Slogged through the pre-reqs and got my bio degree this past December. Having a son in the middle of the year meant no MCAT for me, so I took a gov’t job back in my home state and I’m about ready to move into the new place and wait for my start date. My plan prior to moving was to take the MCAT this year before it changes, and now I am faced with actually doing it. The MCAT scares me, because of my subpar performance in both physics and ochem. I’ll be living in a state college town, and there are other professional medical master’s degrees which all of the sudden call my attention as the path of least resistance to a medical career. I want med school, but man I am NOT looking forward to studying physics and ochem again. Not being in the academic environment, where support is all around me, does not help matters too much, but I guess this is where the rubber meets the road, right? My cumulative GPA is a 3.5, and I’m shooting for schools that commonly accept that number.
Send me some motivation, because right now I’m feeling a 30 MCAT is out of my reach!
I don’t know about you, but when I put too much pressure on myself, I crack. Ease up on the pressure which will probably make it easier for you to study, which is the most important thing!! Right?? Gotta study but the pressure makes it harder to focus on the right here, right now.
Then do what I do and ask your kid to put it in perspective for you. In the big scheme of things, you will do fine with whatever you get!
You have a full year before the MCAT changes. Pick a date and work backwards from it. I’ve heard that anything more than a few months review can actually hurt you because you start forgetting what you reviewed.
So maybe you can pick a date, say next January. Start a light ochem and physics review now, giving yourself a refresher. Then when it comes time to really start studying in September or whenever, you’ll have the basics down again and can pick up right where you need to. It sounds like you might benefit from an MCAT course to get the review down. Maybe you can start this new job putting away $50/week or so, so when you’re ready, the money will be there.
You’ve come this far, you can do this. Don’t let your hard work in your pre-reqs slip away.
I thought that the new MCAT is going to be implemented in the 2015 cycle? This would mean that I have until the end of the 2014 cycle to take the test as it stands now; if the end of the cycle is in Oct 2014, then I should realistically give myself an extra month’s time and apply for an exam date in Aug or Sep, right?
I do agree…this is a lot of pressure. I don’t walk around thinking about it all day, and it doesn’t cause me any kind of distress, but it is looming on the horizon and every passing day wherein I do not start studying seems like wasted time in that respect (right now my life is divided between my family’s house, my in-law’s house, and the house I just moved into); I did get hired for a new job but it has yet to start and we’re surviving off of our savings account (if this new job doesn’t start within another month then I’ll need either another job or temp employment to hold us over).
It’s being in this in-between period that stresses me out. Bills are due, my family needs food and shelter, the MCAT needs my attention, and my job has yet to start. It’s difficult to spend $$ on review books and a prep course when we need that cash to keep the polar vortex out of the house, keep groceries in the cabinet, and fix the issues that keep coming up with our ever-aging 100k+ mile vehicles.
Keep that motivation coming, I need it!!
I’m going to chalk this up to being your shit-just-got-real freakout.
First off, until you’ve taken a pre-test, all this is moot. Second, I think you’re conflating two things which are properly separated: whether or not you can do this, and whether or not the level of suck is worthwhile. It sounds to me like you’re struggling with the latter, so I’ll tailor my response to reflect that.
It’s difficult because the premedical community is fast to shun concerns other than medicine. I’ve heard many people say that the only reason to go to medical school is that you literally would not be happy doing anything else. Granted I’m still in graduate school, but the older I get the more this comes off to me as bullshit. You show me a person who cannot achieve happiness through any path other than medical school, and I’ll show you a person set for extreme issues finding work-life balance. I know you’re married (ok, I’m assuming that) and have a young child. I don’t think it’s reasonable to consider the path to medical school against other options while ignoring other goals in life- having a home, raising a family, and so on. And I’ll also admit I’ve been tempted seeing terminal MS programs that would be a career in the general vicinity of what I actually want to do, but in the end will provide a more generous work/life balance and an easier financial existence.
It’s hard to see through the noise. You need to take a step back and think about what’s important to you. Delayed gratification is tough when the delay is so incredibly long and there’s so much that will happen in the meantime- I’m sure that’s even more true with a young child! But I think it comes down to a more simple question. What’s going to make you happiest? Is it medical school? Is it one of those other programs? What total package of time and energy invested against the vocational and personal life you’ll have at the end has the highest payoff for you? How important is it to have a particular practice? To have particular career options? Those are ultimately what it comes down to.
To turn this around and ask the other question- can you do well- the answer is almost always yes. Look, you even said that you’ve done this material before and judging from the fact you have a degree I’m going to assume you did passably well. Ultimately it always comes down to preparation. The more time and work you put into your studies, the higher your score will be on the other side. Ability from everything you’re saying doesn’t seem to be an issue. So, like all other things, your level of investment will determine your yield at the end.
I totally get your concerns that in undergrad you had oodles of resources available that you won’t have now. I’ll agree that this isn’t optimal, but don’t make more out of this than you need it to be. Buy an organic chemistry textbook or two. Buy an Idiot’s Guide/Dummies book to go with it. Spend time on topics until you get better and eventually master them. This is all stuff that can be done. I understand your concern about the lack of resources, but your concern IMO is totally premature. How do you know that you won’t be successful without certain resources when you haven’t even started? There will be bumps in the road, surely. But you’ll just deal with those as they come. Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened yet! And to go back to your concern about resources- you don’t even know what resources you don’t have until you hit a problem and can’t find a solution. Every journey begins with a single step- that should be your focus now.