Post Helpful Tips for People Studying for the MCAT

[QofQuimica]

There's a thread like this in pre-allo for people applying, so I thought we could use an MCAT version here.

1a) Study your weakest areas first. That way, if you run out of time and don't get to review everything, the things that you skip are the things that you know the best anyway.

1b) Don't take the MCAT before taking all of the required courses (one year biology, one year general chemistry, one year organic chemistry, and one year physics).

1c) Don't get so caught up in the little details that you lose sight of the big picture. Remember, critical thinking is more important for acing the MCAT than knowing a hodgepodge of science facts.

1d) Take the MCAT seriously, but don't let it take over your life. There IS life after the MCAT. Good luck to you all.

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[SpeedRacer]

for the love of god don't eat when you're stressed!

 

[tank you]

3) take practice tests under timed conditions!

4) use EK verbal 101 for verbal practice.

 

[wetlightning]

DO NOT STOP PRACTISING VERBAL...even if you diag's are good

it's a section that requires constant, consistent practice -- do passages all the way through, even if you do only a few a week.

it'll help on the real thing.

 

[gujuDoc]

As Weightlifting pointed out.....

Do Verbal every night. At least 30 minutes to an hour. That is the equivalent of 3-6 passages.

Upon determining what your strengths and weaknesses are, make an organized schedule and follow it through.

Practice practice practice...'nuff said.

TPR Workbooks and compendium, kaplan topical tests, and EK 16 mini mcat book or 1001 questions books from the sciences or 101 verbal psg's book are good for this purpose.

When taking diagnostics, take them as if you were taking the real deal. If it starts at 9 am, start your diag at 9 am. Take the breaks the way they are assigned and give your full focus when taking the diag. Don't act as if this isn't the real deal, so I don't need to do my best.

Don't memorize facts. Understand the facts and apply them. Look at the inverse vs. proportional relationships in phsyical science formulas and try to look at how it may be applied graphically or how a change in one variable may change another variable. Try to integrate the things you learn and relate them to one another. The MCAT may have more then one topic integrated into a passage.

Last but not least, do what QofQ suggested and try to get used to the format of the test through understanding how to critically think and dissect apart the passage for its main idea. The same skills in the Verbal section can help you on some science passages. Also in terms of this point, that QofQ made.. Realize that more in depth science information is generally presented in the passage, so don't try to know your whole immunology or advance biochem book etc. Just the basics in the MCAT review books from a credited company like Kaplan, TPR, EK, or Berkley Review.

 

[gujuDoc]

for the love of god don't eat when you're stressed!

For real. I know a lot of people who do this, and then they don't work out and it starts to get real unhealthy because they way over eat.

 

[QofQuimica]

DO NOT STOP PRACTISING VERBAL....do passages all the way through, even if you do only a few a week.

This is an excellent suggestion. If you are early in the college process (freshman or sophomore), consider taking some classes in subjects like literature, religion, logic, or other philosophy areas. My best VR students are almost always humanities majors, and philosophy or literature majors in particular seem to do very well on VR. Learning to read quickly and efficiently is also useful, both for the MCAT and for your college and medical school courses.

 

[dadoc2]

Consider getting a study guide:
http://www.pedagonet.com/books/studyguides.htm

 

[gujuDoc]

Consider getting a study guide:
http://www.pedagonet.com/books/studyguides.htm

DON'T LISTEN TO THIS TIP!!!!!!!!!!!!! What this link led to is the mcatprep.com website which is a TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited: Sorry edited because I meant to say SCAM not SPAM

 

[junebuguf]

This is an excellent suggestion. If you are early in the college process (freshman or sophomore), consider taking some classes in subjects like literature, religion, logic, or other philosophy areas. My best VR students are almost always humanities majors, and philosophy or literature majors in particular seem to do very well on VR. Learning to read quickly and efficiently is also useful, both for the MCAT and for your college and medical school courses.

This suggestion is flawed in that it assumes that taking humanities courses will make you more adept at handling the subleties of VR. Its not neccesarily true. Most people pick majors in college that they naturally enjoy, which is why they are good at it. People who choose disciplines in the humanities as their major may already be efficient and adept readers. You can't assume that taking these classes will make you better at VR. I just looked at my AMCAS course list and I've taken 32 credits hours of reading/writing intensive humanities and literature courses and I struggled to average 10's on VR. I think I did well on the actual test so I may break 11. I had a rough time with some of those humanities classes and you may find yourself in the same boat, which, if you end up with even 1 or 2 B's, will hurt your overall application a lot more than it will help.

I think the best way to prepare is to take practice passages (there are so many credible soures for passages these days--between AAMC, EK, Kaplan and TPR there are literally over a 1000) and read independently--literature reviews, historical and social analyses--these dont have to be books per se, since the MCAT doesnt require a book report. They can be papers in scholarly journals which are usually only a few pages long so they wont dull you into oblivion.

