Please help!!! Study/Learn all MCAT stuff with a poor science background?

[TunnelVision]

Hey everyone,

Trying out SDN since I have no one else to really talk to about this stuff...

I graduated college 5 years ago, was premed and somehow got through with mediocre science grades, but now I really don't remember a lot of it. Recently applied to a few post-bacs that didn't require the MCAT and got rejected. Most enhancement post-baccs require I take the MCAT, and nobody considers me as a "career changer" since I already took the prereqs.

The problem is I barely remember the stuff, and now I think I should take the MCAT and then apply to post-baccs. I have a flexible work schedule and can commit between 25-40 hrs/week to studying. I am a different, more mature person than I was when I was a student, so I have cultivated the ability to put serious effort into this endeavor. Even still, honestly, it's just overwhelming. I've been watching Khan Academy videos, and sometimes I feel like I'll never be able to learn AND practice everything. And then I question if I'm studying the best way, and if I'll ever be able to remember it all.

Is it possible to learn the MCAT material online, or with review books without going back to take college courses? What resources would cover what I need to know? I'd like to study for what the exam tests rather than learn everything from each prereq course. I just don't know how to do this efficiently. I plan to take the exam 9 months from now. I know that if I use my time efficiently, I can do well, but I need to know 1. Am I being unrealistic? And 2. What should I focus on in order to effectively learn the material from gen chem, orgo, bio, biochem, and physics and math on my own? I'm not so worried about the remaining sections, since they tend to be my stronger areas and my background is in sociology.

Is anybody in the same boat? Could really use someone to bounce ideas off of...thanks for reading if you got this far.

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[DrMidlife]

Think about the MCAT after you have mastery of the premed science prereqs. Sounds like you need to relearn the material.

Career changer postbacs are for people who haven't completed the prereqs and got great grades in their non-science major.

Academic enhancement postbacs (SMPs) are for people who already addressed their undergrad GPA problems. SMPs assume you're ready for med school and will crush the unprepared. And SMPs are not erasers. After an SMP you still have to compete for a med school seat with all the untarnished premeds, on the basis of undergrad GPA. The average science GPA of an incoming Gtown student, for instance, is around 3.4.

Find a university that will let you retake the prereqs. Depending on your damage, you may need 2-3 years of additional full time undergrad coursework. Look into a 2nd bachelors. Look into getting an on-campus job that helps with tuition and registration priority. Maybe take a warmup class at a community college, but otherwise community college work removes little of the tarnish from a poor prior undergrad showing. Produce a transcript that is med school worthy, and hope that some eyeballs will be willing to look at those grades after they see your cumulative GPA.

Make friends with DO.

Get A's. In other words, get A's. Also: get A's. Every grade you get that isn't an A is a step away from med school.

60% of med school applicants get rejected every year. Respect your competition.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Shotapp]

Think about the MCAT after you have mastery of the premed science prereqs. Sounds like you need to relearn the material.

Career changer postbacs are for people who haven't completed the prereqs and got great grades in their non-science major.

Academic enhancement postbacs (SMPs) are for people who already addressed their undergrad GPA problems. SMPs assume you're ready for med school and will crush the unprepared. And SMPs are not erasers. After an SMP you still have to compete for a med school seat with all the untarnished premeds, on the basis of undergrad GPA. The average science GPA of an incoming Gtown student, for instance, is around 3.4.

Find a university that will let you retake the prereqs. Depending on your damage, you may need 2-3 years of additional full time undergrad coursework. Look into a 2nd bachelors. Look into getting an on-campus job that helps with tuition and registration priority. Maybe take a warmup class at a community college, but otherwise community college work removes little of the tarnish from a poor prior undergrad showing. Produce a transcript that is med school worthy, and hope that some eyeballs will be willing to look at those grades after they see your cumulative GPA.

Make friends with DO.

Get A's. In other words, get A's. Also: get A's. Every grade you get that isn't an A is a step away from med school.

60% of med school applicants get rejected every year. Respect your competition.

Best of luck to you.

Retaking the pre-requisites would be a better option than taking upper level science classes? I am in the same position as OP (low under grad GPA and I have forgotten all the prerequisite material for the Mcat). I am currently taking an advanced course in human anatomy this summer and some more classes this fall.

 

[DrMidlife]

Retaking the pre-requisites would be a better option than taking upper level science classes? I am in the same position as OP (low under grad GPA and I have forgotten all the prerequisite material for the Mcat). I am currently taking an advanced course in human anatomy this summer and some more classes this fall.

Depending on your GPA damage you might need to do both (retake prereqs and take upper div sci).

