Guest skiboot Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Hi, I'm debating on when to write the MCAT, either April or August. Just wondering what the feeling is on preparing for the MCAT while taking 5 courses. I just finished organic chem last summer and biology last term. I'll be taking physics, bicohem and continuing with physiology this term. My gut feeling is that I should wait til August, but then that may conflict with summer employment. I've heard answers across the board about preparing for the test, everything from writing it as soon as possible, to being advised to make studying for the exam my full time summer job and wait till August. I haven't written it before, so any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MDHopeful04 Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Hi skiboot, One factor you'll have to consider is whether or not you're planning on taking an MCAT preparatory course (e.g., Kaplan/Princeton). If you're going to, I'm guessing you won't be able to take it while you're still at school and will have to wait till the summer to write the MCAT. These courses provide you with lots of material and require quite a bit of time to prepare for the lectures. If you're going to study by yourself, you have full control of your time. Since you've recently took/are taking many of the relevant courses, your preparation may be shorter. I've heard of people who successfully prepared for the April MCAT while studying full-time. They're now in med school. But also from what I hear, academic knowledge is not sufficient to do well on the MCAT. It also requires strong exam writing skills, specifically tailored for the MCAT (i.e., exam strategies for answering MCAT-type questions). So that may take time to develop. Just thought I'd share some of my opinions. As for myself, I am currently working full-time. I too considered writing the April MCAT. But I've decided to write the August MCAT instead so as to earn as much money as I can since I plan to "quit" work (or take a long leave-of-absence) in May to fully dedicate my time to the MCAT (it depends on what my manager allows). I rather have too much time to study than not enough and poorly perform this summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 You are probably right. I found a prep course that is evenings and weekends, but having too much time to study does sound better than many nights with minimal sleep. Just means less or no time for earning any $$ this summer. I also purchased an MCAT Audio program (MCAT Audio Osmosis, by Exam Crackers), and I find that the CD's are just like listening to a lecture. Has anyone both taken a prep course and used the CDs? Just wondering if the material covered in the course is the same as that on the CDs. I'm looking at the Renert Centre course at UofC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MDHopeful04 Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Hi skiboot, I was wondering if you could tell me how much you paid for that MCAT CD and from where you got it. Do you actually retain MCAT material by osmosis? or must you be very conscious and alert to retain anything? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 You can order it online at amazon.com for about $200.00 USD. You might even be able to get a used copy. I bought mine off someone who was selling it secondhand on campus for $125 I haven't written a practice test yet, so I'm not sure it covers everything, but I still may enrol in a prep course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 007 Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Personally, I had a full-time summer job, did a Kaplan course in the evenings/weekends, and wrote the August MCAT and I had sufficient time to prepare. I was lucky however, to have the week preceding the MCAT off though. I started studying in the second week of May. My schedule was usually: Work 8:30am-4:30pm, Mon and Wed I had class from 6-9pm, Tues, Thurs, and Fri, I went to the library directly after work and prepared for my next class until 8pm. On Saturdays, I either did practice questions or wrote a practice test. I took Saturday nights, most of my Sundays, and after 8/9pm the other nights off to do fun stuff. It was a pain, but it paid off in the end. Good luck! 007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 007 Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 To answer your original question more directly, I don't think I would have been able to write the MCAT in April without sacrificing my GPA considerably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted January 17, 2004 Report Share Posted January 17, 2004 Hey 007, What was your course load like before you wrote the MCAT. I mean, I guess it all depends on how many heavy courses one has. I took chem, physiology, biology, sociolgy and one other science course (just so I could have 5 courses) last term. Since I hadn't taken many science courses during my previuos degree, I wasn't sure how may lab courses I could handle in one term. This term I've got biochem, physiology, physics, stats and 1 non science course. I decided to take physics before writing the MCAT, so that I could get some of the basic concepts prior to writing / studying for the mcat. If I take the following, do you think it is still possible to take the mcat prep course and write in april, or will my courses suffer as a result?): -3 lab courses -2 courses that are the second half course of the full year course (I have to re-learn everything from the first physics half course, and the first statistics half course, which I have not taken for about 6 years - hence the re-learning it all). I have another option (since I could technically still switch a few courses, as the drop/switch deadline is not till the end of this week - school started on the 12th of Jan.). I was debating on whether to switch from physics to the second half of chem (I don't need to re-learn past chem courses, since I just finished the first half), but then I would still have to learn all the physics for the mcat). Yet another option is to postpone the MCAT till August, which would mean that I would possibly have 1 course (either chem or physics) to take in spring/summer while studying for the august mcat. Any thoughts?