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

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 itwhich 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. With that said, I will aim to provide short, effective advice for those planning for the MCAT.

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 takingto 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 (edit: 14 BS, 12 PS, 11 VR, R on writing). 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 backgroundif you have an extensive background in the sciences, use Kaplan to review concepts youve 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 testsby the time you get to write the actual beast, the PS and BS sections will seem so much easier because youve 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 timedconditions. 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 daythere 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 youre doing wrong and make adjustments to your strategy to improve. Continue making adjustments until youre scoring at a consistent range (10-11). Learn to have the framework of the entire passage in your head before answering the questions.

How to destroy the MCAT with minimal study time (Part 3- General Advice and Test Day Tips)

Even if you've prepared well for the actual MCAT, there's still some things you need to keep in mind to ensure you can do your best on test day. I also included some general advice in studying for the MCAT. Just a reminder that all the tips/advice I give out are based on prior (copious) research, and selected for from personal experience as well.

General (Overall) Study Advice:

During the week(s) leading up to the MCAT, do full timed practice MCATs every day (except day before) to get you mentally prepared. This is where you would use the AAMC practice MCATs. 7 and on are the most representative of the real thing (more recent). If you have practice with Kaplan material (BS and PS), you will undoubtedly be able to breeze through those sections. Do nothing the day before the MCAT. At that point, any studying is futile and more likely to have a negative result. Take the day off to relax, sleep. Give yourself a long(er) time to study for Verbal Reasoning if you're struggling with it. Although I say "minimal study time" in my titles, you should probably give yourself ample time to study (at least 1 1/2 month in my opinion). Unless you enjoy tormenting yourself and burning yourself out for the entirety of the upcoming school year. I didn't do this- a decision I regretted sorely. It was miracle it all worked outanother story to come.

Test Day:
During the test- use every break to have a snack, a quick drink, stretch go to the bathroom. Distract yourself from the previous section and start to focus on the next one while getting some nourishment (energy bars with tea work great). Quick (5-10 seconds) breaks between passages- a lot of people recommend this, and has worked for me as well. Great for re-tuning your focus. Don't bring any study material to the test site, because:

 Only increases your anxiety as you would frantically go over stuff that you don't need to memorize anyways. You would look like a noob. Seriously.

Figure 1. Artistic representation of people's faces when they saw the girl with 17 sheets of study material 20 minutes before the MCAT

Unless you're writing next to a construction site, don't bother with headphones. The obvious one- get a good night's sleep the day before. ...and that's the end for my useful posts on the MCAT. Good luck. Part 3- Done. Matt

How I destroyed the MCAT with minimal study time- a rage comic post

After all the useful posts about "How to Destroy the MCAT with Minimal Studying", I decided to write about how I actually got through with minimal studying. In 2010, I decided to take the MCAT in May, giving myself exactly 18 days to study for the MCAT. In hindsight, it was stupid and insane- I originally planned on studying during the school year, but second year was too much so that all went to hell... but thankfully, things worked out better than I expected.

Here is a graphical + text representation of how the studying went down:

Figure 1. Started studying for the MCAT

Figure 2. Days 1-10- Reviewing general chemistry, physics, biology section, and solving problems for each section.

Figure 3. Day 11- First practice MCAT (Kaplan)- PS 7 BS 10 VR 7. Printed out dozens of practice exams for PS, and went through those for the rest of the day.

Figure 4. Day 12- Second practice MCAT (Kaplan)- PS 13 BS 9 VR 10. For the rest of the day, solved PS problems, started on VR and BS as well.

Figure 5. Day 13- Third practice MCAT (Kaplan)- epic fail, PS 8 BS 6 VR 9. For the rest of the day, solve BS problems until some sort of hemorrhage.

...and the rest: Day 14- Practice MCAT- PS 9 BS 7 VR 9. Continue practicing BS, PS. ***Massive panic- realized I've barely practised for verbal reasoning. Day 15- Practice MCAT+ rest doing VR practice. Day 16- D-4. AAMC MCAT #10, started mental prep for the actual thing. Day 17- D-3. AAMC MCAT #8. Verbal reasoning still not good. Day 18- D-2. Still in panic for verbal reasoning, resulting in 4 EK VR exams in a day. NOT a good idea (Refer to Part 2 of MCAT series). End of studying.

Figure 6. D-1- Dead for the entire day.

D-Day- The MCAT was a traumatic experience and my memories of it started to come back weeks later.

Figure 7. Self-portrait after writing the MCAT. As you can see, it was a mad, frantic rush of desperation and frequent bouts of hopelessness and depression.

But by the end...

Figure 8. After receiving test scores three weeks later. Thanks to all my previous research and the resources I got from that research, I somehow pulled it off... but this approach is too risky, and I think (and I should have as well) anyone should put aside at least 1.5 months to prepare (up to 4 depending on your major). In the end, I ended up studying ~8 hours per day, totalling ~1800 pages of work while completely fried by the end of the day, every day.

Thanks for reading, good luck!

How to destroy the MCAT with minimal study time (Part 4- Putting it All Together)

In my past posts I focused on strategies for each section of the MCAT as well as the best study materials/tactics. I noticed that a lot of Google search words that lead people to this blog are something along the line of: average mcat study time, how to study for mcat in a month studying for MCAT in a month did well on the MCAT with minimal study ...and a lot more. These are actual search words I get from Traffic Sources statistics. So I thought I would elaborate a bit more on how to really destroy the MCAT with minimal study time (<1-2 month) based on my (and other's) experience, and why it works: Acquire a very large amount of practice tests, both full-length and sectional (as in my previous posts, I prefer Kaplan for science sections due to its difficulty and EK 101 for its awesomeness). As you solve through the questions, your mind begins to form a sort of database of patterns, questions & answer types/stems that's typical for each section of the MCAT. There are only a finite number of types of questions and answers that can be used in an exam like the MCAT- over time, your subconscious and/or conscious mind begins to recognize similar patterns, questions/answer types and solving them becomes easier. After a certain point of solving & registering a large number of said patterns & types, you begin to realize that all the other questions types will basically be derivations of previously seen patterns and types. If done over a short period of time, there is greater retention of the "data"- you remember more of the patterns and types. At the end, you will be able to intuitively solve & pick out answers. This is how I improved my score- by solving through a very large number of practice questions, I improved my "MCAT intuition". I solved through the following: 5 online full-length tests 10 paper full-length tests

8 sectional tests on paper for each BS, PS, VR + 12 EK 101 Verbal tests ~13 topical tests for subjects I was weak on (electrochemistry, thermodynamics, etc) 2 AAMC tests Paper tests totalled ~1800 pages. ...in 10 days. I solved all my questions using the methods I wrote in previous posts, and alwaysunder timed conditions. For some of them I even solved 2, 3 times as I went through and reviewed wrong answers/particularly bad tests. Solving through so many questions in a short period of time really helped me see "through" the MCAT.

I always say (IRL and on premed101) that "studying" and memorizing the material helps very little for exams like the MCAT- but rather solving through as many questions as you can (or as many as you can get your hands on) is the best way to go, not just for short-term but for long-term studying as well. This holds true for undergraduate exams as well- I think most will agree that solving past exams and sample questions works best for midterms & finals in university. A method like this may not work for everyone, but probably will for most with a good grasp of English (VR would not work out well using my method for someone who struggles with English).

Figure 1. How I feel after answering inquiries regarding MCAT studying.

A final caveat: if you think you will be unable to commit yourself entirely, don't go for short-term studying. If you're writing after < 1 month of studying, you seriously have to go all out crazy (like 8+ hours per day crazy) or you'll have a bad time.