Okay, so this is going to be a very long post, get ready. But also, get excited! If you are reading this as a viewer stopping by or as a pre-med student, take these things I say below with a grain of salt because these are things that I did which worked for me. This means that they may or may not work for you but they can be a great starting place/ guideline to focus and hone in your MCAT study plan. So, let’s get started.
I took a Kaplan prep course, in which I received 60% off by applying through Kaplan’s Starting Line Program (things they don’t tell you. Trust me, Google is your best friend! There are always discounts for high-achieving, low-income students). Yeah, so, I applied the summer between my sophomore and junior year and I also applied to FAP, which I discuss in this post (it gave me 15 schools free to apply to amongst MANY other benefits; check out my post). So anyways, I received both discounts, yay for discounts!! You will soon understand how expensive the process is when you apply. I would recommend applying to these programs in the same time span that I did (which was the summer between my sophomore and junior year) because government money goes fast and the earlier you apply, the better!
So, I took the Kaplan prep course, which honestly, was not that helpful. I took the course in Spring 2016, so the second semester of my Junior Year in preparation for the June 18th MCAT date. LOL! I don’t know what I was thinking but I’m going to teach you many lessons throughout this post:
Lesson 1: It’s okay to change your MCAT date if you do not feel ready. Please do not take the MCAT if you are not ready, but also don’t stretch it, I don’t think anyone is ever 100% ready for the MCATs!
Lesson 2: The same semester that you take the prep course (if you don’t take it during the summer or winter of course) taking Physics II, Research Methods, Evolution and Behavior, Organic Chemistry Lab, doing research 10 hours a week, serving as co-Activities coordinator on Charles Drew Minority Pre-Health Society, serving as the Captain of the Pretty Girls Sweat chapter at Binghamton University, amongst other things is NOT the way to go about things to really study hard for the MCAT. So honestly, I really was not studying during the MCAT prep course like I should have. I did not have time. The only “studying” I did was attend class. My life :’) Lol, do not do what I did!
Lesson 3: The MCAT is a marathon, not a sprint (as my boyfriend so often chanted in my ear). Don’t try to do everything and do everything at once. You need to slow down and plan out your study schedule. You need to jog, not sprint. Your hard work will pay off in the end.
Okay so enough with the lessons for now. I took the MCAT prep course which taught me to skip to the discrete questions in each of the sections first before doing the passage based questions, then also how to do some long division (because if you didn’t know we don’t get calculators on the MCAT—but don’t worry you’ll get better with hard work if you aren’t math savvy like me :)); the format of the test (which is really important), and how to tackle certain questions (which honestly, I did not remember while really buckling down and studying for the MCAT in the summer of 2016). This brings me to my next two lessons:
Lesson 4: The MCAT prep course will BARELY, and I mean BARELY go over content review. So if you are looking for that, don’t. It will teach you formatting, the basics, and sometimes, unrealistic goal setting of reading 10 chapters in a week amongst other assignments like homework plus being a student and being active on campus. So, personally, I would not recommend anyone to take Kaplan’s prep course unless they get it at a discount/reduced price or for FREE through a won raffle. The course is $2300 (in person, which is how I did it) and it is honestly not worth that much. What is worth that much are the ONLINE RESOURCES and the content review books that you get if you buy them separately or take the course. From the videos to the practice tests (lol, we’ll talk about these later), to the flashcards to the complementary AAMC (the test provider) resources, I ABSOLUTELY loved Kaplan’s online component. This brings me to my next lesson:
Lesson 5: Studying for the MCAT is an independent task, catered to you and your strengths and what you are and are not good at. You shape your studying to suit you and no one else’s. Do not compare your progress to anyone else’s because this is no one else’s race in the testing center except your own. With that being said, if you decide to take the Kaplan course, if Kaplan’s content review format does not work for you, make it work for you! Kaplan tends to jump in and out between subject books, and personally, that did not work for me. I need to stay reading one subject at a time before I move on, so that’s the way I did it. But, everyone is different! Make sure to cater your study plan specific to you.
Let’s backtrack. Okay. As a matter of fact, let’s deep breathe first.
Did you breathe?
Mmmh
Okay good.
Let’s continue:
You will need to do something called “content review,” which is reviewing all the material (or essentially all the material) you learned in your prereq courses over the past 2-3 years in college. To do this you will use your 7 Kaplan (or any content review) books. The subjects covered are as followed:
Okay, so I am going to quickly summarize what I did from May 24th July 9th, 2016 (the day of my MCAT, yay! Not really, but yay!):
A week or so after school let out for the year, I read three-four chapters a day out of the content review books. I thoroughly read through biochem, biology and psych. Each of the Kaplan content review books have 12 chapters in them so in 3-4 days, I would be done with one book. It took me about 2-3 weeks to finish those three books. (Sometimes I just wasn’t up to reading three chapters a day; you do the math! :)).
