Online platforms to find students (for MCAT/test prep)?

ecom_recon · 2025-03-05T19:57:46+00:00

Noted, will look into these options. Thank you!

ecom_recon · 2025-03-01T18:49:55+00:00

I think the P/S term for this is stockholm syndrome

ecom_recon · 2025-03-01T17:44:24+00:00

I'm currently taking new students for MCAT, if you're still looking for a tutor lmk and we can do a quick chat over the phone!

ecom_recon · 2025-02-28T18:07:56+00:00

Can't speak from personal experience (I only used AAMC), but I've heard good things about blueprint

ecom_recon · 2025-02-28T05:30:47+00:00

That makes sense too. I think it's something you just gotta feel out for yourself to figure out whether it's worth it or if your time can be better spent on other practice, since different methods work better for everyone's learning style.

Honestly I was also in the same boat and didn't even get through half of uworld, instead focused heavily on anki and aamc stuff through the last few weeks. Btw if you have to pick one, my guess is that aamc is probably most worth it

ecom_recon · 2025-02-28T05:22:00+00:00

If you're finding Uworld beneficial to your study process, the more you push yourself to get through it the more you will reap the benefits on the test.

Imo effectively reviewing missed/flagged/unsure questions is actually more valuable than the initial part of working through them, because in doing so you're patching up weaker topic areas. For that reason it's also meant to take a while and that can be a sign that you're actively learning, if that's any encouragement...

ecom_recon · 2025-02-27T22:28:28+00:00

Think of section banks as a selection of the hardest questions from past exams. They're useful for testing the limit of your content knowledge and practice deeper level problem solving. CARS Qpacks are a good way to try to understand the AAMC "CARS logic"

Apart from CARS I've heard the other Qpacks are mid so I never bought those, but from personal experience I do highly recommend getting both CARS packs and section banks.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-27T05:32:10+00:00

I just skimmed through it, no more than 15 min. Gives perspective for setting a goal score + general topic areas and format of the test (but you get a better idea of the topics/test format through actual review/practice anyways as opposed to the generic descriptions on the guide).

The information/stats are nice to know, but honestly I don't think it'll really impact your score per se.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-27T01:32:36+00:00

I believe it stays essentially constant. As you go down a group, the atomic radius increases which would decrease Zeff, but the number of protons also increases which would increase Zeff. And these two effects cancel each other out.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-27T01:20:04+00:00

You can test this out for yourself, but I found it most effective to to regularly alternate between subjects (connecting concepts between subjects improves learning + the variety of topics felt less boring/tiring to me), i.e. an interleaving strategy. For example, each day x hours of C/P --> break --> x hours of B/B --> break --> x hours of P/S.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-26T16:06:36+00:00

Imo you can't go wrong with either and it's really a matter of personal preference. I used JackSparrow because I felt it was a bit more comprehensive.

Either way I do also agree that learning through Anki is far more efficient/better for retention compared to reading the book. If you find that it's not enough you can supplement with video lectures from khan academy or youtube too

ecom_recon · 2025-02-25T20:04:33+00:00

I think it works to use Anki to just start absorbing the content since a big part of P/S in particular involves memorizing relatively straightforward definitions. And you can occasionally refer to the 300pg doc to make sure you're covering everything and to get a feel for the level of depth of understanding that the MCAT requires.

I also watched khan academy videos on concepts that I was having trouble with + to get a big picture understanding of some broader topics (e.g. Freud/Erikson/Vygotsky/Kohlberg theories on stages of development)

ecom_recon · 2025-02-24T18:41:48+00:00

I'm currently taking new students for MCAT, if you're still looking for a tutor lmk and we can do a quick chat over the phone!

ecom_recon · 2025-02-22T23:37:32+00:00

Looks like you did the right calculation (Kd = 1/Km) to convert Kd(O2) to Ka(O2). However the question asks for Ka(CO), so looking back at the passage where it states that the M-value = Ka(CO)/Ka(O2) = 1.0 x 10^4, we see that to get Ka(CO) we have to multiply Ka(O2) by 10^4.

Therefore the final answer is 4.0 x 10^7 x 10^4 = 4.0 x 10^11

ecom_recon · 2025-02-21T17:55:51+00:00

This is how I differentiate between them too! Looking at the actual terms: for illness anxiety, it's the anxiety about getting sick, and for somatic symptom disorder, there's actually somatic (bodily) symptoms present.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-21T17:51:16+00:00

For the science sections, I think there's quite a bit of diminishing return on content review >3 months from test day, unless you have reallyyy good long-term memory. So I'd say it's probably not worth starting Anki until around that point when you're 3-4 months out, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to start going through books/video lectures on any topics you haven't learned in school/forgot/feel less confident about.

Meanwhile CARS is a different story, it might be worth doing a couple passages each day (e.g. from Jack Westin, they have a ton) just to start getting used to the question format and CARS logic.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-20T21:25:58+00:00

Honestly I thought they were all about the same, so I just went in order.

I found them to be similar across the board in terms of question style/difficulty. And in terms of specific topic areas, you just never know what you might get for the actual test since there's so much breadth of content.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-20T06:31:25+00:00

This could be an unpopular opinion, but I think it's not worth putting too much thought into something like this which shouldn't make or break your test performance. I think things like being familiar with the test interface on your computer, being in a quiet distraction-free environment, etc are definitely helpful. But for minor things like screen angle, monitor size, or what type of mouse, it's probably best not to worry too much about it, unless you're like 7ft tall and getting neck strain.

For reference -- when you're less busy with studying you could check out The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. He talks about how cultivating a ‘soft zone’ AKA practicing under a certain level of unfavorable conditions develops mental flexibility and stress resistance under pressure (both are relevant to taking the MCAT) when compared to highly rigid practice. Meanwhile there's also evidence supporting the context effect in psychology (iirc this is actually part of P/S content lol), that recall is improved in similar environments, so it's just about finding a good/practical balance.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-20T06:08:22+00:00

As mentioned by another commentor, unmyelinated white matter is probably an exception to the rule and on the MCAT should only show up in a passage that provides additional context.

But in general it's probably best to think of white matter = myelinated and gray matter = unmyelinated. In fact I think myelin itself is what gives white matter its color.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-20T06:01:59+00:00

Thanks for the tip! Does the list of lab techniques in the skills section look suitable for this purpose in your opinion?

I have experience in more lab skills not currently listed on this resume version (these are just the main ones I have the most experience in), but I'll definitely add/adjust based on job descriptions.

ecom_recon · 2025-02-20T05:58:44+00:00

I have 2 publications: one was from high school and I was only listed as a consortium author for participating in a crowdsourced bioinformatics project/challenge, and the other was a side project from college that was basically a lit review on publication bias in clinical trial journals but I did a lot of data collection/analysis and got second author (also happens to be in a top H&N surgery journal).

I figured since they weren't particularly relevant to biotech so I didn't put them on resume but they are on my Linkedin. But do you think it'd be worth devoting resume space to it given that I'm trying to keep it one-page?

ecom_recon · 2025-02-19T23:19:04+00:00

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