How deep should I know Glycolysis for Mcat?

[Kirchhoff]

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I'm in the content review phase of preparing for MCAT and I'm using both Kaplan's books and Khan Academy videos. For many subjects, Kaplan goes much deeper than KA. For example today I was learning about Glycolysis. While Khan Academy just went over the main ideas, input, and output of the process Kaplan expect me to know how enzymes (e.g. PFK-2) will regulate glycolysis (KA didn't even mention PFK-2).

 

[Cornfed101]

Know some simple regulation, but nothing crazy. If you know the pathways including regulatory enzymes you should be good.

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

My policy was to know every step of the main reactions they outline (glycolysis, CA cycle, FA synthesis, FA oxidation (someone else chime in anything I missed)). For me I felt safer being really comfortable with the intricacies of those, because most of the questions you're gonna get won't be "what is the fifth step of glycolysis". Instead, they'll ask you questions that will require you to infer based on the passage and the knowledge you have (in the case of my example, maybe "which of these reagents would react with the product of the fifth step of glycolysis"). Again, just my own opinion. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Cornfed101]

My policy was to know every step of the main reactions they outline (glycolysis, CA cycle, FA synthesis, FA oxidation (someone else chime in anything I missed)). For me I felt safer being really comfortable with the intricacies of those, because most of the questions you're gonna get won't be "what is the fifth step of glycolysis". Instead, they'll ask you questions that will require you to infer based on the passage and the knowledge you have (in the case of my example, maybe "which of these reagents would react with the product of the fifth step of glycolysis"). Again, just my own opinion. Hope that makes sense.

Agreed. The questions are much more likely to be along the lines of "[insert enzyme] was knocked out, what part of metabolism will be messed up?"

 

[Cornfed101]

Know all of these in-depth. Anki image occlusion is your friend.

 

[TwoHighways]

know the starting material and products as well as what enzymes do (based on their name). kinases phosphorolate substrate, etc.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Definitely know the general concepts behind key steps. You will get a pathway of some sort on your MCAT, and knowing the nuts and bolts of glycolysis can carry over to what they give you. Cornfed nailed it when saying what you need for glycolysis. Don't go insanely overboard, but definitely know key intermediates, important enzymes, regulation, and where pyruvate can go after glycolysis,

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

For glycolysis, Krebs cycle, electron transport chain, and gluconeogenesis, I would know everything including reactants, products, and enzymes. For the rest of them, know the rate-limiting step, any major products and the balanced net equation. Definitely also recognize how all of the cycles feed into each other. For example, acetyl-coA is made by beta oxidation and can feed into the Krebs cycle.