How to Refresh Your Mind to Study Again Mcat
What exercise marriage, appendectomies, and preparing for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) have in common?
You only practise them merely once. (Or at least that's the plan.)
And because you wait to exercise them simply once, information technology can feel overwhelmingly disappointing and frustrating when something goes wrong and you accept to start over. I mean, tin you imagine your surgeon saying: "Yep, so…when we did your emergency appendectomy, we missed a little flake. Pitiful about that. Come up back again in a couple of months when you've healed up and we'll try over again."
No thanks.
The same applies to MCAT examination prep, or studying for any major test actually. There is nothing quite so confusing and disappointing as studying a topic—Woohoo! Success! Tick it off the list!—only to encounter that content in an MCAT practice questions or exam weeks later on, and getting information technology wrong.
You put in the piece of work, but your brain seems to be on a beach in Bermuda, sipping on cosmopolitans.
Listen: this happens all the time in MCAT test prep and information technology'due south not necessarily a setback. The of import thing is not to stress, but rather approach your mistake with marvel so that you can forever bridge it and never repeat information technology.
To assist you practice but this, the team here at Brainscape turned to our resident MCAT adept, Clara Gillan, who scored a whopping 526 on the exam, placing her in the top 100th percentile of all students who've taken the test, like, ever.
From this stratospheric score, Clara unsurprisingly became the Director of Product at MedSchoolCoach, which provides pre-med and medical school admissions consulting services, and she authored Brainscape's collection of iv,200+ digital flashcards for the MCAT. In other words: she knows exactly how to do well on the MCAT. In this guide, Clara will help you understand:
- All the reasons you could be getting questions wrong—many of which have nothing to do with your MCAT science knowledge (and then relax).
- What yous can do to larn from your mistakes so that y'all never repeat them.
- One of the most constructive study tools for ingraining the huge corporeality of information required to ace the exam: Brainscape's certified MCAT flashcards.
Armed with all of this, you'll exist well on your way to medical school!
Let's go started!
(Time management needs improvement? Bank check out Brainscape's guide on how to report for the MCAT more than efficiently.)
It's not yous, it'due south the MCAT test prep questions
Here'south the scenario: you're well into your MCAT do and yous're particularly confident in, for instance, your amino acids and bones carbohydrate structure. You've practiced tons of questions and accept moved on to the next topics.
Now, weeks afterward, you're attempting an MCAT question of the day or a practise exam and, would you believe it, you lot're getting questions about those topics wrong! You lot're supposed to know this stuff! What's going wrong?
Outset of all: Don't panic.
Getting MCAT practice questions wrong isn't always indicative of a gap in your content knowledge or issues in your content review procedure. Certain, these are possibilities, and it'southward of import you rule them out. But there are other explanations that are worth thinking about, which will help y'all to keep a level head.
Here they are:
- Some MCAT test prep questions are really difficult
- You got thrown off your game by a pseudo-detached MCAT question
- The answer lies in the passage, but you missed it
- You ran out of time
- You lot Do, in fact, take a gap in your MCAT content knowledge
Now, hither'southward how to exercise well on the MCAT … the showtime time!
Some MCAT test prep questions are really difficult
On a typical full-length MCAT practice test, at that place are at least a handful of questions that are noticeably harder than the remainder. That's merely the style the MCAT cookie crumbles, and information technology goes both ways: you'll likely see some absurdly easy questions, as well.
So, it could be that the one amino acrid question you got wrong happened to exist the hardest question in the entire section. When that happens, information technology can make you feel insecure about the MCAT content yous thought you knew well.
What should you practise?
Cheque to see if the practice questions you completed have difficulty ratings assigned to them, and if so, whether the question yous got incorrect was rated hard, easy, or somewhere in between. If it was a hard question, well then that'due south probably why you lot got it wrong.
If the practise MCAT test doesn't provide question difficulty, you can take it to a fellow student, tutor, or professor to become their opinion. If they thought the question was unremarkable or fifty-fifty easy, that's a red flag and you should probably take a moment to assess your knowledge of that topic; mayhap dedicate an 60 minutes or 2 to reviewing information technology.
In both of these cases, treat incorrect test answers as a valuable opportunity to learn and hone your intellectual arsenal confronting the real MCAT exam. Take note of any disquisitional flaws in your reasoning or content knowledge. Make sure you understand why yous got the question wrong, and even create a flashcard for it in the Brainscape app* so that you tin can review it again and again until you never become it wrong.
*More on Brainscape as a valuable tool for MCAT test prep in a bit!
You got thrown off your game past pseudo-discrete MCAT practice questions
The second possible explanation for getting an MCAT practice examination question wrong is that it looks like it's associated with the passage but is actually ONLY testing your content knowledge. This is called a pseudo-discrete question (which you're probably familiar with if you've taken a total-length MCAT practice examination).
These kinds of questions are surprisingly mutual! And you know you've got one when you spend an inordinate amount of time scouring the passage, trying to figure out the reply, when in fact you need look no further than your ain noggin. The question sounds like it'south based on the passage, but in fact it's 100% testing your content knowledge. You lot might have that content cognition nailed downwardly, merely it didn't do you any good, considering you didn't know that you needed to access information technology.
If you recognize a pseudo-detached question early on, you tin can save yourself a lot of time and defoliation when trying to answer it. This is a significant key to how to do well on the MCAT and yous tin only attain information technology through practice, do, practise!
Read: 8 Mutual MCAT myths (that could be derailing your studying)
The answer lies in the passage, but you missed it
Some other case of how candidates can get confused is when MCAT test prep questions enquire almost information that'due south exterior the scope of what yous need to know. This can make you feel like you lot've missed something in your studies when, in reality, you are supposed to get the reply straight from the passage.
