Other Resources For Studying

Hey friends!

Here's my two cents on a few common resources available for studying for the MCAT.

• Quizlet: a lot of people use Quizlet in college instead of making actual flashcards. My best recommendation for Quizlet is this: if you don't already use flashcards when you study, don't bother starting now. The MCAT is at its heart a quick thinking, critical reasoning test. The only real rote memorization it rewards is on free standing questions, which obviously do not make up the bulk of the test. The first time I took the MCAT, I made Quizlet decks for certain topics that I knew would come up that were 100% memorization, like NMR shifts, amino acids, hormones, etc. I didn't even bother the second time around. The point is, in my opinion, you don't need Quizlet or to make flashcards if that isn't how you study best. You're going to need to know topics like the ones I listed, but you will memorize them through sheer repetition from doing practice problems and tests already. Flashcards will be overkill and take away from more effective ways of studying in my opinion.

• The Khan Academy: this wasn't available for the old MCAT and was just released through a partnership with AAMC for the new MCAT. USE THIS RESOURCE. I didn't start using this until about 2 weeks before my exam and I totally regretted it. It has so many great resources in it: detailed video descriptions, hundreds of practice passages and problems, and very detailed answers and reasoning for everything. I highly recommend this for the psychology and sociology section for students who do not have a psychology background like myself. While I used it more for the chemical and physical section, I perused the psychological sections and found they did a thorough job in explaining topics that were not covered well or at all in my TPR material. Don't make this your only resource obviously, but make sure to utilize this as a source for extra problems and quick and easy clarifications (especially since it is endorsed by AAMC).

• Student Doctor Network: I would steer clear of this as much as possible. While I would cautiously recommend this site once you get to the application process, this in my opinion is not a good resource for the MCAT. While there are plenty of threads on the site dedicated to MCAT topics and questions, to me there is no way to get clarification on the credentials of a lot of the sources, and it is not an accredited, established MCAT source. Stick to companies and websites that are established and devoted 100% to MCAT.

• AAMC website: this goes without saying, utilize every single thing available that AAMC has to offer. As of now (June 2015) there is very little available compared to what was available for the old MCAT, but definitely take advantage of any practice tests and sample questions they offer, and keep checking the website for updates. Also, a good resource (more for FAQs and procedural/official questions) is the AAMC Twitter Feed. It offers links on how to study, responds to any user's questions, and posts dates for score releases, deadlines, etc.

Hopefully this helps! These are the main resources I wanted to mention, but if there's any other resources I didn't touch on, let me know and I can talk about those in more detail!

~If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere~

Off Days

Hey friends!

There are no ifs, ands or buts about it: the MCAT is a pain in the butt. For roughly three or so months you are going to have a full time job of going to class and studying if you have any hope of doing well.

However, just as important as the studying is taking time off to maintain your sanity. The first time I took the test, I broke up my time by doing a little bit of research over the summer (only for a few hours a week), going to the gym a few times a week to stay fit and relieve some stress, and spending the rest of my down time with my boyfriend goofing around like doing movie dates, watching Netflix or going to a trampoline park. The second time around I basically did the same thing, going to the gym every day, did yoga once a week, and setting aside one or two nights a week to do absolutely nothing MCAT-related, whether it was going out to dinner with friends or doing wine/Netflix/Cards Against Humanity night with my roommates.

The point is, work hard but don't kill yourself. It's okay to go out and get drinks or take a day off for a holiday. It's not going to make a difference between you getting a 500 and a 528. More importantly, it's going to allow you to de-stress and be well-rested and well-prepared for when you get back on the study grind.

My best advice is this: spend what little free time you allow yourself with the people you love and who are going to bring out the best in you (whether it's your significant other, your friends or your family) doing relaxing things you enjoy doing. It'll make surviving this exam that much easier. 



~Stay hungry, stay foolish~

Who To Study With

Hey friends!

There are a few other topics that relate to studying that I hoped to offer my two cents on since they worked so well for me. One of them is who to study with.

Let me preface this by saying that if you are already set in your ways on how you like to study (i.e. alone, with a buddy, in a group, etc.) then 100% stick to what works for you. This is not the time to completely change up your study habits. But if there's people out there like me who can study in almost any environment and are maybe looking for some guidance on what might work for the MCAT, then I'm here to offer some advice.

So, onto the topic at hand. In my opinion, studying for the MCAT is best done either 1) with a study buddy who is NOT studying for the MCAT with you, or 2) alone. Here's my thoughts on why these two approaches worked so well for me, and why they might work for you.

