I Almost Gave Up. Then I Got a 520 MCAT Score

Ante: Plateaus feel like the end, but they’re usually just the midpoint. And I’m a case example. I actually started out at 500, my diagnostic, and then I went to 508, and I stayed at 508 for like three full-length exams. And then I went to 512, 515, I stay there for four exams or three exams, and then I went to 520 and around there and kept scoring there. At those moments, yes, it was hard to be like, this is the end. I’m just going to score this on the test. But literally, it was my midpoint. Or like I guess there was like two of my midpoints. Most students who end up scoring 510, 515-plus spend a chunk of time around a plateau, around 500, around 507, around 510, 513, whatever. It’s the part where your brain is reorganizing what you’ve learned. You’re not failing. You’re just consolidating. You’re just consolidating what you’ve learned.

Pooja: The path to becoming a doctor is a whole range of things: exciting, confusing, anxiety-inducing, and gratifying, probably all at the same time. And the truth is that no matter how isolating it may feel, you’re not in it alone. Welcome to Pursuit of Practice, your go-to space for expert advice, real stories, and the kind of support that shows you what trusting the process actually looks like.

Welcome back to Pursuit of Practice. If you’re studying for the MCAT right now, you already know it can be completely overwhelming. You might be stuck scoring lower than you expected on your practice exams, or you’ve taken tests and didn’t get the results you hoped for. If that’s where you are, you are not alone. So many students hit plateaus, feel discouraged, or start doubting whether they’re even capable of getting the score that they need. And today’s episode is all about changing that narrative. We are going to talk about ways to go from feeling stuck to seeing real improvements. What shifts in strategy, mindset, and habits can take someone from a score that they are unhappy with to one that they are happy with? Whether you’re early in your prep or deep in the weeds, this conversation is going to give you something that you can use right away.

Our guest this week has been where you are right now. Ante is an MCAT instructor, tutor, and coach for Blueprint and has been here for almost a year. He is a current MS applicant in the Canadian medical school system, so greetings from south, I guess, because you’re north to us. Ante has been tutoring since 2021 and has a particular passion for helping students excel in complex subjects like anatomy and physiology. And he believes that making learning engaging and tailored to individual needs is the key to success.

Ante is a diligent and driven student at McMaster University, co-founding both Bridge Builders Mentorship and the Undergraduate Research Institute for Knowledge Translation, where he helps his peers develop research skills and communicate complex ideas to the general public. Outside of his academic pursuits, Ante volunteers as a peer support facilitator and enjoys hiking, playing with his dogs, and experimenting with new recipes. He’s been described, and I personally experienced because I’ve had the pleasure of teaching with him before, that he is witty, kind, considerate, and dedicated to everyone he supports and what he puts his mind to. Ante plans to pursue a career in medicine, continuing to merge his passion for education with his commitments to healthcare advocacy. Ante, thank you so much for joining us.

Ante: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. That was a great introduction. I don’t think I’ve ever been as well formally introduced ever. So that’s great. That was awesome.

Pooja: Well, thank you. Okay. So let’s dive right into it. So the first thing I want to talk about is where a lot of people are probably right now if they’re seeking this episode out, right? So what mistakes do you see most often from students who feel stuck if they’re around that 500 mark, even below that?

Ante: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think I have a lot of thoughts on this. I think the number one thing that I see a lot—I’m also a coach, too, so I have meetings with individual students one-on-one, students in my class, tutoring students—I think the number one thing I see is thinking that being stuck, being stuck at whatever the 500 mark is or whatever their plateau is, represents their overall skill or capabilities. I think there’s this kind of notion that if I’m at 500 right now, I’m going to be at 500 for the rest of my journey and I’m going to get 500 on my test day. And I completely understand where they’re coming from. I feel like I had those thoughts, too. It’s kind of like those fears of being a pre-med where you’re like, I don’t want to get this score and I’m catastrophizing. I think that I will get the score because I’m getting it right now. And that’s a mistake, right? Students keep thinking that this score will represent your overall skills and capabilities, but it doesn’t, right? A score is just a score. And I think as we kind of discuss later on in this episode, it’s really, it’s really more than that. Your MCAT journey should represent a growth mindset that you’re going to continue to keep growing and learning, especially navigating how you want to study, how you study best for the MCAT. It’s really, it’s really more than that, right?

I was going to say also, too, another mistake I see a lot in students is seeing content—oh my gosh, seeing content as the only way to improve. So I think people just read a lot of Reddit and SDN. SDN is not a thing in Canada, but it’s so funny. I think a lot of American students read Student Doctor Network or whatever. And so I had to learn about it as an instructor. And like I go on it and I’m like, oh, I’m doing this to help my students understand what they’re looking at. And I’m like, this is so toxic. It’s actually crazy how every single person is like, you have to do this content phase, this practice phase, and you’re only scoring 500 and not improving because you don’t know the organic reactions or whatever. I think students get and internalize the notions that, oh, I only have to improve my content to do better. I’m only scoring 500 because I don’t—I’m scoring 50th percentile, which is 500, because I don’t know 50% of the content, or I do know 50% of the content only.

And that’s not true, right? The MCAT, as I’m sure you’ve experienced, Pooja, is more of a test of critical thinking rather than content. Content is not what the MCAT is actually about. That’s why also, if you’re a Blueprint student, you’d have heard from your instructors that you want to get through modules, aka content, as fast as possible, because it’s really only the first pass at content. And really, it’s practicing actually seeing the content and applying your knowledge to do better.

So the whole thing about, oh, content is the only way to improve, it really isn’t. Sure, yes, you have to know metabolic pathways and you have to know your amino acids and yeah, you want to improve that as well, but actually knowing how you’re going to be when you actually do a practice question, the mindset, your pacing, how you apply your strategies is way more helpful to actually learn than it is just like memorizing and sitting down and memorizing pathways. Yeah, that’s like a big thing there that I notice.

Pooja: So I guess from your perspective, as someone who’s not only taken this test, not only taught but also coached people, how important would you say mindset is in the early stages of studying compared to what we’ve talked about, how SDN, people on SDN like to talk about pure content review? How would you weigh, I guess, early-stage mindset versus content review?

