best classes to prep for MCAT

[Hercules]

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I know the MCAT's are a ways away, but I was interested in taking a little poll of the premeds who have already taken the MCAT. What classes (besides the required ones) do you think should be taken prior to the MCAT?

Here are mine:
1) Deductive Logic - If you understand logic, most of the verbal reasoning questions are a breeze

2) Human Biology - I know they say you don't need it, but it sure seemed to pop up all over the place

 

[doctor_sig]

Logic (the way it's offered at my school) would not really help on the MCAT. Verbal resoning questions set forth a pretty standard answer that they expexct from you. And the subject matter didn't really lend itself to conjecture. I got an A in logic (in the philosophy dept, not math), but i didn't see myself using it as I did the verbal questions. As far as human bio, you should get all the basics from your MCAT pre-reqs. I think it would be better to understand the concepts behind the info than just the info you get in human bio. Also, a good upper level cell bio course (like immunology) seemed pretty helpful to me.

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Dr. Sig
*disclaimer* All opinions are worth
what you paid for them.

 

[Hercules]

I'm surprised logic didn't help you. At my school, Deductive Logic focuses a lot on arguments. All those VR questions that ask which of the following would best/worst support the author's argument were straight premises questions. In other words the authors argument was based on 2 premises which of the choices below contradict/support these premises.

As for the Human Bio, you do get all the basics in the pre-reqs, but I'm glad I had that Human Bio to both refresh my memory and fill in some details that were skipped in the intro-courses (Endocrinology).

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Hercules

But there is also a time for sleeping.
-Odysseus in the Odyssey 11.330-331

 

[Sheon]

For the MCAT it seemed to me that the more chemistry the better. Organic, Inorganic, Biochem, etc. Chemistry popped up on every section even in questions that appeared to be biology when you looked at them.

Also, Algebra seemed to be useful as well. I hadn't taken Algebra for about 8 years before taking the MCAT, and some of the questions that required me to spend several minutes calculating would've been obvious if I had remembered logarhthims.

 

[Socceroo4ever]

Why again am I taking a logic class? I suppose this (math) logic isn't going to help one bit: there won't be any proofs by induction or contrapositive on the MCAT, will there? 🙂

My two cents: without having taken the MCAT, and without relying on what people on these posts have said, I would recommend advanced chem and cell biology, both of which have already been mentioned. I don't think the verbal reasoning section is half as important as the rest of the test, so in my mind, I don't imagine taking any courses to boostthat section would be cost-justified. I do insist that writing be one of your strong points: spelling, grammar, etc. A perfectly organised and structured essay looks awful with every fifth word mispelled!

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Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night,
God said "Let Newton be," and all was light.

-- Alexander Pope

 

[Hercules]

Socceroo,
You said two things that I've never heard before. 1) Verbal Reasoning is not equally weighted to the other two sections. 2) The Writing section actually matters.

I've always heard the VR section is at least as important as the other two, especially since it's the one that most pre-meds tank. VR is supposed to be a key section because it tests how well you comprehend new material. I know the science section passage questions are supposed to be new material, but c'mon they look a lot more familiar than an essay about the drawbacks of intellectualism in anthropology.

I've also always heard that the writing section is useless b/c most schools don't really know what to do with your writing score (besides they'll see how you write when you send them your AMCAS and secondaries). Most med school rankings (like U.S. News) don't even report an average for the writing section.

Just my $0.02

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Hercules

But there is also a time for sleeping.
-Odysseus in the Odyssey 11.330-331

 

[Besyonek]

Socceroo,

I think you have it backwards with respect to the VR and Writing sections. Verbal reasoning is the key to the entire exam. If you cannot read quickly and insightfully, you will have difficulty with both the BS and PS sections as well. Incidentally, if you ask around, the VR section seems to be the one that keeps people out of med school. I know quite a few students who did reasonably well (10+) on the BS and PS sections, but couldn't get more than a 7 on the VR. Needless to say, your odds of getting an interview are a bit long.

The writing section doesn't seem to matter much to the adcoms, except if the applicant's native language is not English. Get the mean on this section (which shouldn't be too difficult) and you're fine. On the other hand, the verbal section turns out to be the bete noire of many otherwise excellent applicants.