MCAT Study Method

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I noticed that some people are claiming they wrote this guide to scam people out of money. Let me make this clear, I have not and will not be selling anything related to this guide. If you see a poster trying to sell books saying they wrote this schedule, do NOT buy from them. They are attempting to take your money away on false pretenses. Additionally, this guide has only been posted on SDN. I have not posted this guide anywhere else. Furthermore, SDN is the sole MCAT/medical forum I visit and the only forum where I use the screen name SN2ed. I never imagined this thread would be popular enough to warrant this kind of attention.

To begin with, check out these two threads:

Why Diagnostics are Worthless: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=557231

MCAT and a Heavy School Workload Don’t Mix: Stop rushing to take the MCAT:http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602186


Can I accomplish this schedule with a part-time job or school?

Probably not. I highly recommend you devote 3 months to the MCAT. There may be a few that could follow this schedule and work part-time, but chances are it would not end well. You are FAR more likely to burn out if you try to study for the MCAT using this schedule and go to school or take a part/full-time job. That said, it's not entirely impossible. Think of it like an unfavorable reaction. Whether one can force the reaction to proceed depends on the person. Most could not pull it off.

Furthermore, I've yet to see a valid reason for students (ie. not non-trads) to not take the MCAT in the summer.


Will following this guide guarantee me a +30?

Sadly, there are no guarantees on the MCAT. I certainly hope it helps you, but I can’t say whether or not you’ll hit your target score.


Should I take the MCAT before finishing my pre-reqs?

There’s no point in doing so. You have to take them anyway. Hence, you might as well go into the test with your pre-reqs completed. Yes, this includes the English pre-req.

Remember to check out the third and fourth post FAQ.

Anything else before I start?

CONFIDENCE. Through all of the troubles and hardships you'll face, approach everything with confidence. You must constantly attack this test. The MCAT is merely a stepping stone on your journey.


Also, this is just a guide I made up. It is my opinion on what a study schedule should resemble. I’m sure there will be people that disagree with parts of this schedule or the whole thing. This schedule can easily be adjusted for 4 months instead of 3. I don’t suggest starting heavy studying 5 months+ from your test date. Keep it to 3-4 months. If you start too soon, it will be a waste of time and resources.

Remember to use the search function on these forums. Tons of questions have already been asked and answered.

Please keep the questions to this strategy.

Lastly, please give credit to me, SN2ed, if you post this elsewhere. I put a ton of work into it.



Materials:

- Berkeley Review (BR) General Chemistry
- BR Organic Chemistry
- BR Physics
- Examkrackers (EK) Biology for non-detailed approach OR The Princeton Review Hyperlearning (TPR) Biology/BR Biology for a detailed approach (In the schedule, I will use EK Bio because most prefer a non-detailed approach)
- EK 1001 series
- EK Verbal 101
- TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook or Berkeley Review Verbal
- AAMC Full Length (FL) #3-10

You can pick up the BR books from their website: http://www.berkeley-review.com/TBR/home-study.html
Also, check out the For Sale section on here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=230 All of the above, except for the AAMC FLs show up from time to time. I’ve regularly seen a complete BR set go for under $100 on there. Whenever you buy used, MAKE SURE THE PASSAGES ARE UNMARKED.

To buy the AAMC FLs: http://www.e-mcat.com/

Bare Minimum Set-up:

$245 for AAMC FLs (http://www.e-mcat.com/)

$180 for BR Physics, O-chem, Gen Chem (http://www.berkeley-review.com/TBR/home-study.html)

$26 for EK Verbal 101 (http://www.amazon.com/Examkrackers-M...3226173&sr=8-2)

$26 EK Bio 1001 (http://www.amazon.com/Examkrackers-1...3226173&sr=8-5)

$30 EK Bio (http://www.amazon.com/Examkrackers-M...3226173&sr=8-9)

Prices vary on TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook, search the For Sale forum on here for copies. They regularly show up.

Total = $507 + TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook


Set-up with EK 1001:

$18 EK Physics 1001 (http://www.amazon.com/Examkrackers-1...3483527&sr=1-4)

$20 EK O-Chem 1001 (http://www.amazon.com/Examkrackers-1...3483527&sr=1-2)

$19 EK Chem (http://www.amazon.com/Examkrackers-1...3483527&sr=1-3)

Total = $564 + TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook

Possible Book Replacements:

EK Bio + EK Bio 1001 may be swapped for BR Bio. The reason behind is that recent MCAT test takers have noted that BR's bio passages are closer to the real thing than EK Bio 1001. In fact, if more and more people post similar responses, I may end up switching the two anyway.

A more expensive choice would be to get EK Bio for content review AND BR Bio for the practice passages. This combo is a great way to go.

If you're having a hard time finding the TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook, BR is an okay replacement. Well, there's not much of a choice left.

TPRH is a great choice for content review, however, you still need the BR books, EK 101 Verbal, and either EK Bio 1001 or BR Bio. TPRH does not have enough practice passages, though the Workbooks are still great resources.

About the EK 1001 series:

It is a good idea to get the complete EK 1001 series. I thought they really helped me nail down my understanding of the various topics. Through using the physics especially, I found that I didn't understand some things as well as I would like. Furthermore, for whatever reason, they helped me visualize the problem in my head and made the equations intuitive to use. Too many people neglect their basic understanding which could be bolstered by EK 1001. They think they have a strong grasp, yet when those fundumentals are tested, one's weaknesses become more apparent. Plus, doing more timed practice problems is always a good thing.

The only negative for the non-bio and VR practice books is that they aren't in the right format (unless you think of them as tons of discretes). However, it is significantly easier to spot your content weaknesses with EK 1001 because they aren't passages. You don't have to worry about if you messed up due to a failure to synthesize multiple ideas or the passage was worded strangely. When you mess up on EK 1001, you know it's due to a content weakness. Lastly, this problem would be alleviated by the BR books and EK content books containing practice passages. There are also the practice tests that you will be taking.

I suggest you get the above material 1-2 months in advance. You don’t want to be missing your materials when you’re about to start this schedule. Also, older content review books are usually okay, just don’t go too far back (past 5 years old).

Lastly, sign up for your MCAT as soon as possible. Seats fill up months in advance.

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 1001 Bio: 6 minutes per passage + 30 seconds to 1 minute per discrete, work towards less time
- EK Verbal 101/TPR Verbal: 6-7 minutes per passage, work towards 6 minutes
- AAMC FLs: Use their timing


Notes:

- Do NOT retake old practice material
- Thoroughly review ALL of your practice problems. Review your problems the day AFTER you took them. 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 67 (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. However, EK 1001 Bio is a must buy and you should do those problems. Again, I recommend you get all of the EK 1001 series.
- 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.
- Thanks to BlitzSleep for reminding me about the importance of confidence
- Written by SN2ed

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 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. How can you improve so you don't make the same mistake again?

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.

PS Topic List: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/pr...g/pstopics.pdf
BS Topic List: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/pr...g/bstopics.pdf
Page to get topic lists if you don’t want to directly download the pdf: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/pr...gstudyplan.htm


Verbal Help:

Check out Vihsadas’s verbal guide and the other guides found in the MCAT Guide sticky
Vihsadas’s Guide: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...2&postcount=96
MCAT Guide Sticky: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602154

Arithmetic Tricks:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...ic+Tips+Tricks
__________________
Why Diagnostic Tests are Worthless:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=557231

Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month MCAT Study Schedule: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...68#post8092168
Last edited by SN2ed; 01-11-2010 at 10:38 AM.
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Old 05-01-2009, 02:14 AM #2
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The Day by Day

- Give yourself 4 buffer days before beginning this schedule just in case you need them.
- Another reminder: You are supposed to take some verbal passages every day except break days and FL days.

