MCAT prep courses with weak science background.

[ballsortahard]

I posted this in the MCAT forum, but then realized it might be a better fit hear.

My hope is to write the MCAT at the end of the summer, I've just graduated with my bachelors in mechanical engineering so I have only really been exposed to general chemistry and physics.

I've started studying for the MCAT independently, but am feeling a little overwhelmed and think I would benefit from the "structure" of a prep course. My concern is that these courses would assume that I will know everything content wise, and really rush through the material. This isn't a huge issue because I will be studying full time, so hopefully I could review every day after the class (which seem to usually be about 3 hours long), but it would be great to know if one of the classes emphasizes content review more than the others.

Prep101 and Princeton Review both seem like solid choices. Prep101 because it seems to be hyped up a lot on this forum, it also offers each class twice which could be helpful. I've also heard that Princeton Review is more detailed than other courses which I assume would be better if you're learning the material from scratch. I was going to register from Prep101 but I wanted to see if someone could recommend a potentially better MCAT course.

[Persephone]

I used Prep101 and liked it quite a lot. The nice thing about them is that if you don't get the score you want you can retake their prep course for free. The prep course is fast, but generally speaking they don't assume too much prior knowledge. Like I had no courses in biochem and found Prep101 was sufficient for the MCAT (except for DO memorize your amino acids, they were too lax about that and it bit me on a couple q's). Sorry that's not a different one, but hope it helps

[ballsortahard]

Thanks a lot thats great to hear they don't assume you know too much,  so it would probably be feasible to review everything that goes over my head at night after the class?

[Anon-e-mous]

, 

[Persephone]

2 hours ago, ballsortahard said:

Thanks a lot thats great to hear they don't assume you know too much,  so it would probably be feasible to review everything that goes over my head at night after the class?

My recommendation would be to do the advance reading they assign to you so that you're not in the dark when they're churning through the content in class. That way you're familiar with it and have taught yourself most of it before you go in for an in-class review. Also then you know what questions you have in advance.

[ballsortahard]

7 hours ago, caramilk said:

I second Prep 101. They also post the classes online later in the summer so you can rewatch and pause the areas where you might have had difficulties. You can also supplement with MCAT Khan Academy videos if you have trouble with a concept after class. 

Thanks for the information! Is there anything else you can recommend to supplement Prep101 or are the books they give you pretty good?

[Persephone]

5 minutes ago, ballsortahard said:

Thanks for the information! Is there anything else you can recommend to supplement Prep101 or are the books they give you pretty good?

They use Exam Crackers, and having bought 2 other types of books those were the most useful for me, not having all the background knowledge.

[shematoma]

Berkeley Review for science and Examcrackers for Verbal got me a 38 (99%-tile) on the MCAT back in the day. I came from a non-science background and studied for 7-8 weeks full-time. I used the SN2'ed strategy outlined on studentdoctor forums.

EDIT: I did not do any prep courses. The Berkeley books were pretty easy to follow as long as you're good at absorbing information on your own and you're self-motivated

[jul059]

On 5/7/2018 at 2:19 PM, ballsortahard said:

I posted this in the MCAT forum, but then realized it might be a better fit hear.

My hope is to write the MCAT at the end of the summer, I've just graduated with my bachelors in mechanical engineering so I have only really been exposed to general chemistry and physics.

I've started studying for the MCAT independently, but am feeling a little overwhelmed and think I would benefit from the "structure" of a prep course. My concern is that these courses would assume that I will know everything content wise, and really rush through the material. This isn't a huge issue because I will be studying full time, so hopefully I could review every day after the class (which seem to usually be about 3 hours long), but it would be great to know if one of the classes emphasizes content review more than the others.

Prep101 and Princeton Review both seem like solid choices. Prep101 because it seems to be hyped up a lot on this forum, it also offers each class twice which could be helpful. I've also heard that Princeton Review is more detailed than other courses which I assume would be better if you're learning the material from scratch. I was going to register from Prep101 but I wanted to see if someone could recommend a potentially better MCAT course.

I understand this overwhelming feeling. I had exactly the same problem (undergrad in mechanical engineering) and I ended up studying exclusively on my own. I found all the prep courses to be rather useless and too slow for my taste. Khan Academy is honestly a great resource! But you have to feel very involved and dedicated to do it on your own. If not, a prep course might be needed. But it is a question of motivation, not science background! Don't hesitate to ask me for details on how I prepared.

[ballsortahard]

On 5/23/2018 at 8:57 PM, jul059 said:

Don't hesitate to ask me for details on how I prepared.

 

I would love some details, specifically regarding how you retained all the information. Currently I'm just working through exam Krackers , while taking notes and then reviewing notes, but I'm having a hard time remembering all the terms. Any suggestions? Maybe Q-cards or something? 

[jul059]

8 hours ago, ballsortahard said:

 

I would love some details, specifically regarding how you retained all the information. Currently I'm just working through exam Krackers , while taking notes and then reviewing notes, but I'm having a hard time remembering all the terms. Any suggestions? Maybe Q-cards or something? 

