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The GRE/MCAT Mega-Thread - Ask Related Questions Here!

Thank you Wize. No, I didn't know about SDN, but I will be looking it up for sure.

I found this link which has a list of things to study in a 10 week schedule. Biochem II sucks. I had to take an Incomplete in it instead of taking the final since my ex died about 2 weeks prior. So, I'm stuck taking it again and it is pure hell. All those things like cellular respiration where the professor skips saying "that's too detailed. Don't worry about know that." is in biochem. It's like a mega hard course with organic chem and biochem I mixed together. Blech.

I'm taking Medical Bacteriology also. I love bacteriology. To be honest, I want to go to med school, but I think a good path in bacteriology or virology could keep my interest.

Here is a link to a study schedule. I hope it helps you too! Physical sciences is my weak point too. I'm afraid to register, but I know it will force me to study as soon as I pay. I'm so nervous!

http://studymcat.blogspot.com/2006/01/game-plan.html
 
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Cool.

SDN will turn you in to a totally neurotic med hopeful, it's full of anxiety ridden hopefull applicants so take what they say with a grain of salt. I think I might have a bunch of my old MCAT study stuff on my computer here so if you want to PM me an email address I can send you a ton of crap that should be helpfull.

Also practice VR like crazy, do at least a few passages a day. VR is very much about learning how to think they way they want you to think, there are only so many types of verbal reasoning questions they can ask you and once you key in on how to do verbal it gets much easier.

I've taken honours level virology and immunology and it was really interesting stuff (got A's in both). If your med bacteriology course is anything like my mechanism of microbial disease class you might want to make a bunch of flash cards for each pathogen.

If you have a biological mind (visual learner, good with integrating concepts) then you'll find bio to be a breeze, especially if you're taking a degree that's heavy in biological sciences. Physiology, genetics, microbio, are all great classes for this. Intro organic chem will most likely cover more than you need to know for the MCAT (organic 2 was the hardest class I've ever taken in my life).

Even though I'm Canadian the hoops we have to jump through up here are pretty similar to the ones you have down south. If you have any other med type questions feel free to ask. It's long and hard road so enjoy the journey or you'll lose your mind.
 
I did very well on the MCAT (35S), and I give most of the credit to the sheer amount of time I spent studying. I agree, SDN is a great resource but filled with type-A pre-med crazies, so beware. If you have any questions about the application process, drop me a line. Although I have no acceptances yet, I've had a handful of interviews at pretty decent schools.

I think I posted this before, here you go:

Before you can even consider studying you've got to know WHAT to
study. Having a coherent plan is key to this endeavor. Fortunately
the MCAT people prepare a list of every topic that could possibly come
up on your exam. Download it here:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/start.htm (at the bottom
where it says 'test sections'). To be honest, only about a third of
this material will appear on any given exam, but in order to guarantee
a good score you need to know it all.

Go through this list and take an inventory of what you know, how well
you know it and what you don't know. This will give you a better idea
of what you have ahead of yourself. You should have a pretty good
idea of how you study and how long it will take you through the
material.

I budgeted myself about 3 months time of pretty hardcore studying to
prepare myself. During this time I had only a part-time job and no
other commitments (I did take a microbio class during this time, but
that is at least partially related to mcat, so I don't count it). I
pretty much considered the MCAT my full-time job and probably spent
about 30-40 hours/week on it.

I think the real key to success on this exam is taking many practice
tests. Unfortunately you can't really re-take any of the exams, so
you've got a limited number of tests available to you (AAMC have put
out several, and there are several by other test companies). I don't
recommend taking these until you've covered about 70% of the possible
material. It doesn't make sense to try taking an exam until you at
least have some sort of basis for taking the exam.

When I felt that I had learned enough material, I started taking
practice tests. I took one every week for about 2 months. For the
last 2 weeks I took one every 2-3 days (by this time you really
shouldn't be studying material, just be practicing passages). After
each practice test I would grade it and look for problem areas (both
subject areas and problem 'types') and create a new list of study
areas.

