MCAT Mastery

[00:00:00.000] - Speaker 1
Great.

[00:00:00.940] - Speaker 2
Okay, so we're recording now. Something should pop up on your end so that you know when we're recording and when we're not. But let's go ahead and get started. I'm going to start us off with a little bit of an intro on you before we get to the actual questions, okay? So you'll probably also hear me do a couple of takes every now and then. Also, I apologize for my voice. I'm currently going through a little bit of a sore throat situation. I'm so happy. It won't be too much of a distraction. If you ever need me to repeat myself, definitely let me know. Okay. Perfect. All right, let's go. Hi, everybody. I'm Vera with MedLife Mastery. Welcome to another MCAT Master interview. In these sessions, we chat with top MCAT scores about their experiences, explore some of the strategies that worked for them during their prep, and hopefully inspire with you on your own journey. So even top scorers struggled with the MCAT, but they figured out strategies to push them through to see that increase. We're here to show you how they did it, so you can do it, too. So today, we're going to be speaking with Lauren Fahner.

[00:01:16.320] - Speaker 2
Thank you so much for joining us today, Lauren. So she has been on the MCAT journey for a while. Her lowest diagnostic score was a 506, which was very promising. That's a great score. So she was seeing a steady increase, and she was averaging around the 514 on her practice exam, leading up to her first MCAT attempt. But even after three months of prep, when test day finally came, she found herself totally out of her comfort zone. Tests anxiety, timing issues led to her falling back on old habits, and she ended up taking home a 511, much lower than her practice scores. But despite the setback, Laura knew she had to give it another try. During her prep for her retake, she prioritized some key strategies, worked out some new techniques to make sure she didn't make the same mistakes, and she dedicated another three months to tackling timing and figuring out better ways to remain focused. Going into a second MCAT attempt, Lauren was understandably nervous, but she ended up blowing it out of the park and scoring a fantastic 521. So congrats on the 521, Lauren. Today, we're going to explore her journey, see how she improved her scores, go over some strategies, and along with some other valuable insights, let's get started.

[00:02:44.520] - Speaker 2
So Lauren, would you be able to tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself so we can get to know you before actually diving into the MCAT?

[00:02:54.560] - Speaker 1
Yes, absolutely and thank you for that introduction. So my name's Lauren. I am a I'm a recent college graduate. I just graduated this past May. I studied psychology at Brown University. Some other things that I did in college was I was part of a canine cognition lab So I studied dogs. I worked on a mental health crisis line. I volunteered for hospice organizations. I was a medical assistant, and I was also teaching in a couple of different environments. Outside of school, some other things that I like to do. I like to scrapbook. I've had a journal for five years that I write in every day. I'm a huge movie fan, and I also like rock climbing and Building Legos. I'm currently completing a year of service with the MareCore after graduating College, and I'm working at Boston Health Care for the Homeless program. There, I'm working as a case manager, and I've really enjoyed it. I'm not sure what I'm doing during my second gap year, but I'm hoping to apply to medical school at the end of this year.

[00:04:11.900] - Speaker 2
Wow, a lot of amazing stuff. You've done a lot of amazing stuff. You're doing a lot of amazing stuff. I hope you're enjoying AmeriCore. I was actually looking into that myself, but then I ended up going the Peace Corps route. But it's so intriguing. I And you were so stuck on the canine cognition love. What exactly were you studying dogs for?

[00:04:39.720] - Speaker 1
Yeah, so I didn't know this was a thing at all until I took a developmental psychology class and my professor happened to be the one that runs the lab, and she talked to us about it. So the studies that we did were with people's pets, everyday pets that they'd bring in, and we would I basically play games with them to learn about their learning and their preferences and what they pay attention to. And then I did my little independent project about their memory and how they age and how their memory changes with age.

[00:05:24.740] - Speaker 2
That is amazing. I feel like certainly with dogs, with in general, we take so many things for granted, and people are just like, Oh, this is common knowledge, but there's still so much to study about them. That's crazy. I actually want to look that up now. I'm so intrigued. But let's get back on track and talk more about you. So what inspired you to be interested, to get on the path of becoming a doctor?

