Review of MCAT Books & Companies: Which one is right for you?

     The average MCAT course, during a period of 5-6 months, costs about $1500-$2000. If this price range is out of your budget, and you feel you have the discipline and study habits to study on your own, that might be the better choice. Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Examkrackers are the companies that offer the books you will need to do this; during my preparation for the MCAT, I used all three. I discovered that neither is outstandingly better or worse than the other, but the advantages they each offer depend more different ways that people learn. The review I provide below is based on my experience with each; none of the companies paid me to say anything in particular about them or the others.

KAPLAN MCAT Review Complete 5-Book Series--This package contains one book per general subject tested in the MCAT: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Organic Chemistry, and Verbal Sciences. After each chapter it has 10-15 exercises on the material covered and it has three practice tests on the same subject at the end of the book.

-Advantages

• Material is presented thoroughly and in-depth.
• Has a more conceptual approach to teaching,
• Has an accurate representation of the types of problems that show up on the MCAT and how to solve them.
• Their teaching method contains many analogies and metaphors that help you understand scientific jargon in your own words.
• Their full-length practice tests are actually two hours longer than the real MCAT. This prepares your mind with endurance and focus for the when you take the real thing.

-Disadvantages

• Their layout is weak. The information is presented in long paragraphs that intimidate the reader at first glance.
• Hardly any graphs, tables, or pictures available, with the exception of the Biology book. If you are a visual learner this is not the package for you.
• The math you use in these books is more complicated than the math needed for the actual MCAT. The MCAT uses easy numbers because it tests your application of knowledge, not the math used to solve it.
• If you dominate all or certain part of the material already, you will find the metaphors they use comical and unhelpful. Sometimes they spend a page or two just telling a story related to the material they are about to teach in the following pages, instead of just teaching straight away. 
• Not enough practice problems per chapter. Practice is crucial!

Conclusion: Use Kaplan if you need to LEARN  the material again or for the first time. It is also helpful if you prefer the conceptual approach to understanding science. Don't use it if you just need to review basic concepts because their extensive paragraphs will waste your time.

EXAMKRACKERS Complete MCAT Study Package (5 Books)-- Again one book per general subject. Each chapter has sub-subjects and 8 practice problems per sub-subject inside the chapter itself. At the end of the book there is a 25 question test per chapter.

-Advantages

• Good for visual learners. Each chapter has a plethora of pictures, tables, and graphs. The important material is already highlighted for you and helpful side notes with tricks for solving problems are available.
• More practice problems per chapter.
• Each chapter test has a key that breaks down the problems in a way that you can understand where you went wrong.
• Their visual layout allows you to absorb more information per time. Information is presented in a straightforward and concise manner.
• Provides lots of tricks and short-cuts to solving specific problems. Points out how the wording in certain questions can help you get a question right.

-Disadvantages

• Their full-length tests evaluate you more on the precise information they teach rather than accurate AAMC material.
• Not conceptual enough if your understanding of any topic is weak.
• Their physics and chemistry is too concise. It is literally a review of information.
• I also used some of their 1001 Question series. These questions, like their full-length questions, test you in the material they specifically taught you. They are also easier than MCAT questions because they rely more on memorization than application.

Conclusion: Use this company if you just want to REVIEW material, not re-learn it. Avoid Examkrackers if you have a  weak grasp of chemistry or physics. You can use its visual aid as a course supplement.

PRINCETON REVIEW Cracking the MCAT 2010-2011 Edition-- One book that contains reviews of all five general subjects. Each chapter has a practice passage at the end. You also receive access to 4 full-length practice tests online.

-Advantages

• Straightforward and concise information.
• Excellent for refreshing basic concepts.
• Their practice tests are the most similar to the actual MCAT in reference to organization of questions, types of questions and timing.
• You can obtain optional feedback on the essays you write in the online tests.
• Their online tests gives you a report of the questions you got right and wrong. This is helpful to detect your weak areas.
• They also sell a review book per subject that contains more thorough information per subject.

-Disadvantages

• Review is not thorough; too summarized. It  is actually missing information in certain chapters.
• Not enough practice problems per chapter.
• Their full-length exams are MUCH harder than the MCAT. While this is good to help you learn it is unhelpful in regards to accurately tracking your progress, and it is also very frustrating to fail over and over. 
• In one of the practice tests I found material that I had not learn until I took Advanced Biochem. Enough said.
• Does not help you learn difficult concepts. Just review.

