Learning To Like the MCAT: Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Show Notes

One of the most difficult parts about the MCAT is that it pushes us past the boundary of what is comfortable. This includes: → Sitting for 7 hours at a time → Mastering physics (or any other topics you aren’t a fan of) → Missing problems on practice questions, exams, even the real MCAT → Emotions: exhaustion, frustration, fear, imposter syndrome All of these can lead you to want to back away from what is causing you negative feelings. In this case, the MCAT. So how do you overcome this? This is what Ariana and Monika discuss in this episode of the MCAT Mastery Podcast. Both Ariana and Monika dealt with these struggles during MCAT prep but came out scoring 515+ on the exam. 📝 Get show notes, links to resources mentioned, and more here: https://mcatmastery.net/learning-to-like-the-mcat

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From plateauing MCAT scores, and having to retake, to breaking down days before exam day, all 70+ MedLife Mastery Mentors suffered the frustrations and disappointments that come with MCAT prep. Yet we ALL ended up getting 90+ percentile MCAT scores and are on our way to (or already in) med-school! Now we want to help you do the same!

If you're struggling with the MCAT, need some extra motivation, want to know how top scorers before you studied and learn their best strategies, this show is for you. You have what it takes to beat this exam. We’re here to make sure of that!

And Arianna and I are back for another discussion with you guys. Today we're going to be discussing being comfortable with being uncomfortable to the huge asset to success on the MCAT just because like we'll get into in a few minutes. The MCAT can be really uncomfortable, especially if you've never taken a test like this in your life. So finding ways to understand that failure is going to happen is just so important. So that's pretty much what we're going to be discussing today. Do you want to say hi, Arianna? Yeah, hi Monica. I am excited to be back to talk about this topic. I think this is like a really important topic because like you said, you have to get comfortable with failing and that is uncomfortable. And really, I just think one of the things about the MCAT is in general, it just really pushes us past like the boundaries of what we're comfortable with, even in a way like stamina wise, physically like just so many aspects of the MCAT kind of push you past what your normal comfortable place is. Yeah, it's like the exam is built to almost like there's the content piece where it's like it's pushing past the boundaries of what you've learned in your classes. Like of course you have some background, some foundation, but then there are things like physics, for example, or just like really tough mental math questions that trip people up because you don't get a calculator. So those uncomfortable pieces of content and then you also just have the strategical piece of exactly what you're mentioning, like sitting down for the exam and also learning like what is the AMC looking for from you with these questions, which can be so difficult sometimes. Yeah. And I think the other thing we forget too is on top of both of the things you just said, the emotional aspect, most people by the time they're ready to take the MCAT, they've done well in school. They kind of are used to doing well. They feel like they've earned a place where they understand what they have to do to do well and maybe they've had some setbacks, but most of the time, not really any major ones. And then you get to the MCAT and I think it just makes you start to question, like, do I even know what I'm doing, all of those things. And we see that mirrored in medical school education too. So as usual, I think it's helpful to learn how to deal with it now. So when you get further down your career path, you're more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we've mentioned this in a previous episode as well, but this is something that is just going to help you throughout just like experiences that come up in your life as well. Like being adaptable and being able to work with adversity and things that might come up, that'll help you not only as you're saying in medical school, but just in general, to be like a more well-rounded and adaptable person. So again, the MCAT can help you in both of these ways. But I feel like honestly, for me at least, you know, when confronted with these types of failure, at least in the beginning, it was really, really difficult to confront these negative emotions. I don't know about you. And then all I wanted to do is just like avoid it and not even process it. And so I think that's where being coming comfortable kind of comes in. Yeah, I agree. And I felt the same way and you end up kind of at a crossroads where at a certain point you'll like see your scoring or your missing questions. And you kind of have to decide, am I going to avoid doing this because I hate looking at the physics questions I'm missing. And so I'm just getting more physics or am I going to like become a physics Jedi and like try my best to understand it. And you get to that crossroads where you really have to decide. And obviously, the more comfortable answer is just to be like, I'm not going to worry about physics. Oh, well, but a lot of times to get to where you need to go, you have to face it. And I think that's something that a lot of us at MCAT Mastery have in common is we kind of sat down and said, OK, we're going to face what we don't want to do. And we see this a lot in students like tutoring. You see this a lot in students to a really great example is getting stuck in the content phase. So many times students would come to me and be like, well, I just don't want to do practice tests because I'm not there yet. I'm missing so many problems. Like I'm not there yet. And it's like if you just stay doing content and not doing questions because you don't feel like you're there yet, you're never going to get there