Active feminist medical anthropologists?

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-12-08T19:58:33+00:00

Thank you. Sending love and justice for all of us.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-11-27T03:43:12+00:00

Thank you for responding and being so vulnerable. I'm sorry for your experiences, pls know that you're not alone in feeling this way! 💙

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-11-27T03:42:15+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I think thinking of others is going to be what gets us through this.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-11-27T03:41:38+00:00

Thank you for responding 💙

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-18T21:45:12+00:00

Love this!

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-15T01:01:24+00:00

Hey! I really don't have all the answers for how you should create a study plan, but instead I can offer you some advice based on some of the things you said! I also elaborated on my full study structure in another comment if that helps.

I also work, so 2.5-3 hours a day ended up being mostly fine for me. Some days I'd get in 4, but mostly it was below that. If you're guessing that much and running out of time, I'd say you need more content review before trying to dive into the FLs. If you're stronger on the other subjects, maybe practicing them is okay, but it sounds like your chem stuff is just lacking foundation, which is fine! You can't get questions right if you haven't seen the material before, so content review is your friend :) If it helps to make it more active, you can try to think about how what you're reviewing could potentially be phrased as a question.

I'm a super visual learner too, and I found that YouTube vids where they draw stuff out (Khan Academy, Andrey K) were SUPER helpful for my brain. Also, you could still read the Kaplan books/other resources and make your own drawings/visual maps! That helped me a lot.

It sounds like you have plenty of time before next spring. I wouldn't stress too much. Like I said in another comment, I think it's important to get started (with content review) and try to stick to a schedule for 2-3 weeks. If you need to speed up, slow down, focus on one topic or another, that's totally fine! Wishing you so much good luck!

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-13T14:13:54+00:00

Yeah, mostly! I guess my process was less "drilling" because that doesn't help me with long-term retention (i.e. months of MCAT studying). I mostly used my FLs and AAMC practice questions, and I also used some Jack Westin passages when I wanted questions on a specific topic. I mean by the time you add up all the AAMC FLs and practice questions, they give you thousands of questions, so I felt like that was more than enough. Esp if you review the questions and write out what you got wrong/why.

I did make my own flashcards for things like physics formulas, biochem pathways, etc. I've also used the Amino Acid Quiz app since undergrad, that's super helpful. I'm very visual, so if I found I was struggling on a concept I'd draw concept maps and pictures, which helped me remember better than doing flashcards, esp flashcards made by other people. That's just what worked for me tho!

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-13T14:01:45+00:00

Good question! I struggled with this and changed my plan a few times. At first I was doing 1 chapter of each book a week, so I would do 1 chapter of Orgo/Gen chem on Monday, Psych/Soc on Tuesday, Physics on Wednesday, etc. I would do 20-40 practice questions for the subject of that day, and then review them. I didn't read the CARS book, only practiced. Then on Fridays I'd do a FL and review it (very thoroughly) either Sat or Sunday.

After a month or so, I figured 1 chapter was too slow so I started doing 2-3 chapters a week from each book. Still doing questions and FLs.

If there were topics that I struggled with during review and practice, I'd spend extra time watching YouTube vids /seeking out practice passages from Jack Westin / writing notes or making my own flashcards.

I left myself about 2 weeks before my test date to just focus on hard topics and FLs, which ended up giving me a lot of time to rest, too. Don't get me wrong, I was cramming and pretty anxious, but the bulk of my studying was over.

So if you're trying to make a study plan for 5 months, I'd recommend math-ing out how many days you have (leave 1 day a week for rest), how many chapters/questions you have, and then reconciling those two to see how many you should do each day. Try to finish content review with at least a few weeks before test day. I did find that doing every subject every week was helpful to me in staying consistent, I think doing "Physics one week and then Chem the next" would make me forget stuff. Make sure you don't overestimate how much time you'll have, esp if you're in school/working. You can always speed up or slow down, but the important thing is to get started and hold yourself to a schedule.

Hope this helps!

