<p>I am currently a sophomore undergraduate and I am planning to take the MCAT for my first time in Aug 21, 2009. I am planning to take Princeton Review prep course from May 19 - July 30. During the course of the summer I am planning to dedicate average of 8 hrs/day for MCAT. Because I think verbal is going to be my only real weakness, I already started reading dense reading materials such as 'The Economist', 'The Wallstreet Journal' and some books.</p>
<p>Is this a wise plan and schedule? In other words, do you think it is wise to take the MCAT only 22 days after the last day of prep course?</p>
<p>All suggestions and comments are highly appreciated.</p>
<p>-Ubermusician</p>
<p>I'm a little concerned that it's too long, to be blunt. Courses are usually timed to have their students peak right at the end. "Only" 22 days actually seems like it might be way, way too long.</p>
<p>I agree with BDM. Three weeks is too long. Bump your MCAT date up by two weeks.</p>
<p>My plan is during those 22 days is to do practice exams from AAMC. Is it still a good plan?</p>
<p>Nope. You'll get enough practice exams from PR during the course. Any more and you risk burning out right before taking the MCAT, which is a recipe for not-good scores. You should take the MCAT once, and you should ace it.</p>
<p>are review courses too dense? would it be wise to take an online course during this upcoming spring semester, and then review on your own over the summer until your test date? (maybe earlier than august 21, 2009)</p>
<p>In my experience - which is very limited since I only studied for the MCAT once, using Kaplan's classroom course - Kaplan (and I assume Princeton Review) designs its courses in a certain way for a reason. You review basic knowledge, practice answering questions, and take full-length tests. This is all done so that at the end of the course, most students will be ready to succeed on the MCAT. More studying after the course ends, as Kaplan (and presumably PR) will tell you, is overkill and likely to result in burnout and therefore a lower score. </p>
<p>If you feel like you are not ready for the test at the end of the course, it's possible that you simply didn't put the necessary time in to adequately prepare.</p>
<p>Yeah, the classes are designed to prepare you to peak at just the right time. Kaplan takes your exam date into consideration along with your knowledge of the material. Once the class ends, you've reviewed the material and done practice exams at the most suitable times. If you do the work for the class, you'll be ready.</p>
<p>And I say this because I didn't do the work and ended up having to delay my exam a couple weeks, wasting money (Let's just say I studied around 100 hours over 10 weeks... yeah, I'm slack. I ended up studying 85 hours in 10 days right before my exam. It ended up working out, but it was an awful experience and I would highly recommend against it.)</p>
<p>Take the Kaplan class during the summer. Read for each section, do the review exercises. Study often on your own. Kaplan provides a wealth of information, you literally cannot run out of material and exercises to do, and if you make proper use of it you'll be fine. Knowing that you've adequately prepared will do wonders for you stress-wise as you head into the exam.</p>
<p>I'm a little worried about the phrasing of your post...that you plan on taking the MCAT "for the first time" Only take the MCAT if you feel prepared, don't go into it thinking that you can just retake it. Some schools don't care, but some schools do care if you retake...plus you really don't want to subject yourself to the MCAT twice.</p>
<p>You're only a sophomore, so have you taken biochemistry yet? I think biochemistry was really helpful, and I'm glad I waited until after my junior year because I think I learned a lot in my courses.</p>
<p>If you just took organic chem and that's fresh in your head, then you're right, it might be good to take the MCAT as long as you feel ready. Also keep in mind that you can reschedule, so if you're not where you want to be a month before your test, you can always push it back. </p>
<p>I took a month and a half between the end of my Kaplan course and when I took the test. I took kaplan with a busy semester, and was only scoring about a 30 on the practice tests...so I delayed my MCAT from June to July, studied on my own. I saw my practice scores go up from a 30 to mid to high 30s...I took the test in July and got a 34. So I'm really glad I waited until I was ready for the test...i really think my score would have been at least 4 points lower if I wasn't ready for the exam.</p>