Between practice tests I would continue my studying by whittling down
my study lists until I started taking tests more frequently. This
allowed me to gauge how ready I was as the test came up. My two
mottos for studying:

1. It is just a test.
2. I can always void or retake.

Keep those in mind.

Let's talk about individual sections.

Physics and G Chem: You need to know every equation. Even when your
understanding of a topic isn't so great, by having your equations
memorized you can often work out a solution by recognizing key words.
Easy points are available by learning how to do circuit diagrams and
knowing your kinematics inside out. Also, knowing how to manipulate
units is incredibly helpful. Look for crossover between the chemistry
and physics (eg. EMF can be calculated using the Nertz equation and
then used in circuitry problems)

Verbal – good luck. I used the examcrackers method: read the whole
thing in one go. keep in mind overall topic and tone. don't take
notes. answer the questions confidently and assertively. imagine
you're and editor and the writer is trying to prove something to you.
answer and move on. I practiced this section SO SO SO much and
managed to move my scoring between 8-10 to 9-11. Ugh.

Bio: Pretty daunting, but completely doable. I had almost no bio
experience when I went into this and came out scoring higher in BS
than in any other section. Again, look for the crossovers between bio
sections. Memorize everything, especiall all the endocrine stuff and
physio stuff. For organic chemistry you don't need to know
*everything* but you need to have a good idea of how reactions work
and predict how stuff happens.

To succeed you need to memorize all of this insane information and
then UTILIZE it in an appropriate way. Memorization is not enough.
Being smart is not enough, you need to do both.

----------------------
 
Thank you so much WK and Plurred. I don't have 30-40 hours, but I'm considering pushing my exam date to mid April instead of March 28th. I will start my studies on Monday. I bought the examcrackers book...everyone one of them and bought an extra physics book cuz that is my really low weak spot. Biology I think I'm good except I need to study the specific systems. I've only had one class whereas stuff like genetics is practiced in practically every bio class so it's pretty ingrained.

VB is my highest score. LOL I am pretty good with that part. Organic I I received an A, but Organic II was rough..got a C :-/ Hardest class evarrrrrr like you said WK. I had a crappy professor though and my Organic I professor was awesome. I'm taking Biochem II and Med Bac, so I think that will help me study for the MCAT. I need to take 6 credits so that I don't need to start paying school loans back.

I'm so nervous, but I'd also be happy matriculating to a Master's program. I think I will need to matriculate and work on my GPA anyway, but I'm even considering applying to the way off schools that no one has on their first list. I'm single, no ties, so moving just to go to med school would be hard for me, but it's not like I have any kids or a husband.

Thanks again guys for the help and I hope you guys get what you want. It's so competitive. My lab partner last semester was pre-Dental. She had straight A's except for 1 B in Organic I and she couldn't get into any of her chosen schools and had to settle for last on her list. That really makes me nervous.
 
While the MCAT is important don't forget to focus on the extracurriculars as well. Volunteering, clinical experience, rural medicine (don't know if there'a big push for that down south as it is up here), name on scientific publications, as well as other hobbies (music, writing, sports, etc...) are all significant parts of the puzzle as well.

If you can't get in to an MD school, you may want to consider a DO school (osteopathic medicine). I'm not saying one is better than the other but traditionally from what I hear DO schools tend to be a little easier to get in to than MD schools (SDN has a few good threads on the differences between the two). Also you may want to consider Australia or Ireland if you can't get in to an American school. Their systems are a little different (they don't teach for the USMLE exams) but you can get an American residence with a foreign MD.

Don't expect to get in the first time you apply. If need be you can do a masters and still apply to medicine, if you do get accepted during your masters many school will allow you to defer entry for a year to allow you to finish the masters program. Getting in to medicine is a long and difficult road.