[00:06:02.440] - Speaker 1
I have a strange answer to this because I had a very roundabout pathway. In high school, I was really inspired by the TV show Criminal Minds, and I wanted to join the FBI. I was committed to that for a while. But then in college, studying psychology, I realized that there are a lot of different ways that one can be involved in the analysis of human behavior. So then medicine came up through some of my other experiences, like the Crisis Hotline, Hospice Volunteering, Medical Assisting. Medicine presents it itself as a way to combine the interest in psychology with some other things I'm interested in, like biology, biomedical ethics, law, policy, sociology. I like the field of medicine takes into account sociocultural factors that impact health behavior. and I like how that can then also impact health law and health policy. Despite having that flip floppy pathway to medicine, especially as I've graduated college and started this Americore experience, I've just become more committed and devoted to medicine than I ever have been. I'm really motivated to be that advocate for patients and having that close relationship with them.

[00:07:40.180] - Speaker 2
That's amazing. Also, that's such a very interesting, I suppose, introduction to this. It's an interesting way for your passion to be sparked. But, weirdly enough, a lot of my friends, way back when, were also really, really obsessed with Criminal Minds. Wait, is Criminal Mind the one where there's that one guy with the long wavy hair?

[00:08:07.840] - Speaker 1
Yes.

[00:08:08.660] - Speaker 2
Yes. Okay, good. I'm thinking of the right show. That's so unique. Actually, you know what? I think it's such a great exemplification of how our interest of the things in the media, of how those things can really make a huge impact on you. It might be what started this whole thing, but you've gone further on, and you've explored other details of the industry and things like that, and you're still interested. That's amazing. So then if we consider the long, long path to becoming a doctor, to getting into med school, through all of this, it's not an easy journey. I think everybody knows that. But I don't think they quite considered how much dedication you have to have to put up, I suppose, put up with all of the growing steps to get there. So you've taken the MCAT now, right? You've moved on from that part of your life, you're on to the next step. So if you're looking back and you're thinking about the MCAT and you have to describe it in one word, what would it be and why?

[00:09:33.700] - Speaker 1
I think I would probably say daunting, just with the sheer amount of material that's covered, how long it is, and how it feels like such an important stepping stone to the rest of the process. I know when I started, I just didn't really know where to start studying, and I was just completely overwhelmed by all that it was.

[00:10:04.540] - Speaker 2
Yeah, which is totally valid. I think when you're at that initial phase of starting to prep for the MCAT or starting to consider what you have to do to prep for it, it can be really overwhelming because it's so important. It's such an important step in this journey, but it's also notoriously difficult, I suppose. So if we think back to before you began prepping for the MCAT even, what were you handling at the time? Were some of the stuff going on in your life? Were you pretty much free to just dedicate a huge amount of time for the MCAT, or were there a lot of other obligations on your place?

[00:10:52.760] - Speaker 1
So the first time that I was studying, I took both tests at the end of the summer and dedicated the summers to studying. The first time that I took the test, I was also doing research full-time, so I would come home in the evenings and study then. So that was more busy. This time around, my job didn't start until September after my test date, so I didn't have very many responsibilities while I was studying, aside from hospice volunteering and some tutoring that I was doing. But those were both about once a week. So I did have ample time to study, but I also tried to fill that in with other things to fill my cup. I got into rock climbing and was doing that pretty regularly and seeing friends and family. But overall, I was pretty free while I was studying this time.

[00:11:57.440] - Speaker 2
Yeah, and that's awesome. I think It's definitely a privilege to be able to have that time to dedicate to this incredibly important part of your life. So then when you first began studying for the MCAT, did you have a specific score or goal in mind?

[00:12:19.220] - Speaker 1
So this was something that changed a lot for me. Going into my retake, I think my advisor at university had told me that you should aim for three points or more greater than your first test. So I guess I was aiming for 514 or above. But I knew that going into my first test, I had been scoring pretty high, 516, 517. So I felt that deep inside, that was the number that I wanted. And then I also was considering medical schools that I was interested in. So I was probably aiming for about 5, 16. If you asked my parents, they would probably say “Oh, just 514 or above” but I always had that higher goal. And it did also fluctuate over the course of my studying based on how confident I was feeling. Sometimes I was just hoping to not get 511 again, even if it meant 512.

[00:13:33.400] - Speaker 2
Yeah. That's been been such a stressful time as well to know that you've taken it once and you just want higher at any point, whether it's one point higher, two point. So considering your first attempt and considering your retake, what was your study schedule? Did you pretty much keep the same schedule for your retake that you originally had? How did you came up with your study schedule in the first place?

