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.

This will be the first of many tips on the MCAT. There are many resources out there offering techniques and advice; however, mine will be from a student’s perspective and, if you are curious, I did quite well: I scored in the top 1-2 percent. Even if you are not writing the MCAT, you may want to read these tips as much of the advice will be applicable for other tests.
 
If you are taking the MCAT, I suspect that you are either taking a test preparation course or have purchased materials to study by yourself. In either case, your strategy for approaching the MCAT will be greatly influenced by your learning source. Most of the time, the strategies offer are very well suited for all students and should be dealt with as such — e.g. keeping track of time during the test and pacing yourself properly.
 
However, certain strategies are catered towards a specific type of student, and because of this they will not work effectively for you. These strategies may not work because they go completely against your learning style and/or belittle your intelligence. You may have guessed that I have a vivid example in mind, and you are correct.
 
While taking the Kaplan MCAT preparation course, I was pleased with their approach to certain science based sections, however, I felt their Verbal Reasoning approach to be… stupid. It just didn’t jibe with me. I didn’t like the idea of summarizing paragraphs in the margins, nor did I appreciate the emphasis placed on noticing transition words. These techniques are good if do not know how to read for content and with purpose (which I know some people do not). Yet if you are in this boat you may find that this technique is slow and plodding. I know I did.
 
However, it can be hard to know when to dump a certain strategy and pick another up. In this case I looked at the ExamKrackers books to see what they suggested. While they are biased, they describe how the Verbal Reasoning Strategies employed by “other companies” (*cough*Kaplan*cough*) does raise the average VR score the most, BECAUSE it is geared towards those in the lower end of the score range. Of course it is easier to get larger gains at the lower end, but you won’t be able to reach the 10+ range with those strategies.
 
Your goal should be higher than a 9, so your strategy should be higher than a 9. At times we have to use our intuition to know what strategy will work best for us. You must have an awareness of how you are feeling during practice tests. As a cautionary note: this doesn’t mean that you can dump ALL strategies because you don’t like Verbal Reasoning. It’s still going to be a lot of work, but I recommend choosing a strategy that makes sense to you logically and intuitively.
 
(A bit of disclosure: Using the ExamKracker strategies I moved from a 9 to an 11. My instructor said he received a 13 in VR using the Kaplan technique, but he may be biased, and I don’t know what he got beforehand. Like always, you’ll have to make your own decisions.)