premed

Mar 07 2020

The most time efficient way to prepare for the MCAT

The most time-efficient way to prepare for the MCAT

Here is a quick post about the method I used for preparing for the MCAT. I hope that you find this helpful and simple to implement. For many pre-meds, it is hard to get enough time to truly study for the MCAT. Most pre-meds find themselves volunteering, working, and with a full class load in any given semester. So how does the busy pre-med make the most out of their limited time to study for the MCAT? What studying method will give you the “best bang for your buck”? In this article, we will go over how to prepare for the MCAT in a time efficient way.

Alright, so you are crunched for time and don’t have the luxury to read through all of the MCAT test prep books you bought or go through countless hours of youtube videos. Where do you start and where do you focus your attention? The main key for preparing for the MCAT in a timely manner is to focus on your WEAKNESSES. This means you need to take a practice MCAT exam as soon as possible and see what your weak areas are. Once you know what areas you need the most improvement in, learn and practice whatever topics you missed during your practice exam. Then take another practice exam again to see if you improved in those areas or there are other weak points you weren’t aware of before. Try and get as many rounds of practice test and post-practice test studying in as possible.

Here is the simple method to follow:

Take a practice exam to learn what your weaknesses are.
Make a list of all of the topics that gave you trouble (ex. Redox reactions, optics, amino acids, etc.)
Review and practice all of those topics until you feel confident.
Take another practice exam.
Repeat

The practice exam is helpful to improving your MCAT score for several reasons. First of all, it allows you to see what the MCAT is like and the type of questions that it asks. This will let you learn and adapt your studying to the style of questions asked on the MCAT. Learning how to answer “MCAT style” questions is so important and honestly and underrated aspect to preparing for the MCAT. Also by taking the practice exams/questions you will be able to see what areas you are weakest in and therefore what areas you need to focus most on. When it comes to what practice test to use, I would of course reccomend getting the AAMC’s one as its the most accurate. However there are many other ones to use that allow more uses and are more affordable or even free. I personally did most of my practice tests using The Princeton Review’s practice exams that come with their main book. Also The Princeton Review also has an affordable set of high yield questions for about $25 which is another great source of practice questions to use called The MCAT Workout. Another source of MCAT test practice questions for only $25 is this book which offers 7 practice tests , with 5 in the book and 2 online. If you are looking for free practice questions I would recommend using the Khan Academy MCAT practice questions.

I would personally recommend using at least two sources of questions to study from and use this method with. So after you have your practice tests, its important that you are using them appropriately! You need to make a list of the topics that you are missing and struggling with. Make sure you are being honest with yourself! Then compile that list in a word document or excel sheet and re-learn them one by one. The key to this is actually making sure you learn the topic and feel confident that you would get it right if you ever saw it again on the test. Just simply watching a video on youtube or reading the section in your book about that missed topic isn’t enough, you need to test yourself to make sure you understand it. So after you have re-learned it you need to do some practice problems with it or quiz yourself that you remember the information you need to. Only once and I mean only once you really feel you understand that topic you can “check” it off your review list. This is the most important way to make sure you are actually making progress and not just simply going through the motions of saying you re-learned that topic.

This method allows you to really hone in on what you need to work on. Allowing you to prioritize your weakest areas to get the biggest return on investment. After you take your practice exam, go through all of the questions you missed and analyze them. Ask yourself why you missed them and what could you do differently to get it right next time. After analyzing all of your questions, go ahead and make a detailed list of everything you need to review or practice. The more in-depth and detailed the list the better. After you have your detailed list of topics and types of questions you missed, go and review them using whatever resources you would like. Make sure you are confident that you wouldn’t miss those same questions again before taking another practice exam. The time where you are really improving your grade the most should be during your post-practice exam review. The key to getting the most out of your MCAT study time is to really find out what your weaknesses are. Knowing what areas you are weak in will allow you to spend your time on what matters most. Then it is a matter of rinse and repeat. Try this method I have listed here and let me know how it goes for you in the comments below!

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Jul 16 2019

How the top pre-meds start off the semester strong

One of the biggest mistakes many premeds make is not starting the semester off strong. The beginning of the semester represents one of the greatest opportunities to put yourself in line to secure that A in your class! Its very important to start off strong because that will the set the tone for your whole semester. Remember, it is always easier to maintain an A in a class once you already got it than it is to work your way up to one from a lower grade. So by getting off to the right foot from the very beginning you increase your chances of making an A greatly. Not only that but it is also way less stressful knowing you are in a good situation rather than worrying if you will make the grade you want or not. We are going to go over some of the best methods to make sure you start the semester off right!

