About the MCAT

What is the MCAT?

The MCAT, or Medical College Admission Test, is the test needed for attending almost every medical school in the United States. Similar to the SAT/ACT for undergraduate, the MCAT is a standardized test, and medical school admissions teams use a received score to help evaluate if an applicant is qualified to attend medical school. According to medical schools, the purpose of the test is to assess one’s ability in problem-solving, through the application of critical thinking skills alongside knowledge of the social, behavioral, and natural sciences. If you are on this website, there’s a good chance you already know how important doing well on the MCAT is for admission to medical school. The next step is thus deciding how to study for it! 

What is on the MCAT?

Courtesy of the AAMC, here is an organized table outlining the content of the MCAT. As you can see, you are testing for over 7 and a half hours…in addition to knowledge and critical thinking, the MCAT is also a test of endurance! Part of the preparation process will involve training yourself to be able to sit down for long periods of time solving difficult questions. This is why practice problems and practice exams are the key to succeeding on the MCAT!

Common abbreviations for the different sections of the MCAT:

  • C/P = Chemistry and Physics
  • CARS = Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills
  • B/B = Biology and Biochem
  • P/S = Psychology and Sociology

 

How do you prepare for the MCAT?

The MCAT is a tough beast to tackle. Like any task, there are multiple ways to succeed in it, depending on your personality, schedule, and availability. There are some constants everyone needs to strive for when preparing, however: hard work, and active studying. Even a 4.0 student needs to put in the hours to master the content of the MCAT, alongside understanding how to take the test itself. And the best way people have shown to perform well is through active studying (more practice problems and practice tests, less time with content review). While understanding the content is undoubtedly important, it’s more effective to have experience solving challenging, MCAT-like questions, and building experience critically thinking for long chunks of time. 

How do we prepare for the MCAT? For many, they spend thousands of dollars on preparation courses. And for many, shelling out that much cash for courses that may not be effective is simply not an option. I am of the belief that with some self-discipline, it’s possible to get a top score with the resources found on the internet. Unfortunately, you’ll likely still have to spend some money, at least a few hundred. My goal is to help you keep the costs as low as possible.