Non Traditional study path to the 90th-100th percentile

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

BryanBeid

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
May 25, 2015
Messages
73
Reaction score
70
Hello all, I am sharing this because I think it is important to let everyone who is studying for this life consuming exam know that there is no one way to be successful on test day. I studied for a total of 50 days, but had those 50 days completely free and dedicated to studying for the MCAT. I completed the june exam with a preliminary percentile in the 90th-100th range. I used the EK books along with the Khan academy videos, and AAMC Q packs. I also bought the TPR book about 6 months before I started studying but never used it, however this gave me access to their 4 full length exams.

Background: I am a 25 year old post-graduate student with a criminology degree who attended law school partially before rerouting to this path. With that said, I have taken all of the science related pre-reqs in the last year and a half, one after another, which I feel may have been an advantage as everything was fairly fresh. I did NOT take biochem before taking this exam, but had an extremely thorough understanding of organic chemistry which I feel helped tremendously. I finished my final semester on May 1st and sat for the June 20th exam, and only studied during that time frame.

Schedule: For the first twenty days I did content review for everything except for physics (my weakest section). My thoughts were that there was not a significant chance for me to improve my understanding in such a small amount of time and therefore reviewing this section would be extremely low yield.

I went to campus (go to anywhere you feel you can study without being distracted, for me this is away from home) and studied for 6-8 hours a day for 6-7 days a week. And I mean it. With this condensed time frame there is no way around the fact that you need to put in massive hours to reach your goal. I read each individual EK book from front to back before starting the next, and used the method that the books proposed by reading first without highlighting or answering questions, and then going back and reading again at a later time.

The EK books are broken up pretty well and I would read each chapter, take a small break of about five minutes, and then start the next chapter. I would do this for 3-4 hours, take lunch, and then head back and repeat.

After these twenty days and in the month leading up to the exam i completed about 11 full length practice exams. For ~5 of them I did NOT take them as actual exams, but rather skipped to the section that I was reviewing and did the questions, untimed, for a single section. I would take one full length exam on Saturday with breaks, which took about 7 hours, and then went home without reviewing the answers. On Sunday I would review the test results and continue content review which I repeated for 3-4 days until taking another full length. I took ~6 emulated full lengths leading up to the exam with 4 days between each.

During the last week I was completely sick of the MCAT and did not do another practice test. I ramped down studying and did content review for physics (the section I neglected at the beginning) as well as going over any section I felt was weak or needed refreshing. As hard as it was, I did not look at anything the day before the exam.

Tidbits:

1. Exam review is KEY. at the beginning of my studies I had no idea what I was doing and although I had a very solid base for the subjects, I had little experience for the SPECIFICS of the exam. It was not important that I was ready to take the practice exams. My first practice exam score was a 495. What was important was that I reviewed the answers to the exams including why the wrong answers were wrong, and developed a thorough understanding of the question and answer.

2. Take as many exams as humanly possible. I think that my overall exposure was the key to my success on the exam. I did thousands of questions and I did all of my tests multiple times in order to solidify my understanding. I don't think it is critically important that you do each test in a complete and timed setting, as I simply reviewed individual sections and skipped through exams all the time to get to the sections that I wanted.

3. EK is not enough to do well. It doesn't cover nearly any of the biochem needed. I supplemented this with the biochem related Khan videos and I think this was sufficient. Know your amino acids, and know how polarity and acidity affect interactions.

4. Study for the psych section. It is extremely high yield. I think that a lot of people are afraid of it and don't understand it, but who cares. It simply isn't as hard as the other sections if you give yourself sufficient exposure to the content. Unfortunately, no one book is sufficient to cover the material. This is where the 12 practice exams were useful, as I made note cards for the material that I was previously not exposed to.

5. Don't let practice exam scores get you down. I took 12 tests and never got above a 502 on any of them, and I am going to come out with a 515+.

6. The idea that this exam will only test content related to the body and medicine seemed to be overstated. I felt like this test wasn't VERY different from the old exams, albeit much longer and with more analysis of data. You will still get physics questions that have seemingly no relation to the human body, etc.


The point of this post is that with the right work ethic, you can do it any way that you need to. This is NOT a suggestion to study for less time. I was in a bind, and did what I needed to be successful. It is simply a reminder that there is no one way, and to not get caught up in everything that everyone at SDN has to say. Every person is an individual and there is no one size fits all study plan.

