Hello everyone,
I would like to get some advise on how to prepare for the MCAT as a long-term planner (planning to take the test in 2-3 years). I apologize if the same question was repeated before but I’m a bit overwhelmed by the number of postings here. Sorry for my laziness.
Anyway, I was a former premed (10 years ago) but I never felt I was adequately prepared for the test and as a result, I never took the test and went on with my life.
As I think about my past college years, a few things come to my mind why I was never courageous to take the test:
1. My studying method was more focused on how to score better on the exam rather than how much I learn.
2. I inherently have a short-term memory.
3. Overall, I was not diligent enough to prepare for the MCAT; by the end of my senior year and time to take the test, I was already overwhelmed by how much I had forgotten and how much material I had to re-study.
10 years later, today, I’m back to school and just started my post-bacc. program to retake the prerequisites. I am determined not to make the same mistakes but wondering how you folks prepare for the MCAT while taking the prerequisites. More specifically, how can I retain all the materials I’ll be learning during my post-bacc. years until I take the test? I am aware that the MCAT is not a simple test but requires a thorough understanding of the basic science materials. I am taking the first part of general chemistry this semester and I am studying more regularly instead of cramming for the exam. I am also trying my best to understand the material more thoroughly hoping that it will enhance my retention level. However, I’m still afraid that I will forget most of stuffs by the time I take the MCAT after two or three years of taking prerequisites.
Any advice or studying tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Get the Examkrackers Audio Osmosis CD’s. They were the best among my set of MCAT prep tools, and basically focus in on what you are concerned about (basic science review).
Examkrackers also has a 10 week home study outline, I believe it is on thier website. It tells you what to study, approx. times, etc. I took the Kaplan course, but in the used the EK books and audio osmosis as my main way of studying. I found the most useful part of kaplan was the proctored exams. I spent 3 months at 15-20 hours a week. I had just retaken the 1st year chem and 0-chem, but had not seen bio or physics in 8 years. This may or may not work for you, but I thought I would let you know how I prepared. Let meknow if you can’t find that 10 week outline. I think I have it stored somewhere still.
Quote:
10 years later, today, I’m back to school and just started my post-bacc. program to retake the prerequisites. I am determined not to make the same mistakes but wondering how you folks prepare for the MCAT while taking the prerequisites. More specifically, how can I retain all the materials I’ll be learning during my post-bacc. years until I take the test? I am aware that the MCAT is not a simple test but requires a thorough understanding of the basic science materials. I am taking the first part of general chemistry this semester and I am studying more regularly instead of cramming for the exam. I am also trying my best to understand the material more thoroughly hoping that it will enhance my retention level. However, I’m still afraid that I will forget most of stuffs by the time I take the MCAT after two or three years of taking prerequisites.
One way to look at it, since you’re just starting your post-bacc and you have most of the classes ahead of you, is to try to see how the basic sciences all interact. See how things from your chem class turn up in biology, for example. It is necessary to memorize a certain amount, but if you focus more on the ideas you’re learning and try to apply them wherever possible, they will start to seem second nature. Especially if you look for these connections on your own. If you can, I would say take physics first, then chemistry, then bio, because that will reinforce concepts the most. Most of the memorization would be in biology, but even there the MCAT tends to ask more idea-oriented questions.
I searched for the ExamKrackers 10 week outline on their website but couldn’t find it…if you still have it, I would love to have a copy!!
Tammy
http://home.comcast.net/~greet/Examkrackers_Home_Study_Schedule.htm
This website is a link to the examkrackers 10 week home study outline.
Marcia
I took the Princeton Review course once I’d completed my basic prereqs. I liked what I’d seen of the Flowers text and I also liked being able to repeat the course free if I wasn’t satisfied with my scores. I did take the course again, got new materials (part of the deal), and then used both sets of material to prepare for the exam the third time. Yep, that’s right, I took the dang thing three times! And boy did it ever feel good walking out of the lecture hall knowing I was done with the MCAT. Now, what else did I use? I went through my Review notes and made up a series of about 1000 3 X 5 cards, and memorized formulas, reactions, biology tidbits, while I drove back and forth to work each day. I also used Examkrackers biology text and their little box of notecards. My goal was to get so familiar with the basic information that, even if I didn’t need it on the test, I would be confident that I was well-prepared. After taking the test, it’s clear that much of it really is about application of what we’ve learned. Sample tests are good preparation, but so is taking the real thing, and since I felt I needed to do it more than once, I got a good taste of the experience! 
