6 month study schedule while working full time? Advice!!!

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Wrigley_260

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Hi Everyone!
So after months of putting off the big exam because of nerves, I'm finally buckling down and committing to studying for it. I've tried searching the forums for some advice, but wanted to create a new thread for some updated answers since you guys are so helpful when it comes to this topic.

I plan to start studying within the next week for a projected Jan exam date, and will be applying next cycle (in the hopes that everything goes well). I graduated in 2016 and work 9-5 in clinical research, and have no problem dedicating a few hours a day towards studying. I am really active in a few volunteer organizations outside of work, but I realize that I may have to sacrifice my involvement in them during studying. I also will be taking one class in from Sep-Dec after work (I was lucky enough to receive a full coverage employee scholarship at the institution I work for for their SPS pre-health program which I would complete before applications (5-6 upper level science courses), but the only catch is I would need to start the program this year or lose the financial aid).

I'm getting a little overwhelmed planning everything, so I wanted to see what those who studied while working full time had to say. I plan on finishing all content review by the time I start my class in the Fall, so I can focus on practice problems/solidifying concepts for the last few months with the added responsibility. Does this seem doable? Help!

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I studied for MCAT while working 40 h/week. I quit most of my volunteering and did not take classes during that time. I would be worried about how much of a time commitment the one course is.
 
It would be one course 3 hours per week, and I took a similar course my senior year during undergrad so I'm hoping it won't be that difficult.

Did you have any tips that helped you study while working full time?
 
Not really. I basically quit any commitment I could, and studied about 1-3 hours/day on weekdays and 4-6 hours/day on weekends.
 
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Working full-time and studying for the MCAT is pretty brutal to be honest... I would recommend using ANKI as you go through content. If you're anything like me, you will DREAD studying for that class even though it's only 3 hours. Do you have to take it?
 
Working full-time and studying for the MCAT is pretty brutal to be honest... I would recommend using ANKI as you go through content. If you're anything like me, you will DREAD studying for that class even though it's only 3 hours. Do you have to take it?

Unfortunately, I do. The program is making me start this year otherwise they'll revoke my full scholarship to the program, which I don't want to pass up since I couldn't afford it otherwise.
It'll have some tie in to the MCAT science material though so maybe it won't be too bad? At least that's what I'm telling myself now hahaha. By the time I start the class I will be done with content review (per my current study schedule), so I'm hoping it'll be more manageable alongside concept implementation (practice passages/problems/tests) instead of taking the class while going through all of the review material for the first time.
 
Unfortunately, I do. The program is making me start this year otherwise they'll revoke my full scholarship to the program, which I don't want to pass up since I couldn't afford it otherwise.
It'll have some tie in to the MCAT science material though so maybe it won't be too bad? At least that's what I'm telling myself now hahaha. By the time I start the class I will be done with content review (per my current study schedule), so I'm hoping it'll be more manageable alongside concept implementation (practice passages/problems/tests) instead of taking the class while going through all of the review material for the first time.
Oh if you're done with content review by the time it starts, that will be more manageable. As far practice passages, I'm a big advocate for taking full lengths and learning from those. So as early as possible, I would start taking a full length once every 2 weeks (2 weeks just because you'll have more topics in the beginning that you're week on) and then once every week up until your test date. There are some full lengths that are known to be more content heavy (Kaplan comes to mind), some that are intermediate with graphs and content (NextStep comes to mind), and some that are interpretation heavy (Altius- my favorite). I would take 2-3 kaplan tests to sure up your content and then alternate with NextStep and Altius until about a month before your test. At a month out, strictly AAMC ftw. In between tests, you're reading or watching videos and then hammering those week areas with practice problems.
 
Are you me?! Down to the research position and free courses. I'm planning on doing 2-3 months of content review, studying 2-3 hours per weeknight, 4x/week and 1 weekend day about 6 hours. I started studying back in March with the intention of taking a June test, while work 40hrs/week - I burnt out within a month and a half, and was doing 4 hours/night 5x week and 8 hours for one weekend day. I've come to learn that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Good luck! I'm in the exact same boat, feel free to contact me if you want to chat.
 
