how much emphasis on anatomy?

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theA1doctor

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How much effort should I put in memorizing anatomy? So far, I havent really memorized every thing but just made myself familiar with every part of ever organ.

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To partially answer your question: know the developmental lineage (e.g. ectoderm) of organs and know the hormones they secrete / react with. This stuff just has to be memorized. Every organ has some basic jobs and secretions that must be memorized.
 
There is no anatomy on the MCAT.

If you mean physiology, then yes. Physiology is on the MCAT.
 
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Anatomy is like asking, what branch comes out of C7. Name the arteries that go to the greater omentum. Name the bones of the ankle. What are the muscles of the tongue.

Physiology is asking what cells secrete HCl in the stomach. What hormones come from anterior pituitary. Trace the hormone path from the hypothalamus to the adrenal glands. Etc. That is not anatomy.

So, no, there is not anatomy on the MCAT. There is physiology. Learning anatomy can help you with physiology, but anatomy is not directly tested on the MCAT.
 
I knew no anatomy beyond what was necessary to keep my head on my shoulders and still scored 40+ on the MCAT.

Physiology is important, but anatomy is for MS1, not MCAT studying.
 
How much effort should I put in memorizing anatomy? So far, I havent really memorized every thing but just made myself familiar with every part of ever organ.


There's no anatomy on the MCAT.
Don't waste your time with anatomy, you will get 0 questions about it.
focus on reading research papers in Nature, Science, Cell or whatever fast and for comprehension. You WILL have to do this on the MCAT with some weird-ass experiments and graphs and other BS thrown in there to confuse the hell out of you.
 
There is NO anatomy on the MCAT.

There is physiology.

There is physiology.

There is also basic anatomy. The parts of the small and large intestines, for example. The structure of a sarcomere. The heart. The movement of blood in the circulatory system. The movement of air in the respiratory system.
 
There is physiology.

There is also basic anatomy. The parts of the small and large intestines, for example. The structure of a sarcomere. The heart. The movement of blood in the circulatory system. The movement of air in the respiratory system.

Anatomy, for our purposes in general should be understood as gross anatomy. The sarcomere,etc can be classified as histology or microanatomy. But that's not what MCAT bio refers to. The sarcomere, generals of circulatory system, digestion,etc is more accurately described as physiology (physiology of course maps anatomic regions, but does not focus on them per se, but rather the processes that take place there). So you need to know where the brain is right? that does not mean you are studying it's anatomy.
Repiration and that stuff is called lung/respiration physiology, Not anatomy of the lung or respiratory system. I mean you need to know what the trachea is but that does not make it anatomy.
Knowing the flow of air is not in any case anatomy.
Plus, in the test, you are more likely to find flow of air in the context of Bernoulli anyway.
just my .2
 
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Anatomy, for our purposes in general should be understood as gross anatomy. The sarcomere,etc can be classified as histology or microanatomy. But that's not what MCAT bio refers to. The sarcomere, generals of circulatory system, digestion,etc is more accurately described as physiology (physiology of course maps anatomic regions, but does not focus on them per se, but rather the processes that take place there). So you need to know where the brain is right? that does not mean you are studying it's anatomy.
Repiration and that stuff is called lung/respiration physiology, Not anatomy of the lung or respiratory system. I mean you need to know what the trachea is but that does not make it anatomy.
Knowing the flow of air is not in any case anatomy.
Plus, in the test, you are more likely to find flow of air in the context of Bernoulli anyway.
just my .2

Basic anatomy = anatomy. In some cases you need to know both basic anatomy and physiology. In other cases, you need to know less physiology and more anatomy (the eye, for example).

Of course, if you study physiology, you'll make the connection to anatomy.
 
If you have access to the Kaplan review materials, they cover as much anatomy and physiology as you need.

Don't buy Netter's before you're in medical school.
 
Meh, I got an anatomy question on an AAMC (Just 1 though) (this was straight anatomy, not physio, and it wasn't any major organ or anything, it was the name of the cavity the organs reside in)
 
To partially answer your question: know the developmental lineage (e.g. ectoderm) of organs and know the hormones they secrete / react with. This stuff just has to be memorized. Every organ has some basic jobs and secretions that must be memorized.

practically zipo. this is what you need to know.
 
Only physiology just as the body systems, digestive, pulmonary, etc. They might ask some anatomy like joints and muscles (sarcomere), but very simple anatomy. I used Kaplan blooks and they covered all the "anatomy" and physiology needed.

The biology topics outline for the MCAT should help to go over what you need to know.
 
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