preparing for mcats/classes beyond prereqs

[estradiol9]

So I'm planning on taking January 2012 MCATs during my winter break. I need some opinions from people on the classes I've taken so far and will have completed by then. Do you think I should take something else instead?

Completed Already:
-General Biology I & II (discusses anatomy & physiology of plants/animals, ecology, cell biology, genetics & evolution)
-General Chemistry I & II
-Physics I & II
-Organic Chemistry I
-Human Health & Disease
-Ecology & Evolution
-Evolution
-Cellular & Molecular Biology
-Bioinformatics
-English Composition I & II
- Pre-Calc & Calc I

Planning to take over the summer & fall, so they will be done before MCATs:
-Organic Chemistry II
-Biochemistry
-Psychology
-Mammalian Physiology
-Developmental Biology
-Cell Biology

I also had the option of choosing from Genetics, Microbiology, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, Neurobiology, Neural Basis of Behavior, Evolution of Humans, Ecology/Evolution of Disease, and Molecular Biology. Do you think one of these courses would be better than the ones I listed above that I am planning to take?

Also, during the fall semester prior to my MCATs I am going to be taking 16 credits of just science classes. I am also planning on studying for my mcats at the same time. What is your opinion on this? I know some people prefer to do nothing but study but I figured I would be taking classes that might help with the content covered on the exam so it would be okay.

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[shinbeats]

So I'm planning on taking January 2012 MCATs during my winter break. I need some opinions from people on the classes I've taken so far and will have completed by then. Do you think I should take something else instead?

Completed Already:
-General Biology I & II (discusses anatomy & physiology of plants/animals, ecology, cell biology, genetics & evolution)
-General Chemistry I & II
-Physics I & II
-Organic Chemistry I
-Human Health & Disease
-Ecology & Evolution
-Evolution
-Cellular & Molecular Biology
-Bioinformatics
-English Composition I & II
- Pre-Calc & Calc I

Planning to take over the summer & fall, so they will be done before MCATs:
-Organic Chemistry II (Pre- req, mandatory)
--Biochemistry (Very helpful in developing critical thinking)
-Mammalian Physiology (Extremely important class!!! can't even stress how important Physiology is!)
Instead of Psychology and Developmental Biology I would stick with Microbiology, Molecular Biology and General Genetics all 3 of these will be a lot more focused on the MCAT
-Developmental Biology (Not as important as the classes I listed above)
-Psychology(Not necessary at all )
-Cell Biology (Great class)

I also had the option of choosing from Genetics, Microbiology, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, Neurobiology, Neural Basis of Behavior, Evolution of Humans, Ecology/Evolution of Disease, and Molecular Biology. Do you think one of these courses would be better than the ones I listed above that I am planning to take?

Also, during the fall semester prior to my MCATs I am going to be taking 16 credits of just science classes. I am also planning on studying for my mcats at the same time. What is your opinion on this? I know some people prefer to do nothing but study but I figured I would be taking classes that might help with the content covered on the exam so it would be okay.

Taking 16 credits while studying for the MCAT is not impossible but ill advised. You should keep it to below 12 credits because hopefully you have already started volunteering and shadowing with the doctor (which is just as important as the MCAT and will probably require at least 10 hours/week). The MCAT is extremely vigorous and requires any where from 20-30 hours / week of studying on average. Yes you do have certain cases where kids study 10 hours/week but that's definitely not a general theme. Therefore you will be jam packed between shadowing, MCAT and school. And please pay close attention to the General genetics and Molecular Biology advice I gave you on top it will save you a lot. The MCAT is pretty heavy on the BS with microbiology and Genetics. When I took the exam last year out of the 7 total BS passages I had 2 Microbiology passages, 1 Genetics passage, 2 Human physiology passages (basically horomes etc..) and 2 Organic chem passages both from Organic 2. I did score an 11 on the BS section but I'm pretty sure without those classes I would have been screwed. Again the MCAT is a random draw but from my experience, friends and AAMC practice exams Genetics, Physiology and microbiology have been a recurring theme. Good luck on your journey try to get at least 10 hours/ week worth of shadowing starting now. I have known many kids with 30+ MCAT scores including myself that did not get into medical school last year because they lacked the volunteer hours (extra curricular activity). So here I am set back by 1 entire year doing nothing but volunteering and retaking the MCAT.

 

[estradiol9]

Thanks for the advice. Genetics is only offered in the summer so maybe I will ditch psychology for genetics. As for developmental biology, I'm taking that in the fall and can replace it with general microbiology. I'm not sure I will be able to fit molecular biology in though. I'm currently taking a class that covers cellular/molecular biology so hopefully I'll be okay without taking it.

Anyone else have opinions?

 

[flodhi1]

Thanks for the advice. Genetics is only offered in the summer so maybe I will ditch psychology for genetics. As for developmental biology, I'm taking that in the fall and can replace it with general microbiology. I'm not sure I will be able to fit molecular biology in though. I'm currently taking a class that covers cellular/molecular biology so hopefully I'll be okay without taking it.

Anyone else have opinions?

Yeah I would stick with genetics and microbiology instead of psychology and developmental biology. I've seen a lot of passages on both of them but have never seen anything concerning psychology and hardly seen developmental biology on there.

 

[ridethecliche]

You are seriously wasting your time if you're trying to take classes above the basics to prepare yourself for the MCAT.

If there's one class that's helpful, it might be biochem because it solidifies understanding of some of the more basic biology and helps with organic application.

The other stuff, do it if it's for your major. Otherwise...

 

[estradiol9]

You are seriously wasting your time if you're trying to take classes above the basics to prepare yourself for the MCAT.

If there's one class that's helpful, it might be biochem because it solidifies understanding of some of the more basic biology and helps with organic application.

The other stuff, do it if it's for your major. Otherwise...

It is for my major.. I would be taking all of these classes anyway but I would rather take classes that are helpful for MCAT prep before I take my MCATs rather than after. I still have general university requirements to take but why would I take pe, humanities, history, management, etc classes the semester right before my MCATs when I could take biochemistry, genetics, and microbiology instead?