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I studied for the MCAT not while working, but while going to school full time and all of the ECs that entails as well. The trick is to set a daily goal of how much you want to accomplish and try to meet that goal every day. My daily goal was reading 3 chapters of my review book every day, and typing a study guide over 3 chapters as well. Usually, the 3 chapters I read were of different content than the 3 chapters I typed, meaning most days I covered a little bit of all subjects. Depending on the subjects I read and typed, this took me 3-6 hours each day. It was hard, but I knew if I didn't meet my goal each day then I would fall behind in one subject relative to the others.
 
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you'll be fine. 6 months is a good timespan with working full time. schedule it all in now though and follow it.
 
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Your set-up sounds very similar to mine. I studied for ~6 months while working full-time. I ended up putting in between 25-30 study hours per week. On work days I did 1 hour before work, 2 hours after, and on non-work days I did between 6-8 hours. Most of my weekends were spent studying, but I did give myself Friday and Saturday nights off to prevent burnout. I used the Princeton self-prep kit so I could fit studying around my schedule. It takes good scheduling and commitment, but it's not some never-ending slog of studying and work. I highly recommend taking time at the beginning to sketch out a schedule for yourself (I just used Excel, and put reminders in my google calendar). When you're studying for a long time, it helps to see how far you've gotten and what you still need to cover. :)
 
Your set-up sounds very similar to mine. I studied for ~6 months while working full-time. I ended up putting in between 25-30 study hours per week. On work days I did 1 hour before work, 2 hours after, and on non-work days I did between 6-8 hours. Most of my weekends were spent studying, but I did give myself Friday and Saturday nights off to prevent burnout. I used the Princeton self-prep kit so I could fit studying around my schedule. It takes good scheduling and commitment, but it's not some never-ending slog of studying and work. I highly recommend taking time at the beginning to sketch out a schedule for yourself (I just used Excel, and put reminders in my google calendar). When you're studying for a long time, it helps to see how far you've gotten and what you still need to cover. :)


Thank you for the advice! This seems almost identical to what I'm planning on doing. Did you use any other resources besides TPR?? Also, how long did you do content review vs. practice and how many chapters did you get through per week?
 
Oh if you're done with content review by the time it starts, that will be more manageable. As far practice passages, I'm a big advocate for taking full lengths and learning from those. So as early as possible, I would start taking a full length once every 2 weeks (2 weeks just because you'll have more topics in the beginning that you're week on) and then once every week up until your test date. There are some full lengths that are known to be more content heavy (Kaplan comes to mind), some that are intermediate with graphs and content (NextStep comes to mind), and some that are interpretation heavy (Altius- my favorite). I would take 2-3 kaplan tests to sure up your content and then alternate with NextStep and Altius until about a month before your test. At a month out, strictly AAMC ftw. In between tests, you're reading or watching videos and then hammering those week areas with practice problems.

Thank you SO much for this! I've been wondering which practice tests have those characteristics, so I really appreciate your response. Did you find the practice exam every 2 weeks to be the most helpful part of your studying?
 
Thank you SO much for this! I've been wondering which practice tests have those characteristics, so I really appreciate your response. Did you find the practice exam every 2 weeks to be the most helpful part of your studying?
To be completely honest, I didn't fully practice what I preached in the post. Life sorta happened 1/2way through my studying, so I had to use a different approach. This WILL be the most helpful part of studying though, no doubt. You may not see much progress on the first 3-4 tests but you will see your scores climbing as long as you review your tests thoroughly. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED BY YOUR KAPLAN SCORES. I started studying 2 years ago using the Kaplan course. Took my first and 2nd FL in those courses and got 497 and 496. I was so discouraged that I literally stopped studying and almost quit lol. Fast forward 1 year and after ONLY studying psych/soc, I scored a 504 on my first NextStep FL. Kaplan scores are so deflated, it's crazy. Feel free PM me if you have any more questions about materials, study approach, etc.
 
Thank you for the advice! This seems almost identical to what I'm planning on doing. Did you use any other resources besides TPR?? Also, how long did you do content review vs. practice and how many chapters did you get through per week?
I found that the TPR set had plenty of material to work my way through. I supplemented with Khan academy and AAMC to get extra practice, but keeping it all within TPR was easier mentally for me than trying to evaluate different books/programs. I actually did almost a "two steps forward, one step back" approach to content review- meaning I stretched it over a long period of time, interspersed with review periods of everything I had previously covered. I found the repetition to be very helpful. I officially finished my content review ~1 month before the exam, and I spent that month doing practice tests 2x per week and doing problems in my trouble areas (chem and physics).
 
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