Taking a vacation after TPR course before test date?

[mbaumann1123]

Okay please stay with me, I will preface this by saying that I just adopted a 2 month old puppy and I am extremely distracted by her antics while writing this, so it may come out a little disjointed.

I'm registered for the TPR classroom course May 28-July 30th and am trying to decide what date to take the MCAT (I know I'm late registering but I broke my neck last semester and did not know if I was going to be capable of sitting for the MCAT or not until recently). The issue is, before all this happened my family had already rented and paid for a beach house during the first 2 weeks in August, which is the two weeks following my prep course. This is the one time a year my family gets together, and without getting into details, a family member was recently diagnosed with a scary medical issue, so it's a bit more than just a vacation to the beach this year.

My question is, will it be totally detrimental to take this time off right after the course even if I come back and give myself 2-3 weeks of serious studying before the MCAT? I was thinking I could buy the Examkrackers prep package (or whatever anyone suggests) and take a couple hours a day to work through it while I'm at the beach since it doesn't seem to be as comprehensive as the other prep books. Then I could come back and do a few more weeks of hardcore studying before taking one of the september exams. Would it be too detrimental to take that time off after my TPR course, even if I was doing light studying followed by 2-3 weeks of real studying for the exam? If I had to I could cut the beach short and come back a week early. Finding a test date shouldn't be that big of an issue, I can afford to fly somewhere if it came down to that. Here is my timeline if none of the above made sense

TPR classroom course May 28- July 30
Beach trip August 4-18 (possibly August 4-11 if I had to)
Potential Exam dates- August 28 (allows for about 1.5 weeks study)
September 7 (allows for about 3 weeks study)
September 11/12 (allows for about 3.5 weeks study)

For reference, I'm not applying this year.

Thanks if you made it to the end of that post!

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[Back 5]

I would not take a vacation of anything longer than a couple days before sitting for the MCAT. Taking a mini break in the middle of studying to clear your head and get re-focused is fine, but 7+ days is just asking for trouble imo.

If you are going to take the time to study for the MCAT (3-4 months full-time) then why run the risk of messing that up with a vacation before the test?

 

[pitupua]

If you are going to take the time to study for the MCAT (3-4 months full-time) then why run the risk of messing that up with a vacation before the test?

this

 

[hunterjumper14]

Can you take the test before the vacation? I took the MCAT before the end of my review course, I just moved up all of the suggested practice exams so I would finish in time. I think a vacation in the middle of studying might make consistent preparation difficult. Good luck!!

 

[mbaumann1123]

I didn't plan to take a vacation while studying for the MCAT, the vacation was originally planned around my MCAT because I was supposed to take it in May. However I broke my neck during college gymnastics this year and had surgery, so I was not able to start studying again until very recently. Obviously I would not have planned it to work out this way but things happen, that's life

Hunterjumper14, I was leaning towards taking it before I left, but the TPR class has a 3 week self review period listed on the schedule after the class ends before taking the MCAT so I was worried I would be rushing it if I tried for that. Maybe that's my best option though

 

[Back 5]

I didn't plan to take a vacation while studying for the MCAT, the vacation was originally planned around my MCAT because I was supposed to take it in May. However I broke my neck during college gymnastics this year and had surgery, so I was not able to start studying again until very recently. Obviously I would not have planned it to work out this way but things happen, that's life

Hunterjumper14, I was leaning towards taking it before I left, but the TPR class has a 3 week self review period listed on the schedule after the class ends before taking the MCAT so I was worried I would be rushing it if I tried for that. Maybe that's my best option though

I took TPR and they want you to take the MCAT within 3 weeks of the course finishing for your guarantee or something like that. You can take the MCAT whenever you feel ready to take it. It doesn't have to be 3 weeks after the course ends.