The 5/27/08 MCAT Club

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

DrMattOglesby

Grand Master
Moderator Emeritus
15+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2007
Messages
2,204
Reaction score
15
I wanted to start a thread for those taking the MCAT on May 27, 2008.
I wanted to see if we could get discussions going on how to schedule a game plan to tackle this test in three months time.

I have Kaplan review books and I am going to have to use them cause I dont have anything else.

I will eventually have a regimen on my own personal plan of attack and stick it out here so I can hear your criticisms =]

come on guys, lets shoot for 30+ scores!!!!

-matt

Members don't see this ad.
 
I am taking it in GA (but from FL) on the 27th!!!! I have been studying with EK, and about to start their 10 week home study thing, with some adjustments. Thinking about using TBR as well for physics and gen chem I have heard amazing things about them. Good luck to everyone!!!!!
 
i have about 11 practice tests i am going to go through as well.
plus i have exam krackers Audio Osmosis that ive been exercising to on my iPod since last fall semester =]
jordon and john...their jokes are KILLING ME!!!!

but does anyone want to post their schedule on "training" (sorry, im a triathlete and i like to train for things as opposed to study) for the MCAT???
 
Members don't see this ad :)
i have about 11 practice tests i am going to go through as well.
plus i have exam krackers Audio Osmosis that ive been exercising to on my iPod since last fall semester =]
jordon and john...their jokes are KILLING ME!!!!

but does anyone want to post their schedule on "training" (sorry, im a triathlete and i like to train for things as opposed to study) for the MCAT???

I dont have the AO part, not really good at audio learning. My schedule so far has been to go over my weakest subjects 1st- in full and detailed. Now I am going to follow the 10 week schedule omitting the AO part and perhaps filling it in with stuff from TBR. After this I plan on spending the rest of the time taking practice tests (only AAMC ones) up until the big day. Also, I am taking condensed detailed notes to review over at all times (with the suggestions from others on here). For the parts of the EK course that say to take the 3R AAMC exam I will take more up to date CBT's instead. Hopefully this will all work, who knows:)
 
Hi

I am preparing for the MCAT. Any tips/advice for studying. You did very well on yours. Congrats on your acceptances!

Ciao
 
Currently using Kaplan, EK, and TPR.
I have AO on my ipod but it I haven't been listenign to it. Keep forgeting to. I am focusing on my weak areas and practicing as much as I can, especially in verbal. I took a Kaplan Practice (one of those free event ones) and got 89% on verbal, but when I practice on my own, I get like 50-60%!!! yikes! what is going on?
 
27th Here.

Haven't taken any diagnostics yet. Hoping to do one on Sunday. I've gone through all the old material, but I must admit I'm scared... I don't know what to expect yet!

Best of luck to everyone!
 
well...i must say, i am very rusty in pretty much everything!
i am not STRONG in organic chemistry, but its still pretty recent--i just need to brush up on what i know. My biology is supposedly excellent, last time i took the MCAT i scored an 8 on bio sciences, im assuming most of the questions I got wrong were from the organic chemistry covered.
I know i need to review a lot of general chemistry and physics.
as such, i am studying those things first with my Kaplan review books.
I dont have any study guides for the verbal reasoning, so ill just use my audio osmosis and the sections from my 11 practice tests i have.

***and i am about to start my first diagnostic test right now***
ill post the score as soon as im done

*okay, so i took the practice test from www.e-mcat.com and did an easy assortment of physical science questions. I guessed correctly on two questions but got ended up getting two wrong out of 14. so an 86% on an EASY setting =/

**further update**
i just finished the www.e-mcat.com biology section and got 32 out of 52 correct.
as i assumed, i SUCKED horribly on organic chemistry, in fact, i checked ALL Cs during one passage just cause i had no CLUE!
my scaled score was about an 8
 
The way I am preparing for it, thanks to those who have suggested me via PM, by first going over the weakest subject and master them. Second, I have EK 1001 questions which so far I have done 100 of them from Physics, General Chemistry, and Orgo and all I can say is that I totally suck at all of them. I think I got 50% right only, so now I am going to go over the solutions one by one to see where exactly I made the mistakes. Perhaps that way I can see what I am doing wrong. I think going over the each questions, even though it is very tedious, is absolutely crucial to understand the materials well.

