Studying for MCAT

[Mai]

I want to take the MCAT this April, so I am taking a prep course in addition to my regular course load. I have reduced my credits down to 12 in order have more time to prepare, but I am a little lost and confused as to which studying strategy will be efficient and successful. I know that there is no "right" strategy for everyone, but I would like to hear about some approaches that have worked for others in the past. Any suggestions will be very helpful to me. Thanks.

 

[edgar]

Mai,

Try to get your hands on as many practice tests as you can. Take them by timing them exactly the way the do it on the real MCAT. Read scholarly magazines like the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly, as well as the Economist. I raised my verbal score by 2 points by just reading everything I could get my hands on. Get a copy of Columbia Review's Verbal Practice Builder and the book Columbia sells that includes 3 full-length practice tests. If you are taking a prep course, attend all the practice test sessions. I never found the Kaplan MCAT lectures very helpful, you can read all that stuff in the books, but the verbal/writing lessons were excellent. I only did the practice writing assignments they gave me in class/practice test sessions and I scored an S in the writing sample! Lastly, try your best to get up early (at the latest 7am) and read those magazines I talked about or do full-length verbal passages. You need to get used to reading that early in the morning. This is very important, especially a few months (2-3) before the exam. I think I got lower scores than I deserved because I pulled quite a few late nights before the actual exam and was quite tired on the day of the test. Don't make my mistake! Good luck.

EDGAR

 

[justwannabadoc]

In terms of improving verbal, I agree with Edgar. I think you should avoid reading "interesting" articles if you try the strategy of getting up early and practicing passages. Most of the passages in the verbal section are extremely boring (though not all) and I think if you read only things that sound interesting. you might not be reaping the full benefits of this trick. Good luck.

 

[Henry]

Personally, I like the approach of Princeton Review because they only teach you the basic of all the science. If you have a stronf foundation and can read fast, the test will be much easier.

For me, I am not a native english speaker and I have a hard time for verbal. I try very hard and read a lot of magazine. I do agree with Justwannabadoc. The articles in MCAT are very very boring. I hope you like to read them.

Practice a lot and make sure you get the most recent offical MCAT exam release. It has been quite some time since I took the exam and I am not sure is there any new MCAT test being released.

Remember, MCAT is a test of how well you can analyze and how well you can apply the basic science to the problems. Most of all, it test your reading speed!!