Which Bio Course Before the MCAT?

[PreMedder]

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First off I'm a math major, so I only want to take a few upper levels because I opted out of the 2nd semester of intro bio which covers mainly evolution/plants/with a little physio.

I'm wondering what I should take next. The first intro bio course here covers: "cell and molecular biology, genetics, immunology, and biomedical science." The genetics we covered is pretty in-depth I think, and I'm not sure if it would be worth it to take a whole course on it if the extent at which it's covered on the MCAT isn't that big + it's notoriously difficult at my uni.

I think physio would be interesting - my school offers a 2-semester sequence of General Physiology: the first focusing on "Elements of homeostasis, circulation, respiration, and excretion are discussed at various levels, from the molecular to the organ system" and the second "Elements of homeostasis and of endocrine, digestive, nervous, and muscular systems are discussed at various levels, from the molecular to the organ system".
But the bio dept. also offers a 1-semester course: "Comparative Vertebrate Physiology: A comparative study of vertebrate function. Physiology of selected systems, including digestion, circulation, excretion, respiration, and temperature regulation. Emphasis on physiological adaptations to the environment".

Thoughts? (am planning on taking biochem before med school, but not necessarily before the MCAT)

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

Physiology. Hands down.

 

[plzNOCarribbean]

the second semester of the physio you described and genetics will help a lot with the MCAT. Many ppl at my school were misled by our health advisors that BIOCHEM is a requirement; ITS NOT. it would be helpful, but the mcat does not test about the 3 product of a glycolytic pathway so if you have a basic understanding of biomolecules and metabolism, I would say forget biochem and take physio and genetics as they will be more beneficial to you

 

[PreMedder]

Physiology. Hands down.

the second semester of the physio you described and genetics will help a lot with the MCAT. Many ppl at my school were misled by our health advisors that BIOCHEM is a requirement; ITS NOT. it would be helpful, but the mcat does not test about the 3 product of a glycolytic pathway so if you have a basic understanding of biomolecules and metabolism, I would say forget biochem and take physio and genetics as they will be more beneficial to you

thanks - would you recommend the 2-semesters of physio or the one-semester version? what is the extent at which genetics is covered on the mcat?

 

[Snarkalark]

i don't see why everyone gets worked up over non-prereq classes. i got a 14BS without taking any of those. just study from mcat prep books - they exist for a reason.

 

[PreMedder]

i don't see why everyone gets worked up over non-prereq classes. i got a 14BS without taking any of those. just study from mcat prep books - they exist for a reason.

Well I need to take a couple of upper level bio classes anyways, so I figure I might as well choose the most applicable one.

 

[gravitywave]

i don't see why everyone gets worked up over non-prereq classes. i got a 14BS without taking any of those. just study from mcat prep books - they exist for a reason.

this. you are going to get passages on the MCAT that ask you about stuff that was never covered in your pre reqs, or even in the prep books. it will freak you out, because you don't know anything about what they are talking about. then, you will go to the questions, and the questions will be either a) asking you about something that can be found verbatim in the passage or b) something related to the passage topic that is a legit MCAT science concept that you have seen before. thing is, they rely on you freaking out and then bombing the section.

MCAT is not a science test in the way that your college exams are. it is primarily a reading comprehension exam. this is why the EK stuff is so good. relatively short on content, very high-yield on strategy.

 

[wanderer]

Well I need to take a couple of upper level bio classes anyways, so I figure I might as well choose the most applicable one.

I agree with the previous posts that additional bio is completely unnecessary, but if you have to take one anyways take physiology. If cell bio coverage was weak in your general bio sequence you might want to take that as well, but that may end up being a lot of silly memorization. If you have some sort of course that is about learning how to pick up knowledge from latest publications that might be useful as well (or any random bio course that heavily incorporates latest research).

 

[NickNaylor]

I would take phys as well. I found it extremely helpful for the test.

 

[Geekchick921]

I would take phys as well. I found it extremely helpful for the test.

Agreed.

 

[hiyaman]

If anything take physio, it's a pretty big chunk of the MCAT BS.

