whats with all the people in 30+ thread studying only 2-3 hours/day?

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
mcatdestroyer

mcatdestroyer

Membership Revoked
Removed
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
122
Reaction score
0
EXPLAIN_f3f71f_103575.jpg
Members don't see this ad.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
2-3 hours of concentrated study>>>>>>15 hours of "studying" while browsing Facebook, SDN, Netfix, etc

Also, the stress will be way lower if you do stuff other than stare at MCAT materials all day, so you won't feel burnt out as badly as someone who does nothing but MCAT.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
V5RED said:
2-3 hours of concentrated study>>>>>>15 hours of "studying" while browsing Facebook, SDN, Netfix, etc

Also, the stress will be way lower if you do stuff other than stare at MCAT materials all day, so you won't feel burnt out as badly as someone who does nothing but MCAT.
Click to expand...

but come on 2-3 hours for only like 2 months and people are getting 35+. this is outside the norm am i right??
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
I studied 2-3 hours per day during the week, 10-12 hours per day on the weekends. 33Q.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was taking a full course load so I would finish class, work out, then do my school work..eat dinner and have the rest of the night to study ~3-4 hours of studying a night-35Q
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If someone studied 8hrs a day and got a 30, then you better believe that they're going to post in the 30+ mcat thread with a method of 3hrs a day and a score of 35. It's human nature :smuggrin:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Fivo said:
If someone studied 8hrs a day and got a 30, then you better believe that they're going to post in the 30+ mcat thread with a method of 3hrs a day and a score of 35. It's human nature :smuggrin:
Click to expand...

This :thumbup::thumbup:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well if we are reporting our "average study time" and this includes light study days or days off then I'd be around there. Though days where I do "full study" it's 5-8 hours.I've taken all the aamc practice exams with a range of 32-38 and average of 35.2. I have my real thing on Saturday(yikes) and will be sure to screen cap my score to make sure it can be believed once it comes. Regardless...some people can study less and learn as much as someone studied more. Also an hour for one person may be extremely fruitful and for another is merely their warm up period.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
If you consistently study 3 hours/day for 3 months, that's 250 hours. I think 250 hours of concentrated, efficient study time could do wonders.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
glassdoll said:
If you consistently study 3 hours/day for 3 months, that's 250 hours. I think 250 hours of concentrated, efficient study time could do wonders.
Click to expand...

I remember hearing the average student taking the MCAT will spend about 300 hours studying/preparing for it, so this sounds about right.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Guys, no one is denying that there are people who study little and get a great score. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking everyone posting in that thread or any of the other threads haven't exaggerated their scores or underplayed their amount of studying hours. Of course not everyone is doing this but I'd bet there are quite a few

Btw OP, good luck with your lifting goals in 2012

loony pls
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Fivo said:
Guys, no one is denying that there are people who study little and get a great score. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking everyone posting in that thread or any of the other threads haven't exaggerated their scores or underplayed their amount of studying hours. Of course not everyone is doing this but I'd bet there are quite a few

Btw OP, good luck with your lifting goals in 2012

loony pls
Click to expand...

Do you even lift?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Practice alone takes up majority of your time. Say, if you do 6 passages that's already an hr. It takes another hour to go over and learn some stuff. Not sure how ppl can study for 2/3 hrs. However, rote memorization for 2/3hrs sound more like it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
enigmalti said:
Practice alone takes up majority of your time. Say, if you do 6 passages that's already an hr. It takes another hour to go over and learn some stuff. Not sure how ppl can study for 2/3 hrs. However, rote memorization for 2/3hrs sound more like it.
Click to expand...
Well, here's what I did. I read and reread the chapters in my prep books. Then, after doing that, I just practiced and practiced. All I did was check to see if I got the questions right, and I briefly went over what I got wrong, not what I got right. I did a full length every other week during the last two months, and I just read the AMCAS explanation for what I got wrong (except verbal). After my initial reading of the chapters, I did an hour of practice every night. My weekends were heavy on practice. I also, out of the full lengths, completely ignored verbal and never did a practice passage in verbal (still got a 13 on verbal). I just focused on my weaknesses, which you can zone in on when doing tons of practice. During the last two weeks, I mainly just focused on going over the chapters that focused on my weaknesses. Ended up with a 37. Some weeks it was more, but I averaged about 3 hours of studying a day. Practice is the key.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
SoulinNeed said:
Well, here's what I did. I read and reread the chapters in my prep books. Then, after doing that, I just practiced and practiced. All I did was check to see if I got the questions right, and I briefly went over what I got wrong, not what I got right. I did a full length every other week during the last two months, and I just read the AMCAS explanation for what I got wrong (except verbal). After my initial reading of the chapters, I did an hour of practice every night. My weekends were heavy on practice. I also, out of the full lengths, completely ignored verbal and never did a practice passage in verbal (still got a 13 on verbal). I just focused on my weaknesses, which you can zone in on when doing tons of practice. During the last two weeks, I mainly just focused on going over the chapters that focused on my weaknesses. Ended up with a 37. Some weeks it was more, but I averaged about 3 hours of studying a day. Practice is the key.
Click to expand...

