Non-Trad MCAT discussion

[mr.o]

Hey everyone,

 

Please forgive me if this is an unecessary new thread, I'm still quite new here .

 

I was wondering how all of you in grad school, full-time careers and etc managed to study for and write the MCAT despite your busy schedules?

 

I took the Princeton Review's online correspondence course over the summer and had a challenging time keeping up with the classes let alone completing homework and writing practice MCATs. Perhaps this could be because I took Chem, Physics and Bio over 4 years ago and never took a full year of orgo chem. Advice and personal stories would be greatly appreciated!

[AccountantGirl]

I'm non-trad and currently studying for the MCAT. I graduated from Uni in 2004 and was a business major. There are no prep courses (aside from online) where I live so all of my studying has been self-directed. I'm lucky in that my contract at work provides for summers off so I have been studying full-time snce the end of June for a september 10th MCAT. Most of my studying is based on examkrackers but I also have borrowed high school chem, physics and bio textbooks and have covered the majority of those as well because I didn't study sciences in university. I am finding that the majority of the topics were covered in high school and I vaguely remember them from those courses. So far I am averaging 7-8 in each of the science sections and 12s in VR. As long as I get 8s on the real thing I will qualify for U of S. I'm also planning to apply to U of C this cycle. If my MCAT is good enough I will apply to Dal next year and also NOSM. U of C is really my first choice though because I have two small children and a husband who will be relocating with me and we would like to be closer to family. Plus I'm 30 so the 4 years compressed into 3 also appeals to me, as does the delivery of their program.

 

I should mention that although I am studying full time, I'm also caring for my kids a lot of that time, so it is challenging but I want this so badly that it doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice. I do most of my studying from 8 PM after they go to bed until midnight.

 

I'd be interested I keeping a thread like this going to see how the studying is going for us non-trads!!

[AccountantGirl]

Mr.o when are you writing the MCAT??

[mr.o]

Thanks for the post and feedback!

 

I was going to write on the 19th, but I only made a concerted decision to pursue medicine in June and realize that I may have overestimated my abilities to recall course I took over 4 years ago! I tried my utmost for the first month but really couldn't keep up! Thus, it looks like I may write in January at the earliest and next summer at the latest.

 

In grad school now so I can take a full year of organic chemistry which is what I need to be eligible for Ottawa U.

 

I would strongly recommend you look into McMaster as they have a 3 year program as well and they look at only your VR score. Additionally, I have heard they value mature students especially and thus I think your chances there would be fantastic, provided you want to go there of course! Kudos to your ability to be a great mother by day and study MCAT by night!

[Guest BluePin]

34, graduated in 2002 with a science degree, took relevant MCAT science courses within a second degree over the last two years.

 

Studied ~2.5 weeks full-time (i.e. not working during study phase), including 4 practice tests under timed conditions.

 

11B/11P/13V/O

 

Which was consistent with my practice results.

 

My suggestion: aim for a result that will qualify you for all schools (which mine doesn't with the low WS result) and study / prepare until you are confident you will get it.

 

You don't want to write the damn thing twice!

 

And don't neglect the WS section... some schools have cut-offs for it and you want to do as well as possible.

[kylamonkey]

Hey- I'll add my experience.

 

I was working FT as a personal trainer the first time I wrote. I did it "on a lark", since my bf was writing it and I was helping him study anyways. I worked from 2-10 pm daily, so I always had the entire morning to study, which was perfect for me. I didn't really expect anything, had never taken bio since highschool 10 yrs earler, learned organic from scratch, and had to seriously refresh chem and physics. I pulled off a 27S, and while that isn't great, I was pretty pleased with it considering my background and the little time I had to spend studying. So... I decided to go back to school, and that was the little push I needed to make the leap.

 

I wrote again the next summer- 33R. 10BS/13PS/10VR. So I never hit that magic 11-13VR, but I think I'll try again this winter since my 2nd attempt has expired for all the US schools and even some canadian ones.

 

I think that mature students are at an advantage with the WS since we have so many experiences to draw from for examples. I think both times I wrote, I did <10 WS practice tests. I LIKE writing, so I used it more as a study break than anything.

[mr.o]

It's funny because for practice tests I tend to score Q-T (Princeton Review Online Grading) but get 10's in the VR. You would think there would be some correlation between the two sections!

 

@Kyla, great story, I'm sure that you will be a very strong candidate, when you went back to school, what courses did you take to prepare yourself?

 

@Bluepin, thanks for sharing, that is quite the inspiration for myself. Good to now I won't be the only person with a science degree going back in for more science courses!