Physical Sciences- More Physics or Chemistry?

[GreekPre-Med]

To all you who took the MCAT recently,

Was the physical science section more Physics or Chemistry? KAPLAN's High Yield Physics problems seem almost impossible for myself and alot of people that I know. Were problems on the MCAT similar to this or easier/harder.

Was it necessary to know all of the formulas that Kaplan and even Examcrackers tell you to memorize? I would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

Emmanuel

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[Potato!]

I wrote the August MCAT, and on my test form chemistry and physics were weighted pretty equally. I did not take the Kaplan course, but I did study primarily for the big Kaplan book. If I were you I would know (and understand) all the major formulas. For the most part, it's easy to know which ones you need to know and which you don't. For instances, all that crap about sheer forces and compression forces, etc....is a waste of brain space in my opinion. Know the ones that you were taught in your undergrad. Start writing practise tests and if a question comes up for which you do not know the formula, then go ahead and add it to that list in your head. I have no experience with Examcrackers, so cannot comment on them.

I'm guessing (but don't necessarily know) that the problems on the real MCAT are more straight forward than those in Kaplan's high yield physics. You'll get a feel for it when you start writing real practise tests. Your main enemy in this test is not difficult questions, it's time. If you had double the amount of time, you would most likely get most of the questions correct (40+). The MCAT folks can't give you problems which are too excruciatingly difficult, because these would be far too time consuming...so don't worried too much about difficult, multi-step physics problems. If you do come across one of these on the MCAT, you'd probably be better off to skip it, than spend 5 minutes on it and get it wrong anyway. Good lucK!

 

[QofQuimica]

To all you who took the MCAT recently,

Was the physical science section more Physics or Chemistry? KAPLAN's High Yield Physics problems seem almost impossible for myself and alot of people that I know. Were problems on the MCAT similar to this or easier/harder.

Was it necessary to know all of the formulas that Kaplan and even Examcrackers tell you to memorize? I would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

Emmanuel

The MCAT PS section is evenly split between physics and general chemistry, and you need to work on both subjects in order to do well on this section. The Kaplan high-yield problems aren't supposed to mimic MCAT style questions. They are meant to deepen your understanding of concepts that tend to get tested, as well as give you tips on how to solve problems in general. Being able to solve these problems will help you learn the kind of reasoning skills that get tested on the MCAT, even though the problems you see on the actual test will not be as involved, like a previous poster said. Make sure that you do not use the green book until AFTER you've completed your physics preview and attended your physics class session. If you are still having trouble working through the problems after reviewing all of this material, ask your instructor for help.

 

[45408]

Um, formulas....I never sat down and memorized any new formulas for the MCAT, but I don't remember how many I just used from when I'd learned them in physics and gen chem in the first place.

As for difficulty, I thought that the Kaplan PS and MCAT PS were pretty dang close. My highest Kaplan PS score (which I got twice) was the same as my actual MCAT score.