AP Psychology VS College Level/Course Psychology

[bsneuroscience]

Hello all, I will be entering my first year of university this fall, and although I probably won't be planning to take Psychology within my first year (maybe a summer class???), I wanted to get some opinions on what I should do:

I was a junior and I took AP Psychology last year & thoroughly enjoyed it and worked hard in that class. I received an A for the year & a 5 on the exam which transfers to the university I'm going to.

I know the MCAT now requires students' knowledge of sociology and psychology topics and I was wondering if I should take the same psych class over (to brush up on topics), more psych classes (to learn other aspects of psych and not just general psych), or should I just buy one of those MCAT review psych books??

Also, what KIND of psych is tested on the MCAT? General? Abnormal? etc.

Thanks again!!

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[AllBleedingStops]

same psych class over (to brush up on topics),

This will not help you (for other classes or the MCAT).

more psych classes

Only if you are interested in the topic. Minors are usually easy to pick up in this area.

should I just buy one of those MCAT review psych books

You should do this eventually no matter what. Start looking at different books around your junior year.

 

[bsneuroscience]

This will not help you (for other classes or the MCAT).


Only if you are interested in the topic. Minors are usually easy to pick up in this area.


You should do this eventually no matter what. Start looking at different books around your junior year.

So taking a psych class won't help me in college (unless it's for my major) since I've already taken psych & did well in it?? I wasn't planning on taking any extra psych courses (again, unless my major requires me too & it does) unless it helps me with the MCAT in some way or if I was missing something. Do people usually get more review books for something they never took a class in?

 

[AllBleedingStops]

So taking a psych class won't help me in college (unless it's for my major) since I've already taken psych & did well in it?? I wasn't planning on taking any extra psych courses (again, unless my major requires me too & it does) unless it helps me with the MCAT in some way or if I was missing something. Do people usually get more review books for something they never took a class in?

I don't understand most of your response. Your first 2 sentences are confusing. Also, your last question makes no sense - you did take psych. Can you clarify?

I didn't see your username before so it looks like you probably will take some overlapping psych courses anyway based on that. As far as the following:

Also, what KIND of psych is tested on the MCAT? General? Abnormal? etc.

Really just basic concepts and definitions. I found memorizing bull**** definitions for psych terms more high yield in terms of MCAT stuff than my psych minor (which has actually been useful in other, more clinically oriented applications).

EDIT: Gonnif has a point. But again, I think you will end up taking some psych classes based on your major.

 

[Blanky]

This will not help you (for other classes or the MCAT).


Only if you are interested in the topic. Minors are usually easy to pick up in this area.


You should do this eventually no matter what. Start looking at different books around your junior year.

This reply is perfect.
Mcat psych review books cna be helpful, although I found Anki (with Premed95s deck from reddit) to be a powerful tool for Psych (as well as other mcat topics.)
I took classes after I took the psych CLEP like cognition, psychology of motivation, and others and enjoyed them!

 

[TheBiologist]

I took AP psych credit and was fine

p.s. am i the only one seeing all posts in bold?

 

[bsneuroscience]

Check MSAR as some medical schools require psych but also some medical schools do not accept AP credits

I thought that was usually for the science prereqs like some students can take AP Biology & AP Chemistry, get a 4 or 5, and not have to take the first sequence in college? Does that also go for math & humanity courses?

 

[AllBleedingStops]

I thought that was usually for the science prereqs like some students can take AP Biology & AP Chemistry, get a 4 or 5, and not have to take the first sequence in college? Does that also go for math & humanity courses?

Again, varies by school. Some have very specific rules about what they accept and don't accept in regard to AP.

 

[bsneuroscience]

I don't understand most of your response. Your first 2 sentences are confusing. Also, your last question makes no sense - you did take psych. Can you clarify?

I didn't see your username before so it looks like you probably will take some overlapping psych courses anyway based on that. As far as the following:
Really just basic concepts and definitions. I found memorizing bull**** definitions for psych terms more high yield in terms of MCAT stuff than my psych minor (which has actually been useful in other, more clinically oriented applications).

EDIT: Gonnif has a point. But again, I think you will end up taking some psych classes based on your major.

Sorry I wasn't clear, I took an AP Psych course, got a 5, and it counts as credit in my university as one of the pre-med prerequisites and I wasn't sure if I should take the class again anyways (for a refresh) or should I just go on to take my other courses and just make sure I get some good review books for Psych (because by the time the MCAT comes around, the last time I would've taken psych would be 5 yrs ago if I was in my junior year of college). I'm assuming your response would just be to move on and continue with the other psych courses my major requires me to take.

 

[bsneuroscience]

This reply is perfect.
Mcat psych review books cna be helpful, although I found Anki (with Premed95s deck from reddit) to be a powerful tool for Psych (as well as other mcat topics.)
I took classes after I took the psych CLEP like cognition, psychology of motivation, and others and enjoyed them!

Thank you! I just wanted to be sure I didn't need to take a whole psych class all over again in terms of reviewing for the MCAT where I can just use my review books to look over concepts I learned already from my AP Psych class.

 

[bsneuroscience]

I took AP psych credit and was fine

p.s. am i the only one seeing all posts in bold?

I saw them all in bold earlier but it's fine now. And I hope the same goes for me in terms with the AP psych credit ahah, I've only seen schools go against AP credit for only science classes which is why I didn't bother taking my AP Chem exam.

 

[Blanky]

The AP psych should not block you from anywhere as far as I'm aware.
I would recommend taking the basic sciences even if you took AP during high school. You will better learn the information and the performance will strengthen your GPA.

 

[bsneuroscience]

The AP psych should not block you from anywhere as far as I'm aware.
I would recommend taking the basic sciences even if you took AP during high school. You will better learn the information and the performance will strengthen your GPA.

Yeah, I took AP Chem but was planning to retake it during college anyways- I was just wondering if many medical schools made students retake English or social sciences courses during high school. I took a dual enrollment English composition class during HS and received an A so I'm not sure what admissions might think about it? I was planning to take an English lit class in college anyway so I hope that will even it out.

 

[Blanky]

If you check MSAR, you can see which schools. I cannot think of any that don't take clep or AP English. You also likely have to take English 2 and other writing courses in college.

 

[bsneuroscience]

If you check MSAR, you can see which schools. I cannot think of any that don't take clep or AP English. You also likely have to take English 2 and other writing courses in college.

Yeah my case is a little different since I didn't take CLEP or AP English- I took dual enrollment English which has credits with my local community college and DOES transfer over to the university that I'll be attending in the fall.

 

[bsneuroscience]

I also took AP psych in high school. Throughout undergrad I also took biopsychology and human sexuality of psych. Then just reviewed a ton of high-yield psych concepts from the MCAT review books. Psych & Soc on the MCAT seemed to be a ton of memorization, statistics, & abnormal psychology. As far as your English course, I took dual enrollment English in high school and ended up just taking one more english class in college because my program required me to. Hope this helps!

Thank you! I was planning on reviewing high-yield concepts for the MCAT during my junior year and I was also planning on taking one more English class (literature) because the second semester of my dual enrollment class doesn't transfer to my university. I hope I'm in the same situation with you with the English class you had to take and that I don't need to take anymore ahaha.

 

[Blanky]

My point was it won’t matter anyways, not for English.

 

[jd989898]

I took AP credit for psych and found that the material overlapped quite nicely with the Kaplan psych review for the MCAT.