Alana & Neona - All Things Possible

2012-02-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

A successful life is not really about “finding yourself”. It is about creating yourself.

— vlad1959

Jack Johnson

2012-01-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

The Greatest Story Ever Told

2012-01-26T13:18:00.001-08:00

Tom Pulse - Taka Taka

2012-01-16T13:20:00.001-08:00

Bambelo

2012-01-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

Sezen Aksu - Hadi Bakalim

2012-01-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

Robbie Moroder & Oriol Farre - Polka

2012-01-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

Kufu - L'italiano

2012-01-14T09:19:00.000-08:00

Princeton Review MCAT Hyperlearning

2012-01-13T08:31:00.000-08:00

Your Princeton Review tools

3,000+ pages of comprehensive, up–to–date materials (delivered via forklift). Each subject set includes content review, practice questions and practice passages
MCAT Physics and Math Review: Close to 500 pages
MCAT General Chemistry Review: More than 300 pages
MCAT Biology Review: 500+ pages
MCAT Organic Chemistry Review: In excess of 300 pages
MCAT Verbal Reasoning and Writing Review: 400+ pages
Science Workbook, hundreds of MCAT–style practice passages and questions with complete explanations (900+ pages)
Verbal Workbook,about 300 pages, including dozens of MCAT practice passages and four full–length Verbal Reasoning practice tests with complete explanations
In–Class Passage Compendium, the equivalent of five MCATs' worth of additional test questions
Science Review Questions and Solutions, hundreds of practice questions designed to make sure that the basic science concepts are firmly embedded in your brain.
Access to LiveGrader^sm for feedback on your essay from an MCAT essay specialist

19 full–length practice tests including all officially released AAMC exams
22.5 hours of verbal prep–the most in the industry

Parental Counseling

2012-01-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

Home School Program Outline (1-6 Grader, Pre-GED, GED, Pre-SAT, SAT)
Home School One-Word-A-Day Index Card System
Working-With-Hands Creative Artist (Drawing, Clay Molding, Anatomy Coloring, Lego)
Home School "Official" Transcript
Internet Blog Archiving System
Technology Interface (Macs, Ipod, Printer/Scanner, Cell, Student Apps, Typing, Word/Excel/PwrPT)
Study Method System (Comprehend, Organize, Memorize, Index Cards, Critical Thinking, Time Mgt, Syllabus Review, Low Stress Educ)
Excel Mapping Worksheet
Essay Mini-Map Outline
Speech Presentation Outline
Spanish Verb Tense Outline
HWH Course Previews (Cal, Chm, Phy, Org.C)
Student Cash Reserve Accounts
Student Thank You & Follow-up Letters
MD & MCAT Library
BC Semester Program Outline
FAU Semester Program Outline
Financial Aid Spreadsheet, FAFSA, & Debt Free 4yr College Degree
Driver License, Personal Safety (pepper spray)
MD Timeline
Resume & Cover Letter
Clinical Journal
Leadership / Mentoring Clubs (study groups, TA, Library Vol, PSY Club, EDG2949)
Research & Lab Volunteer Program (Chem/Bio/Phy Lab Vol)
Shadow Doctor Programs (DO)
Recommendation Request Letters & Archiving
MCAT Study Schedule & Program (register for class?)
Personal Essay (SDN)
Medical School Application & Deadline
Mock Interview Techniques (Q&A)
Dress Code Etiquette
Secondaries & MD School Interviews
Home Mtg Pay-off, 2nd Income (New Cars + Ins, & Health Ins)
Credit Reports & MD Financing Application
Student Loan Amortization Payoff Schedule

Focus on understanding rather than memorizing

2012-01-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Alphabet

2012-01-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

Clinical Journal

2012-01-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

Describe your clinical experiences this week.
What were your personal goals for clinical experience this week? How did you meet these goals?
Describe a specific experience with one of your “special” patients that facilitated your learning this week.
What do you see as the role and responsibilities of the nurses, doctors, lab assistants, etc in the clinical area?
Briefly describe your most significant event this week. How will this event influence your clinical practice?
Is there anything you would have done differently this week? Why? What would you do?
Identify a personal goal that you would like to meet next week.
Discuss the most challenging communication incident you encountered. How would you handle this situation in the future?
What do you think people in this community need? What information have you based this on?
Describe your “most interesting” patient’s situation: patient’s age, past medical/surgical history, current condition, correlate with past disease processes, risk factors with this condition, correlate all medications, with labs (name, classification, dosage, frequency, route, and if IV infusion, the ml/hr, side effects).
Find an evidence based journal article that relates to one of the areas you have addressed in your reflective narrative. Include a discussion of how the information in the article relates to your patient care experience and how the article facilitated your learning.
Identify doctor (s) diagnoses in order of priority. Identify a measurable outcome and three interventions for the priority diagnosis that was utilized in the care of this patient. Include an evaluation of the success of the interventions. Be Specific.
What medical advice was offered the patient and/or family? What communication principles was utilize?
What prevents the patient from being transferred or discharged? Discuss how and with whom was collaborated with in relation to this patient.
Discuss cultural, ethical, or value issues you encountered today. Relate how you felt and what you learned from these issues.
How is the clinical office organized, managed, supervised, operated?

Observable & Describable Clinical Experience

Filing. Answering Phones. Triage patients on phone/office. Call in prescriptions. Order special studies. Relay results to patients. Run lab tests (UA’s, pregnancy & glucose tests). Develop & read Xrays. Read clinical charts. Read & Learn patient medical histories. Log patient history, diagnosis, & ailments in computer system. Review blood work and apply knowledge (diabetic, anemic, etc). Shadow/ears-drop-medical assistants/nurses. Communicate with patients. Read and interpret patient charts. Learn about drugs and ailments (viral, anti-bacterial, fungal). Learn uses of medical equipment and instruments. Comfort patient (snacks, treats, blankets, water, humor, etc). Gain insight into patient and doctor relationship. Learn safety and health guidelines and rules. Learn about medical supplies, ordering, stocking. Observe procedures (first aid, pap smears). Learn patient intake (vitals, history). Understand the duties, roles, and hierarchy of each staff member. Learn how a medical office is managed and operated. Develop communication, leadership, mentoring, teaching, maturity, and management skills.

LOR

2011-12-31T19:24:00.000-08:00

LOR Frequently Asked Questions

1. What kinds of letters do I need to apply to DO schools?

1a. But doesn't every school have different letter requirements?

1b. Do I have to have a letter from a DO?
Take a look at ChocolateBear's spreadsheet here.

1c. But do I really really have to get X type of letter? (2 non-science, 1 science, a letter from my PI)

2. I am a non-traditional student and have been out of school for awhile. Can I get around the letter requirements?

3. My school has a medical school admissions committee, and they produce a committee letter. But the letter won't be released until really LATE! (August, September, October). Can I just skip the committee and collect my own letters?
The general wisdom on this topic is that if your school has a committee, USE IT! If you don't, you will be asked why and will need a very good reason. You are circumventing the committee at your own risk.

4. How/when can I submit LORs to AACOMAS?

Unlike the AMCAS procedure, LORs are not submitted to AACOMAS. The only items you should be sending to AACOMAS are your college transcripts. Letters of recommendation are submitted directly to your school.

5. Do I have to know which letters are going to which school when I first submit my AACOMAS application?

6. Is it in my best interest to have my letter writers write different letters for each school?

7. What are letter services such as Interfolio, and why do people use them?
Interfolio and other companies provide secure online letter holding services. You can have your letters uploaded to these services at any time so that you're not scrambling at the last minute (or during the summer!) to get letters into your application. This can be especially beneficial when you are 9 months or so out from your planned application cycle, but know the professor you have NOW will write you a great letter. You can have them write the letter, upload it to a letter service, and then many months later have the letter sent to AACOMAS once the application opens. When you do this, you have the ability to add on both your AACOMAS ID and the Letter ID to the letter. All your letter writer needs to do is upload the letter (or mail it in) on letterhead and with a signature. These sites are secure and they do not allow you to read the letter beforehand.

8. What else about letters do I need to know?
Your letter must be SIGNED, and should be on OFFICIAL LETTERHEAD whenever possible. This is something that holds people up every year. Some schools will even hold up your application because of this.

9. How should I ask someone for a letter of req?
(On this one, I will give CougarMD's advice from the allo thread
For each letter writer, I prepared a packet. In the packet I had:
A list of all of my science grades (or non-science grades for a non-science prof)
A copy of my resume
A rough draft of my personal statement
A guide to writing medical school letters (which can be found by googling), a reminder that the letter needed to be signed and on letterhead.

Before handing them this (because who wants all that before they even say yes!) I asked them point blank if they "would feel comfortable writing me a strong letter of recommendation for medical school". Always do this in person!!! If they hesitate...walk away. Seriously. You don't want this person writing your letter.

When they enthusiastically said yes, I pulled the packet out of my backpack and gave it to them.

Because I used Interfolio, I did not need to provide them with my AMCAS ID or Letter ID, but instead told them that they would get an email from Interfolio that evening with instructions on how to upload the letter. Give them a FIRM deadline (2-4 weeks seems to work best) for when you need the letter. Don't ask at the last minute. Don't ask when you think a billion other people will be asking. Do offer to provide them with any other supplementary information they would like. And do give them a thank-you note (and maybe a Starbucks card) when they submit the letter.

10. OMG! My letter writer has not written my letter!!! It has been minutes/hours/days/weeks/months and I'm freaking out!! What do I do!?
First, stop by or email and gently remind them that you need the letter by X date. If this doesn't work, I have given them a premature Thank-You note with a small token, and this seems to light a fire. I recommended this method to someone on SDN last year and it apparently worked like a charm.

If this isn't working....you do the same thing you do whenever something goes awry - find a plan B. Ask someone else...two other people even, just in case this person does not come through. You can't have too many letters. But you can have too few.

11. Do I have to waive my right to see the letters?
No. But if you don't schools might not see them as letters that carry much weight. Waive your right. If you know the person well enough, you should have a pretty good idea of what they are going to write.

12. Can I submit my application without the letters? Say I have an extra LOR that I'd like to send to all my schools, do I have to snail mail to it them all?
You will submit your LORs with your SECONDARIES. You can add a letter at ANY time in Interfolio, and they will distribute it for you.

