When enduring any traumatic experience, one can always refer to Elizabeth Kubler Ross' grief cycle. I'm pretty sure I went through this cycle a couple times during my studies leading up to the end of this week.
Denial - I signed up for this test in early March. That's plenty of time to study. There was always more time so might as well do something else like focus on the classes I am taking this semester. I may not be studying for the MCAT, but at least I'm not a lazy ass doing nothing. I'm still being productive. That counts for something right?
Anger - Early April rolls around. Wait, what happened to March? It was just here like a second ago. Crap, better get studying . I continue to do the practice tests. I do terrible. I'm pissed, frustrated, and don't know what to do. I freak out and decide that I need a new strategy. Screw reading the sections on Physics, just memorize the hell out of the formulas. Big mistake here. I haven't taken Physics since 2003 and most of those ideas had escaped me. I didn't realize it until last week and this will probably hurt me on the test.
Depression - Week before test. I take two full length tests (~5 hours each) 3 days apart. My scores are going down. I'm burnt out. I can't think straight. Anything I try to digest in my mind gets spit up again. I feel like a zombie walking around all the time and can't find the energy to study. Time is running out and I can't even get it together. I'm going to fail this thing and I'm going to fail at life.
Bargaining - I'm freaking out man. I'm totally unprepared for this thing and it is coming up fast. Okay. Calm down, it's only a test. I can retake it right? Hell yeah I can. Sure it'll cost me $225 but that's the cost of business. One of the bad habits I picked up during my working years is, if you have a problem, throw money at it. For this case, it kinda works.
Acceptance - After the mini-crisis and gorging on green chile cheese fries, I've come to accept what's going to happen in a couple days. I completed most of the tasks on the victory agenda. I should have read through the prep books a little more thoroughly, and I didn't do practice test 10, but that's okay. I'll go over some more stuff with the time I have left at a leisurely pace so I can actually understand it and go watch a movie the night before.
At this point I would direct you to the book I've written in order to capitalize on my experience. You know the saying: no pain, no gain.
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