Physics 1&2 before the MCAT?

[Paulz]

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I read on here that you need both Physics 1&2 BEFORE you take the MCAT. I am already a year behind in General Chem and will have to take it during the summer. Am I going to be a year behind in Physics as well?! I knew I'd have to eventually take them, but I was planning on doing it sophmore-senior year.

 

[Windchime]

I took the MCAT without Physics II... and I never went that far in High School- if you're motivated to learn the material I definitely think its doable. You will have to take the courses though to apply to Med school...

 

[Maxprime]

I've had talked to people who took the MCAT w/out physics II (the one I have a score for was a TA for physics I). You want to take the MCAT just once, why not prep as much as you can for it?

 

[Zendoc]

I read on here that you need both Physics 1&2 BEFORE you take the MCAT?

Yes.

 

[DoctorDreamer]

You have to take them anyway, and they're on the mcat, so take them before.

 

[badasshairday]

You can take the MCAT without taking gen Bio, gen Chem, Physics, Ochem, and just learn it on your own.

I wouldn't reccomend this however.

Take physics before the MCAT. Trust me, it will be worth it.

 

[Bond8204]

Take all base sciences that the MCAT tests before taking the MCAT (this is somewhat intuitive, no?).

If you simply must take the MCAT before completing them, take a Kaplan or Princeton Review course to compensate and utilize all the materials they have available to make sure it's not a weakness.

 

[Paulz]

Can I take them both in my sophomore year? Or do they each take a year to complete? I am a sophomore next fall and I want to take the MCAT Junior year. Can I take them fall-spring next year or will I have to do them in the summer to catch up?

 

[Kthanksbye]

Physics I and II are semester long class. If you want to try the MCAT without them, here's what you should do. Make sure you are getting and least several points above your target MCAT score on multiple consecutive practice MCATs (from AAMC website, Kaplan, PR, etc). Do not take the MCAT without all pre reqs unless you are already scoring consistently well on practice tests! You want to avoid (at all costs!) the position of having to RETAKE the MCAT to improve a low score.

See this thread:


http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=5774458

 

[Paulz]

Okay, so next year I can take them fall-spring and have them both done for a Junior year MCAT?

 

[Kandy2012]

Take as many prereqs as possible b4 you take the MCAT. That way you will have to just brush up on material instead of starting from scratch. The MCAT is a beast and you don't want to sit through it twice. It won't hurt your chances if you do unless you don't significantly improve.

 

[skinnylindsay]

When, during your junior year do you plan on taking the MCAT? From the way your post is worded, it sounds as though you're trying to take physics your sophomore year so you can take the MCAT at some point during your junior year? At my school most people take gen chem freshman year, organic chem sophomore year, and physics their junior year, so they can take the MCAT sometime in the summer between their junior and senior year.

 

[Paulz]

I am not sure when. All that I know is that, I want to be fully prepared and I want to do it at normal pace so when I graduate in 2011, I can continue on to med school.

Right now I am behind in GEN CHEM because I didn't take it coming into Freshman year and the sequencing in my school goes 105 in the fall, 106 in the summer, and you need 105 to take 106. I am taking them both this summer and just want to make sure that I won't be behind in Physics as well.

 

[Kthanksbye]

Don't worry so much about being "behind". Your GPA and MCAT scores are more important than whether you made a B-line through undergrad directly to med school. If it takes you an extra year, BFD. You're what? 18? You got time, dude. Many of use are going back to undergrad to do the pre reqs and apply. Two things: Make sure you take lots of practice tests before you take the real thing and never never take the MCAT "just to see". You want to go in there prepared or not at all.

 

[kdburton]

I read on here that you need both Physics 1&2 BEFORE you take the MCAT. I am already a year behind in General Chem and will have to take it during the summer. Am I going to be a year behind in Physics as well?! I knew I'd have to eventually take them, but I was planning on doing it sophmore-senior year.

Gen Chem may be helpful since its already a fairly easy subject to grasp, but the MCAT physics is so dumbed down that you have to almost relearn it in the dumb version otherwise you're wasting your time. You'll do just fine without taking Physics before the MCAT as long as you study it the way the prep materials present it. I used ExamKrackers and rocked out a 14 on the PS section and mine was about 50/50 gen chem/physics. PS why are you taking the MCAT freshman year?

 

[Paulz]

I will take Physics 1&2 next year, I am only a Freshman. I will have a year to do. I can knock them both out in my sophomore year correct? I just want to know if I can do them fall-spring, or if I'll have to take them in the summer.

 

[kdburton]

I will take Physics 1&2 next year, I am only a Freshman. I will have a year to do. I can knock them both out in my sophomore year correct? I just want to know if I can do them fall-spring, or if I'll have to take them in the summer.

You can take both in one academic year. You don't need to take physics before the MCAT (maybe phys I would be slightly helpful) because a lot of the material is extremely easy and based on simple relationships that the MCAT review books seem to do a good job of explaining.

 

[Law2Doc]

Don't worry so much about being "behind". Your GPA and MCAT scores are more important than whether you made a B-line through undergrad directly to med school. If it takes you an extra year, BFD. You're what? 18? You got time, dude. Many of use are going back to undergrad to do the pre reqs and apply. Two things: Make sure you take lots of practice tests before you take the real thing and never never take the MCAT "just to see". You want to go in there prepared or not at all.

