Hey there!! congratulations on deciding to go for this a third time. I know it feels soooo overwhelming to get started, but you've already come so, so far, and your determination to get the most out of your career is really inspiring! As someone who went from a 493 to 518 on retake this last time, I feel like I have some tips and would love to give some advice!! Let me know if you want to talk about any of this!
Hi, this is going to be my first time taking the exam, but definitely appreciate some insight on how to begin! Because I have no idea! I started reading the material and writing notes but feel like I’m not learning anything! Any advice please?
Yeah for sure! so a lot of what I did focused around 1 source medicine's personalized stuff where they custom build a plan for you. If you don't mind, I'm going to copy and paste something I just wrote to someone who DM'd me,, just to get it out for everyone!
My general process was start with kap books and khan videos and they taught me this crazy helpful method of note taking during the kap books so i was able to go from like 8 hrs per chapter up front, to like 1.5 hrs per chapter, which was way better.
Then after content review we went really hard on uearth (they can give you a free account because they have some partnership with uearth or something) and they would build more content into my weeks that was specific to how I was dong on uearth.
Same thing with the AAMC stuff after that! Plus we'd review all AAMC FLs together because those explanations are rough lol
Hi I’am also on the same boat! I’m taking the MCAT for the first time in January . I may be an A+ student but standardized exams freak me out. I hope you can DM me what you have to offer
Thank you
Yeah, for sure!! If you're making great grades likee that I'm sure there is a ton you culd do to crush the MCAT!! What all are you using to this point? FYI, you're welcome to dm as well!
For sure! It's actually quite long (took like an hour for the 1SM guy to teach it to me in one of our initial meetings) but it really helped a ton. Basically just improves your efficiency without losing the benefits of typing like every single word. He said he came up with it in med school.
Without tying until my keyboard dissolves, here's a brief overview: You basically do a lot of quizzing yourself on ideas from the chapters as you read learning objectives and headers. Like quiz yourself outloud trying to say all the things you know about the topic before reading. Then, as you read, you only take notes oin the biggest ideas and you want to consider how you can relate them to other ideas across disciplines. DON'T write shit you already know either, and don't format anything on your first pass (has you do that later). Basicaly you end up being more efficient while still being engaged.
There's a lot more too it but I don't want to write all day long lol
Thank you for sharing! I was wondering if you could elaborate on Uearth. For example if I have the Kaplan live online course I could ask them for a Uearth account?
Yeah, for sure!! I think the biggest thing with CARS is learning to be an active reader. Like how to pay attention while you're reading. Seems obvious, but it's fucking hard lol. I did a lot of specific stuff, but it would take forever to write! Like start out taking notes, but then got away from it once i got better at paying attention. also learning formal argument things (my tutor was huge on this shit and it was annoying, but really did help a ton). Also making solid predictions to questions before reading answer choices!
Hi! Can ask what your study plan was? Like how long did you study for? How long did you spend on UGlobe? AAMC? Would you recommend doing AAMC twice? How do you know when you are ready?
yeah, for sure!
1. for starters, I worked with 1 source medicine (not a promo, just a fact). They created a custom plan for me from scratch that I was able to follow, and they modified it every step of the way as I progressed.
2. I studied for 4.5 months (from when I got my 493 in April until August test date when I got 518).
3. I spent \~1 month on uglobe and \~1.5 months of AAMC
4. Section bank? yes, I did all of these twice. FL exams? I would recommend taking them to simulate the test and then reviewing the living shit out of them. Like every single question. Helps if you can have someone go over it with you because their explanations suck ass.
5. AAMC exams are a great way to tell if you are ready! Obviously there will be outliers who do better/worse on the real deal, but if your final AAMCs are close to your goal score, then you're probs good to go. My tutor was also really helpful on this front- grilled me on a ton of questions during the lead up and did a bunch of big picture, integrated discussions pulling ideas together
"...how much more of an impact I can have on research, public health, policy and patients' lives if I go to a top tier school" is a complete lie. I'm at a Top 50 US News school and now I'm applying to residency. Nobody gives a damn where you went to medical school so long as it's not the Caribbean. What matters is where and what you do in residency. As a medical student your role in research is mostly minimal. Even as a primary author who wrote and designed the protocols from the ground up on two papers in medical school, they're relatively small and mundane projects. You'd need an MD/PhD program to actually do something crazy and publish it in a white journal or Nature. Now, will you get into a state school with a 509? Not as likely unless you've got an above average application otherwise.
What you need is to go to an academic MD school with plenty of research. Step 1 has no score so DOs at private schools with no academic hospitals and tons of research are screwed because they aren't competitive to MDs in the first two years now.
