Hello everyone, I am a nontraditional pre med student currently in a post bacc program, which I will complete in spring 2018. I plan to take the MCAT this upcoming summer (summer 2018) and wanted to get started studying! I plan to take a review course in the spring and also thinking about taking a winter prep boot camp if time permits. I have my Princeton review books with no idea where to start, how much time to spend each day studying, or what’s the most effective way to study the material. I also have to take into consideration that I am a full time student taking 5 courses this fall semester while also working part time. Can anyone give me any pointers on where and how to begin my study process? Thanks in advance!
I’m a big believer in the test prep companies (I used Kaplan for the MCAT, but I’m sure they’re all good). I didn’t have the focus or motivation to study it all on my own, even when using their prep books, so I did an online (on-demand) course. Having a guided lesson plan, structured lectures, and a question bank worked wonders for climbing the steep learning curve of all of the stuff on the test. Highly recommend practice tests. They aren’t the best at gauging your grasp of ALL of the concepts. They are effective at trying out different testing strategies and working on timing. I was working full time, so I mostly put in about 8-10 hours on the weekend and did nights after work. In total, I spent maybe 3mo + 1 week or so cramming all of the info into my head, took a couple days off before the test, then subsequently purged it all. Note that purging post-MCAT is okay but not really a good strategy for actual med school…