Day 1: BR Physics Chapter #1 + Every third passage of the corresponding passages for this chapter (i.e. go through 1, 4, 7, 10 for first 1/3 and 2, 5, 8 for the second 1/3 on Day 8). 1/3 of corresponding passages = 1/3 from now on.
Day 2: BR Gen Chem Chapter #1 + 1/3
Day 3: BR O-Chem Chapter #1 + 1/3
Day 4: EK Biology Chapter #1 + the corresponding problems in chapter and chapter exam (both of these will be abbreviated by putting 30 Min)
Day 5: BR Physics Chapter #2 + 1/3
Day 6: Re-read chapters and work through corresponding EK 1001 sections for the chapters you worked through. For instance, BR O-Chem chapter #1 goes over Organic Structure & Bonding; hence, complete the Molecular Structure in the EK 1001 O-Chem. The topics probably won’t match all the time, but go with the best fit. Also, only do every third problem/passage in the EK 1001s. From now on, this day’s work will be abbreviated: “Re-read chapters + EK 1001”
Day 7: Break
Day 8: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages for the previous 4 BR chapters. I’m going to shorten this to: “Complete second 1/3 of BR passages”
Day 9: BR Gen Chem Chapter #2 + 1/3
Day 10: BR O-Chem Chapter #2 + 1/3
Day 11: EK Bio Chapter #2 + 30 Min
Day 12: BR Physics Chapter #3 + 1/3
Day 13: BR Gen Chem Chapter #3 + 1/3
Day 14: Break
Day 15: Re-read chapters + EK 1001
Day 16: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages
Day 17: BR O-Chem Chapter #3 + 1/3
Day 18: EK Bio Chapter #3 + 30 Min
Day 19: BR Physics Chapter #4 + 1/3
Day 20: BR Gen Chem Chapter #4 + 1/3
Day 21: Break
Day 22: BR O-Chem Chapter #4 + 1/3
Day 23: Re-read chapters + EK 1001
Day 24: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages
Day 25: EK Bio Chapter #4 + 30 Min
Day 26: BR Physics Chapter #5 + 1/3
Day 27: BR Gen Chem Chapter #5 + 1/3
Day 28: Break
Day 29: BR O-Chem Chapter #5 + 1/3
Day 30: EK Bio Chapter #5 + 30 Min
Day 31: Re-read chapters + EK 1001
Day 32: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages
Day 33: BR Physics Chapter #6 + 1/3
Day 34: BR Gen Chem Chapter #6 + 1/3
Day 35: Break
Day 36: BR O-Chem Chapter #6 + 1/3
Day 37: EK Bio Chapter #6 + 30 Min
Day 38: BR Physics Chapter #7 + 1/3
Day 39: Re-read chapters + EK 1001
Day 40: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages
Day 41: BR Gen Chem Chapter #7 + 1/3
Day 42: Break
Day 43: BR O-Chem Chapter #7 + 1/3
Day 44: EK Bio Chapter #7 + 30 Min
Day 45: BR Physics Chapter #8 + 1/3
Day 46: BR Gen Chem Chapter #8 + 1/3
Day 47: Re-read chapters + EK 1001
Day 48: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages
Day 49: Break
Day 50: EK Bio Chapter #8 + 30 Min
Day 51: BR Physics Chapter #9 + 1/3
Day 52: BR Gen Chem Chapter #9 + 1/3

Day 54: BR Physics Chapter #10 + 1/3
Day 55: Break
Day 56: BR Gen Chem Chapter #10 + 1/3
Day 57: BR O-Chem Chapter #8 + 1/3
Day 58: Re-read chapters + EK 1001
Day 59: Complete second 1/3 of BR passages
Day 60: Break
Day 61: Hat Trick for 2-3 hours. For all of the following days, excluding break days, spend about 30 minutes on the Hat Trick. If it really helps you, spend more time on it. It might be slow at first, but you’ll get the hang of it.
Day 62: Last 1/3 of BR passages for Chapter 1 + Second 1/3 of EK 1001 Bio Chapter 1
Day 63: Last 1/3 of BR passages for Chapter 1 + Second 1/3 of EK 1001 Bio Chapter 1
- From now on, I will abbreviate the last 1/3 of BR and second 1/3 of EK 1001 Bio as 1/3. I will include the chapters to cover.
Day 64: AAMC FL #3
Day 65: Review FL per guidelines + 1/3 Chapter 2
Day 66: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 2
Day 67: Break
Day 68: 1/3 Chapter 3
Day 69: 1/3 Chapter 3
Day 70: Break
Day 71: AAMC #4
Day 72: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 4
Day 73: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 4
Day 74: AAMC #5
Day 75: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 5
Day 76: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 5
Day 77: Break
Day 78: AAMC FL #6
Day 79: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 6
Day 80: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 6
Day 81: AAMC #7
Day 82: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 7
Day 83: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 7
Day 84: Break
Day 85: Break
Day 86: AAMC #8
Day 87: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 8
Day 88: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 8
Day 89: AAMC #9
Day 90: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 9
Day 91: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 9
Day 92: Break
Day 93: AAMC #10
Day 94: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 10
Day 95: Review FL + 1/3 Chapter 10
Day 96: Break
MCAT




4 Month Variation

The first 61 days are the same. This schedule is less intense than the 3 month variation because it spreads out the practice problems in the third month rather than the FL month. If you choose this route, make sure you recalculate the number of verbal passages per day. Also, it might be a good idea to get additional verbal material (ie get both TPR Hyperlearning verbal and BR verbal on top of EK 101).

Day 62: Last 1/3 of BR passages for Chapters 1 + Second 1/3 of EK 1001 Bio Chapters 1
Day 63: Last 1/3 of BR passages for Chapters 1 + Second 1/3 of EK 1001 Bio Chapters 1
- From now on, I will abbreviate the last 1/3 of BR and second 1/3 of EK 1001 Bio as 1/3. I will include the chapters to cover.
- If you don’t have enough time to finish this week’s amount, finish it up with the next review section under AAMC FL #4. This first couple review sections are intense, but the next ones aren’t as bad and they get even better once you finish BR O-Chem. The main goal is to finish it up before your test date.
Day 64: 1/3 Chapter 2
Day 65: 1/3 Chapter 2
Day 66: 1/3 Chapter 3
Day 67: 1/3 Chapter 3
Day 68: Hat Trick all day long
Day 69: Break
Day 70: 1/3 Chapter 4
Day 71: 1/3 Chapter 4
Day 72: 1/3 Chapter 5
Day 73: 1/3 Chapter 5
Day 74: 1/3 Chapter 6
Day 75: 1/3 Chapter 6
Day 76: Hat Trick all day long
Day 77: Break
Day 78: 1/3 Chapter 7
Day 79: 1/3 Chapter 7
Day 80: 1/3 Chapter 8
Day 81: 1/3 Chapter 8
Day 82: 1/3 Chapter 9
Day 83: 1/3 Chapter 9
Day 84: Hat Trick all day long
Day 85: Break
Day 86: 1/3 Chapter 10
Day 87: 1/3 Chapter 10
Day 88: Hat Trick all day long
Day 89: Break
Day 90: Break
Day 91: AAMC FL #3
Day 92: Review FL per guidelines
Day 93: Review FL
Day 94: AAMC FL #4
Day 95: Review FL
Day 96: Review FL
Day 97: Break
Day 98: AAMC FL #5
Day 99: Review FL
Day 100: Review FL
Day 101: AAMC FL #6
Day 102: Review FL
Day 103: Review FL
Day 104: Break
Day 105: Break
Day 106: AAMC FL #7
Day 107: Review FL
Day 108: Review FL
Day 109: AAMC #8
Day 110: Review FL
Day 111: Review FL
Day 112: Break
Day 113: AAMC #9
Day 114: Review FL
Day 115: Review FL
Day 116: AAMC #10
Day 117: Review FL
Day 118: Review FL
Day 119: Break
MCAT

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Last edited by SN2ed; 01-18-2010 at 02:26 PM.
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Old 05-01-2009, 02:14 AM #3
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Random Questions

When should I start studying/When should I take the MCAT?

You can choose your 3-4 month window to study after you've completed your pre-reqs. In your pre-reqs, gain mastery of the material; don't aim merely for an A. Spending the time to master the material in your pre-reqs will pay off when you study for the MCAT.

Most people take the MCAT in either the summer of their junior year in college or the summer after they graduate. I don't suggest you take the MCAT earlier then your junior year because you run the risk of having your MCAT expire. Furthermore, the additional classes you have in the meantime may aid you on the MCAT. That said, the bottom line is to take the MCAT when you're ready.

Are there any classes that will help me for the MCAT?

Outside of your pre-reqs, you don't really need anything else. That said, some classes may give you a slight edge or help you. The classes typically considered the most helpful are:

1. Genetics
2. Anatomy and Physiology
3. Biochemistry

Should I buy the Official Guide to the MCAT Exam published by the AAMC?

I don't suggest you buy it separately. However, since you will be buying AAMC practice tests and/or the MSAR, you might as well get the bundle where you can get the Guide + Practice test or Guide + MSAR at a reduced price. If you get the guide, I suggest you save the problems in it for last. For now, the practice problems in the guide offer the most accurate representation of the current MCAT.

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.

Should I retake FL X?

I don't suggest it for a few reasons. First, your score will be inflated. This alone negates the predictive power of the test. If you don't need it to gauge where you are, fine, retake them. For instance, you could simply be going over the problems again to, as others have mentioned, understand the thinking behind it. However, if you are using it as a practice FL, don't.

One of the most important aspects of a FL is that it's material you've never seen before. It forces you to quickly analyze an unknown passage, tap into your knowledge, and answer questions you've never seen. If you knew exactly what was going to be on the test, it would take away from the somewhat frantic experience of getting that weird passage. It also makes you more relaxed overall because you know what's coming. Unfortunately, you will not have the luxury of either on the test. You will have to deal with weird passages. You will have to get out of your comfort zone of knowing what's ahead.

Then, you get into the timing issues which you MUST get down before the test. When you have prior knowledge of the material, you miss the chance at gaining more experience with the clock. Too many people underestimate the effect of the timer. Again, you have to get used to it and retaking problems won't help.

Think of the whole thing like sports practice. Sure, you go over some standard plays again and again to get a feel for them. However, to practice for a real game, you have a scrimmage match or an exhibition game. The other team doesn't tell you what plays they're going to run. If they did, it would eliminate the usefulness of the scrimmage or exhibition game.

