The Med School Pulse

Kaplan Test Prep will host our fourth annual Medical School Insider on Monday, April 29th at 8pm ET.  This is our biggest event of the year for pre-meds and you absolutely don’t want to miss it!

The insights revealed at #medInsider are incredible, they’ll really change the way you look at the admissions process!  Be sure to mark your calendar now for this year’s live streaming event. Save your spot by clicking here now!

A sneak peak from one of the questions last year:

Does your pre-med major matter?

Does your major matter?…

The United States Supreme Court is hearing an interesting case this week regarding Myriad Genetics’ right to patent the cancer-causing genes, BRCA 1 and BRCA2. The court’s decision, when made, will have important implications for future physicians and researchers with regards to their ability to do research and work in the ever-evolving field of genetics. Basically, if you’re planning to practice medicine, as most of you reading this blog are, the outcome of this case is very important for your future practice!

The essential question at stake is whether or not you can patent a gene or a particular variant …

Navigating the waters of medical school admissions can be rough; from the personal statement, to the interview, admissions can seem daunting and confusing before one even begins to apply.  

While many people have opinions about the best way to gain admission, in the end, the only opinions that really matter are those of the admissions committees; after all, they’re the ones that decide whether you’ll be accepted or not. Unfortunately, opportunities to pick the brain of a Dean of Admissions are few and far between. In an effort to shed some light on what admissions committees think about when …

It’s officially Spring! Although those of us in the Upper Midwest have yet to see any weather that even slightly resembles spring, the changing of the seasons heralds what can be the craziest time of year for any student who is simultaneously applying to medical school while taking the MCAT in April, May, or June.

Other times of the year, studying for the MCAT has the potential to be stressful, but in May that stress can reach an impressively high level. In the next month and a half most students will have hurdles such as finals, graduation, moving, asking professors …

With all of the buzz about the new MCAT 2015, Kaplan will be hosting a panel discussion tonight focusing on this test change, what it means for you as a pre-med student and future applicant, and how it fits into the current trajectory of medicine.

Sign up using this link:  The Pulse Series – MCAT 2015:  What You Need to Know … Now!

MCAT 2015:  What You Need to Know … Now!

Monday, April 8, 2013  |  8 PM Eastern

Big changes are coming to the MCAT in 2015. At this event, we’ll explore what those changes are, why …

March Madness has past and dare I say brackets are busted everywhere! As a college basketball fan this is the most exciting time of year for the sport.  With all the fun on TV, remember there is still an MCAT to study for!  The March Madness tournament with all its hoopla and competition really has some key lessons that students can pull away.

• Preparation is Key – Think about the players taking those free throws. They practice over and over and over for that. A free throw is just that “free”. The MCAT has “free” easy points to take. Know

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One of the questions I get asked most frequently as a teacher is, “Exactly what questions will I see on my test?”  If I knew the answer to that question, I would be making tons of money setting everyone up with their personalized MCAT answers. Although I can’t tell anyone exactly which questions they will be answering on Test Day, I do want to help out all of my intrepid MCAT studiers today and correct a common MCAT misconception.

Misconception: When I take my test, all of the material will be 100% familiar

Here’s the deal- yes, you have been …

A few days ago, I wrote on Preparing for the Worst on Test Day. The flipside to preparing for the worst is planning for success. This is the significantly more fun aspect of MCAT planning. As an incentive to work hard and dedicate countless hours of your life (actually 300 or so) to MCAT studying, you should plan for success and thus a celebration post-MCAT.

One of the main reasons that you should have something fun planned is so that if you have a rogue moment during your test when you are stressed out and questioning your …

Most MCAT students spend their time worrying about memorizing content and practicing their critical thinking skills. They focus on knowing all of the physics equations, general chemistry constants and organic chemistry nomenclature. But, a large part of test day success is not contingent on knowledge and critical reasoning, but careful planning in the weeks leading up to and the day of the test. Here are some helpful tips to ensure that you’re 100% prepared for test day success!

1. Scope out your driving route in advance – Especially as the weather gets warmer, construction projects start to spring up unexpectedly. Drive

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I am going to interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post to talk about something that makes pre-meds queasy. No, not a subject, I’ll save Organic Chemistry talks for later. I’m talking about failure. Yes, I said it FAILURE. Over the years students come to me and say, “This is too hard”, “I don’t want to take the MCAT anymore”, or my favorite “my parents want me to be a doctor so bad”.  The fear of failure runs rampant through the pre-med world but it becomes taboo and no one wants to talk about. Whether in fear of seeming weak, or …