Long Term MCAT Stud (7+ months)

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

chowder97

New Member
5+ Year Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Hi all. Im just starting to plan for my MCAT study. I plan to take the MCAT late March or April 2018. I'm planning to start studying around September. I know it truly is long term studying, but I am not interested in anyone who says not to study that long. I study the best long term and will have a full class load along with a part time job. That being said, what kind of study advice would you offer for a long term schedule? I have the Kaplan books, the Examkrackers books, and am planning to order the AAMC practice tests and question pack. I have looked at quite a few study plans here, but it is difficult to try to convert a 100 day plan to 7+ months. Any advice for a complete schedule using these resources is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Members don't see this ad.
 
I know you are not interested in anyone who says not to study that long, but you shouldnt study that long.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
^ this. You're going to end up burning out. Thats too much studying for a test you should be able to score well in with 2-3 months of solid studying under your belt. Follow some popular 3 month study programs
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
I disagree regarding above. Depending on your level of knowledge and how comfortable you are with the subject, some folks need more time. I'm one of those people who basic science background knowledge is lacking. I needed more time to really learn the subjects.

I do agree that the practice should be done for 2-3 months all the way toward your exam date.

I would just make sure you continue to refresh the previous things that you've learned so you don't forget them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Hi all. Im just starting to plan for my MCAT study. I plan to take the MCAT late March or April 2018. I'm planning to start studying around September. I know it truly is long term studying, but I am not interested in anyone who says not to study that long. I study the best long term and will have a full class load along with a part time job. That being said, what kind of study advice would you offer for a long term schedule? I have the Kaplan books, the Examkrackers books, and am planning to order the AAMC practice tests and question pack. I have looked at quite a few study plans here, but it is difficult to try to convert a 100 day plan to 7+ months. Any advice for a complete schedule using these resources is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
As someone who ended up studying that long, and did pretty well on the actual exam, I will say that most of this studying is a waste of time. Content review, honestly, was not totally worthwhile. It needs to be done, but take care of it fast. Don't get caught up on the little things. Your improvement will come when you start doing practice exams/section banks from the AAMC. The quicker you can start doing those, the better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Your largest improvement is going to be from doing questions and not content review. Anything over 4 months is overkill. You will hit a peaking point where it makes zero difference how long you study.
 
Honestly, I studied that long but I feel like it was the waste of time, as I only focus on practiced the questions on the last 3 months. I feel like I learned more from the last 3 months just doing tons of practice questions rather than spending significant amount of doing in depth content reviews
 
What are the best resources for practice questions besides the Kaplan Books and AAMC?
 
What are the best resources for practice questions besides the Kaplan Books and AAMC?

I used Khan academy's question banks. Set a timer for 90 minutes (or whatever is allotted per section of MCAT, I've already forgotten). Record correct/incorrect on a piece of scrap or white board. Grade yourself after, just quickly mark it down.

I second what folks said above: concentrate on mimicking the test environment and minimize content review unless you really need it. for me it was all about practicing taking the test.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
As someone who ended up studying that long, and did pretty well on the actual exam, I will say that most of this studying is a waste of time. Content review, honestly, was not totally worthwhile. It needs to be done, but take care of it fast. Don't get caught up on the little things. Your improvement will come when you start doing practice exams/section banks from the AAMC. The quicker you can start doing those, the better.
Thanks for the reply! I was planning on breaking it up into three section, with content review being the first and the last being lots of practice tests and problems. After reading all the feedback I may just start very lightly reviewing for the first 2-3 months of the 7 and then adopt a more intensive study schedule after that. I like to feel very comfortable with the material and unfortunately that takes me a long time!
 
I disagree regarding above. Depending on your level of knowledge and how comfortable you are with the subject, some folks need more time. I'm one of those people who basic science background knowledge is lacking. I needed more time to really learn the subjects.

I do agree that the practice should be done for 2-3 months all the way toward your exam date.

I would just make sure you continue to refresh the previous things that you've learned so you don't forget them.
Thanks for the feedback! I am one of those people who takes quite awhile to feel fully comfortable with topics, so 3 months is not enough time for me. I will also have a heavy course load and a job so I won't have the time to put in 6+ hours of study daily. Personally I think I would burn out faster with a schedule that intense.
 
I was going to do the same thing as you but I thought it would be too long and giving myself that much time would lead me to wasting time so that's why I'm aiming for January. If you start studying now you should be able to aim for Jan! (Just in case you don't do well you can aim for April)
 
I was going to do the same thing as you but I thought it would be too long and giving myself that much time would lead me to wasting time so that's why I'm aiming for January. If you start studying now you should be able to aim for Jan! (Just in case you don't do well you can aim for April)
Thats a good thought! It would be nice to be able to take it again!
 
I had a full class load with a couple part-time jobs as well. IMO this is the best strategy:

Review only rusty/new material while you are in school (that you will not cover in future classes.) Do all other content review during dedicated study time. You will forget everything you started studying in your first couple months by MCAT time; fruitless.

