Biology advice please

[glassdoll]

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Hey guys! This is a question for those of you who have taken the beast--do you think it would've helped more to have a thorough understanding of biology or would it be more important to know how to tackle experimental passages?

Sorry, I know this is a dumb question because ideally you would want both. But I only have a few days to dedicate to biology before my exam next week and am trying to decide if I want to read the entire TPR biology book to feel solid on details, or if I want to do more science workbook and BR passages. On my AAMCs I've been missing a bunch of detail oriented questions like (AAMC 11 spoiler) the different types of joints and how T cells get activated.

Again, sorry that this is a dumb question, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask for advice. Thanks!

 

[glassdoll]

Right, I was thinking it'd take around 2 days. And I was leaning towards the content review, but I get scared when I see bio grad students posting about how they had no idea what was going on. Then I think, oh well, knowing details is not useful so all I can do is work on my logic skills

 

[gtbROX]

I recommend skipping the reviewing/reading and go straight to the science drills in the online content, if you have that, if not just take practice tests and analyze each an every answer choice of every problem whether you got them right or wrong. If you absolutely feel the need to review, use science workbook passages because those are focused on certain topics while also being similar in style to the mcat.

A lot of the times, I notice that the AAMC questions will have the correct answer choice being an obscure detail that you either did not know or read about too rarely to remember so much of what they are testing is whether you know which answer choices DEFINITELY CANNOT OCCUR. They want you to actively eliminate answer choices that can never be correct. I've found that at least half of the questions I encounter on AAMC and TPR bio/ochem questions I can answer by simply eliminating 3 obviously bad answer choices without having to actually know if the remaining is correct.

Use practice test and drills to guide your sense of test taking and bio details. It's also much less boring than simply reading the bio book.

 

[CaribbeanBlue]

With BS, if you can literally just sit and THINK of things you are weak on (hormones, SN1/SN2 rxns, aldol condensation, Menstrual Cycle etc), then review those topics. You want to try to tackle BS knowing that you are confident in most of the material. I feel like the freestanding questions in biology, which cover probably the widest range of content on the MCAT, IMO, make the difference between an 11 and higher.

After you feel comfortable with your content review and revisits to the weaker concepts, do as many practice passages as you can. If you miss questions regarding topics, go back and review EVERYTHING about that topic.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Just took it actually. Our BS section was ALL experimental. That said, it wasn't like you could have gone into the test knowing nothing about bio and come out with a 15. A lot of the questions required you to have background information that you could then apply to the passage and questions.

If you want to prepare, do the TPRH SW bio problems. They are by far the closest thing to the real exam. Same for Kaplan section tests, and AAMC tests 7 and up. Disregard TBR bio, it is nothing like the real exam. I have no idea why people recommend TBR bio for practice passages.

 

[Temperature101]

Just took it actually. Our BS section was ALL experimental. That said, it wasn't like you could have gone into the test knowing nothing about bio and come out with a 15. A lot of the questions required you to have background information that you could then apply to the passage and questions.

If you want to prepare, do the TPRH SW bio problems. They are by far the closest thing to the real exam. Same for Kaplan section tests, and AAMC tests 7 and up. Disregard TBR bio, it is nothing like the real exam. I have no idea why people recommend TBR bio for practice passages.

That stuff...I usually got killed (2-4 wrong per passages) by the advanced passages but do fairly ok in the other passages...Were the passages in your test resemble the advanced passages in term of difficulty?

 

[glassdoll]

Thanks for the advice guys! I haven't done the science drills but I do have access to them. In the past month I've been focusing on full lengths and it's been really helpful to dissect every question. I've become much more systematic about eliminating answers and interpreting graphs and charts.

My issue right now is that I've accumulated random information from doing passages and tests that I can't quite provide context for. If I get a question about joints I'll be able to make an educated guess, but I don't feel solid about it, if that makes sense. I wouldn't be able to sit down with you and draw out the different types of joints, point out their axes and explain their functions, etc.

My biggest worry are the "do you know this fact or not" freestanding questions. I would feel comfortable teaching 80% of the information in the TPR book, but the nuances of that last 20% are the difference between a respectable score and a score to be really happy about. I've been trying to target my weaknesses, but I find new things that I don't know with each AAMC.

All of that being said, I don't know if I'm capable of reading and processing 400 pages in 2 days, so I will take the prevailing advice on this thread and do TPR passages. I still have 40 passages left in the workbook and 50 from TPR's online drills. Hopefully I learn some obscure things that just happen to show up on test day 😛

OCD, congrats on being done!

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

That stuff...I usually got killed (2-4 wrong per passages) by the advanced passages but do fairly ok in the other passages...Were the passages in your test resemble the advanced passages in term of difficulty?

TBH all the passages in TPRH seemed about the same as each other to me, save for a few like the EcoRI passage (#11 I think). Really, the advanced passages just usually have more questions, longer passages, and in a few cases harder concepts.

 

[Temperature101]

TBH all the passages in TPRH seemed about the same as each other to me, save for a few like the EcoRI passage (#11 I think). Really, the advanced passages just usually have more questions, longer passages, and in a few cases harder concepts.

If the real test is like the EcoRI passage, I am not going to do well on bio then...I missed 4/7 questions on that one... I use EK for content review and It has nothing on plasmid map...Should I find another prep book to read on that subject?

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

If the real test is like the EcoRI passage, I am not going to do well on bio then...I missed 4/7 questions on that one... I use EK for content review and It has nothing on plasmid map...Should I find another prep book to read on that subject?

I got killed on the EcoRI passage too and I was averaging 14 on AAMC 9-11. Hell, I let my PI try her hand at the EcoRI passage and she also missed half of the questions despite the fact that some of her past research had been with that exact same technique.

At least on my test today there was nothing as harsh as the EcoRI passage, and people in the 8/17 thread are saying our BS was worse than anything they'd seen (I'd beg to differ but apparently I'm alone in that). I wouldn't worry too much about it.