Kaplan Review Book--does it cover too much?

[Green912]

I was comparing the material outlined in the AAMC "MCAT Student Manual" with the material covered in Kaplan's "2001 Comprehensive Review". It looks like Kaplan indulges in covering material not mentioned by the AAMC. Some of the unmentioned material include Alkynes and their reactions; Sublimation and Centrifugation of organic compounds (just to name a few). In contrast the 2001 "Betz" guide seems to follow AAMC almost to the letter.
Is this "extra" information worth spending time on (who has any to spare?), or is it safe to assume that if it's not mentioned by the AAMC it won't show up on the test.

Thanks,

Russ

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[Street Philosopher]

I think all three of those topics could very well show up on the MCAT. Alkyne chemistry isn't really too difficult, it's sort of like alkene chemistry except that it's with 3 bonds (duh). An example of an alkyne question might be like "What do you get when you react an aklyne with D2? (Heavy version of hydrogen). You'd be expected to know it's syn addition, so you'd answer something like "cis-alkene" or "Z-alkene". Again, that one isn't like a big separate thing... it's more of an extension/application of the basic ideas of ochem.

Sublimation and Centrifugation... sublimation might be basic info... generally people know that sublimation is solid-->gas. (That's the only definition I know of). Anything about centrifugation will probably be in the passage... like they'll mention that larger stuff are nearer the center or more dense stuff nearer the edge... something like that.

So the short answer is: they might come up, but they are either just an extension of what you should have a general idea of, or the relevant information will be given in the passage.

 

[Green912]

Thanks for the reply schoolboy. I just started to compare the two books this evening and those were a few cursory examples that I came up with. I saw a bunch of other questionalble material in the organic section and haven't even looked at the other three yet. I just hope that Kaplan isn't trying to beef up their book with unnecassary information to make it look respectable. On the other hand I don't want to skip over important items.

Green

 

[Green912]

Thanks for the reply schoolboy. I just started to compare the two books this evening and those were a few cursory examples that I came up with. I saw a bunch of other questionalble material in the organic section and haven't even looked at the other three yet. I just hope that Kaplan isn't trying to beef up their book with unnecassary information to make it look respectable. On the other hand I don't want to skip over important items.

Green

 

[Kirk]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Schoolboy:
•An example of an alkyne question might be like "What do you get when you react an aklyne with D2? (Heavy version of hydrogen). You'd be expected to know it's syn addition, so you'd answer something like "cis-alkene" or "Z-alkene". Again, that one isn't like a big separate thing... it's more of an extension/application of the basic ideas of ochem.•••••Be careful here... It depends on the substrate present. In the presence of Pt or Pd, an alkyne would react with D2 all the way to an alkane (i.e. ethyne + D2 = CHD2-CHD2). With Lindlers catalyst you will get a cis alkene, and Li or Na will give you the trans alkene.

Sorry, couldn't help it... I should be studying my organic at the moment anyway!

Kirk

 

[Street Philosopher]

Thanks Kirk, that's one less problem I'll get wrong.