Extent of physiology/organ systems on MCAT?

[AnchorDown3]

I've taken two physiology courses as part of my major curriculum, and I was wondering if the MCAT is pretty high yield when it comes to organ systems. I feel like I learned them pretty well in my classes, but I wanted to get input from people who have already taken the test and took similar classes.

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[ryanr]

I found physiology/organ systems to be pretty decently high yield overall in the Bio section through doing practice the AAMC practice tests etc, but a lot of the stuff was usually passage based. Endocrine physiology is definitely high yield (know those hormones)

I did not take physiology nor anatomy before my MCAT and did perfectly fine, you can definitely get everything you need to know out of a test prep book, though having taken physiology definitely will help and you probably learned things in much more detail than you will need to apply for the MCAT.

 

[mcatjelly]

I found physiology/organ systems to be pretty decently high yield overall in the Bio section through doing practice the AAMC practice tests etc, but a lot of the stuff was usually passage based. Endocrine physiology is definitely high yield (know those hormones)

I did not take physiology nor anatomy before my MCAT and did perfectly fine, you can definitely get everything you need to know out of a test prep book, though having taken physiology definitely will help and you probably learned things in much more detail than you will need to apply for the MCAT.

You took the old MCAT, not the new one, so this advice isn't as relevant as it used to be.

OP, physiology is no longer emphasized to the extent it was on the old MCAT. As long as you make sure to review the concepts and topics covered on the study guide and understand the basics of the various organ systems, you'll be fine. Your two physiology courses probably provided you with a good foundation.

 

[Dreamstoo]

You took the old MCAT, not the new one, so this advice isn't as relevant as it used to be.

OP, physiology is no longer emphasized to the extent it was on the old MCAT. As long as you make sure to review the concepts and topics covered on the study guide and understand the basics of the various organ systems, you'll be fine. Your two physiology courses probably provided you with a good foundation.

Bummer, I actually enjoyed the physiology portion on the old MCAT.

 

[mcatjelly]

Bummer, I actually enjoyed the physiology portion on the old MCAT.

I know, it's usually the stuff most relevant to medicine. All I know is, I didn't have to know a single hormone on my exam and my only two physiology questions were discretes. I might be forgetting something but I remember being very surprised at the lack of physiology. Though given the discrepancy in orgo and physics across the first few examinations, I'm sure someone, somewhere will be blasted with physiology on their test day.

 

[bee17]

I always think of kidneys, repro, neuro, and respiratory systems as high-yield. However, as the new test is focused on biochemistry, I would especially know the biochemical aspects of those systems. Examples: how do action potentials fire in neurons, blood buffer system, nephron filtration, etc.