prosoccer99 Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 I am currently an undergrad student at UofT. I am doing a b.sc in psychology, and am also majoring in political science (an art). Although psychology is a b.sc, and I do take science courses (biopsych, physio of perception, etc.) I feel I do not have a great understanding of chemistry and physics at the MCAT level. Instead of taking the recommended prereq courses, is it possible to learn the courses on my own? I am a great self learner (I rarely attend lecture and prefer to read textbooks instead). I know not taking the prereqs limit my options in Canada to 5-7 med schools. I plan to write the 2015 MCAT exam which is slanted moreso in my favor than now because it is 25% psych and soc. My cGPA will probably be 3.7 - 3.8 range when I graduate, so it is the MCAT that I am primarily worrying about. Basically, what pathway or resources would you recommend for me to learn all of the core sciences. P.S. I want to be a psychiatrist so that is why I am majoring in psych. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosoccer99 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 If you want to be a psychiatrist why do you want to become a doctor? Be prepared to answer this question by adcoms! Cheers, -GGG To help people who have mental illness? Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and countless other illnesses need to be treated..? I want to be a doctor because that is what Psychiatrists are... Anyway, any tips on how I could learn in the most efficient way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renin Posted February 18, 2013 Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 I hate to burst your bubble; but if you want to be a psychiatrist you have to get through all the "doctor stuff" and we use a lot of it from day to day as well I suggest that if you're a non-bio/chem/physics student, maybe clinical psychology may be better for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosoccer99 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 All of the doctor stuff? My friend was a commerce major, took no science courses and is now at McMaster for med. If I can achieve a high GPA at UofT, I have the intellectual capacity to learn intro chem and physics. I was wondering what is the best way to learn the "doctor stuff"? I have Netters interactive anatomy, EK, goldstandard videos-- I would appreciate a little less condescension. Im dual majoring in 3 years; A b.sc, and the required credits for an art major as well. So please any constructive replies are appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 18, 2013 Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 mmm.... sort of, i plan to supplement my residency reading an additional 15-20 k pages or so... jesus, reading gershon, soares, nemeroff in full breadth... yeah, psychiatry will be the most competitive discipline in medicine in 20 years, period, the disparity between whats known and expected of clinicians is so staggering i can't put it into words... people practicing for 20 years would literally have to redo their residencies. try reading the paper i put up on question below you about synthetic versus analytic knowledge and tell me which one the dsm is based on. there's a start... To help people who have mental illness? Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and countless other illnesses need to be treated..? I want to be a doctor because that is what Psychiatrists are... Anyway, any tips on how I could learn in the most efficient way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 18, 2013 Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 get about 2500 hours of hands on training prior to medical school, preferably with borderline, multiple personalities, bipolar people, rape victims... ppl of all demographics, drug dealers, professors about their marital issues, people with eating disorders who eventually kill themselves as impatients... work with the homeless too, job at the mental hospital helps... high level biochem, high level humanities... actually, know everything at a high level to be honest... at least advanced stats and research methods... work in a lab so you can spot how easy it is to manipulate studies, read some histories of psychiatry over the last 100 years... yeah... know social psych, cultural psych, perception... if u can gain a phenomenelogical understanding of what you're prescribing via an illness that's always great too... yeah, the local safe needle van is a good one... I am currently an undergrad student at UofT. I am doing a b.sc in psychology, and am also majoring in political science (an art). Although psychology is a b.sc, and I do take science courses (biopsych, physio of perception, etc.) I feel I do not have a great understanding of chemistry and physics at the MCAT level. Instead of taking the recommended prereq courses, is it possible to learn the courses on my own? I am a great self learner (I rarely attend lecture and prefer to read textbooks instead). I know not taking the prereqs limit my options in Canada to 5-7 med schools. I plan to write the 2015 MCAT exam which is slanted moreso in my favor than now because it is 25% psych and soc. My cGPA will probably be 3.7 - 3.8 range when I graduate, so it is the MCAT that I am primarily worrying about. Basically, what pathway or resources would you recommend for me to learn all of the core sciences. P.S. I want to be a psychiatrist so that is why I am majoring in psych. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosoccer99 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 Alright, it was hard to derive something tangible from those two responses above. Any serious posters on this forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosoccer99 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 I'm planning to stay in Ontario for med school. Do they even offer DO's? They're more prevalent in the United States. I do not want to go south because tuition is 2-3x more and most US schools require specific prerequisite courses of which I do not have. For some reason I like the idea of getting an MD more... Anyway, any supplemental books or websites that people recommend? Or should I just buy textbooks and read them.