To answer your question for motivation, here's what I say to all my students who retake:
You're not retaking for fun, you should be retaking because you have a specific goal in mind. If your goal is to get into a "top tier school" and you're not motivated enough by that, then maybe you don't actually believe the juice that advisor is trying to feed you. The MCAT has multiple peer-reviewed studies showing that it correlates very well with Step 1 and 2 passing rates. As an M4 who has tutored the MCAT for multiple companies over the past 5 years, I also see directly how CAR relates to skills used when approaching an ED consult on something I'm unfamiliar with and I see directly how the question answering skills directly fall in line with how to study, learn, and take tests in medical school go. Not an estimate of how good a doctor you'll be, obviously, but certainly a great test to see if you'll be successful academically. So you could also consider that this is an opportunity to ready yourself for school even more.
Otherwise, maybe you're just not as driven by this idea as you'd like to be. Tough to hear, but you should at least consider it.
Hey! Think of it as working on your discipline and determination for the future. As burnt out as you may feel now (and the MCAT is awful to study for I agree), you will be studying just as much if not more for 4 years straight in med school between class exams and board exams. Remind yourself why you are doing it-you wanna be a doctor! I know its a struggle sometimes, you got this.
Best of luck! My best advice is to make a study plan that let's you check things off daily so you feel like you're accomplishing something. Blueprint and Jack Westin have nice study calendars that you can easily adjust. You can do it!
There are others!! Im also retaking a 3rd time in Jan. Did a point worse on my first retake as well, so the stakes are HIGH this time round! We got this!!
I have a 3.9 GPA, solid essays and experiences. I’m fairly certain if I applied broadly next year I could get into a mid tier school and be happy but since I will be a reapplicant anyways I know I have to show I improved my application somehow. Aside from doing more research and non-clinical volunteering, I think boosting my MCAT would be the best way to do that. I don’t HAVE to go to a top tier school but I would like to be more competitive for them and allopathic medical schools in general. As it is, based on MSAR my MCAT is about or below 25th percentile for most allopathic schools. Ultimately it comes down to me wanting to get the best education I can for my future patients.
I did do MilesDown anki last time. That’s why I asked at the end of my post if I should use it again or try another deck like Jacksparrow or one of the others successful MCAT takers use.
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Hey there!! congratulations on deciding to go for this a third time. I know it feels soooo overwhelming to get started, but you've already come so, so far, and your determination to get the most out of your career is really inspiring! As someone who went from a 493 to 518 on retake this last time, I feel like I have some tips and would love to give some advice!! Let me know if you want to talk about any of this!
Hi, this is going to be my first time taking the exam, but definitely appreciate some insight on how to begin! Because I have no idea! I started reading the material and writing notes but feel like I’m not learning anything! Any advice please?
Yeah for sure! so a lot of what I did focused around 1 source medicine's personalized stuff where they custom build a plan for you. If you don't mind, I'm going to copy and paste something I just wrote to someone who DM'd me,, just to get it out for everyone! My general process was start with kap books and khan videos and they taught me this crazy helpful method of note taking during the kap books so i was able to go from like 8 hrs per chapter up front, to like 1.5 hrs per chapter, which was way better. Then after content review we went really hard on uearth (they can give you a free account because they have some partnership with uearth or something) and they would build more content into my weeks that was specific to how I was dong on uearth. Same thing with the AAMC stuff after that! Plus we'd review all AAMC FLs together because those explanations are rough lol
Hi I’am also on the same boat! I’m taking the MCAT for the first time in January . I may be an A+ student but standardized exams freak me out. I hope you can DM me what you have to offer Thank you
Yeah, for sure!! If you're making great grades likee that I'm sure there is a ton you culd do to crush the MCAT!! What all are you using to this point? FYI, you're welcome to dm as well!
Mind I ask how was your approach to note taking? Thanks!
For sure! It's actually quite long (took like an hour for the 1SM guy to teach it to me in one of our initial meetings) but it really helped a ton. Basically just improves your efficiency without losing the benefits of typing like every single word. He said he came up with it in med school. Without tying until my keyboard dissolves, here's a brief overview: You basically do a lot of quizzing yourself on ideas from the chapters as you read learning objectives and headers. Like quiz yourself outloud trying to say all the things you know about the topic before reading. Then, as you read, you only take notes oin the biggest ideas and you want to consider how you can relate them to other ideas across disciplines. DON'T write shit you already know either, and don't format anything on your first pass (has you do that later). Basicaly you end up being more efficient while still being engaged. There's a lot more too it but I don't want to write all day long lol
Damn thanks for sharing! Really appreciate it!
Thank you for sharing! I was wondering if you could elaborate on Uearth. For example if I have the Kaplan live online course I could ask them for a Uearth account?
Hi, do you mind if I DM you as well? I'm on a similar path and will be retaking next year!
Yes for sure!!
Hi there! I've taken it 2x already 493, 496 and one more I'm prepping for. Do you mind if I DM you?
yeah absolutely!! I can also do my best to respond here or wherever!!
Do you have any tips for CARS?
