This is the response to AAMC's first full-length I would agree with most. I think Raspberry is pretty darn accurate. Based on our analysis of all of the pre-released AAMC MCAT-2015 materials (Official Guide, MCAT-2015 Preview Guide, A guide they released only to advisors that had a few unseen passages, and their first full-length) our interpretation is:
1. Bio and Biochem are heavy; clearly they dominate the exam. However, not more than the OG-2015 says. Biochem will be about 25% of the Chem-Phys (CP) section and 25% of the Biology-Biochem section (BB) [think of it as 1/2 of a section; its a lot of impact on your score]. Bio will be on PsS, but only for brain or nervous system stuff (5-10%). BIO is everywhere because every section but CARS has it and it is 65% of the BB section. In reality, the biochem is tame. It is the kind of biochem you'd learn in a sophomore intro bio...plus a FEW aspects of more advanced biochem from what you'd expect in a 1st Semester Biochem course. It is just that they are going to test it a lot. It is going to seem like a lot of biochem because it is a lot of questions for relatively few topics. We see a lot of data suggesting a trend toward significantly more immune system and regulatory proteins/cytokines/signalling pathways, and cancer/cell cycle reg./apoptosis. We believe this is because of the emphasis on research articles, as these are what dominate most of the primary research they will be using.
HIGH-VALUE BIOCHEM TOPICS: Amino Acids, Amino Acids (twice for intentional emphasis) [you need to be all over -R group chemistry and 100% REJECT Kaplan/other counsel to not worry about abbreviations; know 1-letter and 3-letter], proteins/enzymes/enzyme regulation, metabolism, lipids; drugs will be used a lot as the bio-relevant way of testing several topics.
HIGH-VALUE BIO TOPICS: Molecular/Cell bio generally, Immune System, Genetics, Cancer/Cell Cycle
2. General Chemistry is NOT de-emphasized at all, and O-Chem far less than people are thinking--the test is essentially an ALL-CHEMISTRY-HYBRID First, remember that biochem, genchem and ochem all overlap considerably. Add up the percentage of questions for each: 25% + 30% + 15% = 70% of the CP section! You are going to have a very hard time telling in many cases whether a question is genchem, biochem or ochem--especially when all of them will be bio-related, most likely from a passage about a drug/drug synthesis/drug treatment OR a signalling pathway, which by definition really makes all of it "biochem." The topics list has lots of overlap among the three disciplines, and a very careful analysis of OG-2015 and the solutions to the AAMC full-length revealed to us that the AAMC isn't consistent on what they are "counting" in each category. When they give you a drug molecule, show a synthesis, some graphs, then ask a question about reaction rate/enzyme catalysis, a question about intermolecular forces, a question about bonding, a question about a lab technique, and a question about drugs dissolving in the blood (which they relate to entropy and enthalpy)....did you just do genchem, or biochem, or ochem...ANSWER = you just did MCAT-2015 CHEMISTRY and its really debatable how you want to "count" each individual question (does it matter anyway? THINK: MCAT-2015 = INTERDISCIPLINARY). O-Chem is probably the hardest to strictly classify as o-chem, versus when its actually biochem or even bio-relevant genchem. The MCAT-2015 topics list is no help because on most of these criss-crossing topics they list: OC, BC or BIO, BC, OC or GC, OC as the discipline.
HIGH-VALUE CHEMISTRY TOPICS: Enzymes/Reaction Rate, Thermodynamics, Atomic Structure, Blood as a Solution [blood buffer galore, solubility in the blood, etc.], Lab Techniques [under OChem in the topics list, but expect more biochem techniques like SDS-Page, western blotting, protein separations, PCR, etc.]
3. Physics is NOT as de-emphasized as we all once believed. It is still 25%, or 2-3 of the 10 passages and a quarter of the stand-alones. That's NOT something you can DE-EMPHASIZE in your studies without killing your score. 25% is quite a bit, actually. Here's the KILLER with physics. They took off momentum, and circular/rotational motion, and a few other things, but what came off was small relatively speaking and what is going to be emphasized more are topics in which most students are weak after physics class: lenses/light, fluids/buoyancy, waves [expect a LOT of diagnostic stuff; most of the medical imaging stuff uses electromagnetic waves], electricity/circuits [expect lots of models for how human body stuff is actually a battery, a capacitor, a resistor, etc.]. You still have to understand most of what you did before, there will just be fewer questions rewarding that knowledge. WARNING: We anticipate people will get burned on what they think is off but isn't (i.e., They no longer say "kinematics equations" on the topics list, but there are plenty of topics related to motion such that they are most likely going to ask you something for which you would use translational motion concepts).
HIGH-VALUE PHYSICS TOPICS: Waves/Electromagnetic Radiation of all kinds!! [know this one super-uber-very-well]; Fluids, Circuits
4. Psych-Soc Section is the ODD DUCK (PsS). I shouldn't comment on this section because I dislike it. We at Altius admire the AAMC and the MCAT as an exam for its validity, its consistency, and its WONDERFUL way of testing basic, big-picture CONCEPTS while de-emphasizing memorization. That ship pretty much sailed for the new PsS. Its almost a separate exam. It is MEMORIZATION on steroids. There are undercurrents of the normal AAMC critical-thinking style, but NOTHING like the other two sections. It it is strange to see question after question (VERY strange) on an AAMC exam that rewards the examinee for nothing more than REMEMBERING the name of something: a theorist, a definition or a term. It's not going anywhere, so in order to ace it: 1) Take your conceptual understanding and strategy from the other sections, it will still serve you well here in many regards, BUT get your behind in gear and KNOW your psych/soc stuff: KNOW every significant (not necessarily major, just significant) psychologist and sociologist mentioned in the textbooks, every theory, every "sociological" or "psychological" perspective, every phenomenon, and pretty much any notable term or definition. They are going to straight up ask you to pick them by name, or if they feel really conceptual, give you a scenario/description and ask you to identify which of four terms/theories/perspectives the scenario in the stem "is an example of." Don't worry about graphs and figures, they are about 10 TIMES easier than the ones on the other two sections.
HIGH-YIELD PsS TOPICS: Hmmm....knowing every famous psychologist or sociologist and all their theories. You will definitely see a lot of: 1) Brain Region Questions, 2) Nerve cell/CNS/neurotransmitter questions, and 3) Learning/Memory/Conditioning questions
That's my $0.02
I'm kinda depressed actually, because I'm trying to see if I should postpone til the 23rd. A Kaplan instructor told me to base my scores off of my Kaplan full lengths, but we all know Kaplan has really hard exams.
