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i am taking it in april 2004, dont have time to study during school so will study over x-mas and next semester. GOt practice exams. Dont have time or money to take kaplan!
I’m taking it in April, too. I’m going to start studying after finals are over. I’m also taking a prep course (Berkeley Review) that starts in January. I’m so excited about the test! (That sounds crazy, but it’s true. 🙂 )
I’m using the kaplan comprehensive review book and my textbooks. I am also trying to get my hands on some practice tests and audio osmosis from ebay, but they sell like hotcakes, so, no such luck, so far.
I’m taking the April 2004 MCAT. I’ve taken all necessary classes except for O-Chem 2nd semester, which I’m taking in Spring. I’m enrolled in a Kaplan course which started in October. I go every Saturday and it really helps. I definitely recommend it. If anyone has any questions on the content, I have a 12 inch stack of books that Kaplan sent me, I’m sure I’ll find what you’re looking for.
I’m taking the Princeton Review right now but I am feeling SO overwhelmed. I’ve totally forgotten everything from Gen Chem (I think it’s been 3 years since I’ve taken it), Physics is awful, and the first Bio section we studied was BioChem, which I never took and only know the basics of from Micro.
I’m studying my butt off to relearn everything, but then when I go and do the practice passages it kind of smacks me upside the head– Man, those questions are hard!! I keep checking with all of my classmates: “You think these are really hard, right?” Luckily everyone agrees.
We had our first practice test before the class started three weeks ago (with no studying or understanding of the MCAT format) and I scored a 16. Everyone in my class scored about the same. Our next practice test is this Saturday and I sure am hoping for some dramatic results! Although right now I’m feeling super overwhelmed. My poor husband keeps comforting me as I push away my books and start to cry (I think that’s happened three times now). 🙂 I have a friend who is in med school who told me something that reassured me. She said that while the MCAT is completely useless and unapplicable to anything you’ll learn in med school, it is a good preparation tool for the way you will FEEL in medical school while studying so much.
My skin is getting thicker—
Stac’ 🙂
I am taking the April 2004 MCAT and I have been studying seen November, because I have been out of school for five years now and had to re-learn everything.
I took a kaplan prep course about four years ago, but did not take it serious.(I wish I had) now I am studying on my own. I take 2 Full lenght MCat exams twice week, (Tuesday and Thursday) and use the other days (Wednesday and Friday)to review the exam. At first it seem like too much, but you get use to sitting there for 6 hours, without much effort. I kind of enjoy it now.( I know it sound Crazy)
I feel this method works best for me, prior to this, by the time I got to biological science section of the exam I was tried and could not concentrate and got most of the question wrong. I think this is why most people don’t do well. I say practice as many exams as possible, but don’t burn yourself. And review each question and make sure you don’t make the same mistake again, you will soon realize how the same question will show up again but in a different format.I’m also taking the April MCAT. I’ve been studying since December on my own. Not taking any classes for it. I’ve been out of school since 2000 so I’m also having to try to re-learn everything, and also learn some new things (as I didn’t have second semester physics in college). I’ve made an outline which I loosely stick to, also doing lots of physics problems from my textbook. Luckily my boyfriend was a physics major so he has been helping me a lot with this. Also I’m doing going thru flash cards and also making up new ones as needed. I’m not a mom at this point but most likely will be at some point during med school and/or residency. It’s encouraging to see that it can be done! It must be very difficult preparing for MCAT if you have kids. I have a few MCAT prep books and try to take an exam every 2-3 weeks on the weekend. Good luck to all of you on the exam!
Question, When do you study your flash cards? Do you study them everyday or whenever you feel it’s necessary?
I have cards and find I don’t have enough time to go thur them all.
You are lucky to have someone who can help you when needed.
Oh, one more question I see you said you have a outline. Is yours similar to the Kaplan outline or totally made up according to your schedule?Good luck studying!
In terms of flash cards, I have found that while you should do your best to learn the basic material, the real key is taking the tests and reviewing them. Many of the docs I work with have told me the same thing. Now that I’m getting caught up on Chem and Bio (although I’m still behind on Physics) I’m starting to focus on that more.
I took my second practice exam and still scored in the teens, dropping down one point from before!! They told us that this is normal and that most people do this since you’re learning more and taking more time to work the problems, but now you’re running out of time. This was very true for me. We’ll see how the third test goes!!
Stac’ (who should be studying right now!) 🙂
I study the flash cards whenever I’m too tired or bored with studying/learning from the books. Flashcards are sort of “mindless” so at I feel that if I’m doing at least something I will get something out of it. It seems to bring everything together too, because the flashcards are on all the topics (except verbal). Usually I do this at night before I go to bed, or at lunchtime at work.
Sorry, forgot to answer your second question. I made up my outline from the Kaplan Comprehensive book (just went through all the chapters and topics and made it from that. It does help to keep things somewhat organized and in perspective (so I don’t unknowingly forget any specific topics.) I also have gone through the tables of contents of my organic and physics textbooks and it seems that the Kaplan book follows those pretty well. Good luck!
Cara77, Girl you must of read my mind because that’s the same way I did my outline and that the same times I read my flash card. I just wanted to make sure because reading your first email, I was thinking to myself, “she’s using the same format as me. It working!
I also wanted to tell you to sign up for kaplan on line to take there free exam. You can take the one’s online ( which I did not do). The only reason why I signed up was because they have free paper exams, which are free for everyone, usually close to your home, it might be at a locate university. I am taking one on Feb 21, 2004. You usually get a email from kaplan a week before and you have to register for it.
I think is a good ideal since you are studying on your own. It gives you a chance to see how well you are doing against peple taking the course.
Thanks for your reply and best of Luck.
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