The MCAT is one of those things that almost every pre-med dreads. I know I did, mainly because I was so overwhelmed with the amount of information I needed to know and I had no clue how to even begin preparing for it. It took me 2 MCAT exams to learn that the way I was studying for the MCAT was a recipe for disaster. In this blog post I’m going to be sharing some things I learned from the mistakes that I made while studying for the MCAT.
The first time I took the MCAT was the summer before my senior year. My junior year was one of the busiest years I had in undergrad. I was a student athlete taking 19 credit hours, working as a reading room assistant, and doing other extracurriculars. As you can imagine, I didn’t really have much time to dedicate to studying for the MCAT with all of this going on. I did a little studying here and there, but I told myself that I would do the bulk of my studying over the summer before my test in August.
Fast forward to the summer, I was still working my job as a reading room assistant and “studying”, but to be honest, I was not taking studying seriously at all. Majority of my studying consisted of me reading my Kaplan MCAT prep books whenever I felt like it. I took my test towards the end of the summer and my score definitely reflected how hard I worked.
I scored a 488.
Was I shocked? Yes. Should I have been? Absolutely not lol. My score reflected my poor study habits and lack of preparation for this beast of an exam.
After graduating undergrad, I immediately enrolled in a Princeton Review course to help me study. This time I took it way more seriously, dedicating roughly 8-12 hours a day to studying. Despite studying all those hours, though, I still came up short on the actual exam.
I scored a 497.
While my score did increase 10 points from my first MCAT, I still struggled significantly to break 500 because, even though I was dedicating 8-12 hours a day to studying, my study strategy wasn't one that prepared me to apply the knowledge I spent hours a day trying to retain. I was spending too much of my time reviewing content and very little time doing any type of practice.
Here are a few things I learned that, had I known prior, would have saved me so much time and money and helped me significantly on this exam. By the grace of God, I got accepted into medical school 2 months away from my 3rd MCAT test date, but I am confident that my score on my 3rd MCAT would have been 500+ if I took it because my practice exam scores were surpassing that and they were higher than they had ever been because I developed a new study strategy that implemented things I learned from the mistakes that I made previously.
1. Make a study schedule and stick to it. The first time I took the MCAT I did not have a schedule at all. I didn’t know what I was going to be studying or when I would study it, I just picked up one of my Kaplan books and started reading. When I enrolled in the Princeton Review course, they had a schedule laid out for us for the duration of our class and I found that it helped to keep up with things tremendously. I'll be uploading an MCAT study schedule template similar to the one I followed during my Princeton Review course, so be on the lookout for that!
2. Practice. Practice. PRACTICE!!!! I could write a whole blog post about this, but I think the BIGGEST mistake that I made while studying for the MCAT is not practicing enough. My strategy for studying relied strictly on content review and this was detrimental to my progress. I talked myself out of doing practice questions because I hated how defeated I felt when I finished the questions and I didn’t even get at least half of them right. Or how I felt after reading a whole passage and not having any clue what the heck it was talking about. I failed to realize that doing practice questions showed me what my weak areas were. It also really helped me get used to how the AAMC would test me, which ultimately led to me feeling more comfortable answering passage-style questions. I began to do practice questions and I let my performance on my questions guide what content I needed to review. The progress I made after just a few weeks of implementing practice questions was unbelievable compared to the very little progress I would have made had I just continued doing only content review. Some of my favorite resources for practice material were:
UWORLD – this question bank is a GOD SEND. The questions and passages were very similar to the actual AAMC ones, in my opinion. What I loved most about UWORLD is that they give very detailed explanations on every single question.
AAMC practice tests and question banks – using the AAMC material to practice is like going to your professors office and asking them to sit with you and give you questions to prepare for an upcoming exam. You get to practice learning how the AAMC likes to word things (especially when they are trying to trip you up), what their testing style is like, etc. I used the AAMC material towards the end of my study period (after I finished UWORLD).
Jack Westin for CARS practice – CARS was one of the more difficult sections for me because, you can probably guess it, I didn’t practice it enough. My CARS score literally did not budge until I started consistently practicing CARS passages. Jack Westin is a free resource that uploads new CARS passages everyday for you to practice. I would kick start my morning before jumping into UWORLD with a Jack Westin CARS passage. That daily practice, even though it was just one passage, really helped me improve my CARS score.
3. Do as many practice tests as you can. This kind of goes hand in hand with the last point. I dreaded practice tests because I mean honestly who wants to sit at a computer for 7 hours? But practice tests are SO important because it helps you to build your stamina and get used to sitting down and testing for an extended period of time. Every time I sat down for a practice test, I tried to mimic real test day situations as best as I could (no getting on my phone on the breaks, using ear plugs, wearing a mask (COVID), eating what I planned to eat for snack and lunch on my breaks, etc).
4. THOROUGHLY review your practice tests and practice questions. Taking a practice test is one thing, but it’s almost pointless to take practice tests if you aren’t thoroughly reviewing them. Reviewing practice tests can be a lengthyyyyyy process, but this is where you discover and learn from your mistakes so you won’t make them on future practice exams and ultimately on the real thing. I made a spreadsheet and I used it to review my tests (I also used the same system to review my practice questions, see below).
This worked really well for me, but it might not work for you, and that’s okay. However you decide to review your tests, just make sure you are going through each question. For the questions you miss, make sure you understand why your answer was incorrect and why the right answer is correct. For the questions that you get correct, make sure that you confidently know the material that you were being tested on (not that you just had a lucky guess and got it right) and why that answer was the best answer out of all of the choices. I'll also be uploading a template you can use to review your practice tests and questions soon, so look out for that as well!
5. Don’t compare yourselves to others. This one right here. This is the one. The second I started comparing my progress to the progression of those around me, it was hard to shake the feeling of discouragement. If you would’ve asked me after I got my MCAT score back the second time if I thought I would get into medical school with that score I would have straight up told you no. I knew that there were hundreds of applicants applying with me who had a score way higher than 497. But the truth is, there is SO MUCH MORE to who you are than those 3 numbers, and the school that is right for you will see that.
There is so much more to who you are than a MCAT score, and the school that is right for you will see that.
Now, that doesn’t mean you get to slack off and not study for the MCAT. The test is still important and a higher score does open more doors for more opportunities, but if you don’t score in the 90th percentile that does NOT mean that you won’t be a doctor. I am living proof of that. Do your best and take it one step & one day at a time. You'll end up exactly where you're supposed to be.
I hope that these tips helped you. If you have any questions, feel free to hop on over to my socials and shoot me a DM.
Good luck on your MCAT, you've got this! I'm always rooting for ya!
xo,
Sidney
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