Usefulness of studying AP books for MCAT prep?

[rahul0774]

Dear SDN community,

I tested out of Intro Bio at my school thanks to the AP exam. I just finished up my freshman year and am wondering how useful it would be for me to go back through my Princeton Review AP Bio book, just as a refresher? I plan to take the MCAT next summer and, therefore, do not want to waste valuable MCAT prep so early on in the game. I am looking for a general overview of Biology as a whole. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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[balla121]

Some people will tell you that its useless, but in my honest opinion, it will be a very good review for you. Material tested on the mcat include: Biology, Physics, Organic Chemistry, and general chemistry. These subjects are the same no matter which books you study from; same concepts.

 

[deleted393595]

Dear SDN community,

I tested out of Intro Bio at my school thanks to the AP exam. I just finished up my freshman year and am wondering how useful it would be for me to go back through my Princeton Review AP Bio book, just as a refresher? I plan to take the MCAT next summer and, therefore, do not want to waste valuable MCAT prep so early on in the game. I am looking for a general overview of Biology as a whole. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Imho my AP Bio class never covered much Physiology, which was my stumbling block on MCAT prep (until I took a Human Physiology course). There's just a tremendous amount of detail out there that you don't get to cover in AP Bio and which your AP review book may not cover.

But if you can answer the following questions, you're good to go:

1) What structure in skeletal muscles is responsible for ensuring the full transmission of the voltage change caused by an AP across a muscle fiber? And what is responsible for triggering contraction of smooth muscle that is not innervated by nerves?

2) What are the 2 major zygmogens present in pancratic secretions?

3) Where in the Digestive system are starches digested?

4) What are the two natural pacemakers in the heart?

If you can't, I'd say that you should go back and review through the Intro to Bio textbook

 

[gettheleadout]

3) Where in the Digestive system are starches digested?

Too ambiguous.

Edit: Unless you're looking for more than a one or two-word answer. I'm thinking about this as if it were an MCAT question lol, it would likely be a Roman numeral list-type one.

 

[rahul0774]

Thank you all for your replies. I am not too sure how familiar you are with SAT Subject Tests, but the Bio M exam appeared to have more physiology on it. Would it be better if I studied the prep book for that test?

 

[Shams al Deen]

The AP Bio review books are great, but just keep in mind that there are concepts in AP Bio that do not show up on the MCAT. Lots of topics in ecology, plants, photosynthesis, taxonomy, etc, are not included on the MCAT but do get tested on the AP Bio test. Also, the MCAT might go into slightly more detail in physiology.

 

[deleted393595]

Too ambiguous.

Edit: Unless you're looking for more than a one or two-word answer. I'm thinking about this as if it were an MCAT question lol, it would likely be a Roman numeral list-type one.

Whoops. My bad.

I guess you could rephrase that question to:

In which parts of the digestive system are starch-hydrolyzing enzymes actively secreted into?

I. Mouth
II. Stomach
III. Duodenum