pre-med experience – Page 4 – We're All Med Here

Pre-Med Series: MCAT & Planning

The MCAT!

The most dreaded part of our medical school application that we need to check off.

The sleepless nights. The anxiety. The torture of relearning all of the basic sciences again. The ‘I”m only good enough if my score is high enough’ crap line of thinking.

The thing that apparently will tell us how we will do in medical school, but usually has no bearing on any actual medical application.

Make that MCAT your bitch.

If you can keep this attitude, and not allow your anxiety to take over, you should hopefully overcome the test anxiety that the MCAT brings and automatically do better.

This is likely going to be a long post guys, sorry (but really I’m not that sorry).

How To Sign Up for the MCAT

First things first, you need to set a date. The MCAT isn’t cheap, but setting the date ahead of time should hopefully be slightly cheaper, and allow you to start planning ahead how much time you are going to allot for studying. You also want to make sure that if you are going to spend the money on the MCAT, you don’t end up taking it and losing out on that money.

Step 1: Go to this website: https://www.aamc.org

Step 2: Click on the MCAT link under pre-med students (shown below).

Step 3: There should be a large orange-ish/pink button on the right that says “Register For the MCAT Exam”

Step 4: You will have to make a username & password to sign up and eventually check your scores.

**make sure you remember what this information is so you can retrieve your score!

Step 5: Follow the steps/fill out the required info and pick a date.

Make sure your address on your application MATCHES the ID you are using. YOU MUST use a government ID, such as your license or passport. You cannot use your school ID.

When you are close enough to your exam time, they will not allow you to change any of your information. Thus, make sure everything is correct and your address matches. If you show up and anything is different, you will not be taking the test.

Breakdown:

There are 4 sections.

Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems
Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior
Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS)

Scores in each section can range from 118 to 132. The overall average is 500, while the highest you can get is a 528.

Competitively, as long as you are above a 500 (usually in the 505 range and above) you are doing fairly well. If you are aiming for a top 10 medical school, then you obviously need to have a much higher score. If you are aiming for a second, third, or even fourth tier school, you do not need as high of a score, provided the remainder of your application is well rounded.

They put the harder sections first to wear you down. So your chemistry/physics section is the first right off the bat, then CARS, then you get into biology and finally the psych/social section. This is in hopes that you will not perform as well in the biology or psych/social section as most students inherently do better in these. (I know, not fair).

Planning and Studying:

Depending on your time and how much information you need to relearn, or how well you wish to do, will ultimately determine how intense your study schedule is. Generally 3 months is pretty adequate. You can accomplish this usually in one summer if you a diligent enough and treat studying like a full time job. Extremely prepared would be taking 5 months to prep and study.

Or you can be like my boyfriend and try to squeeze it all in in 3 weeks because we learned half of it the first semester of our master’s course… (Don’t do this. Really. I strongly advise against this awfulness).

I’m not going to provide a study schedule here. Why you ask? Well one I took it too many times and that was the weakest part of my medical application. I’m amazed I got in with my shitty score. And two, I don’t remember my study schedule. I took it back at the beginning of 2017 and blocked that part of my life out from my memory (which happens to be the last time I took it). There are plenty of overly ambitious study schedules online for you to look at (and likely feel inferior to) if you need to see examples. I just tried to get through 2-3 lessons a day and that was a struggle in and of itself for me.

What I do suggest is plan out your schedule. Try to push yourself so you can get a fair amount done, but don’t overload yourself each day. You will fall behind. I repeat: you will fall behind on your schedule. Once your brain starts to fatigue and be unhappy with you for this constant studying, you will start to not stick as well to your schedule. But try your hardest to stick to it. If you need to make revisions, make revisions so you can still feel accomplished without feeling crappy that you couldn’t get through everything as planned that day.

It’s also a good idea to do a practice test before you start, so you can see where you are at when you mind is healthy and unstressed. It’s a good baseline to see where you need to focus your studies on. You will also need to sprinkle in practice sets to start learning how questions are asked, and eventually start practicing full length tests to prepare yourself for the grueling day of taking the test itself.

Taking the MCAT is a game and you have to be in the right mindset. Sure, you need to know the material, but you mostly need to understand how they ask questions (which is very different from majority of the tests/questions you’ve encountered before) and to train your mind for the marathon of test day. Mental fatigue is a real thing with this test.

