OH NO! I'm freaking out!

[JulianCrane]

You guys talking about the hellish MCAT just make me freak out! I have to take this thing next year, and I am already anticipating fate to turn against me. So, what can I do this summer to aid myself on the MCAT? I'll be taking Vertebrate Structure, Genetics and Human Physiology over the next 2 semesters. How much will these aid me on the MCAT? Is it bad that I can't remember some stuff from intro bio???

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

If you're really worried, you can buy a Princeton Review book and read it over the summer. Then you can take a Kaplan strecth course that starts in November and do lots of practice items. But only if you have the energy, of course! You'll probably be fine with onle a few months of review like everyone else. Please don't forget to do something cool this summer in addition to studying for the mcats----interviewers will want to know what you did!

 

[CANES2006]

Dude, just chill. Breathe in, breathe out. Those classes won't help you a whole lot on the MCAT. For many of the bio passages on the MCAT, I had absolutely no clue where they pulled this stuff from. None of those classes will specifically help you with the MCAT. Just buy yourself a review book and review the material that they outline. Just relax. You'll do fine.

 

[Suz177]

When I was training as an MCAT teacher, I was told that all those extra sciemce courses usually only serve to confuse you and that humanities majors on average do about 3 pts higher or actually 1pt per section higher than bio majors. If you really want to help your score, get the basics down cold and then do tons and tons of reading....maybe even learn to speed read cuz verbal is regarded by many as the most important section.

 

[Legend]

This is my opinion.

I think the questions on MCAT are becoming more and more challenging basically making all prep courses useless.

Those prep courses may help, but only to a small extent.
You can ask some people who just took MCAT yesterday how important prep courses were.

In my opinion, science courses are the most important because they can teach you the fundamentals in greater depth.
If I were you, I would work hard on my science courses, and possibley start studying prep books one or two months prior to the exam.

 

[avhart]

I would look at the Examkrackers books...the trick is not necessarily learning all the minute details that might appear on the test, but learning HOW to take the test. It's all basic science disguised with confusing and complex passages. (Not to say you don't need to know the basic science...obviously you do...but if you've taken all the pre-reqs, you've learned more than enough.) There was a girl at my testing site yesterday going crazy trying to figure out the structures of a bunch of obscure sugars and it drove me crazy because that's NOT ON THE TEST. Don't get tricked into thinking it's heavy on the memorization. It's not.

 

[moo]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Blitzkrieg:
• •••quote:•••Originally posted by Suz177:
•When I was training as an MCAT teacher, I was told that all those extra sciemce courses usually only serve to confuse you and that humanities majors on average do about 3 pts higher or actually 1pt per section higher than bio majors. If you really want to help your score, get the basics down cold and then do tons and tons of reading....maybe even learn to speed read cuz verbal is regarded by many as the most important section.•••••sorry suz,

I must disagree. There are many questions I could not possibly answer if I had not had advanced molecular biology and/or biochemistry courses. Some of these things are simply *not* taught in lower level courses!•••••No, maybe not, but all the info was in the passages. All you have to do is dig deeper, think a little and you can come up with the correct answer. Otherwise I don't know how I got a 12 in bio with my half a year of intro biology. Sure there may be standalone questions which you may have absolutely no clue about, but I just blew these ones off. In my opinion, you do NOT need to take upper level sciences to do well. The MCAT is more of a reading test than anything.

 

[Street Philosopher]

Here is what I noticed. I've taken the MCAT twice (yes you can say I'm a veteran in the game hehe). Upper division science courses can HELP, but it doesn't not make or break you. I had several bio passages that reflected what I learned in neuroscience courses, and one I did research on for two years. The ones I could recall were Alzheimers, neural generation in the dentate gyrus, holoprosencephaly in goats, etc. What I noticed is that in those new passages, the questions themselves were ALL answerable by reading the passage and knowing the basics. I don't know if my background knowledge helped that much; I felt like I could answer those questions without my background just as well.

