<p>Do not retake - from what I've seen, nobody seems to care much for admissions purposes. I personally think this is silly of med schools, but that's been my experience.</p>
<p>(Sad for me. That was the best section of my MCAT.)</p>
<p>Co-sign with BDM...</p>
<p>Agree that writing is always important, but I didn't do so hot on my essays. </p>
<p>Definitely not so big of issue as to necessitate a retake with the rest of your score being what it is.</p>
<p>Attention to those considering January 2007 MCAT for entrance in 2007:</p>
<p>Many medical schools will not accept it for consideration. See the official list from AAMC <a href="http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/january2007mcat.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/january2007mcat.htm</a></p>
<p>The problem - I think - is one of timing.</p>
<p>The Jan. MCAT is dramatically late for admissions that same year, and would actually be taken after the vast majority of deadlines (which are already very late) would be taken.</p>
<p>Consider this: the August MCAT (scores back in October) of the year before were considered a significant handicap because of how late they are. Imagine what a January (scores back in Feb) test date would do.</p>
<p>my school says take it during junior year</p>
<p>hey, im sure this has been answered by many people in this thread.. but i bought the kaplan '07 MCAT book, and then someone told me kaplan is really bad for MCAT prep. has anyone used the kaplan books and can you tell me what you think of them?</p>
<p>I used them along with the course and found them very helpful.</p>
<p>I used Kaplan for my prep and ended up teaching MCAT prep for them for about a year. I thought Kaplan was great, but I probably have some bias.</p>
<p>A lot may depend on where you are, when you take the course and who the instructors are. It also may depend on your own expectations. I had several concurrent classes with students from three rather different universities (one a known private, pre-med factory, one state flagship, one state commuter university), and the reviews of my performance were largely dependent on which university the student was at.</p>
<p>Bigredmed, out of curiosity, could you describe the reviews of your instruction from each type of university(or student thereof)? I am just wondering how the students' impression relate to their corresponding school.
Thank you!</p>
<p>I took Kaplan this past summer and I thought it helped alot. It mainly is best just because it structures your studying, continually reinforces material in the classes, gives you access to a ton of practice materials(which you will use towards the end, trust me). I also took a look at a Princeton review book I'd bought a year earlier and I thought kaplan's methods were definately superior. The course is definately worth it though rather than just the single book they sell in stores but to each his own.</p>
<p>Bigredmed, I was pretty much set on taking Princeton until I read your post on how Kaplan might become more valuable since the new mcat's computer-based. </p>
<p>I know nothing about the specifics of instruction of either. But are you implying that Kaplan traditionally uses a more computer-based approach than Princeton?</p>
<p>No that's not what I'm saying - I'm just saying that Kaplan does a lot of prep for exams that have been on computer for a significant length of time. A quick look at their respective websites it looks like Kaplan does prep on a few more computer based tests than TPR. TPR doesn't prep for DAT, OAT or PCAT, all medical-based professional school admissions tests that are on computer. Whether that matters I don't know, but it's something to take into consideration.</p>
<p>for mcat prep, I'd suggest Kaplan right now solely because you have access to around 15 computer practice MCATs. I'm taking Kaplan right now and as much of a hassle it is to study, the online resources available are great and accurate.</p>
<p>What exactly do you need to know on the MCATs? At my school, as a biochemistry major, were not required to take biology II, nor was it a requirement for pre-med. We statisfied the two years of biology with biology I and cell biology and physiology.
Also what exactly do we need to know for physics? If it's only high school physics, would it be fine for me to just self study the physics and delay my physics course in college until my junior year while taking the mcats after my sopomore year?</p>
<p>Depends on what "Biology II" was. My school's equivalent ("Biology 26S") was very evolution/diversity/ecology heavy, which would not have been useful for MCATs.</p>
<p>And physics is definitely below AP-level.</p>
<p>Mark19. sorry I missed your post...from way back when.</p>
<p>My own reviews were very positive from the Flagship U (my alma mater), pretty good from the commuter school and pretty miserable from the pre-med factory private. I'd also rank my enjoyment of the classes in that order based the proportion of students from each school in the class. The pre med factory kids just tended to be very uptight, very goal directed with little patience for my stories about going out, getting hopped up and making some poor decision, or the ridiculous mnemonics I'd try to come up with. Pretty much no fun in my opinion. (I'm still just a little bitter).</p>
<p>I had a quick question in regards to the structure of the writing section. Kaplan breaks it down into three basic tasks...explanation of prompt + example, counterexample, and something else. It's this third task I'm having trouble understanding. Often times he'll tell us that the third task is the most important but he won't explain what it entails. So my question is just that, on any MCAT prompt, what is the third task asking of us. Thanks.</p>
<p>The third paragraph is the most important one. We call it the synthesis paragraph. Basically, at this point, you provide an example of the prompt being true, an example of the prompt not being true, so your third task is to write WHEN the prompt is true and untrue. This is often tricky because people get tangled up in logic errors.</p>
<p>Topic: "Statement"</p>
<p>Par #1: "Sometimes this statement is true. Here's an example."</p>
<p>Par #2: "Sometimes the statement is untrue. Here's an example."</p>
<p>Par #3: "This is the rule that determines how you tell whether the statement is true or untrue for any given example."</p>
<p>yeah, that's it. It's the most important because that paragraph shows you actually understand the prompt.</p>
<p>You'll get more instruction/coaching on the writing sample in future classes, including a list of standard criteria you can use on almost any prompt. Part of the trick to the WS is picking examples that give you some room to work with...</p>