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MCAT Preparatory material recommendations?
- Thread starter amelie_1010
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Have you taken any practice exams? AAMC has some available. There are lots of great review materials, but remember that you've already done most of the course work to get you ready. Creating an MCAT study plan is largely about assessing your strengths and weaknesses and then creating a plan and sticking to it to decrease your weaknesses and polish your strengths.Hello!
I just finished my sophomore year and I am hoping to start preparing for the MCAT this summer. I'm wondering if I can get some recommendations on good preprratory material? I heard Kaplan was a good one. I'm a visual learner so review books that are paired with things like flash cards would be ideal. Also, don't know how likely this is but any YouTube channel recommendations?
As a side question, I've been having this certain concern for the past semester or so. I don't go to a name brand school, and my concern is how heavily do medical school admission teams weigh the school you go to? I'm honestly considering transferring for multiple reasons including this. Depending on the answer to this I will look at my other issues and determine whether to stick it out at this school or not, but it would be nice to know the opinions on this concern.
Thanks to anyone who answers
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You'd want to get ahold of the AAMC official materials before you actually take the exam. To start studying early, I'd suggest you master content review. You can accomplish this through a number of companies. Popular test prep companies that have great books for MCAT prep are NextStep or The Berkeley Review.
As far as brand name goes, attending a top-tier school with lots of name recognition is a big help for medical school admissions. A pre-med majoring in Biology from Harvard wins more points that a pre-med bio major from garbage college of arts and science. However, there is a caveat: it all comes down to your grades. If you attend a school without name recognition but have an incredible GPA (3.9+) then you should stay there. That's more than fine and will open more doors than performing poorly at a school with lots of name recognition.
As far as YouTube channels go, I'd suggest Leah4Sci. Her youtube videos were unbelievably amazing and straight to the point. She'd go over the topic she's discussing then a thorough explanation of how to solve the questions. Then, she'd end with a bunch of shortcuts, tips, and tricks to help you bypass all the busy work.
As far as brand name goes, attending a top-tier school with lots of name recognition is a big help for medical school admissions. A pre-med majoring in Biology from Harvard wins more points that a pre-med bio major from garbage college of arts and science. However, there is a caveat: it all comes down to your grades. If you attend a school without name recognition but have an incredible GPA (3.9+) then you should stay there. That's more than fine and will open more doors than performing poorly at a school with lots of name recognition.
As far as YouTube channels go, I'd suggest Leah4Sci. Her youtube videos were unbelievably amazing and straight to the point. She'd go over the topic she's discussing then a thorough explanation of how to solve the questions. Then, she'd end with a bunch of shortcuts, tips, and tricks to help you bypass all the busy work.
