MCAT Study Guide: Chapter 4

Memory questions on the MCAT are exactly what they sound like: They test your knowledge most a specific fact or concept. While memory questions are typically found every bit free-standing questions, they tin also be tucked into a passage and represent 25% of science questions on the MCAT.

MCAT beaker

But don't worry! Aside from requiring memorization, these questions practise not generally cause problems for students because they are similar to the types of questions that would appear on a typical college science exam.

What Should I Memorize?

Mastery of the basics and the power to employ those concepts to unfamiliar situations is what volition sustain yous on the MCAT. Only if you're stressing virtually what MCAT formulas to memorize, here is a short list of rules and equations collected by our MCAT test experts. This is by no means a definitive list merely rather a sampling to jump start your prep.

And remember, it's more than near application of knowledge, than straight up memorization of cognition.

Chemistry Physics/Math

Organic Chemistry

  • recognizing and naming of organic functional groups using IUPAC nomenclature
  • CIP rules for assigning absolute configuration (R/Due south)
  • separation techniques, notably chromatography
  • principles of spectroscopy techniques, notably IR and aneH-NMR
  • recognizing common organic reaction types (SouthDue northi/SouthNorthwardii, addition reactions, nucleophilic addition-elimination reactions)
  • structure, classification, and pK as of amino acid side chains
  • structure/reactivity of carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids

General Chemistry

  • Avogadro's number
  • common polyatomic ions
  • Electronegativity society: FONCIBrISCH
  • masses/charges of radioactive decay particles
  • Gibbs gratis energy equation-platonic gas law
  • ideal gas law
  • 1 mol of a gas = 22.4 L at STP
  • phase solubility rules
  • table salt solubility rules
  • common potent acids and bases
  • ion-product abiding of h2o (K west)
  • K a G b, p1000 a/pK b relationships
  • definition of pH and general logarithm math
  • Henderson-Hasselbalch equation for the pH of a buffer
  • oxidation state rules
  • loss of electrons is oxidation (LEO)
  • gain of electrons is reduction (GER)

Some handy math formulas:

  • prefixes for powers of 10
  • sine and cosine values for special angles
  • SOHCAHTOA
  • vector addition and subtraction
  • log rules
  • approximation techniques for foursquare roots

Read more  MCAT math tips

Some constants include:

  • acceleration of gravity on World
  • density of water
  • Coulomb's abiding
  • elementary accuse
  • speed of sound in air
  • speed of light in vacuum

Some equations and the rules for using them:

  • basic kinematic equations
  • Newton'south laws
  • piece of work formula
  • conservation of energy
  • First Police of Thermodynamics
  • buoyant force equation
  • continuity equation
  • electric force-field relation
  • electric potential energy-potential relation
  • Ohm's law
  • catamenia-frequency relation
  • moving ridge equation
  • Doppler shift
  • Snell'due south law
  • mirror and lens equation
Psychology/Sociology Biological science and Biochemistry
  • characteristics of a truthful experiment
  • differences between independent and dependent variables
  • Weber'due south Law
  • difference between acme-downwardly and bottom-up processing
  • Piaget'due south stages of cognitive evolution
  • Kohlberg's stages of moral development
  • stages of slumber and characteristics of each
  • basic menstruation of memory encoding and retrieval
  • divergence between Broca's area and Wernicke's surface area
  • major theories of emotion
  • major functions of each encephalon region
  • major personality theories
  • major psychological disorders
  • how attitude and behavior touch on each other
  • major social psychology theories
  • major types of learning
  • differences between principal vs. secondary and positive vs. negative reinforcers and punishers
  • the various reinforcement schedules and behavior associated with each
  • types of attributions
  • types of negative social interactions (discrimination, bias, etc.)
  • major theoretical approaches to sociology
  • types of social institutions
  • amino acid side chain classifications (polar, non-polar, acidic, basic), their structure, and their accuse at pH 7.four
  • amino acrid 3-letter and 1-letter abbreviations

  • the significance of △Grand structures/monomers of the four biological macromolecules
  • how to recognize oxidation and reduction reactions
  • fundamentals of acid/base chemistry
  • 4 types of enzyme inhibitors Five max and K m

  • location/regulation of biochem pathways (and when one pathway might be favored over some other)

  • lab techniques (ELISA, electrophoresis, blotting, and PCR)

  • Central Dogma of molecular biology

  • Dna replication rules/enzymes

  • the start codon and the three finish codons

  • different types/functions of RNA

  • how transcription is regulated

  • energy required for protein translation

  • viral life cycles and genomes

  • classification of bacteria by construction/living weather

  • role of the eukaryotic bespeak sequence

  • plasma membrane structure

  • passive and active transport

  • machinery of G-protein 2d messenger pathways

  • eukaryotic cell features (cytoskeleton, cell junctions, organelles)

  • four phases of mitosis
  • comparison of mitosis vs. meiosis
  • classical and not-classical say-so
  • four basic single gene crosses
  • two rules of probability
  • how to make up one's mind linkage and recombination frequency
  • equations and rules for Hardy-Weinberg
  • activity potential and voltage-gated channels
  • CNS anatomy
  • sympathetic vs. parasympathetic
  • heart/ear anatomy
  • 5 classes of sensory receptors
  • hormones
  • heart anatomy
  • cardiac action potential
  • blood pressure level, cardiac output, peripheral resistance
  • blood gas transport
  • B cell and T cell function
  • antibiotic structure and classes
  • nephron construction/function
  • renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system
  • digestive accessory organs
  • alimentary culvert construction/function
  • sarcomere structure
  • sliding filament theory
  • muscle cobweb types
  • conduction zone vs. respiratory zone
  • regulation of ventilation charge per unit and pH
  • hormones and phases of the menstrual bike
  • primary germ layers and what they become
  • stem cells

MCAT Tips and Tricks?

In that location is no specific "trick" to answering memory questions. Either yous know the answer or you don't. If you find that yous are missing a fair number of memory questions on your MCAT practice tests, it is a sure sign that yous don't know the content well enough. Go back and review.

MCAT Memorization Strategies

Mnemonics

Mnemonic devices are patterns (series of letters, the tune of your favorite song) that help you memorize. For example, some people remember the definitions of the sine, cosine, and tangent of an astute angle in a correct triangle by this mnemonic: SOH CAH TOA. The letters represent the following: Sine = Opp/Hyp, Cosine = Adj/Hyp, Tangent = Opp/Adj.

Memory Palace

This mnemonic device involves imagining that you are moving through a familiar route or identify, such every bit the rooms of your babyhood domicile, and at diverse stops along the manner leaving a visual representation of a topic you desire to remember. To recollect the info you need, simply imagine walking through your "palace." We've heard of students using this technique for everything from the steps of the Krebs cycle to the parts of the cell.

Outlines

The act of writing something downwardly goes a long fashion toward committing information technology to retentivity. Plus, concise and colorful 1-folio outlines are great written report aids.

A Note Virtually MCAT Flashcards

Flashcards can be beneficial if your bones content knowledge is scarce in some surface area.  Nevertheless, remember that the nigh challenging aspect of the MCAT is not that it requires you to memorize the fine details of content cognition, but that it requires you to apply your basic scientific knowledge to unfamiliar situations, and flashcards lone will not help you there.  If yous choose to use flashcards, make sure to comprise enough of practice passages and full-length practice tests to round out your training.

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