How should I review my general bio?

[Green Pirate]

Okay... so here's the situation. I'm a freshman right now and I plan on taking the MCAT the summer after my sophomore year. I came into college with a 5 on the AP Bio exam and (although I still wanted to take general bio), my advisor basically made me exercise my AP credits. So I'm taking more advanced bio right now, which I think is helpful for certain aspects of MCAT preparation, but there's a lot of stuff that I don't think I will receive in a classroom setting (e.g. physiological systems, cell division, etc.)

This summer I don't have much planned besides research in a lab for 15-20 hours a week. So I would have time to buy a Gen bio textbook and read through it and take notes. Would this be useful, or should I go with a detailed review book such as Kaplan? What would you do im my situation?

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[RockyMD]

I'm a sophomore, and am planning on taking the MCAT in '08. I'm planning on going over General Bio and General Chem this summer. For Bio, I'm going to use my textbook (Biology-Campbell) because it doesn't put me to sleep like the Kaplan book does. Plus, I'm already accustomed to my txtbook since I used it all year Try seeing if your library carries a good Bio txtbook, so that you won't have to pay a ton of money on buying textbook.

I'm going to supplement my studying with the EK books, which are awesome for pointing out the things you absolutely should know. Hope that helped! Post back to let me know what you've decided =)

 

[corbis11]

You are studying too early in advance for the MCAT, imo.

 

[rcd]

Okay... so here's the situation. I'm a freshman right now and I plan on taking the MCAT the summer after my sophomore year. I came into college with a 5 on the AP Bio exam and (although I still wanted to take general bio), my advisor basically made me exercise my AP credits. So I'm taking more advanced bio right now, which I think is helpful for certain aspects of MCAT preparation, but there's a lot of stuff that I don't think I will receive in a classroom setting (e.g. physiological systems, cell division, etc.)

This summer I don't have much planned besides research in a lab for 15-20 hours a week. So I would have time to buy a Gen bio textbook and read through it and take notes. Would this be useful, or should I go with a detailed review book such as Kaplan? What would you do im my situation?

Go with a review book (but not EK, I'm loathing their 5th edition bio book). For stuff they don't cover adequately, ask here in the MCAT study questions forum or Wikipedia it.

 

[RockyMD]

You are studying too early in advance for the MCAT, imo.

I agree, I know it's a bit early I am not expecting to retain everything I brush up on now until I take the test. I figured I'd use some of my free time to make sure it stays fresh in my mind. 'To each his own', I say

 

[quiksilver87]

I would say read TIME MAGAZINE critically for about 1 hour a day...That would be the best way to study! and also if you can, do some verbal passages!

 

[scotties123]

i think its WAY to early even for just reviewing material. IMO, the only thing u should be working on right now is verbal. the sciences are knowledge based and u wont remember anything a year from now. however, it would be extremely wise to start reading articles. If i could go back to a year ago I would have done this: one day read an article from Atlantic, next day from New Yorker, next day from Economist, and id just repeat that every day for a year. AND id read a separate really dense book, something interesting to me.