 

[Michelys]

Hey Julian Crane...I agree mostly with the previous post too! But as for my own trick, why don't you just buy the Princeton Review Science Manual? That's really what you study for the MCAT, not your textbooks. I figure if you practice the science stuff now, and maybe bum off some of the old practice MCAT's and workbook passages off of someone else that you'll be ready set and go waaay in front for next year! Good luck and pm me with anything!

 

[missbonnie]

I took the mcat yesterday. I was prepared for anything - I had layers, a powerbar, pills of all kinds for a number of possible ailments. DIdn't need any of it. I took it at Columbia. My proctor was a mother I think, the first thing she said was "welcome and we are here to make your day as stress free as possible" While I know ppl have worse proctors, I think you need to go in expecting distractions eveywhere. My room was quiet and everyone was cooperative. I think for me, what really helped was to stop studying Thurs morning. I just chilled out Thurs and Fri. I knew I studied hard and knew what range I was capable of getting. I know it's easier said than done, but I just kept in mind that was just one test of many, and that this was a step towards becoming a doctor- and how much I want to be one. In the beginning of the test day, while we were being seated, I turned around and looked at everyone and though "wow, this is a room full of future doctors".

 

[TechMan]

missbonnie - I thought the exact same thing while i was taking my exam.. about how a lot of these people will be doctors. I quit studying three weeks prior to the MCAT, and just forgot about the whole thing. I felt very well prepared, and didn't think the test was too bad.

I noticed a lot of people saying that they had lots of distractions at their test center. I must have gotten pretty lucky b/c we had two police officers outside of our room making sure no one interrupted us.

 

[Pinki]

Agreed. The MCAT is a verbal/logic test. If you can read for hidden content/context and have a basic knowledge of the topics, you'll do just fine.

My advice, Julian Crane, is to turn off "Passions" this summer and read some cool books - fiction, nonfiction, travel, adventure. The better you read, the better you'll do.

 

[Forensic Chick]

Julian,

Don't waste over $1000 to take the review courses. Everyone I know who took them said that they were a huge waste of money and time. Buy the Examkrackers series and read them when you can. They're also very useful to study for your physics/bio/chem midterms and finals -- great review material. Don't spend $125 for the MCAT audio -- you won't learn it unless you play it over and over and over again. You're better off reading the material at your own pace and it's best to understand the general concepts than try to memorize every formula known to man. I was worried when it came down to the physical science section because I took physics two years ago and couldn't remember any formulas. Yesterday, on the MCAT, most of the formulas you needed were included in the passage or they were just looking for the general concept of whatever they were asking about. Don't cram - you won't remember anything. Buy the AMCAS practice tests from the website -- very helpful in the fact that they were previous MCAT tests. It will familarize you with the setup and how long the passages are, etc. Those are what helped me the most. A couple of weeks before the test, sit down and take a complete practice test. Grade it, find out what you're weak in, and focus on that. Don't forget that this is not the only thing on your application -- volunteer and have some fun!!

 

[ckent]

Relax buddy, your Wash U education will prepare you well for the MCAT and med school. Human Phys goes over just about everything that was taught in 296 so don't worry about not remembering any of that. I took all the classes you took and cell bio and a couple other ones, took the Kaplan Prep course and read the Princeton Review book and did fine. The review courses are really only good for taking those practice tests, but the 1,000 dollar fee is a small price to pay to satisfy any doubt of whether or not you could have done better and gotten into a better school with a better MCAT. The Kaplan people in St. Louis are horrible with customer service though, even though they tell you that you don't need a car, I needed a car and had to bum rides off people I didn't even know who were in my class. You can read some this summer to help you get started. Just study hard and you will be fine.

 

[JulianCrane]

Thanks, guys! I think I'll buy a Princeton Review book this summer and start. CKent, you're right! I will be just fine. But, I still have to enjoy my summer, so I will NOT be turning "Passions" off. It's just SO good!

 

[Pinki]

I don't blame you, JC...how do you think I know where you got your screename from???
Harmony rules!
FD