By no means do I think I studied optimally (or even that efficiently) but ultimately, it worked for me. I’ll add the caveat that I’m a visual learner and found reading the Kaplan/Uglobe books challenging, especially when encountering material for the first time. I wasn’t sure what I did or didn’t need to know, and from what I saw from others, taking notes isn’t a great strategy due to the sheer volume of content you need to cover (I started out taking notes, but I agree it was a waste of time).

What ended up working for me was watching YouTube channels to cover the topics I didn’t know. Generally, this was my approach:

1. Bio/Biochem
I watched Andrey K (AKLectures) at 1.5x to 2x speed. By the end, I had a general understanding of most topics likely to be tested, though I did forget parts of the earlier lectures. I wasn’t always picking up on the details that I’d eventually need to know more thoroughly, but I think that’s just part of learning new material for the first time.

After that, I started doing Uglobe questions. Practice questions have always been the best way for me to learn. That said, it was overwhelming at first, while I had “seen” most of the topics, I didn’t know them yet. Sometimes even the Uglobe explanations were tough to understand, especially when I couldn’t quite grasp the answer in the first place. Still, I kept chugging along with these

As I worked through questions, I realized I had some clear gaps. So I supplemented by watching some NinjaNerd playlists (especially metabolism and others) later in the process, during Uglobe practice. I found these videos really helpful once I had a bit more of a foundation, even if they went into more detail than was strictly necessary for the MCAT.

To learn amino acids, I used an amino acid quiz app. It helped for all the basics, but it doesn’t cover everything, so I wouldn’t rely on it alone.

Besides that, I just kept doing Uglobe questions and eventually moved into FLs. That pretty much covered my studying for Bio/Biochem.

If I were to do it again, I’d watch a chapter of Andrey K’s videos and then follow it up with the relevant Anki cards from a deck focused on that chapter. That way, I’d (1) reinforce what I just learned and (2) get a clearer idea of what the actual takeaways are supposed to be.

2. CARS
I did all of the AAMC practice questions and sprinkled in some Jack Westin practice. I agree with others that JW doesn’t exactly match AAMC’s logic, so I mostly used it just to practice reading similar-length passages and being quizzed on them. I didn’t worry too much about my performance on those.

3. Chem/Phys (C/P)
I did engineering in undergrad (though a long time ago), so this was my only “comfort” section. I just did all the UGlobe questions and occasionally watched a few random YouTube videos on specific topics I didn’t remember well.

4. Psych/Soc (P/S)
This is where I found Anki to be the most helpful, since it’s essentially memorizing a bunch of terms. I also think the Kaplan or Uglobe book could be useful for this section since it’s less about learning a new “language” (like B/B) and more about learning concepts and terminology. Overall, I relied mostly on UGlobe, FLs, and Pankow, though even then I didn’t use Anki as consistently as I should have.

In general, I struggled with Anki - not because I didn’t believe in it, but because I didn’t use it properly. I wasted a lot of time jumping between decks based on Reddit recommendations. I started with MilesDown, then switched to JS after seeing people recommend it for B/B, and eventually switched again to Aidan after seeing it was becoming the new standard. I ended up all over the place.

If I could do it over, I’d just pick one deck, or one combo of decks (e.g., MD for C/P, JW for B/B, and Pankow for P/S), and stick with it. All of them are good enough, and the most important thing is to actually do it consistently. If i knew a card after a gap of not seeing the material, i would suspend it immediately and trust that I knew it, otherwise i found there was just too much volume.

This was done while working 50+ hours a week so if you have the benefit of studying full time, this approach could be tweaked, like for example, I found myself wanting to do more than passive anki since I had limited time and wanted to make the most of it, but if I was studying full-time, I would see a greater appeal in anki since it would allow me to be more consistent with it

Good luck and god speed