Do I have to take my science courses before taking the MCAT?

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Can I just get a test book and start studying?

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You probably could do it.. but why would you want to? The MCAT is a serious exam that people struggle with even after taking science classes and studying for months afterwards.

And you wouldn't be studying just one textbook, try 7 in the case of the Kaplan self study books.

If you're highly motivated, dedicated, and can seriously push yourself to learn all that content (with what I'm assuming is only a high school level of science knowledge), then I'm sure it could be done.

What is your motivation for taking the exam without completing the classes first?
 
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You're going to have to take all of these courses before you apply to med school so you might as well take them before the MCAT. You can hold off of one or two if convenient but definitely not all of them would be wise.
 
I took it without physics 2 and did well but honestly it was a pain and I spent a ton of time teaching myself that physics content.. Those hours could have been spent casting a wider net in other areas of material. If you can't make it work time line wise, I get it, but it is always best to take all pre reqs first.
 
Agree with everyone else. I took it before I took biochem, and it was a pain in the arse. I had to teach myself biochem, and not being a biochem prof, I spent a lot of time just researching what was high yield and what wasn’t. It would have been much easier to just take the course first.
 
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i did this recently, and i hadn't even done HS courses in a very long time... FYI, i took it such that if i got a very good score i would apply to some canadian schools (some top canadian schools) that don't require pre-req's (whether they accept anyone this way i have no idea)..

anyway, my sense having gone looked through AP material recently is that the MCAT chem/bio/physics/PS/reading are highly do-able with recent HS courses and some supplementary learning ... biochem and OC are pretty tough to be new. and if you need to learn a fair amount of any of chem/bio/physics then it's too tough.... PS is learnable very fast.........

shoot me a pm (do they have them on this site?) if you have Q's.i can give you my scores and some more insight.

one thing i might suggest to anyone that would be difficult psychologically.... do the test once and void that score?.. i guarantee having done that i could improve each of my percentiles 20 to 30 points the next time (i had lots of room to improve of course)
 
Taking an upper level biology and biochemistry made a world of difference for me with the MCAT. I think you could get away self-teaching physics and sociology, but I highly recommend taking your biology, chemistry up to biochem, and intro psych before you start studying. Also, I was also a humanities major, so I didn't take much science in undergrad.
 
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