MCAT Strategy: One and Done

Figure 1: Jellyfish at the Baltimore Aquarium.  (*Pic unrelated)

tl;dr
Study some early on ~6 months before the exam.  Build up slowly, but exponentially, taking a diagnostic practice test early on, then one test a month.  The month before the exam, one practice test a week.  Two weeks before, one practice test every other day.  By this time you should be hitting 30's every time. You should be doing over 7-8 hours a day of actual studying the during the 6 weeks right before the exam.

You only want to take the MCAT once, and never again.  It is stressful, expensive, and a large time commitment to study for.  Fortunately for me, my strategy worked out okay.

I didn't think I would do well on the MCAT, but thankfully I got a 34 (12P 12B 10V).  This is simply a timeline of how my studying went down, materials I used, and how my strategy might work for you.

Timeline:

Winter before MCAT:

First, I bought some used copies of the Kaplan MCAT prep books.  (Not the ones you get at Barnes and Noble's.  I'm talking about the ones that come with their preparatory course.  Ebay has them.)

I began my review over winter break, and I started with the physics book since that's my strength.  While going through it, I began chemistry so that I wouldn't get bored with physics.  The spring semester started, and I cut back on how much I was studying.  By this time, I had finished Physics, and most of Chemistry.

Early Spring Semester:

This is when I realized that the textbooks alone, and AAMC's practice tests would not be enough. I enrolled in Kaplan's online access course thing for the MCAT.  I chose the online access because I wanted access to practice exams and questions.  A course instructor would only slow me down to the pace of other students, but you want to move faster than other students.

I scheduled my exam for late May, and I took a practice test.  I got a 24.

Mid Spring Semester:

Now, I dove into the biology review text, and at the same time I went back and studied physics and chemistry again.  I took a practice exam once a month during the semester.  I also went along with Kaplan's study schedule on the course thing I bought.

End of Spring Semester:

This is when things got serious.  My practice tests had reached upper 20's, so I needed to kick it into high gear.  School ended in early April for me, and so I had a little over 6 weeks to get good at science.  I finished the biology book in a few days, and started Ochem.  Funny thing about Ochem though, it's only about 25% of the life sciences section.  So I only studied about 3/4ths of the book because screw Ochem.

Before the Exam:

I studied every single day like a madman.  I had at least one day a week of relaxing though.  (Don't burn yourself out, but push your limits!)
Literally over 8 hours a day at this point.  There was a 2 day stretch where I did not go outside, and the weather was mid 70's.  It sucked.
I took a final practice test two days before the exam; 36.  The day before the exam I relaxed.

Protips:

Emulate test conditions as closely as possible.  That is, take the practice test on the computer, with earplugs, the same time limits, and the same amount of scratch paper.  (Google these things, I don't remember them =P)
Don't eat anything too exotic that might upset your stomach before the real test day.
Know how to get to the test site.  You DO NOT want to be lost the morning of the exam.  You'll be stressed enough as it is.
Bring some light snacks for during your test breaks.

Will this work for me?

I don't know.  All I know is that you have to do your best, realize it's not enough, and do better.  Here is the quote I had in the back of my head as I studied:

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

-Calvin Coolidge

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For more info on the MCAT, and how it is changing in 2015, check out the AAMC's official MCAT website:
https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/

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Next time: How many schools I applied to; the acceptances; and the many many rejections, holds, and wait lists.