About Me
Who am I, first of all? I'm Leo, an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania about to be a Junior. I'm a Chemistry major in the Vagelos Program in Molecular Life Sciences, which essentially means I'm also simultaneously studying to receive my MS in Chemistry as well as my BA. My minors include Mathematics and Biophysics.
First of all, what grades have I received in the MCAT preparation courses?
I have received As in Physics 150/151 (Physics with Calculus), CHEM241/242 (Orgo), and CHEM101/102 (Gen Chem) here at Penn. The only Biology course I took was BIOL221 (Genetics), which I got a B in. All other Bio is ancient history from high school. (I figure it might also be helpful to note that I have a 3.8+ Math/Science GPA). The aim of this blog is not to, as it may seem, boast about my grades but to give an accurate evaluation of the MCAT preparation process. I imagine some people may be in similar shoes or completely different ones. The reason I tell you all this is because not everything I do may necessarily be applicable to everyone who reads this blog.
On a similar note, I want to make a point about WHY I'm blogging if I haven't even TAKEN them yet. First off, if you go on forums and ask people who HAVE taken the MCATs, they will only vaguely remember what they did and their strategies. For others, it may be past history. Evaluation of preparation strategies are most accurate, in my opinion, in the actual process of preparation. That's why I'm blogging.
Secondly, I had so many questions unanswered going into MCAT preparation that I made a ton of mistakes like buying too many books, taking the wrong class, preparing the wrong way for this and that, etc. I only wish someone had blogged about their experiences for me to read when I was beginning to prepare.
Anyways, moving on...
Like I said, Biology is/was ancient history. Needless to say, the Biology section is one of my weaker sections on the MCAT.
The first time I took a Diagnostic, I received a 27, PS12, VR7, BS8. I should probably mention here I got a 680 CR twice on the SATs and that never really improved, so a verbal score of 7 is nothing I'm too surprised with.
I'm not a BAD critical reasoner or reader, persay. I just lose concentration much faster than most people do and I don't find anything I read on the MCATs interesting. That's something I'm hoping to change in the next four weeks. Most of the mistakes I make on the MCATs are pretty much just forgetting a detail in the passage and/or misinterpreting a question or answer choice. Occasionally I'll get a question wrong just because I didn't understand the passage (which happens surprisingly often).
The Preparation
I'm currently taking an MCAT Kaplan course. I also use the Kaplan books, Examkracker's books, and the 1001 Questions by EK in Biology/VR. I also have all 7 or 8 AAMC Practice Exams, all of the gazillions of questions offered by Kaplan. I also have the Examkracker's Audio Osmosis CD Set.
I planned to start studying intensely in May when school ended. My scheduled MCAT date is September 2nd. In May and June, all I really did was read the Kaplan Bio book, nothing else. Through July I briefly glanced at Chem, Physics and Orgo since these are all strong areas for me and I felt like extensive review like I needed in Bio wasn't necessary for these. It's the beginning of August and really, all I've done so far is the following:
Skimmed Chemistry
Skimmed Physics
Skimmed Orgo
Extensively read approx. 70% of Bio
By the way, this whole time I've been working full time 8 hours a day 5 days a week in a lab here at Penn. Which involves commuting, which is about 10 hours a day. So my time has been fairly limited.
I don't know how far I am in comparison to others at this point, approximately one month before the exam. I read all the time online that people take months and years off to study for this exam. I don't plan to spend anywhere near this much time simply because 1) I'm a good test taker and 2) I am fairly good at science AND I took all the courses fairly recently (although not Bio, nor am I good at Bio). At this point, if you were to average total time spent on the MCATs, I would probably say approx. 30 minutes a day since mid-May, not counting classroom instruction time. So, really, I haven't done much preparation at this point. But it starts now.
I recently also took a Kaplan practice exam and AAMC practice exam.
I scored a 26 PS12, VR6, BS8 and a 30 PS11,VR10, BS9 respectively. Keep in mind a few things for these:
1. I used up about 60% of the allotted time. Thus, I didn't check my answers as much as I could have. Meaning my scores could have potentially gone up.
2. I didn't do the writing section, which probably would have worn me down between VR and BS, so my BS score could have in theory been lower.
3. I lost focus about five minutes into the verbal section on the Kaplan test because for some reason it just didn't feel legitimate. Not trying to justify my crappy score here by any means... :)
I'm also one of those guys who can't really put my mind to things unless it's a real test situation. So I imagine my scores on the actual exam should be slightly if not significantly higher.
Taking into account all of these factors, I imagine if I were to take the MCATs at this point I would score somewhere in the low 30s. I don't imagine I would score anything below a 30, but scoring above a 35/36 is probably just as unrealistic at this point.
So, that said this is what I plan to do in the next few weeks.
- Finish learning Biology and skim (with more attention to detail) Chem, Orgo, and Physics.
- Practice verbal like crazy
- Practice all other sections like crazy
- Tear up the MCAT
MCAT here I come.
