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Why Do So Many People Start Studying For The Mcat So Late?


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I don't understand why so many people are against the idea of studying fewer hours over a longer period of time when juxtaposed with the idea of studying absurdly longer hours over a shorter period of time. When we consider such added benefits as spaced repetition, early recognition of weak areas, ample time to work on the weaker spots, as well as more free time to enjoy some of the last free days of summer we have before medical school, short term cramming loses every time. 

 

A member posted earlier in this thread saying that they couldn't comprehend the pressure associated with taking a test that they've devoted an whole year to preparing for. I also do not understand the reasoning behind this. Why would there be more pressure? I think when doing anything, time and pressure are inversely proportional. That is, the more time we have to work on a particular task, the better we do; and the less time we have, the worse we do. This is especially truer for more complex tasks. Quality takes time. I also feel that when being logical, and when given the right tools, people are decent judges of individual skill

 

One funny response was that the MCAT is not, in the grand scheme of things, a big deal. Haha, wut?  How well a person does on this test literally determines the course of their life. At least for a few months, that is.

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I honestly can't imagine spending a year of my life prepping for such an insignificant test. Imagine spending a year prepping and then doing poorly or not as well as you expected - do you then study for another full year? I get that at the beginning of the whole premed journey thing the MCAT seems like a huge milestone but it reeeeally isn't in the grand scheme of things. Many people write it multiple times and there aren't any schools in Canada that I'm aware of that count that against you. It's basic science knowledge. And reading comprehension. That seriously shouldn't take anyone a year to prepare for, and you'll likely burn out. That's all anybody here is saying. 

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I honestly can't imagine spending a year of my life prepping for such an insignificant test. Imagine spending a year prepping and then doing poorly or not as well as you expected - do you then study for another full year? I get that at the beginning of the whole premed journey thing the MCAT seems like a huge milestone but it reeeeally isn't in the grand scheme of things. Many people write it multiple times and there aren't any schools in Canada that I'm aware of that count that against you. It's basic science knowledge. And reading comprehension. That seriously shouldn't take anyone a year to prepare for, and you'll likely burn out. That's all anybody here is saying. 

 

different styles for different people :) What ever works really. Some people just don't do cramming well, and some people burn out if they have a more 3-4 month intense study plan (some of the ones here involved studying 8 hours a day for months) :)

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I honestly can't imagine spending a year of my life prepping for such an insignificant test. Imagine spending a year prepping and then doing poorly or not as well as you expected - do you then study for another full year? I get that at the beginning of the whole premed journey thing the MCAT seems like a huge milestone but it reeeeally isn't in the grand scheme of things. Many people write it multiple times and there aren't any schools in Canada that I'm aware of that count that against you. It's basic science knowledge. And reading comprehension. That seriously shouldn't take anyone a year to prepare for, and you'll likely burn out. That's all anybody here is saying. 

 

 

But how can someone do poorly if they've been studying for a year?  I don't understand the reasoning here. Studying about 500 hours over the course of 2-4 months, which ultimately amounts to cramming, should yield similar, if not better, results when studying the same amount of time spread out over the year. The only difference here is that spaced repetition reduces memory decay. Also, It is entirely possible to cram for 4 months and still do poorly. 

 

As for burning out, I don't understand this either. I'm studying the same amount of hours, but spaced out over a longer period of time. If anything, the person that studies 8+ hours 5days/week for four months has a significantly higher chance of burning out.  

 

Thanks for the response, nbgirl93 and I don't mean to come off as contentious, but this time honored tradition of a 2-4 month cram session for the MCAT doesn't make sense to me. I think if the community stopped propagating the 3-4 month cram session in favor of the longer study sessions, we would most likely see a rise in the average scores of MCAT test takers, as well as a significant rise in reading the dreaded reading comprehension section. 

 

 

 

different styles for different people  :) What ever works really. Some people just don't do cramming well, and some people burn out if they have a more 3-4 month intense study plan (some of the ones here involved studying 8 hours a day for months)  :)

 
I hear ya rmorelan, and I'm a very good crammer.Up until this point in my life I never needed more than two days to pass any test before now. And yet, be that as it may, countless studies as well as first hand experience show that the benefits of long term studying significantly outweigh the short term benefits of cramming. Studies indicate that participants lose up to 30% of information just mere hours after cramming the material, proving the point of its inefficiency. So my question still stands: why do so many people still cram?

