How to destroy the MCAT with minimal study time (Part 1- Study Material and Strategies)

Update (7/18/2014): Commenting has been disabled- it's been more than 4 years since I wrote the MCAT & I don't think I should continue giving out random advice & the new MCAT will render a good chunk of my MCAT-related writing obsolete. Good luck to everyone, regardless.

Prior to writing the MCAT after my second year (summer, 2010), I had been researching on the MCAT and its “secrets” for over a year. It was almost as if I knew I would have very little time to study for it—which was fortunate, because I really did have very little time to study due to previously unforeseen circumstances. All the prep I did prior to actual studying helped minimize the amount of time needed to do well on the MCAT, which is why I always stress the importance of research.

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.”

Best Study Material

Using the most effective study material is probably the most important factor in studying for the MCAT (other than actually studying). There are significant differences between major test prep companies and their materials, with some obviously being better than the others. After thorough, thorough research across premed forums (SDN, premed101), I was able to determine optimal material for each section of the MCAT as well as corresponding study strategies.

***Important to note: You will not succeed on the MCAT by memorizing all the facts, formulas, minute detail in prep books. Understanding the concepts outlined and correctly applying them on the test material is the only approach you should be taking—to do that well, you need ample practice with the best material.

But wait, why should you listen to me?

Good point. Short answer is- I studied for exactly 18 days before my MCAT. My scores were in the top ~2% percentile. I will elaborate on my story in a later post- it is a thrilling tale; I wish to do it justice.

Learning the Material

This really depends on your background—if you have an extensive background in the sciences, use Kaplan to review concepts you’ve learnt before as the Kaplan prep books are not overtly detailed and provide a good general overview of the concepts. If your background is not in sciences, I would recommend Princeton Review (Or even Berkeley Review, but those are hard to come by) for their detailed outline of the material. As long as you understand the concepts, you should be fine.

Practice for Physical Sciences (PS), Biological Sciences (BS)

For the two science sections, Kaplan practice tests are the way to go. In terms of difficulty (on average):

Kaplan PS, BS > Actual MCAT >>> AAMC practice tests

Other test prep companies fall somewhere below the actual MCAT. Kaplan is consistently cited as having the most difficult practice tests—by the time you get to write the actual beast, the PS and BS sections will seem so much easier because you’ve spent all your time tackling passages and questions that were significantly harder.

Study Strategy

• Work through as many practice test as you possibly can.
• After a few practice tests, you should do all your practice under strict timed conditions.
• For every question you answer incorrectly, read the solutions manual and completely understand the concept behind the question before doing any more practice.

In my case, I worked my way through about 10 practice tests each for PS and BS. On the actual MCAT, I had a decent run through PS, breezed through BS. After endless hours of ripping through countless practice tests, I found that I understood the concepts much more clearly and could easily see through the passages and questions to find the answer.

Verbal Reasoning (VR)

Practice. Only practice, and learning from your mistakes & adjusting your strategy accordingly will help you here. However, the gold standard for VR practice is the Examkrackers 101 Passages, as well as their VR strategies book (Verbal Reasoning and Mathematical Techniques). Every other test prep companies fall way below EK with regards to difficulty, accurate representation of the actual MCAT and quality practice questions.

Strategy

This is the EK strategy for approaching VR:

(adapted from premed101)

1. Read the passage critically (attack it like you are a professor reading a student's work)

2. Take a 5 second break before each passage, including the first one. This helps you to maintain focus on the passage.

3. Read every word.

4. Try not to go back to the passage so much (they recommend doing a few passage questions without reading the passage at all, to show that you can gain a lot of info from the question stems and answers themselves)

5. Do the passages from start to finish. You have to read every single passage and attempt to answer them.

6. Don't get caught up on the hard questions - if you aren't finishing on time, then you have to learn to give up and move on.

The above strategies are excellent (and has worked very well for many people), but eventually you will find your own personalized method of tackling VR passages. In terms of studying:

• Do not use more than one practice test in a day—there are only ~14 (golden) EK practice tests available, you want to maximize their use by spreading them out.
• After each practice test, look to see what questions you answered incorrectly, assess what you’re doing wrong and make adjustments to your strategy to improve. Continue making adjustments until you’re scoring at a consistent range (10-11).
• Learn to have the framework of the entire passage in your head before answering the questions.

Part 1- End. My score breakdown: 12/11/14/R (PS/VR/BS/WS)

Part 2 will discuss the Writing Sample (WS) as well as general advice.

Matt