take anatomy or physiology?

[brownyeyed]

hey everyone! this question is actually not for me, its for my brother who is pre-med (i am actually in optometry school but he is debating on which class to sign up for next semester, either human physiology or human anatomy? more importantly, which class is better as far as helping with studying for the MCAT? He's not really thinking about what will give him a head start in med school since it doesnt even compare with the amount he'll encounter in med school. but which class would u recommend to take that will help with the MCAT studying material? i dont know what to tell him cuz i've never taken the MCAT
thanks in advance!

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[engineeredout]

For the MCAT it would definitely be physiology. There is no anatomy on the mcat.

 

[JA Prufrock]

I think physiology is easily the more relevant class. I haven't taken the test yet, but based on practice problems and what I've heard others say, anatomy isn't that extensively covered, whereas they do expect you to have a decent understanding of how the various physiological systems work. Having taken physiology has helped me quite a bit in my preparation.

 

[RySerr21]

Definitely physiology for the MCAT. Also, its pretty much impossible to to talk about physiology w/o talking about anatomy. You obviously aren't going to be focusing on the minute details, but if an anatomy question did show up on the MCAT it wouldn't be very specific and would likely be something that you'd cover in physiology.

Come to think of it, i did have a stand-alone anatomy question on my MCAT. I dont remember it but it had something to do with the bones.

 

[DrMattOglesby]

For the MCAT it would definitely be physiology. There is no anatomy on the mcat.

i actually had an MCAT question that asked about Bone-types before.
its not strict anatomy...but its a basic starting point for it.

EDIT: Ryser! we had the same MCAT--haha i almost forgot

 

[SN2ed]

As everyone has already mentioned, physiology.

 

[engineeredout]

i actually had an MCAT question that asked about Bone-types before.
its not strict anatomy...but its a basic starting point for it.

Okay like one minor section, big deal

 

[Vihsadas]

Well it's not that there isn't any anatomy on the MCAT, it's that the anatomy that you do have to know will most likely be covered in a physiology class anyway. The reason I think taking physiology is a bonus for the MCAT is because physiology is taught from a critical thinking POV (at most schools I think anyway). It's gets you thinking about resulting changes in the body or a body system based on an initial condition of some sort. That type of thinking is much more relevant to the MCAT.

 

[LaCasta]

Which prep company best covers physiology if you can not take a class in it before the MCAT?

 

[engineeredout]

Which prep company best covers physiology if you can not take a class in it before the MCAT?

You don't need a full physiology course. The standard second semester of gen bio should cover it. If not then just studying from EK bio was enough for me to get a 10 without having taken any bio.

 

[Vihsadas]

You don't need a full physiology course. The standard second semester of gen bio should cover it. If not then just studying from EK bio was enough for me to get a 10 without having taken any bio.

Yeah exactly.
I guess I should have made clear that I'm not saying that you need a physiology course, but rather, of the two you suggested a physiology course would be more helpful. You really only need to basic freshmen sciences to do well on the MCAT everything else is just icing that you can probably learn on your own anyway with enough work.

 

[Mei]

Having personally read the entire EK bio book and now doing Kaplan bio, I think Kaplan, from what I've seen so far, is stronger in Physiology. I liked the way that EK made me focus on what's really important and to look at the bigger picture. On the other hand, I was not very satisfied with how some lectures are covered. Just as an example, Kaplan devotes a full chapter on homeostasis and the kidney and I remember when I read this from EK, some of the GFR stuff was unclear which I partly attribute to EK's brief coverage of the material (2-3 pages or so). And since I didn't take Physio in college either, I felt that I needed more background info and hopefully Kaplan's physio content + good old wikipedia will be enough.

 

[Lukkie]

i actually had an MCAT question that asked about Bone-types before.
its not strict anatomy...but its a basic starting point for it.

EDIT: Ryser! we had the same MCAT--haha i almost forgot

bone-types is more physiology than anatomy

 

[brownyeyed]

thanks for all the responses everyone! he probably will take physiology then to kinda help him with his studying for it.

 

[DrMattOglesby]

bone-types is more physiology than anatomy

i was referring to the bone types as listed in this school's website.
I think bone types could be more physio specific if it details the developmental patterns such as their ossification processes.