MCAT Mastery

Burnout during the MCAT is a common and challenging experience, often characterized by physical and emotional exhaustion, decreased motivation, and a sense of overwhelm caused by the demanding and extensive preparation required for the exam. The intense pressure to perform well can lead to burnout among test takers, making self-compassion and balanced study practices crucial for maintaining well-being and achieving success.

What does it take to conquer the MCAT, push through burnout, and come out stronger on the other side?

In this episode, Vera sits down with Priya Leghari, a determined and resilient individual who shares her transformative experience of preparing for the MCAT. From facing burnout head-on to adapting study strategies, Priya opens up about the challenges she encountered while striving to achieve their goal score. Throughout their conversation, Priya provides invaluable insights on conquering various sections of the exam, including psychology, chemistry, and physics, while emphasizing the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Join us as we delve into Priya's inspiring journey of endurance, growth, and ultimate success in conquering the MCAT.

At the beginning of her MCAT journey, Julia was discouraged by how little progress she was seeing in her practice exam scores. In January, she scored a 499, and even after a month and a half of pushing herself in her studying afterwards, she only improved by 1-point… which was a long way from her dream score of 513. In particular, she struggled with the C/P section, which is something we think a lot of us can relate to as well! It’s so tough!

So it was around this point that Julia decided to reach out for some help. Through tutoring with us and her own personal perseverance, Julia doubled down during the final 8 weeks leading up to her exam, and was eventually able to raise her score all the way up to the dream she’d had from the beginning– a 513!! With a 128 in C/P (a 5-point increase from her initial section score)! That’s so amazing!

In this interview, we’re going to launch into exactly how she achieved a 13-point score increase in just 2 months, how she motivated herself through a plateau, what strategies she used for each section, and so much more…

Additionally, she attributes much of her success to enrolling in an MCAT Mastery course. Here's what she says about her MCAT Mastery experience:

“I had Merrina as my tutor and I cannot recommend her enough. She’s great at what she does and knows the MCAT frontwards and backwards. She gave me a lot of tips and strategies to help with my weakest areas. She also let me work through problems with her during our sessions so she could see where I was getting hung up and not performing as well or efficiently. Really thankful for all her help!!”

Preparing for the MCAT is hard enough on its own, but with a learning disability, it can become a lot harder! The good news is that even with a learning disability, you can ace the MCAT. How? Well, we'd like you to meet Michael, who was diagnosed with a learning disability and Tourette Syndrome before high school, and scored 517 (94th percentile) on the MCAT!

He's truly an inspiration and has put in the effort to create this episode for you on how to study for the MCAT when you have a learning disability.

We encourage you to watch it - whether you have a learning disability or not, you'll get something from it 🙂

With an exam as massive and important as the MCAT, nerves are inevitable! But how do we prevent these feelings of anxiety from getting the best of us? In this episode, Savannah Runge, 517 scorer MCAT Mastery mentor, shares easy and effective strategies you can put to use the second you feel a negative emotion coming up while you're studying or during an exam!

Ever ask yourself 'am I ready for the MCAT'? There comes a point in every premed's journey where we ask ourselves this question and need to decide whether we need to push back or test date. After successfully walking many students through this decision, AND making the right decision during her own MCAT prep, Ariana (MS2, 515 scorer, and MCAT Mastery Mentor) has created this video to guide you on when it makes sense to push your test date back and when it doesn't!

Has any of this ever happened to you when preparing for the MCAT?:

- You UNDERSTAND the passage but get the questions wrong (and when you review the passage, the answer was so obvious!)

- You're afraid to choose an answer because it seems too easy (so you don't choose it, but it was the right one!)

- You constantly get stuck between two answer choices (and end up choosing the wrong one because you second guess yourself!)

Don't worry. We’ve all been there! It took a lot of disappointing scores before we figured out what was really going on, and what the real culprits to our low scores were…

We'll let Ryan (130 CARS scorer) explain them to you in this episode, so that you can be one step closer to conquering MCAT CARS!

At the start of his exam experience, Jake found himself very stressed out when it came to studying for the MCAT (especially with the CARS section). After scoring a 498 on his first practice exam, he knew he needed to increase his workload, but he sacrificed a lot of sleep and relaxation in the process. All of this stress and anxiety culminated in him led to him scoring a 509 on his first real exam day and although he knew that others might consider the score to be good, he knew that he could do even better if he was able to get adequate sleep and take care of himself better before the exam.

So– on his second time around, with only 3 months to study, Jake made sure to prioritize his mental and physical well-being to reduce some of the stress that had been plaguing him on his first attempt. By creating a study schedule, working hard to increase his CARS score, and even more that we’ll cover today, he was eventually able to feel calm and confident about the exam, and on his test day, he ended up scoring a 516 (an 18 point increase from his original starting place)!

In this interview, we’re going to launch into exactly how Jake was able to increase his score as a retaker, how he studied overall, how he scheduled his prep,  what strategies he used for each section, and so much more…

He also credits a lot of his success in CARS to taking an MCAT Mastery course. Here's what he says about MCAT Mastery:

"Their CARS dissection videos are a must-watch! They are what caused me to get out of my plateau. The other tips in the CARS course helped me in my other sections as well. Would definitely recommend!”

Just a month before her exam date, Kayla was scoring at a 500 on her practice exams. Although this wasn't a position that she wanted to be in, like a lot of us, she maintained her motivation and decided to push through to her exam. However, at that point, Kayla also realized that she didn’t have to go through her final prep month alone-- and that’s when she reached out to us for help. From there, she started working on her approach to the exam but was still only scoring at a 503 two weeks before her exam. Still, though, she didn’t let up with her prep-- and even with such a short amount of time to improve, Kayla was eventually able to raise her score to a 513 by her exam date!!

Overall, Kayla increased her score by 13 points in a month, with 10 points of that improvement happening in just the final two weeks before her exam, so in this interview, we’re dive deeper into exactly how she became a top scorer, focusing on 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…

Maintaining a healthy balance between school, family and self-care had been Stephanie’s constant struggle. Taking her score from 496 to 505/506 took 11 months, then with 30 days left before her test day, her score skyrocketed to a 513! This is how she did it.

As you'll hear from the interview, Stephanie found our strategies to improve her score! Here's what she had said about them:

"One of the best resources for my MCAT journey! I wish I had found it sooner, but the MCAT Mastery guide & the CARS guide were so helpful. My score on practice FLs went from 506 to a 510 after reading this guide and learning how to correctly review my FLs. Scored a 513 on the actual, so thankful for these guys.

They sent emails every day with stories from other top scores testimonies and I would listen to them on my way to campus. Just hearing about others' determination and success made it feel more real for me. The Top Scorer MCAT Strategies and CARS Mastery with the CARS Dissections showed me how to really dissect a CARS passage to the point where I was only missing 5 questions per full length."

If you're looking for a similar score increase or are in a similar situation, check out these same strategies that Stephanie used. They'll help you as well! 👍

Today we'd like to introduce Jennifer Nagel, an MCAT top scorer, and our guest in today's MCAT Master Interview!

Although Jennifer always felt confident with the sciences, the MCAT is enough to make anyone second guess their skills.

Having taken the exam once in 2015, where she scored a 494, and again in 2019, where she scored a 502, she could have let her dream end there, but she didn’t...

Jennifer’s story with the exam is one of overcoming test anxiety, cultivating persistence, and determination...

All of which led her to score 513 on the MCAT on her third attempt! 🙌