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What MCAT study plan should I use for the new MCAT?
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- Nov 24, 2016
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Hey there,
So I took the new MCAT July of 2015 (scored 514) after I had already studied and taken the old MCAT January 2015 (scored 30)
For the old MCAT I broke my studying into two months, November and December during Junior year. I bought the Kaplan study books secondhand and just worked through two chapters a week per section and a practice test at the end of every week after the first four weeks. In December I ramped it up to 3 chapters a week per section since I was on break.
For the new MCAT I started studying in May using the Princeton Review book. Every day was wake up, work out for an hour, study for four hours an (hour of each section), lunch, 20-50 practice questions in the afternoon, then took the evenings off. Once I ran out of chapters in the book (mid June) I toned it down and just spent 2/3 hours doing practice questions until the exam. The trick is to understand what questions you got wrong and why the right answer is the right answer so that if you come across a similar question you won't get it wrong again.
TL;DR: Spend about a month on the material, then another month on practice questions. Understand why and how, not just what.
So I took the new MCAT July of 2015 (scored 514) after I had already studied and taken the old MCAT January 2015 (scored 30)
For the old MCAT I broke my studying into two months, November and December during Junior year. I bought the Kaplan study books secondhand and just worked through two chapters a week per section and a practice test at the end of every week after the first four weeks. In December I ramped it up to 3 chapters a week per section since I was on break.
For the new MCAT I started studying in May using the Princeton Review book. Every day was wake up, work out for an hour, study for four hours an (hour of each section), lunch, 20-50 practice questions in the afternoon, then took the evenings off. Once I ran out of chapters in the book (mid June) I toned it down and just spent 2/3 hours doing practice questions until the exam. The trick is to understand what questions you got wrong and why the right answer is the right answer so that if you come across a similar question you won't get it wrong again.
TL;DR: Spend about a month on the material, then another month on practice questions. Understand why and how, not just what.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2016
- Messages
- 7,268
- Reaction score
- 14,991
As I remember it, Electricity/Magnetism/Circuits and Optics are both high yield topics, so make sure you know that content cold.
As far as discipline goes, GET A STUDY BUDDY. And no I don't mean a friend of yours who you can study with, I mean someone you kinda sorta know and would be willing to keep on track with you. You both plan out what topics to study each week and then meet at the end of the week to review together (doesn't have to be long just a half hour or an hour). That way you are forced to keep to the schedule or else you're disappointing your partner. Only caveat to this is if you pick a bad study partner, both of you might end up off track which is why I don't suggest a friend you know well and will easily get distracted by.
As far as discipline goes, GET A STUDY BUDDY. And no I don't mean a friend of yours who you can study with, I mean someone you kinda sorta know and would be willing to keep on track with you. You both plan out what topics to study each week and then meet at the end of the week to review together (doesn't have to be long just a half hour or an hour). That way you are forced to keep to the schedule or else you're disappointing your partner. Only caveat to this is if you pick a bad study partner, both of you might end up off track which is why I don't suggest a friend you know well and will easily get distracted by.
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