Having all taken the MCAT, our team has found that many of the courses we took were a big help in prepping for this exam. Here we will talk about the must-take courses if you’re thinking about tackling the MCAT.
Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems: Having solid fundamentals in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry is essential to doing well on this section. For example, I studied for the MCAT before taking any organic chemistry courses and found it near impossible to understand. We have highlighted the strongly recommended courses! Those that are not highlighted are courses we found useful, but are relatively easy to self-teach for MCAT purposes.
– CHEM 121 (Introduction to General Chemistry)
– CHEM 123 (Introduction to Physical and Organic Chemistry)
– CHEM 203 or CHEM 233 (Organic Chemistry I)
– CHEM 213 (Organic Chemistry II)
– CHEM 205 (Physical Chemistry)
– CHEM 211 (Analytical Chemistry)
– CHEM 245/235 (Synthetic Chemistry Labs)
– PHYS 100 (Kinematics, Force, and Energy)
– PHYS 117 (Dynamics and Waves) or PHYS 101 (Fluids, Energy, and Waves)
– PHYS 118 (Physics of Electricity and Magnetism)
Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills: Probably no courses at UBC will prepare you for CARS. The only way to do well is to practice, practice, and practice! If we did have to recommend courses they would be the following:
– ENGL 110
– Upper-level literature courses
Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems: Having a solid cell-biology background is essential to doing well on this section. Exposure to introductory-level biochemistry is highly recommend to familiarize yourself with the logic behind certain reactions. We have highlighted the strongly recommended courses! Those that are not highlighted are courses we found useful, but are relatively easy to self-teach for MCAT purposes. The third year biochemistry courses can be quite difficult, and so depending on whether or not they’re required for your program and your confidence in the subject, it may be worth it to self-study the topics instead of taking them!
– BIOL 112 (Introduction to Cell Biology)
– BIOL 234 (Introduction to Genetics)
– BIOL 260 (Introduction to Animal and Plant Physiology) or CAPS 301 (Human Physiology)
– BIOL 200 (Cell Biology)
– BIOL 201 or BIOC 202 or BIOC 203 (Introduction to Biochemistry)
– BIOC 302 or BIOC 303 (Biochemistry)
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behaviour: All the topics can be easily self-taught. Some of the team did not take any psychology or sociology courses and still scored in the 97th percentile on this section. This being said, some of us spent the longest studying for this section, so taking relevant courses should help!
– PSYC 101 (Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology)
– PSYC 102 (Developmental, Social, Personality, and Clinical Psychology)
– SOCI 101 (Social Interaction and Culture)
– SOCI 102 (Inequality and Social Change)
We hope this article was useful! Check out our course review page for more details on these courses.
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