Ex: I hadn't seen psych., soc., or gen. chem. in 3 years, and I hated orgo., so I read through those subjects gradually through the fall into the winter and took some notes in my free time between class and school. Then when I began my 1.5 months of dedicated study (after classes were over), I was seeing all of my weaker subjects for the second time, and it made it easier. I actually did pretty well in the chemistry section, which was my weakest section at first.

That is the only amount of studying you should be doing before your dedicated MCAT study time IMO. Maybe take a practice exam for funsies here or there if you want. But that's it! Focus on your classes and gaining EC's.
 
Hi all. Im just starting to plan for my MCAT study. I plan to take the MCAT late March or April 2018. I'm planning to start studying around September. I know it truly is long term studying, but I am not interested in anyone who says not to study that long. I study the best long term and will have a full class load along with a part time job. That being said, what kind of study advice would you offer for a long term schedule? I have the Kaplan books, the Examkrackers books, and am planning to order the AAMC practice tests and question pack. I have looked at quite a few study plans here, but it is difficult to try to convert a 100 day plan to 7+ months. Any advice for a complete schedule using these resources is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Oh okay, so I guess those of us that have been through this shouldn't chime in on how to do well on the MCAT.
 
I studied about that long, but I was 5+ years out from most of the material and my undergrad physics didn't cover most of the material (less than half) so I had to teach/retract most of the stuff to myself from the ground up.

Wikipremed was great for me and it's actually about 6-ish months if you do one module per week. He even advocates in one of his videos studying that long.

I can't really vouch for his psych stuff as I didn't use it (that section was new when I took it so like everyone in 2015, I flew in blind).

I would use khan academy vids for ochem/biochem as they're a little more succinct for mcat purposes (he rambles on and on about mechanisms so they're good for one fast viewing).

He doesn't have a lot of biology type vids so you might want to supplement with khan here as well (or just read stuff because it's no big).

I didn't really follow his verbal/cars advice because I was already scoring pretty well without it.

His physics and chemistry lectures are second to none. The parts where I'm suggesting maybe supplementing khan still have a module and have parts of a curriculum you're following. But if it's not sticking go to khan.

Wikipremed is free. He sells some stuff if you want. The physics flash cards are worth it, but they're on the site for free.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Oh okay, so I guess those of us that have been through this shouldn't chime in on how to do well on the MCAT.
My apologizes, I misread your comment. Obviously I would love input from people who have been through this, or else I wouldn't have posted this question. However, I know how I study best and I am not interested in hearing about the 3-4 month programs as I know those would not work for me personally. What works for some doesn't always work for others, and I know how I learn. Thanks, but I am mainly looking for input from people who have taken the longer term approach.
 
My apologizes, I misread your comment. Obviously I would love input from people who have been through this, or else I wouldn't have posted this question. However, I know how I study best and I am not interested in hearing about the 3-4 month programs as I know those would not work for me personally. What works for some doesn't always work for others, and I know how I learn. Thanks, but I am mainly looking for input from people who have taken the longer term approach.
I understand you have your own approach, but you also have never taken a test like the MCAT where you bleed information as you learn it. Some people may be "long-term" learners like you but had to learn to adapt for legitimate reasons, yet those are voices you don't want to hear from because you think you know better than people who actually have taken the test.

The worst part in all this will be if you either fail the test after 7 months because you refused to listen or if you manage to get into med school and see how classes and the boards don't cater to you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
At the end of the day, you know what is best for you. Everyone learns differently and at their own pace. You can only study in whatever way you think is best for yourself. The second time I took the MCAT, I studied for 7 months (July-January). I used Kaplan for content review and then more Kaplan & AAMC materials for practice questions and tests. I made a schedule for what to study every day for those 7 months. I did content review from July-December. Usually I took 2 days to go over 1 chapter in Kaplan, reading the texts, highlighting, and taking notes until I felt I truly studied it enough. After making my way through all 7 books, I started reviewing and doing practice quizzes. I found the Kaplan flashcards to be IMMENSELY helpful. I did about 1 practice test a week in January, so about 4 tests before I took the real thing. Constant questions packs and quizzes from AAMC and Kaplan. I also made a master equation sheet for the physics/chem equations to memorize. Over the 7 months I also worked a full time job, but would still study about 5 hours per day. I was able to raise my score from 496 to 508 by doing all this and it truly worked for me. Again, do whatever you think is best for yourself. No one else knows the best way to study for you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I studied that long and if was a complete waste of time as it wasn't really until the beginning of the year that I really actually put any effort into it, and I can honestly say I learned the most in the last 6 weeks as I took 10 practice tests during that time and would review every question in between practice exams, along with the associated content.

I would suggest taking the test in May and then starting to really study on Jan 1. Also take as many practice tests as you can get your hands on, I personally did the Altius practice tests and thought they we're fairly representative of the real thing. I know some other companies have decent tests as well so ask around. I also worked part-time, took a full courseload (14 credits) and my wife was in a high-risk pregnancy during my studying so I can understand being busy. I scored 90%+ for reference.
 
Top