Before we go any further, make sure to read my article “How the A student starts their next semester“. This gives advice more on how to prepare for your next semester, but some of the content overlaps. However in this article though I really want to emphasize the point of staying ahead and being one step ahead of your teachers. Yes, this method takes more effort than to not do it. But the real secret to making good grades is hard work. Work smart and work hard and you will definitely achieve your goals. So how do I stay ahead of the class?

The main ways to stay ahead of your class are by:

Pre-reading the powerpoint before class
Reading the chapter in your book before your teacher lectures on it
Watching youtube videos on the topic
Doing practice problems

The reason it is so important to do this is because the material is ALWAYS easier to understand the second or third time you see or hear it. You want to already have been exposed to the material your teacher will go over in class before they do. Especially if it is hard material. By having already read the powerpoints, the book chapter, watching videos, and doing practice problems you will be way ahead of everyone else in your class. And then when finally your teacher lectures on the topic, they will only help to clarify anything that confused you. By having already pre-read and prepared for lecture, you will also have a list of questions you can ask your teacher. While the other students are hearing this for the first time and trying to just even understand whats going on, you will be solidifying what you know or clarifying on things that confused you.

This is especially important during the beginning of the semester because you will be introduced usually to a bunch of brand new content. In the beginning of a semester, usually the easiest tests and quizzes are given out. So you want to take advantage of that and grab those easy A’s early on! Getting off to the right start early on will set a good pace for your whole semester. The momentum of how you do in the beginning is often carried throughout the entire semester, so you want to get this right! So make sure you read ahead and are prepared for your next lecture! This will definitely help you achieve the grades you want!

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Apr 12 2019

Studying advice: The rule of four passes

The Rule of four passes

As you all might know I have a lot of articles about studying advice. That’s because I believe there is a science to effective studying and anyone can improve their grades if they learn how to be an effective studier. I am constantly evaluating my methods of studying and realizing what works well and what doesn’t. It is important that we learn to be efficient with our studying methods and utilize methods that have been shown to work. You need to constantly be refining your study methods and making it more efficient for you. During my first year of medical school, I have realized yet another component to this “science of effective studying”. Something I call the rule of four passes.

So what is the rule of four passes? Essentially it takes at least four complete passes through your lecture material/powerpoint from start to finish to be able to retain it for the exam. This means that just looking at a lecture or powerpoint once or twice is usually not enough to learn the material well enough for an exam. This depends a lot also on the density of the material. This is especially true when you are in medical school and you have lecture powerpoints that are 130 slides of dense material. You won’t be able to retain the information by just going through it once or twice. It will take at least four passes through it to really retain it. Also I have found an effective way to do these four passes to get the most out of it. So lets talk about what you should do starting with your first pass through the material to the last one.

First pass:

So by the first pass I mean the first time you are sitting down and going through your lecture material/powerpoint. So essentially the main goal of your first pass is to simply get used to the material and get acquainted with it. It is not about focusing on the details or writing notes. Simply read your lecture material with the focus of just trying to understand what’s going on. Think of it like getting your bearings. You want to understand the big picture and what the lecture is all about. If there are things you don’t understand, look them up and research them. Other than that its just simply about getting used to the material.

Second pass:

The objective of the second pass is two things: Understanding the material more deeply and taking notes on your lecture material. So as you are going through your powerpoint/lecture material for the second time you want to be going slower and aiming for understanding the material more deeply. As you are going through the material you will now be taking notes, underlining and highlighting the important information.

Here are some examples of how I take notes on my slides:

Notice how I am trying to identify the things that are most important. These notes will help me during my third pass to focus on the highest yield information.

Third pass:

The objective of the third pass is to really memorize all of the important facts and information from the lecture you will need for your exam. Now that you have gone through the material twice and become well acquainted with it, you want to really focus on understanding it fully and memorizing what matters. This pass is about understanding the nitty-gritty details. Your notes and highlights from the second pass should be helpful here as it will identify what is important to focus on. Make sure you take it slower this time and really focus on understanding your material and memorizing all key information.

