How to study for MCAT physics?

[jv00927]

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Although I have not taken a MCAT diagnostic test yet, I have a feeling that I will be weakest in the physical science part of the MCAT. I have a good gen. chemistry knowledge; however, my physics is very weak. When I took physics last year, my professor made the course real easy for the students by letting us use our notes during test. Also, most of the questions in our exams were the exact same questions in the sample problems given during lecture.

I'm planning on taking the August MCAT next year. I want to make sure I do well on it. I bought the Examkrackers Review Package and I just started studying for the physics portion. Though I understand the lectures in the book, I can't seem to get the right answers for the questions after the lectures. My question is, should I start reading my college physics textbook to get a much better understanding of the material? If I do this, I just feel like I'm gonna encounter a lot of extraneous info that will not really be helpful for the MCAT. I'd like to hear what you think on how best to study for the physics portion of the MCAT given my situation. Thanks.

 

[Mr. Tee]

The most important thing is to know the concepts. That also involves knowing why an equation works and how the equation can be derived; also know how to manipulate equations (like if distance is doubled, then how does that gravitational force, etc.)

 

[Cooolguy]

physics is the easiest section to improve in, just do many many problems, it will teach u how to think for the phys part

 

[Khanal007]

I don't know if going through your physics text book will be horribly beneficial -- maybe for understanding some basic concepts, but I wouldn't reccommend doing problems out of your text book because they are often more in depth than you'll need ot know for the MCAT.

Let me tell you what an upperclassmen told me about MCAT physics, which worked for me (got a 12). Do MCAT style physics problems (both stand alone questions and passage based) ad nauseam -- do one ptest after another, keep doing them. But DON'T worry if you get them wrong, definitely go back and understand, but try your hardest not to get discouraged and just KEEP practicing problems.

I totally relate when u say that you don't get the right answers, especailyl with physics, it can get discouraging -- but if anything getting a problem wrong is beneificial in that it allows you to sharpen your skills in that subject matter.

In sum, do tons of practice, and don't get discouraged -- it'll pay off in the end, take my word for it! 🙂

 

[OwnageMobile]

The real key with the PS is understanding the concepts. You need to develop a feel for what an answer should look like before you get to it. This isn't something that everybody can do. With a lot of practice and thinking through every problem so that you understand what is happening, you can probably do just fine in PS. Understand.

 

[remo]

This is what is working for me so you might want to try it. I am reading my textbook before reading the Examkrackers review notes and doing the problems. It is actually not taking very long because most of the text book is just example problems and I am skipping those. The actual description of the concepts is not very long. I am getting the concept explanation from the text so I can understand the review notes. Then I do the problems in the review book.

 

[shaq786]

Use your old physics book as a reference. But if you never read your old physics book when you took the coarse, then it probably wont be beneficial for you to use it as a reference. I say this becuase when I use my old books as references, I know where the material is so I can 1.) Easily find it 2.) Easily remind myself of the concept that I forgot 3.) Use it only when I dont understand the explanation given by the MCAT book. Good luck.