At the moment I feel like my weakest section of this test is the Verbal which I scored 6 when I took one 80 minutes paper based test two days ago. I think I can refurbish this section if I can focus on these ridiculous passages, but doing that would be a challenge for me as well since I get distracted very quickly. Those who have a great skill at taking this section probably could put some thoughts in to it. How did you guys, those who aced this section, stay focus on each passages? That seems like my biggest problem at the moment. Thanks for any suggestions. Oh and reading those New Yorkers and other similar magazines just ain't workin' for me. :p

Now as for study materials, I have some Kaplan full length which I haven't touched yet and I am thinking to buy all the CBT from AAMC in mid March. Toward the end of March, I am going to slowly start the full length and hoping to do two in a week (that includes going over each questions after the test :scared:). I also have the EK and Kaplan books (mostly going over EK books at the moment as they seem right down to the point). Having said all of these stuffs, hardest part would be to keep it up. I have a full time job and the weekends are always busy doing chores and bars. :p Well, If anything else I am doing differently, I will write here. I am sure most of you guys are on the right spot on your preparations for killing this monster. Good luck to all of us!!!

...
come on guys, lets shoot for 30+ scores!!!!

-matt

Amen to it, brother!!!:thumbup:

Thanks :thumbup:

My post in the 30+ MCAT thread can be found here. If you have specific questions I would be more than happy to help!


EDIT: Just noticed your post at the 30+ thread. Congrats on the MCAT and thanks for some wonderful tips on the verbal.
 
so i have been using my Kaplan review books as of late...and listening to audio osmosis to supplement them.
I am currently thinking about purchasing the Gold Standard DVDs...have you all heard anything about these?
 
so i have been using my Kaplan review books as of late...and listening to audio osmosis to supplement them.
I am currently thinking about purchasing the Gold Standard DVDs...have you all heard anything about these?
I think they're relatively helpful to clarify a few things. However, I'd suggest getting the $49.00 membership which gives you access to download all of the videos.

I'd also recommend getting their practice tests--I hear they're good, and $99 for 10 CBTs is pretty good, IMHO.
 
I think they're relatively helpful to clarify a few things. However, I'd suggest getting the $49.00 membership which gives you access to download all of the videos.

I'd also recommend getting their practice tests--I hear they're good, and $99 for 10 CBTs is pretty good, IMHO.

egh, well im an idiot and just PURCHASED all of them for $250
i guess its not too late to cancel my purchase...but lets say i did download them off a membership--are they going to expire after a certain amount of time? ie i only have it available for a certain amount of time...and what can i do with the material once I have access to it? can i manipulate it and put it on my video iPod? burn it on a DVD-R and play it on my DVD player?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
egh, well im an idiot and just PURCHASED all of them for $250
i guess its not too late to cancel my purchase...but lets say i did download them off a membership--are they going to expire after a certain amount of time? ie i only have it available for a certain amount of time...and what can i do with the material once I have access to it? can i manipulate it and put it on my video iPod? burn it on a DVD-R and play it on my DVD player?
No, they won't expire. Their service isn't exactly "high tech" and I think I even shut down their server a couple times on accident downloading more than one video at a time. In fact, my professional geeky opinion is that they really need to spend a few minutes upgrading some of their "security" so that people don't access their downloadable materials for much cheaper than they had intended. lol. I sent them an email warning them, but, no response.

They're in WMV format, so you can do whatever you want with them given you've got the right conversion tools and burning software. The quality isn't great, but its good enough, and that's all we need.

If its not too late to cancel, I wouldn't say its a big loss because they're a nice little visual reminder of the main concepts. I've only actually reviewed some of the Bio stuff so far, but, I'm pleased enough.
 
yeah...i think i might give them a call right now to see if i can switch to a monthly subscription and get some sort of refund instead.
I already downloaded the organic chemistry and general chemistry videos.
they are actually really helpful in my personal opinion.
and im not trying to justify paying an exorbitant amount of money for study guides, but i am very pleased with this style of learning.
 
