What are the best ways to study for the psych/soc section of the MCAT? I have noticed that the AAMC question pack does not include a problem set for this section and I am wondering what individuals who have scored well on the exam or at least are familiar with it recommend as the best course of action?
Psyc/Soc Study Question
- Thread starter mitch8017
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2015
- Messages
- 129
- Reaction score
- 117
Those are the question banks taken from the old tests but still relevant. These are what we call the section banks that contains new questions including psych.
https://members.aamc.org/eweb/Dynam..._prd_key=D822ED6A-8F18-406C-B82F-72B15DA1E555
https://members.aamc.org/eweb/Dynam..._prd_key=D822ED6A-8F18-406C-B82F-72B15DA1E555
- Joined
- May 30, 2015
- Messages
- 404
- Reaction score
- 83
Know your AAMC outline for P/S as well as possible; don't rely on one book for review - in fact, copy paste the outline in a word doc and fill it in yourself as well as possible using whatever resources you have available. In case you are a more auditory/visual learner, use Khan Academy. As you fill it out, focus on applying it to yourself; if you can't apply to yourself, then look for popular media examples; if these examples aren't applicable, use whatever info you have in long-term memory to make the necessary connection. Whatever definitions or flashcards you memorize, you might be able to recall it at the right time during the test, but if you don't have a clear understanding of it, then even if you know the term you won't be able to assess whether it's the right answer. Instead, focus on building a strong, intuitive understanding of the topics - this will help you recall and apply in the right situation. When a lot of people complain about having to guess a lot in this section, it's because of this. This sort of intuitive learning is also highly useful for the other sciences.
Develop a strategy for the passages. Think of the passages on a spectrum - on the one one hand are the highly descriptive passages that just discuss some psychological/sociological phenomenon; on the other hand are the highly experimental passages that focus almost entirely on some experiment. The passages you'll see will be somewhere in between - in mine they were closer to the descriptive end with a paragraph-long experiment thrown in. Your goal is to develop an efficient strategy for both extremes. To do this, do some passages untimed with a more comprehensive strategy; then as you do more passages, prune that strategy as you see fit. So for experimental passages, first and foremost understand the different aspects of an experiment as well as possible, from the hypothesis to the different types of biases to the methodology to the different types of variables (especially confounders) to the types of data to the types of results (correlation vs. causation - really understand the distinction b/w these two). This website was very helpful for me: https://explorable.com/experimental-research. So when you do your next experimental passage, focus on mentally filling in all these details, especially those not directly provided - i.e. sampling biases, confounding variables, whether the result is correlation or causation. As you do more and more, start making it less comprehensive - i.e. you ignore things you don't find necessary and/or do some things automatically without telling your brain to do so. Also, starting from a comprehensive strategy also gives you a systematic way of reviewing problems.
Practice. But don't practice blindly. Instead of just using one resource, focus on using the AAMC outline and do as many Descriptive and Experimental passages for each major topic. I used a wide variety of resources, and after taking the test I unequivocally found the Khan Academy passages to be the best practice material out there for Psych/soc. But here is my opinion of the non-AAMC ones:
Descriptive: half the Khan Academy P/S passages >> TPR practice tests (very representative for these descriptive types); didn't use TBR for this, but I'd assume they'd be here > Kaplan practice tests
Experimental: the other half of Khan Academy P/S passages > EK In-class exams (these take "experimental" to the extreme and I found them much harder than the real deal; but they are good precisely b/c of the high difficulty) > Kaplan PTs > Princeton PTs
Bottomline: do EVERY SINGLE Khan Academy passage, at least for psych/soc!
I didn't know all this when I was studying, but in hindsight these things definitely helped me get 132.
Develop a strategy for the passages. Think of the passages on a spectrum - on the one one hand are the highly descriptive passages that just discuss some psychological/sociological phenomenon; on the other hand are the highly experimental passages that focus almost entirely on some experiment. The passages you'll see will be somewhere in between - in mine they were closer to the descriptive end with a paragraph-long experiment thrown in. Your goal is to develop an efficient strategy for both extremes. To do this, do some passages untimed with a more comprehensive strategy; then as you do more passages, prune that strategy as you see fit. So for experimental passages, first and foremost understand the different aspects of an experiment as well as possible, from the hypothesis to the different types of biases to the methodology to the different types of variables (especially confounders) to the types of data to the types of results (correlation vs. causation - really understand the distinction b/w these two). This website was very helpful for me: https://explorable.com/experimental-research. So when you do your next experimental passage, focus on mentally filling in all these details, especially those not directly provided - i.e. sampling biases, confounding variables, whether the result is correlation or causation. As you do more and more, start making it less comprehensive - i.e. you ignore things you don't find necessary and/or do some things automatically without telling your brain to do so. Also, starting from a comprehensive strategy also gives you a systematic way of reviewing problems.
Practice. But don't practice blindly. Instead of just using one resource, focus on using the AAMC outline and do as many Descriptive and Experimental passages for each major topic. I used a wide variety of resources, and after taking the test I unequivocally found the Khan Academy passages to be the best practice material out there for Psych/soc. But here is my opinion of the non-AAMC ones:
Descriptive: half the Khan Academy P/S passages >> TPR practice tests (very representative for these descriptive types); didn't use TBR for this, but I'd assume they'd be here > Kaplan practice tests
Experimental: the other half of Khan Academy P/S passages > EK In-class exams (these take "experimental" to the extreme and I found them much harder than the real deal; but they are good precisely b/c of the high difficulty) > Kaplan PTs > Princeton PTs
Bottomline: do EVERY SINGLE Khan Academy passage, at least for psych/soc!
I didn't know all this when I was studying, but in hindsight these things definitely helped me get 132.