Agree. The person who gets to pick and choose amongst multiple med schools a year out of college is in a much better place than someone who is lucky to get into his/her least desirable choice because s/he rushed to get a junior MCAT done. Take the time you need. There will be quite a few folks several years out of college in med school. And a handful of folks decades out. There is no set timing here. Just to need to have all your ducks in a row.
So you want to complete the courses that will be on the MCAT, then take the time you need to study for the MCAT and then take it. If you lose a year, so what-- you will use it to pump up ECs or something.

 

[Law2Doc]

You can take both in one academic year. You don't need to take physics before the MCAT (maybe phys I would be slightly helpful) because a lot of the material is extremely easy and based on simple relationships that the MCAT review books seem to do a good job of explaining.

There are plenty of folks who end up retaking the MCAT because they didn't complete the prereqs before the MCAT, and weren't able to self teach as well as some of the folks on this thread. I personally think this is a really bad idea unless you are an amazing science student with a good track record of self teaching. Physics II, Orgo II etc all find their way onto various forms of the MCAT. It is foolish to rush past these requirements to stay on some imaginary timeline.

 

[Sora]

 

[KeyzerSoze]

.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

That's funny, I wonder if it's real. I'm pretty sure he was doing the problem exactly right until he got up to the elephant, all he had to do was equate U and Us and then solve for x.

 

[Vihsadas]

Absolutely yes. You should take these classes before you take the MCAT. You'll be selling yourself short (most likely) if you take the MCAT before taking these classes. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but you will help your chances quite a bit if you do.

 

[batch5000]

For that problem would x=1.71 m?

 

[l7anxtl7lvln2n]

Got x=1.71 as well 🙂. Thought I would give the problem a shot since it IS on my Physics final tomorrow. I should be sleeping though ... 😴

 

[Geekchick921]

Oh my God I LOVE that one. I found a webpage full of these... This one never gets old for me.

 

[45408]

You'll do just fine without taking Physics before the MCAT as long as you study it the way the prep materials present it. I used ExamKrackers and rocked out a 14 on the PS section and mine was about 50/50 gen chem/physics.

To say that your experience was atypical would be an understatement. Seeing how almost no one gets a 14, it's even more absurd for the average individual to assume they could do so without half of the prereqs for that section. I got a 13 in PS, but there's no way I would have done so without having taken physics and gen chem already and rocked them.

because a lot of the material is extremely easy and based on simple relationships

And that's why the average on the MCAT is a 24? In the majority of situations, someone should take all the prereqs before the MCAT. It's not that big of a deal to take physics and gen chem together over the course of a year (mine overlapped), and you have to take them anyways, so why not take them before the MCAT?

 

[Kthanksbye]

To say that your experience was atypical would be an understatement. Seeing how almost no one gets a 14, it's even more absurd for the average individual to assume they could do so without half of the prereqs for that section. I got a 13 in PS, but there's no way I would have done so without having taken physics and gen chem already and rocked them.


And that's why the average on the MCAT is a 24? In the majority of situations, someone should take all the prereqs before the MCAT. It's not that big of a deal to take physics and gen chem together over the course of a year (mine overlapped), and you have to take them anyways, so why not take them before the MCAT?

Totally agree. OP, you want to be real careful listening to people on this board sometimes. There seem to be a lot of people who say that you don't need all the pre reqs for the MCAT. If you want to find out if it will work for you, do what I said earlier. Take ALL of the AAMC practice tests, and perhaps some other ones as well. If you consistently score well above your target score (you should assume your real score will be lower than your practice test scores) you can proceed to take the MCAT without all the pre reqs. NOT until.

 

[patekpremed]

I agree. I would definitely suggest taking Physics (especially 1) before the MCAT.

 

[kdburton]

There are plenty of folks who end up retaking the MCAT because they didn't complete the prereqs before the MCAT, and weren't able to self teach as well as some of the folks on this thread. I personally think this is a really bad idea unless you are an amazing science student with a good track record of self teaching. Physics II, Orgo II etc all find their way onto various forms of the MCAT. It is foolish to rush past these requirements to stay on some imaginary timeline.

I guess what I'm getting at is that if this person wants to take the MCAT now [soon] for some reason and the only thing holding them back is physics... well its definitely possible. You don't need to be an amazing science student to recognize the physical/chemical relationships that are represented on the MCAT and I personally thought that it was a extremely big waste of time (and even made it more confusing) to go back to a physics text book while I was studying for the MCAT even though I hadn't taken physics for years. If you get decent MCAT prep material and study it the way they teach it, then that is all you need to know. Its essentially applying junior high math to a word problem and you just need to figure out what the variables are and plug numbers in accordingly. The calc-based physics that they teach in college is completely different...

 

[MamadP]

A friend of mine took the MCAT sophomore year without physics 1 or 2 and scored a "14" in the Physical Sciences section...

The only physics he had prior to the MCAT was regular HS physics. So it's definitely possible if you are committed enough to learn the material on your own.