1. Studying with someone who is NOT also studying for the MCAT. So, here's the thing. Most pre-med students can be a pain in the behind to study with. This is old news. We're a hyper-competitive, cutthroat bunch all striving towards the same goal: getting the best score possible and crushing the person next to us. I remember sitting outside my MCAT classroom, waiting for class to start, and having to listen to other classmates go on and on about how far ahead they were in the schedule/reading, their scores, how many practice tests they were taking, etc. and it drove me crazy. All of this sounds like a very stressful scenario, no? So, why force yourself to study in an environment like this? For the majority of the studying for all my important standardized tests thus far (2 MCATs and 1 NREMT exam for EMT license), I studied with only one other person, usually either my boyfriend or one of my best friends at UCLA who was also a psychobiology major but not pre-med. Having these people to study with gave me companionship, someone to talk and vent to if needed, and no extra anxiety or distractions specifically related to the MCAT. And, most importantly, they had my best interests at heart. I didn't have to worry about hearing about any bragging from how they were doing on the MCAT stuff, because hey they were normals (actually my boyfriend at the time was pre-med as well, but he was a year ahead of me and aced the MCAT so he actually often gave me tips and help, so that was a rare benefit of studying with a pre-med:) ). They also knew when I was super stressed out and would often offer to go grab me food or coffee or make me take a break when it looked like I was losing it, something I know no other pre-med would offer to do. Point being: if you are going to study with someone, study with someone who truly cares about you and wants the best for you. It'll help out immensely. 

2. Studying alone. If you don't like studying with someone who's not taking the MCAT, then my next best suggestion is to study alone. This is because of the same logic as the previous paragraph. I am an incredibly competitive person, and I know being forced to study with other hyper-competitive people who really don't have my best interests at heart would not serve me well in the long run for studying for this test. So, if you can't find a study buddy, go it alone. You'll have less distractions and you again won't have any hard core pre-meds driving you crazy.


Hope this helps! Again, this is not the end all be all, just some thoughts that worked for me that hopefully might be able to help some other poor lost souls out there



~I'm a great believer in luck, and I believe the harder I work the more I have of it~

Where To Study

Hey friends!

I touched on this in the last post on how I took practice tests, but I think it applies to most of the studying process in general and deserved its own separate post.

When I studied, especially while taking practice tests but also in general, I made a point to study in different places. I studied in different libraries on campus, in restaurants and food courts, in Starbucks and Coffee Bean, at my boyfriend's house, and in my apartment. I really studied everywhere!

I did this for a few reasons, some scientific and some psychological. First, being a psychobiology student, I learned early on in my psych courses that students retain information better when they alternate their study spots. This is because, without getting too detailed, the brain forms associations based on your surroundings. So, if you study in different environments, you are giving your brain more chances to make subtle associations and retain the information you're studying better. All this is saying basically is you're more likely to remember the biochem chapter you were reading when you were at that Starbucks last week one time compared to the person who spends every single day studying in the same corner of the library with straight monotony (and if you don't believe me, look it up! It's quite an interesting topic--here's one site that talks about psychological research on the topic by a UCLA professor http://blog.icm.education/study-tip/study-tip-of-the-week-keep-your-study-environment-varied/).

The other reason I switched study spots frequently was for psychological reasons, or for what I would call "mastering the intangibles." You never know what kind of environment you are going to get on test day. I've taken three different standardized tests in Prometric Centers (2 MCATs and one for the National EMT exam). My first time it was blazing hot, with all the students in the room taking different tests and starting at different times, so there was lots of movement, noise from keyboards and proctors, and it was uncomfortably hot. The second time I brought a sweatshirt but left it in my locker, only to find that my seat was right under the AC vent, and I was shivering in my seat counting down the seconds until my break when I could get my sweatshirt.

The point is you never know what test day is going to throw at you. What you can do is prepare for the worst by studying and taking practice tests in perhaps less than ideal environments. Wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants on a hot day for one test. Wear a tanktop and shorts on another one. Study in a quiet coffeehouse to mimic the possible moving bodies and low noise you might expect. By doing this, you are preparing yourself for most possible scenarios and giving yourself the psychological boost in knowing that whatever test day might throw at you, you're going be ready for it.


~Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm~

The New MCAT: How I Did Practice Tests

Hey friends!

So, here's a little background on how and when I took my practice tests and a few tips/insights into practice tests in general.