This exam is a monster, but you can do it! If you have any more questions for me about anything feel free to ask.

Members don't see this ad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 15 users
I took the 4 TPR exams that come with their book, the 5 next step exams, and 2 of the 3 EK FLs on their site as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
I took the 4 TPR exams that come with their book, the 5 next step exams, and 2 of the 3 EK FLs on their site as well.

Did you take the next step exams with simulated MCAT conditions? And you didn't score above 502 on any of them?
 
I took a majority with simulated conditions. After a while I would redo just particular sections, untimed, in order to go over the questions again and see how I did.

Also, yes Im pretty sure for most companies you can order just the exams without their books.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Thank for you for sharing this, I have a little approximately 59 days left to study. I'm doing a chapter a day for each EK chapter and I should be done with content review by the end of December leading up to the January 23rd exam. I squeezed in a couple of full length exams a month before the test. DO you have any advice or recommendation for my plan?
 
Do more full lengths. Do them on the weekends. Do them during your content review and don't worry about seeing things you dont know. When you're done, review them the next day, and continue to go back and review your full lengths. Try to look at the reasoning behind the answer rather than just the answer itself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Do more full lengths. Do them on the weekends. Do them during your content review and don't worry about seeing things you dont know. When you're done, review them the next day, and continue to go back and review your full lengths. Try to look at the reasoning behind the answer rather than just the answer itself.

Thank you so much for responding. Do you suggest that I review the full lengths in one sitting (e.g. do a full length on Saturday & review all of the questions in depth on Sundays)? My only issue at the moment is focusing (I tend to wander off at times) - do you have any advice for that? Thanks!
 
I dealt with the same thing. I reviewed my exams endlessly. As much as I was capable of. If I didn't review them entirely, I reviewed them a section at a time. Sometimes I went back and completed half-lengths of the exams. I just went over problem sets as often as was possible, but not always all in one sitting.
 
I dealt with the same thing. I reviewed my exams endlessly. As much as I was capable of. If I didn't review them entirely, I reviewed them a section at a time. Sometimes I went back and completed half-lengths of the exams. I just went over problem sets as often as was possible, but not always all in one sitting.

Bryan, thank you for answering. I noticed that you said for the first 20 days, you completed majority of your content review. My main issue as the moment is sitting down the ENTIREEEEEE day (while taking breaks in between) and focusing on a chapter a day. I feel as though I look into the details of each topic too thoroughly and find myself still completing the same chapter the next day. How were you able to focus on the content review in such a short period of time (I too am using EK books and I am 46 days & 16 hours away from the exam (I have a countdown app lol). Please help me find a way to cut down on the content review :/
 
I dealt with the same thing. I reviewed my exams endlessly. As much as I was capable of. If I didn't review them entirely, I reviewed them a section at a time. Sometimes I went back and completed half-lengths of the exams. I just went over problem sets as often as was possible, but not always all in one sitting.

Bryan, thank you for answering. I noticed that you said for the first 20 days, you completed majority of your content review. My main issue as the moment is sitting down the ENTIREEEEEE day (while taking breaks in between) and focusing on a chapter a day. I feel as though I look into the details of each topic too thoroughly and find myself still completing the same chapter the next day. How were you able to focus on the content review in such a short period of time (I too am using EK books and I am 46 days & 16 hours away from the exam (I have a countdown app lol). Please help me find a way to cut down on the content review :/
 
Well first things first, you're not going to memorize the books. Knowing that, its easier to realize that reading through the materials with less depth is the right way to go. That's why I recommend doing problem sets and exams even before finishing content review. Doing so helps you realize what content you know, and which things you need more specifics on. The first month was definitely tough, but don't worry about the scores you get or anything like that. Exposure is the key in such a short amount of time.
 
Well first things first, you're not going to memorize the books. Knowing that, its easier to realize that reading through the materials with less depth is the right way to go. That's why I recommend doing problem sets and exams even before finishing content review. Doing so helps you realize what content you know, and which things you need more specifics on. The first month was definitely tough, but don't worry about the scores you get or anything like that. Exposure is the key in such a short amount of time.
Thank you for responding, I really appreciate it. I took a practice test last weekend and did not score as well as I need to be. I changed my test to May so I will incorporate your advice into my new study habits. Happy Holidays!
 
Top