I’m taking the MCAT in May 2012 and I’ve noticed that there were a couple of topics not covered in my chem class, thermochemistry, electrochemistry, etc. I think organic has the same issues. I’m going to do a prep course and self study as well.
Did those of you have taken the MCAT have similar concerns?
Dan
I took the MCAT in September and am scheduled to take it again in June. There is a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff that was not covered in my classes - solids/liquids/fluids and optics in physics, all of the detailed physiology material. And although the testmakers claim you don’t need biochemistry to do well, I had several questions on my exam that could only have been answered correctly if you had already taken biochem. I did the Kaplan course the first time around and I was not impressed to say the least, but it probably depends on your learning style. This time around I am using a detailed self-study schedule that includes a ton of timed practice passages, so hopefully it will be a better prep than Kaplan. In the end, I really feel it is the luck of the draw - maybe your test will cover topics you know well and maybe it won’t. It’s impossible to know everything, so study what you can and hope for the best 
One important bit of advice - the AAMC practice tests are not remotely similar to the real deal (I haven’t yet taken the new test they made available recently, #11 - so maybe that one is a better reflection of the actual test?)
- marianne Said:
I took the MCAT in September and am scheduled to take it again in June. ...
Marianne,
Pls take this constructively without getting offended, it is in your best interest.
First and foremost, try to change your perspective on the MCAT. From your post I get the impression that you have been 'burnt' by it and have come up with reasons to explain your performance. Unfortunately your reasons are not entirely germane.
1). It is indeed possible to master 90-95% of the material on the MCAT. If you disagree then consider that the material on the MCAT is a fraction of what you will be expected to absorb in med school, and believe me, you will or you will be in trouble!
On the MCAT, even a 75-80% mastery can produce results in the 90-95th percentile if the knowledge is appropriately combined with test-taking strategies.
2). My undergrad classes at my (then) local university did cover most of the material that appeared on the MCAT, and I did not take BioChem before I took the MCAT.
3). Princeton did not work for me - Kaplan did and I really liked it. Everyone has a different style of learning. Find yours and beat it to death!
4). The AAMC sample tests do represent the real MCAT because they are taken from past MCATs. However, your MCAT could be more difficult because the level of the difficulty does indeed vary from year to year but pretty much is centered around a standard level of difficulty. The key is, if you take enough practice tests you shouldn't have any trouble with the real thing.
OK back to cardio/pulmonary!
For the record, I wasn’t “burnt” by the MCAT - simply wanting to increase my score a tad. I was merely mentioning things to the poster that I wish someone had warned me about. I also must disagree with most of your other comments - particularly the one about content. I have yet to know of any general bio, chemistry, or physics course that covers anatomy and physiology in detail, yet that topic is covered extensively on the MCAT. Maybe I should check where I’m posting - feels like SDN…
The practice tests I have taken so far have focused on Anatomy and Physiology, more physio and genetics pretty hard. While I think it is possible to do well on the MCAT without these courses It would make your test day a lot easier just having that more in depth info on stand by.
I’ve taken five AAMC practice tests and all of them had questions or topics that I did not learn in my science courses. So I’ve had to do some extra learning along the way with the help of my EK books.
There will also be variability in the course material covered, even between profs teaching the same course at the same school. For instance, my Physics II class covered optics but one my friends took it over the summer with a different prof and they did not do optics.
I think it just goes with the territory of trying to conquer the test. You have to know/learn whatever MCAT wants you to know, not just what you learned in class.
- marianne Said:
Maybe I should check where I'm posting - feels like SDN.......
Not sure what to make of this. SDN is, of course, a brutal and rather ugly place, so I can only assume that marianne feels like Dazed acted in a brutal and ugly manner. But Dazed said up front that he wasn't meaning to attack marianne and that he was trying to point out things for her benefit (as well as everyone else's). Is it the case, then, that there is no polite way of saying, "I am afraid you sound like you're making excuses for poor performance instead of concentrating on mastering the material"?
I have never taken the MCAT, so I am not qualified to comment on what's there. But the practice test I took seemed to include nothing that I would not have learned in good undergrad courses. Given that the MCAT states it includes no advanced topics beyond what you cover in standard undergrad courses (albeit in greater depth than your teachers might have tested on), I would be surprised to find out they were lying.
I have enjoyed reading this forum over the years, primarily because it is supportive and positive. I don't see that Dazed violated that ideal in offering some pointed feedback, though marianne obviously took umbrage at it. I wonder about this, because on rare occasion I have offered some feedback that included the idea that, perhaps, the OP had not considered all possibilities. So did Dazed overstep the bounds of propriety in this thread, or was marianne just perhaps a bit overly sensitive?
