MCAT Prep Experience Sharing

[lichun2644]

Hi all,

I took the MCAT on April 6th this year, and scored 518 (132/125/130/131 - 96% percentile). In comparison with my score of 509 (132/124/128/125) three years ago in 2016, I am happy to see the improvement after preparing for MCAT for about 3 full months. Between 2016 and 2019, I did not spend much time preparing for it but rather used the past three months to do the preparation. Through the process, I have used materials from:

1. Kaplan (I bought a complete self-paced prep course 4 years ago, the one including practice exams, questions, chapters review, and books; $1999 at that time)

2. Khan Academy (Three years ago, I watched most of their MCAT prep course content review videos, and they also offered practice questions; free)

3. Berkeley Review Self-paced MCAT Prep Book Set (~$400 four years ago)

4. CurveSetter MCAT Prep course content review ($499 last year)

5. UWorld Practice Questions subscription (free for 90 days if bought together with CurveSetter)

6. Princeton Review books including Biochemistry Review, Biology Review, and Psychology/Sociology Review

7. ExamCracker Course Content Review books including Biological Sciences 1/2, Psychology & Sociology, Chemistry, and Physics 

8. Some other books including Next Step Prep Books, McGraw-Hill MCAT 500 practice questions.

9. Online Practice Platforms including Next Step MCAT Practice (10 set of practice exam including their question bank) and, of course, the AAMC Official MCAT Prep Bundle. 

10. Other subscription for free daily questions including Kaplan, Next Step, M Prep, **DELETED**'s Daily Passage, and Andrew from MCAT Self Prep. 

In conclusion, I have almost used most materials available in market to prepare for my MCAT exam this year. 

 

There are some feedbacks/reflections that I would like to share with everyone preparing for the MCAT, especially those struggling with improving their scores. The advice I am providing is the most economical and effective one that I can think of after trying different ways. 

 

First of all - Content Review.

When it comes to content review, many companies have their own bundles, such as the one I used four years ago. They usually provide books, and video recordings online to supplement. 

Of course, their qualities vary, especially if one has tried some from different companies. So here is my Advice:

1. If you have not taken any college-level MCAT related courses (usually Physics introductory, Chemistry introductory/organic chemistry, biology introductory/Genetics/Microbiology/Cell Biology/Human Physiology, Psychology introductory, and Sociology Introductory) or miss some courses, I would highly recommend watching videos from Khan Academy to familiarize oneself with the content in an interactive way. It's free. And the content is based on what AAMC guideline has specified. 

Moreover, ff you want a thorough revision, you can try coursera.org on which there are many detailed lectures about human physiology, genetics, psychology and so on . The only drawback is that sometimes you will need to wait for their lectures to be available on the platform. Many other online courses are also available for free from the top universities, if you do a little google search. 

Once you have a kind of broad knowledge about the content for each subject, you can start with the MCAT Prep Books. From my experience, if one scored an A/A+ in the class exam/finals within their university, this doesn't guarantee a good performance on the MCAT, even though one may come from a top university/college. The MCAT test is not just about memorizing the content, but also about summarizing and comparing them, usually across courses, which makes it challenging. I have tried books from Kaplan (1st and 2nd Edition), Next Step (3 years ago), Berkeley Review (3 years ago), Princeton Review (this year), ExamCracker (this year). My own ranking for them is:

Princeton Review > Berkeley Review > ExamCracker ~ Kaplan ~ Next Step. 

a) Princeton Review: like what they say on the cover page, "as long as it's in the test, it is in the book." I personally find it true when I compare its content completeness with others'. They really include a very thorough summary of all the materials that may appear in the actual exam, and some of their figures/tables are outstanding. Their practice questions following each chapter are the most similar with the actual exam, I feel. 

b) Berkeley Review: I used their materials three years ago, and it feels comprehensive too, but their figures/tables are not very attractive. The books are rich in texts, mostly black and white, but the practice questions are good. 

c) ExamCracker: these books offer a different perspective in seeing the MCAT materials. The books combine materials across chapters, sometimes across courses, to provide a comprehensive view. But the drawback is that sometimes here or there they miss something or the content is misleading (You may realize, a tiny difference in the content understanding may cause a mark difference in the actual MCAT though..) Their figure/graphs are also very good, but the practice questions sometimes focus on a completely different set of spectrum, in comparison with Princeton Review. This is good in some cases, especially if one wants to strengthen his/her weak areas or those he/she never thought a question could come from. 

d) Kaplan: their books appear to be thorough but may not focus on the most important materials. I used their complete book set three years ago for preparation, but I didn't find their books super helpful (as you can see from my scores). Their content sometimes focuses on things that are not important, while it appears to be very important from their perspective. In the end, it's a waste of time memorizing these content. Not sure if they have changed this or not. 

e) Next Step Review: I only used one book from them three years ago, and feels more or less the same way as the Kaplan book. 

If you want a better content summary, I would highly recommend CurveSetter MCAT Prep. It's a mini-prep course created by three medical students who scored exceptionally high in their MCAT exams. It's $499 on their website, and some universities may be able to get a better rate if they have some connection or agreement. (I know students from one university only need to pay half of the price for a year-long subscription) Their content summary videos, especially with the notes, are very concise and comprehensive. They also share with the students their own strategies in the MCAT exam. The most exciting materials are the figures/tables/graphs they created, which I personally find very helpful in understanding and memorizing the content. 

