prereqs 3 years ago

[CEOSnowmobile]

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Hey all, I graduated this past May and am now preparing for med school. It's been about 3 years since I've taken my prereqs and I am wondering about my ability to perform well on the MCAT. I am considering spending another year retaking my prereqs before the MCAT but my advisor and other professors do not think I need to. Anyone have any insight on this? How difficult is it to re-learn this material?

 

[EdLongshanks]

Hey all, I graduated this past May and am now preparing for med school. It's been about 3 years since I've taken my prereqs and I am wondering about my ability to perform well on the MCAT. I am considering spending another year retaking my prereqs before the MCAT but my advisor and other professors do not think I need to. Anyone have any insight on this? How difficult is it to re-learn this material?

I took my first physics and chem over 20 years ago. 3 years doesn't seem that much. The Exam Krackers series of MCAT summary books - Physics, Chemistry, Orgo Chem, Biology, Verbal Reasoning - is probably sufficient for you.

Look in the MCAT forum, download a study guide and spend the next 5 months studying. You'll do well.

 

[njbmd]

Hey all, I graduated this past May and am now preparing for med school. It's been about 3 years since I've taken my prereqs and I am wondering about my ability to perform well on the MCAT. I am considering spending another year retaking my prereqs before the MCAT but my advisor and other professors do not think I need to. Anyone have any insight on this? How difficult is it to re-learn this material?

The first thing that you need to do is figure out what you need in terms of preparation. Go to the MCAT website and purchase a retired exam or two. Take this exam under testing conditions and see if you need an upgrade on knowlege base or test-taking coaching.

If you need knowledge base, a good prep course (perhaps online) may work for you. If you need test-taking skill work (problem-solving), you may need to take an upper division course where you can hone those skills or a prep course that focuses on your test-taking skills (provides coaching and plenty of practice exams to hone these skills).

In today's world of very expensive tuition, you don't need to retake prerecs unless you have grades of lower then C or you feel that you can't upgrade your knowledge base by taking an adequate MCAT prep course. You may find that you don't need to "re-learn" the material but you need a good review and test-skills update.

Before you do anything, do some diagnostic testing (definitely cheaper than retaking coursework) and see what you need. The experience of others may not be particularly useful for your needs and thus you need to figure out what will work best for you so that you get the best results without putting yourself into bankruptcy.

 

[gman33]

Who did you do when you took the prereqs?
If you mastered the material and set a good base, then an indepth review is what you need. That can be accomplished via a review course and/or books and practice exams.

If however you never learned the material well in the first place, you may want to retake some courses. Most people won't fall into this second category.

Check out the MCAT forum for some specific prep advice.