struggling w. physics

[123coco]

I took first year physics in university like 6 yrs ago and barely passed. Now that I'm studying for the physics section of the MCAT and I am struggling. To study I'm using the princeton hyperlearning, examcrackers 1001 questions, and I even have my old physics textbook as a reference. I'm really strong in every other subject but physics seems to be an obstacle that I can't overcome. I completed my second degree and have a competitive enough GPA to apply to half a dozen schools this upcoming cycle but the physics section may be what ends up breaking me. To be more specifics, I have issues understanding the concepts...when I read the content and the examples in TPR, it all makes sense, but when I go to manipulate the concepts to answer the examcracker 1001 questions, I'm getting 40% of them wrong.. any suggestions

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[Jochi1543]

How are you scoring on AAMCs? Physics was always very difficult for me, and EK is pretty tough. I think I scored 4 on at least one of their physics exams.

 

 

But then I scored 12 on the real thing. It can be done. Just keep doing it...the fact that you're putting in all this work will pay off. A lot of people would just decide not to bother and hope that their PS section will run low on physics. I loathed optics the most...and studied that area really hard. And then I got 2 optics passages on my test - and I knew how to handle those passages. I think that's the reason I got a 12.

[AG22]

I freaking dislike torques and shear and stress and strain and all that jazz. Just did some practice problems....took forever!! and got quite a number of them wrong. I still have more to go!! But I am not going to look at them until I go home and read up on this jazz from my textbook and Schaum's outlines. Maybe that'll put things in perspective.

 

Just let it percolate for a little while...do other stufff and then come back to it. It should help! (in theory )

 

Oh the joys of studying for the "cats".

 

P.S. I feel your pain!! But you're not alone!

[123coco]

thank you for the suggestions

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[idealmind101]

Hi,

I am stuck in the same situation as the OP. I have no background in physics at all. I have already bought the 1001 EK books, + 101 EK verbal. I have also bought all the AAMC exams. I was just wondering if I should buy the TPR or Kaplan physics book to supplement the EK material as well.

 

Thnx loads,

[The Law]

Well, when I started studying for physics I got a 4 on my first test ever... on my first real attempt I got a 9, and then I rewrote (with a new strategy) I got an 11.

 

This was my strategy for physics and chemistry. I am fairly good at chemistry, so this was not a major issue for me... but I sucked at physics. There are, I believe, 9 chapters in the examkrackers physics book. I would spend one day going over physics concepts in the EK book and do all the practice problems/the hard practice test at the end. I would use other books, Kaplan/TPR to suppliment anything I was feeling uncertain about... and of course, asked fellow premeds on this forum for help when I was not understanding. I then spent about a day or two going over as many questions in the EK1001 book as possible and kept reviewing concepts.

 

This will get you comfortable working with physics concepts. You will have done so many problems that on the day of the MCAT, some questions are going to really stand out to you (the easy ones). Now, you are going to probably do poorly on your first practice test after you finish reviewing all this... the MCAT is only 50% about concepts. The other 50% is being comfortable writing the test. I wrote about 11-14 PS sections after I prepped this way. I started at a 6, and boost it up to a 9 fairly quickly... then I was stuck at ~9. I then realized I was rushing through easier questions rather than taking my time and making sure the answer was right before I moved on. By adjusting my focus to maximizing easy questions (MAKE SURE YOU GET IT RIGHT), I didn't lose those 4-5 extra marks on the test that were blocking me from doing well. I ended up getting a couple 11s after changing the way I wrote and then matched that score on the real thing.

 

It's challenging, but you can definitely do it!! I mean, now, I love the PS section... it's prob the one I find the easiest (well, not counting the essay).

So the main point is first, get comfortable doing physics and then do practice tests and figure out WHAT type of questions are you losing marks on. Are there questions you are losing marks on that you shouldn't be? Why is this happening? Thinking about issues like this will cause your score to increase.

[idealmind101]

thnx law, that was alot of help.. i had another question :

i plan on writing the mcat on sep 4. that leaves me with approx. 3.5 months. I am not taking a prep course, just b.c i learn better on my own. How do you think i should divide my time learning the material. I am in a biology specialist program, so hopefully the BS and chemistry shouldnt be much of an issue. How can i maximize my time between VR and PS? ** i dont really know how i can prepare for the WS section, if anyone can throw in a tip on that as well that would be greatly appreciated.

thnx

[Octavius]

Ahh my favorite section on this test. It's the only section you can drive into the stratosphere by studying your ass off. The BS section is more interpretation and what not. VR stayed static for me (hard to go above 4 points). PS, the important thing is just to learn the why of the concepts. The MCAT is a thinking/critical thinking test rather than a university plug and chug...although I would highly advise you to be fast with scientific notation and multiplication/division of rounded numbers. The MCAT has gotten more brutal recently with respect to PS but your score will come out the same as your AAMC practice average.

 

Hmm for 3.5 months...I would do 1.5 months of straight content review and 2 months of test taking. By test taking I mean doing the test one day (AAMC - must haves, Optionals: Kaplans/Gold Standards (cheap on EBay)/Berkeley Reviews), and doing comprehensive review on why you got a question right and why you got it wrong for the next day or two. As Law said, this thing is 50% content 50% just knowing how to take the bloody test. You also have a good grip on bio and chem so those should get taken out fast through your review.

