How important is it to take Psychology for the 2015 MCAT?

[philosonista]

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Hi, SDN --

I posted this on the MCAT forum, but no fish bit the bait. Hopefully you guys know more.

To the extent that you're all familiar with the 2015 MCAT, how important is it that one take Introductory Psychology? I think I generally have a good sense with social sciences enough to breeze through any course, but I'm unsure if this would carry through on the MCAT enough to allow me to skip the course.

 

[jqueb29]

Nobody who could give you advice is familiar with the new MCAT.

 

[jqueb29]

Best info available
http://www.kaptest.com/mcat/mcat-test/what-do-i-need-to-know

 

[philosonista]

FYI: I'm taking a practice 2015 from AAMC.

Knowing psychology concepts is indeed imperative. The application of it and scientific reasoning is also there, but I already have that.

 

[samac]

This I can comment on, if it has stayed the same, as I got a psychology trial section on my MCAT.
People absolutely should take it before their MCAT if at all possible. It was very specific, asking for theories by name and even asked a question about a specific psychologist. I immediately went home and registered for a psychology class in my senior year in case I didn't get into medical school and needed to retake the next year.

 

[edgerock24]

You can learn anything and everything in relation to psych and sociology without taking introductory classes. Compared to the science prereq's, there is ZERO critical thinking involved in these courses.

 

[Dandine]

Look at the AAMC outline (if you type in "2015 MCAT Content AAMC" on search you should find it) and see what concepts they have.

Generally, Intro Psych and Soc cover most of them. I found it was useful for learning the experiments (I did some crazy psych review yesterday and I didn't have to spend to much time re-learning them).

While not necessary, I would say taking either an Intro Neuro or related course might help for the sensation/perception stuff...depends on the prof, of course.

 

[NeuResurgens]

I think if you get good review materials you could do it without a class.. My Kaplan 2015 course has a full book of concepts and it's pretty simple. You can understand it without the class I'd say

 

[philosonista]

Of course the advantages of taking these as courses is that they serve as a nice buffers to a crazy course load, and you are given the incentive to memorize the material on a timeline rather than shove it all into MCAT prep.

 

[Gauss44]

No one will know for sure until the 2015 exam begins.

That being said, I personally bought EK's psych/soc book and it seems easy enough for any competitive premed, regardless of whether or not psych and soc were taken. Once I finish that book (and do a review of the other topics), I will take AAMC's practice test and see how it goes.

 

[ciruji]

You should check your school syllabus for those courses since these courses are so subjective because of different POV of professors.

 

[Lawgiver]

buy an intro psych book. read it.

buy and intro soc book. read it.

Done.

 

[The Milkman]

Well, aren't most med schools adopting it as a pre req anyway?

 

[ZymurgySurfer]

n=1, I was a psychology minor and scored very highly on the trial section, having psych background was definitely helpful. I would at least take an intro class

 

[catnipchips]

An advisor told me that it is probably not necessary to take an actual introductory psychology or sociology class just for preparation for the new MCAT. This is because most of these classes offered at universities are not geared for that at all. In fact, many university's psych/soc programs probably cannot accommodate so many premeds in their department's introductory courses to begin with (that is if all premeds were to now take a psych/soc class)


TLDR: safest bet probably getting a good MCAT psych/soc book or taking a class via a test prep co.

 

[wowsers]

This I can comment on, if it has stayed the same, as I got a psychology trial section on my MCAT.
People absolutely should take it before their MCAT if at all possible. It was very specific, asking for theories by name and even asked a question about a specific psychologist. I immediately went home and registered for a psychology class in my senior year in case I didn't get into medical school and needed to retake the next year.

My experience was the same but my conclusion is the opposite. Study off of the content outline and prep books instead of taking the full class. Unless you are interested in psychology to begin with

 

[litotes]

I'm in intro psych and there is a large volume of information but none of it is at all complicated or subtle. If you can learn independently then just get the Official MCAT book and use the content outline to decide which parts of an intro psych textbook you should read. I'm not taking Soc before the new MCAT as my school doesn't offer an Intro Sociology class and I plan to just use a review book to learn the necessary concepts.