How do I get to the meat of the MCAT?

Pre-Med & Medical School MCAT Prep
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<p>Title.</p>

<p>I wasn't the best student in undergrad, but I continually improved and graduated with a 3.4 and am now looking at medical schools and spending my summer studying for the MCAT. My scheduled date is sept. 12th and will have a part time hospital job coming up in mid july that will detract from studying some. So with my college classes, I found what helped me do the best was to force myself to hit the hard stuff. A lot of people just like to go over the basic stuff and read the book again and tell themselves they know everything about particular topic, but then when tested on it, they can't apply the basic principles to more complicated stuff. From undergrad I feel I have the basic concepts of everything on the test (except verbal) and took a mcat prep course this last semester before graduating. I have a kaplan course lined up with books, the exam krackers prep books, and mcat 45 book at my disposal. So far I have just been doing the basic exam krackers readings and quizzes prior to starting my kaplan course, but so far I don't feel like I am gaining any new knowledge. The readings are pretty brief and all of it is stuff I already know, except maybe for a few biology sections. I got the Mcat 45 to hit the hard questions later, but I want to push myself now and start feeling like I am getting somewhere instead of wasting time on refreshers. Already I'm kind of switching my study plan to just quit reading, only if needed on something I truly don't remember, but instead just do a ton of practice questions and when I get to a question I know nothing about, study that type of problem. Say for a physics ramp question, go back and find every formula needed for a ramp question and make sure I know how to solve variances of that type of question quickly and effectively. </p>

<p>Does this sound like a good strategy?<br>
Should I get to the hard stuff here soon and start filling my notebooks with equations and all sorts of practice questions? </p>

<p>I think this method would work for physics and chem as you only need to know a certain amount of related type questions. And with biology too as if I don't understand some topic on hormones, I can review my books and youtube videos and other sources to get all the background info to help me on the endocrine system. The only flaw I see as OChem as you can't study every situation but must know the general trends and rules associated. Verbal is a different story that I plan to study a lot over.</p>

<p>What do you guys think? I am really just trying to hit those hard type questions early because I know they will be on the mcat and I want to set myself apart from the average. I took a practice before and got a 26 with 10 on physical, 9 organic, and 7 verbal. Much of the stuff feels like review so I am really just trying to get to the hard concepts and trickle down on easier formulations of the question. Thanks for the advice everyone.</p>

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<p>I may not even be a freshman in college (yet), but to me, it looks like you already have your study plan.</p>

<p>Exactly what you stated, do.</p>

<p>Practice makes perfect. I know when I was taking AP Physics, the more problems I was exposed to was better and what helped was knowing which formulas to use on every type of question and how to use those formulas effectively without wasting too much time.</p>

<p>It sounds corny but a good tip is, on every question write down what your given, and find out what they want you to find and then find the best formula. For the mcat it’s probably a little more complex than that, but i feel it’s something to start with.</p>

<p>So far, the only thing I WOULDN’T do is take Reading out of your schedule. MCAT is like a marathon, you need to train in all areas for your body to be prepared. Continue reading even if you do some passages a day with analyzing annotating and understanding answers. It builds up. Work on your weak areas.</p>

<p>You say you keep doing refreshers. I say quit the refreshers and start hitting the ball out the park. Tackle difficult problems, hit the Kaplan already, and see where it is that you have faults. Get USED to real MCAT questions and their difficulty. </p>

<p>I think if you follow your study plan, strictly, with discipline, you’ll be at a 30-31 by September.
Enjoy your studies. </p>