MCAT on a tight budget - best way to self prep?

[SickOfLaw]

By tight, I mean a few hundred bucks at most, spread out over a year. $50 here, $50 there.

I plan on taking the MCAT next April, so I have about one year. My prerequisites are also a good decade old (but the schools I've contacted say they don't care - a good MCAT score will be good enough for them). I will need a basic refresher for physical sciences.

How would you advise prepping? I figure I have about 360 hours of time (1 hour per day on average).

Thanks.

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[Lecter]

Damn, you're taking a whole year to study?

Biology - Campbell and Reece
Physics - Cutnell and Johnson
Chemistry - Zumdahl and Zumdahl
Organic Chemistry - McMurry

Buy the used copies of the 2nd newest editions. Everybody knows all they do is change the page numbers and cover photo from edition to edition.

 

[SickOfLaw]

Yup, a whole year. An hour a day, give or take. Only because I don't need to take the test any sooner.

Are those books all material-related rather than test-related? I'm feeling kind of lazy right now, and I was looking for materials that cover what's on the test and nothing more.

That said, I might wander down to the college bookstore and take a quick look at those books. If most of it sounds unfamiliar, I'll probably pick one up and give it a casual read.

Thanks for the info.

 

[hypnix]

By tight, I mean a few hundred bucks at most, spread out over a year. $50 here, $50 there.

I plan on taking the MCAT next April, so I have about one year. My prerequisites are also a good decade old (but the schools I've contacted say they don't care - a good MCAT score will be good enough for them). I will need a basic refresher for physical sciences.

How would you advise prepping? I figure I have about 360 hours of time (1 hour per day on average).

Thanks.

I would say try to buy someone's old EK or Princeton Review books. I believe both have extra information just so you have everything covered. I don't know why that guy recommended you to buy actual college textbooks...

 

[SDN2013]

Don't use textbooks other than for reference, it won't help that much unless you enjoy reading them. If you are self prepping, definately get a set of review books, (EK, Kaplan, TPR), any one of those sets are fine, and then buy some AAMC practice tests

 

[SickOfLaw]

So the prep books will cover all the science I need to know?

 

[Luxian]

So the prep books will cover all the science I need to know?

Yup! I was in your position... hadn't studied actual science in ten years, but I had a lot of good classes and advanced classes back then. I picked upthe Examkrackers books (those are the EK ones someone already mentioned). I almost didn't given the $100 price tag, but they were by far the best I'd seen. Then in eight weeks I scheduled out a couple hours a day so that I could cover all the material. I didn't quite make it through the orgo stuff, but all in all I did well.

All the prep books have example questions. You'll get a better sense of how much you need to prep after you've read a chapter and tried some of the questions. Take your time and you should do fine. And absolutely do NOT try to prep with textbooks. The MCAT is broad, but not deep, so you need to know just what to study.

 

[drcoxer]

you should get a bigger Kaplan type review book and then finish off with ExamKrackers. EK are the best IMO but it's nice to have a thorough review first from Kaplan. if your basis was that good, tho, then maybe you only need EK books.

by the way, you don't need to spend $100 on each EK book. go to their website, see what the latest edition is, and then get them from Amazon. Amazon is seriously half the price of the one listed on EK's actual website. OH and you'll probably get new books through Amazon, too! I got mine through Amazon and was expecting them to be used ones since they were so much cheaper. I got them in the mail and they were brand new! I mean, the pages were never even opened, still crisp, had the new book smell, no folds in the book...I think the guy just bought them from EK and then sold them directly on Amazon or something. Idk...i was really happy. I only bought the Gen. Chem and Physics ones and everything included was ~$70 (including overnight shipping since i was pressed on time to get the books. normal shipping would have been $10 less).

you also probably want to buy some of the AAMC tests on their website. they are $35/test, which is lame but totally worth it. these are JUST like the real thing...i just took mine last week and i was so comfortable with the format. no surprises at all...all my prep probably cost me...~$400. that included buying 7/8 of the $35/test from AAMC. much better than paying $1,600 IMO! you do get all those tests included in a Kaplan prep course, but the price doesn't makeup for $1200! but whatever, to each his own.

 

[Vihsadas]

You definitlely MUST buy all of the AAMC practice exams. The content review books are really just for content and there is no good reason for you to buy one completely new. All of the content that you need for the MCAT can be learned from the old books and then supplemented by the internet if you really are that short on cash.

 

[wizenedone]

I think OP should save some cash to buy atleast one big review book (Kaplan is ideal) and then definitely buy some (if not all) AAMC practice tests.

