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Aug 2025
55m 59s

Connections in MCAT Metabolism: PPP, Bet...

Jack Westin
About this episode

Get ready to make sense of all those arrows on your metabolism chart! 🧪 In this Jack Westin MCAT Podcast episode, Mike and Molly walk through the big picture of carbohydrate metabolism and show you how every pathway, from glycolysis to the pentose-phosphate pathway, fits together and shows up on Test Day.


What you’ll learn


Fed vs. fasted state logic – how insulin & glucagon flip metabolic switches

Glycolysis shortcuts (hexokinase, PFK-1 regulation) you actually have to memorize

Citric Acid Cycle tips for spotting high-yield intermediates (citrate, α-KG, OAA)

Pentose Phosphate Pathway: why the MCAT loves NADPH & ribose-5-phosphate

Branch points into glycogenesis, glycogenolysis, and fatty-acid synthesis

How to predict pathway direction from classic passage clues


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