ecobeco Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 I took it last summer and studied around mid-june to Aug 23. Wasn't as efficient in my studies as I would have liked. Should I spend the full 3-months (I followed SN2ed's schedule)? How did you guys feel if you had to retake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 I feel 3 months is too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
med-dream Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 I took it last summer and studied around mid-june to Aug 23. Wasn't as efficient in my studies as I would have liked. Should I spend the full 3-months (I followed SN2ed's schedule)? How did you guys feel if you had to retake? I had exactly the same experience: I spent the whole summer in 2011 doing nothing other than preparing MCAT, the result was not ideal. Early in January in 2012, I took PCAT, the score was pretty good. Later In March I re-took MCAT again. The reason was there is some overlapping knowledge between MCAT & PCAT. My scores of MCAT was better, but not as high as what I wanted. So I re-took MCAT in June after reviewing my shortage, I got 36P, that is competitive enough (I think). So my experience is taking one time MCAT may not be enough. A lot of people took several times in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecobeco Posted January 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 Yeah the thing is it felt so stretched out and I also want to do some research. I got a 27 first time through so I don't know how much I actually need to improve considering I did well on the practice tests beforehand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robinre Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 you should aim for 33R (11's) to get past all the cutoffs safely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
med-dream Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Yeah the thing is it felt so stretched out and I also want to do some research. I got a 27 first time through so I don't know how much I actually need to improve considering I did well on the practice tests beforehand. Write it again,you will see the progress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schmitty Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I know this is obvious, but everybody is different. For me, 3 months is way too long and the stuff I would do for the first 2 months would probably not help at all. I only had time to study for 6 days (work full-time+, plus part-time jobs in evening and weekends) because that is all I could get off work. I did a practice test each day (full-length AAMC including essays), and quickly skimmed EK review books. I got a 39R. I think 2-3 weeks of full-time studying would have been ideal and gotten me nicely above the 40 mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bored Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I know this is obvious, but everybody is different. For me, 3 months is way too long and the stuff I would do for the first 2 months would probably not help at all. I only had time to study for 6 days (work full-time+, plus part-time jobs in evening and weekends) because that is all I could get off work. I did a practice test each day (full-length AAMC including essays), and quickly skimmed EK review books. I got a 39R. I think 2-3 weeks of full-time studying would have been ideal and gotten me nicely above the 40 mark. You beast. What date did you write it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schmitty Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 You beast. What date did you write it? August 17th, 2012. I taught high school math and science (chem, bio, physics) for 4 years part time before that and it really helped solidify the basics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 August 17th, 2012. I taught high school math and science (chem, bio, physics) for 4 years part time before that and it really helped solidify the basics. ha so you effectively studied for the test for 4 years then. I mean this shows the power of studying for the test but I think your 6 days is then a biased sample point on the spectrum of success. That being said it is still of course impressive! The short answer is always as long as it takes and that is different for everyone. I have seen it take all summer for some, and a really short amount of time for others. Practise tests can help narrow it down. In particular VR takes a bit of work to ramp up I think for many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 In particular VR takes a bit of work to ramp up I think for many. I agree with this completely. I pulled up my science scores in less than a month, but I needed 3 months to work on my VR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I agree with this completely. I pulled up my science scores in less than a month, but I needed 3 months to work on my VR Yeah VR is a skill more than a knowledge base - it is like learning to play the piano - cramming is not as effective as daily longer term practise. It just takes time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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