What to Do 1 Week Before the MCAT?
The week before your MCAT should be for fine-tuning your skills and syncing your schedule to match that of the test day.
Throughout this week, begin to work on syncing your sleep schedule to match that of the test day! It is also important to get used to the eating and drinking schedule required for test day. If you normally snack and drink while you work, try restricting the times during which you snack and drink to match those of the test day.
Here is an example of a schedule you can follow for the week leading up to test day:
T-7 days: Do an AAMC practice full-length exam and try to simulate the testing conditions as best you can. Find a quiet and unfamiliar environment with a good internet connection and a power source. If your exam is scheduled for 8 AM, plan to start your practice full length at 8 AM. Have only the items allowed in the testing centre with you during your practice exam (more on this in the next section!). The goal of this test is to simulate the real MCAT as closely as possible. When you are finished writing, get up and don’t look back! You just wrote an extremely long exam and any performance analysis you do now will not be effective.
T-6 days: Analyse your performance on the practice exam. Go through each section and identify the passages and questions you did not do well on. Remember, this is where the magic happens! You need to understand what kind of mistakes you are making and what you can do to fix these. After doing this, you may start to notice a trend.
The table below is an example of one approach that can be used to identify mistake types and possible solutions:
| Mistake Type | Possible Solution |
|---|---|
| Misunderstood the question/answers | Read more actively and paraphrase each question/answer in your head |
| Misunderstood information in passage | Read more actively and consider doing regular check-ins during reading to ensure you understand what you are reading. Consider mapping techniques and small 3-5 word summaries of each paragraph. |
| Did not have appropriate background knowledge to answer question and background not provided in passage | Write the concept down on a separate piece of paper for future revision |
| Feeling fatigued/sleepy and unable to focus on passage/questions | Find a way to recognize fatigue early and establish “wake-up” techniques that work for you |
T-5 days, T-4 days, T-3 days, T-2 days: Based on your analysis of performance from yesterday, use the next few days to work on your weaknesses. Remember that the CARS section is all about practice, so aim to do 3-5 CARS passages every day until the day before your test. If there are any concepts that you flagged previously, be sure to review them (it is always a good idea to review the amino acid structures, 3-letter abbreviations, and 1-letter abbreviations because it will appear on the exam). That being said, these few days should be very practice-passage heavy.
At some point during these four days, make a trip to your testing center if you can. There should be no surprises on the day of the exam, so take the time to plan which route you take, where you are going to park if you plan on driving, and where the main entrance of the building is.
The Day Before the MCAT
Do NOTHING! You need and deserve a break! Spending this day doing last-minute preparations will NOT put you at an advantage and it is NOT a testimony of your dedication or diligence to getting into medical school. MCAT-day is like game-day or race-day: you NEED to take a break the day before so that you can perform well when it matters. Try spending the day distracting yourself with your hobbies and activities you enjoy.
One of the biggest challenges to overcome the day before the MCAT is your anxiety. All the hard work you put in to prepare for the MCAT throughout the past several weeks could be sliced in half if you are unable to control your anxiety. Feeling this way will hinder the quality of sleep you get the night before and you will end up going into the examination center feeling anxious and fatigued.
Unfortunately, anxiety is one of the most difficult feelings to control. There may be a lot of pressure on you to perform well from your friends, family, or yourself and the idea of a single exam standing between you and your dream career may be very daunting. Keep in mind that a test score does not define who you are and there is no perfect way of quantifying a person’s intelligence. Although it may be tough to embrace this mentality, try to think about the exam as just another hurdle that needs to be overcome. If it does not go well, you can always retake it. Many medical students have taken the MCAT at least twice before getting into medical school. The difference between students who get into medical school and those who don’t is their ability to get back up and learn from a failure.
When you go to sleep, acknowledge the work you put into reaching your goal and whatever happens tomorrow is just another page in your book.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Do not do a practice full length within 6 days of your MCAT
- Change your sleep schedule to reflect the test day schedule
- The week before your MCAT should be for fine-tuning
- Do nothing the day before the test and do whatever it takes to avoid burnout this week!
