8 Ways to Have Fun While StuDYING for the MCAT

Does studying for the MCAT have you down? Why not spice things up and make it fun using these 8 easy-to-implement tips:

1. Think of fun mnemonics

Whenever you learn a new term/group of terms that you know is going to be a pain to memorize, think of a silly mnemonic device that will help you remember it. For instance, if you are trying to keep the differences between enantiomers and diasteriomers straight, you might think of the following: “Enantiomers are Equal mirror images, but Diasteriomers will DIE because they are not.”

If you’re having a really hard time memorizing some key facts, why not check out our Mastery Courses like the Amino Acids mastery course or the one we have for Metabolic Pathways! There are some free sample lessons on there too, so be sure to try it out.

2. Study with a friend

Studying for the MCAT all day everyday can get very lonely (and depressing). Instead of fighting it out alone, why not find a friend who is also studying for the MCAT? They can hold you accountable, test you on concepts, and make studying a little more exciting. Reviewing practice exams with a friend can be a great resource, as you can keep each other on track and they will provide new perspectives for you. You can find a study buddy by joining our Facebook Study Group or by starting an MCAT Self Prep Study Group at your University!

3. Incorporate videos

Many students tell me that they get bored to tears reading content review books, and I totally get that. Videos are a much more engaging and interactive way to experience the content. This is why I’ve incorporated high-quality YouTube videos from Khan Academy, Udemy, CrashCourse, and AK Lectures throughout our Free eCourse. It’s also why we’ve created MCAT Question of the Day videos. Seeing the content delivered from a real person can make a huge difference; someone else actually cares about this material besides you! Additionally, different diagrams and fun colors, as simple as they sound, can make a concept much easier to learn. So, if you are starting to zone out while reading, why not take a break and watch some videos?

4. Listen to music while you study

When I study for long periods of time, I can turn to my one true love, music. Music will never leave you; music will never hurt you. It just makes the time go by faster. On a more real note, creating and using a fun study playlist can be a great way to stay motivated! When you hear songs moving along, it keeps you on pace to finish your studying. Obviously this doesn’t apply when you’re taking a practice test, but for doing flashcards or practice problems, it’s a nice way to relax a little and get some extra motivation.

5. Keep active!

Going for a walk in the sun is a huge oxytocin and serotonin booster (as I’m sure you know from your studying!). If you can review physical or online flashcards while you do this, studying will feel much more rewarding. You can also make mnemonics and memory palaces as you go on your journey, as things around your house will serve as the building blocks for memorizing lists of terms or processes in the flashcards you write.

6. Take study breaks

Space out your studying to do a 50/10 split, taking 10 minutes of break for every 50 minutes you study. If you are taking these breaks, those 50 minutes of studying will be equivalent to 60 minutes with minor motivation. Working towards a break should feel like doing cardio – you count down the minutes that you spend until your goal, and that makes you work even harder.

7. Use self-care days

Try to schedule self-care days during your study period in order to make sure that you have time to relax. If you have a full schedule that week, increase your motivation to do 1.25X the amount of time you planned for on two days out of the week and you will end up with a half day for relaxation. Having time set aside to not feel bad about relaxing can make the other times much more enjoyable, as you don’t feel the drudgery of working day in and day out.

8. Reward yourself!

Setting small, achievable goals is a common method to ensure that you are seeing progress as you get through your studying. What makes you get out of bed after coming back on a Thursday night? Is it a friend talking to you about sports, or a chance to try some delicious food, or maybe watching your favorite Netflix show? Incorporating these small rewards, such as a chance to watch an episode of TV after finishing a difficult subject, can make your studying feel much more achievable.

After reading this post, I hope you will start to have a little more fun with your MCAT studying! And please consider me your friend in this study journey. I am here to help!

Warm regards,

Andrew George

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How we Matched up the Khan Academy Passages with the eCourse Lessons

Each lesson of the eCourse contains links to 1 to 5 Khan Academy science passages for the purpose of providing you with non-AAMC material to practice your science passage reading skills on. By completing all the linked passages within every lesson, you will have finished all the freely available Khan Academy science passages.

To match up the Khan Academy Science Passages with the eCourse lessons, we carefully examined the passage and question content of each one. Then we decided which lesson of the eCourse best correlated with that content. You may notice that some passages don’t match up perfectly with the current lesson. If they don’t match up with the current lesson, they should match up with one of the previous lessons in the module. We did this carefully so that you could practice your science passage reading skills on passages that contain the content you’ve already learned.

Why we don’t recommend non-AAMC CARS practice questions

We recommend practicing CARS by reading non-AAMC CARS passages but not doing the associated practice problems. The reason we don’t recommend doing the practice problems is because the MCAT is written by the AAMC. They have a very unique style in which they write CARS practice questions that third-party companies (try as they might) are unable to replicate. When students spend time on non-AAMC CARS practice problems, they get familiar with the wrong style of questioning, leading them to overthink and incorrectly respond to the questions written by the AAMC. Thus, it is in your best interest to solely practice on AAMC CARS practice questions.

That said, we highly recommend practicing your reading skills on non-AAMC CARS passages. In our Ultimate CARS Strategy Course, we provide you with 1,000 free CARS passages and 100+ homework assignments, giving you ample material to practice on. Reading countless passages while practicing the proper reading habits and strategies will prepare you well to conquer the CARS section as it was written by the AAMC.

Which books do the lessons match up with?

The books we use in each lesson are linked below. We plan to stick with these older editions of the books since very little has changed and the older editions are much more affordable:

First Edition of the Kaplan 7-book Series
First Edition of the Princeton 7-book Series

Do the chapters match up perfectly?

The Kaplan Books, Princeton Books, and Khan Academy Videos were all produced by different authors. For this reason, there are some chapters in the Kaplan Book or Princeton Book that are not even found in the Khan Academy Videos and vice versa. For instance, the Kaplan and Princeton Books have chapters that cover certain experimental procedures that the Khan Academy Videos do not cover.

Our goal in matching up the books with the videos was to correlate the content as best as possible while also covering ALL the content from every resource. For this reason, when nothing in the Kaplan Books matched up with one of the video playlists, instead of leaving the reading assignment for Kaplan blank, we inserted material that did not fit in anywhere else (i.e. one of those chapters on an experimental procedure that was not covered by Khan Academy). So, when the assignment doesn’t appear to match up right, please know that this was intentional.

*If you follow the reading assignments outlined, you will finish the entire Kaplan 7-book series and/or Princeton 7-book series by the time you finish all 10 content modules.

Do the sections match up perfectly?

If the sections assigned in our eCourse do not match up with the sections contained in your content review book, you may have a different edition. The sections should still match up the large majority of the time, but in the rare instance that they don’t, I’d recommend simply reading sections that do match up and saving the ones that do not for a future lesson.

MCAT Launchpad Required!

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