I guess you're one of the rare cases. Your verbal was already exceptionally strong, thus you didn't need to practice verbal. Reading is a big part for the MCAT b/c it's passage based. If you nailed verbal, everything else just need a little memorization and practice. For majority of the test takers or English was not their primary language, they have to invest a lot more than just 3 hrs a day of studying.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think the review time.

I do 6 passages x 7 min = 42 min

If I get 80% then I'm like 1 wrong per passage.

Doesn't take long to review 1 question, plus, I also review the correct ones but can just skip through msot of them if I knew the answer right away.


Example, if it asks me for voltage and gives me current and resistance and I got it right, I just skip reviewing that question
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I did 2 2-hour blocks, with a break or time to chill with friends.

I'd go through passages, and then the next hour I'd spend reviewing the material I got wrong. and I typically did 2 subjects/day, alternating. And verbal being hard as it is, I just practiced that every day. 35R
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't get how some people study all day. I can only do 2 hrs at most and then I get bored or distracted. I did that for 3 months and ended up with a 35
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Honestly, I think it's how you study that matters. I studied for 6 weeks with a full time job so I averaged only 3-4 hours a night. Some nights I'm so exhausted I don't even bother with studying. On weekends, I spent maybe 6-8 hours a day but sometimes I get mentally drained and end up relaxing with friends instead. The trick for me was to relearn EVERYTHING (bio, chem, physics) within the first 2 weeks and taking notes (especially for the bio section). For the next 4 weeks, all I did were practice passages. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. I can't emphasize this enough. If I could have shortened my relearning to a week, I would have done that to gain an extra week of just taking practice tests. You learn WAY more efficiently by doing practice problems. You're essentially drilling the information into your head. I ended up taking my last week off from work to study full time which also helped a lot. And I took my first full length in the last week as well. I ended up only doing 10 full lengths but I suppose that was sufficient. I kind of screwed up with Verbal because I only spent the last week working on it knowing full well that verbal would be my weakest section. I just thought that my Bio and Phys scores would be more important. If I did it again, I would start doing verbal from the very beginning. Honestly, it's not impossible to do. You just need to focus within those short amounts of study time. When you're working full time, it's not like you have any other choice but to study for less than 4 hours a night.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I spent way more than a few hours per day, but then again I was out of school for a little while and needed to relearn just about everything. Two or three hours a day is possible if you've recently covered the material.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
TipToad said:
2-3 hours of studying/day is quite a bit. You can get a lot done.
Click to expand...

I agree. I only studied 1 hour 3 days a week. and a total of 4-5 hours on the weekends. I was only putting in less than 8 hours of studying a week for 1.5 to 2 months. For the last 2 weeks, I was putting in about 5-6 hours of studying a day.


I was 10 years out of most of my pre-reqs but I went to a pretty intense undergrad and to me the MCAT science was very basic, even after 10 years.

Also, I also work in the scientific field and am a huge nerd that listens to NPR's science Fridays and is part of a book club ( I credit this for my verbal score) so I am not completley removed from all things acadmeics.

More importantly I had picked up some really good study skills during college and that helped a lot.
I did okay (33) not great by SDN standards or even by the standards of my peers in my undergrad and honeslty don't feel I put in the apporiatpe amount of time. I think if I had spent more time, my score could have been better.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Learning is best done in short spurts spread out over time.

You can get a lot done in 2-3 hours, that's not a little.

Tummytroubles no! Don't turn into a SDN zombie. A 33 is in the top 10%. That's a great score.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ridethecliche said:
Stop worrying about what others are doing and do what you need to do to get the results you want.
Click to expand...

this kind of sounds funny seeing as there is a stickied thread, dedicated to exactly that, what others are doing. :laugh:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
NickNaylor said:
The goal is to get ideas, not completely copy a method because it worked for someone else.

(sent from my phone)
Click to expand...

Oh but of course. Like some of these guys, including you lol, used solely EK and did extremely well. There was no way this was working for me haha. Different strokes for different folks. Though I wish I could only study for 5 weeks or less and pull a 30+! A man can dream
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Don't stress about it if you have to study more, you'll be fine. The only reason some can study less is because they have something in their background that give them a head start.

As long you put in the hours, it'll happen. It just clicks at and you start seeing dramatic increases in your scores at a certain point.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

S
What’s the earliest day to take the MCAT without it being considered in the 24/25 cycle?
Replies
6
Views
919
thumbz
thumbz
lanamia
Just finished AAMC 4, only got through 7 passages on cars with 30/41 correct. How to interpret this?
Replies
1
Views
525
lockstitch
lockstitch
KaplanTestPrep
  • Question
All about studying for the MCAT
Replies
0
Views
839
KaplanTestPrep
KaplanTestPrep
D
Retaking 6/30
Replies
1
Views
547
deleted1013548
D
D
MCAT Two day accommodation Question
Replies
0
Views
1K
doc12bq
D
Top