Cell Biology vs. Anatomy and physiology

[Eyesayah55]

I need help deciding on which class to take. I wanted to take two upper level biology courses in preparation for the MCATs. Currently I am enrolled in Biochemistry and Cell Biology but am thinking of dropping cell biology and taking anatomy and physiology instead. Which class would be most helpful in my preparation for the MCATs?

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[shantster]

I need help deciding on which class to take. I wanted to take two upper level biology courses in preparation for the MCATs. Currently I am enrolled in Biochemistry and Cell Biology but am thinking of dropping cell biology and taking anatomy and physiology instead. Which class would be most helpful in my preparation for the MCATs?

I haven't taken the MCAT yet so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I start my mornings off every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with Biochem and then Cell Bio directly afterwords and at least in the first two weeks, the classes seem to cover almost identical material with just a different approach to it. I don't know whether this will continue or whether your particular school teaches it that way, but right now, I would think that Anatomy and Physiology would be more useful to you just because it covers completely different material than what you will find in Biochem.

 

[DrBowtie]

Take just the Phys. Anatomy will waste your memory space.

 

[sanche60]

Take just the Phys. Anatomy will waste your memory space.

This is true. Anatomy isnt really a focus of the MCAT, physiology, cell biology and biochemistry can help you though. Plus that class sucks, I remember i had to carry a dead cat around in my backpack to dissect it for a couple of weeks.

 

[JustR]

This is true. Anatomy isnt really a focus of the MCAT, physiology, cell biology and biochemistry can help you though. Plus that class sucks, I remember i had to carry a dead cat around in my backpack to dissect it for a couple of weeks.

I agree, "Anatomy isnt really a focus of the MCAT, physiology, cell biology and biochemistry can help you though. "

I my thinking only if some one wants to be an orthopedics or vet then the anatomy class is very useful. But for the MCAT purposes biochem., genetics, cell bio, microbe, physiology are good to know.

 

[HessExpress]

I noticed that many people put so much emphasis on taking genetics for the MCAT. The MCAT genetics is so basic. You learned it in high school biology punnet squares. The genetics covered in general biology is more than adequate.

Spending an entire semester breeding Drosophila is a waste of time if you're doing it for the MCAT.

 

[Medinsane]

Physiol all the way, since you get to cover some cell biology even in physiol. like Na/K active transport which is a pretty popular topic on the MCATs.

 

[Eyesayah55]

Thanks for all of your answers! I know that some school seperate anatomy and physiology, but at my school you either have to take them both together or none at all. With that said, since I cannot seperate the two would it still be worth it for me to take the class over cell biology?

 

[DrBowtie]

Is the A&P through the nursing school or is it taken by mostly nursing students?
At my school the combined class is geared towards them so it may not be worth taking since the physio would be less biology and more practical.

 

[sanche60]

If you cant seperate them then I would take the path which includes physio. I took physio the semester before I took the MCAT and I remember studying Kaplans comprehensive review thinking wow this almost follows the physio topics exactly. There are a few areas which arent covered by physio like gentics and evolution and a few others, but the bulk of the material that I studied for the mcat was covered to some extent in physio. The fact they make you take anatomy at the same time may make your semester busy but I think it would be worth it in the end.

 

[MoosePilot]

Pre-reqs aren't really high yield.

What I mean by that: I had all the upper division classes you could imagine. Cell bio, physiology, p-chem, whatever you want. My Princeton Review class covered the good stuff from each one in about a class session or two.

 

[Nutmeg]

I've never understood the physio advocacy. I never took any physiology or anatomy prior to taking the MCAT, but I seem to remember there only being 3 - 5 questions relating thereto on the BS. However, the BS seemed to have a lot of questions that describe experiments and ask you to interpret or predict results, all in questions that did not require prior knowledge, but that benefitted greatly from prior exposure to experiment analysis. I think that cell bio is a good way to go, as it did me well.

 

[Willow]

BS seemed to have a lot of questions that describe experiments and ask you to interpret or predict results, all in questions that did not require prior knowledge, but that benefitted greatly from prior exposure to experiment analysis. I think that cell bio is a good way to go, as it did me well.

I couldn't agree more. For me, the advantage of having upper-level classes was not in the information, but in the practise with critical thinking and experimental analysis. It seems many people struggled with BS this time, but I breezed through it, simply because I had seen similar questions many times before.

Having taken the August MCAT, if I had to recommend just one course for BS prep it would be cell biology. I can't imagine anatomy being at all useful since (a) you don't need the info for the MCAT and (b) it's just a memorise & regurgitate course, so it would not help at all WRT improving your critical thinking skills.