MCAT Routine - Month before exam

[touchthesky]

Hey guys,

 

For those of you who wrote the MCAT, what did you find the best habits were a month before the exam? I write in Sept, and still need to finish up content review. I was hoping for a month of test-taking/practice, but do any of you have suggestions for how often I should be taking MCAT-style full length tests (e.g. everyday, or every other day?)

 

Feedback greatly appreciated

[bubblebath]

Don't write them every day. You WILL burn out... unless studying for MCAT is all you're doing.

 

I had a 9-5 job and I would write full-lengths from 7-11, which was really draining. I ended up writing 4 a week, on average. It's not a huge deal if you don't write every single practice exam... they're mostly the same anyways and as long as your marks are consistently high towards the end, you're golden.

 

I also suggest not even writing the prompts on the practice exam. Write mock essays for the AAMC website prompts because they are actually likely to show up on the real exam.

[touchthesky]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I'm working part time at a research institute but it feels more like full time (it's a lot of reading and writing lol).

 

4 a week sounds reasonable - I am not too sure how I'll pan out score wise, but I'm going to start doing practice tests next week. So far I've stuck to subject-specific tests (Kaplan) and will write a full length after I've done most of the content review...I didn't think content review would take so long !

[AG22]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I'm working part time at a research institute but it feels more like full time (it's a lot of reading and writing lol).

 

4 a week sounds reasonable - I am not too sure how I'll pan out score wise, but I'm going to start doing practice tests next week. So far I've stuck to subject-specific tests (Kaplan) and will write a full length after I've done most of the content review...I didn't think content review would take so long !

 

I hear ya! Content review takes for ever. I will be doing my final physics subject test today! Then its onto the topicals and then the PS sectional tests. And then I plan on doing the FLs. I'm scoring rather poorly on the subject tests...and I'm starting to get worried.

[Pantaloons]

Yeah, the first time I wrote the MCAT, I did full-lengths almost every day and burnt out. I couldn't turn myself on for the real thing on test day.

Space out the Full Lengths.

 

ALSO, most importantly, is spending time going over every wrong answer you get on the practice tests. This took me a long time--almost the same amount of time it took to write the actual test. I'd go over the wrong answers concurrently with content review between full-lengths.

 

I found these post-mortems useful--perhaps even more useful than the actual test--in order to diagnose weak points and make sure I never made the same mistakes again. Second time I wrote the MCAT, I started the practice tests ~5-weeks before test date and did ~2 tests a week.

 

My two cents, anyways.

[Martin Louis the King Jr.]

So it's 3 wks to go and i'm just about to get into some practice test. Has any body used The Gold Standard practice test?What do you make of it? All i have is the Kaplan full length test and i'm looking for some variety. How do i get more TPR practice test? can someone send me a link or something please, coz i cant find it on their site besides the free practice test.