 

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Thanks Bambi, but I didn't really ask for advice. I just wanted to start a discussion about why people chose to cram knowing full well that there a more effective methods out there. 

 

The topic was initially inspired by a podcast about why people choose to do the wrong thing, even when fully aware of superior practices out there. So I just wanted to know why people chose to cram instead of efficiently utilizing their time and spaced repetition.

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The way I did it at the start was something similar to you. I had a test date in January, so I thought hey i will start studying a bit in july and august in the down time of my job. The problem is yes it theory 2 hours a day for 180 days (~6 months) sounds great, but you can't actually get that much practical amounts of studying in.

 

 For example lets say you want to study gen chem, physics, orgo, biochem/biology, psych/soc, CARS. Then lets say you rotate a chapter everyday, so 6 days to do 6 chapters (I know doesn't really work with CARS, but stick with me here). Then there are 10 chapters in each book. That means before you even get through each book once it will take you 60 days. So from the time you read chapter one of Gen chem to the time you see it again is 2 months. Not a great way to get the material in your head, cause you already know it from undergrad classes its about holding it all in your head. If you tried to do an entire subject then its ten days entire book of gen chem - however, again you don't see gen chem again for 50 days.

 

 I think there is value in starting early in doing practive CARS questions, as I did. However, when it comes down to the meat of studying I don't. I ended up studying hard for a 1.5-2 weeks in November, then destroying my entire christmas break all day studying. I wouldn't recommend it, but I ended up with a 35.

 

 See the key in doing this long sessions is then you can study WAY more chapters faster, so you get to see the material you had read before sooner. More repetition. It is long, and sometimes annoying, but say you can do two of every chapter in a day, then you see the same material 5 days later. Having taken the MCAT I actually thought that starting 3-4 months early at like 5-6 hours a day seemed excessive, but each to their own. What I will say is that after several weeks of studying I was at a 29-30 range.. The HUGE difference on the MCAT is PRACTICE questions and tests. I can't stress that enough, and do it in test conditions full-length etc. My score went up 6 points with little added studying when I transitioned from studying phase to doing 4-5 practice tests. Seriously, practice tests is my advice to anyone and EVERYONE taking the MCAT. If you take enough of them the length doesn't seem that bad because you have trained, and honestly the content isn't that bad its more about not being used to the testing method. 

 

EDIT: excuse any typos, really don't want to bother editing its summer lol. Also I would not describe studying for 3-4 months by ANY stretch of the imagination to be cramming. I don't even think I crammed and I really only studied 5ish weeks. When you start university, you will learn a more accurate definition of cramming. 

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But how can someone do poorly if they've been studying for a year?  I don't understand the reasoning here. Studying about 500 hours over the course of 2-4 months, which ultimately amounts to cramming, should yield similar, if not better, results when studying the same amount of time spread out over the year. The only difference here is that spaced repetition reduces memory decay. Also, It is entirely possible to cram for 4 months and still do poorly. 

 

As for burning out, I don't understand this either. I'm studying the same amount of hours, but spaced out over a longer period of time. If anything, the person that studies 8+ hours 5days/week for four months has a significantly higher chance of burning out.  

 

Thanks for the response, nbgirl93 and I don't mean to come off as contentious, but this time honored tradition of a 2-4 month cram session for the MCAT doesn't make sense to me. I think if the community stopped propagating the 3-4 month cram session in favor of the longer study sessions, we would most likely see a rise in the average scores of MCAT test takers, as well as a significant rise in reading the dreaded reading comprehension section. 

 

 

 

 
I hear ya rmorelan, and I'm a very good crammer.Up until this point in my life I never needed more than two days to pass any test before now. And yet, be that as it may, countless studies as well as first hand experience show that the benefits of long term studying significantly outweigh the short term benefits of cramming. Studies indicate that participants lose up to 30% of information just mere hours after cramming the material, proving the point of its inefficiency. So my question still stands: why do so many people still cram?

 

Because the MCAT is not just a content exam, it also requires test taking skills.