Here are the topics AAMC lists: Physical Sciences Bio Sciences
From the page: Preparing.
I had to learn some additional bio stuff like DNA technologies since my Intro to Bio was over 7 years ago and we definitely did not go over that stuff. I didn’t really remember ever doing much electrochemistry either but I don’t think I had to go anywhere else than my review books to learn the stuff I didn’t know.
Owen, I’m also a paramedic on the way to becoming a physician…hopefully! Congrats on your recent MCAT, great score!
Additionally, I’d like to thank all of you who have posted for your advice. I’m a year away from the test and I got a comprehensive Kaplan MCAT study guide today. Hopefully with enough practice I’ll be able to do well on the test!
Thanks,
Dan
- marianne Said:
...Maybe I should check where I'm posting - feels like SDN.......
Marianne,
At first I was going to say I am sorry for offending you by my post that was wholeheartedly written in good faith.
However, I realized that your response provides an opportunity to make some additional learning points for your and the other readers on this forum's benefit.
1). Sometimes the most effective medicine is the one that is the most bitter. These are the big leagues and you should not expect people to sugarcoat things for you.
Another reason is that the profession you are entering directly impacts people's well being and quality of life. You are being empowered to make a person's life absolutely blissful or absolutely miserable. As such, there is no room for mistakes and the latter implies a lot of hard work on your end in med school.
2). In med school and residence you will receive advice, orders, 'suggestions' that are several orders of magnitude more harsh than what I posted. You will not be able to or even afford to take offense at each and every instance that an attending or a fellow talks down to you. You will have to grow thick skin.
In a certain situation, I was told point blank that I was "not at the bottom of the barrel but scraping the bottom of the barrel"! It would be foolish of me to get offended and all huffy and puffy with a holier-than-thou attitude. Instead I tried to figure out how to "play the game" better to not be at the bottom!
3). Believe it or not, many of the posters on SDN will actually end up in med school. In turn, an SDN member could even end up being your attending while you are still in 3rd or 4th year. Some of these people have just been spoilt by their achievements and really do not know how to treat other people any better. It behooves us as more mature people, to not get offended at everything they say or do but to learn how to "handle" them better.
Yes, it is a bitter pill but you have to do it and I am slowly but surely learning how to do it too!
Finally, I have absolutely no time on my hands but I am still posting on here for your and other people's benefit. It would be an absolute shame if you still got offended at what I have said rather than take it as constructive, altruistic advice.
I took Kaplan for my 1st MCAT, and then did Exam krackers for my second. I liked Exam Krackers better… but I really liked the structure Kaplan offered. Especially since I took 6 or 7 full length MCAT practice exams before taking the real thing. When I saw people who hadn’t done the same thing, they were like “Shoot me now”! So whether you pay money, or set up a schedule for yourself, sticking to a schedule of full length practice exams under test taking conditions, is extremely important.
And yeah, some of the subjects seemed to me not to have been included in my coursework… but that’s why we do review. Because it’s not about what we were taught at our individual school’s that matter, it’s what is on the exam that matters.
Marianne, I want to take a moment to elaborate and perhaps clarify on two of your points: 1) Study what you can and 2) AAMC practice tests may not be representative of your experience on Test Day.
I have been working with MCAT students since 2006 formerly as an instructor, teacher trainer and curriculum developer for Kaplan, and more recently students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds as an independent consultant.
That being said, most students taking the MCAT and perhaps more for the non-traditional student who do not have the science background, time is better spent learning content through practicing passages and taking practice tests, which I believe you are doing now. Few years ago, I worked with a non-traditional student, who was a career-changer from business to medicine. He scored a 30 on his first MCAT, but wanted to study again because he was gunning for a top school and scored ultimately a 35 if memory serves me right. In that instance, the focus was to achieve greater content mastery, and I remember nitpicking over minutiae with him, but he was already familiar with strategy, timing, critical thinking, etc, from the first round. Besides, the AAMC practice tests are more a test of critical thinking rather than content mastery, increasingly so in the Biological Sciences. So while you could learn 90% of the content, that time is better spent practicing for most students.
