<p>I am a Senior in high school, and will be attending UCSC in the fall. After taking SAT's i have discovered that I am not a good test taker. I would like to get as much practice as I can to be prepared for the MCATs in college. Can anyone recommend a good time to start studying for the MCATs, because I know that I must take the premed classes to get a good base in the subjects, and then start studying.
THX!</p>
<p>2-3 months in advance of the test is all the time you need. </p>
<p>If you aren't a good test taker (which is a pretty vague term), taking a commercial prep course such as Kaplan would be extremely advisable. As a former Kaplan instructor for the MCAT, my favorite lessons to teach were the test taking strategy sessions - Kaplan has 3 three-hour lessons dedicated to working on test taking strategy which focuses on everything from how to read MCAT passages to attacking questions, pacing yourself, etc. (they even have strategies on how to bubble in grids for accuracy and speed but considering it's all on computer now, that's less important). The big thing about those strategy sessions though is you absolutely must allow yourself to be coached by the instructors. The strategies aren't always easy to make habitual, and so a lot of students didn't benefit as much as they could b/c they'd get frustrated and revert to their old ways which had gotten them that far. So it's really up to you to make sure that you learn them, practice them, and then use them effectively.</p>
<p>One summer or one semester (4 months) before you plan to take the test is fine.</p>