Let’s look at the following example to practice identifying these important experimental variables: And what must the researchers hold constant in order for their results to hold true? Those are the controls. What are the researchers measuring as an outcome? That is our dependent variable. What are the researchers changing on purpose? That is our independent variable. Our tip is to practice identifying and writing down the key components of any experiment. Students who have a great grasp of the vocab often struggle on experiment-style questions because it is easy to get lost in complex experiments. In addition to vocab and applying vocab, the test writers at the AAMC really like to test students on psychology and sociology experiments. MCAT Psychology and Sociology Tip #4: Practice identifying the independent, dependent, and control groups within experiments mentioned in the passages. What is the value in this? The more practice you get analyzing graphs or figures without a time crunch, the better you will be able to quickly analyze them when there is a time crunch. Once you finish taking a passage, however, you should make sure to go back and understand every part of every graph or figure in the passage. In fact, you should not spend too much time on any one given figure unless a specific question is asking you about it. MCAT Psychology and Sociology Tip #3: Anytime you receive a passage with a graph or a figure, make sure you go back and review each figure thoroughly.ĭuring your actual exam and while you take practice, you will often not have time to fully understand any graphs or figures presented. Going back to our example, we would also want to define and write down an example for our other answer choices if we didn’t already know what they meant. Utilize the already written out AAMC practice questions to your advantage. Example: After a tornado, a student claims that she knew it was coming several months before it happened. Hindsight bias: when an individual or group believes that they knew something was going to occur when in reality there is no way that they could have made that prediction. What is an example of hindsight bias? The example can come directly from the question itself! You would write the following: MCAT Psychology and Sociology Tip #2: When you define a psychology/sociology vocabulary term, include with it an example that makes sense to you. Writing the term and the definition down, however, is not quite enough to get all MCAT questions right, especially when you get to trickier terms that never seem to stick, no matter how many times you memorize them! So, anytime you get a psych/soc question and you do not know the definition of a term, write the definition down on a set of flashcards. If you didn’t know what hindsight bias meant before this question, you would likely find answering the question correctly very difficult. In this case, the answer is hindsight bias, which describes a fallacy where a person believes they knew something was going to occur when in reality there is no way that they could have made that prediction. If you don’t know what the definitions of the words are, you will not be able to answer the question correctly. Let’s say you see the following question on your exam:Īfter a tornado, a student claims that she knew it was coming several months before it happened. Many questions on the psych/soc section test your ability to distinguish between a set of terms. Part 3: MCAT psychology and sociology study strategies MCAT Psychology and Sociology Tip #1: Know any vocab words that show up on practice questions you take and write down any words you don’t know. We’ll provide a toolbox that you can use to get these questions right, in addition to study strategies you can use to maximize your score. You can perform well on this section without having taken a psychology or sociology class, and this guide will provide all of the content you need to know for the MCAT psychology and sociology section. The psych/soc section of the exam is a critical component of your score. But, the MCAT is a long and hard exam, so you’ll need to optimize many areas of your test prep (such as your study schedule) to perform well. A good MCAT score can significantly improve your admissions chances and put you one step closer to placing “Dr.” in front of your last name. We all know how important the MCAT is for medical school admissions. It’s important to remember, though, that the psych/soc section of your MCAT makes up 1/4th of your overall score! Unfortunately, many students become complacent during this section and finish very quickly. You’ve made it through the previous three sections, and you’re on the home stretch. The MCAT psychology and sociology section is the final section of the exam.
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