because part of getting there, I guess, there being like like an MCAT score that they'd see is acceptable is making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. And like you said, figuring out what does WAMC want from me? And so we have to ultimately like go down the path of being really uncomfortable to help us grow and get into that growth mindset we've talked about before. Yeah, that's a great point. And I feel like with a lot of pre-med students like you're mentioning, they want to fix these emotions that are coming up. They want to not even have to be uncomfortable almost like they want to do so much content review that they won't have to feel uncomfortable. But the whole point is that you have to like it will happen regardless because there is the strategy piece that you can't anticipate without doing it and understanding it and then also getting it wrong and learning from those mistakes. So I guess what I'm trying to say from that is you can't fix being uncomfortable. Like you can't avoid it. You can't kind of move past or overcome it. It's more so about learning to accept that feeling and know that it is productive for moving forward and making progress. And the growth mindset, of course. Yeah, you really have to just embrace it and go, all right, well, this is how it's going to be. And I think when you do that, a lot of times, too, it will happen. I found this to be true. My personal experience and I've seen it happen to a lot of students is by being like, OK, I'm going to be uncomfortable with missing problems, but I'm just going to do it. A lot of the weight is lifted off because then it's not this pressure to be perfect and get 100 percent on all the practice problems. It's like, I'm just here to learn. So, OK, I missed this here. I missed this there, but that's fine. Wow, I didn't realize I had an issue understanding this or I totally like really get this. I never miss it. So it just like takes a lot of the pressure off and then you're able to really learn versus being so obsessed with like, I have to do this perfectly. I can't miss any problems. Then that just almost compounds the negative emotions. Ray, and I'm kidding. You can't like get a perfect score. People do get 100 percentile can be not a five twenty eight. And I think that's like kind of where what you're saying, like you could get a five twenty five and that can still be 100 percentile. It's not about getting every single question on the test right. Right. It's not about the perfect score. We'll get questions wrong. You will get questions thrown at you on test day that you might not understand. And like the other thing you'll never get. Yeah, it's terrifying. And the AMC wants to see what you're going to do in that space. Have you trained yourself to understand? Oh, this is so uncomfortable. I've never seen this before. I'm afraid, but I've worked with this feeling before and I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable or have you avoided being uncomfortable. And then when it comes up, you have no idea what to do. So we don't want that to happen to you. That's such a great point to you because I think that goes in with like a lot of test anxiety people talk about and exactly what you just said. If you have gone through and you're like, OK, I don't know what's happening on this question, but I know what I'm supposed to do when I don't know what's happening. That's a totally different mindset and attitude than if you're looking at a question and you're like, oh, gee, I have no clue what to do. I'm about to fail this test. I'm never going to get into medical school and it just like spirals. And exactly what you said, if you can kind of train yourself to be like, yeah, this isn't familiar. I don't know what's going on. I'm panicking a little bit. This is what I'm going to do to get through because I've done it before. You're going to feel so much better just on test day because you're not having like a panic attack instead. You're like, I know what to do exactly. And you don't want that type of unproductive anxiety. Like you want the active type that is going to like push you to succeed. So that's a great point as well. And I feel like we've been talking about the strategy so far, like how the questions themselves, how they failing at that kind of helps you learn. But in addition to that, as you mentioned in the beginning, there is just the aspect of the test in general and how it feels to have to sit there for literally like a full day, basically, and get through this exam. So building endurance is really important. And that's an uncomfortable thing to do because I feel like, you know, when you take your first practice exam, for example, you're like, I never want to do this again because it's so difficult, but you have to. And so we're going to go over some tips for that, just like ways to potentially help you guys with your endurance and stamina, because that's so difficult. Yeah. So I will say my medical school does seven and a half hour exams, like is how we do exams. And so every time, even now, having done many of these exams, plus all the MCAT practice exams in the MCAT, I just dread it every time. Like it's almost testing. It's not about even the test anymore. I'm just like, I just can't sit there for seven and a half hours. I just can't. I don't want to do it. I hate it. Everything about it's awful. But ultimately, like I have to do it. So it is a lot of it for me, like it's come down to like having a routine and being very consistent with that routine. I found is one of like the best things that has helped me one, build the endurance to do it. Because like you said, the very first test you sit down for, you're just like, what is happening? I don't want to do this. Look at that bird over there. Like, oh, there's some people sitting there. Like you just can't stay focused. I couldn't stay focused anyway. But so like doing multiple practice tests and test like conditions is really helpful, I think. And then really having almost a procedure or an order to the way