Question about handling BR Bio Passages

[BKN89]

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I'm following the 3 month plan by SN2ed, and I've just begun doing bio passages. As I expected, they are quite difficult.

However, some of the questions are strongly content based, testing very specific knowledge - for example, 6.12 #73 asks if Raffinose is a reducing sugar, non reducing, disaccharide, or glycoprotein. I can reason out disaccharide and glycoprotein, leaving a reducing or non reducing sugar as a possibility.

I looked back to see why the answer is non-reducing, and it seems like an extremely minute detail...I have a feeling that there will be more questions like this that test the tiniest details involving knowledge NOT obtained in the passage.

Since I've heard that BS has moved away from this sort of question, would it be a wiser use of my time to not spend tons of effort memorizing nuanced things like how to tell a non-reducing from a reducing sugar? (Or similarly, things like being asked which structure is which amino acid).

 

[eDITN]

While I wouldn't recommend "memorizing" minute details per se, it would be in your best interest to understand as much as you possibly can in the biology section. There is such a wide range of biology concepts tested on the MCAT, that you just never really know what you are going to end up with on test day.

For example, it may seem monotonous to simply remember that raffinose is a non-reducing sugar, and, you're right, it likely wouldn't be directly tested on the MCAT. However, if you can understand the idea of "reducing power", that may help you understand other processes as well (particularly electron transport), and then you are touching more than one topic. Try to understand ideas and connect concepts because that will really get you in the habit of thinking critically.

On a side note, I would recommend committing the amino acid structures to memory. There seems to be more and more biochemistry on the MCAT (replacing a bit of the organic or combining the two, at least), and you will need to memorize them in medical school anyways. It doesn't take long and will definitely help you out on test day.

 

[BKN89]

Got it, thanks for the advice!