MCAT, Agony & Beyond. Part 2

The way to go about it.

Okay so first of all TAKE A DEEP BREATH RIGHT NOW. Some learn at a fast pace, some at a slow pace. You could be a schedule oriented person or a chilled out student who takes it easy. The ball is in your court. Prepare the way you want to. Take it from me, you will have to study, cram a lot no matter what but this is possible!

My Experience with MCAT

I fall under the sad category of students who’ve taken a gap year to retake MCAT. Was I devastated all this while? No, not at all. In fact, Alhamdulillah, I am proud of myself that I did. Since grade 3, I always wanted to be a doctor. And this was not a compromise under the influence of my parents. (what our society has generally established) This was genuinely what I wanted and I couldn’t see myself anywhere else. 

In May 2015, I appeared in my A Level Finals and by mid June enrolled myself in KIPs. The KIPs session lasted 2 months. I was never the student who was fond of academies because I personally feel drained. But I felt FSc was new to me so I should join one to cover the syllabus.

Anyway so KIPs became a routine. 6 hour session daily. Class tests happened almost every day. But I didn’t really care much about not knowing FSc and frustrating over my performance and sat in all regardless. When the class tests were discussed I wrote down all my mistakes in my notes which I knew was going to help me later. But deep down I couldn’t see this happening since two months were really less to prepare. I don’t doubt my preparation nor do I blame myself for opting for A Levels. The Mcat results came and I had performed above 70% (Hahahaha, surprisingly better than I’d expected for an A Level student attempting an FSc based test). But this was not enough to get me anywhere close to a government medical college. Why didn’t I apply to private? It’s not about the fee really but okay yeah maybe a little. My parents were there to support me but I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea. Government medical college was a matter of prestige to me hence I thought over it and took a gap year. 

Over the next year, I was abroad. I returned at the beginning of August. But for me everything was sorted. I had already sat down with the syllabus in early June and sorted the chapters and made a planar** accordingly. I gave all the chapters a comprehensive read. My preparation method was bit tedious since I made my own notes jotting down all the important reactions, figures and details that needed memorization. After going over each chapter I attempted all the KIPs chapter tests (Only the tests not the summary of chapters. To be honest they were useless and only a summary of the FSc textbooks). I memorized 20 English words daily and kept highlighting the difficult ones to go over in the last week. Practiced the English rules from the KIPS grammar guide. I was done with the syllabus by mid August. From here on I had two weeks so all I did was revision. I did the available MCAT past papers from 2010-15 and the FLPs in the KIPs test book.

On the test day, I began with the Biology section. I always had this feeling that If I started with my strength (which fortunately was Biology making up almost 50% of the test) my paper would go well. Alhamdulillah, I finished the 88 mcqs in 30 mins. The straight forward Bio Qs were easy to answer with my understanding of the FSc text. I moved onto English then Physics then Chemistry. Conceptual questions in the test weren’t a great deal as an A Level student. As for the facts and figures jotting down stuff in my notes helped me A LOT. I attempted all the questions.

**Planar. The chapter numbers are the specific chapter numbers from the 1st and 2nd year FSc books. When you cross-check my table with the books you’ll be able to connect the dots. I made studying units according to the UHS syllabus. The unit thing saves time when you study the chapters. (Sounds nerdy hahaha but you’ve gotta do that man If you really, really want to become a doctor that too from a government institute)

Chemistry	Biology	Physics
1st Year	1st & 2nd Year combined	1st Year
Chp 1 for Fundamental Concepts	Chp 1 for Intro to Bio	Chp 1 for  Measurements
Chp 3+4 for States of Matter	Chp 4+21 for Cell Biology	Chp 2+3+4+5 for  Forces
Chp 5 for Atomic Structure	Chp 2+3+20 for Biological Molecules	Chp 6 for  Fluid Dynamics
Chp 6 for Chemical Bonding	Chp 5+6+8 for Microbiology	Chp 7+8 for Waves
Chp 7 for Thermo chemistry	Chp 10 for Kingdom Animalia	Chp 9+10 for Light
Chp 8 for Chemical Equilibrium	Chp 11 for Bioenergetics	Chp 11 for Heat & Thermodynamics + Ideal Gases
Chp 9 for Solutions	Chp 23 for Biotechnology	2nd Year
Chp 10 for Electrochemistry	Chp 25+27 for Ecosystem	Chp 18 for Electronics
Chp 11 for Reaction Kinetics	Chp 22+24 for Evolution and Genetics	Chp 12+13 for Current Electricity
2nd Year	Human Physiology	Chp 14+15 for Magnetism and Electromagnetism
Chp 1+2+3+5 for  Periods & Groups	Chp 12 for Digestive System	Chp 20 for Modern Physics
Chp  6  for Transition Elements	Chp 13+14 for Gas Exchange & Transportation	Chp 21 for Nuclear Physics
Chp 4 for Elements of Biological Importance	Chp 15 for Excretion & Osmoregulation
Chp 7+8+9 for Fundamental Principles of Organic Chem + Hydrocarbon	Chp 17 for Nervous System
Chp 10 for Alkyl Halides	Chp 18 for Reproduction
Chp 11 for Alcohols and Phenols	Chp 16 for Support & Movement
Chp 12 for Aldehydes and Ketones	Chp 17 for Hormonal Control (Endocrine Glands)
Chp 13 for Carboxylic acid + Amino Acids	Chp 14 for Immunity
Chp 14 for Macromolecules
Chp 15+16 for Environmental Chemistry