[00:14:15.700] - Speaker 1
Yes, so having taken it once before, I felt like this time around I had to flip everything on its head. So for the most part, I didn't do anything the same as last year. But again, my schedule did also fluctuate as I was trying to figure out what is the best methods for me. At first, I used an online study planner that I had gotten from the MCAT course I had used last year. So I used that to try to set up my schedule, but it didn't really work because the computer thought I had already done all this material because I had done it last year. So then I had to start over and make it myself. That was also something that my MedLife Mastery tutor helped me with because I was freaking out about putting too much on my plate and then not being able to finish it and having those tasks go over into my next day. So making a schedule did require a lot of fine-tuning over time. For example, at the beginning of my studying, I was trying to do these crazy things like 120 questions a day, 2 hours of Anki, go over all the questions, and that crashed and burned immediately.

[00:15:39.420] - Speaker 1
And over time, I cut down my practice to be more manageable and to focus on the quality of my studying instead of the quantity. So what I ended up doing consistently was two cars, passages a day in the morning. And then I would do a full section of some other subject, usually by Bio-Bio or Chem-Phys, go over all of that, a little bit of content review of something that I missed. That usually took the form of Khan Academy videos or reading a book chapter And then I tried to do onky flashcards, usually right when I woke up in the morning, because I tried to do it at night before I went to sleep, but I always fall asleep with my computer open. And eventually, I just stopped doing it altogether. It became a couple of times a week if I was lucky. So one thing I would tell students listening is that it's okay to have to rework your study schedule or your plan and start over. Because what's really important is finding a schedule that works around your other responsibilities if you have them, finding a schedule that's actually productive and meaningful for you, and also one that doesn't lead to burnout.

[00:17:00.190] - Speaker 1
Because I burnt out, I feel like, at the beginning of my studying, and that's when I sought help from a tutor because I just didn't know how to pick myself back up and face it.

[00:17:12.320] - Speaker 2
Yeah, those are really good advice. And I think it's really easy for people to overwhelm themselves with the amount of responsibility. You say you want to do like 100 120 questions a day, blah, blah, blah, but then realistically, you might not. But at least in my experience, when I don't, I don't accomplish my goal for the day and I have to wake up the next day, I'm already in a little bit of a mood, because then I just keep thinking to myself, Well, I didn't make it yesterday. What if I don't make it today? And then I might not accomplish my goal again that day, and then so on and so on. And then eventually, you just You have ducked yourself into this hole of despair, basically. So it's always good to first consider a realistic goal and a realistic workload So that's a huge challenge. That's a huge roadblocks for a lot of people. And if you think back on your own journey for both attempts, what do you feel in particular was your biggest challenge or your biggest challenges or the biggest struggles for you in particular? And how did you work through it?

[00:18:42.020] - Speaker 1
Yeah, I would say I had a lot of challenges throughout the process, mostly mentally and getting in the right mindset. Some of the ones I tried to tackle this time around were remaining focused for the whole eight-hour test or whatever it was, not feeling fatigued in the middle of the test because that was something I felt happened on my test day. Timing was a very, very big problem for me. It always has been. And then just general test anxiety and getting in my head about, oh, well, what if you do even worse than the first time? Or different internal dialogs like that. In some ways that I dealt with these things. First, just to talk about sleep and staying focused. There was a big battle of trying to find the right amount of caffeine that would work for me without making me jittery and bug out. I would try to take very small, little deep breathing break during sections to center myself. Sometimes I would even lightly hit my face to just Jolt me back to focus. And then general keeping good sleep hygiene, going to sleep at the same time every day, waking up.

[00:20:10.600] - Speaker 1
I think I had to wake up at 5: 30 for my test day. So I would try to do that every day to get in practice. And then in terms of timing, and also a related topic I would bring up is procrastination. I was having a really hard time with that with my studying. And the way that I dealt with this procrastination was just embracing it. So if I felt like I wasn't going to get good productive work done until 3: 00 PM, I just wouldn't. I would give myself that morning and that early afternoon to lounge around and then get focused, even if it meant working while everybody else was asleep or something like that. Timing was probably my biggest hurdle this time around. I got myself very stressed about it, telling myself that this was something I was bad at and that there was no hope. But the way that I tried to combat it, and I think this did work ultimately, was doing timed practice from the very beginning. And I know that might sound strange because I know a lot of the advice that you see online is to have mixed time and untimed practice.

