What sort of prereqs are recommended....

[DaveinDallas]

before taking the MCAT?

I'm curious as I was talking with someone who's taking the test in April. I mentioned the prereqs I had taken and he pointed out that some of the questions on the MCAT deal with course content contained in A&P II and Microbiology.

So far, I've had:

Biology 1406
A&P I
Gen. Chem. I and II
Org. Chem. I and II
Physics I and II (from 20 years ago).

I only needed a total of 8 credit hours in biology to get into chiro. school, so I didn't take A&P II. Now that I'm going for D.O/M.D. school, I'll probably do it, but didn't know if I'd need it before taking the MCAT or it's prep course from either Kaplan or Princeton.

Comments?

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[MrTee]

You only really need a year each of general bio, general chem, ochem, and physics. Anything else is a bonus. There might be some physiology and/or microbio on some test forms, but I don't know if you should take those classes specifically to prepare for the mcat unless you were wanting to learn about them anyway. The depth of knowledge required on those topics for the mcat isn't very great.

 

[ASDIC]

pre-reqs are not recommended...they are required.

 

[JohnDO]

Originally posted by thekegalman
pre-reqs are not recommended...they are required.

There are no "requirements" for the MCAT, just your fee

Supposedly all you need is gen chem1&2, organic 1&2, physics 1&2, and bio 1&2. However I'm finding that there IS physiology on the MCAT, but nothing you can't pick up on your own.

Upper level courses will undoubtedly help drill in some of the concepts, but they aren't "required" to perform well.

 

[redgrover]

I took only the pre-reqs in school, those being gen chem, orgo, physics, and intro bio. I haven't taken a science course in 3 years and took my least recent course 5 years ago. I'm scoring just fine on my practice tests with a little review (read: 32+).

Don't take courses just to boost your MCAT score. Take something that interests you. Taking a course just for its potential application to the MCAT? That's a lot of work for a standardized test that some girl who hasn't picked up a science book for 3 years can, after a few months of study, score well on.

(Granted, I haven't taken the real deal, yet.)

Good luck.

 

[premyo2002]

I think taking a couple of upper division bio courses help.. Also, taking BIOCHEM exposes you to a lot of passage material. These are just suggestions, some people don't take these classes and still do well.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Take all the upper div courses people recommend and you'll forget the basics. The basics, bio 1,2 chem1,2 ochem 1,2 physics 1,2 are all that you need to do well. I know a person who took the mcat without physics 2 and chem 2 and no advanced courses, and was able to do well (35+).

 

[premyo2002]

At least for me, taking the upper division classes helped me understand the basics better. In BIo1 we spent a lecture or two on cellular respiration.. in biochem we spent a couple of weeks on the details. For me knowing the details makes me remember the main point: the basics.
But I agree, that some people can do well without these classes. I guess you just have to know how you learn