problematic situation

[premedstudenttt]

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so I have been studying for the mcat hardcore for about a month. I know the timeframe is extremely short.

The problem I am running into is that I feel like I am constantly forgetting things that I have already spent time reviewing in my content review. For example, which cells secrete testosterone: sertoli cells or leydig cells. I have not taken an physiology course. I have just spent time doing content review myself.

Also, I do practice problems after each topic I review which I had hoped was reinforcing the material.

I figure mnemonics is the key. Any other suggestions? My exam is in a week. Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[MedPR]

so I have been studying for the mcat hardcore for about a month. I know the timeframe is extremely short.

The problem I am running into is that I feel like I am constantly forgetting things that I have already spent time reviewing in my content review. For example, which cells secrete testosterone: sertoli cells or leydig cells. I have not taken an physiology course. I have just spent time doing content review myself.

Also, I do practice problems after each topic I review which I had hoped was reinforcing the material.

I figure mnemonics is the key. Any other suggestions? My exam is in a week. Thanks in advance everyone!

Postpone.

 

[watchstopper]

I prefer to use a combination of mnemonics, brute force and mistakes on passages to remember things. I know some people love to use mnemonics for everything but I think it's very confusing if you use too many. Some of the only ones I use are RED CAT; AN OX (reduction takes place at the cathode; oxidation takes place at the anode), Dear King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species), and OIL RIG (oxidation is loss of electrons, reduction is gain of electrons). Two of these three are for pretty high yield topics. For some things, I just "know" where someone else may use a mnemonic. For example, where one may use the mnemonic "I (eye) am positive that real is inverted", I just "know" that the side that has the eye on it is positive, and that a real image is always inverted. This is due to brute force coupled with reinforcing via problems.

Also, it's funny you mention reproduction. I read over EK once for that but even though there's like 3 pages, it's very dense in terms of stuff that you should probably have memorized. When I started doing practice problems on reproduction, I was getting like 80% of them wrong. Now I never get any wrong, and I plan on reviewing EK one more time and I should be golden for the test.

I hope this information helps a bit, and if you still have knowledge deficiencies that you know about that aren't being addressed with the questions/passages you're doing, make sure to do whatever is necessary to fix them. For me that means brute forcing it.

EDIT:
In terms of whether or not you should postpone, I would say I don't know too much low yield stuff, but I'm still doing fine on practice tests. It all depends on what score you want. If you know most of the high yield stuff you should be able to do decent. If you want to go for 14/15 in physics/bio, most of the time you need to know some low yield stuff. One thing even better than brute force, mnemonics and all this other stuff is understanding or having things tied together. In Audio Osmosis they talk about how circuits, fluids, and blood flow all follow the same mechanics and for me this really enhanced my understanding of all three (i.e., for all three, a short, fat wire/vessel/pipe has the lowest resistance). Hopefully my personal situation sheds some light for you on this problem.

 

[MedPR]

I prefer to use a combination of mnemonics, brute force and mistakes on passages to remember things. I know some people love to use mnemonics for everything but I think it's very confusing if you use too many. Some of the only ones I use are RED CAT; AN OX (reduction takes place at the cathode; oxidation takes place at the anode), Dear King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species), and OIL RIG (oxidation is loss of electrons, reduction is gain of electrons). Two of these three are for pretty high yield topics. For some things, I just "know" where someone else may use a mnemonic. For example, where one may use the mnemonic "I (eye) am positive that real is inverted", I just "know" that the side that has the eye on it is positive, and that a real image is always inverted. This is due to brute force coupled with reinforcing via problems.

Also, it's funny you mention reproduction. I read over EK once for that but even though there's like 3 pages, it's very dense in terms of stuff that you should probably have memorized. When I started doing practice problems on reproduction, I was getting like 80% of them wrong. Now I never get any wrong, and I plan on reviewing EK one more time and I should be golden for the test.

I hope this information helps a bit, and if you still have knowledge deficiencies that you know about that aren't being addressed with the questions/passages you're doing, make sure to do whatever is necessary to fix them. For me that means brute forcing it.

EDIT:
In terms of whether or not you should postpone, I would say I don't know too much low yield stuff, but I'm still doing fine on practice tests. It all depends on what score you want. If you know most of the high yield stuff you should be able to do decent. If you want to go for 14/15 in physics/bio, most of the time you need to know some low yield stuff. One thing even better than brute force, mnemonics and all this other stuff is understanding or having things tied together. In Audio Osmosis they talk about how circuits, fluids, and blood flow all follow the same mechanics and for me this really enhanced my understanding of all three (i.e., for all three, a short, fat wire/vessel/pipe has the lowest resistance). Hopefully my personal situation sheds some light for you on this problem.

Imo you're in trouble if you are still using AN OX/RED CAT and OIL RIG come MCAT day. It's fine to use them for learning purposes, but that kind of stuff should be as easy as 1-2-3 near the end.

 

[Laura S]

Why is this so difficult... reduction = charge is reduced = addition of electrons. That's it.

 

[gtbROX]

Imo you're in trouble if you are still using AN OX/RED CAT and OIL RIG come MCAT day. It's fine to use them for learning purposes, but that kind of stuff should be as easy as 1-2-3 near the end.

What's wrong with going in knowing that only? When I read thru electrochemistry, the only things I bothered remembering was that and electrolytic=nonspontaneous and that has pretty much got me by most the aamc Qs on Echem. but to get that 14/15 on PS, I agree you'd need to know that concentration grad can power cells among other stuff.

I barely remember the details but what I realize is that it's more about having good logical and analytical skills on BS and somewhat on PS. Details and formulas are often given in passage, and even if not rely on POE heavily. This is why I'm constantly telling people that the month before mcat should be practice test and verbal drills and practice material only. Don't fall into the science major habit of doing content review only for an exam.

As for whether you should cancel/void/postpone, look at your recent (within a week or two) aamc test scores and if the lowest one is not at least 2 points above your absolute minimum score it's not likely that you'll hit threshold. If you are at least 2 points above, focus completely on practice tests and verbal drills.