Halfway done with prereqs and I’m starting to dedicate a lot of time to the MCAT.
I bought the entire ExamKrackers study package and so far I really like what they have to say about The Verbal strategy, I looked at Kaplan and EK seems much more natural.
Also, I took e-mcat AAMC test three just to get an idea of where I need to concentrate before studying with EK just to get an overall “feel” for the exam. My score was 20, quite terrible, but please keep in mind I’ve only had half of my prereqs to include chem I and II, bio I and physics I. My breakdown was a 6V, 6P, 8B. I didn’t finish the verbal or physical section in time and, as fate would have it, the local Internet crashed during my verbal. I retook the verbal section the next day without reviewing the answers and scored an 11. Though I had seen the material the day before which I’m sure accounts for a point or two, most of it was pacing and making sure I finished. I’m rather pleased with getting an 8 on bio with only bio I under my belt. (tenatively pleased of course). I’m sure pacing and technique will improve with practice.
My goal is to study at least 2 hours a day for the test in April 2012. (though certainly upcoming coursework will take precedence). The nice thing is, I’ll only have organic II left by the spring of 2012 so I can solely focus on that and the MCAT, doing many practice test at that point.
It seems to me that the slow and steady approach will
ingrain sound principles and technique more so than a few months of 10 hour days. (though stamina to a degree is of obvious importance for the test.)
Dan
Sounds good. Looks like you’re off to a good start. In my opinion the MCAT is a lot about practice. Studying now in small chunks will probably help lock in the material and concepts. And then you will probably want to ramp it up near test time. I was doing about 2-3 full practice MCAT’s a week from about 3-4 weeks out unitll test week, with review days inbetween on the stuff I was weak with. Since the MCAT has an element of “training” for it, you’ll want to peak right when you’re exam date comes. I probably would score 3-4 points lower if I took it now, a few months post test.
I agree mostly. I’m glad you are planning ahead, this is critical. 2-3 hours per day is not much but you mentioned you have other coursework to do. I recommend upping it to 8 hours soon.
I know this sounds a big crazy but it’s what I did and it payed off. That being sad, give your brain rests/days off but for the last 4-3 weeks it is critical to really get going. Then one week before the test take it easy and relax. Don’t study at all the 2-3 days before the MCAT. I actually studied right until the day before the MCAT but then changed my mind. If you have any further questions feel free to ask I don’t mind lending a helping hand.
Making your own schedule is pretty much critical and it really all depends on how good you want to score. I have friends with 35+ who got accepted at Yale and also JohnsHopkins, but obviously they are playing a different game. My advice is just to take your studying really seriously, it’s only once that you will have to study for the MCAt if you do it right. Here’s what I did: MCAT Study Guide
Good luck,
Naomi
PS: I agree, Kaplan is garbage.
Thank you both for the advice, I’ll definitely up the studying as it gets closer to time!
Dan