Post-Bac looking for study tips

[brdmadgrl82]

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Hello, I'm currently a post-bac taking my pre-reqs for medical school. I am working part-time, volunteering and taking 1-2 classes + labs per semester (going slow).

I currently have the summer off from school and I started studying for the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT. I figure the more practice with that the better.

My question is regarding the other sections. What is the best way to study for example the Bio section? I completed General Biology and thought I would start on this section since I have time off from school. I have an old MCAT book but when I flip through some of the material I just cannot remember/or feel like I know it.

Do you recommend I re-read the whole Biology book and do the practice tests for each chapter? Or do I just dive into the Kaplan 2008 edition Biology section and look stuff up as I go? I am worried I will miss important concepts/details.

It has been a long time since I took General Biology 1, took the 2 in the spring part of the 1st semester of my post-bac program, so I am still trying to figure out how to study the sciences (only got a B+, A- for lab).

I apologize if there have been many threads such as this one, I just felt I needed to ask so any advice is very much appreciated.

 

[MCAT guy]

Hello, I'm currently a post-pac taking my pre-reqs for medical school. I am working part-time, volunteering and taking 1-2 classes + labs per semester (going slow).

I currently have the summer off from school and I started studying for the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT. I figure the more practice with that the better.

My question is regarding the other sections. What is the best way to study for example the Bio section? I completed General Biology and thought I would start on this section since I have time off from school. I have an old MCAT book but when I flip through some of the material I just cannot remember/or feel like I know it.

Do you recommend I re-read the whole Biology book and do the practice tests for each chapter? Or do I just dive into the Kaplan 2008 edition Biology section and look stuff up as I go? I am worried I will miss important concepts/details.

It has been a long time since I took General Biology 1, took the 2 in the spring part of the 1st semester of my post-bac program, so I am still trying to figure out how to study the sciences (only got a B+, A- for lab).

I apologize if there have been many threads such as this one, I just felt I needed to ask so any advice is very much appreciated.

#1 priority will be to take a full 3 months with limited activity before the test. Why? Some people who are very good at the sciences don't need this much time, but those who may have a weakness or two require closer to 2-3 months to prep. If you are taking classes spread out, you will definitely be well served by having the 3 months (again, clear schedule as much as possible)

Before this 3 months? You will be served by having an excellent biology background or organic chemistry background or physics, etc. How does this happen? Is it getting prep books early and doing passages and problems? Not so much.

The best thing to do is to either take higher level classes (like upper division bio or physio), and if you don't have time for that, which you may not, then the second best thing is being an excellent student. Which means doing all the problems at end of chapter, taking excellent notes in every chapter (that maybe you could even reference during your 3 month prep). PREP BOOKS are NOT primary learning sources. People who do horrible in a class and try to fill in the blanks with prep books don't do as well. Lets say there are 70 end of chapter problems in your physics book, then do them all. Chemistry, same thing. Use Khan Academy to help or the other videos (course saver or stuff like this) There is also this homework website I heard about that post solution manuals to science classes, (search and you will find), get that and use it. The goal is to do a lot of problems and not cram, so you actually learn.

Ahead of time there is little you can do though besides that. It won't help to use prep material now. You need to be good before the test, training now won't help you (think of training for a marathon 1 year ahead of time, do you perform stretches? Eat better? Nope. You do these things before the race, 1 year before will do you little good). Become pro at all the sciences and your prep will go well and you will do very well.

Get prep materials and you will get surface level understanding of broad topics, but this won't help you much unless your about to take the exam.

Verbal reasoning, if you read higher level stuff (check SN2s thread about 3 months breaking down the MCAT, he explains some good ideas). Reading skills are the hardest to improve, so you can obviously work on them 1 year ahead of time. But it is mostly understanding arguments and then being a great test taker (for the MCAT), which comes from taking passages closer to the exam (if you can read well).

 

[Silverfalcon]

MCAT guy took his time to answer your question very thoroughly. That's an excellent response right there.

I, on the other hand, will give you a succinct answer and basically throw you the cold reality. You are a post-doc, so what? That doesn't make any difference in regards to how you should study for MCAT. Read and search in this forum for what others did. Do what they did and change for yourself as you go through. I've seen so many questions here that ask for study strategies, tips, guides, etc. The answer to all of them is open up a good MCAT prep book (there have been countless threads on what are good and what aren't so good), read them as much as you need while doing passages, and take FLs. That's it - there's no substitute for realizing the need to start studying right now.

 

[brdmadgrl82]

Thank you both for posting a reply. I think my problem is with the fact I will not be able to take full 3 months because of work. I work part-time, but will be going back full time soon. I am hoping to get a start and sort of study as I go, I know 1 year before the MCAT is a bit early, but it is now or lots of stress and little time later...I shall keep up with the verbal practice at least for now, and I will read the other threads per your suggestion. Thank you once again 🙂 -maria

 

[PharMed2016]

Hello, I'm currently a post-bac taking my pre-reqs for medical school. I am working part-time, volunteering and taking 1-2 classes + labs per semester (going slow).

I currently have the summer off from school and I started studying for the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT. I figure the more practice with that the better.

My question is regarding the other sections. What is the best way to study for example the Bio section? I completed General Biology and thought I would start on this section since I have time off from school. I have an old MCAT book but when I flip through some of the material I just cannot remember/or feel like I know it.

Do you recommend I re-read the whole Biology book and do the practice tests for each chapter? Or do I just dive into the Kaplan 2008 edition Biology section and look stuff up as I go? I am worried I will miss important concepts/details.

It has been a long time since I took General Biology 1, took the 2 in the spring part of the 1st semester of my post-bac program, so I am still trying to figure out how to study the sciences (only got a B+, A- for lab).

I apologize if there have been many threads such as this one, I just felt I needed to ask so any advice is very much appreciated.

If you have the luxury of time, I would suggest advanced study of biology and related fields. I've found that while I'm relatively weak in organic chemistry especially with complicated reactions, my strength in biology buys me more than enough time to puzzle through ochem to get a decent score. Immunology would've been very helpful last year to me as they had a whole passage and a few questions on it. Unfortunately, I didn't cover it until this year.

 

[MCAT guy]

Thank you both for posting a reply. I think my problem is with the fact I will not be able to take full 3 months because of work. I work part-time, but will be going back full time soon. I am hoping to get a start and sort of study as I go, I know 1 year before the MCAT is a bit early, but it is now or lots of stress and little time later...I shall keep up with the verbal practice at least for now, and I will read the other threads per your suggestion. Thank you once again 🙂 -maria

keep in mind, the better you can clear out your schedule in the last 3 months, the better you will do. Working full time you still may be able to swing 3-4 hrs 6 days a week, that would be fine. Just understand the last few months are most important.

 

[brdmadgrl82]

keep in mind, the better you can clear out your schedule in the last 3 months, the better you will do. Working full time you still may be able to swing 3-4 hrs 6 days a week, that would be fine. Just understand the last few months are most important.

Ok, thanks! I will keep this in mind 😀