What is the absolute bar none best way to prepare for the MCAT?

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Step 0: Pay attention to and critically think about all the material you are exposed to in undergrad.
Step 0.5: Be somewhat naturally intelligent.

Step 1: Get a well laid out regimen with books, supplies, practice problems (computerized), and tests (computerized).
Step 2: Study your $%^ off.

The above can be completed through self-study or by throwing money at a test prep company. The more money you throw at a test prep company, the less will power you need (because they lay everything out for you in an easy to digest fashion and provide a structured schedule).

Good luck, it'll be fun if you let it be!
 
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joonage said:
Lots of practice problems. And Adderall.
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Disagree with the Adderall... if you need Adderall to make it through pre-med life then you will die in medical school haha.

To OP: if money was really no object the ultimate way to prep for the MCAT would be to sign yourself and and another person (someone who has gotten a 40+) up for the same prep course. Then, in exchange for paying for their medical school (I'm assuming you are loaded 😉), they could tutor you through every ounce of material and make sure everything makes perfect sense. If you are interested in this route and actually have that kind of money MESSAGE ME IMMEDIATELY 🤣!
 
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Take the MCAT before 2015 if you can. No one is entirely sure what the new test will be like, and our n=0 for anecdotal results on MCAT 2015, so it is impossible to say what will actually work for the new exam.

SN2ed is a solid program, I modified it a bit and scored very well on the MCAT. Expensive test prep companies are a waste of money unless you are very bad at sticking to a structured study plan on your own.
 
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Money isn't needed for MCAT prep. All you really need is TBR sciences, TPR Verbal and online resources. So like $250 that you'll most likely get back when you resell.
 
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Elevencents said:
Money isn't needed for MCAT prep. All you really need is TBR sciences, TPR Verbal and online resources. So like $250 that you'll most likely get back when you resell.
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TBR Gen Chem, Physics, Organic = $210 + $24 shipping = $234
TPRH Verbal Workbook = $50-$150 (highly variable)
AAMC Self-Assessments, Official Guide, and FL 4 Package = $151
AAMC FL's 5, 7-11 = $210

Total: $645 minimum
 
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SN2ed but make tweaks that will serve you. I did not like the hat trick and instead spent more time on verbal. I was absolutely elated when I got my MCAT score back. Seriously, ask anyone within a hundred miles of me. They heard about it.
 
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Get all of the AAMC tests, supplement that with online problems from a company like TPR/Kaplan. Continuously do practice passages with the occasional exam. Use the review books to go over anything that doesn't make sense.
 
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SN2ed's schedule is golden. Plus, do passages after passages after passages. And when you're tired, do some more passages.

The format of the exam is unlike any other type of exam, and will be completely unfamiliar to most students. An often overlooked and underestimated part of the exam is timing, you should have an intuitive understanding of how much time you need when you're at certain points in the exam without having to constantly consult the clock. When you do lots of passages, you'll get the hang of the timing as well as the wording/formatting of the questions. This also prepares you for having to sometimes give up on certain questions in order to cut your losses and make educated guesses, saving your time and effort for other questions.

Use all resources that the AAMC provides. Practice exams, section/topic sample questions, etc. This should be your number 1 resource above all else as it comes straight from the source.
 
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DoctorWhoo said:
Disagree with the Adderall... if you need Adderall to make it through pre-med life then you will die in medical school haha.

To OP: if money was really no object the ultimate way to prep for the MCAT would be to sign yourself and and another person (someone who has gotten a 40+) up for the same prep course. Then, in exchange for paying for their medical school (I'm assuming you are loaded 😉), they could tutor you through every ounce of material and make sure everything makes perfect sense. If you are interested in this route and actually have that kind of money MESSAGE ME IMMEDIATELY 🤣!
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Just a joke. 😛

OP: I do not recommend Adderall or any other drug to study. I do stick with lots and lots of practice problems!
 