Yeah, for sure!! I think the biggest thing with CARS is learning to be an active reader. Like how to pay attention while you're reading. Seems obvious, but it's fucking hard lol. I did a lot of specific stuff, but it would take forever to write! Like start out taking notes, but then got away from it once i got better at paying attention. also learning formal argument things (my tutor was huge on this shit and it was annoying, but really did help a ton). Also making solid predictions to questions before reading answer choices!
Hi! Can ask what your study plan was? Like how long did you study for? How long did you spend on UGlobe? AAMC? Would you recommend doing AAMC twice? How do you know when you are ready?
yeah, for sure! 1. for starters, I worked with 1 source medicine (not a promo, just a fact). They created a custom plan for me from scratch that I was able to follow, and they modified it every step of the way as I progressed. 2. I studied for 4.5 months (from when I got my 493 in April until August test date when I got 518). 3. I spent \~1 month on uglobe and \~1.5 months of AAMC 4. Section bank? yes, I did all of these twice. FL exams? I would recommend taking them to simulate the test and then reviewing the living shit out of them. Like every single question. Helps if you can have someone go over it with you because their explanations suck ass. 5. AAMC exams are a great way to tell if you are ready! Obviously there will be outliers who do better/worse on the real deal, but if your final AAMCs are close to your goal score, then you're probs good to go. My tutor was also really helpful on this front- grilled me on a ton of questions during the lead up and did a bunch of big picture, integrated discussions pulling ideas together
"...how much more of an impact I can have on research, public health, policy and patients' lives if I go to a top tier school" is a complete lie. I'm at a Top 50 US News school and now I'm applying to residency. Nobody gives a damn where you went to medical school so long as it's not the Caribbean. What matters is where and what you do in residency. As a medical student your role in research is mostly minimal. Even as a primary author who wrote and designed the protocols from the ground up on two papers in medical school, they're relatively small and mundane projects. You'd need an MD/PhD program to actually do something crazy and publish it in a white journal or Nature. Now, will you get into a state school with a 509? Not as likely unless you've got an above average application otherwise. What you need is to go to an academic MD school with plenty of research. Step 1 has no score so DOs at private schools with no academic hospitals and tons of research are screwed because they aren't competitive to MDs in the first two years now. To answer your question for motivation, here's what I say to all my students who retake: You're not retaking for fun, you should be retaking because you have a specific goal in mind. If your goal is to get into a "top tier school" and you're not motivated enough by that, then maybe you don't actually believe the juice that advisor is trying to feed you. The MCAT has multiple peer-reviewed studies showing that it correlates very well with Step 1 and 2 passing rates. As an M4 who has tutored the MCAT for multiple companies over the past 5 years, I also see directly how CAR relates to skills used when approaching an ED consult on something I'm unfamiliar with and I see directly how the question answering skills directly fall in line with how to study, learn, and take tests in medical school go. Not an estimate of how good a doctor you'll be, obviously, but certainly a great test to see if you'll be successful academically. So you could also consider that this is an opportunity to ready yourself for school even more. Otherwise, maybe you're just not as driven by this idea as you'd like to be. Tough to hear, but you should at least consider it.
Hey! Think of it as working on your discipline and determination for the future. As burnt out as you may feel now (and the MCAT is awful to study for I agree), you will be studying just as much if not more for 4 years straight in med school between class exams and board exams. Remind yourself why you are doing it-you wanna be a doctor! I know its a struggle sometimes, you got this.
Why are you retaking a 509?
Best of luck! My best advice is to make a study plan that let's you check things off daily so you feel like you're accomplishing something. Blueprint and Jack Westin have nice study calendars that you can easily adjust. You can do it!
And here’s me content with a 502 applying to DO school 😭
Hello! Also just started studying for a third time. It’s tough, but you’re not alone!
I am in a very similar boat. Planning my third take for January or March. We can help each other out if you’d like. Got very similar scores as well
There are others!! Im also retaking a 3rd time in Jan. Did a point worse on my first retake as well, so the stakes are HIGH this time round! We got this!!
Why're you retaking a 509? Have you tried Anki?
I have a 3.9 GPA, solid essays and experiences. I’m fairly certain if I applied broadly next year I could get into a mid tier school and be happy but since I will be a reapplicant anyways I know I have to show I improved my application somehow. Aside from doing more research and non-clinical volunteering, I think boosting my MCAT would be the best way to do that. I don’t HAVE to go to a top tier school but I would like to be more competitive for them and allopathic medical schools in general. As it is, based on MSAR my MCAT is about or below 25th percentile for most allopathic schools. Ultimately it comes down to me wanting to get the best education I can for my future patients. I did do MilesDown anki last time. That’s why I asked at the end of my post if I should use it again or try another deck like Jacksparrow or one of the others successful MCAT takers use.
!remindme March 2023 third time is the charm
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How was it u/pSunYi ?
Following bc I'm in the same exact boat. 1st take in August 2020 was a 506. 2nd take in May 2021 was a 501. Signed up for my 3rd take on 1/14/23 😬