What is the MCAT?

The Medical College Admissions Test is the entrance exam for medical school. You can think of it as similar to the SAT to get into college. The MCAT should be taken in April of your junior year of college. The MCAT consists of four sections: biological science (biology and organic chemistry), physical science (general chemistry and physics), verbal reasoning (reading passages and answering questions about those passages), and an essay.

The biological science, physical science, and verbal sections are all graded on a number scale, with 0 being the lowest and 15 being the highest. The essay is graded J-T, with J being the lowest and T being the highest.

In an ideal world, you want to try to perform consistently on the three number-graded sections. The magic formula seems to be "a ten in each section", giving you a score of 30. This score indicates that you can consistently perform in different academic arenas. Again, it's great to get a 12 or 13 in biology, but that score will be undermined if you perform poorly in the other two numbered sections.

You need to decide for yourself if you want to take a professional preparation course prior to the MCAT. If you choose to study on your own, you may want to thoroughly read a review text as well as review past course material. Either way, be sure to take some practice tests! One helpful way to prepare for the MCAT is to time yourself; you will be amazed how quickly time flies on the day of the test, and running out of time can be a major reason for a poor score. As you get closer to test day, try taking practice MCATs in significantly less time than you will be given on the actual exam. By doing this, you will be trained to perform relatively quickly and will consider the time you are given on test day luxurious!