Everything You Need to Know About the MCAT Exam
If you are an aspiring medical professional, you have likely heard about the MCAT exam – or the Medical College Admissions Test. The MCAT exam is a computer-based standardized examination for prospective medical students, and is designed to assess components like problem solving, critical thinking, and more (source: Wikipedia).
If you are curious to know more about the MCAT exam, look no further because we’ve got you covered:
The registration process
Register early for your exam. Once you’ve completed this step, you will have one less thing on your plate. You also don’t have to worry about late registration fees or there not being enough space for you at the testing site. Once this step is completed, you can now focus on the most important aspect: the exam itself.
The exam breakdown
Knowing how the MCAT exam works and what it entails will help you to do better as you will know what to expect.
The exam is divided into CARS (Critical and Analytical Reasoning) and three science sections. CARS emphasizes the ability to interpret as you read through passages. You have about 90 minutes to answer 53 questions from CARS alone. Each science section has 59 questions to be answered within 95 minutes.
The three science sections cover biological sciences. Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems tests your strength in fundamentals of subjects like introductory biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry with a devoted section to biochemistry. The Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems section includes biochemistry, introductory physics along with general chemistry and biology. The Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section covers psychology, sociology and some biology.
The exam takes 7.5 hours in total. If you do the math, you have about a minute and a half for each question.
The scoring patterns of MCAT exam are related to the various sections. Each section is rated from 118 to 132 according to your performance. An average score of 500 could garner attention from medical schools as you are medical school admissible. But if you are aiming for top-ranking schools, then a score of 520 or more should do you wonders
Websites like www.store.aamc.org/official-MCAT-sample-test-online.com should help you understand the essential nature of MCAT exam questions. There is nothing like the effects of daily practice on your scores. Ideally, your initial scores should not be used as a metric of your final performance, as it might just serve as an indicator of the preparation up until the point of the mock test.
An average candidate typically takes about three to five months to feel confident after continuous learning. If you have set higher expectations for yourself, you might want to dedicate at least six to eight months of studying to feel satisfied with all of the adopted training methods. If you are thinking how much practice this will be in terms of hours, it will be approximately 300-500 hours. The longer you spend on the prep, the smoother will be your final test.
Retaking the exam
If you have already taken the exam before, here are some pointers that you should know going forward:
1. You have seven chances to take the exam in your lifetime. Don’t jump into taking the exam the next chance you get without some reflection on how to do better. Take the time that you need to study. Assistance from a professional will get you the best results in a shorter amount of time.
2. It is a relatively common opinion that if your previous score is above 518, then there is not much reason for you to retake the exam.
This could be because such a score would be sufficient for the kind of schools that you might be looking into. But we actually recommend that you retake the exam (only after you have spent time studying) in the chance that you may obtain a higher score and thus make yourself more competitive amongst other applicants.
If your goal is to get into medical school, Miles Smart Tutoring can help you to get there. We hire on average 2 out of every 10 tutors we interview based on our highly selective process. We only want the absolute best for our students so we only hire the best.
Since 2015, we have helped students gain over $24 million in scholarships due to an increase in test scores. We were the recipient of the 2019 ‘Best of St. Petersburg Award in the Area of Tutoring Service,’ and we are proud to consistently receive 5-star ratings from our clients.
Experience the Miles Smart difference today – where you receive top-rated tutoring services for an affordable price.
Learn about our philosophy at www.milessmarttutoring.com and know more about our MCAT exam tutoring.
At Miles Smart Tutoring, we offer tutoring options for students of all ages. Feel free to contact one of our customer service representatives at (813) 328-3036. We look forward to helping you “achieve miles of greatness”!
