MCAT prep: study styles and results
23 August 2009 - 1:19pm
This thread is dedicated to posts about what you did to study for the MCAT and how it worked for you. Please be specific because what you write will help out the next generation of MCATers.
I took the Altius test prep program and completed most of their practice work twice. I also bought the Examkrackers 101 Verbal Reasoning Passages book and did just over half of them. For part of the Altius program I completed all of the AAMC practice tests and went over wrong answers. As for classwork, I only took the MCAT required BYU courses, no Cell Bio or anything fancy like that. I did not study for the essays, and it showed in my score: PS 12 VR 11 BS 14 W O for a 37 O total. Interestingly, I have heard of others doing much better than this by doing a few simple things. One person just took the AAMC practice tests until she could do them all perfectly. This would have been much cheaper for me. Another guy took Kaplan's online prep and did problems over 20 hours a week for a few months and pulled a 41. In my opinion, intelligent planning and consistent, hard work is the secret.
16 March 2010 - 8:37am
#2
I took the MCAT on January
I took the MCAT on January 29th, and I used ExamKrackers to prepare on my own. I started in late October and reviewed the content (doing all questions) from the ExamKrackers books by mid-December. I spent the next 6 weeks taking all 8 of the available AAMC practice tests. The final week before the test, I reviewed all of the content again, doing all of the in-chapter questions over again. Overall I spent about 5-10 hrs/week for about 12 weeks preparing. This technique worked really well for me. I got a 14 PS, 11 VR, 15 BS for a 40N composite. The only things I would change if I were doing it over again would be to buy the 101 passages in VR book from ExamKrackers and work through all of those passages for practice and to waste no time for studying for the writing sample. I developed what I thought was a good strategy for the section but because there's no way to get feedback to know if you're writing in the style they want, it was pointless and even counter-productive. I would have done better if I'd just gone in on test day without any preparation.
The most important thing I'd say to a good MCAT score is to study hard in the science classes! If you learn the material well once, it won't be very hard to remember and apply it. Also, because EVERYONE takes prep courses I thought that if I didn't, I'd be at a disadvantage. This is not the case. Studying on my own was great because I got to work at my own pace on those areas which I was weak in. And I saved about $2000 :).
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I took the MCAT prep class offered by BYU, starting in January and going through April. I also carefully planned the timing for my MCAT - I was taking my last part of OChem and other important coursework, but I did not want to take the test RIGHT after the semester ended. So I took it in early May, which gave me about two weeks to study full-time and take a bunch of practice tests.
The BYU prep class is GREAT. It costs only like $350, and it includes dozens of hours of lecture review, the Princeton review book, AND access to several (I think six?) online practice tests. In addition, I bought the McGraw-Hill MCAT prep book, which was great.
The most important things are:
Take a lot of timed, full-length practice tests.
Be consistent. Study regularly, for a significant amount of time. The BYU prep class was great - every Saturday.
Don't time the test at a stressful time. Give yourself at least a week before the test to study a LOT, and don't place it near stressful things like getting married or the end (or the middle!) of the semester. Try to do it pretty soon after you finish your semester, though, so you don't lose all the information you've been studying.
These techniques worked great for me: I got a 12 in all three sections, and an R in the written section (total score 36R). Good luck!