Conclusion: Use this book if you have to take the MCAT for a second time and the material from the first time is still fresh. Do not use it for actual learning or as a course supplement.

All of these books can be found in Amazon for a reasonable price.

Hope it helps!

The Waiting Game

    Once your secondaries are submitted, it's all out of your hands until you are called for an interview. It takes about a standard two to three weeks for them to review it, however, you will not hear from everyone right after they review you. The amount of time you will have to wait depends on when you submit your secondaries. Medical schools don't wait until everyone has submitted everything to then evaluate the applications. They start evaluating applications and having interviews as they come. They usually start interviewing in August through September and don't finish until March-April. While this is the general timeline some schools may finish interviews sooner than others, so it's important to submit everything early. A late secondary app submission is around November through December; the closer to the deadline of submission, the later it is.
     Submitting late has the small advantage that you will have to wait less than everyone else to hear the news (rejection or interview). But it has the large disadvantage of appearing like a redundant applicant to schools. If you are late, it means the admissions people have already viewed hundreds of other applicants. Unless you have an amazing application, it will be hard to stand out and still look refreshing when compared to all the previous candidates. You want all cards on your side for this.Schools will usually call if they want you, and email you if they don't, so now is the time to start taking calls on your phone from unknown numbers.
      The waiting game can be tough, especially when you submit early. You start hearing about peers who already have interviews; people keep asking you if you have heard from any schools all the time; then you receive your first rejection and that lowers your morale a little more. All the while there is nothing more you can do to increase your acceptance chances. During this period two key things will help: keeping busy and having a  plan B. Now that you are done working on the application process, you have free time! Use it to do anything that you may have put aside while applying. Hobbies, sports, people, anything. Go out, have fun, relax, put your mind in a different place to keep it from stressing out about the lack of news. It's easier to to do this when you have a plan B. With a career as competitive as medicine, the odds really come out to whoever is meant to be a doctor, will be a doctor. You have to be realistic about the competition and consider what would you do if you do not get in this year. Will you re-apply the next year? Take some time off to work, travel, do research, improve components in your application, apply to PA school? While everyone like to think they're amazing and they're hard work is bound to be noticed, there have been students with excellent numbers that have been rejected. Have a plan ready and don't lose hope. When you finally get that call, things will start looking up.

Filling And Organizing Your Secondaries!

    Once you submit the primary AAMC application,  it takes 6 weeks for it to get verified. Once get the green light, your secondaries will start coming in. You will receive an e-mail with instructions, a deadline and a link to the website where you will be filling everything out. Beware of secondaries arriving before your AAMC is verified. Often these require around $100 fee (or another large number) and a week later, they reject you. It's how they earn money. If you feel you are qualified for that particular school and you want to run the risk, it's on you. But if you feel your numbers are a a little off from the required ones at that school, wait until someone else applies first and hear their story. You don't want to throw money down the drain that you can use for another school.
    Secondary applications are a more personalized application for each school. Some schools send secondaries to all of their applicants, but some schools are more select. There is no way of telling which school is more selective or not other than by word of mouth, so fill out all the ones you receive just to be safe. Secondaries become difficult to manage because they tend to arrive at different dates and have different deadlines, they are located all in different websites (unlike the primary AAMC) and you can't do them all in one sitting. Some of them just require some basic information and a an essay answering a specific question. However, many of them ask several short-essay questions that are more personal and harder to answer, such as "Write a 800 word statement that tells us who you are", "What do you think makes a good leader?", "Tell us about an experience in which you had to deal with a negligent team member"; others require you to read specific ethical articles and respond to them.
     The questions they ask you should be thought of carefully and proofread a few times as if it was your personal statement all over again. Their admissions people selected those questions for a reason. For example, when they ask you what it means to be a good leader, there is no one correct answer they want. Studies have proven that when most people answer this question they look for characteristics that they already have that they think makes them a good leader. Rarely does someone answer this question objectively. So the admissions people evaluate how you look at yourself as well as your leadership qualities all in one question. The answer you give is not as important as what can be learned from you in it.
    If you are taking classes and applying at the same time it can become overwhelming to manage everything. The secondaries, however, should be prioritized at this point. The sooner they are submitted, the sooner you are considered for an interview and potentially given a call. Waiting is the worst part of the process, the less of it you have to do, the less stressed you will be.
Here are a few management tips that will make your life easier:

1) Create a file/section in your e-mail just for med school e-mails. This will make it easier for you to find information you receive instead of fishing for it in among all your other e-mails.

