Voided MCAT. Need NEW study plan

[LuminousTruth]

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So I voided my 8/17 MCAT and I am planning to defer to the Jan date. I need help in developing a new study plan that is more effective than my first one.

- I studied from May to August (full 3 months) 7-8 hours a day for 6 days a week
- I have taken the TPR MCAT prep course and did all of the Science WB assignments
- I have taken AAMC 3-5 with an average of 25 and TPR 1-5 with an average of 19
(My AAMC breakdown has been PS: 9-10, BS:7-9, VR: 6-8)
- I have taken the AAMC Assessment with scores of an average of 75% in each section

I just got TBR so I will use it for practice passages and I still have 2/d of EK Verbal. I'll be taking courses so my time will be limited. The first time around, I felt like I was studying blindly, trying to complete all the assignments before the next assignment date. I forced myself to try and finish the assignments at all costs, even at the expense of understanding the passages. HOWEVER, I've only been getting an average of around 1-2 wrong per passage.

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1) How should I modify SN2ed Schedule so I don't waste my preparation the first time around?

2) Should I just follow SN2ed 4 month Schedule without modifications?

3) How would you study smartly and not blindly in this case?

4) Any suggestions or experiences?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Just out of curiosity, why did you void?

 

[angldrps]

I would follow the SN2 schedule. You should, however, modify it as you shouldn't have to spend as much time doing content review. Instead, modify in a way where 80% of your study time involves practice, practice, practice. Get the TBR FL exams so you have new FLs to practice with. Do TBR passages in phases so you can span all the passages over a 4 month period.

 

[Pigglyjuff]

Just out of curiosity, why did you void?

Probably cause the 8/17 test was a behemoth beyond words. Test sucked 🙁

 

[pfaction]

It seems that all the summer tests are horrible pitfalls. People wtih 5's and stuff in Verbal out of NOWHERE

 

[LuminousTruth]

It seems that all the summer tests are horrible pitfalls. People wtih 5's and stuff in Verbal out of NOWHERE

Probably cause the 8/17 test was a behemoth beyond words. Test sucked 🙁

Just out of curiosity, why did you void?

Practice scores were not competitive.

I would follow the SN2 schedule. You should, however, modify it as you shouldn't have to spend as much time doing content review. Instead, modify in a way where 80% of your study time involves practice, practice, practice. Get the TBR FL exams so you have new FLs to practice with. Do TBR passages in phases so you can span all the passages over a 4 month period.

Would you say 1 chapter a day to be a good amount? I'm having trouble visualizing the phases. Does phase 1 mean the first week, and second phase the second week, etc? Would there be enough time doing/reviewing practice passages the same topics cumulatively?

 

[angldrps]

Practice scores were not competitive.



Would you say 1 chapter a day to be a good amount? I'm having trouble visualizing the phases. Does phase 1 mean the first week, and second phase the second week, etc? Would there be enough time doing/reviewing practice passages the same topics cumulatively?

No phases doesn't go by weeks. Phases lumps up certain passages together. I think the TBR books have a page before the first passage of each chapter that goes over how the phases are divided. I think the first phase includes passages that you should do right after you finish reading a chapter and then another phase is the passages you should do after you have gone over other chapters as these passages test you on multiple chapter concepts together. My memory of TBR books is bit hazy as its been over a year so I think you should either call them or PM someone who recently used TBR books.

EDIT: Today is your lucky day. I just found the schedule that TBR uses in their MCAT prep classes. It tells you exactly when to do which passages. hope it helps

 

[LuminousTruth]

No phases doesn't go by weeks. Phases lumps up certain passages together. I think the TBR books have a page before the first passage of each chapter that goes over how the phases are divided. I think the first phase includes passages that you should do right after you finish reading a chapter and then another phase is the passages you should do after you have gone over other chapters as these passages test you on multiple chapter concepts together. My memory of TBR books is bit hazy as its been over a year so I think you should either call them or PM someone who recently used TBR books.

EDIT: Today is your lucky day. I just found the schedule that TBR uses in their MCAT prep classes. It tells you exactly when to do which passages. hope it helps

Thanks, I appreciate it!

The phases are directly incorporated in the SDN schedule right?

And how should I use TBR full lengths? I finished content review with TPR but should I wait until I do more passages of TBR since everyone says TBR full lengths were very hard?

Also, any more specific suggestions or comments with scheduling will be appreciated.

 

[angldrps]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

The phases are directly incorporated in the SDN schedule right?

And how should I use TBR full lengths? I finished content review with TPR but should I wait until I do more passages of TBR since everyone says TBR full lengths were very hard?

Also, any more specific suggestions or comments with scheduling will be appreciated.

I didn't use SDN's schedule so I can't answer any specific questions about it. I have heard a lot of good reviews on it so thats why I recommended it to you. Save TBR full length until two months before your test date. My test date was in January too. I was taking Kaplan FLs and AAMC FLs for the last two months and leaving two days in between each FL. The first day after my FL, I would spend hours reviewing every single question using this strategy http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=786361. Then on the next day I would do practice problems on the specific concepts I missed questions on. Then, the following day I would take another FL and repeat the strategy all over again. I alternated between taking Kaplan FL and AAMC Fls because since this was my retake, I knew I shouldn't rely just on AAMC FLs as most of these are simply too easy. Alternating Kaplan Fls with AAMC ones helped me practice with the difficult kaplan questions. During my first attempt at the MCAT, I did use TBR but made the mistake of spending 80% time doing content review and very little practice. For my retake, I spent majority of my time doing practice material and raised my score by 10 points. TBR FLs are definitely difficult but also makeup excellent practice material. The same goes for their book passages, especially the ones in gchem and physics. I would also recommend you to NOT to use TBR for bio and ochem content review. It is ridiculously detailed and you would be wasting your time trying to memorize all the unnecessay info.Just use the TBR bio and ochem book to do the book passages. For bio and ochem content review, I recommend either the TPR books or the EK books. These give you all the info you need w/o going into unnecessary details.

 

[couldabeenadoc]

It seems that all the summer tests are horrible pitfalls. People wtih 5's and stuff in Verbal out of NOWHERE

That's an interesting theory/observation. I'd be curious to see statistical score data from winter/spring vs. summer/fall MCAT exams. I'd have to agree that there seemed to be more surprised test takers over the course of this summer. But it may be the aamc gearing up for the 2015 "change", somehow trying to justify the new exam format? Who knows.