 

You can sit there with the kaplan books for a year, and still only do average if you are simply just a poor test taker.

 

 

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Because the MCAT is not just a content exam, it also requires test taking skills.

 

You can sit there with the kaplan books for a year, and still only do average if you are simply just a poor test taker.

 

 

 

 Spot on. I have seen many scores go up by only 1-2 points if anything with added weeks/months of studying. Then go up 3-5 just from people finally deciding to spend extra money and take 4-6 practice tests 

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I didn't really ask for advice. I just wanted to start a discussion about why people chose to cram knowing full well that there a more effective methods out there. 

 

The topic was initially inspired by a podcast about why people choose to do the wrong thing, even when fully aware of superior practices out there. So I just wanted to know why people chose to cram instead of efficiently utilizing their time and spaced repetition.

Have you started undergrad yet? Maybe consider taking some science electives (with your Arts courses) so you can focus on your GPA and inadvertently study for the MCAT as well.

 

I like how you have kind of planned your schedule  already... 20hr course load + 2.5hrs/day study for courses + 2hrs/day MCAT + etc.. However, the truth is that it can be tough balancing your course load, with ECs and social life,  family and doing things that are meaningful to you (hobbies, etc). And sometimes when shit hits the fan you got to prioritize what is important: GPA (if you do badly one year, can push back your goal of med back a few years) or your MCAT ( a test that you will likely take in the summer  that can be retaken and is not nearly as important as GPA for the majority of schools in Ontario). The point is GPA is the priority during the school year and if you do poorly 1 or 2 academic years, you may see yourself doing graduate work or even a 2nd undergrad to make up for it. The MCAT can be retaken with no consequence for most Canadian med schools...

 

Lastly, most premeds don't need to study a full year prior because  the majority of us are in BSC/BHSs/ BMSc degrees doing science courses that will completely cover the content of the MCAT. Therefore, by studying our undergrad courses, we are studying the MCATs content as well. This way we have already seen most, if not all the information on the MCAT and need only a month or so to get a feel for how we are being tested in the MCAT (doing passages and lots of questions). Simply put, we are not cramming if we only do 1-2 months of studying in the summer, as we have been studying since the start of undergrad lol.

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Personally the reason I didn't extend my MCAT studying over a long period of time was that I knew that I would be bored out of my mind of the content. Sure I'd probably know it extremely well by the end, but I'd also get into the exam just glad it would be over with and really not caring.

 

I wrote it three times (the final time due to the new MCAT coming out and doing a last "hail Mary" type thing as I did not want to write the new one), and truthfully the major difference was really just how I studied, not even how much. The first time I wrote it I took a prep course and studied full time from May until my exam date end of August. I was soooo naive in my studying methods though so I only scored a 28. Second time I studied from January to July, which grant you is more time, but I was also working full time by this point so the hours were much lower in total. But I was much more effective in my studying now that I had really experience what the exam was like. After I wrote I took a bit of a break, waited for my score, and then started studying again for my January exam. And as I semi-expected, by the time I got there I was so bored. A full year of studying in what felt like all my spare time I wanted to just be done with it. I also ended up getting the exact same score as my last exam. 

So if I were to go back in time to give advice to my past self, I would just recommend the "cram style" but with effective methods (not studying like I'm writing a regular test). But really, it's to each their own. Some people have the endurance to last a whole year looking at the same content over and over. I just didn't. 

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Thanks Bambi, but I didn't really ask for advice. I just wanted to start a discussion about why people chose to cram knowing full well that there a more effective methods out there. 

 

The topic was initially inspired by a podcast about why people choose to do the wrong thing, even when fully aware of superior practices out there. So I just wanted to know why people chose to cram instead of efficiently utilizing their time and spaced repetition.

At the end of the day, all that matters is being accepted. So if most people study for only 2-3 months and accomplish this goal, then how is it more effective to study for a full year?

 

And in terms of efficiency, sure, it might be better to spread out the time over which material is learned rather than cram it in, but as others have said there's just too much material that you'll forget things if you're not reviewing on a near-daily basis. Also most medical students have these things called 'social lives', which means they actually enjoy spending time with friends and families, as opposed to studying 24/7.

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