How To Study For The MCAT With A Learning Disability

Show Notes

Preparing for the MCAT is hard enough on its own, but with a learning disability, it can become a lot harder! The good news is that even with a learning disability, you can ace the MCAT. How? Well, we'd like you to meet Michael, who was diagnosed with a learning disability and Tourette Syndrome before high school, and scored 517 (94th percentile) on the MCAT! He's truly an inspiration and has put in the effort to create this episode for you on how to study for the MCAT when you have a learning disability. We encourage you to watch it - whether you have a learning disability or not, you'll get something from it 🙂

What is MCAT Mastery?

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!

This is Monica just here to let you guys know that we release a lot of our YouTube clips like this one on our podcast for those of you who prefer listening over watching a video if you want to watch the full video head on over to our YouTube channel So the link to that is in the show notes for you guys in this episode Michael shares his experience of preparing for the MCAT with a disability and shares some of the best strategies and resources You should take advantage of to make sure that you have a fair shot at acing the MCAT So I hope you guys like this one Hi, this is Michael from MCAT mastery and today I will be speaking about how to prepare and study for the MCAT with a learning disability a little bit about me I was diagnosed with a learning disability and Tourette syndrome right before high school If you do not know Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by very Movements and sounds that are uncontrollable and these are called tics for me studying was very difficult Not just for the MCAT, but all throughout college. I had challenges with attention Focusing over a long or sometimes even short period of time and I found that I really learned things at a different speed and a different way I Really felt ashamed about this. I felt ashamed that I had to learn things in a different way I felt ashamed for having testing accommodations and I just felt ashamed for being different and The point that I really want to make and I want to let you know is that it's okay to be a little different It's not a bad thing that we are different It's not bad that we're learning in a different way All that that means is that we're learning differently and that is okay whatever works for you is The most important thing at the end of the day and I want you to know that you are not alone in this process Me as well as everyone else at the MCAT mastery team and so many individuals out there Go through studying for the MCAT with a learning disability and have succeeded and I know how challenging it can be I know the MCAT is already difficult and adding a layer of obstacles and challenges make it a little bit harder But I want you to know that I'm here to support you and I've compiled a few tips and strategies that helped me along the way So firstly What resources are available to you? If you're still in school something that helped me a lot was using the disability resource center at my school and I know that Depending on where you are right now if you're working or if you're not Associated with a university that has a disability center. This may not apply to you however, I want you to know that if you do have a Disability resource center near you. I highly recommend taking advantage of what they have to offer I met with specialists and teachers from the disability resource center that helped me develop a plan for Academic success all throughout college Additionally potentially seeking out an evaluation from a psychologist or a specialist in learning and learning differences might provide you support and resources to help you understand Not just that you have a learning difference or learning disability to know specifically what might help you additionally Seeking an evaluation from a psychologist and learning specialist is going to be necessary for Applying to take the MCAT with testing accommodations Which we do have a video that can you can view at the link below for more details Lastly something that really helped me and I think this is very helpful for people who might not have access to a professional Or to a resource center like I mentioned before and this is online communities for me. I found Through a online community with a threat association of America I found a few friends that had studied for the MCAT with that syndrome and that was great for community building and those great for Solidarity I think while There's a lot of tips that I can share Generally sometimes there's some advice that is really specific to your specific situation and what you struggle with for that I find that finding peers that have Been what you are going through can be incredibly helpful And I think that these online communities are a great way to connect with individuals who Have dealt with your struggles and dealt with your challenges and no specific strategies to help you get through that The most important thing for me was reflecting and identifying your strengths and your weaknesses as a learner Ask yourself. What do you struggle with is it attention? I know for me I had a really hard time with attention. Is it that you don't process things right away in the first time? Do you have a hard time focusing in long-page of times for short period of times or maybe specific settings? Or maybe have difficulty with reading or with numbers or whatever it may be Whatever it may be My advice to you is to really pinpoint. What is it that you're good at and bad at for me? I was very strong at Visually looking at diagrams and then rewriting it down I found that was a great way to get things stick and it was maybe not so good. I just listening to videos passively However, that might work for someone else I also realized that I was very strong at Articulating concepts to people and when I articulated concepts verbally as opposed to simply writing notes I did much much much better and I found that once you figure out who you are as a learner And what works for you and what doesn't you're then able to develop a good plan moving forward So once you know your strengths and weaknesses as a learner through a lot of self-reflection and maybe discussion with Professional it's time to make a plan and this plan needs to be very Specific to your individuality. The main point. I want to bring in here is to not avoid is it is to avoid Comparison avoid trying to compare yourself to other people even if they also have a similar Disability and challenges. I know I mentioned that specific peers might be able to help you with your own challenges But at the end of the day, we are our own people. We are our own unique Individual human being with our own specific needs We do have a video available on how to avoid comparisons that goes into much more detail But the main point I wanted to drive home is to not be afraid if your specific plan is different from your peers When I was studying for the MCAT since I was testing over multiple days the Practice schedule the practice test schedule that I had was much different from my peers and the amount of tests I was taking per week and when I started was very different And I had to remind myself that that's okay because I am on my own time Remember that at the end of the day we need to find strategies and a plan that works for us And there's nothing wrong with our plan being just a little bit different if it works for you it works for you and Ultimately, we just want to all succeed on the MCAT and who cares if that's just a little bit different from our peers Lastly trust yourself. You know yourself best Like I said put in a lot of time to really learn who you are as a learner Your strengths your weaknesses and your areas for growth and improvement I know that there's nothing wrong with learning differently. There's nothing wrong with having a different plan There's nothing wrong with taking a little bit more time or maybe needing to take a little bit more breaks than someone else If it works for you Then I'm happy that you were able to find those strategies and know that that's okay, even if it's just a little bit different Lastly, I want you to know like I mentioned earlier that you are not alone Myself as well as everyone at the MCAT mastery team is here to support you MCAT mastery tutors have Experienced working one-on-one with individuals and students just like you who might have struggled with Anything of them cat related to preparing with a learning disability whether that's helped with accommodations Maybe specific challenges to reading math numbers Whatever it is. We're here to help you. Lastly, I highly recommend signing up for the email newsletters For me during my prep. I found that the email newsletters which shines success stories and stories of people who overcame difficult Difficult challenges and obstacles in the MCAT journey I found that these were very helpful to show me an inspiring Inspiring stories someone who made it for me a lot of times I had a hard time envisioning that I could ever get over that hill I could ever get past that will black and by reading every single day or every few days about People just like me my age and similar stages of life who had experienced similar struggles and got through it Reading that and seeing that in videos format and everything really helped me a lot So I want you to know that you are not alone and that everyone here in the team supports you take care and good luck with your MCAT One 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 MCAT mastery 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 look at your situation and help you identify exactly what's holding your score back You can look into that too at MCAT mastery net slash 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 got this