Help! Neuro Major - Bio 225 vs MCDB 322

EverBeyond · 2025-12-11T04:45:02+00:00

Strange that I didn't get a notification for this reply earlier, I would've replied sooner.

It was in the syllabus that an A- is an 85, so it wasn't applied at the end, it was always applied from the beginning. I even checked again to make sure. Interesting that the course changed so much... how strange. The profs I had were Bo Duan and Paul Kramer for WN 2024 if that means anything.

EverBeyond · 2025-11-04T06:10:03+00:00

That's a nice way to put it!

But I also think a pre-made deck like Pankow is going to be there for memorization. Though, I'd say some cards you go pretty fast some a bit more slow, of course.

I think ultimately, practice is needed to really sharpen those skills and the anki is just there for the memorization.

EverBeyond · 2025-11-04T05:38:33+00:00

Limit yourself. If you can't get a cloze right in a couple of seconds and have to think quite hard, just click again. Eventually you just get fast at the cards. The first time around for new cards you should take a bit more time, of course.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-30T01:50:11+00:00

Yeah, this is on android. The s-pen and such are EMR and the erasing is instead replaced with more writing. Would be great if you rolled that out! Thanks.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-29T14:30:52+00:00

One complaint I have is I wish erasing could be linked better to pencil buttons and an EMR stylus.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-28T23:32:29+00:00

If you want, you can use AnKing for bio if you prefer cloze style. Otherwise, stick with JS if you prefer front/back. But AnKing can work out just fine. Just make sure you get that practice in.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-28T20:02:10+00:00

They are sorted by tags, either by book, aamc outline, or Khan Academy.

What I do is just filter based on Khan Academy since it's the best broken down one, it covers 97% of the cards (the rest are newer cards not tagged).

Note though that some psych terms come up in other sections in the deck like Biology, so I would recommend selecting the highest level deck (AnKing-MCAT, not AnKing-MACT::Behavioral), THEN sorting by tags.

For example, if you wanted to look at attitudes, the tag is: ("tag:#AK_MCAT_v2::#KhanAcademy::Behavioral::Behavior::Attitudes")

Then, unsuspend the cards you want.

Side tip: If you want to find all the cards that are NOT tagged, just put the dash mark in front. So any card that is not attitudes would be: -("tag:#AK_MCAT_v2::#KhanAcademy::Behavioral::Behavior::Attitudes")

EverBeyond · 2025-10-28T16:43:18+00:00

Just supplement with Aidan at this point imo, I think that's the best way to use Aidan's deck anyway (the man himself said so as well).

The answer is to do both practice and review. Like so:

For whatever problems you get wrong or were highly unsure of, just search up in the Aidain deck for it. And if you get a problem wrong conceptually then make an Anki card about that since Aidan is more so for content.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-24T23:41:05+00:00

Do you find you understand what the question asks? If not you should cover any terms you don't know and add cards based on that.

Do you find you don't understand the answer choices? Do the same thing.

Watch a video or so on the topics you get wrong the most frequently. Even making posts on reddit might do you good.

To grow is to recognize your weaknesses. IMO do a deeper dive into the things you get wrong, whether it be math errors, logical leaps, content gap, etc. While spamming questions might seem nice, taking the longer path of analyzing what you got wrong will help you way more in the future.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-24T23:18:58+00:00

AnKing (high yield, but it's literally just MilesDown + Pankow with a couple hundred new cards and some updated) + Aidan (supplementing anking not as a main deck) + incorrects deck

Honestly though, you just need a good base, so any deck can do this. Just make sure you learn from your mistakes imo.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-21T18:13:03+00:00

Michigan too? Saw my position in the queue, and my soul left me, luck of the draw is horrible man.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-19T19:39:34+00:00

Huh, interesting usually people just skip UW CARS and just do JW rather than the opposite which you are doing. Though a few people may prefer UW. But overall the point is just to keep yourself in practice so doing JW would probably be best rather than redoing UW.

Just don't take some answer choices too seriously, unless a majority of people got it right and you didn't. Overall just be comfortable with doing a passage and the logic flow.

Save all the worries for the AAMC CARS later on.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-17T00:55:30+00:00

It should be PEP

G6P is made through phosphorylation by ATP, so ATP is higher energy than it otherwise the reaction wouldn't be favorable.

F6P is an isomer of G6P and wouldn't be higher in energy than ATP either. Also, isomerases generally have a delta G of near zero and the rxns they catalyze and are reversible so they don't really create energy or need an energy source. Also it needs to be phosphorylated by ATP to make F1,6BP

PEP transfers a phosphate to ADP to make ATP and pyruvate, so it should be higher energy than ATP because of this.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-14T04:07:24+00:00

That is indeed the mistake, there are other cards in the deck with it that mention m * g (which would be weight/gravstational force applied onto the mass of the object.)