**Table made according to 2016 syllabus.

Few helping bits:

Biology

This was my favourite section because Biology has always been my favourite subject. Trust me these 88 mcqs are the easiest in fact majority will be simple book lines. Except for 5 to 7. So you necessarily have to stick to the book. I am not promoting rote memorization but you should learn all the syllabus topics, preferably give it a thorough, significant read. I have appeared in the MCAT and I assure you that all concepts are covered in the FSc textbooks so do not look for other resource books. Not even a single word is out of the range of these textbooks. They should be your reference all the time.

As shown in my table above, the bio units saved my time during cumulative study. For important chapters which required intense memorization for e.g Animalia and Support & Movement I made tables for my personal summary. I’ll share those with you below.

Physics

MCQs of Physics are both easy and difficult. Out of the 44 MCQs, about 35 are quite easy, taken directly from the book. However, the remaining 9-10 mcqs might not be. They will be conceptual and might be tricky numericals, making use of formulas. In order not to lose 50 marks, which will be deciding your merit, you have to be keen about these mcqs as well. For them revise all the book diagrams and most importantly the formulas. You need to be quick with calculations as well. Examiner will play with your mind, just take it easy and jot down the information provided in the question and work your way towards the answer.

I made a summary of all the important formulas and values from all the chapters. The reason why I’m not posting those here is because when I was at your stage I used to see lots of such summaries on Facebook MCAT groups. In essence, seniors who posted those lists were trying to help. But when I studied the chapters thoroughly myself and made my own summaries was when I was sure of my prep more. Hence, I encourage everyone to do likewise. Writing them down once helped me memorize better! (If anybody still wants the summary, comment your email below)

Still posting this important table on dimensions

Chemistry

UHS syllabus divides the 58 MCQs into three sections. 18 from Physical Chem, 10 from Inorganic Chem and 30 from Organic Chem. Overall about 50 mcqs will be lenient. The remaining 8 will be the important ones, setting the merit. In my opinion, 1st year chem is pretty easy so don’t waste your time on learning it only. Remember only 18 questions come from it in comparison to the 40 questions from 2nd year chem. You should have full grip on Organic chem since 30 mcqs alone will be asked from here. The 2nd year chem requires more memorization. So try maintaing a balance.

Apart from that, let me remind you that there will be no periodic table available in MCAT. For this I used to make mnemonics for all the groups. You could do the same. Know the atomic numbers and masses roughly for the first 36 elements. Especially, the first row of transition elements.

Amino Acids is an extremely important topic. Anybody having trouble revising them, please visit this link. https://www.facebook.com/mcatetp/photos/?tab=album&album_id=883358538442248

Pretty good revision guide tables in the following link. https://www.facebook.com/mcatetp/posts/976601352451299

I have a similar take on posting my chemistry summary list for all the formulas & reactions like for Physics. Let me know if anybody still wants them.

English

This is the embarrassing part. Embarrassing because most of us already feel confident about it but we forget there is a difference between spoken English and proper English grammar. You will be tested for 30 questions for general proficiency. Except for the 10 vocabulary mcqs the rest are unseen. But we do know there will be:
4 Qs on fill in the blanks with given word alternatives, 6 Qs on identifying grammatical errors in sentences, 10 Qs with 4 options from which you have to choose the grammatically correct sentence, rest 10 Qs are from vocabulary.

UHS gives an “Essential Word Power” in the syllabus. Memorize 10 to 15 words daily highlighting the difficult ones to go over in the last week. You should have a firm grip on these 685 words. I feel they are the easiest way to score 100 marks in the test.

In grammar, you should know the basics of tenses, nouns, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and punctuation. If you’re a student of KIPs they give a comprehensive book on grammar and a vocabulary book which contains all that you need to know.

How should I prepare in the last 2 weeks?

I am assuming you’d be done with the textbooks at least once by now. So all you need to do is revise. Over the course of your preparation, jot down important formulas, significant details that require necessary memorization. Nothing will be asked apart from the syllabus or the textbooks so learn all the necessary minute details in them. Attempt at least two full length MCAT papers and mark yourself.

Final Note.

Forget about what marks you’ll end up with. Forget what your final percentage will be. I promise you the effort you will put, alone is enough to turn the tables.

If there is anything else regarding the MCAT, the syllabus or the admission procedure you have queries about please feel free to ask me in the comments below. I will reply. :)

Best of luck to all my juniors! =)

**All suggestions regarding this blog post are most welcome. Kindly let me know if I there are any errors/unanswered questions to attend to/any important additions to be made.