MCAT Study System

2011-12-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

Resources
• Register TPR live on-line Course ($1,799, less $200 Google coupon?, Good for # sittings?): 1-877-877-6687: http://www.princetonreview.com/mcat-liveonline.aspx
o This is at least a 6 hour per day commitment, sometimes up to 9 hours (m-f, s,s?)
• (If on-line course, do I still need?) TPR's Hyperlearning books from Princeton Review Actual Course ($1,999) (clean, not marked, non smoker)
• (TPR on-line course includes?) AAMC Actual Tests: Full Length (FL) #3-5 and 7-11 (AAMC #6 is not available at the moment): http://www.e-mcat.com/starttest.aspx?cmd=displayfile&file=buy
• MCAT 3 month Study Calendar: http://studentdoctor.net/reference-materials/3-month-mcat-study-schedule/
• Register SDN (RRAN4U, rudy123) and request a TPR Course actual study schedule from a current student
• Get complete EK 1001 series.
• Take AAMC free test under timed conditions for self-diagnostic
• Topic Outline of each science subject for Hat Trick: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/
• Use AAMC Topic Outline to determine areas of weakness
• Lastly, sign up for your MCAT as soon as possible. Seats fill up months in advance, & get all the above 1-2 months ahead of schedule
• Begin studying ExamKracker 1-2 hours per day by topic for 6 weeks, prior to TPR on-line class?

Notes:
- Do NOT retake old practice material
-The key to MCAT success is not content review, it's taking tons of timed practice passages and thoroughly reviewing those passages.
- Thoroughly review ALL of your practice problems. Review your problems the day AFTER you take them. Don't even look at the answers until then. If there’s a break day, review your problems on the day after your break.
- Remember to round like crazy for any math problem
- Always use process of elimination with your answer choices
- Before you begin this schedule, count the number of verbal practice passages (101 from EK + however many in the TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook). Divide the number of passages by 70 (total days - the number of break days AND FL days). That number is the number of verbal passages you should be taking per day. I’m hoping that number breaks down to at least 3 passages per day. Ideally, you should take 4-5 verbal passages per assigned day. You do NOT take verbal passages on break days OR FL days.
- If you don’t want to get the EK 1001 series, spread out the second 1/3 of BR practice passages over 2 days. Again, I recommend you get the EK 1001 books that are listed.
- If your practice test score is not within your target range after 4 tests, you should consider delaying. If you delay, go over your weaknesses again and complete an in-depth analysis of what went wrong.
- If you have enough money, you could adjust the schedule to fit in more practice tests. I didn’t include that many to keep the cost down.
- If your test is in the morning and you're not a morning person, start getting used to waking up early when you start taking practice tests.
- Try to practice under as realistic as possible conditions when you take your practice tests. In other words: wake up early enough to be able to drive to your center; eat a meal you would eat before a test; follow the proper timing; and if you're really into it, you could even drive around for about the same time it would take you to get to your test center.

General Guidelines for Reviewing:
- Go over EVERY question. Both the ones you got right and the ones you got wrong.
- Reviewing should take 2-3 times longer than taking the timed practice problems.
- If your tests are fluctuating, it is due to the different topics on the various tests. In other words, you have some glaring weaknesses that when targeted, nail you, badly. You have to find out what those weaknesses are because they are evident by your scores. Do NOT dismiss any wrong answer as a "stupid mistake." You made that error for a reason. Go over your tests again.
- You might want to consider making a log for all of your post test results where you work through the questions below. Doing so, you'll be able to easily notice trends.

Some things to go over when reviewing:
1. Why did you get the question wrong? Why did you get the question right?
2. What question and passage types get you?
3. How is your mindset when facing a particular passage?
4. Are you stressed for time?
5. Where are your mistakes happening the most? Are they front loaded? Are they at the end? All over?
6. What was your thought process for both the questions you got right and the ones you got wrong?
7. For verbal, what was the author's mindset and main idea?
8. Did you eliminate all of the answer choices you could from first glance?
ex. You know an answer should be a positive number so you cross out all of the negative number answer choices.
9. What content areas are you weak in?
10. Why are the wrong answers wrong and the right answer right?
11. How can you improve so you don't make the same mistake again?

Timing:
- ALWAYS complete your practice problems under TIMED conditions
- For BR passages: 6-7 minutes per passage, work towards 6 minutes
- For the EK 30-minute exams….well 30 minutes
- EK 1001, except Bio series: 30 seconds to 1 minute per question
- EK Verbal 101/TPR Verbal: 6-7 minutes per passage, work towards 6 minutes
- AAMC FLs: Use their timing

Why do you review previous days passages instead of reviewing the same day?
There are a couple reasons why I advise reviewing passages the day after. First, it helps to go over the material again, especially in regards to the sciences. Secondly, directly after you take a set of practice problems, you aren't in the best mind frame to then analyze said problems. Your mind is too focused on what you completed and is unable to grasp the big picture. You need that day for your thoughts to settle in order to approach the analysis with the right mindset. It's similar to how you may make a decision one day. Then the next day, you realize that it wasn't the best choice. Yet, on the day you made your choice, you would have probably found justification for it rather than actually analyzing its pros and cons. Another example would be with proof-reading your own papers. Right after you write your paper, when you proof-read it, you'll probably miss plenty of mistakes. However, checking it the next day allows you to approach the paper with a clear mind and find more mistakes.

Hat Trick:
Get a hat and write every single MCAT PS and BS topic onto a piece of paper. Then, when you're ready to practice PS, put all the PS topics into the hat. Draw two or three pieces of paper and connect the topics together. In addition to connecting them, come up with what a passage might look like and what kind of questions you might get. If you can't do this, go back and review each of the three sections. Rinse and repeat.

The hat trick days are important because they aid you in synthesizing the various topics together. On the MCAT, you utilize this skill for every passage because MCAT passages combine topics. Furthermore, you may also discover content weaknesses that you will need to go over.

For the hat trick, how specific are the topics you write down supposed to be? For example, is it better to write "electron structure," or go more in-depth and write each of the numbered topics (ie. orbital structure, ground state, etc)?

It's really up to you and how you want to utilize the Hat Trick. A good starting point would be writing down all of the bolded topics. Then, when you're doing the Hat Trick, you should think about each topic more in-depth. Remember, you're trying to think up an MCAT style passage. In other words, the passage won't be simple; it will involve some of the complexities of each topic.

Here's a rough example using Distillation, Mendelian Genetics, and Lipids:
You are studying a Mendelian inherited recessive genetic defect of a lipid receptor. A defect in this receptor prevents the uptake lipids in the body and can cause several negative effects, such as, atherosclerosis due to fat build-up in arterial walls.

To test for the concentration of lipids in a patient's blood, you design a distillation experiment.
1. Given a couple where the male is Ll and the female is ll, what is the chance the child will have the defect?
2. What kind of solvent should you use to test the concentration of lipids?
3. What type patient would have the highest boiling point elevation?
4. If the trait exhibited incomplete dominance, which patient is likely to be Ll? Boiling point information here.
5. Which cell component requires lipids?

My verbal strategy...(I bombed on the real thing comparatively to my practices. I avged 12-15 on practices, scored a 12 on my diagnostic, but an 11 on the real thing. That being said, I'm still ecstatic!)

1) Practice under harsher timed conditions than you will encounter on the test. You will have about 8.5 mins for every verbal passage. Get a stop watch and a verbal workbook, and practice finishing every passage in 6.5 mins. When I started doing this, two things happened: 1)Even though I was using less time, my scores did not decrease. They stayed the same. 2) When I became really good at answering the passages quickly, I found that I had time to refer back to the passage on every question. Now, since I can read the passages much more effectively (meaning faster) when I see a question that I'm not sure of, I have time to go back and quickly re-read the 3-4 sentences that pertain to the question. At this point, my scores started to increase.

2) Attack every single paragraph. Read very quickly, but read very actively. Don't try and go too slowly to remember every detail, this will kill you. What you should do is Gather themain idea of every paragraph, and make sure you're always thinking about the POINT of the passage. Eventually, when you've done enough verbal practice, gathering the idea of a section or paragraph will come very naturally. As a byproduct, you will start to gain a sense of the types of details that are important to remember, and you will begin to remember them automatically.

3) When doing the read-through, DO NOT re-read a sentence if you think you weren't paying attention. Try this on any reading material: Try reading very actively, but force yourself not to re-read sentences you just read or to go back on the first read through. If you are actively reading, its amazing how much you retain without having to re-read. Your brain often tricks you into thinking that you didn't understand something, when in fact you did.

4) You should be categorizing the paragraphs in your head. Remember that the reading material on the verbal section is always written so that the information is organized in some logical way. The AAMC specifically picks passages that are not haphazardly organized and written. "Categorizing" means that you should be thinking about the general subject of each paragraph so that you know where in the passage to look for information when you need to refer back as you answer the questions. It does not mean stopping and summarizing every paragraph in your head as you read. This way you don't waste time re-reading large sections of the passage (or the whole passage!) to find helpful information when you do need to refer back. Instead, your categorical map of the paragraphs will give you a general idea of where that information should be located. This will save you important time when you reach one of those questions that you don't know right off the bat. Lastly, the categorical map you create as you are doing your first read through should be in your head. This means you are really just making mental notes that point you in the right direction, and not summarizing.

5) Answer every question in order, do not skip questions. I think that this particular point works really well because often the questions themselves are ALOT of reading! If you read a question, decide that its too hard and skip to the next, you'll then have to come back and re-read the question on your second attempt thereby wasting time! Make a mental note of and use the CBT's "mark" function on the questions that are iffy so that when you do go back and review all of your answer, you know which questions you should focus more time on.

6) Be aware of the different question types on the verbal section. The princeton review book has a list of these, and I think the Kaplan one does as well. In addition, when you are reviewing your practice exams you should make your own list of what you think the different question types are. As to HOW to answer every question type; This is one of the major areas where practice comes into it. As you get better, you'll begin to realize the types of things that look like 'correct' answers, and you get a feel for the types of things that the examiner is looking for. Check out the "process of elimination" section (number 8 in this post).

7) Do heavy post-game analysis. You must, must, must go back over your verbal questions and ensure that your thought process was correct for the questions that you got right. Figuring out what exactly you were thinking when you answered a question incorrectly is absolutely essential. That way, when you find yourself thinking in a similar way on a future exam, you might stop and think twice about your answer. Do not ever say, "Oh I totally should have gotten that question! It's easy!" If you missed a question, you missed it for a reason. Instead of passing it off as a "stupid mistake" make sure you understand exactly why you made that mistake, and what you were thinking when you made it. Then, you should try and figure which types of questions you are most often missing and analyze your thought process to see what wrong thought caused you to pick a wrong answer. Then, be aware, and fix that thought process.

8) Learn to use process of elimination (POE). There are a few tricks you can use to POE the hell out of some verbal questions.
- Extreme sounding answers are almost always wrong. Exception: If the passage itself sounds extreme. You should still make sure that your answer choice fits with the logic of the question and the passage itself. For instance, the question could ask, "Which of the following is NOT representative of the author's stance of issue X". In these types of questions, the extreme answer might be right.

