I posted this elsewhere, but I thought I'd throw it in here. I don't know how long it is until you take the MCAT's, but if you have a while and are a student (and can still drop/add classes) it might be useful.
I thought I'd throw in some advice on how I managed to get the following score on the July 24th mcat (the only time I took the test):
PS: 15
VR: 11
Writing: R
BS: 14
I also want to add that these scores were accomplished despite my reading/learning disabilities. Just so nobody complains I had no accommodations. In fact unless you're blind (which there are good, blind doctors) it's pretty much impossible to obtain any (there was a recent CA lawsuit over this). This should be obvious when one looks at their criteria. One needs to be less able than the average individual in the general population. Uhm yeah, no offense but the average person off the street isn't applying to medical school (the average applicant would make a lot more sense). Anyways rant over.
To score well rather than just taking endless practice tests (I took 3 during the time I reviewed for the mcats) and reading lots of review books, I took classes in the areas I was weak in. I'll list what I'd recommend for each section.
For the physical sciences, obviously good intro physics and chemistry are important but I would also recommend the following courses:
Differential Equations: If you have math up to calc II (some universities will try to make you take calc III first, but try to talk your way out of it) take an engineering Diff Eq course. It'll help immensely. I came away from it with a much deeper understanding of physics than I obtained in actual physics classes.
Analytical (Quantitative) Chemistry: This one is huge. Most of the "hard" mcat chemistry problems tend to be the ones that involve lots of calculations which is what you basically learn in this class. A bonus is that the class usually isn't too hard (gen chem is usually the only pre-req)
For the verbal I have no help. With my reading problems all I did was the Exam Krackers method of learning what the correct answers look like so I could get away with not fully reading passages.
For the BS section it's pretty obvious as most of the courses are listed as recommended by various medical schools, however I'll rank them in terms of usefulness:
1. Human Physiology. This should be required. It will help more than anything else in this section. Do anything short of killing someone to get into a class with a good instructor.
2. Biochemistry. This is obvious, but I actually found it less useful than human physiology
3. Genetics. I would only take this if you felt you forgot your intro course or your intro instructor was terrible. I didn't bother.
4. Anatomy. While it'll look good on an app (especially if it includes a cadaver lab), I don't really see it helping much on the MCAT's. They seem much more concerned with the physiology aspects. Since I'll get a corpse in med school I didn't bother with this.
As for the review books, of the ones I read only EK seemed to focus on the conceptually aspects (Kaplans was especially poor). I haven't seen the Berkley review materials so as for those I cannot say.
Anyways I'd highly recommend taking a course or two (even if you just audit them) rather than endless rounds of practice tests. Sorry for the long post.
