How I Learned Every MCAT Class In 6 Months

I ended up writing a post on this in the past on SDN which I had taken down. This is mostly an excerpt from that experience and modified from my new knowledge I accumulated since then. This was the first time I took the MCAT (“I titled it something like 85th percentile after 6 months and career change”), I since took it again and scored significantly higher. So here it is....

In short, I am giving advice and a how to, to those who wish to complete the MCAT before taking some, or any classes in university/Community College. This will be quick and to the point as to not waste any of your time.

December ~10th I began using open courseware averaging one week per semester class and taking the MCAT June 20th (6.5 months later) and scoring 511 (85 percentile) with having NO chemistry, psychology, biology or physics (basically) classes ever with exception for high school bio (7 years ago), and physics 1 (4 years ago). I did this while completing my architectural degree and working 20 hours a week. I slept 7-8 hours a day and worked out 5 days a week while still maintaining a girlfriend. Here is how I did it/tips on how to do it:

1) Homework is “usually” waste of time (except for math type practice), TESTS are a MUST. At the end of 7-8 full days I had finished one semester class whether it be chemistry, biology, psychology, etc. If you can ace the final exam (MIT open courseware or other) at the end of the week then you’re good, if you get 80%, it’s good enough to move on, the MCAT will solidify any missed concepts. I took the CLEP test for gen chem 1 and 2 after two and a half weeks of chem in december and scored 95 percentile, so it was working. Specifics on how I did it later.

2)Efficiency is a must: Teachers talk slow and can unintentionally waste your time. I highly highly recommend buying “Enounce My Speed” or other which speeds up nearly every video software/internet site video in 10% increments up to 3x. Couldn’t have accomplished this without it. This should bleed into your life style, why listen to music in the car? This is valuable time you’re wasting! Locate some audiobooks/ lectures/ MCAT audio osmosis (now KDpsych too).

3)Discipline is a must: I was not afraid to study and watch lectures 16 hours a day if I had a free day. If you can’t, understand it will take a bit longer for you.

4)love what you’re learning!! If you don’t enjoy these topics, you probably shouldn’t be becoming a doctor.

5)Test Test and retest. For the actual MCAT nothing will prepare you more than taking practice exams. I took ~10 full length timed exams. I also took about 60 erroneous partial exams from past 2014 and prior MCAT exams, most of it being free. I will tell you how to do this cheaply in a minute.

6)Be healthy!!!!! This made it all possible. BDNF released in the brain is directly proportional to time being active, so move! I didn’t neglect sleep, working out (except the last two weeks), or healthy food (I eat paleo AKA no wheat or dairy, if you’re interested check out Terry Wahls’s ted talk, it changed my life and cured her multiple sclerosis)

Location of information:

Tests: All located in MIT open course ware, I used organic chemistry 5.12, and biology test class 7.012. Others can be accessed by searching google, just type in “ ‘class’ final”.

Biology 101: Watch all lectures from 7.012. The teachers are Eric Landers and Robert Weinberg. You will never find better teachers in your life! Eric landers was/is the head of MIT and Harvard’s biology department. There are ~32 lectures so you can average 4-5 a day at 2x speed, then study and take lecture tests. This is the most concise class I have ever found. As an update: the MCAT now makes you memorize all enzyme names and functions. I wish I knew this, missing 20 minutes of studying costed me 2 questions.

Anatomy and physiology: I watched every single video on Khan Academy MCAT on this topic. I put it on 2-2.5x speed because khan academy speaks way too slow. I also took all the exams khan academy had to offer on this topic as well as made my own exams which I can upload should people request (all short answer/FIB). If you can't recite the information from memory you don't really know it.

General Chemistry: I used Duke University Intro to Chemistry on Coursera. I wouldn’t actually recommend it because it was very lengthy for simple topics. UCI Open courseware for chemistry is a much better bet. (http://ocw.uci.edu/openchem/).

Organic Chemistry: UCI Open course ware (http://ocw.uci.edu/openchem/). The BEST Orgo class I found online. Explains all rxns very well and in depth. The teaching style was exceptional. Something I suggest for anyone taking organic chemistry, make a log of every reaction you’ve had in Orgo, I did this and it saved me loads of time studying. It was 20 pages long front and back.

Physics: I was actually taking Phy. 2 at community college for these 6 months. But what I used to solidify all concepts and to learn concepts not covered (its community College so don’t expect much) was Khan academy which I will touch on again in a minute. Other online courseware generally focuses too much on the math for MCAT, aka no need for integrals or the sort.

