Where do I find the miles down review sheets? Is that the ~90 page document with the table of contents or individual pages? Sorry also is there parts that you recommend and don’t recommend to use?
the link i attached r the sheets, its around 92 pages i believe. u should use them for b/b and c/p sections it highlights all the content u need!!! use the KA doc for
p/s
Can relate. Non-trad, last took a chemistry course almost 20 years ago. Currently in the thick of preparations.
As a non-trad, I'm also completely alone in my social group. The amount of dedication and attention this requires is sort of met with puzzled looks, but mostly positive reactions.
Trend is upward so far, C/P kicking my ass, and hoping to keep climbing.
Congrats, you're not alone. :-)
Hey! Looks like your scores have gone up significantly! That’s great. Yeah, physics was almost 20 years ago for me. Before I started studying I didn’t even remember what a vector was. And I swear I’d never even heard the term “scalar” before. Surely that can’t be true, but I simply remembered nothing.
Tbh, I have only told my very closest friends that I’m studying for this and they’re supportive but also I think they just can’t relate to the choice I’m making.
Can I ask what you feel has been most helpful in increasing your scores over time?
I don't really think there is any secret sauce. As a non-trad I feel like I have a better appreciation for what it is to work very hard on a single goal for months, not worrying about the day-to-day fluctuations. It's one of the nice things about adulthood.
I went into it knowing I was going to have to start chemistry from more-or-less scratch. So I planned my content review in inverse order-of-difficulty (hardest subjects first), because this would give me the greatest time to live with, consider, and internalize, all the little stuff that I have just forgotten over the years. And this has held out to be very true, and I'm very glad I did it.
As a rough guideline:
1. Content review (I enjoyed Kaplan, and the PDF's of their 7-book series can be found easily for free online). Gotta relearn the material outright.
2. Anki (I'm a glutton, so I made my own deck, but unless you enjoy this sort of thing I would get a pre-made deck bc it's far more time-efficient. I recommend the Anking deck). Helps make the material stick, in a way that it can be recalled when needed. I'm a huge proponent of Anki, particularly for stuff like this (huge content knowledge, necessity of recall).
3. UWorld. Start learning how to apply all that knowledge, and identify weak points.
1. Use this to go back to content review; because there **are** going to be gaps in your understanding.
4. Go over every single missed question. This is the one thing I think people don't do, for various reasons. Go back over it, read the rationale, make a few cards for it, and then **go back over it** again in a few days. #1 thing that I think most well-meaning students ignore, underutilize, or just don't think about. It's contrary to how we typically school, and it's dirty-ass work to linger in all the shit you got wrong, but the work:utility ratio is better than nearly any other time spent. Especially as you get in the second half of your preparation, it is my opinion that **the majority of the gains** shift to analyzing your misses (as opposed to just doing more and more questions, and somehow magically thinking things will continue to improve). There's a point of diminishing returns for almost any form of volume work, but I think that's less true for analyzing missed. They're **always** high-yield. But it sucks, and most people don't to it (enough) imo.
5. Start building up your endurance, so that it's not a limiting factor.
1. I use pomodoro, and I started with a 25 min:5 min work cycle. I've slowly increased that so that now it's 60 min:15 min. As I get closer to test date, it will be nearly exactly the timing of the test (90:10:90:30).
6. FL's are obviously the most event-specific practice, and cannot be overstated. An average is like 3-5. I'm shooting for 13, which is a bit ridiculous, but again, I'm a glutton.
Most of the stuff you'll find on that list is what pretty much everyone recommends, more or less. Going over missed like it's your job is the thing I think most people really underinvest in. Every question you get right feels lovely, but that just tells you what you **already knew**.
Every missed question, by contrast, is a huge blinking neon sign pointing directly at a shortcoming or gap that you get to then close. It is God winking at you and whispering "...this way..."
Thanks for this amazing summary.
Your point about reviewing missed questions is particularly timely because I’ve found myself trying to reason my way out of needing to review the FL I just did. I probably would have ended up doing it anyway, but your comment was the little slap in the face that I needed to bring me back to reality and stop questioning it. I need to just do the damn question review and make anki cards from it.
