Pasting my schedule/advice here so people stop messaging me. I'm no longer pursuing an MD, so my time on these forums is probably coming to an end.
Unfortunately I scored much lower than I was shooting for after averaging 521 on the AAMC exams, ended up with a 516 (130/126/130/130). I got a bit unlucky, AAMC exams are usually predictive. However, I did find the real thing a bit harder (the C/P was absolutely ridiculous) and I think I just choked.
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Dropbox - 2017 MCAT study schedule.xlsx
I also recommend checking out mcatdoggo's schedule. I based a lot off of his/hers.
Things to keep in mind with my schedule:
- Only planned to make notecards when I realized I couldn't sign up for the 4/28 exam and suddenly had ~2.5 extra weeks to study. I took the old MCAT in 2014 and scored a 35 without making a single notecard. This time I made almost 600 notecards, definitely overkill, but I can't deny that it helped. I'd say the process of making the notecards (putting content into my own words) and doing problems on the content was way more valuable than actually using the notecards for memorization. Understanding >>>> memorization for the MCAT.
- Content review structure: 3 weeks reading, 1-2 weeks making notecards and reviewing, 3 more weeks reading, 1 final week making notecards. I'd say I used 85% Kaplan, 15% Khan, but there was also overlap. I watched Khan vids more when I was making notecards.
- For the first 3 weeks, content reading took me 5-6 days rather than 4 days as shown in the schedule. Nevertheless, I made sure I went through ~12 chapters total each week. I'd do end-of-chapter questions at the end of each week rather than immediately after finishing each chapter. Also, I had read chem 1 and physics 1 beforehand which is why they aren't on the schedule.
- Another thing not apparent on my schedule is my CARS practice. In the few weeks I was doing Khan passages every day, except practice exam days. 3-4 passages.
- I was able to get my hands on the EK .pdf's, which I used only for the quizzes (week 10). I think I should have spaced out the quizzes a bit, that week was pretty intense. The only thing I purchased for content review was the kaplan books, which came with 3 tests (only took 2). The rest of my budget was spent on practice problems and exams.
- Remember to adjust your schedule as you see fit. If you ever realize that something in your schedule isn't realistic, change up the entire schedule to see how you can still stay on time with the weekly goals. For example, my pace slowed down just for weeks 4-5 because I had gotten accepted to a Masters program and was celebrating. It was originally planned to be just 1 week, so I had to rearrange all of my daily plans to see how to maintain deadlines. I also had designated days for planning where I made major changes. I saw what was working for me, evaluated my progress, and adapted. That being said, try to keep to your schedule as best as you can and avoid getting behind. Plan out "buffer" days where you can catch up on anything you missed, but always be on schedule week by week.
- If I could change something, it would probably be to have started practice questions a few weeks earlier and then made notecards after seeing which types of questions I was getting incorrect. This is speculation though, not sure if this would actually have been better. For instance, maybe I wasn't getting as many questions wrong because I was thorough with my content review. Gotta do a bit of gambling when you make your own schedule.
Best of luck!"
