How To Approach Biology and Biochemistry Passages on The MCAT | MCAT Strategy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มิ.ย. 2024
- Passages on the MCAT can seem extremely intimidating between all of the nonsense acronyms and complicated experiments it can be difficult to know what is important in the passage and what isn't. In this video, we will break down how to approach passages and passage-based questions in the biology and biochemistry section of the MCAT.
This will include a discussion of:
-What to focus on while reading
-What to highlight
-How to break question downs to their core content
-How to find the most important passage information for specific questions
-A basic approach to pathways and pathway questions
Do you want to see more strategy content? Leave a comment and let me know what section or specific area of the test you are struggling with.
Thank you for this awesome content! Could you make a similar strategy video for C/P passages?
I am definitely planning on it not much changes in terms of overall approach, but I will definitely cover some of the CP specific strategies when I make that video.
YES!! please!! this is incredible
@@EightfoldMCAT this is extremely helpful! thank you so much for all great contents! can you please make video on c/p and cars?
Yes please! This video was amazing
I used this strategy on my recent practice exam, scoring 127 in B/B for the first time. The flowchart method is a game changer, making B/B less overwhelming, manageable, and easier to tackle. I used to think that I needed to know an insurmountable level of content for B/B when in actuality, many of the answers are in the passage itself. I realized it's mostly evidence-based reading comprehension. Thank you so much!
Finally broke from 126 on my b/b to 128 with your method! Im finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you!
I know you're not actively posting anymore, but I'm so grateful you even posted these kinds of videos in the first place! I have been struggling to understand how to improve my comprehension skills and did not know what to do until I found your channel. I'm already seeing a difference by using your strategies - thank you!!
This is great! I feel I have solid bio/biochem knowledge but struggle the most in pathway questions. You broke this down nicely and I'm going to try this out with my next full length tomorrow.
This is the most helpful video I’ve seen on how to approach bb passages. Thank you so much!!
Glad you found the video helpful!
This was truly amazing. Extremely helpful! I am not the best at taking these types of exams so I was going about answering these questions in such a long way. This seems much more efficient. Thank you!
Glad you found this technique helpful! I am hoping to make more strategy videos so keep an eye for those.
I like how you explain things in a sort of lazy (but ofc nuanced) and annoyed manner. Personally, it made the passage feel less scary and just "meh". THANKS lol. I hope to carry that mindset when approaching future passage.
Glad you liked the video! I think the MCAT can be really intimidating even though a lot of the questions are way simpler than they initially seem. My goal is always to try and make the test seem way more approachable.
@@EightfoldMCAT well thanks a lot. I just took mine yesterday!
This is so true lmao I love the "ah another one of these no biggie" attitude it calms me down
@@mbb1849 how did you do :D
So glad I found your channel! I am taking my test in a few months, so this is proving to be really helpful. Thank you for all the work you put into the videos!!
Glad you are finding the channel helpful and good luck on your test!
How did it go?
your content and walthroughs are stellar! keep up the killer work
Thank you!
Great video! This really helped a lot. I’d love to see more videos like this one!
Thank you! I am working on more videos and am hoping to get one out later this week or early next week.
thank you for the videos so far, you deserve so many more subscribers.
Glad you like the videos :)
wonderful wonderful video!! Wow
Your content is awesome and this video is so timely; this was just the help I needed to prep for my next full length. I was wondering if you’d have advice specific to the C/P section (if that strategy is any different)? Would love a video on this!
Also your channel is one of my go-tos for the mcat. Thank you for these video!
Glad you are enjoying the channel and finding it helpful as you prep for the MCAT.
The strategies I discuss in this video can be carried over to C/P and P/S as well. There are going to be a couple differences in terms of the passages themselves for example you will see pathways less often in the C/P section instead you will typically see more descriptive passages that discuss a specific reaction, how an experimental technique you have never heard of before works, etc. With this in mind I find that the C/P section is more content oriented making triangulation and pattern recognition in this section particularly important.
There are more specific C/P strategies such as how to use units to solve calculations questions, how to solve math more efficiently, and how to approach those big terrible looking organic chemistry syntheses type passages among a couple other smaller strategies. I plan on making videos on these in the future. Other than that I find the C/P section requires more content specific approaches similar to the approaches I cover in some of my content video such as how to approach net charge questions or amino acid binding questions. You can start to pick up on these strategies through practice problems especially if you have access to UWorld.
Hope that helps.
This was absolutely incredible, thanks so much!
Happy to help!!!
