I read this somewhere. That you really only need high school chemistry and physics. All I've taken is high school chemistry, high school physics, and university chemistry. Is it possible for me to learn everything I need to know from just the EK books? Or would I need to buy other books, and if so which ones would you recommend?
The MCAT only tests high school chemistry and physics?
- Thread starter Qwe55
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If you took AP level (or IB) classes and did well on the AP exam (4 or 5) you should be fine. However, I do recommend Berkeley Review for physical sciences regardless of how you know the subject matter. EK Bio will be fine for you bio preparation but do try to get your hands on TPR Bio if possible.
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I'd highly recommend taking college level courses, but if you feel that proficient in those subjects then at least get TBR to review and practice with.
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If i remember right, the AP chemistry test was more difficult than any chemistry I've seen on the MCAT.
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Orgo anyone? That was definitely not in high school chemistry.
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Ah true, granted with highschool chem principles you should probably still be able to get 1/3rd the Organic right.
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Not really.
Isn't that the truth...
I got a 2 on the AP chem test in high school. That said, I completely blew off buffers and electrochem because they were toward the end of my senior year... lol
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Depends on person, I took AAMC 3 before taking any Bio or Organic in college, I got over 2/3 rds the Organic right. There is alot of info in the passage and you can pretty easily extrapolate gen chem knowledge to make educated guesses on organic.
Obviously you want to take organic before the test, but at least half of the questions are not out of reason for someone with a really strong handle on genchem.
S
Segovia
You guys are both correct...some will struggle, others will be able to sift through the information.
The problem is that the stuff that you don't have to extrapolate from the passage in O-Chem is often ridiculously easily rote memorization you acquire over a year long traditional course. If you don't have your IR values memorized, or have your IUPAC naming down (both gimmees), and you can glean them from a prep book then do it.
But why burden your MCAT studying with learning an entire course? MCAT studying should favor technique over memorization, and you are cutting into your strategy and technique time by teaching yourself O-chem when you could be spending that time getting verbal down or focusing on whatever your weak area is.
Don't say I didn't warn you, however, but my real exam had 2 pretty nasty mechanisms that were both from second semester O-chem. One passage was on oximes and the other was a Grignard reaction (sometimes taught 1st semester). About 2-3 questions could be answered using passage information, but the other stuff was pulling straight from an O-chem knowledge base. In fact, to answer the naming questions you had to know the mechanism of the reaction. You had to know where the nucleophile attacked. Basic O-chem, but knowledge-based nonetheless.
FWIW, I think if I was going to teach myself a subject it would be O-chem before physics. You will definitely see material out of the scope of high school physics on the MCAT. Waves, optics, and some people have even been lucky enough to get modern physics on their test.
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