What this person is referring to is the "discrete questions".
Both Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences have approximately 13 out of 52 questions where they are purely outside information. They questions basically are passage independent so you can not reason based off a passage. Some examples of these questions are genetic types that require punnet squares, physics optics questions, acid base calculations, and stereoisomer questions etc. Those are the classical discretes for each section. With that being said, I've taken AAMCs and the real thing and they really come up with some crazy out of left field discretes that are so random it's ridiculous. I don't want to get too in depth though because my account can be banned and my MCAT might be revoked (not sure about that one but I know AAMC doesn't tolerate academic dishonesty)-I know this because there was a question someone who got banned posted and it was on my MCAT as well. Anyways, so ya, 13 of those questions are discretes on PS and BS but those are the ones that are PURELY from outside studying.
Now for the passages, you could have a passage on let's say a bio/chem/physics passage on respiratory physio. That's one of the most integrated topics. Chem because of buffer, bio because of it being the lungs, and physics because of pressure and volume relationship.
Okay so here's are a couple of PASSAGE QUESTION that I completely made up (I think...it might be coming from some random memory from an AAMC or TBR/TPR material):
Passage: Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah...external intercostals work in unison leading to inspiration...blah blah blah blah blah blah blah .....irregular breathing patterns can lead to changes in blood chemistry......blah blah blah blah...inflammatory cytokine TNF alpha leads to macrophage recruitment followed by several inflammatory mediators. This leads to fibrosis of pulmonary tissue. blah blah blah blah cortisol levels lead to respiratory distress...blah blah blah blah blah blah
Exp. 1: Group A rats were blah blah blah...Rats in group B were injected with .1 mg/mL serum ovalbumin. (somewhere in there they'll imply that this causes asthma)
Assume Blah Blah Blah is extra information...
1. If the external intercostal muscles were to contract what would happen?
a.) the heart rate would increase to increase blood flow to lungs
b.) the volume of the lungs would decrease
c.) the blood pressure would decrease
d.) the pressure in the lungs would decrease
2.) Kussmel Breathing is an abnormal breathing pattern where a patient blows of an excess amount of carbon dioxide. What affect does this have on the patient?
a.) an increase in the bicarbonate concentration in blood
b.) decrease in pH in the blood because of a decrease in bicarbonate
c.) pH stays the same due to homeostasis but metabolites are depleted
d.) severely respiratory alkalosis occurs due to Le Chatelier's Principle
3.) If a researcher injected a synthetic TNF alpha antagonist into the rats' lungs in group B what would take place?
a.) the respiratory rate would increase
b.) the respiratory rate would decrease severely
c.) inspiratory reserve volume would resemble the control group
d.) the injection would decrease cortisol levels
4.) Which of the following statements is false:
a.) the bronchioles are innervated by the sympathetic nervous system
b.) alveolar surfactant decrease surface tension of alveoli allowing them to expand further
c.) bronchioles mark the beginning of the conducting division of the lungs
d.) alveoli are primarily responsible for gas exchange in the lungs
5.) Which cellular component is critical for macrophage phagocytosis:
a.) dynein
b.) microfilaments
c.) cell wall
d.) mitochondria
Ok, haha well this was a short random passage. Couple things to keep in mind before I tell you about it.
1. It's not representative. It's too integrative and I wouldn't know what section to put it in.
2. It's not well written (questions don't resemble AAMC).
3.) Some of it could be factually incorrect (pulled it out of my ass)
Anyways, so looking at #1 this is an example of a question that requires you to read a particular sentence in a bunch of filler and use a tid-bit of outside knowledge or common sense to ascertain an answer. I'd say if I hadn't studied, I would have wasted about 30 more seconds. However, I did study and as soon as I saw intercostal muscles in the passage I would have primed myself for a volume/pressure inverse relationship question. You get used to this after reviewing so much from prep books and taking exams. Also, I wouldn't waste time going back to see what external intercostals do. I learnt this when I studied anatomy and then it was reinforced by princeton review. The question would take me a coupla seconds to save elsewhere. Number 2: I don't think everyone knows what Kussmel breathing so this might be one of those things they're trying to intimidate you and make you think you need outside knowledge which might make your friends assertion seem accurate. However, it does still require some outside knowledge. Note how the CO2 solubility equilibria formula is not stated in the passage. It's one of those really critical things they want you to memorize. If you did you'd realize that a decrease in bicarbonate would lead to an accumulation of H+ and a decrease in pH (also if I hadn't been bitten by the pH thing so many times I might have said increased pH even though I knew it was increased acidity-practice is another reason you want to study...studying isn't just reading and memorizing, a good 50% of your time should be doing and analyzing problems. Now number three is a bit questionable but I remember reading in TBR (I think) several factors which decrease lung elasticity. Fibrosis was one of them. Also, anyone can come up with the intuition that fibrosis is a process where fiber is laid down which is tough and reduces elasticity. Then you'd have to not confuse antagonist with agonist and realize that an antagonist is actually blocking TNF alphas effect which if you refer to the passage is basically fibrosis. In short, this means the lung's elasticity will be conserved and if you know your respiratory physio you'd know that that would increase IRV back to normal (i.e. the control group). Therefore, there's information in the passage but you need to know what an antagonist is (requires careful reading which takes practice as not to skim over and think agonist) and you need to understand what IRV is. #4 is what I call a pseudo-discrete. Note that stuff about alveoli or bronchioles aren't mentioned. This is where you just need to know some important facts facts/concepts about respiratory physiology. Excellent examples of these are occur alot in orgo where they are talking about a molecule and are asking you about reactions and all of a sudden they ask you how many stereoisomers a molecule can make or how many stereocenters it has. Its related to the material in terms of subject material but not conceptually, that's a pseudodiscrete. Number 5 is also a pseudodiscrete. You'd have to know the functions of actin and what actin is. Ok, as you can see your friend is wrong. Though 13/52 questions stand alone and purely require outside information, out of the other 39 a lot of them require some outside information to apply to the situation and a lot can sure be made quicker if you learn to anticipate and know what they see as important and will likely be asking for in the questions. Also, if you straight up know a term, sometimes that will give you the answer vs. having to scan back in the passage to try to discern what it means in context. Sure, some questions can be purely ascertained from the passage. There are some answer choices you can sure as hell eliminate because if you read a sentence in the passage it contradicts a choice but this is less common. There are often multiple ways of getting a question right. Sometimes, knowing something off the top of your head is one and number two is going back and reading and number three (in the case of physics is perhaps doing calculation). If you can memorize relationships like PE of capacitor and voltage you can blow by these questions leaving time for others. This is the beauty of the MCAT. They have all types of questions. Reading comp, critical thinking, memorization...Of course they do emphasize the first two over the latter but testing all three is appropriate for a test for future physicians. I say that with a pretty mediocre score as well... Unfortunately, all this may be invalid very soon with the new 2015 MCAT. I have no idea about that 🙁
Oh ya answers are
DBCCB; Comment if you're confused.
