The MCAT may be the most devious mind game that you will ever face, but you’ll be well on your way to your highest MCAT score once you learn these “mind tricks” that will help you mastermind the test.
I like to compare the MCAT to Star Wars, because Star Wars is awesome and the MCAT is just like the Dark Side: Its entire purpose is to trick and confuse you!
The MCAT is written by forces from the Dark Side, and you’re Luke Skywalker. You’re just beginning to understand the mental powers that you have, but the Dark Side is going to do everything they can to get into your head trip you up. Jedi Mind Tricks helped Luke defeat Darth Vader and the Emperor, and you need to use mind tricks to conquer the MCAT.
MCAT Mind Trick #1: The MCAT is a game, not an ordinary test
Think of the MCAT as a sophisticated game, not an ordinary test. When you think of the MCAT as just another difficult test, you run the risk of reverting to the test-taking habits that worked for you on the SAT and college exams.
The old tricks won’t work! When you start thinking of it as the most serious game you’ll ever play, you’ll stop perceiving it as “just another hard test” that you can beat with your old bag of tricks.
MCAT Mind Trick #2: The questions on the test are meant to trick you, not test your knowledge
The MCAT writers from the Dark Side have gone to great lengths to fill the test with trick questions that are intended to make you doubt and deny the facts you know to be true. If you approach the MCAT believing that it’s a simple test of trivia, you will fall prey to Dark Side mind tricks.
In order to get the highest MCAT score possible, you need to approach every question as if it were a trick. Learn how the test-writers think, and learn the types of tricks that are used to confuse you by joining my online MCAT Club. In addition to weekly meetings, you get access to more than 350 hours of MCAT subject review.
MCAT Mind Trick #3: Right answers aren’t your goal, a high score is your goal
You are aiming for a score, not right answers. What do I mean? It’s hard to explain this mind-trick in a brief blog post, so join the MCAT Club to get personalized MCAT help.
The MCAT is more than just a test. It’s a battle of good (you) versus evil (the MCAT), and you can defeat evil if you approach the MCAT with the right mindset.
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Hi Don,
I have heard that thinking like a test-maker is often a good strategy when trying to approach the questions. I was wondering if you have any advice about how to go about this process. I find it really hard to decipher what the test maker was thinking when he was writing the questions.
Thanks!
-Micky
Hi Micky – yes good point. OK, how do you do this? Short answer: Pick a passage from somewhere – your newsfeed is fine — then steal a couple questions from an existing passage (just the questions, not the answer choices, lol) and then write two or three sets of questions and answer choices. This will put you in the writer’s mindset very quickly.
Next, ask yourself, “How would I trick a reader into picking a wrong answer?” and start to lay-in some trappy language to one or more answer choices. Then report back and let me know what you discovered.