<p>im tryin to plan my 4 yrs out and want to take my MCAT end of soph year
what courses are supposed to be completed prior to taking MCAT?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>1 year biology
1 year general chem
1 year organic chem
1 year physics</p>
<p>i've heard biochem, molecular bio and genetics are helpful.</p>
<p>writing would be nice too, i guess?</p>
<p>okay so i guess 8 semesters of sciences is necessary before MCAT
everyone agree with that?</p>
<ul>
<li>1 yr bio</li>
<li>1 yr general chem</li>
<li>1 yr organic chem</li>
<li>1 yr physics</li>
</ul>
<p>also, since I would be taking 2 science classes per semester, which ones do you guys suggest I overlap and which ones do you guys suggest I do NOT overlap? please consider difficulty, course overlap etc</p>
<p>thanksss</p>
<p>--If you're exceptionally bright, you can get away with learning Physics from high school and Kaplan. If you took it in high school.
--Overlaps will be dictated more by schedule than by difficulty; you'll just have to deal with the difficulty.
--English will also be very useful (don't forget, the MCAT is 100% reading comprehension), as will genetics, cell biology, and animal physiology. So that's not just eight, that's closer to twelve.</p>
<p>Take whatever you can, whenever you can. Sign up for them sooner rather than later. If you can't fit them in before your sophomore summer, that makes you normal -- not delayed.</p>
<p>BDM, I'm planning on taking intro biology w/ labs 2nd year.</p>
<p>3rd Year Fall
Genetics & Molecular Biology</p>
<p>3rd Year Spring
Cell Biology & Biochemistry
Animal Physiology</p>
<p>What other good-for-MCAT course shoudl I take in the Fall of my 3rd year? Human Physiology? I'd like to enter medical school directly after college.</p>
<p>P.S. Intro Chem/Math 1st Year, Orgo/Intro Bio 2nd Year, Physics 3rd Year</p>
<p>Schedule looks fine. Add whatever you feel like. Neuro or Micro will be a little bit useful once you enter medical school itself, but they don't matter for the MCAT.</p>
<p>Thanks, BDM. Helpful as usual.</p>
<p>isn't physiology on the mcat? then wouldn't it take more than 1 year bio?</p>
<p>Physiology is helpful for the MCAT but not an official subject. All principles the MCAT uses can be derived from the passages and a semester of introductory biology. Additional courses can sometimes help.</p>
<p>regarding physiology: yes, it is helpful, but if you have the time to take an additional bio course before the MCAT, I actually think a molecular bio/genetics course is the best decision, given it covers the sort of material that is being tested more frequently on the MCAT in recent years.</p>
<p>i found this on the UCB website:</p>
<p>What courses do I need for the MCAT?</p>
<p>Students should have completed Chem 1A, 3A, 3B; Bio 1A/1B; Physics 8A/8B before taking the MCAT. Some students feel that completing biochemistry (MCB 100 or 102) helped them be ready for this test; national statistics show no significant difference in scores of those students who have taken biochemistry compared to those who have not taken a biochemistry course.</p>
<p>how true is the part that biochemistry is not required to do well on the test?
also how helpful are the other bio courses like physiology, genetics, etc etc really?</p>
<p>thankss</p>
<p>Very.</p>
<p>Quite a bit. But those are the only two.</p>
<p>in that case, looks like the essential pre-reqs are:</p>
<p>2 semesters of bio
2 semesters of chem
1 sesmester of org. chem
2 semesters of phys</p>
<p>do you agree BDM?</p>
<ul>
<li>all the non-essntials which could be taken if wanted</li>
</ul>
<p>Yup. Non-essentials are genetics/cell biology, physiology, and whatever it takes to get your English up to snuff.</p>
<p>thankss brah</p>
<p>if your school offers an endocrinology course, that's another good nonessential.</p>
<p>There's nothing like being the only dude in your MCAT prep who actually knows and understands the menstrual cycle (and you'll probably know it better than most of the girls too).</p>
<p>ey a bunch of ppl are saying that i need 2 semesters of org. chem
others say 1 is good enough
help?</p>
<p>Somebody more recent should probably speak to this. I took the MCAT four years ago. However, back in my day, the MCAT mostly skipped the middle of organic chemistry and tested heavily on the very beginning (nomenclature, carbon chains, hydrophobic/hydrophilic) and the very end (carboxylic acids). So a lot of the OC content on the MCAT comes from the second semester.</p>
<p>My guess is that the "1 is enough" crowd is probably thinking:
--There's not a lot of organic chemistry on the MCAT (true)
--The organic there is pretty easy (true)
--Therefore, 2 semesters is overkill (not logical)</p>
<p>Because while there's not a lot, and while it's pretty easy, a lot of the content comes from the second semester.</p>
<p>How do you fit in all of these courses before taking the MCAT? My understanding is that students take the MCAT spring of their junior year. Do you have to overlap bio and chem either freshman or sophomore year and then take physics junior year in order to adequately prepare? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance, this dilemma has really been bothering me. Physics is not my strong point, but I'm really interested in possibly taking the MCAT and know that I would need this course beforehand- right?</p>