Towards mid-June, I began reading through General Chemistry and Physics. I also read a little bit of CARs here and there on the train on my way to my full-time summer internship (what a life, LOL!), and I read through a little bit of Orgo, but I loved orgo, so I barely read through that. Instead, I watched the online Kaplan videos for orgo and some of biochem to go over carboxylic acids, major reactions, etc.
In total, I would say, I spent 1 month on Content review. Disclosure: I was stressed working a full time internship and trying to study for MCATs, but I did it, and so can you! If you are reading this blog post, there are really no excuses, you already believe in yourself and you want this so get it! You got it. You have people like me in your corner praying for your success.
Pre-med students on the web (I love googling things if you did not already know) say to spend about 3-4 months studying for the MCAT, and I did it in 7 weeks (almost two months, but not really). I was STRESSED, like STRESSED. I had multiple breakdowns every week and I just kept pushing myself. Why? Because I knew what I wanted and nothing was going to stop me.
I changed my original MCAT date from June 18th to July 9th because there would have been no way I was finishing content review in a week after school let out and took 4-5 practice test a week (LOL, that would have been crazy!) So, I had 7 weeks to knock this all out. I took my first real practice test a week and a half out from studying and it wasn’t good. It was not good at all. I was so disappointed in myself and my score and thought, “I should know this, I should know this.” I questioned my capabilities and why I got that score. This brings me to my next lesson:
Lesson 6: Practice is everything! I took 11 practice tests in total, sometimes 1-3 per week up until July 4th. I thoroughly went through every single question either the same day I took the test or the next day to see why I got questions right or why I got questions wrong. Taking practice tests and doing practice questions are everything but reviewing the test is a major key. You need to really understand your thought process and how to improve it, to not only make you arrive at the correct answer, but also to be quicker in answering questions. Through every Kaplan practice tests, I was either happy with my improvement or sad with my stagnation. I would either improve in one section, decrease in another, have a soaring jump in score one week, and a decrease in another, and I was just a mess. But you do need to realize, again, this is a marathon, not a sprint! I too often thought I need a perfect score and thus, did not want to give myself a break or acknowledge my minor improvements. You NEED to give yourself a break, even if it seems like you don’t have time. You NEED to make time! Trust me. I had major breakdowns, to the point where I questioned why am I doing this anyway. I had SO MANY people cheering me on and rooting for me, but inside I was burnt out and I didn’t want to cheer myself on. I took a weekend two weeks out from my exam to literally do nothing. I just chilled. I didn’t touch a book and I was refreshed for the next two weeks ahead. I had major improvements in my following three exams that I took and I was reading and understanding questions better.
So, lesson 7: take a break when you need to!
A note on practice exams:
I took (8) Kaplan practice test (Oh, Kaplan, why must your practice exams be so hard! I’m telling you now, Kaplan is no joke, it stressed me out :(. I believe Kaplan has the hardest practice exams out there which can be really discouraging as you study or push you to study even harder, like me. Reverse psychology, Kaplan? Mmmh. Touché. Anyways, I can speak to how I felt about Kaplan on a more personal level if you all want, just drop a comment below).
(1) Next step prep exam (I absolutely loved this exam! I took the first free one which you can register for here:____. I wish I practiced more with Next step’s tests. I really felt like I knew things taking this exam, lol. Try it after taking 5 Kaplan practice exams, you’ll see what I mean. And if you have the time and money, I would suggest buying a couple exams after the first one, and using this along with Kaplan or even to substitute some Kaplan exams.)
(1) AAMC Graded practice test (make this your ¾ point test. You should take this exam 2 weeks out from your real thing. It gives you just enough time to see what you need to work on as well as mark where you stand.)
(1) AAMC Ungraded practice test (make this your last one, it models the real exam so well! Yay test makers, I love you all.)
The CARs section
This was my most difficult preparatory section on the MCAT. Everyone wants to know how to improve his or her CARs score section! Here are a few tips:
I took a Kaplan prep course, in which I received 60% off by applying through Kaplan’s Starting Line Program (things they don’t tell you. Trust me, Google is your best friend! There are always discounts for high-achieving, low-income students). Yeah, so, I applied the summer between my sophomore and junior year and I also applied to FAP, which I discuss in this post (it gave me 15 schools free to apply to amongst MANY other benefits; check out my post). So anyways, I received both discounts, yay for discounts!! You will soon understand how expensive the process is when you apply. I would recommend applying to these programs in the same time span that I did (which was the summer between my sophomore and junior year) because government money goes fast and the earlier you apply, the better!