I've already taken the AAMC FLs, are there other practice tests you recommend?

Both Gold Standard and Berkeley Review offer solid practice tests. GS FLs are a great value since you can typically get all 10 GS FLs for around $100. The caveat for Gold Standard is that you should expect your score to be roughly 2 points lower than normal. Berkeley Review has better FLs, but they're more expensive and the archaic ordering system means you run the risk of not having your practice tests when you need them due to the 45 day access limit. Still, if you order your test a couple weeks before you need them, BR is a good option if you're willing to pay more. Unfortunately, neither test is great in verbal, though BR is decent.

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.


Why rotate subjects?

I think rotating subjects is better for a couple reasons. First, it keeps material from the different areas fresh. Often times, concepts in one chapter build upon another. It also lessens the chance of forgetting what you've already studied. By studying all of one area and then moving on, you lack exposure to that topic for the remainder of your content review which leads to forgetting that area. Lastly, rotating subjects fosters connections between the different topics. One of the biggest aspects of the MCAT is connecting various topics together in any given passage. By rotating, you can easily begin to see connections as you complete content review from different areas. If you were only studying one subject, such connections would not be as evident.

I have more than 4 months until my test, is there anything you suggest?

There are two things you might want to consider. First, aim for mastery of the material in all of your pre-reqs. Don't go simply for the A. Know the material cold. Next, is reading various materials. Here's my suggested reading list:

Wall Street Journal
New Yorker
Economist
Random science journals

Good source for philosophy/humanities work which people tend to struggle with:

Moral Issues in Global Perspectives: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

Buy the book used; it's much cheaper.

Remember to read the boring articles as well as the interesting ones. Chances are your MCAT verbal passages won't be the most exciting read.

Why is Kaplan's verbal bad?

Kaplan is bad in verbal because it doesn't stress the same things as the actual MCAT. For the MCAT, the main idea and author's point of view/opinion are the keys to success. Conversely, Kaplan focuses more on the detail oriented questions which are easy to teach; the kind of questions which make you go back over the passage to find the minute detail being tested. On the MCAT, going back to the passages will kill your timing. Furthermore, you rarely receive such questions and when you do get them, they can typically be answered with the main idea or author's opinion.

Why are so many of your recommended books from BR?

For now, they stand as the best combination of content review and practice material. What makes BR stand out over the easily available Kaplan, TPR (ie not TPR Hyperlearning), and EK books is the depth of their explanations and TONS of practice passages. There are literally around 100 passages in each of their practice books which is far and away more than their competitors. The key to the MCAT is taking tons of timed practice passages. Furthermore, they are actually trying to update their books beyond random errata. On the negative side, BR's website and ordering system are horrible. We're talking about early internet, looks like a fake website, bad. Still, the quality of their books makes the painful ordering worth it. Just remember to order your books well in advance and you shouldn't have any problems.
Last edited by SN2ed; 01-17-2010 at 05:46 PM.
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Old 05-01-2009, 02:15 AM #4
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Why study linearly? Why not focus on your weak areas before your strengths?

First off, I think this question underscores the importance of doing well in one’s pre-reqs to reduce the number of weakness to as few as possible. Remember, do not merely go for the A; aim for mastery of the material. Working hard in your pre-reqs will boost your GPA and pay off when you study for the MCAT.

One of the reasons test prep companies, and most schedules, go in chapter order is due to companies developing schedules for a group of people and not the individual. Rather than create a schedule per student, which would take up quite a bit of time, they make a generic schedule. Sure, they could make a diagnostic to try and pin-point weaknesses, gather the data, and make a schedule per student, yet I doubt they would want to invest their resources like that. Even creating a program to accomplish that task would cost money they probably aren’t willing to spend. Furthermore, well, you probably know how I feel about diagnostics judging by my sig.

Money is a factor in a test prep company avoiding personalized schedules; however, it is not the only reason to take chapters in order. Additionally, money would not explain why other schedules recommend going linearly. When looking at all of the various content review books, you might notice something. Translational motion is almost always the first topic in Physics. You might be thinking, “Why is that?” There are few reasons which come to mind. First, as opposed to electricity or fluids, translational motion is a relatively easy topic for most students. Secondly, it isn’t hard to create complex problems/passages based on this simple area. Lastly, translational motion serves as a great time to introduce the basic math skills and tricks needed for the MCAT. What I’m getting at here is that there are good reasons why subjects are ordered in content review books.

The content of one chapter will frequently build from the preceding chapter. Let’s take another look at Physics for an example. One starts with translational motion. The next subject is typically forces which is a form of translational motion. Then, there’s work which advances the topic of forces and applies force by distance. As you can see, each chapter uses the basis of another to present the material in a logical order. Think of it like pyramid. You start with translational motion and then add the bricks of force and work.

Another rationale for a linear schedule is that it must instill the skills necessary to apply knowledge early on. In order to do this, a schedule must start in areas that are strong for the vast majority of students. Beginning with a tough subject does not lay the foundation for application of knowledge because the student is struggling with the content itself. In fact, application of knowledge is the most important factor in MCAT success. Merely knowing the content inside-and-out does not cut it which is why you may see students that ace their classes, but do badly on the MCAT.

Next, there is the topic of confidence. I cannot stress enough the how vital confidence is for this test. Without it, you might as well not take the MCAT. Jumping straight into weak areas destroys one’s confidence. They start questioning whether they actually have the brains to take on the MCAT. Thus, you don’t want to start a schedule by slamming the individual right away. You want to guide the student and help them gain some momentum before tackling their trouble spots.

Also, by placing all of your weaknesses up front, you naturally start studying those topics first. You might be thinking, “Yeah that’s the point.” The problem here is that you may forget those topics by the time your test rolls around. You may even try to subconsciously erase your memory since focusing on all of your weaknesses at once was probably not an enjoyable experience. That’s not to say studying for the MCAT is fun, but you get the picture. Additionally, you might spend too much time on your weaknesses and neglect areas that should be your strengths and end up with more weaknesses.

Finally, there seems to be a misconception that studying linearly means you don’t focus on your weak areas. If you are properly reviewing, you shouldn’t be breezing by your weaknesses. You should read and re-read the chapter as you pound the practice problems. When you thoroughly review your practice problems, if you find you missed a problem purely based on content, you have to go over the topic again. Considering that this might mean you review the chapter several times, you can see how one might spend quite a bit of time on their weaknesses. You would also hit your weaknesses again whenever the topic comes up on a practice FL.

In closing, the above are my reasons for opting for a linear study schedule and why test prep companies may favor them as well.
Last edited by SN2ed; 09-01-2009 at 04:16 PM.

My Advice to Medschool Applicants

Last updated 1/8/96

INTRODUCTION

My name is Michael Greger and I want to help. I applied MD/Ph.D. in '95 and was surprised at how well I did. But I was not what one would consider an especially strong candidate. I did score very high on the MCATS, but had zero clinical experience, GPA under 3.5, and almost no research experience. And nothing like rewards, honors, publications etc. In an attempt to figure out why I did so well when some others didn't, I started talking to admissions people. And then to other applicants, compiling all the tips and advice I could.

I remember when I was applying I wished there was some kind of resource like this, so I decided to create one. My Email address is mhg1@cornell.edu and my phone number is (857) 928-2778. Please call or write anytime for anything. Literally. And if there are other veterans out there who haven't forgotten what it's like to be premed, please send me your thoughts and I can pass them along to others. Please note that much of this is at best anecdotal, but hopefully will help nonetheless.

And MD/Ph.D. applicants have to fill out all the same MD applications and struggle through all the same MD interviews, so this advice should apply to straight MD applicants too.

PREMED PREP

First off consider why you want to be a doctor. Interviewers do not want to hear "I've always wanted to be a doctor." They want to know that you've considered all of the possibilities and have decided for specific reasons that medicine is your calling. This is not just an exercise on how you can psych out the interviewer; it is really important to sit down and really think about your goals and motivations. I know the premed committee tells you to do this and it may sound a tad flaky, but don't try to think of what will sound good on paper or at an interview, just take the time and really figure out what you want from life.

Along those lines do you really know what programs schools offer? Do you know what opportunities exist in the field? For example, I wasn't aware of this when I applied, but many schools have Masters programs like public health that you can do simultaneously with med school. Start early talk to people, talk to me. Find out where you want to go with your life before it is too late.

Assuming you do want to pursue a MD, the following realizations will help you prepare. This is one of my biggies: when I talked to the admissions people asking them why I got in, I was surprised by the homogeneity of their replies. Over and over again: its not MCAT scores, essays, and GPAs that primarily matter (they assume most applicants are relatively similar in these regards). Its letters of recommendation! Even at interviews they would tell me were going to know you for an hour, these people have known you for months or years. It is absolutely essential that you have killer letters of recommendation. What you want is for someone to say that they've known a lot of college students in my day but this one is exceptional. Sorry to stress you, but even for you Juniors it is not too late. Get one this summer. Find a lab to do research in or do some volunteer work or get some clinical experience with a goal in mind of getting a killer recommendation. It will be too late to include in your folder, so what you need to do is set up a credential file at your career center. The recommender just has to then write one letter to your school and then they send it to any prospective schools you want. I have never heard of a school that didn't allow you to send additional letters of recommendation for activities undertaken after initially applying, so do it!