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 007 Posted January 17, 2004 Report Share Posted January 17, 2004 Hi, It's really hard for me to judge how heavy your workload is. Perhaps you could try contacting your program's department and see if they can't give you some contact info for people a year or two ahead of you in the same program and get their input on when the best time to write would be. Personally, in second term of last year I had Anatomy, Physiology, Organic Chemistry, Microbiology, and English (4 labs altogether). Based on the schedule I set out for myself to study for the MCAT from May-August that I outlined above, it would have been impossible to do all that in Winter term with my course load. You can always give the April MCAT a try, but as I said before, if I had done so, my GPA would have suffered. Also, have you done a full-length practice exam? How you do on that may give you an idea of how much work you have to put into studying and may help you make a decision. To me, the only downside to writing the MCAT in August is that it sort of puts a damper on your summer, and you don't know your marks until you've completed your OMSAS apps. For me, I wrote after 2nd year and I didn't apply this year, so the date thing didn't really matter. 007 P.S. I wouldn't drop the physics course now. It will be good to have for MCAT review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted January 17, 2004 Report Share Posted January 17, 2004 Definitely some good points there. I haven't written a full lenght exam yet, so I'll have to get to it immediately. One other option I was thinking of is enrolling in the prep course starting Jan 24th, see how things progress, and If I feel ready, then I could write in April. I'm not sure if all the prep courses are the same, but the one I'm thinking of will let you retake the course until you get into med school. So if I didn't feel ready for April, I could continue attending the prep classs, etc. for extra review, and write in aug (that way I wouldn't have to give up my entire summer, just enough to brush up on the weak areas). Is this a good idea (from the point of view of remembering the material from April to August), or do you think it's possible to forget too much of the material between April and August, which would then mean spending just as much time preparing during the summer, regardless the time I start the prep course? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LaGriega Posted January 22, 2004 Report Share Posted January 22, 2004 You will probably never feel completely ready for the MCAT. A plan like this means you will spend 2 months of indecision waffling and wasting energy. It will take time and energy away from your other course work. (I know because I did this last year.) Worse, it will use up the best practice exams (the 4 AAMC tests), and if you don't write in April, you cannot buy 4 more practice exams that are as good; they don't exist. I really recommend assessing your work load, recognizing that the MCAT happens at the end of term when everything is due in all your courses, and going all-out for either April or August. Don't waffle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest californicator Posted January 22, 2004 Report Share Posted January 22, 2004 fuggetaboutit; do your job and study too. the lights were off 2 days b4 my exam, but it feels damn good to have written the mcat and have a job at the same time to pay for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nops Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 I debated a long time over whether I should write last August or wait for this spring. I was finishing up 12 months of overloading courses, moving across the country (with a wife, 4 kids and juggling a house purchase and house sale), and re-qualifying at a new job. I did what little studing I could fit in months before the exam. I knew I couldn't apply to the schools I wanted without and MCAT, and I wanted to apply this year rather than next, so I wrote the thing. I didn't stress too much (at least before the exams) and went in feeling confident. It worked. It wasn't stellar, but better than average. The thing is, you can study non-stop for months and still have an off day and just not be able to think straight. If you can think through the questions and not second guess everything, you're off to a great start. The days leading up to the exam, don't burn yourself out with last ditch attempts to get ahead, but relax and prepare yourself mentally. Just my $.02 And, besides, if you do poorly, you can write it again! B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Hi there, The days leading up to the exam, don't burn yourself out with last ditch attempts to get ahead, but relax and prepare yourself mentally. That's a great point and one that has parallels in another arena--marathon training. It wasn't until I began training for a marathon that I realized how similar the MCAT and marathon training processes are. When training for a marathon the last few weeks are often spent in the "tapering" phase. Over those two or so weeks, you decrease your mileage and essentially, allow your body to recuperate to the point where it is fully refreshed and ready to perform optimally on marathon day. The MCAT process, and those few days leading up to the Saturday where you write it, is similar. As long as you've prepared well prior to the big day, it's probably better to leave the books behind and let your mind recuperate to be strong and springy enough to sail through the actual event. