is philosophy good for mcat?

[NotShorty]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I've heard that psych majors often do well on the mcat because they are accustomed to thinking and reading differently that most science people.

Has anyone had any positive experience with this? I am thinking of taking psychology over the summer.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[NotShorty]

oops, I mean philos majors do well, I'm thinking of taking philos over the summer😛

 

[fun8stuff]

If you read:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/char99.pdf

it will shows data tables comparing people who majored in different areas (humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, math, etc) and compares how each on average did on each MCAT section. It appears to me that on average the people who majored in Humanities did the best on the MCAT. Weird, huh? I would suppose it is because they are exposed all different subjects and because of what you said.

I'm not sure if one philosophy class will help you a whole lot on the MCAT, but it can't hurt you. It would probably be an easy class and it would diversify you at the same time. I think it is the fact that the Humanitie majors and/ or social science majors have had so many of these different classes is why they some times do well on the MCAT.

I think I also remember reading some where that philosophy would help you out on the writing section because it teaches you how to form/ deduce arguments. Another class that is said to be good for this is Logic, but the writing section isn't going to really make or break your chances of getting in or anything.

 

[jkhamlin]

Philosophy was the hardest class I've taken so far! Harder even than all 17 hours of chemistry I've taken and received all A's in.

Find out which professors are really good and take one of them, otherwise you are stuck with a pud course that will not benefit you except for an A on your transcript. If you get one of the pud instructors, it will be readily apparent to others who have taken the course that your instructor was inadequate. If you get a good professor, it will definitely benefit you in anything you do intellectually.

According to Kaplan, philosophy majors have the highest rate of acceptance to med school.

 

[2ndave]

I'm not sure if one philosophy class will help you a whole lot on the MCAT, but it can't hurt you. It would probably be an easy class and it would diversify you at the same time. I think it is the fact that the Humanitie majors and/ or social science majors have had so many of these different classes is why they some times do well on the MCAT.

Philosophy is not easy! If it is, then it's a lame class. The hardest class I have ever taken in my life was 20th Century Continental Philosophy. The material was difficult enough just to read, let alone write decent papers on. The reason humanities majors probably do well on the MCAT in general is because they're trained to read and reason--if their education was any good, at least.

 

[fun8stuff]

Originally posted by 2ndave
Philosophy is not easy! If it is, then it's a lame class. The hardest class I have ever taken in my life was 20th Century Continental Philosophy. The material was difficult enough just to read, let alone write decent papers on. The reason humanities majors probably do well on the MCAT in general is because they're trained to read and reason--if their education was any good, at least.

It wasn't super easy, but I didn't find terribly hard. It was a freshamn level philosophy and I also had philosophy for a year in high school. I can see how it would be hard though.

My main point was that by taking just one class, one probably won't be miraculously more prepared for the MCAT. Now, if someone were to take multiple humanities and social science classes, then one might just be more prepared.

 

[2ndave]

fun8stuff--

I agree with you. I know there are easy intro classes in philo--there are also easy intro science classes, they're just usually geared toward non-science majors. Anyway, I see your point.

 

[Emann8]

I agree w/ the sentiment so far about philosophy relating to the MCAT. I was one class away from a minor in philosophy so I've taken plenty of philosophy, although I'm no Socrates or anything. I'll say those were some pretty tough classes to take but as far as getting an edge on the MCAT I'd shoot for a humanities class or two instead.

Those HUM classes will really push you to read 'between-the-lines' off of some heavy reads, similar to or harder than the passages you'll see in the MCAT. Chances are you'd need to take a few philosophy courses to get what you want out of it, it really is hit or miss. The one humanities class I took (Ritual/Myth/Symbol) had me kicking myself for not taken more of them. You think your smart wait to you hear what these humanities majors make out of one measly word.

It's all relative I guess but if it were me I'd go w/ the humanities but philosophy isn't far behind at all and who's to say humanities classes aren't hit or miss either one can be a humbling experience. Keep both in mind and maybe take a look at the bookstore and see what each class is required to read and go from there.

 

[indo]

People who are good at reading philosophy are good at keeping many ideas in their head at once. And philosophy majors are good at reading complicated material. mcat=reasoning and phil. =reasoning

 

[srmonkey]

I'm sure philosophy won't hurt your chances at the very least. I think that the higher average score may be a population effect, at least in part. The humanities majors who take the MCAT are probably from the higher end of the distribution, and likely would have done well regardless of their major. Many more people apply with science majors and so there is a probably a more representative distribution, which shows in the scores.

I could see a benifit in majoring in philosophy. I took multiple classes and I feel I benefitted from them. They definitely weren't easy, although I wouldn't say they were significantly diffcult. I am a proponent of the American emphasis on liberal arts in education. However, I don't think having a humanities major will be of large benefit on the MCAT.

 

[quideam]

I'm a philosophy major, and here's what I think:

If I could only name ONE class that helped me THE MOST in my MCAT prep, I would say that it's a class I took in LOGIC . We did truth trees, analyzed arguments, etc. It's somewhat similar (at least in terms of how it makes you think) to data structures computer class. The Logic class helped me learn to analyze arguments differently then you would normally, and I really think it helped me a lot on, of course, the verbal section, but also quite a bit on the bio. I don't know my April scores yet, so we'll see, but if you can, I would DEFINETLY recommend a logic course.

- Quid

 

[Lil IceBoy]

Yea I would agree with the fact that if you are more adept at the readings of philosphy that you're better off. In the prep classes they like to categorize the difference between humanities/science/and I guess art for verbal. And humanities was always the hardest for me (bio major).