Undergard courss for the MCAT

[KMP12345]

I know they say you need Cemistry, Organic Cheistry, Biology, and Physics for the exam, but I heard you can do a lot bettr if you take some extra courses.
I heard also taking Physiology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Histology and Comparative Anatomy for the Bological Scieneces section would help a lot for getting the highest score possible. Is that right?
Also, are there any other ocurses that could be taken for the Physical Sciences section?

Also, email me at [email protected] if you know more about the best undergard preparation for the MCAT.

Thanks.

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[Premed315U]

I haven't taken the MCAT yet. However, I feel that learning the basic material in class and thoroughly studying MCAT prep books will be helpful. I think that upper level classes generally are beneficial for med school preparation, but not specifically for MCAT prep. I think MCAT review books (Kaplan/TPR) cover all of the material necessary. MCAT is more about recognition than memorization.

But, since I haven't taken the MCAT yet I'm definitely no expert.

 

[jaeida8]

I think you would definitely benefit from taking courses like microbiology, and genetics. I took the MCAT in August and all I had taken were pre-reqs plus anatomy. I did okay, but I could have done better in the sciences (11V, 8P, 9B). Granted, my physical sciences score was low because I had terrible professors who didn't make us memorize basic formulas or were first year profs, etc. Also, I passed the AP exam in Biology so all I had for prep was the Kaplan comprehensive review. I took histology, microbiology, and genetics together this semester. Now that I'm preparing to take the MCAT again in April, I looked over some of the practice questions from the AAMC and they were definitely a lot easier. A lot of the information on the MCAT is in the passages, but your understanding and mastery of the material is so much better if you take these types of classes. All of the information I've drawn on so far is from microbiology and genetics, so I don't know how helpful taking histology would be. Unless you want to take a super-stressful course before med school.

 

[reesie0726]

I would suggest taking some upper level courses. Genetics, micro and physiology are great helps. They build on the foundation of general bio.

 

[empty p orbital]

There's already a really good thread about this out there:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-480543.html

 

[Barcu]

I would suggest taking some upper level courses. Genetics, micro and physiology are great helps. They build on the foundation of general bio.

Agreed. I think the most helpful would be physiology though. Many of the other topics are quite basic on the MCAT. For example, most genetics on the MCAT is interpreting those family trees, determining if it is autosomal/sex-linked and dominant/recessive, and then maybe calculating the chance of offspring getting the disease. Not too hard, even without a genetics class.

Physiology helped me immensely.

 

[Prof Chaos]

9 year bump!! how do you even find this stuff?

 

[getright]

I wonder how many of these old school members actually became doctors.

 

[Barcu]

9 year bump!! how do you even find this stuff?

Wow. I didn't even notice this while responding. It was bumped to say that there was already a good discussion on this issue?

Odd.

 

[Barcu]

Also, email me at [email protected] if you know more about the best undergard preparation for the MCAT.

Thanks.

I should have known from that. Is aol still even around?

 

[gettheleadout]

Wow. I didn't even notice this while responding. It was bumped to say that there was already a good discussion on this issue?

Odd.

Lmao he bumped an almost decade-old thread to point out to the posters that a thread created 6 years after this one had "already" existed... Timeline fail.

 

[Geekchick921]

 

[TwoPaddles]

I know they say you need Cemistry, Organic Cheistry, Biology, and Physics for the exam, but I heard you can do a lot bettr if you take some extra courses.
I heard also taking Physiology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Histology and Comparative Anatomy for the Bological Scieneces section would help a lot for getting the highest score possible. Is that right?
Also, are there any other ocurses that could be taken for the Physical Sciences section?

Also, email me at [email protected] if you know more about the best undergard preparation for the MCAT.

Thanks.

I think physiology and genetics would be the most helpful.

 

[bucks2010]

I highly, highly recommend taking physiology prior to your MCAT. I took physiology in the spring and took the test a few weeks after the semester was over. My test preparation involved very little biology review because probably 90% of the material was covered more in-depth in physiology. End result was my BS score was 2 points higher than the other sections.

Not to mention, you would probably find physiology to be interesting if you like studying the human body. Learning body system function and getting a very limited exposure to pathophysiology and tests such as EKGs proved to be one of the most enjoyable classes of my college career.