[00:21:42.220] - Speaker 1
But for me, I wanted to constantly have that time pressure so that I learned how to deal with it. And some of the things I did to deal with the time pressure during the test were having little checkpoints. After 30 minutes, I'd like to have 20 questions If I don't, here's how we can speed up a little bit. Some things I practiced doing were if it was looking really bad in CARS, to just skip an entire passage. Press C, C, CCC, skip and go to the next passage. If you have time at the end, go back to it and check your answers. I did similar things in the science sections. I'd skip to discrete if I was feeling low on time and go back to a passage later. I also would really try to only spend about a minute on any calculation-heavy question. And if I wasn't getting it, I would just flag and go back to it. Then finally, in terms of test anxiety and some of this mental roadblock I was facing, one thing that my tutor recommended I do is leave the previous section behind you. So even if you feel like, Oh, that car was really bad, she would advise me to do something physical, go to the bathroom and rip up a paper towel to just get that off of your plate and go into the next section with a clear mind, ready to face it.

[00:23:25.820] - Speaker 1
And then also the more obvious things, taking deep breaths before each section starts centering yourself, closing your eyes for a second, and just telling yourself, You can do this. You know so much more than you think. You've been so successful up until this point, these affirmations. I think I'll end up talking about that later, but I did use so many affirmations throughout my studying, and that helped me.

[00:24:00.000] - Speaker 2
That's amazing. That's like a boatload of awesome tips there. And it's interesting. I really like that you had mentioned that little detail about procrastination at the very beginning, because I'm definitely also someone who procrastinates. And there's a lot of rhetoric online, I think, that basically boils down to you just have to push through this this very intense study schedule, and you just have to push through it. You just got to do it, and it's going to be worth it. And there's less so about actually working with yourself and what you are like as a person, how you study, whether you're someone who procrastinate a lot or not, whether you're a morning person or a night person, and situating yourself that way to work with who you are rather than trying to... If you are a night owl, trying to become a morning person. And that's very interesting. You don't hear that a lot. And I think for certain people, it might be something that's much easier to do, forcing yourself to settle down and sit down at a desk and practice or review content or whatever. And I think it's much, much harder for other people to do that.

[00:25:32.940] - Speaker 2
And I think if you realize the type of person you are and how you're able to study, you can go about prepping for the MCAT without that extremely high level frustration because you're fighting against yourself. But I thought that was very interesting. So let's go back to talking about you. So if someone wanted to increase the MCAS score the way that you did, what are some advices you have for them? Any general advices?

[00:26:08.540] - Speaker 1
I think this one's going to come off as cliché, but consistent practice from the very beginning. The first time I took the MCAT, I tried to focus on content review and content learning. And then once I was, quote unquote, done with that, then I started practice questions. And I ultimately don't think that was a good idea because you're never going to know all the content on the MCAT. You just aren't. So instead, this year, I was doing practice questions from day one. Even if I got them all wrong, it's still helpful to have that practice consistently so that you're in the zone in the mindset of the MCAT logic and what they're going to throw at you. And further, I would also say, practice test conditions in your everyday life, everyday studying. So that gets back to what I was talking about, about waking up at the same time every day If you're going to do your practice questions, don't have music playing in the background, don't have your water bottle with you, don't have those distractions and things that you're not allowed to have during the test. Try to simulate it as much as possible.

[00:27:33.080] - Speaker 1
I also think that helped me with test anxiety, actually, because I was studying and practicing every day like it was the real thing. So then when the real test came along, I was more prepared for it. And then another general tip, I would say, is quality over quantity of practice. Don't get too bogged down or be too hard on yourself if you study or you do only part of your to-do list in the day. I found that it would really pile up if I tried to push what I didn't finish to the next day. You were talking about the cycle of despair when you're upset at your sofa not finishing your stuff the first previous day, and then you get mad at yourself again for not finishing That day, something I tried to do was if I didn't get to something in a day, just chop it all together and think to yourself, Oh, well, I guess I'm not going to get to that. My really crazy example, which I would not recommend to any student, is I didn't really go over metabolism at all going into my retake. I just never got around to it.

[00:28:57.600] - Speaker 1
It was such a big topic. I was scared of it. And instead of pushing it off indefinitely, I just didn't do it. And it helped me focus on other things. So basically, just use your time wisely, I guess. Focus on having dedicated, focused study time over the number of hours or the number of problems or the number of flashcards that you're doing.

[00:29:36.340] - Speaker 2
Awesome. I love that you had to preface me. I didn't go over metabolism, but this is not an advice that you should follow. But it was basically just like, Yeah, I'm not going to get to it. Whatever is time to move on. Love that. Love that energy, honestly. But obviously to the students, to the listeners, this is when you should try to go over the actual the content topics and things like that, if it's possible. So earlier, you were mentioning your MCAT course, you were mentioning doing flashcards and things like that. So for you, while you were prepping, what materials, what resources were you using? And are there any specific ones that you would recommend?

