If anyone here has taken the MCAT (and hopefully has done well on it ), do you think it is necessary that I take orgo 2oa3 before writing the test, or will I be ok studying on my own? I am just going into my second year, and planning to write the MCAT next summer.

Thank you!!

Originally Posted by LifeSciences

If anyone here has taken the MCAT (and hopefully has done well on it ), do you think it is necessary that I take orgo 1oa3 before writing the test, or will I be ok studying on my own? I am just going into my second year, and planning to write the MCAT next summer.

Thank you!!

what is orgo 1oa3? If you meant chem 2OA3 + 2OB3, then I think you should take them before doing MCAT, since it does help significantlyy. However, you can easily do well on orgo if you study from scratch if you use TBR books, which are really detailed. If you use Examkracker, I think you will have a difficult time without taking orgo courses.

It helped me.. i barely had to study orgo because a lot of the material I had already learned and still remembered (I took it after 1st year). It's definitely not necessary but you have to learn the material somehow, whether through a prep course, reading on your own, or taking the 2OA3/2OB3 class. I think 2OA3 on its own would be enough to get the 'orgo framework' since it gets very systematic and repetitive once you have the framework solid. since the MCAT is changing in 2015 you're going to want to ace this test the first shot and not risk rewriting when it goes from 4 hrs --> 7hrs long. so orgo might be a good idea, but I personally think the MCAT science sections are not hard at all. if you're just studying MCAT full time then I say don't bother. but if you're planning to work (I worked full time the summer i wrote the MCAT) then the more courses under your belt the better. biochem is also helpful, physiology to some extent as well (but this is really easy to learn on your own and not THAT much detail needs to be memorized).

Originally Posted by yoni

It helped me.. i barely had to study orgo because a lot of the material I had already learned and still remembered (I took it after 1st year). It's definitely not necessary but you have to learn the material somehow, whether through a prep course, reading on your own, or taking the 2OA3/2OB3 class. I think 2OA3 on its own would be enough to get the 'orgo framework' since it gets very systematic and repetitive once you have the framework solid. since the MCAT is changing in 2015 you're going to want to ace this test the first shot and not risk rewriting when it goes from 4 hrs --> 7hrs long. so orgo might be a good idea, but I personally think the MCAT science sections are not hard at all. if you're just studying MCAT full time then I say don't bother. but if you're planning to work (I worked full time the summer i wrote the MCAT) then the more courses under your belt the better. biochem is also helpful, physiology to some extent as well (but this is really easy to learn on your own and not THAT much detail needs to be memorized).

The thing is I am planning to take the first orgo + physics 1BB3 as electives this year. I am just worried that second year health sci will be already too hard that adding these two courses will make it impossible. What do you think?

But I think these two courses will pretty much wrap up most of the contents I need to know for MCAT. (?). That's why I wanna get them over with.

P.S. Thank you so much Yoni for answering a lot of my questions here!!

Originally Posted by LifeSciences

The thing is I am planning to take the first orgo + physics 1BB3 as electives this year. I am just worried that second year health sci will be already too hard that adding these two courses will make it impossible. What do you think?

But I think these two courses will pretty much wrap up most of the contents I need to know for MCAT. (?). That's why I wanna get them over with.

P.S. Thank you so much Yoni for answering a lot of my questions here!!

you're welcome! I seems I have a lot of free time these days.

I only had physics 1B03 under my belt and was able to teach myself the topics I needed to know from 1BB3. The modern physics isn't really on the MCAT, just a bit of electromagnetism, optics, torque, modulus stuff that I had to teach myself (some of those aren't even covered in bb3). you could potentially go without it. the MCAT is passage based, so undergrad courses can only help so much. there are always a bunch people who take anatomy+orgo at the same time and it's pretty unanimous that it's doable, but your semester is going to be a ton of work. work doesn't mean lower marks, just higher time investment needed, better time management etc. And just because you can succeed academically doesn't mean that you're enjoying the experience (that's the most important factor for me). So there's a lot of factors you should weigh. I don't really know you so although I'm sharing my experiences I don't want you to think that there is one 'best' way to approach the upcoming year. I would have hated teachign myself orgo, but I do not know the true pain of taking 1st term of second year.

Originally Posted by yoni

you're welcome! I seems I have a lot of free time these days.

I only had physics 1B03 under my belt and was able to teach myself the topics I needed to know from 1BB3. The modern physics isn't really on the MCAT, just a bit of electromagnetism, optics, torque, modulus stuff that I had to teach myself (some of those aren't even covered in bb3). you could potentially go without it. the MCAT is passage based, so undergrad courses can only help so much. there are always a bunch people who take anatomy+orgo at the same time and it's pretty unanimous that it's doable, but your semester is going to be a ton of work. work doesn't mean lower marks, just higher time investment needed, better time management etc. And just because you can succeed academically doesn't mean that you're enjoying the experience (that's the most important factor for me). So there's a lot of factors you should weigh. I don't really know you so although I'm sharing my experiences I don't want you to think that there is one 'best' way to approach the upcoming year. I would have hated teachign myself orgo, but I do not know the true pain of taking 1st term of second year.

I think the wisest thing I can do right now is to study the two courses on my own now so I won't have to invest as much time in them once school starts.

^i doubt thatll help. youll still end up devoting similar amount of time with or without the summer tudying i bet. and 2nd year shouldnt be stressful for you anyways even with orgo and physics. orgo and physics 1bb3 arent really known as tough classes.