Pre Post-Bacc Prep: Study Resources

[RichardSM]

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Hey friends,

Covid willing, I'll be starting a DIY Career Change post-bacc in the Spring 2021 semester. I've suddenly got a lot of free time on my hands since I work for a college that is staying closed till November, and I figured why not get a head start?

So I am asking for help with finding lots of resources. I have no proper science courses under my belt, so I've been using Khan Academy videos to get familiar with the material, and I've been recommended a few books by our friends on r/premed, but I wanted to ask here as well, especially to get the advice of others without a science background.

Are there any resources of any kind that you found really helped you go the extra mile, in both study strategy and course material? And similarly, did you come to find that any of the resources you used were a hinderance?

 

[Philly145]

Anki is literally the only reason I was able to do well in my career changer post bacc.

Khan Academy, Professor Dave, The Organic Chemistry Tutor, and AK Lectures are what I used to get me through everything.

One thing that might help is picking up some old MCAT prep books. They condense down the information into what you really need to know and it may help to get the fundamentals.

One thing that initially held me back was using the textbook. Waste of time because each professor has their own view on what they think is important.

 

[MedicallyEnthused]

Maybe also start mcat prep. I have known many people who began studying mcat material before taking any pre-req's. Just start at a slow pace and it will eventually sink in.

Check out mcatselfprep.com They are a mainly free structured course for content review for all the mcat material. I haven't personally checked them out yet, but I have heard nothing but good things about them.

 

[Philly145]

Check out mcatselfprep.com They are a mainly free structured course for content review for all the mcat material.

This is a good idea! That site collates all the good videos about a certain topic into one easy to find and follow page.

 

[jhmmd]

Hey @RichardSM, welcome to the nontrad forum! I'd recommend buying the Examkrackers series (biology, chemistry, physics, verbal reasoning, etc.). You can read through these books at your leisure, or annotate them as you go through your classes--it's up to you.

One thing that initially held me back was using the textbook. Waste of time because each professor has their own view on what they think is important.

Have to disagree w/this advice. The book is picked out by the professor (trust me, this is coming from a professor's daughter), so the book can help clarify things that you're unsure of, or prevent you from asking questions about things that you would know if you had been reading (which can irritate the professor as well as your classmates).

Of course office hours can be beneficial too, and I'm not saying to nec. trust the book more than your professor, but I wouldn't throw the book in the garbage. 😛

Good luck! 🙂

 

[tinylegomumps]

If I could do it over again, I would have made the time to read the Kaplan MCAT prep books before starting the post-bac, or at least the Chemistry and Organic Chemistry ones, which I had 0 background in. I had wrongly assumed you needed some background in the courses for the Kaplan books to make sense, but they're really like textbooks that teach you the basics of what you need to know. I think going through Khan Academy Chem like you're doing is a great idea also. Also, this is probably unique advice, but I personally would probably do the Khan Academy physics videos or read the Kaplan physics books before any other prep. A lot of the concepts I found confusing or arbitrary in chemistry (for instance, the whole entire concept of electrons and, relatedly, the concept of energy) and biology (circulation, membrane potential) made a lot more sense and "stuck" better after having learned some physics. The chemistry course I took was extremely condensed and success relied more heavily on memorization rather than understanding. If you're the kind of person that is always asking "but why -- and how?" when you learn things, this might be a good tip for you also. If you are more content with just memorizing and moving on, I wouldn't worry about having some physics knowledge.

During the year, I used AK Lectures a lot for help with physics and biochemistry. I also like Armando Hasundugan's videos -- he draws biology/physiology pathways and concepts and narrates along as a lesson. Khan Academy was eventually not as detailed as our bio class. Michael Van Biezen's youtube videos were great for physics as well -- he is a physics teacher that works out a lot of problems in all the different subject areas of physics.

I am not sure what your educational background is, but I noticed that the students that had some kind of math/finance background seemed to have an easier time than the non-math people, so working out Chemistry equations as you go through the Khan Academy Chem videos might be useful too.

I don't know whether or not you are doing a 1-year postbac (I am guessing maybe not since you start in Spring), but it is really easy to get behind. I was told there's no need to prep for the postbac but I think it would have served me well. We did MCAT prep alongside the postbac and I would have been better served by just focusing on classes instead as it was hard to juggle both; learning how to answer MCAT-style questions is like a few course credits worth of work in itself.

 

[RichardSM]

If I could do it over again, I would have made the time to read the Kaplan MCAT prep books before starting the post-bac, or at least the Chemistry and Organic Chemistry ones, which I had 0 background in. I had wrongly assumed you needed some background in the courses for the Kaplan books to make sense, but they're really like textbooks that teach you the basics of what you need to know. I think going through Khan Academy Chem like you're doing is a great idea also. Also, this is probably unique advice, but I personally would probably do the Khan Academy physics videos or read the Kaplan physics books before any other prep. A lot of the concepts I found confusing or arbitrary in chemistry (for instance, the whole entire concept of electrons and, relatedly, the concept of energy) and biology (circulation, membrane potential) made a lot more sense and "stuck" better after having learned some physics. The chemistry course I took was extremely condensed and success relied more heavily on memorization rather than understanding. If you're the kind of person that is always asking "but why -- and how?" when you learn things, this might be a good tip for you also. If you are more content with just memorizing and moving on, I wouldn't worry about having some physics knowledge.

During the year, I used AK Lectures a lot for help with physics and biochemistry. I also like Armando Hasundugan's videos -- he draws biology/physiology pathways and concepts and narrates along as a lesson. Khan Academy was eventually not as detailed as our bio class. Michael Van Biezen's youtube videos were great for physics as well -- he is a physics teacher that works out a lot of problems in all the different subject areas of physics.

I am not sure what your educational background is, but I noticed that the students that had some kind of math/finance background seemed to have an easier time than the non-math people, so working out Chemistry equations as you go through the Khan Academy Chem videos might be useful too.

I don't know whether or not you are doing a 1-year postbac (I am guessing maybe not since you start in Spring), but it is really easy to get behind. I was told there's no need to prep for the postbac but I think it would have served me well. We did MCAT prep alongside the postbac and I would have been better served by just focusing on classes instead as it was hard to juggle both; learning how to answer MCAT-style questions is like a few course credits worth of work in itself.

This is so helpful, thank you!