Taking Animal Physiology?

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I am preparing for the January MCAT and was wondering, would taking an Animal Physiology course be helpful? I emailed the prof asking how much of the focus would be on human physiology and he replied saying, "It is comparative physiology, meaning we discuss all relevant animals, including humans. In fact, probably about 65% humans. The focus is on PRINCIPLES that apply to all animals."

Do you think this course would be very helpful for the MCAT? I've only taken Intro Bio I and II and we covered no physiology in either class. (My Bio I class focused on genetics/molecular bio & my Bio II class focused on taxonomy & ecology). There is no human physiology course offered at my school this semester.

Thanks a lot!

 

[zayka]

Yes. It's probably easier than Human Physiology too. I'd be surprised if they don't cover all the basics for the MCAT

 

[InquisitiveGuy]

At my school, I found animal physiology to be more in depth, while human physiology was more broad in the information.

 

[scotsdoc54]

Take it. I also took a Comparative Animal Physiology course, and it was helpful. It was even taught out of Guyton's Medical Physiology (a pretty common med school physiology book). At my school, the comparative animal course was a 400 level Bio, while Human Physiology was a 200 level course catered more to PE and Exercise Physiology majors. The human phys class was also rumored to be quite a bit easier as well.

 

[zayka]

Take it. I also took a Comparative Animal Physiology course, and it was helpful. It was even taught out of Guyton's Medical Physiology (a pretty common med school physiology book). At my school, the comparative animal course was a 400 level Bio, while Human Physiology was a 200 level course catered more to PE and Exercise Physiology majors. The human phys class was also rumored to be quite a bit easier as well.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if courses in different schools are very different.

 

[SirGecko]

Animal physiology was one of my favorite classes in undergrad. Take it. You get to learn lots of cool stuff like how moose can stand around in the snow and not freeze to death. Plus though it isn't one of the classes my premed advisors had on their list of "helpful for the MCAT" classes I found it to be helpful. My animal physiology class had a significant lab portion (50 percent of the grade) and in that lab we used ourselves as the test subjects. It was a lot of work (extensive lab reports) but pretty fun!

 

[schrizto]

You get to learn lots of cool stuff like how moose can stand around in the snow and not freeze to death.

how does moosey not freeze?

 

[fastboyslim]

Animal Phys was better for those random questions on mollusks and stuff on the MCAT. For me, animal phys + MCAT content review worked just fine for human phys.

 

[schrizto]

Animal Phys was better for those random questions on mollusks and stuff on the MCAT.

they ask about mollusks on the MCAT?

 

[DrYoda]

they ask about mollusks on the MCAT?

Only if there was something relating to mollusks in the passage.