So, I took the Kaplan prep course, which honestly, was not that helpful. I took the course in Spring 2016, so the second semester of my Junior Year in preparation for the June 18th MCAT date. LOL! I don’t know what I was thinking but I’m going to teach you many lessons throughout this post:
Lesson 1: It’s okay to change your MCAT date if you do not feel ready. Please do not take the MCAT if you are not ready, but also don’t stretch it, I don’t think anyone is ever 100% ready for the MCATs!
Lesson 2: The same semester that you take the prep course (if you don’t take it during the summer or winter of course) taking Physics II, Research Methods, Evolution and Behavior, Organic Chemistry Lab, doing research 10 hours a week, serving as co-Activities coordinator on Charles Drew Minority Pre-Health Society, serving as the Captain of the Pretty Girls Sweat chapter at Binghamton University, amongst other things is NOT the way to go about things to really study hard for the MCAT. So honestly, I really was not studying during the MCAT prep course like I should have. I did not have time. The only “studying” I did was attend class. My life :’) Lol, do not do what I did!
Lesson 3: The MCAT is a marathon, not a sprint (as my boyfriend so often chanted in my ear). Don’t try to do everything and do everything at once. You need to slow down and plan out your study schedule. You need to jog, not sprint. Your hard work will pay off in the end.
Okay so enough with the lessons for now. I took the MCAT prep course which taught me to skip to the discrete questions in each of the sections first before doing the passage based questions, then also how to do some long division (because if you didn’t know we don’t get calculators on the MCAT—but don’t worry you’ll get better with hard work if you aren’t math savvy like me :)); the format of the test (which is really important), and how to tackle certain questions (which honestly, I did not remember while really buckling down and studying for the MCAT in the summer of 2016). This brings me to my next two lessons:
Lesson 4: The MCAT prep course will BARELY, and I mean BARELY go over content review. So if you are looking for that, don’t. It will teach you formatting, the basics, and sometimes, unrealistic goal setting of reading 10 chapters in a week amongst other assignments like homework plus being a student and being active on campus. So, personally, I would not recommend anyone to take Kaplan’s prep course unless they get it at a discount/reduced price or for FREE through a won raffle. The course is $2300 (in person, which is how I did it) and it is honestly not worth that much. What is worth that much are the ONLINE RESOURCES and the content review books that you get if you buy them separately or take the course. From the videos to the practice tests (lol, we’ll talk about these later), to the flashcards to the complementary AAMC (the test provider) resources, I ABSOLUTELY loved Kaplan’s online component. This brings me to my next lesson:
Lesson 5: Studying for the MCAT is an independent task, catered to you and your strengths and what you are and are not good at. You shape your studying to suit you and no one else’s. Do not compare your progress to anyone else’s because this is no one else’s race in the testing center except your own. With that being said, if you decide to take the Kaplan course, if Kaplan’s content review format does not work for you, make it work for you! Kaplan tends to jump in and out between subject books, and personally, that did not work for me. I need to stay reading one subject at a time before I move on, so that’s the way I did it. But, everyone is different! Make sure to cater your study plan specific to you.
Let’s backtrack. Okay. As a matter of fact, let’s deep breathe first.
Did you breathe?
Mmmh
Okay good.
Let’s continue:
You will need to do something called “content review,” which is reviewing all the material (or essentially all the material) you learned in your prereq courses over the past 2-3 years in college. To do this you will use your 7 Kaplan (or any content review) books. The subjects covered are as followed:
- General Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Physics and Math
- Biology
- CARS
- Psychology
Okay, so I am going to quickly summarize what I did from May 24th July 9th, 2016 (the day of my MCAT, yay! Not really, but yay!):
A week or so after school let out for the year, I read three-four chapters a day out of the content review books. I thoroughly read through biochem, biology and psych. Each of the Kaplan content review books have 12 chapters in them so in 3-4 days, I would be done with one book. It took me about 2-3 weeks to finish those three books. (Sometimes I just wasn’t up to reading three chapters a day; you do the math! :)).
Towards mid-June, I began reading through General Chemistry and Physics. I also read a little bit of CARs here and there on the train on my way to my full-time summer internship (what a life, LOL!), and I read through a little bit of Orgo, but I loved orgo, so I barely read through that. Instead, I watched the online Kaplan videos for orgo and some of biochem to go over carboxylic acids, major reactions, etc.
In total, I would say, I spent 1 month on Content review. Disclosure: I was stressed working a full time internship and trying to study for MCATs, but I did it, and so can you! If you are reading this blog post, there are really no excuses, you already believe in yourself and you want this so get it! You got it. You have people like me in your corner praying for your success.
