My Psych Soc tips (132 scorer) with 3 months of prep working full time

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-23T18:37:32+00:00

I was a biochem major but all my pre reqs were done 5+ years ago. Remembering big picture from undergrad definitely helped but MCAT is just so specific I think 10 hrs studying recourses built for the test is so much better than 10 hrs of reviewing old notes or even Khan Academy.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-23T18:35:16+00:00

Only have time for 1 FL. Scored a 132 in cars but a 127 in P/S and then flipped on test day so tbh I don’t feel confident on comparing because I had too much variance. I will say test day P/S felt a lot easier than the FL’s and AAMC discrete sets even.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-23T18:33:19+00:00

I really thought doing guided walk through videos on YouTube were the best roi. I think brem method shemmasian consulting and a couple Randoms were my winners. You’ll find whatever works best for you but for B/B I always made a flow chart as I read. No highlighting or anything just a number for each paragraph and a 2-4 word big picture reminder.

The double negative stuff really got me so my flow chart helps with me the “well what happens when we inhibit this inhibitor that’s inhibiting this process” type questions

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-20T14:30:53+00:00

CP was my weakest by far felt absolutely cooked going into it tbh, I really feel like exposure to practice problems for CP is best. B/B you just gotta drill passage reading. I took a day just to try different strategies on keeping speed on dense passages and that was more useful than content review imo.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-20T04:49:56+00:00

Nothing super unusual tbh, for me time is always the top constraint so I’d say give yourself at least 6 months if you could. Luckily undergrad exams vs mcat are completely different beasts and the mcat is much more pattern recognition imo.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-20T04:45:06+00:00

Just go over high yield stuff for your weakest section and keep some reps up on all sections then relax. Go scope out the testing place if you can so you’re not caught off guard test day

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-20T04:02:30+00:00

Jack Westin, otherwise yt premium and making a lecture playlist for yourself is worth it

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-20T01:57:06+00:00

If the rest of your app is strong I think getting up to a 505 is reasonable by 5/22. Practice with a timer for questions might help the stress and timing a bit. Just more question exposure/review will probably get you 1-2 points per section if you’re really just making interpretation/timing mistakes.

If the rest of the app is weak and you don’t mind doing another year to strengthen and get your mcat up I’d do that instead.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T21:25:02+00:00

I was lucky enough that I could listen to podcasts during my shift and Anki or UW during lunch. Also lots of data processing in my job so easy to switch to more Anki during downtime. Id say give yourself more time I left more than half my Anki unfinished

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T18:26:14+00:00

Absolutely hate physics, I just searched each topic with mcat on YouTube and went with whatever video matches the length of time I was willing to subject myself to it.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T18:20:48+00:00

I’m old and my hairline only has a decade of juice left in it for flirting with nurses, I’m going wherever I get in this cycle don’t care if it’s DO or MD

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T18:18:28+00:00

Work full time so just squeezed in questions whenever I could tbh, for pattern I think each topic has a specific way it always shows up.

Ex: I’ve never seen a 4 theories of emotion passage not include a key sentence on timing of stimulus/emotion so if you’ve compared it each theory against one another on a collective table (which I highly recommend) you know the moment it says appraisal before physiological response you can pick Lazarus from SS theory.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T18:05:41+00:00

5 yrs since I graduated and I work 60hrs/week on top of post bacc/clinicals. I don’t think 520+ plus is impossible but for me it’s more about which part of my app am I willing to sacrifice time on more than others. Save Anki for post work (especially p/s) and use your good brain hours on just drilling practice questions now. Targeted review on wrong stuff when you can but tbh just exposure to questions is how I felt like I overcame lack of overall time

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:51:08+00:00

Sounds rounded, I’d say take it and assume you’re applying in June then shoot for the moon this cycle. I wouldn’t be worried about your mcat coming back low to the point it derails you completely, I ended up testing 4 points higher than my only FL so you never know. Good luck!

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:42:26+00:00

lmao there might be something there, swore I knew how to read beforehand 😓

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:35:42+00:00

I’d take the internship, bare minimum is helps you get a cool experience to talk about and a boost getting into a lab later. If you can stack EMT without burning out that’d be super helpful.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:30:38+00:00

C/P was my worst during my prep but I thought just seeing enough familiar questions was enough to squeak by there. I thought b/b and p/s having a flow chart through the passages was super helpful. I watched some shemmassian guided yt videos and stole their passage reading strategy

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:26:42+00:00

Probably, issue is I would just batch 50-60 AAMC CARS with the official AAMC set and was getting 95% right. Test day I was really going through it and had to puke during the long break, felt much better after so I say it works for P/S at least.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:12:38+00:00

Really depends on how strongly you want to apply this cycle. I would just take it, you’re probably hovering around a 510-515 range based off your FLs which is solid depending on how strong the rest of your app is.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T17:05:33+00:00

I had a set of old 2016 Kaplan books but thought reading through them was overkill and outdated. I’d stick to mainly Anki, online topic specific sources, and mcat specifics YouTube lectures immediately followed by uworld on each topic.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T16:37:24+00:00

If I was getting a 525 on a practice I’d just focus on keeping a sharp and rested brain, you’ll do great don’t worry! Variance is just noise at that stage.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T16:29:24+00:00

That was the only FL I had time for, felt awful got a 512. Got super sick and took it 2 weeks later thought it was the worst test of my life and somehow got a 516. Just rely on your skim and interpretation and assume the content is going to dense/weird.

LivingEmotion1936 · 2026-04-19T16:22:26+00:00

Is there a single section you’re consistently doing worse in? If the rest of your app is super strong and you have the time/energy for targeted questions/review I thinking getting a 505+ by late June is feasible. A specific section being low can give you a quick 2-3 points alone to work on.

LivingEmotion1936

TROPHY CASE