Do I need to know this?

[tavokeri9]

---

Members don't see this ad.

The Khan MCAT collection seems to have more information than the prep books and I'm not sure if I need to know all of it…for example, the biology portion has videos about the different layers of the epidermis, Merkel discs, Pacinian corpuscle anatomy etc.

Do I need to know this level of detail for the MCAT 2015? I couldn't find these new terms anywhere in my TPR Biology books - which I am currently using.

 

[Lost in Translation]

It couldn't hurt to know. It's really not that hard or much (those things you named.)

 

[tavokeri9]

It couldn't hurt to know. It's really not that hard or much (those things you named.)

I know it's not hard, but the thing is, there are lots of these little extra definitions and concepts Khan has that TPR doesn't. If I need to know these, I will need to watch a lot of Khan videos and then, take notes to remember them. My MCAT is April 1st, and I'm crunched for time 🙁 so I don't want to spend time on things that could be unnecessary…

Couldn't I succeed with just knowing the TPR biology stuff well?

 

[Dandine]

I know that sensory receptors (e.g. Pacinian corpuscle) are part of the behavioral sciences section...just checked to confirm. Maybe it's not in that specific TPR section.

As for the extra stuff...I will stand by that if it's not on the official AAMC content outline (you can find it online), it's not something that's 100% mandatory to know. So use that as your primary "checklist" if you need to figure out what to study. That said, KA did partner with AAMC in creating content-knowledge videos, so it probably wouldn't hurt to understand them--at the very least it'll be helpful when you read passages for practice tests/the real test.

Sidenote: I thought several KA practice passages were really in-depth and too lengthy, but more for certain physical sciences passages and less biology.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I found that a good way to determine if it was worth while to learn stuff for the mcat was by doing practice questions/tests and seeing what areas came up most.

If you never see a question regarding X topic, its probably not worth your time to study that topic too thoroughly, since the most you'll see is maybe 1-2 questions on the whole test (if any). Be sure to focus the majority of your efforts on high yield things that come up repeatedly.

 

[Smoove]

I would stick to just what you find in TPR. Trying to get these extra details down is going to be overwhelming after some time. I scored A LOT better when I just trusted Kaplan books to guide me vs trying to pick up all the little details from TBR/YouTube videos. I understand that it's good to know things in depth for understanding, but I think there's already enough to remember for this MCAT haha. Good luck!

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

If it's not on the AAMC content list then you don't need to know it beforehand. You might get a passage on it but no prior knowledge will be needed, everything you will need to answer the question will be in the passage