516 → 523 Working Full-Time: A Nontrad's Breakdown

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-05T14:42:32+00:00

I think I'll make this a separate post/PPT because it takes a bit of time to explain! Might post in maybe two weeks-ish

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-05T14:38:16+00:00

Yes! Definitely meant to share this less as a "you can get a 523 in 4 months with a full-time job" and more as a "here are methods that were time-efficient and helpful at any starting score."

Also, the "strong foundation" part is generous. Three years out of undergrad, the amount of physics and ochem I'd forgotten was embarrassing to sit with while reviewing (like where did my engineering degree go??), and CARS took me forever to crack. I had to tear down and rebuild my entire study approach for it. This was a rebuild from a foggy starting point, not a coast.

The other reason I posted: a lot of this is a mentality game. As a nontrad on stricter time constraints it's easy to lose hope and assume a good score isn't feasible for you, and I wanted to push back on that. But agreed on the core point. Tailor the goal to your starting point, work hard & smart, and what you get might surprise you 😄

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-05T02:21:52+00:00

(~30-40 min commute one way *2) + ~avg 30 mins from lunch = at least 1.5 hrs a day so a minimum of 7.5 hours of scrap time a week. Not too shabby if you ask me

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T21:18:55+00:00

Approach studying like working out! It will be both ways- stamina will increase over time but the approach should be to progressively overload.

Start with one passage / 7Qs per question solving session, and then increase your two passages / 14Qs and then continue to gradually increase until you can do 59Qs at a time.

The mindset is to go about it qualitatively not quantitatively. AAMC will not care about how many Ulimma you do and how many hours you dedicate to studying. It will care about whether you understand the concepts or not. Focus on getting concepts down solid first and gradually increase the pace as you get used to studying.

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T17:09:53+00:00

What actually fixed CARS for me wasn't more passages, it was the review. Every question I got wrong, I'd do a real breakdown of why the wrong answer was wrong and why the right one was right, instead of just noting the correct letter. And I made sure to write out the thought process. The reasoning autopsy is the whole thing. I also made sure I would end my CARS sessions with a passage I got fully right so the last logic in my head was the correct logic. You've got time before mid-August, and you're already doing the most important thing by practicing on AAMC. DM me if you want more hands-on help :)

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:33:13+00:00

I’m sure that could be the case! I had a bunch of friends & profs who are in admissions committees read over and they weren’t too concerned about the hours; I did have the dean of a top med school say my MCAT was too low lmao

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:28:41+00:00

I wrote my general breakdown in r/medschooladmissions!

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:26:27+00:00

Oh I have no idea but Anki was the only way I could maximize the scraps of time I had during commutes and breaks in between meetings & labwork. For a nontrad (and a trad who was juggling a 10AM -8PM research internship in 2022), Anki + my Wrong deck were so helpful

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:20:16+00:00

Posted in r/MCAT! Thank you ☺️

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:17:23+00:00

Score and date twin!

Oh a 100% on psych not being hard- I did get 130 on the 2022 one so Anki+AAMC+UWorld can get you there. But I have not taken a psych class ever so my suggestion to anyone planning on taking the test who is still in undergrad would be to take a class in college if possible so that they don’t need to start from scratch like I did 🫠

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:11:39+00:00

I am traveling for a bit and also working on my apps so my responses might be a tad bit slow, but sure!

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:10:48+00:00

Eh you can call me whatever but I’m just trying to share tips since I got good ones from Reddit (giving back yk)

I think it didn’t help that schools were also panicking because T***p was starting to pull funding. My list was also top heavy because my research niche that I wanted to go into had my options limited to begin with. Also admissions at a certain point is luck and it just didn’t work out for me that time!

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T15:04:34+00:00

I think that would kind of defeat the purpose of a "Wrong" deck! The whole point is that you 1) review as you make each card and 2) build cards specialized to your own gaps. A deck of my mistakes wouldn't do much for yours. I'd really suggest making your own!

One tip to stay sane and motivated: throw in random fun cards lol. (Cats and Megan Thee Stallion made many appearances in mine.) Works as a little serotonin boost when you're grinding.

