Strategy

I wanted to touch base on the kind of routine that I used to study for the MCAT first, but now I want to touch on the specific test preparation I actually took. Which, I think will be different for everyone, but given that I’ve tried my hand at several different test prep companies and techniques, I think I’ll have a valuable perspective.

For starters, the very first time I took the exam, I did a few months of content review with Kalpan books and took a couple Full-Lengths I found online. Yes, I was blissfully ignorant of how much work would be required to do well on the MCAT, but you live, and you learn.

The second time around, after not having gotten into medical school and shitting the bed on my first MCAT, I decided to do a little bit more practice and a little less content review. I still used Kaplan for content and used the AAMC question banks and Full Lengths. You’ll hear people say that the AAMC provides the best test material because it comes straight from the source. I couldn’t agree more. However, what they have in pure content, they sorely lack in answer explanations. It is so painful when you get an answer wrong and the explanation is “The answer is A, because B, C, and D are incorrect”. This is barely an exaggeration. Nevertheless, this time around, with my implemented increase in practice, I saw a slight increase in my MCAT score the second time around, a 505. Still, far from what I wanted.

Third time’s a charm, they say, and it sure was. This time around, I convinced myself that there was only so much content review I could do. There is seemingly infinite information on the MCAT, and you will never be able to review all of it to its full capacity. I heard an expression that I think perfectly describes the MCAT’s subject matter: “The MCAT, and it’s content, is like a large river which is a mile wide, but only an inch deep”. You don’t have to be an expert in every subject, in fact you cannot be an expert, you need to broaden your horizon and not get caught up in the specifics. But how do you know what to study and into how much detail? My answer is simple: practice, practice, practice.

If I could do it all over again, with all the knowledge I have now, my game plan would be very simple. I would do a brief yet comprehensive content review with Kaplan (maybe spend a month total going through the subjects), and then I would spend the remainder of the time doing U-World. If you have not yet heard of U-World, stop what you are doing and go get it. Disclaimer, I am not some sponsor for the system, nor am I getting anything out of saying they are the best test-prep program. I just truly believe that they have a product that works. Best of all, it’s significantly cheaper than the several thousand-dollar test prep that Princeton, Kaplan, or NextStep offer. Albeit, it’s still a couple hundred dollars, but in the large scheme of things, it’s just a drop of water in the vast ocean of financial commitment you’re making in becoming a doctor. In other words, you’re going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get yourself through med school, so what’s a $300 investment really? Think about it, these $300 dollars could be the difference between a 505 and a 516. That score difference could be the difference between a middle of the pack school and a top-25 school. That difference in education and prestige could be the difference in tens of thousands of dollars in your salary. Don’t cheap yourself out on your education. While I’m on the subject of money, if you are an individual, like myself, who does not have tremendous financial support and everything you need to obtain has to come out of your own pocket, do yourself a favor and use the library. More times than not, your school library, or even the public library in your town, will have an entire Kaplan or Princeton MCAT series available. Get your library card and rent those bad boys for a couple months and save yourself the thousand dollars it would cost you otherwise. You can also ask your friends or colleagues if they have a set they are no longer using. Content review is not nearly as important as you may think it is, I promise.