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From The Director’s Desk - 1
Commentary by Dr. Karen E. S. Phillips
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In this Newsletter:
* The Timing of the MCAT
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* The Timing of the MCAT *
When is it best to take the MCAT?
In my combined roles as the Director of the Pre-Health Program and an
Organic Chemistry Instructor here at Hunter College, I very often find
myself giving advice to students about when to take or not to take the
Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). After spending many hours either
talking with students about this or writing lengthy e-mail messages in
an effort to dissuade some from taking the test at an inopportune time,
I decided to summarize my thoughts in writing. While the data that I
will use to substantiate my reasoning is specific to the MCAT, many of
my suggestions could translate into good advice for students who have
their sights set on dental, veterinary, and other professional schools
as well. All doctoral level programs employ some version of a holistic
review process, with information from course grades, standardized test
scores, experience histories, and letters of recommendation serving as
criteria for selection, as well as the actual content and quality of
completed applications. Although each of these factors can be listed
independently, performance in one area is often connected to what is
happening in another. This communication will focus on the timing of the
MCAT as a contributing factor in this overall picture.
The MCAT score provides a standard measure of a candidate’s potential
for academic success in medical school. Because it is independent of
applicants’ undergraduate institutions, medical college admissions
committees rely very heavily on the MCAT as a way to clarify or further
substantiate evidence provided through a candidate’s Grade Point Average
(GPA). A stellar MCAT score can help to compensate for a slight dip in
grades, or vice versa, but both of these measures are very heavily
weighted in medical school admissions decisions. Since it is my firm
belief that you should endeavor to be the best applicant that you can
possibly be at the time when you first apply to medical school, it is
ideal to do as well as you can in all relevant academic areas, including
your courses and the MCAT.
One of the first things that members of medical college admissions
committees will tell you is that you should only take the MCAT when you
really feel that you are ready to do so. Your preparation for the test
begins with the courses that are listed as pre-requisites. For the
current version of the MCAT, your potential for success depends on a
clear conceptual understanding of a year’s worth of topics in General
Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and algebra-based Physics.
Taking the MCAT before completing all the required coursework is simply
a bad idea. I have heard some students express the misconception that
material covered in Organic-1 is all that is needed to achieve success
on the test, and I have seen others demoralized by failure after
following a suggestion that it was fine to take the MCAT without first
completing Physics-2. I am not sure where ideas like these originate
from but they are definitely not correct. It is very difficult to
predict what will appear on a the MCAT but there have been studies
conducted by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) to
determine the relative importance of the different topics covered in the
four required science classes. Coincidentally, the topics from a
year-long Organic Chemistry course that were voted most critical to the
MCAT and for effective preparation of students for medical school are
the same topics that are usually covered during the last month of the
second semester (https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/admins/data/).
If your plan was to take the MCAT in April, you might miss out on the
benefits of learning these topics as thoroughly as you need to in order
to perform well on questions related to them. Some students struggle to
teach this material to themselves while others hope that they can
compensate for this with the help of MCAT preparation courses taken in
the months before the exam. What you should remember is that a targeted
MCAT review should only serve as reinforcement of material already
learned or refinement of test-taking strategies, not as your first
exposure to required content.
Several companies use their own versions of MCAT reference materials and
exams to help students review course content and gauge their progress.
Whether you choose to engage one of these companies to help you to
prepare or not, you should always confirm your readiness for a
particular test date by observing the progression of your scores on
actual AAMC full-length versions of the MCAT, taken under appropriately
timed conditions. Several MCAT practice tests are available for purchase
through the AAMC Website and at least one full length test is also
provided free of charge (http://www.e-mcat.com/starttest.aspx?cmd=login&checkclient=true).
Taking one of these practice tests during each of the final weeks of
your preparation will help to keep information at your fingertips, get
your timing up to speed, indicate what you need to review more, and give
you the feedback that can help you to gauge what to expect from your
official scores. This could still be off a bit since it is impossible to
simulate the tension accompanying the actual test, but at least you will
have an idea whether or not it is even worth your while to proceed. If
your scores on these AAMC tests are consistently in the teens or low 20’s,
it would be foolish to expect a miracle on the actual test day, but if
your scores are consistently in the mid to high 30’s, then you are
probably ready for the real thing.
