By Carleen Eaton, M.D.

To a writer, there is nothing more intimidating than being faced with a blank screen. That sight induces the average person to check their e-mail, browse the web, grab a snack and do just about anything to avoid having to type a single character. While this technique will keep you in touch with your friends and ensure that you are up to date on breaking news, it won’t get your personal statement written – or at least not very quickly.

At this point, you may not be ready to sit down and write your entire personal statement for the AMCAS application; however, it is not too early to start generating ideas and jotting those down. This way, you will avoid the dreaded blank screen and will instead be sitting down to a page full of notes and thoughts that will get you going.  In later entries, I’ll discuss how to choose among these ideas and shape them into a focused, engaging piece of writing.

As you begin this process, keep in mind that the personal statement is not meant to be a recap of every activity, award, class and achievement that you have had in your premedical career. Instead, this is your chance to describe to the committee why you want to be a physician, what qualities you posses that would make you a good physician and help them to get to know who you are beyond just your GPA and MCAT score.

Instead of turning the personal statement into a resume, choose a few of the more interesting, unique or meaningful experiences you have had and discuss those in greater depth. A fundamental principle of good writing is to “show don’t tell.” Use anecdotes and examples to illustrate your message. After all, saying “I am a hard worker.” is pretty boring, whereas stating “Although my shift had ended hours earlier, I stayed on, caught up in the intensity of the ER.” is more compelling and personal.

The anecdotes you use don’t need to be overly dramatic and can be culled from both your medical and non-medical experiences. The first step is to jot down memorable events and situations. The best scenarios are those that that illustrate a point about your motivation to enter medicine or the skills and qualities that make you a great fit for the profession. These could be anything from recalling the day you finally got results from your research, to the first time you set foot in the O.R., or making it to the finals with your cross country team.

This process takes time, but by writing down ideas as they come, you are developing a list of examples to draw from later on. With a little inspiration, and a lot of proofreading, you can turn your notes into a great personal statement that will grab the reader’s attention, keep them interested and leave them ready to offer you an interview so that they can find out more.

By Carleen Eaton, M.D.

You’ve shadowed four physicians, volunteered in a hospital, a free clinic, a private practice and even got to observe in the OR a couple of times. Next on your list: research. It may not hold the same appeal for you as being in the hospital, but should you do it anyway? Or can you pass on this particular premed opportunity?

While research experience is not absolutely necessary in order to be a competitive applicant, it is a good idea and something the majority of applicant do.  The problem is, while you love seeing patients and being in the midst of the excitement of the E.R. or the intensity of the O.R., you might be not be thrilled imagining yourself stuck in a lab for hours on end running gels and hoping for results. My advice - give it a try.  With your own project, an interesting topic and a bit of luck you can develop a sense of ownership and enthusiasm that will carry you through the drudgery and into the excitement of actual results.

Finding a lab to work in usually isn’t too difficult if you are willing to volunteer. Labs are often happy to have some extra help. If there is a class you enjoyed, talk to the professor, or go to the department you are interested in and ask if there any labs taking undergraduate volunteers. You can also look for paid work as a lab assistant, and while you may start out washing glassware and stocking reagents, if you are eager and interested, you are in the right place to have a chance to do some research as either part of your job or after hours on a volunteer basis.

Also, remember, that “research” is a very broad term. Bench research is great, but if you really don’t think it’s your thing, get involved in a clinical study instead. Your duties could include recruiting or interviewing patients or analyzing the data after it is gathered. These studies have the direct clinical relevance and patient contact that some premedical students find more appealing than basic research.

Since research, by its nature, takes time and consistency, one year on a single project is more valuable than three months each spent in four different labs. If you find something that you can delve into, then poster presentations, conferences and even publications can result. These are rewarding and certainly an asset to your application.

Besides broadening your application, a glimpse into the world of research will give you a perspective into how medical advances are made. This is good knowledge to have since you will eventually be the one prescribing these newly discovered medications and treatments as a physician. So, look up the professor from last semester who gave the intriguing lecture on the virulence factors of Bordetella pertussis and see if you can get a chance to get your hands on some beakers and Bunsen burners.

By Carleen Eaton, M.D.

This week, I am focusing on the section of the MCAT that is most often dreaded by test takers: verbal reasoning. After years of science classes, formulas, calculations and memorization, you are up against a section that flashcards simply cannot help you with. For some test takers, this section comes naturally; the English majors among you may not see what the big deal is. However, for many test takers, VR is the most challenging section. As a result some myths have developed regarding this section of the test, such as:

“Med schools don’t care that much about the verbal score”

Not true. They care a lot about each section. In fact, the verbal section gives the schools information about how you can analyze and interpret new information, whereas the science sections are about memorizing facts and applying those to various scenarios.

“You can’t study for the verbal reasoning section. Either you are good at it or you’re not.”

After years of having taught the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT course I can say with certainty that you can study for the verbal section. The preparation for this section is different than for the other sections, but it is very possible to improve your score.

To achieve a great score on VR, make sure you do the following:

Begin preparing early: If years of reading textbooks that contain mainly numbers and symbols has atrophied your ability to read anything comprised solely of words quickly and accurately, then you need to start practicing to regain that skill. Make reading a daily habit. Focus on good works of fiction, news articles, journals and anything else that is well written and complex. Go to your college library and pick up some journals on art history, political science, psychology or just about anything else and spend at least a half hour a day reading them. For science topics, look for articles geared towards a nonscientist.

Dedicate time to the VR section during your MCAT studies. Reading each day is a good start for preparing for VR, but you also need to do many MCAT practice passages to be ready for test day. Set aside study time for the VR section just as you do for the other sections of the test. Too often, the days slip by and the study time gets split up 50-50 between the physical and biological sciences sections with the VR getting put off for later. Make a study schedule and block out times to practice VR.  And don’t forget to actually stick to the schedule!

Work on your timing – One of the most frequent causes of a low score VR is running out of time, leaving one, two or more passages incomplete or answered through random guessing.  Time yourself and see how long it takes you to complete a passage. Then figure out the difference between that time and the time you should take to complete a passage. Now, slowly bring that time down.  Try to knock 30 seconds off the time, then 60 and so on. Often, accuracy does not suffer as much as you would think by going faster, and the time saved will allow you to complete all of the passages, giving you a shot at a truly high score.

Now you have a good excuse to break away from your chemistry book and read something else. Just don’t take it too far and spend your time perusing celebrity gossip sites on the Internet or checking scores in the sports section of the paper. That is not studying. Not even for verbal reasoning.