Spreading out MCAT study hours

[medschoolhopeful!]

Hello,
I am planning to take the March MCAT. Assuming I have about 5 months to study, I think I should be able to study the often quoted "500 hours"

I will be able to dedicate about 30 hrs/week for 6 weeks
Then about 40-50 hrs/week for 4 weeks (winter break)
Then about 15-20 hrs/week for the final 8 weeks (I will be back at school)

I am wondering if having fewer hours leading up to the exam is a bad idea? I am hoping that my final 2 months will be practice exams and reviewing my mistakes on those as well as brushing up on the content I will have studied the previous 3 months.

Thoughts on this sort of plan? Advice from people who have studied while in term at their school?

also if anyone has any really good study schedules/materials they could recommend, I would really appreciate it. Trying to iron out a solid plan before I get started studying November 1st!

Thanks so much!!

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[lumya]

Your plan sounds good. You shouldn’t backload your studying and cram in content at the end. The last couple of weeks should be practice questions and as many full-length practice tests as you can, especially the ones that AAMC has.

I used Kaplan for content review and I took all of their practice tests. I thought it prepared me pretty well for the MCAT. They have a couple of timelines on their website too, that I used roughly to make my own timeline. Examkrackers is another line of material with really good practice questions.

 

[Jay Dog]

Love the plan! by the way, if you are going to do practice tests, buy the 10 Altius test prep exams for sure! They were most similar to the real things and taught me a ton!

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Look at the stickies for the many different study plans. There are several of them and one is bound to match your timeframe. I chose a modified combination of two different schedules. I started during my spring quarter but TBH didn't start in earnest until after finals.

 

[medschoolhopeful!]

Look at the stickies for the many different study plans. There are several of them and one is bound to match your timeframe. I chose a modified combination of two different schedules. I started during my spring quarter but TBH didn't start in earnest until after finals.

What are the stickies? sorry new to this!

 

[doctordoctor000]

I am planning on taking the MCAT on July 20th. So far I have completed the prerequisites except for Biochem, physics 2, and organic chem 2. This coming semester I will be taking organic 2 along with some other classes, 2 medium level, and 1 easy level class. The time I have is January- May 9 (during semester) and till july 20th- exam day. Below I have provided my level of understanding in each topic. My main issue is figuring out a study plan to use through out the semester, where I only want to focus on content review for the most part, and cars. If anyone has any ideas please do share. thank you.

Biology- med/ high
Chemistry- medium
Physics- low
BioChem- medium
Psych/soc- high