Ante: I think I would love to say that mindset is like everything. It isn’t, because you have to know content. You have to know your amino acids. That’s the thing that always comes to mind, or you have to know general metabolic path—not saying you have to know every step, but you have to know general metabolic pathways, all that kind of stuff. But the ratio, I guess the thing that’s going to serve you the most down the line is mindset. And I’ll give an example of my own personal experiences. I was a Blueprint student. I was a live online Blueprint student, and I very much entered with the Reddit mindset of like, let me go through all these modules, learn and memorize as much as possible. I studied every day. I studied for seven for seven days. I didn’t take a break day. I would study like eight to 10 hours a day. I grinded, and then six weeks later, I was burned out and I had to take a week off because I was so exhausted.

And I basically in that week, I was just like, oh, let me just do some practice questions to still feel like I’m doing something. And I scored worse than what I did when I actually—I scored worse than my diagnostic. I also scored worse than before I even learned the content. And that’s a great example, although anecdotal, but I’ve seen it so many with my so many times with my students. Content only takes you so far. It’s kind of like content is the stuff in your brain, but mindset is how you use your brain, right? Mindset is how you actually use the brain, use the content in your brain to actually get stuff right.

So if you just focus on the content your entire time, that might work for some people. It probably won’t work for a lot, right? Because it’s really important to stress a mindset on growth and viewing the MCAT as an opportunity to keep learning. Yeah. And I think one thing that always comes to mind is trying to find the joy in part of studying for the MCAT. Typically, if you’re studying for the MCAT, you want to be a doctor, you’re probably a nerd or a geek in some facet of your life. You enjoy science to some degree. And I think as a pre-med or in college, it kind of gets beaten out of you. You’re kind of just like, get those grades, get that research, get that volunteering, get X, Y, and Z to make you stand out as an applicant or whatever. And I completely, I get it. I’m also an M.S. applicant. I understand the whole chase and all that kind of stuff.

But the MCAT is a months-long study process with only one result. It’s not like a course where it’s like you have continuous assignments and tests and you keep having to push yourself. It’s not like volunteering or research where you have to keep so many deadlines and things to kind of prove yourself to. That’s where I found a lot of personal joy in studying for the MCAT is that you now have time to review things that maybe weren’t interesting because you were so stressed about your grades, but now are. I hated biochem in college because my professor was horrible and we had like a test every week. I loved biochem in MCAT studying because it was just actually interesting to be like, oh, this is how glucose actually gets converted to pyruvate. I understand why these steps are rate-limiting because I have to use ATP and, oh, like watch this cool YouTube video on this process and seeing how the molecules change. Stuff like that where you’re like, I get to be a nerd again and actually enjoy it and not be so stressed because in an hour, I have to go do this research project and then after that, I have to do other stuff.

Yeah, some students might be balancing all that kind of stuff while studying for the MCAT. I think treating that time dedicated to the MCAT as just that, as just a time you can connect to your nerdy side, you can try to like or like again to learn new things. I think it’s very helpful. Kind of approaching it with a mindset of like, geek out, try to, you know, connect to the stuff that maybe you’ve never heard of. I never did psych-soc, and I found it so interesting. I scored the highest in because it was just so fascinating. I never took a course on it. It was really interesting. And that interest, that wanting to learn more about something and actually see how it’s expressed in passages and questions makes you do better, right? It’s the classic thing like you’re going to, you’re going to do better on things you enjoy. It’s a life saying, it also applies to the MCAT. Who knew? But yeah, I think, I guess my final answer would be finding the joy in part of the MCAT to whatever degree and also kind of combining that growth mindset with also recognizing that your well-being is important. Content only takes you so far, right? Because you’re just shoving stuff in your brain. The mindset element of taking breaks and recognizing the fun in MCAT studying is kind of what allows you to make your brain not turn into mush and actually use it and enjoy it while you use it.

Pooja: Yeah, no, there was a, there was a quote actually that I heard a long time ago that was about how a growth mindset is prophylaxis against burnout. And it’s something that I think about a lot, which is that having that joy and having that growth is really critical not only to making improvements, but also allowing it to be, like you said, a dedicated time where you can really commit yourself to taking this test. And something that you said that was really striking to me is the fact that you don’t really get many opportunities for dedicated learning the way you do when you’re studying for the MCAT. The only other time you’re going to get that is when you’re studying for your board exams for medical school. And so I think there’s a lot of growth and personal development that can often happen during this period, too. That growth mindset that you said you developed during this period, I think it’s something that carries you through a lot of medical school and sometimes when people think about the practicality of the exam, it could be easy to say, oh, you’re never going to use that stuff again, or oh, you’re never going to use those skills of reading a CARS passage ever again. But the truth is that the challenge of studying for that exam and the challenge of taking it doesn’t go away. And there is a difference in outcome for people who have done it and overcome that obstacle because you’ll get that obstacle kind of placed in front of you again.

Ante: Yeah, that’s actually a really good way to view it. I always come back to how I felt after taking the MCAT. I always compare it to like my brain physiology changed, where I mean like obviously it didn’t, or like I hope it didn’t, it could be crazy. But I’m after taking the MCAT, I was only proud that I, you know, finished the MCAT. But I also just realized when I was starting my next semester of school that what a joy it is to learn. And that sounds so cringy. Like even saying that I’m like, ew, gross. But it really is, you get to learn stuff that you wouldn’t have access to in any other way. And especially learning stuff that is going to be directly applicable, or depending on your degree, will probably be applicable in some facet to your career, right?

And just like you’re mentioning, it’s not about the content of the MCAT, it’s about learning how to critically reason and approach new challenges and situations and large blocks of text and figuring out what you have to do. And that’s like patient encounters. That’s, you know, you’re going to be exposed to people who are new to you, right? Strangers and you have to kind of parse through it and figure out what’s what’s harming them, figure out their perspectives, how do you apply what you know, your content to their situation, which is the new passage, right? Reminding yourself of the parallels, reminding yourself of the ways that you can enjoy the learning process and not take everything to heart, which is kind of what ties back to the thing about the score. It’s kind of, it’s the mindset of a score represents where you are now, but all of us are not in the now. We keep improving, right? We keep moving forward. And that will happen to your score if you believe in yourself, if you try to change your mindset, if you try to find the joy in learning and not keep thinking about it as like a three out of 10 is a 30%. So that means I’m failing or whatever. It’s 70% that you’re going to keep learning and improving. That’s another way to view it, right?