Finally, I can’t say enough about giving yourself tons of time to prepare, but that’s me. Everyone does it a little differently, but whatever it takes to feel confident, I’d say do it. Just don’t make yourself crazy in the process.
I think the most critical error people make in preparing for the MCAT is doing so as if it were a factual recall exam, which is the format of most exams we take. However, the MCAT is a reading comprehension exam, primarily, and only secondarily a factual recall exam. In essence, they presume a “fund of knowledge” acquired from your prereqisite coursework. Then, they supply (frequently an oversupply) data in a prose format. The trick, if you will, is to know what to extract & apply w/i the context of your pre-req fund ‘O’ knowledge. So, simply learning/memorizing large quantities of factoids & running willy-nilly to the exam with your fingers in your ears to prevent info-hemorrhage is not the most effective or efficient way to attack this exam.
Alter your approach to fit the structure of the exam…“work smarter & not just harder”. You mention that your previous strategy focused, in part, in how to maximize your score. What is wrong with that? That is how most of the review courses “teach” an approach to the MCAT. Believe it or not, the actual information & factoids you religiously sweat over to prep for the MCAT is not even the important, take-home part that you will ues or need in med school. The most valuable part IS the test prep & taking strategies in addition to learning the art of logically processing through questions that you are not altogether familiar with or even clueless about. Yes, there is an educated, artful strategy in doing this that requires that you apply & not simply regurgitate your fund ‘O’ knowledge - a much more in depth & challenging level of understanding.
As a general rule, testing, so to speak, in Ugrad & HS tends to emphasize what I refer to as “binge & purge” learning. Folks are rewarded for their capacity to ingest, retain & regurgitate long lists of factoids & the ability to apply that information is neglected. In medicine, we are constantly taking the volumes of ‘rules’ we learned in medical school & applying to them to unique situations where the pt never has read the rule book. They do not know the keywords & phrases you learned in med school in order to pass along their diagnostic message clearly. Therefore, you must learn the art of the interview, extracting the data you require & applying it w/i the context of your clinical history & physical exam.
On a much smaller scale, this is what the MCAT is expecting you to be able to do. Take the “rules” you learned in pre-req school & data-crunch the info they provide with liberal quantities of background noise & come up with a reasonable & rational solution to the question.
In short, my suggestions to you & anyone else studying for the MCAT are to know the test for what it is for. It is not a factual recall exam like you have taken since time infinitum. It is a reading comprehension exam that requires you to filter out data to apply w/i the context of knowledge you allegedly already have. And, if you have taken & performed well those pre-reqs, then you have the fund ‘O’ knowledge required to do well.
1: Now that you know you have the requisite pieces, your attack comes down to strategy - learn test taking strategies that will maximize your scoring potential!!! Let me say that again: learn test taking strategies that will maximize your scoring potential!!!
2: Don’t fret over what you perceive is “poor short-term memory”. The MCAT is not testing your short-term memory; so that is not a problem. Plus, we are not memorizing endless lists of factoids. We are attempting to learn to think & reason through problems that require that we apply things we know to unique situations - demonstrates a much more significant grasp of the material than simply regurgitating data points.
3: If you plan to succeed on the MCAT & your are not Albert Einstein, discipline & diligence are imperitive - no questions asked. And, not to be blunt or sound like an @$$hole, if you cannot muster the dedication & discipline to prep for single, albeit large, exam - then you are in for a real rude awakening if you succeed in getting into medical school. Believe me, after surviving the pace, quantity & massive testing of medical school for a single term - you will look back & wonder why you were ever even stressed over the MCAT.
I concede that this is very easy for me to say sitting here as a second year resident, but I am most sincere in what I am telling you.
Thank you for your kind advice, Dr. Kelley. I also would like to thank for those who took time and responded to my post. Thanks again.