Best non required classes to prepare for MCAT

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RNtoMD87

RNtoMD87

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What are the best classes I could optionally take in order to really knock the MCAT out of the park?
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Biochem is required for my school I have my eye on. Anything like immunology, advanced maths, etc?

Ill have to look into taking genetics. That does seem very useful.
 
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RNtoMD87 said:
Biochem is required for my school I have my eye on. Anything like immunology, advanced maths, etc?

Ill have to look into taking genetics. That does seem very useful.
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The MCAT only test knowledge you would get from 2 semesters of an introductory course. My Kaplan instructor told me that people often do the worst in the section they major in because they over think it. Just food for thought.

The more math you know, the more you’ll want to use it which you shouldn’t do on the MCAT
 
Sounds a lot like my nursing exams. I learned that there was a happy medium. Don't know enough and youd do terrible. Know too much and you can talk yourself into thinking any answer was right, and made the test extremely hard as well.
 
So far I've taken Psych 101, and 102, (2 intro psychs) and 204 (Developmental psych/lifespan psych) which were prereqs for nursing.
 
Okay I have soc 101, Zoo 1+2 with labs and Medical Micro with lab

also stats.
 
Outside of the required pre-req courses for med school (which you should definitely take before taking the MCAT, no exceptions), I think the classes I found most useful in MCAT studying were probably physiology, genetics, and molecular bio so I'd recommend those if you're deciding what to take for your major. I didn't take endocrinology but that would have been helpful as well. You can definitely do really well without taking these classes in undergrad and just studying from a set of review books so if you're going to spend a bunch of money to take the classes I don't think it's worth it personally. I had to take these classes as restricted electives for my major and found them helpful when it came time for the MCAT. I got a 514 so take that as you will 🙂
 
I feel that Physiology and Sociology gave me an extreme edge! Especially sociology. I attribute sociology to my 96 percentile psych/soc section
 
RNtoMD87 said:
Sounds a lot like my nursing exams. I learned that there was a happy medium. Don't know enough and youd do terrible. Know too much and you can talk yourself into thinking any answer was right, and made the test extremely hard as well.
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At least on the MCAT there's only one right answer per question!

Seconding the recommendation for genetics. My MCAT was very genetics heavy... genetics topics came up in C/P, B/B, and Psych/Soc sections.


Hmm, and seeing you talk about previous Psych stuff... not good enough. My first bachelor's degree was in Psych and I took a ton of sociology classes as well when I got that degree. It was my second worst section. Don't let having taken something before trick you into thinking you still remember it. If it was long enough ago, you don't remember it well enough to fall back on it.
 
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I took basic pathophysiology while I was studying for the MCAT. Great physio review, and gave me a better idea of how to think about some of the passages on the bio section.
 
Molecular, cell, genetics, biochem, human physiology...these would all be excellent prep.

On the other hand, I had only taken molecular and cell before my MCAT and took these other classes after it, so if you're good at self-studying, you can do well enough either way IMHO. Just depends on your learning style.
 
GoBlue2019 said:
My experience with sociology was quite the opposite. Witnessing first-hand the horribly opinionated, subjective, and massively flawed field of sociology helped me see all of the gaping holes in the liberal mindset. I went from politically neutral to very conservative over the course of intro soc haha.
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"As you can see by this data, we will accept this correlation" *randomly assorted scatterplot with no clear relationship aside from the axis titles and my professor's politics agenda*".

Taking sociology also made me more conservative. I'll never forget the exclamatory, "all white men are pigs!" statement from a fellow student, getting an affirmatory nod from my male, white professor as the 99 percent female classroom murmured their agreement.
 
Welshman said:
The more math you know, the more you’ll want to use it which you shouldn’t do on the MCAT
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Considering math and stats majors have the highest median mcat, I’m going to say this isn’t true. I haven’t taken my MCAT yet, but I have a math degree and the critical thinking and logic skills I learned getting it have really been useful on my FLs.

That said, I wouldn’t waste time taking a bunch of upper level math courses. Stats will be helpful for fulfilling med school prereqs and for the MCAT though.

Edited for grammar.
 
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I think the best actual preparation for the MCAT (beyond core classes) would be volunteering in labs in the chem and bio departments. So many of the passages in the CP and BB sections are based on the spectrum of mostly basic laboratory techniques used in the chemical and biomedical sciences. MALDI, HPLC, SDS-PAGE, spectrophotometry, titration, ITC/CITC, flow cytometry, etc. Being familiar with these types of experiments through first-hand experience means you have so much less to process in the 2-3 minutes you have to skim a passage.
 
physiology (biochemistry is required at a lot of schools)
neurobiology
immunology
 
Welshman said:
Would 10000% not recommend sociology unless you want to become a liberal, it happened to me fam
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I don't think the becoming a liberal part is a problem but rather the propaganda and lies they shove down our throats. I was tempted to question the professor during every lecture but I constantly had to tell myself:

Only one semester of this, get the A then get out. Don't get on the professors bad side.