The first time I took the exam, I took 19 practice tests. The second time, I only took 11. This is mainly a function of me taking the new MCAT exam in May and there being a limited number of commercial tests available (compared to the old MCAT, where you could take 20+ different MCATs from different companies). The main point is this: take as many tests as you can take, within physical reason. Don't take them just to take them if you're not going to treat it like the real thing on test day. And don't take them every day either. It's okay to do back to back days every once in a while, or every other day, but be realistic and don't kill yourself. Think of it this way: on your actual test day, what did you do the day before? You hopefully did nothing MCAT-related and just vegged out as much as possible. You certainly didn't take a full-length practice test the day before. So think of that when taking practice tests. Try to do as many as you can, but within reason. You're a pre-med student, be smart about it.

In line with this thinking, my best advice is to take not only as many tests as you can, but from as many sources as you can. My first time, I did Berkeley Review tests (my prep course), old AAMC tests, and Gold Standard Tests. I highly recommend these last two. AAMC is the best resource you'll have, because this is the company making the real MCAT, so do as many of these tests that are available. I would suggest the last test you take to be the most recently-released AAMC test, because this will give you the most realistic score going into the exam of where you finally stand. Gold Standard is the other company. They are known for being notoriously hard exams, sometimes with material I had never even seen before (this was after a course and 15+ exams!). But I highly recommend doing these, if not in full then in the sections you are weaker on, because it will expose you to "worst case scenario" passages and help get the "oh crap how the heck do I do this passage?!?!" worries out of your system. Having taken the test two times, I can tell you this: without question, you will see something on exam day that you have never, ever seen before. It's there to test your problem solving skills of course, but also to test your composure and how you do under pressure in less-than-ideal circumstances. So, by doing insanely hard Gold Standard tests, you can give yourself the confidence boost to know that when it comes to those WTF moments on the test, you'll have the calm, cool and collected upper hand.

In terms of actually taking the test, I tried to mix up where I took my practice tests as much as possible. I took them in four different libraries on campus, a study lounge, a coffee house on campus, in my apartment, and even at Starbucks. The point in mixing it up was this: you never know what kind of environment you'll be in on test day. You don't know what kind of distractions you're going to have, whether it's loud proctors, loud test-takers, doors slamming, freezing cold, blazing heat, people walking behind you and bumping your chair, your headphones not fitting properly, etc. So, prepare! Test in different places as much as possible. Mix up what you wear when you test, like wearing a sweatshirt or a tanktop, and see if you get really hot or cold when you test or if that even bothers you. The point is, there are going to be intangibles on test day that you didn't even know to think of. Any psychological upper hand you can give yourself will serve you well.

Furthermore, when you take your practice tests, take it like you're doing an actual test. While I did notes and read and did practice problems listening to music, I always took my tests the same way: with big Bose noise-canceling headphones and ear plugs, because that's how test day is. I also stuck to the strict breaks and didn't give myself any leeway, sometimes even going straight through without breaks to see where my limits were. There's no point in taking practice tests if you're not going to do it like the real thing. Don't take long food/TV breaks in between, don't go outside and walk around, don't take a 20m bathroom break, don't listen to music or play on your phone, etc. You're only hurting yourself by getting in a routine that won't be available on test day.

Finally, the actual tests. I didn't start taking them until towards the very end of my course, and spent the majority of the time in between the course ending and the actual test day just taking tests. Many companies tell you to start taking tests early to gauge where you're at, but I personally disagree. Here's why: these practice tests are as close as you're going to get to the real thing. Why waste them by taking them early on in the course when you haven't learned all the material yet? These aren't going to be an accurate reflection of your mastery of the material, and may even psychologically psyche you out (which is the last thing you want for a beast like this). This is even more so for the new MCAT, where there are less tests available to "waste." For the old MCAT where there were dozens of tests floating around for people to take. Now (ie as of early June-July 2015), there are the ones that come with your course, the one or two provided by AAMC, and the few provided by Gold Standard and other companies that are still just releasing materials for the new exam. But in the end, do what you are comfortable with. If you want to take one early on or halfway through the course, go ahead, it's not going to kill you. But be smart with your resources and don't waste practice tests.

Here's a screen shot of my tests, you can see my progress and the ups and downs that are going to come when taking practice tests.

*Note: these scores were good but not great indicators for my progress because at the time I was preparing (Feb-Apr 2016) AAMC had not released score charts and percentiles yet. 

When I took my tests, like I said, I did it in real conditions, ie no music, ear plugs/headphones, and strict breaks. After each test, I would go home, chill out on the couch, turn on the TV or some music, and go over the test I just took. I would open up a Word document and write out any problems I missed or areas I wanted to focus on, eventually seeing patterns in my weak areas and strong areas that I could then focus on during my off days or cheat days. Similarly, I had an Excel document where I broke down the subsections (ie for CARS questions could be about inference, main idea, tone/attitude, structure, analogy, strengthen/weaken an argument, etc...each company defines questions differently but all use the same methodology) and how I did for each one (ie for a practice test i was 10/10 on main idea questions but 1/5 on inference questions) to really pinpoint my weak areas and pay more attention to those topics that consistently gave me trouble.