And you don't have to limit your last ditch attempt to your undergraduate institution. If you want to do research, for example, and there is someone doing something really interesting somewhere else in the world, send them a letter asking if you can work for them over the summer. It's not so far-fetched; you're cheap labor and maybe you'll make a good impression.

For those who are getting into this early in the game I'd also like to touch on course requirements. As far as I know there is no school that will not accept two semesters of orgo lab and one of lecture despite the usual premed recommendation to do the opposite. Also, if you're thinking Johns Hopkins, they have a huge (well huge for a hard-core bio major like me) humanities/social sciences requirement; I couldn't even apply. Or so I thought at the time. Just recently I was contacted by Hopkin's admissions and they said that they will consider those not meeting the requirement on a case by case basis. I came across a similar flexibility at Stony Brook. On paper it says that MD/PhDers must have GREs in addition to MCATS, but if you talk (and beg and plead) with them they may waive it (they did for me). In fact for MD/PhDers there is only one school I know of (out of the 27 I applied to) that requires the GRE (Loma Linda). If you're good at taking tests though, (and it sure is easier than the MCAT (more like the SATs in fact)) then maybe you should to augment your application by taking it and offering the scores to schools. I guess the bottom line is that if you really want to get into a particular school and you don't meet the requirements, talk to the person in charge. Maybe she'll let you slide.

In terms of extracurricular activities I don't think admissions people are for the most part impressed by participation in student groups unless it was significant or you played a leadership role. And they'll question you at the interview about your role in the activities you laundry list on your application. Consider volunteering for community based organizations (homeless shelters, inmate counseling, rape crisis etc.) as opposed to school based. Not only might it look better, your time will probably be better spent.

DECIDING WHICH SCHOOLS

The more important question is how many schools you should apply to. In my opinion as many as you can. I applied to literally every school that I could (that wasn't in the deep south). I know what you're thinking, but it turns out to be really not that many. Because of implicit state residency requirements for so many schools, it really is just a matter of applying to the ten or so schools in your state and then another fifteen to twenty private schools around the country. Now this is expensive (Harvard won't even send you an application until you send them 50 bucks), but the number one problem for most people I think is the time commitment. Doing 25 supplementals (or with MD/Ph.D. 50, since there is usually two applications per school) takes lots of time. And I mean lots of time. For example, Yale (although nonAMCAS so one would expect it to be longer) has a 14 page application. And Stanford I think had 9 essays. Now after a while the same essays pop up so its eventually just a matter of cut and paste, but there's always the oddball questions and more importantly the time it takes to just type it up neatly. So whatever summer job you have, make sure to leave August free to do applications ten hours a day. This may also affect how rigorous you want to make your fall semester coursewise. So that you do not think me exaggerating about the importance of applying everywhere, my two housemates applied to med school too. Neither of them even got one interview. So later on they applied to extra schools, but by then it was too late in the season. Of all regrets I hear from those who went through the process, the I wish I applied to more schools one crops up the most.

When I was considering where I should apply I thought about prestige etc. without placing enough weight on environment. Then I spent a summer in Louisiana (racist dark ages in my humble opinion). This is a big chunk of your life; do you really want to live in New York City (in my eyes smelly and noisy) or the Bronx (not one car parked along the street still had hubcaps). Consider weather, social/political climate, cost of living, existence of other schools (more resources for you), etc.

People ask what schools I liked particularly. Although this is almost totally individualistic, I did find a few surprises. I was very impressed with SUNY Buffalo (research, environment, clinical opportunities), Stanford (flexibility up the wazoo), and the city of Boston. I was disappointed with Einstein (the students I talked to did not seem enthused and that one word: Bronx) and SUNY Stony Brook (isolated, again student opinion blah). For MD/PhDers NYU seemed really accommodating, but Columbia was cold. I did not like SUNY Brooklyn and don't remember one applicant I talked to that did. Trivially (and you'll just have to take my word for it until you go there) Mount Sinai has the absolute coolest bathrooms and Stony Brook the neatest looking buildings. Don't let idiots in admission offices or in your undergraduate institutions dissuade you from applying to top schools; you'd be surprised. Its a crap shoot, so don't get discouraged. I got an interview at Harvard but not at Rochester; I got waitlisted at Stanford but not Brooklyn. All the more reason to apply to as many as possible.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Apply as absolutely early as you can. Get AMCAS in at the earliest date. Spin off your supplementals. In fact so critical is timing that I would recommend that if you have a number of invites for interviews don't save the best ones until last (thinking that by then you'll be really comfortable interviewing), jump on them right away. For MD/PhDers this can not be stressed enough. I remember at my Einstein interview someone asked how many of the 11 available slots had already been filled by that time. The answer? 11! Kind of takes the pressure off, but I looked around the room at the other 10 or so interviewees and I couldn't help but feel a little pissed (it wasn't hopeless (in fact I even got in), a lot of people withdraw acceptance). Along these lines I would recommend to MD/Ph.D. applicants at least that they do not take the August MCAT.

For some applications you are going to need passport size photographs. The rationale is so that when you come for an interview they can recognize you. This is, of course, a ridiculous excuse since if that were the case then they would only require pictures after you were invited for an interview. Regardless, if you are going to take my advice and apply to a million schools photos can get quite pricey (especially for MD/PhDers of course because they have twice as many applications). Even if they don't ask for them in the application they'll probably want them at the interview (so that they can presumably discriminate against you later in the process instead of earlier). Call around to camera stores in your area and explain the situation. I found as much as a hundred dollar difference between estimates, so shop around.

For MD/PhD applicants it is crucial to do some Medline searches and find out who is doing work you're interested in at the institution. Preferably do this before you even apply so that you can put them on your application. Phrases like I am interested in X which is being studied by Drs. Y and Z in your department of Q. presumably go a long way. And some schools (like Einstein, Brooklyn, Connecticut, Albany, and NYU) actually make you pick your own interviewers. It goes without saying that you should be able to talk intelligently about her particular subject of interest.

Also for MD/PhDers, just because a school isn't listed as a federally funded MSTP program, a lot of schools have the exact same thing (stipend, full tuition scholarship, no payback), but its just privately funded. So don't restrict your possibilities based on who is officially federally funded. Because there is a lot of money to be gleaned from these MD/Ph.D. programs ($200,000 or so per student), keep in mind the applicants that they are trying to weed out. There are people who apply MD/Ph.D. just to get a free ride (and stipend!) through medical school. So be very explicit in your dedication to carry out research as a primary lifelong occupation. If that is a stretch of the truth, rethink your choice. In fact, on a personal note, I recently rethought my choice and, after being offered three MSTP slots and taking the one at Tufts, I dropped out of the program to pursue a straight MD.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

Interviews are day long events and for MD/Ph.D. applicants maybe two. Surprises may include blind interviews (even though a school may say they don't have them, the particular interviewer may not have taken the time to look over your application so be prepared to answer questions you thought they had the answers to on your application like "what do you do extracurricularly?") or student interviewers (at Harvard HST, Stanford and Pittsburgh in my experience ). Expect a minimum of two interviews per school; you'll probably get three.

The most frequently asked MD interview question was (for me) a question about my application, either something I said in an essay, or details about my involvement with an extracurricular thing I put down (so make absolutely sure that you make copies of everything you send out so that you can refer to them later). Other super common ones ask about lifelong career goals and what kind of medicine you want to go into. Less common were "without clinical experience how do you know you really want to be a doctor" and "what are your strengths?" I got one "what do you think about AIDS?" [Sinai], but was never (and I was interviewed by at least 40 people)asked about my views on the US Health Care situation, but I knew people who were. So let me recommend the most concise and easily readable (its got pictures) resource I could find on the subject (what the current state is, what the Clinton plan entailed, what single-payer is etc.) In my opinion: The National Health Program Book by Himmelstein and Woolhandler published by Common Courage ($12). Also, for analysis of current events in general, you can't do better than reading Noam Chomsky. Likewise I was never asked anything so open-ended as tell me about yourself and I don't remember many "why do you want to go to this particular school?" (before I went on all of my interviews I read up on the school; looking back I think it was mostly a waste of time).

For MD/Ph.D. applicants the inevitable questions are: what research are you doing or have you done (this is number one; they want to know your exact contribution, they want to know background theory, one guy even asked me for references off the top of my head [NYU]) and why both degrees? Also how do you think you'll have time to do everything and what are your research interests.

