MCAT topics NOT covered by Kaplan

[aug14]

Kaplan doesnt cover everything that is listed on the MCAT topics list I got off the AAMC website (kaplan is missing alot of organic chem and bio topics like euk. transcription regulation). Do you guys study those topics omited by kaplan?

Also, how importaint are reaction mechanisms in the orgo section, because I've noticed that kaplan has alot wrong (such as reactions that show strong nucs under acidic conditions, the reduction of a carbonyl with LiAlH4, and others)

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[!dr_nick!]

i thought i remembered seeing eukaryotic transcription regulation addressed in the bio notes? my book has long since been given away.

Generally i didnt cover stuff they didnt spend time on, as their game was playing the odds. At least, i didnt kill my self on stuff they didnt cover.

btw, I always verified their info with my text books just in case.


I was generally satisfied with kaplan, but i'd like to sit in on PR classes to compare.

 

[aug14]

My books only cover prok. transcription regulation (2004 edition). In addtion to that Kaplan also doesn't cover fungi, DNA repair, restriction enzymes, hybridizatoin, gene cloning... the list goes on. The list of organic chem omited includes pinacol rearrangements and terpenes(which showed up on a kaplan practice test i took yesterday). Lucky for me I've had these topics in my college classes, but if I didn't look on this list I would have never reviewed them.

 

[ethanolabsolute]

yeah Kaplan definitely leaves out some material. I hunted down all of these topics in my textbooks and studied them that way. I haven't noticed anything being incorrect about Kaplan's Ochem though. What specifically is wrong about the LAH mechanism?

 

[Mr Reddly]

IMHO, they keep putting less and less O-chem on the mcat...
Also, after taking the test 2x and studying with kap and PR, the best advice I can give is to do problems sets... and not nessesarily kaplans problem sets. They are more difficult, take longer, and are more focused than the actual test. get a PR problem book or/and an EK problem book and do the questions till you are blue in the face. Only go back to the books when you can't answer a question. ...

I was more into the books the first time (31) and changed to being a 'problem set' guy for the second try (35)...

- $0.02

 

[Mr Reddly]

My books only cover prok. transcription regulation (2004 edition). In addtion to that Kaplan also doesn't cover fungi, DNA repair, restriction enzymes, hybridizatoin, gene cloning... the

If I recall correctly, this stuff wasn't a big thing on the mcat till just recently (I think they took out some more o-chem to emphasize some of that stuff just last year). Although the Kap books are 2004, they probably aren't much different than the 2003 and the 2002 books (which are VERY similar to the 2001, 2000, 1999, etc. books ... I have 2 sets ... ~3 years apart 😡 )


as for fungi... That's on the test? I don't remember studying fungi for the mcat at all... 😕

 

[Mr Reddly]

I was generally satisfied with kaplan, but i'd like to sit in on PR classes to compare.

I've taken both. I don't think the classes themselves are a whole lot different... although there is more classtime on PR. What I did like about PR though (and it's what I keep saying) is their problem set books. The funny thing was that most people in my class didn't even finish them one time through.

I think if someone could get their hands on the Kaplain books, the PR books, and the EK books, (oh ya, and audio osmosis) then it doesn't matter what classes you take as their quality depends on the teacher... per say.

But ya, kap leaves some stuff out, PR leaves some stuff out, EK leaves some stuff out. Also, the Kap books might do a better job of teaching one thing and the PR books do a better job of teaching something else.... 😴

 

[aug14]

yeah Kaplan definitely leaves out some material. I hunted down all of these topics in my textbooks and studied them that way. I haven't noticed anything being incorrect about Kaplan's Ochem though. What specifically is wrong about the LAH mechanism?

It takes two molecules of LiAlH4 to reduce a Carb. acid. First one H- attacks the acid hydrogen to give hydrogen gas and a carboxylate anion, then another H- from the remaining AlH3 attacks the carbonyl, and the remaining AlH2+ complexes with the oxygen, next a H- from a seperate molecule of LiAlH4 attacks by SN2, with O-AlH2 as the leaving group. It is hard to describe without drawing, so I hope you understand what Im trying to say. Anyway, this one is not that importaint becuase I doubt you need to know it. THe biggest mistake on kaplan orgo is they show nucleophiles attacking protonated carbonyl groups and protonated groups leaving as leaving groups in SN2 type reactions. This would never happen, you cant have strong nucleophiles in acidic solution because the nucleophiles would become protonated and thus no longer be strong nucleophiles.

 

[aug14]

get a PR problem book or/and an EK problem book
I was more into the books the first time (31) and changed to being a 'problem set' guy for the second try (35)...

What are the PR problem books like (real passages?) Where can I get them?

 

[stwei]

has anyone read the berkeley review books and compared them to Kaplan and PR?

 

[Mr Reddly]

What are the PR problem books like (real passages?) Where can I get them?

ebay / friends in the PR classes... PR = Princeton Review

They had sections that were passage based, followed by sections that were question/answer... just like on the mcat. The difference was that the material paralleled the books. At the end, they had answers and explanations. IMHO, these were much more like the real thing than the Kap questions.

What I did was do a passage, look up the answers, and if I got too many wrong, I'd look that section up in the book. I wrote down in a log book, exactly how many I got wrong (and which ones + my wrong answers) for each section. When I finished, I went back and did them again, focusing on the ones I did poorly on...

 

[Mr Reddly]

What are the PR problem books like (real passages?) Where can I get them?

Just did a search on ebay...

I think this is what they were.

Princeton Review Hyperlearning MCAT Science Workbook
Princeton Review Hyperlearning MCAT Verbal Workbook


- But remember I'm just one person. Find a friend who's taking PR and take a look at them to see what you think. 🙂

 

[ethanolabsolute]

oh yeah, Your right, I completely forgot the way that LAH mechanism was taught in my ochem class! It was just like u said. I don't think it matters if we know the mechanism though, but that is still dumb that they teach it the wrong way. Your right about SN2 also. I hadn't been able to put my finger on it before, but I knew that something seemed weird about all those reactions that Kaplan claimed were following sn2 mechanisms, even though that didn't seem to make sense.

 

[aug14]

I dont think we need to know the mechanism, but I think we should know what oxygen is leaving in this situations - just in case they ask a question involving a labled oxygen. The oxygen that leaves is the carbonyl oxygen NOT the -OH oxygen like Kaplan shows.