While reflecting on how I prepared for the MCAT, I realized that I was unknowingly forced to warm-up before every class.
The MCAT course I was taking (Kaplan) was in downtown Toronto, and I commuted with my father on his way to work. So most mornings he would drop me off at the McDonald’s, and I would go over the material I needed to before class. Frankly, I didn’t have much else to do other than people-watch, but construction workers aren’t that interesting at McDonald’s.
During this time I would reflect on what I had learned in previous classes, tried to fill in holes of knowledge, and previewed for my upcoming class. These 3 tasks are tremendously helpful in solidifying knowledge:
1) Reflect on past lessons
When you review material of the previous lesson, you begin to draw new connections that you may have missed in the first pass. This review will also help you understand concepts in upcoming classes, because, for the most part, your lectures will build on top of one another.
2) Find and fill in holes
The areas that you should devote the most time to are those in which you struggle. This may make intuitive sense to some people, but sometimes we forget to do it. You may be doing really well in the chemistry section on electron promotion, and since you are doing well on it, you just keep doing it to feel good. Although feeling good is… good, the goal here is to improve, so we have to tackle the rough stuff. In finding what you still need to learn, you may begin to truly grow. Interestingly enough, you mark increases will mostly come from the subjects where you can push that poor to a good (or even great), rather than pushing that awesome to a perfect.
3) Preview for the upcoming class.
Even before looking at the material for the upcoming class, it can help just to write down what you already know. I heard this tip relatively recently, and it can make learning quite exciting.
Let’s say that we will be learning about air pressure. So just write down what you know. Here’s my (partial) list:
- airplanes
- lift
- Bernouli (sp?)
- pneumatics
- pistons
- pressure, force, area, volume: some equation relates them
- P=FA?
Ok, I’m realizing that I am not as sure about my physics as I once was, but that’s ok. The important points here are that a) you are activating your brain to think about this topic and b) once you come across even a vaguely familiar point during the actual lesson, it will stick more firmly. Maybe it’s just me, but when I realize I know more than I thought, I get excited. Not sexually, but close.
Just like a good athlete, we must warm-up before training. The purpose of the warm-up is not to waste time or bore us; it is to prepare our minds and bodies for the upcoming task. Warming up before exercise or sport will prevent injury and increase performance. While the injuries are pretty minimal during study, warming up will definitely reduce mental anguish and increase the amount you can learn.
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