Self Studying for the MCAT

[decentcigars]

hey guys, I am going to be writing my MCAT this coming august. I'm in my second year right now, so I figured this summer would be the best time. I've never been someone who goes to prep courses and stuff like that - I always found it best to study on my own. The courses offered as everyone knows are pertty damn expensive as well. Does anyone have any tips for self-studying? Should I even do it? I glanced at the topics on the MCAT and is not anything I haven't seen before. Granted, the last thing I want to do is be unprepared for it. Thanks!

[optimism101]

You can definitely study on your own, just get a good practice book with lots of practice exams and you'll be fine. My only advice though is that writing it after 2nd year is a bit early. That's what I did, because a lot of the material is fresh, but it means that if you don't get into med school pretty quickly you run the risk of it expiring! If I don't get in this year, I only have one more year left to apply to UBC before I have to rewrite, and some schools like Manitoba count the years differently and already require me to rewrite if I want to apply next year (luckily I don't).

 

I took 5 years to graduate cus I did co-op, and I graduated last spring. If you grad in 4 years and have better grades than me then you will probably be fine!

[rmorelan]

hey guys, I am going to be writing my MCAT this coming august. I'm in my second year right now, so I figured this summer would be the best time. I've never been someone who goes to prep courses and stuff like that - I always found it best to study on my own. The courses offered as everyone knows are pertty damn expensive as well. Does anyone have any tips for self-studying? Should I even do it? I glanced at the topics on the MCAT and is not anything I haven't seen before. Granted, the last thing I want to do is be unprepared for it. Thanks!

 

I did it - probably in the common and boring way - I got a prep book and went through it cover to cover, taking notes a long the way. Then I did a practise exam every week (complete exam, just like a real test).

 

Only exception was for the WS section but I guess that doesn't mater any more.

[carolynH]

Yes, you can definitely study it yourself. You can do it as early as 1st year summer. I've seen people did it with a high 30's score. You do need a lot of discipline and strictly allocate a time to do it everyday to work on a pre-set number of pages. Mind you, it does get frustrated at times when your friends try to call you out to have fun and you have to turn them down. If you don't then you'll eventually fall off the wagon. Also if your GPA is high then taking the MCAT early is OK. Otherwise, like optimism101 said, your MCAT score could expire if it takes more than a few years.

[nauru]

I did it - probably in the common and boring way - I got a prep book and went through it cover to cover, taking notes a long the way. Then I did a practise exam every week (complete exam, just like a real test).

 

Only exception was for the WS section but I guess that doesn't mater any more.

 

And how did your approach work out for you? Score breakdown? Also what was your academic background at the time?

[medigeek]

OP you're like me right now. Same situation.

 

I feel pretty confident for all the science stuff already but need lots of practice for verbal... Anyone have any tips as to how much I should be covering on a daily basis (verbal specifically)? Lets say over a span of 3 months.

[FrenchToast]

OP you're like me right now. Same situation.

 

I feel pretty confident for all the science stuff already but need lots of practice for verbal... Anyone have any tips as to how much I should be covering on a daily basis (verbal specifically)? Lets say over a span of 3 months.

 

I wish I could give you better advice, but it's honestly so dependent on the person. I think you really have to just do some practice and monitor your progress --> readjust if necessary.

[Savac]

Yeah, it's really difficult to recommend an approach for practicing verbal.

 

I think you should try to do a little bit of verbal every day (or every other day), perhaps 2-3 passages. Try a bunch of different strategies until you figure out what works. It will be difficult at first to work through the passage, but you'll eventually find a strategy that works effectively for you (just leave enough time for extensive trial and error). Once you find something that seems to work fairly well, start perfecting it.

 

Make sure you're working through the passage in an appropriate amount of time. It's fine if you're a little bit slow at first, just work on your accuracy. Over time you will be able to speed up without having your accuracy suffer.

 

When you're checking over your mistakes in verbal, make sure you understand WHY you're making those mistakes. Chances are high that you made that mistake for a very good reason, since this is how the test is designed. Once you understand the reason for your mistakes, you can start to prevent them from occurring. Learn how the MCAT likes to make incorrect answers look highly attractive.

 

 

...Well, that's all I've got. We'll have to wait for someone with a better VR score than me to show up.