By far the most important questions asked in an interview are by you, however. Every single interview I've been to invariably ended with What questions do you have for me? So think of some good ones. For example a MD/Ph.D. could ask how well integrated the program is (is there clinical contact during the Ph.D. years...), can one start research in the summer before one matriculates (makes it look like you're raring to go), what graduate course requirements still exist after the two preclinical years (do you have to take biochem twice...), avg. time taken to get both degrees at the school, how am I placed in a lab (required lab rotations?), and with whom can I do research (can I do research at other institutions?). For the MD (and so for the MD/Ph.D. too) questions can include: what research opportunities exist for straight MDs, how much nutrition, geriatrics, spousal abuse, primary or preventative care emphasis in the curriculum (whatever you're interested in), how much flexibility in curriculum (is everybody marching along lock-step?), and clinical facilities (is there a range of opportunities from emergency to veterans to inner city to tertiary). There exists a book produced by the AMSAR people that lists each schools exact preclinical curriculum. So you can use this to decide which schools most interest you, help you phrase questions (Why so little? instead of How much Nutrition?), and probably most importantly help you answer those stupid "Why do you want to go to this particular school?" essays.

Usually you'll be provided lunch (if you have special needs (vegetarian, kosher...) tell them ahead of time, the only thing worse than an interview with no blood sugar is an interview with no sleep and no blood sugar) with students to ask questions to. They usually have no input in the admissions process so you can be frank. I'd ask about housing (how are the dorms), what's the grading policy (pass/fail?), are exams given in blocks or are they staggered (there are advantages to both approaches), how many people per table (euphemism for how many people per corpse in gross anatomy; the lower the better; 4 is about average), why they chose that school, are there free photocopy facilities (you'd be amazed), is emphasis on passing Boards or learning medicine, how tight (socially) is the student body, how they like the city and the school (obviously), curriculum flexibility, are there exams so that one can place out of basic science courses, does one need a car if they go there, is the curriculum lecture-based (or small group based), range of clinical experiences possible, and internet/online Medline access.

I thought about this a lot and I have come to this conclusion: do not be afraid (either in essays and particularly in interviews where you can make sure it is not misconstrued) to voice strong positions or opinions. One interviewer at Syracuse was complaining to me about what he says med school admissions people call "mediclones," which is a rather derogatory term applied to candidates which all look alike. Do not be afraid to stand out. I personally have a difficulty in keeping my opinions to myself; in fact I even had a fight with the interviewer at my first interview (he had the audacity to state that nutrition (he was a pediatrician for heavens sake) was superfluous to human health)[Cornell]. Although I certainly didn't get in there and maybe one other place because of my outspokenness[Buffalo], I can not help but attribute some of my other successes to my controversial (way left of center) views and individuality.

However for interview appearance, conform. If you want, don't think of it as selling out to a culture that prizes superficiality over substance; think of it as camouflage. I had the decision of whether or not to cut my hair (I had been growing it for 6 years). I reluctantly decided to; I am glad I did. I talked to admission people anonymously and they were in agreement: look like a yuppie. As an aside, if you travel to an interview and forget a hair dryer or something, most department stores have very generous return policies. One could, if they were a bit slimy, just buy one and return it the next day for a refund.

I mentioned before about having a lighter Senior Fall semester for applications, but don't forget these interviews; they suck up an inordinate amount of time. One trick (if you're lucky enough to get lots of interviews) is to schedule them all in blocks. For example I interviewed at four schools (all in NYC) in one week (one looonnnng week let me tell you), but imagine how much time/money I saved. Remember you need to have that Saturday night stayover for a sane planefare, so if you can only arrange a Wednesday interview you're stuck for almost a week.

Another trick to at least reduce cost is to ask if you can stay with a student when arranging interviews. Its also a great way (I am told) to ask lots of questions about the school. If you're like me and just want to just relax and not even talk to anyone the night before a day of interviews, I can recommend cheap hotels I had luck with. PS: I am now going to Tufts! (More because of Boston than the school (with which I am disappointed)). So I can answer specific questions about the school and can offer a place to stay for anyone interviewing in Boston.

I was skeptical during my first few interviews that they would get easier as I had been told, but alas it is true. By the last school I interviewed at (the 14th) the hardest part of the interview was to keep from yawning as they ask the same dumb questions over and over. You become an automaton; answers just spill out. The moral of the story: It just gets easier.

After the interviews are over and the whole waiting list game starts, applicants are encouraged to send follow up letters to the schools at which they're waitlisted at. Schools want to know how much you really want that spot.

I would like to apologize for the disjointed nature of all this. I initially wrote it down as a scramble of my thoughts and it hasn't progressed much past that point. I'd really like to hear from all of you and remember, always hold firmly to the thought that each one of us can do something to bring some portion of misery to an end.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I'd like to dedicate this all to my mother who was infinitely supportive of me through this whole hellish process.

---

Reader's Comments

I just wanted to let you know that I truly appreciate your comments. I have been looking for such advice and am so happy to have finally stumbled upon it. However, this page must be a bit old, as your already in residency, right? I would LOVE for you to put a little addendum... looking back at applying... if you made the right choice. Thanks again!!!

-- Casey Herrforth, July 2, 2003

MedicalSchoolDirectory.com- A comprehensive database of medical schools, searchable by location, features contact information, email addresses, linked web sites. (contributed by maria seyrig)

• MCAT, PCAT and DAT Review on Audio Tapes!- This is the official website of BDS Educational Innovation, the proud publisher of the MCAT,PCAT and DAT AudioLearn. Students can learn more, hear samples and purchase products on this site. (contributed by shawn shabani)

• Premededge.com- As previous premedical students who successfully went through the application process, we have come together to shed some light on the often grueling, frustrating, hectic process of applying to Medical School. (contributed by Armin Kiankhooy)

• Medical Help Network- The ultimate source for medical school applications (contributed by Jenny Black)

• ADMISSION SUCCESS: Getting into College, Graduate, or Professional School- Gives advice, offers assistance, and suggests useful books on geting into college, graduate school, and professional school such as medicine and dentistry. (contributed by Keith Brent)

http://www.upalumni.org/medschool/medschool-advice.html

Cost of MD

As I look at the HSDN forum I see so many bright eyed idealistic premeds. How many of you have thought about the costs associated with medicine. Some are easy to quantify monetarily direct costs are 4 years of foregone income after college. That works out to $200,000. There are the additional costs of medical school an instate schools will be 20,000 per year, OOS or private will easily be 40,000 per year. Living costs are 15,000 per year for bare bones in a low cost area, higher cost areas like New York can easily top 25,000. The average medical student graduates with $150,000 of debt from med school on top of whatever costs you have from undergraduate assuming average debt from undergrad that's an additional $20-40,000 with the interest clock running. In addition you will be paid horribly for the 3 to 7 plus years of residency and fellowship. This is merely the economic cost. There are huge intangible costs to attending medical school or any other professional school. In college you will study harder than most to maintain the 3.45 average for Osteopathic or 3.65 for allopathic medical school. While your best friends party, you will study. You will do research and ECs that may be tangential to medicine merely because they are expected not out of any abiding love or desire to do them. You will be forced to take a proscribed set of courses. Once all of this is done you sit for the MCAT, a difficult exam requiring months worth of preparation, a low score may mean 3 years of hard work were all for nought. After all this you apply you have a 50:50 shot of getting accepted anywhere. If accepted you will complete 2 years of basic sciences, you will study all day and night. You then sit for the COMLEX or USMLE which will help determine what caliber of specialty you will match into. Then come clinicals, long days and pimping questions characterize this time. You then do the match and find out what you will spend the next 3-7 years doing in residency. Residency involves long days and nights, lack of sleep and horrible pay. If you do a fellowship you will be paid even worse during this. 11 to 15 years after your high school diploma you will finally practice. Starting pay is not wonderful PCPs may start as low as 75K specialists in the mid 200s. You will have had to delay marriage and starting a family most likely. Pay in real terms is falling. Medicare continues to cut pay in both real and relative terms. PCPs are making 150K 20 years out of medical school, not bad, however with your exceptional debt load and taxes you won't see most of it. Preexisting relationships will be strained throughout medical school and many will fail.

The point of this is not to dissuade you from going for your MD or DO, but to give pause. Contemplate how committed you are. From a financial perspective avoid as much undergrad debt as possible and eschew expensive private med schools for cheaper state schools. If you will be graduating with 300K in debt you will be forced into choosing the best paying specialty. Medical school costs have really been hiked up when my father went to med school in the mid 70s the cost was 20k or in todays dollars $80,000 and this was at one of the most expensive private schools in the US. Today it is 172K for four years not including the additional 25 or 30K in living costs a year. With the coming changes and continued cutting of reimbursement consider this. Also consider the cost emotionally being a physician is disruptive, you will get called and paged at all hours. Think about this carefully. Medicine is no longer accesible to the poor and is quickly outstripping the ability for the middle class to pay for. Even if you take out loans they will cost you 2200 a month assuming 10 years at 6% interest. However this is artificially low. You will most likely be forced to defer payment through residency and the interest will continue to roll on.

Examkrackers

1) Your individual scores and composite score

Total: 39R
PS: 13
BS: 13
VR: 13
WS: R

2) The study method used for each section

A) SELF STUDY AND WORK FROM THE EXAMKRACKER BOOKS. I actually signed up for the Examkrackers course (www.examkrackers.com) at Columbia University. The course was taught by Jon Orsay (one of the founders of the company and the main writer of the book). He is a phenomenal teacher, but his lecture style was EXTREMELY similar to his books. In the interest of time, I ended up skipping the classes while still following their schedule and just studying on my own.

