Taking Mcat without Ochem

[Future_Bone_Docta]

So my plan is to take the Mcat this winter, and I think I will be pretty well prepared for it. Last spring I took Biology 2, Physics 2 and exercise physiology 2( which contains some components of Biochemistry), and then this summer I am taking Anatomy 2 and retaking Chemistry 2. Then This fall I am going to retake Biology 1, and will be taking Organic Chemistry 1, while I will also be utilizing my Mcat books to study. My plan after that is to spend all of winter break studying for the Mcat and then take the Mcat at the end. So my question; is it possible to give myself a crash course on Organic Chemistry 2, and also dive deeper into Biochemistry and do well on the Mcat without actually taking the courses? Thanks!

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[northwestmedic]

i'm studying for the MCAT so take what i say with a grain of salt as i haven't taken test.

in your case, i'm thinking the important issue is how much time you will have to study for the exam as a whole.... also i think the deep dive into BC is far more important than OC (but obv for outstanding score you need everything)

many people take the MCAT that have barely taken any of the subject courses or not recently. so missing one course isn't that bad.

i saw a write up from someone who scored 97th percentile (google "stony brook") and he said OChem was barely on the exam. or at least EK OC which is mostly what he studied.

i would lastly note that two of the heavy weight chapters in OC are measurement techniques. i'm no expert but not even sure it's OC. i think it's more general chemistry but very very easy. so they have to throw it somewhere.

do you have access to kaplan where they estimate the weight of every chapter? if not, i'm happy to email them to you

 

[Future_Bone_Docta]

i'm studying for the MCAT so take what i say with a grain of salt as i haven't taken test.

in your case, i'm thinking the important issue is how much time you will have to study for the exam as a whole.... also i think the deep dive into BC is far more important than OC (but obv for outstanding score you need everything)

many people take the MCAT that have barely taken any of the subject courses or not recently. so missing one course isn't that bad.

i saw a write up from someone who scored 97th percentile (google "stony brook") and he said OChem was barely on the exam. or at least EK OC which is mostly what he studied.

i would lastly note that two of the heavy weight chapters in OC are measurement techniques. i'm no expert but not even sure it's OC. i think it's more general chemistry but very very easy. so they have to throw it somewhere.

do you have access to kaplan where they estimate the weight of every chapter? if not, i'm happy to email them to you

I have the Kaplan review book series, and yeah it says that the test is like 20% chemistry, and only like 3-4% of that of Ochem luckily if I recall correctly. If you could email them too me that would be great though!

 

[northwestmedic]

chemistry and ochem are separate as you probably know...... kaplan's has a separate OC book.

i don't have Kaplan in front of me right now.....

from memory of kaplan OC, first chapter was key (some sort of basics, can't remember what exactly)... also, isonomers (ch 2 or 3?) were surprisingly very big. alcohols (kaplans mentioned this one as AAMC favorite). then the 2 laboratory measurement chapters at the end were really big....... all the other chapters seemed to me more ones to learn at a very superficial level i.e. go through the chapter summaries a bunch of times OR if you want really high score.... amino acids are very small in OC but of course huge in BC. OC chapter on AA does have nice summary of the biology though (i think).... hybrid orbits seems so obvious to go on test too.

 

[northwestmedic]

i will check K when i have them.

my memory is this... mcat has 4 sections incl. CARs.. sections roughly equal....

OC is 15% and 5% of 2 sections......... so it's 10% of 2 sections. so 5% of exam. some people only do the weights as per the 3 sections (exclude CARS as you could probably do that section with ZERO prep). so that would be 6.7% of the studied content.

bio, BC and basic chem are the biggest and most important in my mind. chem and physics (and S/P) are fairly easy to learn. which again leaves bio and BC as the keys, and i guess OC too