What I Experienced from Taking the Test:

The new MCAT (which has been around since 2015 I believe) has more of a mix of subjects in each section than it did previously. This means you can see organic chemistry in more than one section. They also pulled in biochem (which was not previously a topic you had to study), which can also be sprinkled into many passages in different sections.

My test didn’t have as much organic chemistry in it as my boyfriend’s did, but there is a shit ton of biochemistry on mine and in his. So KNOW YOUR AMINO ACIDS. They like to state the amino acid one way in the passage (i.e. in full name, the 3 letter version, or the 1 letter version) and then ask you to answer the question in a different form. (Those bastards!). Knowing these will also help you answer what the overall charge of a protein is (they do have some of these questions) or if a certain amino acid will fit based off charge alone.

In general, whether you do a class or self study, following the set of books will usually cover all of the topics they will likely hit on in one way or another. Whether it be an entire passage based on it or just a stand alone question. They also like to lump multiple different topics into one passage (this is to confuse you) and then ask a question that feels like it has absolutely no bearing from the passage given. I used the books in their entirety to study, but my boyfriend only used the books to learn topics he was unfamiliar with.

Tip: For areas where you need to learn equations, I suggest you make one notecard with all of the equations related to that topic (i.e. all the kinematics equations). This way you can see how they are interchangeably related or how they can slightly change one on the test that you may see in the passage. Your brain will also make the connections easier if it is all there together.

Tip: You will also have several answers using equations where you do not necessarily need to know the exact correct answer. You should be able to narrow down the inappropriate answers given based off of positive/negative answer and orders of magnitude. This way you can narrow down your answers and give a better guess if you cannot for the life of you figure it out.

Tip: For organic chemistry, they like to test lab apparatus a lot. So make sure you at least understand how certain lab procedures work. They may also test reaction equations, but honestly learning every single reaction is a waste of time. Knowing the general/overall picture can help you as long as you understand why it would act the way it would act, instead of memorizing each specific step in all of the (many many) reactions in organic chemistry.

Tip: Don’t discount the psych section. I realize you may think it is easy, but they can get pretty specific on this test, so make sure you at least take practice questions and go over the material. No point is screwing yourself over in a section that you could get a great score in!

Tip: For CARS, this is hard to study for. The only way to improve your score is by just taking passages. You will be given topics on a range of different things such as humanities to different disciplines of science. They are complex arguments/articles that you will be asked complex questions on. You will be asked questions on being able to get into the author’s head and answer for them. Most of the questions asked DO NOT ask for information directly in the passage. Psh, that’s too easy. They ask you shit on what would the author say? Or what statement would the author not agree with? You know, stuff that you can refer back to the passage on.

What was Helpful for Practice Tests:

Use the AAMC question blocks that they have. You can manipulate it to time yourself/show the answers/etc. They are going to be the closest thing to wording that you will find on the day of the test.
If they finally have practice tests up on the AAMC, use those to take some of your practice tests with. They were not available when I took the MCAT, but they should be now that it is a few years later since changing it.
Only purchase what you are going to use. So if that means only purchasing one question book/set at a time, do it. Don’t blow all your money on shit you won’t use like I did.
My boyfriend found Gold Standard to be a great resource for practice tests as well. He did however find the physics section to not be up to par on their practice tests.
I mostly used the Kaplan tests that came with my Kaplan books. Both Exam Krackers and Kaplan tend to be highly specific based off what you learn in the book, but these are designed to help you with content and help you get in the mindset of taking the test, less for wording. So again for wording, I suggest you use the AAMC tests.

What helped the most: practice, practice, practice. Getting on a schedule (some people get up early and study during the time it would take them to take their test in order to get their brain and body ready for test day). But make sure you are studying consistently so your body/brain can adhere better, and get a good night’s sleep. You will need to allow yourself some time to take care of things like grocery shopping, some social time, and other errands.

Confidence: Your mental health and confidence needs to be at a good place before you take this test. This is something I struggled hard on. I was not in a great mental space for many of the times I took the MCAT and only did better when I had an ounce of confidence verses when I did not. You are never going to feel fully prepared, but you have to trust that you know what you know. Poor confidence= increased test anxiety = worse score.