These are great and helpful videos. Thanks for the effort you put to do these type of videos. Wish I could find one that helps for CARS.
Very informativ e. Thanks
This is so, so, so good. Thank you!!!
Glad you found the video helpful!
amazing video
that was helpful, thank you
This was extremely helpful, thank you for your effort.
Glad to hear that!
This was a huge help. Thanks!
Glad to help!
Thank you so much!!!
Thank you! This was awesome!
Glad you found it helpful!!!
thank you for taking the time to make this video!!
and thank you for speaking as fast as you do, as someone who also speaks fast I appreciate this soo much
watched a 2nd time and took notes this time and WOW. I can't wait to try this on my B/B and C/P sections (to which I have NO strategy for) so THANK YOU!
This is very helpful. Thank you 🙏💜
Glad the video was helpful!
you're brilliant!!! Any chance you can do one of a chem/phys passage?
Thank you
Do you recommend this strategy for longer passages (passages with 4 to 5 paragraphs that also have figures)?
To me this strategy seems to be powerful for dealing with shorter passages, like the one you went through. I think this because you would be able to read the passage quickly and then dive deeper into certain parts based on questions asked. I typically make a flow chart of relationships and pathways as I read then answer questions. I don't know if I would be able to remain calm if I had to re-read a paragraph or two so that I can write out a pathway relevant to the question I am on.
MCAT is on Saturday thank you so muchhh!!!
Glad you found this helpful. Good luck on Saturday!
hi thanks for this video! i was wondering how you did this in a short amount of time which is my big fear and then i freak out and not understand the passage fully. did it take you a lot of time to do this under timely conditions?? because this strategy is so good but im afraid im going to run out of time :( i know practice makes perfect but how long did it take you to do it in a short amount of time?
Also in terms of writing stuff down, did you write the stuff on your paper or was it a mind thing you kept in your head?
Glad you found the video helpful!
The strategies I go over in this video can be thought as the first step in building your approach to questions on the MCAT. The reading strategy of only focusing on the big picture and picking landmark highlights never really changes and ideally reading the passage should take anywhere from 1-3 minutes.
When I first teach one of my private students the four-step approach to MCAT question I always have them write everything out for each of the steps. This is time consuming but forces you to slow down a bit and work on being systematic in your overall approach. After a couple of days of implementing this strategy I will usually have people mentally walkthrough each step. This is faster but we are still trying to hit each step one by one. After a while this tends be pretty intuitive and it becomes more of a mindset for approaching questions rather than something you are alway consciously thinking about doing. By this point most of my students are usually recognizing content and keywords simultaneously then immediately jumping back to the passage for relevant information and this tends to be quite quick. Timing then comes down to flagging and moving on from the 1-5 questions that they are stuck on rather than being too slow overall.
I always recommend writing out pathways when needed for a question but not while reading because I think it is just a bit too much to keep in your head at once. The same goes for more multi-step problems that require multiple pieces of information from the passage. These are the types of questions you are likely to see in the section bank, but make up a smaller portion of your exam as a whole so while they are more time consuming your whole test usually won’t be made up of these.
Hope that helps.
this is super helpful. Can you do one for C/P too. Testing in 4 weeks *crying*
Is there something specific you struggling with in the CP section. The same overall strategy for BB can be applied to CP as well. I typically find that CP is a bit more content focused although there are definitely some specific strategies for this section. I plan on covering them but I am not 100% sure if they will be finished in the next 4 weeks.
This is very helpful!! Thank you for posting it. Could you make a similar video for CARS passage? Thank you in advance!
Definitely, I’ll probably need to break CARS into a couple of videos but I can definitely get started on CARS strategy.
@@EightfoldMCAT hi! just wondering if you'll be able to upload the CARS videos sometime this week or earlier next week?
I am working on the first out of a series of three videos on CARS and plan to have this video up by this week or early next week so long as I don't hit any snags in the recording phase.
can you please do more of these videos? its really helpful!
Would you be interested in walkthroughs or different specific strategies?
both would be great honestly. perhaps strategies would be more helpful though! i personally struggle with weeding out incorrect answers and understanding the logic. thanks so much!@@EightfoldMCAT
what section of content would be agonist vs. antagonist? I did not see that in with my review
How long did it take you to look at passages this way?
thanks for the video, in Q3 (a) about mRNA hybridazation ,could you talk more about this concept and how it all relates to anything
Hybridization means that two strands of DNA or RNA bound together. When something hybridizes to mRNA such as an siRNA strand it takes a normally single stranded RNA and converts it into a double stranded RNA. Ribosomes can only accept single stranded RNA so when something hybridizes to mRNA it blocks it ability to enter a ribosome and be turned into a protein. For the MCAT that is all you really need to know. I will probably put together a video on RNA types at some point, but it might be a ways off. Glad you are enjoying the videos!
