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Medical School Advising

Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)

The MCAT is the standard that medical schools use to rate one student against another. It is the most important test you will take in your medical career, and is second only to your grade point average in determining whether you will be a doctor or not. It is different from other standardized tests you may have taken, and will require a focused and sustained effort to prepare properly. Very few students pass this test without studying. Make it a priority to spend 20 to 40 hours a week for a solid 3 months to be competitive. You should extend your studying to at least 6 months if it has been a few years since you completed some of your medical school prerequisites. In addition, take several practice tests to build up your endurance and familiarize yourself with the conditions on test day.

If you feel it will help, you can retake basic science courses or enroll in one the MCAT preparation courses by Kaplan, Princeton Review, Berkeley Review, or Peterson's (online). Keep in mind that you still will need to study just as much outside the classroom to prepare for the MCAT.

For a personal review class, Dr. Robert Parker is willing to help CU-Colorado Springs students. He offers small informal classes at a very reasonable rate. If you are interested, contact Loren Touch for an April 2001 review class.

The MCAT is offered twice a year in April and August. Registration materials for the April 21, 2001 and August 18, 2001 MCAT administrations may be obtained by contacting: MCAT Program Office P.O. Box 4056 Iowa City, IA 52243 (319) 337-1357.

Test Content

The test is divided into four sections as mentioned above. The Biological Sciences section consists of questions pertaining to general biology and organic chemistry. The Physical Sciences section consists of general physics and general chemistry questions. Both science sections are a mixture of a passages, tables, graphs, and stand-alone questions. Some rote memory knowledge is tested, but the bulk of the questions force you to interpret the given data and combine it with known concepts to determine the answer. A few questions are based on a passage or two covering material with which you are not familiar, to test your ability to learn new concepts. The Verbal Reasoning test is purely reading comprehension /analysis, and the Writing Sample is composed of two 30 minute essays on assigned topics. The first three sections are each graded on a 1-15 point scale, and the essays are reported using a letter scale ranging from J to T (highest).

University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Med Society
Email: premed@mail.uccs.edu