How To Get Into Medical School

How to study for the MCAT

Ah…the Great Equalizer. This is the one test that Med Schools use that pairs you up against all other pre-med applicants. Doing well on this test is HUGE! I cannot emphasize how much this attracts medical schools.

What if I’m not a great test taker?

If you ask yourself this question you have just psyched yourself out. It is negative reasoning such as this that you need to eliminate from your thought process. Switch to the other side of the coin by saying to yourself, “I recognize that I should improve my ability to take a test. Now how do I do that?” The real question should be, “How do I make myself a better test taker?” Once you do this, you really start making use of your time. For this moment, I also recommend from the Rocky Soundtrack “Hearts on Fire.” Play it now.

Well let’s start out with the test. We must be students of the test. We must understand the layout of the test. We must know what the order of the sections are, how long we have in each section, what pace we can go at. To see the format of the test, refer to the AAMC webpage. Once you understand the format, I suggest you to devote a Saturday or Sunday and sit in on a free practice MCAT, or borrow a practice one from your friends. After the test, study it. Take it apart. Look at the structure. Define words. Get the answers. Know this MCAT like the back of your hand. This will be your base.

Recognize that the MCAT is multiple choice test, and multiple choice tests are about percentages and weeding out the trick answers and insane answers. It is about the process of elimination. To do extremely well you should develop an automatic routine for taking the test. I also recommend going to a stationary store and pick up a pencil with thick lead. This will make filling in the bubbles faster. If you save a second on every single question on the test with this thicker lead, that will lead to more than a minute of saved time.

Unless your premed classes are designed based upon the multiple concepts that are covered on the MCAT, on average your premed classes will not aid you in preparation for the MCAT. The only preparation you will receive from your premed classes is a conceptual introduction.

The MCAT has shifted to a reading comprehension test, meaning that it is not based upon how much you memorize. It is a test of how well you do with newly read information. Your premed classes will aid you by making you familiar with the vocabulary of the multiple scientific passages and unfortunately not much else. The essential point is that you shouldn’t take a class offered by your college only because it is going to help you on your MCAT preparation, unless this class is titled “Practice in Answering MCAT passages.”

The Commercial Prep Course

There is also the debate of whether or not to take a commercial preparation courses and this choice is largely based upon the individual. The AAMC maintains that there is no significant difference between the test scores of those who take a commercial prep course and those who don’t. However, commercial prep courses allow you the advantage of their strategies and access to their multiple test preparation materials. The core portion of the prep courses are intended to give you a general review, something that many can do on their own. They also undergo research to keep abreast of the new tests the AAMC releases and attempt to develop strategies to help their students. The costs of these courses are over one thousand (there are scholarships, because I received one). I say that the practice tests and passages produced by both are extremely useful. So if you don’t attend a commercial course, I recommend purchasing their practice materials.

How to study: General Principles

If there is nothing else you take home from this section, please remember this:

One’s success on the MCAT is positively associated with the amount of practice passages/tests one completes. This means that the more practice you have reading passages and answering questions, the better.

Science Portions

Your time is your most valuable asset when it comes to MCAT preparation. You must learn to manage your time efficiently. This is important on test day as well as preparation. Here are two options you have for studying.

Devote all of your time to understanding the concepts that are listed by AMCAS for what concepts you are responsible for understanding.

Devote your time to taking practice tests and passages.

Portion your time to both

I recommend you portion your time to both in these percentages. 20% to going through a conceptual review of material and 80% to taking practice tests and passages. The reason for this is because the format of the MCAT has changed from a memorizing/voluminous test to a largely reading comprehension/problem solving test. As test takers, we must correspondingly adapt our studying allocation to reading comprehension and problem solving. This means 80% of your time taking practice tests. Amazingly, you will find you learn a significant amount of biological concepts by taking the practice tests, so you actually knock down both options 1 and 2 by just doing practice tests.

Understanding the concepts. In general, I would recommend one to read once through a commercial review book that covers all the MCAT concepts. This is all the time you will need to devote to this. Do not spend too much time memorizing small details as the yield of this actually being on the test are especially low. Read to understand the concepts and players, nothing more. Unfortunately, some of the concepts will be new, so spend more time getting comfortable with these.

Once you are done with this once over review, I recommend you dive right into taking practice tests. Gradually ease up to taking more tests ever day. Remember the MCAT is a day long test, so you will need to build the mental stamina to read and answer multiple passages.

Develop a daily schedule of how much time you will devote to studying and follow through. At minimum, two months prior to the MCAT, organize a practice test weekly, with a study schedule of three hours a day to practice passages.

Verbal Section

I’m not really sure why they make this section so tough. They usually have reading passages about random topics with insanely difficult questions. So the question is, “How do I make myself a fast reader? You need to be a speed reader who can comprehend a passage just as though he/she has studied a piece for a lot longer period than they give you.

Learning to speed read cannot be acquired extremely fast. It takes practice of training yourself and developing the habit of moving your eyes at a speed that is uncomfortable. It means not regressing in a sentence/paragraph when you feel you don’t have the content. It means developing the confidence in your reading skills to go at a seemingly unbearably fast speed. How do you train yourself? Start reading the paper. Learn how to skim. Read something considered to be boring such as Wall Street Journal, etc and learn how to skim for important details. Learn how to make yourself interested in a topic that has no relevance to you. Get the overall theme of the article. If you can master that, you are in good shape.

If you cannot finish the verbal section on the MCAT, I strongly advise you once you encounter the “hard” passage, to not complete it and focus on all of the “easier” passages. This extra time you give yourself will allow you to devote more time to questions you have a greater chance of getting right. It is likely in this hard passage that you will get the answers wrong, so cut your losses, play the odds of random choice (kind of like your answers if you decided not to take this advice and read through the passage), and give your attention to passages and questions that you know you can get.

Written Portion

I will not go into significant discussion regarding the written portion because there are successful strategies already developed by the Commercial Prep Sources. If you thought you were a wonderful writer and that will contribute to your success in the written portion, unfortunately you were wrong. The written portion is graded upon a certain format, and how well you stick to a format. Don’t worry about needing to succeed significantly in this portion. A grade of P should be fine. For more information on this, go to a commercial prep book.