kinemed Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 For those of you who have already written the MCAT, what courses did you take during your undergrad (i.e. not MCAT prep courses) that you felt helped you most when writing/preparing for the MCAT? Cheers, K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 Courses I took - obviously the pre-reqs (which DO help) - i.e. physics and chemistry. Non-required courses - I picked cell bio and genetics while getting my 1 year of bio pre-reqs done, and I found it very useful. Courses I wish I had taken - human A&P, especially the P part. However, in a lot of schools anatomy is a pre-req to physiology, so you might have to take both. But I think it would be very beneficial. To illustrate, I'm using a prep book which has a little self-test after each section, and on the genetics/cell bio-related sections, I scored 82-95% and on human A&P sections I scored 62-82%. So as you can see, prior knowledge helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 I guess once you've taken most of the pre-req courses and then used an mcat prep book and found it really helpful, it's kind of hard to say exactly how different your experience would be if you hadn't taken the pre-reqs and started preparing from scratch using mcat prep books...but pre-req courses definitely do help even though you don't need to remember as many details for the mcat as you do for your midterms and finals. Most ppl do it after completing their first and second-year level pre-reqs...but I've heard of many people studying for mcat biochem on their own and doing fine...also, a course in physiology as Jochi said would be really helpful for the mcat and beyond. So having done the pre-reqs definitely makes your life easier but depending on your strengths/weaknesses and how self-disciplined you are, you can study some things on your own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edge_w Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 I would say that the more 'conceptual' areas are the best ones to take these classes in: especially physics and organic chem. These are the areas where the mcat prep books don't really explain in much detail and work alot better as reminders. Cell biology, physiology can mostly be stuff to memorize and so will be easier as a first exposure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffp Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Definitely take all of the pre-reqs if you can. I think the MCAT would be VERY difficult if you hadn't taken organic chemistry. The biology, genetics, physics, I probably could have gotten through on my own, but it would have been much tougher. This is just my humble opinion... ask lots of people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandSolo Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Physics and Biology helped me a lot because I actually paid in attention in those courses, so in studying for the MCAT, the physics and biology foundation seemed more like a review, letting me focus on the more detailed applications in physics and biology. I agree with the previous poster.....organic chemistry must be VERY helpful. I took Organic Chemistry (and looking at my old notes, it was much more indepth than what was expected on the MCAT) but did not take enough of an interest to remember ANYTHING useful at all. Had I actually learned organic chemistry when I took the course, my studying time for the MCAT would have been halved. So yeah, the physics and gen chem and bio you can pretty much teach yourself. Paying attention in organic chem is probably necessary though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyleh Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 English/Literature could be useful also for verbal reasoning and the writing sample. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Definitely take all of the pre-reqs if you can. I think the MCAT would be VERY difficult if you hadn't taken organic chemistry. The biology, genetics, physics, I probably could have gotten through on my own, but it would have been much tougher. This is just my humble opinion... ask lots of people. Yeah, not having o-chem background was one of the reasons I decided not to take the risk last August. I know o-chem is now a minor component, but having 6 questions on it that you couldn't answer could take you from a 15 to a 12 even if you answered every single bio question correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muchdutch Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 I know o-chem is now a minor component Did they decreased the weighting on ochem when I wasn't looking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Did they decreased the weighting on ochem when I wasn't looking? No, there's just been a trend where it takes up less and less of the bio sciences section. I remember some people mentioned that last August, their test only had 6-8 o-chem questions. Which is fine by me!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Intro. Bio* Intro. Chem* Intro. Physics* Biochemistry* Microbiology* Organic Chemistry* Mendelian Genetics*** Molecular Genetics Human Physiology*** Human Anatomy*** Physical Chemistry** Molecular Biology** Cell Biology Inorganic Chemistry** The ones I took before the forst MCAT are single-asteriked; the ones I took after the first but before the 2nd are double astericked. The ones I wish I had taken are triple-asteriked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 What about ones with no asterisk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 They are good to have...but not as significant as the others with asteriks. They are necessary just for a better understanding or just the straight up knowledge if you can't synthesize the material from the basic knowledge yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katerade Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 I definitely agree with physics, chem, biochem, and human physiology/anatomy. molecular biology and genetics are a must as well. one course that no one has brought up is histology (although this is not offered as an undergrad course in alot of schools). i personally found that this gave me a huge edge in understanding a few of the bio sci concepts. take it if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurfette Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 The helpful courses I took before my first MCAT: - first year physics - first year chemistry - second year organic chemistry - first/second year general (inorganic/analytical) chemistry - first/second year biology (mostly cell biology with a little biochem, no physiology at all) I did not take the following but they would probably have been helpful: - physiology - biochemistry - anatomy (maybe a little helpful, but less important) - English My biggest weakness was studying the physiology, but it was certainly do-able. But I wouldn't take courses SOLELY for the purpose of preparing for the MCAT. It makes more sense to study it on your own or take a prep course since courses are not geared to the specific material on the MCAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuantum Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Ya...that is true there is no point taking a course strictly for the MCAT. However, if you have a choice, I think taking the one for the MCAT would probably be best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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