That's that for practice tests! If there are any questions, hit me up by email or in the comments!




~If Plan A didn't work, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet. Stay cool~

The New MCAT: How I Studied

Hey friends!

As you all know, the new MCAT exam is a totally different beast compared to the old one. It's scored differently, it's longer, it has a completely new psychology/sociology section, and a much heavier emphasis on biochemistry, just to name a few of the key changes. Nevertheless, I found in comparing how I studied for the old vs. new MCAT exam not much changed in the way I approached things.

However, before I go further into exactly how I studied, I would like to start off with a big, important preface: this is what worked for me. The key to doing well on this test is staying in your comfort zone and minimizing the amount of stress, anxieties, distractions, etc. that are bound to come with preparing for such an important exam. So if what I say works for you, fantastic, I'm happy that the tips I offer are of use. If my methods are not conducive to how you learn best, do not worry. Everyone learns in different ways, whether its through reading, repetition, writing out notes, typing out notes, verbal instruction, visual instruction, studying in groups, studying alone, etc. All I can offer is what worked best for me and a few tips that, after two go-arounds and plenty of heated discussions with my fellow pre-med friends, I think are of use to the majority of people studying for this exam.

So, without further ado, here is how I studied for the new MCAT!

For the old MCAT, I did the standard classroom course with instructors that come with practice tests and a mountain of books. For the new one, I decided to do online self-study using The Princeton Review. I did this because in my opinion, the benefit of an in-person classroom setting is getting the insider tips and tricks on how to master the exam, i.e. how the timing works, how to recognize traps and patterns, process of elimination methods, etc. Having already done it once, it didn't make sense to do it again for my 2nd test. However, for anyone taking the new MCAT for the first time, I highly suggest not doing self-study and taking an in-person classroom course. Even though they often covered material I already knew, it was beneficial in learning the tips and tricks and having a knowledgeable group of instructors I could ask questions to (which you can't get with online/self-study).

In terms of actually studying, I started by using the provided class schedule that TPR provided to study. Each day had an assigned topic with reading, online problems, amplifire (only a TPR thing) and book problems. I started with this schedule but then strayed to my own schedule about halfway through my studying because 1) I had less time (2 months) than most people set aside for studying and 2) I had already covered a lot of the material from my past studying for the old MCAT and therefore focused on the new psych/sociology material that was completely new to me. However, for anyone taking this the first time, I recommend just sticking to the schedule your course provides you with, it'll make things much easier and less confusing than if you try to do it on your own.

Here is how a sample day of studying looked for me. I would get up around 9-10am and head to campus to study. I didn't get back to my apartment until usually 10-11pm at night or later, with my only breaks being for lunch/dinner and usually a quick 45m-1h at the gym. My goal for each day was to either finish that day's assigned topic or to do/review a practice test (more on that later). I first started with reading the assigned chapter and taking notes by hand in a spiral notebook (I recommend one for each subject, keeps things more organized). In my note-taking, I used different colors to highlight different important things. For example, I used black for regular notes, blue for definitions, green for formulas/diagrams/reactions, etc, and red for the practice problems that were interspersed throughout the chapter. This way, it was easier to find things later when looking back and reviewing my notes, without the usual excessive highlighting that we all sometimes get carried away with.

**Quick soap box tangent alert** I am very opinionated about this last point in reading the chapters before doing problems. Many of the instructors I had for my 1st course said that doing the reading was not important and that doing as many practice problems as humanly possible was the best way to prepare. In my humble opinion, that's just plain silly. If you're doing problems without any knowledge of the material, what good is that? Is how you do on those passages really a fair representation of how well you know the material when you haven't even read the material? No, of course not!! If you read first, you won't have to keep re-reading the chapter like you would if you did problems and found things you had never seen or hadn't learned before. So, do what you will, but if you take anything I say to heart, let it be this: read the darn books! That's what they're there for and that's what you're paying an insane amount of money for!

Anyways, after taking notes, I would do as many practice problems as I could for that day, usually setting a deadline of 10:30-11pm as my "stop and head back home" cut-off. I always tried to do each passage without using my notes, then while going through and reviewing the practice passages, use a different color pen from all the others (like purple) to write in the margins of my notes. Here, I would write anything that didn't get touched on in the book's chapter, things I got wrong, topics/formulas that appeared fairly often, etc. to supplement my notes. I found that in doing this, I was basically creating a master study guide, and over time once I started doing practice tests, my notes were getting less and less "purple" because my notes were so detailed/strong that I didn't need them anymore.