[00:30:26.820] - Speaker 1
Yeah, so I used a whole array of resources, and I don't necessarily recommend all of them. I used Anki pretty regularly for flashcards, Uworld for questions, AAMC for questions and full-length tests And then I also had blueprint from the year previously. I had done my prep class through them, so I had their books and stuff and content modules. I also use Jack Weston periodically for cars, passages, and Khan Academy and YouTube a lot for content. So out of all of those, I would definitely recommend Uworld, AAMC, and Jack Weston, cars, specifically. I found that all of those resources were very similar to my real test, and I found those all helpful to go over. Khan Academy is always great for going over content. I use that if I was really struggling with the topic because sometimes it can get a little too in the weeds.

[00:31:48.880] - Speaker 2
And then blueprint just didn't work for me very well.

[00:31:53.830] - Speaker 1
I didn't use that much this year. And then, I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I just mentioned. Oh, I'm someone that's very flash card-brained. They just work well for me, and I liked making them, too. I would really recommend that to anybody who likes to learn like that. But if you don't like memorizing things like that, you probably don't need them. But definitely U-World and AAMC, if you had to pick two things to spend money on. Oh, and then also, obviously, I use MedLife Mastery. But that was mostly with my mentor that I met with. I think we had 10 sessions.

[00:32:38.820] - Speaker 2
Okay, awesome. Thank you for the recommendations. There are so many resources and materials out there for MCAT prep, and some of the paid ones can be really expensive. So it's always good to know which one people actually found, like they use and they found that it's been worth the money and that they would recommend. Obviously, there's also a lot of free resources as well that are out there. You have to scour the web. But if you're listening and you're still at the beginning stages of trying to prep for the MCAT, I definitely recommend searching online and searching the subreddit for really good free resources that might pop up. Obviously, we also have some free resources at MetLife Mastery, so you can also check out our website. But now that you mentioned working with us, Lauren, how did you even come across us? I think you tutored with Molly, correct?

[00:33:46.220] - Speaker 1
Yes, I did.

[00:33:49.160] - Speaker 2
How did that happen? What made you decide to, first of all, even tutored with us? And how was Molly able to help?

[00:34:00.000] - Speaker 1
So I think my mom actually was the one that found your services. I honestly think it was from an MCAT Facebook group or something. And then I ended up connecting with my tutor because I went to a Monday office hours call, and she was the person leading it. And we went through some, I think it was like, physics problems, and I just thought she explained them so well. And I was just filling out my tutor match form And I emailed and was like, does this tutor, Molly, have any availability? I think we really meshed. And I love how she explained things. So that's how I got set up with her, actually. And it came at the perfect time because the reason I was looking for tutoring in the first place is because my first about month of studying, I was studying on my own, and I was having this awful test score decrease. I took my diagnostic test and I got 508. And then the week after that, I got 507. And the week After that, I got 506, and I was feeling really discouraged. I didn't know what to do. I thought I just didn't have it in me to do this test again.

[00:35:41.080] - Speaker 1
So then I sought out tutoring. And Molly was so helpful, just getting me to pick myself back up and helping instill that positive self-taught in me. She would tell me things like, You know so much more physics than you think. You can't be that bad at timing if you scored this on your test. Oh, you thought that test was horrible? You got a 520. She would put things in perspective for me, and it really helped to build my confidence, which honestly, I think was the number one thing that impacted my testing this time around, is I felt like I could actually do it. And that was because of Molly.

[00:36:32.040] - Speaker 2
Oh, that's amazing. I'm glad that we were able to help you out with her because she's awesome and that she was actually able to help. I think a huge part of tutoring or having somebody to speak to is that you are able to get a new perspective on things. When it's just you and the passages and the practice exams, I feel like sometimes it's really easy to fall into your own head and just be so wrapped up in all of the things that you didn't do well. And having another person there, whether they're a mentor or whether they're your friend who understands the journey or whether they're, I don't know, people in your pre-med club at university or something like that, it's always good to have somebody there to who actually look at the situation and be able to look at you in the eyes and just be like, No, you might feel really down-trawn. You might feel like you are doing the absolute worst that you can do and that there's no hope, but they're able to tell you the actual truth and not what you've imagined yourself to be. So I think that's one of the biggest things, one of the biggest pros about choosing or about having a community even.

