Non-science major MCAT test takers

[Natty]

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Hello, I am a psyc major. I am thinking about studying for the MCAT this spring/summer and taking it in August.

I have 2 questions:

1) How did non-science majors out there who did well on the MCAT prepare for it?

2) I have not taken any university level Chemistry or Physics courses (not prerequisites for several MD programs in Canada). Are there any of you out there who took the MCAT without taking University courses in the physical sciences? How did you do?

Thanks!

 

[finch]

1)Most nonscience majors prepare for the mcat the same way that science majors do- they take a prep course from a company like kaplan or princeton review or else they just buy the review books and study on their own. Just be sure that you buy you buy the official practice tests from the aamc website. These tests are retired MCATs, so you definitely want to take them before you take the MCAT.
2)Doing well on the MCAT without any general chemistry or physics will be very hard. Most students taking the MCAT have 2 semesters of general chem and 2 semesters of physics. Some people on this board have taken the MCAT without one prereq- say physics 2, however, expecting to be able to teach yourself 4 semesters worth of science is probably too ambitious (unless you are a genius.) If you really want to give it a shot, go ahead and start your prep but be sure to take one of the aamc practice tests under strict, timed conditions a couple days before the actual MCAT. That should give you a ballpark idea of what you can expect to score when you take the actual test. Don't take the MCAT if you're not prepared, it looks better to some schools to only take the test once.

 

[ND2005]

Hello, I am a psyc major. I am thinking about studying for the MCAT this spring/summer and taking it in August.

I have 2 questions:

1) How did non-science majors out there who did well on the MCAT prepare for it?

2) I have not taken any university level Chemistry or Physics courses (not prerequisites for several MD programs in Canada). Are there any of you out there who took the MCAT without taking University courses in the physical sciences? How did you do?

Thanks!

1) I was a psych major. I prepared by taking the pre-req courses (I didn't take any upper level science courses though) and by taking a Kaplan course


2) I would strongly recommend that you take chem and physics before taking the MCAT. Those two subjects make up an entire section of the MCAT. I suppose it would be possible to teach yourself well enough to do adequately on that section, but from my (admittedly limited) understanding of the competitiveness of Canadian admissions, "adequate" is probably not good enough.

 

[McGillGrad]

Only a fool or a genius would take th MCAT without the pre-reqs.

Liberal Arts majors tend to do very well on verbal and decently well on the sciences.

 

[HunterGatherer]

in the AAMC website it shows how well students perform by major. humanities students performed well.

I would love to see the stats on people who never took PS courses and how well they performed. It would not be pretty. Anything is possible but I am certain it will take more than 12 weeks of studying.

here is one of the charts:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/sum2004.pdf

more:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/pubs.htm

 

[PPatel]

Humanities majors tend to do better because of the practice they have reading critically. This is a skill that you need on all three sections, so not only do they tend to do better on the VR, but they have an easier time with the BS and PS passages as well. You need to be able to read critically for the entire test.

 

[kdburton]

Humanities majors tend to do better because of the practice they have reading critically. This is a skill that you need on all three sections, so not only do they tend to do better on the VR, but they have an easier time with the BS and PS passages as well. You need to be able to read critically for the entire test.

Even if you can read critically, you won't score well if you don't know the basic science. The MCAT is a test of achievement, not so much aptitude. For the record I'm not a science major.

 

[Twitch]

A girl in our TPR class scored a 12 on VR and 3 PS 3 BS

 

[Conqueror]

2) You MUST take these classes! Without having taken chemistry or physics, I cannot envision anyone scoring above "abysmal" on the MCAT.

CQ