Writing/Studying for MCAT for first time....

[zzzopiclone9]

Hey guys I'm a 29 year old pharmacist and I work full time. I was hoping to get some advice from you guys in terms of what is the best study material to use to study for this exam. I see some threads on how to study for the MCAT but it goes into using so many different types of resources. I see that kaplan has a set for like 160 dollars Canadian. Any advice from anyone in terms of the best resource to use and how realistic is it to study for this exam while working full time as a pharmacist. Thanks in advance!

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[samosamosa]

Hi there! I studied while a full-time student and it was doable. I started super early (~7 months before my test date) and studied for about an hour a day on weekdays, and 3-4 hours per day on weekends. You could adopt a similar strategy!

 

[zzzopiclone9]

Hi there! I studied while a full-time student and it was doable. I started super early (~7 months before my test date) and studied for about an hour a day on weekdays, and 3-4 hours per day on weekends. You could adopt a similar strategy!

Really! What kind of resources are you using?

 

[samosamosa]

I used Princeton Review books for content review, and AAMC full length exams and section banks for practice questions.

 

[northwestmedic]

given that you are pharmacist, i assume all the content is familiar to you...

kaplan is comprehensive, EK is pretty concise and is pretty aggressive (and i think accurate) about telling you what you need to know... kaplan has weightings for each secton as to exam importance and i thoiught it was pretty accurate.

all knds of free summary info on the internet.

with your background, i would say just do questions on most of the content. flashcards for terms and p/s. khan academy videos to learn things a different way and take a break from intense reading (biology and biochem i think)

lastly, i bought these very late in process but schaum subject guides have 1200 questions each. and then they have question books for some subjects with 3000 questions. the subject guide is similar or is not similar it has the most of the content you need and perhaps some you don't need

 

[zzzopiclone9]

given that you are pharmacist, i assume all the content is familiar to you...

kaplan is comprehensive, EK is pretty concise and is pretty aggressive (and i think accurate) about telling you what you need to know... kaplan has weightings for each secton as to exam importance and i thoiught it was pretty accurate.

all knds of free summary info on the internet.

with your background, i would say just do questions on most of the content. flashcards for terms and p/s. khan academy videos to learn things a different way and take a break from intense reading (biology and biochem i think)

lastly, i bought these very late in process but schaum subject guides have 1200 questions each. and then they have question books for some subjects with 3000 questions. the subject guide is similar or is not similar it has the most of the content you need and perhaps some you don't need

Yeah, I do have a very extensive knowlege especially the biochem and biology/chemistry. Physics not so much and the Carms Section of the exam....I tried to do some practice ones...Like how do people do well in that argh. Anyways where do you get the shaum subject guidlelines. In addition I was thinking of getting the kaplan study guide online its like 170 bucks not bad for the entire guide

 

[northwestmedic]

Schaum's outlines are just on amazon..... like $30 for 3000 questions in a subject. and i do find the questions are in-depth enough at least for the subject.

i think everyone struggles with CARs.......... sometimes i had no idea what they were getting at, especially for things that might happen in the future i.e. infer how x person will behave given info in the passage...... by and large though, i think CARs is pretty painless myself. at least on test day.

P/S passages can be pretty convuluted i found.........

i would just dive into questions, as i mentioned,,

physics is reasonably straight-forward. just a bunch of equations and analytical relationships. little memorization. physics chapters at end of kaplan/EK are a bit tedious (waves and lens/mirrors). the earlier chapters are generally fine