Upper div sci builds on the foundation laid down in the prereqs. If you don't get fluid mechanics, valence/charge, Mendel, the similarities/dissimilarities between bacteria/fungi/protozoans/mammals, etc. then you will have a harder time understanding capillary beds, electrolytes, genograms, and antibiotic mechanisms of action. So the odds of you getting A's in upper div sci (those A's being the whole point) are worse if your foundation is weak. The difference between a C and an A in upper div sci (and in med school) is often familiarity and/or comfort with the underlying concepts.

When you start MCAT prep you need to be integrating and strategizing while you review material that's mostly not unfamiliar. Learning material is a different activity than test prep. Test prep is about managing time, choosing the best answer, recognizing the question. And all that's useless if you can't remember what a saturated fatty acid does to a cell membrane etc.

That said, anatomy is relatively self-contained, and useful. But again, an advanced course assumes you've mastered the prereqs for the course. So getting enough points to get an A may be a challenge, such as if you can't remember anything about the flow of blood through the heart or the vertebral level where the aorta crosses the diaphragm. Everything in biosci builds on itself - if you can't remember what gets drained by the thoracic duct you lose the question about an injury to the right axilla.

On any test in upper div undergrad sci or in med school you can throw away 5% of your points from questions that are just too fringe, but the next 5%, and the next 5% and the next 5% you throw away because you don't have the details down...those are the points that determine your fate...those are the points that make you confident heading into step 1...those are the points that divide the people who think med school is fun from those who lose their hair in clumps.

There are always individuals who say they got away with not doing the above and just matched plastics with a 261 or whatnot. Good for them. If you were in that class of people you wouldn't be asking the question. Right?

Best of luck to you.

 

[pms_testosterone]

@TunnelVision Learning ALL the sciences on your own is very challenging, and it sounds like you're already struggling a bit. Do you have the time to re-take a few of the prereqs (say bio, general chem, and organic chem) perhaps one at a time, perhaps at an online university? If that goes well, maybe you could self-study physics and biochem.

 

[Gauss44]

Some of your options might be:

1. Find a college where you can just enroll in the science courses. Harvard Extension is one example if you can afford those classes. You may need to call around. Remember that prerequisites expire, so retaking is a good plan. Also, as you may already be aware, labs may be required and you may not want "online" to appear on your transcript as some medical schools might not accept online courses.

2. Use Princeton Review or Berkeley Review and hire a tutor when or if you get stuck.

3. Just start taking practice tests and see how you do. Perhaps taking many full lengths will be enough to refresh your memory.

4. Try taking an MCAT prep course.

5. There are free online courses through MIT and many other schools, but the pitfall with those will likely be less support (no access to the math center, or in person help hours) and the fact that they are online. There will probably be online help, but sometimes that isn't as helpful. And medical schools probably won't count these.

Other stuff you might already have on your radar: At what rate are you moving; is that acceptable enough for you? Relative other pre-meds and people who have made it into med school, do you feel you have an equally good mind? If so, that's great news. If not, it's better to realize this sooner than later.

 

[zukunft195]

Remember that prerequisites expire, so retaking is a good plan.

They certainly don't expire for DO admissions. I don't know about MD.

 

[ChopinLiszt]

Prerequisite expiration is entirely school-dependent. There's no general policy. My pre-reqs were 15+ years old, and I relearned material by reading textbooks, watching khan academy videos, and taking upper level science courses.. and getting A's. This may not work for everyone, and you will probably start off feeling a little lost and have to run double time to catch up. Study harder than you think you need to and the science should come back, maybe even stronger than when you first learned it. That being said, I haven't gotten my MCAT score back, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me quite yet..

 

[wholeheartedly]

There are a couple MD schools I've seen that give a time limit for how old pre reqs can be, but generally the rest seem to think a good MCAT shows mastery of recent science material.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Wikipremed was a great resource for me. It's a slow process, but lays a great foundation. I was in a similar situation and it really saved me. PM me if you have questions.

 

[68PGunner]

They certainly don't expire for DO admissions. I don't know about MD.

When you told the admin that you're going to perform OMM on cadavers, they made an exception for you.

 

[Frosty808]

They certainly don't expire for DO admissions. I don't know about MD.

UC Davis says no to expiration of peered and neither did Stanford or Virginia Commonweath and Berkeley.
I think best bet is to call schools.

 

[etp123]

UC Davis says no to expiration of peered and neither did Stanford or Virginia Commonweath and Berkeley.
I think best bet is to call schools.

UC Berkeley does not have a medical school. It does offer a joint program (JMP) with UCSF that only admits 15-16 students a year with a very specific global health-oriented goal. But even then, the MD degree is coming from SF and Berkeley is just offering a masters degree in public/global health to complement in.