PEOPLE WHO HAVE TAKEN THE MCAT! IS it as deathly diffucult as everyone says?

Question

Everyone keeps spooking me out over the MCATS
besides chem, cell bio, organic bio and physics are there other classes I can take to assure success? Do you have to pay 1000 bucks or more for a Kaplan MCAT class in order to pass? Whats score will get me into University of Chicago's Pritzker school of medicine? What's a good score period? HELP

Answer 1

I am not sure about the specific scores that would get you into those places (you can probably check out their brochure or website) but as far as studying for the MCAT, I don't think you have to shell out big bucks to do well, although a small investment in a few study guides would help.

The truth of the matter is this: people who do very well on the MCAT- along with most other standardized exams- know their stuff really well and the study guides/materials only reinforce that. It's rare that a person increases their score so dramatically that they go from a flunker to a winner in a matter of a month or two. On the margin, however, there can be some improvement, but with medical schools- unlike with law schools- the numbers by themselves don't determine "in" or "out" normally. That's because common sense dictates that a person isn't just an abstract exam score. Sure, a good score may indicate mastery of academic material, but that mastery needn't mean that you'll do well in med school, let alone make a good doctor. A "good" score depends upon where you attend school, although you should aim above an 8 on all subsections and have a total score nearing (and preferably exceeding) 30. If you score near the average (about an 8 or 9) then you should really make sure your other stuff (science GPA, grade progression, activities, etc) are great.

There's really no sure-fire trick to the MCAT. You have to have a good understanding of the material and should be able to "synthesize" different information. What I mean by synthesize is that you should be able to take one principle/law/theory from one subfield or subject and apply it to another, usually in a problem-solving format. The easiest thing would be to simply ask a "plug and puke" sort of question, like "If I have a Weight of 100 Newtons and assuming gravity is approx. 10 m/s^2, what is the mass in kilograms?" That question would NEVER be asked. It's really too easy and it doesn't test your ability to synthesize information. The reason some people feel the MCAT is hard (and it is, let's not kid ourselves) is that the questions require you to put together several bits of information together. Oftentimes the passage will give you the information, but other times you'll have to search your memory bank for the information. A few questions will be stand-alone types which you might expect in an undergrad or high school class, but most require analysis of the entire paragraph.

I think that you should gather all of your old undergrad textbooks (if you still have them- I hope) and especially the study guides that come along with them. Study guides are great because they have problems with answers. You really need to work on problems, since just reading the material alone will not suffice in a practical, hands-on scenario.

Besides the study guides and books, try to get a hold of a specialty MCAT study guide. I prefer the Kaplan stuff since it is usually comprehensive but concise and compact (i.e. most of what you need to study is all in one place). Look for the big purple shiny books in the test prep section of B&N or Borders, or check out Amazon. www.wow-coupons.com usually has some printable online coupons for booksellers you can use.

Best of luck!