Those of you who have taken the MCAT recently or are currently preparing for it, do you feel it is necessary to take genetics in order to be able to perform well on the new MCAT?
Although having genetics under your belt would help it is not necessary. All the genetics tested can be learned via the general biology course required for medical school. There was a lot of microbiology and genetics on my MCAT version of April 03 but most of the answers can be narrowed down to two choices just from the text, and then you can pick the right choice just by thinking through it…
well thats what I was hoping, is that between biology for health majors, and cell biology. My genetics knowledge will be enough to perform well. The MCAT review course I am taking this semester is going to be taught by the genetics professor, so hopefully altogether all the bases will be covered.
BE CAREFUL about “biology for health majors.” At my original undergrad, AND at the school where I did my prerequisites, this was a less-rigorous course for nursing and other allied health students. You want to take biology courses that would be acceptable for biology majors. Cell biology is definitely a good course and will provide a lot of the information that’s helpful for the MCAT, including, as efex noted, the basic stuff in genetics that you’ll find handy.