yeah...i think i might give them a call right now to see if i can switch to a monthly subscription and get some sort of refund instead.
I already downloaded the organic chemistry and general chemistry videos.
they are actually really helpful in my personal opinion.
and im not trying to justify paying an exorbitant amount of money for study guides, but i am very pleased with this style of learning.
Good to hear. I don't find the $250 fee to be "too bad" for all the vids. It a much cheaper alternative to going to a class, that's for sure.
 
im picking up on this stuff really well now!
im sitting here taking notes as i watch the videos...
i just find it odd how i first thought that since i did so well in my premed courses--that i didnt need to study for the MCAT.
now, 7months later; i am actually STUDYING for the test this time!
i just feel really good about my studies right now. it feels great to have that "im prepared" feeling =]
 
Right now, I'm prepping for the May 27th exam as well. At the moment, I am using exam krackers for vr and kaplan for the sciences. Also, I got a hold of TPR and am using the science review book to go through a variety of different questions to see where my strong and weak points are
 
its 1:15am on sunday morning...and i just finished the General Chemistry material to be covered the MCAT!!!!
woohoo!
i feel very accomplished!
now i just need to complete my physics and then I can review the equations and concepts a million times over and work problems =]
love,
matt
 
Rpedigo said:
For verbal, one of the best things I can recommend is to bring out a terrible quality in people: arrogance. A lot of people read the verbal passage and get confused by a line or some syntax, stop, and go back to read it again, and lose their entire train of thought. Most questions are main idea-- the chance that the small piece you missed is going to be tested on is very small. So if you read arrogantly, and you don't understand a line, you'll just assume that the author sucks and it's not worth comprehending it. This will actually make most people more effective in verbal.
Wow. That's actually hilariously accurate. :laugh:
 
its 1:15am on sunday morning...and i just finished the General Chemistry material to be covered the MCAT!!!!
woohoo!
i feel very accomplished!
now i just need to complete my physics and then I can review the equations and concepts a million times over and work problems =]
love,
matt
It does feel good when that's all done, doesn't it? I've finished reviewing everything and am now finishing running through all of the non-passage based practice problems in TPR for G. Chem and Physics.

I had a few long days of studying this week, and my head hurts, so although I didn't do as well as I know I could have if my eyes weren't bouncing all over the place, I'm surprised I did as well as I did--I guess its also possible that the questions asked were easy, I'm just going to hope that's not the case.

I mean to take AAMC 3R last Monday, but I'm aiming for this Monday now. &crosses fingers&
 
i have about 11 practice tests i am going to go through as well.
plus i have exam krackers Audio Osmosis that ive been exercising to on my iPod since last fall semester =]
jordon and john...their jokes are KILLING ME!!!!

but does anyone want to post their schedule on "training" (sorry, im a triathlete and i like to train for things as opposed to study) for the MCAT???

Is the audio osmosis helping you? i am using EK but did not get the AO 'cos i wasn't sure. and someone else had said it was not helpful to them.
 
i find that it helps for the following reaon:

I do my primary studying off of Gold Standard MCAT videos. Then I work problems with Kaplan Review books.
Exam Krackers Audio Osmosis gives me a few extra hints and tips and may even offer a more clear explanation.
but as far as my pecking order goes;

1- Gold Standard MCAT science review videos
2- Kaplan Review science notes and problems
3- Exam Krackers Audio Osmosis

(4- practice tests) <--I have yet to do these though.
 
Hello Everyone,

I am registered for the April 19 afternoon at Culver City testing center, and I was wondering if anyone is interested to switch their testing date ( May 23, 27, 31) if its located in Los Angeles area with mine. Thanks
 
DO I EVER FEEL RELIEVED!

:banana:

My God, I was sweating like a mad man before this test... sitting there, staring at my computer, I felt pretty intimidated.

Just finished AAMC 3 CBT, my "diagnostic" exam, 31.(In the library, distractions and all)

Composite: 31 (PS: 12, VR: 9, BS: 10)

Verbal was very difficult for me, I'm surprised I even got a 9! Being that its a 9, I definitely am still concerned! The other two, I'm positive I can bring up.
 
i find that it helps for the following reaon:

I do my primary studying off of Gold Standard MCAT videos. Then I work problems with Kaplan Review books.
Exam Krackers Audio Osmosis gives me a few extra hints and tips and may even offer a more clear explanation.
but as far as my pecking order goes;

1- Gold Standard MCAT science review videos
2- Kaplan Review science notes and problems
3- Exam Krackers Audio Osmosis

(4- practice tests) <--I have yet to do these though.

thnx for the tip.
 
