“Why Is It Students Who Get Good Grades Don’t Always Score Well On The MCAT?”

You get good grades.  Maybe even great grades.  So why is it so many “good students” like you do great on regular tests but hit a brick wall when it comes to the MCAT?  There is actually a very logical explanation.  Listen as our new MCAT Mentors explain.

Need that extra push when it comes to prepping for the MCAT? The MCAT Mentors are part of Kaplan’s new Advantage Plus course.

Along with specially designed classes to prepare you for the MCAT, this new course includes study group meetings and exclusive one-on-one discussions with our MCAT mentors. The mentors will …

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Avoiding MCAT Meltdown

MCAT MeltdownHello my studious pre-med readers! Today I want to talk about a topic that gets brought up by at least one student in every class that I teach. It’s a topic that is very sensitive and when left unaddressed can be extremely detrimental to studying for the MCAT- Test Anxiety.

Now, if you have never had anxiety about anything, the concept of test anxiety is very foreign. But if you have had anxiety, you know all too well the tightness in your chest, the cramps in your stomach and the general loss of intelligent, rational thought that accompanies true

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Study Habits Die Hard

MCAT-STUDYHello to all my industrious MCAT students! For those of you planning for a summer test date, MCAT studying is in full swing and you’re probably planning on spending a fair amount of your summer holed up in the library working on MCAT content and passages.

Chances are, you have a schedule made and your study methods planned. But, have you ever stopped to question whether your method for studying is actually effective? Most likely you happened upon your method (flashcards, highlighting, re-reading the chapter) while studying for a class and it was effective for learning that material, so you

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“The Applicant” – A Medical School Admissions Drama

Here is a must share from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University of Canada. The medical school admissions video was for Interview Weekend 2013 created by the Class of 2016.

The film titled: ‘The Applicant’ is a bizzare comedy that follows a prospective medical school student the day of his interview. The film pokes fun at typical pre-med and medical stereotypes. My Oscar nomination for Medical School Movies of 2013!

For more information on Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University of Canada:

http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/
http://www.uwomeds.com/prospective/

Contact the students at: student.admissions@schulich.uwo.ca

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Teaching the MCAT for Kaplan

MCAT-TEACHER-EMILYHello my dedicated MCAT students! I have been spending the past few weeks working with some of the best MCAT teachers in the country at the Boulder MCAT Summer Intensive Program. As a teacher, this is a unique experience because I get to share and brainstorm strategies and mnemonics in-person with my fellow teachers. Additionally, I get to nerd out like crazy about things like organic functional groups (see last week’s post) the glory of the the inverse relationships that are prevalent on the MCAT and the sheer beauty of a well-crafted passage and its questions.

This quality

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Functional Group Friends!

Alkene-2D-skeletal.svgOkay, industrious MCAT students, even though Organic Chemistry has been losing some of its prevalence on the MCAT in recent years, it still makes up approximately 25-30% of the Biological Science Section. What does that mean for you as students who hope to achieve that perfect 45? That means you need to make friends with your functional groups.

Now, most of you probably dedicated a portion of your Sophomore or Junior year to rote memorization of the names and properties of various functional groups. However, on the MCAT, mere memorization won’t cut it when you’re looking at an entirely

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Equations and Units and Relationships, oh my!

iStock_000015742269SmallFor the past few days in the MCAT SIP program, we have been focusing on the first few chapters of the Physics review notes book. We have been tackling topics like Kinematics, Force, Motion, Gravitation, Work and Energy. There is a lot of high yield material in the first few chapters and it can often be extremely overwhelming, especially for students who haven’t taken physics in a few years.

When it comes to the physical sciences, there are three things that can help increase your physics speed and accuracy.

1. Equations- It is absolutely essential to know the

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MCAT’s Summer Intensive Program

mcat-sip-scheduleI have embarked on a fun new journey! I’m an instructor at the Boulder MCAT  Summer Intensive Program, commonly known as MCAT SIP.  I have gotten to spend this week with some of the brightest minds in MCAT brainstorming awesome ways to teach MCAT and I’m super excited to start teaching next week.

If you have been considering an MCAT SIP program, there is still time to sign up for the San Diego SIP which starts June 29th. If you’re planning on taking the MCAT next year, I would strongly suggest thinking about SIP as an efficient, personalized and

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Time for MCAT Bootcamp!

GM 34- Bootcamp FB Pin Graphic 803x803So, you have been preparing for a late May or early June MCAT by studying hard and taking practice tests. Are you looking for something to give you that extra studying edge? Or perhaps you’re eyeing an MCAT test date later in the summer? Are you looking to get jump-started on material?

Either way, you’re in luck! Kaplan is running an MCAT Boot Camp event on 5/20/13 at 8pm ET!

This intensive MCAT Boot Camp event will feature questions on advanced content to give you an excellent idea of where you need to focus your MCAT studies. It will …

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Medical School Insider: A ReKAP

The PulseWhat a great event! Medical School Insider 2013 was a huge success and we want to give a special thanks to our panelists for joining us Monday night!

-Paul T. White, Assistant Dean for Admissions, John Hopkins School of Medicine

-Leila Diaz, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine

-Dr. Kathleen Kolberg, Assistant Dean, University of Notre Dame

-Dr. Elizabeth Wiley, National President, American Medical Student Association

We are working  diligently to get answers to your questions you sent in! Stay tuned for answers and for our next pulse event: Monday June 10th, on …

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