Fall 2012: Bio 1 or Anatomy/Physiology?

[shezadeh]

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So here I am, beginning my nontraditional pre-med journey (I am an engineer) I am planning to start taking classes this Fall at a local community college. Due to my work schedule, I can only take classes at night, and due to the schedule of courses at the community college, this translates to one class a semester. I have taken a year of physics, as well as General Chemistry I. All I need (as if it is such a small list) is 1 year of biology, General Chemistry 2, and 1 year of Organic Chemistry.

I really want to start this process this upcoming Fall, but am debating what class to take. As the title states, I can take either Anatomy and Physiology or General Biology I this fall at the cc. A&P is super interesting, and can help my science/BPCM GPA, but it isn't one of the official prerequisites for most medical schools. Many friends in medical school, however, highly recommend taking some sort of A&P class before medical school. Don't get me wrong, General Biology is interesting as well, but I am just leaning towards A&P and wanted some input.

Regarding the MCAT, I would like to take it before the 2015 version comes out. Does anyone know if Organic Chemistry II material is crucial to the MCAT? A lot of people seem to have taken Organic Chemistry I and Biochemistry, not Organic Chemistry II, which gives me the impression that Orgo 2 may not be essential, but idk.

Thanks for your input

 

[HipChick]

Check the school. Some just want a "bio" with lab...

 

[ineed2stpsmurfn]

definitely take g bio first, if you still like the whole 'med' thing, take a&p next. realize a&p will require a crap ton of studying if you have a decent professor and you want an A.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

at my school the intro bios (1 and 2) are pre-reqs before you can even take any other bios like cell bio or physiology, so it's a no-brainer. A&P isnt a requirement for med school anyways, i'm not even sure if it would help you for the MCAT.

 

[ineed2stpsmurfn]

at my school the intro bios (1 and 2) are pre-reqs before you can even take any other bios like cell bio or physiology, so it's a no-brainer. A&P isnt a requirement for med school anyways, i'm not even sure if it would help you for the MCAT.

physiology? Of course it helps with the MCAT... i got my berkley review books a month ago. Two biology books.. once labeled cell/molec bio, and the other nearly as thick labeled 'physiology'

 

[NuttyEngDude]

yeah it depends on how good the P part of A&P is, for us, there's a separate course called animal physiology which the premeds take for the mcat which has 100% to do with humans and 0% to do with animals. the A&P course is avoided because it's all just memorization of parts, despite the name. so i guess it's school dependent and based on the curriculum.

 

[HipChick]

Physiology was the number course outside of the major preqs that was recommended to me by all my doc friends for MCAT

 

[NuttyEngDude]

am i being misunderstood here?

I am saying in order to take physiology (which is different from A&P), or almost any other biology, you have to first take the pre-reqs for it which are intro bio 1&2.

So this makes it a no-brainer to take intro bio 1 & 2. there is an A&P which is different from another course called physiology which is only memorization of parts and little to no actual physiology despite the name. This course also does not require intro bio 1 &2.

So A&P is not useful but learning physiology is, so taking a "real" physiology course and not A&P is useful. so............ memorizing the names of parts is not useful compared to knowing how they work, for the mcat. it is also important to take cell bio (if your bio courses do not cover it), which is also why i explicitly listed both courses in my first post.

sorry if the first post was too rushed and terse.

😀


anyways, regarding actual physiology, my intro bio courses didnt cover any of the human body systems, much to my chagrin, and even taking an additional physiology course was not enough, i still had to cover more than half of the physiology mcat topics on my own.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Take bio 1 first, A&P isn't a cakewalk and if you don't know the terminology its hard. See if you can take bio 1 and an online med term course at the same time, then go for A&P...

 

[HipChick]

I guess it depends how your school does it. At mine we had a/p(cakewalk watered down course), and had an anatomy class, and a physiology class, which were independent to biology1/2. Then we had an advanced physiology in which you needed physiology or bio1.

I know weird. But take bio one. Or heck, take them both in the fall if nothing else fits.

From my understanding there isn't action of orgo2 on the MCAT, however, whether it is required for your applying schools is different. Some require ochem2, some allow biochem to replace ochem2, some require both.