Take a Physiology Class for the MCAT? Makes sense?

[Aelius]

I'm looking over the physiology content in the Berekely Review MCAT book and everything looks pretty foreign. The one year of gen bio I took did not touch up most of the physiological topics presented.

Should I take a physiology class over in the fall semester now? I plan to take the last MCAT before they change it in Jan 2015. The reviews of the physiology class at my school state that it is intense with lots of memorization. I'm wondering if taking the class will be overkill and end up hurting me since I will have to dedicate time for the physiology class while taking time away from studying from the MCAT.

What do you guys think? Especially people that actually went through this process. Thanks.

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[HinduHammer]

Having recently taken the mcat and having had to learn physiology by myself, I think taking the physio class would be a good idea. But also remember the cell biology stuff is harder conceptually, so don't neglect that, along with gen chem, orgo, and physics of course.

 

[hawkbit]

I'm taking the MCAT in Jan as well, and am actually going through the BR physiology review right now. I found some videos on Khan academy that so far have been really helpful. Under science, pick the health and medicine topic, most of the topics paralleling BR are covered, in pretty decent detail. You can watch the videos ( I like to watch at 1.5 speed) then go back to BR and read that section, then do some questions.

I actually took A&P, but that was like 10 years ago. How much time do you have available for MCAT study during the week?

 

[Aelius]

I'm taking the MCAT in Jan as well, and am actually going through the BR physiology review right now. I found some videos on Khan academy that so far have been really helpful. Under science, pick the health and medicine topic, most of the topics paralleling BR are covered, in pretty decent detail. You can watch the videos ( I like to watch at 1.5 speed) then go back to BR and read that section, then do some questions.

I actually took A&P, but that was like 10 years ago. How much time do you have available for MCAT study during the week?

My aim is to put in 25 hours a week for the MCAT. Not sure if that is a realistic idea though...

 

[hawkbit]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, depending on how much other stuff you have going on. I just started this week, but I should be able to do 20-25, I have one class this semester, and I work Fri/Sat/Sun, although some of that time is down time (like right now) and I can study (or dick around on SDN).

 

[Aelius]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, depending on how much other stuff you have going on. I just started this week, but I should be able to do 20-25, I have one class this semester, and I work Fri/Sat/Sun, although some of that time is down time (like right now) and I can study (or dick around on SDN).

I'm taking four classes. I allocated 35 hours of studying for those. I'm worried about getting burnt out or not making my goal of 60 productive hours of studying per week. But I figure this is a test in itself, if I really want it, I got to make it work. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is if I should just study physiology on my own or take a class.

 

[hawkbit]

Haha, you make me feel lazy! It does sound like taking on another class may be a little much though. Maybe find a good bio tutor at the school to go through the necessary physiology with you? Would it be possible to audit the class, that way you can pay attention to the things in the AAMC outline and not have to worry about other test trivia?

 

[Being]

My vote is for grabbing the AAMC outline and learning just what you need on your own.

 

[kraskadva]

My vote is for grabbing the AAMC outline and learning just what you need on your own.

^This is what I did, and I feel like I got everything I needed with that and the interwebs. The outlines are pretty specific in what is covered for physiology (more than for the other sections even, I felt)
My cell bio class actually helped much more, since I saw a lot of research methods questions on mine and had covered that in class, whereas that was not mentioned in the outlines.

 

[Atticum]

Lots of schools offer a Human Physiology course. Other school will offer Animal Physiology or something along those lines. I would take one of these. Sometimes they are even pseudo-MCAT prep courses. They will be especially helpful interpreting O2 saturation graphs, understanding action potentials, etc, etc

I would not take A&P. At least where I went, A&P was a pre nursing class and they just crammed the material in without worrying about understanding the concept, which is the exact opposite of how you should prepare for the MCAT.

 

[threesparrows]

Have you taken Biochemistry? Much more helpful for the MCAT than physiology. The MCAT physiology is pretty basic and easy to teach yourself using internet resources, as others have mentioned above.