For OP:

I recommend text heavy courses in literature if your a science major for the CARS section. Check your University's physics I and II, if it doesn't contain all the concepts on the MCAT you might have to self teach yourself or take a class specifically on that offered at your university.
 
I've learned long ago just keep my mouth shut and keep my opinions to myself. If the Army and nursing has taught me anything, I've become really good at reading what people want to hear, and just feeding it back to them in different words. Plus paying attention to "key words" that they use and repeating those words back to them.

If I'm already a strong reader (I enjoy reading works by authors such as Nietzsche and Machiavelli, as well as reading ancient philosophy such as Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Musashi, and Munenori for fun. Comprehension is a strong point for me) do you still feel this is important?
 
Ayyye an anti-sociology circle jerk? Guess I'll join. I just got my grade back from my sociology class and I ended up getting an A-. I'm a lot saltier than I thought I would be. The cut off for an A was 93.5% so I would have needed to do 22% better than I actually did on the final. I think I'm just mad at the fact that I actually took the class. The class was painful by the way and you don't even need to be a conservative* to realize the some of the things being taught are wrong.
 
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Its a very easy class if you just tell the instructor what he wants to hear. It was one of my easiest As, and the class I learned the least of. Ahh pseudosciences...
 
RNtoMD87 said:
Its a very easy class if you just tell the instructor what he wants to hear. It was one of my easiest As, and the class I learned the least of. Ahh pseudosciences...
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This class was mostly tests so there wasn't much sucking up to do. There was only 1 paper worth 5% of the total grade and I basically wrote the TA what she wanted to see. We had to use our "sociological imagination" and basically blame as many people as possible other than the people in the crappy situation. This is my second gripe to sociology (behind its ignorance of basic scientific facts): no accountability whatsoever. This homeless person smokes crack and and heroin and robs and shoplifts for a living? Oh no it's actually society that made them do this and making them think it's their fault for being there is "symbolic violence." It's honestly unbelievable.
 
doctorcocter said:
This class was mostly tests so there wasn't much sucking up to do. There was only 1 paper worth 5% of the total grade and I basically wrote the TA what she wanted to see. We had to use our "sociological imagination" and basically blame as many people as possible other than the people in the crappy situation. This is my second gripe to sociology (behind its ignorance of basic scientific facts): no accountability whatsoever. This homeless person smokes crack and and heroin and robs and shoplifts for a living? Oh no it's actually society that made them do this and making them think it's their fault for being there is "symbolic violence." It's honestly unbelievable.
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Yep. I was military police in the Army, and was planning on doing criminal justice when I got out. Criminal justice is the same thing except instead of placing blame on society for minorities shortcomings, it places the blame on society for criminals shortcomings. Basically sociology with a twist.
 
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Any humanities class that teaches you critical analysis and reading comprehension. The MCAT is basically 7 hours of reading comprehension spread across 4 different subjects. Bonus if you have to read and write a lot, as you'll get a lot faster at those too.
 
moggat said:
Any humanities class that teaches you critical analysis and reading comprehension. The MCAT is basically 7 hours of reading comprehension spread across 4 different subjects. Bonus if you have to read and write a lot, as you'll get a lot faster at those too.
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Ive taken many humanities but none ever required true critical thinking. It was more propaganda and brainwashing than "reaching your own conclusion". Especially in nursing. Its not really "learning" but just indoctrination.

For nursing remember: Doctors are the enemy. We must stand up against the patriarchial doctors for our profession and women' sake. Guns are bad and should be banned. Smoking should be illegal and we need to push for legislation against it. We need to legislate for healthier food, we have to stop food companies from taking advantage of people who aren't smart enough to know whats healthy to eat. Socialized medicine is the answer; this is fact, not opinion.

My first couple semesters of RN-BSN I really enjoyed finding different journal articles and coming up with a deep analysis of the subject matter, but I kept being told "This is doctoral level analysis, but your APA formatting needs work (never learned APA, we did MLA in school). I started just bsing a 5 page paper in an hour or so, and making sure the APA formatting was perfect. Got 100s every time, compared to the 85-90s I was making with "Doctoral level analysis". This is why education frustrates me so. I'm so excited about learning real science and truly "learning".
 
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