- In questions that ask you to describe the 'mood' of the author, or any question with 'one word' answer choices, answers that are similar or say the same thing are almost always both wrong. Check and see if you picked an answer that sounds very similar to another one, and make sure you know exactly why you chose that answer. The MCAT will never be cut and dry, so just make sure your logic about an answer choice is clear.
- Watch out answer choices with identical or similar vocabulary to the passage. A very common trick is that often words that were used in the passage will be transplanted into an answer choice with either: 1) a cause and effect relationship reversed so that it is wrong, 2) a fact from the passage taken out of context, 3) a hypothesis that is mis-stated, 4) a slight twisting of the author's logic, 5) an incorrect detail has been inserted into the answer choice. Watch out for these, and when you see an answer choice with alot of identical words to the passage, be very sure to dissect it so that you understand its meaning. As you practice more and more, you'll begin to find other curious aspects of answer choices and question stems that stick out at you.

9) PRACTICE!!!
No seriously, practice. Developing an MCAT intuition is like developing a muscle. You can't cram for it, and you can't practice it "sometimes" while expecting major gains. You have to practice, consistently, repeatedly, and often.

10) Closing Note
This is my entire strategy. What worked for me may not work for you, but it's worth a shot! If something different than what I've posted here works for you, then use it! (and more importantly, come back to The Studentdoctor Network and tell us about it!). I picked up a princeton review verbal workbook (I think you can only get them from the class) and I did two passages every 1-2 days starting at about 3 months before my MCAT. Toward the end of my practice test runs I was consistently getting 13s and 14s in verbal on the AAMCs. This section is doable guys. Just make sure you are practicing properly and meticulously reviewing your answers! Just doing passages isn't going to give you exponential gains in performance. You have to practice and review the right way.

You should try for the 4 month modification of this schedule which I will post later on. Stretching this schedule longer then that significantly reduces its effectiveness. At that point, you need a completely different type of schedule, one more suited for 5-6 months. Any studying done prior to 6 months before your test date is pointless (except for reading). Lastly, it's still a horrible idea to study for the MCAT while taking a heavy courseload.

I took TPR at night over a spring semester, during which I took a couple of tests to get warmed up. Once summer started I studied 10 hours a day 5 - 6 days a week. Wake up at 8, 2 hours on, 1 hour break and repeat 5 times. Each 2 hour block was devoted to a different section of the test. I used my TPR schedule to go through the material. I did a full practice test every Friday and spend Saturday doing test analysis. I never studied on Sunday to let my mind relax. During the last two weeks I modified the schedule and took practice tests every 3 days. This schedule kept me from going nuts during the 7 weeks before I took the test.

Verbal Guide
First) Try doing a passage without being timed. Read, re-read, and re-read the passage again if you need to. Write notes. Look for keywords that let you know what the authors opinion, purpose, and tone of voice is. Then spend as much time as you want on the questions. Do not mark a question unless you are 100% sure it is right. Go back to the passage and identify what in the passage makes this question correct. Finish 1-2 passages in this fashion.

Second) Spend a lot of time going over the answers. Do not just go, "oh ya" and move on. Truly identify why you got this wrong, if you got it wrong. Do you understand why it is correct? Then critique if you would be able to get this right after a week.

Third) After practicing 2 days on passages un-timed but pacing yourself so you finish within 12-15 mins per passage, try timing yourself for 8.5mins or less per passage. Are you making more mistakes? Are you spending more time on the reading or on the questions (it should be approximately equal depending on the passage difficulty)? This will allow you to key into where your biggest problem is.

Fourth) By the end of the week, re-do the first passage I told you to do un-time and try to do it under a timed condition. Are you still making the same mistakes? If so, did you review it properly? Keep a log of what passages get you the most and which are getting you the least.

Fifth) In the beginning, I recommend you do the passage types that really bug you. If you hate philosophy, do only philosophy passages for 5 days straight... if its art do that. Then after you are conformable with reading those passages, you may move on practices other passages. As a helpful hint, milk your strengths as much as possible since the test is not bias where the correct answers come from (a point is a point).

Sixth) Try different strategies and find what is best for you. Try mapping, try reading question first then attacking the passage. Try finishing the passage within 7 mins or 7.5 mins. Make sure you find what works best for you.

Map Passages
Your map should help you to pick out which paragraph to refer back to and the question/answer will have key words for you to find the sentence to answer your questions. You need to know what your skimming as in "what am I missing?" so you know to look 'here' if they ask a question pertaining to it. Think of it this way. Every single answer to a question is in the passage, so why not use it? If you have time, I would suggest that you practice mapping because it takes time to get use to. At first, it will be hard to use efficient words and not take up too much time, but eventually you'll get the hang of it.

Here are some tips:
1) Only write a FEW words AFTER each paragraph.
2) Don't take notes WHILE reading.. if you see something that you really think is important HIGHLIGHT it--mapping is to give you an idea of what is what in the passage
3) If the questions are based on the passage, nearly every answer will be in the passage.
4) Try practicing a few times without timing yourself and get accustomed in finding the answer.
5) I highlight only names, dates, and seemingly important texts and that's it (too much highlights distracts me)
6) Each paragraph I only map the main purpose of it (why does the author include this paragraph and not leave it out?)
7) Also a VERY IMPORTANT clue to look for is... Does the author have an opinion or not? If so, more than likely you will have a question about it. In the end write the authors tone of voice (i.e. opinionated or not).

“SPAM” Map
Main point
Attitude of author
Pupose (of each passage)
Support

MCAT STUDY TIPS
1. Wake up early and study
2. Exercise daily
3. Plan 4 mth schedule (after BC finals (Dec) – April)
• Draw a map of the body systems in the human body... start with what happens when food enters your mouth.. or what happens when air enters your nose? If you do this over and over (write it down once and practice recall), physiology will make a lot more sense to you. how does this affect the heart? stomach? lungs? etc..
• Try and relate this to fluid flow in physics, for example. As one of my engineering friends told me, imagine the body as a circuit with blood being the current.
• Know which systems normally "go together"... for ex: Nervous and Endocrine system... at times, if you don't know what a question is talking about, knowing which "things" go together can be a big help.
4. Look at the AAMC topics list and identify the topics you had difficulty with and study those mainly
5. Also write stuff like, what happens if I add a resistor in parallel to a circuit? How is current affected... just knowing stuff like this like the back of your hand will save unnecessary time. The first time I had circuit questions, I had to draw 2 resistors in parallel to check if my thinking was right.
6. I forced myself to check if every Chemical equation I saw was balanced.
7. Keep a log of the types of questions on each exam you took ..see patterns
8. Study all of the material front to back and upside down...and not just the information, but also the concepts, how the concepts interrelate to each other, and how to grasp 'the big picture'. I learned cold ever piece of information in both the kaplan and princeton books, the AAMC concept list, and on all the practice exams I did (about 20)...but this was only the first half of my test preparation. The rest of my preparation went into learning how to beat the exam itself. Learning how to eliminate incorrect answers, devising a system to finish problems at breakneck speed without doing almost ANY calculations, and using almost no paper. I went through all of my AAMC practice exams and realized that there are certain types of problems that come back again and again, and again. If you see this, you begin to see that AAMC also makes their answer choices in a certain way. Thus, on some problems even if you don't have a good grasp on the material, you can eliminate answers to get the problem right. For instance, on my real MCAT there was a question that had some organic macromolecule with a bunch of acetyl-ester groups. The question asked something that sounded really complicated and finished with, 'Which of the Acteyl groups, either A, B, C, or D would be cleaved?' I had NO IDEA what they were talking about. But because I knew that the MCAT likes to test about carbonyl carbon electrophilicity, I realized that the answer was probably the acetyl groups that were all the same and had the most positive carbonyl group. I'm sure that I got that question right. And it wasn't because I knew the material, it's because I spent alot of hours figuring out the system used by the MCAT test makers; how the exam is structured, how AAMC formulates questions, and the methods that AAMC uses to trick students. It really didn't have much to do with 'intelligence' (whatever that is!).
9. Other people have hinted at this, especially with the mention of engineering students doing well on this test. The MCAT does require a broad knowledge base, but just knowing facts will not get you very far. Once you've read up about a particular concept, be it an organ system, circuits, or chemical synthesis, try and ask yourself conceptual questions with qualitative answers. For example, suppose you've just studied electrical circuits. Consider a circuit with a battery followed by a light bulb followed by a resistor (i.e. the resistor is in series with the light bulb). Ask yourself questions like "what happens to the bulb's brightness if I increase the value of the resistor?" Answer: the brightness decreases because the net current through the circuit has decreased. What if you add an identical resistor in parallel with the first one, but still in series with the bulb? The brightness of the bulb increases because the overall resistance of the circuit has decreased. This sort of qualitative understanding can get you a long way--you aren't allowed a calculator on the MCAT and there is a reason for that. Everything can be done using either estimation or using your qualitative estimate to strike out every other option. At an absolute minimum, you can strike out some answers so that guessing becomes more profitable. As another example, learn to do dimensional analysis and know your SI units. If you are told to calculate the power dissipated by some process and there are answers in Joules, you can strike them out without thinking since you want something in terms of Watts. You should know, given an equation with a single unknown, how to figure out what the units of the unknown must be if you know the units of every other value.
10. Writing - TPR gave us a list of the categories of topics, eg. Government, Ethics, Justic, etc. I started a notebook of examples for each topic. I got a trial subscription to The Economist and Time (free 6 mths with TPR course) and read it for example ideas. If I found one relevant to a past essay prompt or topic, I would search the details on the internet. Wikipedia became my god. I found a good strategy for the writing sample was to think of your examples for thesis and antithesis first, then looking for the difference between those examples (and voila, a synthesis). The other way would be to think of the differences first, then find examples to fit it. But this was harder. In the August MCAT, I got extremely lucky with my prompts and didn't blank on the essays at all (I would've if I had gotten something related to politics or justice...boo!). I ended up using examples I mostly knew off the top of my head already and didn't really need my example book! And just to show that you don't need spectacular examples: I talked about Sex and the City on my first essay. It's all about how you say it, not what you say!

Premed Timeline

2011-12-31T12:31:00.000-08:00

Application Timeline for 2014 Matriculation

November/December 2012

· Begin to request letters of evaluation from professors, supervisors, and physicians, BC President

When you ask people to write your letters, impress upon them that these letters must be strong, and they must attest to your abilities to succeed in medical school. The best LORs cite specific examples of things you have done to show that you possess characteristics like responsibility, a good work ethic, honesty, etc. Make sure that they will write great / exceptional LOR
Get extra LOR since a few will not deliver on time. Keep all contact info current.
Show variety in EC’s: Science, Non-science, Lab, shadowing, research, clinical, leadership, teaching
Send genuine handwritten thank you notes to everyone who writes you a LOR (including secretaries). No one gets into med school solely on their own volition; it's your duty to acknowledge those who've sacrificed their time and energy to help you get ahead.

