- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
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I am a 27 yr old male, waiting for the last month of work to be over as I prepare myself to go back to school for a post-bac program at a state university. I was a mechanical engineering major back in undergrad and graduate (master's degree), so I never took college level bio or any chemistry beyond General Chemistry I.
I bought Kaplan and EK books for MCAT for content review. I like them both and have been reading them on regular basis along with Khan Academy videos. However, the problem is that they do not have any passage based questions (except KA) and all their questions focus on conceptual understanding. Also, because I am not as engaged as I would be if I were taking classes (from HW, lab reports, and exams), I tend to forget information very easily, especially anything beyond general chemistry.
Last night, I went back to Khan Academy website for practice questions. After the first question, I realized that content review is not going to get me anywhere. The concepts from classes I have not taken (orgo, biochem, biology) are just not sticking to my head. I plan to take MCAT in September, and by then I would be taking Orgo II and molecular biology.
MCAT is very different from other standardized tests I've dealt with and I feel that without taking pre-req classes, it's very difficult to obtain a decent score. How should I approach studying for MCAT at the moment? Should I go really slow and review materials that I am familiar with like chemistry, psychology, and physics first? Would TBR be a better option than EK or Kaplan since they have more questions and combine passage based questions? Studying organic chemistry or biochem just seems very time inefficient at the moment given the fact that I retain less than 10% of the information I read.
I will have some free time from end of this month to mid January before classes begin. I will be taking three classes only, along with some research work, so I plan to study for MCAT rigorously for the upcoming semester. I would sincerely appreciate your advice. Thank you.
I bought Kaplan and EK books for MCAT for content review. I like them both and have been reading them on regular basis along with Khan Academy videos. However, the problem is that they do not have any passage based questions (except KA) and all their questions focus on conceptual understanding. Also, because I am not as engaged as I would be if I were taking classes (from HW, lab reports, and exams), I tend to forget information very easily, especially anything beyond general chemistry.
Last night, I went back to Khan Academy website for practice questions. After the first question, I realized that content review is not going to get me anywhere. The concepts from classes I have not taken (orgo, biochem, biology) are just not sticking to my head. I plan to take MCAT in September, and by then I would be taking Orgo II and molecular biology.
MCAT is very different from other standardized tests I've dealt with and I feel that without taking pre-req classes, it's very difficult to obtain a decent score. How should I approach studying for MCAT at the moment? Should I go really slow and review materials that I am familiar with like chemistry, psychology, and physics first? Would TBR be a better option than EK or Kaplan since they have more questions and combine passage based questions? Studying organic chemistry or biochem just seems very time inefficient at the moment given the fact that I retain less than 10% of the information I read.
I will have some free time from end of this month to mid January before classes begin. I will be taking three classes only, along with some research work, so I plan to study for MCAT rigorously for the upcoming semester. I would sincerely appreciate your advice. Thank you.
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