to varying degrees, every semester i burn out. this one may become the worst i've had in recent years if i'm not careful bc of the way i'm trying to pack my schedule. anxiety has been unexpectedly high this week and it's only week 1! 😖
🐢 self-care:
get 8-10 hours of sleep daily
daily exercise - enough to get me physically tired enough to sleep
meditate AND journal daily
give myself at least one day a week to chill (probably will be a "reset" day bc i can't just vegetable and expect my brain to not self-destruct. for now, let's try saturdays.)
more quality time with the people i love throughout the week
fresh air + sunlight when the weather isn't too inhospitable
no phone mornings (i quickly fell out of the habit but it did wonders for my mental health 😭)
🐰 time management:
set reasonable goals. don't kid yourself into thinking you can complete everything on a to-do list you doubt you can finish even half of - if you doubt, you're probably right.
take plenty of breaks throughout the day
don't procrastinate bc procrastination's consequences will definitely lead to burnout. on the days you just don't feel it, give yourself a reason to study that speaks to you. what is demotivating you? give yourself the encouragement you need to not give up.
vary the order in which you do things so your days feel like they have more variety (e.g. vary the order in which you work on different subjects every day)
study based on energy level (i.e. try to study high-energy subjects when you have high energy and low-energy subjects when you have low energy. stop for the day when you're just not there anymore, don't try to push it.) this doesn't have to be contradictory to the point above cuz i still have lots of choices for what to do and my energy sometimes fluctuates like crazy throughout a single day.
I have my Musculoskeletal exam in a week and half and I’m surrounded by anatomy!! Help.
heyyy future doctors! my post for this week is a desk setup of me working on memorizing the arteries, nerves, and muscles of the upper limbs. i just started medical school, and have limited anatomy experience- especially with online studies (not working with a cadaver is extra difficult). making the best of the situation with these posters and drawings all around my room. if anyone has advice on how to study anatomy effectively please send it my way! appreciate you all 😊
Let me start out by saying I go to what I think is a halfway decent, pretty non-malignant medical school but...It just kind of baffles my mind how my school is sending us all this information about how we will be able to work with COVID patients when we go back in the spring and how we can volunteer to administer vaccines without giving any indication as to whether or not we’re in the vaccination line at all.
So you want me to risk my own health administering vaccines to other people for no pay and no school credit? Alongside other health care professionals who are all vaccinated? One of my classmates had to be hospitalized in the first wave because of catching COVID from a patient. Why is it still ok to absolutely crap all over medical students?
And yes my school is one where student notes can be billed. So you’re welcome for the free (paid for) labor. I’ll happily wait until July to be treated like sh*t, thanks.
I officially finished my spring term and am now doing general physics during the summer term! Some things have changed, and some things have remained the same.
Still go to your zoom lectures when scheduled!
I know way too many people that slept in late last term and didn’t go to our 9AM ochem zoom lecture and were very lost as to what was important and what wasn’t for the test. Thankfully physics lecture is at 11am so I can sleep in more and still attend class on time. Also friendly zoom reminder, mute yourself if you’re not talking, and turn on your video when your professor allows you to so you can collaborate better!
Do prelecture assignments the day before.
I am truly awful at this and then spend 10am to 11am trying to watch the prelecture videos and answer prelecture questions. It sucks so much because I don’t get to truly understand anything as I’m just rushing through it, and I really do need to go back to doing it the day before like I did in the first week or else I feel like I’m going to continuously be stressed, lol.
Work with others on homework when you can!
For our MasteringPhysics homework, I worked together with one of my friends over zoom and having him be able to call me out on my tiny mistakes and vice versa was extremely helpful for me to understand the material. Plus the other day, I went to the ER with really bad stomach pains and my friends helped me out with the homework due that night knowing I wasn’t in a good state to do it alone.
Take breaks and eat lunch and snacks on time.
Students in general are prone to disordered eating habits as we often snack on the go or miss meals because of classes. Take advantage of the fact that classes come to you and make sure to eat at good times.
My current favorite study tool? Notion!
I’ll post about this soon but I really have been loving using notion for both my physics notes and my job training (contact tracing for COVID-19) notes. It’s a bit difficult to get used to at first, but there’s plenty of videos on Youtube you might find helpful to get you started!