· Provide info pkg: Strong req. letter, resume, amcas form, Transcript,

· Research your LOR professor. Know what they wrote- books/articles and speak to them about it. How many LOR he has written for pre-meds? Have lab instructor write LOR

· Register with www.interfolio.com. (credential file)

· With Interfolio, you print out a document with a bar code that you give to your letter writer (actually, I gave my letter-writers a copy of my AMCAS for their reference, the Interfolio cover letter, and a U.S. Postal Service 2-day mailer that they could hand to any postman - worked like a charm). Your letter is filed at Interfolio and you get an e-mail that they've gotten it (if you agreed to keep your letter confidential, you can't see it). When you're ready to send out letters, you select the letters you want to send and then Interfolio sends them as a package - electronically or paper. If the delivery is paper, the cost ranges just from $3-4 for regular mail to $9-12 for 2-day express - and you can pay more for overnight if you need that. Joining Interfolio cost something like $25 (I can't remember) and that pays to keep your letters on-line for something like three years, I think.

Free AMCAS letter service: Letter of evaluation, “individual letter, log all info on each letter writer, print “Letter Matching Form”, and give to each writer to upload (however, each writer will need to create an account)
A committee letter is a composite letter of the evaluations contained within your electronic file at college

January 2013

· Select a date for your April MCAT.

Begin MCAT preparation (register classes): Use tons of official practice tests on the AAMC site and take under timed settings. Make sure you're scoring higher than where you want to be

February 2013

Begin drafting personal statement for AMCAS. Personal Statement should answer why you want to go to med school, and what experiences you've had to back this assertion up. WHY MEDICINE? Tie job experience into medical aspect

· Use SDN to preview essays. Have English/Hum dept review. Have 5 different people read it.

March/April 2013

· Follow up with your evaluators regarding outstanding letters of evaluation. Whose is missing?

· Begin thinking about your school list. Have a reason to apply to each school.

· Purchase MSAR 2013-2014 available in April from www.aamc.org

May 2013

· The AMCAS application is available to review at www.aamc.org in mid-May. Start downloading

and sending in AMCAS transcript request forms to colleges you have attended. Wait until the

Semester grades are in, though.

· Finalize your personal statement for the AMCAS application.

· Finalize your school list. Keep a file folder of each school.

June 2013

· Submit your application to AMCAS/AADSAS/VMCAS/AACOMAS.

· Confirm with EACH school that you attended that the transcripts were mailed out. After one week, confirm with each application service that they were received.

Apply broadly: divide the schools into three categories: Longshot, Hopeful, and Competitive. Use MSAR. One thing I should have paid more attention to rather than just avg GPA/MCAT when I chose my schools was total # of applicants. While your scores might be competitive at a school it does matter if you're competing with 4k applicants or 10k applicants.
Make frequent, polite and friendly inquiries into your application and its status at the schools you are really interested in. You can even ask the admissions office staff how frequently they feel is appropriate for you to call. Always say thank you.

July, August, September 2013

· You will receive secondary applications from many of the schools to which you applied. Send

back all secondaries within two weeks to facilitate early interviews.

Review “mock interviewing” Techniques. And dress code etiquettes. I wore a skirt suit and the most "sensible" looking heels I could find (Get those FOOT PETALS from NORDSTROM and put them in your shoes they will SAVE the DAY. Watch the video tape and note your responses, your body language, and your demeanor. Have a list of questions to ask interviewers. LEARN TO SMILE!

Give the interviewer a firm handshake, show confidence. When answering a question, look EVERYONE in the eye. Move back a forth between interviewers because you are not just talking to one person. Show them that you belong in that school. Remember, YOU ARE ON THE ENTIRE DAY. You are being evaluated from the time you arrive until you leave. NEVER TALK ABOUT ANOTHER SCHOOL at the interview. Even when you are talking to the students. Send a thank you card and know that you did your best. Show maturity. Show what you will add to a medical school class.
Volunteer Teaching will alleviate fear in public speaking and present ideas in a clear and concise manner. Toastmasters
Don't reveal faults or weakness @ interviews; don't make any criticisms of anything. Be positive, outgoing, and eager.
Show leadership- medical schools want future leaders in the profession. We are responsible for working with/directing a team of nurses, techs, residents, students etc. You need to show you will be a good leader and a good team player at the same time.

· Read the school's entire website and making notes of interesting features or questions I had about the school. Go through the interview feedback from that school on SDN. Re-read app. Engage in mock interviews. Don't just talk about what great things you've done, but tie it into their specific programs/strengths. Like Q said, "Study" the school.

Prepare everything you can about current health care trends.
If you are applying DO, KNOW ABOUT OSTEOPATHY. Go to the AOA website and find out everything you can about OMM/OMT and not just that it was developed by AT Still.
Understand the curriculum, demands, and culture of Med Sch.
Read an interesting novel about being a doctor

October, November, December 2013 – January, February, March 2014

· (This is the typical time period for most medical school interviews.)

· Once a school makes an offer, you are free to accept it, knowing that you may withdraw up until

May 15 (MD schools) and have your deposit refunded

January 2014

· Send transcripts of fall semester work or post-bacc coursework to all schools in which you remain interested.

· Urge parents to complete 2011 tax return asap – needed to apply for financial aid.

February 2014

· Submit financial aid paperwork to medical schools.

April 2014

· Start making final decision among acceptances.

May 2014

· You may hold no more than one acceptance after May 15th.

· Notify the schools you will not be attending in writing. Graciously decline other offers.

June/July 2014

· Remain active on wait-lists, if applicable.

August 2014:

· Matriculate!

Medical Assistant

2011-12-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

Job Description: Office Nurse/Medical Assistant

General summary of duties: under the supervision of the Manager, is responsible for assisting in the delivery of health care and patient care management. Position reports to: Office Supervisor or Manager for nonmedical subjects; the Office Nurse/Medical Assistant will receive supervision from the physicians, advanced nurse practitioners or physician assistants

Job qualifications: Education/training: High school graduate or GED and current certification if applicable Experience: {One (1) year} of medical experience in a physician’s office or equivalent combination of training and experience

Skills:

· Knowledge of medical practice and care

· Knowledge of examination, diagnostic and treatment room procedures

· Knowledge of medical equipment and instruments

· Knowledge of common safety hazards and precautions

· Ability to assist in a variety of treatments and medications

· Ability to take vital signs

· Skill in developing and maintaining clinical quality assurance

· Skill in identifying and resolving problems

· Ability to maintain records and record test results

· Ability to interpret, adapt and apply guidelines and procedures

· Ability to use good reasoning and judgment and react calmly in emergency situations

· Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with patients, medical staff, coworkers and the public

Physical abilities:

· Stand for extended periods of time; push, pull and reach; occasionally bend, sit, stoop and stretch . Lift & Carry +50lbs.

· Have full range of body motion, including handling and lifting of patients

· Have a normal range of hearing and eyesight to record, prepare and communicate appropriate reports; specific vision requirements: close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to focus

Duties and responsibilities:

· Performs selected nursing and administrative duties, and assists physicians as part of the clinical care team

· Conducts pre-visit planning by reviewing and updating patient charts prior to appointment with recent test results and correspondence and determines needed services per practice protocol

· Confers with physician regarding any incomplete patient tests/consults or other incomplete orders prior to patient visit

· Prepares patients for examination and treatment by escorting them from the waiting area to the exam room and taking histories and vital signs

· Prepares, cleans and maintains exam and treatment rooms

· Gives injections and blood draws; assists with EKGs, X-rays, OB/GYN exams and treadmills as needed; and provides other patient care services as directed

· Maintains sample medication records, administers medication upon physician order and responds to medication requests per practice protocol

· Prepares and maintains clinical supplies and equipment

· Triages and responds to patient communications within practice policy

· Assists with scheduling tests and treatments, recertifying patients for hospital care and/or procedures, and processing referrals to other providers

· Coordinates care with disease management or case management programs

· Contributes to the development of policies and procedures

· Participates in professional development activities and maintains professional affiliations

· Creates, maintains, copies and files patient files, records and other information as needed

· Compiles and condenses technical and statistical data for reports and records

· Maintains strict confidentiality

· Treats staff, physicians, visitors and patients with dignity and respect

· Performs other related work as required

Work environment: The work of this position is performed in an environmentally controlled office environment. The position requires the ability to work under pressure and with a diverse population, including staff, physicians, clients, patients, insurance companies and other members of the public on a regular basis. The position may cause frequent exposure to communicable diseases, bodily fluids, toxic substances, ionizing radiation, medicinal preparations and other conditions common to a clinical environment.

AAFP: Job Descriptions, Performance Appraisals, and other Employee Forms. Leawood, KS. 2006

Requesting a Letter of Recommendation

2011-12-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

Sample Letter Format for Requesting a Letter of Recommendation

Your Full Name

Present address

Phone number Your e-mail

Date

Name

Title

Address of the person you are sending this to.

Dear (Address the recipient in a formal manner): (You will submit your LORs with your SECONDARIES)

Paragraph I: The first paragraph should explain exactly what you are applying for and why you have chosen them as someone of reference

I am writing this official request for a letter of recommendation to APPLY TO MEDICAL SCHOOL (let them know upfront). I have chosen you as someone of reference because (indicate how, when and where this person knows you enough to write a letter for you). "would feel comfortable writing me a strong letter of recommendation for medical school". Always do this in person!!! If they hesitate...walk away.

Paragraph 2: The second should contain details of the program, your selected specialty or emphasis area, and how this pertains to you and your future goals

Include your major, when you took the class, what grade you got, detail what you are applying for, and deadlines.

Your letter must be SIGNED, and should be on OFFICIAL LETTERHEAD whenever possible.

Let them know that they will get an email from Interfolio that evening with instructions on how to upload the letter. Give them a FIRM deadline (2-4 weeks seems to work best) for when you need the letter.

Paragraph 3: Third, you should include a list of what information you have provided in order to familiarize them with your background, interests, academics, and career goal

To assist you in preparing a letter for me, I have enclosed the following information:

1. Unofficial Copy of my transcript

2. Resume

3. A guide to writing medical school letters

Paragraph 4 You should give them a deadline of completion, should they decide to assist you with this matter and how the letter should be addressed. Include your number and e-mail address again and thank them.

Since the entire application is completed online, you will also be requested to submit your recommendation online. When I submit my application, my email address will be coded as my user name. You are asked to go to www.NashvilleATHENAAwards.org to submit a letter of recommendation for me. Submit a Letter of Recommendation for A Scholarship Application area just one click down the page. The recommendation is an important component of my application and must be submitted online no later than December 18, 2009. You will need my name and my email address.