Another avenue you may want to explore is as a road in to medicine in nursing. It provides great clinical experience and shows an interest in the healthcare system. There are many ways to get in to medicine and if you're prepared to work hard and make sacrifices you will get in eventually.

Don't stress too hard, remember there's always the next application cycle to make yourself an even better applicant.
 
^ Yeah, if you look at the selection criteria, mcat and gpa are only elements of what makes you desirable to a medical school. And every med school has different criteria. For example University of Madison Wisc has a crazy binary criteria list where a good mcat score is no more important than living in state. Seriously.
 
Crazy. On an upbeat note I just found out today that I have an interview, so 1.5 months to prep!
 
GRE Preparation Stuff

Anyone prepared for it? How? Any good ways to do it?

I'll be taking it this year. I have til December.

Verbal is my strength. Math I'm a retard at.

I need to at least break 1000 combined but obviously the higher the better uni I get into.

I got like 32 on verbal ACT and like 23 on the math section of ACT. Just some background info.

I'll be applying to Speech Therapy schools for the MS degree.
 
Are you taking a subject based GRE? I'm dedicated to register tomorrow (I'm nervous so I've been putting it off). There are books from places like amazon that will help you study. Like someone told me to do - take lots of practice tests!
 
Honestly, I took the general GRE and it is basically just the SAT with slightly harder questions and vocab. Still all the same analogy, sentence completion, quantitative comparison crap you are used to. There are also two essays as well.
 
drill yourself with the words...you can get databases of the words used on the verbal and you need to learn every single word in that database you don't know (there will probably be a shitload you don't know). Or at least try to learn as many as you can!

Then rehearse some mathematical formulae (wth is an X-axis for instance?) and go over some problems.

Then just jump into the practice tests! They are hit/miss as far as indicating what you will ultimately get.

My friend got consistently 1400s on the practice tests then got a 1500 on the real test!

I scored 1400 after scoring 1400ish a couple times on practice tests. I also took it twice (first time was 1300).

Allow enough time for a rescheduling. If you are applying out in December, then you might want to think about taking it in november so if you have to take it again (cause you fucked up) you'll still have time.
 
One thing I've found very helpful in studying for math, especially on standardized tests, is to concentrate on improving your overall logical problem-solving abilities. If you focus on just learning how to do problems you'll usually end up in trouble, because the "universe" of potential problems that you could be presented with is practically infinite. If you concentrate on improving your fluid intelligence and problem-solving ability, then you'll be able to logically approach pretty much any potential problem with confidence. Really the only way to accomplish this is by consistently working problems of all different types; learning to find analogies between concepts, and even analogies between analogies.
 
Anyone take the Biochem GRE?

I'm a huuuge fan of options, so I have decided to take the Biochem GRE and the MCAT. I've taken a lot of advice from here in regards to the MCAT, and I'm still chugging along with those studies (thank you wize and plurredchemistry).

Today, I decided to take a look at books for the biochem gre. I guess the biochem test is odd man out. It's all about the Bio GRE, but I really hate ecology and the Biochem tests covers the things that interest me. Can anyone suggest GRE books for the subject based tests for Biochem? I am currently taking Biochem II and Medical Bacteriology, so I'm good on a lot of the cell and chemistry questions, but I want to read something that covers the test specifically.

I found it interesting that the GRE people send you a practice test when you register. The MCAT people don't do that. Cheapskates :(
 
>>Verbal is my strength. Math I'm a retard at.
>>

You may be surprised.

The lexical items on the verbal section are esoteric enough that teaching yourself how to guess more effectively will prove decisive. Attempts to just learn more words en masse will provide diminishing returns, although there are lists of words most likely to appear on the test that you should browse over.

The math involved is all very basic. It should prove tricky solely insofar as the questions are posed convolutedly.