Enjoy your other hobbies as well during this time. :D
For me, sometimes it’s been hard to separate work times from school times from hobby times when everything is from home. So I’ve been doing my work stuff and hobby stuff on the weekends and evenings and doing my school stuff in the mornings/afternoons.
My current hobby is making and selling art on Redbubble! Here’s the link to my shop, I’m hoping to make studyblr-related content soon but I’m not sure what y’all would like so feel free to leave a comment or DM me. :)
That’s all from me today: stay safe, stay healthy, and happy studying!
it’s been a minute since i posted on here! i’ve been using my studygram a lot more but i’m going to try and do both! i’m studying for my last genetics exam of the semester today and just trying to push through to the end of this weird semester/year :) today i’m drinking a hazelnut latte which i made using my stovetop bialetti moka (which i am addicted to now)
Hi Everyone! I got back my new MCAT scores awhile ago, but I thought I’d write a post about how I achieved my score, with hope that it could potentially help another student. I know that while I was studying, a lot of the advice I saw on the internet was overwhelming and made me feel that my level of studying would always be inferior to what others were doing. The vast array of available courses, practice tests, and other services available certainly did not help either, as there is no reasonable way to complete every single resource that exists. In this post, I’ll go through a timeline of my basic study plan and explain which resources I used and why I think they are worth using.
Stage 1 - Kaplan 7 book set and other content resources
I had trouble coming up with a time frame for how long it should take to go through the Kaplan set, which is why I simply called this part the “first stage.” Many guides I have read online mention strictly separated “content review” and “practice exam” phases of studying. Personally, that would never have worked out for me because I would have gotten anxious every time I got a question wrong during the exam phase. Instead, I spent about 3-4 months simply reading and taking notes out of the books, and then doing a mixed exam and content review stage. I used each book in the following ways, especially the second time I studied:
Biochemistry - For the first half of the book I took detailed notes as if I were learning from an ordinary biochemistry textbook for a class. For the second half, I eased on the notes and started drawing out the different pathways. I think I wrote down the Electron Transport Chain pathway 10-15 times and the Citric acid cycle path about 50 times. I did not draw the shapes of compounds, but I won’t tell you not to do that either.
Biology - Same as the Biochem book. I did spend extra time on “high yield content” that's more difficult to memorize, such as actin/tropomyosin activity in muscle.
Physics - I cannot stress what I am about to say enough. The absolute most important things to know from this book are the units. If you are truly stuck on a physics (or often chemistry) question, there is a very good chance you can use dimensional analysis to force your way to the right answer in a relatively brief amount of time. If nothing else, PLEASE learn the units behind every concept.
Chemistry - Use the advice from physics, but I also took pretty heavy notes, especially in the first half, since there’s a lot of content that, despite being easier than biochemistry in my opinion, are foundational and will cause problems if you skip it.
Behavioral Sciences - This was the section that brought down my first attempt score. I found that the premed95 anki deck that’s in circulation was helpful, but it made me incredibly lazy in studying to the point where I would pretend to be productive, while just looking at slides. I was desperate not to repeat my mistakes, so I brute forced my way through the Kaplan book this time instead. I didn’t take notes the way I did for other subjects - instead I hand wrote every single bolded word and definition in a notebook, organized by chapters. This took about a week and I did not study any other subject during this time. I don’t know if I would recommend this method for Behavioral Sciences for everyone, but the truth is that after I did this, my practice section scores went from 124 to 128-130. One thing to keep in mind though, the last few sections of the Physics/Math book are absolutely critical to the Behavioral Sciences section as they are the only resource within the Kaplan set which explain the research methodologies for both Psychology and Sociology.
Organic Chemistry - I took sparse notes on this book. I think it's the least useful out of the 7 book set, and I often had to look to the internet and old organic chemistry class notes to clarify mechanisms and pathways. Nevertheless, make flashcards or write down reactions such as the Aldol condensation, which more likely than not will show up at some point.
CARS - Skip this book. In my opinion, there are better ways to study this section. Most importantly, use the CARS question packs from AAMC.
Stage 2 - CARS, Mixed Content Review and Practice Exams (2-3 weeks)
This is around when I started taking CARS much more seriously, so I would recommend starting earlier. I mainly focused on using the two AAMC question packs, although the KhanAcademy passages were also useful. The first question pack was definitely a bit more difficult and you might feel discouraged after going through half of it. However, I promise it does get better. Part of the change is that as you read explanations for why you get questions wrong, your skill will begin to improve. The other part is that the second half of the question pack, as well as most of the second question pack are more closely aligned with the difficulty level of the actual test.
