What's BEST for MCAT: Microbiology, Genetics, Cell/Molecular Biology, or Biochem

[PreMedHopeful]

Which of the 4 classes should I take next year for preparation for MCAT in spring 2010??

I am also taking Organic 1/2 and Physics 1/2 in fall/winter respectively.

FALL:
Organic 1
Physics 1
Microbiology
Cell/Molec


Spring:
Organic 2
Physics 2
Genetics
Biochemistry

May-August: MCAT!

*Should I not take Cell/Molec or Biochem???

PLEASE HELP!

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[Seraph 84]

You don't need any of those fancy courses to to well on the MCAT; general bio will suffice.

 

[Naijaba]

I'm assuming you're a sophomore? If those are upper-division versions of each class you may be in for busy fall and winter quarters.

While every class that you take will probably had a fraction of a point to your overall MCAT score, I think that studying during Fall and Winter is your best option to do well on the Spring MCAT.

With that said, I think Cell/Molecular Biology > Microbiology and Genetics ~= Biochemistry. Although the fundamentals of enzymes from biochemistry is sure to be on the MCAT.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

so take Cell/Molec and genetics?

 

[Naijaba]

I would take Cell for sure: you're going to be asked about basic cell function. I would also choose genetics because you will undoubtedly be asked about the fundamental dogma.

 

[pharaoh88]

You don't need any of those fancy courses to to well on the MCAT; general bio will suffice.

Agreed. Though if you are going to take one of these I would recommend Genetics.

 

[tjluke25]

Physiology is the one upper level bio elective that I would say is a must.

 

[MaryLennox]

i think they are all valuable, but yeah cell bio and genetics are probably the best . . . although i don't think the genetics on the MCAT is particularly complicated.

it sounds like a heavy courseload. just make sure you really LEARN everything and don't just cram your way through the courses, otherwise they are useless to you. This goes for organic, too- make sure you learn the concepts really well, because no matter how smart you are at Bio, you won't break an 11-12 in BS if you suck at Orgo.

So basically all those classes are good but most important is this:
learning the concepts really well during the course >>>>> extensive MCAT prep. if you learn it well you wont NEED a lot of prep.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

Mary, that's awesome advice, I do need to learn to LEARN concepts and not just CRAM for exams...more about LEARNING than memorizing details and forgetting them the next day...

 

[shiftingmirage]

At least at my school, as long as you can do a family tree, understand that there are things like X-linked traits, etc, genetics wont be very useful. (At least the way it was at my school).

Cell bio was very useful; I wish I had taken it right before the MCAT.

Biochem, micro I doubt will be very useful for the MCAT.

 

[red10]

I thought biochem was pretty useful for the MCAT because alot of it like carbs, fats, proteins, titration were things I hadn't covered at all since freshmen year if at all. Although I hadn't taken orgo 2 by that point either.
You might take a look at an MCAT review book and see what you think you need to cover based on what you know.
The easiest stuff to learn from the review books is probably physio and some of the genetic stuff

 

[GTV]

Cell bio hands down. If it wasn't for that class I would have done a lot worse on BS.

 

[idrthrbsurfing]

biochem was by far the most useful class in preparing me for the mcat. however, i feel cell bio is pretty much a neccessary pre-req to understanding biochem. sooo in other words, i think the building block is more important than the details you would learn in biochem.

 

[MaryLennox]

Mary, that's awesome advice, I do need to learn to LEARN concepts and not just CRAM for exams...more about LEARNING than memorizing details and forgetting them the next day...

it seems obvious but it is hard to actually do. but i definitely paid for my bad physics habits when the MCAT came around. I didn't learn a THING in Physics- to be honest I don't even know how I passed the class, I was lazy and hated it. when MCAT time rolled around, I was up poo creek and basically had to relearn everything from scratch. it was frustrating and took forever, and i'm sure that PS is the section I did worst on.

on the other hand, the semester right before i took the mcat, i was in graduate histology. much more intense and detailed. (histo itself is not useful for the mcat but I had to learn physio as well as part of this particular course.) so for MCAT studying, i didn't even do more than 1-day's worth of review on stuff like pituitary hormones, kidney function and microanatomy, liver, etc. because i knew that stuff inside out. it was a huge time saver not to have to study it much. thats why i think the more upper level bio you take, the better you'll be. it's true that you don't "need" them, but it can only help you if you do take them. (unless you fail them.) your school is almost certainly better than my undergrad institution was, but if i had tried to take the BS section after only my undergrad bio 1 and 2 . . . i'd have been $%^ked.

 

[FuturaDocta]

There is a lot of A & P. So, if you are a bio major, just stick that in..

Most of all the pre-reqs (gen chem, gen bio, phys.) will suffice for the mcat.

The real key is to study and review with a mcat study guide. If you are a good studier, then you should get a pretty good score.

 

[Hyperstudyosis]

Physio helped me the most. 2nd after that was genetics, although the genetics we covered in physio was probably sufficient for the MCAT. After physio and genetics, I would say cell bio. They definitely asked me stuff I didn't learn in gen bio. Granted, my gen bio class was pretty crappy.

 

[JonathanMD]

It's different on every test. Impossible to say. If I were taking my exact MCAT again I'd say Genetics. But others say the same for Phsio and I had barely any on mine.

Honestly, the MCAT prep books should be enough information on each subject. And they'll cut out the fat that will never be on an MCAT.

edit: Didn't see Cell Bio in there. Isn't that basically covered in your "2 semester of Biology" requirement? Yes, definitely Cell Bio if you haven't taken it already.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

Well personally, I think I need to take Cellular/Molecular Biology because I am using my AP Bio credit and need to refresh myself in BIO 1/2 with a review book and that course...