Pooja: Yeah, wow, Ante, yeah, that was incredible. I think I’m going to take away what you said about the gift of learning for the future, because I feel like it’s true. There is an amount of gratitude. I know you had said that it sounds cringy and it can feel that way initially. But I do think that there is a level of gratitude that I think needs to be had, right? And I know that you have done some intentional sleuthing through Reddit, Student Doctor Network, all these other places to investigate a little bit about the myths that people kind of encounter on the internet. What would you say is the biggest myth about improving your MCAT score that you want students to stop believing?

Ante: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think the number one thing, at least that I see numbers-wise on Reddit, SDN, and even the first couple of classes whenever I start teaching a new course, is that you first do content and then you do practice and knowing all the content and doing all that, waiting, not to do a practice test and practice questions, and then doing all the practice, that leads to improvement. That literally does not. That doesn’t lead to as much improvement as people think it does. Even if you see like med school influencers who are like, I studied for a month and a half and I did all the textbooks or whatever, and then I did a full-length and my score rose 15 points. That’s one person out of thousands of people who do that and it doesn’t work for them. So the biggest thing that we do at Blueprint, and I’m sure other places do it, too, is the incorporation of space repetition practices. But really just making sure that you’re actively doing practice questions while you’re learning content.

It’s really not helpful if you read seven chapters straight of acid-base chemistry, then redox chemistry, and then like amino acid chemistry, and then just keep moving and then three months later you see a practice question on it, obviously you’re going to forget and not do well, right? That’s not going to work, right? So practice should be within your content and content should be within your practice, right? It’s not one stage and then one stage.

And then on that note, too, content also should not take more time than practice itself. What I mean by that is that I always say to my students, you want to get through your modules, your content phase, or the phase where you’re spending a bit more time on content as quickly as possible. Because at the end of the day, you memorizing a detail about T-tubules or microtubules or whatever, that’s great. But if you until you actually get questions right on it and you actually see it in question form, I don’t care. You’re going to forget that detail, right? You memorize it and you’re going to forget. Until you actually see practice questions on it and you see it worded differently, see how the AMC will test you on it, how Blueprint will test you on it, how your instructors will ask you questions on it to actually force you to recall it and make those neural networks that are wording it in different ways. That’s what’s really important, right?

That’s why we always say, and for people who are going to be in med school, the pass system is very common, right? You see content first and then you do multiple passes in the form of practice or space repetition, blurting, whatever, teaching others, other active recall techniques that you’re just forcing yourself to keep practicing the material and seeing it in different ways, because that’s really what’s going to lead to the highest retention to the most you improving your score, because you’re seeing it in different mediums. As what the MCAT is, right? They’re not ever going to, they’re not ever going to test, they’re not ever going to ask you, what is this one thing? They’re going to give you a passage on it that’s very wordy and very annoying to read, and then ask you to apply it to a figure or a table, right? The application part is the hardest part, but it’s not going to be hard if you do the practice as quickly as possible, as soon as possible, rather than just looking at the content of the table.

Pooja: Right, right. Absolutely. So it sounds like instead of that myth of having content and then practice, having them simultaneously and having practice inform content and vice versa seems to be really important. And I appreciate another thing that you’re saying is the fact that what you’re describing, the idea of space repetition, the idea of applying information, forming those neural networks, those are things that are based in learning science, like a field that has actually been developed in adult learners, because people who are studying for the MCAT, unless you’re a child prodigy, you’re an adult. And the way that you learn as an adult is very different than when you’re learning when you’re in school.

In school, you kind of learn all the knowledge and then do practice tests. But as an adult, it’s different. And the way that our brains work are different than when we’re in, let’s say, middle school and learning about science for the first time. So I appreciate the fact that you’re dispelling this myth with actual science.

Okay. So now that we’ve talked about the big myths and a lot of the typical things that we’ve seen students kind of encounter in terms of myths and mistakes, I want to transition a little bit into study strategies, the real practical component of today’s discussion. And so the first thing I kind of want to discuss is changes or habits that you think have made the biggest impact when you try to improve by like 10-plus points. Because at this point, a lot of our listeners, they’re kind of in this sense of, I’m at a 500, I need to get to a 520 or whatever score they want, and there’s a huge jump that they’re hoping to make. And I guess in your eyes, what would you say, if you were to give a single change or a single habit, what do you think makes the biggest impact in that direction?

Ante: Oh, wow. You’re really pigeonholing me.

Pooja: I know. I’m so sorry.

Ante: It’s such a valid question. I think, or one thing I would suggest doing first is setting aside two or one, two, three hours on like a weekend or like Saturday or Sunday and kind of writing down everything you’ve been doing so far, what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been doing it, what you’ve been studying, how you’ve been studying, whatever techniques you use, and then ask yourself which of these techniques feels easy? When you’re doing it, which of them feels like, that’s so good. I’m having so much fun. I actively enjoy this process because it kind of reminds me of something I did in high school or it’s just easy. And chances are, that’s not great. Chances are, whatever feels easy, it’s probably because you’re not learning as much as you can or should in those moments. And it’s such a sad reality. I’m a student as well. I fully resonate with all the listeners. I wish learning was easy. It’s also not, though. Learning is hard because you’re, you’re learning something new, right? And something new that’s also complicated, like how the carbon bicarbonate acid system works and how it shifts and all that kind of stuff. That’s a hard thing to learn. You have to figure out how that, what are the implications to oxygen, carbon dioxide respiration, saturation, all that kind of stuff. That’s not supposed to be easy when you do it.

And if you notice that certain techniques are just really easy, then ask yourself, how much are you taking away from it? When you do those techniques, do you feel like you really improved? If you were to do a set of practice questions right after that technique, how would you do? And I’m not saying that you would always do poorly. Some students, whatever, it’s an easy technique, but they actually feel like they benefit a lot from it. But chances are stuff that feels easy like reading, highlighting, rewatching a video, watching a YouTube video, taking notes. It’s easy because anyone can do it and you’re just absorbing what other people are telling you, right? That’s a pretty simple thing to do. The more complex or complicated thing to do is teaching others, doing practice questions, rewarding something in your own mind, blurring, or translating knowledge in your own words and sketching it out, mapping all the connections. If it seems intimidating, if it seems hard, seems it’s going to take time and you’re going to feel uncomfortable, you’re probably doing something well, like good. You’re probably making the right step to improving and actively challenging yourself.

