Test Prep
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Multiple-choice exams are inevitable in our education system. They crop up for students as early as elementary school, follow students all the way through college applications, and persist in university courses and graduate school entrance exams. Having an arsenal of exam strategies ready to deploy during a multiple-choice exam can significantly ...
As an MCAT tutor, I've encountered the same questions about effectively using MCAT practice time over and over again. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions I hear, and what my recommendations are!
There’s no question that preparing for standardized exams can take a toll on our emotional and physical well-being if we are not intentional about our approach. To reach your highest potential on a standardized exam, you must take your wellness schedule as seriously as your exam prep schedule. But what should you focus on? The following 5 pillars ...
While Organic Chemistry makes up a smaller portion of the MCAT, understanding the distinctions between types of organic reactions is essential. This will outline several foundational strategies for tackling chemistry on the MCAT, without pure memorization. Having a strong comprehension of organic reactions will allow you to save valuable time on ...
Welcome back! If you missed part I of this post, please check it out here. Now that you've made an MCAT study schedule, adjusted your lifestyle, and figured out the fuel your body needs, you're probably wondering...
If you’re a fan of BBC’s Sherlock, or have devoured Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels, you’re probably wishing you had the memory prowess of Holmes. At least I sure did when I began my MCAT journey. Sherlock’s seemingly inhuman ability to recall even the most obscure details derives from a Roman legend about the poet Simonides of Ceos, who retraced ...
So you got your score back from the standardized test you need to apply to graduate school, and you’re not thrilled. What now?
For many students, the reading section of the SAT is daunting. You’ve read plenty of books over the years, and your vocabulary is pretty good (estimable, adequate, respectable, even laudable!), but the prospect of analyzing four long and two shorter passages over the course of only sixty-five minutes can feel like an impossible task. Luckily, as ...
I want to give you a few more GRE quant power tips. There are 8. (8 also happens to be my favorite number. I like that it is so symmetric. I like that when I push it over, it is the infinity sign or a pair of glasses or the two wheels of my bike). Anyways…
You made it to Phase 3 of your MCAT studying (see Phase 1 and Phase 2) and you're still alive –– congratulations! At this point, we are now in "Period B" studying (if that makes no sense, refer back to Phase 1). By now, you've successfully reviewed all the content in your books and you've taken a few MCAT practice exams. Things should be starting ...
Welcome to part 2 of my post on English strategies for the SAT and ACT! If you didn’t read part 1, you can check it out here. Picture it now: you’re breezing through the ACT English Language Arts or SAT Writing and Language section. Every question come easily to you, as you follow what your ear tells you is right. You didn’t need to learn grammar ...
In this blog post, I’ll be covering an extremely important part of your USMLE step I preparation: materials. In thinking back to my Step I preparation, I realized that I needed four specific tools: primary sources, a tool to retain information, questions, and a tool for self-evaluation. The specific implementation of this doesn’t matter very much, ...
For many students, the SAT essay is one of the most challenging parts of the exam. The short length of time means that you don't have the ability to develop a strong, well thought-out, complex essay. Fortunately, similar to other sections on the SAT, you can succeed by taking a methodical approach, and after some practice, this will come naturally.
A lot of students struggle with the timing aspect of the MCAT: between reading all of the passages and thinking through all of the questions, it’s easy to lose track and start feeling rushed towards the end. If timing is a problem for you, try switching up your technique, particularly for the science passages.
In a perfect world, we would all budget our time flawlessly. We’d have advance warning of our own needs, desires, and priorities. All large events would be slated into our calendars well in advance and in time slots when we had the brain-space and free time to give such events the focus they demand.
So you’ve been preparing for months, and finally, your GMAT test day is rapidly approaching around the corner. You may be (understandably) starting to feel some anxiety creeping in. How will you retain all the strategies you've learned? How do you make sure all of that hard work, sweat, and toil translates to your test? As your trusty GMAT tutor, ...
On the SAT Reading section, you will encounter “fill-in-the-blanks.” In these questions, you are presented with a sentence that contains one or two blanks, which indicate that something has been omitted. The exam presents you with five choices, from which you are asked to choose the most appropriate set of words that fit the answer.