How To Study The Sciences

Orgnic Chemistry
Just categorize the mechanisms into common reactants then categorize them again into common products. Memorize the names of the mechanisms and the reagents needed for each. Then practice some problems.

If you can do that then Substitution and Elimination should be easy. Here's a tip: After figuring out whether or not you're dealing with good/bad nucleophiles, good/bad leaving groups, good/bad bases, strong/weak acids, or strong/weak bases, it's easier to determine what the major and minor products could not be instead of figuring out what they could possibly be.

This is backwards from what is taught to me in class, but I find that it works for me. The SN1, SN2, E1, and E2 products overlap so much with each other. What their products are not don't overlap as much.

Physics
Yesterday I stated that the easiest questions for me on the practice MCAT were the Physics questions. Today I figure out why that is so and it's simple really:

Physics questions in your Physics class are taught to you as passage based questions!

Think back to your own Physics class. Think back to every homework assignment you were ever given. Think back to every time you had a resistor, voltage, and switch in a circuit. Think back to every time you had one train traveling in one direction at a particular speed and another train in a different direction at a different speed. Think back to every relativity question you've ever tackled.

These are all passage based problems. These are exactly the problems that are thrown at you on the MCAT.

It's so obvious that I wish Biology, General Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry were taught the same way. I can almost guarantee you that every aspiring medical student's MCAT scores would be higher. General Chemistry may be taught through passages by a certain extent. But certainly Biology and Organic are both taught as informational classes. Some Biology classes are taught strictly as facts to be regurgitated on to your exams.

The information is sound but it does not reflect the types of problems you'll face on the MCAT.

And by knowing this now, the answer to getting a higher score is simple. Go back through my Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physics text books, located the questions within the chapters and at the back of the book, find the ones that describe scenarios or experiments and focus on them!

If it works for Physics why not the rest?

Biochem - seems to be the one that seems to drop the proverbial ball for most folks, so unless you're struggling more in another class, dedicate a little more studying to it. Lippencott's Review has some great flowcharts/diagrams if you're a visual person like myself. Certain profs in the dept will tell you often what to focus on, for example "Santa Claus" puts his "high yield" notes in red on his slides and (other) Dr. S will tell you straight up what to learn. Dr. M has a great set of practice ?s on G-drive as well (from his book I believe)

Histo - Let's face it, Histo in general is not too tough, but their MCQs are typically really detailed and nit-picky. Dr. M will throw in ?s that you would think are highly low yield and Dr. K just likes to see who actually reads every single word in his questions and all the answer choices (i.e. one word in the answer choice makes it wrong and it's very nonchalant), Dr. Y's questions are usually pretty good though, as she always says "Don't worry, you'll all get As"

Anatomy - 1st semester was my only non-A, and I hovered around MPS up until the final. UMich has great practice and usually ends up being "high yield" topics, BRS has lots of practice, and Dr. M's questions on G-drive are great. I learned in 2nd semester, the best way to learn anatomy (at least for me) is to spend lots of time in the lab. It really just helps a lot to see what you're actually learning and gives you a better idea of whats going on. It's not as big of a deal on Mini 1 and 2, but starting Mini 3 (and for the rest of Anatomy), spatial relationships become a major part of the course (i.e. what structures would you find behind the angle of Louis, etc.). As far as Dr. V goes, if you can handle his turning point ?s, then you should be fine for him on the Mini's, they're about the same difficulty and you'll probably see very similar questions (so go back and make sure you understand them).

Physio - Dr. S's questions aren't bad, she is one of the few profs that actually breaks things down so that you can understand them. "Dr. Borat" is hit or miss. I still don't understand Respiratory or Renal physio (everyone's favorite) but I managed to get 90s when he taught, I'm not really sure what the correlation is, but it seems to be the common trend based on what I've heard from most of my friends. Not really sure who else teaches Physio these days, but the BRS is a lifesaver.

http://www.valuemd.com/ross-university-school-medicine/183730-upperclassmen-any-study-tips-1st-sem-2.html