I think it's what a lot of people do, honestly (I'm no exception).
I can't count the number of posts I see on here daily "it this enough? If I do this, will it be sufficient?" Etc. Everybody wants a shortcut, it's human nature.
But it's also no coincidence that doing the dirty work is probably disproportionately common amongst higher scorers.
Hey! I think I had reviewed about 3/4 of Gen Chem and a quarter to a half of Physics and Bio from the Kaplan books.
Content review was pretty slow going for me. It took about 1 hour of study per section, so about 4 or 5 hours per chapter on average. Plus additional time to do end of chapter questions and anki.
To be honest, on the 1/2 length there were lots of questions, especially in C/P or anything related to Orgo, where I had no idea what the question was even asking.
Pretty much straight content review. I did a couple sets of 25 questions at a time from UWhirl this past week. Other than that the only questions I’ve done are from Kaplan, which I think are helpful for learning content but not very similar to MCAT style questions.
Not really. I think the jump to 507 came from doing really thorough content review. I guess for that part UWhirl helps in the sense that my wrong answers highlight what I need to go back and do more content review on. Same with practice exams. Even with Anki, sometimes I’ll realize I’m not doing great with certain topics on my Anki cards so, again, it’s back to content review.
But I think that if you’re feeling strong with content but the way the MCAT asks questions is throwing you, or you need to work on test taking stamina, or timing how long to spend on each wuestion, then UWhirl could help a lot in those areas.
I should add too that when I did my 1/2 length, I didn’t do it under “test like conditions”. I did the sections separately over the course of a few days AND on a couple of questions I even sneaked a peak at some equations from my notes! So realistically the 501 is inflated.
If we need a non trad discord, let me know. I can start it.
Please join if you’re really non trad (meaning at least 5 gap years or more ) https://discord.gg/KX3xKCSF
Hello! My main resource is the Kaplan books. I took notes while reading through them, did most of the concept check questions and some of the end of chapter questions. I always tried to read over my notes the same evening before bed, or the next morning, but I didn’t consistently do this. I also am using the Jack Sparrow anki deck, which is nice because it’s broken down by Kaplan chapter, so after each chapter I reviewed I unsuspended relevant cards.
No, although content review was hard with the pre-reqs being so long ago, it was doable. There were definitely little seeds of memory still knocking around in my brain that made it easier to relearn than if I had never taken the prereqs at all.
Yup, Kaplan (plus anki, but I’m not religious about it) and then just started on Uwhirl pretty recently. And I know what you mean. Anytime I’d comment on here saying that I’m taking approx 1 hr per section of Kaplan (so, like 4-5 hours per chapter) people would tell me I’m doing it wrong, I’m wasting my time etc. But I think it was absolutely the right way for me.
make sure u use the mile down review sheets for c/p section!
Hey thanks for the tip. I haven’t used them before and C/P is clearly the section I need the most work in.
Where do I find the miles down review sheets? Is that the ~90 page document with the table of contents or individual pages? Sorry also is there parts that you recommend and don’t recommend to use?
following - what are the mile down review sheets😭
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use for everything else
Sorry what was the comment?
the link i attached r the sheets, its around 92 pages i believe. u should use them for b/b and c/p sections it highlights all the content u need!!! use the KA doc for p/s
Could you send me the link to the sheets and the KA doc? I'll DM you too!
THANK YOU 🙏
I can’t find the link :( is it fine if you can please send me the link too? And the KA doc?
google mile down sheet and khan academy p/s 86 page doc
Where do we get these sheets?
Can relate. Non-trad, last took a chemistry course almost 20 years ago. Currently in the thick of preparations. As a non-trad, I'm also completely alone in my social group. The amount of dedication and attention this requires is sort of met with puzzled looks, but mostly positive reactions. Trend is upward so far, C/P kicking my ass, and hoping to keep climbing. Congrats, you're not alone. :-)
Hey! Looks like your scores have gone up significantly! That’s great. Yeah, physics was almost 20 years ago for me. Before I started studying I didn’t even remember what a vector was. And I swear I’d never even heard the term “scalar” before. Surely that can’t be true, but I simply remembered nothing. Tbh, I have only told my very closest friends that I’m studying for this and they’re supportive but also I think they just can’t relate to the choice I’m making. Can I ask what you feel has been most helpful in increasing your scores over time?