 

[Suenya]

If you need more bio, I'd take what will give you the best GPA without looking easy. If that's physio, I'd do it.

The MCAT is a separate issue. Unless you are struggling with your bio classes (at which point it MIGHT help), all you need is MCAT prep books. Seriously.

Some schools do require biochem. My experience is that many schools are looser on requirements than they lead you to believe, but taking it leaves you SLIGHTLY more options. Plus, some of my classmates think it helped make parts of first semester medical school easier. I suspect that wouldn't be the case for physio, but I don't know.

 

[ArthurIhde]

i vote Cell Bio

 

[gujuDoc]

the second semester of the physio you described and genetics will help a lot with the MCAT. Many ppl at my school were misled by our health advisors that BIOCHEM is a requirement; ITS NOT. it would be helpful, but the mcat does not test about the 3 product of a glycolytic pathway so if you have a basic understanding of biomolecules and metabolism, I would say forget biochem and take physio and genetics as they will be more beneficial to you

For the MCAT biochem is not a requirement but for some med schools it is. For instance, UF and FSU College of Medicine both have requirements for such.

Secondly, my opinion:

All the physio you need can be learned in the MCAT books. The ugrad physio class I took did very little for me, whereas if you had advanced physio at the level of medical school physio it might actually be helpful because that goes more in depth then the physio you learn in ugrad.

On the other hand, molecular/cell bio and genetics and immunology are not taught well in MCAT books but are in the MCAT quite a bit, which I speak from taking the real MCAT.

That's my personal opinion though.

Biochem, the reason people suggest such is because a lot of schools don't have molecular bio courses and biochem is the closest thing that teaches such since a lot of biochem books teach some of this stuff towards the end of the biochm textbook in the DNA and RNA portions.

Good luck.

 

[TheTruckGuy]

I took two semester physiology for bioengineers, and that was pretty much all the physiology I needed for the MCAT. There was even diagrams we used in class on the MCAT.

 

[avatarftw]

The Princeton Review representatives told us to do biochemistry and genetics, saying that they were "now an important part of the MCAT."

I think physiology would be good in addition to the aformentioned two courses. Also, taking them will help in med school.

First off I'm a math major, so I only want to take a few upper levels because I opted out of the 2nd semester of intro bio which covers mainly evolution/plants/with a little physio.

I'm wondering what I should take next. The first intro bio course here covers: "cell and molecular biology, genetics, immunology, and biomedical science." The genetics we covered is pretty in-depth I think, and I'm not sure if it would be worth it to take a whole course on it if the extent at which it's covered on the MCAT isn't that big + it's notoriously difficult at my uni.

I think physio would be interesting - my school offers a 2-semester sequence of General Physiology: the first focusing on "Elements of homeostasis, circulation, respiration, and excretion are discussed at various levels, from the molecular to the organ system" and the second "Elements of homeostasis and of endocrine, digestive, nervous, and muscular systems are discussed at various levels, from the molecular to the organ system".
But the bio dept. also offers a 1-semester course: "Comparative Vertebrate Physiology: A comparative study of vertebrate function. Physiology of selected systems, including digestion, circulation, excretion, respiration, and temperature regulation. Emphasis on physiological adaptations to the environment".

Thoughts? (am planning on taking biochem before med school, but not necessarily before the MCAT)

 

[chrisoc13]

thanks - would you recommend the 2-semesters of physio or the one-semester version? what is the extent at which genetics is covered on the mcat?

Genetics is barely covered at all. You need to know two equations and understand Mendelian genetics. I'm pretty sure you can learn that in like 10 minutes if you don't already. I think I had two genetics questions on my MCAT total as opposed to 60% of the bio section being physio. If you take genetics take it because some med schools want it, don't take it for the MCAT as it will do almost nothing for you. If you are going to take one of those classes physiology hands down is the most tested on the MCAT. And it isn't even close.

 

[chrisoc13]

The Princeton Review representatives told us to do biochemistry and genetics, saying that they were "now an important part of the MCAT."

I think physiology would be good in addition to the aformentioned two courses. Also, taking them will help in med school.