2) In your calendar and/or agenda write  out all the deadlines for the secondaries as you receive them. This way you know which ones you should fill out first and will give you an idea of how you can balance school with the applications.

3) Also make a list of the fees each one requires. Make sure you have the money to pay for all of them. Fees vary from $25 to $150 depending on the school. If you received the Financial Assistance waiver for AAMC primary, most schools will honor it and waive the secondary fee as well.

4) Copy-paste the questions into a word document and answer them in your own time. This way: you can still fill them out if your Internet connection is down or if it fails, you can send them to other people for proofreading, and you can make sure all the changes are saved as you write them. Some of the pages expire if "inactive" for a certain amount of time, so if you click submit or save after that time has passed, you will lose everything you wrote.

5) Having your secondary in a word document will make it easier for you to keep count of the number of words/characters you are writing. All of the questions have a limit, but most of them don't count the words as you write them. You will find yourself having to cut out sentences and phrases or having to add more to reach the requirement.

6) Some of the questions will overlap or require a similar answer. If the secondaries are saved in your computer you can easily copy-paste, and adjust the answer to save you time.

7) Research each school before filling out the respective secondary app. Most of them will ask you why you want to attend that particular school or what can you contribute to their growth. Answer this question for -each school as if they are all your top choice, to-die-for-dream-school. If the answer sounds generic they won't believe you. Plus they are more likely to interview someone that is thrilled about attending their school.

Hope it helps. Keep calm and start writing!

Getting Personal With Your MD Application

  In the 2011-2012 application year, about 44,000 people applied to medical school in the U.S . Each school receives about 3,000 to 5,000 applicant depending on the school's reputation and excellence. Each school enrolls a class of about 100 students. Not matter how many schools you apply to, those odds are slim. If you've done everything right, you should not let these numbers discourage you. But, how do you make sure you get picked out from a thousand others for an interview? Although GPA and MCAT scores are important, at this level they serve more as a cut off point. You passed the first test, but why would they pick you  between someone else with the same numbers? This is were your application comes in.

    Besides the transcripts, courses, scores, and basic biography, the application contains a section for extracurricular activities, and of course, the personal statement. These are your chances to point out what makes you different. You are not just a 3.6 GPA with a 28 MCAT. You are the president of the poetry club who has done lung cancer research for two years and works at a retail store to pay your expenses. The activity itself is not as important as the conclusions that can be drawn from it."President of the poetry club" means you have practiced leadership skills but also that you have dominance in the humanities as well as the sciences. Describing work experience tells schools that you have not been spoiled all your life and you know what it is to earn what you have and also that you managed good grades while working a certain amount of hours. When it comes to the application details such as these can be vital. 

      The AAMC application contains 15 slots for extracurricular activities. If you have less, search among your high school extracurricular. If you have more, try to compress them by category. For example, "physician shadowing" can be one category, "pre-med club" can be another if you participated in one, and so on.  The important thing is to make it as unique as possible. Show that you are a well-rounded human being, that your life has not revolved around studying for four years. There are three slots of these fifteen that can be marked as significant to your desire to become a physician. Although you have a limited amount of words, personal stories and experiences can and should be included in this area. Anything that couldn't fit into your personal statement can be re-located here. 

      Don't be shy, especially with the personal statement. Don't enumerate in length all of your activities in it. Talk about choices, difficulties you have faced in your life, your family, their history and anything that has shaped you into what you are. Think about it like a visit to the therapist. But instead of seeking for help, write about what you have done to overcome those difficulties and what you learned from those experiences. Life experience may not be an official requirement for medical schools, but it is one that makes you stand out. There may be experiences that are too personal, that you won't mention to just anybody. But they make you real to the admissions' people, so they must know.

       What makes you  unique, whether it's you hobbies, sports, music, or your family paints a picture to medical schools about the kind of doctor that you will be. This picture is what will get you interviews.