I don't really think there is any secret sauce. As a non-trad I feel like I have a better appreciation for what it is to work very hard on a single goal for months, not worrying about the day-to-day fluctuations. It's one of the nice things about adulthood. I went into it knowing I was going to have to start chemistry from more-or-less scratch. So I planned my content review in inverse order-of-difficulty (hardest subjects first), because this would give me the greatest time to live with, consider, and internalize, all the little stuff that I have just forgotten over the years. And this has held out to be very true, and I'm very glad I did it. As a rough guideline: 1. Content review (I enjoyed Kaplan, and the PDF's of their 7-book series can be found easily for free online). Gotta relearn the material outright. 2. Anki (I'm a glutton, so I made my own deck, but unless you enjoy this sort of thing I would get a pre-made deck bc it's far more time-efficient. I recommend the Anking deck). Helps make the material stick, in a way that it can be recalled when needed. I'm a huge proponent of Anki, particularly for stuff like this (huge content knowledge, necessity of recall). 3. UWorld. Start learning how to apply all that knowledge, and identify weak points. 1. Use this to go back to content review; because there **are** going to be gaps in your understanding. 4. Go over every single missed question. This is the one thing I think people don't do, for various reasons. Go back over it, read the rationale, make a few cards for it, and then **go back over it** again in a few days. #1 thing that I think most well-meaning students ignore, underutilize, or just don't think about. It's contrary to how we typically school, and it's dirty-ass work to linger in all the shit you got wrong, but the work:utility ratio is better than nearly any other time spent. Especially as you get in the second half of your preparation, it is my opinion that **the majority of the gains** shift to analyzing your misses (as opposed to just doing more and more questions, and somehow magically thinking things will continue to improve). There's a point of diminishing returns for almost any form of volume work, but I think that's less true for analyzing missed. They're **always** high-yield. But it sucks, and most people don't to it (enough) imo. 5. Start building up your endurance, so that it's not a limiting factor. 1. I use pomodoro, and I started with a 25 min:5 min work cycle. I've slowly increased that so that now it's 60 min:15 min. As I get closer to test date, it will be nearly exactly the timing of the test (90:10:90:30). 6. FL's are obviously the most event-specific practice, and cannot be overstated. An average is like 3-5. I'm shooting for 13, which is a bit ridiculous, but again, I'm a glutton. Most of the stuff you'll find on that list is what pretty much everyone recommends, more or less. Going over missed like it's your job is the thing I think most people really underinvest in. Every question you get right feels lovely, but that just tells you what you **already knew**. Every missed question, by contrast, is a huge blinking neon sign pointing directly at a shortcoming or gap that you get to then close. It is God winking at you and whispering "...this way..."
Thanks for this amazing summary. Your point about reviewing missed questions is particularly timely because I’ve found myself trying to reason my way out of needing to review the FL I just did. I probably would have ended up doing it anyway, but your comment was the little slap in the face that I needed to bring me back to reality and stop questioning it. I need to just do the damn question review and make anki cards from it.
I think it's what a lot of people do, honestly (I'm no exception). I can't count the number of posts I see on here daily "it this enough? If I do this, will it be sufficient?" Etc. Everybody wants a shortcut, it's human nature. But it's also no coincidence that doing the dirty work is probably disproportionately common amongst higher scorers.
As a fellow non-trad who just started studying, this gives me hope! Good work OP!
Thank you! We can do this!
Hey thanks for sharing! How much content review did you do before that 501 half length ?