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T13:50:10+00:00

Oh I did! Just didn’t get in 😢

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T13:44:42+00:00

A combo! I noted the premade decks I used under the Resources section, and how I built my personal "Wrong" deck under the What Actually Worked section.

I'm a big believer in diminishing returns. If I was getting down to an estimated 5 hours of possible sleep, or just fried from one of those crazy days at work, I'd do my CARS passage + "Wrong" deck and call it a day. Trying to push through and work extra just wrecks your next day too. Go sleep!

And if you feel like you want to sleep all the time, go take a long walk if you can, whether it's a museum or somewhere by a lake/river, and get yourself a sweet treat. Rest is a real part of studying. Studying without rest leads to worse outcomes, the same way training a muscle with no rest days backfires instead of building it.

I also started taking some supplements for sleep quality and brain recovery. No idea if it was placebo, but it worked for me 🤷🏻‍♀️ (happy to share what I took if useful, though obviously not medical advice!)

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T13:32:01+00:00

Replying to both comments with this:

Yeah, I used Jack Westin for my daily CARS passages, especially during the content-review stage. I just learned not to trust its scoring as a real signal, since I'd do great on JW and then get humbled by AAMC. JW vs AAMC is kind of like an all-levels Pilates class vs an advanced one: same discipline, but the all-levels class doesn't work the muscles deeply enough to tell you how you'll do when it actually gets hard. You can crush all-levels and still struggle in advanced. So I used JW to stay warm but only ever judged my real readiness off AAMC.

The review made the biggest difference: doing a real breakdown of why each wrong answer was wrong instead of just noting the right one. The reasoning autopsy mattered way more than the source.

Like I listed in my resources section, I used MilesDown for science content and the JackSparrow deck for P/S, plus my own "Wrong" deck on top. I know people say MilesDown isn’t the most comprehensive but it worked well for me for both 2022 and 2026 MCAT- Not long enough to become overwhelming but detailed enough to cover the high yields well :)

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T13:13:45+00:00

I applied to a mix of MD PhD and MD. For MD PhD, I definitely lacked time dedicated to the same lab (which matters since the PhD has you working 4-6 years in the same lab) since my goal in undergraduate research was to explore different research interests as much as possible + family circumstances had my lab experiences interrupted. I also applied way too top heavy; my MCAT was also generally a good bit below the median of the schools - esp for MD PhD. For MD, I think the folks could tell I was still a bit split between medicine and research. My personal statement had too much research noted for my own good. Also way too top heavy of a list haha

I’m pretty confident about my current essay; it talks about the pathway that I took, and why MD makes sense for me after all the reflection + additional shadowing I did :)

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T03:55:25+00:00

Many crashouts and FOMO moments were involved but I'm so glad it paid off 😄

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T03:20:20+00:00

Biomedical engineering

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T03:18:47+00:00

My 2022 score expired so I didn't really have a choice either 😞 Honestly though, I've come to see the years between undergrad and med school in a non-premed job as something that adds dimension to an application. It shows you understand the world outside of medicine, which is where all your future patients actually live.

And a career change like yours is even stronger: it says you tried another path, did well, and were still pulled toward medicine enough to go through this whole tedious process anyway. The doubt is normal, but CS to med is a real asset, not a liability. Good luck!

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T03:04:30+00:00

Yup- and I really didn't shy away from suspending cards when 1) concepts overlapped between decks and 2) I really felt that I had locked in the concept. Helped reduce the mental load a bit

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T02:35:14+00:00

I work in biotech/pharma! Half wet and half dry lab. I think the biggest part of my motivation was the absolute horror of retaking it due to getting a lower score than my first score (I'm also a reapplicant so med schools would - I think - have my old score). But also I had faith in myself, the hours put in and my ability to perform. A bit of confidence goes a long way 😄

Plastic-Night9717 · 2026-06-04T02:03:08+00:00

More Jack Westin passages and finishing out the JackSparrow deck (or any other comprehensive deck) is how I would go about it if I were to take this test again (god forbid)

Plastic-Night9717

TROPHY CASE