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524 Mcat - Science Grad - Ama


DarkForest

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I studied really hard for a couple months and had a lot of caffeine on exam day. And while studying. There's an element of luck with respect to what comes up on the exam too, and lot of good educated guessing.

Specifically, I used Kaplan course and materials. I'm sure the other books and programs are usable too, as people do succeed with them. I actually wouldn't recommend the in-person course though, it wasn't very useful. I don't think I used their strategies for anything really, just the content.

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do you mind sharing your success story, and most importantly the advice you have?

For sure. What I did and I feel was key to my success is going through practice exams and, most importantly, reviewing those practice exams in fine detail. Just writing them is good practice for the length and feel of the test, but its not enough. As I went through each practice exam I flagged any question that I was not 100% certain of the answer. I then went back and reviewed every question that I got wrong, then reviewed every flagged question. For each of these, I watched Kaplan's online videos on the topic or reviewed the textbook material on the topic until I understood the correct answer and how to solve each question. I would typically spend 1 day writing an exam and 2 or 3 reviewing it and the related material. I only completed and reviewed 4 FL exams, 5 if you count the benchmark one which I did at the start of my Kaplan course with no preparation. I scored a 497 on that first one. I don't think my practice scores ever exceeded a 515 but Kaplan is notorious for giving harder exams and/or understating your score. I also wrote the AAMC practice exam close to my exam date. I spent about a month a half of dedicated time covering textbook material, something like 8-12 hours a day, then a few weeks of dedicated time on those practice exams, 8-12hrs a day, leading up to my exam date. I exercised and played video games on breaks, and hung out with friends very seldom. There were also days where I got little done, and a few days I took off entirely. I mostly had to write off my summer, but it was worth it in the end.

 

 

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For sure. What I did and I feel was key to my success is going through practice exams and, most importantly, reviewing those practice exams in fine detail. Just writing them is good practice for the length and feel of the test, but its not enough. As I went through each practice exam I flagged any question that I was not 100% certain of the answer. I then went back and reviewed every question that I got wrong, then reviewed every flagged question. For each of these, I watched Kaplan's online videos on the topic or reviewed the textbook material on the topic until I understood the correct answer and how to solve each question. I would typically spend 1 day writing an exam and 2 or 3 reviewing it and the related material. I only completed and reviewed 4 FL exams, 5 if you count the benchmark one which I did at the start of my Kaplan course with no preparation. I scored a 497 on that first one. I don't think my practice scores ever exceeded a 515 but Kaplan is notorious for giving harder exams and/or understating your score. I also wrote the AAMC practice exam close to my exam date. I spent about a month a half of dedicated time covering textbook material, something like 8-12 hours a day, then a few weeks of dedicated time on those practice exams, 8-12hrs a day, leading up to my exam date. I exercised and played video games on breaks, and hung out with friends very seldom. There were also days where I got little done, and a few days I took off entirely. I mostly had to write off my summer, but it was worth it in the end.

 

 

Which FLs did you like the most? I heard that NextStep are pretty good in terms of the content and the interface (identical to AAMC). 

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  • 2 months later...

Wow, Congratulations! Score goals indeed.

My question is a little bit off. When choosing schools to apply to on the AMCAS website, There are only US medical schools and no Canadian Schools at all.

 

As a Canadian not interested in going to US schools, where do I choose the schools to apply to on the AMCAS application portal? Is there any other place where Canadian schools are listed?

How do I choose the school(s) where my MCAT score will be released?

 

Please those that have completed their and have had their scores released, lend a helping advice. Thank you.

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Wow, Congratulations! Score goals indeed.

My question is a little bit off. When choosing schools to apply to on the AMCAS website, There are only US medical schools and no Canadian Schools at all.

 

As a Canadian not interested in going to US schools, where do I choose the schools to apply to on the AMCAS application portal? Is there any other place where Canadian schools are listed?

How do I choose the school(s) where my MCAT score will be released?

 

Please those that have completed their and have had their scores released, lend a helping advice. Thank you.

Are you in Ontario? If so, the OMSAS application (for all Ontario schools) opens in July. I believe for all schools outside of Ontario, you apply to them individually (check the websites for each school).

 

With releasing MCAT scores, you can choose to release them to the schools in Canada that you apply to through the score release system. You don't need to do anything on AMCAS, as that is the portal for applying to American schools. This thread explains how to release the scores pretty well: http://forums.premed101.com/index.php?/topic/86170-how-do-you-release-mcat-scores/.

 

I hope that helps, and good luck with your applications!

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  • 4 months later...

I have a similar score to OP's.  I would strongly recommend doing all the AAMC FLs available. I did slightly better on my actual exam than both FL1 and FL2, but many exam writers have found their score to be around the average of their FL1 and FL2.  I found Princeton's CARS workbook and EK 101 Verbal Passages (not the newer CARS version) quite helpful, and EK's 1001 questions for the science sections. 

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  • 5 months later...
On 12/24/2017 at 5:11 PM, yybonn said:

I have a similar score to OP's.  I would strongly recommend doing all the AAMC FLs available. I did slightly better on my actual exam than both FL1 and FL2, but many exam writers have found their score to be around the average of their FL1 and FL2.  I found Princeton's CARS workbook and EK 101 Verbal Passages (not the newer CARS version) quite helpful, and EK's 1001 questions for the science sections. 

The 1001 science Qs, is that for 2015 version? 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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