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gettheleadout said:
TBR Gen Chem, Physics, Organic = $210 + $24 shipping = $234
TPRH Verbal Workbook = $50-$150 (highly variable)
AAMC Self-Assessments, Official Guide, and FL 4 Package = $151
AAMC FL's 5, 7-11 = $210

Total: $645 minimum
Click to expand...

Doh, forgot about the practice tests. I stand corrected 😉
 
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gettheleadout said:
TBR Gen Chem, Physics, Organic = $210 + $24 shipping = $234
TPRH Verbal Workbook = $50-$150 (highly variable)
AAMC Self-Assessments, Official Guide, and FL 4 Package = $151
AAMC FL's 5, 7-11 = $210

Total: $645 minimum
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I spent $30 on a Barron's book from half price and did fine. Pretending like you "need" to spend hundreds of dollars only reinforces the ridiculous assumption on this website that only rich people can go to med school.
 
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BlueLabel said:
I spent $30 on a Barron's book from half price and did fine. Pretending like you "need" to spend hundreds of dollars only reinforces the ridiculous assumption on this website that only rich people can go to med school.
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absolute, bar none best way

absolute, bar none best way

absolute, bar none best way



if someone asked you the absolute, bar none best way to get from baltimore to cali, I bet it would cost some serious dinero. But you don't have to be rich to cross the country.
 
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Eaglefan said:
absolute, bar none best way

absolute, bar none best way

absolute, bar none best way



if someone asked you the absolute, bar none best way to get from baltimore to cali, I bet it would cost some serious dinero. But you don't have to be rich to cross the country.
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Well, doesn't the definition of "best" have to account for efficiency? There's no necessary correlation between money spent and value extracted. I mean, sure would be sweet to take piloting lessons and buy a gulfstream jet so you could fly yourself from MD to CA but if you really think that's the "best" way to make that trip then I guess we're having different conversations.
 
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BlueLabel said:
I spent $30 on a Barron's book from half price and did fine. Pretending like you "need" to spend hundreds of dollars only reinforces the ridiculous assumption on this website that only rich people can go to med school.
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I was listing prices for the materials elevencents listed in the post I quoted and was replying to.
 
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Everyone has given good advice; I'd like to add something as well.

Start out your initial content review aggressively and in a fashion where you feel most comfortable familiarizing yourself/relearning the material most effectively. For example, Student 1 may learn concepts better via reading (then simply reading a prep book while taking notes would be best in this case), while Student 2 learns better from visual/audio presentations (in this case, Chad's Videos, Audio Osmosis, Freelance Teacher would work). Pick what you respond to better.

After your content review, the rest of your prep should all be learning how to attack the MCAT. This is only done through tons of practice problems.
 
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Or you can do the Kaplan MCAT Summer Intensive Vacation Package at a major city near you (w/ housing and meals) for the price of a car
 
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A mastermind premed group (<5 people) who have the same goals and motivation as you. All should take the AAMC FLs at the same time, do a personal post-game analysis of the test the next couple days, mark questions that are wtf? and hash them out with the fellas in your mastermind group that get it.
 
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I don't think there is a sure-fire 100% guaranteed best way. It all depends on your studying style. Some people do really well with the review classes, but I chose not to do one because that's not my style (and they are expensive). I just bought the EK review books, EK 1001 practice questions books, and the all of the practice exams and reviewed reviewed reviewed. I chose EK because they seem to be more of an overall review, where as some of the other ones seem to be heavy on the details. If I had a book that was heavy on the details I know I'd feel obligated to memorize them all, which is a really easy way to lose focus on the big picture. I know that I learn best by taking practice tests and doing practice problems, especially doing them more than once, which is why I bought the practice question books. I felt that it would be a better to do these questions on my own rather than doing them in conjunction with a class since I didn't think the class was a good use of my time. I was also very fortunate to have friends who were physics and chemistry majors, so if there was something specific I was struggling with I could ask them. I also happened to be taking anatomy and physiology while I was studying for the MCAT and I was a microbiology major so a background in those courses alone prepared me for the biology section better than any book/review course would. But if you don't have a strong background in a particular subject, a review course may be beneficial.

