The SDN (Unofficial) AAMC Content Outline for the MCAT2015

(Link to the official .pdf version from the AAMC)

Note: This content outline is the direct product of the combined work of many individual users on Student Doctor Network. This guide is meant to serve as a "check off" list of every topic that is covered by the MCAT 2015 exam.

that you have studied and have yet to study in an easy format (.xls). If you would like to use this guide, click on File -> Download as -> Microsoft Excel (.xls)

The 5 sheets represent the 5 areas of content from the AAMC: (1) Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, (2) Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems,

(3) Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior, (4) Scientific Inquiry and Reasoning Skills, and (5) Critical Analysis and Reasoning

Please note this guide, in general, does not have the AAMC abbreviations (BC, OC, etc.) that guides depth of content knowledge for the exam. This was for simplicity's sake, and if you want to add the information in, the original author (To be MD)

will happily grant you access or you can repost one with them included. This guide has also not been extensively edited and may contain spelling & other errors. Always trust the official AAMC material over anything you find online.

... but you already knew that: you're a wicked smart premed, and you will indubitably well if you know and understand all of these topics. Bonam Fortunam!

Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems

1A. Structure and function of proteins and their constituent Amino Acids

- Absolute Configuration at the α position

- Amino acids as dipolar ions

- Acidic or Basic

- Hydrophobic or Hydrophilic

- Sulfur linkage for cysteine & cystine

- Peptide linkage: polypeptides & proteins

- 1° structure of proteins

- 2° structure of proteins

- 3° structure of proteins

- Role of proline, cystine, hydrophobic bonding

- 4° structure of proteins

• Confirmational Stability

- Denaturing and folding

- Hydrophobic interactions

- Solvation layer (entropy)

• Separation Techniques

iii. Non-Enzymatic Protein Function

iv. Enzyme Structure and Function

• Function of enzymes in catalyzing biological reactions

• Enzyme classification by reaction type

• Reduction of activation energy

• Substrates and enzyme specificity

• Mechanism of catalysis

- Water-soluble vitamins

• Effects of local conditions on enzyme activity

- Allosteric enzymes

- Covalently-modified enzymes

1B. Transmission of genetic information from the gene to the protein

i. Nucleic Acid Structure and Function

• Nucleotides and nucleosides

- Sugar phosphate backbones

- Pyrimidine, purine residues

• Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA): double helix, Watson-Crick model of DNA structure

• Base pairing specificity: A with T, G with C

• Function in transmission of genetic information

• DNA denaturation, reannealing, hybridization

• Mechanism of replication: separation of strands, specific coupling of free nucleic acids

• Semi-conservative nature of replication

• Specific enzymes involved in replication

• Replicating the ends of DNA molecules

• Repair during replication

• Centra Dogma: DNA -> RNA -> Protein

• Codon-anticodon relationship

• Degenerate code, wobble pairing

• Missense, nonsense codons

• Initiation, termination codons