you're going to do things also helps because it takes a lot of the like, oh, like what's going on? I'm getting bored. I can't stay focused away. And instead, you're like, I have this task, this task, this task. Like get through this, get through this. I have found that to be really helpful for me in terms of getting through the endurance portion. Yeah, definitely. And I also think that just the way you think about what it's going to be like to take a practice exam is really important. So instead of thinking about it as, oh, God, I'm like dreading this every time, which is fair and valid. But if you kind of think about it in chunks instead, you're not taking this seven hour exam. You're taking different four sections that are only a certain number of hours each. So if you break it up that way, it's kind of more digestible potentially. And additionally, I used to tell myself once you start the exam, it flies by, right? Like, of course, you're terrified and you're like trying to go through these questions. And there are so many questions. So really, it'll feel like you are running out of time. So it'll go by really, really fast, which can be scary, of course. But it's also comforting because, you know, your brain is going to be working the whole time. It's not going to be like suffering for eight hours where you're just sitting there bored and distracted. If you focus, it'll go by like that. So that kind of helped me a little bit, just like psychologically thinking about it like that. I think that's a great point, too, because you're right. Like, and that's a huge thing people will say. It's like, I have a timing problem. And so if you think about that when you are on the test, like it does move very fast in terms of you're not really stopping. The breaks are pretty short. You're going, you're going by the time you get to a break, you're like, let me eat and get back in there. And so it does move fast. And I think another thing is like having something afterwards to reward yourself, whether it's I would just keep a piece of chocolate in my bag. Like when I got to the end, I was like, I have some chocolate. Just like something small or something big, but like just even something smaller, like after a practice exam saying, OK, I'm going to go out with my friends. Like when I finished my exam, I could done at three, you know, we're going to go out, whatever. Something like that to have something to look forward to is really helpful to just to say, OK, when I get to the other side, this is what I'm going to do. So you're really focused on like, let me get through this. So I can get to that versus exactly like you said, the negative minds that I described earlier, where you're like, don't make me do this again. Right. I think that's amazing point because like anytime you reward yourself, something is less intimidating. And I also think that reminded me as well, when you finish an exam, you also feel like it is an accomplishment, like regardless of the score that you get, it's an accomplishment to sit down for that amount of time and even just take a practice exam. So just remind yourself of that when you finish as well. And remember that feeling and it'll be easier to start and build endurance that way, too. Definitely. I think you almost have to think of yourself as like a mental endurance athlete for the MCAT. Like your job with practice exams is you practice, you practice, you practice so that when you get on the real test, you're like a swimmer at the Olympics who's done it so many times. Like you're like, are they even nervous? They're at the Olympics. They probably are. But how much? I mean, who knows? Because they know they're supposed to get in the pool, they're supposed to swim and they're supposed to do what they're supposed to do. And that's like where you want to be when it comes down to test day. Exactly. You want to be a pro by test day. You don't want to be like paddling. Don't be like doggy paddling. No, you want to think of yourself as like an Olympic MCAT test taker. That's your goal. Yeah, exactly. And it starts out uncomfortable, but eventually you kind of accept it and are able to move on. And that's how you take all these practice exams that we're talking about throughout your prep. So kind of moving on from there, I feel like this is something that we should talk about, too. So like I mentioned, at the end of your practice exams, obviously you're going to get your score. And I feel like this is something that students struggle with a lot. And I struggled with a lot is taking, sitting through that huge exam and like putting all my effort into it and not doing as well as I wanted to. And like having to confront those really uncomfortable emotions and just feeling of like failure and discouragement. So that's another thing that you kind of have to accept at some point and kind of move on. Yeah, I think and this is really difficult, I think, because a lot of times with pre-meds, people like with science backgrounds are very tight day, like very structured. This is how it's going to be. And so when you get all these emotions, you're like, what do I do with them? I feel like a failure and I've never really had that before. And so I think this is where we almost have to switch hats and really go on to like focusing on more of the psychology side of things and like, OK, how are ways you can cope with maybe not feeling as great about your score and there are some ways like we're going to talk about later what you can do, but more so on like, how do you handle the emotions? So I think there are a couple of things like it's great to have people you can talk to, both people who are like in the medical field and have taken the MCAT and people who have no clue what the MCAT is and like only know it because you talk about it all the time. It's really helpful to do like maybe journaling, especially something. I started in medical school, like I started keeping track before exams, how I felt. And then like after exams, how I felt while I waited on my score so that instead