Does anyone use the outlines on the AAMC site:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/start.htm? I haven't seen this mentioned in any of the "create a schedule" posts so far. I would think you would want to go straight from this list.
I think my plan is to open the bs and ps .pdfs on that link, paste the main topics into microsoft onenote, and then hit em one by one. For each big section (ie circuits, optics, fluids...), just read my related EK sections, scan my test book quickly, and then do some practice problems and try to keep taking full tests every weekend. Blah...so much info!
That's not a bad way to approach it, but beware that some of the topics listed on those PDFs are not exactly self-explanatory in terms of what you are actually supposed to be learning for the exam. The review companies have a pretty good handle on what will usually show up on the exam, so I would start with a few of those books. Personally, I got both the Kaplan and the Princeton books and was surprised to see that there were some differences between the two. I used a few more different sources (internet, various other publishers) as well. Using study material from multiple independent sources definitely helped me.
Now, that being said, when you're done all of your studying and some practice tests, you should be able to go through the AAMC topics PDFs and check off all of the topics you know, since you should have learned them throughout studying with different test prep materials.
Here's a breakdown of the gist of how I approached the MCAT:
Months 1-2, Content review, initial studying of the material, practice problem sets, and some practice passages. Consistent studying in verbal a few times every week (1-3 passages at a time, 3-4 days a week or something like that).
So I basically studied the Kaplan and Princeton books side by side, using the kaplan book as a guide for pacing my content review, but also using the relevant sections in the princeton book to reinforce the material.
I broke down the studying into 4 sections per week. As in, I'd rotate through 3/5 bio sections, 3/5 gen chem sections, 3/5 physicis sections and 3/5 orgo sections each respectively on a different day of every week. This way I don't spend 3 full weeks learning bio and then forget it all after learning physicis. I have a some of each section each week. I'd continue this until I was finished reviewing all of the material. Of course I spent less time on the parts that I was more comfortable on, and a bit more time and more practice on the parts that I was not comfortable with. If I thought something I learned on say, Monday was starting to fade, I'd put down whatever I was doing and review it for an hour or so on a different day and then continue on.
Basically I worked a full time+ study day almost every day: every time that I wasn't either hanging out with friends (once every 1-2 weeks or so for 4-5 hours), or doing something else, I was studying. So I mostly studied 5-12 hours everyday.
Everyone should have a schedule of how they are going to spend their time, but I guess my point is that for some of you, having a daily, hour-by-hour schedule may not be the best way to go. It might be better to divide your content review up into days or weeks and then just attack it. This might work better for some people than having a rigorous schedule to abide by. Now, I do believe in making schedules and I think that everyone should have a written outline organizing their time, but it's the level of detail I'm talking about here. You should organize your time in the way that is best for you, and that may not be the way that is best for someone else.
Now, after those initial 1-1.5 months I did a brutal string (about 1.5 months) of full-length practice exams. In the days off I thoroughly reviewed my exams and all the concepts on them, but also supplemented with peripheral content review of the sections I was hazy on, and especially concepts relating to the parts of exams that I missed. I feel that this last 2 months of my studying is where I really learned. For this section of my schedule, check out my signature. The link there has an attachment of an excel file that you all may use to track your full-length exam progress.
