Considering Writing The Mcat. Help.

[Mwadie7]

Hello everyone! I'm new here & considering writing the MCAT at the end of August/early September. I am however, puzzled as to where to commence with my studying and was hoping for a little guidance, but first allow me to give you a bit of background on my educational background:

I have just completed my 3rd year of undergraduate education in Kinesiology at McMaster & as for what I perceive to be the relevant courses, have taken various human physiology courses, a semester in physics, a semester in biomechanics, a semseter in intro calculus, 3 semesters of psych (1 intro-level), & a full year of general chemistry (with very basic organic chem). As for pure biochem, organic chem, & bio, I havent partaken any specific courses.

1) From identical or similar experience (personal or otherwise), do you think I can manage to do well on the MCAT by utilizing any of the prep book sets (self-study)?
2) If the answer to the above question is yes, which ones?
3) What are the absolute best test banks to use and will provide the most realistic simulations of the MCAT?

I was thinking Kaplan books for content review (+ EK for CARS), & as for Test banks I'd go with NS, TPR, & the official AAMC practice tests. I know the Kaplan books are detailed but I could just briefly review anything I'm already familiar with so it shouldn't be too tedious I guess. Thoughts?

Thank you in advance!

[Clever]

AAMC doesn't have any full length practice exams yet; which I think is both good and bad. Bad because you don't know what to expect, good because everyone is in the same boat as you... which includes prep companies. They have created their material based on what AAMC has said will be testable, and unlike before, can't emphasize more common topics.

 

Test prep material is expensive and each company has their own strength and weaknesses. EK was generally great for review, so if you haven't taken a course, for example organic chemistry, I would go with another company. TPR, TBR, and Kaplan all go into much more depth, which would be helpful in your situation since you haven't taken bio, ochem, and bchem. For 2015 material I have heard TPR has a lot of minor mistakes since they rushed to get their material out, TBR hasn't changed much (but was great for the old MCAT), and Kaplan has received quite positive reviews.

 

I think starting your studies with bchem would be inefficient since it requires knowledge from both bio and ochem. Once you have gone through the material you can move on to practice questions. I don't think you need to memorize the material, but have a general understanding of concepts and the language used. I found that even the bio section was more of a reading comprehension test since most of the information you need was in the passage. You just need to learn how to approach the passage to do well.

 

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of practice material out there so you need to use it efficiently.

EK 101 passages: Great for verbal.

Buying even a single 2015 TPR book gives you 3 practice exams.

2015 Kaplan gives you access to a question bank (although last I heard it was still relatively small).

TBR has a good deal of practice exams on their website (I find them expensive)

If money is not an issue I would get the kaplan set, TPR psychology and sociology book, AAMC's question pack, and whatever extra full lengths from TBR and EK you desire.

 

I just want to reiterate that since this exam is new for this years the exam banks may not be as accurate as they were before. But still a good approximation and worth it for practice.

[oshaku]

AAMC doesn't have any full length practice exams yet;

 

Actually, they do and it's pretty good. There was just one practice exam available when I took it.  I'm not sure if things have changed in the last month or so. 

[oshaku]

calculus will be mostly useless for the MCAT (except maybe to derive kinematics questions on the spot).  It is concerning that you haven't had and bio, org chem or bio chem courses. They make up a big part of the MCAT. You should focus your studying mainly on that.  

[Clever]

Actually, they do and it's pretty good. There was just one practice exam available when I took it.  I'm not sure if things have changed in the last month or so. 

Ahh must have been a fairly recent addition? Apparently practice test #2 will be available in the fall.