Worth it to take physiology?

[amad01]

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I'm considering taking Physiology + lab next semester for MCAT purposes only. It's not required for my major and would be a slight inconvenience to my schedule.

Should I take the class or will I be fine with the material in BR and EK? I'm taking MCAT in August, starting studies in April.... I have taken college biology 1 and cell biology

Are there any schools who require physiology?


Thanks.

 

[DokDakotaDok]

No schools require it (as far as I know).
It will be moderately helpful on the MCAT, but conceptual courses like Biochemistry would also do the same.
If it's an inconvenience, I would suggest taking the extra time to put into actual MCAT studying instead.

 

[Cinclus]

It would be of limited benefit for the MCAT. I got all of the physiology knowledge I needed out of EK.

 

[Cuongoff]

I chose to take it because I actually want to learn things that I am interested in. The Human A&P course at my university is known to be extremely difficult and it challenged me. I liked that.

 

[MilMD01]

I'd take it. I loved Physiology.

 

[swamprat]

I'd take it it was one of my favorite undergrad courses and although I'm not sure how much it helps for MCAT (it did help me out though, for sure i remember to this day 1 stand alone question i knew only because of my physio course) but it will help you out during MS1 if it is an upper level course.

 

[amad01]

It would be of limited benefit for the MCAT. I got all of the physiology knowledge I needed out of EK.

Looking over the outline for the MCAT topics in each EK book, I feel comfortable with all the MCAT subjects besides Biology. I haven't taken any classes on the nervous system, endocrine system, excretory, cardiovascular, respiratory, etc.... and I can humbly say I am unfamiliar with them. This makes me nervous.

Will physiology cover these topics, or do I just put more time in my BIO mcat studies this summer? I like to think of MCAT studying more of a review and refinement of knowledge rather than absorbing a lot of new content.


Thanks for all replies.

 

[Hemorrage]

I'm considering taking Physiology + lab next semester for MCAT purposes only. It's not required for my major and would be a slight inconvenience to my schedule.

Should I take the class or will I be fine with the material in BR and EK? I'm taking MCAT in August, starting studies in April.... I have taken college biology 1 and cell biology

Are there any schools who require physiology?


Thanks.

Don't take it for MCAT purposes. As many people have stated, its not really required for the MCAT, however, i do highly recommend you take the class because its actually one of the few bio classes that really doesn't require much memorizing but more so understanding the mechanisms. Its also really really interesting.. i love learning it.

 

[Jas1360]

I thought physiology was a great class and our lab was really fun. I had an awesome teacher who loves teaching and loves his research.

 

[kpcrew]

The concepts are useful for the future but it probably won't help for the MCAT.

 

[amad01]

Don't take it for MCAT purposes. As many people have stated, its not really required for the MCAT, however, i do highly recommend you take the class because its actually one of the few bio classes that really doesn't require much memorizing but more so understanding the mechanisms. Its also really really interesting.. i love learning it.

If I don't take physiology for MCAT purposes, what class can I take that covers the following MCAT topics?

Nervous and endocrine systems
Circulatory, lymphatic system, and immune systems
Respiratory system
Integumentary system
Digestive and excretory systems
Muscle and skeletal systems
Reproductive system and development

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MCAT_topics

 

[hiyaman]

^^^why dont u just take physio?

 

[Cuongoff]

Well the Human A&P course at my university is split into 2 semesters. The second semester covers all the topics that you listed except for integumentary and muscle and skeletal which is covered extensively in the first semester including cell biology, histology, and joints.

~ And it's more physiology than anatomy.

If I don't take physiology for MCAT purposes, what class can I take that covers the following MCAT topics?

Nervous and endocrine systems
Circulatory, lymphatic system, and immune systems
Respiratory system
Integumentary system
Digestive and excretory systems
Muscle and skeletal systems
Reproductive system and development

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MCAT_topics

 

[amad01]

^^^why dont u just take physio?

I want to take physio but only if it will help me with the MCAT. It's just not convenient and will push a class or two to a summer semester. The majority is telling me it won't help me, yet I donno where everyone else is learning those topics... 😕

 

[hiyaman]

I want to take physio but only if it will help me with the MCAT. It's just not convenient and will push a class or two to a summer semester. The majority is telling me it won't help me, yet I donno where everyone else is learning those topics... 😕

You can use MCAT prep books such as TPR's science review book or Exam Krackers books or Berkley review and study it.