If you have any questions, please contact me at (telephone number) or email me at (email address). Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

(Signature)

Type Name

LOR FOLDER for Each Recommender

Letter asking for strong recommendation letter, with AMCAS/Interfolio upload instructions.
Resume & Cover Letter
Unofficial Transcript
Personal Essay
Handwritten Thank-you letter (for specific skills that will help in medical sch to help them recall your characteristics and attributes)
Self-addressed manila envelopes
Starbucks card?
A personalized cover letter graciously thanking the recommender for their time, and clearly stating your specific deadlines.
Your curriculum vitae (a resume describing your academic accomplishments, relevant courseware, honors, and degrees).
A copy of the personal statement that you plan to transmit with your AMCAS application.
A signed waiver form in which you relinquish your right to read the letter (highly recommended, although there are exceptions)
A paper, thesis, project, research results, or another item specific to your relationship with the recommender. The goal here is to refresh the recommender's memory about you by producing something this person has used in the past to evaluate you in some way.
A summary of the themes of your application. Explain what makes you a special or unusual as a candidate. Emphasize those items in your record that are most significant to the application, and also those that you feel the recommender can clarify or elaborate upon most effectively.
Tips on what makes a strong letter of recommendation (include at your discretion).
A stamped envelope with the address where the recommender should send the letter.
A stamped confirmation postcard (addressed to yourself). This is a simple card that says, "Yes, I sent your letter of recommendation in accordance with your request." When you receive this postcard in the mail, you'll know that the recommender sent the letter.
Plan to call recommenders around the time of their deadline, or just a bit before, reminding them to complete their letters on time.
Prepare thank-you cards for your recommenders; when you receive their confirmation postcards, put the thank-you cards in the mail. Then confirm that the letter was received.
You should use Interfolio, I used it last year and it's incredibly easy! You make an account with Interfolio, have all your writers send the LORs to Interfolio, and once you need to send them out to schools, you pick out which ones you want to send out, and Interfolio sends it as a packet to the school.
mentioned your goal of getting a LOR when setting up the shadowing,

Interview Cheat Sheet

2011-12-31T12:21:00.000-08:00

Interview Cheat Sheet
In the Days Before the Interview

Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On the left side, make a bulleted list of what the employer is looking for based on the job posting. On the right side, make a bulleted list of the qualities you possess that fit those requirements.
Research the company, the industry and the competition.
Prepare your 60-second personal statement -- your answer to the "Tell me about yourself" question.
Write at least five success stories to answer behavioral interview questions ("Tell me about a time when..." or "Give me an example of a time...").
List five questions to ask the interviewer about the job, the company and the industry.

Before You Go to the Interview

Do you look professional? Check yourself in the mirror; part of your confidence will come from looking good.
Carry these items to the interview: Several copies of your resume on quality paper. A copy of your references. A pad of paper on which to take notes. (Notes are optional.) Directions to the interview site.

Prepare answers to common interview questions:

Upon Arrival

Arrive early -- enter the building 10 minutes before your appointment.
Review your prepared stories and answers.
Go to the restroom and check your appearance one last time.
Announce yourself to the receptionist in a professional manner.
Stand and greet your interviewer with a hearty -- not bone-crushing -- handshake.
Smile and look into the interviewer's eyes.

During the Interview

1. Try to focus on the points you have prepared without sounding rehearsed or stiff.

2. Relax and enjoy the conversation. Learn what you can about the company.

3. Ask questions and listen; read between the lines.

4. At the conclusion, thank the interviewer, and determine the next steps.

5. Ask for the interviewer's business card so you can send a follow-up letter.

After the Interview

As soon as possible, write down what you are thinking and feeling.
Later in the day, review what you wrote, and assess how you did.
Write a follow-up thank-you letter, reminding the interviewer of your qualities, decisions.

Closing Points

Leave your interviewer with the right picture of you. Think of at least five skills or traits you want remembered after the interview.
Ask if there is anything else you can provide, such as references, background information or work samples.
State your interest in the position. Don't be overly anxious, but act interested. Remember to mention the added value you can bring to the job.
Ask about the next step in the process. It's Important for you to know the next step so you can follow up. Ask for the decision date.
Find out how to contact them. If you don't hear back, you will need to know who to contact and whether they will accept calls to check the status.

Ask Questions
In many situations, the questions you ask in an interview can be more revealing than the answers you give Questions are also a sign of enthusiasm, something most recruiters and hiring managers desperately want to see. The way to show interest is by asking follow-up questions, really taking interest in what they're doing and showing that you've done some research as well.

Clinical Experience

2011-12-31T12:19:00.000-08:00

Clinical Experience

Skills (+100 hours)

Patient Care (Ped Off, Free Clinic, DO)
Teaching (TA & Science Lab volunteer)
Ledership (BC Lib Vol Teen Prog); (Psy Club free Newsletter)
Mentoring (BC EDGE2949 course)
Research Shadowing (DO)

Certification

BC HCP0130 (75 HRS @ DAVIE Campus)
ER tech in a Level I Trauma Center
Northwest hosp Emergency Care, pre-natal Dept (cancer, obgyn, children spec dept)
Hospital/clinics Free certification classes
BC Placement office clinical jobs
Female doctor / nurse mentor
Toastmasters: 954-579-5227 (CS #2903)

When choosing a certification, take into consideration what you want from the experience. If you want opportunity for growth, choosing Certified Nursing Assistant can lead to on-the-job mentoring and basic medical technique training (i.e. phlebotomy and EKG), especially when your superiors know you are a pre-medical student. Phlebotomy training, on the other hand, can be somewhat more restrictive in terms of intra-hospital job movement.

Physician Shadowing – Applicants should spend enough time with a physician(s) to understand the challenges, demands and lifestyle of a doctor. Shadowing a physician of any specialty through all the activities of an average day over a period of time will help develop your knowledge of the medical field.

Patient Exposure – It is important that the applicant be comfortable working with and around people who are ill. The patient exposure experience can be gained in a variety of ways. Many applicants volunteer or work in hospitals, emergency rooms, homeless clinics or extended care facilities and are actively involved in patient contact.

Leadership Ability – Dedication, determination, ability to make decisions and a willingness to contribute to the welfare of others are indicators of one’s ability to succeed in medicine. Individuals with these characteristics readily accept positions of leadership and are an asset to their community and profession. Leadership capacity can be demonstrated in a variety of ways such as positions in employment, church, community and school organizations including coaching, tutoring and mentoring.

Extracurricular Activities – The Admissions Committee is interested in how applicants deal with the demands of their lives outside of the classroom. This is a strong indicator of how well they handle responsibilities and deal with stressful situations. It also predicts how well they will handle the difficult demands of medical school.

Community/Volunteer Service – The medical profession is strongly oriented to service in the community. Applicants should demonstrate a commitment to the community by involving themselves in service and volunteer activities. Work performed in service learning courses and community service performed as part of employment is a good starting point.

Research – Research is the foundation of medical knowledge. We consider participation in research activities to be an important part of the preparation for medical school. Physicians depend on medical literature to remain current in their fields. Most physicians participate in research at some point in their careers. Research experience may be in any discipline and performed at any site. Applicants should be able to describe their project, the questions being asked and their role in the conduct of the research. Research performed as part of a course requirement or a senior thesis project is acceptable. More research experience is expected of MD/PhD applicants.”

How To Study Chemestry

2011-12-31T06:49:00.000-08:00

1. Basic math proficiency: fractions, negative #, exponents, scientific notations, log. Solve algebraic equations

2. Solve problems independently and not look at or “read” solutions manual. Only peak at solution manual once problem is solved

3. Explain the problem solved to someone else

4. Challenge the problems – treat it as a game

5. The prof expects materials will be diff for students – so seek help

6. Work all the problems

7. Lab – pre-read and anticipates the results: theory and practice. Do not copy other people notes

8. Visit lab TA

9. Read adjunct books

10. Go to prof with specific problems not vague ideas

11. Know the vocab of chem.

12. Know exactly what you got wrong on tests

13. Get a coofer. That's a copy of an old exam, from your course, from your instructor. Coofers are indispensable study aids. They reveal the format of the test, and allow you to judge the scope of the material and the depth of coverage. You can even use the old exam to pinpoint your own strengths and weaknesses by taking the exam.

14. Extra credits

15. Don’t just memorizing facts without understanding their relevance

Review notes

Test flash cards

Solve arbritaru problems

Are all assignments completed

Any questionable areas to seek prof help

Visit lab TA
Ask prof for Coofer test

Any problem with basic math understanding

Peeking at solution manual?

Speed Reading

2011-12-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

Another useful tool for learning is speed reading. You’ll need to wade through a lot of material very quickly whenever you read for classes. Like most people reading this manual, you’re probably reading every single word in succession. Nicholas Schaffzin’s Reading Smart is what I used to break this habit. There are plenty of other books on speed reading, but they all teach the same principle. Instead of looking at words as individuals, you should divide each line into three parts, glance at the sections, and then use your peripheral vision to pick up everything.

As an example, Figure 1.1 contains an excerpt from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Read the paragraph as you would normally. Now move to Figure 1.2 and read the section again—this time by glancing at the bullets. At ﬁrst this technique seems pretty odd. You’ll need some time to adjust to the new style of reading. The more you practice, however, the better you’ll get at speed reading. My own pace has doubled ever since I adapted to this method. Again, I only give a summarized explanation of how speed reading works. I strongly suggest that you pick up a book on the subject and learn from it.

Figure 1.1: Read this section as you normally would

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I ﬁnd myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I ﬁnd myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Figure 1.2: Now read it again using only the bullets

Call me Ishmael. ∙ Some years ago—never ∙ mind how long precisely—having ∙ little or no money in my ∙ purse, and nothing particular to interest ∙ me on shore, I thought ∙ I would sail about a little and see the ∙ watery part of the world. ∙ It is a way I have of driving ∙ off the spleen and regulating ∙ the circulation. Whenever I ﬁnd ∙ myself growing grim about ∙ the mouth; whenever it is a damp, ∙ drizzly November in my soul; ∙ whenever I ﬁnd myself involuntarily ∙ pausing before coffin ∙ warehouses, and bringing up the rear ∙ of every funeral I meet; ∙ and especially whenever my hypos ∙ get such an upper hand of me, ∙ that it requires a strong moral ∙ principle to prevent me ∙ from deliberately stepping into the ∙ street, and methodically ∙ knocking people’s hats off—then, I ∙ account it high time to get to sea ∙ as soon as I can.

BackWord Memorization Skills

2011-12-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Learning vast amounts of material that can be regurgitated on an exam is vitally important for most of the core classes. Sure, you may never see those questions again, but for the four times each semester that you have your exams, you’ll be required to pump out facts about the various elements (e.g. criminal law), standards of review (e.g. constitutional law), rules (e.g. property), or other information. Law school is even worse for requiring students to memorize verbatim lots of information that they’ll never use again. Simply put, the key to success in most classes is to memorize everything you can. Memorization is important in certain law classes because so much of the material is fact-based.

I’m sure that when you were younger, you were required to memorize Shakespearean monologues or the capitals of U.S. states. You probably read over each sentence again and again until you could perfect Romeo’s speeches. The good news is that you have already seen how much material you can memorize. The bad news is that you’ve been doing it all wrong. The correct way to go about memorizing is by reading the words backwards. Here’s a demonstration. Look at this number:

75713650058

Cover up everything with a sheet of paper except the last digit, 8. Now slowly say, “eight,” aloud three times. Next, slide the paper over one digit and slowly say, “ﬁve-eight,” three times. Again, slide the paper over to reveal 058 and say, “zero-ﬁve-eight.” Continue the exercise all the way until the ﬁrst number. Don’t try to get ahead of yourself by jumping two to three numbers at a time. Just continue working one number after another until you’ve ﬁnished. Once you’re done, test your new memorization skills by covering up everything once again and then saying the number aloud.

