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MCAT success in 30 days

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Recently a few people called to ask advice writing the MCAT. They had heard that I wrote the exam :

 

without an expensive course        

in about thirty days of preparation                                                  

and to good result.

Thought this would be a great fit with Squidoo, so for or better or worse, here's my 30 day plan for MCAT success.  Good luck!

                         Golden rules

Practicing old exams is everything ; Timing is everything else ; Knowing is less than half the battle (strategy is the rest); Better to do ok all around than super in places and poorly in others; Courses are best if you need motivation to study

Day 1 : Smoke? Suck? Stable? 

Know thy strengths and weaknesses  : Morning :  Go to Kaplan (find a center at www.kaplan.com) for a free diagnostic test. You'll simulate the exam and it'll be graded while you wait. 

Now for each section look at your scores and determine whether they smoke, suck or stay stable. They're stable if you're about average. They smoke if you're above 10. They suck if you're 7 or lower. Now you know what to study….

Day 2 : Plan your time one colour at a time.  Get a large sheet and divide it into thirty squares. Buy a few magic markers but go easy on the scents. Date each of the squares like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…you get the idea. Now divide your life the next month of your life into five colors :

Red : full practice exam from start to finish - full day (8)                

Blue : review smoke materials (5)                                                  

Green : review stable materials (5)                                              

Black : review suck materials (10)                                             

Yellow : eat, sleep, shower +/- significant other(s) (daily)

Notice how off time is hardest to see...that's because it's hardest to find, but still important to arrange everyday in order to avoid burnout say the day before the exam. 

At least every day's a different color. Look on the bright side…(a writer with humor this dry passed the exam, so you will as well)

RED days are all about exams.

Red days are red because they're the most important days of this schedule.
That's because the key to this exam is timing, or saving time. You need to :
attempt to get to every question
know when to cut your losses and move on to the next question
learn to read the questions first and the passage later (directed reading)
master the art of multiple choice. Here are a few good books for practice
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BLUE, YELLOW AND BLACK DAYS? THEY'RE FOR REVIEW.

Here's what review does not mean :
Reading a college textbook from cover to cover
Highlighting ad nausea
writing lengthy "study notes"
memorizing lots of detail (you've got medical school for that)

Try to make review days active :

Use high yield study guides targeted to the MCAT. Here are some suggestions :
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A special disclaimer about Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning is the section that gives most people blow off - who doesn't know how to read, right? The problem is that you get little time and lots of read and punished for focusing too much on the details. Many people do well on the science sections of the exam and get creamed by verbal reasoning. It's a problem because most medical schools have score cutoffs ("red flags") for each section. So a 15 in Biology and a 7 in verbal reasoning is worse than 10 and 10 in both

Here are some excellent verbal reasoning resources :
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MCAT : your music at work

Some like to study in unconventional ways and the particularly obsessive like to study at work, on the bus, during a jog....
if you learn by listening then try these links for audiobook references :
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the writers life

The writer's life%u2026

"Essay" writing on the MCAT is less taxing than the verbal reasoning section but the same red flag rule applies. Basically, they ask you to respond to some statement, often radical e.g. "Doctors should allow euthanasia" or "every good boy deserves fudge" . Folks who grade these essays are not looking for the next Oliver Sacks or Anton Chekhov. They want a series of paragraphs that conform to a strict set of rules. They want one concrete example and one counterexample, and anyone who does anymore or anyless than exactly this is penalized. To wrap it up, they want a more general rule about when one should agree or disagree with the statement (e.g. boys deserve fudge when they are nice and in need of a few extra pounds etc). Just conform and you'll do fine even if you weight your writing in large shovels and pounds of manure. Here are some more writer's tips for the MCAT :
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Day 30 : the day of

Time to hit this thing. Now that you've done all sort of practice exams (which tend to be harder than the real exam) you're ready and don't be convinced otherwise.
Arrive on time. Bring water, drink coffee but go easy on the bathroom breaks. Make sure to have lunch. Still stressed about the "day of"? Try these resources for great exam writing tips :
  1. http://www.usouthal.edu/geography/haywick/PDF/exam-tips.pdf#search='exam%20writing%20tips'
  2. http://www.oliversnotes.com/TopTenTips.html
  3. http://www.iamnext.com/academics/inclass/examtips.html

Day 31 : finito

You've showed the MCAT WHO IT WORKS FOR. Or vice versa. But either way, forget about it and forgot about the multicolored month you've spend in its service.
You're done and have a great excuse to celebrate. If you need a few more reasons look here :

by

cbuck060

VD is a medical resident in NYC

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