[00:38:03.310] - Speaker 2
So it's awesome that Molly was able to give you a second perspective and help you build a little bit more confidence in yourself, especially. And considering that She's like, I mean, you ended up with a 521. Clearly, there was always something there. So talking about scores in general. So you got a 521. Overall, an amazing score. But let's go over the actual sections and how you did on them in particular. I think you got a 130 on campus and a 129 on bio-biopem. So what did you do in particular for these sections? Do you have any specific advices for them for students who are struggling with these sections?

[00:38:53.800] - Speaker 1
So my general approach was I would do about a full section worth of questions of one of those sections every day and then go over topics I needed to refresh on using videos or reading a book. Time practice pretty much every time, like I said. But my main advice that I would give students is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Something I struggled a lot with these sections was just feeling like there's so much that I don't know and so much that I don't know how to do. But something I kept telling myself was that the content on this exam feels infinite, and there's just no way that you're going to know it all, every single tiny detail. But instead, what you can focus on is brushing up on those things that scare you. For me, that was like mirrors and lenses and honestly Everything physics. I would force myself to face those things and go over it so that, worst case, they show up on my test. I at least had seen them a little bit. Focus on the things that you can control. Do dedicated practice and review of the scary topics. Just try your best.

[00:40:25.050] - Speaker 1
Instead of saying, I can't do this. I'm so bad at math. I'm so bad at physics, instead telling yourself, What I can do is try my best. Oh, just another small detail I would throw in is I really liked using multiple formats of content. So I would do questions. I would go watch videos. I would read something. I'd go over my questions. I found that switching the format of my studying periodically helped me stay focused and learn it in different ways.

[00:41:12.740] - Speaker 2
That's great advice. I definitely think gaining a little bit of variety really spice things up. And definitely for me, it definitely keeps me focused. Now, what about Psych Soc? I think psychosocial is your strongest section. Is that a 32. Amazing. Do you have any specific advices for this section?

[00:41:38.020] - Speaker 1
Yeah, I think the most important thing I did for Psych Soch is flashcards regularly because it's so vocabulary-focused. I would use flashcards, and I would make my own for terms that I was missing a lot and just do that a lot. I didn't find that practicing psychosocial questions was as helpful, to be honest. But knowing those terms, because you are going to be asked about it specifically, asked to basically define a term, flashcards are really helpful. And then if you're not like me and you haven't taken any psychology or sociology classes before, I found Khan Academy to have pretty good videos on the content if it's your first time seeing it.

[00:42:30.000] - Speaker 2
Awesome. And then how about CARS? I think we got a 1: 30 on CARS. Do you have any advices for the section?

[00:42:44.680] - Speaker 1
So I had a really hard time with cars. I felt that I was just at the mercy of whatever passages would show up. Sometimes I would do really well, and sometimes I would tank. So the way that I worked on this was by practicing one to two full passages every day and going over those explanations thoroughly. I would also try to choose passages that sounded difficult, like history or philosophy passages. Again, getting accustomed to the scary and the worst things that might show up on your test. And then in terms of review, I know that can be so nebulous. Like, what does it mean to go over some questions? Something that I would do was basically try to redo the question and try to work backwards from the answer, if you remember what the answer was, and trying to understand the wacky cars logic that was going on. And not moving on to the next question until you're sure that you understand why the correct answer is correct and why what you had picked was wrong. And then timing was another big thing I focused on in cars. The way that I worked on this was basically I would gradually decrease the amount of time that I had for each car's passage from 12 minutes to around eight minutes.

[00:44:29.020] - Speaker 1
That way I got to working in that high pressure time frame. And then I think I also touched on my strange last resort strategy of skipping an higher passage. That was something that Molly had recommended to me, and I didn't have to use it that much, but it did come in handy a lot. If it was a really rough section, it was nice to have that in your back pocket if timing is difficult. And what ended up happening was I usually would have really good accuracy on the rest of the passages. And then the one that I skipped, okay, maybe I got some wrong in there. But overall, I would be pretty accurate and still score okay despite skipping a whole passage. So that's a random piece of advice I would also throw out.

[00:45:28.300] - Speaker 2
Awesome. I think when you say to people, If you're having issues with it, if it's not working out, just skip it, and then you can maybe come back to it later. Because I think everybody's heard that before. But when you're actually in the moment and you have to, it can feel so difficult to move on. And if you practice it, and if you train with it, it becomes a little bit easier and easier to do so that when you're actually in that testing room, it doesn't feel like you're throwing away points or anything. And it can be one of those things, like you mentioned earlier, where it's like, get used to being uncomfortable and just doing things that you're afraid of doing or going over questions you're afraid of, or topics you're afraid of. And I think that's a huge tip. This four The med school journey in general, there's going to be so many moments where you are feeling uncomfortable and you're feeling unsure of yourself. And I think it's having your confidence and your belief in yourself That's when... That you can use to back yourself up and prop yourself up again. So let's go on and talk a bit more about the day, that day.