of freaking out every time while I always freak out before the exam, but like I could see that I always freak out. And then I'm like, OK, this isn't an abnormal feeling. Like every time I'm like, I know nothing, I always feel that way, but it always works out and it can kind of help you gain a sense of comfort. And then of course, meditating so that you are focusing and just like giving your brain time to rest and just focus on doing kind of almost nothing and just resting versus processing all these thoughts like at a million miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, I feel like a lot of students especially like, you know, science-based students that are coming into the MCAT have never meditated before. I know I really hadn't. And so it can be difficult to like get started there. But I was talking with a top score recently and she said basically like meditating is exactly what you want it to be. Like there is no pressure on it to be perfect, to be like a certain experience. The whole point of it is to do something that is going to help you. So it doesn't have to be the super structured thing. It can be just whatever will help the emotions just like flow past rather than becoming this thing that you ruminate on. I just wanted to add that in because I know meditating can seem really, really intimidating as well as journaling, too. I think, yeah, so those emotions are going to come up, but it will be OK. And it's important to just remember that they're a part of the journey and they're not they're not trying to harm you. They're trying to motivate you. So becoming aware of that and being comfortable with them. At the same time. Yeah, and I think it's what you said. It's about any of the things like we just mentioned, like talking to someone, journaling, meditating, like they're all about helping the emotions go past and not like harboring them and just like sitting there and feeling like angry and frustrated and just like not happy that you have to do this. It's about being like, yeah, this kind of sucks. I really don't like it and then releasing it so you can move on. And that's really the goal. So however, it works for you to do that. That's like your ultimate goal is how can you process the emotions, recognize the emotions and then move on versus just like dwelling in it forever? Yeah, which can be easy to do. So it's totally easy. Yeah, be aware of that as you're going there so you don't get caught up. But yeah, I'm definitely glad we talked about that moving on now. I think talking about ways, productive ways for people to confront uncomfortable feelings surrounding just like the experience of the MCAT and more generally speaking, like how can students be productive while kind of struggling with being uncomfortable with this type of exam? So we have like a few tips for you guys kind of on that front. So starting off first here, something that's really, really important is to kind of identify your weaknesses with the exam, especially gaps in knowledge. And you can do that through practicing. I feel like that's something that's super underrated is gaps in knowledge come up because you're uncomfortable because you fail. And so being able to fail is a great way to have a productive means to move forward and progress in your content knowledge, even though you're already practicing. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think that's great. And it really is when you like a lot of our tutors will really encourage students keep track of what you're missing or what you're doing. Because a lot of times there are patterns. And again, this is something like I carried with me in a medical school when I still do and I'll be like, wow, if I miss three questions on that, like that wasn't like, oh, I read the question wrong. That was like, hey, you don't really understand this concept. Like you need to go back and review it. And it's really about looking at that and being like, wow, I'm so glad I realized I don't understand different types of biases and studies now versus I got on the test and I'm like, oh, I know exactly what's going on and then miss all the questions. And so I think that's kind of your goal is going through your MCAT prep. You constantly want to be reevaluating. I remember in mine, I just kept missing things about like operant conditioning and that was like a thing. Like I just kept missing it and finally sat down, went through the material again, really tried to hammer it home. And then it was a non-issue. And that's your goal so that you can just address it and deal with it. But to get to that point, you have to miss questions or you are not going to know what the problem is. Right. If you like never got questions wrong, you would never really know what you're missing, if that makes sense. So being able to move on and kind of identify those weaknesses is really important to moving forward, especially with like the content gaps. And so just in general, missing questions is something that you want to do on your practice exams so that you won't miss those questions on the real thing. Exactly. I think honestly, you want to be very careful because almost to a point, if you like don't miss any questions when you're practicing, it's very easy to get really comfortable and be like, yeah, I know this material. I know it all and you start answering questions on like a test. And then all of a sudden you've missed a bunch of questions because you made careless mistakes because you're not zoned in. So there are definitely some benefits to like keeping you on alert. Right. You don't want to get too comfortable and kind of like sitting back a little bit. You always want to be like alert and moving forward and trying to improve, which is what these missed questions will help you do. Yeah. And I think the last thing I would add to that is like just always making sure that throughout your prep, if something like doesn't make sense, you're like a little bit curious about it. Ask questions and like look up answers, kind of go down the rabbit hole. Look