And I guess it’s probably not what you guys want to hear, because it, you know, it’s something that you have to be really honest with yourself and be realistic. It’s like, hey, I know I keep taking like two hours worth of notes and every module, every YouTube video I watch. Ask yourself, are you coming back to those notes? Do you feel like you actually improving from taking those notes, or is it just something that you like the way you feel when you do it? And that’s a really hard thing to ask yourself to actually accept like, I’m just doing this because it makes me feel good. I wish it was that simple, but you know, if you want to improve by 10-plus points, do the things that are hard. And if you don’t know, ask for help, ask your instructors, ask the MCAT coach, ask friends who maybe have done well on the MCAT or other similar harder, or hard standardized testing. Keep challenging yourself and asking yourself what’s easy, and then kind of work backwards and see, are you actually learning a lot from those easy moments?

Pooja: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. So it seems like that art of being reflective on what’s working, what’s not, and actively thinking about it as opposed to just passively prescribing yourself to a plan because it feels like the right thing to do is the most high-yield thing to do in terms of studying. And those techniques can kind of range from what you’ve said, not only like videos and other things, but also thinking about active learning and kind of shifting your goals towards more active learning. So teaching someone from memory, mapping out a concept from memory, doing more practice questions. Is there anything else? I know that we talked about the most important one now, but are there any other honorable mentions, if you will, for other things that you think people should think about when they’re considering high-yield ways to improve their score?

Ante: Yeah, I think, I mean, I just said like it’s also valuable to look at your strengths and not only your weaknesses. Not to like go back on that, but another thing is that you also have to look at your weaknesses. You also have to be very honest with yourself and be like, hey, what are my areas of improvement? Like go to your analytics page if you’re a Blueprint student, go to whatever spreadsheet or Google document you have open about your, what you’re keeping—what questions you keep missing, what content pieces you don’t know, and actively set aside time to improve it. And the reason why I’m saying actively is I can’t count the number of students, coaching, tutoring, instructing, where they have on their study plan, oh yeah, I have to study acid-base chemistry. But then they don’t do it because the activation energy to actually studying it is so high because it’s so vague. It’s studying activation, studying acid-base chemistry.

When you go to study your improvements, be as specific as possible when you’re when you’re planning. That’s the biggest, smallest logistical thing that’s the most helpful for students. Don’t say like, study acid-base chemistry, be like, do 10 discrete questions from this question pack or this Qbank, spend 15 minutes on it, then spend 15 minutes reviewing, have your Google Doc open. Like actually write that in your study plan or on your agenda or whatever, to be very specific just to kind of reduce the activation energy. And that kind of just goes hand-in-hand with being very intentional with your areas of weakness and targeting them, not just one time, right? Don’t just be like, oh, I did 10 discrete questions on acid-base chemistry. Now I understand everything. You don’t. There’s no way you do, unfortunately. But then be like, oh, I actually didn’t do that bad. Okay, maybe in four days, let me do another discrete set and maybe on a whiteboard, go through all the equations that I need to know and like a quick practice sample or watch a YouTube video to fill in what I don’t know. And notice how what I just said is very much like space repetition is intertwined, different study techniques is intertwined, and you’re also actively improving your weaknesses. So it’s a skill to develop to mix things and have like interleave practice and being honest with yourself. But it really is that important. That’s why I’m really stressing it.

Pooja: No, I think it’s important to. And I feel like a big takeaway from what you’re saying also is that not only is it important to be intentional about your weaknesses, but it’s important to track, too. You mentioned the analytics page on Blueprint or a doc or a spreadsheet or whatever. However it is that you’re choosing to track, it’s important to track. And I will say, from the med student perspective, I was definitely tracking things for not only my MCAT, but I kind of created a system for the MCAT, and used that same exact system for Step 1 and for Step 2. Just the idea of tracking all the things that you’re not doing as well in and creating an actionable plan like you’ve said. So not just reviewing acid-base chemistry, but doing 10 specific questions on it, reviewing, making a flashcard on it so that you don’t forget it. That type of process is really important to fill in the gaps as specifically as you possibly can. And I also will say, I think you touched on it really well, which is that duality of focusing on your weaknesses in terms of what you’re doing with your time, but also highlighting your strengths to make sure that you’re not just feeling bad about yourself the entire process. I do think that there is a little bit of a place for both.

Ante: Oh yeah, for sure. It’s going to suck if you do your whole time studying and you’re constantly like, I’m horrible at these things. No, you have to celebrate the wins and be like, oh, I actually really understand the culture components of this psych-soc topic and it’s really interesting and I have these examples and now I actually understand this whole thing. So yeah, definitely you want to do both. Don’t just do one. But I would say if you’re trying to improve your scores, your weaknesses are lending to lower scores, probably most likely. And I also want to state, too, we’ve been like mentioning weaknesses in the in the context of content, like actually like acid-base chemistry. But also, you should also be tracking weaknesses in terms of strategy and pacing. So don’t forget about that, like the listeners. Don’t forget about those aspects of, are you when you review your practice, also are you reviewing how you’re highlighting your passages? Were your highlights helpful? Did they actually help you understand things, or did you never look at them once and you did it just to feel good about yourself? That’s another thing to track, because maybe that’s a weakness that you’re just not realizing.

When you reread the passage or retroactively highlight, are you just skimming? Are you actively thinking about what stood out to you in the paragraph? That’s more so for CARS. But stuff like that, you don’t want to just do content. I usually, with my tutoring students, I have a doc for content, I have a doc for strategy, and that strategy will also speak timing. Are you spending way too much time on the first question and then panicking for the rest? That’s the thing you want to change, right? And probably even more so, strategy and pacing will probably prove or have more dividends than content, because there’s only so much that content can do. It’s really how you approach the content, which is the strategy, which is the pacing, which is your mindset. That’s going to kind of reinforce and work to improve your score and your skills.

Pooja: Yeah, no, absolutely. I appreciate you mentioning that, too, because I think something that I also wanted to touch on a little bit is the student or listener who is putting in several hours, several days a week, sort of like how you were doing in the beginning, but they’re still not making improvements. And the big question at that point is ultimately, what’s holding me back, right? What would you recommend to that person in terms of identifying the source of how to even go about figuring out where they what’s holding them back? How can they figure that out?