Fourth pass:

Essentially the fourth pass is a self-review of the all of the lecture information. Now that you have gone through the material three times you should understand the material very well and have memorized all the key information. Start at the beginning of the lecture material again and go through each slide and quiz yourself as you go through it. You want to quiz yourself on everything you can in the lecture. Make sure you understand all the things you could be tested on. Quizzing yourself as you go through the material will allow you to assess how well you know the material and if there is anything you need to work on.

Thats the four passes! You don’t have to do all four passes all at once. You want to take breaks between each pass through the material. This gives you time to absorb the information and let your brain to take it in. Its fine to even do the passes across multiple days if you want, I would personally recommend that. You can do more than four passes obviously if you want as four is the minimum I believe it takes you to be ready for your exam. If you are to do more passes through the material I would recommend focusing on quizzing yourself on the information and identifying areas to focus on. The rule of four passes really lets you know that you can’t cram for an exam and expect to do well. Doing well on exams and getting high grades has alot to do with multiple repetitions of going through information, similiar to the concept of spaced repetition I talk about in this article. I hope that you all are excited to add another tool to your study toolkit! This is a great concept to understand which will help you do better on all your exams!

Tell us what you think by leaving a comment down below! For more pre-med tips and advice, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, twitter, youtube, and pinterest!

Jun 30 2018

Four tips for writing great secondary applications to medical schools

You have already finished all of your pre-med requirements and sent in your primary application. The only thing left between you and that ever so sweet interview at your dream medical school is the secondary application. You are so close to getting interviewed and potentially accepted! So how do you make the most out of your secondary application and not mess it up?

1. Keep your answers professional

Just because you are so close to getting invited to that interview does not mean that you can stop being professional. Some of the essay questions you may be asked in a secondary application could include questions that ask about your personal life or how you can contribute to their school. Don’t try to make any jokes, even if it is in good humor, or do anything that makes you seem like you are not taking your secondary application completely serious. Your best chance as an applicant comes when you present yourself as a professional and very serious about pursuing a career in medicine. Absolutely do not come across as if you are not taking the questions seriously.

2. Try to max out the character limit for your essay responses

Writing a lot in each of your essay questions shows that you spent time coming up with your response and that you put thought into it. In general, it will always look better if you have an essay that reaches the character limit than a response to the essay prompt that is only three sentences long. This does not mean to fill your answers with fluff to just make it longer. Instead, spend some extra time and think about personal examples that relate to the essay prompt. You can go into extra detail about how meaningful it was to you. Of course you do not have to max out the character limit for your responses, but just try to do your best to write as much quality content as you can. At the very least make sure you have at least a solid paragraph for each answer. You don’t want to be judged for writing too little, so make sure to avoid this easy mistake!

3. Make your answers personal

This is the difference between the average and mediocre essay response and the high-quality ones. The people who can relate each essay response with real experiences they have had always do the best. Do not give generic answers that sound like they could have been written by anyone. Your answers should be one that no one else could replicate because it comes from your personal experiences and reasons that have motivated you to pursue a career in medicine. Everyone has different experiences and reasons that have motivated them to pursue this path. Focus your essays on identifying these. The more genuine and personal you can make your responses the more you will stand out as an applicant who is serious. Don’t tell people why you would be a great physician. Show them why you would be by giving personal reasons and experiences.

4. Make your answers specific to that school whenever possible

This is a great way to set yourself apart from most of the other applicants. A lot of applicants will come up with a generic answer to common medical school essay prompts and then send that exact same answer to every school. The result is that every school gets some generic answer that looks like it was sent to 20 other schools! You need to take the time to write a different answer to every medical school! Even if they ask the exact same essay questions. If you can relate your answer to why that specific medical school would be a good fit for you then those schools will take you much more seriously as an applicant. Giving specific reasons why that medical school is the perfect match for you and how aspects of its curriculum serve your need as a medical student shows you have done your research and you are serious about their school.

I hope these tips helped! Remember, make sure you spend all the time you need to make your secondary applications count. You are so close to getting interviewed and accepted. Be professional in your responses, write as much as you can, and relate your answers to personal experiences and the medical school you are applying to. If you take the time to make a rock-solid application you will surely get those interview invitations!

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May 13 2018

7 Tips for applicants with a low MCAT score

7 Tips for Applicants with Low MCAT Scores

Getting into medical school or college with a low MCAT score is no mean feat and something which is far from easy. However, before you give up and turn your back on your dreams of a top-notch education and successful career, there are some tips and pieces of advice we’d encourage you to bear in mind.

