MCAT study schedule

<p>I don’t think the three hours in class were meant to be every single day. I think I spent about three hours a day studying, plus three hours in class two days a week.</p>

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<p>That doesn’t sound like enough. How much are we talking about here?</p>

<p>Well, if you are taking the “classroom course” I assume that you have already paid for the lectures… in the classroom. ;)</p>

<p>^^^ I was thinking about shadowing 2 days a week, and volunteering 2 days a week. Each day that I do volunteer or shadow it will be for 3-4 hours. What more can I do over the summer?</p>

<p>I mean, the same activities that you would normally be expected to do over the summer – often working a research position, or holding a real job, or something like that. I was certainly working 40 hours a week, plus I signed on with an international service project for two or three weeks during MCAT season. The idea is that you need to be studying for the MCAT while doing everything else.</p>

<p>^^ I see, I can’t really get involved in research projects, because there aren’t any medical schools anywhere near my house. I guess I can try to get a cool internship somewhere. </p>

<p>I was thinking about applying to summer research programs, but they all said that they would need full-time research assistants. They specially said on their application that their research applicants shouldn’t be studying for the MCATs if they wanted to get involved in the project.</p>

<p>BDM there are two colleges that are located 1 hour from my house. Do you think I should contact professors at that school and see if I can get involved in their research over the summer. I go to school in TN, but these schools are back home. Would medical schools think its weird that I did research at other schools other than my undergraduate school?</p>

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<p>Yes, as you should be.</p>

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If that’s exactly what they said, then you were right not to apply (and you should have found something else). I assume they actually meant was that you should not be using WORK TIME to study for the MCATs, which is very reasonable and which you should be abiding by anyway.</p>

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Unfortunately that’s usually the case for premeds, meaning that most premeds don’t get to go home for their summers. Consider yourself lucky if you can.</p>

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<p>I’d guess…an extra 2-3 hours per topic, maybe. The idea is you’d read through the material for “Bio II” and then take a quiz over, say, digestion and circulation (I’m making that up a little bit)–so it’s broken down into manageable chunks, and each chunk takes probably 2-3 hours.</p>

<p>PERSONALLY I think it sounds like you’d be overpreparing if you did Kaplan and sn2ed, spending 6h/day for the entire summer working on MCAT stuff. </p>

<p>BDM makes a great point. Summers are a wonderful opportunity to learn more and do things you didn’t get to do during the school year. You’ll only have 2 full summers under your belt (and part of the one after junior year) when you’re applying (assuming you’re applying like many people do). To spend an entire summer working on the MCAT and “only” doing generic premed things in addition is probably not the wisest use of your summer, in my opinion. </p>

<p>For what it’s worth, summer after freshman year I hung out with my friends and family and had a 40h/week job waitressing. Summer after sophomore year, I studied abroad for a month, spent a month working, and returned to school a month early to take on a pretty substantial leadership position within Greek life and to volunteer. Summer after junior year, I did clinical research (paid) with an oncologist I’d shadowed and spent time developing the nonprofit organization I founded.</p>

<p>Did I do especially incredible things over the summer? Well, no, not in my opinion. But I certainly didn’t spend an entire summer studying for a test. And from recent experience, I can tell you that my activities and positions and research (many of these were developed over the summer too!) were what I spent time talking about in my interviews, not my MCAT prep strategy.</p>

<p>Take it for what it’s worth. You probably know by now that my strategy was to rely heavily on experiences to “make up for” a mediocre MCAT score, and that strategy definitely influenced my suggestions for you.</p>

<p>^^^ Thanks for the responses guys. You guys are right. If I just studied for the MCATs then I would get burned out. If I do research or other activities while preparing for the MCATs it will help me get my mind off the MCATs. I started contacting some researchers at nearby colleges to see if I can get involved in their research. Hopefully it works out and they let a student from another college do research with them. I also found a cool internship at a top law firm nearby that is offered to undergraduate students who want to work in health care field. Since I am a pol. sci major this could help me combine my interests in poli. sci. and medicine. Hopefully I can get into it.</p>

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<p>Huh. This sounds fascinating. Is there a link to a description of this?</p>

<p>^^^ I can’t find a link to it. But my parent’s were telling me about it. They heard about it from one of their friends who works in the law firm. </p>

<p>So I was already rejected from 1 research project at one of the colleges nearby. Apparently something about them not having any new positions available in their group and them not taking kids who go to other colleges. </p>

<p>Hopefully the other research P.I.s that I emailed will come through for me.</p>