I'm not sure whether admissions departments have begun to 'care' about the analytical writing section. I found it to be a cake-walk, post-whoring on here having provided the necessary practice. ;)

ebola
 
Warning to those studying for grad exams (GRE/MCAT/GMAT/DAT, etc)

I just wanted to give my fellow college goers a little warning and some advice.

As I've said before, I'm a provider on Elance in the Writing and Translation section (yeah yeah, my writing on forums isn't swell but cut me some slack when I'm not in work mode. LOL).

There has been a mass dump of scam buyers on the site looking to buy some cheap writing for education material for the graduate tests. I had a buyer who wanted to pay me $1000 for 2000 questions. While that seems like a lot of money, it's really absolute crap pay and I refused it. He eventually paid some guy in India with NO EDUCATION to write up 300 questions per grad test for $2500. In total, it was about 3000 questions from a guy with no verified college experience in his profile (you can have your education verified by the Elance system).

This is just one example of many people who have jumped on the bandwagon to make money off of college kids trying to study for their grad exams. Because of the economy, you might notice a lot of people going back to school, and these cheap marketing people are trying to make a buck off of you.

So, my post is to serve as a warning and advice - when you go out to spend money on grad exam material, please be cautious of where you buy from. I have the ExamCrackers and Kaplan stuff. I think Kaplan is better written than ExamCrackers and their tests are more true-to-life.

There's a lot of material being written by people who have no background in any of the subjects, and I find it quite sad sometimes when I go through some of the jobs on Elance because they are trying to sell material that is poorly written that will eventually harm some college kid. You can self publish easy these days and have your work sold on Amazon.com so that it looks official.

When you go to buy your practice tests, buy it from the official testing association. Don't just buy a practice test because it's cheap.
 
Since this thread is pretty old, I am wondering how everyone did on their MCAT, GRE & etc. Also did anyone get into grad school or med school?

I'll be taking the general GRE in late January and this thread has been very helpful. Great advice.

I don't have a job as my mom wants me to concentrate on getting into a psychology Master's or PhD(doubtful) so I'm gonna do volunteer work and make studying my full time job and maybe take some courses Spring 2010.
 
Z Y G G Y said:
Since this thread is pretty old, I am wondering how everyone did on their MCAT, GRE & etc. Also did anyone get into grad school or med school?

I'll be taking the general GRE in late January and this thread has been very helpful. Great advice.

I don't have a job as my mom wants me to concentrate on getting into a psychology Master's or PhD(doubtful) so I'm gonna do volunteer work and make studying my full time job and maybe take some courses Spring 2010.
Click to expand...

Hey there, well, I was originally going to take both MCAT and GRE and couldn't pull the study time with classes and work. So, I just took the GRE and cancelled the MCAT. My goal on the GRE was 1200 and I made 1180...boohooo I missed it by like 2 questions. Meh. My school only requires 1000 on the GRE for grad entry, so I think I'm fine and won't attempt it again.

I figured my high scores throughout every year of schooling were English, so I kinda blew off verbal mostly and studied hardcore for math and verbal is what killed me. I got a 650 in math and only 530 in verbal.

This is what I did for studying (4 weeks of studying for about an hour a day, 5 days a week):
Math: Bought the Kaplan books with the practice tests. Studied for about an hour until I had gotten through all the chapters. Then, 1 practice test a day.
Verbal: Bought the kaplan word flash cards. Did 20 words a day. Then, I went back and flashed the cards I had previously reviewed.

Day of Test: Did 1 full practice test in the morning, although I completely bombed it, so I think I killed my confidence. LOL Went through all of my flash cards (500 of them).

Verbal got me on the essays mostly. God, they were so boring and it was all artsy fartsy crap. History, black heritage stuff and something else, I can't remember. The something else was on the heart (I think), so it read more easily than the others.

Sentence completion, easy. Antonyms kinda got me. There were a few I thought were ambiguous, but of course there was a right answer that I obviously missed!

Math: I think I guessed a few correctly. I found the GRE loved multples of 2 and went with those answers. LOL
 
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