Ante: I always think about it like, you want to do something different. That’s essentially the theme of what my answer is going to be. If you are at this point and you’ve tried what we just said and you’re still not improving despite putting in the hours and all that kind of stuff, trying something different is going to be the answer. Please don’t just keep using the same study strategies or keep using the same techniques that you’ve been applying, because it’s not working for you, right? It’s not working for you and I know that sucks to hear because maybe they’ve worked for you in undergrad or college classes or your master’s or high school or whatever. Try something different. And how to know that you’re in that spot? Well, of course, if your score is not improving, but also, you can even ask people, ask people advice on what you think their issue is, which is definitely a vulnerable spot, right? Asking your friends maybe who are also sending for the MCAT. I’m not improving. What do you think it is? Maybe even showing them your spreadsheet or whatever and seeing what their insights are. I’m not saying their insights are going to be correct, because maybe they have similar issues or different issues, but chances are, somebody will notice something that will get you to reflect, right? And it doesn’t have to be your friends, maybe email your instructor or coach, email a mentor who you know did well in the MCAT, ask maybe for their advice on what you think your issue might be in terms of not improving. It’s really just the kind of the ultimate answer is asking yourself different questions, doing something different, going to different people for advice so it’s not just a repetitive cycle. So I think for the MCAT is iterative. It’s not meant to be linear. If it’s linear, then you’re not doing something right. And you kind of have to keep improving and changing your strategies to keep improving, right?

Pooja: Right. Absolutely. So it sounds like there are two sources of where to look. There’s the actual documentation that we recommend people have at Blueprint. We recommend a Lessons Learned Journal, where they have essentially a spreadsheet where they document the source of where they found the question, the lesson they specifically learned, the content area it was in, and the way they’re going to be overcoming that obstacle that kind of led them to getting a question wrong. But there’s also external people. So whether it’s an instructor or a coach or even just a friend who can look at a spreadsheet and be that external view for you and say, oh, you’ve been getting a lot of questions in, let’s say, general chemistry wrong. What about general chemistry is troubling you, and being able to kind of work through what you’re seeing from a very subjective lens and a more objective and outside perspective. Is there anything else that you think people can think about when it comes to overcoming that obstacle and really breaking out of that plateau that they’re experiencing?

Ante: I think another thing I would stress is something I like doing, if you’re a numbers person or a very logic-based person. If you’re listening to us and you’re like, ugh, gross, like, put it into numbers, put it into a different sense. So what I mean by this is that sometimes I would actually write down my, from your spreadsheet, write down all your content areas that maybe you’re weaker in or okay in, write down your, write down the different strategies that you’ve been learning in Blueprint or you’ve learned elsewhere. And actually, on a number scale from one to 10, rate how well you think you’re doing on each scale, and then subtract two from each category. And whatever is below four or five, do that first and improve that content or skill. That’s a very arbitrary, like number-based system for people who really want something in front of them, hands-on, logic-based, numbers-based. Go with that to see if you really want to try something different that’s not just advice on study strategies or analytics or your lessons learned journal. I did that with one of my students, they found it really helpful to just have a list of something that they objectively on this scale, they’re not doing well. And them rating themselves and also subtracting two because the two is the reality indicator that I kind of added in, a reality adjustment. That can also help for people who really need those discrete numbers in front of them.

Pooja: Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate how you’ve kind of given an example for people who want numbers and people who are like, I don’t want numbers. So that’s fantastic. Okay. So now that we’ve talked about that pretty extensively, I want to circle back a little bit about what you said with regards to mindset, specifically growth mindset, and how it can really intertwine with the motivation that people have. Because like you’ve said, the MCAT is first and foremost a marathon, right? It is a couple months of an endeavor. It’s funny, I actually have just started training, like athletically. I’m not an athlete by any means. But I’ve been going to the gym more and there are these coaches there and the way that they talk about training is very similar to the way that people and we talk about the MCAT, which is that the motivation that you have is something that will really carry you forward for a really long time. And that it’s all about making steady progress as opposed to just sprinting your way and doing a million questions a day, seven days a week and giving yourself that rest time. So with that being said, I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about either your own personal journey or your student’s journey about staying motivated even when progress feels slow or like you’ve said, when the journey isn’t exactly linear.

Ante: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I have so many answers to this. I will start with what I like actually did, like the small things that I did that are more extrinsic, and then I’ll kind of go into lessons that took me a bit of time to just learn and internalize, but one thing that, I guess with the former aspect, one thing that I did that kept me motivated was to still do things that make me happy. That sounds so depressing, but like, it’s hard when you’re saying for the MCAT, also if you’re balancing like working part-time, full-time, and research and volunteering, it’s very, I guess, common to feel like you’re on a hamster wheel or you’re just, you know, it’s repetitive. Scores are kind of staying the same and you feel like maybe you’re not improving.

I would really stress and what I did was that I kept doing the things that made me happy. And so one of them that I always tell my students is I’m a huge TV show, movie person. I’ve watched like over 2,000 TV shows and movies, probably. I think it’s probably more than that, if I were to count them all. That’s my biggest hobby that I really enjoy doing, especially with the people who I who I love and like. So one thing I always say to my students is when I was sitting with the MCAT, I started watching Game of Thrones for the first time, and it felt so cathartic. It felt like I just intertwined something so small like a TV show, that’s like an hour or two, two hours a day. My case, probably three hours because I would watch it at every meal interval.

But it was very much like I’m doing this fun thing for me to kind of because it’s something I enjoy. It’s a hobby that I actually really love. If you can call it a hobby, but it’s a thing that I really enjoy doing, and I’m not sacrificing it for the MCAT or it’s not like I’m reducing it for the MCAT or minimizing it. And also, as a side note, it was so fun. I remember literally watching the last episode like a week before my MCAT. And it was so cathartic because anyone who watched Game of Thrones, the last episode is crazy. There’s like so many, all the ties come or like all everything comes to an end. And I was just like, now I’m ready. Now I’m ready to write the MCAT because Game of Thrones ended.

And something, it doesn’t have to be like that hobby ends or like that specific thing ends, but honestly, I would recommend it. It was such a unique thing. The Game of Thrones, I probably won’t watch ever again because it was so intertwined with the MCAT. I know I probably will. But having something where you something that you do that’s a subset of a hobby that you do with the MCAT, you’ve actually tied it to the MCAT or your life chapter during studying the MCAT and you know it’s going to end around the time you do your MCAT. I think really helped me stay motivated because it felt like I had something to do always that wasn’t just studying, but also just watching something I really enjoyed. That’s on a small scale thing that I kind of like kept doing. And I think all my students always like laugh when I say that, but it’s, it worked well for me, I guess.

