Taking MCAT in August... bad idea to have labs during summer?

[phEight]

I plan on taking the MCAT on August 21st but I haven't taken Physics II lab or Ochem II lab yet. I was going to take both of those labs in the 2nd summer session (July 6th to August 5th). Basically I'm going to have lab from 10am-2pm, and 6pm to 9pm Mon-Thurs.

Could this possibly even be beneficial to help with physics 2 / ochem 2 material? I'm not really sure what to do. As of now I'm setting myself up for taking both of those labs but I don't want to kick myself for it later on.

I'm also re-taking General Bio 1 that I got a C in way back when I first took it as an unfocused freshman. It was an easy class. I'll be taking that summer session 1, and I don't think that's really going to take up way too much time.

Thanks for any advice

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[creativekat]

28 hours of lab a week? And on top of that, lab reports and exams? Drop one of the labs...I think labs just solidify concepts that you should have learned in lecture. Of the two though, ochem lab is more useful (at least, for me) since it taught basic principles of separations, distillations, etc. which weren't specifically taught in lectures.

Be serious about the MCAT and do it "right" the first time. If you do poorly on the Aug administration, you'll have to spend another $225 and more time dreaming about when you can burn those MCAT books.

 

[phEight]

28 hours of lab a week? And on top of that, lab reports and exams? Drop one of the labs...I think labs just solidify concepts that you should have learned in lecture. Of the two though, ochem lab is more useful (at least, for me) since it taught basic principles of separations, distillations, etc. which weren't specifically taught in lectures.

Be serious about the MCAT and do it "right" the first time. If you do poorly on the Aug administration, you'll have to spend another $225 and more time dreaming about when you can burn those MCAT books.

I think you might be right. I'll probably drop physics lab and just stick with organic. Thinking that I'll save a total of 72 hours over 6 weeks from not going to physics lab seems nice. Thanks

 

[SN2ed]

You should just focus on the classes and take the MCAT next year. No reason to rush. Even taking one of the labs while studying isn't the best of ideas. You never know what they'll throw at you. I've had labs where the work outside of the lab was light and I've had them where the outside stuff took far more time than the lab itself.