That is laughable advice. Biochem is in no way necessary for the MCAT, and as I said in my previous post the genetics on the MCAT is so simple you should not have to take a course to understand it. Physiology is the biology section.

 

[gravitywave]

Genetics is barely covered at all. You need to know two equations and understand Mendelian genetics. I'm pretty sure you can learn that in like 10 minutes if you don't already. I think I had two genetics questions on my MCAT total as opposed to 60% of the bio section being physio. If you take genetics take it because some med schools want it, don't take it for the MCAT as it will do almost nothing for you. If you are going to take one of those classes physiology hands down is the most tested on the MCAT. And it isn't even close.

That is laughable advice. Biochem is in no way necessary for the MCAT, and as I said in my previous post the genetics on the MCAT is so simple you should not have to take a course to understand it. Physiology is the biology section.

another vote for these 👍 if you must must must take more upper level bio courses, and can't make up your mind any other way, then yes - take physio. but the discrete physio questions on the BS section aren't anything you can't teach yourself during MCAT prep.

honestly, MCAT prep is the last thing you should consider when making course selections. take a course because you like the prof, because you're curious about the material, because you can make an A, whatever. but taking something because you think you need it for MCAT is really very silly.

biochem is nice to have (not for MCAT, which is ridiculous BTW - but for MS1), but even then you should realize that all those hours and learning those crappy pathways is gong to save you maybe 5% of your time doing the same thing in med school. you're going to have to go over Michaelis-Menton and Krebs again anyway.

 

[gujuDoc]

The Princeton Review representatives told us to do biochemistry and genetics, saying that they were "now an important part of the MCAT."

I think physiology would be good in addition to the aformentioned two courses. Also, taking them will help in med school.

what physio I had in ugrad did nothing for med school physio because it was so basic it wasn't even funny. In fact, I'd say it was useless what I learned in ugrad physio compared to med physio.

That's just my two cents. But then my school had only 1. comparative anatomy which didn't really get taught well and focused too much on spreading thin since it was comparative rather then mammalian or human physiology, 2. anatomy and physio 2000 level class which also cuz it was combined with anatomy was very basic. neither really went into much depth.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

The reason a lot of us recommend physiology is because not only is it useful for the BS section, it's also useful for the PS section. It's completely fair game to see something, for example, related to cardiovascular physiology in the PS section with the questions relating to fluid dynamics or E&M. While your physics courses should be enough to answer the questions, seeing the physics in the context of physiology makes it, IMO, much easier to tackle such passages.

At least, that's where I see the great benefit of physiology. It's very conceptual compared to most of biology and because there's a fair amount of physics/chemistry involved in it, it'll also help prepare for some of the passages you might see in the PS section. YMMV.

 

[cliffhuxtableDO]

it doesnt matter. i can see why people would suggest physio, but the first time i took the test there wasnt a SINGLE physio question on my BS. i wished i wouldve taken biochem. its a craps shoot. pick a prep company and stick with it.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

it doesnt matter. i can see why people would suggest physio, but the first time i took the test there wasnt a SINGLE physio question on my BS. i wished i wouldve taken biochem. its a craps shoot. pick a prep company and stick with it.

Whether you decide to take physio or not, don't pick a prep company and "stick with it." The best review books for the different MCAT sections are published by different companies so it would not be in your best interest to limit yourself to one company. If that's not what Cliff meant, I apologize for misreading his post.

 

[Grom]

i can see why people would suggest physio, but the first time i took the test there wasnt a SINGLE physio question on my BS

Same for me, I don't remember seeing any physio at all, I'd say biochem or cell bio is what I saw the most of.

 

[cliffhuxtableDO]

i just meant pick a prep company for the BS section that works for the OP (whether its TBR, EK, TPR, Kaplan). i didnt mean to only use one prep company for the entire mcat.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

i just meant pick a prep company for the BS section that works for the OP (whether its TBR, EK, TPR, Kaplan). i didnt mean to only use one prep company for the entire mcat.

Got it! My fault for misreading your earlier post then.

 

[cliffhuxtableDO]

Got it! My fault for misreading your earlier post then.

no worries!