What's the longest you've heard someone study for the MCAT?

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grindtime1

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I ask because one of my buddies told me he studied for one year and got a 42. Not sure whether I should believe him, but don't see any reason for him to lie about it.

Anyone else heard anything ridiculous like this?

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While studying for VR sharpens your skill, there's not much to gain for years invested in studying for BS and PS. The problem with studying too long is that you tend to forget what you've learned. So if you have time, just start studying for VR.
 
I don't know what you guys are talkin' 'bout. I got my DEGREE in MCAT (w/ a double major in Pre-Medical Sciences) from Hahvahd:
 

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The MCAT is an easy exam that mostly only tests basic science knowledge and intuition. One only needs to review a few days to get 35+.
 
The MCAT is an easy exam that mostly only tests basic science knowledge and intuition. One only needs to review a few days to get 35+.
Yea...that's not true.

Considering you joined the site recently and you only have 4 posts, half of which are bragging about how great you scored on the MCAT and how "easy" it is, I'm going to go ahead and say you're a troll.

Just reviewing content only takes you so far. Practice passages and practice AAMCs are where you really learn how to tackle the MCAT. And these take a heck of a lot longer than a "few days."
 
It only takes a few practice AAMCs to guage the type of exam the MCAT is. All in all, depending on how removed you are from the prereq materials, you need at most a week to prepare.
 
Yea...that's not true.

Considering you joined the site recently and you only have 4 posts, half of which are bragging about how great you scored on the MCAT and how "easy" it is, I'm going to go ahead and say you're a troll.

Just reviewing content only takes you so far. Practice passages and practice AAMCs are where you really learn how to tackle the MCAT. And these take a heck of a lot longer than a "few days."

Pretty sure he was being facetious like 80% of the other posts in this thread.
 
aamc sent me a letter banning me from taking the mcat because they dind't want me ot break the curve.
 
I ask because one of my buddies told me he studied for one year and got a 42. Not sure whether I should believe him, but don't see any reason for him to lie about it.

Anyone else heard anything ridiculous like this?



Yes. I heard of a guy at my school that studied right out high school (AP all the med school prereq) and got a 42. Regardless, what people believe I think it is benificial after a certain prereq you go through some MCAT passages that are related. It is a good assemement if you are learning what are suppose to learn. Like many will say on this forum during prereq you start studying for your MCAT. Why not see where you are at by taking practice questions after each class... I suggest 1001 question by EK.
 
Yes. I heard of a guy at my school that studied right out high school (AP all the med school prereq) and got a 42.

Was the guy named Doogie? Just saying. :smuggrin:

ETA: For those who may not get this joke, it's an old TV show about some genius doc out of med school at really young age. I'm obviously being sarcastic here.
 
I'm being serious though.
Yea, it might work for you but it doesn't work for 99.9% of MCAT-takers. Most schools don't "teach to the MCAT." So you really shouldn't be doling out advice that won't work for most people and in fact, has a chance to hurt them (if they do follow your advice).
 
Was the guy named Doogie? Just saying. :smuggrin:

ETA: For those who may not get this joke, it's an old TV show about some genius doc out of med school at really young age. I'm obviously being sarcastic here.

Just played the theme song in my head. Is it okay if i cite doogie howser as the reason i want to be a doctor?
 
One of my first students was parking cars for a living after finishing his degree at one of the colleges in Atlanta. He had been taking the MCAT over and over again for three years and I was tutoring him for his fourth the second year after I started doing this stuff. Because it was his fourth MCAT, he had needed to write to AAMC to be able to sit again. This was 1994, whatever year the baseball strike was, when the braves had just settled into the first years with the starting rotation of Maddox, Glavine, and Smoltz in their prime, and Ken Griffey Jr. had a chance at the home run record. It was late in a really good season when the strike occurred, so we both swore that we would never give a crap about Major League Baseball for the rest of our lives and we shook on it. We were standing outside taking a break from working together. He was one of the one-on-one students in the MCAT Academy days before I starting working in biotech and moved MCAT to the garage in 2000. He confessed that the test we were preparing for was his fourth MCAT. Now he is a doctor, of course, or I wouldn't have told the story! He was diligent. After the MCAT we both almost had a nervous breakdown when they came back with a 6 on VR, but he was able to convince somebody at AAMC to manually check his scantron and they actually repaired his score to an 11. He had skipped one!
 
3 to 4 month max on a lite schedule. Any more then that and you're just wasting time.

If you have good intelligence and background, this may be true for meeting your MCAT goals, but if you think of MCAT preparation as the final stage in the process of making your general science knowledge base worthy of a doctor, you will understand that MCAT preparation is really about reviewing the core knowledge to be absolutely confident that your understanding of general science is comprehensive and fluent when you take your chair on the first day of medical school. The AAMC is your friend here because the MCAT is a good test over the general science human biology curriculum. I really believe that MCAT preparation is a lot more interesting if you are confident enough to make it not a matter of grades or admissions but of your individual existential sense of responsibility to your future patients. If you become a doctor, it will be because the preparation of your general science knowledge base has been a project of many teachers. It began the day your 2nd grade teacher explained that matter is composed of atoms and it will end when you sit in class as a first year, because then you won't be learning science but medicine. Whether or not you will be able to ask pertinent questions in medical school depends on MCAT preparation, and also later in your career whether or not you will understand health and illness in an effective way for your patients let alone develop new treatments or devices.
 
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