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MCAT Diaries: Managing life on a pre-med track

Story by: Aminah Tannir

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As a pre-med student, one of the more difficult aspects of the pathway is finding time outside of coursework to study for the taxing Medical College Acceptance Test. Being a nontraditional pre-med student getting a BA puts me in an awkward position where I’m not coming across some of the material covered on the MCAT.

With some research and adjustments based on my learning style, here is how I’m tackling studying for the big exam.

Prep to study

MCAT study materials are definitely a point of discussion when it comes to exam preparation. There are definitely the more popular test prep companies such as Kaplan, who produces the exam, and Princeton. Blueprint is another popular resource for materials.

Given these test prep resources are the most popular, they are also a bit pricey. When looking for my test prep materials I found that I could compare packages within a company and look online to see what pre-med students who took the MCAT liked or disliked about what the test prep companies offered.

Having been a part of a medical society on campus, I’ve come to learn that there are MCAT libraries where you can check out books as well or donate your materials when you’re finished. After acquiring my books and online materials, I started looking into how I could allocate my time to best fit in my MCAT studies.

This was the hard part. Luckily enough, I was able to find study plan calendars online that showed what it would look like if I wanted to study over a one month, three month or six month period.

Beware when you’re looking for these, since many of them are changed up to match the style of the study prep company they’re designed for. So you might find that many will switch between content and review heavy sessions compared to focusing on content. Since I was more focused on studying the content initially and switching to review sessions as I go, this was perfect.

When I was trying to figure out what prep style, materials and schedule worked best for me I must admit I did a YouTube dive.

From Shemmassian

Academic Consulting to Med School Insiders

I was definitely feeling a lot more behind than I actually was. I realized what’s important is to take the tips that work best for you. So if you ever find yourself in a 1 a.m. YouTube hole questioning everything like I was, just remember to take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand: tailoring the study process to yourself.

Staying true to your schedule

Being a student is hard, so when it comes to sticking with the schedule you’ve made for yourself, it can be difficult to hold yourself accountable.

If you’re like me, where you have extracurricular commitments, you might need to take a minute to sit down and figure out your schedule every week. First thing’s first you want to have a rest day, when you can have some time to yourself and not have to work on school or the MCAT. After figuring out which day that will be, I would hope that’s on the weekend, you’re going to want to look at your class schedule.

You want to sneak in however many sections of MCAT coursework you need to get through based on the amount of time you have based on your study plan calendar. Whether it’s between classes or a quiet place during early mornings or late nights, this is when you’d want to study. What’s important is that you keep your coursework first because your GPA is the other large component of your medical school application.

When you figure all of that out, stick to it. Plan ahead and don’t waver or else the study load will pile up and it will get to be unmanageable.

If you make an unreasonable plan where you’re wanting to study right before bed and you keep putting it off, you might need to reassess how you’re going about allocating time for MCAT studying.

I think the best way to approach studying is to really get to know your learning preferences and how to fit the studying into your schedule. There are numerous resources online that can be helpful as well as asking around your peers that have taken the exam to see what’s best for them.

Take a breather, do your research and good luck on studying for the big exam!