 

[RoadRunner17]

Berkeley Review books and AAMC exams. If you can find old copies of Kaplan paper exams from people who have taken the course already (like my roommate did) that aren't all marked up, you should get those.

 

[Luxian]

by the way, you don't need to spend $100 on each EK book.

Yeah, that was meant to be $100 for all of them. That's what I payed.

 

[Martin Prince]

Try Craigslist for the major review books. I was able to pick up a ton of material, including practice exams and audio osmosis, for about $40.

I've casually looked at several of the review books and they look mostly the same to me. Basic physics is basic physics no matter who is drawing the little pictures. I did find the ExamKrackers 101 Verbal and 1001 Physics and Chem series to be helpful, and those aren't too expensive (no explanations, just problems and answers).

The most important thing to have on hand eventually will be the practice exams. You should definitely set aside a budget for that.

If you pm me I can look around the storage closet to see if I kept any of the books. I can't imagine I'll spend any quality time with them anymore.

 

[physics junkie]

An hour a day for a year is a bizarre way to study. I don't recommend it. You'll forget what you learned pretty quickly unless you take notes to review on a very regular basis.

I used just the examkrackers books and it was enough for a mid 30 with 2-3 weeks of studying. You need to buy the AAMC tests--no two ways around it.

I sent you a PM.

 

[ryandote]

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[SN2ed]

First off, know that taking the MCAT costs $210. The most important thing you should buy for the MCAT are the AAMC tests. The next one would be getting as many practice problems as possible. I suggest picking up at least EK's 101 verbal and 1001 Bio book. I'm not sure about the other sections. The lowest priority would be finding cheap content reviewbooks. This is not to say that content review isn't vital, it is, but you could probably find most of what you need on the internet. Whereas finding practice problems and tests is a little more difficult. I prefer the EK set since they cover all the material you need and come with practice passages. Only because you plan on taking the MCAT next year, try going into your school's library and reading science journals, the economist, the new yorker, etc for verbal. Sometimes your library may even have MCAT content review books. As already mentioned, the key is doing practice problems. Then, based on yoru results, you can search the internet for the material you don't know.

 

[QofQuimica]

So the prep books will cover all the science I need to know?

Yes, but you may need to use textbooks as a reference if you have forgotten a lot. Memorizing your way through the MCAT sciences is definitely not the way to go. The MCAT tests critical thinking skills more than anything, though you must also have some basic level of science factual knowledge to go with those reasoning skills.

You definitlely MUST buy all of the AAMC practice exams. The content review books are really just for content and there is no good reason for you to buy one completely new. All of the content that you need for the MCAT can be learned from the old books and then supplemented by the internet if you really are that short on cash.

Agree, though I'd caution against using Wiki as a source.

OP, you can also take one free practice test each from the TPR and Kaplan websites. They'll try to convince you to take a prep course, but it's a good idea to see some other sample tests. My personal opinion is that the Kaplan tests are (were?) harder than the real MCAT, but I took it four years ago now. Maybe some of the more recent test-takers can tell you their thoughts about that.

 

[Vihsadas]

Just to back Q up, the kaplan tests are definitely much harder than the AAMC exams. The TPR tests are also harder than the AAMCs.

The Kaplan exams tend to increase in difficulty as the numbers increase. Kaplan 1 is easy (I think still harder than an AAMC exam though) and Kaplan 11 is basically impossible.

 

[tncekm]

Damn, you're taking a whole year to study?

Biology - Campbell and Reece
Physics - Cutnell and Johnson
Chemistry - Zumdahl and Zumdahl
Organic Chemistry - McMurry

Buy the used copies of the 2nd newest editions. Everybody knows all they do is change the page numbers and cover photo from edition to edition.

Don't use text books, too much reading for the MCAT.

If you need heavy content review get the TPR books that someone is selling from the course (not cracking the CBT). There is enough information there, and enough practice, to teach someone who knows nothing about the subjects and make them extremely well versed in them over the course of a year.

Like Vihsadas said, you definitely want to buy all of the AAMC exams, look to your library for the Kaplan's on paper (free at the library), and for extra practice the Gold Standard offers 10 CBT's for under $100.

Overall, you can expect to spend more than a couple hundred. But, it'll be worth it in the end! Just live even tighter than you planned on and you'll find the cash.... either that or borrow it from a credit card like I did until I can get some financial aid

 

[Baller Status]

go to the classified section of SDN for VR try to get EK and for everything else get TPR...ur set!