DO I EVER FEEL RELIEVED!

:banana:

My God, I was sweating like a mad man before this test... sitting there, staring at my computer, I felt pretty intimidated.

Just finished AAMC 3 CBT, my "diagnostic" exam, 31.(In the library, distractions and all)

Composite: 31 (PS: 12, VR: 9, BS: 10)

Verbal was very difficult for me, I'm surprised I even got a 9! Being that its a 9, I definitely am still concerned! The other two, I'm positive I can bring up.

I love this AAMC breakdown thing...sweet. If anybody want to help me breakdown my weaknesses, feel free :D

wow NICE job TNCEKM!!!
i havent taken a diagnostic yet...and i dont think im as smart as you are quite yet, so i am not much assistance.
bravo on the fine performance! keep it up and youll be ready for med school in no time!
 
Thx, MrMattOglesby :D I'm sure you'll do well--its all about diligence and confidence. Keep it up and you'll be ready in no time.
 
may 31st here.
I've taken a kaplan course, last spring, but I chickened out for the real thing. Okay not really, but I knew I wasn't prepared. I have been studying the Kaplan stuff, and I just bought the 1001 EK physics questions. Physics is the only thing I am sorta concerned about.
Any one have good suggestions for the best physics reviews?
 
Bumping this thread to find out how everyone is doing with their preparations so far. When are you guys starting to take your full lengths? I am giving myself about 30-35 days for 14 Tests that I have (3-10 AAMC which I am tackling them toward the end, and roughly about 7 exams from other sources such as Kaplan, GS, etc.). Of course I will be adjusting my 'going over these exams' time based on the number of questions I get wrong, how rusty I am with the contents that I am being tested on, and which questions I had to guess and which questions I knew without any hesitations--you know the usual tediousness for this process.

At the moment I am still finishing up my reviews on the contents and trying to capture the best and effective methods to absorb all of them in short period of time. This is not a trick I am trying to master for the actual exams, but its a necessary adaptation due to my other responsibilities that I have to deal with in my everyday life, such as working 7 hours a day from Monday through Friday (TGIF today :sleep:). Well anyway good luck to everyone who is taking this beast on that particular day and keep us informed on the methods you are finding helpful for your preparations. :)
 
Bumping this thread to find out how everyone is doing with their preparations so far. When are you guys starting to take your full lengths? I am giving myself about 30-35 days for 14 Tests that I have (3-10 AAMC which I am tackling them toward the end, and roughly about 7 exams from other sources such as Kaplan, GS, etc.). Of course I will be adjusting my 'going over these exams' time based on the number of questions I get wrong, how rusty I am with the contents that I am being tested on, and which questions I had to guess and which questions I knew without any hesitations--you know the usual tediousness for this process.

At the moment I am still finishing up my reviews on the contents and trying to capture the best and effective methods to absorb all of them in short period of time. This is not a trick I am trying to master for the actual exams, but its a necessary adaptation due to my other responsibilities that I have to deal with in my everyday life, such as working 7 hours a day from Monday through Friday (TGIF today :sleep:). Well anyway good luck to everyone who is taking this beast on that particular day and keep us informed on the methods you are finding helpful for your preparations. :)


I am STILL reviewing the content material.
I am getting MUCH better at knowing how to work equations and understanding how a change in one variable will affect the system. I have been using Gold Standard FlashCards and their videos almost exclusively now.
I think my physics and gen chem subjects are about 75% of where I want them to be.
My Organic Chem is about 70% finished.
My Biology is about 95% finished.
I need to do some verbal passages and I think Ill be safe.
have yet to finish a complete test though. Maybe in a week and a half ill start crankin em out...
 
Bump!

I hope everyone is doing just fine. How is study going so far, people? As for me, I have not started the AAMC practice tests yet, but I will within few days (damn job...I am hoping for a whole month of May off, so I can take those exams peacefully). I am pretty much finished reviewing most of the contents and now just tackling on some sectional tests from Kaplan, and EK.

