Leah here from leah4sci.com/mcat and in this video, I wanna talk to you about how long
it takes to study for the MCAT.
So when it comes to something like the MCAT and my students ask me, hey Leah how long
should I study?
We have a problem because this isn't a simple question that you can google and find the
answer.
This is something that you have to slowly figure out based on what you learn about yourself.
As a future doctor you're a scientist.
A patient comes to you with a problem, you have a hypothesis, you act on that hypothesis,
and then you evaluate the goals.
Or why not treat you as the first experiment?
The hypothesis will be what you think it will take and then you'll evaluate the steps and
how long it takes you to get through those stuff.
So instead of answering with a hard number, I wanna show you what it takes and give you
the tools to be able to calculate.
That's a long winded way of saying, instead of just giving you a number, I wanna show
you what you need to figure out so that you can figure out your timeline.
When it comes to preparing for the MCAT, I have a three-phased approach that you can
learn about in the link below.
Phase 1 is the foundation, that's where you learn the content, that is where you go through
subject by subject Physics, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology,
Psychology, Sociology, and start on CARS.
That's when you learn, understand, and memorize so that you can get to Phase 2 where you are
going to do in-depth, hardcore practice and once you feel ready, you'll go into phase
3, you go through a few weeks of Full Length run-through and then you know you're ready.
So how long does that take?
Well that depends on you.
For Phase 1, you want to see how long it takes you to get through content and that is something
that I cover in a separate phase 1 video link below . But, this depends on how many hours
you can this depends on how many hours you can study a week, how quickly you learn the
information, how fresh you are with the information, meaning did you just finish your Physics class
or has it been five years since you took Physics.
Did you recently ace Biochem class or are you self-studying Biochem because you're not
gonna take it before your MCAT.
These questions are customed to you and you have to figure out based on how much time
I have on a given week and how quickly I get through in a week... based on how much time
I have on a given week and how much I get through in a week, how many weeks does ti
going to take me to get through all of the content.
I have seen students I have seen everything from students getting through content in as
little as two months, but this is for students who are strong in the sciences from their
classes and are studying full time.
And I have seen students take as much as six months because they have work, they have family,
they have classes, it's been a while since they've seen the material, or maybe they're
even self-studying because starting classes they haven't taken.
Once you finish content and ideally a couple of full lengths on phase 1, you go into the
practice phase.
This is where you work on taking practice exams understanding where and why you're losing
points and then working out those issues to make sure that it's not a problem on the next
exam.
The duration for phase 2 again depends on you.
How many points do you have to improve before you're ready for your MCAT?
If you're a student who only needs to go up another 2 to 3 points based on where you left
off on phase 1, you probably need just a few weeks for Phase 2.
But if you're a student who needs to increase by more than 10 points, it's going to take
you a lot longer so once again, figure out.
How many points can I improve on every full length, how frequently am I taking those full
lengths, and how long is that going to take?
For example, if your average full-length jump is 2 points and you take a full-length every
other week, that comes to 4 points a month at the minimum because you always wanna leave
a little bit of buffer for your plateau.
I recommend students to go a minimum of 2 months for Phase 2 because no matter how well
you score , you still wanna have time to get familiar with the style, the format, and just
get good at the tests itself.
I have seen students require 4, 5, even 6 months for phase 2 when they don't have a
lot of time to study or when the required ump is so high that they just have to go through
slowly and carefully bringing up their scores 1 to 2 points at a time.
And finally, phase 3, I recommend just a month because this is an opportunity to just have
a run-through, a testing for 4 weeks in a row to make sure you're confident going into
the exam, to make sure that you're confident with the routine going into the exam so that
italmost feels like muscle memory.
Now I realized I haven't actually answered the question of how long you should study
for the MCAT, but hopefully you understand why and more specifically the questions that
you're going to have to ask yourself every step of the way to make sure that you're on
track.
I'm going to add a couple of resources into the description that I want you to do for
homework because this will be your next step in figuring out the timeline.
The first thing you need is your baseline, so you know where you're starting out.
Then you need to have your targets so that you know where you're going,and to be able
to figure out how much you have to improve based on where you're started and where you're
finishing out.
Then you need to have your daily schedule where you know how much time your devoting
to MCAT prep on a weekly basis without burning out.
This is critical and without sacrificing your other commitments.
This is a long long process, so you can't neglect everything else that you have to do
in this time.
And finally, watch the Phase 1 evaluation video so that you can measure your progress
based on what you have already done and be able to estimate how much longer it's going
to take.
But before you dive into your homework make sure you give this video a thumbs up and subscribe
to my channel if you haven't already, click that bell icon so that you don't miss notifications
of future videos and then let me know on the comments below what you found most helpful
in this video and which MCAT prep aspects you want me to cover you want me to cover
in upcoming videos.