What was a waste of time: For my boyfriend, it was doing stand alone questions. For me, those helped boost my confidence. I didn’t like using too many different MCAT tools. Stick to one or two and if you have time, you can resource other materials for testing purposes. I also don’t suggest filling out your MCAT book with class notes. The books themselves are pretty comprehensive, you don’t need to add additional shit in them to learn. I would honestly only refer to your class notes if you were able to simplify something in a much easier way so when you relearn it for the MCAT you are spending way less time on it.

Good luck and kick some ass on your MCAT! I have faith in you! And don’t worry, if your first go around isn’t the score you can be happy with, you can always take it again.

I hope this post was helpful to a few people! Comment below with any questions or what you would like to see next!

Pre-Med Series: Working in a Laboratory

Working in a lab. Ah, for most of us this is completely useless, uninteresting, and only serves the purpose of filling out our medical school applications saying we contributed to the science community in some way. For others, this provides a truly unique experience that may have started as a pre-med journey, that turned into a passion to either continue to do medicine or go down a phD route.

And then there is the route I chose: I didn’t do it. I hate working in a lab. Despise it truly. If I wanted to do something tedious and confusing and be stressed out, I would at least choose something that I could pretend I liked. Lab work is just soooo (add another bajillion o’s) monotonous. Which is why I chose to scribe instead!

But this post is not about scribing (boo hoo for me). Instead I decided to grill my boyfriend who did work in a lab for many years (and actually enjoyed it?!?) with the hopes that if you are interested in doing this, how you can go about doing it, how it is helpful, why it may suck, and so on.

Strap yourselves in, this may get long.

Part 1: How to Get into a Lab

Okay so before you even try to get the volunteer hours, or possibly get paid to be in a lab, you have to figure out how you are going to even get your foot in the door. This was where my struggle started and stopped, and I didn’t go on from here. Lucky for you guys, you aren’t following my advice on this subject. My boyfriend was in charge of a lot of the new blood while he helped run his professor’s lab, so here is what he suggests!

Get to know a professor. You will have many different professors in undergrad. Get to know them as this will only help open doors for you. Maybe you have a professor who teaches you lecture, maybe you have a professor who teaches you lab, or maybe you just happen to know a professor that you decided to drop in on and chat with in order to get to know them. You will need to find a professor with an actively funded lab at the university/college, and get to know them first. It’s easiest though if they have taught you in a course, so they can judge what kind of student you are from their class.
Go see them frequently. Don’t get discouraged about being shot down; professors want to see that you are at least determined enough about being in the lab (so they know you are interested in investing your time). Basically they want to know that if they spend their own time training you that you will actually be of benefit to them, before they are willing to invest time into you. The better the relationship you establish with them, the better chance you will get to work in their lab; especially if you do well in their course.
Show up. The #1 worse thing you can do is show up the first time and then be flaky after that. Show up when you say you are going to show up. especially if they are expecting you to be there. Not showing up could cost them lab time, the experiment, or if expensive materials were needed to be used or accounted for that may go to waste. The professors work hard for grants and need to use the money wisely, not showing up could cost them mucho $$.
When you do show up, do not be high maintenance. Understand that every lab is different and every lab operates on their own internal rule system/ way of doing things. This means the way that specific lab teaches you to do something is how you need to act or perform the procedure, even if a previous lab you were part of did things differently. So don’t automatically try to impose your own way of doing things as this will only slow things down and possibly piss off the professor or lab techs, or even your direct superior in some way. Remember! Realistically you are a college student working with those who have phD’s in the field. So be useful, be open to being trained how they would like you to work in their lab, use the knowledge how you were taught, and try to absorb what you can.

Part 2: How Do You Know How Often You Should Be There?

Make yourself as available as possible. Remember how you wanted those volunteer hours and that experience? Well it’s not useful to put only 10 hours of lab time on your medical school application, and you won’t learn jack shit that way. So open up your schedule and be flexible. If you want the credit for doing something, you have to be available to do it.
Be there when major or high priority experiments/projects are being done. That is when the interesting shit happens.
If help is needed, always offer to be there. Trust me, this is something that you should carry with you to any future job as well (to a reasonable amount mind you). If you aren’t interested in helping out when it is needed, you won’t be contacted when cool shit happens.
The longer you are a part of the lab, the higher up you move and you will likely take on more responsibility. Did someone just say leadership role? Because I think I just heard that in the above sentence… The more exposure you have being in the lab, the greater chance you will move up the food chain and get to have more responsibility, obtain your own unique projects that you are in charge of, and help design your own experiments. You will thus have more access to the professor allowing you to learn more, and may even be able to put in your input into how you feel the lab should be operating or what direction the lab should move in next. This is big stuff! By this stage, the professor will have gained your trust and appreciate your intellectual input as you have worked with them in their lab for a long enough period of time. (Aka, they don’t think you are a pointless undergrad student that they can easily replace).

