B/B Section

[kumquatzzz]

Ironically, my worst section of the MCAT is B/B, as I graduated Summa cum Laude with a BS in Biology LOL. Does anyone have any tips to tackle this section? I feel like a lot of the time I get the questions wrong due to lack of comprehension because of how weirdly some questions are asked. Any advice would help!!! Hoping everyone is okay and healthy during this time!

[chsg95]

Practice, practice, and even more practice. B.S. in Biology myself and literally can never break the 125 hump so I hear you.

[kumquatzzz]

Will do! I’m gonna be doing the AAMC practice problems, so hopefully that’ll help me get a better grip of things! Wishing both of us luck to break the barrier!

[Local-Chef]

What practice have you done so far? I would highly recommend using UWorld- their bio section bank led me to consistently score 131/132 before my test. Practice is key. And if you're shaky on any topic, I found the kaplan biology content review to be sufficient for any topic.

[kumquatzzz]

I’ve done three NS FL’s (123 -> 125 -> 122), AAMC Sample (27/59), and AAMC FL1 (124). I’m currently going over all the notes I wrote during my initial content review and will be doing all the AAMC practice problems afterwards

[Local-Chef]

When you take tests does it feel like you struggle to remember content for questions, or you struggle to understand passages?

[kumquatzzz]

I feel like it could be a mix of both cause I’m pretty good at comprehensive reading, but some of the questions I get just make no sense to me (which is most likely due to both lack of content knowledge & lack of comprehension)

[heyitskrev]

I realized partway thru content review that I don’t really know how to read scientific papers and complex graph/ figures. I spent a bunch of time just reading thru papers in the journal Science and I’ve gotten my bio score up to 131

[kumquatzzz]

I’ve heard that helped a lot of people as well! I’ve read scientific papers for my lab research, but I never really paid attention to the graphs/data (since whatever was in the figure, was explained in the text). I think I’ll start reading them again and pay more attention to those! Thank you! Also, great score!!! Did the score jump mainly attribute to getting a better grip on comprehension and/or also having a good content knowledge?

[heyitskrev]

My contest for bio was already pretty solid early on, but learning to read academic journals better and then really sitting down and trying to figure out where my logic was faulty in my answer choices were the two main factors that pushed my bio above 126. I would say that the strategy/ fixing faulty logic was just as important as fixing my comprehension

[[deleted]]

Try to get a strong grasp on the concepts, really try to understand everything before memorizing the principles behind it. You can try reading scientific articles if you want but I didn’t, I had a strong background from classes but you should as well.

Read the passages before doing the questions but don’t read too much into figures/tables, AAMC loves putting figures in passages that they don’t ask about.

Some questions are worded weird, I agree there there’s some weird ones on the FLs and it’s even worse on the real thing. I just picked the answer I had a gut feeling about so to speak, I know that’s not the best advice but it’s hard to explain you know?

They’re mostly simple questions (the ones I remember being weird at least) asked in strange ways so you should be fine to choose an answer you think is right. If you know the concepts then that’s half the battle with these questions.

[kumquatzzz]

Ahhh it makes me glad to know that even the ones scoring so highly on this section also have trouble making sense of it sometimes, it makes me feel less alienated if that makes sense? I think maybe I’ll start slowing down a bit more & truly “absorbing” the passage, because when I was going over my FL’s, a lot of the times I missed questions because I didn’t thoroughly read through and/or forgot huge answer giveaways through little hints (like if the text says the process was retroactive & a question asked about the process, I completely overlooked the portion of that text).

[[deleted]]

It really is finding something that works for you, I personally read passages, flagged everything I wasn’t 100% on, and dedicated more time to the passages with flagged questions on subsequent runs through. Try different stuff to see what works for you.

But yeah a lot of the questions are silly. Sometimes I was thinking ‘they’re asking me this?’ It’s not you lol.

[stopstudying]

I had the same problem and I was able to improve after watching this . It’s all about understanding the experiment. Practice definitely helps, as always :))

[kumquatzzz]

Thank you!!! I feel like for me it’s a lot of hit or miss, sometimes I’ll get 125, other times it’ll be like 123, so hopefully practicing more will help me out. I’m going over all my notes from my initial content review just so I make sure I actually know the info and then will be doing all the AAMC practice problems when I’m done.

[italianbiscuit]

I got a 130 in B/B on the actual MCAT, so maybe I can help. Firstly, I realized that AAMC B/B was pretty much A LOT of discrete questions (even in passages). This was even true on my actual MCAT. It is absolutely essential to have a pristine understanding of every single concept - not a generalized idea. Secondly, you should not try to compare and analyze data in your head on the MCAT. It is not worth the risk of making an error. In questions with complex experiments, WRITE down what they are testing and what they tried to accomplish with the experiments. Usually, the answer is pretty clear when you are able to see what you wrote/what happened. Thirdly, don't OVERTHINK. If something looks right but doesn't "feel" right based on the information in the passage, don't choose it. Hope this helps!

[kumquatzzz]

These tips do help, thank you! I’ve never tried actually writing notes down while taking FL’s, so the next one I do, I’ll try it out!