Supplementing regular work with flashcards will make you much more familiar with the material. It’s important to first understand the material, then use programs like Anki to keep these concepts fresh in your mind. I am in no way advocating blind memorization. See if you can integrate MCAT review into routine New York life and slowly build up those memorization muscles. (Skip to the bottom for the 20 rules to formulating knowledge, but the entire essay is actually worth it). This website, by far has some of the most useful information on how to structure your flashcards to maximize your learning. Far too often, I’ve heard students I’ve worked with (early in the course of working with them) say that they’ve “looked over the material lots of times, but it never seems to stick.” By forcing active recall, rather than passively reading over notes, programs like Anki or practice questions will improve the efficiency of your learning. The program keeps track of how long it has been since you’ve dug around in your brain for the equation for free-falling objects or what effect aldosterone has on the body. You know how material presented in a class can seem so simple when it’s presented, but when you review your notes a week later, they seem incomprehensible? Spaced-repetition exists to keep information fresh. But, more importantly, Anki uses a concept called spaced-repetition to make sure that you don’t forget information over the long term. On the surface, the program takes a stack of paper flashcards and makes it easier to access. It’s a free program which just displays user-made (or downloaded) flashcards. So, what’s the best way to get this kind of material into your head?īy far, the most useful tool that I’ve found for memorizing information has been Anki. While it’s never enough on its own, memorization is nonetheless an important component of MCAT success. But, after my first semester of medical school, I’ve come to realize that having a number of facts (formulas, relationships of information) in your back pocket is absolutely necessary. When I took the MCAT, and during my first years doing private MCAT biology tutoring in New York, I felt the same way. It always seemed like a huge waste of time to cram information into your head when the formula, date, or fact were available in a book or on the internet. Up until a few months ago, like any good liberal arts college student, I hated memorization. I’ll also talk about some examples of information which are probably important. So in this blog post, I’m going to discuss the best ways that I’ve found to get facts into my brain. Even super skilled MCAT biology tutors in New York have had to spend precious months and brain cells honing this skill. But memorization is a difficult thing it takes time and effort to learn how to learn. Building a solid foundation of information which you call on so often that it becomes second nature will increase your speed and accuracy on the MCAT. When used correctly, memorization can be one of the most powerful tools available to increase the power of your MCAT preparation.
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