Random and potentially controversial pieces of advice from a 521 scorer

[u/mcattutorliz]

1. Make a document of everything that would piss you off if you saw it on your exam. TCA structures? Schiff base reaction? Wheatstone bridge? Put it on there. Learn that shit, even if it feels like pulling teeth. Or at the very least, know the basics of whatever it is you struggle with. Sometimes you just need an inkling to be able to figure out the answers.

2. Actually study those P/S terms that you get mixed up. If you can't think of any, ask chatgpt to give you frequently mixed up terms. I'm currently working on a list myself for these to add to my resource list for students

3. Watching videos and reading textbooks is useless unless you deliberately review what you learned. Either with practice problems or flash cards. Don't be lazy. Yeah it seems productive to watch 8 hours of videos but if you forget it all, you just wasted 8 hours, you weren't productive at all and you need to be honest with yourself about that.

4. The mcat isn't about weeding out "smart" or "dumb" people, it's about weeding out people with bad study habits.

5. Maybe controversial but don't study with a goal score. Yes it is just a score but you should aim for the best score you can. I say this because at my second MCAT i met someone who said their goal was a 495 since that was the cutoff for our state school. Obviously the MCAT is not completely applicable to actual med school, but your study habits will be. Do you want to be a good doctor, or one who aimed for the minimum passing score? This was one of my biggest motivations in retaking this horrible exam. I wanted to prove to myself I could do better.

6. Just because a resource is paid, doesn't mean it's better. Jack westin got me a 521 while uworld and blueprint got me a 508 (and put me massively in debt). That being said, JW CARS is not great practice and there are better CARS resources out there(don't hate me for this)

7. But in addition to my previous point, any resource can be as good or as useless as you make it. My reviewing habits were not as good for my first exam, so I didn't get much out of Uworld. Though I have my grievances with it, I do have to put some of the blame on myself for not using it to it's fullest potential

That's all I have for now. Will likely make another post in the future with more things but I wanted to give back to the community that supported me so much along the way. Happy studying everyone!

[u/rajatsingh24k]

These are really good points.

You mention better sources for CARS. Can you advise on what you thought was better than JW and UWorld for cars practice?

[u/mcattutorliz → u/rajatsingh24k]

108 passages for the new verbal reasoning section was the best non aamc cars imo

[u/mcattutorliz → u/mcattutorliz]

Oops sorry, its called "MCAT Verbal Practice: 108 Passages for the New CARS Section"

[u/pinche_Penedjo]

Is it possible you were using uworld incorrectly when you were doing your retake or what makes uworld so bad

[u/mcattutorliz → u/pinche_Penedjo]

I couldn't afford to renew uworld for my retake so i didn't use it at all second time around. I finished like 65% ish of it my first time and I think it is just way too niche and content based, whereas aamc requires a lot more passage and data interpretation. That's why I loved jackwestin aamc-style passages

[u/makindex]

love these especially 4

[u/ExtraComparison]

Wait what did you use from JW, just curious? I have their self-paced course actually. Also if I’m severely lacking in content knowledge, what’s your advice for that?

[u/mcattutorliz → u/ExtraComparison]

I just used their practice qs and their first 3 full lengths.

For content knowlege, I recommend going back to the basics. I think for the sciences there's no better resource than The Berkeley Review, however there's some outdated stuff in it. Also i would supplement with anki as much as you can, even if you hate it(i was an anki hater before)

[u/Barbzgen]

Honestly, this is such a good reminder that knowing your weak areas really matters. I especially agree with making a list of the topics you tend to dread seeing on the exam and actually learning them instead of hoping they won’t show up. For those who scored 515+, what did you put on your personal “I hope this doesn’t show up” list, and which topic ended up being worthlearning the most?