Thank you :)
Glad to help!
Phenomenal! Please make a Patreon or some form of paid content. I’d buy all of it. Lol
Thanks. I do have a work in progress question bank you can purchase from my website if you like. Here is a link to it: eightfoldlearning.com/mcat-qbank/
@@EightfoldMCAT I’d love to purchase your q-bank. Does it come with additional passage breakdown videos?
@@coinslot8985 At present no. It something I am working on, however if you purchase it I would be more than happy to throw in access to office hours recordings as well which does have a decent amount of breakdowns of AAMC section bank material as well as q-pack CARS.
loved the video! I have a question though - in question 4, how did you come to the conclusion that siRNA reduces Spexin levels?
Great question! The si in siRNA stands for small interfering RNA and their function in cells is to block translation of specific mRNA transcripts. So a spexin siRNA would block spexin mRNA translation. This would lead to less Spexin production. I remember what a siRNA does by thinking of the si as standing for silencing instead of small interfering.
@@EightfoldMCAT thank you so much!
Through which 3rd party source did you get this passage from? Great content btw :)
I made up this passage using a scientific article and did my best to match the AAMC passage and question style.
How do you know that siRNA and miRNA are going to down regulate the transcript, can they not also upregulate?
A bit over explained but I get the idea. Good method overall
Wow I’m dumb, got get to work 🎉
For Question 3, answer choice A, how do you know that micro-RNA ends up down-regulating Spexin? Can't micro-RNA's both up-regulate and down-regulate?
Micro-RNA are just silencers so they down-regulate expression of certain genes. For example the micro-RNA listed here is one specifically designed to silence spexin. More generally micro-RNA are referred to as gene regulators though because by silencing one gene that inhibits another they might be able to allow indirectly for another gene to be expressed. Does that make sense?
@@EightfoldMCAT Yes! Are si-RNA also silencers like micro-RNA?
Yes. They work in slightly different ways but you don’t really need to understand the differences for the MCAT.
Can this approach be useful for the other sections of the MCAT other than B/BC section?
Yes. You can transfer the same skills over to the CP and PS sections. There are some slight differences in terms of what to look out for, but for the most part this will work for all of the non-CARS sections on the exam.
Is biochemistry passges in cars because cars written 50% humanties and 50% sociology
Make a pateron, you are a hero
Thank you. I will definitely look into Patreon. If you want to support me now I do have a question bank in development that is designed to follow the videos I create here. Here is the link if you are interested: eightfoldlearning.com/mcat-qbank/
No pressure though all the videos I make will always be freely available to everyone here on TH-cam.
Hey, i am looking to help people by making these type of videos but i am worried about copy right laws if i use aamc or blue print material… since you posted this can you tell me what you know about the legality of it? Thanks! Hope to make videos like yours soon!
Technically it would be copyright infringement to use the AAMC’s material here on YT without first getting permission if you plan on monetizing your videos. If you don’t monetize your videos you can use the material so long as you meet the fair use requirements which allow you to use copyrighted material for purely educational purposes. Here is the government’s website on fair use: www.copyright.gov/fair-use/
@@EightfoldMCAT thanks a lot!
Can you use this strat for C/P section?
Yes. You can use it for all of the non-CARS sections. CP is a bit more straightforward strategically while BB tends to be a bit more complex with PS in the middle (at least from my perspective of the exam.)
I might have to switch my career path cuz Im cooked 😭
Bro I literally have to slow your video down to 0.75 speed to understand *crying* forget being able to read and comprehend that fast, I can’t even listen that fast. WTF do I doooooooo :/
Damn…I’ve been studying for the mcat over “ten” (probably really if I’m being honest like 3ish) years took 3 (ok like 1.5) courses throughout wrote it twice (4/5 years apart) & have never been taught or thought to approach it this way and I must say just 5mins in by Q3 (watched at 2x speed) I can’t believe it’s actually that easy-“ten” years & 3 courses of studying in 5 mins 🙂🥲🫠🙃
I am always shocked that more companies or tutors don’t teach simple approaches like this. I feel like some of the strategies themselves end up making the material more rather than less complex. Hope this helps and that this will be the final time you have to take the MCAT!