What do you think of my 8 week plan?

[cmF]

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Hello all,

I've got 8 full weeks to nail this thing. What do you think of my plan?

Current Materials: KBB, Chad's, DAT Destroyer Book, Math Destroyer Book, OChem Destroyer Book, 7 DAT Achiever Tests, Cliffs Bio.

Black = Lecture Notes/Study Week
Blue = Test Question/Problem Week

Week N/A: Chad's General Chemistry Lecture Notes and Quizes
Week N/A: General Chemistry Destroyer Problem Sets
(Spent the last 14 days on General Chemistry, so I really have 10 weeks )

Week 1: Chad's Organic Chemistry Lecture Notes and Quizes
Week 2: Organic Chemistry Destroyer

Week 3: Chad's Quantitative Reasoning Lecture Notes and Quizes
Week 4: Quantitative Reasoning Destroyer Book

Week 5: KBB Biology Notes, Cliffs AP Bio Notes
Week 6: Answer KBB and ADA 2007, 2009 Bio Questions. Also Review OChem and QR to keep things fresh.

Week 7: General Chemistry Review (My Worst Section 😡)
Week 8: DAT Achiever Tests #1-7 (Figure I'll get most my RC and PAT in here)

I don't have any reason to believe there's anything wrong with this plan but this forum is full of wonderful people with good advice, so I'm just putting it out there. Thanks!

 

[KyoPhan]

Two main suggestions I feel could improve it:

1) I don't think a week for PAT is near enough to do well, unless you are already really familiar with the PAT.

2) Spread the material. Don't just do all chem at one time, all math in another, etc. You are going to forget how to do the material. I think this will be most evident in math in that your speed will deminish after not seeing the problem after a while. But I still think this greatly applies applies to other sections.

 

[Glimmer1991]

I bet that you are an intelligent and highly-motivated person and that you COULD make this work. However, I don't like this schedule one bit because I personally know it would not have prepared me well. 🙂 Everyone has different learning styles and I realize that, but I see that people on this site with the highest scores typically have a similar format to their studies.

MAIN THING: Do not spend one week on a specific thing and then move on to the next. Firstly, by doing this, you will forget all of the early stuff by the time your test rolls around. Secondly, you will be BORED OUT OF YOUR MIND. Every day, study and review a little bit of everything. Even if you're only putting in 4-5 hour days, you have ample time to do that. I'd watch a section of GC videos, do the quizzes, watch a section of OC videos, do the quizzes, do a chapter in both of my AP biology books, do the quizzes. I would alternate doing QR or PAT practice every other day. I basically even kept this same format even after I had gone through everything the first time; I was just able to get more in per day at that point because I was learning less info (more stuck with me than I thought after my first time through!). I seriously can't imagine studying only biology for one week. Kill me.

Okay, so I realize that first suggestion kind of messes up everything you had planned, and I'm sorry about that. If you take my advice, though, you will thank me later.

Now, on to some positives: I think an 8-week study schedule is a great amount of time. If you're willing to put in 6-hour days, you'll be set.

I would wait to do the Destroyer and practice tests until the last 2 weeks of your studying. You're only going to frustrate yourself and mess up your confidence if you try any earlier.

Personally, I had a very strange study schedule because I never took a practice test. Most people swear by them, but I knew that for me, they wouldn't be beneficial. I always do better on the real deal than practice exams, and plus, I would have rather spent my time reviewing entire concepts than just looking at isolated problems that only teach you little isolated facts about a topic. Even the Destroyer, to me, was a waste of time in retrospect. It was much harder than the real deal, and I didn't need it's help to be able to apply what I learned to questions. On the other hand, the Math Destroyer was actually very helpful, although I never learned how to do the really hard stuff. Unless you're looking for a 25+ on QR, I wouldn't worry myself with anything in it that seems ridiculous. Also, make sure you watch Chad's QR videos before you do the Math Destroyer--he'll give you a pretty good foundation to build on.

Oh, also: KBB sucks. Don't use it. Buy Barron's AP biology, and use that along with the Cliff's AP. You'll be set. KBB is so boring, but on the other hand, I actually enjoyed reading Barron's AP (as much as I could possibly enjoy reading a bio book, lol!).

Let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂

 

[cmF]

Thanks for the suggestions! I purposely grouped GC for two weeks, OC for two weeks, QR for two weeks, Bio for two weeks, etc. because I'm afraid I won't absorb the material if I'm switching gears with different subjects every day. dentalWorks 8-week schedule gave me a headache just looking at it. Is it just me or was anyone else skeptical of this method at first? But then worked out really well for them?