I usually would head back home by 11pm and try to be in bed by 2-2:30am, in between finishing up any more problems I missed or cleaning up my notes. I tried to stick to as strict of a schedule as possible though (ie be on campus by 10ish, be back by 11ish, be in bed by 2ish) because it gets you in a good routine.

Finally, as daunting as this all sounds, I did give myself at least one/sometimes two "cheat days" where I took the afternoon or morning off to do whatever I darn well pleased, whether it was sleeping in or going for a hike or going out for drinks with my friends. This exam tests your sanity, and while you're going to be overcome by your inner pre-med monster telling you you need to study every waking minute of every day, that cannot and should not happen. You should try to treat this like a full-time job, but realize that you're human and you need time to decompress, and in the long run going to see a movie or going bowling one or two nights a week isn't going to be the difference maker between getting a 500 and a 532.

So, that's that for how my typical day of studying went! I'll talk much more detail about practice tests and other study topics (like how and who to study with, breaks, etc) in later posts. And if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment or email me!



~You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great~

Quick Review of Old MCAT

Hey friends!

So as I said earlier, I took both the old and new MCAT. While the old one is no longer offered, I would be remiss if I did not at least mention it briefly and how I studied for it in the context of how it shaped my preparation for studying for the new MCAT exam. So, here goes!

From the first day of my prep course to my actual exam date was almost 3 months exactly. My course lasted about 2 months, where I spent 2 hours in a classroom 6 days a week. My study schedule during the course was this: I would wake up around 9:30am, walk the convenient 10 minute stroll to my class at UCLA and be in class from 10am-12pm. I would then grab a quick lunch and power through studying until around 1am-2am every night (except for the days of the week when I didn't have class, those were basically my "cheat days", which I'll get to in a moment), only stopping for quick dinner, gym and shower breaks. On my days off, I would get up around the same time and work until 4-5pm, then take the rest of the night off for a well-deserved (and much needed break), spending time with my boyfriend and friends and trying to de-stress as much as possible.

The prep course I used for the old MCAT (The Berkeley Review) is a small course only available in California, but it's basically like any other course in that it has a schedule each day for what topics you learn, homework/practice problems, etc. so it is easily translatable to TPR or Kaplan. Every day I would go to class and take notes in a spiral notebook. After class, I took notes by hand from the book first before doing any of the assigned practice problems (I'll talk much more later on why I read first before doing problems). This was time consuming of course, and usually I did not finish until around dinner time, but it almost always gave me a solid understanding of that day's topic and allowed me to do most of the assigned problems without having to keep checking the reading for further clarification. Finally, I would try to do as many of the assigned problems before going to bed (1:30-2:00am always being my cutoff for being in bed with lights off), saving whatever I didn't finish for the next day or my "cheat days."

I took 19 full tests before taking my actual exam. Almost all of these were taken after my course ended in early August, only taking 3 (maybe 4 tops...it's been almost a year now) before my course ended. I'll talk more later on about why I think this is the best way to take practice tests. Below is a screen shot of my practice test scores (which I highly recommend keeping a detailed spreadsheet on every test and section to chart your progress and pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses).

*TBR are The Berkley Review tests (from my prep course), AAMC are the released tests from AAMC that I purchased through the website, and GS are Gold Standard tests, a private company with notoriously harder tests. The 4 red GS tests are from my "cheat days" when I didn't have the strength/energy/time to take a full test and just wanted to focus on my weakest areas (physical and verbal). Also, the TBR tests were annoying because they sometimes gave ranges of scores instead of a precise score, hence why TBR 5-8 have ranges.

*My final score: Physical 11 (about normal for my scores, maybe on the lower end), Verbal 7 (as you can see, an absolute train wreck compared to how I normally did), Biological 11 (again, about normal and maybe on lower end compared to how I was scoring at the end).

After taking each test, I would chill out on the couch and go through each problem, creating a word document and jotting down any problem that flummoxed me or I thought was tricky, so I could keep a catalog of things that were stumping me or that I just wanted to keep track of.

That's about all there is to say about my experience with the old MCAT. I'll get much more in detail about my study habits for the new test, so I'll summarize with these few highlights:

• I put in a lot of time reading and taking notes to build a knowledge base
• I waited until the end of the course to start taking tests
• I took as many tests as possible from as many sources as possible to try and be prepared for everything

If there's any other info you want to know about the old MCAT and how I studied for that, just let me know!



~Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time~