What Was Your Study Plan For The Mcat?

[Miss155]

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Hi

I was wondering for the ones who took the MCAT and did well, what was your specific study plan? Thanks.

 

[Doc Ivy]

All I can say is that I treated it like a summer job. So M-F from April to August I found myself a quiet spot in the library stacks and studied from 9-5 or 6 at night. I completely took the evenings off. For the first 6 weeks I just did a general survey through the materials (I took Kaplan), then for the remainder of the time I focused my studies with the subject tests, and followed that up with half length exams (not timed) and then finished strong for the last 2-3 weeks with timed full length exams. Oh, and because I took Kaplan I was able to do a mock MCAT about once a month---this was critical to monitoring my progress, getting my timing right, and fine tuning my test strategy (i.e. bubble as you go vs. leave it to the end, do passages in order vs. picking the easiest ones first, that kind of thing)

 

[Asclepius]

that's precisely what I did...I took individual sections untimed rather than half tests, however, and I had the e-MCAT prep stuff so I could run diagnostics on my performance then concentrate on my weaker areas. I think it's good to immerse yourself in the studying...

 

[umass rower]

No lie, I started reviewing for the MCAT a week and a half before the April test. I didn't really have the liberty of spending vast quantities of time reviewing, since a) I'm on crew, which is a 40 hour a week commitment, and the test was in the middle of my spring racing season, and b) I have to work full-time on all my breaks, because I'm paying my own way through school. I ended up doing only one practice test on each section, and did 0 studying beyond looking up some formulas for physics E&M that I'd forgotten in the 3 years since I'd taken it in high school as an AP class.

Despite my lack of preparation, I got a 33. I wouldn't recommend that course of action though if you want a good score. If you want to do well, get a couple of different books and work on them consistently. I would suggest doing an alternating day thing. Day 1-take a practice section, and afterwards identify the questions you got wrong and the general areas that you were weak in. Day 2-study material from your weak area. Every now and then throw in a full practice test.

Now that my advice is done, I'm going to go on a tangential rant that's going to piss off a lot of people who prepared for the MCAT at great length and/or whose entire life revolves around getting into medical school. To the Yale woman (and anyone else who did similar preparation) who worked on the MCAT as a full-time job for an entire summer-- get a life! Do you realize that from what you said, you spent almost 900 hours of your life studying for ONE TEST?! There's an infinitely large (and continuously expanding) universe to explore, and you spent half of your waking time for an entire summer looking at 6 square feet of it, and didn't even get paid for your efforts. For people who have that kind of free time, I have a few recommendations for better ways to spend it: find a hobby, get a job, exercise, read a book (one that doesn't say Kaplan on the cover), go to a concert, take a class that has nothing to do with medicine, just do something to LIVE a little bit (which requires more than just having a pulse)!

Maybe I'm naive, but half the stuff I did in college has been completely useless for admission into medical school, but even if somehow I don't get in anywhere, I wouldn't consider a second of the time I spent doing "other" stuff wasted.

 

[Woots32]

I took Kaplan. I went to all the classroom lessons, took all the full-length tests, and occasionally went to the center to take some of the section/topical tests. I hard-core started studying a week or two before - pretty much crammed by going over my weakest areas. I can see how this wouldn't work for everyone though. 😉

 

[Jonkst]

I messed up in my study strategy, and it seemed to work really well. I signed up for an april exam, studied for it and took kaplan. I probably studied moderately hard, like 2 hours a day for a month or so. Then I backed out, and then took some time off. When I started studying for Aug (a month before), I wasn't burned out of MCATs, but I already knew most of the material. Then I went all out for the august, and made studying as much of my life as I could, with work and what not. Probably 4-5 hours a week 5 days a week.

Good luck to ya

 

[Bounty]

I took it in the summer - went to my classes 4 mornings a week (Berkeley Review). Then i tried to study when i got home but i ended up falling asleep out on the sundeck in my bathing suit. Oops. Then everyone who was living in my house would come home from their jobs with beers and my study day was officially over.

Taking it in the summer was tough but then again, i dont think i could have been able to do it during the school year.

I found that going to all my classes and paying somewhat good attention paid off. Oh yeah, and cramming intensely the week before. As other people have said, this strategy might not work for everyone.

 

[idq1i]

I went through pertinent undergrad books to read over important topics. I also read the Kaplan book cover to cover. Took about 4 weeks.

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by umass rower

Despite my lack of preparation, I got a 33. I wouldn't recommend that course of action though if you want a good score. If you want to do well, get a couple of different books and work on them consistently. I would suggest doing an alternating day thing. Day 1-take a practice section, and afterwards identify the questions you got wrong and the general areas that you were weak in. Day 2-study material from your weak area. Every now and then throw in a full practice test.

Now that my advice is done, I'm going to go on a tangential rant that's going to piss off a lot of people who prepared for the MCAT at great length and/or whose entire life revolves around getting into medical school. To the Yale woman (and anyone else who did similar preparation) who worked on the MCAT as a full-time job for an entire summer-- get a life! Do you realize that from what you said, you spent almost 900 hours of your life studying for ONE TEST?! There's an infinitely large (and continuously expanding) universe to explore, and you spent half of your waking time for an entire summer looking at 6 square feet of it, and didn't even get paid for your efforts. For people who have that kind of free time, I have a few recommendations for better ways to spend it: find a hobby, get a job, exercise, read a book (one that doesn't say Kaplan on the cover), go to a concert, take a class that has nothing to do with medicine, just do something to LIVE a little bit (which requires more than just having a pulse)!

Hey bro...sorry we're not all jacka$$ geniuses like you.