[Van der Waals]

I wrote the MCAT in Jan, self studied for about a month (started a few days after last Dec final right up until test day). Got 37. It's totally possible if you focus on concepts and fixing your weakest areas starting with high yield material.

 

Got 11 in verbal, using the examkrackers strategy. Getting the older examkrackers tests helped (85min, 60 questions, about 1.5x as long as current mcat). I basically started those 2 weeks before test day, doing 1 a day, and focusing on why I got stuff wrong.

 

Princeton review books are what I used for bio and physics. Only had a high school background in bio and it really helped bring everything together. Could've practiced more bio but I spent two weeks just carefully reading the book. Made sure I knew how the really big topics fit together. I had old Princeton coursebooks from people so I ran through all the independent q's in phys and gen chem. I felt Examkrackers skipped over too much in these sections, and couldn't really review even though I have a strong physics/chem background. Finally did aamc tests 3 and 10 in the three days before test day and tried to learn anything I missed.

 

Selfstudying is the way to go IMO. Just get materials from people, amazon, or other less scrupulous sources online.

[reb]

do you think the materials you use should be very recent ones? or would a princeton review set from 2010 be okay?

[Van der Waals]

do you think the materials you use should be very recent ones? or would a princeton review set from 2010 be okay?

 

The used books I had were from 2005, 2006. I found pdfs from 2003, and I looked through the previews for the most recent TPR Hyperlearning books on amazon. I couldn't spot a difference. Same with examkrackers. In fact, the new 101 VR passages book is just the old one with questions removed to cut it down to the new(er) computer based format.

[blindsight]

I don't have much more to say than what everyone else has already said. I studied on my own and it was just fine!

 

I would definitely recommend creating a schedule for yourself though. Even if you don't have daily goals, you should at least have weekly goals to accomplish. It's very easy to procrastinate and get behind in the summer. Routine is key! I found that my friends who took the prep courses generally did so because they knew they wouldn't study on their own.

 

I was lucky to have my roommate writing the same summer as me. We both worked jobs from 9-5, then came home and studied after dinner for about 4-5 hours every evening. Truthfully, having someone around doing the same thing as me was really motivating. I would feel bad if she was studying and I wasn't. I also helped because we could talk about the writing passage prompts and give each other tricks to remember certain topics.

 

If you are planning on studying by yourself and you and you are worried about staying on schedule, try to have a friend who can keep you accountable for your study plan!

 

Good luck!

[reb]

The used books I had were from 2005, 2006. I found pdfs from 2003, and I looked through the previews for the most recent TPR Hyperlearning books on amazon. I couldn't spot a difference. Same with examkrackers. In fact, the new 101 VR passages book is just the old one with questions removed to cut it down to the new(er) computer based format.

 

thanks! Do you mean that the computer-based format has fewer questions for the VR passages than the paper-based format did?

[Van der Waals]

thanks! Do you mean that the computer-based format has fewer questions for the VR passages than the paper-based format did?

 

Yeah, the EK Verbal 101 books still had the same passages but the newer one was missing 1 or 2 questions per passage compared to the older one (found online) that was written according to a 60-question VR section.

 

As for the actual MCAT: the paper exam had 9 passages with 60 questions, and the current computer exam has 7 passages with 40 questions.

[reb]

Yeah, the EK Verbal 101 books still had the same passages but the newer one was missing 1 or 2 questions per passage compared to the older one (found online) that was written according to a 60-question VR section.

 

As for the actual MCAT: the paper exam had 9 passages with 60 questions, and the current computer exam has 7 passages with 40 questions.

 

ah ok, thanks!

so you think it's just as effective to study from 2006 TPR books? even though the mcat wasn't computerized back then? is the content of the books otherwise the same?

[Van der Waals]

ah ok, thanks!

so you think it's just as effective to study from 2006 TPR books? even though the mcat wasn't computerized back then? is the content of the books otherwise the same?

 

Yeah, definitely. The content of the mcat and the tpr hyperlearning books didn't change. You can find old paper version official practice mcats floating around the web (search for chris' mcat stuff). While I didn't have time to do them, I glanced through the passages when I was studying and think it would be a great exercise to do them under test conditions. Build a ton of stamina writing 1.5hrs longer than the real one.

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