Preparing For And What To Expect For Mcat 2015? (From The Pov Of Former Test Takers)

[FifthCycle]

TL;DR (I tend to ramble): 

• What's the best way to prepare for MCAT 2015? Test prep course? In class, Online, self prep, take a book and just read through?
• Are you just focusing your summer on MCAT (like i did last year) or are you doing work or an EC on the side? I don't want to "waste" another summer (which it will be if I don't go to med school, by my decision, or not) 
• What can we expect now, before I generally had a hope for a balanced 30 (10,10,10) aim for a 32 with atleast (9,12,10) because of Shulich etc? The median score is 500, 125 per section, 127 seems to be about 75 percentile (I thought this was what a 10 was, can't remember). Have any schools posted details?

LETS DISCUSS how to tackle this b*st****

 

Long version:

 

So, I'm confused, at a loss of words, tired, a bit frustrated, and a bit angry. But that's a completely other thread, probably in another sub-forum, in another forum.

 

MCAT, yeah, that bulls**t again. F***. But it's all changed now.

 

I have the satisfaction guarantee for Princeton from the course I took last year. I'm assuming this wasn't a total waste because well... free! But on top of that since the MCAT is changing, I feel like it may be that much more necessary.

 

For those who have taken these courses before, how did you find was the best way to prepare? Did you enjoy/use in-class? Or were you like me, courses were long and brutal, and unhelpful - you only managed to procrastinate for 3hr when you could be reading/you were just there to check out that one girl you were to lame to ask out... f***, is she still single, I can't remember.

 

How did you guys prepare on off-class time? Did you read though the whole book or tackle straight questions? I didn't do well on my MCAT: my sister always recommended doing practice questions, I always read straight from the book after class, I don't think it helped. 

 

Over-riding question: in class, online, or self-prep with resources? Personally I'm gearing toward self-prep, staying away from my university town, practically isolating myself, and tackling this thing. 

 

Other over-riding question: What else are you doing this summer - how are you working around it? I am back at my small, sh** town; most of my friends have moved away, I have no distractions, but this isn't all that great. I may have volunteering ECs at a local LTC, but it isn't the big research gig at my local uni (I was hoping) or a research gig downtown at a clinical setting (hospital, CAMH etc.).

 

Lastly, and I know we're all thinking about this, and I wonder why it isn't a thread: What do we aim for here? No schools have put out their requirements yet - so I'm assuming when they do, we all have to hit that threshold and it won't matter passed that: eg. as long as you had all 9s in Toronto, or 32 + requirements at UWO you were "checked off" for MCAT, and now only your GPA and ECs were taken into consideration.

 

Help this poor confused child.