MCAT and Physics

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premed bedhead

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Hey guys,

I'm a pre-med rising junior, and I'd like to apply to med school in a year. Right now, I'm set to take Physics I first semester and Physics II second semester.

In order to have my MCAT scores ready by the time I apply for med school, I need to take the MCAT in early April (about a month before the semester ends). I won't have completed Physics II by this time.

What would you suggest:
1) take Physics I during the summer at a different and less-respected 4 year college, and take Physics II during the fall. (I heard that med schools don't like to see you take core pre-med classes over the summer, much less at a different institution than your own.)

2) take Physics I and II during the first and second semester, respectively.

Thanks! :)

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Unless there's a particular reason why you wouldn't want to take physics at your respective university, I would go ahead and take both during the regular school year.

The best thing to do to prepare for physics is make sure you know all of the topics covered on the exam. I'm sure there's a link to it somewhere. Remember that you will have covered all of Physics I (I assume kinematics) and most of Physics II (electricity and magnetism, maybe wave theory). If you take a summer course at a lesser university, you might be questioned by medical schools (many will think you're doing it for the sake of taking an easier physics course) and it might be more difficult to pick up physics in the shorter summer session.

By the time you take the exam, if you haven't covered a topic that will be on the MCAT, you must go over it yourself (I recommend using a textbook and a prep book). Nevertheless, I still think this is do-able.

Physics requires patience and repetition. Read carefully and do as many practice problems as humanly possible. Also look for materials from Berkeley webcast and MIT Open Courseware to help you get started on physics even when you're not taking the course.

Best of luck and welcome to the forum,
-Dr. P.
 
Hey guys,

I'm a pre-med rising junior, and I'd like to apply to med school in a year. Right now, I'm set to take Physics I first semester and Physics II second semester.

In order to have my MCAT scores ready by the time I apply for med school, I need to take the MCAT in early April (about a month before the semester ends). I won't have completed Physics II by this time.

What would you suggest:
1) take Physics I during the summer at a different and less-respected 4 year college, and take Physics II during the fall. (I heard that med schools don't like to see you take core pre-med classes over the summer, much less at a different institution than your own.)

2) take Physics I and II during the first and second semester, respectively.

Thanks! :)

I have a different take on this issue than Dr. P - although his may be the safest route.

I was in a similar situation, I took physics I at the local community college a few summers ago and physics II at the university in the fall. I could have taken the summer course at the university, but it was an outrageous $1200 to do so.
Anyway, the community college modeled their curriculum after the reagents recommendations so the course was essentially the same at the CC (in some cases it was even taught by university faculty who wanted extra cash).

While on the interview trail, I was asked why I took physics I at the community college. I explained why, and asked if that was a bad choice. The interviewer said that one or two courses taken away from your home school does not necessarily reflect badly on you, especially when you have a follow up course that you take at your home school.

Perhaps if you have a lot of Ws on your transcript or repeated courses it would be a bad choice, but if you are earning As and high Bs in most of your pre-reqs I wouldn't worry about taking a single course at a less respected school.
 
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I heard that med schools don't like to see you take core pre-med classes over the summer, much less at a different institution than your own.
I had heard this, but with caveats. Physics is one of the subject areas that many premeds take during the summer. I took the entire year of physics at a UC, and I normally attend a high-ranked private school. I know many people who did physics at lesser-known state schools, and they have done great in the application process. However, I don't know anyone who took physics at a CC. I think that at least taking it at a 4-year university should be fine, especially since physics is "less essential", from what my advisors imply. They imply that more "essential" premed core courses are the bio ones - they told me not to take the bio core or upper division bio classes elsewhere, because those are the ones that med schools really want to see you do well in. Can anyone corroborate this?

I thought that taking physics over the summer was a wonderful idea because it freed up time at my home institution to take classes that I actually enjoy, and it also made me ready by April to take the MCAT.
 
In my opinion, you do not have to have taken physics II for the MCAT. I took the MCAT before taking phys II and received a 10 on phy sci...not amazing, not shabby. Just make sure that you have mechanics/thermo dynamics down like whoa
 
In my opinion, you do not have to have taken physics II for the MCAT. I took the MCAT before taking phys II and received a 10 on phy sci...not amazing, not shabby. Just make sure that you have mechanics/thermo dynamics down like whoa


I would throw in there magnetism (right hand rule and all that crap) and circuits.

Other than that, I agree. Not much from physics II on the MCAT.
 
Depending on your course organization you might want to think it over based on what is taught and what is needed on the test. On the AAMC tests I've run into a few passage and a few non-passage problems on electromagnetic radiation and optics in addition to circuits, charges, and magnetism. All of these were in my physics II.

good luck
 
Why not just take the MCAT at the end of may? Your scores will be back before the first secondary is sent out. You will be extremely early and Physics II will be over.
 
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