"Genetics" or "Intro to Logic" before the MCAT?

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Professor Deej

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I have room for one more class before I take the MCAT.

Should I take "Genetics" or "Intro to Logic"?

Genetics is said to be an easy A at my school.

Intro to Logic is supposed to be intense, but it greatly helps your critical thinking skills.

:confused::confused::confused:

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genetics for bio.

logic for verbal.

i would go for logic, since verbal skills take longer to improve. MCAT genetics can be learned in less than a week.
 
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Dayum. Excellent question. Assuming your bio skills are reasonable (i.e. you can draw a punnet square, understand why an X linked trait shows up more in men than women, and can do a hardy-weinberg calculation), I vote logic.

Genetics consistently buys you one or two questions on the MCAT, and it's the type of genetics you will pick up in a general biology class or MCAT review book. A formal genetics class, while easy and enjoyable and completely mind blowing, goes waaay above and beyond the scope of the MCAT.

Formal logic, on the other hand, is useful not so much for the theorem proofs but how it gets you to think carefully and exactly what statements and assertions mean in the English language, and what conclusions you may draw from them.

When I review student AAMC performance as a tutor, I find that students miss far more questions in the VR section and the BS section due to general logical errors than errors in any specific topic like genetics. I flew through these types of questions myself, but that's probably because I minored in logic and then spent seven years working as a computer programmer.
 
Critical thinking is a very important skill to hone. It applies to the entire MCAT and beyond. If your school has a strong class in developing that skill, I'd take it. That said, I'd still try to take both or at least another class that covers some of the topics in genetics.
 
I have room for one more class before I take the MCAT.

Should I take "Genetics" or "Intro to Logic"?

Genetics is said to be an easy A at my school.

Intro to Logic is supposed to be intense, but it greatly helps your critical thinking skills.

:confused::confused::confused:

I dont know what to suggest, I just wanted to reply and tell you how funny this post was to me only because at my school its the complete opposite. And Intro to Logic fills up within the first 30 mins registration opens, I happen to be in my third year as well and so far I have never seen Intro to Logic open. Goodluck!
 
I'm a Phil major, and after I took Logic I thought that it was helpful in developing my reasoning skills. It can be a bore at times though.

I am sure you can learn the genetics easily through a review book.

+1 for Intro to Logic
 
Dayum. Excellent question. Assuming your bio skills are reasonable (i.e. you can draw a punnet square, understand why an X linked trait shows up more in men than women, and can do a hardy-weinberg calculation), I vote logic.

Genetics consistently buys you one or two questions on the MCAT, and it's the type of genetics you will pick up in a general biology class or MCAT review book. A formal genetics class, while easy and enjoyable and completely mind blowing, goes waaay above and beyond the scope of the MCAT.

Formal logic, on the other hand, is useful not so much for the theorem proofs but how it gets you to think carefully and exactly what statements and assertions mean in the English language, and what conclusions you may draw from them.

When I review student AAMC performance as a tutor, I find that students miss far more questions in the VR section and the BS section due to general logical errors than errors in any specific topic like genetics. I flew through these types of questions myself, but that's probably because I minored in logic and then spent seven years working as a computer programmer.

You bring up some excellent points. Reasoning skills do seem to be extremely important for the MCAT. But despite everyone saying that the genetics portion is really basic and that I can study it from a prep book, most people are still recommending a genetics course over a critical thinking course. It's a little confusing. :confused:
 
I dont know what to suggest, I just wanted to reply and tell you how funny this post was to me only because at my school its the complete opposite. And Intro to Logic fills up within the first 30 mins registration opens, I happen to be in my third year as well and so far I have never seen Intro to Logic open. Goodluck!

Haha.. Yeah, it's funny how different some schools can be. Thanks!
 
I would have agreed and said logic like most people..but my mcat was 99% genetics on the bio section..So because of that I would say genetics. Tbh I felt like if you had taken a genetics class before my mcat and did really well in it than there was no way you could of gotten less than a 12 on the bio section.
 
I would have agreed and said logic like most people..but my mcat was 99% genetics on the bio section[\b]..So because of that I would say genetics. Tbh I felt like if you had taken a genetics class before my mcat and did really well in it than there was no way you could of gotten less than a 12 on the bio section.


geez! 99%??? So, I'm guessing that some of the genetics questions were not basic nor covered in general biology?
 
geez! 99%??? So, I'm guessing that some of the genetics questions were not basic nor covered in general biology?

Well I took the mcat without studying so that was part of my problem. But yeah, id say there was no physiology on my mcat it was almost pure genetics with like five organic chem questions. I do remember some of the genetics questions being really challenging too.
 
General opinion on here is that bio section is heavy with genetics, but it really depends on the test day and kind of luck.

and hopefully your luck is good, lol. The thing is genetics may appear really easy while studying but they can ask you some really convoluted questions on the mcat..
 
Take Genetics. Intro to Logic is a good course, however, it doesn't go far enough in understanding real arguments. By this I mean, you'll construct very basic arguments, but you'll likely not be analyzing text to try to understand the author's logic.

That said, if you still want to learn the rules behind arguments, I suggest, A Rulebook for Arguments, by Anthony Weston. It's a slim book, easy to read and will cover more than you'll get to in the course.

It's a neat way to see all the different ways authors can argue. Once you know the basics (deduction, induction, analogy, instantiation etc), you'll read text in a new way. It'll make understanding the author's logic and flaws in that logic much easier to spot.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. You all have made some really good points. I think I know what I'm going to do now. Thanks again!
 
I wish those high-level critical thinking classes were offered at my school. Intro classes doesn't seem to help much IMO
 
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