Premed.blog by MedAngle Premed
Retaking the MDCAT: Turning Setbacks into Comebacks
Embarking on the challenging journey of preparing for the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) while simultaneously pursuing another degree or taking a gap year is no easy task. However, if you find yourself in a situation where you are determined to join the medical college of your dreams but have to manage to study for the MDCAT alongside your first year in some other degree or are on a gap year, fear not! This blog will serve as a comprehensive guide for effective strategies to balance the demands of your current academic commitments and the daunting preparation needed to succeed in the MDCAT while providing you guidance from recent repeaters who have recently made it to prestigious medical colleges.
Learning from Past Errors:
As you prepare for this academic comeback, it’s wise to take some time to reflect on all the weak areas, ineffective study routines, and mistakes that might have hindered your success.
With this information at hand, adjust your study plan wisely and focus on strengthening the identified weak areas and refining your test-taking strategies. This self-reflection will also help you make meaningful improvements, ultimately bringing you closer to achieving your academic goals.
Next, take the time early on to thoroughly analyze the paper pattern and identify any question types that gave you trouble before. Since you’re already familiar with the exam format and its level of difficulty, use this advantage to deepen your understanding of core concepts. Moreover, focus on tackling a wide range of question types, balancing your routine between theory, practice, and revision. By learning from your past experiences, you can build a more effective and efficient study approach, ensuring you’re better prepared for the challenges ahead.
Create a realistic schedule:
As a repeater, your daily routine can vary greatly — whether you’re taking a gap year or pursuing a different degree altogether. To succeed in your MDCAT preparation, it’s crucial to design a realistic and adaptable schedule that takes into account your academic commitments, MDCAT preparation, and some buffer time between each task, allowing you to tailor it according to your daily needs.
Avoid setting an overly rigid schedule. The more rigid the schedule, the less likely you are to follow it. Your daily, weekly, or monthly schedule should be a flexible outline of what you hope to achieve in a given timeframe.
It is recommended to reach out to seniors/fellows who have successfully gone through this process. They may provide valuable tips on how to structure your study time, which can help you avoid the common pitfalls and optimize your preparation.
Efficient Study Techniques and Practice
A key tip for repeaters would be to focus on getting as much practice as possible alongside their other academic commitments.
The best techniques that repeaters from prestigious universities like Dow and JSMU have admitted to using were active recall (instead of passively reviewing notes, active recall involves deliberately recalling information from memory), spaced repetition (prevents cramming by encouraging you to revisit material at strategic intervals—24 hours, 2 days, 7 days, and 2-3 weeks after initially learning it), and practicing mock tests. Both techniques, when combined with mock tests and past papers, can help strengthen your preparation.
This is where Premed.Net.PK by MedAngle Premed rushes to your aid! With topical MCQs, live quizzes, past papers, and mock tests, it helps optimize your study approach and gives you a competitive edge in your MDCAT preparation. Premed.Net.PK is the Original Premed and Pakistan’s first-ever platform to cater to the academic needs of premedical students. It offers everything you need, from a vast question bank to MDCAT Pocket Books.
Integrate MDCAT Topics into Coursework:
Here’s a smart approach for repeaters trying to balance MDCAT preparation alongside their first year at another medical university. The first-year curriculum in medical school significantly overlaps with many fundamental concepts tested in the MDCAT. Identify these overlapping concepts and strengthen your basics for those concepts, especially. This will help you study simultaneously for MDCAT and your university-related curriculum by reducing the burden of allocating separate study sessions for each.
Repeater Reviews:
As we turn our academic setbacks into comebacks, there is no better way to guide you than the advice of repeaters who made it into Dow Medical College, Karachi.
Chohiet Maheshwari, DMC’29 (Sindh Province, Karachi)
“I took a gap year after my first attempt. Medangle Premed’s review guides and MCQs helped me a lot during revision. I mostly focused on my provincial books for preparation and supplemented them with various practice books for MCQs. In the final days, I focused heavily on solving past papers. Practice was the key reason behind my success.”
Sumeet Chaudhary, DMC’29 (Sindh Province, Karachi)
“Hey, it’s me, Sumeet Kumar. After repeating my MDCAT and refining my strategies, I successfully secured admission to my dream university. My MDCAT score was 182, with an overall aggregate of 91.2%, placing me at merit no. 35. While I didn’t initially get into MBBS, I earned a spot in BDS at JSMU. Even then, I decided to retake the MDCAT while continuing with my BDS studies.
It's a challenging task for a student to retake the MDCAT, but all you need is a solid reason to stay focused and achieve your goal without any distractions. I know that going through the same process twice or three times is a terrifying experience for premedical students, and I will try my best to guide you with my experience.
After studying for 4 to 5 months for BDS, I decided to reset my schedule for a second attempt. This was easier for me because I had a good grasp of the major subjects. I identified my weak areas from my first attempt and began preparing again. Here are a few key points to focus on:
- 1. Take thorough notes during lectures.
- 2. Review the relevant textbooks.
- 3. Add extra points to your notes, and practice MCQs.
For MCQ practice, I highly recommend using Premed.Net.PK by MedAngle Premed for their topical MCQs with well-referenced explanations. Based on my experience, this combination is the most effective for MDCAT preparation.”
Sadia Nadir Hussain, DMC’29 (Sindh Province, Karachi):
"Hello, my name is Sadia, and I completed my intermediate education at Khursheed Government Girls Degree College. I retook both my intermediate exams and the MDCAT as a repeat. Initially, I scored a total of 900 marks in Intermediate and 159 in MDCAT. After repeating, my intermediate marks increased to 943, and my MDCAT score rose to 187. My overall aggregate was 89.37%, and I secured a merit number of 131.
I utilized various online resources, primarily relying on YouTube lectures for my preparation. Specifically, for chemistry and physics. Interestingly, I did not use YouTube videos for biology and English. The key factor that contributed significantly to my success in gaining admission to MBBS at DUHS was rigorous practice with MCQs. As the saying goes, 'Practice makes the man perfect,' and I firmly believe in the importance of consistent effort.
In conclusion, the crucial elements that propelled me toward success were self-belief, positive thinking, and dedicated practice. These qualities played a pivotal role in achieving my goal of securing admission to MBBS at DUHS."
Maham Mehfooz, DMC’29 (Sindh Province, Karachi):
"For MCQ practice, my go-to resource was Premed.Net.PK by MedAngle Premed. Even in the final days leading up to the MDCAT, I heavily relied on the Premed.Net.PK and complemented it with 'One Shot' lectures. This combination proved to be incredibly effective for my last-minute preparations, providing me with the targeted and comprehensive review I needed. It played a crucial role in refining my understanding and boosting my confidence as I approached the MDCAT retake.”
Edited by: Javeria Rizvi, MedAngle Premed President
Author:
Momina Khabir, MedAngle Premed Associate