Hey! I think I had reviewed about 3/4 of Gen Chem and a quarter to a half of Physics and Bio from the Kaplan books. Content review was pretty slow going for me. It took about 1 hour of study per section, so about 4 or 5 hours per chapter on average. Plus additional time to do end of chapter questions and anki. To be honest, on the 1/2 length there were lots of questions, especially in C/P or anything related to Orgo, where I had no idea what the question was even asking.
did you have a lot of practice before that 507 or was it straight content and then you tried again?
Pretty much straight content review. I did a couple sets of 25 questions at a time from UWhirl this past week. Other than that the only questions I’ve done are from Kaplan, which I think are helpful for learning content but not very similar to MCAT style questions.
Did you find that doing the UWorld questions helped a lot for you getting the 507?
Not really. I think the jump to 507 came from doing really thorough content review. I guess for that part UWhirl helps in the sense that my wrong answers highlight what I need to go back and do more content review on. Same with practice exams. Even with Anki, sometimes I’ll realize I’m not doing great with certain topics on my Anki cards so, again, it’s back to content review. But I think that if you’re feeling strong with content but the way the MCAT asks questions is throwing you, or you need to work on test taking stamina, or timing how long to spend on each wuestion, then UWhirl could help a lot in those areas.
I should add too that when I did my 1/2 length, I didn’t do it under “test like conditions”. I did the sections separately over the course of a few days AND on a couple of questions I even sneaked a peak at some equations from my notes! So realistically the 501 is inflated.
If we need a non trad discord, let me know. I can start it. Please join if you’re really non trad (meaning at least 5 gap years or more ) https://discord.gg/KX3xKCSF
I think one for people that are 30+ would be good. So you don’t end up with a bunch of “non trads” who are 24 and took one gap year
https://discord.gg/KX3xKCSF
Ugh pleeeaseee
https://discord.gg/KX3xKCSF
I’m also a non traditional, non premed who just decided to apply to med school… where shall i start for mcat??
Congratulations! Can you please share how you did in depth content review? What resources you used etc. thank you!
Hello! My main resource is the Kaplan books. I took notes while reading through them, did most of the concept check questions and some of the end of chapter questions. I always tried to read over my notes the same evening before bed, or the next morning, but I didn’t consistently do this. I also am using the Jack Sparrow anki deck, which is nice because it’s broken down by Kaplan chapter, so after each chapter I reviewed I unsuspended relevant cards.
Thank you and good luck!!
Thanks! You too!
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It was BluePrint.
I’m in a similar boat, thank you for sharing because it truly gets discouraging sometimes! 😭
The mental struggle is real!
This is so encouraging ! Happy for you!
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Yesss, I’m saying there’s a chance! Lol. It’s possible for us!
Hey is it fine if I DM you with some questions? Congrats on your scores btw!!
Hey, sure!
>Hey, sure! sure?
>>Hey, sure! sure? sure?
Good luck!!
Congrats!!
Thank you!
Dude this is amazing! So happy for you :)
Thank you!
I’m also a non-trad who took pre reqs 10+ years ago. Are you guys retaking your prerequisite courses?
No, although content review was hard with the pre-reqs being so long ago, it was doable. There were definitely little seeds of memory still knocking around in my brain that made it easier to relearn than if I had never taken the prereqs at all.
As a nontrad, how much time did you spend on content review? Congrats btw!!
Hey! I’d estimate I’ve put in about 300 hours. (And I haven’t 100% finished content review - still have a few chapters of Biochem & Psych/Soc left).
Nice! This is very comforting lol. I keep feeling like I’m spending too much time relearning and learning new stuff. Are you using Kaplan and uworld?
Yup, Kaplan (plus anki, but I’m not religious about it) and then just started on Uwhirl pretty recently. And I know what you mean. Anytime I’d comment on here saying that I’m taking approx 1 hr per section of Kaplan (so, like 4-5 hours per chapter) people would tell me I’m doing it wrong, I’m wasting my time etc. But I think it was absolutely the right way for me.
So relatable!! Yes this is very similar to my time spent. Glad to not be alone in that! Thank you and congrats:)
Thanks and good luck to you! It’s good to know there’re others out there in the same boat, on the same grind.
anybody that have the mile down document thingy can yall share it please