MCAT Maneuvers Part II
Shortcut to the biggest change that took me from 507 to 518
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Preface: Heads up, if you don’t plan on taking the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), then this Shortcut is likely irrelevant to you; however, it may be helpful to somebody you know who is prepping for the MCAT, so – as always – don’t be selfish, share.
In a previous post, I discussed a few tactics for approaching MCAT studying. Here, I’ll share what, in hindsight, made the biggest difference for me between getting a 507 my first try and a 518 the second time around: commitment.
When I was gearing up to take the MCAT for the first time, I was juggling school work, ROTC, work, and additional extracurriculars, all while preparing for the infamous ~7 hour cubicle showdown. If you’re a pre-med student, then this scenario – loading your plate with extracurriculars to pad your résumé while also striving to succeed academically – is probably familiar to you. But, I think doing so while simultaneously studying for the MCAT is a suboptimal approach.
Though I do think it’s important to gain clinical, research, and extracurricular experiences that make you a unique and competitive candidate, in hindsight, prioritizing my MCAT mission for the few months leading up to test day was the biggest difference that brought me from a 507 to a 518. If you consider that the MCAT is a proxy for how you’ll handle the long and large exams in medical school, treating studying for the MCAT like a part/full-time job makes sense, as that’s how you’ll operate during medical school. And, in my opinion, that’s the only way to knock the MCAT out of the park: consistently racking up 4+ hour days of studying and practicing.
Plus, dedicating yourself half-heartedly to MCAT prep to accommodate other commitments is ultimately a waste of time if you don’t end up with a score you’re happy with. In this way, I think that partially committing to everything on your pre-med plate actually leads to less favorable outcomes overall – averaging your resources leads to average outcomes across the board; whereas, zeroing in and doubling down on each activity (MCAT, school work, clinical/research experience, etc.) for certain periods of time gives you the best chance of peak performance in each category of concern. And, this idea is similar to the concept that medical schools would rather see you excelling in a few areas you are passionate about than just participating in a bunch of activities you aren’t head over boots for.
I’m not suggesting that you completely abandon everything else in your life during your MCAT prep, but I am recommending that you put some things on the back-burner – mostly reducing, rather than extinguishing altogether, the resources you’re allocating to them – to prioritize studying for the big test. In the military, this approach is embodied by the concept of “Priorities of Work” where you list your tasks based on priority and target them accordingly. This means both taking care of those tasks in the right order and with the appropriate distribution of commitment.
For me, prior to achieving my 518, this looked like studying during a time period I was not in school, as well as reducing the days I was working per week to give more attention to the MCAT. I understand that working part-time may not be feasible for everybody, so your version of this may look like re-allocating time and energy from a different part of your life towards MCAT prep.
In the end, though the MCAT does to some degree display how well you’ve actually learned your pre-med material over the years, I think its greatest value is answering the question, “Are you able to play the long game?” In other words, “Are you able to grind out a monotonous schedule of wake-up, study, practice, and repeat consistently over time?” Because, based on every conversation I’ve had with medical students, that’s what medical school – and being an achievement outlier in general – demands. And, to me, that willingness to persist without definite reassurance of where doing so will get you, shows how badly you really want whatever you’re chasing.
If you found this or my previous MCAT Maneuvers post helpful, let me know in the comments below. I have many other strategies and tactics I found useful when studying and taking the MCAT that I’m happy to share.