Psychology/sociology: I watched every Khan Academy MCAT psychology/sociology section I could get my hands on (there are maybe 200 videos that I had on 2.5x speed because they are simple content. Just pause to write it ALL down because it will ALL be on the MCAT). I made my own exams for this one based on the khan academy material which, if requested, I can find a way to upload. This will not be comprehensive enough for the MCAT, you need to go through sociology and psychology books, write down every single term you find, and memorize it. I also found psychology term lists online. I did it during my MCAT testing months, but I would suggest doing it before hand in hind sight. (UPDATE: You can now get all this info on KDpsych document and such)

Loose Ends: Doing it the way I had, and knowing that classes aren’t necessarily tuned for the MCAT, I watched almost every video on the Khan Academy MCAT section that was available. If you believe you know it, or might know it, just put it on 3x speed. But I guarantee you don’t want to be stuck on the MCAT with a term you find unfamiliar because you didn’t go through it all.

NOW for the MCAT:

RESOURCES: Khan Academy (equivalent of 3-4 practice tests), “downloaded” Kaplan and PR (about 3 practice tests), library (I found over 20 old tests, you may have to check all local libraries to find what is available). I paid for MCAT University-80$ per month (4 full practice exams, now 5), The Princeton review Ultimate book from amazon - 40$ (one free full test any one can take, three full tests from purchasing book), AAMC practice test – 25$, AAMC practice questions – 75$ (I would suggest starting here). All sources except AAMC had atleast a couple questions wrong at some point by accident.

Extraneous resources: Audio osmosis “downloaded”, 50 Psychology classics audiobook “downloaded” (didn’t help too much), Random audio lectures. I listened to advanced bio lectures from UCI and virology lectures from Vincent Racaniello (Very respected viologist). These extraneous resources weren’t incredibly helpful, but they did provide some additional understanding.

Set test days! The best way to prepare is to take example tests. If I didn’t take all the tests I did, I couldn’t get the score I wanted (I was originally aiming for 507 actually, so did much better than my goal).

Study! I kept a notebook with separate exam sections. Every time I got a questions wrong I recorded the number on a piece of paper to revisit one week later and I wrote something down nearly every time. I then walked around the block with my note book studying the numerous bullet points from incorrect questions. This worked best for me and kept me from sitting for hours on end.

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS: I didn’t when I first started testing because I was always too lazy. When I started checking my answers I jumped up like 2 points. Don’t make stupid mistakes, you hate yourself later, even on a practice test. Get used to checking them now so you don’t forget to on the test. Don’t check your verbal answers though unless you have time, I never had time to.

My explanation for the sections is small compared to others posting on the topic, so It won’t be complete compared to them, but that isn’t my goal. I’ve read as many posts on it as I could, so I expect others would do the same.

CHEM. AND PHY. FOUNDATIONS: Just do practice tests, I found gen chem difficult, for you it may be physics. Focus on your area of weakness before your next set practice exam date. Last minute studying probably won’t help, but understanding a concept will, MCAT tests concepts and tries to ask questions that test your understanding of them. Being an encyclopedia for this section isn’t useful.

VERBAL: Note that I’m not the fastest reader out there and only scored in the 70th percentile for this section, all the rest were ~90th, the faster you can read, the less you will forget for the questions. I took ~15 practice verbal exams. My first I got 40% right, my final MCAT was ~65%. The explanations from any source but the AAMC can be wrong so be weary. Write down words you don’t know that occur frequently or in the question, study them later. Some strategies I used (which each didn’t make me much better/worse) were reading and underlining much of the material, reading and underlining key points, not underlining anything, and lastly reading and underlining key points in a concise way that I can spend another 30 seconds after to reread only the highlighted portions and get one last summary of anything I forgot. I used this last strategy for the exam, but in all honesty it didn’t make much of a difference, I did feel more confident but I also had to rush more. UPDATE: Don’t do the re-reading, but it could help to quickly breeze over the parts you highlight if you feel it necessary.

BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS: I found this one the easiest. The intro bio lectures from Eric Landers really helped hammer this in because he focuses on the chemistry. Also, memorize all names of the amino acids, their structure, rough pka (not as important), and all enzymes in main chemical pathways.

PSYCHOLOGY: The passages almost waste your time because it’s a bunch of info you don’t need with some important pieces. The best strategy for this section is to become an encyclopedia for psychology and sociology. The main thing I learned from this section was if you encounter the term in your study/class materials, expect it to be on the test. They test for the most stupid things, you may be able to recognize the answer just by how it is worded though, but better safe than sorry.

IN SUMMARY: Use the sources I suggested or the equivalent. Tests should dictate whether you passed a class or not, homework isn’t necessary. Don’t sacrifice health, it will hinder your efficiency. Practice tests are a must as well as checking your answers, take as many as possible. If you can put in the time, you can do very well on the MCAT. People are lazy, don’t be one of them.