Which courses helped you the most for MCAT?

[prasinos]

For MCAT, besides the required pre-med courses like general bio, chem, physics, which of the following classes were helpful for you?

Which of them do you absolutely recommend taking before taking the MCAT?

Cell Biology
Genetics
Microbiology
Molecular Biology
Anatomy
Physiology
Biochemistry

Thanks!!

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[hferdjal]

Cell Biology and Molecular Bio are the only classes that you MUST take, otherwise you can't even guess effectively. Then comes Micro, Genetics, Anatomy, and Physiology (although I thought my prep course taught anatomy and physiology quite well so even those aren't extremely necessary as long as study them during the summer). Biochem is last.

And I know you already mentioned it, but I'll just go ahead and stress that physics is an absolute necessity along with organic.

 

[Summer Sweet]

When I was going through my PR books, I was surprised at how much upper division bio there was, especially since my undergrad advisor kept saying general bio was "all" you need.

Anyway, I think you can avoid cell and molecular biology if you take biochemistry, and you can avoid microbiology if you take biochemistry lab. Genetics is pretty helpful, but you can avoid anatomy if you take physiology. Every school, of course, is different, but in my classes, I found that biochem lec + lab and physiology encompassed many things that would otherwise be spread out over several courses.

 

[hferdjal]

When I was going through my PR books, I was surprised at how much upper division bio there was, especially since my undergrad advisor kept saying general bio was "all" you need.

Anyway, I think you can avoid cell and molecular biology if you take biochemistry, and you can avoid microbiology if you take biochemistry lab. Genetics is pretty helpful, but you can avoid anatomy if you take physiology. Every school, of course, is different, but in my classes, I found that biochem lec + lab and physiology encompassed many things that would otherwise be spread out over several courses.

Yea, I'd recommend Biochem, but I wasn't sure how his university offered it. I know at my university, they don't even let you take it until you've finished orgo, genetics, and all your bio/chem prerequisites. So it isn't even feasible to take it before studying for the MCATs here (unless you had a really good head-start before coming into college). The only guy in my kaplan class who took it was coincidentally a senior, lol. But yea, it's probably helpful if you can take it.

 

[J ROD]

Biochem along with the prereqs

 

[werd]

both biochemistry and instrumental analysis came in handy during the mcat. it was a little like cheating... a PS passage would describe the complicated workings of some experiment and i'd already be familiar with the 'foreign' instrument and how the experiment works. same with the BS sections where sometimes they'd describe a molecular pathway and ask to reason from it... if you already know the pathway it saves a lot of time. i don't know the general availability or prereq's for an instrumental analysis course... i was a biochem major...

 

[littlealex]

biochem/cellbio are definitely crucial for both the PS and the BS. Beyond that, I found that having 2 years of physics really helped push my PS score up. I recommend a second year of physics with biophysics applications.

 

[WurangBlang]

human physiology.

 

[Faze2]

So Biochem is good? My biology prof said I would be at huge disadvantage if I took the MCATs without taking BIO Chem. Is he right? (OCHEM is a pre req for biochem right?) I won't be finished with OCHEM until April, and I was planning on taking the May MCATs. Should I take BIOCHEM and wait til August or something?

 

[misterex]

In my opinion, analytical chemistry is one of the best courses you can take for chem prep and for bio prep genetics and physiology are key.

 

[Summer Sweet]

So Biochem is good? My biology prof said I would be at huge disadvantage if I took the MCATs without taking BIO Chem. Is he right? (OCHEM is a pre req for biochem right?) I won't be finished with OCHEM until April, and I was planning on taking the May MCATs. Should I take BIOCHEM and wait til August or something?

I think an upper division cell/molecular bio class would be good enough if you can't take biochem. When I took cell bio, I did more memorizing than understanding because a lot of the stuff was foreign. Then when I took biochem, it was basically taking most of what I learned in cell bio and spreading it out over a year, going more in depth, and giving more explanations. I'm sure every school is different, but at my school, a lot of people felt that cell bio was just watered-down biochem in that you're presented with the basic info, but you just don't really get into the molecular mechanisms and small details.

Biochem helped me A LOT in terms of understanding what some of the passages talk about, but I don't think it's necessary. If you don't take it, then take a cell bio course to expose you to the material.

Oh, and I should mention neurophysiology helped a lot, too. Remember how we had to remember what all the parts of an action potential, etc., are due to? Well, in neurophys, I learned WHY they happen, which is incredibly useful because I remember things better when I understand them as opposed to memorizing labels and facts.

 

[chad5871]

Cell Biology (at my school it includes molecular biology as well) and Quantitative Analysis.

Genetics was very helpful but you'll probably only see 4-5 genetics questions at best on test day. Although I now get every single genetics-related question right, it still only affects my score by one point at the most.