Meditations on the MCAT:
Step 1: Set an ambitious but not completely unrealistic goal. What the exact numbers are will vary for each student. The important thing is to pick a goal that is inspiring for you. You want to aim high; don't undersell yourself.
Step 2: Obtain study materials. I don't think it really matters what company you use for content review as long as the company's style speaks to you. Personally, I used TPR (The Princeton Review). I liked TPR for SAT prep in high school, and I also appreciated that they had both passage and discreet questions at the end of each chapter. IMHO, it's not worth it to purchase full book sets from several companies. This is one place where you can save money.
BUY THE AAMC COMPLETE DELUXE BUNDLE THINGAMAJIG. Yes, it's like more than $200. Yes, that is way too much money for online access to their materials. Whatever. This is one place where you should put down the cash anyway.
A note on courses: I did not use a course because I'm broke. However, a course may be helpful if you know that you have trouble keeping on schedule. Make sure to check if your course gives you access to the AAMC material; you don't want to buy it twice. Also, a course does not replace self study. It should be a supplement in your study plan, not the main meal.
A note on 3rd party exams: I didn't use them. I didn't want to burn myself out, so the only full length practice exams I did were the official AAMC exams. Some people like the 3rd party exams for building stamina. However, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PREDICT YOUR REAL SCORE USING 3RD PARTY EXAMS.
Again, 3RD PARTY EXAMS ARE NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE REAL DEAL. THEY ARE NOT PREDICTIVE.
Step 3: Pick a schedule. I remember I found this part very daunting when I was getting started. I found all of these schedules in the forums over here with various commentaries and philosophies and stuff attached to them. At the end of the day, I think I wasted a lot of time trying to put together the perfect schedule because I was procrastinating/nervous about actually starting to study. The important thing is to make a schedule that works for you. About 3 months is reasonable if you can dedicate all of your time to studying. Give yourself more like 6 months-1 year if you're balancing a job and other responsibilities. Plan on at least 1 month of your study time being dedicated to AAMC practice material. The longer your study time, the more redundancy you have to build in so you don't forget material you studied earlier. I ended up spending 3.5 months studying, and about 2.5 of that was spent on content review. Basically, my sophisticated approach was this: I counted all of the chapters in TPR's books, then divided by the number of days I had to study (I built in one rest day every week). That worked out to 2 new chapters every day.
Please please please please give yourself enough time to get through the AAMC material. You want to really dive into their materials. Do not spend a lot of time on content review at the expense of the AAMC practice material. However, do not underestimate the importance of content review either. A strong understanding of the material can really help with educated guesses. Also, if you know the material well, you will know when a question is
supposed to be hard.
Step 4: Get through content review. Everyone learns differently. The important thing here is, you can't just be passively reading books or listening to a tutor or whatever. Active learning is the name of the game. What I did was, every day I read 2 new chapters in TPR. I rotated subjects as I went, which helped prevent boredom. Pomodoro technique was a life saver here. Even while reading, I tried to make it as active a process as possible. For example, if I just read about Piaget's stages and flipped the page to a new topic, I might ask myself, "What were Piaget's stages again?" If I could not immediately recall, then I went back and re-read that section. I would sleep on the 2 new chapters. Then, the next day I reviewed the previous day's materials and did the practice questions at the end of the chapters. After finished the practice problems, I read 2 new chapters. Rinse and repeat until I finished content review. I think working through practice problems during my content review was key; you want to be constantly drilling critical thinking as well as content. When you first start studying, most of your time is spent on content review with some time on practice problems. As you progress in your studying, you want to shift that ratio so that most of your time is spent on practice problems and less is spent on content review. I also think sleeping on the material was helpful--you would be surprised what a difference it makes.
Some people make Anki decks. I hate flashcards with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. That being said, they are helpful for P/S. I recommend making your own rather than relying on someone else's.
Step 5: Get through the AAMC material. Do all the material. All of it. Do it thoroughly. Review every single question, including the ones you got right. The question packs are great for when you're starting out; they act as additional content review. The section bank is better for building your critical reasoning skills. It's also quite challenging. AAMC FL1 and FL2 are predictive of your real exam.
The last week before the exam: You should have already taken all of your practice exams. At this point, you should be scoring around your target score. Continue doing some light practice but don't pull all-nighters or anything. Also, I used this time to memorize low yield material, e.g. intermediates in the pentose-phosphate pathway. I can memorize that kind of thing pretty quickly, especially when I know I can just forget it after the exam lol. Don't do this last minute cramming if it doesn't work for you. The night before the exam, try to chill.
The day of the exam: Get to the test center early. Wear pants that don't have pockets if practical. Make sure your ID is valid/hasn't expired. Take your breaks. I did jumping jacks in the hallway during every break, which helped unflatten my butt and get the blood flowing. Also, try not to worry about the section you just took. It's over now. In my mind, I thought of the MCAT as four normal length exams instead of one long one. That helped with my mindset going into each new section, so that one challenging section did not mess up my confidence for the rest of the exam. This seems hokey but watch your self talk. You want your internal monologue to sound like a football coach in a cheesy made-for-TV movie. You got this, you're the best, you've studied for this, no one can beat you, &etc.
Other notes:
Just like you shouldn't let previous sections ruin the entire exam for you, don't let one difficult passage throw off an entire section. While doing CARS, I would actually close my eyes after each passage and recite a quick prayer. YMMV, but find a way not to let previous passages bleed into new ones. If something is really hard, do your best to answer it, mark it, and move on.
Your goal should be to take the MCAT once and kill it. Do not take the MCAT until you feel 100% ready to dominate it. However, if you need to do a retake, it's not the end of the world.
TPR's CARS strategy is garbage. For CARS, attack the passages in order. Do not attempt to "triage" or whatever; that is a waste of your time. KoalaT's "golden rule" is the way to go: You can always quickly eliminate two obviously wrong answers. From the two remaining choices, try to find a reason in the passage that one is wrong. If an answer is even a little bit wrong, it's all the way wrong and you can eliminate it. Here's more:
How to Improve On Verbal: Golden Rule
I know this probably goes without saying but don't base your self worth off of the MCAT exam. It does not tell you your inherent worth as a human being. That's something you're born with.
Now go and kill that exam!
