One of the most dreaded things about going into medicine is the MCAT. The idea of having to take a 6 1/2 hour test drives many away from even trying! When I was prepping, I had no clue what to buy or what to do so that is exactly the reason why I am starting this thread of blogs! Let me tell you, if you keep yourself disciplined and focused, its not that bad. However, I know there's a lot of people out there just like me who lack the discipline and focus to self study (I will talk about what you should do in that case in another post!). I was blessed to have my parents buy me an in-person Kaplan course but oh boy was that a waste of a lot of money. Sure the Kaplan course goes over some material and tells you how to read but I would have been much better off studying for those three hours by myself than sit there and listen to the instructor!
I do believe their are several resources that you should buy to aid you in your studying. First, MCAT study books (whether its Princeton, Kaplan, or etc.) are amazing for content review! If you go through their books and highlight the important things while taking notes on another piece of paper, I honestly feel like you should be well prepared for the test. You have to remember that it is IMPOSSIBLE to know all of the material needed for the MCAT. They do NOT expect you to know everything, just the general basics. A lot of the exam is all about test taking abilities. Are you able to read the the passage to pick out what answers are wrong? 85% of the MCAT is reading a passage and answering questions while 15% is straight memorization. Review books definitely helped!
I would also recommend buying test banks and practice exams (especially directly from AAMC itself). Although a lot of people say Kaplan's or Princeton's practice exams are inaccurate because they're so hard, if you're doing well on a harder exam, wouldn't that mean you would do better on the actual exam? For me, I got a very similar score on the actual MCAT that I did when taking Kaplans practice tests. Furthermore, going back to the test banks, running through them every day gets your mind right for what type of questions you'll see during the actual test so they also help. I planned my schedule in a way where I took biochem and Orgo 2 right before my MCAT so I didn't really need to study for those subjects. That took a lot of stress off of me and I highly recommend doing the same thing whether its for physics, psych, or sociology.
Besides all that, if you do need additional help, you can literally find a video on youtube for every single topic out there. Find an MCAT YouTube channel that you like watching! Another free and amazing resource is Khan Academy. Their videos are very informative and brief. Additionally, a lot of people also buy flashcards. If you find flashcards that come in individual sets, I would highly recommend getting the psychology/sociology set because that's the only subject the flashcards were extremely helpful for. Besides that, for every other subject, I would not highly recommend them.
I do NOT recommend buying Kaplan's in-person sessions. Some people might find it helpful but I found that it was a waste of time and money. I would have rather bought the resources they provided and gone with that. However, if you do have the money and learn better in-person, it might be worth your time. Additionally, the site student doctor network (where people posts study guides that they have made) is extremely helpful as well!
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