Because while being an applicant to med school with a low MCAT score puts you at something of a disadvantage, it doesn’t make getting into college impossible. In fact, there are many ways you can seriously boost your chances of success, and demonstrate to the admissions officers overseeing your application that you’re actually a highly suitable candidate.

It’s going to take some seriously hard work, a lot of effort, and even more dedication… but you know as well as we do that it will all be worth it in the end when that acceptance letter comes through your door. Take our advice, take the steps necessary, and keep yourself focused on the ultimate goal. Who knows where your efforts will take you?

Tip 1: Strive to do Better

This may seem like stating the obvious, but there’s an important point to be made here. Your less-than-perfect MCAT score has shown that you aren’t as yet the ideal candidate for your course, but admissions officers love students who can show dedication, and demonstrate that they’re on an upward curve of success. No matter what point of your premed journey you’re currently at, there’s still time to show that you’re improving all the time, and striving for academic success that can help you shine.

Tip 2: Submit Early

There’s a lot to be said for getting your application in as early as possible, and yes, it does actually make a difference. It demonstrates decisiveness, resolve, and a willingness to get ahead, and can actually put your low MCAT scores in a more positive light.

Late applications are – of course – still accepted by many colleges, but by submitting late you’re even further decreasing your chances of an acceptance, not least at colleges with rolling admissions.

Tip 3: Be Strategic

If you’re planning on going to med school, then doing deep research should really be second nature to you. If your MCAT score didn’t turn out the way you wanted, it’s time to get out there and start looking for the colleges at which this might not make a whole load of differences.

There are plenty of med schools which really put a huge emphasis on test results and percentages. However, there is also a decent amount which doesn’t and prefers to take a more holistic approach. Take the time to research MCAT and GPA averages, and include schools on your list which you fall into the ranges of, alongside the schools which you’re reaching to get into. This doesn’t mean you can’t dream big… it just means that everyone can benefit from an effective and realistic plan B.

Tip 4: Make sure your personal statement is perfect

Personal statements for medical school are among the most important texts you may ever have to write in your life. They require plenty of time and effort and need to be absolutely spot on if they’re going to result in that all-important application letter (especially if you can’t rely on a star-standard MCAT score to carry you through).

If you simply don’t have the time or resources to write a winning admission paper, it might be time to call in the experts to help you with. With their help and expert guidance, the applications officers at your dream school will be so dazzled by your personal statement, they’ll surely be willing to overlook a less-than-perfect MCAT score, and give you the chance you’ve been hoping for.

Tip 5: Consider retaking the MCAT

Everyone knows the MCAT is tough. It’s expensive, it’s time-consuming, and it’s no fun for anyone involved. However, if your score really isn’t going to do you any favors when it comes to getting into med school (and you can speak to your professors about the attainability of your ambitions), then you might just have to bite the bullet and retake the exam.

The medical profession requires plenty of humility. If you messed up the first MCAT, you’re going to have to take a long, hard look at yourself, and consider what it is you did wrong, and what you’ll have to do differently. It may be that your entire approach was off the mark, or it may be that you fell down on just one or two points. Be humble, be realistic, and be objective – it will do you a whole load of favors when it comes to your retake.

Tip 6: Ask for help

If you were able to get into med school all by yourself, without anybody helping, guiding, or advising you, well, you’d already been there with no problems whatsoever. The fact of the matter is that somewhere along the line, you’ve made a mistake or taken the wrong approach, and as such, you’re going to need some guidance and help to achieve your dreams. Speak to your professors and see if they can arrange some one-to-one sessions for you with a tutor or mentor, and accept their advice with open arms. Also, many schools hold open days, conferences, events and panels – this can be enormously useful, so make the effort and go along to boost your knowledge and skills.

Tip 7: Don’t expect the world to owe you anything

There are plenty of medical students who don’t get into the college they want the first time around – and that’s ok. Take the time to consider what it is you need to do and be pragmatic in your approach. Have a low GPA? It can take a year or two to pick that back up, so considering something like a postback might be a great option for you. Lacking clinical experience? It’s up to you to sort out those sorts of gaps in your skillset, so get on it and find an opening. Have to retake your MCAT? Don’t leave your revision and cramming until the last minute, and expect to breeze through it. All of these things take time, patience, and hard work… and nobody is responsible for your success other than yourself.

Tell us what you think by leaving a comment down below! For more pre-med tips and advice, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, twitter, and pinterest!

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