mcat bio prep?

[CUskibum]

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My bio knowledge is lacking in the area of anatomy/phys and developmental bio. Are these area's hit hard on the MCAT. If so would a certain MCAT prep course help or would it be wiser to invest my time in an upper division physiology class. My physics and chem should be fine, but definitely need work on bio and verbal. Any suggestions on a specific prep course?

Also if I take the mcat april of soph year or fall of junior year, how many application cycles will it be good for assuming the first time I apply would be fall of senior year?

 

[CUskibum]

anyone?

 

[TTURedRaider]

Anatomy/Phys and Dev. Bio are not topics the MCAT will expect you to know in-depth. I think that intro biology material is about the level of understanding MCAT expects. Anything in further detail will be explained in the passage, and you can usually find the answer to a difficult question from the passage.

As far as MCAT specific books for Bio, I found the Examkrackers Review Books (as a supplement to a Princeton Review course) to be the most relevant and straightforward in terms of explaining what topics are consistently tested. I found that the Princeton Review course covered much more material, as evidenced by the thickness of the Princeton Review books I was given as part of the course. I think the review course was much more beneficial than taking an upper level college course, but I also know of people who were able to achieve a decent score studying on their own. It just depends on how diligent and focused you can be studying on your own.

If you have not done so already, I would suggest getting a hold of an official AAMC practice test (6R is the most recent) to get an idea of the questions asked. The actual MCAT I took in August was about the same difficulty as the AAMC practice tests.

Different schools have different policies regarding the age of the scores they will accept. Generally speaking, the scores are good for about 3 years.

Sorry for such a long response, but I hope it helps. Best of luck.