The Smart Way to Pick Which Med Schools to Apply

           By the time you have to apply to medical school, you may have heard which are the best schools just by reputation. However, if your MCAT score, GPA, and activities don't match up to their requirements, they may not be the best choice for you.

            In theory we all want to think that all of your hard work in the four years of college has put you above everyone else. This work will be seen by the most prestigious of schools and they may ignore a lower-than -expected-score for you. But the the truth is there are thousands of others working just as hard or harder than you. Ivy League schools recycle students among themselves. To break into their elite circle the student has to stand out in ALL areas of their application; something easier said than done. If you really want to be a doctor, the school you attend should not matter as much as the career. However, you still should not apply to a school you don't want to attend. Here are some tips to pick wisely:

1.  Research the acceptance score ranges of the schools you are interested in. If your MCAT is a 26 with a 3.5 GPA, but the average MCAT of the school is a 35 with a 3.8 GPA, then you would be wasting your money by applying. If your scores are too far off a school you want to go to, as much as it breaks your heart, cross it off. Applications are expensive and you should invest your money wisely.

2. Have two groups of schools to apply to: dream schools and realist schools. The realist schools are the ones that accept students with scores within you range. Don't let your ego get the best of you--if you have to apply to a Caribbean school, do it. The dream schools are a little out of your range, but not by much. Maybe your GPA falls within range, but your MCAT is off by a few points or vice verse. You should still look like a competitive candidate to them. If you are part of a minority group, your chances in getting an interview at a dream school increases.

3. Pick at LEAST two schools in your state of residency. They are required to accept a percentage of student of the same state. At the same time, you should apply to at least two out-of-state schools, even if you don't want to leave. Play all the cards. If out of state schools are more likely to accept you, then apply to more of them, and vice verse.

4. Of course you should consider factors such as weather, location, expenses, family and relationships when picking schools. You don't want to be stuck for four years in a place where you'll be miserable. Don't apply to a school you don't want to go. 

5. Research the curriculum focus of the schools as well. If it is a research oriented school, or an osteopathic school, educate yourself on it. They will want to see what they are looking for reflected in your application. If you have not done research, don't apply to a research-based school. At the same time, if you have lots of it, apply to more research oriented schools.

  There are resources out there that will help you measure your compatibility with schools. In the following link you can calculate this from your MCAT  scores and GPA http://www.studentdoc.com/medfind.html.

Also, in the AAMC page provided below, you can see the acceptance rates depending on ethnicity, GPA and MCAT.
https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html

Choose wisely and you will see results! :)

MCAT Strategies by Section

While you may think that knowing all your pre-req science courses back and forth should be enough to give you a good MCAT score, this alone is not enough. Other variables factor into your score, either to lower or to raise it. The MCAT does not just test you in your knowledge and its application; it tests you in your test-taking ability, how you can outsmart the test. Here are some of the strategies that helped me raise my score in each section.

A. Physical Sciences: Chemistry+ Physics

1) Since no calculator is allowed learning tricks to do quick math will help a LOT. The test won't have complicated numbers but it will have very big or small numbers. Converting those numbers to their scientific notation equivalents will make things faster.

2) Don't just memorize the equations, learn the relationships between variables. If you double the volume, what happens to the pressure? Many students read the questions searching for an equation to use, but if you know the variable relationships, you won't even need to use the formula. If you get stuck, try to think about what is going on in the problem conceptually. For example: if you double the volume that means the molecules will be less compressed and have more space to move around, hence the volume should decrease by the same factor.

3) Another variable relationship trick: If in the equation the variables are multiplied, they are inversely proportional. If they are divided (or you can rearrange the equation to make it so), then they are directly proportional. For example: PV=nRT. P and V are inverse to each other, but they are both directly proportional to T.

4) DON'T skip passages and do the easy ones first. Do the passages in order. This way you have a better idea of how much you have left in relation to the time left. Skipping sections gives you a false sense of confidence because you feel you have plenty of time. Then when you get stuck in the harder passages you will spend more time in them thinking you can afford it and time will slip. When this happens you will rush the remaining passages and get a higher percentage of the questions wrong. Spending and equal amount of time in each passage and then going back to double check the harder ones will work in your favor.

5) If the answer seems to easy, it's probably wrong. Amateurs fall for this one, you must eliminate it at once.

6) Educated guessing!!! Especially in harder questions when you are pressed for time. You are graded in the amount of questions you get right, but you are not penalized for the wrong ones. So never leave a question blank!

B. Verbal Section


1) Find what works for YOU. Many test prep companies offer recycled advise from the SAT verbal. However, the MCAT is made foolproof against those strategies. The whole summarizing each paragraph?  Time wasted. Identifying the type of subject (i.e. philosophy, art, religion) in the passage? Time wasted. Looking for the main idea? Time wasted. The test will rarely ask you that directly because it's what everyone expects. Experiment with different tips and use the ones that benefit you the most.

2) Paraphrase the questions AND the answers.

3) With the allotted time for the section, training yourself to do each passage in about 7-8 minutes should give you enough time to finish and go back to double check answers. So memorize the time intervals for each passage, for example, by 52 minutes left you should be in the second passage already and so on. This one helped me a lot.

