For Aug MCATers: Which books prepared you best in tackling the Bio passages?

[RAD11]

Although I'll be taking the MCAT this Jan, a friend of mine just took it this past weekend and she told me that the BS had tons of genetics and molecular biology passages. I have both Kaplan and EK review books and feel that their content is not enough with regards to these topics. What do you guys think?

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[H and D]

None were adequate prep.
I suggest reading Science journal articles about molecular bio and genetics. Maybe this would help, I am really not sure.

 

[kaybam20]

Although I'll be taking the MCAT this Jan, a friend of mine just took it this past weekend and she told me that the BS had tons of genetics and molecular biology passages. I have both Kaplan and EK review books and feel that their content is not enough with regards to these topics. What do you guys think?

do not stress urself about books , read the basics and try doing tons and tons of practice questions. Also, what actually helped me out was that i took genetics alrady and i ahd a great professor. tO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS U MUST BE ABLE TO RELY A LITTLE BIT ON THE PASSGE, A LITTLE BIT ON BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE AND MOST ESPECIALLY BE CALM knowing fully well that nothing they ask is beyond what u can reasonably infer.

 

[Orthodoc40]

I suggest being a Bio major.

 

[Noeljan]

Although I'll be taking the MCAT this Jan, a friend of mine just took it this past weekend and she told me that the BS had tons of genetics and molecular biology passages. I have both Kaplan and EK review books and feel that their content is not enough with regards to these topics. What do you guys think?

Nature, Cell, Journal of Cell and Molecular Bio, join a journal club, partake in some prokaryotic research, etc....

 

[H0tSh0tZ1627]

I would suggest you all to go out and find this MCAT book:

"The Best Test Preparation for the MCAT" - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...175237/ref=sr_1_1/103-5885595-8227839?ie=UTF8

It actually is VERY good in preparing you for the tons of Genetics and Molecular Bio that is now appearing on the MCAT. I actually heard FROM this book that the MCAT had changed to have more of these topics on it, so I knew what to study.

 

[RAD11]

I would suggest you all to go out and find this MCAT book:

"The Best Test Preparation for the MCAT" - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...175237/ref=sr_1_1/103-5885595-8227839?ie=UTF8

It actually is VERY good in preparing you for the tons of Genetics and Molecular Bio that is now appearing on the MCAT. I actually heard FROM this book that the MCAT had changed to have more of these topics on it, so I knew what to study.

Never even heard of that company before.

 

[H0tSh0tZ1627]

Never even heard of that company before.

Yeah, not a lot of people have.

I found a copy of it in my school bookstore and bought it. It does a good job of going over the topics that can show up on the MCAT.

 

[87138]

Yeah, not a lot of people have.

I found a copy of it in my school bookstore and bought it. It does a good job of going over the topics that can show up on the MCAT.

Not according to the reviews on that page!

 

[dr.kicia]

Not according to the reviews on that page!

exactly

 

[RAD11]

If you notice, the reviews were really old, though. But I would still want to check it out at B&N before purchasing it.

 

[RAD11]

So many viewers so little voters. C'mon people vote please!

 

[jv00927]

I found the difficulty of the Kaplan Q-bank passages is about at the same level as my bio passages in form AK. I don't know about other forms but for me they were about the same. I actually found some of the Q-bank questions more convoluted.

 

[Christofurrr]

Princeton review and examkrackers bio were pretty good. I don't see how you could go over everything they were going to test on, both these books give you the basics you need to know. I was a neurobiology and physiology major and was surprised by how in depth some of the questions were. For most of the sections though you should be fine with those two books. Taking upper division physiology, genetics, and other bio classes helps a lot.

 

[mdthisyear]

The week before the test, I went throught the basics of physiology-Osmosis, Diffusion, Cell potential, Muscle contraction, Kidney filtration mechanisms-in Guyton, Textbook of Medical Physiology.

I read it as though I were reading it for fun. It helped me understand the basics better and it helped me familiarize myself with the language used in the biology passages and in the questions.

Did the same thing with Physics. Used Resnick and Haliday, went through the introductions and saw how they had solved problems.

And for chemistry, same approach. Used Zumdahll.

This was after memorizing the material in the MCAT guides.

 

[mongmong]

I have both Kaplan and EK review books and feel that their content is not enough with regards to these topics. What do you guys think?

I agree. I took my MCAT this past weekend. I have done most Full Length exams out on the market (excluding Kaplan FL #10/11 since these don't have conversions/have done all EK, AAMC and rest of Kaplan), reviewed everything and done all problems in EK study guides, EK 1001 Bio book, Kaplan review book, all Kaplan online study topical problems and none came even close to that actual bio section of my test form (except the 2 lame orgo passages which were fairly easy). The subjects of the passages were out of nowhere, many passages included multiple experimental graphs/charts which didn't make sense(vs. later AAMC practice tests where you could still make sense out of the passage and graphs/charts) and some discretes were outright -where the heck is this coming from??- type of questions. But this may mean many who took a test w/simliar contents feel the same way so the curve might take care of where you stand in comparison to others.

 

[akinf]

I found doing some EK passages helped. Also, I would recommend you start reading scientific journals in anything to get you used to the idea of understanding and becoming comfortable with material you are unfamiliar with. I think because the MCAT uses somewhat complicated passages, it throws people off. Getting familiar with modern scientific terminology will also help.

 

[RAD11]

First, I would like to thank those who voted. Keep 'em coming guys. Second, wow I can't believe that EK is actually leading ....(although I realize it is a small sample size, but still) since I've read a lot of comments here that EK doesn't go in depth enough with regards to these topics.

 

[JimmyG]

Honestly, just take the classes before you take the MCAT. You know, Genetics and Molecular Bio. Micro wouldn't hurt either.

 

[Hardbody]

Take a class in Physiology. My form had at least 4 physiology related passages. Without taking physiology, I would have been clueless.

 

[zookeeper]

My friends who took the MCAT in April told me that it was heavy on Genetics and Molecular biology so I took Genetics this summer and read through one of their molecular textbooks. Honestly, I think Princeton Review did the best job explaining most of the biology topics. They are sometimes a little wordy but that just helped me to understand it better.

 

[go lakers]

yea.. i took genetics at my school but was never great at it. and i havent even taken mo.bio..

so, BS sucked.

 

[RAD11]

Honestly, just take the classes before you take the MCAT. You know, Genetics and Molecular Bio. Micro wouldn't hurt either.

Take a class in Physiology. My form had at least 4 physiology related passages. Without taking physiology, I would have been clueless.

Thanks for the reply, I actually have taken these classes awhile back. I can grasp concepts in bio easier than, say, Physics or Gen Chem, and this is the reason why I'm just looking for a good review book to go over these topics since this would be my weak area in bio. I have been using EK and Kaplan (I also have my old texts) but got a bit worried from all the posts here saying that the BS section was really hard and was primarily about genetics and molecular bio.