my hands on some ExamKracker review books. Long story short, I ended up purchasing most of their MCAT prep material (review books, 1001 questions, audio osmosis, and MiniMcat book...yes, it cost a pretty penny) and I LOVED them! I felt the difference between EK and Kaplan immediately. I would have done better on a traditional lecture exam using Kaplan because Kaplan presents you with "more stuff." However, knowing "more stuff" does not translate into a higher MCAT score. Kaplan gave me content. EK gave me content + a standardized test-taking strategy.

I took 3 months to prepare for the MCAT using ONLY EK books. I tried to put in a solid 2-3hrs of studying a day but due to long work hours etc, I often failed at this. I didn't even finish all the Bio content review. I did 1 full-length AAMC exam 2 days before my real MCAT. So, with 1/4 of the prep time and 1/1000th of the focus I used the first 2 times, I took the MCAT and scored 6 points higher. I certainly knew LESS overall science the 3rd time around but my test prep had focused specifically on MCAT srategy and teaching TO that exam and this obviously made all the difference.

So I would slightly (agree to) disagree with OP's #3. I feel that many people feel like they perform poorly on the MCAT because they don't know the content so they put all their energy into improving their "knowledge data base" and neglect developing good test-taking strategies. Now, while content is obviously crucial, it alone does not guarantee a good score (PR outright cites on its website that humanities majors out-perform biology majors on ALL sections of the MCAT). Therefore, if you are putting in a decent effort but are not seeing improvements in your performance and/or you go into the real exam and get so flustered that you end up voiding the exam, quite frankly, your test prep materials are letting you down! And (as I learned) the best thing to do then would be to seek a novel approach, no matter how far out of your comfort zone it may take you/

sidenote: I realize I sound like an EK sales-rep 🙂 I assure you I'm not. I have friends who swear by Kaplan, TBR, PR etc. But EK proved to be super-effective for me.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Since this thread has re-emerged, I figure I'll contribute more toward it since I'm re-studying for the MCAT and I'm (finally) seeing some improvement in my practice test scores. Here is what I'm doing differently this go around (signed up for the April test).
- Taking the Kaplan in-person course instead of online. Some folks are fans of Kaplan, some are not. Regardless, I think the MCAT course is great to help keep you on track. I supplement that weeks topics with the EK 1001 books. I try to do as many questions on the topics we covered. As I have class once a week, I have time in-between. A once a week, in-person classes is way, way better than a twice a week online course.
- I'm not taking any courses. I only have O-chem lab and G-chem 2 lab left for pre-reqs, but I'll worry about those after the MCAT.
- I used coursera, mcatforme and several other online resource, and Campbell and other textbooks on occasion, to fill in the blanks in my content knowledge.
- I'm working less. Well, this wasn't really planned. I work on a drug that was just pulled from the market. While there is still work to do, there is much less than there was the first time I was studying for the MCAT. I'll wrap up work in February.
- My personal life is (mostly in order) at this point. Have happily made the transition from CA to NY. Now if only I could figure out how to update the about me section on sdn.
- And, most importantly, I didn't give up. I've wanted this too much for too long. I realize my target of 30 is probably low compared to many on here, but I'll be content with that score (given that I started from a 23 and had severe content deficiencies when I started).
Good luck to all!

 

[mulberry]

Good read although I don't agree with the statement "if you don't do well, you likely will never take Step 1, 2 CS, CK, 3, the board, COMLEX or any other medically related exam" - completely false. People who have made it to that position will tell you that mcat performance does not correlate to how well you do in medical school. Prior to medical school you had a social life (well, most of us), possibly a career if you were a non-trad, and a whole lot of other thing that were medically unrelated. Being in medical school now, I can tell you that my performance/study habits in school have far surpassed any study habits I used to have whether it be studying for my upper level science classes or studying for the MCAT. Point being, I had a poor MCAT score but I am doing well above average in medical school. Having a good understanding of the MD1 and MD2 material = doing well on the steps and boards. Doing bad on the MCAT =/= doing bad on the steps and boards.

 

[Gfliptastic]

- taking a Kaplan course in person. My instructor didn't use the time to teach us much of anything and it was a huge waste of $2,000. Mainly we did practice questions and some review. Less than 45 minutes of each session was dedicated to actual review and test tips. I would have gotten more bang for my buck with the online program or even more, the study schedule and review books recommended all over SDN. The only upside was it kept me on track for review because I knew we'd be doing whatever section that week.

If I could do it again, I'd do the self study schedule, quit the part-time job and postpone the test.

I got a 30, so I can't complain, but I know I could have gotten a 33-35 if I had a few more weeks and wasn't sick. And no way in heck was I going through that experience twice!

Not to defend Kaplan per se, but maybe your classroom teacher, as an ex-Kaplan MCAT classroom teacher, I have to disclose that we are paid specifically to read from the "script" given to us by corporate. Imagine franchise/McDonald's model. Where every student in a classroom receives the same classroom experience. That said, I basically would disclose this to my students and tell them, the quicker we get thru what I am supposed to spoon feed or basically enthusiastically present from the corporate manual. the more we could work on specific questions. I also made myself really available before/after class. So there is still variability between each classroom teacher.

Actually Kaplan generously (NOT!) gave us $7/hr to answer our student's questions. However, because I was quite interested in success of my students I tried to make myself available above and beyond. ALTHOUGH, there is (or was when I was an employee) a policy opposing more than 15 mins of 1-on-1 work w/ any student. Part of the non-compete clause of our contract. If you were a student requiring more help than that we were "HIGHLY ENCOURAGED" to offer the student tutoring hours thru Kaplan. Which I think was to the tune of $125/hr!!! (We/teachers saw about 30% of that btw)

I'm so glad I got away from the corporate gig. It was so much easier when I "freelanced" and tutored 1-on-1 myself before I started med school.

Anyways, going back to OP. If you do devote a good amount of work towards the Kaplan program, you are supposed to improve 7-10 pts by your exam. It was a corporate metric. We were expected to help our students gain 7-10 pts. Not to say we were held over a barrel by them. It was just a corporate metric/expectation that we see that kind of improvement. You should expect the same mspeedwagon, GOOD LUCK!!!!