Preparing for January

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

SealDoc

New Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2007
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
34 and out of school for some time. I took the KAPLAN diagnostic and scored 25 with no prep. Thoughts from successful individuals on preparation for the January MCAT (i.e. three and half months) to bring that up above 30. I have reviewed the Examkrackers schedule and have the KAPLAN materials available online. Thanks.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Do lots of practice passages, try to take at least a diag a week until the real thing and review those diags extensively.

Look for types of questions you miss, why you missed them, why you got certain questions right.

Analyze your diags and study the areas where you are weak.
 
Do lots of practice passages, try to take at least a diag a week until the real thing and review those diags extensively.

Look for types of questions you miss, why you missed them, why you got certain questions right.

Analyze your diags and study the areas where you are weak
.

Good advice. While there is plenty of time till the Jan. MCAT, it isn't so much how long you study (although you do need to put in the time) but how you study. Quality over quantity, practice over review.
 
Try to get a good feel for MCAT style answers and passages. You can't do this overnight, so do problems regularly from the Kaplan materials (topic tests). I kinda foolishly saved most of my practice tests for the very end (1 week leading up to the MCAT). It was kind of rough, I would at least do 2 practice tests a day. Helped me build tolerance and focus, but I don't recommend doing it too. I kinda burned out a little. I would aim for 1 a day for the last two weeks.

For verbal, I improved a lot using EK 101 verbal book. I took the Kaplan class and their strategy was absolutely useless. My verbal score actually got worse using their strategy. When reading I would focus on mapping the passage rather than understand the main point. EK doesn't give you magic tricks to improve verbal, they just give tips here and there that help a lot. If you are like me and verbal is your weakest area, get this book.

For sciences, I wouldn't try to memorize too much. A few formulas, a few cookie cutter type organic reactions, and some parts of BS. Thats all there is. If you understand the science concepts, you will actually have to memorize very little. A lot of information is included within the passage itself, all they do is ask you to use those concepts and integrate them with the passage. Keep this in mind when studying. Good luck.
 
Top