Genetics I'm taking because sometimes MCAT is heavily focused with a few passages strictly related to that class

Micro...I'm still undecided...IS THERE MICROBIOLOGY ON THE MCAT? I've heard mixed things about this so I'm confused:

MICROBIO at my school:
Introduction to basics of morphology, metabolism, growth, genetics, enumeration, and control and public health aspects of bacteria and viruses, with emphasis on marine processes and types. Includes laboratory sessions

Also, I ALREADY took Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2 and agree it was helpful...alright now please stop telling me to take physio haha

 

[PreMedHopeful]

Well personally, I think I need to take Cellular/Molecular Biology because I am using my AP Bio credit and need to refresh myself in BIO 1/2 with a review book and that course...

Genetics I'm taking because sometimes MCAT is heavily focused with a few passages strictly related to that class

Micro...I'm still undecided...IS THERE MICROBIOLOGY ON THE MCAT? I've heard mixed things about this so I'm confused:

MICROBIO at my school:
Introduction to basics of morphology, metabolism, growth, genetics, enumeration, and control and public health aspects of bacteria and viruses, with emphasis on marine processes and types. Includes laboratory sessions

Also, I ALREADY took Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2 and agree it was helpful...alright now please stop telling me to take physio haha

 

[PreMedHopeful]

Well personally, I think I need to take Cellular/Molecular Biology because I am using my AP Bio credit and need to refresh myself in BIO 1/2 with a review book and that course...

Genetics I'm taking because sometimes MCAT is heavily focused with a few passages strictly related to that class

Micro...I'm still undecided...IS THERE MICROBIOLOGY ON THE MCAT? I've heard mixed things about this so I'm confused:

MICROBIO at my school:
Introduction to basics of morphology, metabolism, growth, genetics, enumeration, and control and public health aspects of bacteria and viruses, with emphasis on marine processes and types. Includes laboratory sessions

Also, I ALREADY took Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2 and agree it was helpful...alright now please stop telling me to take physio haha

 

[PreMedHopeful]

sorry for reposting 3 times...SDN doesn't work well past 3 am...or so it seems to me?

 

[MaryLennox]

Well personally, I think I need to take Cellular/Molecular Biology because I am using my AP Bio credit and need to refresh myself in BIO 1/2 with a review book and that course...

Genetics I'm taking because sometimes MCAT is heavily focused with a few passages strictly related to that class

Micro...I'm still undecided...IS THERE MICROBIOLOGY ON THE MCAT? I've heard mixed things about this so I'm confused:

MICROBIO at my school:
Introduction to basics of morphology, metabolism, growth, genetics, enumeration, and control and public health aspects of bacteria and viruses, with emphasis on marine processes and types. Includes laboratory sessions

Also, I ALREADY took Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2 and agree it was helpful...alright now please stop telling me to take physio haha

i think since microbio varies from school to school, thats why we didn't address it. the fact that you posted the topics is helpful:
-metabolism is potentially on the MCAT. i don't think there was any on mine but it's on the topic list. i dont think marine processes will be useful to you.
-you need to know the biology and life cycle of bacteria and viruses, not the public health aspect. i didn't take microbio and found this stuff manageable to learn from prep materials.
-by genetics do you mean like, molecular processes like replication machinery, DNA structure, mutations? these things are all on the MCAT.

as far as a genetics class goes, i would say it's only valuable if it includes the micro topics i mentioned above. if it is strictly a class about inheritance and genetic distribution i'd say you can skip it as those things are pretty easy to learn on your own. basic bio+ a little time with a prep book was enough for me as far as inheritance stuff goes.

its good that you took physio but if you took A&P together it probably wasn't in depth enough. by all means if you dont want to take it again don't! but if you took an upper level, physiology-only (no anatomy) it will definitely be valuable especially when you get to med school.

 

[Uisa]

You should really take cell/mole bio. and genetics before you take micro and etc.

 

[PreMedHopeful]

I took A&P 1 AND 2 so it was pretty in-depth and I learned a lot in lab too with the cat dissection-bones/muscles/organs....fun stuff

anyways, here's the class descriptions to help people advise me:

Genetics 3600:Review of principles of Mendelian and quantitative inheritance considered at a morphological and molecular level, including a survey of population genetics, theories of natural selection, the study of amino acids, and nucleotide substitutions as "evolutionary clocks."

Microbiology 3400: Introduction to basics of morphology, metabolism, growth, genetics, enumeration, and control and public health aspects of bacteria and viruses, with emphasis on marine processes and types. Includes laboratory sessions.

Cellular/Microbiology 4300: Molecular and biochemical basis of cell structure and function. Topics covered include modern methods for studying cells; cell architecture, growth and division; structure and expression of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genes; chromosome structure; development; immune system and cancer biology. This course does not include laboratory sessions.

CHEM 3650 Biochemistry/Lab: The chemical properties of amino acids, monosaccharides, lipids and nucleotides are discussed. The structure of proteins, carbohydrates and biological membranes are studied. Mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis are outlined in detail with an emphasis on the structure/function of cofactors. Glycolysis and citric acid cycle are described. Electron transport and ATP synthesis are discussed in both mitochondria and chloroplasts. Metabolism of lipids, amino acids and nucleotides are presented. In addition to mechanistic studies of biochemical pathways and cycles, regulation of these processes is also covered. *TOUGHEST CLASS ON CAMPUS ALONG WITH ORGANIC 2*


ALRIGHT, NOW WHAT'S YOUR ADVICE!? haha sorry for caps, I get excited reading the descriptions🙂 such a nerd I am