 

[QofQuimica]

This suggestion is flawed in that it assumes that taking humanities courses will make you more adept at handling the subleties of VR. Its not neccesarily true. Most people pick majors in college that they naturally enjoy, which is why they are good at it. People who choose disciplines in the humanities as their major may already be efficient and adept readers. You can't assume that taking these classes will make you better at VR. I just looked at my AMCAS course list and I've taken 32 credits hours of reading/writing intensive humanities and literature courses and I struggled to average 10's on VR. I think I did well on the actual test so I may break 11. I had a rough time with some of those humanities classes and you may find yourself in the same boat, which, if you end up with even 1 or 2 B's, will hurt your overall application a lot more than it will help.

lol, I didn't promise anywhere that taking a few classes in the humanities was going to guarantee anyone a 15 on the VR section. I said it would help IMPROVE your score, not make you perfect.

Your reasoning isn't exactly flawless either. We aren't going to be able to do a controlled study here, so we can't ever answer the question definitively, but how can you know whether you'd have even been able to "struggle to average 10s in VR" had you NOT taken any humanities courses? I mean, maybe you'd have struggled to get 8s in VR. Or 6s. The issue of whether taking humanities classes might affect your GPA is another animal altogether. I wasn't considering that aspect of it when I made my suggestion, and if that is a potential problem for some of you, then you might want to audit such courses or take them pass/fail.

Again, I can tell you that what I have observed from my Kaplan classes is that students who are heavily grounded in the humanities tend to be the highest-scoring students in VR. My belief is that this is mainly due to their greater reading load and their having to write so many analytical papers. Philosophy students in particular are tremendous with analyzing arguments.

Whether the students who pick such majors start out naturally good at their subject or become good due to studying it so much is hard to judge. Probably there is some aspect of both. But, consider that if these humanities majors are pre-med, they're probably also good at science, because they had to take two years of science pre-requisites and basically ace them all. (They would probably have no higher level biology classes to balance out a poor freshman biology grade, for example, where a biology major would have them.) They would also have to have to perform well on the science sections of the MCAT, both of which require outside knowledge of science. So I'd guess that they tend to start out as students who are well-rounded (i.e., academically strong in most subjects), not lopsided and good only at humanities.

 

[wetlightning]

Whether the students who pick such majors start out naturally good at their subject or become good due to studying it so much is hard to judge. Probably there is some aspect of both. But, consider that if these humanities majors are pre-med, they're probably also good at science, because they had to take two years of science pre-requisites and basically ace them all. (They would probably have no higher level biology classes to balance out a poor freshman biology grade, for example, where a biology major would have them.) They would also have to have to perform well on the science sections of the MCAT, both of which require outside knowledge of science. So I'd guess that they tend to start out as students who are well-rounded (i.e., academically strong in most subjects), not lopsided and good only at humanities.

YAY! validation for humanities majors! (i'm english/german double)

 

[crazy_cavalier]

Yay for enjenearing magors!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wetlightning]

Yay for enjenearing magors!!!!!!!!!!

HAHA funny stuff dude

 

[junebuguf]

lol, I didn't promise anywhere that taking a few classes in the humanities was going to guarantee anyone a 15 on the VR section. I said it would help IMPROVE your score, not make you perfect.

I never claimed you linked taking humanities courses to a 15.
I was referring to your assumption that taking such courses *will* improve your performance on VR. And if it was not your intention to be so absolute, you should have predicated your argument. Nevertheless, its a dangerous assumption to make because...

..how can you know whether you'd have even been able to "struggle to average 10s in VR" had you NOT taken any humanities courses? I mean, maybe you'd have struggled to get 8s in VR. Or 6s.

....I took sample VR tests from Kaplan and AAMC when I was 17 and a freshman. My sister was preparing for the MCAT and I was considering med school. I hadn't taken any science classes yet and I was curious as to how I would do, so I took the only section that required no preparatory courses, per se. I was getting 10's and 11's on them at the time and feeling reasonably sure that I could improve upon that by at least a point, if not more. Eight years and several humanities and science classes later, I found I had actually already plateaued. I never took the humanities classes for the purposes of improving on my MCAT score, but, at least for me, they failed to do so (this is still TBD till mid June, but based, instead, on my practice scores....) So if I had purposely set out to take those classes for the MCAT, I would have wasted several credit hours that may have been better spent elsewhere; I would have trudged through material that I didn't find particularly interesting and, I would have felt really bad about the handful of B's I ended up getting. Fortunately for me, I took those courses when I was a film major, so I'm now guilt free. I realize everyone will have a different experience and some (note: not all) will benefit, but thats precisely the point--not everyone will *neccessarily* benefit from taking a bunch of humanities courses. You're making an all or none assertion: taking humanities courses *will* improve your score. I think for a significant number of people they wont; and I can't quantify 'significant', but then, you can't quantitatively defend your claim that taking these classes will help either.

