updated:
2/ 2002
Next update: 2002
Copyright 1999-2002.
Alex Shteynshlyuger
Master.com.content
MCAT
Medical School Admission Test
MCAT, along with your grade point average (GPA), is a critical factor that influences your success in gaining admission to a medical school.
- MCAT consists of FOUR Sections:
- a Physical Sciences section which consists of Physics and Freshman/Introductory (Inorganic) Chemistry questions. (Graded on 1-15 scale)
- a Biological Sciences section which consists of Biology and Organic Chemistry Questions. (Graded on 1-15 scale)
- a Verbal Reasoning (reading comprehension) section, which consists of passages and questions about them. (Graded on 1-15 scale)
- a Writing Sample Section which consists of Two Essay Questions, half-hour each (not as important as the other three sections, Graded with letters O,P, Q, R, S)
This section consists of passages followed by multiple choice questions. Usually there are nine passages, ech half a page long with questions pertaining to the passage following it. The total number of questions in this sectionis 65, which comes down to about 7 questions per passage on average.
The Sciences:
Both in Biological and Physical sciences sections all questions are multiple choice. Some questions are factual questions that stand on their own. Other questions test your ability to discern the scientific issues related to a problem. You are given a passage that describes some biological or chemical concept or problem and it is followed by questions.
Biological Sciences
Many questions are not of the type you've seen on your exams. They require problem-solving and integration of more than one concept. You can only learn to solve them by practicing: do sample exams.
This section consists of two sub-sections:
- Organic Chemistry
Applied organic chemistry seems to be the emphasis. Test you on skills and understanding you would need to do actual experiments such as purifications, isolations, etc. Knowing facts is not enough here--you need to learn to integrate them.
- Biology
Covers all the topics you can imagine--hormones are big, so is genetics. It is helpful to take a class in human physiology in order to prepare for this one or at least read a human physiology book on your own.
Physical Sciences section also consists of two sub-sections
- Physics
- Chemistry
You're given a periodic table of elements. Some of the problems give relevant formulas, others expect you to know relationships. The bottom line is that it is better to memorize formulas. Alternatively you need at least to know how variables interact among themselves when one goes up what happens to others?
Writing Sample Section
NEW! MCAT just released a list of questions from which two questions will be pulled and used on on August 1999 exam. Click here to get this privileged information!.
Preparation for MCAT
Commercial prep courses such as Kaplan, Princeton Review and others are helpful if you can afford them AND invest the time required to do the work, but they are not the panacea. To do well, you must have learned most of the stuff in you pre-med classes. Generally such courses run from $500-800 depending on the course and location, I guess.
Some people who have taken commercial courses such as Kaplan and Princeton praise them, others do not describe their experiences in glowing terms. It seems that the most valuable thing you will get from taking such a course is the access to their instruction material/review books, banks of sample exams and questions that these companies have developed. Even those who did not like the quality of instructors say that the course was made worthwhile because of the access to the company's review material and the ability to take many practice exams..
Alternatively, if you have the self-control to study without externally-imposed deadlines and/or you think you do not need the instruction offered by the commercial review firms, you can save significant amounts of money by studying on your own using MCAT review books. There are three actual full-length MCAT exams available directly from the company that administers MCAT. In addition, firms such as Kaplan, Princeton, Columbia, ARCO, and many others publish thick MCAT review books with some decent material and stimulated MCAT exams. Moreover, there are books full of nothing but MCAT like questions and answers. Some of them are listed in the e-Library part of this web-site.
Click here for more information on how MCAT and GPA affect your chances of admission.
MCAT Frequently Asked Questions
Next: MCAT Essay Questions
