Physics pendulum & springs - removed?

[daftypatty]

Hi guys, I was wondering if I could get feedback from people who have taken the new exam. I couldn't find pendulums or springs on the aamc outline - would it be okay to skip this section on TBR?

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[Bears458]

Hi guys, I was wondering if I could get feedback from people who have taken the new exam. I couldn't find pendulums or springs on the aamc outline - would it be okay to skip this section on TBR?

I think it would be... but I don't know either.. I am going to follow this thread. Hopefully someone better can answer.

 

[ElectricNoogie]

As far as the official AAMC guide to the MCAT is concerned, periodic motion is still on the exam. They specifically mention amplitude, frequency and phase. They also specifically call out the equation for potential energy in springs. This is all under topic 4A. Both springs and pendulums fits the concept of periodic motion, and have been used before. With their new focus, I would doubt that they use spring or pendulums directly as often as they used to, but it very easy to model knee drop tests and muscle loading as pendulums and springs, respectively.

tl, dr: It is still too soon to know HOW they will test periodic motion, but the AAMC has named periodic motion and Spring explicitly as testable topics.

 

[daftypatty]

As far as the official AAMC guide to the MCAT is concerned, periodic motion is still on the exam. They specifically mention amplitude, frequency and phase. They also specifically call out the equation for potential energy in springs. This is all under topic 4A. Both springs and pendulums fits the concept of periodic motion, and have been used before. With their new focus, I would doubt that they use spring or pendulums directly as often as they used to, but it very easy to model knee drop tests and muscle loading as pendulums and springs, respectively.

tl, dr: It is still too soon to know HOW they will test periodic motion, but the AAMC has named periodic motion and Spring explicitly as testable topics.

I understand that periodic motion is still on the exam, but how about these equations specifically pertaining to pendulums and springs?

Can anyone from the april/may/june 2nd exam verify the extent to which these were tested? (or not)

 

[bee17]

Sorry, but none of us can comment on the specific topics that were tested on our exam. People have gotten in trouble on SDN recently for this.

 

[daftypatty]

Oh okay i didn't know that, would you say its worthwhile to go over pendulums though?

 

[655703]

Oh okay i didn't know that, would you say its worthwhile to go over pendulums though?

I have not taken the exam yet, but I personally think it is worthwhile to review pendulums, given that it is a direct application of periodic motion which is listed as an MCAT topic. I wouldn't over-study it, of course, since it's just one topic in Physics which is already being de-emphasized on the exam, so truthfully there is probably not a high chance you will see pendulum questions on the mcat. But I think the mantra is to be prepared for anything just in case it shows up, so I would at least have a basic fundamental understanding of the principles and equations behind pendulums.