How Important Is Organic Chem Ii And Biochem Ii For The Mcat?

[Risto321]

Would it be wise to take the MCAT if I did the first semester of both organic chem and biochem, but didnt do the second semesters? 

[InstantRamen]

I personally didn't think it was very helpful! That being said, I scored very poorly on the MCAT.

[011235813]

Only took Biochem 1, didn't take orgo 1 or 2 before the MCAT. All the biochem on the MCAT was covered in my biochem 1 course. Orgo 1 and Orgo 2 material are testable on the MCAT. I think most Biochem 1 courses should cover most of the material for the biochem part. (Correct me if I'm wrong, please.)

[ExercMed]

Organic chem 1 is for sure important. I didn't take Biochem, but I personally found it really intuitive and easy to learn on my own. None of the study material that I went through prior to test day really had much from Orgo 2 if I remember correctly. 

[BrightWinters]

Studying the MCAT review textbook material on those subjects was sufficient for me! Didn't take either 2nd semester level before my MCAT. Think taking the 1st semester of each is infinitely helpful though.

[DonZhu]

As someone scoring perfectly 132 on the biochem portion, here's my two cents!

 

-Organic 1 and 2 have testable content and is highly useful for insight into the 'why' of biochemical reactions

-Organic 3 will drop your GPA but you'll learn some things that may help you get the 132 vs the 131 (especially in understanding how we use resonance imaging and extended pi-systems)

-Biochem 1: Although being removed as a requirement for future applicants, it's useful to lay foundation work.  Take it and use the notes to help augment your MCAT studies.

-Biochem 2: drops your GPA and doesn't contain that many useful concepts compared to the tonnes of extra info you'll never use again

-GPA isn't a huge determinant compared to the MCAT.  Always choose to spend more MCAT time than grades.  Don't take summer courses if you plan to study the MCAT in that summer.  Period. 

 

When preparing, you want to learn the reactions and where and why they occur.  Once you've mastered this, for every chemical, ask the following questions:

1. What happens if I knock-out the chemical from the pathway?

2. What happens if I add a little more of the chemical to the pathway?

3. What happens if I add a lot of the chemical into the pathway?

4. What happens if I take the chemical and put it in a different part of the cell/tissue it normally is found in?

5. What happens if I speed up the individual reactions that lead to and away from this chemical?

6. What happens if I remove or add more inhibitors/catalysts/effectors relevant to the chemical?

7. What happens if I want to test for this chemical by coupling? (photo/electro/fluoro/magneto etc.)

8. What happens if I...

 

As you can see, this will use every fact you can bring to the table.  The biochem questions will almost always be a variant of the above.  Be very comfortable with making up pathways on the spot from a passage and asking yourself the 'What if' questions.

 

If I'm accepted, I'll release more secrets!

 

 

 

Best of luck,

 

Don.

[achelee]

As most people have stated, Organic 1 and Biochem 1 will help a lot, but the 2nd part of each aren't as useful. I hadn't taken either Organic 2 or Biochem 2 when I wrote and I still pulled off 132 in both the C/P and B/B sections. There will be some material present from Organic 2 and Biochem 2 but nothing you can't self learn without too much difficulty.