Some people do well studying a lot at a time over a short time frame. I had a friend who studied for 6-8 hours a day for like two to three months in the summer leading up to his MCAT and that worked for him. I started studying 9 months in advance of my MCAT so I could do just about an hour or so a day (until the last month or so where I was doing a lot more) because I retained the information better that way and that worked for me.

I think a lot of people get caught up in how much time they are spent studying instead of how they are spending their time, if that makes sense. More hours spent studying doesn't equate to a better score if you aren't using that time efficiently. I started out studying by obsessively reading every detail of every section, even if I knew it really well already, fearing that I'd miss some minor point that I didn't already know. But there is only a finite amount of time to study, so every minute I spent studying stuff I already knew really well was a minute I wasn't spending on studying stuff I didn't know quite so well. Identify your strengths and your weaknesses, and spend more time on your weaknesses. If you are a thermodynamics genius, don't waste your time studying thermodynamics, even if you're cousins-best friend's-girlfriend said she spent 50 hours studying every chapter in the book and got a 40. It is unlikely that putting several more hours into a subject you already know really well is going to raise your score substantially. Instead spend that time on things you haven't mastered as well (I kept a little log of what types of questions I got wrong while doing practice problems/tests, which made it easy to see any developing patterns like "hey, I really suck at equilibrium problems, maybe I should review that again.")
 
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What kind of scoring are you aiming for (i.e, need in order to get into medical school taking into consideration the rest of your application) and how much time do you have to devote to the MCAT? Good questions to consider before deciding a method.
 
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I think that if commercial test prep companies didn't provide any value they wouldn't be in business. Your professors in college teach their subject manner in any way they please, particularly if they are tenured. The commercial prep courses optimize their teaching for the MCAT. It's important to take plenty of practice exams to 1) desensitize yourself to anxiety and 2) build stamina. The MCAT is the only exam that I have ever taken where I walked out of it convinced that I had failed it.
 
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gaspasser2004 said:
I think that if commercial test prep companies didn't provide any value they wouldn't be in business. Your professors in college teach their subject manner in any way they please, particularly if they are tenured. The commercial prep courses optimize their teaching for the MCAT...
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I agree that they provide value, but only that they provide value for some people. I don't like encouraging the notion that just because these companies exist, you have to take a class to do well on the MCAT, and that anyone who doesn't take a class is setting themselves up for failure. I couldn't count the number of times people looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I wasn't taking a class. I had people who have never even thought about going to medical school tell me that I must take a class because so-and-so that they know took one and did well on the MCAT. By all means, if you have the time and the money and you think a class would be beneficial to you, take one. But don't feel like you have to take one to do well.
 
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people really think an elite study group is the way to go to supplement self prep? I have access to friends that spanked this thing...one guy got a 42, other guy is awaiting scores but was hitting 38-43 on his aamc diagnostics (his weakness is verbal, every PS/BS he took were 13-15). Won't be hard for me to make them each spend an hour twice a week tutoring me. Just take problems then hammer them for answers on the concepts I don't get? I feel like 99% of the MCAT material is so straight fwd I can watch a Khan video and self teach anything remotely hazy.
 
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Derpz said:
people really think an elite study group is the way to go to supplement self prep? I have access to friends that spanked this thing...one guy got a 42, other guy is awaiting scores but was hitting 38-43 on his aamc diagnostics (his weakness is verbal, every PS/BS he took were 13-15). Won't be hard for me to make them each spend an hour twice a week tutoring me. Just take problems then hammer them for answers on the concepts I don't get? I feel like 99% of the MCAT material is so straight fwd I can watch a Khan video and self teach anything remotely hazy.
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lolwut
 
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