 

For VR I suck at this area (only sub-10 area), I fluctuate between 7-9 on AAMC practice although I get 11-12's on EK 101 which is apparently harder? I suggest getting that EK 101 book and practicing from there. If you can get your hands on TPR hyperlearning VR workbook that'd be good to. Just do a passage everyday or every night for the 3.5 months while doing those EK 101 tests as a whole once a week, they're the best predictor you're going to get aside from the AAMCs. Remember, THOROUGH review on EVERY question in VR. The most important thing I learned for VR to pump my score up (meagre 3 point from min to max) was to read for the main point. Don't bother with the skipping around strategies, highlighting or what not. Just tank thorugh the test, read slow (comfortable pace) so you can understand what the **** that author is trying to say. Why the hell they're bothering to write this piece. Once you determined that, the questions become easier to answer, and you'll know where to locate information if its a simple retrieve question.

 

Writing the TPR hyperlearning has a good instruction book on this one. It's basically explaining the prompt, giving an example. The next paragraph is the counter point, then give a counter example. The last paragraph is a synthesis so you say when one situation on is correct and when it doesn't apply. Just follow the instructions on that. I think Student Doctor Network has a guide on this. Not much you can do here but practice. You can get that Elements of Style book by Strunk and White for like 10 bucks on amazon. That'll teach you how to write properly. But again, if you don't follow instructions, the AAMC markers will fail you, so stick to the instructions. Just start reading Wikipedia for famous historical events so conjure examples. The AAMC has a list of topics listed on their website, like a list of 200+ questions that they pick from. It's all ethics/politics/history/law/education/social science/morals et cetera.

 

Good luck.

[AG22]

Hey Oct,

 

did you write yours already? (if you don't mind my asking )

[Neisseria]

Having a strict schedule to follow is the key for independent studying (I'm a poor starving student, can't pay 1200+ for a course). My friends who took the course said that the biggest benefit of taking the course is that they keep you on track, so if you can do that yourself then you are good.

 

My strategy was to study everything slow and steady, then schedule a full mock exam every other day. I think I scheduled it so that the actual MCAT fell right into this one-exam-every-two-days scheme. After your mocks, you review where you are weak on and reinforce those ideas. PS, like with anything else, is a matter of familiarity. The more times you see it/do it, the better you become. Advice I'd give is to focus on understanding a few central equations and concepts, then the rest you can deduce from the passage/on the spot (eg. electromag, you just need the force equation and the rest can be derived from dimensional analysis). Having an intuition of what's reasonable and what's not can help a lot (if you somehow calculate the gravity on the Moon is >1g, an alarm in your head should start).

Lastly, for writing, I think I ended up preparing one or two examples for each of the topics as listed by Octavius. It's best to use something original and fresh, I think that will help with a high writing score. Remember these are marked down in the States, so if you don't have a real good knowledge of the US, you are better off picking examples from another place.

[idealmind101]

thnx everyone.. those were helpful tips.

This is not concrete but i've decided to devote 1.5 to content review and 2 months for exam practice; on top of that, i will be doing one 101 Verbal passage each night and also getting examples down for all the WS topics listed on the AAMC website.

thnx again

[Octavius]

I was supposed to write May 2nd but my verbal wasn't where I wanted it (sub-9) as projected by the AAMC tests. So now I'm just relaxing, looking for jobs and just studying MCAT stuff at the same time. I'm scheduled to write on the 31 but...it's so early! Anyway careful about taking my verbal advice, that's the one area I can't seem to get down. I think it's just humanities. My last test I got like 91% on the social sciences, 80+% on the natural sciences and 35% on humanities. The time where I got verbal 9, there were 18 social science questions rather than 18 humanities as you'd typically see. What I did was go over the test to locate the source (citation) of the passage and buy/borrow the book from a library to read. Not a really productive method but I've nearly exhausted my practice verbal materials...I'm basically learning how the heck you'd decipher these stupid humanities passages. When I read them I just feel as if its some unintelligible idiot with no real point just doing a roundabout essay to prove their useless argument that no one really cares about. The problem with the Examkrackers book is that all the articles are somewhat interesting and more geared towards social science which is why I'm hitting high scores. The AAMC subjects for humanities makes me want to bang my head on the wall.

[The Law]

Also thought that I would add... for practice, I used TPR's exams for PS. They are challenging and some of the difficult passages on test day were of similar difficulty. They are also harder than the AAMC exams, but I found them way better practice. Also, when you can work out those exams and do well... on test day, the easy questions will easily stand out to you. Don't get discouraged that they're a bit harder, you will eventually be able to get your score up.

[Meddy05]

Organic chemistry is my ultimate dread!

[Oak]

Try to work your way through one of the review books (Kaplan, GS, PR, etc), they generally lead you step by step. If you find those too hard for you, why not get a first year physics book. Hey, nobody likes physics, but we gotta do it right?