Overall, here is a little summary of my recommendation: 

a) Videos/Online Courses: 

     - Khan Academy (most comprehensive), 

     - Coursera.org (thorough content review in a particular course)

     - CurveSetter (most concise and also very comprehensive)

b) Books: 

     - Princeton Review (most comprehensive; read their books thoroughly for 2-3 times)

     - ExamCraker, Kaplan, Next Step for supplement. 

 

Next - practice questions/exams:

First, I want to emphasize: "Practice on computer!" not on books. Especially as one is getting closer to his/her actual exam date, it's more important to practice on computer rather than holding a book and trying questions on them. I have used several platforms, and here is my feedback:

UWorld: there are about 1,500 questions in total on their platform. If you purchase the CurveSetter, you will get a free 90-day access to the UWorld Bank. So far, I thinks this is the best platform, because their questions are very similar to the actual ones (although sometimes a bit harder), and the explanation they provide for each question is very detailed and to the point (no blurry explanation at all). They also include a lot of figures/tables that help memorizing/understanding/comparing the content. 

Next Step: I purchased their bundle of 10 practice exam set + Qbank (>2000 questions). Before trying their practice exams, I completed all of their stand-alone questions in the QBank. Oh my god, can you imagine a person answering questions until he wants to vomit? That was me when I do their question.. There are just so many questions there..The questions are good for content review but require a two-step or even three-step thinking mind.. Sometimes, the questions include materials from nowhere that I can find in books.. They also have passage-based questions. Again, the drawback is that the passage is usually long and the questions are hard. If you have time, definitely try them for improvement. Their full practice exam set is the best one that I see after comparing with other major companies. The difficulty is alright, but just like their practice questions, those on the exams require multi-step thinking or calculations, which makes one tired.. I scored 511 in their first exam, and then I tried an additional 4. My scores were averaged at 510. So, their scores are an under-estimate of the actual performance. (Of course, their questions are much harder.. when I see the actual MCAT questions, I was like - wow, it can't be that easy) 

Kaplan: Their practice exams that I tried 3 years ago were ok, but it was difficult too. The practice questions at that time, I feel, didn't reflect the actual MCAT think that one should have/or prepare to have. This year, I found that they have provided a Qbank too, with thousands questions priced at $49 per month for subscription. I didn't try them, but these may be worthwhile practicing if one has time. 

AAMC: the official prep questions for the MCAT. Everyone knows it. It's ~$250 I remembered. It's definitely worth buying and practicing. I reserved it for the last round of practice, completing the sectional questions in a week (~70-80% correctness) and one exam each week until the actual exam. These are really really good materials, and the sectional questions should be reviewed several times before the actual exam, because they will erase all the thinking/mental set created from previous practice questions of other companies'. For my three practice exams, I scored 513-514-516, which lead to an actual score of 518. 

Princeton Review: I almost forgot about this. You can actually get a lot of free exams from Princeton Review.!! Simply find a local library, and get their Princeton Review MCAT Prep books. Register the books online, and one will be able to get up to 8 or 10 full-length practice exams. But their questions are very difficult too, much harder than Next Step.. 

Overall, here is another summary of my recommendation:

If one has a lot of time, one can start with practice questions on books. 

For online platforms, AAMC>UWorld > Next Step > Kaplan > Princeton Review. 

Reserve AAMC for the last round of practice. 

 

Third, preparation strategies:

1. Get a notebook. Use it to write down all the reflections about content comparisons and from wrongly-answered questions. Break these into content sections, like Biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, and pysch/socio. Review only these 1 week before exam.

2. Summarize materials in your own way after reading the books. Use these materials repeatedly to enhance the memory. Sometimes finding a white table and reviewing all the notes are a very good strategy, at least for me it works very well. 

3. Memorize content using figures/tables/charts. Especially in biochemistry/biology, it's good to create new or use currently available figures for content review. If you are a subscriber of any platforms or an owner of several books, usually they have already include a lot.   

4. Subscribe for JW Daily Passages, if you are weak in the VR section (like me). I am not a native speaker, and VR is always challenging for me. JW Daily Passages are free, and are very close to the actual exam when it comes to MCAT thinking. For first-timer, consider reading the VR strategy book from PrincetonReview or ExamCracker. 

5. Subscribe for other daily questions. This will help cumulatively. Sometimes, you may get a surprise. For example, Andrew from MCAT Self Prep once offered a free 100-page behavioral science note, which is very helpful for revision. 

6. Plan to have around 3 full months (at least 6 hours daily) or 6 months for a good score. If you are already very good in MCAT trial exam, then this may be shortened. 

 

Last, I would like to say that MCAT prep shouldn't be an expensive process. I spent $2500 dollars for preparation in the first time and scored a 509, but I spent only about $500 the second time and scored a 518. It's not about how much money one puts into the preparation. More importantly, it's about how one can use the available resources and get the most out of them. If you read my post, follow my advice, pick the recommended strategies, and study hard enough, you will also be able to get a satisfactory score. 

While I understand that there are many people who scored higher than me and may provide better advice, I hope my journey can help those who are struggling with the process. If you are into medical field, MCAT is just a first step I think. And also, even one does get into a medical school, the whole medical field may not seem as the one we dream about at college. 

Good luck to everyone studying for the MCAT!

[mohammad1]

how hard is the mcat test ?

[Mansi@30]

Can you please share what will be the syllabus for the MCAT preparation?