More power to you for being able to study a week and pull a good score. But don't tell people who may have put in more time studying that they need to "get a life." I highly doubt doc ivy had "no life" despite all the time she put in studying for the test. In fact I know a lot of other people who put in whole summers too. Tell all of them they don't have lives either. I put in a whole summer of 9-5 studying as well. I still juggled my life at the same time too. 9-5 isn't 24hrs of the day. It may not have been anywhere near as much time as you spent but hey...more power to ya for being the genius that you are...but it certainly doesn't mean that people who spent more time than you don't have lives outside of the kaplan mcat book.

Ok..sorry to all you sdners for my bitching...uncharacteristic of me. 🙂

i will now return to my regular self...and have fun. 🙂

 

[carrigallen]

just wondering..are you uclaman2000?

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by carrigallen
just wondering..are you uclaman2000?

who is uclaman2000? nope...not him. i'm just plain old uclaman. 🙂
Why do you ask?

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by Bounty
I took it in the summer - went to my classes 4 mornings a week (Berkeley Review). Then i tried to study when i got home but i ended up falling asleep out on the sundeck in my bathing suit. Oops. Then everyone who was living in my house would come home from their jobs with beers and my study day was officially over.

Daja Vu

 

[neil7818]

Hey umass rower,

While it's wonderful that you pulled a good score on the MCAT, I would, in my extremly naive opinion consider it a tremendous waste of talent (and possibly money)..

Look at it this way, you received an 33 on the MCAT with diminutive studying, imagine what you could have gotten had you studied full time? A 39? Maybe a 42? Whatever the score, it would have been substantially better. Now what would that score have gotten you - perhaps scholarship money (possibly saving you more that you would have made that summer)? Or maybe admission in to a more selective school (arguably allowing more research/other options)?

Regardless of the result, without putting in full effort you're cheating yourself - see, I'm a going to be a freshman in a B.S/M.D program, and the only standardized test I've taken is the SAT's. Now, first time I took it cold junior year I pulled 1440 - decent score - but my parents grilled it into me, that whatever score you get without studying should be doubled through effort, well I took their advice and ended up with a 1560 - now, granted I put a lot of effort into it, but it sure opened up many many doors (I'm saving 60k off education and got accepted into a Howards 6-year). Now, that's my anecdote and I'm sure many people would chastise me for "cheating the test" etc. but hard work always, always pays off.

Anyways, sorry for sounding didactic, but it's just frustrating when I see extremly talented people not maximize their potential through diligence.

Yup, that's my input. Feel free to chastise away. 😎

 

[umass rower]

I wasn't saying that I wouldn't have done better with studying, but an entire summer devoted to a test? Even if I didn't work so that I can stay in school, if I was doing that much studying I would expect my friends to beat me up and drag me outside on a regular basis.

IF I had time to play with, I would have started about one month before the exam, spent about 3 hours on it a night, and if I had sucked on the MCAT, I would've taken it as a strong hint that maybe being a doctor wasn't meant for me. Even if I had 900 hours of my life to throw away, I wouldn't spend them preparing for a test. Would I have 900 hours to prepare for a delicate surgical procedure? Not likely. I'm not hell-bent on getting into the "best" medical school in the country. As has been stated elsewhere in this forum by other people, the curriculum at schools for the first two years is essentially the same everywhere; anatomy is anatomy physiology is physiology, and the material is not going to be any different at Harvard, Stanford, or Podunk U. I don't need a famous name on my diploma to inflate my ego (most would say it's big enough already 🙂 ). I'm looking for a school that will have a relatively relaxed and cooperative learning environment, because I feel that cutthroat competition is a sign of hopelessly confused priorities.

I apologize for sounding like a jacka$$, but I never said that all studying is bad--I even said that I don't recommend the prep that I did. But seriously, if I considered studying for a test to be the best use of an entire summer, I would start seriously re-evaluating my priorities.

 

[thackl]

Originally posted by umass rower
I wasn't saying that I wouldn't have done better with studying, but an entire summer devoted to a test?

I put in significantly more effort than rower, but a lot less than some on this thread. I think a student should put as much effort as is required to reach their goal. I knew all along, I only needed a 30 and studied at a 33-34 level to ensure it. Now I also hadn't taken intro bio, org 2 or org lab. This is where the bulk of my studying was spent. Anyway, if I had been scoring in the mid 30's w/o studying then I would have shared rower's attitude (well, maybe not all of it). Even with a 42, I would have still applied to the same school and still would have only needed a 30. Just my $0.02.

BTW, I'm not calling anyone a dork or a nerd for putting in 900hrs. Ask any Dr, resident or med student and they will all tell you the MCAT is the most important/stressful (maybe not hardest) of all the tests. The most difficult part is getting in. Once in, there is something like a 96% chance you will finish and become a Dr. Do your best

 

[enamine]

Originally posted by neil7818


Look at it this way, you received an 33 on the MCAT with diminutive studying, imagine what you could have gotten had you studied full time? A 39? Maybe a 42? Whatever the score, it would have been substantially better. Now what would that score have gotten you - perhaps scholarship money (possibly saving you more that you would have made that summer)? Or maybe admission in to a more selective school (arguably allowing more research/other options)?

Who cares?? As long as this person is happy with their score, I think that is all that counts.

 

[ice_23]

UMass, I don't think it's fair for you to ask people who work hard to "get a life." If studying for the MCAT's is important to them, then there is no need for you to assert some sort of qualitative judgment on that choice. Perhaps you don't want to get into some top tier school, but other people may have that goal for other reasons (i.e. better residency spots, amazing research opportunities, etc.) and sometimes it takes dedication to get there, as you would know being an athlete. Let's not rag on other people's choices and other people's hardwork simply because they don't fit in with your ideas of fun and a life. It's their life, so respect it.