<p>I just finished my 1st year of college (finished 1st year of both chemistry and biology). Should I be going over practice problems for chemistry and biology -- or is this too soon?</p>
<p>When should I start studying for the MCATs (assuming I'm on the 4 year plan)? Thank you!</p>
<p>If by 4 year plan you mean you will apply after your senior year, then I would not start studying until right after your junior year ends since you should take the test that summer. If you want to go straight out of undergrad, just slide it up one year.</p>
<p>By studying for your required classes you are studying for the MCAT. Other than that, leave it alone till a few months before you take the test. I am a believer in the test prep courses. They provide source material, structure, and testing modalities to gauge your progress. At a substantial price, of course. They have extended and compressed timelines. Pick the one that works best for you.</p>
<p>The most important thing that you can do now is to read widely starting now, read things that are outside of your comfort zone, read things that are boring. The reason you should read things that you find boring is because on the mcats you are going to encounter something that bores you but you are going to need to read actively to do well on that passage. For me reading humanities passages are really boring. So for the past couple of months, I have been reading books that I find really boring (Frankenstein, Les Mis, Wutering Heights…) BTW this strategy worked for me on the SATs. I went from a 630 on Critical Reading to a 750 (actual test) in 3 months of doing this.</p>
<p>I agree with Curm. about doing well in your pre-req classes. You have no idea how much easier it is to study for the mcats if you are really familiar with the science content. Going through the science content books for the MCATs is really boring because the material is dense. If you are familiar with the concepts than it should be a little easier.</p>
<p>Well I am familiar with the Chemistry/Biology section now that I’ve passed both classes (A’s in both). And I’ve skimmed (lightly) over EK and Kaplan and everything seems familiar.</p>
<p>Should I go over those books now and check out the practice questions? Or is this too soon?</p>
<p>dont start studying now, start 3-4 months before your mcat test date.</p>
<p>@Colleges, I’ve seen your suggestion “start 3-4 months before your mcat test date”( or something similar) several places. Is this the conventional wisdom? If so, I don’t buy it. The MCAT is testing us on BASIC knowledge and skills. These skills/knowledge should be “second nature”, as well grounded in our minds as spoken language or basic math. You acquire “second nature” skills by using them all the time. You can not expect to do well on a foreign language test by starting just months before the test, why should anything else be any different? Hey, I’m not picking on you, like I said, I’ve seen this before and have been thinking about it. :)</p>
<p>OP, to answer your question “When should I start studying for the MCATs?”, my opinion, for what it’s worth, is that you never stop. What I mean is that you have decided to pursue a vocation. This vocation utilizes a certain basic skill set. Once you take a course in one of these basic courses, you should learn it well and then never let it go. For example: start reading some journals in basic science or pick up your old textbooks and read a chapter whenever you have the time. I subscribe to Science and Nature(two journals) plus I subscribe to a feed of the MMWR (CDC) to which I am now addicted. In my opinion, only by constant use will these knowledge/skills become a part of you. This is what I have done and it works for me. :)</p>
<p>I also have the same question. I just finished my Freshman Year of college, but I will be done with all of my pre-reqs and two upper divs by next summer(physio and genetics). My plan is to study for the MCAT next summer because the material will be relatively fresh, but at the same time I am thinking of applying senior year because I will only be starting my ECs next year (Sophomore year).</p>
<p>Any tips? I really do not want to postpone the MCAT until Junior year because I am definitely going to forget lots of material.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/80275-mcats.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/80275-mcats.html</a></p>
<p>Plumazul–yes, I’d say waiting until winter of junior year to begin preparing for a spring of junior year MCAT (which is pretty standard) is conventional wisdom. Here are my thoughts on that topic:</p>
<p>For one, if you’re doing well in your pre reqs, there’s probably not a lot of extra benefit from doing problems and studying forever–to the point that you might even be wasting your time. If you learned how to do gen chem problems well during gen chem, spending time reviewing acid/base chemistry, electrochemistry, and stoichiometry is simply a giant waste of time. Same goes for physics–there’s only so much practicing necessary to get good at problems involving momentum or magnetism or radioactive decay, and you’ll do most of that practicing in class anyway. Essentially, if you’re doing well in your prereq classes, you’re already studying adequately–no need to do more.</p>
<p>For two, time spent preparing for the MCAT during your earlier years of college can be used much more effectively doing other things, in my opinion. As you probably know, there is much more to your candidacy than MCAT and GPA, and it takes time to develop the other aspects. Spending five hours a week (about an hour a weekday) doing unnecessary MCAT prep takes away from being involved on campus, developing your leadership skills, volunteering, shadowing, researching, or just plain relaxing. Medical schools are looking for people to fill their seats–not test taking drones. You’ll need to show you can do more than just take a test, and with limited time available (what with all your other commitments), spending your free time unnecessarily preparing could come back to bite you.</p>
<p>For three, you really just don’t need much more time than 3-4 months (or longer, if you decide to do the extended plan) to prepare. Yes, it’s a tough test. Yes, there’s a ton of strategy to learn. But really, by the time you’ve begun preparing, you already know the content–and content’s not even the focus of the test. All you’re learning is strategy and critical reading skills. The MCAT isn’t testing your knowledge about chemistry and biology and physics–it’s testing your critical thinking skills by using those subjects. Thus, there’s limited value to constantly reviewing content (which is what you’d be doing by going over Kaplan and EK books). </p>
<p>Keep your sanity. Enjoy your life. Preparing for the MCAT sucked and was pretty stressful, in my opinion. Why prolong it? 3-4 months is all you should need.</p>
<p>I would recommend taking the mcat in August or September after your second year. That means start studying right after your sophomore year in April/May. MCAT is just too stressful to have hanging over your head during your junior year. At worst, you can void your exam and retake in January or March.</p>
<p>For the science sections, I’d recommend start studying 4-5 months before your actual test date. It also helps to be doing some practice questions if you have time before that 4-5 month period, but you should not be slaving over practice questions until you actually start your focused studying. This is simply to get a good sense of which aspects you need to work on the most when it actually comes to crunch time. Some classes that I felt helped significantly for the MCAT science sections include physiology and biochemistry (these were basically mcat bio prep classes at my school except way more in depth), so I’d wait to take the MCAT after taking these classes.</p>
<p>I can’t comment much on verbal since I didn’t do nearly as well compared to the science sections, but as other people have mentioned, just get accustomed to reading something other than textbooks.</p>
<p>If you’ve been doing well in your premed courses, the mcat science sections will come naturally with practice!</p>
<p>What about the 1-2 year gap though? I’ll be around two years removed from studying Biology and Chemistry by the time MCATS roll around. Should I just still wait?</p>
<p>I agree with most of the posters here op, 3-4 months should be sufficient. I’d you are out if touch or feel you need more time then I wouldn’t go more than 6. Good luck.</p>
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<p>Disagree…many will not have taken enough science classes by that time frame. Wait until May of Junior year…also many on CC who took it after sophomore year scored far lower than they anticipated/expected.</p>
<p>Disagree. Best times to take it are the aug or sept after soph year or jan during junior year. May is cutting it close if something happens and you need to retake.</p>