Please critique my self-study plan

[Ninjachik]

Hi guys. I'm a long-time lurker here and the time has come for me to make my own self-study plan. I fell in love with the schedule posted by @littlebear92 for its incorporation of many FLs, break days, and official AAMC materials.

Without further ado, you can access my study plan below (only Sheet 1, ignore the rest). The studying will take place next Fall Quarter (Sept-Dec), and a little into Winter (Jan). The blue-filled dates are school holidays.

Here are my other commitments:

• I plan to be taking at most 1 "real" class, coming to a total of 2-3 enrolled-in classes.
• I will be an Resident Advisor (RA). (basically a part-time job)
• I have Tuesdays as my break days mainly so I can do go to the 3 hr Tuesday weekly RA meetings.
• My remaining extra-curricualars I will schedule around my study plan/class/job. I mainly just want to continue shadowing a physician I'm about to start shadowing.

My questions to the community are:

• Are there any specific editions/resources I should or shouldn't be using? Why?
  • The materials I'm using are the ones mentioned in the post above.
• Any thoughts on using the AAMC MCAT Section Bank? I'm sketched out by the fact that I only get to access it 10 times before it expires. Any suggestions on how to implement this into my current plan?
• How many hours per day will this plan involve (aside from the FL days)?

Thank you all for your valuable feedback. Best of luck to those on the path to med school right now.

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[fldoctorgirl]

You should definitely find a way to incorporate the section banks. They're much harder than most questions on the MCAT, but are a good representation of "the hard stuff". 10 starts is more than enough...there are only 3 section banks, so you can essentially do each one around 3x with 10 starts.

 

[DameJulie]

I agree with @fldoctorgirl , that AAMC material is always a priority, but save it for mid-later stage of your study.

Also investing in some prep-company practice books/FLs, depending on your budget.

 

[Ninjachik]

Thank you both @fldoctorgirl and @DameJulie
My budget is very open. Just a few follow-up questions:

• Are there specific companies that you think are most effective?
• Are the ones I have in my schedule good or not?
• Should I be getting the most recent edition of materials?

Thanks again!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Thank you both @fldoctorgirl and @DameJulie
My budget is very open. Just a few follow-up questions:

• Are there specific companies that you think are most effective?
• Are the ones I have in my schedule good or not?
• Should I be getting the most recent edition of materials?

Thanks again!

As far as practice tests, general consensus on here is that Next Step & ExamKrackers are most representative.

Your schedule looks pretty good to me.

If budget isn't an issue, you should definitely get the most recent.