[00:46:58.300] - Speaker 2
So you You took the MCAT once. It wasn't what you imagined it'll be. The score wasn't what you imagined it be, so you decided to try again. On that day, walking into your second attempt, right? What was that day like? How did you feel that morning? Were you pretty nervous walking in? And what was it like for you?

[00:47:25.460] - Speaker 1
Yeah, I definitely was nervous. I had all the flashbacks next to my first test day, and I was just hoping that none of that stuff happened again. I just kept telling myself, Oh, it'll all be over in about eight hours. And that helped me face the day. I definitely got nervous when I walked in because I was expecting to be the first person there because I got there about an hour before my test started. But I was one of the last people there. So people had already started signing in and maybe even had sat down and begun the test. So I was definitely nervous when I got there. I had a weird first half of the test because I found the chem-phys and the car sections to be pretty above average. Not that they were easy by any means. I would never call the MCAT easy. But I felt this weird, this is too good to be true, when in reality, it was probably just my preparation paying off. I wasn't as nervous and crunched for time as I was the first time. But I went into lunch being like, is it possible that I just got it all wrong and thought it was okay because I was over simplifying everything.

[00:49:02.120] - Speaker 1
I also felt weird around the lunchtime because I felt like I was the only person in my test center that was actually taking breaks. I would get up during my 10 minutes nights, use the bathroom, have a snack, and do 30 jumping jacks every time. And I actually sat down for cars with only three seconds left on my break. But I thought the breaks were so valuable, and I was weirded out that nobody else was really taking them. And then I went into the second half of the test feeling a little bit relieved because bio, bio, and psych, social, are a little less stressful for me, especially time-wise, but they definitely are difficult still. During bio-bio is when I started being a little bit of a hot mess. I got super jittery on all the caffeine I had consumed, and I didn't know if I was going to make it to the section. But I just took a lot of deep breaths. Everybody could probably hear me in the test center. And thankfully, that got me through. And then psychsosh was pretty typical for me. I usually get pretty antsy during this section, just wanting it all to be over and trying not to rush so that I could just be done with the test faster.

[00:50:38.280] - Speaker 1
I had to keep telling myself to slow down and go over my answers, make sure I feel good about everything, and then you and leave. So it's definitely a bit of an endurance struggle at the end there. And then I went home, and my mom thought that I was crazy because I came out of the testing room smiling. But I told her, Hey, I finished the test, and that was my goal. Answer all the questions and make it out the other side. And that's what I did.

[00:51:11.040] - Speaker 2
That's what you did. I love it. I'm trying to visualize you going through this day as you're telling me about it. And it is so funny what I'm seeing in my head. But I feel like there will be moments when you second guess yourself, how you were mentioning that you thought that the first few sections, the first half was too easy. But in reality, it's probably because it was easy because of your preparation, like you mentioned. But there's always going to be like, That was easy, but was it easy? Or did I just totally misunderstand everything and I got everything wrong? But no, for you in particular, it was because you had prepped so well. But talking about the Bibi section and how you would jittery, that is so hilarious. I don't think that anybody else in that room, you probably even notice. You do you were breathing exercises because they were too wrapped up in their own exams. But that is just hilarious to just be like, are people judging me for this?

[00:52:25.460] - Speaker 1
I was bouncing off the walls.

[00:52:28.220] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. So funny. So then for you in particular, it's been quite a journey, right? It's been quite a journey. It's over now, thankfully. But if there is somebody still prepping for the MCAT, still studying for it, in the throes of it, and they're feeling burned out, pretty nervous about it, pretty frustrated for anything of that sort. Do you have anything you want to say to them?

[00:53:01.380] - Speaker 1
I would tell them to be kind to themselves. If you're struggling to complete a certain number of problems in a day, do less of them. If you're falling behind on Anki, do less new cards every day. I think it's so much more valuable to have a smaller amount of productive focus studying than spending half a day upset with yourself that you didn't do all of your Anki cards. I found it really helpful to make a time-blocked schedule so that it held me accountable to doing certain tasks during certain times of the day. That helped me pick myself up after burnout because I definitely experienced a lot of burnout during the studying. And then also just the obvious make time to do things to decompress and find peace in the idea that it's going to all be over soon and that the end cat is only temporary.

