Princeton Review - MCAT Psychology and Sociology Review: New for MCAT 2015

Editorial
Rob Franek, Senior VP, Publisher
Casey Cornelius, VP, Content Development
Mary Beth Garrick, Director of Production
Selena Coppock, Senior Editor
Calvin Cato, Editor
Kristen OToole, Editor
Meave Shelton, Editor
Alyssa Wolff, Editorial Assistant

Random House Publishing Group
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Copyright 2014 by TPR Education IP Holdings, LLC.
Cover art Mopic / Alamy
All Rights Reserved.

Published in the United States by Penguin Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto.

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Every attempt has been made to obtain permission to reproduce material protected by copyright. Where omissions may have occurred the editors will be happy to acknowledge this in future printings.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-88245-0
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8041-2473-7

Editor: Selena Coppock
Production Artist: Craig Patches
Production Editor: Jim Melloan

v3.1

Nadia L. Johnson, M.A., M.S.

Senior Author

Rizwan Ahmad, M.A.

Senior Author

TPR MCAT Psychology and Sociology Team:

Rizwan Ahmad, M.A.

Jon Fowler, M.A.

Nadia L. Johnson, M.A., M.S., Lead Developer

Bikem Ayse Polat

Betsy Walli, M.S., Ph.D.

Judene Wright, M.S., M.A.Ed, Senior Editor

Edited for Production by:

Judene Wright, M.S., M.A.Ed.

National Content Director, MCAT Program, The Princeton Review

The TPR MCAT Psychology and Sociology Team and Judene would like to thank the following people for their contributions to this book:

Paola A. Munoz, M.A., Erika C. Castro, B.A., Shalom Shapiro, Chelsea K Wise, M.S., Guenevieve O. del Mundo, B.A., B.S., C.C.S., Ali Landreau, B.A., Mike Matera, B.A., Michelle E. Fox, B.S., Andrew D. Snyder, M.S., Jennifer A. McDevitt, M.A., Maria S. Chushak, M.S., David Stoll.

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SO YOU WANT TO BE A DOCTOR.

If youre like most premeds, youve wanted to be a doctor since you were pretty young. When people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, you always answered a doctor. You had toy medical kits, you bandaged up your dog or cat, and you played hospital. You probably read your parents home medical guides for fun.

When you got to high school you took the honors and AP classes. You studied hard, got straight As (or at least really good grades!), and participated in extracurricular activities so you could get into a good college. And you succeeded!

At college you knew exactly what to do. You took your classes seriously, studied hard, and got a great GPA. You talked to your professors and hung out at office hours to get good letters of recommendation. You were a member of the premed society on campus, volunteered at hospitals, and shadowed doctors. All thats left to do now is get a good MCAT score.

Just the MCAT.

Just the most confidence-shattering, most demoralizing, longest and most brutal entrance exam for any graduate program. At about 7.5 hours (including breaks), the MCAT tops the listeven the closest runners up, the LSAT and GMAT, are only about 4 hours long. The MCAT tests significant science content knowledge along with the ability to think quickly, reason logically, and read comprehensively, all under the pressure of a timed exam.

The path to a good MCAT score is not as easy to see as the path to a good GPA or the path to a good letter of recommendation. The MCAT is less about what you know, and more about how to apply what you knowand how to apply it quickly to new situations. Because the path might not be so clear, you might be worried. Thats why you picked up this book.

We promise to demystify the MCAT for you, with clear descriptions of the different sections, how the test is scored, and what the test experience is like. We will help you understand general test-taking techniques as well as provide you with specific techniques for each section. We will review the science content you need to know as well as give you strategies for the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section. Well show you the path to a good MCAT score and help you walk the path.

After allyou want to be a doctor. And we want you to succeed.

Most test-takers approach the MCAT as though it were a typical college science test, one in which facts and knowledge simply need to be regurgitated in order to do well. They study for the MCAT the same way they did for their college tests, by memorizing facts and details, formulas and equations. And when they get to the MCAT they are surprisedand disappointed.

Its a myth that the MCAT is purely a content-knowledge test. If medical school admission committees want to see what you know, all they have to do is look at your transcripts. What they really want to see, though, is how you