Pooja: That’s legit. I hear that. I do.

Ante: And then I think another thing that I would stress to all the listeners is that I feel like everyone’s MCAT journey is so individual, but I also want to say it’s not. What I mean by that is that the MCAT is a chapter in your life, but it’s also a chapter in a lot of people’s lives. And I think it’s really common or very easy to feel like whatever you’re going through is your own issues and your own struggles and it’s very individual and if you’re failing, you’re only failing. And it’s all because it’s your fault and you have to do something different and it’s a product of what’s not going well for you or whatever. But I would also want to stress that the MCAT is also a collective experience. So many pre-medical students and other students who also enter medicine have to do the MCAT. It’s a chapter. It does not define the physician you become. And I think just trying to internalize that what you’re going through is common, try to find people that are also studying so you can vent to and stay motivated that’s not just like a crushing experience that you’re solo experiencing.

And I think there’s also a value in that. Finding people who are writing the MCAT that are not your parents or your friends who are not writing it because they might not understand. Just to talk about how the commonalities of what you’re experiencing and really just to recognize that it’s just one challenge on the path that you’ve already shown you’re capable of walking, which is kind of what Pooja was mentioning that you’ve already done so much of the pre-med checklist, you want to call it that. The MCAT is not an only you thing. Feeling stuck doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re human. You’re allowed to struggle. Basically, everyone struggles with the MCAT at some point. If they say they don’t, they’re lying. I’m being so honest, right? I’ve struggled. I scored well. I teach it now and I coach it now, but I had two plateaus. It’s not like I was a perfect exponential growth, right? You’re okay to not do well or to retake it or whatever. And just accepting that. I think accepting that and of course doing those small actionable things like watching Game of Thrones while you study will work to kind of incorporate that mindset that we kind of mentioned earlier in the episode about knowing where to improve is the biggest struggle of the MCAT and viewing it as an opportunity to grow, not as a thing that’s going to keep me from succeeding or not being a good doctor. I think it’s where kind of the strength lies in that.

Pooja: Yeah, absolutely. Wow, that is so profound. No, it’s true. And I think that hopefully people who are listening can kind of take away a couple of things, right? That although this test can be really, it can feel really insurmountable, other people have done it. And therefore, there is no reason for you to believe that you cannot also.

Ante: Yes, yeah.

Pooja: But also realizing that as you’re kind of going through it, it’s sort of a rite of passage in a way, right? And so it’s a matter of not if you get through it, but how, and maximizing the things that give you joy as you’re going through it are really important. And I also want to echo what you said about, you know, finding a hobby. I didn’t know that Game of Thrones ended right around the time you took your test. That’s awesome.

Ante: Oh, not the actual show, but when I watched it, when I streamed it.

Pooja: Oh, I see. Okay. Wait, wait, so did you, did you watch the entire show or did you watch from a certain season onwards?

Ante: No, I watched season one to eight in three and a half months because I studied for three and a half months. And so, yeah, I watched, I watched it all, which really is not, that’s actually slow for me. I can go through shows much faster.

Pooja: Oh, I believe it. Yeah.

Ante: But I had to pace myself because I was only two episodes a day. I have to be, you know, I have to actually study still. But it’s something that, you know, having that positive outlet meant a lot for me.

Pooja: Wonderful. So I think another follow-up question I have for you about the mindset, and I know that you said that you had made a shift because you were a Blueprint student yourself, and you kind of transitioned from studying seven days a week to giving yourself rest days. What would you say is the mindset shift that helped you turn studying from something that was really stressful to something that felt more sustainable?

Ante: Yeah, it’s a really good question. So as I mentioned this earlier, but I studied for about six weeks, seven days, very much very pre-med of, I have to know everything, and flashcards and going to class and modules, taking notes, just being that student that did everything by the book, or by the book. And when I was very burned out, I was so tired. I felt like I wasn’t making any change because I really wasn’t. I wasn’t really learning actively or I wasn’t doing what I thought I could be doing or should be doing. I actually still went to class, though. And when I went to class, one of my instructors, shout out Ian, was very much just very much reinforced the notion that everyone has heard. The MCAT is a mile wide and an inch deep, right? The MCAT is a mile wide and an inch deep. It’s a very common saying. That basically just means there’s so much stuff, but the stuff you need to know is not that deep. You’re not required to memorize every single electron flow path, right? In organic chemistry.

The problem, though, is that people don’t internalize that. They hear it. I didn’t internalize it. They hear it and it’s like, okay, cool, bro. Let’s keep going. Let me do another flashcard set on Anki or whatever. But what I want to stress is that it’s too much to do both at the same time. You can’t try to learn so many different topics, which is the mile wide, and then also try to go past the inch deep and also learn all the electron flows and like or every single detail of each metabolic pathway. That’s A, it’s way too much. You’re going to get burned out as I did. And B, you don’t need to do that. The MCAT is not more than an inch deep and it’s not more than a mile wide. So you trying to do it just because your pre-med self would do it or because you’re trying to prove something to yourself or you’re like, I have to do it because it’s technically a listed topic on the AMC course outline or the on the MCAT content outline. So I technically I may get a question on it. That’s not how smart test takers think. The test is about critical reasoning and problem solving and problem solving is not knowing every detail. It’s knowing how to approach something you don’t know or are not the most familiar with and still get it right, which is why we scored well, right?

So what I always say is that you really have to shift from I must master everything to I’m just building understanding layer by layer. So that’s kind of like you pick one, you do either a mile wide or an inch deep. Don’t go more than an inch deep. And you’re like, okay, like 0.3 of an inche. So you’re going to know the 10 steps of glycolysis. And then once you’re done that, then you’re going to add on the enzymes at each step and the rate-limiting steps. Then once you’re done that, you’re probably approaching the inch deep. And now you’re going to be like, maybe what are the structures of them? But that’s like lower yield, right? And recognizing that’s probably not worth my time or it’s probably approaching past that inch deep is where you just then keep progressing to the rest of the mile and keep moving, right? Keep moving down the line rather than digging in the line.