B) READ EACH CHAPTER TWICE. The chapters in the Examkracker books are pretty short and manageable. However, each chapter is content filled and emphasizes a conceptual understanding of the material (as opposed to rote memorization of formulas). I would suggest reading each chapter AT LEAST twice. In contrast, I found the Kaplan books to emphasize rote memorization which I'm not a big fan of. In addition, since the MCATs emphasize conceptual understanding and not rote memorization, I thought that the Examkracker books were a bit superior in that regard to the Kaplan books.

C) MAKE A STUDY SHEET AFTER EACH CHAPTER. After each chapter, I would make a little study sheet that contained pertinent formulas and conceptually difficult concepts for that chapter. My study sheets for Biology, however, were pretty long since Biology is less quantitative.

D) DO DRILLS FOR DIFFICULT SCIENCE TOPICS. If there were specific topics (e.g. fluids, or acids and bases) that were still unclear to me after reading a chapter in the Examkracker books, I did drills on those topics with the Examkrackers 1001 Questions books. (Some of my friends tried to go through all of the questions in the 1001 Question books, which I found to be a big waste of time. Why study a topic that you have already mastered any more than you need to?)

E) SKIP THE MINIMCAT BOOKS THAT EXAMKRACKER PROVIDES. Don't bother doing the questions in the MiniMCAT books that Examkracker provides. I personally found that those questions were not representative of the level of difficulty of real MCAT questions (I thought that they were too hard), nor phrased in the way an MCAT question would be asked.

F) USE PRINCETON REVIEW TO STUDY THE TOPIC OF OPTICS. I also thought that the lecture on Optics in the Examkracker Physics book sucked. It emphasized rote memorization and employed confusing mnemonics (quite a contrast from the rest of the books). If I remember correctly, it's the last chapter in the Physics book. Use Princeton Review to study Optics. I found their explanation of that topic to be clear and comprehensible.

G) DONT DO EXAMKRACKER PRACTICE TESTS. DO THE AAMC PRACTICE TESTS INSTEAD. I thought that taking the exams under similar testing conditions as the real MCATs was important. I also heard that the Examkrackers practice tests were pretty hard and not representative of the real MCATs, so I ended up bringing my own AAMC tests to their practice exams and used Examkracker's bubble sheets. (The Examkracker people won't mind at all).

H) GET ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION TO ALL AAMC TESTS. Buy an online subscription to all of the AAMC tests (www.aamc.org) from the AAMC. It's a bit on the pricey side (of about ~$200 if I remember correctly), but it's an investment that will pay off dividends. I would plug in my answers from my bubble sheet and see which ones I got right. You can view the explanations of the questions online which I found EXTREMELY helpful.

I) FINISH ALL MATERIAL A WEEK BEFORE THE REAL MCAT. If you follow the Examkrackers schedule, you should finish everything a week ahead of of the test. During that week, I simply reviewed my study sheets and the concepts of the wrong answers from my AAMC tests.

J) PRIORITIZE THE EK STUDY BOOKS OVER EK'S AUDIO OSMOSIS CD. The Audio Osmosis is a severely diluted version of the Examkracker Books. In comparing the CD to the Study Books, Audio Osmosis does not have the practice problems, lacks a lot of the conceptual examples (that really cement the concepts in your head), and lacks the practice quizzes that are all found in the books. In fact, I stopped listening to Audio Osmosis after a few lectures after realizing these things.

K) If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me and best of luck with the studying.

3) What materials you used for each section(Kaplan, TPR, Examkrackers, AAMC, etc)

Examkrackers

4) Which practice tests did you use?

AAMC: 3R, 4R, 5R, 6R, and 7 (I think that they also have 8 out now)
If you have time, do practice tests from the other companies, but DEFINITELY PRIORITIZE THE AAMC ONES SINCE THEY WILL MOST CLOSELY RESEMBLE THE REAL MCAT.

5) What was your undergraduate major?

Psychology and English Literature -- There is hope for us humanities majors.

6) Any other tips you may have for those of us who still have this test lurking over us?

*** The week before the test, simply review your study sheets along with the explanations of the wrong answers that you got on your AAMC tests. Trying to cram in new material, and finding that it was not sinking in would probably stress me out before the trest.

*** Eat a big pasta dinner on the Thursday night before the test. Jon Orsay mentioned that glycogen storages are at their peak two days after consumption.

*** If you are like me and have difficulty falling asleep before important events like this, get a prescription for a sleeping pill (e.g. Sonata or Ambien) from a psychiatrist and take it the night before. CAUTION: Be sure to test out the sleeping pill well beforehand to see if gives you any side effects like drowsiness the day after. For example, Ambien works well for me, but leaves some of my friends feeling drowsy the day after.

*** Bring a digital watch to the test. If you start the stopwatch and you're worried about nasty looks that the proctors may give you when your watch beeps, hold the watch under your thigh to mute the sound.

*** In the beginning, I had difficulty with timing. To correct this, I started timing 9 minutes to complete a verbal passage and all of its questions. For the physical science and biological science section, I would plan for "ROUGHLY" 19 questions every 25 minutes.

*** Bring Gatorage and PowerBars to the testing site. All testing sites are different, but some testing sites will allow you to hydrate during the test while others won't. Thankfully, mine did (to the AAMC's chagrin). I would snack on half a PowerBar between sections for extra boosts of energy. Also, pack your own lunch to the MCATs. God forbid you're stuck with one Deli around your testing site, and everyone rushes there talking about which question they missed and you'll have to stand in this ginormous line for food and not have enough time to eat it.

7) How long did you study for the MCAT?


2) The study method used for each section

I just pmd someone an answer to what my study strategy was, and I'll just paste that here. It's really long, so watch out.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but here are some tips.

I didn't take a regular MCAT course, but I did use Kaplan's online course, as well as the examkrackers CDs. I went through almost all of the old MCAT exams, and I found them to be much more usefull than the Kaplan practice tests.

There were a couple of key points to my preparation.

a) Hitting the content from multiple different angles. I would read through the Kaplan review section, watch the lesson online, listen to the CDs, and review my old textbooks.

b) Preparing with cycles of review. I didn't study straight from December to August. Rather, I studied for several intense periods of ~3 wks, and then let it be for a few weeks. My final cycle was 6-7 weeks straight, and I dropped everything else I was doing about 2 weeks before the exam so I could devote all my time to the final preparation. I tried to cover as many topics as possible each cycle, and then re-review the next time through. This way I was able to really solidify the information. I went into more detail in December for the areas I felt less comfortalbe with (ie, physiology).

c) Practice. I used the MCAT q-bank to test myself with MCAT style questions after reviewing each topic from day 1. I started taking full length practice exams about 6-7 weeks before the exam.

d) Re-evaluation. After each end of review minitest or full length practice exam, I would look at each question I missed, and try to understand what went wrong. Sometimes it was a strategy issue (eg, i misread the question), sometimes it was a content issue (say I didn't understand a particular concept). I kept a record of each of these reasons for missed questions, analyzed why they happened and how to not miss a similar question the next time. When I started to see patterns I would jot them down in a master notebook with some trouble-shooting ideas. I reviewed this master notebook regularly, and went through the few key points early in the morning on test day.

e) Pacing is not about pushing yourself to go faster, it's about making the answers automatic. I got to the point where I could get all the physical science questions right if I was able to take more time, but became frustrated because then I couldn't finish all the questions. When I tried to increase my pace, I would get a lot of questions wrong. Finally I realized that pacing wasn't about going faster, but about having the forumulas and basic approaches to problems down cold. I started reviewing all of the Kaplan PS flashcards that weren't automatic answers (about 70%) right before I would take a practice test. When I started that process, I began getting 14 or 15 on PS every time. I woke up really early on test day to get through all of the flashcards after I reviewed the key themes from my "how not to miss this kind of question again" master notebook. I went through the relevant orgo flashcards (about 50%) and biology flashcards (about 20%) first, and then the PS flashcards -- because PS is first on test day.

I never figured out my pacing problem for verbal, and kind of blew it on test day. I ended up just filling in the C bubble for the last set of verbal questions on test day (5-7 questions?) because I ran out of time.

I think the key to my performance was developing a personal approach by analyzing MCAT style questions I had missed. If you can pick apart the reasons for choosing the wrong answer for practice exams, you can do this.

Good luck!