The issue of whether taking humanities classes might affect your GPA is another animal altogether. I wasn't considering that aspect of it when I made my suggestion, and if that is a potential problem for some of you, then you might want to audit such courses or take them pass/fail.

There are serious risks involved when taking classes in areas in which you're not familiar and/or comfortable because grades matter an awful lot in med school admissions. We can't afford to be carefree, taking more than a few classes purely for enjoyment because...

But, consider that if these humanities majors are pre-med, they're probably also good at science, because they had to take two years of science pre-requisites and basically ace them all. (They would probably have no higher level biology classes to balance out a poor freshman biology grade, for example, where a biology major would have them.)

...conversely, if you're a science major and only have a few free electives which you use on humanities courses to help your VR score and do poorly in these classes (as compared to your science gpa), even if those humanities courses helped you increase your VR score by as much as two points, it will probably hurt your overall application more by decreasing your gpa.


I'm not saying that taking humanities courses is a bad idea. But most pre-meds have limited elective course opportunities and need to do well in everything. With that in mind, and depending on your circumstances, taking a bunch of humanities courses may be more of a gamble than a sure thing.

 

[gujuDoc]

I think if you are going to do outside reading to help with Verbal, it is good to look up some of the resources where passages have actually been taken out from on the AAMC diags and find essays like Stephen Jay Gould's natural history essays in his books, or Economist magazine or American Best Essay Series and analyze for the main idea, attitude of the author, purpose, etc.

However, I think it really depends. For some people taking outside courses in such areas helps them. For others, it does not. Its all about learning how to critically analyze the passage in the short amount of time that is given.

 

[QofQuimica]

I was referring to your assumption that taking such courses *will* improve your performance on VR. And if it was not your intention to be so absolute, you should have predicated your argument. Nevertheless, its a dangerous assumption to make because....

All right, I will be less "absolute," because one other point that neither of us has mentioned yet is that the quality of humanities courses also certainly varies from institution to institution and even instructor to instructor. So we can't even be sure that we're comparing apples with apples here.

Your VR practice test at 17 vs. now is anecdotal and doesn't prove anything. You are one person who "plateaued," but I am one person who improved, and in both cases, it doesn't prove a thing. I took a real MCAT at age 20 and scored 11 on VR, and retook it last summer at age 29 and scored a 14 on VR. In the interim, I studied philosophy extensively, and I do believe that it was helpful in raising my score by 3 points. Like you, I didn't do it to raise my VR score (at that point I wasn't thinking of going to medical school anyway), so it wouldn't have mattered to me either way whether it did or did not.

At any rate, my own experience, while personally interesting to me, was not my major justification for saying what I did. I started teaching MCAT for Kaplan in 1997, so I've seen the practice tests of literally hundreds of students. And as I keep mentioning, the humanities majors (or others with extensive humanities backgrounds, even if self-educated) disproportionately score higher on VR than the other students. So I do think that there is good reason to believe that there is a correlation between a strong humanities background and a higher VR score. I WILL agree with you that my conclusion as to causation is certainly shakier, and if anyone can come up with a better alternative, I'm open to hearing it.

There are serious risks involved when taking classes in areas in which you're not familiar and/or comfortable because grades matter an awful lot in med school admissions. We can't afford to be carefree, taking more than a few classes purely for enjoyment because....I'm not saying that taking humanities courses is a bad idea. But most pre-meds have limited elective course opportunities and need to do well in everything. With that in mind, and depending on your circumstances, taking a bunch of humanities courses may be more of a gamble than a sure thing.

You know, reading that makes me feel very sad. I realize that many students feel this way, and I think it is very unfortunate, especially since you are probably correct in many cases. I didn't have grades at my college, and so this whole GPA issue isn't one that I ever had to consider. But I teach enough pre-meds to realize that those of you who do have grades have tremendous pressure to keep them high.

And yet, traditional-aged students who take this path of "only stick(ing) with what they are familiar with/comfortable with," don't get a fighting chance to find out whether they'd love something else too. Life, and adolescence in particular, are too short to NOT spend significant portions of them being "carefree." Many of the things that are so important to you at age 20 may not matter very much any more by the time you are 30, but you can't ever get those years back, and they pass by faster than you can imagine. Try to keep that in mind, and every once in a while, be "carefree" instead of settling for "comfortable."

FYI, I'm more lamenting about the system itself than criticizing you, Junebug.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Don't insist on following a schedule such as EK's, do what works for you, at your pace.
Don't worry about other people's scores on practices, focus on your weaknesses.
Get as much outside help as you can, I find it brought a whole new perspective.

 

[BoogieGnome]

Yay for enjenearing magors!!!!!!!!!!

Heck yea!! We're hella smrt!!!!