Who studied on their own for the MCAT and did well? What source did you use???

[theDr.]

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Who studied on their own for the MCAT and did well? What source did you use - such as Kaplan big book, or EK? Thanks for the info.

 

[Kashue]

ExamKrackers + Kaplan - studied ~ 2.5 months while working fulltime - 33 Mcat

 

[theDr.]

Kashue,
What was your method exactly? Did you use EK more than kaplan? How many hours a day or week also, I work full-time as well. What exactly did you do? THANKS

 

[Chrisobean]

the Kaplan course books are alot better than that big book they sell at bookstores. see if you can find someone who took the class and use that. (i have 2 sets of books!)
at first i studied on my own with that kaplan big book = dont even want to say what i got, but i didnt really work that hard so it was my fault and not the book's
i took the kaplan course (2x), busted my ass, also while working full time (12hr day) = 28 (dam you PS!!)

in my opinion, the courses dont teach you anything useful regarding test strategy (is there such a thing?). they just help you review matierial (which is why i took it, i learn well in a structured class) and they give you tons of practice tests, which i think is the most important thing. the kaplan big book has exams, and if you study on your own, i would just find a way to get your hands on as many practice tests as possible. the only thing i would advise against is using your class notes to study the science stuff (except maybe bio). the topics are pretty basic on the exam and you may be reviewing stuff you dont need. but i thought the bio material was pretty detailed, stuff i dont remember learning in my intro class.

i like to think of myself as the mcat master, i have taken it enough times!!
hope this helps, good luck.

 

[Kashue]

Originally posted by theDr.
Kashue,
What was your method exactly? Did you use EK more than kaplan? How many hours a day or week also, I work full-time as well. What exactly did you do? THANKS

studied about 3 hours a day theDr. 1 hour during lunch (but I usually napped off lol), 1 hour on the train and 1 - 2 hours at home. Weekends I studied about 4-5 hours.

I went through the ExamKrackers books once, then again, but the second time I used Kaplan along with it. I also did questions for each section from both books when I finished.

 

[ZekeMD]

I read the kaplan book cover-to-cover and then took one of the practice tests from AAMC. I then went back and reviewed what I missed and took a different test. I repeated this until I had taken all 4 practice tests. I ended up scoring a 35.

 

[bigbaubdi]

I used the Examkrackers set and the Kaplan Comprehensive book. I had a very irregular study pattern for about 5 months but I ended up doing much better than I expected.

 

[ForensicPath]

I went through all the examkrackers books and used audio osmosis. After that I took all the practice MCATs as well as one that came with my EK set. I started at the end of january and usually set aside friday (I had no classes on friday) and sunday purely for MCAT prep and would study a couple of hours during the week when I had free time and nothing to do. I ended up with a 31 (should have practiced verbal a little bit more).

 

[evenstar]

well, i debated long and hard about whether or not to take a course, but the $$$ was just too much, so i decided to go it on my own and see how i did before i invested. i took the test last summer and got a 38R. here's what i did: i started studying about two months in advance; i had it relatively easy because i took the august MCAT and was only taking one summer school class w/o working (even so, i admit i slacked a lot, so it wasn't like i was studying every spare second i had, hehe).

i went to the public library and got every MCAT practice book they had and did as many practice tests as i could. i also bought several of the kaplan books (including MCAT 45, their book of super hard questions, none of which i could actually answer, and virtually none of which type did end up on the exam). i registered for the AAMC practice MCAT online. i think i took the free princeton review online test. and i did review my class notes from general physics and high school AP chemistry. basically, i got a feel for what type of material is asked based on the practice tests and then reviewed only that stuff. i thought kaplan's huge MCAT course book had some good starting points for subject review.

i do have to say that what threw me, studying on my own, was that some practice books gave me the wrong impression of what the real exam was going to be like. for instance, based on the practice problems i did, i thought i needed to memorize a lot of physics formulas, when the actual exam i took was more concept-based--stuff like, "extrapolate from this experimental setup" rather than calculating flux or whatever.

of course, i can't say whether i would have done better than i did if i HAD taken a course, but i think if you can get a hold of some good quality problems and have a good grasp of basic science concepts, you should be alright without.

 

[StrngoutAS]

I used Berkely Review books as a review source for all the material...

then I did all the MCAT online practice tests and whatever MCAT practice tests I could snaggle along the way

looking back... i started the practice tests a little late so I'd concentrate more on that rather than just complete review... it won't happen that way

 

[twinklz]

I took the PR class, and it was definitely not worth the money. The only thing that I liked about it was the practice tests where you could gauge your progress. And I have the distinct impression that the books weren't even all that good.

If you live around a somewhat big city, I know they offer regular free MCAT practice tests like twice a year. That coupled with the tests you can buy from AAMC would be so much cheaper. I ended up not going to class after the second week, b/c I could cover much more material on my own.

 

[spumoni620]

i used kaplan and pr materials, and relied a lot on aamc practice tests/practice items. i thought the kaplan topical tests were quite useful. pr is a lot wordier but since i hadn't taken 2 of the classes required for the mcat i actually found it more understandable b/c it explained everything very clearly (esp the bio sciences book). the most valuable were the aamc tests and items b/c they represent the real format of the exam.

 

[ThatGirl]

I used Exam Krackers and Audio Osmosis. I wrote the August 2003 MCAT, so I worked on the material 4 days a week after work, and followed the EK class schedule (ie. do Bio on one day, Chem the next, etc). I read through the whole lecture and took notes, listened to Audio Osmosis, then tried the practice problems. When I felt relatively comfortable with the material, I did the 30 min test for the whole lecture. I also did two full practice tests, the one included in the EK pack and the free AAMC test. I feel this worked pretty well for me and I'm happy with the 34 I scored.

 

[Cerberus]

MCAT FAQ

Click "How do I get a 30+ score?"

 

[skypilot]

Just took them over and over again and looked up the answers I didn't understand. I got a good but not a great score.

 

[raincrew]

EK, 101 verbal passages, audio osmosis, AAMC tests 3-6.

imo, EK is by far the best product on the market.

 

[futuredrswife]

my husband studied using some used books from a friend - i think they were kaplan. he scored a 33.

 

[HawkeyeBFP]

I used Kaplan's course materials, which I found useful as review guides. They also do a good job of explaining what the test is going to be like, though I agree with the poster above who thought they overemphasized physics formulae.

I also had the Kaplan Big Red Book, which was a waste of time, a Princeton Review verbal test book that was so riddled with errors it was useless, and a bunch of old AAMC practice exams that I wish I'd made more time for.

I paid for and used the online versions of the AAMC test the week of the MCAT--I had done one and did the others in real time M-T-W of exam week. That was a great idea...got me used to the long test day.

I got a 35Q. Worked for me.