[00:54:10.280] - Speaker 2
Yeah, the end is near. You can see the horizon. And looking back at your own journey, is there anything you wish you did differently? Anything in particular, any regrets at all?

[00:54:26.460] - Speaker 1
I think I'd probably just give myself the same advice that I just said because I definitely got down on myself when I wouldn't have the best studying day, and then I'd let it affect me the next day. I wish I had started out my studying with a little bit more realistic goals because setting out to do so many questions in a day did just lead me to be disappointed and discouraged. So I wish I had protected myself from that by being a little bit more kind to myself.

[00:55:10.420] - Speaker 2
Yeah, for sure. And I think having that consideration for yourself plays a huge role in your well-being and in your performance throughout, like prepping for the MCAD, and moving on to next, like doing applications or being in med school. I I think if you take the time to take care of yourself however you do that, that will make a huge impact. Even if you don't realize it in that moment, it will make a huge impact. So that's it, right? You've taken the MCAT, it's done with. What was it like when you got your score back and you saw that 521?

[00:55:57.700] - Speaker 1
So first, I accidentally open my score from last year because they're right next to each other. So I had about 30 seconds of complete panic when I thought that I got the same score as last year. But when I opened the real thing, I just about passed out. My arms went numb. I was hyperventilating. I could barely even talk on the phone to my parents. And then I think I fell asleep for three hours after. Just completely zapped.

[00:56:30.200] - Speaker 2
Oh, I love that. That's so funny. You just took a nap. I'm exhausted from just even reading this. That's so funny. But it must have been so scary when you initially opened the score from the prior test, and then you just saw the same exact score. If that was me, I would probably just started crying or something like that. I'm also very emotional. But thankfully, it wasn't the same score. You did see an increase, and it turned out to be an amazing score. And that nap afterwards, that three hours, I bet it was like some of the best week you've ever got, or it should have been. Honestly, you deserve that nap. All right, so... Okay, so now that you've gotten your score, now that you moved on from the MCAT, it's in the real view mirror now, what are your plans for the future? Short term, long term, If you can visualize yourself in 5-10 years, where would you be?

[00:57:53.540] - Speaker 1
So currently I'm doing a year with Americorp, and I really enjoy it. I have another gap year ahead of me after this. I'm trying to decide if I'd like to continue my service with Americorp or do something else. I'm also considering a master's degree in Biomedical Ethics, so that's on the table. Thinking about five years from now is crazy because hopefully I would be in my last year of medical school, I guess, trying to I'll sort out residency. Hopefully, I'll still be in the New England area near my family. That's a goal of mine. But maybe I'll just move somewhere else and go live in a big city somewhere. My long-term goals, I'm pretty committed to psychiatry at the moment. It's something that really is fascinating to me, and I'm also really interested in biomedical ethics. So long term goals would be psychiatry and bioethics in some way. I'm still really interested in working with homeless populations and other marginalized populations. And I'm also really interested in tying that all together with law. That's something I've carried over from criminal minds is I'd really love to be able to consult for legal cases and give my medical opinion on things.

[00:59:31.060] - Speaker 1
And then just out of left field, something... A long term goal of mine is to foster a bunch of dogs and build some beautiful house on a lake for them all to run around and swim in the water. Those are my long term goals.

[00:59:48.400] - Speaker 2
Honestly, amazing goals all around, especially that dog portion. But I really love your interest in particular with bioethics, with tying that into law, it's a more... I wouldn't say it's a niche thing, but it's not the usual route that people really take after going through the whole med school journey, but I think it's very much needed, obviously, a super important part of society. So that's amazing. Actually, as we're coming up the hour here, it looks like we're running out of time. But I really wanted to thank you for taking some time, having this conversation with us, and telling us a little bit more about yourself and your journey. I think a lot of people listening are going to be able to take some of the advices that you've given them to really consider your journey and be able to use them to strengthen their own skills, and hopefully, see that increase that they've been hoping for. So best of luck with everything ahead. And I honestly cannot wait to see what happens. You never really know what's going to happen in the future. Sometimes life takes me down weird paths, but I'm very excited for you and super excited about all the things that you're interested in.

[01:01:20.840] - Speaker 2
So thank you so much for joining us. It has been such a pleasure. And to all of our listeners here, I hope her journey has given you some inspiration and given you some insights on how to reach your gold score. Happy studying, and remember, you got this. Thanks so much. Okay, I'm going to go ahead, and I'm going to end the recording. But stay on for a.