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 The last few points have certainly been good ones to think about. Quote ----------- That's a great point and one that has parallels in another arena--marathon training. It wasn't until I began training for a marathon that I realized how similar the MCAT and marathon training processes are. ------------------- This is a good point. My take on marathon training though is that you need to start slow (ie) train for a 10k or 1/2 before attempting a marathon training program. I think its as much the base you have before you start the 4-5 month marathon training program as it is the marathon training itself. It's going to be alot easier to work up to a 3:30 marathon result if you can already run a 40 mihnute 10k. This is why I made the comment earlier about starting in January for the August exam, but I guess the only problem there is having enough practice exams to write thoughout the 7-8 month period. I guess the other option is to study the material now and once April comes around, shift into high gear for the rest of the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 007 Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Keep in mind though, that if you start studying now for the August MCAT, you might be totally burnt out. I know I was sick of the stuff by July 1 and I only started studying in May. I agree with your last point. It may be helpful to learn the basic knowledge required between now and April (i.e your physics course etc) and then spend the summer reviewing and doing practice material. For me, the blackout was great because it meant that I was forced to take 2 days off and just relax before the test. (Although, there was the added stress of not knowing whether I'd even be able to write the thing!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cutieyellow Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 If you do it in April though, and don't like your score, you have a chance to redo it in August. I'm not saying it won't go amazing the first time you take it, but there's always that chance that by some fluke you feel @#%$ that day and don't do so well-at least you'll have a possibility of retaking (then again, i don't know when you'd be applying). Just a little food for thought. CY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UTStudent03 Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 Hi, I was reading the above posts, and I am sort of in a similar situation, and I was wondering if anyone could provide me with any feedback. I'm planning to work fulltime during the summer and also take a summer school course (human physio - PSL302 for fellow UofT'ers). It looks like class will be going on for the whole summer, Tues and Thurs 6-9pm or something similar. Is this too much academics? ie. I'll be studying for physio and preparing for the MCAT, while working at the same time. Should I cut back, perhaps take physio next summer? I'd prefer to take it now though, just to fulfill my degree requirements and be done with it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 Hi there, It can certainly be doable to complete a full credit science course as well as the MCAT in one summer. I did that a few years back with organic chemistry (full course with lab component), as well as a full-time job and found it busy but manageable. It definitely helps to take a course which contributes to the body of knowledge that you will use on the MCAT, and PSL302Y is definitely one of those. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve U of T Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 The bio section of the MCAT has some physiology questions, and taking PSL302 will certainly help prepare you for them. However, a lot of people find that course to be rather demanding. I took it during my 2nd year, then wrote the MCAT the following summer, and was glad that I did things that way. Working full time, taking a course, and studying for the MCAT can certainly be done, although the amount of free time between all that will vary from person to person. The summer I wrote the MCAT, I managed to work full time in research, take an MCAT prep course Sunday afternoon and Wednesday night, attend Karate classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and occassional Friday evenings, and go out with friends nearly every Wednesday (after MCAT class to the Madison) and Saturday. I was thoroughly exhausted, but I really enjoyed that summer. Aside from the 8 hours/week of class, I did minimal studying for the MCAT (except for the week leading up to the test) and still did well, but I'm sure other people would put in a lot more time, especially if not taking a prep course. Since PSL302 only helps for a very minor part of the MCAT, you'd need to put in a lot of study time. My schedule might not be realistic for everyone, but if you can manage your time well, MCAT studying, a semi-related course, and full time work is reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.