MCAT
The Medical College Admissions Test, called the MCAT, is a standardized examination that is required in order to enter most medical schools in the United States. This exam is developed and administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). This test determines whether or not the individual has the basic knowledge required to succeed in a medical program. The MCAT is divided into four primary sections which include: physical science, verbal reasoning, and biological science.
The physical science, verbal reasoning, and biological science sections of each exam include a series of multiple-choice questions that related to basic biology, chemistry, physics, and reading comprehension skills. There is a writing portion to the exam and it is not a multiple choice section. It requires the test takers to write two essays based on two separate statements. The information covered in each exam may not be directly related to medicine as most of the information covered by the exam is related to basic verbal and scientific topics rather than medical concepts.
The MCAT test is required by most medical programs in the United States. Other programs or universities may require other tests instead of or in addition to the MCAT for their specialized programs. The exact score that a test taker must receive on the MCAT exam varies from program to program. Most universities use the MCAT as only one of several factors for admission into medical school. Several universities and programs do not use the MCAT test as a major factor but instead use entrance essays, grade point averages (GPA), and other similar factors in addition to the test takers MCAT test scores when deciding whether a student should be admitted into a medical school or not. MCAT practice is obviously advised.
Challenges of the MCAT
It is also important to realize that the exam taker is not penalized for guessing and that the raw score for each section is determined by the number of questions that individual answers correctly. The essay found in the writing sample section of the exam is scored on a scale of one to six by trained readers. The two scores are added together to give the candidate a single essay score and that is then converted to a letter score on a scale from J to T, with J being the worst and T being the best.
The MCAT is a very tough examination that requires a great amount of preparation and studying for. The average score on the MCAT multiple choice sections is a twenty-five.