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markov79 Posted February 18, 2013 Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 it's kinda obvious advice, but if you need to do some science studying, just get a prep company's books and read them. check out other threads that have reviewed their material. but i dunno how relevant it'll be for the 2015 mcat(?) i don't know what's gonna be on it etc. but yeah obviously lots of people do the test without having taken prereqs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosoccer99 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 Any particular prep company? I know people on this forum have succeeded without the prerequisites. I don't have the money to do a prep course, but have been... active... getting prep material off of the internet. Are there any highly regarded books for people without a strong science background? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted February 18, 2013 Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 Any particular prep company? I know people on this forum have succeeded without the prerequisites. I don't have the money to do a prep course, but have been... active... getting prep material off of the internet. Are there any highly regarded books for people without a strong science background? I'm going to come out of stasis playing dead space 3 and answer your question. I really think that there's no clear cut answer to your original question. Only you would know where your strengths or weaknesses lie in terms of the material...maybe you get chemistry very easily, and physics not so much. Or vice versa. Maybe you're a student that likes more concise material, or perhaps you like minutia or more in-depth. If you really want the bare-bones, EK is a good place to start especially their EK audio osmosis, then doing the 1001 question books that they sell. EK is also the cheaper out of the three major companies, and their verbal is probably the best practice out there. TPR is much more in-depth, especially their bio book, and their VR is ok. Some free resources online to help with new material is khan academy and the wikipremed course. http://www.wikipremed.com/ Two points of advice, if I may add: 1) Because more and more schools are looking at VR, I would dedicate the most time on it out of the other sections if you're weaker at it. An 11 will open many doors. 2) Practice earns more points than theory. A lot of people get caught up in reading the textbook and moaning about the amount of material you have to cover. By the time their exam is close, they haven't practiced passages enough to understand their weaknesses. I think that spending more time on practicing and reviewing your mistakes, even though you might start off scoring relatively low, you'll be motivated more to study out of...well fear and slowly your score will improve. Get your feet wet - it's a better investment than the most detailed of notes. If you want to buy used MCAT materials perhaps and you live in TO, you can PM me...my 4 boxes of MCAT stuff is just sitting here collecting dust and I want more space in my room for my keyboard. Hope that helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prosoccer99 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 That did indeed help. VR will probably be easier for me than most premed students as I'm used to reading and writing philosophy essays for polisci. I'll probably stick with EK. Thanks a lot for the advice. I'll make sure to do as many practice tests as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralk Posted February 18, 2013 Report Share Posted February 18, 2013 I was in somewhat the same boat before I wrote the MCAT (had physics and a fair bit of bio, but no chemistry and definitely some gaps in my physiology/microbiology knowledge) - I found MIT's OpenCourseWare to be very helpful. I basically did most of a full course in Chemistry that way, and learned a lot. Obviously, it wasn't as tailored to the MCAT as the prep books are, but it's essentially world-class lectures that you can tackle at your own pace. I just took a look and it appears the number of courses has improved significantly since I last explored them - it may be a good, free resource for you. If you're really ambitious and have the time, edX.org, which takes the OpenCourseWare idea to the extreme and actually offers classes with grades and all (for free!), is also an option. An MIT-run introductory bio class starts on March 5th! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 best mcat advice ever, seriously 1) Because more and more schools are looking at VR, I would dedicate the most time on it out of the other sections if you're weaker at it. An 11 will open many doors. 2) Practice earns more points than theory. A lot of people get caught up in reading the textbook and moaning about the amount of material you have to cover. By the time their exam is close, they haven't practiced passages enough to understand their weaknesses. I think that spending more time on practicing and reviewing your mistakes, even though you might start off scoring relatively low, you'll be motivated more to study out of...well fear and slowly your score will improve. Get your feet wet - it's a better investment than the most detailed of notes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 my reply was based on this obvious populist view of psychiatry... get a job in the mental hospital... the pedophile unit was uber fun To help people who have mental illness? Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and countless other illnesses need to be treated..? I want to be a doctor because that is what Psychiatrists are... Anyway, any tips on how I could learn in the most efficient way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 ek's... i did 10 practice aamcs on computer, and had 6 or so old ones from buddies i did on paper... by far the most important factor in maximizing my score... i did the vr on the aamc's, so around 15 how many practice passages for VR did you go through? What books did you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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