So here's what I did:

1. I was working on this full-time, about 14 hours/day. It might not be needed, but it made a lot of sense for me. I was on a tight schedule as I wanted to apply in 2017. You only need to save up money to live for 3-4 months, which should be manageable especially in engineering. I think this is why I was able to remember a lot of stuff: It had become my life for 2-3 months.

2. I used ALL the Khan Academy videos, sped up to between 1.25x to 1.75x depending on the narrator. For some reason, those videos really stuck and to this day, I can still recall many videos, the drawings in them, and the voice of the neurologist in the nervous system section. I would sometimes open up the Kaplan review books after a video if there were some things I wanted to look over, but the videos were my main source of information. You can take notes while watching them (maybe Anki style?). Go over the physics very quickly, but this is not where you will spend your time. Come back to those videos if you ever need.

3. After going through many (at least 50%) of the Khan videos, start doing practice problems pretty intensively. Some people will tell you to start doing that as soon as possible, but it only makes sense if you've already had bio and chem courses. You're probably pretty weak in those areas, and the practice problems would just be too overwhelming. I very strongly recommend uWorld. Just do all the problems if you have time. It's very convenient, the explanations are very good and it's a very efficient way to practice but also learn from the explanations. In my opinion uWorld is better that any other third party prep material.The best questions are of course the official AAMC section bank. Learn everything that's in them. You will be asked many questions on your exam that are somewhat similar in content as those in the section bank. Take note of the questions you had a hard time with, and come back to them in 2-3 weeks and try to solve them again.

4. Keep going through the Khan videos while practising and doing problems. Remember to review things you have already seen weeks before that you remember you had a hard time with (Do you remember that Lineweaver-Burk plot and how to draw conclusions from it? Or how does a non-competitive inhibitor works? etc.). I partly used the Kaplan quiz cards for that, although it's not sufficient. Also, make sure you learn your amino acids by heart, this is very high yield. Learn the structure, the 3 and 1 letters symbols, and what makes them special. (hints: polarity, size, acidity and PI). I made a cheat sheet and took 5 minutes to learn it every day. After a month, you will know them. Just don't think you'll be able to master them if you start 5 days before the test, you will have MANY other things on your mind at that time.

5. Then about 6-7 weeks before your test or earlier if you're done with your other resources (studying full-time remember!), shift your practice to sample tests. Write them like you would write the real one, and be very focused. Once you're done, you may take the rest of the day off if you have time, and then next day you start reviewing. First, look at the answers you got wrong without looking at the correct answer. Try to solve the problem again untimed. If you get it right, good! You kinda know the material, but you either need to master it more, or to be more attentive at the way they say things and phrase the question (they like to trick us). If you didn't get the right answer the second time, study the answer very carefully. It probably won't be enough, and you will have to explore things further in your prep books or even reference books (I used the Stryer Biochemistry quite a bit, very nicely written). You could easily spend several hours on reviewing a single question you got wrong. Also review the answers you got right, just to make sure you got them right for the right reason. I highly recommend the NextStep and AAMC exams. I think there are 10 NextStep and 4 AAMC, which should be more than enough. Keep the official AAMC ones for last, since they are "worth more" and you want to keep them for when you will be most prepared. Also, you first 1-3 practice exams will take you a long time to review, maybe several days. You need to take that time. As you get better, review time will shorten. At the end, I was reviewing my exams in about half the time it took me to write it.

6. Then there is CARS. The only advice I can give you is to read mindfully. Basically practice being focused. You can rephrase things in your head while reading to make things clearer. This can take a lot of time to get good at, so start several months in advance. The traditional advice to read op-eds and thick philosophy is good only if you have a lot of time, like over a year in advance. I didn't. I recommend practising timed CARS every day or other day. EK's 101 book is pretty good, also there is the Princeton Review CARS "Hyperlearning" or something like that that is also very good. Finally, the best of the best is the AAMC questions pack, since they will have the same reasoning as the real exam, sometimes even if it seems twisted. That's already a lot of material, in addition to the passages in your sample exams. Again, try to really understand the answer.

So I think that sums it up. I write my first MCAT in January 2017 after about a month and an half of study and got slightly above average (503). I then studied like I just described, wrote in August and I got 94th percentile overall (516), 99th in CARS. Even with all this prep, I got destroyed in the bio section... It was just completely insane. People usually say that "if you do good in the official AAMC sample tests, you will do good on the real test". That just wasn't true for me! I was getting 130-131 in the practice tests, and then 127 on the real deal. If I were to practice again, I would make sure I can read quickly very thick and obscure biochem passages, where there are actually less words than acronyms and symbols in the sentences.

I hope it helps, and good luck! When are you writing?

[ballsortahard]

2 hours ago, jul059 said:

I hope it helps, and good luck! When are you writing?

 

Thanks definitely very helpful, really appreciate it. I've been studying (wrong) for about a month and I'm writing august 10th so we will see!