What You Need to Know About Research Design & Data Analysis on the MCAT 

Glad to help! Please let me know if you'd like any more videos on MCAT skills!

@@bremmethod it would have been nice if you went into detail about the p value. I’ve watch tons of videos about it around RU-vid. I still have it figured out if how it’s important for the MCAT since the different significant values mean the null hypothesis is accepted or rejected. It’s a lot of stuff that’s not clear when it comes to data analysis & research design with the MCAT. You have a good foundation to go from though. I took notes and then began a search on RU-vid. I looked up logarithm graphs, etc. it would be nice if there was a one stop shop we could go to so we know exactly the depth we need to know instead of going to all of these different RU-vid videos like I’m doing now.

@@lilrabbitcuz It's so true! So much MCAT resources focus on the content, while the Skill 3 (research design) and Skill 4 (data analysis) are also essential to success. Quick answer on the p values - a p value of

@PhantomLink I'm working on a video bank this year that I hope will become a more comprehensive resource for MCAT skills, so thank you for the feedback! If you'd like a worksheet on the common experimental design terms on the MCAT, I've built this google doc here: docs.google.com/document/d/15k4pm0WtY19im-paQbAqZ6EZp1hMrLnNuJ7WXMLAbiw/edit?usp=sharing Hope this helps and good luck with your studies!

Thank you so much! (and I'm so sorry this has literally taken me years to respond to)

You're in luck! Here's the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IWh0J3EgZy4.html

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it!

Yes - that is best practice! When you are provided statistical significance on only one portion of the graph, it is generally referencing that variable with a given condition (in the example in the figure, there is a statistically significant difference between wildtype and knock out in the 16.7mM glucose condition). While you can also see, based on the error bars, that proinsulin rates are higher with more glucose for both WT and knockout, the * indicates a significant decrease with KO mice compared to WT in the higher glucose condition. If they wanted to compare KO mice basal rates to high glucose rates, they would have had to draw a bracket between those two bars (the light gray ones) and drawn a star above that bracket.

@@bremmethod Thank you for the clarity!

I'll work on that next! Got a few math videos coming up in my Math series this month. Tables and Figures are definitely big features of the recently released exam.

@@bremmethod Can't wait! Your video is helping me look at the MCAT in a more critical manner.

Thank you!

It's in the plans!

We aren't able to post videos reviewing AAMC MCAT passages on RU-vid due to copyright issues. However, we do review these passages in my courses!

For sure! We can see that the more glucose we have, the more proinsulin synthesis we get. This is something that the experimenters would likely already know, as this is a well-known endocrine pathway, so the "experimental" part of this passage is our KO mice variable. However, the MCAT could definitely use this data as a check to make sure you understand the relationship between glucose and insulin!

You're welcome! I'm so glad you found it useful

Glad you liked it! Thank you!