Part 3: How is This Beneficial?

Networking. This is a great benefit to you as a student. Working with someone in the sciences (your professor heading the lab) will provide you with someone who knows you both personally and professionally. You will likely know other professors who are on either side of your lab or other professors that your professor associates with that can also be of benefit to you. Working in the lab may also allow you to meet interesting people in that field should you get to go to a conference. On top of all this cool stuff, you will have a great, high quality LOR! (I bolded that for you kids here because we all know that’s what you are truly after). Should you get to attend said conference(s), you can also add this experience onto your CV/resume/medical school application. Additionally, should you move from volunteer to paid work in your lab, you will have professional work experience you can use in addition to the many previous volunteer hours you had!
Learning to present. At conferences, you may be an author on a poster. You may be presenting that poster to anyone who comes by- so this could be other students, other possible professionals that you may decided to work for in the future, other professors, other phD’s, etc. This is also a great way to start learning to speak professionally for your future interviews and possible conferences as a phD, MD, or DO.
Gaining those skills. You will be practicing with techniques which are variable given the field of work that you will be under. With this knowledge, some future classes you take may be easier if you already understand how to conduct these research practices. (For example, in molecular in the master’s program I took, we had an entire 2 lectures associated with conducting techniques that we got tested on. I sucked at this, but my boyfriend and friends who worked in a lab did very well with this because they already knew what it was!).
Can you say possible publication? You may actually get to be an author on a publication. WOO!!!! This is big points. Mucho points. GINORMOUS POINTS. Most people aren’t authored on any papers. My boyfriend currently has 6 published with the possibility of a couple more should they decide to publish their data, all from working in his professors’ lab for a few years. (Let me brag a little about my man okay? Okay thanks). This looks hella good on your application and shows that you can put in the work to get a good outcome.
Practice applying for grants. So this may only be of interest if you decide to go down the phD route or the MD-pHD route, or even if you decide to become a physician and then run a lab on the side. But, my boyfriend gained some valuable experience by having to apply for a grant. It also apparently looks great on a CV if you end up getting this chance. And if you decide you are interested in going the phD or MD-phD route, you’ll have practice doing it already.
Competency in something. Feeling competent in something by the time you apply and feeling like a professional are things you will gain by having this experience. You will have a higher likelihood of being looked at as a peer when speaking with phD’s due to the fact that you worked on research. This can additionally help you out on your interview, where you may be interviewed by faculty who have a phD’s, MD/DO, or other science degree.
Other academic routes. If you decide not go to medical school or cannot get it in, you’ll have a great starting point at getting into phD programs. OR, you can decide to go straight into the workforce with your experience from working in the lab. Apparently you can get a job as a lab tech, working at a research institute or university as a lab coordinator, can work for a biotech company, or even a pharmaceutical company.

Part 4: Cons

Time. You have to be able to juggle putting the time in for lab work, with studying and keeping up your GPA and other activities. As a pre-med student, you should already be learning how to juggle multiple things anyways.
Choosing the wrong lab. If you are in the wrong lab, you are not going to get the experience you want or the opportunity to have your own project. You may even be working with people who are obnoxious and its going to make it difficult for you to continue to work. Both of these options may make you feel like you are interacting less with your professor or lab techs. Unfortunately, you need to make sure you can get along with others and that you can jive well overall, because most places don’t give a shit if someone is obnoxious or hard to work with; you are still expected to do your part.

Culminating Conclusions:

Volunteer hours. Lots of them. (Maybe even getting paid down the road).
Possibly having your name on a publication (and or getting to attend a science/professional conference).
GREAT letter(s) of recommendation.
You’ll have multiple things to talk about in your experience portion of your application and to speak on in your interview. It’s tedious, but you’ve shown that you’ve stuck with something, and it likely has some sort of science/possible medical association to it.

Thanks for sticking around with this long post. Let me know what you think of this post in the comments and what sort of topics you would like to see!