One year MCAT study plans, are they beneficial?

[deleted1027135]

Hi everybody!

I’m new here and still learning to navigate the site so forgive me if this is a prior thread. I’m hoping some of you could share your thoughts on one year MCAT study plans and if you had success with them or not. My current situation only allows for an hour per day at most of studying due to all the extra curriculars and such. I’m not taking the MCAT until next spring since I’m not taking Biochem until the fall so I have time to study. I am doing a self paced program and have begun my focus on biochem material first since it is what I’m most unfamiliar with. I’m hoping by the time the class comes around that I will have a decent understanding which will help reinforce the material on exams during the actual class. My current plan is to study biochem over the course of the spring semester slowly and take in all the info I can since the MCAT is densely packed with it and spend the rest of my summer and fall semester finishing review of all other pre reqs. Has anyone studied in a similar fashion? I’d love some feedback. Thanks

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[GreenDuck12]

Personally, I'm skeptical of the 1 year study plan. Ive read on Leah4sci that she recommends 500 hours of studying for the MCAT and that folks should start preparation early enough to hit this mark (I can't remember if she has an example of someone studying for 1 year but I do remember some 10 months study plans). The challenge with such a protracted review period is that inevitably there will be a lot of content that gets lost over time. I also haven't had many study who have had success studying for the exam section by section or subject by subject. The MCAT, while it is broken up into sections, has a way of including topics and concepts from chemistry and physics in biology passages and biochemistry themes in chemistry and physics passages. I found that taking an interdisciplinary approach helped me make connections between the material by rotating between subjects.

If you are going to start studying early, I would start with a multiphase approach.

Phase 1 would be first pass content review: get a set of review books and read through them, map out some concepts, and make some flash cards on Anki. Watch Khan Academy videos and answer some practice questions. Your goal here would be to get a broad overview of the scope of the MCAT and to start internalizing *some* concepts. 1 hour a day should be fine for this.

Phase 2 would be detailed content review: your goal would be to go back through the review books and make sure that you really understand the material that is covered. Unlike phase 1, this would be a detailed, active learning phase where you are really engaging with the material (drawing diagrams, explaining things to ensure you understand it, etc) instead of passive studying like in phase 1. Repeat KA videos and practice passages (or get TBR for Chemistry, Physics, and Biology for additional practice). 1 hour a day would not be sufficient.

Phase 3 would be practice exams and identifying content gaps (lasts two months during the 3 months prior to MCAT). Complete a practice exam once every two weeks under simulated testing conditions. Thoroughly review the exam to identify content gaps and errors (reading errors for example). During the weeks in between continue with content review to fill in gaps and do UWorld for additional practice. I liked doing UWorld to simulate half length MCAT exams under timed conditions (CP and CARS one day, BB and PS another). This would take about 3.5 hours to complete and will further help you hone test taking strategies and identify content gaps). 3 hours a day would be a minimum with some days off.

Phase 4 would be AAMC practice (starting 1 month prior to the exam): complete all AAMC practice exams under timed conditions, the section bank (ideally do this twice, once during phase 3 and again during phase 4), question banks, CARS Q packs, etc. Learn the reasoning the AAMC expects you to understand and pay attention to the structure of the exam. Further fill in content gaps. 3 hours a day would be a minimum but this is crunch time.

Hope this helps

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

I used the 3 month approach (check my previous replies for it), which I guess could work with your schedule b/c of the 4x longer time you'll have.

Basically, I used 2 months to VERY SUCCINCTLY outline all of EK, then started doing cycles of test, review, break, test, review, break in 3 day increments for the 3rd month.

So, you could use 10 months to do what I did in 2.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

It really depends on how long you have been in or out of the game. Are you a college STEM major senior, or a 2nd career student? For the former it would be silly, the latter it would be reasonable. It sounds like you are still working through college courses, which means you likely need to find a pocket of free time and just dedicate it to the MCAT.

It sounds like you are trying to do somewhat of a hybrid of that, by concentrating 100% on something new in the spring and doing a full-scale review in the fall. Your 'true' dedicated time sounds more like ~ 6 months, which is reasonable.

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors