Biochemistry II: Worth it for MCAT?

[philosonista]

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Hi, SDN --

I have to take one more chemistry class for my degree, and one of the choices is Biochemistry II. To those of you that have taken the 2015+ MCAT, did you find biochemistry II helpful? Did you find it not worth the work? Was it harder (i.e. more time consuming) than Biochemistry I?

It's worth noting my biochemistry teacher put the MCAT metabolism stuff sometimes left for Biochem II into Biochem I for the sake of us pre-meds.

 

[deleted407021]

You don't need biochem II for the MCAT, so don't take it if you don't want to. It wouldn't hurt, but it probably wouldn't be terribly helpful, either.

My thinking comes from the fact that the AAMC only recommends a semester of biochemistry. Also, good prep books like the EK manuals will more than adequately prepare you for the exam as far as subjects such as metabolism are concerned.

Anecdotally, I took biochem I, only, and I knew metabolism inside and out by the time the test rolled around. I actually found my upper div. psych classes to be much higher yield than biochem, for my particular exam.

 

[bcemslayer]

I'm a biochemistry major, and many of my classes focus on reading papers and collecting information from passages and figures. My biochem classes have definitely been the most helpful for the bio section; for my analytical skills, if not the content. But I was lucky enough to have a lot of biochem in both the physics and bio section.

tl;dr - take the class.

 

[FMDoge2020]

If your biochem1 content covers all the MCAT topics outlined by the AAMC, then I don't recommend taking it unless you are interested in that particular course topic.

 

[dreamadream]

I've heard that biochem 1 will do just fine.

 

[Lucca]

I'm not sure what Biochem II means since that could be one of any like 10 courses at my uni. If it's a research-focused / literature based course like any of the ones offered here then I would say take it because it can help. Absolutely not necessary though. Taking psych would make studying a lot easier