How I studied for the MCAT

I wrote the MCAT the summer after my second year at university. I decided to write a quick blog post about how I studied for the MCAT, since many people have asked me for advice on studying over the past couple of years. Firstly, I want to disclose that I did receive a 514 (91st percentile) on my MCAT, so I don't have to re-take it (to reassure you that this advice is at least somewhat credible!). It's not an insanely phenomenal score, but it's certainly well above the minimum score for all Canadian medical schools. I also want to mention that not all study habits work the same for all individuals, so while the following study habits worked well for me, it is not a guarantee that they are the perfect fit for you, and that's okay!

So: studying. I started studying two days after my final exams in April 2017. I did this because I didn't want to let myself get into any lazy habits at home. Starting early turned out to be really helpful - it can take a while for information to sink into my brain sometimes. I did a couple chapters a day from the Examkrackers books, usually from different subjects (I rotated between books as opposed to going through an entire book at a time), then I would go for a run or something to clear my head. I like the Examkrackers books because they provide you with all the essential information, memory guides and study tips, without overwhelming you with overly detailed information (because, in my opinion, the MCAT is about your critical thinking skills and some basic scientific knowledge, not how much you can memorize out of a book).

I worked for most of the summer 9am-5pm Monday-Friday at a research lab, so I mostly studied in the evenings and on weekends. Honestly, you don't need to study a ridiculous number of hours, especially if you already have a solid biology and chemistry foundation from your university studies. It's more about studying efficiently.

The Examkrackers books have key words listed after each chapter, and I compiled a list of those terms from each subject book. After reading a chapter, I would highlight and review any terms that I could not readily explain or remember.

You do have to memorize some amino acids structures and practicing drawing them out from memory is probably the best way to do so.

I wrote my MCAT on August 3rd. I started studying in late April/early May, just a couple hours a day, a bit more on weekends. I took a two-week break in July for a family holiday. Breaks are important! If you try to study 20+ hours every week for a whole summer, especially if you are also working full time, you will probably lose motivation and burn out.

Probably the most helpful thing that I did in preparation for my MCAT was doing full-length, timed practice MCAT exams. I purchased a set of 4 exams, in the format of the MCAT (on a computer, mostly passage-based, 4 sections, etc.) from https://mcat.nextsteptestprep.com. You can also get official practice ones from AAMC, but they are pretty much the same thing. These really give you a feel for how quickly you have to answer the questions, and put in practice the mental math strategies, problem solving skills and logical analysis of text that you need to succeed on the MCAT. This was especially helpful for the CARS section, which you can't really study for in the traditional sense, and I was pleased to end up getting a 129 on this section. I did the 4 practice tests over the course of the summer, every 2-3 weeks or so, and I watched my score increase from 506 to 508 to 509 to 511 as I continued studying and improving my knowledge and skills. Nextstep provides you with feedback after each practice test and breaks down what percentage of questions on a certain topic (Reproductive systems, for example) you got correct, which helped me to identify my weaker areas so I could review them again more rigourously. Nextstep also has a half-length diagnostic MCAT test which I believe is free.

What about MCAT prep courses? In my opinion, they are not worth it at all. With many of them costing close to 2,000$, I thought that sounded ridiculous. If you are a highly motivated individual who doesn't mind some good old-fashioned book studying, and you are good at disciplining yourself and following a study schedule of sorts, I see no added benefit from taking a course. I was able to achieve a score even higher than my target score from a moderate amount of independent study.

Anyway, I think that about sums up my fun summer of MCAT studying! If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to shoot me an email! Best of luck.

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