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How Studying for the MCAT Prepares You for Medical School

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How Studying for the MCAT Prepares You for Medical School When studying for the MCAT, there comes a time when you might feel the urge to rage about how unfair the exa, is. Taking the MCAT can’t possibly prepare me to be a better doctor! you might think. Then you take the test and you think, Whew! I’m glad I never have to do that again—especially, perhaps, now that the test has increased by a couple of hours.

Well, there’s good and bad news. The good news is, you’re right: once you’re done with the MCAT, you never have to take it again.

The bad news is that the MCAT is just the start of your standardized test experience in medical school.

The best news, however, is that studying for the MCAT will absolutely help prepare you to study for your future medical school tests like USMLE Step 1, 2, and 3. How? Some of the skills that apply to MCAT studying are necessary for your future standardized tests as well.

Diagnosing your strengths and weaknesses

One of the biggest struggles for pre-med students is often learning how to interpret results of MCAT practice tests and quizzes and measure their progress. Do you look at overall score increases or do you look at why you’re getting questions incorrect? What do you then do with that information? Getting good at figuring out how to assess your strengths and weaknesses is crucial to increasing your MCAT score. The skills you develop when measuring your forward progress are incredibly useful when you study for Step 1.

The other component of this skill is not only knowing how to diagnose your strengths and weaknesses, but then using that information to improve. Do you need to review the information? Do you need to read the question more carefully? How can you use this information to do better on your next exam? These are important skills for life-long learning, an essential component of being a physician.

Knowing your best strategies in studying for the MCAT

Are you a library studier or a home studier? Do you use a whiteboard to draw things out or rewrite your notes? The way that you study for medical school classes will likely be different from how you study during undergrad. That said, it’s likely that your study strategies for MCAT success will carry over well to your later standardized tests.

You can also learn from past study strategy mistakes, the most common of which is reading, learning, and doing flashcards, but not doing enough practice questions. The MCAT is an amazing learning experience in terms of how you best study and what you need to become a successful test taker.

Endurance

One of the nicest things about running my first half-marathon is that during my second one, when I got tired, I knew that I could finish the race because I had done it once before. The same is true of a day-long standardized exam. If you can finish the new MCAT 2015, which is about double the length of the old exam, you can definitely finish the eight-hour long USMLE Step 1 exam.

One of the great parts of strengthening your endurance is feeling confident in your ability to do your best and showcase your talent all day long. This means you can maximize your breaks during your exams. You can anticipate when you’ll need a snack and be prepared for that. Sure, you’ll get tired, but you will have developed strategies to keep going. Standardized tests can be difficult and draining, but you will learn how to not only finish them—but finish them strong!

How is studying for the MCAT preparing you for medical school? Let us know in the comments. Then take your first step toward a great MCAT score with a free practice test. Register today to see where you stand.

The post How Studying for the MCAT Prepares You for Medical School appeared first on Med School Pulse.


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