Is the MCAT content catered to those who took the pre-req's at the toughest programs?

[deleted1085158]

I was just doing some practice UWorld questions tonight for fun. Mind you I haven't started my content prep yet. I just wanted to see how the questions are asked and I feel like I never learned the material in undergrad to the level of some of these passages.

Is it normal for someone to look at MCAT passages and be completely lost before they begin their studying?

Would someone who took the prereqs at Harvard be able to fly through these UWorld questions?

...or will I be able to tackle these passages after reading the Kaplan books and then practicing a few FL's?

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[ArteryStudyPainting]

It has nothing to do with your institution. No institution teaches towards any MCAT, etc. I mean this in terms of, it's so specific that what you're seeing is not a lack of their teaching, but a lack of your knowing how to take THE test of your lifetime (which is 40% of the test).

 

[deleted1085158]

It has nothing to do with your institution. No institution teaches towards any MCAT, etc. I mean this in terms of, it's so specific that what you're seeing is not a lack of their teaching, but a lack of your knowing how to take THE test of your lifetime (which is 40% of the test).

I'm about to start six months of prep divided into content prep and then Qbank and FL practice for the last 3-4 months.

Will these UWorld passages hopefully start to make more sense at that point because right now it's blowing my mind. I just got 10 bio questions wrong and I thought I got them right.

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

Yes.

 

[deleted1085158]

Yes.

I hope so. The fact that I was positive about some of these answers and still got them wrong is quite scary.

 

[FrameshiftAndrew]

It's good that you're doing some passages before you really delve into content review to get a sense of what the test is like—a lot of people don't do that, but it can be really valuable as a way to give yourself a sense of what the MCAT is like. That said, yeah, it can be kind of shocking.

Here's something I'd suggest, especially re: missing questions you felt sure about: go back and review with a careful eye towards (a) where you got information from vs. (b) where the question required you to get information from. Missing questions you felt positive about often indicates a mismatch between (a) and (b), and fixing that mismatch is a sizable part of what people mean when they talk about learning how to take the test. For instance, you might have interpreted something as requiring outside knowledge when it really drew upon passage information, or pulled information from the wrong part of the passage, or made a mistake in figure interpretation, and so on.

And to answer your original question, no, it's supposed to go beyond everybody's basic coursework regardless of institution. I do think it can be somewhat easier to get the hang of MCAT passages for people who have had to read a lot of scientific articles before (as part of a research experience/job, writing a thesis, grad school, etc.), but even for experienced readers of scientific articles there's still a certain MCAT-like feel you have to get used to. The good news is that this is learnable with careful practice and review. But yeah, many/most passages are fundamentally about how you process new information in light of core science knowledge, they're not supposed to be familiar-looking at first glance.

 

[Mr.Blackdoc.5]

institution doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you actually learned material in undergrad conceptually and not just memorized it. Eg you understand how a mass spectrometer works not just memorize an equation relating magnetic force and centripetal force. I didn’t get the best grades but in school I always tried to make sure I understood concepts at the most fundamental level and that definitely played a key role in me getting 132 on both c/p and b/b. Good luck

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Everybody feels this way at the beginning. A student at Harvard might do better because they worked harder to really understand the material when they were learning it, but that's not unique to a Harvard student.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors