When to study for/take MCATs

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hey, I hope starting a new thread is okay. This seemed too specific to put in the general MCAT thread. </p>

<p>Anyways, when do you suggest that I do most of my studying? I'm a rising junior, and a double major (Bio and Psych). Here's what my class schedule looks like so far, though I'm still tweaking it (each class is about 3 hours of lecture per week, plus labs):
Fall:
Orgo II (w/ 4 hour lab each week)
Physics I (w/ 3 hour lab each week)
Either Ecology or Immunology (w/ 3hour lab each week)
Psych Stats (w/ 3 hour lab each week) </p>

<p>Spring:
P-chem (w/ 4 hour lab each week)
Physics II (w/ 3 hour lab each week)
Psych Disorders
a Bio tutorial (no lab, but I'd have to write either a paper and critique each week, or alternate paper/critique--not sure of the format yet)</p>

<p>I also tutor Bio and Chem, do EMT shifts, am an EMT TA from around Nov-March, work at the library, and will probably continue doing psych research with the prof I worked with this summer. So yeah, quite a bit! ^^;;</p>

<p>I have a month long winter session where I only take one class. Would that be enough time to do most of my studying? It's during this time that I would do most of my EMT TA-ing (4ish hours a day, 6 days a week if I remember correctly from last year), but I could drop that if I had to. </p>

<p>I plan on taking the test in the Spring, by the way. Should I wait until the summer instead? I would much rather be doing research than studying for MCATs then, and I'm afraid it would be a little late. </p>

<p>Man, I hate scheduling/time issues. Suggestions please? I admit that I haven't talked to the pre-med advisor yet, but I'll get on that as soon as the semester starts! </p>

<p>So, to sum it up: I have a really busy schedule. Here are my basic questions: 1. Should I drop some of my jobs/extracurriculars to study?
2. Is one month a sufficient amount of time to study if that is pretty much all I do? (I'm hoping for a yes here, and my problem will be solved! Haha.)
3. Should I wait and take the test in the summer instead?
4. Almost a completely different issue, but I'm considering taking a year off after finishing undergrad. Would this make these issues null? And any thoughts on this? </p>

<p>Thanks so so much!</p>

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<p>End of summer MCATs would delay your applications unnecessarily. You probably want six to eight weeks to study; four is cutting it pretty close. Four weeks full-time might be enough, but it's close.</p>

<p>Taking your year off would help some. It would mean you'd study for the exam during second semester senior year, for example, or towards the end of this summer, or something like that.</p>