Pre-med students on the web (I love googling things if you did not already know) say to spend about 3-4 months studying for the MCAT, and I did it in 7 weeks (almost two months, but not really). I was STRESSED, like STRESSED. I had multiple breakdowns every week and I just kept pushing myself. Why? Because I knew what I wanted and nothing was going to stop me.
I changed my original MCAT date from June 18th to July 9th because there would have been no way I was finishing content review in a week after school let out and took 4-5 practice test a week (LOL, that would have been crazy!) So, I had 7 weeks to knock this all out. I took my first real practice test a week and a half out from studying and it wasn’t good. It was not good at all. I was so disappointed in myself and my score and thought, “I should know this, I should know this.” I questioned my capabilities and why I got that score. This brings me to my next lesson:
Lesson 6: Practice is everything! I took 11 practice tests in total, sometimes 1-3 per week up until July 4th. I thoroughly went through every single question either the same day I took the test or the next day to see why I got questions right or why I got questions wrong. Taking practice tests and doing practice questions are everything but reviewing the test is a major key. You need to really understand your thought process and how to improve it, to not only make you arrive at the correct answer, but also to be quicker in answering questions. Through every Kaplan practice tests, I was either happy with my improvement or sad with my stagnation. I would either improve in one section, decrease in another, have a soaring jump in score one week, and a decrease in another, and I was just a mess. But you do need to realize, again, this is a marathon, not a sprint! I too often thought I need a perfect score and thus, did not want to give myself a break or acknowledge my minor improvements. You NEED to give yourself a break, even if it seems like you don’t have time. You NEED to make time! Trust me. I had major breakdowns, to the point where I questioned why am I doing this anyway. I had SO MANY people cheering me on and rooting for me, but inside I was burnt out and I didn’t want to cheer myself on. I took a weekend two weeks out from my exam to literally do nothing. I just chilled. I didn’t touch a book and I was refreshed for the next two weeks ahead. I had major improvements in my following three exams that I took and I was reading and understanding questions better.
So, lesson 7: take a break when you need to!
A note on practice exams:
I took (8) Kaplan practice test (Oh, Kaplan, why must your practice exams be so hard! I’m telling you now, Kaplan is no joke, it stressed me out :(. I believe Kaplan has the hardest practice exams out there which can be really discouraging as you study or push you to study even harder, like me. Reverse psychology, Kaplan? Mmmh. Touché. Anyways, I can speak to how I felt about Kaplan on a more personal level if you all want, just drop a comment below).
(1) Next step prep exam (I absolutely loved this exam! I took the first free one which you can register for here:____. I wish I practiced more with Next step’s tests. I really felt like I knew things taking this exam, lol. Try it after taking 5 Kaplan practice exams, you’ll see what I mean. And if you have the time and money, I would suggest buying a couple exams after the first one, and using this along with Kaplan or even to substitute some Kaplan exams.)
(1) AAMC Graded practice test (make this your ¾ point test. You should take this exam 2 weeks out from your real thing. It gives you just enough time to see what you need to work on as well as mark where you stand.)
(1) AAMC Ungraded practice test (make this your last one, it models the real exam so well! Yay test makers, I love you all.)
The CARs section
This was my most difficult preparatory section on the MCAT. Everyone wants to know how to improve his or her CARs score section! Here are a few tips:
- Whether you received FAP, take a Kaplan MCAT prep course, or buy the Kaplan online resources, you need to do a CARS passage, or two, every night. Like you really need to. The more you practice and immediately review your answers, the better you will get! Side note: I learned this a little too late, (about 2 & ½ weeks out from my exam) but I got better and better with every practice passage and exam thereafter. This section is tough, but all the answers are in the passage! It’s really the best section to rack up points in (this and psych)!
- Use your finger or a pen to help you read faster! The CARs passages are dense and you need to read everything between 3-4 minutes, so you can have 5-6 minutes to answer the 5-7 comprehension questions that follow each passage. This is why I am stressing practice a cars passage every night.
- While reading, think after every paragraph, what was the author trying to say, what was the argument, what is the main point?
- Before moving on to the questions, take 10 seconds or less to think about what the author was trying to tell you and what was the main idea of the passage?
- When you move on to questions, go back to the passage! Don’t think you remember, always double check; the answer choices often overlap!
- A note on highlighting: you have the option to highlight and strike out on the MCAT. Do not, I repeat, do not abuse these tools. You often forget things you highlight, so highlight the bare minimum. I would suggest highlighting these key things:
- A new name or idea being introduced
- An author’s view/opinion (which is rarely obvious, so you shouldn’t be highlighting)
- An unfamiliar word
- Important dates
- A switch in tone
- Anything you feel in your gut the test makers could ask you based on the ambiguity of the phrase, or if it reads like a central or unifying idea.