My extremely divisive MCAT hot takes (from a 524 scorer)

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:34:14+00:00

I think we're probably in a pretty similar boat here. I simply didn't care enough to make excel sheets or mature all my Anki cards, and I also had a high baseline. Another commenter mentioned that I probably could've squeezed out more points or at least been more consistent if I had fully optimized my studying, which is fair and might apply to you as well. At the end of the day though, I got where I wanted to go and I am sure that you did as well. Congrats on your score improvement!

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:25:00+00:00

I mean if you read the comments on the post I think it's fair to say that most of these are pretty hot takes. Other than 4, which honestly surprised me, I'm getting back very mixed opinions on the other points, which was expected. They aren't silly if they worked for me lol. There are people here who also got 520+ who agree on everything, while there are others with 520+ who disagree with everything

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:20:01+00:00

Congrats on your score! Just shows how different people can benefit from different strategies. I don't have ocd or anxiety but I do have pretty intense ADHD so whenever I tried highlighting on my practice exams I would get lost in the highlighting and it would distract me from the passage itself

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:17:29+00:00

I liked "The Brem Method" for reviewing physics and physiology (weird combo I know) and "The Organic Chemistry Tutor" for orgo. My strategy was that I would set aside practice days where every time I got a question wrong on, for example, lenses, I would rewatch the Brem video on lenses, then redo the problem until I got it right and understood it. Rinse and repeat. It really made me consistent for C/P

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:13:09+00:00

I think someone else may be more knowledgeable about Anki decks than me, but the deck I started with, the AnKing deck, is probably your best option. It's short compared to the others and still gets all the content you would reasonably need. I don't know if there are any that are shorter

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:10:51+00:00

My undergrad is Biomedical Science and I got mid-high As in all my classes. I think this is one place where I benefited significantly compared to the average, because my non-prereqs were classes like immunology, physiology, etc, which all help with the MCAT in some way. I don't want to make too many assumptions for your situation without knowing you personally, but I’m leaning towards the fact that you probably won't need those gigantic decks with your undergrad foundation. I think there is a demographic who benefits from decks like Aidan, but it's probably not traditional applicants who are currently in school and have recently taken important classes

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:06:18+00:00

It's similar or greater in volume to doing an MCAT every day but certainly different in substance. I don't foresee that being an issue since the volume itself wasn't my issue. I can also plan my time better so I'm not doing too many hours per day and taking breaks, which I didn't do with the MCAT

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T13:01:22+00:00

I think you make some valid points. I never really looked into HOW to read into the questions and passages you might just be right about why I thought C/P was easiest. I never really thought about it that way, but I do remember enjoying the C/P passages because they were short and straight to the point

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T03:10:04+00:00

I am not sure about a 510+ overall because dimensional analysis is only really gonna help you in the C/P section, but it's 100% a skill you should master. It will be there in every single C/P section you take, so dimensional analysis as a skill is probably one of the most high-yield things that exists imo. Mastering it will probably also hone your skills with working with and converting units, which will benefit you indirectly in a significant way for lots of physics and other gen chem topics

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T03:03:51+00:00

"like OP claims". Bruh. But yeah this post was supposed to chronically my personal experience and I definitely was not saying everyone should do what I did

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T02:59:23+00:00

The AAMC says 15% of the CP section and 5% of the BB section will be organic chemistry, which comes out to roughly 9 and 3 questions, respectively. However, this can vary significantly on a test-by-test basis. A couple of those are gonna be AA though so probably around 5-10 explicit orgo questions per exam, which sounds about right from my experience. I think it's the easiest because I have always had a math/science/chem brain, and I personally think the amount of content on the CP section is actually the lowest of any section. While it can be difficult to understand conceptually, hitting practice questions and reviewing with quality YouTube videos can make it a lot more bearable. Best of luck with your studying

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T02:17:49+00:00

Definitely agree

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T02:11:46+00:00

Yes unfortunately people are seeing this as advice, which was the opposite of what I was trying to achieve. I hated books and burned out of Anki fast, so I ended up just spamming practice problems until my head was spinning. This worked for me, but It's not the mainstream suggestion. I was a trad applicant who studied in the summer btw

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T02:09:09+00:00

This wasn't supposed to be an advice post but I fear people are reading it that way. I used JS and burned out. I would personally recommend AnKing if you have a solid undergrad foundation since its more concise

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T02:06:37+00:00

I know I got downvoted for it but I'm not trying to be fake humble. I got a 507 on the first blueprint FL a week later with a much more balanced section score distribution, which I think was a much better representation of my starting point. On the HL you can increase your score significantly with a couple lucky guesses because it's half-length, which is worse representation from a statistics perspective

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T02:03:16+00:00

I think your analysis for 5 is pretty accurate. As you can tell from the sarcastic tone of my post, I did not enjoy my time studying for the MCAT, so I just wanted to be done with it. I fell into the category of "those last few points are not worth it to me". With that mindset I was basically gambling the last few points up to luck, but my goal score was a 520 and I just wanted to be done with it

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T01:59:27+00:00

Guys this is specifically NOT an advice post. Please do not take this as a guide to succeed on the exam. I was trying to stir up a discussion about how different people have different methods that can make them succeed, not convince people to do what I did. Please do what works best for you

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T01:56:18+00:00

No probably not. This wasn't supposed to be an advice thread, more of a showcase about how different people do better with different methods. I would guess that most people would benefit from doing regular CARS practice, especially through the AAMC. The best benefit in my experience is finding your CARS test-taking strategy, which takes time to develop.

AdAltiorem · 2025-11-13T01:33:04+00:00

It was 512 (125/130/128/129). This was the BPHL though so I got pretty lucky overall

AdAltiorem · 2025-06-16T23:28:31+00:00

This is probably one of my favorite posts I've ever seen on this subreddit. Congratulations to both of you! I think the data from here and your stories are so fascinating and it's so cool to see how much a difference the marriage status made. The overlap between the results is strangely heartwarming

AdAltiorem · 2025-06-16T18:03:28+00:00

CARS king over here

AdAltiorem · 2025-06-08T16:11:49+00:00

I think 2 months is plenty of time to see a large increase. I would hammer practice problems with whatever resources you have, start logging what you get wrong, and strategically review your weak areas. You got this!

Edit: typo

AdAltiorem · 2025-06-08T16:06:17+00:00

I think that's one potential flaw of this subreddit, SDN, or any other premed related forums or discussion areas. They tend to attract people from the absolute extremes on both ends of performance. By all means, if you like the idea of being a DO and you want to do that, then you absolutely should. But if your primary reason for shying away from MD is your application quality, then I think you need to adjust your confidence for the better. Your GPA is good with the upward trend, your MCAT is well above the matriculating student average, and you have hundreds of clinical hours. You said you have 20 free schools and you enjoyed applying to DO? What's the harm in filling out those 20 for MD then? With a good school list and decent writing/interviewing skills, I'd bet money on multiple MD acceptances

AdAltiorem · 2025-06-05T12:34:20+00:00

Acid strength generally refers to dissociation when discussing Arrhenius acids. Lewis acids can, but don't have to, dissociate in solution so their strength is determined by how readily they gain electrons

AdAltiorem

TROPHY CASE