 

[AnthonyBourdain]

It does help for the MCAT but it is the same amount of benefit as spending a week studying out of a MCAT book learning physio on your own. Most people I know had to "re-learn" everything anyways for the MCAT and I know people who only took the bare minimum requirements and did much better than Biology majors.

It boils down to:

A week of studying for MCAT physio OR a semester of college physio + a few days re-learning physio again for the MCAT.


Kaplan does a pretty good job. Any physio book bought cheap on Amazon.There are podcasts of physio courses online Wikipedia, tons of resources online. I mostly studied using online resources with a combination of exam crackers and Kaplan and I did pretty well on physio questions on practice tests.

 

[487806]

If I don't take physiology for MCAT purposes, what class can I take that covers the following MCAT topics?

Nervous and endocrine systems
Circulatory, lymphatic system, and immune systems
Respiratory system
Integumentary system
Digestive and excretory systems
Muscle and skeletal systems
Reproductive system and development

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MCAT_topics

Read from a review book. Physiology isn't really helpful in undergrad.

 

[Cinclus]

Looking over the outline for the MCAT topics in each EK book, I feel comfortable with all the MCAT subjects besides Biology. I haven't taken any classes on the nervous system, endocrine system, excretory, cardiovascular, respiratory, etc.... and I can humbly say I am unfamiliar with them. This makes me nervous.

Will physiology cover these topics, or do I just put more time in my BIO mcat studies this summer? I like to think of MCAT studying more of a review and refinement of knowledge rather than absorbing a lot of new content.


Thanks for all replies.

Fortunately for you, EK Bio is far-and-away the best book in the series (in my opinion, but I believe many share this opinion). I had never taken a physiology course before med school, so I learned all my physio from EK. I was more than pleased with my resulting BS score.

 

[dsoz]

The University of Arizona Phoenix school requires physiology to matriculate.

If you are planning on applying to UAPhoenix, you should check out this year's application thread because the new requirements for the school. The new requirements were put in place in anticipation of the new MCAT format. It took a lot of people by surprise and some people were unable to apply at the Phoenix campus because of some of the new requirements.

I would say that if you are interested in a career in medicine, you should take physiology, and/or anatomy.

I am only a lowly pre-med, and don't know anything... but I would assume that taking it in undergrad would help out a little when you actually need to take the classes in medical school. If just knowing some of the processes or the names of some of the parts, then you don't have to learn EVERYTHING from the start.

dsoz

 

[Occams Chainsaw]

The University of Arizona Phoenix school requires physiology to matriculate.

If you are planning on applying to UAPhoenix, you should check out this year's application thread because the new requirements for the school. The new requirements were put in place in anticipation of the new MCAT format. It took a lot of people by surprise and some people were unable to apply at the Phoenix campus because of some of the new requirements.

I would say that if you are interested in a career in medicine, you should take physiology, and/or anatomy.

I am only a lowly pre-med, and don't know anything... but I would assume that taking it in undergrad would help out a little when you actually need to take the classes in medical school. If just knowing some of the processes or the names of some of the parts, then you don't have to learn EVERYTHING from the start.

dsoz

It makes sense. University of Arizona has an undergraduate program from the college of medicine in Physiology. When I took part in an event that let undergrads attend a lecture, a histology lab, and a case study at the medical school at the Tucson campus, the med school lecture was on insulin-related growth factors which was just a tad bit more in detail than my current cellular physiology class when we went over insulin, not enough that I couldn't follow it, to which over half the undergrads struggled even keeping up with the guy. In fact, I just feel like the med school lecture was the big picture, all-encompassing conceptualization and integration of related topics I've learned in biochem, cellular psio, and just regular A&P.

To the OP, I think physiology is incredibly useful before medical school. I changed my major from it because I realized I would just relearn all of the material, and going psychology would just broaden my horizons a bit more, but minoring in it has given me an opportunity to take things like biochem, cellular psio, immunology, cardio muscle bio and disease. Basically medical school on training wheels to satiate my desire to already learn this subject material.

It probably won't help too much on the MCAT (I've yet to take it), but during my practice MCATs from AAMC, a couple of the biology passages were definitely related to physiology. Not so much you NEED the class, but it really helps being exposed to the material before hand.