Being Thrown to the MCAT Beast With Only Four Pre-Med Pre-Reqs as my Armor

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wheyprotein

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Hey, SDNers.

I know this may be moved to the MCAT forum but I did not get enough feedback there.

I was a liberal arts major that only did the four basic pre-med prerequisites (gen chem, orgro, bio, and physics). I have done well in those classes but in all honesty, I lucked out by having professors that went easy on us. Now I am going to be taking my MCATs in May and I want to know if there is any shot I have at doing considerably well on the MCATs (30+) with only the four basic pre-med pre-reqs under my belt.
 
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I only had the four prereqs before taking the MCAT and did fairly well...
 
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wheyprotein said:
Hey, SDNers.

I know this may be moved to the MCAT forum but I did not get enough feedback there.

I was a liberal arts major that only did the four basic pre-med prerequisites (gen chem, orgro, bio, and physics). I have done well in those classes but in all honesty, I lucked out by having professors that went easy on us. Now I am going to be taking my MCATs in May and I want to know if there is any shot I have at doing considerably well on the MCATs (30+) with only the four basic pre-med pre-reqs under my belt.
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You'll be totally fine. Plenty of us were non-bio/chem/physics majors; I'd only taken 1-2 courses beyond the pre-reqs at the time I took the MCAT. The key (this is very important) is to buy a big prep book like the Kaplan "All the Science You Need to Know for the MCAT" book. That's the book I used, and it told me everything I needed to know. It was probably more important to how well I did than all the pre-reqs combined. Also, take as many practice tests as you can. Enormous hulking review book + practice tests = you'll be fine
 
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Second that, the only extra classes I had were Micro and Genetics and I did average.
 
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35 S with nothing significantly MCAT related beyond the prereqs, and I was still finishing orgo and physics. You do not need any classes beyond the four prereqs, but you do need to study review books and do practice questions. Know the basics and be able to use them.
 
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I didn't even have half the pre-reqs and still did pretty decently. I had no orgo and no gen chem II.
 
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wheyprotein said:
Hey, SDNers.

I know this may be moved to the MCAT forum but I did not get enough feedback there.

I was a liberal arts major that only did the four basic pre-med prerequisites (gen chem, orgro, bio, and physics). I have done well in those classes but in all honesty, I lucked out by having professors that went easy on us. Now I am going to be taking my MCATs in May and I want to know if there is any shot I have at doing considerably well on the MCATs (30+) with only the four basic pre-med pre-reqs under my belt.
Click to expand...

most of the posters thus far have made it sound very easy with only half the pre-reqs. I doubt it is that easy for everyone. Take one of the practice tests on e-mcat.com and see how you do. You have lots of time to prep, so you could put a lot of effort into it and probably do ok, but you still would be short 4 classes that you need to get into medical school...why not take them as you prepare for the MCAT and kill two birds with one stone?

If you apply with only the MCAT score and not having completed 4 of the required classes, you may (more than likely) have a difficult time getting in, even if you say you will take them during the application process.
 
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I took only the 4 required pre-med classes and did fine (mid-90th percentile) on the MCAT.

I did feel like I had to study extra hard to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, but it was definitely do-able. I think I studied for about 3hrs/day 5 days/wk for one month before the test.

Good luck.
 
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Elderjack,

I actually DID take complete all of the four basic pre-med classes.
 
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wheyprotein said:
Elderjack,

I actually DID take complete all of the four basic pre-med classes.
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Sorry, I misread your initial post, when you said four, I thought you meant...four. As in four semesters rather than eigth semesters, or 1 year of each.

You will do fine then. I didn't even have as many classes as you have taken, majored in foreign languages and did 30+. Just hit the review books hard.
 
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If you are smart enough to post this in the correct forum, you are smart enough to do fine on the MCAT. Oh wait...:meanie::meanie:

(or the "I know there is organization and rules for a reason, but they don't apply to me because...")
 
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wheyprotein said:
Hey, SDNers.

I know this may be moved to the MCAT forum but I did not get enough feedback there.

I was a liberal arts major that only did the four basic pre-med prerequisites (gen chem, orgro, bio, and physics). I have done well in those classes but in all honesty, I lucked out by having professors that went easy on us. Now I am going to be taking my MCATs in May and I want to know if there is any shot I have at doing considerably well on the MCATs (30+) with only the four basic pre-med pre-reqs under my belt.
Click to expand...

You are more than qualified. Everything on the MCAT is more than covered by those courses and in MCAT books that you can get online(I bought ExamKrackers and used Kaplan/Princeton books). If anything, I would say that your major concern should be timing of the MCAT relative to when you took those classes (If you took those classes fairly recent, then the exam should be be easier for you since you will not have to spend as much time relearning the material). As for me, I took all the prereqs(phys, bio, chem) during my first year of college, and waited till after college to take the MCAT. So it was about a 4 yr difference and I realized I forgot most of the chem and all the physics. It hurt me since I had to spend more time relearning the material and didnt have enough time to do problems/practice tests(I took the MCAT within a short prep time).
So, I think you have a good enough foundation for the MCAT, I would just recommend that you give yourself adequate time to prepare. Everything is covered in the assistance books you can get online, and if anything, probably make it easier to understand than most textbooks/courses.
 
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wheyprotein said:
Hey, SDNers.

I know this may be moved to the MCAT forum but I did not get enough feedback there.

I was a liberal arts major that only did the four basic pre-med prerequisites (gen chem, orgro, bio, and physics). I have done well in those classes but in all honesty, I lucked out by having professors that went easy on us. Now I am going to be taking my MCATs in May and I want to know if there is any shot I have at doing considerably well on the MCATs (30+) with only the four basic pre-med pre-reqs under my belt.
Click to expand...

I think you're actually better off. Sure there's some mobio, biochem and genetics on the test, but they're tested at a pretty basic level. As long as you can self-teach a little and put some serious work into reviewing the basics, you'll be fine. That's what I did and I scored in the high 30's.
 
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You'll be fine with those 4 prereqs since you took them so recently. Have to agree with the previous post about the time gap between taking those classes and trying to prepare for the MCAT.

It will definitely hurt you if you wait too long...in my case, it's been 5-plus years and I don't remember anything from physics, general chem and o chem so the majority of my MCAT prep right now is devoted to *relearning* before I start practicing on timed tests. It's a painful process right now and I have to work harder to 'catch up'.

So you'll do just fine! :luck:
 
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drizzt3117 said:
I only had the four prereqs before taking the MCAT and did fairly well...
Click to expand...

his statement may have been misleading. I would hardly consider a VR 0 BS 0 PS 0 "fairly well". And with the 0.00 GPA I think top 25 is out of the question. Maybe state schools... 😛
 
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