Hi there are 7 different first year physics mac offers and I am not sure which one is the one for if you want to write the MCAT. I am going into my second year of kin at mac and wanted to take physics although i never took physics in high school (stupid guidance councellers). If someone can please tell me which is the right one to take if you plan on writing the MCAT and applying to med school.

Thank you !!

-Maryam

I don't believe any of the physics are directly aimed at writing the MCAT, but with that in mind, almost any of the courses should prepare you for at least a good chunk of the material.

I would recommend 1B03, if you're not a weak physics student (ie. if you took it in grades 11 and 12 in highschool).

However, I'd like to point out that in 2nd year Kin you have to take Biomechanics (Kin 2A03), which although it does not meet the course requirement of being a physics course** it covers all, or if not most, of the relevant physics material.

It covers kinematics, kinetics, energy and momentum in quite a bit of detail.

**Some schools may require a physics course (or even a full year of physics). Biomechanics would not meet this requirement...but it would probably give you a lot of information relevant to writing the MCAT. So you may want to look into the schools you're thinking about now, and see what courses are required.

But as for a physics course, I'd recommend Physics 1B03. When I was preparing for the MCAT, I found I knew all of the required physics already...and 1B03 was the course that started it off.

Keep in mind you will require 1L03 before you can do 1B03 since you didn't do high school physics.

I hate guidance counsellors as well. =/

so if you're in kin and you took gr 11 and 12 physics, you should have enough knowledge to do a good job on the physics portion of the mcat? :p

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

Keep in mind you will require 1L03 before you can do 1B03 since you didn't do high school physics.

I apologize Maryam, I read your post too quickly and neglected to notice that you didn't take highschool physics.

What you may be able to do is convince the department of physics and astronomy that your experience in Kin 2A03 is enough to 'bypass' 1L03. I'm not sure if this is what you'd like to do, since not having any physics background 1L03 may just be the best option for you. (It emulates highschool physics).

If a specific number of physics courses aren't required for the schools you have in mind, then you may even want to skip taking a physics 'course' and hire a private tutor, or take an MCAT Prep course next year.

Good luck!

I'd suggest taking both Physics 1B03 and 1BB3 since the latter will cover electromagnetism, circuits, etc. that will also be on the MCAT. Although keeping in mind that you don't have to take it to write the MCAT, especially if you plan on taking the prep course.

If the school you want to apply to has a full year of Physics requirement then 1B03 and 1BB3 should be sufficient.

1b03 and 1bb3 will be sufficient.
You don't learn anything in 1B03 that differs greatly from you probably learnt in highschool.
1BB3 on the other hand covers some material which is on the MCAT, but also a lot of stuff that isn't tested on.

I would recommend 1B03 for sure.

1BB3 would also be good to take but it's not necessary if you have a good background. It's mostly the electromagnetism that you should look at. You don't have to take the course as most MCAT books cover the necessary material.