Biology Topics

[cocimonster115]

So I know this is a little off base with most discussions on Student Doctor Forum, but I didn't know where else to put it except under MCAT since it does ultimately deal with the MCAT.

I was looking at the topics that my Biology I and Biology II courses cover, and none seem to go into any discussion of the systems (i.e. endocrine, respiratory, nervous, etc.) I know that a physiology course would cover those topics but it confuses me that AAMC would recommend only biology I & II, chem I & II, organic I & II, and physics I & II if none of these courses seem to cover some very important topics.

does anyone have any idea about this??

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[radiodoc99]

This may help you. You need to find a good review text and then read into more details around the topics. But this is the official AAMC guide.

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/bstopics.pdf

 

[cocimonster115]

Thanks for the link. I had previously checked out this AAMC guide, but what baffles me is why AAMC would put something that is not covered in introductory biology without explicitly saying so.

I also assume that the only way to learn these topics is to either:
(1) find a good review book or,
(2) take an upper level biology course

is this right?

 

[unhappytnt]

Huh, that's weird. My Gen Bio classes covered all the systems. I thought it'd be the same for all schools.

 

[eablackwell]

Systems were the last thing we did in bio II, I thought it was basically the same everywhere (as the above poster stated). Perhaps you missed that part?

 

[WhizoMD]

Systems were the last thing we did in bio II, I thought it was basically the same everywhere (as the above poster stated). Perhaps you missed that part?

nope, the only topic related to humans in my intro bio year was ~2 weeks of reproduction. The rest was plants, marine life, cell, and taxonomy.

 

[LostInStudy]

nope, the only topic related to humans in my intro bio year was ~2 weeks of reproduction. The rest was plants, marine life, cell, and taxonomy.

This. I had the same experience. Every school is different, even though the curriculum at my school changed the year I graduated to throw out plants and marine life and include more cell and journal reading. We didn't cover crap in our gen bio actually, useless botany and a lot of marine biology. The second two were more useful (genetics and molecular/cell bio).

-LIS

 

[Rayhaan]

To be honest I wouldn't even worry. You don't have to know the systems even that hardcore. I don't know about you guys but my bio teacher in high school covered ALL of the systems for the mcat, so the foundations are set already.

 

[cocimonster115]

I don't know about you guys but my bio teacher in high school covered ALL of the systems for the mcat, so the foundations are set already.

agreed my bio teacher covered basic cellular biology, some elementary stuff about evolution and diversity, and then almost all human systems in great detail. so its not that i dont know the material, but was wondering if there might be other things at the college level that we didn't cover at the high school level.

it seems that it is different for every school. the syllabus for biology II does not mention anything about systems, nor does the book even contain the chapters that talk about systems.

Our school has 7-year program, and a General Physiology class is included in their curriculum, after biology II. So I'm assuming that class is meant for learning about the systems. I'm going to check with the Biology department and see if my suspicions are correct.

 

[wagmanager]

Bio II differs from school to school, at my school too it has a lot of plant and animal life cycle stuff. To that effect I am looking for another uni to take that at. I also checked out another Uni and theirs is still plant and lower animal life heavy.

 

[Geekchick921]

It has been 6-7 years since I took Bio 101 and 102, but I don't think we learned much about the systems, either. I took physiology later, though, and I think it helped me a lot.

Here are two video websites that helped me a lot in my content review. www.wikipremed.com and www.khanacademy.org. You can also check out http://mcat-review.org. I liked that one a lot, too. No videos, but it takes the study guides the AAMC releases for the MCAT (like you're talking about in the OP) and elaborates on all the points.