into asking professors or friends or tutors, because those are just things that will help you uncover maybe what you're missing or you learn something new. And that's part of the whole process. I think we've talked about this too. Like part of the MCAT is just like embracing the love of learning and like really learning all sorts of random things. And so just ask questions throughout the process so that you can kind of find answers. And it helps you not just with the MCAT, but like overall, you're a more well-rounded person. Yeah. Yeah. That's always something that's going to help you just throughout life and in medical school as well. You're not in this alone. And if you are uncomfortable, just know that everyone else who's done this has also been uncomfortable, especially top scorers. Because like we said, you have to get questions wrong to succeed. So they've probably gotten like, you know, so many questions wrong because they've sat down and really confronted the fact that they're uncomfortable in a productive way. So overall, like basically what we're trying to say with everything that we've gone through is the MCAT is a really difficult test. It's really uncomfortable, especially after like undergrad, when you haven't done an exam that's this big or done anything that's made you fail in such a really terrifying and difficult way. But the whole point is even though it is difficult and even though it is uncomfortable, those types of feelings are ultimately productive and help you grow as you're going through your prep. So definitely try to remember that as you're failing, I guess. I totally agree. And I think like a helpful thing I heard one time when I was studying for the MCAT is like every question you missed before you take the test, like on practice is something you hopefully won't miss on the test. And that's to your point of top scores. Like that's kind of what you want to think about when you're missing questions, just work on shifting your mindset from like, I missed so many questions, I just don't understand this material. So I missed so many questions. What can I do to get these questions right? Where did I go wrong? How can I improve this? And that's kind of back to the asking question thing. Like if you can do that, you're going to find your mindset shifts. And then it's about learning and embracing it. And ultimately you're going to enjoy the whole challenge of trying to get the right answer versus the pressure that comes with trying to get it right all the time. I will say the only caveat to this is like we're talking about about doing practice problems and all of that. Like if you haven't really studied and you haven't done your content, don't just jump into practice problems and expect to do practice problems and all of a sudden understand all of the MCAT. You do have to do some background work as a balance, but also recognize what we've been talking about this whole podcast, that missing problems and feeling uncomfortable and failing. Those are all parts of doing the MCAT that will ultimately help you get through it and excel. Yeah, I think that's a really, really good caveat to include because like what we're talking about here is productive discomfort. You don't want to have that kind of unproductive discomfort where you're completely lost and you haven't done anything not productive at that point because you're not learning anything because you're completely lost and out of your element. So there is some work that goes into it first. But just know that even though you've put in work beforehand, that discomfort will still be there. But it's the productive kind like this is what is meant to be there and what will help you and everybody goes through it. So don't worry about it. It's going to be OK. That was beautifully said. I don't think I have anything to add to that. OK, perfect. Just listen to that part again from my portion of what to add. Yeah, let's let's end there then. So thanks so much for listening to you guys. We hope this helps. And again, as I always say, if you enjoy this podcast, like definitely consider leaving us a review takes less than 60 seconds. And we'd really, really appreciate it. And if you want to give us like even more feedback, feel free to email us at team at mcatmastery.net. Additionally, we've been working up strategy course for you guys that we've gotten out. So that has a lot of tips that kind of relate to a lot of the things that we're saying. So if you find this helpful, definitely check that out as well. We're looking to tutoring if you want like individualized help. But other than that, good luck with your exams. And thanks so much for listening. Hey, everyone, this is Monica again. And before you go, I just want to remind you that if you're not receiving our daily free mcat strategy and success story emails yet, definitely be sure to sign up for those at mcatmastery.net. Slash free course. In addition to that, if you feel like you might need personalized help with the exam and would like to have an mcat mentor kind of look at your situation and help you identify exactly what's holding your score back. You can look into that too at mcatmastery.net slash mcat mentors. And lastly, and most importantly, we just want you guys to know that you have what it takes to succeed on this exam. We know the mcat is intimidating and when you get a score that's lower than you expected on a practice or on the real thing, it's so easy to feel discouraged or frustrated or even hopeless about the exam. We get it. A lot of us have been there. So we want to give you the guidance that we wish we'd had when we were in your shoes. And that's what these interviews are for. That's what our emails are for. We want you guys to be able to feel confident again. And most importantly, be able to see that med school mission is possible and it's not out of your reach at all. So thanks again for listening. And remember that every top score, every med student and every doctor made it through this journey so you can do it too. You guys got this.