Hi. I am currently a first year student planning to write the MCAT during second year summer.

I was planning on taking a summer course (this summer) either for Orgo 2OA3 or Physics 1B03. I am not concerned with doing these courses now for the sake of med school requirements (which I can always worry about third year). My primary concern is being prepared for writing the MCAT. That said, which of the two courses is then more important to take?

From the perspective of someone whose taken either of these two courses and then written the MCAT, does this aid in MCAT preparation? Or are these courses taken simply for the sake of filling med school requirements versus gaining knowledge for the MCAT? Do people who've written the MCAT recommend taking either of these courses? Or do they just provide unnecessary information beyond the content of what's tested on the MCAT?

I wrote the MCAT in the summer after second year, and I didn't take either of those courses. MCAT review books cover everything that you'll need to know in order to do well on the test. I can't say whether or not taking those courses would help at all, but they certainly aren't necessary.

I haven't written the MCAT yet but will be this summer. I would recommend Physics 1B03.

While there is a portion of the MCAT dealing with Organic Chemistry, the Orgo course is much more specific and deals with a far wider range of Organic Chemistry than the MCAT cares about. Physics on the other hand is pretty broadly covered in the MCAT and 1B03 will be very useful for that.

As Matthew said though -- MCAT Prep books or courses will cover all the material you need. I am recommending Physics as the course that I think will help give you background to understand more of the MCAT prep material. Not as a replacement for MCAT Prep

If you're not concerned with taking these courses as a requirement for the MCAT why not spend your time taking a designed MCAT prep course to improve your chances of getting a good score??

Chemistry 1A03/1AA3/20A3
Biology 1A03/1AA3/2A03/2C03
Physics 1B03

Ya, don't waste your time with courses that you don't need as prereqs. Just write your MCATs using review books. Self-direct your learning!

Waste of money.

If you're going to get review books, the Kaplan ones are better than TPR.

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Physics 1B03/1BB3 are good to take.
Chem 1A03/1AA3

I wrote the MCAT last summer. I *SUCK* at physics and I took organic chemistry the summer before so I was very, very, very rusty. You definitely don't need to take Physics 1B03 to write the MCAT. In my opinion, the physics was very straightforward, a lot of it was just Grade 12 physics. All you need to do is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. I strongly reccomend NOVA Physics. I took the Princeton Review, but I hated its physics section. I learned it all myself out of NOVA Physics, and as long as you take the time to practice, you will do well.

As for CHEM 2OA3, I think it does help if you have taken it before. But if you are writing the MCAT at the end of the same summer that you are taking CHEM 2OA3, I don't know how good that could be, since in my memory, that course was fairly time consuming in the summer and you really need to focus as much time as possible on studying for the MCAT itself (like familiarizing yourself with the style of questions asked). Orgo is a very very small component of the MCAT, just a few questions within the Biological Sciences section. I think it's sufficient to learn the basics out of a prep book, rather than take the course just so you can ace a few questions on the MCAT (whereas your time might better be spent spending more time studying for the other subjects that make up the majority of the questions on the MCAT). I know a lot of people who knew nothing about orgo and did fine on that section on the MCAT.

Personally, I thought the Examkrackers books were good for organic chem, verbal, and biology. My bio teacher for Princeton Review also highly praised Organic Chemistry for Dummies (which is what she used to learn orgo for the MCAT). I liked my Princeton Review books for biology, chem, and I did some of their verbal passages too. Hands down, NOVA Physics was my favourite for physics .. it saved me. I have heard that the Berkeley Review is excellent for chem and physics as well.

I took both Chem 2OA3 and Physics 1B03 long before writing the MCAT and barely recalled any of the material. I still had my 2OA3 textbook and notes but didn't even use them, the prep books were more than enough.

Anyway .. to summarize a long post .. I really don't think you need to take Physics 1B03 or Chem 2OA3 to do well on the MCAT. Obviously it wouldn't hurt, but both of those courses can be time consuming and can take away from the time you'd need to study for the other subjects, plus they both go more in depth than you need to for the MCAT anyway, so you'd be wasting time learning things you don't even need for the MCAT when you could be using it for something else. It helps if you have taken Bio 1A03, 1AA3 (or whatever the equivalents are now, I don't know what the new first year bio system is), Chem 1A03 and 1AA3. I thought Bio 2A03 and 2B03 were useful (but you could definitely do WITHOUT these courses, I'm just saying if you have taken them recently and the material si fresh in your mind, it takes a load off what you need to study).