From 499 To 511 In 4 Weeks On MCAT Retake

MedLife Mastery Podcast: Show Notes

About The MCAT Master Interview Series

Welcome to the MCAT Master Interview series!

We’re on an ongoing mission to put together THE formula for achieving a top MCAT score.

We’ve been doing this by gathering the most effective MCAT study strategies from verified top scorers, and then we bring them to you in the form of blog articles, daily emails, YouTube videos, strategy courses, through tutoring sessions and anything else that can help you along on this journey to reach YOUR maximum MCAT score.

We’ve been researching and holding interviews with top MCAT scorers for many years now, until recently we thought "Why not let you all in and give you a seat at the table during these interviews!”.

So, that’s what this series is for ????

We hope by listening to these interviews, you learn proven MCAT study strategies you never thought of, that you can start implementing right away!

And most importantly, we hope you feel an increase in inspiration and motivation because the MCAT journey can be very tough and it can be easy to fall into negative mental cycles...

But as you’ll learn from these success stories, every top scorer had to deal with the struggles, the challenges, and through perseverance, through strategy, through mindset work, they all made it to the top score that was right for them. ???? ???? ????

About Samantha Main

Samantha began MCAT studying almost 8 months before her test date, with full dedication really in the last 2-3 months, but by her MCAT test date she wasn’t feeling ready. She even pushed the MCAT back 2 weeks, but still ended up scoring a 499 on her first attempt.

She was far into med school applications and knew she had to do better to get accepted, so she decided to shoot for another test date just four weeks later! Which was also the last test date of the year. In those 4 weeks she ended up increasing her score by 12 points to a 511 MCAT score!

Her story exemplifies the importance of not giving up on yourself, and shows that even if you have a short amount of time left, you can definitely still improve. The way to do so is exactly what Samantha will tell us more about in this interview!

In this episode, we’re going to dive into understanding exactly how she studied, what she did to increase her score so quickly, how she scheduled her prep, what strategies she used for each section, and so much more…

Topics Discussed

[04:12] Samantha's initial score goal versus her actual score on her first take
[06:50] What's changed in her study schedule and strategy the second time around
[10:29] Materials and resources she found to be most effective
[11:49] How her participation in sports helped her overcome the biggest challenges and struggles of the MCAT
[19:05] Tips in studying for each section
[25:35] How she managed to feel nonchalant about the exam the second time
[32:07] Final message for other students who are struggling with the MCAT

Memorable Quotes

The MCAT will not ask you straightforward questions, so answering them requires strategy.
Out of all the MedLife Mastery materials, the CARS Mastery Course was the most helpful, not only the strategy but being able to pick out what is more important in the passage from the bluff.
It's not how much time you have but how efficient you are with your time.
Don't take failure as an insult to your ability. Instead, take it as a challenge to do better.
Focus on understanding what you are reading.
Break down your goal by section and figure out how many questions you can take a day.
Take that extra moment to make sure that you totally understand why that answer was the correct answer.
Look at the wrong answers and figure out why they were wrong.
Continue to practice and really keep a positive attitude.
Think like a top scorer and figure out what words to pay attention to.
Being able to do those dissections and see the thought process of a top scorer was super helpful.

Resources Mentioned

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Join over 11,000 premeds in the MedLife Mastery Community learning how to improve their scores for free at https://medlifemastery.com/freecourse

Learn more about each mentor on The MedLife Mastery Team here.
Work with an MedLife Mastery Mentor: https://medlifemastery.com/mcat-tutors

Samantha's Testimonial for MedLife Mastery Strategies!

"100%, invest in the MedLife Mastery course, that really was what made a difference for me."

"I took an expensive Kaplan prep course, found little improvement. Then I found MedLife Mastery. The strategies and guidance BLEW Kaplan out of the water for a fraction of the cost. So worth it... particularly the CARS Mastery Course with dissections. Saw HUGE strides in a small amount of time."

Additional Reading -- MCAT Success Stories:

Your MCAT Success Mentors

About the Author

We're a team of future doctors passionate about giving back and mentoring other future doctors! All mentors on the team are top MCAT scorers and we all are committed to seeing you succeed in achieving your physician dreams To help you achieve your goal MCAT score, we take turns hosting these Live MCAT Courses and are also available for 1:1 private tutoring!