Quantum Chemistry

[Verum]

---

Members don't see this ad.

How much will quantum chem. help on the mcat if i take it? Is quantum chemistry more math/physics or more chem/intuition. I assume a working knowledge of quantum physics will be needed walking into the class?

Thanks,

 

[Lexicon0]

Quantum chemistry will have little to no utility for the mcat. All the quantum you need to know can be found in review books/gen chem. As for the class itself, it's a good mix of math and intuition (deriving orbital equations, etc). I'm not sure how the class is taught at your institution, but I think knowledge of basic quantum (what you usually pick up in intro physics and gen chem) should be sufficient going into the class..

 

[NickNaylor]

Dude, you just graduated from high school. Relax.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos and brevity)

 

[Ironmandoc]

Nick beat me to the punch. You should save these questions for later...you just graduated high school. You have a lot of fish to fry before quantum physics...seriously you'll give yourself a ulcer

 

[Verum]

Thanks for the advice 🙂 I was just browsing through the course catalog and noticed quantum chem and had some q's. I'll focus on how i can make this summer meaningful and won't think too far ahead.

 

[kpcrew]

do you know what quantum chemistry is?
to answer your questions, it's more math/physics and you don't need prior knowledge of quantum physics although you will need a strong grasp of general chemistry and introductory physics. you won't encounter it unless you choose to a chemistry major.

 

[Heday]

Best advice I can give is majoring in a subject definitely helps... but what I think helps more is how much you keep up with it. I graduated high school, took a year off, and had AP credit for Gen Chem. So when I got to college, I applied to be part of a peer tutoring service we have on campus. I tutored gen chem my freshman year as well as other courses (while taking orgo). During my sophomore year, I tutored gen chem and organic. Junior year same. Also, I tutor physics, gen chem, orgo, calc, econ etc on the side for extra cash. Practice MCAT for PS was 13 and 14... hadn't even started studying. So the more you use it, the better you'll get at it and a lot of it will become intuitive as far as your thinking goes.

Quantum Chemistry will probably help you understand things in a greater depth (which will be beyond the scope of the MCAT)... and even then, the likelihood of you encountering such passage on MCAT isn't substantially significant enough that it'll make a big difference in your score. Looking ahead to see which courses you should take is good... but don't focus it on what you think will help you on the MCAT and in medical school. Take what you enjoy. Everything you learned in an undergrad course that correlates with a medical school course will probably be covered in a weeks time... after that, the **** hits the fan.


TLDNR:
1) Tutoring a subject will probably be more helpful than taking higher-level courses (combo of both is probably best though).
2) Taking quantum chemistry might not even improve your MCAT by a point because the parts of the MCAT that test on quantum chemistry isn't in as depth and you'll have already had it in gen chem.
3) Work hard on understanding the material in your freshman level courses instead of trying to conquer everything the summer before.
4) Take courses that genuinely interest you.
5) Medical school is harder that most of your undergrad stuff.


TLDNR TLDNR:
Not much. It's more math/physics with a focus on chemistry. A working knowledge of quantum physics is not required; you'll go over everything you'll need in physical chemistry (deriving hamiltonian, intro to quantum mechanics, etc.) Even then you get a little bit of it in all your chemistry courses (Gen chem, orgo, quant, inorganic, and pchem), just not in as much detail as quantum chemistry.

 

[Verum]

Thanks for the wonderful advice. 1 question to you. What are you majoring in?

 

[EnergyDrink]

People have taken the MCAT without taking quantum chemistry first? You guys must have horrible scores, if you didn't take quantum chemistry!

 

[Heday]

Thanks for the wonderful advice. 1 question to you. What are you majoring in?

BS Biology/BA Chemistry (minors in econ and business admin)

 

[kpcrew]

i think higher level classes can be detrimental since you only need an introductory grasp of the major concepts for the mcat. once you delve into a subject more deeply, you find out that many of the things you've learned previously were approximations that are fine for learning purposes but do not exactly match up to what we consider to be reality and could act to confuse you.

 

[Chemdude]

Quantum is basically all math. Best advice I can give you:

Don't major in chemistry if you want to go to med school. Major in something like psych...

 

[Verum]

Quantum is basically all math. Best advice I can give you:

Don't major in chemistry if you want to go to med school. Major in something like psych...

I'm majoring in Biochem with a minor in Psych. Quantum isn't necessary for the major but it does sound interesting.

 

[Chemdude]

I'm majoring in Biochem with a minor in Psych. Quantum isn't necessary for the major but it does sound interesting.

Biochem majors aren't required to physical chemistry at your school?

 

[Verum]

Yeah it's required.

Physical Chem I
Physical Chem for the biochem sciences
Physical Chem II

i'm taking the second one.

 

[911 Turbo]

Yeah it's required.

Physical Chem I
Physical Chem for the biochem sciences
Physical Chem II

i'm taking the second one.

Just make sure you abort the biochem major if things start going south. Out of about 80 new biochem majors each year at our school, about 15 actually end up graduating from the program

 

[pre med 2014]

quantum will not help you in any way on the MCAT.

 

[kpcrew]

p chem for biochem is easy, it's all thermodynamics and stuff like that. you don't go into topics such as particle in a box or quantum tunneling.

 

[Heday]

i think higher level classes can be detrimental since you only need an introductory grasp of the major concepts for the mcat. once you delve into a subject more deeply, you find out that many of the things you've learned previously were approximations that are fine for learning purposes but do not exactly match up to what we consider to be reality and could act to confuse you.

👍👍 for instance, the fact that hybridization isn't real.

p chem for biochem is easy, it's all thermodynamics and stuff like that. you don't go into topics such as particle in a box or quantum tunneling.

hmm... our pchem did go into some of those topics, maybe it's different depending on school. we had regular pchem I and II (for BS) and then baby pchem (biochem and BAs)

 

[ccrone]

How much will quantum chem. help on the mcat if i take it? Is quantum chemistry more math/physics or more chem/intuition. I assume a working knowledge of quantum physics will be needed walking into the class?

Thanks,

Up, down, bottom, top, strange, charmed...

Quarks, gluons, ....

I'm amused by fun names. 😉