4) Pretend everything you are reading in the most interesting thing in the world!!!! Allowing yourself to start thinking it's boring will let your focus slip, make you lose information and re-read. Actual interest in the subject makes you capture more information without re-reading.

5) Read the first half of the passage first. Then read the questions and answer the ones pertaining to that half. The read the second half and answer the remaining questions. Sometimes you don't even have to read the whole passage to answer all the questions.

6) Reading the questions first might make you focus on searching for the answers to them. But some of them are application, so you need to get the basic theme of the passage to answer them. I advise against reading the questions first.

7) Practice taking the verbal section right after you have taken a practice physical section. This is the order in which the sections appear in the MCAT. You may do great taking a verbal practice by itself. But when you take it after the Physical your score may lower because of the weariness of your mind from the previous section. This will give you a more accurate idea of what your score will be.

C. Biological Sciences: Bios+ Orgos

1) Index cards are your friends! Write it all out and test yourself over and over. Bio is mainly memorization.

2) Watch Youtube videos on the bodily systems. It helps you learn and visualize better. If your native language is not English, then watch them in your native language; it helps you remember the system better.

3) Orgo questions are very basic. Memorizing every single reaction there is will be pointless. Learn to recognize possible products from reactions.

4)Hormones: They're all about cause and effect. Learn not just what they do but what would happen to the rest of the body if they are in overdose, mutated, or deficient. Also recognize which symptoms would be caused by which hormones. There's an insane amount of questions on hormones, so learn to love them.

5)Genetics: know how to predict probabilities of genes occurring in different scenarios. Know how to read a  pedigree chart and trace back from offspring to grandparent the genotypes and phenotypes.

IN GENERAL


1) The more time you practice taking the test, the more comfortable you will feel for it. Practicing taking longer versions of the test will also help a lot.

2) Princeton Review's tests are known to be much harder than many of the other prep companies AND the actual MCAT itself. Their score is not accurate, so don't lose your cool if you keep scoring low in these.

3) When you practice, make the environment as similar to the test as possible. Shut off your phone, browsers, go to a quiet place where you can't be bothered and don't cheat in taking longer breaks than you should.

4) Study all sections equally. If you focus more time on a section you think is your weakest, the rest of them WILL fall a few points. Don't get cocky with your expertise in certain subjects.

5) Aim high. Hardly anyone actually gets the score they want, so the higher you aim, the higher your actual score will be.

Hope it helps! Good luck!

Memoirs of an MCAT Mental Breakdown

    Oh, the MCAT,  nightmare of every pre-med student. Whether you're studying on your own or taking a course, it's hard. Four hours of unrelenting focus and top speed intelligence power testing you in four years worth of material and more. Its score will define which Medical Schools you will be able to get into or at least apply. For all those of you going through this process right now, let me share my story with you.
    In the Summer between my Junior and Senior year of college, I scheduled to take my MCAT. I studied on my own using books from different companies. I tested which ones worked the best for me, the made an eight week study plan to prepare for it. In the first five weeks, I would be reviewing all the material covered, and in the last three weeks I would practice practice practice. I was not taking classes, working or anything else at the time. All my time was for the MCAT. The plan seemed brilliant at first but I oversaw one minor detail...
    For those first five weeks, all I did was study. Literally. Weekends, days, nights. I predicted a "directly proportional relationship" between the time I studied and the improvement in my practice test scores. Close to the end of the five weeks hit a rut, stuck in a score of 23 ( I was aiming for a 30). Eight hours of studying a day and I couldn't get past the 23. Slowly the frustration and stress crept in my brain. I started losing sleep. I slept uneasily thinking about test questions, formulas, or I would stay awake thinking of what would I do if I never got into medical school. Would I take a year off and re-apply? What would I do in that time? Should I apply to Caribbean schools as well? The more I thought about it the more stressed I became. The day after a sleepless night,  I would be tired but I would forced myself to study anyway--not an effective strategy. Studying while tired only made my frustration ad stress grow as missed questions from material I knew. I began to take sleeping pills to aid my rest.
  Two and a half weeks before the test I was still stuck in a 23, and I was considering cancelling the exam, when my dad called. He asked me how was I feeling for the test. Before I could manage a "fine" I broke down crying. And when I say crying I mean BAWLING my eyes out, sobbing-can't-breathe-I'm-a-fourth-year-old-little-girl crying. After he calmed me down, I told him all I was doing to prepare for the test. He analyzed my plan, then said, " I see.Maybe you should try studying less?" I went ballistic. LESS? Study less? Two  and a half weeks before and I should study less. He explained there was so much information that a brain could take in a day and it needed time to process it all. Tiring it day upon day would not yield results. Finding the prefect balance between relaxing and studying  in optimal conditions would be the best thing to do. Even if it did involve studying less.
  While I did follow that advice, it came in too late. Had I done that from the beginning, I might have had higher than a 24. Nevertheless, I took the test again the following January and with the advice and five weeks of studying, instead of 8, I scored two points higher.
    So when you're studying, PLEASE, remember to relax. Take a day off in the week. Go out with your friends. Its ok to have fun. Be confident in yourself and don't let it get to you. Keep in mind that the MCAT is not taking you, YOU are taking it. Good luck :)