OK. I took the MCAT 2 years ago and was scoring 7's on my verbal practice MCATS until someone told me this strategy and I scored a 9 on verbal to bring my total MCAT score to 31. Here it is. The problem with verbal is that you don't have enough time to finish the essays most of the time. Firstly, you should have already practiced enough to time your sections to an exact science. Then use this strategy to get you ahead of everyone else: Read the first paragraph of the essay only and scan the questions for questions on that paragraph (on the real MCAT they are out of order). Answer those questions first. Then read the second paragraph and scan the questions for questions on that pragraph. Repeat this procedure until you finish the essay. Note: combine really short pragraphs so you don't do more that 4 steps of reading. You will be left with either no questions or one or two evaluative questions on the whole essay. Answer these last. This tecnique saves you the time of looking back trying to find the location of the material in the essays and the material is fresh in your head so you don't have to reread a lot. I'm telling you, forget what Kaplan tells you and try this strategy. It got me 2 extra points.
yanky5 is offline


Originally Posted by nir1009
I used this strategy on Examkrackers 101 passages Test 7. Got a 10 (but just barely -- 45 Raw Score). I was getting a 44-45 raw score before also, so I don't know how much it helps. But I felt MUCH better about all of my answers and less pressed for time. Its worth a try. Thanks for the strategy!
No problem. I am not joking about the strategy. It really worked for me. You guys should try it a few times and see if it works for you too. When I took the MCAT 2 years ago, I went up 2 points from most of my practices after only trying it a few times. The problem I was having is not that I didn't have confidence in my answers, but I was pressed for time and always barely finished verbal before the time limit or didn't finish it. So, I would always rush the last 2 passages for time reasons. This strategy allowed me to finish the MCAT verbal with time to spare so I was doing better. You'll see that most of the time you waste on verbal is from trying to search the passage for material, but if you read one paragraph at a time, the material is in your short term memory, and if you forget it, there is only one paragraph to search so you save time. There is only a few holistic questions usually so you save these for last (unless the MCAT changed in 2 yrs, but I doubt it). Don't forget that on the real MCAT the questions are not in order, so you must quickly scan the questions for questions on your paragraph.
yanky5

MCAT Study Method

It's about time that I posted as much of my personal strategy that I can in this thread. To be honest I'm kind of ashamed that I haven't yet! Without further ado, here is Vihsadas's Personal MCAT Strategy (err...mostly, I think.):

1) Your individual scores and composite score:
PS: 15
BS: 14
VR: 11
WS: S
Composite MCAT: 40S

2) The study method used for each section

As a general note, practice will always be the most important part of your MCAT preparation…for any section. You should make time to do as many practice exams as you possibly can and to do practice problems as you are doing your content review. For the MCAT, you need to become comfortable with the testing format, the types of questions, and the manner in which concepts and information is tested. Being familiar with these aspects of the exam can only come through long and thorough practice of MCAT material. If you are diligent and really put forth maximal effort into practicing the material, you will start to gain an intuition about MCAT questions, and how to approach them. Accordingly, the number one mistake made by MCAT studiers is to only review the material in great depth, and to neglect actually taking timed, full-length practice MCAT exams. In fact, you must do both.

PS:
Understanding Concepts and Developing an Intuition – The best way to approach this section is to be extremely curious about the concepts presented. When you are reviewing a particular concept you should constantly be asking yourself “WHY?” Doing so will refocus your thought process from one of memorization to one of understanding. In fact, you must understand why all of the equations are the way they are, and why they make logical sense. One way to facilitate this process is to try and work through what you think should happen without worrying about the numbers at first. Often, students have memorized an equation and will just settle for plugging values into an equation in order to try and arrive at an answer. Unfortunately, this process often bogs the student down in number crunching at the expense of understanding what is actually going on. The latter is extremely important for the MCAT.
Thus, when you are doing physics and chemistry problems, the first thing you should do is think about the general result you would expect from the situation given. Only when you have understood what should happen conceptually, should you begin number crunching. For instance, if you are dealing with an acid base buffer problem and the question asks, “What will the pH be after I add X amount of Y substance?”, the first thing you should do is ask yourself, “Would I expect the pH to increase a little or a lot, stay the same, or decrease a little or a lot?” Once you think through the concepts, you’ll be more confident in your numerical answer as well as have an understanding of why your numerical answer is correct. After all, the MCAT is a thinking test. If you do not understand the concepts you simply will not be able to confidently answer a fair number of problems on the real exam. That being said, even though I have stressed the importance of concepts, you still must also know all of the relevant equations, and be comfortable with manipulating those equations. Both concept understanding and skill in formula manipulation are necessary for success on the MCAT PS.

Additional Note: When we say we are doing "Content Review" in terms of PS, this includes doing practice problems along with your content review to absorb the material. For physics and chemistry, an integral part of learning to understand the material is to work through problems to make the logical process more concrete in your mind. Thus, do sectional tests, practice problems and practice passage (but not timed, full lengths!) when studying.

Learning to be Highly Proficient with Simple Math – This is a point that is grossly overlooked both by students themselves and test prep companies. In my opinion, the most important factor that separates the average speed test taker from one who can finish the PS section with 10-20mins remaining is the ease at which the latter uses estimation methods, tricks with formula manipulation, and answer elimination techniques to reduce the amount of scratch work necessary to complete a problem. On my real exam, I used no more than ¼ a single-sided page for scratch work on the PS. Because I was intensely comfortable with order of magnitude estimation, decimal estimation, log estimation, dimensional analysis and conceptual knowledge I could eliminate answer without too much written math. Sure, you could use the formulas to explicitly solve each problem, but using estimation along with formula manipulation will save you whole minutes on the real exam. In previous posts I have highlighted one example of this:
Estimation trick for pH and log calculations

In addition, you must be completely comfortable with orders of magnitude estimation. You should be able to figure out just from estimation what the order of magnitude of the answer should be. This will aid you in eliminating one or two answers right away. One way to start to get good at this is to treat every number in scientific notation:
If X = n x 10^-4 and Y = p x 10^8, then Y/X = (p/n)x 10^(8 + 4).
You must be completely fluent in order of magnitude manipulation like this. Definitely practice it.

You should also become familiar with estimating the decimal values of weird looking fractions and the fractional values of weird looking decimals. For instance, .3145/.6021 might look difficult, but it’s approximately = ½. This kind of estimation is usually sufficient for the MCAT, and GREATLY simplifies the manipulation of formulas and numerical calculations.

Dimensional Analysis – Using the units of physical quantities to your advantage is also often grossly overlooked by students. One way to check your math is to manipulate the units of the quantities you are using while you are manipulating the math.
The following post sufficiently explains one very MCAT relevant way of how you should be able to use dimensional analysis on the PS section of the MCAT:
An example of how dimensional analysis can really save you one the MCAT.

An additional way dimensional analysis can be helpful is if you forget the formula for something. Let’s say that you forgot that one of the formulas for electric potential (Volts) is Volts = Electric field * distance. Let’s say that you know that Voltage is expressed in Joules/Coulomb and Electric field is Newtons/Coulomb. Then, you remember that Work (Joules) = Force (Newtons) * Distance (meters). Therefore, if I multiply Newtons/Coulomb * Distance I get Joules/Coulomb, which is the correct units for electric potential. Usually, this trick will lead you to the right answer!
A word of warning, however, about this last point: Sometimes there will be an extra constant factor needed to arrive at the correct answer. Therefore, only use this technique when you really forget the correct formula and be wary for extra constants! Example:
Let’s say that you know the units of energy are [E] ~ kgm^2/s^2. Knowing that, it would be reasonable to guess that one correct formula for energy would be E = mass*velocity^2. Afterall, mass*velocity^2 has the correct units…but because of how the formula for energy was derived, energy, as you know, is actually = ½ mass*velocity^2.
So while this particular trick with dimensional analysis can be useful, you must not rely on it.

VR:
See the following post: My Verbal Strategy
Just as a note, I wanted to say that I was scoring 13-15s on the verbal practice exams for AAMC CBT 7-10. As a word of warning, please heed the part I mention about being able to do the verbal section with 5-10mins remaining. If you get a monster verbal section like I did on the MCAT, you’ll at least be prepared to get through the entire thing. My real verbal was hard. Really hard. Be prepared!

BS:
Biology is like a Modified Verbal Section – The trick to the BS is treating this section a little like the verbal section. You should definitely memorize everything that you possibly can in terms of biology and organic, but, while your are memorizing you MUST think long and hard about the logic of what you are memorizing. For instance, you can memorize all of the favorable and less favorable conditions that lead to Sn2 or Sn1 or E1 or E2 reactions in organic, but, do you have a conceptual understanding of WHY these different conditions favor one type of reaction over the other. This type of conceptual understanding on the bio section is absolutely necessary for the MCAT. Then, you will have to be able to understand the logic that is presented in the passage (because it will be more convoluted than in the PS) and using the logic set down by the passage, apply what you already know.

Know Intimately what you Expect to be Tested on– One type of logic useful for the BS section is to be familiar with the topics that you would expect to be tested and to use that knowledge to your advantage. Let me give you an example. Let's say you are given a large organic macro-molecule diagram with various keto/acetyl-groups labeled "A" "B" "C" "D". You are then asked "Enzyme X is added to a solution of the macromolecule, which keto/acetyl group do you expect to be cleaved?"
Now let's say you have absolutely no idea what enzyme X does and you have never even heard of enzyme X. What would you do? On the MCAT, with the information I've given you, you should be able to guess what the operative characteristic is that the test-maker is trying to test. I can guarantee that it has something to do with how strongly that "O" is drawing electrons from that C=O bond. So without even looking at the answer choices, you should be able to narrow it down to two possibilities: the highest amount of electron draw, and the lowest amount of electron draw.