This was also when I began taking NextStep full length exams. (Insert surprised Pikachu face) My first score was a 501. Definitely not expected at the time, but it was a necessary wakeup call to understand where my content gaps were.
After each exam I took from this point on, I would take the rest of the day off after taking the exam. Just relax, after taking a 7 hour exam, you deserve it tbh. The next day, go over the entire exam, question by question and take notes where you need to. I wrote very brief 1-line notes for questions I got right and understood, and more detailed notes for all incorrect questions as well as correct questions that I did not fully understand. This is important for two reasons: First, this allows you to know exactly where your content gaps are and understand how you can improve applying the concepts that you already know. Second, there’s only so many different things they can ask you on the MCAT. It might sound endless, but there are a finite number of concepts and you are bound to see very similar questions on future practice tests and also on the real MCAT. In my experience, writing down the explanation for the correct answers on missed questions ensured that I never get a similar question incorrectly in the future. Overall, next-step exams were alright, but their content felt incredibly low-yield. Now, studying low yield concepts is extremely important, but it's obviously detrimental if that's all you study.
For the next month, I would alternate between taking next-step and AAMC full lengths, with breaks in between to review my content gaps. My highest Nextstep exam was a 512, but I tended to score around 507-508. My aamc exams, in order, were 519, 517, and 515. The downward trend was concerning, but I was honestly happy since all of those scores were higher than my target at the time, 513. Also, I falsely began to think that NextStep exams were extremely deflated. (They are, but not nearly to the extent that you might think.)
Finally, the day before my first exam: I couldn’t sleep at all, and I went against common advice of not studying on this day. As for exam day, just trust yourself and the studying you have done. My main advice beyond what anyone else will tell you is to keep a close eye on the clock. Several people who tested with me lost up to 5 minutes on CARS because they forgot to take into account the time during their lunch break. Not every test center will have digital clocks, and the one I went to only had a tiny analog clock near the area they check you in. When I asked a proctor for the time, he just laughed. So make sure you look at the clock and remember the time when your break starts.
My score on the first exam turned out to be a 509. Not necessarily a bad score at all, but this score was much lower than what I was aiming for. It was disappointing, mainly due to the time I put into studying, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. My behavioral sciences section severely pulled my score down, and there were a few content areas that I truly was not prepared for. I felt bad about it for about a week, and afterwards started studying again.
Stage 3: Final Preparations
Initially, I found it relatively difficult to study during the semester. One of my friends recommended I use UWorld questions to effectively use my time. This resource definitely helped me out when I felt like I simply did not have enough time to finish studying. They provide you with 1500 or so questions, categorized by section and sub categorized by topic. You can choose how many questions or passages you want to do in one sitting, and if you want it timed or not. After you finish, they provide you with personalized statistics for the session, as well as explanations for each question, which are saved and can be viewed at any time. Alongside simply rereading the Kaplan books, this is the best way to reinforce content knowledge.
The final resource I used were the Altius exams. I purchased a pack of 5 on a whim because 1) I ran out of practice tests and 2) someone on reddit said these were severely under-appreciated. Well, that gamble paid off because I believe these exams are about as close as you can get to the AAMC full lengths, BUT they give you much more detailed explanations, and are just a little bit more difficult, so you actually end up feeling like the AAMC practice exams are a bit smoother and easier to pace yourself on. After purchasing, I had one month to take all five, as well as the then-recently-released AAMC FL #4. Altius exams were great, and honestly, my only “complaint” was that CARS felt a little bit too difficult to be as useful as it could be. I also studied Behavioral Sciences and Biochemistry the way I described in Part 1, since I felt like I underperformed on those sections.
When second exam day approached, I forced myself to get a full night of sleep this, and it absolutely paid off. I was noticeably more aware during this test than my previous attempt, and corrected myself before making a bunch of silly errors.
A month later, I found out I got a 518, which was higher than my original goal.
Tl;dr:
Studying for the mcat is expensive, and it can be hard to find advice on which resources are useful.
In my opinion, only: Altius exams are amazing. UWorld is a great resource for content gaps and reinforcement, especially when you have sharp time constraints. Kaplan books are awesome for content review, but it should be fine if you buy an older edition (I used 2015).
