I'd love to see the rest of that question...seems odd that they'd expect you to remember the carbon numbering in a steroid, which as far as I know isn't particularly logical, just standardized. Maybe someone can correct me there.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Steroid
The first pic on the right shows the typical steroid numbering. Realistic MCAT situation wouldn't make you recall that numbering system though...it'd be asking you to analyze a passage and learn which carbon is 11 from that. Or maybe, you're given an original compound, and then there's only one answer that has an alcohol replaced with a ketone group? Since it's cortis-OL to cortis-ONE, you know.
That said, there are study materials (cough 1001 questions cough) that tend to focus more on random recall than MCAT logic. Not to knock them, they have their place. I wouldn't study solely from those kind of books, but to each their own, and certainly some people have and have done great.