Also just noticed that whomever took the exam today realized more contents on Genetics and Evolutions were tested than other parts of the Biology, so I am going to try to focus on those as I am not mastered at them yet. Good luck to those who are taking this beast on that particular day...hoping for a better outcome! :thumbup:
 
Ok... so I just started getting really bad panic attacks in the last couple of hours thinking that I only have about a month to get all the material down. I just got done with the two BR physics books and am going to be moving on to the first organic book tomorrow. I have a second organic book plus two more gen. chem. books...not to mention bio review and VR practice. How do I move on to organic if I'm just going to forget most of the physics I've went through? I feel like there's not enough time in the day to go over a subject in orgo, take a test, review it and then go back and review all the physics. I started out with EK 10 week schedule and now I'm kicking myself over it for not starting with BR b/c I feel EK didn't help me one bit. I've scheduled everything out and should be done with all the Berkeley books by 5/10. Do you think the two weeks extra prior to the exam will give me enough time to review EVERYTHING and take a ton of practice exams. Anybody feeling the same as I do? It's so stressful :eek:
 
Ok... so I just started getting really bad panic attacks in the last couple of hours thinking that I only have about a month to get all the material down. I just got done with the two BR physics books and am going to be moving on to the first organic book tomorrow. I have a second organic book plus two more gen. chem. books...not to mention bio review and VR practice. How do I move on to organic if I'm just going to forget most of the physics I've went through? I feel like there's not enough time in the day to go over a subject in orgo, take a test, review it and then go back and review all the physics. I started out with EK 10 week schedule and now I'm kicking myself over it for not starting with BR b/c I feel EK didn't help me one bit. I've scheduled everything out and should be done with all the Berkeley books by 5/10. Do you think the two weeks extra prior to the exam will give me enough time to review EVERYTHING and take a ton of practice exams. Anybody feeling the same as I do? It's so stressful :eek:

Hey - I definitely feel ya. I was studying for most of today, and started getting feelings of extreme anxiety etc over the past few hours lol. A month is not enough time! Anyways, I've been studying mostly with the EK books and the Kaplan course books. I personally have found the EK books pretty helpful at least for gen chem and physics. If I were you, I would not spend as much time on orgo as for Physics/chem/bio. Seems like recently the mcat has maximum of 2 orgo passages in the bio section - so spend more time on the stuff they are going to test more on.

If you haven't had a good intro to orgo or have forgotten most of it, you might want to start going over it slowly now. I personally took it 3 semesters ago and i'm probably not going go over much of it until after school lets out. My weaknesses are physics/gen chem so i'm probably going spend the majority of my time on those.

IMO, if you have not even started reviewing gen chem - thats what your focus should be on right now. Good luck.
 
I am nervous...extremely nervous when I think about there being only 5 weeks left!!!! OH snap!
I've reviewed much of the material..but if I retained it all..is the problem.

Verbal is just not cool.
I finally broke a 10 on a Kaplan Verbal...but I think the curve was steep.
I am thinking about moving my test date back.
 
im nervous too.
i reviewed all the material...took a week off to do the ironman. and now i feel like i have forgotten EVERYTHING!
i am injured right now and studying is hard to do while im trying to heal my body. but i think im just gonna review EVERYTHING one more time and finish that this week. Then ill get back to working problems again next week. I need to get back on track...feeling miserable:(
 
to this date, i have gone through aamc#3-10, kaplan#1,2, & 6. I have gone through the material in kaplan's review books and TPR's books. I developed flash cards of my weak spots in each section, such as organic reactions, buoyancy, mitochondria and its enzymes, and equivalents.

my plan for the last 34 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes, and 34 seconds is to do at least two practice exams a week. and every other day, i am going to stick to doing two verbal passages timed (my weak spot). the rest of the time is reviewing what i did wrong in the practice exams and going over my flash cards and practicing a variety of science passages.

what is trippin' me out is that in the last two kaplan exams (#2,#6), i have been scoring 28's. the last exam(#6), i did not even finish the biology section and just guessed B for the last two passages and still got a 9? wtf? also, i missed 15 questions in VR and scored a 10 (did not even complete the last passage). how do you interpret this? what is more trustworthy: aamc or kaplan exams?
 
