Your Expert Guide to Self-Preparation

For LSAT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT, and PCAT

By Jay Cutts

Lead Author, Barron’s LSAT and MCAT Prep Materials

Happy June and Summer!

REMEMBER: The 3 Keys to Self-Prep Success:

1. A well-planned study schedule
2. High quality prep materials
3. Peer support

If you’re still not doing well enough, look for a qualified tutor.

THIS MONTH: Let’s take a quick look at where things stand for you.

MCAT/PCAT: You should be devoting as much time as possible to your prep now and for the rest of the summer. Leave your summer schedule as free as possible. This summer is not the time for travel, internships, or volunteering. Ideally you should have no more than 20 hours a week of other commitments.

Focus on situation based questions and pen and paper test :
CISA is notorious for practical application based questions and it is better to keep yourself prepared for the same. CISA is pen and paper based exam and a large part of it is rote learning based, so it need a lot of practice for perfection.

LSAT: Ditto.

 GRE/GMAT: Ditto.

 PREP HINTS:

Last month we talked about scientific problem-solving strategy for the MCAT and PCAT. This month I want to go over some advanced problem-solving strategy.

For science passages it’s usually not necessary to read very much of the setup. Go right to the questions. Many questions turn out to be independent of passage. You can do those first.

Always be sure to take time to orient yourself to the question stem – the part before the answer choices. Many errors are due to not understanding the question stem correctly.

When you are having a hard time answering a question, a powerful strategy that you can use is the KING approach. It’s a technique that I developed for asking yourself questions that take you further into the problem.

K stands for Know. What do I know? Identify the facts that you have available.

I stands for Infer. Given what I know, what can be inferred?

N stands for Need. What would I need to know to get to the answer?

G stands for Get. How can I get the information that I need?

Try this out. You’ll find that it gives you new insights and often leads to a solution.

In the Barron’s MCAT book I thoroughly explain strategy for timing, test taking and problem solving. PCAT takers will get a lot out of that book as well.

Next month we’ll talk more about tools for reading comprehension, which is on all the exams.

Jay Cutts is the director of the Cutts Graduate Reviews and lead author of the Barron’s LSAT Prep Book, Barron’s MCAT Prep Book, and Barron’s MCAT Flash Cards. He has helped thousands of students get into graduate and professional programs since 1990.

He is the creator of the STEPS to the LSAT self-study support program.

 Mr. Cutts offers free admissions planning help at:

Prelaw

Premed

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