First impressions truly last, and this must be the reason why you should want to ACE your medical school entrance exam, but I tell you… it won’t be easy if you don’t put your heart into it or if you’re not mentally gifted.
So, what steps should you take to score a 118-132?
Manage Your Time Wisely
Reviewing for the medical school entrance exam demands quality time. That means, you should have time specifically allocated for your preparation.
Now, if you already have available time for your review, the next thing you should do is manage it!
Some students have enough time, but they still fail to cover every topic that needs reviewing. Why? That’s because they don’t make their own schedule, instead, they just go with the flow.
Some students will study the hardest topics and leave out a little time for topics they think are “easy” for them. Little do they know that the questions in the exam won’t even include what they have reviewed. That’s guaranteed failure right there.
What should you do?
Make a DETAILED plan of your review.
List down all the topics that you need to study.
Make sure that you only stick to the topics you need to study. What will be involved in the test? This is very researchable. You can even look for questionnaires on the Internet. Of course, some entrance exams are revised every now and then, but at least, you’ll get the gist of the exam – which questions matter? Which lessons dominate the exam the most?
This way, you can make a list of priorities from top 1, 2, 3, and so on – judging the flow of your review schedule.
Here is one more tip!
Do not juggle lessons back and forth. Multi-tasking… or in this case “multi-studying” is a strategy that is not effective at all. This will jeopardize how much information you retain in your mind until the exam. As much as possible, spend days for one lesson. Then, proceed to the next.
Make use of Reviewers
There are countless reviewers online for students to use. These reviewers focus on questions that have appeared on the exam before or lessons that provide the foundation for the topics involved.
Instead of going to the library and borrowing five books at once, a reviewer can be the number one alternative. To get into medical school, you’ll need to learn how to retain a thousand lines of information in crammed up time.
These reviewers were designed to sum everything up. Preparing for the medical exam means limited time only, thus review books – materials that focus on the most important topics that have higher chances of appearing on the exam paper.
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
Get some exercise and eat the greenest foods you can find.
In order to retain all the information that you will study in your review, you’ll need to keep your mind healthy. Eating food for the brain like fatty fish and drinking coffee will help a lot. Don’t forget about drinking 8 glasses of water too. If you didn’t know, a dehydrated mind won’t work too well learning.
Exercise makes sure that your brain receives a healthy amount of blood flow perfect for learning.
Study with Friends
Taking the exam with friends? Well, that’s just perfect.
Reviewing with a group of friends is better than reviewing alone, according to the majority of students. Is it true?
For one, reviewing with friends will allow healthy criticism amongst the group. Reviewing alone makes you prone to missing mistakes. On the other hand, with friends, you’ll have someone to correct you or inform you about a topic you are unfamiliar with.
It’s also that nudge you can expect from caring friends, saying “Hey! Keep up!” when you are losing the energy to move forward with the review.
You have to want it!
Starting to lose hope? Remind yourself, “I want this!”
Constantly reminding yourself of the reason why you’re taking this path will motivate you and clear your mind of doubts and fears.
