Journals and Articles for MCAT prep

[Bella Swan]

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Hi everyone,

I finally realized why I have not been able to break above 11 on the Bio and 9 on the Verbal in both practice tests and the real deal. My reading background is weak and I really need to build up my analytical strengths. The only way I can possibly see doing this is to read pertinent material for 4-5 hours a day for 3 months. I am confident that I know the actual material tested backwards and forwards, but this aspect is missing. I have already began for a few weeks reading every Molecular Biology, Physiology, and Genetics paper I can find and analyzing the text and graphs to see if my conclusion matches that of the authors. I really feel that this is helping.

Before, I new my material inside and out, but this is the skill I need to beef up especially for Verbal. Can anyone recommend journals or specific areas to look under for the Economist for the following topics:

Sociology articles
Philosophy articles
General DESCRIPTIVE articles
ANY journals that could be tied to those you would see in the MCAT
Scientific America articles
Evolution in Genetics (not molecular genetics)**you know those weird passages they throw on there talking about an eagle population in the Bio section that no one expects

Maybe we could start a thread specifically for journal articles that we could all read and discuss that are pertinent to MCAT topics. My last MCAT had actual journal articles in all three sections. Naturally they were condensed, but still the bulk of the article was presented. This is where I feel prolific readers have the edge.

Thank you to everyone.

 

[J3TTY]

This is a great idea. You should link to some of those articles that you've been reading.

http://www.theatlantic.com/search/?q=a+close+read
http://www.gladwell.com/archive.html
www.wikipremed.com - has 3 readings of increasing difficulty on different MCAT verbal topics every other module.

 

[liveoak]

what a stupid idea. just know your ****

 

[Bella Swan]

I agree, that without questions this may be a futile idea. I'm not 100% sure I am grasping the main idea when reading philosophy and sociology journals. The reason I am doing this is to become more at ease with dense humanity and theoretical passages that do show up on the MCAT. I agree here and I spend most of my Verbal allotted time doing actual passages from varying sources.

However, for Biology, it is my honest opinion that nothing beats reading academic peer reviewed articles. The background section introduces you to the topic and put the Biology terms on the MCAT in useful light. Don't read the methods section. Read and understand the results and see if your conclusion matches theirs in the Discussion.

 

[Bella Swan]

Honestly, give this article a try and see what you can derive before reading the discussion:

http://www.jci.org/articles/view/9017

We know what insulin is and we know what osteoblasts and osteoclasts do. There is no reason that the AAMC could not reword this article, include the graphs, and throw something like this in front of us. Of course they would define osteopenia. But look at the graphs and derive conclusions from the results. This type of activity is much higher yield than memorizing every single detail in EK Bio imo.

Try to read articles from Cell (my favorite journal for personal reasons 🙂) and see if you can draw out the pathways they are linking. This section is all about critical analysis and the only way to derive their level of critical analysis to see how biologist really think.

 

[nabilesmail]

How do you guys go about the humanities/philosophy articles. Sometimes I am absolutely clueless as to what the passage is about. How can i answer questions if I don't even understand the passage :/ 3.5 months till mcat!