Are you impressed yet? Go ahead and try memorizing other random things just to get a feel for the backwards memorization technique. Practice on song lyrics and speeches. Just cover up everything but the last word and then work your way back to the beginning. For longer pieces of text, you may want to try memorizing only one paragraph at a time. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to retain large volumes of material in a short amount of time. You can impress your friends by showing them that you can memorize the serial numbers on dollar bills within seconds of staring at the paper. This technique is not only useful for learning long numbers and speeches, but can easily be applied to law as well.

The key is to make sure that you have a particular piece fully committed to memory before trying the next item. For the number example above, don’t move to 50058 if you cannot say, “0058,” without effort. If you want to learn the theory behind this memorization trick, read Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoot the Dog! or you could go as far as taking behavioral and cognitive psychology courses.

As a ﬁnal, cautionary note, stay away from ﬂash cards. They are a waste of time to produce. Yes, some people do learn from them, but keep in mind that the time spent writing ﬂash cards could be better spent working on memorizing the material. By the time your friends are done writing their cards, you’ll be ﬁnished studying if you follow the method I described here. If you don’t like the backwards memorization technique that I’ve described, the book Learn to Remember by Dominic O’Brien (ISBN: 0811827151) details methods that use your imagination to create either sequential movies or static pictures of associations to help you remember things.

Why did you choose your specialty?

2011-12-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Public health and preventive medicine was a natural fit for me. During my clinical training, I often felt like we were chasing after diseases that could have been prevented. For example, type 2 diabetes was rampant, but the main thing we had to offer seemed to be medication. I wanted to spend more time talking to my patients about things like diet, exercise, and other health-related behaviors, but the way the system is set up it’s hard to do that and stay on schedule. Now, I’m surrounded by people who make that sort of thing the focus of their work. How can we address health behaviors on the population level, so fewer people will get type 2 diabetes (or HIV, or heart disease, or smoking-related cancers) in the first place? I also think a lot about the quality of health care and how we can improve our system, which is another big focus for my specialty. Beth Seltzer, MD, MPH

What do you like most and least about being a physician and interacting with patients?

2011-12-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

The thing I like the most about interacting with patients is the level of trust and intimacy that we, as doctors, are granted almost immediately. Back when I was a peds resident, it occurred to me one day that outside of the hospital, I rarely ever physically touched strangers, whereas in the hospital, within 30 seconds of meeting someone I was holding their hands, touching their faces, just this incredibly intimate contact that would be completely out of place in any other setting. As doctors, people tell us things within minutes of meeting us that they usually don’t tell other people, sometimes things they’ve never told anyone. It’s an incredible privilege and responsibility to be immediately brought into the fold that way, and to be trusted.

Michelle Au, MD

What is the biggest problem in health care today?

2011-12-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

There’s not enough access to healthcare. Expanding Medicaid to cover patients who are uninsured is not enough—a lot of doctors don’t take Medicaid. There needs to be adequate access on the healthcare provider side. Medicine is extremely commercialized (this is the subject of my next book). Costs run rampant—so how do we institute effective cost control while maintaining quality? And how do we get doctors to buy into cost control knowing it will eat into their income? Pay for performance is a problem because it causes doctors to ignore other aspects of care and focus on what’s rewarded. Sandeep Jauhar, MD

Overall, skyrocketing costs. Pharmaceutical companies charging too much money for new drugs and claiming that it is due to research and development. The lack of human connection and physical exam because it seems easier and faster to order a test. Patients not really being educated about their condition and wanting unrealistic and futile treatments. Not talking about death. Lack of healthcare for everyone. Julie Hersch, MD

Coaching

2011-11-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

"Teach and supervise (someone); act as a trainer or coach (to), as in sports"

Mentoring

2011-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Home-School Instructing (1st-7th grade)

1-6 grader self-study series
Pre-GED Course
GED comprehensive coursework
Pre-SAT Series
SAT comprehensive coursework
SAT mock exams
Social Activities (Karate, voc classes, library vol, etc)
Learn 1-word a day project

High School Attainments (8th-9th grade)

HS Transcript
HS graduate @ 15years
SAT Score +1500
Brights Futures Award (Medallion)
BC Prep: Word/Excel/Pwr Pt review; Mackbook tutorial,

How-To-Study Skills

Goals: Re-Create Textbook I.Y.O.W., Repetition (10-15x review materials), Self-Confidence
Time Management Calendar System
Map Chapter Table of Contents
Reformat Topics/sub-Topics into Quests.
I.Y.O.W, story-telling Sentences
Flash Cards
Critical Thinking
2-day rule
Essay Mapping
Speech Mapping
Memory Techniques
Typing
Short-Hand

Technology Skills

MackBook / AIR
Ipod
Line-2
Student Apps: Scanning, Khan Academy, etc
Cell Phone - remote access, text messaging
Laser Printer, Scanner, Copier
Wireless Access in-house
Blog Archiving
Status Movado

BC Accomplishments

F/T BC Student @ 15 years (10th grade)
Science/Math Pre-Study (HWH)
GPA +3.72 Transfer
Transient Student @ FAU (science classes)
Graduated @ 18 years w. Associate Degree

Low-Stress Education

Limit 3 courses per semester
Mix mapping, sciences
BC / FAU degree pre-planning audit
Study Time 9-5, no weekends, classes < 2-3 days per wk,
Non-Science Major
Full Career Planning
3/5 Yrs BC/FAU degree program completion

Financing & Financial Aid Goals

Annual FAFSA (completed by February)
Brights Futures s/ship
No 4-years College debt
Annual EUC 0, Pell 100%
Health Ins
+$6k/ea chest
+$5k emg tuition shortfall
Personal C.C.
Reliable Transp.
Maintain near perfect credit score
Subside & unsubsidized Pre-Qualify Loans
Mtg paid-off 2014
2nd income

The Coach

Complete all on-line LAB assignments
Complete all odd chapter exercises
Print & Map Power-Pt Handouts
Draw Pwr-Pts Diagrams, Pics, etc
Visit TA labs weekly
Visit Prof Office weekly: review chapter study materials, test results vs Average, stand-out (+300 students)
End of Semester Letter
Seek Mentors: Q&A: TA, Prof
Join study Group (TA labs)
Conduct weekly study assessments
MCAT scan & review TA/Prof
Encourage weekly exercise regiment
Visit Science Dept
Visit clubs for activities, events, speakers, etc
Easy listing music @ home
Help Transient Student Paper-work
Annual get-away vacation
Semester wrap-up
Student-condusive home environment

FAU / MD Planning

Register pre-med Dept
Setup credentialing file
MD Timeline
MCAT/MD pre-requisites
Clinical Exp (MD, Dental, Pharm, Derm, shadowing, etc)
Recommendation Letters
Mock Interviews
Draft Personal Essay
MD Personal Library
Resume & Cover Letter
MD School App preview
FAU 1 credit vol program
+12 credits per semester
GPA target +3.60
MCAT goal +30
MCAT taken April 2013, Aug 2013
Med School @ 20 years
Leadership Skills (tutoring, club executive, etc)
Toastmasters Membership

Back-Up Plan

Dental School - DDS
Pharmacy School - Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)
CRNA
Physician Assistant

Doctorate After College

2011-11-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

PharmD:

Pros: Doctor after 4 years, No Residency, Immediate work after Grad, +$85k yr, Flexible Hours, O/T + Holidays = Extra Cash, Easily raise a family, Work in Hosp, Retail, G0vt, Job demand all States, Increase Job growth (aging pop, increase drug prescriptions, personalized human genomics, No Insurance Overlords, Min GPA < 3.50, enter med sch < 90 credits (3 yrs), Low stress doctorate degree, MCAT pre-req for PCAT

Cons: Salary capped at $100k, $30K annual tuition, < 4-5 FL med schools.

DDS:

Pros: No residency, Doctor after 4 years, Low stress doctorate degree (no scramble for residency, Can work after grad, Can return to residency after 2-3 years, Can specialize in Prosthodontics (cosmetic surgery), Gross $100k-$200k annually, Is self-employed, No insurance Overlords, < 3.50 GPA, Start earning after 4 years, No 4yrs degree req (+90 credits only), MCAT pre-req for DAT.

Cons: Back and neck pain in 40's, very hands on type work, easy to catch hepatitis or AIDS, Annual Tuition cost $55k (+$200 debt), Only 2 FL med schools (UF & NOVA), Req strength to pull teeth, Cash & Drugs strong-arm robbery

MD:

Pros: Less than $25k annual tuition (cheapest), Gross $150k-$200k after grad), Big Respect,

Cons: 4yrs med school, Scramble, 3 years Med School, +11 years to be a Doctor, Top 10% class for Derm, Anast, Rad, Surg, Struggle every step (4yrs, med sch, residency (steps), Sexual Harassment, Extremely Competitive (GPA, MCAT, Rec Lettrs, Clinic, etc), MD is practically useless (lab work), Cannot choose Med Sch or Residency, Lifestyle = lots of long hours, Insurance overlords = heavily regulated = Loss of Independence, Difficult to change Specialty, Every day creates self-doubt, low confidence, low self-esteem, lots of peer pressure, sucide rate very high (1/10 med sch students), Lots of Humiliation in residency, +80 Hours a week residency, On-call +1-3x week, Quit after 2 years = $50k debt, and zero usefulness of educ.

I Love Living Life. I Am Happy.

2011-11-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

PUMPED UP KICKS|DUBSTEP

2011-11-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

Through the wormhole S1E03 - Is time travel possible(FULL)

2011-11-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

Human Slinky

2011-11-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

End Of Semester Letter

2011-11-06T18:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Professor B,

Thank you for imparting upon me four memorable months of learning and exploring the wonderful world of Biology (BSC 1011).

I stayed committed to your course syllabus, attended all classes with no exceptions, and completed every single homework assignment, including all extra credits. In addition, I attended TA Tutoring Labs on a weekly basis, and made it my devoted duty to call upon you at least once a week to critically review my extensive study materials, clarify vague topic areas, and actively seek out your guidance and mentorship.

Ever since I entered college at the unseasoned age of 15, and as I venture into my 3^rd year as a sophomore student, I continue to discern that the road ahead of me remains delectably challenging; but as you wisely stated, “it’s a marathon and not a sprint!” Consequently, I am excited that the lessons you imprinted upon me this semester has immensely encouraged my enthusiasm for the Sciences.

As always, thank you for your thoughtfulness, generosity, and especially for giving me that wonderful self-assurance from knowing that I was one of your more “Exceptionally Hard Working and Dedicated Students”.

Respectfully,

PS: I hope I can still retain the privilege of stopping by your office ever so often to keep you abreast of my academic progress and to continue to seek your invaluable mentorship.