So, information technology's like the opposite of a pseudo-discrete question (but in that location isn't a beautiful word for it). And these questions are all over the MCAT.
Say an MCAT question asks about the bonds in isomaltose, a disaccharide. PANIC! Isomaltose is not a molecule you're familiar with. Did y'all miss something? Was your encephalon on vacation again? (Perhaps in the Republic of the maldives, this fourth dimension?)
No, no. Relax. Yous don't need to know annihilation nigh isomaltose, but that doesn't mean a question won't ask virtually it. Maybe the passage shows the construction of isomaltose directly, or maybe it gives just plenty information for you to be able to deduce that isomaltose is similar to maltose but contains an alpha 1-half-dozen instead of an blastoff one-4 bond.
The answer lies within the passage. You just demand to get mining for it.
So, before yous start kicking yourself for being forgetful, make admittedly sure you understand whether to turn to your content knowledge OR the passage (or both) for an answer.
You lot ran out of fourth dimension to reply all the MCAT test questions
A rather unfortunate, nevertheless common reason why people miss points on the MCAT examination is that they run out of time.
This is where taking many MCAT practice exams comes in handy. If yous find yourself struggling to go through everything in the allotted time, then it'southward your time direction skills or even test-taking strategies that could utilize improvement.
If yous need help with that, check out Brainscape'due south height exam-taking strategies to help you prepare for, and take on high-stakes exams like the MCAT!
You DO, in fact, take a gap in your MCAT content knowledge
Finally, the reason you might take gotten an MCAT test prep question wrong is that at that place is an actual problem with your understanding of the content.
Maybe you knew the content earlier, but y'all've since forgotten. This is a very real and very mutual scenario because there is and then much information to embrace. Balancing the learning of new content with the review of older content is an ongoing challenge for MCAT candidates.
Alternatively, peradventure you never fully understood the content because you studied it superficially, and you didn't realize this earlier because questions on that expanse never came upwardly. Or they did come up, but you lot were able to blunder through them. This blundering is an incredibly like shooting fish in a barrel fault to make because it's surprisingly easy to get questions right for the wrong reasons.
For example: you lot probably know that sound travels fastest in solids and slowest in gases. That fact alone tin can answer most questions most the concept. Simply you can know this fact and still have a completely mistaken thought almost why it is the case.
Namely, students often think that the velocity of audio is directly correlated with the density of the medium. We won't get too far into this here, but it'southward actually the reverse of the truth; the speed of sound is inversely correlated with density and directly correlated with the majority modulus of the medium. The faster velocity of sound in solids is due to their massively college majority moduli, not their college densities.
Whether you forgot certain content or never learned it right in the commencement place, y'all should go dorsum over the topic, making sure to avert straying too far outside facts you come across in your MCAT test prep resources.
Throughout this review, constantly ask yourself questions, like: "Why does it piece of work this way?" and "Does this fit in with what I know well-nigh related topics?" This will preclude you from studying superficially again, and it'll assistance you retain memorized information better, too. So, piece of work through some practise questions if available.
Equally a quick side note, students often work through discrete questions (including MCAT questions of the mean solar day), not passages, equally function of this content review process. This is fine; it'due south a groovy manner to test understanding! But if y'all become every detached question right only later miss passage-based questions on that topic, over again, it'due south probably your passage analysis that actually needs work.
[We have the ultimate 3-month written report plan for the MCAT. Observe information technology here to study optimally and gear up your listen and torso for the exam!]
Utilize Brainscape'southward MCAT flashcards to master the facts
There is a clandestine weapon to help yous overcome all of the hurdles we've discussed in this guide … an MCAT test prep tool that automates the daily review of content, making it and so convenient and piece of cake that all yous accept to do is pick up your telephone, tablet, or laptop, open Brainscape, and start running through MCAT flashcards.
Throughout the course of your MCAT preparation, your content review volition never truly be "finished." You're jump to forget some topics over time, and fifty-fifty if you study with constant cocky-questioning and critical thinking, you may misunderstand others and only realize this later.
Brainscape's flashcards are a powerful, effective, and user-friendly way to gainsay this content degradation over fourth dimension.
Together with MCAT expert Clara Gillan, nosotros've distilled the unabridged MCAT curriculum downwardly into more than 4,200 MCAT flashcards that comprise all the important facts you need to know for the exam. Armed with the web or mobile app, you lot can refresh and review content literally wherever you go, in study sessions that are as curt equally 5 minutes or as long every bit several hours. (Whatsoever you're motivated to exercise.)
You can too use Brainscape to make your own flashcards, perhaps for questions and facts that yous got wrong on an MCAT practice test. You can then practice them over and over so that you lot never forget them again.
Brainscape'due south flashcard algorithm is grounded in decades of cognitive scientific discipline research, leveraging learning principles similar active recall, metacognition, and spaced repetition to help you master the facts twice equally fast every bit traditional learning techniques. And for this reason, it's one of the most effective revision tools for MCAT candidates out there.
Turning MCAT test prep mistakes into learning opportunities
There are all kinds of reasons yous might fumble with MCAT exercise questions or the actual examination, only one of which comes down to yous not knowing the content well plenty or having forgotten information technology. And for that, in that location's Brainscape to keep your cognition fresh, live, and vital, which is how to practice well on the MCAT.
The best approach doing well on the MCAT the offset fourth dimension is taking on (and learning from) practice questions, whether an MCAT question of the solar day or full-length practice exam. You need to come across every missed question as an opportunity to re-evaluate your weaknesses. And hopefully, the strategies nosotros've talked about will help y'all do exactly that.
(We also have an amazing guide on how to accept an MCAT practice test to get the most out of it. Check information technology out!)
Source: https://www.brainscape.com/academy/succeed-mcat-first-time/
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