Guest studentz Posted October 16, 2003 Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 Hi, I was just wondering if any of you took the content changes (eg. no benzene, no alkenes) into account when preparing for the August MCAT. I don't know how many people I told about that and they looked at me like I was trying to screw them over :evil , despite it being posted on the AAMC site and sent out by Kaplan. I hated orgo and didn't do that well in my orgo class at school and decided that since there was so much stuff to remember, I'd skip the stuff they left out. It payed off big time in the BS section. Any others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lola Lee Lolo Posted October 17, 2003 Report Share Posted October 17, 2003 i did the same as you...ok, i will NOT lie, i frankly hardly studied orgo, because i knew there was no hope in hell that i would be able to relearn it all again. i knew how to name compounds, and knew a bit about sn1/2 and e1/2 reactions, as well as some random tidbits in other sections. i am so GLAD they took out some of the orgo and gave us lots of hellish genetics questions instead (my undergrad concentration! yay!). all that said, i only got a 9 in BS...perhaps if i study orgo this time i may actually significantly improve my scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dogeatdog12 Posted October 18, 2003 Report Share Posted October 18, 2003 they removed orgo questions? How many questions were there on orgo? I loved ORGO as an undergrad, but I hated genetics. how many genetics questions were there? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lola Lee Lolo Posted October 24, 2003 Report Share Posted October 24, 2003 hmmm... i would 'guess' that there was probably one or two less passages of orgo that were replaced with more bio/genetics passages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LaGriega Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 my test in April had almost no organic; August had PLENTY of organic on it. Remember, there are many different forms, and some have more organic than others. Do not skimp on the prep unless you are the gambling type. As far as the benzene/alkene thing, they said it's not on the MCAT, but there is some ambiguity about what is actually on there. It definitely doesn't hurt to have reviewed the basic chemistry instead of having to work it out from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 AAMC was explicit in stating that if the topics appeared, no prior knowledge would be required. If it's not on their huge topic list, it will not appear on any version of the test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dogeatdog12 Posted October 31, 2003 Report Share Posted October 31, 2003 how hard were the genetics questions? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lola Lee Lolo Posted November 4, 2003 Report Share Posted November 4, 2003 not 'hard'. if you took intro to genetics or more, you would be fine. if you only had first year bio they would be tougher but not necessarily un-doable (nice word there, huh?). i found them challenging and i am a molec bio/genetics major, but i hadnt been in school for over a year and had not studied that section because i figured i could rely on past experience. i would not study more for the genetics section this time around. my suggestion, however, would be to get you hands on a genetics book or a very recently updated mcat prep book which covers the genetics topics adequately. JMHO/ :\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 how hard were the genetics questions? It depended on the version of the test. My version had surprisingly few genetics questions and they were generally easy (I took uoft's hmb265 genetics course). I know many people (who wrote the test at UofT this Aug.) who found some of the questions to be the most tricky in the BioSci section. The Kaplan course notes were not adequate for the new genetics content and I depended on outside knowledge for most Qs so consider that if you're looking at prep materials (they update every year though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest klukyboy Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 I disagree with studentz about the Kaplan material being inadequate for the genetics portion. My background is engg, so the only bio related courses I had taken were first year bio and a human physiology course - no genetics whatsoever. Beyond that all I studied was the Kaplan material, and I did very well on the bio-sciences. In fact, it was my best section. Then again, maybe I got lucky and the genetics portion on my version was easier than some others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest justanotherpremed Posted December 13, 2003 Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 i agree with kluckyboy.. i only had intro biology which was a ridiculous course at my uni, and used kaplan for biosciences in august... and scored very well... kaplan is good :hat :smokin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 BS was my best section too, but remember the content on each series/version of the test can vary tremendously. I know several people who took Kaplan and wrote at UofT who said that they HAD to depend on previous course knowledge for their genetics questions (molecular, not the Mendel stuff) and others who didn't have a genetics background who struggled with them. I wrote at the Holiday Inn and there weren't that many genetics questions on my BS section; a good bit of orgo and a lot of sympathetic/parasympathetic questions. Again, there was more emphasis on that topic this year so it's hard for the prep companies to get it perfect at the start. Overall I am very happy with my Kaplan course but I'm happier that I had a strong biosci background going in:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.