Opinion on MCAT test date, given my circumstance

[texasblondie]

Hi all,

I'm going to be a non-traditional applicant this cycle (31 with a PhD and a 4.0 in all undergrad/graduate studies), currently working in industry.

I took all of my pre-reqs in undergrad, but obviously graduated a fair amount of time ago. I did teach and take courses throughout graduate school, including human physiology, biology, nutritional sciences, etc.

I am planning to take the Princeton Review course May 6 - July 3 and take the MCAT mid-July. I sort of recently decided to give this a go – after getting some affirmation from a very close personal friend/top surgeon/etc – and thus am going to begin studying in April until the class starts using the Khan academy materials, focusing on gen chem and o-chem to start, given it's been so long since I have done chemistry (although I excelled at o-chem back in the day). I will likely bounce between subjects since I believe it is most productive to switch topics to maintain time on task while studying and efficiency.

My questions are:
1) Is this test date going to be o.k. even though I will not be submitting my app in June (best practices)? My number one goal is to get an interview at UT Southwestern.
2) Do you think going through the Khan academy content and questions is a good way to spend my time prior to the PR course... I have been researching study guides from other sources and have been looking at suggestions for studying from sources like med school insiders, etc. Plan to use Anki as well as I begin this content review.

Any help and advice is much appreciated, thank you!

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[Ad2b]

Do not take the TPR course, just buy their books (or any other company's courses)

Buy the AAMC bundle package (QPacks, Section Banks, Sample, Full Lengths 1 - 3, and their flashcards)

Buy another few full length exams from either EK or Next Step or others that you find on line to get practice for passages and how questions get asked and answered

Start with the review first, leave AAMC until the end of content review - which given your background, should be rather short. Try to get the 101 EK passages books and do those as you go through content. For instance, if you do biology of molecules do the passages related to that right afterwards...

No need for a course - they are a waste of time and $$$ (I did them twice and only thing I got out of it was great friends )

Edited to add this as well:

KA is good for videos BUT I never watch them unless something doesn't make sense in an EK book or explanation and even then, I use

PremedHQ or Chad's or AK Lectures - - - in that order

Also, get the 100 page psy/soc document floating about (if it's not linked here, go on reddit's sub r/mcat and look at sidebar - it's there along with summarized notes of ALL the KA lectures)

And finally, google up Kaplans quicksheets ... print them out ... nice to have - they're not the end-all, be-all but very good for high level "Do I know this or not?"

 

[gyngyn]

This thread can be followed here: Nontraditional applicant — do all my pre-reqs from UG still count towards my application?