And I think I just really want to stress that you can’t do both at the same time. I tried, a lot of students try because it’s how you study in pre-med. The MCAT is too big, right? It’s you’re you’re like doing like basically all of high school and first and second year chem, physics, psych, soc, bio, and biochem. That’s way too much. You can’t do it. You have to pick your battles and that battle is start with an overview, a general understanding of concepts, then slowly work more and work smart. You’re not doing everything all at once. You’re not doing all the miles and then also more than an inch deep because it just won’t work. It’s not sustainable and it’s also so stressful.

Pooja: Yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate that. I feel like mile-wide inch deep is something that people say all the time, but it’s like, what does that even mean? So I appreciate you being more granular and practical about that. I guess I wonder for people who are thinking about how to take what you just said, right? Being able to sift through what’s important, what’s not important, how do you recommend people go about figuring out, okay, what exactly is that inch deep or what exactly is that mile wide for a given topic? So let’s say they’re trying to go over, I don’t know, my favorite topic to bring up in these discussions because I actually still don’t remember all the equations of this day, the kinematics equations, for example. I promise I knew it when I took the test. But now as a fourth year student, I’m like, I don’t know. But anyways, so I guess for topics like that, how do people, how can they identify, okay, what exactly is the scope of information I need to know? What do you recommend for them?

Ante: That’s a bad example, just because you need to know all four of the equations or 10, there’s five, but you need to know all four.

Pooja: You’re so right. And that’s literally it. 

Ante: I’m like, you know what, Pooja, you just found the exception. Yeah, you just basically broke down my entire philosophy.

I’ll give another example. I’m going to go back to metabolism because I see students struggle with it. What’s important about metabolism? When you’re trying to figure that out, do practice questions. I know it’s a very simple thing to do, but do practice questions, do passages and discretes and just see how they ask you about it and you’ll get the gist. But I’ll also tell you that generally, when you’re approaching complex topics like that, what I recommend is knowing where you’re starting and where you’re ending. And it’s kind of, I guess, easier to understand this in terms of biochem because it’s like you’re starting at glucose, you’re ending at creating ATP at large amounts in the mitochondria. And that ATP is used to the body. Just know where you’re starting and ending and then you kind of keep getting a bit deeper and deeper, like layer by layer, right? Then you know the intermediates, right? You’re going from glucose to pyruvate, to acetyl-CoA, right? And then you keep going. Then you form the steps of the citric acid cycle.

I think the biggest thing that I just don’t want people to do is instead of looking at, what is glucose, what does glucose turn into and why is that important? They’re like, glucose goes into glucose-6-phosphate via hexokinase. Then is converted to X, Y, and Z. Like going at the very first step of glycolysis and doing that and going through all, I don’t know how they add up to, like 23 steps of glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, Krebs cycle, the four complexes of the ETC, that’s so stressful and it’s so much content to do every single granular aspect. Zoom out, scope out.

Think about also, how would you teach it? As a professor, how would you teach it? You’re probably not going to teach it to your students like, boom, hexokinase does this. Glucose, glucose-6-phosphate. You’re probably going to be like, okay, let’s step back. Glucose goes into pyruvate. Why is that important? Where does the pyruvate go? Right? Zooming out, thinking about how you would even teach this to students or teach it to your friends. That’s also another way to be helpful.

And then for people who want to make connections to content, some people find that very helpful, like connecting to why it’s important. Think about connections to other content. Like, okay, glucose, pyruvate, ATP. Think about maybe how insulin is important or how glucagon is important. Think about maybe the connection to diabetes and maybe that kind of makes it click for you a bit more. I guess trying to apply that to whatever you learn, like maybe it’s even like redox reactions. Like, okay, zoom out. What is a reduction? What is an oxidation? Okay, you know that. What would be an example of a of a reaction and look it up? Okay, you know that. What would be an equation that would represent a redox reaction? Where can I see it? Where did I see it before? Oh, I saw it in ATP because that’s what the complex is and the ATC work, right? Trying to make those connections, zooming out are probably my two biggest tips when trying to figure out what’s high-yield. Because at the end of the day, yes, and when I took my MCAT, there were questions that were like detail-oriented, more granular, but there was like four or like four to seven per section or whatever. I can’t remember. But I didn’t really worry about those because either I knew it or I didn’t. But I could control the ones that, oh, I remember generally what the steps are of this pathway and I know what the passage gives me and let me make sense of it and then get the question correct.

Pooja: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I think something that is clear from what you’re saying is that it’s not only zooming out and being able to teach it, but also thinking about what questions are even asking about a particular subject. Like leaning into how it’s presented in practice questions to kind of inform what is or is not an important detail is super helpful as well. Okay. Amazing. That was that was really great. Thank you so much, Ante.

So before we wrap this up, I feel like a piece of advice that you gave that I think I definitely think is an important takeaway, not only for our learners, but also just for me as I continue taking exams and preparing for board exams and licensing exams in my future, is realizing that all of these exams are just a step and they’re not representative of your own journey and your own trajectory, that you’re more than just a number. And letting that remove some of the pressure that you’re associating with the test itself, right? If you approach every practice exam like it is a make or break for the rest of your life, that is going to create way more stress than if you realize in the moment that it’s just a part of your journey and that it is the beginning or the middle rather than the end-all be-all, I think is just really valuable. So I appreciate you for bringing that to this episode. What is a piece of advice that you would give to someone who’s currently stuck at a certain number? Let’s say it’s a 500 score and they’re losing hope or they are worried about whether or not they’re going to be able to overcome the plateau they’re in right now.

Ante: Yeah, it’s a good question. I always come back to one quote that I was given and then it kind of has three components to it. But the first thing I would say, and I’m going to say it very powerfully to really get the point across, stop trying to raise your score and start trying to fix your patterns. Whoa, mind blown. So stop trying to raise your score and start trying to fix your patterns.

A 500 plateau or whatever score plateau it is, almost always comes from a few consistent, fixable habits, not from a lack of ability. Don’t get that stuck in your head. I’m at this plateau. This means it’s my future. It’s not a lack of your ability. It’s just certain habits are not serving you as they once did, right? Once you identify and correct the patterns that are holding you back, the score follows naturally. And some things that I just want to highlight from what we talked about today was that number one, shift focus from more studying to targeted repair or targeted review. That’s basically just quality over quantity in simpler terms. Instead of just doing another 40 practice set or another full-length hoping for a miracle bump, break down the why behind what you’re missing, right? Are you misreading passages when you’re rushed? Are you spending too much time on the first question or passage? Are you losing points to traps? Are you running out of time in CARS? Are you weak on a certain biochem topic? Are you confident in answers that are wrong? Why are you confident in the answers that are wrong? Fixing even one root pattern can move a score like 500 to 505 very fast, very surprisingly fast.

