Hailey asked 3 years ago
I have the option of taking P chem 2 years before my MCAT and 1 year before my planned MCAT. Taking it 2 years before would give me some flexibility in my schedule but I don’t know if that would be too long of a gap and I would just have to relearn the material. I also plan to take Biochem a year after p-chem and have heard p-chem can help
Owen Doane answered 3 years ago
Hi Hailey,
Between the two, I would prioritize aligning biochem with your MCAT schedule over pchem. Biochem is a very memorization heavy topic, and all of that memorization will make studying quicker if it’s already in your head from the past semester. Pchem, while still requiring lots of content mastery, relies more on problem solving. It’s inevitable that you’ll forget some of the specific concepts taking the class 2 years before your planned MCAT, but I think it’s more manageable to “relearn” pchem than biochem. Pchem will drill lots of material and problem solving skills in your head, so having taken the class at all will put you in a good position for mastering the chemistry content of the MCAT. In addition, biochemistry is a much more heavily tested topic on the MCAT compared to general chemistry, so it would be in your favor to have biochem be the more recent course.
Please let us know if you have any more questions!
Owen, PMH Co-President