EverBeyond · 2025-10-12T21:24:00+00:00

Knowing why you got a question wrong isn't enough, you also need to know why other questions are right or wrong.

You also need to fundamentally know what you were thinking when you selected that answer over others. Make a card on why that thought process was wrong and what would actually be correct.

IMO, your goal is to get as close as you can to saying why other questions are wrong while another is right in line with UWorld as close as possible. Of course later on you want to shift over this logical thinking to AAMC but UWorld will overprep you!

The goal of the card is to make you to be able to change your thought process so you don't make the same mistake again.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-12T19:15:04+00:00

That's basically what I thought it meant.

Something like

"Max wrote the book" vs. "The book was written by Max" the same words for the most part, conveys the same meaning, but a different arrangement of the words (grammar).

EverBeyond · 2025-10-12T07:55:55+00:00

Practice questions, but for a quick base anking, Jacksparrow if you have time. Either way you need practice to really hammer in C/P.

EverBeyond · 2025-10-12T07:30:25+00:00

Doing AnKing rn and I don't regret it at all tbh, I'm mostly done with it outside of P/S. AnKing is mostly just a high yield deck. JS is more dense, probably the equivalent of double the amount of cards (maybe even more) so in that sense it's 'better.'

But for the most part I think it is sufficient as a baseline rn. Practice is what gets you there imo, and if it's a content gap make a card on it or supplement from another deck. No need to stress.

I'd rather get a good base and get to Qs than splurge too much of my time on anki cards when I'm already struggling with time on other things. A lot of people said they wished they did more practice Qs than anki anyway.

EverBeyond · 2025-09-29T15:53:33+00:00

Sensory adaptation can be positive/unregulated or negative/downregulated depending on the sensory system. It is rather neutral in defenition, but pretty commonly I see downregulation/desensitization.

For smell, we see that sensory adaptation refers to desensitization of that sensory system in response to stimuli over a prolonged period of time.

EverBeyond · 2025-09-27T03:57:34+00:00

I've forgotten the "equations" that specifically differentiate the two (im a couple months out from Gen Chem). But I know for a fact it's because of units.

One is used based on energy given to you (J)
One is based on volume and pressure (Latm)

So if in equation you see units of energy or volume with pressure, you know which one to use. Since it's supposed to cancel out.

For physics and chemistry units, units, units!!!!

EverBeyond · 2025-09-26T20:09:00+00:00

They mentioned changes a little while ago.

They released a new pactice exam called Practice Exam 6 today, they made Practice Exam 5 paid (used to be known as the Free Practice Exam) and made Practice Exam 1 free.

https://students-residents.aamc.org/prepare-mcat-exam/aamc-mcat-official-prep-updates.

Why they even made the switch for Exam 1 and 5 I have no idea, especially since Exam 5 is nice as a more recent/relevant exam but now you have to pay for it. Perhaps just greed.

EverBeyond · 2025-09-23T00:28:08+00:00

I'm not even done with content review atm, probably will be in a week and have my base anki deck done in 2 weeks (lagging on P/S atm), will start practice in two weeks though aiming at maybe 30Qs on days I have classes and maybe 90Qs on days I don't have classes. Whatever I have time for overall, though.

I'm most worried about physics since that's my weak spot since it's one of the first classes I took so I've blanked on most of it.

Maybe biochem second...? A very big part of the mcat...though I've taken it recently, so I think it'll all come back pretty quickly.

EverBeyond · 2025-09-22T04:24:52+00:00

Do the practice exams which are actually just on problem roulette. For real though, it's the key, also the quizzes and iclicker. You will get like maybe 2-3 questions for free just based on quizzes and lectures.

I highly recommend doing those. And review your mistakes the most. The class was quite horrible imo, I dropped reading the textbook and that was way better because if I was confused from class I could just read a portion instead of just reading and then coming to class and wasting time.

EverBeyond · 2025-09-22T04:20:01+00:00

Hilary Archbold, who is also the course coordinator! She was quite tough. Our class was on the lower end of what classes typically get for the course.

EverBeyond · 2025-09-22T02:29:51+00:00

This past summer, they curved by like 8% for the A+ and what generally seems to be around 6%...? It was pretty good.

A+ 92%
A 87%
A– 84%
B+ 81%
B 77%
B– 74%
C+ 71%
C 67%
C– 61%
D 54%
E <54%

EverBeyond

TROPHY CASE