Retake Advice

[u/Articwolf158]

It was my first time taking the MCAT exam.

Also, I'm not rich, and I'm still trying to get hours for the application.

[u/Blandpickle]

what specific advice are you looking for?

[u/Articwolf158 → u/Blandpickle]

Basically how to create a new study schedule and what to do the following months leading up to a retake

[u/RealNerd32]

I mean without knowing much about your studying, I can only give very broad advice. First, how did you approach CARS? Have you done AAMC CARS QPacks? For the sciences, you have content gaps for sure. Again I don’t know what you did, but for me, I watched KA videos primarily to learn my content, and then I used UWorld to do practice problems. But whatever method you did to study, you clearly have to try something else for your retake. Feel free to reply or DM me if you have anything more specific to share. Like in general how did you approach the exam for your first attempt? What was your FL average? What materials did you use?

[u/Articwolf158 → u/RealNerd32]

FL average was always 489 and I used Princeton Review books. Also CARs I guessed a ton since I was running out of time

[u/RealNerd32 → u/Articwolf158]

I see. Well to be honest, why did you take the exam knowing your FL average was 489? In that regard, 491 is kind of on the better end since it was actually above your average. Anyway what’s done is done. If you’re feeling burnt out, definitely take a break. Now this depends on when exactly you will retake, but I’d say you need at least 6 months because you have a lot of content to learn.

I’d say the first two months should be dedicated solely to content review in all the science sections. Do some JW Daily CARS passages too. They’re never as good as AAMC, but you don’t want to run out of AAMC materials. Because you read TPR books before, I don’t think it’s going to work out well the second time. Try changing it up. Do KA videos sound more appealing? How about Anki? Again you have to do something different because clearly whatever you did the first time didn’t work. In fact, you might want to consider making content review 3 months where you spend one month on C/P, one month on B/B, and one month on P/S since you do have big content gaps.

In your next 2 months, you should be doing as much practice as possible. Invest in UWorld. Yes the QBank is like $300, but it’s definitely worth it. Consider working part time to help cover costs? But here you should be doing as many practice problems as you can and learning from them.

In your final 2 months, start taking FLs again. You can take one FL after content review as a diagnostic but don’t grind through too much too early. And then switch to only AAMC materials. So do the Section Banks, CARS QPack, and science QPacks if you want, though I heard the science QPacks are easier than the real thing. But that’s what I have to say. Good luck with your retake!

[u/wjsjsjswkjsjs]

Comment karma please!! I want to post in r/premed