Now back to the AAMC practice tests. Students have perpetually remarked how the AAMC practice tests did not reflect the difficulty level of their actual MCAT. While they are real past MCAT administrations, they have been around since the transition to CBT back in 2006, except for Practice Test 10 and 11. If you consider Practice Test 3, I remember that test when I was studying back in 2001, which means it’s even older than that. The MCAT has changed a bit in 10 years, but the tests are the essentially the same (minus a few passages per section). Since they are released sequentially, the later AAMC Practice Tests 7-10 are most often used as indicators of how students will fare on Test Day. If you search SDN, you will find some elaboration on this as to which one students find more difficult. Generally I recommend to students to take practice tests from AAMC as well as from another source, like Kaplan, Princeton, or Berkeley Review. When I worked for Kaplan, I would include a spiel about AAMC vs. Kaplan practice tests for my students. We acknowledged the necessity of supplementing the AAMC tests in Curriculum. So while the AAMC practice tests could represent your actual administration, there is a distinct possibility it won’t in terms of difficulty.
I have to agree that it seems the MCAT does cover material that is not always covered in the pre-req classes. I’ve only taken a few practice tests but can already see that even though I thought I knew all my stuff I still have a ways to go bf taking the real MCAT. I think the reason for this is a) the depth and breadth of a subject can vary from school to school and professor to professor and b) the MCAT tests more than just memorization but also concept and a deeper understanding. That said, even if you have taken all the pre-reqs the books and/or prep courses would be ideal since they focus on how to approach the tricky questions that are more than just about what you know but how you apply what you know. This has been a bit tricky for me because all of my classes focused mostly on rote memorization and just learning one chunk of material at a time; the MCAT on the other hand is all about a comprehensive ability to apply all the basic sciences–which REALLY sucks but is super relevant!
Hi there
I would tend to agree with the majority. I took the MCAT and scored 30Q (12,12,6 for VR). So I did OK on the sciences and my comments are relevant only to the sciences (as apparently, I don’t the VR section). I want to reiterate: only the basics are tested. That said, they are test in the trickiest of possible ways. Sometimes questions just seem to simple and others you think you got it right and you don’t.
I got trick on stuff that I knew like the back of my hand.
The norm is that the basic courses, requirements for med school, will cover most of the stuff. You should get yourself familiar with the list of topic tested and make sure that not only you know this stuff, but that you understand it very well.
Now, there was however one topic that I think I have seen in some practice tests dealt with np biased heterojunctions in circuits (that are not covered in any physics books I came across).
Other than that, everything else is basic science, but it will appear in an intimidating and exotic way and surely in a way that was not taught to you before. In science all the exercise that you do in physics are standard, so you do a lot and they all look alike from one book to another. You can even find answers on the web. On the MCAT, the exercises are nothing like the one you have in books. Frankly I don’t know how they do it because being that inventive (and twist minded) takes some very serious and impressive skills.
For instance we all know that in a dihybrid cross the phenotypic ratios are 9:3:3:1. Well if you have any dihybrid cross on the MCAT, I bet they will ask anything but a question on this ratio.
Anyway, that’s why you have to know the stuff very very well. But expect to go beyond in your reasoning.
Thanks for your input! I didn’t start this thread obviously but I am finding it very helpful. I have made all As in all my pre-reqs but from my first couple of practice MCAT scores you’d definitely think otherwise. This tells me two things 1)I need to work on reviewing a LOT of the pre-req knowledge that I seemed to have quickly forgotten and 2) I need to work on understanding how to apply that knowledge to the MCAT. I seem to be doing the best on Verbal so I guess my biggest goal is cracking the mystery of those darn tricky MCAT science questions. Btw I am taking a prep course and my instuctor constantly refers to the test makers as a bunch of evil old guys that connivingly try to keep us aspiring pre-meds away from our goal of getting into med school. I couldn’t agree more! But this is one pre-med that’s going to beat them at their game!!!
Does anyone have a rec for a general physics book? Mine was from many years ago, and sadly, I gave it away when I donated a lot of books a while back. Might have been Reznick, but hard to remember. The MCAT review book I have just skates over everything. The physics 1 type of material is solid to me, but the waves/magnetism/optics types of material needs a lot of going over.
I’m pretty sure I posted about the physics book I’m using (which I don’t have on me now at Starbucks). Do a search under my username and physics. Efex recommended it to me!
I would possibly try looking at the physics lectures on mathtutordvd.com. I used this to brush up on by basic Chem and Physics and it has worked wonders! The explanations are very simplistic!
If you want some guidance about the MCAT call Dr. Sutton in Houston. The advice is free and many non-traditional students have found the information quite valuable. (713) 244-4524