And a second component of that is, and I mentioned this earlier, your score doesn’t reflect potential. It just reflects strategy. And that really just means a 500 isn’t a ceiling. And I know some people think it is. It really isn’t. Even if people tell you it is or whatever, that’d be so rude if they told you it was a ceiling. But it’s a sign that you’re doing a lot of things right, right? You’re 50th percentile, so you’re doing things, you know stuff and you’re doing things right. But doing things, doing a few things consistently sub-optimally. Some things you’re just not doing the best you can do. And this kind of brings in the growth mindset that some of you who are maybe more glass half empty, which I for sure am, too, you hear that and you’re like, that sucks. Like 50%, whatever. You have to train your brains like, no, it’s actually great news because guess what? Strategy is fixable. Your score is fixable. You know it’s numbers, you can fix it. You can change it, right? By identifying those patterns.

And lastly, I guess kind of ending off on a more positive and motivational note, plateaus feel like the end, but they’re usually just the midpoint. And I’m a case example. I actually started out at 500 on my diagnostic, and then I went to 508 and I stayed at 508 for three full-length exams. And then I went to 512, 515, I say there for four exams or three exams, and then I went to 520 and around there and kept scoring there. So at those moments, yes, it was hard to be like, this is the end. I’m just going to score this on the test. But literally, it was my midpoint. I guess there was like two of my midpoints. Most students who end up scoring 510, 515-plus spend a chunk of time around a plateau, around 500, around 507, around 510, 513, whatever.

It’s the part where the brain, where your brain is reorganizing what you’ve learned. You’re not failing. You’re just consolidating. You’re just consolidating what you’ve learned. And I always think back to an analogy I give sometimes when I teach where it’s like, when you’re writing the MCAT, I think of like three runners and there’s a runner that represents content, there’s a runner that represents your strategy, and there’s a runner that represents your mindset and your and your pacing. And plateaus are just the moments where your runners are out of sync, where they’re just not running at the pace where they all can catch up to each other and keep up together. They’re just out of sync, right? They’re just not working together because maybe your content’s behind on something or ahead of something, but your strategy is not there, or your pacing is too slow, too fast, or whatever. They’re not at the same kind of like wavelength, the same speed. That’s what a plateau is, but guess what? Those runners are not done. They’re at a midpoint. They’re not at the end of the race yet, right? So really keeping in mind, there’s more to it than the midpoint and the plot that you’re currently on. There’s more to you than your score. And that’s what I want to stress and hone in. I’ll kind of reiterate, stop trying to raise your score and start trying to fix your patterns.

Pooja: Yeah, no, absolutely. Thank you for walking through all of that. I also especially appreciate the running analogy. I love a good analogy. I’m a sucker for a good analogy.

Ante: Who doesn’t? Yeah.

Pooja: I think that’s wonderful because I will say, I also experienced plateaus like that. I was stuck at the same score for several exams and I didn’t know what to do. And then it happened again and I was like, well, I guess this is it. But you’re right. It is just consolidating. It is just our brains kind of thinking about all the information. Also because I think something that’s important to realize, too, is that the test is a random assortment of information. And once you cover enough, then it will be such that there will be less and less information that surprises you, right? And it kind of goes with what you were saying earlier about targeting weaknesses and doing as much as possible. The goal is to make it so that you’re not surprised on test day, but it takes time to do that. And some of these plateaus might happen because the things that you’re doing well in, you’re crushing, and then there’s a surprise passage where it asks you about something that you weren’t as confident in and then your brain was like, what do I do now? And that’s okay, because that’s just a time where you’re not going to be surprised again. Okay. So I guess to wrap things up, if listeners were to remember one thing from today’s conversation, what do you think it should be? And I know I’m putting you on the spot again with the one thing, but we’d love to know what you think.

Ante: Yeah, I guess it kind of comes back to that quote of, don’t improve your score, start fixing your patterns, but kind of connecting that. There’s more to you and your studying than the score, right? It’s not indicative of your capabilities or overall or overall level or whatever. It really isn’t. It’s just a midpoint. Rather, it represents where you can improve in a certain subset of content, questions, strategy or pacing. And really try to accept that. I know it’s a hard thing to do. And I know a lot of people see the score and they’re immediately demotivated and they think it’s like the end. It’s really not. I’ve helped, I’ve taught, I think, more than 200 students now and coached and tutored probably over 50. I know, I see all the time that’s how people feel, but I also see that students improve and they improve and they recognize that whenever I talk to them after they got their score, they’re like, oh yeah, that was crazy that I thought that. They’re always like, that was so weird that I thought that. Oh, whatever, at least it didn’t happen. But don’t brush it off. Internalize it. Internalize that whenever you don’t succeed, that’s not a predictive measure like you’re not going to succeed. You’re just going to keep improving. And there’s more to you than just that one moment of failure, even though it’s not failure, but you’re going to classify it as such.

That’s essentially a testament to that growth mindset and to just accepting that we’re all humans, we’re all just trying to improve, and we’ll have to improve for MCAT stuff and med school stuff and grad school stuff and all that kind of stuff. But such is life.

Pooja: It’s a life we’ve chosen. No, that’s amazing. Thank you so much, Ante, for chatting with me today. And thank you to our listeners who stuck around to the very end. We still have three more episodes left on this first season of Pursuit of Practice, so please stay tuned for more MCAT prep, med school insights from our amazing guests, and we look forward to seeing… I guess I won’t really be seeing you, but I look forward to you seeing and listening to me and our guests in our next episode. Thank you, everyone.

This is a podcast created by physicians and medical educators, but is in no way to be construed as medical advice. All of the opinions shared are those of individual people and are not reflective of their associated institutions or of blueprint test prep.

That’s a wrap on this episode of Pursuit of Practice. Remember, you’re not in this alone. Head to blueprintprep.com for MCAT prep courses, board exam prep, free resources, and more to support every stage of your journey to and through medical school.