Applying knowledge to novel situations – While this is important for the PS section as well, it's much, much more likley to show up on the BS section. You will be asked to integrate many different subjects in one passage and use your conceptual knowledge to find an integrated answer. Sure you know all the oxidation and reduction reactions, but if I gave you a novel reaction could you logic out whether it should be an oxidation or reduction reaction? Then, could you use that information to determine whether that reaction would help or hurt the aerobic capcity of a mammal? Do you understand WHY the oxidation and reduction reactions proceed the way they do? Can you hypothesize mechanisms for different reactions? Do you understand WHY electrons move the way that they do? Always, always, always ask ‘why?’ Then, of course, you still do have to memorize all of the information as well.
It take all of 1) Memorization, 2) Conceptual understanding, and 3) Problem Practice!

Additional Note: Although more helpful for the PS section, doing practice problems during your content review including sectional tests and practice passages can also be helpful to drive home important concepts in the BS section. This is especially true for the organic chemistry section. I definitely recommend doing some practice problems as you finish various sections in your content review, but again, timed full length practice during your content review may not be that helpful. Save those full-lengths for after your content review study months.

3) The practice materials you used
Kaplan Premiere Program Book (2008)
Princeton Review ‘Cracking the CBT’ (2008)
The Princeton Review Verbal Workbook
Kaplan Sectionals and Topical Exams
Kaplan QBank
Monthly Quizzes and Tests from Kaplan Online (Comes with Premiere Program)
Wikipedia and Google (Seriously, for random things I wanted to know)

I studied the Kaplan Premiere Program and Princeton Review Cracking the CBT book side by side. Although there is a large amount of overlap between the two books, each book covers the material from a different angle and there is some information that is not doubled in each section. I found this tactic to be very helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of the material, particularly for the organic chemistry section of the exam.

4) Which practice tests did you use?
I made absolutely sure to get my hands on as many practice tests as I possibly could. Altogether I took 20 practice exams. I had access to:
AAMCCBT 3 – 10 and the extra passages from 3R – 9R (8 exams)
Exams that came with the Princeton review ‘Cracking the CBT’ (4 exams)
Free Princeton Review Exam (1 Exam)
Kaplan Full Lengths 1- 11 (11 Exams)
Free Kaplan Exam (1 Exam)
Gold Standard CBT Free Exam (1 Exam)
Two Kaplan Exams on CD, Premiere Program, (2 Exams)

A Copy of my testing schedule is attached to this post.

5) What was your undergraduate major
I started off as a B.Mus in Music Theory at the McGill Conservatory of Music and then started all over again in a joint program in Physics and Physiology in my 3rd year. I finished my undergraduate degree after 6 years.


6) Any other tips you may have
Post-Game Analysis: The most important thing you can do is post-game analysis of your practice exams. Keep a log of the types of questions that you are missing, and why you thought you missed the question. Make sure that you review every single problem, right or wrong on your practice exams. Even though you may have gotten a problem correct, you need to ensure that you got it right with the correct thought process and also, in the most efficient manner possible. Therefore, you need to review every single problem that you do on practice exams. If you do this you will begin to see a pattern about how the MCAT test makers have structured the exam questions, and how to develop what I call ‘MCAT intuition’ about what the correct and incorrect answers are.

What is the test maker thinking? Accordingly, think about what the test maker is trying to test! Really try and figure out what concept or thought process or piece of knowledge the test maker is trying to test with a particular question. If you think about that, you have a better chance of not over-complicating problems and seeing what you are supposed to do. It is important to try and think from their perspective.

Critically think about what you are a doing! Although it seems obvious I guarantee that many of you are not doing this! I know, because when I started studying I wasn’t doing this either. Always ask ‘why?’ and always question the process you are taking. You must always be critically thinking about how you are approaching each problem. Make sure that you are completely aware of exactly what you are doing, and why you are doing it when you are testing.

Practice! The more practice you do, the more familiar you will be with the material in an MCAT format, and the more familiar you will be with doing the calculations or thinking that will be required of you on the MCAT. This is extremely important. Practice as much as you can, and whenever you can.

Ample Content Review: Although practice is definitely more important than studying, in my opinion the best way to study (if you have the luxury of time) is to do solid content review for 1 – 1.5 months and then do a very, very arduous string of practice exams for the next 1 – 1.5 months. I believe that taking full-length, timed practice exams when you lack a cursory knowledge of the topics and material covered on the MCAT is a waste of time. You can’t improve your MCAT test-taking skills if you don’t have the basic MCAT knowledge at hand. Personally, I did 1 to 1.5 months of solid content review with a diagnostic at the beginning, and then 1.5 months of practice exams, reviewing the material between exam days. Note, however, that I did do practice problems in the course of my content review. In fact, practice problems are very important for gaining a solid understanding of some of the concepts, especially in the PS! What I am saying is to avoid doing practice tests during your content review, but practice problems, however, are very important!

In my opinion, the four most important keys to MCAT success are:

1) Practice!
2) Know everything. Really.
3) Understand the Concepts and Logic.
4) Do many, many full length timed practice exams.

In the final days before the exam: In the final 2-3 weeks before you real exam you must develop a routine to get your body and mind ready for test day. For instance, I planned my 'homestretch' for 2.5 weeks before my exam. At this point content review is long ago done with. I'm not really even opening up my books anymore unless there's a random/weird fact I somehow missed. The last 2.5 weeks are for tying up loose ends, final test-taking preparation, and getting yourself into an MCAT Rhythm. Here’s what I did:

1) I took four AAMC CBTs in these final days and I planed 3 day breaks between each of these last four exams so that my actual MCAT was synchronized with this schedule. It is important to make these last exams AAMC exams because they are the closest thing you have to the real MCAT.
2) In addition, I took each of these last four exam at the exact time that I would take my real MCAT, and woke up and went to sleep at the same time that I would on and before real test day.
3) I also restrained myself from going to my refrigerator during breaks, and brought an ‘MCAT lunch and snack’ which was exactly what I would take to the real MCAT to my room on practice test days.
4) In the days between exams, I reviewed the tests (the same way as I suggest above) and also did peripheral content review if there was a particular concept or question I was still shaky on.

By simulating real test taking conditions as close as possible and developing a ‘routine’, when I got to my real exam, it was just another day at the office so to speak. My body, my sleep cycle, and my mind were just continuing the routine I had developed over those last 2.5 weeks.

I took the first of the final four tests on a Wednesday, the next on the following Sunday (3 day break), the next on the following Thursday (3 day break), and the final one on the following Monday (3 day break). That way I had a 3 day break until my real exam which was Friday.

I believe that making my last four exam times periodic and treating them like my real exam really helped. When I sat down to do my real exam it really felt like it was nothing unusual from my normal routine. I was prepared, and I had done this before... That helped to calm my nerves and give me extra confidence.

7) How long did you study?
Total time studied: I studied for approximately 3 to 3.5 months for 4-8 hours every day, 7 days a week.

Guys, you really can do this. Just treat the MCAT like a big game, a competition of sorts that you are trying to win at. Get excited about studying and doing better on the next practice exam. If you are able to take that pseudo-masochistic viewpoint, the MCAT almost becomes fun. Put your mind, body, soul…put your entire existence into this MCAT for a few months. Remember, it’ll be worth it in the end. If I can do it, you can to. You just have to figure out the best way for you to gain your own success. Good luck, and kick that MCAT straight in the crotch!

bozz - what do you mean by dimensional analysis?

As Bozz said, this is using the units of the variables/quantities you are given to arrive at the answer. On the MCAT this can be a very poweful technique for a number of the chemistry and physics problems. Here's an example:

Often you'll get a passage that gives you some new formulas that apply to a specific situation. Let's say...an electron passing through a curved plate capacitor: You might be given some novel equations that deal with the velocity, energy, etc. of the electron. Then you'll get a question which says something like:

"Which of the following expressions describes the force that is applied to the electron?"

The answer choices will all be expressions containing variables and quantities that are in the passage. Now, there are two ways to attempt these types of problems:

1) Figure out how the formulas that were given in the passage (usually complicated) and the formulas that you know from your studying fit together and eventually simplify down to one of the answer choices. This usually requires some tedious algebra, and also understanding of the equations themselves. This is the slow way.

2) What is funny about the MCAT is that questions like the one above, will often be structured so that every single answer choice will have different units! Since the question asks for an expression of force, one of the answer choices must have the units of force (kg*m/s^2). If you realize this, you can easily exploit dimensional analysis to arrive at the correct answer.

You just take 20 seconds to check the units of each answer choice, and then answer that has the units of force must be the right answer. Et Voila! Done in under 30 seconds...

On the MCAT board, when I harp about learning to do problems "in the most efficient, quickest way possible, using the least amount of paperwork and math", this is the kind of thing I'm talking about.

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 the main 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.
Good luck guys. If I can do it, you guys seriously can too...

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