This has probably been asked before but....

[lynxtigtab]

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Hello Everyone! This question has probably been asked before, but I can't find exactly what I am looking for...so here it goes (hopefully not) again.

I have been out of school for a while now, and I was just wondering for anyone who took the MCAT after being out of school for a while, how did you prepare? What motivated you to really dig in and hit the books again? Did you go back and take classes again? What would anyone with ANY experience in this matter do?

Desperatly looking for help!

 

[DrMidlife]

I screwed around with prep courses and Examcrackers problems books for the better part of a year, and really never got going. Then about 6 weeks before my multiply-rescheduled exam date, I took a practice test on e-mcat.com. That changed everything. Suddenly I had relevant data, I knew what I still needed to work on, and I knew what I didn't have to be worrying about. If you've done most of the prereqs, no matter how long ago, I'd say it's never too early to take a practice test.

One thing I wish I'd done, that I don't really know how to do, is to get feedback on the writing section. I thought I didn't have to worry about it and turns out I did. e-mcat doesn't offer any feedback, and I wouldn't want to pick reviewers from my biased friends or teachers.

Best of luck to you.

 

[ruraldr]

I bought the EK books and reviewed while traveling to and from school/work (I've been doing post-bacc classes) and also took the PR course. I found both to be helpful review for courses that I had 10+ years ago, I really found the PR course to include great for advice on the writing section.

I set myself a goal score and worked to reach that score in the PR sample tests and the aamc sample tests.

I also decided the date I was going to take (3 months out from the start of my PR class) and stuck with it. It was motivating to see the time get shorter and shorter until my test day.

 

[Gold 5]

I paid for a Kaplan class that meet once a week for about 4 or 5 months which gave me time to absorb the test material. Well worth the money since I had not seen gen chem or physics in over a decade. The exam krackers book is also good for high yield stuff but Kaplan is more in depth. Their on line exams (kap) are a bit tougher than the real thing but it is curved. My two cents take the kaplan class (which includes their exams and the AMCAS practice exams) and wait until you are scoring what you want before taking the real thing.
Good Luck

 

[Luxian]

I have been out of school for a while now, and I was just wondering for anyone who took the MCAT after being out of school for a while, how did you prepare? What motivated you to really dig in and hit the books again? Did you go back and take classes again? What would anyone with ANY experience in this matter do?

Desperatly looking for help!

I really recommend buying a prep book. I splurged the $100 for the ExamKrackers books and it was totally worth it. I studied in my own time and laid out a little schedule to get through the material in about eight weeks (a little every day goes a long way). The most important thing is to take a lot of practice exams and go over the stuff you don't get to make sure you understand the problem.

P.S. I have my 10th college reunion this spring, so I've been out of school for a while!

 

[lynxtigtab]

What do you all think about retaking courses. My undergrad GPA was something like a 3.3, which isn't great, but not too bad. However, I also have my masters (in a related but different field) and finished with about a 3.8 GPA. Would it do me any good to retake some of the prereq's if I can pull up my science GPA? (I can get tuition reimbursement from my work). I guess I just have a fear that I won't be able to get everything I need out of prep books etc. and teaching myself.

 

[PB2464]

I just started an informal post-bacc this fall and I will be retaking all of the prereqs. Mine are anywhere from 8-12 yrs old. After being out of school so long, I've realized how much I don't remember. There's no way I would've been able to relearn everything on my own.
An added bonus is that I didn't do to well in Org Chem and Phys II the first time around. I'm finding that I'm learning the info in much greater detail this time around, but I'm also a much better student.
Retaking the prereqs just made sense for me.

 

[PB2464]

My undergrad GPA is also around 3.3.

 

[DrMidlife]

AMCAS and TMDSAS offer no forgiveness of the old grade on a retake. It's as if you took a totally separate class.

AACOMAS forgives the old grade, even more than once. So you can have a whole series of attempts and only the last one counts.

So in my view, retakes aren't about GPA, they're about setting yourself up to succeed on the MCAT and to do well in later or upper-div classes. You will hear various stories about whether "old" prereqs are still valid, and there are at least a couple schools that expire them at the 6 year point or so.

I retook gen-chem in my postbac, since I remembered nothing about it from 1988. I didn't retake physics from 1988, since I still remembered stuff. I did >= 10 on each MCAT section, so I really don't think I have a problem. Not that I have any invites yet...

Best of luck to you.

 

[lynxtigtab]

So, just to be clear, you are saying that you think that taking the courses over again in order to use them as a "refresher" for the MCAT, is worth it? Do you think that schools like to see you make the attempt again? I am not so worried about my GPA, because hopefully I will have other things brining my application up since I will be "old" when applying. My main focus is being able to do well on the MCAT.

What about old MCAT scores? I took it nearly four years ago (or maybe five) and did BAD. I know that I wasn't ready to go to med school at the time (at least now) and I think it was my sign to do something else for a while. Hindsight is 20/20. But will schools look at that? Or will those be outdated and not matter?

 

[DrMidlife]

Retaking a prereq is not good MCAT prep. You need to have other reasons to retake a prereq. Such as having been out of school for 10 years, having forgotten the material, and needing to know the material for other classes (and coincidentally, for the MCAT).

If you remember the material, and you took the prereq within the last 5 years (and you're pursuing schools that expire prereqs), and your grade was fine, then you have no reason at all to retake.

Most schools want to see an MCAT score no more than 3 years old. It's computer-based now, so it doesn't take all the live-long day.

 

[montessori2md]

So, just to be clear, you are saying that you think that taking the courses over again in order to use them as a "refresher" for the MCAT, is worth it? Do you think that schools like to see you make the attempt again? I am not so worried about my GPA, because hopefully I will have other things brining my application up since I will be "old" when applying. My main focus is being able to do well on the MCAT.

What about old MCAT scores? I took it nearly four years ago (or maybe five) and did BAD. I know that I wasn't ready to go to med school at the time (at least now) and I think it was my sign to do something else for a while. Hindsight is 20/20. But will schools look at that? Or will those be outdated and not matter?

My experience isn't quite the same as yours, b/c I needed most of the prereqs, but I can (sort of) answer this question.

1) You need to take a practice MCAT (emcat, above, the 3R is free) and see how you score in each section.
2) Taking the extra classes may (see 3) help your science GPA, as well as help prepare you for MCAT and make your application look stronger (adcoms like recent coursework so they know what your current abilities are)
3) If you took lots of science coursework in undergrad, getting a 4.0 on a couple of courses won't help your overall gpa, but it will show overall improvement and serve as an indicator that you are currently capable of the work required of med students.
4) A lot of non-trads on the forum have posted that their masters GPA meant nothing to med school admissions commitees (adcoms).
5) I Think (don't know) that you can't submit an MCAT that is more than 4 years old. But I can't say whether that info is made available to school or not -I personally would call aamc's MCAT phone # and ask.


If you're thinking about applying DO and you do well on the e-mcats (take several to know for sure), you might skip the whole thing, take mcat in jan, and apply.

Think really hard about why you didn't do well on MCAT the first time around. Was it the format? Lack of focus? Just didn't remember the formulas, etc? Because what you do to prepare depends on those factors. Programs like Kaplan and EK that help you think about the format can help, but if it's that you didn't know the information (that was my problem), retaking classes might be the better route. Lack of focus is a less expensive fix 😉