Self Teaching for the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior MCAT Section

[Bah_Gawd_BME]

My undergraduate engineering curriculum gave me very little exposure to Psychology and Sociology. The Psychology 101 course I took was a joke, and I never took Sociology. Knowing this, I put extra time and effort into self teaching for the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior MCAT section with the latest edition of the Kaplan books for when I took the MCAT in May. I scored a 125 in this section and felt much less prepared for this section than the others when I actually took the test. I was being directly questioned on topics and terms that I had not even seen in Kaplan’s Behavioral Sciences review book. As I prepare to retake the MCAT again for the next application cycle, I’m looking to use different books to prepare for this specific section of the MCAT. Can anybody recommend other test prep books besides Kaplan’s that would help somebody self teaching for the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section? I'd appreciate any advice.

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[rilte4]

The Princeton Psych book got me above 95th %ile on that section. Didn't use anything else. N=1 though, and this was about two years ago

 

[rilte4]

Doesn't this go under the heading of doing the same thing over again and expecting different results? Since you already took the MCAT without the basic prerequisites and did not do well, wouldnt the logical thing to do is now take the courses? Wouldnt this also be true as some medical school have either psych/sociology or a social science recommend, if not required prereq?

Would the Psych 101 course OP took not count towards the prereq requirement?

 

[Ejm1]

I only used the Khan academy videos. (Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behaviors Passages | Khan Academy). Ended up getting like 92nd percentile. More than enough info in these videos-- don't over do it.

 

[Lucca]

Khan Academy notes for Psych and Soc: Khan Academy Notes for the MCAT - Premeddit

Make flashcards

learn all the terms

practice

ez. I didnt take any courses in the subjects and ended up with a 130 in P/S.

 

[SpoiledMilk]

Khan Academy notes for Psych and Soc

+1

99th percentile in P/S section

 

[DJ Khaled's Pet Tiger]

Khan Academy notes for Psych and Soc: Khan Academy Notes for the MCAT - Premeddit

Make flashcards

learn all the terms

practice

ez. I didnt take any courses in the subjects and ended up with a 130 in P/S.

Same

 

[Carmiche]

I had a strong psych research background; however, I did not have many of the gen psych vocab memorized. I have never taken a sociology course. I self studied with the princeton review book and scored a 131.

 

[Siromas]

I have a background in engineering and have no experience with psych/soc. I self studied for the PS section of the MCAT using Khan Academy videos, mcat.org (insanely helpful for how cheap it is), ExamKrackers. Got above 75th percentile.

 

[Robin-jay]

OP does not have appear to have taken the Sociology intro

My personal experience was that courses like chemistry, biology, etc. were absolutely paramount to have taken before taking the MCAT.

However, the behavior science section on the MCAT is much more in depth than what intro. psychology and sociology taught.

my sociology class taught time about 5% of the terms the MCAT actually expects you to know, so self-studying this section is by far the most significant option.

Khan academy helped me tremendously in this aspect. That and the several practice MCATs I took had a lot of relevance to the actual MCAT.

But everyone's experience is different for the MCAT.

 

[Prometheus123]

It's hard to say because the MCAT authors tweak the material every time the MCAT is given in response to Internet chatter about the previous exam. In response to the exams leading up to mine, everybody was saying on Reddit that if you memorized all the Khan Academy P/S notes, you'd be guaranteed to do extremely well. However, because they're trying to test for critical thinking and breadth of experience (not just the ability to memorize a set of terms), they made our P/S section dramatically harder in response to this feedback. Most of our P/S questions were research interpretation, and the few term definition questions were mostly about obscure sociology concepts that none of us knew to study for. If you don't believe me, check out the March 2017 MCAT reaction thread on Reddit, people were up in arms about it.

I managed to score in the 100th percentile because research interpretation and learning about the psychosocial determinants of health and disease is sort of a hobby of mine. That, and to be honest, I got lucky at guessing some of the sociology terms.

The truth is, none of us on here really know what you need to do to prepare for P/S now, because the MCAT mutates every time it's offered. I would suggest checking out the most recent two MCAT reaction threads on Reddit. See what everyone is telling you to expect based on their exam. Then prepare for the exact opposite, because that is most likely what the MCAT authors will give you.

My other piece of advice is to do every AAMC P/S practice question several times, especially the section bank. And when you don't know the answer to a question, don't just look up the answer and memorize it. Learn to some level of depth about the surrounding concepts using the Internet.

 

[Kr#36]

My undergraduate engineering curriculum gave me very little exposure to Psychology and Sociology. The Psychology 101 course I took was a joke, and I never took Sociology. Knowing this, I put extra time and effort into self teaching for the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior MCAT section with the latest edition of the Kaplan books for when I took the MCAT in May. I scored a 125 in this section and felt much less prepared for this section than the others when I actually took the test. I was being directly questioned on topics and terms that I had not even seen in Kaplan’s Behavioral Sciences review book. As I prepare to retake the MCAT again for the next application cycle, I’m looking to use different books to prepare for this specific section of the MCAT. Can anybody recommend other test prep books besides Kaplan’s that would help somebody self teaching for the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section? I'd appreciate any advice.

Keep in mind how much variance there is to the test. I did the exact same thing as you: self-taught using Kaplan with little background. It ended up being my highest section on the actual test (131) and I felt pretty decent about 75% of the terms I needed to know off the top of my head. Do more practice problems instead of worrying about cramming a ton of content review.

 

[Sushi22]

how would one rate kaplan's behavioral sciences review for the MCAT? Is it good for content review?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

how would one rate kaplan's behavioral sciences review for the MCAT? Is it good for content review?

I like Kaplan for a lot of things, but their psych/soc is kind of lacking. Khan is way better, and it’s free. The cohort a year ahead of us said Kaplan is basically garbage for psych soc and physics, which seems to be the case (though I think their bio/biochem and chem are good.

 

[Nathan17182]

Khan Academy notes for Psych and Soc: Khan Academy Notes for the MCAT - Premeddit

I used the 100 page guide and just hand wrote my own study guide and got a 130 as well.

 

[861843]

I studied mathematics in undergrad and prior to my MCAT never took a psych class (I did research but it doesn't count since I was doing computer science things). I scored a 131 on the section and studied by Wikipedia'ing every topic directly from the AMCAS site. In my opinion if you focus too hard on one book you risk emphasizing the wrong material.

 

[JonathanHusky]

i took intro psych course but relied mostly on examkrackers for the psych, sociology section on MCAT, that and khan academy and it ended up being my highest scoring section

 

[Prometheus123]

I studied mathematics in undergrad and prior to my MCAT never took a psych class (I did research but it doesn't count since I was doing computer science things). I scored a 131 on the section and studied by Wikipedia'ing every topic directly from the AMCAS site. In my opinion if you focus too hard on one book you risk emphasizing the wrong material.

I also Googled and Wikipediaed every term. It was a much more efficient review strategy than reading a prep book for most concepts.

 

[pewpew95]

Flash cards flash cards flashcards. Wherever you can find or buy them. I used Kaplan's deck. Also I agree with @Robin-jay about the terms on the MCAT being beyond psyc/soc 101. I was a psych major and didn't learn most of the terms except in 300 and 400 level psych and sociology courses.