Using MCAT Prep DURING Pre Reqs?

[jvesco22]

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Hi guys,

Recently in a post here(can't remember who said it!! gahh, a few days ago)...

Would it be beneficial to have some MCAT prep books to compliment your Pre Req Classes?

For instance while taking biology, have the EK BIO or while taking chemistry, have the TBR books to study with at the same time?

Thanks for any insight

 

[Segovia]

I dabbled in this strategy last semester for O-chem and modern physics and it was somewhat helpful. I did passages out of the carbohydrates and nitrogen chapters of TBR o-chem and when we got to that section in class it helped. I ended up showing some of the tricks for remembering the stereochem of carbs to my classmates and they were pretty amazed. Other things like retrosynthesis are best left learning using traditional methods (like crying and sucking your thumb). Oh, and finding the isoelectronic point of a protein using TBR's method is amazing...this helped me immensely.

For physics it was only marginally helpful, but that was because the entire last half of the semester was relativity and solving the Schrodinger equation. MCAT prep books just aren't designed (nor should they be) to get you to go extraordinarily deep into math. I imagine using TBR for G-chem would be priceless though; I wish had that book when I was learning buffers.

 

[sunsfan]

I've heard a few people recommend this and I tried it for a while. Eventually though I found that that I barely have enough time to do the work that is actually required in class. So I did less and less of this "studying for the future MCAT" thing.
But I did keep browsing the books especially when I'm learning a new difficult concept. I would wonder if I can conveniently forget a lesson after the semester and I'm always disappointed that they're all needed for the MCAT. 😡
Anyway, if there is one MCAT review book I'll recommend supplementing your prereqs, it's David Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second Language. It's not really a review book, but it's the best review of Ochem IMO.

 

[Zona Pellucida]

I partially did this. Only during Physics II however. (Was also taking lots of bio electives but they weren't pre-reqs)

I found it actually helped a little in class with the conceptual aspect as well as cramming formulas into my brain. The math aspect did not help much as I used a calculator for the big long calculations.

 

[Wheee]

I did this a little bit last school year. It was mostly with physiology (nephron just confused me horribly, so I looked at a few prep books and it did help) and a bit of genetics. I didn't use it a whole lot...and now that I look at your actual question, those aren't technically pre-reqs anyway, but I didn't have my prep books while I was taking them. It probably wouldn't hurt to have them in case your prof doesn't explain something in a way that makes sense, plus the info in the books isn't going to change by the time you take your MCAT, but it's also not going to kill you if you don't.