Semester Checklist

2011-11-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Print-Out Power Pt Handouts
Map Power Pt & Prof Handouts
Complete all Home Work Assignments, including MyLabs
Compete odd Chapter Problems
Work Chem Problems Independently
Sketch Bio Pics, diagrams, charts, etc
Review Chapter Study Materials With Prof/TA once all completed
Visit Prof Office once-a-week
Ask Prof/TA for supplemental study materials
Inquire about special lectures, programs to attend (Dept, website, bulletin board, TA)
Ask for Extra Credit Assignment
Review Exams wrong Answers and compare your test result with class average score
Scan MCAT Q&A and discuss with Prof/TA
Visit Lab weekly
Join Study Group - develop and compile Old Exam Quest
Visit Dept and Website
Use Khan Academy as a study resource
Ask Prof/TA for pre-study review materials for next semester course
Submit End of Semester Letter

How to improve your weak areas: GPA, MCAT, ECs, Essays, LORs, and Interviewing skills

2011-10-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

Highlight your strengths and uncover hidden strengths (teaching, awards, library volunteer +200hrs)
Strong teaching background is very positive for med school
Use SDN to preview PS & essays
Seek pre-med office counseling
Show them that you are successful and the potential to continue being successful
Post-Barticulate count as BCPM (not MBA)
Reach out to NOVA DO admissions, keep them informed about academic progress
Stress high MCAT scores prove capable and ready to handle medical school coursework. (a balanced score is 34R (11PS, 11VR, 12BS)
Personal Statement should answer why you want to go to med school, and what experiences you've had to back this assertion up.
LORs: carefully chose whom you are going to ask for letters. Most schools require three LORs but will permit you to submit up to six. Use www.interfolio.com. This makes both your life and the life of your recommenders MUCH easier. Also, when you ask people to write your letters, impress upon them that these letters must be strong, and they must attest to your abilities to succeed in medical school. The best LORs cite specific examples of things you have done to show that you possess characteristics like responsibility, a good work ethic, honesty, etc. Give the person a copy of your transcript and your CV to use in crafting the letter. Make sure that they will write great / exceptional LOR
Send genuine handwritten thank you notes to everyone who writes you a LOR (including secretaries). No one gets into med school solely on their own volition; it's your duty to acknowledge those who've sacrificed their time and energy to help you get ahead.
ECs: many medical schools like to see RECENT CLINICAL volunteering (hospital surgery waiting room
Interviews: It is essential that you practice expressing the points you made in your PS in a clear, concise, and engaging way. It is also essential that you can articulate why you want to attend each school where you interview. Study extensively for every interview. Read the school's entire website and making notes of interesting features or questions I had about the school. Go through the interview feedback from that school on SDN. Re-read app. Engage in mock interviews. Don't just talk about what great things you've done, but tie it into their specific programs/strengths. Like Q said, "study" the school!
Get help with essays and interviewing skills from the english/humanities dept.
Use tons of official practice tests on the AAMC site and take under timed settings. Make sure you're scoring higher than where you want to be
Demonstrate professionalism, interact with patients, and take leadership roles.
Get a health professions committee letter and a clinical letter
Shadow DO & secure LOR
Know your answers to some standard type questions you are likely to get.
Use professional service to write essay?
I wore a skirt suit and the most "sensible" looking heels I could find (Get those FOOT PETALS from NORDSTROM and put them in your shoes they will SAVE the DAY.
Start writing your personal statement in January and have 5 different people read it.
Apply early. You are allowed to start filling out the AAMCAS and AACOMAS in May. Have your transcripts mailed at this time or just before. Confirm with EACH school that you attended that the transcripts were mailed out. After one week, confirm with each application sevice that they were received. Get your LORs into your pre-med office or interfolio ASAP. Once the application season starts in early June, Submit.
Keep a file of each school. As soon as you receive the secondary, start working on it. Again, have 5 people look over your essays and then send it in. Give yourself a 1-2 week turnaround per application. Remember, the earlier you apply the better your chances. Mark down the dates on your file of when you received the secondary and when it was sent. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT THE SCHOOL RECEIVED EVERYTHING. Have your LORs sent as soon as you get the secondary. One week after sending in the secondary call the school to confirm that your file is complete.
Prepare everything you can about current health care trends.
Get some one to interview you and video tape it. Then watch the video tape and note your responses, your body language, and your demeanor.
If you are applying DO, KNOW ABOUT OSTEOPATHY. Go to the AOA website and find out everything you can about OMM/OMT and not just that it was developed by AT Still.
Give the interviewer a firm handshake, show confidence. When answering a question, look EVERYONE in the eye. Move back a forth between interviewers because you are not just talking to one person. Show them that you belong in that school. Remember, YOU ARE ON THE ENTIRE DAY. You are being evaluated from the time you arrive until you leave. NEVER TALK ABOUT ANOTHER SCHOOL at the interview. Even when you are talking to the students. Send a thank you card and know that you did your best.
Show maturity.
Make frequent, polite and friendly inquiries into your application and its status at the schools you are really interested in. You can even ask the admissions office staff how frequently they feel is appropriate for you to call. Always say thank you.
Show what you will add to a medical school class.
Have a doctor review PS
Research your LOR professor. Know what they wrote- books/articles and speak to them about it. How many LOR he has written for pre-meds? Have lab instructor write LOR
Can you write your own LOR and have them sign it?
Show leadership- medical schools want future leaders in the profession. We are responsible for working with/directing a team of nurses, techs, residents, students etc. You need to show you will be a good leader and a good team player at the same time.
If a club does not exist at your school start it. This is the quickest way to get leadership points. I started an international medical relief team at my post-bac program, which raised medical supplies and donations for hospitals in the third world.
Clinical research is generally easier and quicker to get involved in than basic science or lab research. Contact the research directors of the various hospital departments and you will be amazed at the number of projects that are ongoing. Make sure you know what the rules are in advance of committing to a project
Get extra LOR since a few will not deliver on time
Show variety in EC’s: shadowing, research, clinical, leadership, teaching
Volunteer Teaching will alleviate fear in public speaking and present ideas in a clear and concise manner.
Get to know some nurse managers @ hosp and work as a nurse's aide on a high acuity inpatient unit.
Discuss Hobbies on PS to demonstrate a well-rounded individual.
LORs: So I ended up with letters from three PIs, a hospital volunteer supervisor, a nurse manager, and a science professor. While getting a committee letter was time-consuming (a full day of interviews and I had to write about 10 essays), it gave me the opportunity to send 6 letters to schools regardless of their letter requirements.
PS details the complexities of patient-caregiver interactions and wasn't a standard "I want to heal people" essay. She also appreciated that I addressed the importance of caregivers when science reaches it's limits.
APPLY EARLY: There's a lot of debate about whether being complete in September/October vs. July/August really hurts your chances that much. But here's the best reason for applying early: the chance at an early acceptance in October. Also try to send in your primaries on day one. AMCAS verification times seemed to increase a ton for those who submitted a week or two later vs. those who submitted on day one. The sooner you're verified, the sooner you can concentrate on secondary essays, and the sooner your app will be complete.
Apply broadly: I took my pre-med advisors advice and divided the schools I applied to into three categories: Longshot, Hopeful, Competitive (there's no such thing as a safety). I applied to 3 longshots, 5 hopefuls, 7 competitives. I probably should have bought the MSAR, but instead used US N&WR. One thing I should have paid more attention to rather than just avg GPA/MCAT when I chose my schools was total # of applicants. While your scores might be competitive at a school it does matter if you're competing with 4k applicants or 10k applicants. This frequently becomes a problem with private schools with no instate preference. Also make sure you know what percentage each school reserves for IS (instate) applicants. Don't immediately discount a school because it's a public school. Some schools accept almost no OOS, but many do accept significant #'s OOS. OH can't be beat for the carpetbagger. 6 public medical schools (2 are ranked) and lax residency rules.
Look into free secondaries
Take classes tht would help in the MCAT - Biochem, Genetics, Anatomy & Physiology 2, Cell
Practice multiple presentations will help at interviews
Spend time thinking about my own pitfalls and how I might change them and make them better. Having the maturity to talk about those things was very helpful.
Have pre-health committee at my school that wrote me a committee letter.
If you have a professor that you like try taking multiple courses with that professor. That way, he can write about your academic performance over a longer period of time.
ER tech in a Level I Trauma Center.
Spend a few weeks volunteering in SA hospital
Tie job experience into medical aspect
Scheduling: I scheduled mine for the September after I completed my prereqs (June), giving me ample time to study while the material is somewhat fresh in my head. I thought this worked well for me. If I missed my target score, I had the remainder of the year to study for a January sitting, and I'd get my score back in plenty of time to make decisions about where to apply based on it.
Don't reveal faults or weakness @ interviews, don't make any criticisms of anything. Be positive, outgoing, and eager.
PS - WHY MEDICINE?

Medical School Interview

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Reflections of a Former Admissions Dean

Dear Prospective Medical School Student,

I offer my perspectives as a former medical school admissions dean, and to offer you some helpful advice as you prepare to apply to medical school. I hope you will find my comments to be informative and encouraging.

Initial Screening

Different medical schools may vary in how they make decisions, but the considerations discussed below are important in one way or another to all schools. After your application is complete (receipt of AMCAS application, MCAT scores, secondary application, and letters of recommendation), it will receive initial screening.

Because of the high volume of applications for a limited number of first year places (e.g. 5,000 applications for 150 places at a given school), regardless of how applications are processed, a great deal of emphasis will initially be placed on your grades and MCAT scores. Some schools may actually use a formula based primarily on academic criteria to initially place applications in interview or rejection categories; however, unless the applicant falls well below competitive academic averages, most schools will review the entire application in making decisions to interview. Academic assessment involves more than merely crunching numbers. For example, an applicant with a 35 MCAT and 4.0 GPA may not automatically considered desirable on the basis of academics unless he / she has a strong load of credits, including a depth in the major and breadth in other disciplines, a progression from lower to higher level courses, and evidence of substantive scholarship. Research (in science or non-science areas) is not required, but it may be a way to express academic creativity, the ability to work independently as well as with others on the research team.

Importance Of Timing

Most schools are only able to interview around 15-25% of their applicant pool. So being selected for an interview is a tremendous advantage, and drastically increases your chances for admission. As it gets closer to medical school deadline dates the time taken for the processing and review of applications will backlog at AMCAS and medical schools. In some cases applications can be backlogged by 2 months or more. The early completion of an application may help you to avoid a long delay in admissions decisions and lower the risk that interview slots will be filled by the time your application is reviewed. Because state schools typically favor in-state residents, I heartily encourage you to apply to your state schools. Based on my experience at both state and private schools, I believe that the caliber of students and preparation are quite similar at all medical schools in the United States. Also, I worked within a university that had a school of osteopathic medicine; I learned about the rigor and quality of this pathway to medicine. Unfortunately, many premedical students are not familiar with osteopathic medicine or think of it as preparation for a different kind of career. You should be aware that osteopathic medicine is also a viable way to become a physician.

