How much physiology is on the mcat?

[deleted647690]

So I took a physiology class last semester and had a fairly good understanding of the physiology section in the BR book. Now, that knowledge has all vanished. I don't remember any physiology. When I did the BR physio passages, I zoomed through them because I had just taken the course. But now, 3 months later, I can't do those questions anymore.

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[theonlytycrane]

Review basic organ systems. Is there something that you specifically don't remember? If so, review that consistently. If you forgot everything about the human body well... it would be time to thoroughly review.

 

[deleted647690]

Review basic organ systems. Is there something that you specifically don't remember? If so, review that consistently. If you forgot everything about the human body well... it would be time to thoroughly review.

Just looking at the BR discrete physiology questions, I can tell that I could answer a lot of them when that information was fresh in my head. I don't think I feel comfortable with that stuff anymore. I know this is kind of general...

 

[DaAlienist]

Review basic organ systems. Is there something that you specifically don't remember? If so, review that consistently. If you forgot everything about the human body well... it would be time to thoroughly review.

In reviewing the AAMC guide, I see nervous, endocrine, kidneys, GI, and musculoskeletal being mentioned. How deep does the physiology go? Do I need to have taken 2 semester of A&P?

 

[0dee]

In reviewing the AAMC guide, I see nervous, endocrine, kidneys, GI, and musculoskeletal being mentioned. How deep does the physiology go? Do I need to have taken 2 semester of A&P?

You don't need AP to do good on the MCAT, however you should pay close attention to organ systems such as renal, cardiovascular and such as they can test you about the chemistry/physics aspects of those organs. For example, the role of osmolarity when it comes to the basic unit of the kidney, and how different hormones (aldosterone and ADH) can affect this.

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

I would say the most heavily emphasized topic on the MCAT currently, for which students are not adequately preparing themselves, is the molecular biology stuff. The AAMC has moved toward a lot more passages that involve pathways, regulatory molecules, cascades, etc. This is complicated by the fact that those passage types by nature are far more DENSE in terms of scientific language, AND they tend to use a lot of ACRONYMS, which increases the intimidation factor big time.

I also see a lot of immunology and bacteria/pathogen topics showing up at higher and higher rates on AAMC. This seems logical to me because they are moving steadily to all passages being based off of actual peer-reviewed journal articles. Those same types of things are heavy in the journals, so they are going to be more and more heavy on the MCAT.