The previous paragraph hints at another reason to avoid taking the MCAT
during the spring semester while you are still completing relevant
coursework. This has to do with the possible emotional impact of such a
combination. The stress associated with a high-stakes, high-volume,
standardized test such as the MCAT should never be underestimated. By
the time most students get around to taking this test, it usually
symbolizes the one thing that could still stand in the way of their
dreams. This elevates the anxiety associated with the MCAT, and anxiety
can have a significant impact on performance in courses as well as on
the MCAT itself. This effect could be amplified when the course involved
is something like Organic Chemistry because this subject is known to
elicit its own share of stress and anxiety. If you stop for a moment and
picture what it might be like to get ready to take the MCAT and learn
new material on your own, while still trying to pay attention in
lectures, keep up with practice problems on material being taught at the
time, and take midterm exams or the final with the rest of your class,
you can immediately see what a nightmare all this could become.
Invariably, something has to give and both your MCAT score and your
course grades are likely to suffer. In a system where both of these
measures matter, this could mean the difference between imminent medical
school matriculation and the likelihood of going through the whole
ordeal all over again.
I am not suggesting that no one should ever take the MCAT in April or
May. In fact, students vying for the mere handful of spots available
through linkage programs will need to do just that. What I am trying to
emphasize is that students applying through the regular cycle really
have no need to take the MCAT before the spring semester ends,
especially if they are still completing the required classes. Many
students insist on doing this anyway, usually because they heard that
they should submit completed applications as soon as the system is open
to receive them on June 1. This, frankly, is overkill. While some who
had already finished the required courses the year before might do fine
with that timing, I definitely do not recommend this for everyone. I
also would not recommend waiting until August to take the MCAT. It takes
about a month for scores to be released, so an August test date might
cause your application to miss the early rounds of admissions committee
reviews. Test dates up to the middle of July should be fine. Then all
facets of your application could be completed, with scores in and
transcripts verified, by early to mid August. You should, of course,
begin the MCAT review process several months before your actual test
date so the that you have the time to gradually build your momentum as
it approaches. Taking the MCAT by mid-July would still leave you with
almost two months after spring final exams to really push yourself
through the last and most intense stages of your preparation.
Since the MCAT is now administered via computer, there are many more
test dates to choose from than there once were. However, the average
score for Hunter students on the MCAT seems to vary quite a bit
depending on the month in which the test is taken. Generally, MCAT
averages for Hunter students are higher on tests taken in April, May,
June and July than they are for tests taken in January, August or
September. This pattern has been quite consistent over the past four
years. In some years the difference between the average Hunter student
scores for these two groups of months has been as much as 5 points. For
2011, the average score for Hunter students who took the MCAT in June
was 9 points higher than the average score for those who took it in
January. On an exam for which the maximum possible total is 45 points,
that much variation between scores for different months can be very
significant. While it is impossible to be certain of a cause for this, I
usually urge the students that I advise not to take the MCAT during the
months when the average scores tend to be much lower.
The sum of all of this is that there are many factors to be considered
when deciding on a date for the MCAT, some of which you might not have
even thought of before. I hope that my thoughts expressed here will help
to clarify some important points and give you more meaningful
information to work with when deciding on your MCAT date. Choices that
work for your peers are not always sensitive to your particular
circumstances so you should seek advice about this that is specifically
tailored to your needs. The best approach to this and all other major
decisions related to your medical school application is to act under the
guidance of an experienced Pre-Health advisor. Along with others in the
Pre-Health Advising Office at Hunter College, I consult directly with
authoritative sources such as the AAMC and medical college admissions
committees in order to verify the information that I pass on to you. It
is our objective to help each of you to be the best candidate that you
can possibly be when you are ready to apply to medical school, so please
work with us to make sure this happens.
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