Critical Factors That Make A Difference

As your application proceeds from screening to possible decisions to interview and admit, the assessment of letters, essays, experience, motivation, and personal qualities will have increased significance. Here are some considerations that I would give to these areas.

Experience: Is there evidence of leadership? A long term or short term commitment to extra-curricular activities? What is the degree of involvement: is it limited or extensive? Are the stated applicant’s talents (e.g. music, athletics, art, etc.) demonstrated at a low or high level? I often found that appealing applicants would show some degree of connectivity with their academic work and experiences. For example, a student who does research in oncology to learn about the science of medicine, who also volunteers with oncology patients to learn about the human dimensions of disease. In this case, each area – scholarly pursuits and experience – serves as a basis of interest and motivation for the other.

Levels of Recognition: indicate the perceived value of your experiences. I would closely consider which of the following (with examples) are the sources of recognition for activities listed on application forms: self reported (playing a musical instrument, intramural sports), peer (election to a position with an established organization), institutional (selection for being a resident assistant, an award, or teaching assistantship), national (publication or fellowship). A greater degree of recognition usually indicates a more impressive accomplishment. Aspire to develop your abilities to the fullest.

AMCAS Personal Statement and Secondary Essays: The AMCAS essay probably has the greatest range of use – some schools and individual admissions deans and committee members will consider essays to be very important, others less so. I found that most essays were good, but a much smaller percentage were either bad or outstanding. Nonetheless, it may be the best way for schools to become acquainted with you personally, to determine what distinguishes you from many other outstanding applicants, and to learn about the depth of your motivation and experiences. Secondary applications provide an opportunity to share more information about yourself, and by taking the time to carefully answer these essays, it will show your interest in the school.

Letters of Recommendation: provide an assessment of you and your abilities from mentors and supervisors. If you attend a school that has a premedical advisor or committee, it is imperative that you take advantage of these services, including the writing of a premedical letter of evaluation. Many medical schools require a premedical letter from undergraduate institutions that have premedical advisors or committees. In order for your premedical advisor to help you, it is necessary to follow all directions and meet all deadlines, which may also be viewed as a reflection of your professionalism and ability to assume responsibility. The premedical advisor or committee letter gives admissions committee details about your academic skills, talents, degree of involvement, potential, personal qualities, and motivation. They’re a good frame of reference for what you write in your applications and may serve to confirm what you say you’ve done. In order to have the most helpful information for your premedical advisor or committee letter, you should get letters from individuals who know you well, such as professors, research mentors, employment supervisors. Furthermore, medical schools may want you to have individual letters from one or more science faculty.

Motivation: must be demonstrated not just espoused. You may want to “help people”, but without sufficient direct exposure to medicine, how do you know you want to become a physician, rather than a teacher, or social worker or other health care provider? The admissions dean and committee will want to know what experiences you’ve had to confirm your interest in medicine.

Personal Qualities: Do you have strong communication and social skills, the ability to relate to people from diverse backgrounds, the capacity to be serious as well as pleasant? Have you shown evidence of professionalism, humanism, and integrity? Are you a caring, compassionate and tolerant person? These are questions that you should ask yourself before you decide to apply, because these are features that medical schools will want their students to possess. Essays and letters of recommendation are often helpful sources of information about the applicant; however, the interview will be essential to the assessment of these qualities.

The Role/Importance Of The Interview

Unlike the folklore, which portrays medical school interviews as a way to see how an applicant can handle stress, I believe that the vast majority of interviews are intended for admissions committees to become better acquainted with the applicant, find out more about the substance of his/her experiences, and get a sense of the applicant’s humanism, and social and communication skills. As a matter of fact, I considered the interview day as an opportunity for recruiting prospective students. This is why medical schools spend an enormous amount of time and expense on admissions. Even if we didn’t select an applicant, or he / she didn’t select us, there is a good chance we would see the interviewee later as a resident, member of the faculty, or associated with us in some other capacity. Keep in mind that you are sizing up the school as much as they are assessing you. Ultimately, I think of the interview as a way to find reasons for selecting students rather than rejecting them. Students often tend to view the interview in the opposite way, which is disappointing. Perhaps, this is the reason why many applicants think they did poorly on an interview when the reality is they did very well. Be aware, admissions personnel, students and others with whom you meet at the medical schools may have input about you. It’s important to be on your best behavior, but also to be your natural self. (Committees and deans are quite astute in differentiating between the real person and play acting.)

How the interview is conducted will vary from school to school and with each interviewer. You may have multiple interviews at some schools that are given by faculty, students or others; single interviews exist less so, as do panel interviews. In order to understand how the admissions process works, I would note that committees use objective criteria, but in the end the process is also subjective. Otherwise, decisions would be focused almost entirely on MCAT scores and grades, and your experiences, essays, personal qualities, letters, etc. would have little value. Based on my experience, academic records and MCAT’s are usually not an issue during admissions committee meetings, because with few exceptions applicants invited to interview are deemed to have the academic foundation to succeed in medical school. Schools have tried to find objective ways to classify subjective areas, but without much success. What’s important to know is that the medical school admissions process is as thorough and deliberate as any other area of admissions with which I’m familiar. Admissions committees and deans work very hard at meetings to make thoughtful choices and use their best judgment. With a range of perspectives from faculty with diverse backgrounds and specialties, a consensus emerges during committee meetings that is intended to select the best possible class for a given school.

My role was to provide consistent and uniform information and guidance to help the committee make good decisions, although I often wished we had a larger class, because there were so many excellent candidates. Assuming you have a competitive application, you are likely to have some surprises; you may get admitted to some schools that you thought would reject you, and vice versa.

Closing Thoughts

Even if you have a strong application you may not get admitted, or for that matter, get interviews at most of the schools where you apply. It is difficult to convey the enormous volume of other outstanding applicants to medical school. Don’t be discouraged by the long and arduous time it takes for medical schools to make decisions. In the event you are not admitted, confer with your premedical advisor; there may be some viable ways to strengthen your preparation for a successful application in the future.

An Admissions Dean’s Pet-Peeves:

Overly persistent individuals, who frequently email, call or write to the admissions office. Excessiveness indicates a lack of patience and an abundance of self-importance.
Applicants who hold many acceptances for a long period of time, and especially those who hold multiple acceptances after the deadline date of May 15. This shows a lack of sensitivity to peers, i.e. other applicants, and disrespect to medical schools. If an applicant needlessly held a large number of acceptances in addition to one at my school, I’d want him / her to go elsewhere.
Applicants who felt they were entitled or showed signs of arrogance – there was no room for these kinds of students at our school.

An Admissions Deans’ Favorite Things:

The opportunity to meet so many wonderful and talented applicants. A sense of faith and reassurance about the future knowing that these students will become practicing physicians.
The chance to meet hard working faculty who spent a tremendous amount of time for unselfish dedication to students and their medical schools.

Words of Advice and Encouragement: You have chosen one of the most honorable vocations for your life’s work. Congratulations. You will frequently be challenged, but never lose sight of your commitment and compassion for each of your patients.

I wish you great success for your acceptance to medical school and career in medicine.

Sincerely,

David Trabilsy, Ed.M., Ed.S.

Former Assistant Dean of Admissions

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 1987-2000

How to Read Dense & Abstract Passages to Improve MCAT Verbal

2011-10-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Focus on The MAIN ARGUMENT/IDEA (ie, Thesis), not the DETAILS. Evidence is just there to bolster the author's case

Critical Reasoning Questions to Ask:

What is the point or central theme of the article?
Why did the author take the time to sit down and write this?
What does the author means when she makes some statement?
How did she strengthen or weaken the argument?
Would the author agree with some statement based on her position in the passage?
Does the author takes a side in a debate, and if so, which one and why?
Is the author positive, negative, or neutral toward his/her subject?
How do the evidence/details pertain to his argument? Or relate to the central point?
What is the purpose of this paragraph or sentence? Is it background information? Is it an explanation of an opinion? Is it supporting examples?
Can you imagine a person disagreeing with the conclusions?

For Example, to figure out the author's point of view, separate the fact and opinion. "What's the main idea?" You need to look past the facts, which contribute to the summary, but are not the point of the passage:

"Sandra Day O'Connor was a paragon, an example to women everywhere, a perfect choice as the first female justice." Main argument : O'Connor is awesome
"Condoleezza Rice is a classically trained pianist, a figure skater, and a football fan." Main argument : it's Rice's hobbies.

Helpful Hints

Pretend to debate with the author and it will you focus on the arguments rather than on the details
Once you understand a POINT, and you can make sense of it in CONTEXT, forget it and move on
Ultimately, you should be looking for a thesis and for a structured support of that thesis. the author is not trying to make you remember a concatenation of facts--they want to convince you of the existence and dynamics of a process.
Anything with numbers is a detail. Don't worry about memorizing or understanding them, just note where they are and what they're about.
View all authors as attempting not to inform you, but to persuade you
MENTALLY MAP the passage (topic/sub-topic).Circle keywords. Your map should be an outline of the purpose of each paragraph, not the details (in other words, not just a paraphrase). Also, it is absolutely essential that you write very little
Predict your answers before you look at the answer choices
Practice your critical reading and answer prediction skills for a few minutes every day
Try to avoid going back to the passage and reading paragraphs over again because the time is so precious on this section of the MCAT
If you have no clue to what the passages is getting at, move onto the next passage for now; you have no time to think on this section.
Look for the opinion keywords
Avoid picking extreme choices for the author's viewpoint
You want to be sure that you find something that applies to every (or almost every) paragraph, rather than applying to only one paragraph. If the selection applies to only one example given, it is not the theme.
Pause after each paragraph, make sure that you’ve understood the gist, and quickly decide on a couple of key words to circle. This ensures that you haven't read so quickly that nothing was absorbed.
Try to summarize the point (purpose) of the passage in one sentence/phrase in your head.
Remember wrong answer options are designed to look like right answers. Wrong answers are often relevant to the passage, but not to the particular question.
Make sure that you have a (1) good handle on the overall point of the passage, as well as (2) the purpose of each paragraph within that passage, (3) that you understand the specific question, and (4) your answer does not superficially "sound good", but it is actually the right answer to the right question.

Reading to prepare for verbal/writing

2011-10-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a partial list of periodicals I recommend reading for practice with the type of dense writing you'll find on the Verbal Reasoning section.
The Economist
The Atlantic
The New Yorker
Harper's

These will occasionally discuss controversial topics in world news, but they also talk about culture and non-controversial news topics. Getting used to following the arguments (as I discussed in a previous post) is actually more important for MCAT purposes than learning what the news stories of the day are.

That is why my list doesn't include Newsweek or Time. Those may make enjoyable reading, and allow you to keep up with the news, but they don't provide exceptionally good writing or arguments. They're written at below the high school reading level, and the depth and level of argument is not sophisticated either.