We are still on our “high yields MCAT topics” series. Let’s us move to topics for physics, which is one of the ‘unfavorable’ topics in MCAT. Lots of students find physics very difficult to understand because it involves lots of calculations and memorizing lots of equations.
To help you studying for physics, these are the high yields topics suggested by Aj. Karan, our physics teacher at Learning Hub.
1. Mechanics – forces – motion – energy conversions Questions about energy like kinetic energy, potential energy, power tend to appear a lot in the MCAT. Forces and motion is a basic knowledge that will be applied to questions from other topics as well so cannot be left out.
2. Waves – doppler effect, sound intensity, light and lenses, interference These are generally quite important
3. Electricity and charges, circuit resistance circulations are important. Basic understanding of charge attraction and repulsion also tend to appear on the MCAT
4. Nuclear physics – half lives and radioactive decay
5. Fluids – topics on fluids may not appear as much but they do pop up once in a while
6. Thermodynamics will show up more as a chemistry question but the knowledge is still quite important.
In regards to skills in Physics, students should be able to manipulate formulas or combine them. I recommend students to brush up their mental math skills as in the MCAT, no calculators are allowed. Lastly, units conversion. A lot of MCAT questions provide answers that are of different units than the questions; for example, the question asks in mMol but answers in Mol. Students tend to disregard the change and get the question wrong.
And of course, as with all other MCAT subjects, practicing question bank is key.
Stay tune for the next high yield topics blog!
Jane
