Suggestions for Preparing for the MCAT (from those who have taken the exam and those who have graded them.)  

• Test-taking Strategy:

1. 1.  Make provisions to be comfortable during the test.  Some use mint candies to get an extra boost when their attention or stamina lags during the test.  Bring a bag of munchies or a thermos of coffee or tea in your book bag for between sessions.  Go to the bathroom before you go in.  Cool water on your face and neck can do wonders for refreshing you!

1. 2.  Be prepared for the test.  Do not cram the night before.  If you don’t know it by then, you ain’t goin’ to get it in the last few hours.  RELAX.  Get a good night’s sleep -- you’ll have a long, strenuous day ahead of you.  You will not be allowed to leave the room for ANY REASON or to sharpen your pencil .  Be sure to bring:

•  A pullover or jacket in case it’s cold in the room.
•  More sharpened pencils than you will need,
•  A GOOD eraser,
•  A couple black ink pens (for additional form),
•  A small pencil sharpener, and
•  A watch.

1. 3.  DON’T FORGET your Admission Ticket AND a couple of picture IDs!

1. 4.  BE ON TIME! ! !   They don’t let you in late.

1. 5.  While taking the test, plan your time wisely.

• First, count the number of passages and divide by the total time you are given for that section to get a rough estimate of how much time you can spend on any one question before moving on.  Place your watch on the table before you.

• Second, try reading the questions BEFORE the passage.  This tends to make you more focused in your reading and may increase your retention and speed during reading.

• Third, don’t be afraid to skip questions to come back to.  Do the sections you know first.  Skip passages you have no understanding of or find very uninteresting -- come back to those last.  Decide what you know and concentrate on those things first.

• Fourth, now that you’ve returned to those hard questions, do your best to give a reasonable answer.  Don’t just guess on the ones you don’t know, try to eliminate answers which cannot possibly be right.

•  Last, you are graded on the number you get right.  Fill in one on every question -- don’t leave any blank.

1. 6.  Try VERY HARD on the Verbal Reasoning sections.  A little increase in your raw score may make all the difference in getting a good score on that section.  (The percentile rankings are much more narrow on this section than on the others).

 

• Improve your reading skills:

1. 1.  Work on increasing your reading speed.  Don’t verbalize each word (don’t laugh, but closing your mouth so your tongue and lips don’t move DOES help).  Read a publication like the New York Times or Scientific American -- that's the level at which the MCAT passages are written.  Select an article and time yourself.  Select a second article of similar length and try to cut 15 or 30 seconds off your previous time.  Be sure to quiz yourself afterwards to make sure you're getting the content.  Write an abstract of the article.  If you can’t remember something, go back and get it for the abstract.

1. 2.  Work on increasing your comprehension.  Read more technical writing; e.g. Scientific American, Discover, Natural History.  When you finish, ask yourself basic questions like:

•  What was the main point?
•  What evidence was given in support of the argument?  What assumptions were made?
•  Was both sides of an issue discussed?
•  Where can you detect intentional or unintentional bias?
•  What questions does the article raise in your mind or with other scientists.
•  Discuss the article you read with a friend who’ll ask questions about it or come discuss it with one of the pre-med advisors -- we’d be happy to hear about a new topic about which you’ve read.
•  Try to fit the article you’ve read into your knowledge network by linking it to two different sets of mental class notes -- organic and biochemistry, physics and math, biology and genetics.  Of what other science topics did the article remind you?  How much can you explain to yourself about THAT connected topic.

1. 3.  Practice reading short passages with pencil in hand.  Underline main concepts, circle keywords, box data you may need for calculations.  This will focus your reading and provide marks to come back to quickly, instead of wading through all the details again.

 
 

• Improve your knowledge base:

1. 1.  Use the Caduceus Review Program on the PC in the Faculty Work Room on Third Floor.

1. 2.  Flowers Manual for MCAT Review is recommended by Heather Spidahl Turner (W graduate and now physician) as THE standard preparation for MCAT.

1. 3.  Review a good freshman Biology text; e.g. Purves, Orians and Heller; or Raven & Johnson, or Campbell.  Read it not for details, but basic concepts.

1. 4.  Review and memorize basic equations in Physics and Chemistry.  Understand what they mean, e.g. when one of the variables changes does the other increase or decrease.

 
 

• Work on Math skills:

1. 1.  Practice reading graphs.  Graphs in text books, graphs in papers, in Scientific American.  They are important.

1. 2.  Calculators are not allowed.  Therefore, be prepared to do math in your head.  PRACTICE.

1. 3.  Rounding numbers to get a ball park estimate will give you the answer many times.  Rounding 498 to 500 and 1.6 to 1.5 before multiplying them will typically get you close enough.  If it doesn’t, you can at least eliminate a couple of WRONG answers or take the time to do the pencil calculation.

1. 4.  Calculate the orders of magnitude first to see if that will give you the write answer.  Know milli-, micro-, nano-, pico-, off the top of your head.  Convert thousands, 100 thousands, and millions to exponential notation, add and subtract exponents to get the right ball-park figure.

1. 5.  THINK about the answer.  If you’re looking for freezing point depression -- you can immediately eliminate any answers greater than the freezing point you are looking at.  If you’re looking for which graphs best describe a titration curve -- throw out the straight line graphs.