Question: When to start practice MCATs . . .

[admin]

You should consider doing a practice test tonight (great way to spend a Saturday night!). But seriously, the sooner that you do an exam, the better. It is often called your "diagnostic" with the idea being that it indicates which areas need more of your attention.

But it's more that just a diagnostic, it is a map to get to where you are going. It even guides the way you study. Let's say that you just read a section about the difference between protein hormones and steroid hormones. Should you try to memorize every detail? How would you know? What about the equation for volume expansion? Kirchoff's Laws? Is everything you read of similar importance?

The short answer is a loud "No." Some topics present very frequently on the MCAT (those are covered in the videos) then there are the less frequent topics (in the book, just like any course) and then there are the topics that come up once in a blue moon (also in the book but even if you did not know that material but you know ALL the rest stone cold, you'd score over 40). In other words, there is no value to memorizing material that shows up once every few years.

So then, how do you decide what is important for the MCAT? Practice, practice, practice. Next week, you would have finished 1/2 of your prep for the MCAT which is the review. The other 1/2 is practice and it's clearly equally important.

You may know already that some students feel so insecure about their review that they keep buying more and more prep materials and unfortunately delay serious practice. Never get lost in the details. As soon as you can, click on the link on our Members Home Page for the free AAMC Practice MCAT CBT (test 3) or go to www.e-mcat.com and sign up for it. You need to start with a test from the AAMC so that you can have confidence that The Gold Standard is keeping you on track: no excessive info, just what you need.

You also need to have a more focused review. Notice the different equations that they give you in the passage or question versus the ones you had to memorize (also on our Home Page, you will find links to a Physics Equation List and an Organic Chemistry Mechanisms List). Notice that Biology is very oriented to passages/tables/graphs/experiments/concepts and not just memorizing lots of data. This is important for you to experience and you need to see it first from the AAMC. Don't worry about your first score. It's your last score that counts! Practice does not make perfect but proper practice will lead to improvement.

Next: given your time horizon, 1-3 practice MCAT CBTs per week and pour over your mistakes and guesses. Start with the AAMC and end with the 3 most recent AAMC MCAT CBTs while using the Gold Standard MCAT CBTs or other AAMC tests in between. Take "Gold Notes": these are high density notes (no fluff) with just the most key points that you have learned from your exam experience. Take such notes after every test and review those notes before taking a new test. Of course, these 5-10 pages (hopefully!) will be your key study tool in the days leading up to the real exam date.

Sorry for the long explanation but it all "distills" down to the following: no matter where you are in your MCAT prep, start practicing now.

Good luck!

[mcat_premed3832]

They will be available in about a month's time which, unfortunately, will be too late for you. Well at least you can print out our Physics Equation List and Organic Chem Mechanisms.