to this date, i have gone through aamc#3-10, kaplan#1,2, & 6. I have gone through the material in kaplan's review books and TPR's books. I developed flash cards of my weak spots in each section, such as organic reactions, buoyancy, mitochondria and its enzymes, and equivalents.

my plan for the last 34 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes, and 34 seconds is to do at least two practice exams a week. and every other day, i am going to stick to doing two verbal passages timed (my weak spot). the rest of the time is reviewing what i did wrong in the practice exams and going over my flash cards and practicing a variety of science passages.

what is trippin' me out is that in the last two kaplan exams (#2,#6), i have been scoring 28's. the last exam(#6), i did not even finish the biology section and just guessed B for the last two passages and still got a 9? wtf? also, i missed 15 questions in VR and scored a 10 (did not even complete the last passage). how do you interpret this? what is more trustworthy: aamc or kaplan exams?
AAMC!!! Kaplan is good practice, but their scoring is really weird and their tests (esp PS) are harder (verbal is easier though).
 
I just had a freak out moment. I haven't studied in the past 4-5 days due to projects/exams for school :( I then realized that I wont have much time to study over the next week and a half due to finals. After that i'm only going to have 2 weeks!?!?!!!! How are people planning on spending their last 2 weeks?
 
I just had a freak out moment. I haven't studied in the past 4-5 days due to projects/exams for school :( I then realized that I wont have much time to study over the next week and a half due to finals. After that i'm only going to have 2 weeks!?!?!!!! How are people planning on spending their last 2 weeks?
I just had almost 3 weeks of almost zero MCAT studies. Came back, took a practice AAMC and did fine. You'll be surprised, most of the information will still be there if you just do a quick bio/ochem review and review the formulas for gchem and phys.
 
Geez... the time is just flying by and our MCAT date is just around the corner. I hope everyone is progressing well! My VR is finally coming up, but considering I've been doing GS tests I'm not sure if I can trust the VR scores :(.
 
Geez... the time is just flying by and our MCAT date is just around the corner. I hope everyone is progressing well! My VR is finally coming up, but considering I've been doing GS tests I'm not sure if I can trust the VR scores :(.


How long did it take you to get your VR score up. It's been awhile since I've taken a VR test and the last time I scored b/w a 6-7. I've planned out that I'll have about 25 more practice VR tests to go over before the real thing, do you think that's enough practice to raise my score?
 
I actually don't know exactly how long it took me. I think it was a couple months though.

I started with a 6 level VR on my first few EK tests. My last 13 passages in EK have been 11's, my last AAMC was an 11, and my last 2 GS have been 12's (although I don't feel like I can trust those scores b/c the passages are shorter (50-100 words) and the questions seem easier). But, I still feel very vulnerable in that area considering not long ago I was feeling like a beat puppy dog getting 7's, etc.

In contrast to some people's believes, I belong to a minority of SDNers who believe that their increase in VR score is largely b/c of an increase in reading speed/comprehension that occurred over a relatively short period of time. I personally started seeing the biggest differences in my scores when I had enough time to refer back to the passage when I need to, and that happened after I started reading a few 5000-6000 word articles per week from The New Yorker. I read them for speed and comprehension, and now I can finish passages in 2.5 mins rather than 5-6 mins with about the same level of comprehension.
 
I am taking the MCAT may 27th am in need of advice for approaching the PS and BS sections. I feel like my content review is a little low, and my BS average on Kaplan practices is a 7 and my PS is a 9. I quit my job at the hospital last week, and I don't start my new job in the ER until after my MCAT so I have plenty of time to study over the next 4 weeks. Thanks for the advice!
 
If your content review is low (which it appears it is given your scores for BS and PS) then you've really only got one course of action. Review the information in detail as best you can over the next couple of weeks and start doing practice tests for the last couple. You're in a position where its still possible to get 30+ because it seems like your verbal is in good shape and that's usually most peoples limiting factor. But, it'll take some hard work to get your sciences up that much, that fast.
 
I'm also taking the May 27 MCAT and a little confused as to what to study. I've reviewed all of the basic subjects with the Gold Standard study guide. Now, my plan is to just take practice tests and get used to staring at the screen for 4+ hours. 25 days!!!!!
 
Top