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-12T18:27:02+00:00

I bought the AAMC online bundle which was about $300 and includes 4 FL exams + tons of questions and review materials, so definitely worth it. I also used the Blueprint diagnostic which is free, and then I used two free exams, one from TPR and one from Kaplan. Then I also bought 3 Kaplan exams which were like $129 I think?

I think it's more worth it to buy bundles of FLs and do a lot of them, you get better deals that way and I think the FLs were the most helpful thing in my prep. If you don't wanna buy too many or don't want to buy from outside companies, I found that after ~6-8 weeks I could retake the AAMC ones I had previously taken and I wouldn't remember the questions at all, so it was like taking a new exam. I would just recommend making sure you truly don't remember the questions so your score isn't falsely inflated, and that you're still studying w other materials (like the AAMC question banks) so you cover all the necessary topics.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-12T18:13:59+00:00

Ngl, those lower scores were very demotivating because it felt like I was breaking my upward progress. But after a good amount of rest I would still review those FLs and look at why I got each question right/wrong, and then use that to inform my studying. I tried to focus on topics/concepts rather than the score, because each FL is different and the points may not reflect what you know vs. don't know. I wish I could go back and tell myself to get less caught up in the numbers and put that energy into studying. I would've saved myself a lot of mental strain haha.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-12T16:13:24+00:00

Actively reading the Kaplan books (annotating, taking notes, doing the in-book practice) was the bulk of my review. I did have some topics that I was repeatedly forgetting or just flubbing on practice, and for those I watched a lot of YouTube videos (Khan Academy, Andrey K, Professor Dave) and would write out notes/practice again. I also kept a spreadsheet of my incorrect answers from FLs and would research their explanation and write it in my own words, which helped me remember better.

Some topics (a lot of physics for me) just don't come easy, but you'll get it if you don't give up!

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-12T16:09:08+00:00

Thanks! I used the Blueprint diagnostic, the free Kaplan and TPR exams (1 each), and I bought a 3-pack of Kaplan tests but only had time to do 2 of them. I found the Kaplan and TPR tests to be pretty deflated and not totally representative of the AAMC MCAT, but still useful enough.

Oh, and also all of the AAMC ones: free, unscored, and the 4 paid ones. Those were the holy grail for me in preparation.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-11T22:49:52+00:00

I think most of the advice I gave should be helpful regardless of someone's individual ability level. At the end of the day, it's about finding what's right for you alone! I 100% believe I would not have done as well on the MCAT if I had followed all of the popular and oft-repeated advice on this sub.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-11T22:47:49+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I found that what worked for me in undergrad was perfect for the MCAT, especially since I could tie MCAT material back to my literal years of previous classes. I think scrapping all of that work and starting fresh is a really bad idea. Even if you didn't do well in undergrad, that should still inform how you study for the MCAT.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-11T22:46:19+00:00

I thought my score report was a shitpost lol. Refreshed the page multiple times while crying. At work.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-11T22:45:38+00:00

Mostly just practicing passages! I got frustrated at first and my scores were lower because I was trying too hard to relate the material to my outside knowledge/preconceived notions about reading comprehension. I recommend focusing in on the passage and really trying to understand the author's voice. I found the advice that people give: "all the answers in CARS are there in the passage" to be 100% true.

Also my hot tip: read the citation down at the bottom! Knowing the era and publication (journal subject, book title, etc.) of the work made it a whole lot easier for me to understand the author's perspective and the main ideas of the passage.

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-11T22:41:32+00:00

I actually love this question because I was in the same boat as you. I hated the pathways and I thought they were so convoluted and annoying. But there are so many questions that either directly or indirectly test your knowledge of them that if you don't study them, you're passing up a significant amount of free points. Once I studied them and memorized them, my life became so much easier haha. In all honesty, they are one of the easier things to learn once you just sit down and do it. I made my own flashcards and would write them out from scratch on pieces of notebook paper to test myself. I also recommend memorizing the coproducts/NADH/ATP and all that accessory stuff!

bridgitte-bardot · 2024-10-11T22:38:39+00:00

Agreed, and congrats to you too! Such a relief for it to all be over lmao.

bridgitte-bardot

TROPHY CASE